What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
Zhu Yuanzhang's treatment of meritorious men can be said to be even worse than Liu Bang's. If Liu Bang is a precision strike, then Zhu Yuanzhang is an all-round, three-dimensional sweep.
By creating the "Hu Weiyong Case", Zhu Yuanzhang resolved the contradiction between imperial power and xiang power, but the contradiction between imperial power and monarchy still exists, and many military generals still have heavy troops in various places. As a result, the recovery of military power became the top priority of the Zhu family. Zhu Yuanzhang's important purpose of dividing the princes in various places was to balance these generals; to promulgate various military laws, such as the "Great Commandment of Military Subjects", to restrain the behavior of military generals. However, the phenomenon of violating discipline and law by the founding martial generals continued to occur, such as Zhang Wen, the Marquis of Huining, who "used the house utensils to be used on the usurpation", and the worst performance was the Liangguo Gong Lanyu.
Lan Yu is a Dingyuan person who married Chang Yuchun's younger sister. He was born tall and mighty, with red cheeks. After defecting to Zhu Yuanzhang, due to his repeated military achievements and Chang Yuchun's promotion, Blue Jade's position also became higher and higher. At this time, the blue jade began to drift, and the weaknesses in human nature began to be exposed, gradually losing themselves.
In July of the 21st year of Hongwu, a "scandal" broke out in Blue Jade. It turned out that the Ming army captured the concubines of the Yuan Dynasty in the Battle of Yu'erhai, and Lan Yu looked at the people's national color Tianxiang and couldn't help but possess it, which was inconsistent with Zhu Yuanzhang's strategy. Zhu Yuanzhang has always been kind to the prisoners of the Yuan Dynasty in order to win people's hearts and minds, so as to achieve "a soldier who surrenders without fighting". Blue Jade's behavior made the Ming Dynasty lose face. When Zhu Yuanzhang learned of this, he sent emissaries to scold him.
In August, Blue Jade triumphantly returned to Beijing, and Zhu Yuanzhang reprimanded him in person. At the beginning, Zhu Yuanzhang originally wanted to make Lanyu the Duke of Liangguo, but because of this incident, he was eventually made the Duke of Liangguo. A word difference, but a lot of meaning. The State of Liang was the hinterland of the Central Plains, while the State of Liang was a desolate area of biansai, and the change of title was obviously dissatisfied. In addition, on the Danshu iron coupon issued to Blue Jade, his "black history" was also engraved, and Zhu Yuanzhang's intention was very clear: Although your blue jade merit is great, but the fault is not small, I will remember it for you.
However, Blue Jade did not seem to take Zhu Yuanzhang's reminder to heart, still going his own way, and the "Records of Ming Taizu" used "arbitrary and tyrannical" to describe Blue Jade. He secretly adopted thousands of slaves and sons, which was a conspiracy; he oppressed the people of Li and forcibly occupied the people's land, but he forcefully suppressed the complaints of others; he forcibly obtained the spoils of war, which should have been confiscated, and as a result, he appropriated them for himself.
In terms of daily eating, drinking and entertainment, Blue Jade also had many transgressions: his tent was decorated with a golden dragon, and the cup of drinking was even more precious than the emperor. During the Hongwu period, the imperial court had strict regulations on the etiquette system, and the civilian generals had corresponding ranks in food, clothing, shelter, and transportation, and many founding heroes were given death because of trespassing. The scholar Li Yan at the end of the Ming Dynasty once pointed out that Blue Jade's prey on Yuan Concubines and the encroachment on mintian were already capital crimes.
In addition, Sapphire has also done business illegally. His family had hundreds of houses and servants, built hotels and shops in his own yard, and then used his power to forcibly trade with the people; arranged for his cronies to go to Yunnan, occupied salt, and relied on power to exchange salt for salt. Attracting merchants to the north to transport grain with salt has always been an important economic measure during the Hongwu years, and blue jade was a public violation of the rules and regulations of the imperial court, and the impact was bad. Zhu Yuanzhang has always had zero tolerance for such things, even if his son-in-law smuggles tea, he is also killed by him.
Zhu Yuanzhang really put up with Blue Jade again and again, but Blue Jade did not repent. In fact, in the "Hu Weiyong case" many years ago, Blue Jade was a participant. If it weren't for his value and a little kinship, he would have been eliminated long ago.
Twenty-five years after Hongwu, before Lan Yu went out on the expedition, he took more than a dozen people to say goodbye to Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to talk alone and ordered Lan Yu's men to go first, but no one responded. With a big wave of sapphire, they quickly withdrew. The general only listened to the military orders of Blue Jade, but did not listen to the imperial orders, could Zhu Yuanzhang not be suspicious? Arriving at the frontier, Lan Yu completely disregarded Zhu Yuanzhang's intentions and desperately used troops, and finally the army was scattered and had to stop moving. The general used troops without authorization, violating the taboo of the emperor.
In September of that year, Crown Prince Zhu Biao died. The untimely death of the highly hoped successor made Zhu Yuanzhang grief-stricken and almost collapsed. In desperation, Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice but to appoint Zhu Yunjiao as the emperor's grandson. At this time, Zhu Yunjiao was only young and young, and he had not experienced big winds and waves. Zhu Yuanzhang saw that this grandson had a weak personality and worried that he would not be able to control this group of founding generals in the future.
At this time, Zhu Di ran to Nanjing to pay tribute to Zhu Biao. Lan Yu had said bad things about Zhu Di many times in front of Zhu Biao, so Zhu Di hated Lan Yu so much that when he arrived in Nanjing, he spread all kinds of news that was unfavorable to Lan Yu everywhere, saying that he had the potential to lose his tail and saying that he was suspected of rebellion. After Zhu Yuanzhang heard these gossip, he was even more jealous of these founding generals.
At the end of the year, Lan Yu had just finished winning the battle and asked to continue the conquest, the purpose of which was to obtain a position as a prince through military merit. Zhu Yuanzhang not only did not approve, but instead ordered his class to return to the dynasty. Lan Yu sullenly returned to the dynasty, thinking that he had hooked up with Hu Weiyong, and then looking back at the tragic fate of many heroes over the years, the more he thought about it, the more afraid he became, worried about settling accounts after the autumn.
Therefore, Lan Yu's heart was crossed, taking advantage of the fact that he still had the strength, he held the military power in his hands, and prepared to turn against the old Zhu family. He inquired everywhere, contacted the old ministry, and plotted a rebellion together. However, the Dao was one foot high and the devil was one foot tall, and his little thing, Zhu Yuanzhang could see clearly through the Jinyi Guard.
On the eighth day of February in the 26th year of Hongwu, Lan Yu was arrested as soon as he entered the Dynasty with a "conspiracy plan", censored by Jinyi Wei the next day, and killed by Zhu Yuanzhang on the third day. The whole process, swift and cruel, a generation of famous generals fell.
Zhu Yuanzhang killed Lan Yu, first, he acted recklessly and blamed himself; second, he was not in good health, worried that his grandson Zhu Yunjiao would not be able to stop. The cruelty of the means was mainly because Lan Yu'en would take revenge, Zhu Yuanzhang tolerated it many times, but he wanted to bite back, so he had to take his hand to remind others.