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preface
In 1380, Zhu Yuanzhang executed Hu Weiyong, the Ming dynasty minister, for trespassing, and denounced his ten tribes (please note here that usually the emperor kills his courtiers is often the three tribes, five tribes or nine tribes, but the Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang killed Hu Weiyong, which is to kill the ten tribes, this clan is Hu Weiyong's friend). After Zhu Yuanzhang killed Hu Weiyong, in a short period of time, he abolished the system of beggars that had existed in Chinese history for a thousand years, which inevitably made people think that there must be a connection between Zhu Yuanzhang's killing of Hu Weiyong and the abolition of Xiangxiang.
Hu Weiyong's path to chengxiang
1. The Hu Weiyong case, the slaughter of 200,000 people
In 1377 AD, it was a year of luck for Hu Weiyong, because this year, Hu Weiyong ascended to the position of Chancellor of the Ming Dynasty, and it should be known that the official position of Xiangxiang belonged to the head of the hundred officials in the ancient Chinese bureaucracy, and since Qin Shi Huang established the Xiangxiang system, for thousands of years, countless literati have worked hard and the highest goal in their hearts is to get this position. In 1377, Hu Weiyong ascended to this position. Although his fate has since been closely linked to this position. Hu Weiyong, who ascended to the position of prime minister, must not have imagined that after just three years, his life would also be lost because of this position, and his relatives and friends would also be implicated. What he would not have imagined was that this position would actually cause 200,000 people to be slaughtered, and the person who carried out this slaughter was the emperor who gave him the position of chancellor, Zhu Yuanzhang.
2. A smooth start
Hu Weiyong was a native of Dingyuan, Fengyang, Anhui, who was originally a fellow villager with Zhu Yuanzhang (it can be seen that this place in Fengyang, Anhui is indeed a treasure land of feng shui, and there have been many celebrities throughout the ages), and after Zhu Yuanzhang raised an army to conquer the Ming Dynasty, he appointed Li Shanchang as prime minister to the government, Hu Weiyong bribed Li Shanchang with gold and silver treasures to obtain an official position, and used his ability to opportunistically and make good use of money to bribe officials, all the way to the top of the clouds, until he sat in the position of chancellor. From this point, we can see that Hu Weiyong is not a person with real talent and practical learning, and his abilities can be called thick black science at best, and as an operator of thick black science, he is not a master, otherwise he would not have died. Although in just 4 years, he rose from an unknown imperial court official all the way to the top of the ladder, becoming an extremely popular subject, and even once defeated the important ministers Xu Da, Liu Ji and others above the court. But what he didn't know was that all this was because of the support of one person, he was able to get on top of the court, like a fish, and this person was Zhu Yuanzhang himself.
3. The right of the Prime Minister
Although Hu Weiyong is not a capable person, we must be clear that there are often some people in this world who do not have the ability to excel, but for some reason they have obtained the status of superiority, and along with these statuses, they will also gain some superior abilities, such as Hu Weiyong. You must know that the position of the minister is the first of a hundred officials, since Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms to set up the official position of the minister, the position of the minister can be said to be second only to the emperor and no less than the emperor in the court, why say so? Because of the emperor, it is actually a product of inheritance, each dynasty in history, except for the founding emperor who ran his own country with the original intention of starting a business, the rest of the emperors, often the main task is to keep the family business.
The most fundamental difference between entrepreneurship and keeping business is that entrepreneurs often have a stronger spirit of hard work, while the keeper of the family often does not have this spirit, and the keeper of the house always has a psychological tendency, that is, if things must not be done by him, but can be done by others, he will often let people do it for him. However, the consequence of letting people do it for them is that they will gradually deviate from reality. To a certain extent, this will reduce the effectiveness of one's own rights, and this effectiveness will eventually be obtained by the agent. This is why the system of ministers has existed for thousands of years in history, and there is a common phenomenon, that is, the minister is likely to develop in the direction of the powerful. In fact, the reason is because the prime minister, as the actual operator of power, is already acting as an imperial power to a certain extent. From this point of view, we can understand that although Hu Weiyong is a person of average ability, because he has the position of prime minister, the ability and power in his hands are also very incredible.
4. The schemes of speculators
As a reader, Hu Weiyong knew the importance and danger of the position of chancellor, and moreover, shortly before he ascended to the throne, his predecessor had just been suppressed by Zhu Yuanzhang. As a person who is good at speculation and is well versed in the study of thick black, although Hu Weiyong's other skills are not large, he still has the ability to see people, and he is keenly aware that Zhu Yuanzhang will one day point the spearhead at him, and for this reason, he has also made some preparations. Hu Weiyong first used his specialty of co-opting people and formed gangs within the imperial court. Once, Hu Weiyong took advantage of the opportunity of the birthday banquet to invite many officials of the DPRK and China to his home, and between the banquets, the chips were staggered, and Hu Weiyong revealed his heart and drew many officials in the DPRK and China, so that a considerable number of officials in the Ming Dynasty became Hu Weiyong's confidants.
Hu Weiyong's means are very high-level, and Hu Weiyong profoundly understands a truth, that is, the law does not blame the people, and he understands that as long as he has attracted enough people, Zhu Yuanzhang's means are tough, but he cannot always put all the ministers of the DPRK to death. Hu Weiyong was still very satisfied with his plan, but he was still uneasy after knowing Zhu Yuanzhang's wrist, and he decided to win over one of the most important people, and this person was Li Shanchang. Like Zhu Yuanzhang, Li Shanchang participated in the peasant uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, but he also had a difference from Zhu Yuanzhang, that is, his origin.
5. Li Shanchang
We know that Zhu Yuanzhang was born from a peasant family, and was a commoner of three generations, even a commoner of the times, and his purpose of participating in the uprising was very simple, that is, to eat, or to put it another way, that is, to be afraid of starvation. With this purpose in mind, Zhu Yuanzhang accepted the invitation of his friend Tang He to join the peasant uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, while Li Shanchang was different, Li Shanchang was not from a commoner background, on the contrary, Li Shanchang was a gentleman in the last years of the Yuan Dynasty, and his family was still relatively solid, so Li Shanchang's purpose of participating in the uprising was not the same as Zhu Yuanzhang's, summed up in one sentence, that is, Zhu Yuanzhang rebelled to fill his stomach, and Li Shanchang rebelled for ideals and to fill the spirit.
And Li Shanchang's joining the rebellion was also related to Zhu Yuanzhang. Under the dark rule of the last years of the Yuan Dynasty, peasant revolts broke out in the Central Plains, and many people advised Li Shanchang to revolt, and Li Shanchang never made up his mind, until Zhu Yuanzhang's rebel army passed through Li Shanchang's hometown, Li Shanchang and Zhu Yuanzhang met, and the two sat on the ground and had a conversation of historical significance, and it was this conversation that made Li Shanchang make up his mind to join the peasant uprising and join Zhu Yuanzhang's ranks. From this point, we can see that Li Shanchang is also a very accurate person, and he is keenly aware that although Zhu Yuanzhang is from a peasant background, he is by no means an ordinary husband. In this way, Li Shanchang followed Zhu Yuanzhang's rebellious army to the south and fought in the north, and like many of Zhu Yuanzhang's Hongwu generals, he became a witness to the creation of this empire.
6. Death-free iron coupons
In 1364, Zhu Yuanzhang appointed Li Shanchang as his Zuo Xiangguo, which was actually the Xiang Xiang. Zhu Yuanzhang's appointment of Li Shanchang as his left-hander can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang trusted Li Shanchang very much and also recognized Li Shanchang's ability. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang was proclaimed emperor in Nanjing, the empire was founded, Zhu Yuanzhang also had to discuss merit and reward, he not only rewarded Li Shanchang with many gold and silver treasures, but also rewarded him with death-free iron coupons, and also rewarded him with two, why did Zhu Yuanzhang reward Li Shanchang with two? This is because one of them was used by Li Shanchang, and the other was used by Li Shancheng's son, and from here we can also see that Zhu Yuanzhang is a very intelligent person, after all, at the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Empire, Zhu Yuanzhang not only needed people with the ability to govern the country, he also needed people who could govern the country with peace of mind, he deeply understood that these civilian and military generals in his hands, like him, were the strongest people in this era, and wanted these people to govern the country with peace of mind. It is necessary to give these people a guarantee of life, although Zhu Yuanzhang knows very well in his heart that this kind of guarantee is actually not guaranteed, perhaps at the moment when Zhu Yuanzhang issued the death-free iron coupon, he had already written down in his mind who would need to be executed in the future.
7. Solicitation
In order to obtain the protection of Li Shanchang's death-free iron coupon, Hu Weiyong began to win over Li Shanchang, but Li Shanchang had been following Zhu Yuanzhang for too many years, and Zhu Yuanzhang's means of being a man were very clear to him, and What Hu Weiyong did above the court was also under Li Shanchang's eyes, and Li Shanchang had long realized that Zhu Yuanzhang was already very dissatisfied with Hu Weiyong in his heart, and this dissatisfaction would eventually lead to very serious consequences. Therefore, he understood that Hu Weiyong was someone he absolutely could not reach. Out of this consideration, Li Shanchang deliberately kept a distance from Hu Weiyong to avoid being drawn in by Hu Weiyong. But unfortunately, he was not afraid of thieves stealing, he was afraid of thieves, and Hu Weiyong exhausted all means and finally succeeded in winning over Li Shanchang. After successfully wooing Li Shanchang, Hu Weiyong was even more invincible above the court, and many times he did not even pay attention to Zhu Yuanzhang, in his opinion, the person sitting on the throne would one day be replaced by him. Although all this is in Zhu Yuanzhang's grasp.
After winning the support of the courtiers, Hu Weiyong was even more flappy and unstoppable, and he exerted the power of the chancellor to the extreme. Hu Weiyong has a characteristic, that is, he is very fond of arbitrariness. When dealing with many major events in the DPRK, Hu Weiyong often bypassed Zhu Yuanzhang, and even many things that Zhu Yuanzhang did not know at all. Yes, Hu Weiyong wanted to elevate Zhu Yuanzhang in power. Moreover, Hu Weiyong took advantage of his power as a chancellor to do his best to promote his cronies, and according to historical records, the number of Hu Weiyong who used his power to promote his cronies was as high as tens of thousands. In the Hongwu decade in the history of the Ming Dynasty, the entire imperial court was full of Hu Weiyong's confidants, and Hu Weiyong was also even more arrogant, perhaps at this time, he had already acquiesced in his heart, he was the master of this empire, and the person sitting on the throne was just his doll, and all of this was also in Zhu Yuanzhang's grasp.
8. Zhu Yuanzhang's conspiracy
Since all this was in Zhu Yuanzhang's grasp, why didn't Zhu Yuanzhang take action? Why did Zhu Yuanzhang indulge Hu Weiyong so much? There is actually a mystery here, and this mystery also reveals Zhu Yuanzhang's cleverness. Zhu Yuanzhang is worthy of being the strongest person in this era, you know, Hu Weiyong is the last minister in the history of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang also appointed three people to serve as the ming dynasty minister before appointing Hu Weiyong, but in the end, for various reasons, Zhu Yuanzhang removed the position of the three ministers, and finally chose to let Hu Weiyong take the position of minister. Careful friends may find that Zhu Yuanzhang's choice to let Hu Weiyong take the position of chancellor is very strange, because from the perspective of ability, Hu Weiyong and his three predecessors are not on the same order of magnitude at all, and how can he take three predecessors and replace them? This is zhu Yuanzhang's cleverness.
To put it simply, Zhu Yuanzhang chose to let Hu Weiyong take the position of Chancellor, not because of how high Hu Weiyong's ability is, but precisely because Hu Weiyong is an incompetent person, and an incompetent person will help Zhu Yuanzhang achieve his ultimate goal, which is to abolish the Xiangxiang system. Imagine that the generals who followed Zhu Yuanzhang all the way from the peasant uprising were all capable people of that era, and if Zhu Yuanzhang gave these people such a high-ranking and powerful official position as The Minister, Zhu Yuanzhang could not guarantee complete control of the position of The Minister, but on the contrary, if this position was rewarded to an incompetent person, then Zhu Yuanzhang would be able to hold the position of the Minister of State in his hands tightly, and even abolish this system, and this is why Zhu Yuanzhang always connived with Hu Weiyong to form gangs and factions in the dprk Because Zhu Yuanzhang was waiting for an opportunity.
9. Killing
In 1380 AD, the thirteenth year of Hongwu, this opportunity came. Because of Zhu Yuanzhang's connivance with Hu Weiyong, Hu Weiyong was even more arrogant, and there are historical records that Hu Weiyong did have the actual action of plotting rebellion. In the first month of 1380, Hu Weiyong invited Zhu Yuanzhang to the Qi mansion to see the spring water, and before that, Hu Weiyong had already planted an ambush in his mansion, and he planned to seize this opportunity to kill Zhu Yuanzhang and seize the throne. Although this record is controversial in history, because we know that the annals of history are often written by the emperor's organization, Zhu Yuanzhang must find a reason to kill Hu Weiyong, and the best reason is that Hu Weiyong plotted rebellion, and Zhu Yuanzhang eradicated him. But these things are actually not important anymore, because in the first month of 1380, Zhu Yuanzhang killed Hu Weiyong and beheaded him, and Zhu Yuanzhang also pioneered the killing of Hu Weiyong's ten tribes, and this tenth tribe was Hu Weiyong's friend. Although from our point of view today, this is a bit funny, why should even Hu Weiyong's friends be killed? In fact, if you think about it carefully, it is also reasonable that during Hu Weiyong's tenure as chancellor, his henchmen were very numerous, and many of them were Hu Weiyong's friends, and according to historical records, the number of people implicated and killed because of Hu Weiyong's case reached more than 200,000.
summary
Zhu Yuanzhang achieved his goal, and he took advantage of Hu Weiyong's stupidity to help him get rid of the great problem in his heart, that is, the system of beggars. In Zhu Yuanzhang's view, this system of beggars that existed for thousands of years in Chinese history is superfluous, and this world belongs to the emperor. Although it is said that the chancellor can share the worries of the emperor, the chancellor has also influenced the imperial power and even become the biggest threat to the imperial power. In Zhu Yuanzhang's view, this system can be completely abolished, and after the abolition of this system, the power of the world is truly in his own hands, and he is the true emperor worthy of the name. Zhu Yuanzhang did not understand why he should share the jiangshan he had worked so hard to build with others. Out of this consideration, Zhu Yuanzhang eventually abolished the beggar system, and the affairs of the whole country were handled by him alone. Speaking of this, perhaps careful friends have found that the inevitable result of the abolition of the beggar system is that the emperor will be very busy in handling the government, and the emperor must maintain every day to deal with the affairs of the whole country and ensure the stability of the country.
Zhu Yuanzhang, who abolished the system of beggars, although he held the power of the world in his hands, but at the same time, he was busy every day, but these things were not important to him, what was important was that he finally held all the power in his hands, and this was his lifelong pursuit. But Zhu Yuanzhang ignored a major problem, that is, since Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms and established a unified feudal dynasty, the system of the chancellor has existed in Chinese history for a thousand years, and successive emperors have done their best to suppress the right of the chancellor, but no one has ever dared to make the decision to abolish the system, there are reasons, it should be said that the system of the chancellor and the feudal system are supporting systems, the feudal system can not lack the system of the chancellor, perhaps Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the system of the chancellor by his own means, and, All the things of the chancellor were also handled by himself, but what Zhu Yuanzhang ignored was that he could not guarantee that his children and grandchildren would be as industrious as he was, and if his children and grandchildren could not be as industrious as he was, then there would be problems in the operation of the empire's state apparatus.
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang did not completely abolish the Xiang Xiang, he only abolished the institutional entity of the Xiang Xiang system. After he abolished the system of ministers, in fact, within his empire, the ministers still existed in another form, and it was an invisible form, which was the group of civil officials and eunuchs. The abolition of the beggar system may seem to Zhu Yuanzhang to be a brilliant achievement of his, but what he did not expect was that it also became the source of many disasters for his descendants.
References: "Ming Shilu", "Hu Weiyong: "Anti-Minister", or "Chess Piece"", "Hu Weiyong Case and Li Shanchang's Cause of Death New Exploration", "Zhu Yuanzhang and the "Hu Lan Party Case""