"Daming Style" is a costume TV series set in the history of the Ming Dynasty. The important plot of the first act of the play takes place in the fourth year of the Ming Dynasty Jianwen (1402), which is also at the end of the famous "Battle of Jingnan" in history. Readers who have watched the TV series will surely know that the final result is that Zhu Di successfully usurped the throne and ascended the throne as emperor. However, readers who do not know much about the history of the Ming Dynasty may wonder what the historical background was before the story of "Daming Fenghua" unfolded? What really happened to the Ming Dynasty at that time?
In the thirty-first year of Hongwu (1398), the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, died, and the emperor's grandson Zhu Yunjiao succeeded to the throne, known as Emperor Jianwen. In everyone's impression, it seems that the inheritance of the throne should be passed from father to son, son to grandson, why should Zhu Yuanzhang pass it on from generation to generation? In fact, the reason for this situation is that Zhu Biao, the eldest son of Zhu Yuanzhang, died of illness in the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu (1392).
After Zhu Biao's death, many princes who coveted the throne may be secretly happy in their hearts, because they felt that Zhu Yuanzhang would definitely pass the throne to one of them. However, to the great disappointment of all the princes, Zhu Yuanzhang resolutely decided to pass the throne to Zhu Biao's son Zhu Yunjiao, the later Jianwen Emperor.
After Emperor Jianwen ascended the throne, he soon faced a big problem, that is, his grandfather Zhu Yuanzhang divided the Ming Dynasty kings in various places. These princes were all uncles of Emperor Jianwen, and both generations and seniority surpassed Emperor Jianwen. Although Emperor Jianwen was a king and the kings of the clan were subjects, everyone was obviously not very convinced in their hearts. What was more troublesome was that the clan kings also had armed forces in their respective fiefdoms, and although the number could not compete with the central army of the Jingying, it was still a fairly large army if they were all added together. Since ancient times, imperial power has always needed to be highly centralized, and if this is not achieved, sooner or later there will be chaos. The "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms" of the Western Han Dynasty and the "Division of Feudal Towns" of the Tang Dynasty are living examples. Therefore, at the suggestion of his ministers, Emperor Jianwen decided to cut off the power of the king of the domain and return the power to the central government.
Emperor Jianwen's step in cutting the domain was to first pinch the "soft persimmons". In just one year, he successively stripped the fiefdoms of the Kings of Zhou, Qi, Xiang, Dai, and Min, and then abolished these stripped princes as shuren and distributed them to various places. Emperor Jianwen's move to cut the domain made everyone in the local clan endanger themselves, and the most worried of them was Zhu Di, the King of Yan.
Zhu Di, the King of Yan, was the fourth son of Zhu Yuanzhang, and since the eldest Zhu Biao, the second Zhu Biao, and the third Zhu Di had all died, Zhu Di was the head of the Zhu family's royal family in terms of generation and age. Zhu Di's fiefdom was in Beiping (present-day Beijing), and due to its proximity to the northern frontier of the empire, Zhu Yuanzhang authorized him to be equipped with troops far beyond the standard configuration of the king of the domain. In addition, Zhu Di's army fought against the Mongols in the north for many years, and each one of them was experienced in hundreds of battles, and the quality of the soldiers was extremely high.
Emperor Jianwen knew that Zhu Di, the King of Yan, was the most powerful, so he did not dare to act rashly, but first sought out other clan kings. However, it turned out that his strategy of cutting the domain was a big mistake.
Compared with the fledgling Jianwen Emperor, Zhu Di was an extremely experienced "old jianghu". He naturally knew that Emperor Jianwen's slashing "big knife" would sooner or later cut into his head. So on the one hand, he pretended to be crazy and stupid, in order to deceive the emissaries sent by Emperor Jianwen to Beiping; on the other hand, he actively expanded his army and built weapons to prepare for war.
Originally, according to the regulations of the imperial court, the sons of the king of the clan were required to live in the capital, and their purpose was naturally to be taken hostage. When Emperor Jianwen heard that his fourth uncle was crazy, he thought that he was pushing too quickly, so he was too anxious to go, and released Zhu Di's three sons Zhu Gaoxu, Zhu Gaoxu, and Zhu Gaoxuan, which lifted the last shackles for Zhu Di.
In July of the first year of Jianwen (1399), Zhu Di's trick of pretending to be crazy was seen through, so he simply broke the jar and broke it, and immediately rebelled in the name of "Qing Jun's Side, Jingguo Difficulty", and a "Battle of Jingnan" that lasted for more than three years was launched. The main story line of "Daming Style" also kicks off from this earth-shaking change.
Reference: "Myo history"