One day in 1354 AD, Zhu Yuanzhang and guo Zixing, the leader of the Red Turban Army, broke up peacefully, Zhu Yuanzhang was not happy with Guo Zixing's side, at first, Guo Zixing admired Zhu Yuanzhang, and also tried his best to win him over, and married his righteous daughter to Zhu Yuanzhang. But over time, Zhu Yuanzhang's skills were displayed, and these talents made Zhu Yuanzhang famous in the rebel army, but guo Zixing was a little unhappy.
Zhu Yuanzhang, who was definitely not a thing in the pool, decided to part ways with Guo Zixing. This breakup was a peaceful and friendly breakup, and Guo Zixing was very happy and symbolically retained it. What made Guo Zixing even happier was that when Zhu Yuanzhang left, he did not take away the brigade of men and horses, but only brought twenty-four henchmen, which made Guo Zixing greatly relieved.
These twenty-four people are also the founding heroes of the Ming Dynasty. Like Xu Da and Tang He, who are more familiar in later generations, this group of people also naturally became the largest political group in the early Ming Dynasty after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty.
Of these twenty-four people, it is necessary to take stock and explain their ending. Xu Da the Duke of Wei (Good Death), Tang He (Good Death), Duke Tang He of Xinguo (Good Death), Wu Liang the Duke of Jiang (Good Death), Wu Zhen the Duke of Hai (Good Death), Hua Yun (Captured by Chen Youyi in the Battle of Taiping, Martyred without Yielding, Chinese New Year's Eve Nine Years Old, Posthumously Awarded the Title of Marquis of Dongqiu County), Chen De the Duke of Qiguo (Shanjie), Duke Gu Shi of Teng Guo (Good Death), Marquis Fei Ju of Pingliang (Hu Weiyong's case was implicated and killed), Geng Zaicheng the Duke of Siguo (died at the hands of rebels), Geng Junyong (fought with Zhang Shicheng and died in battle yixing), Tang Shengzong (Hu Weiyong was implicated in the case and was killed), Lu Zhongheng (Hu Weiyong was implicated and killed), Hua Yunlong (Shanjie), Zheng Yuchun (Hu Weiyong was implicated and killed), Zhou Quan (died in battle in Wuhu), Guo Xing, Duke of Shaanxi (Shanjie), Guo Ying (Shanjie), Hu Hai (Shanjie), Zhang Long (Shanjie), Chen Huan (Implicated in lanyu case, killed), Xie Cheng (lanyu case implicated, killed), Li Xincai (shanjie), Zhang He (shanjie), Zhou Dexing (implicated by his son Zhou Ji and killed).
At first, Zhu Yuanzhang only hit the world with only 24 people, of which 13 people died well, 7 people were killed, and 4 people who sacrificed their lives for the country were not what the question said, Zhu Yuanzhang killed thirty people, and only four people were left.
I returned to the original question again, and I felt that the person who asked the question might be a little unclear, and what the person who asked the question should want to ask was that Zhu Yuanzhang killed the heroes, causing the ming dynasty heroes to wither away.
Zhu Yuanzhang's killing of heroes did exist, and the number of massacres and the cruelty of the means set a historical record. But the background of these massacres is caused by important cases, so I need to start with important cases during the Hongwu years.
The first case, the Hu Weiyong case
Of the twenty-four generals in Huaixi, four of the seven people killed by Zhu Yuanzhang were implicated in Hu Weiyong's case, which shows how widely Hu Weiyong's case involved and how great the impact was. The root cause of the Hu Weiyong case, which occurred in Hongwu thirteen years, is that the Huaixi clique is becoming more and more powerful, almost to the point where it can cover the sky with one hand, and the primary figure of this Huaixi clique is Li Shanchang.
Although this person was not the person who first followed Zhu Yuanzhang, he was the most important person in Zhu Yuanzhang's life, and in the later merits and deeds, Li Shanchang's merits were listed as the first, which was very similar to Liu Bang's treatment of Xiao He, which showed Li Shanchang's ability and position in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart.
Because of such merits, Li Shanchang's power reached its peak, and he recommended Hu Weiyong, the Huaixi clique, to become the largest political group above the court.
But there is a person who does not like Li Shanchang, and this person is also a famous person, known as Liu Bowen, who was the reincarnation of Zhuge Liang. There was a contradiction between Liu Bo and Li Shanchang, and more importantly, he was not a member of the Huaixi Clique.
This person's reputation in the folk is much higher than that of Li Shanchang, he is very smart, and he is very good at looking at people, and his vision is extremely fierce. Because such a smart person is not Li Shanchang's own person. This caused dissatisfaction among Li Shanchang, and Liu Ji was ostracized by the Huaixi clique and returned to his hometown, and later, because he ate the medicine sent by Hu Weiyong, he died.
After getting rid of Liu Ji, the last nail placed next to Zhu Yuanzhang was removed, and from then on, Zhu Yuanzhang's side was full of people from the Huaixi Group. At this time, the Huaixi Clique could completely compete with the imperial power.
At this step, Li Shanchang was actually very satisfied, this was already an extremely popular subject, but his subordinates Hu Weiyong were not satisfied, and they began to explore some untouchable places, and finally touched Zhu Yuanzhang's bottom line.
As early as the eighth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang had already developed an antipathy towards the Huaixi Clique, but because Zhu Yuanzhang was a very nostalgic person, he had always maintained restraint. Until the thirteenth year of Hongwu, Hu Weiyong was reported for rebellion, which completely angered Zhu Yuanzhang, and his anger was like a volcanic eruption, so the Hu Weiyong case broke out.
In this case, Hu Weiyong and his henchmen were executed, but this case did not end this case, until Hongwu twenty-three years, it broke out again, this time more extensively, and more bloody, Li Shanchang's entire family was killed more than seventy people, and dozens of heroes were involved.
This was zhu Yuanzhang's first massacre of heroes.
The second case, the Sapphire case
This case is very similar to the Hu Weiyong case, and these similarities are in that they have all touched Zhu Yuanzhang's bottom line and also touched the supreme power of the Ming Dynasty. This was something that no emperor could tolerate, and the Blue Jade case broke out.
Blue Jade is a very powerful role, in the Battle of Fishing, Blue Jade led 150,000 Ming troops, more than 4,000 miles north, directly pounding the base camp of the Northern Yuan, the Golden Family was completely destroyed, the Mongols captured more than 70,000 people in the north, this battle, can be said to be the Mongolian version of the shame of Jingkang. Blue Jade also became famous in history because of this earth-shattering war, and became a rising star of the Ming Dynasty.
To say that Sapphire is plotting rebellion, I feel that it is a bit far-fetched, because Sapphire has no reason to rebel. He was already in power, and Zhu Yuanzhang had great trust in him. More importantly, he was the sworn enemy of the crown prince Zhu Biao, who was the legal heir of the Ming Dynasty. As long as he keeps a low profile, when Zhu Biao becomes emperor, how can he not be prosperous and rich? But he was too arrogant.
Zhu Yuanzhang was a good father, so he loved Wu and Wu and was quite tolerant of Blue Jade. The naïve Blue Jade did not know that Zhu Yuanzhang's tolerance was only because he was behind Zhu Biao, and he took it for granted that he was very powerful and Zhu Yuanzhang could not do without him. In 1392, Zhu Biao died, and Zhu Yuanzhang, who was deeply saddened, did not think of passing on the throne to other sons, but thought of passing on the throne to his grandson, Zhu Yunjiao.
This decision caused a chain reaction, first of all, Zhu Biao's nemesis instantly lost its dependence, and Zhu Yunwen did not have a backer, and more importantly, no one dared to kneel and lick Zhu Yunjiao, after all, at this time, it is better to wait and see how it changes.
At this time, Blue Jade's lack of political touch was finally revealed, and he was still very proud, but he was only proud for less than a year, and he was reported by others, which was a major crime of rebellion. Blue Jade may be just pride, but it is not necessarily a rebellion, but Zhu Yuanzhang believes that Blue Jade must die, and many people must die.
As a result, the Blue Jade case, which was bloodier than the Hu Weiyong case, broke out, and more than 15,000 people were implicated and died, and after this case, the entire group of heroes and martial artists was almost completely destroyed.
In fact, there were four major cases during the Hongwu years, the other two being the Empty Seal case and the Guo Heng case, but these two cases belong to the case of rectifying the rule of officials, not cases involving the peak of power, while the Hu Weiyong case and the Blue Jade case really affected the entire political pattern, and a large number of founding heroes withered away in these two cases. And the fundamental reason for this is simply because the imperial power cannot be shaken.