In the thirteenth year of Hongwu, Li Wenzhong explained the aftermath and said goodbye to his wife and children before going to the upper court. Zhu Yuanzhang looked at his recital and angrily scolded: "Li Wenzhong, aren't you afraid of death?" Li Wenzhong regarded death as a homecoming and said: "Wen Zhong's death is not a pity, may Your Majesty think more about Jiangshan Limin." Zhu Yuanzhang listened and scolded: "Since this is the case, I will complete you and kill you together, to see who dares to talk again!" Immediately, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the samurai to beat Li Wenzhong to death row and behead him at a later date. Li Wenzhong was the nephew of Zhu Yuanzhang, the son of Zhu Yuanzhang's second sister Zhu Fonu and Li Zhen. At that time, Li Zhen's family was the wealthiest of all zhu Yuanzhang's relatives, and could eat three meals a day, while Li Zhen was friendly and often received Zhu Yuanzhang's family, for which Zhu Yuanzhang was relatively close to the second sister's family since childhood. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown was stricken, his parents and brothers died one after another, and Zhu Yuanzhang was cornered and became a monk. Soon, the second sister, The family of Zhu Fonu was also affected, and Zhu Fonu died of illness at the age of 36. After the death of Lady Zhu Fo, she was invaded by rebels, and Li Zhen had to take her son Li Wenzhong out of the house.
When Li Wenzhong was 14 years old, Li Zhen heard that Zhu Yuanzhang was doing well under Guo Zixing's account in Chuzhou, so he took Li Wenzhong to defect to Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang saw Li Wenzhong hugging and weeping, and Zhu Yuanzhang asked Li Wenzhong to change his name to Zhu Wenzhong, and regarded him as a son, not only finding him a teacher, but also teaching him knowledge, and personally teaching him the art of war and military knowledge. Li Wenzhong lived up to expectations, and since he was 19 years old, he led Zhu Yuanzhang's pro-army to support Chizhou and made military merits, and began his military career. He fought Zhang Shicheng in the south, attacked Chen Youyu, pacified Jiangnan, conquered northern Yuan, and made great military achievements. In the third year of Hongwu, when Zhu Yuanzhang was enthroned, he awarded Li Wenzhong the title of Left Governor of the Metropolitan Governorate and the Duke of Cao, ranking only below Li Shanchang, Xu Da, and Chang Yuchun, and was extremely honorable. In the twelfth year of Hongwu, Li Wenzhong and Mu Ying, the Marquis of Xiping, joined forces to fight the rebellion of the Eighteen Fan clans in Taozhou, and after quelling the rebellion and returning to the dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Li Wenzhong to take charge of the governor's palace and the supervisor of the consular state.
At this time, Li Wenzhong was not only a leader in the army, but also a leader in the Ministry of Education. At this time, Li Shanchang had already been forcibly retired, Chang Yuchun had long been killed in battle, and Xu Da was placed on the frontier to train troops, far from the center of power, so at this time, Li Wenzhong was in a high position of authority and no one could compare.
However, a year later, the Hu Weiyong case broke out, Zhu Yuanzhang not only executed the minister Hu Weiyong, but also deliberately expanded the case, deliberately implicated as many as 10,000 heroes, everyone was in danger, the precarious situation, and even the ministers wrote a suicide note before going to the court, if they could get down to the dynasty alive, the whole family celebrated. Under such high pressure, no one dared to persuade Zhu Yuanzhang, but Li Wenzhong was a direct and loyal subject, and he expressed dissatisfaction with many of Zhu Yuanzhang's practices after he became emperor, and he was also deeply disturbed by Zhu Yuanzhang's wanton slaughter of heroes. Prior to this, Li Wenzhong had twice bluntly advised Zhu Yuanzhang to love the people and cherish the people, to build the Ming Dynasty at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, to be in ruins, and not to send troops to conquer Japan; and second, to advise Zhu Yuanzhang not to rely too much on and trust eunuchs, so as not to bring calamity to Xiao Wall. Although Li Wenzhong's language was blunt and his words were fierce, he did not provoke Zhu Yuanzhang, who just ignored it. After the Hu Weiyong case, Li Wenzhong could no longer sit still, and when he saw Zhu Yuanzhang wantonly implicated in the massacre of heroes, he was worried about losing the foundation of the country, so he wept goodbye to his wife and children and decided to give advice on his death.
Zhu Yuanzhang opened the fold and saw that Li Wenzhong had written: "Traitors and thieves, there is no curse, but they can only exercise slander, kill innocents indiscriminately, people are not at ease, and hurt the vitality of the country." Zhu Yuanzhang did not wait to finish reading, and then angrily pointed at Li Wenzhong and scolded: "The boy is bold and arrogant, and he is talking nonsense." What do you have to do with cutting off rebellion? ”
Li Wenzhong was also not afraid, saying: "Your Majesty has killed all the heroes and generals, once there are police on the frontier, or there is a rebellion within, then who will serve the country on the battlefield?" Zhu Yuanzhang was asked, and the opening scene appeared, ordering Li Wenzhong to be imprisoned to be beheaded. After retiring from the dynasty, thanks to Empress Ma's persuasion with her close relatives, she took the emotional route and aroused Zhu Yuanzhang's compassion, which pardoned Li Wenzhong's capital crime and imprisoned him at home.
At the end of the sixteenth year of Hongwu, Li Wenzhong fell ill. Zhu Yuanzhang showed great compassion and sent Hou Huazhong of Huai'an to the door for medical treatment. Unexpectedly, at the beginning of the following year, 46-year-old Li Wenzhong suddenly fell seriously ill and died. After Li Wenzhong's death, Zhu Yuanzhang said that Huazhong had poisoned Li Wenzhong, killed Li Wenzhong, executed all of Huazhong's wives and children, and then carried out funerals for Li Wenzhong.
There must be demons when things go wrong, Huazhong and Li Wenzhong have no revenge, why did they want to kill him, and why did Zhu Yuanzhang want to kill Guanghuazhong's wife and children? Moreover, the time of Li Wenzhong's death is also very delicate, it is more than a year after Empress Ma's death. Therefore, Li Wenzhong's death must have an unseemly secret, just like Liu Bowen was poisoned by Hu Weiyong, in fact, Hu Weiyong was just a tool.