Speaking of Zhu Yuanzhang, I believe that everyone is not unfamiliar, after he became emperor, in order to concentrate his power in his hands, it can be said that the means were exhausted, and the founding heroes who once fought together in the world, if they were not low-key enough, it was basically difficult to escape death, why did Zhu Yuanzhang be so anxious to kill these old friends? The main reason is because Zhu Yuanzhang grew up in a poor family, his parents died early, he worked as a cattle herder, he also worked as a street beggar, and even chose to become a monk in order to eat a mouthful of food.
After this experience, Zhu Yuanzhang did not easily believe in the character of others, especially after becoming the emperor, this sense of crisis was even stronger, in order to consolidate the power in his hands, he had to attack these former comrades-in-arms, although cruel, but knew that they knew themselves too well, the more they knew the more they caused Zhu Yuanzhang's fear, so the fate of Hu Weiyong and Lan Yu was a means for Zhu Yuanzhang to strengthen his power. Zhu Yuanzhang didn't need anyone who could threaten him, he just needed to manage the country by himself.
If the fate of these two people is the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang wants to concentrate power, then the next person to say, Zhu Yuanzhang's punishment of him has nothing to do with centralization, it is purely for the sake of the people. It is even stipulated that people with this surname will always be slaves, which can be described as a very serious punishment.
Everyone must be very curious about what this person's surname is, this person is The Merchant Pu ShouGeng of the Southern Song Dynasty. To say how the people of the Southern Song Dynasty provoked Zhu Yuanzhang, the span between them is a bit large, which starts with the Pu family.
Pu ShouGeng's ancestors were originally engaged in the ship business, a very powerful family, and when he took over the family business, it was more convenient to do maritime trade because he was also an official who managed maritime trade. In the long run, he soon became the richest man in Quanzhou. Later, the Southern Song Dynasty was forced to Quanzhou by the Yuan Dynasty, and the emperor asked him for help, but out of the merchant's unprofitable character, he refused the song emperor's request, and eventually the Yuan Dynasty destroyed the Song.
After the Yuan Dynasty came to power, Pu ShouGeng, in order to show his favor to the Yuan Dynasty, actually killed all the Song Dynasty clans who remained in Quanzhou, which also made his business grow stronger. When Zhu Yuanzhang arrived, the descendants of the Pu family wanted to emulate the ancestors' practices in order to gain Zhu Yuanzhang's trust, but Zhu Yuanzhang did not eat this set, he had long heard about the family's behavior, and naturally did not have any good feelings for them. However, there was no reason to kill them, so there was no action. Knowing that two things had happened, Zhu Yuanzhang made up his mind to get rid of the Pu family.
The first thing was that the Ming Dynasty was popular on the sea, and Zhu Yuanzhang wanted the Pu family, who was engaged in shipbuilding, to fight against the Wokou, but was refused. The second thing is that because the Pu family has been a big family for generations, it has become the actual ruler of the local area, not only frantically accumulating wealth in the local area, but also bullying the people, so that the people dare to be angry and dare not speak. Through these two events, Zhu Yuanzhang completely lost patience with the Pu family and ordered that all the members of the Pu family in the Fujian region be killed, and that men in other areas should be punished as slaves and women as prostitutes. In the face of an emperor like Zhu Yuanzhang, who did not tolerate sand in his eyes, he dared to be so arrogant, and he could only say that there was more than enough to die.