First, Zhu Yuanzhang's breaking and making of the game
So-called: Whoever does the game, the more he understands the mystery. Zhu Yuanzhang, from holding a begging bowl in his hand to sitting on the Daming River and Mountains, can be described as a master of breaking the game and making a game.
In Zhu Yuanzhang's "Daming Chess Game", the crown prince Zhu Biao occupies an irreplaceable position. It can even be considered that all of Zhu Yuanzhang's layout and deeds were spread out and carried out around Zhu Biao. When there was a thunderclap, Zhu Biao died of illness, and Zhu Yuanzhang was dumbfounded.
In desperation, Zhu Yuanzhang had to drag his old body to break the situation again, which was to open the "Blue Jade Case" and deal a devastating blow to the Wugui Meritorious Group. At the same time, it was necessary to do the game again, and the emperor's grandson Zhu Yunjiao (Emperor Jianwen) was lifted up and placed on the throne. Unfortunately, after engaging in hindsight, Zhu Yuanzhang's bureau was finally broken by Zhu Di, and in a battle of Jing, Zhu Di sat on the dragon chair.
So, is this Zhu Yuanzhang wrong, or is Zhu Di more bullish than Zhu Yuanzhang? This problem has also become a hot topic, and many people have traced back to the source, believing that Zhu Yuanzhang's original attempt to divide the king of the clan was to turn back the wheel of history and be the biggest failure, otherwise Zhu Di would never have had a chance. Is this really the case?
We all know that there is a saying called: there is no good or bad, only suitable or not! Liu Bang originally engaged in the sub-feudal system as a buffer, and in the end he destroyed the "king with a foreign surname", but left Liu's descendants to be crowned kings, resulting in the rebellion of the seven kings. But can we know that without these kings with the surname of Liu, when the ministers destroyed Lü Hou, what if they were all wiped out?
I don't believe to see Emperor Wen of Han, who was the acting king at the time, and when he learned that he had been elected emperor with the lottery, he was frightened and restless, afraid that if he left the old nest to ascend the throne, he would be killed.
So his minister Song Chang began to analyze the current situation for him: there were relatives of Wu and Dongmu on the inside, and Wu, Chu, Huainan, Langxi, Qi, and Daizhi on the outside. Emperor Fang Jingao's son, the King of Huainan and the Great King, the Great King is long, the sage is holy and filial, and he is known in the world, so the chancellor wants to welcome the Great King because of the heart of the world, and the Great King does not doubt it.
The general meaning is that now a large wave of kings with the surname Liu are outside the domain, so the ministers in the capital will never hurt you, they just choose one of the two concubines and rob the lord of the merits, so go your eldest brother and become the emperor!
Another negative example, although Li Yuan also became king after establishing the Tang Dynasty, he did not let his concubines be in other places, all gathered in Chang'an. As a result, Li Shimin changed a Xuanwu Gate, Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji were put in a pot, and Li Yuan had to take the initiative to ask to be the emperor.
After reading these two examples of positive and negative, and then looking at Zhu Yuanzhang, where is the mistake in his division of the sons? After Zhu Biao's death, the reason why he did not dare to let his son succeed to the throne was because he was afraid that none of his sons would obey anyone, so they would fight with each other and mess up the next day.
After passing the throne to Emperor Jianwen, although the sons were not happy, they all felt much better in their hearts, if someone dared to jump out and make trouble at this moment, Emperor Jianwen could have 99 ways to let his uncles bite each other.
Therefore, after Zhu Biao's death, Zhu Yuanzhang only killed the meritorious martial artists led by Blue Jade, which was equivalent to ruling out the possibility of "family fights and outsiders picking peaches". If Zhu Yuanzhang did not let his sons take the throne, once Emperor Jianwen ascended the throne, there were courtiers who made trouble, and they were all put in the capital, daming's bureau was not a question of breaking the situation or not, but directly scrapping.
Second, the four hole cards left by Zhu Yuanzhang
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang's sub-sealing is not to reverse the history, but to be the best choice suitable for the environment at that time. In this bureau constructed by Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Jianwen was almost invincible. And for the rebellion of the sons, Zhu Yuanzhang also had a plan, leaving four bottom cards for Emperor Jianwen.
As long as Emperor Jianwen opened it in order, even if there was another Zhu Di, he would not be able to turn over the waves. Unfortunately, Emperor Jianwen made himself clever and turned over the wrong order, resulting in the whole being abolished...
Although Zhu Yuanzhang divided his sons into domains, he imposed various restrictions and checks and balances on them. Because only in this way can the four hole cards be guaranteed to be valid. For example, the officials in the seat of the kings must be appointed by the emperor, which ensures that these officials eat the meal of the imperial court, and naturally are responsible to the emperor and will not easily obey the orders of the king.
At the same time, the kings of the clans lived in one place, which also ensured their checks and balances on each other. For example, Zhu Di was in Beijing, and the King of Ning was in Daning (Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia). Looking at this layout, if Zhu Di wanted to go south, would King Ning be able to take advantage of the fact that Zhu Di's old lair was taken advantage of?
Therefore, it is said that in this bureau of Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Jianwen is almost invincible, and he can have 99 ways to kill the emperor who is not convinced.
The facts almost confirm this. During the Battle of Jingnan, in order to break this situation, Zhu Di had to abandon his old nest and let Li Jinglong lead an army of 100,000 to besiege Beijing, and he also wanted to get the King of Ning. In the end, he borrowed King Ning's Duoyan Sanwei and promised to give King Ning a large wave of benefits.
However, he broke the situation, but even his wife, Empress Xu, had to wear a military uniform and organize a "female soldier death squad" to defend the city of Beijing. The question now is, why did King Ning choose to cooperate with Zhu Di? The key point was that Emperor Jianwen had mistakenly turned over the order of the four hole cards.
It was when Zhu Yuanzhang was still alive, and Zhu Yunjiao had already determined the status of heir. Once the two of them chatted, and as they talked, they talked about Zhu Di and other princes of the clan. Zhu Yunjiao looked very nervous and asked Zhu Yuanzhang: What should I do if these uncles disobey me?
Zhu Yuanzhang had already made up his mind, but he asked Zhu Yunjiao: Yes, this is a big problem, so what do you say?
Zhu Yunjiao thought about it for half a day and said, "With virtue and courtesy, we must not cut the ground." If they cannot, they shall be abolished. And even worse, they raised troops to cut it down. ”
Zhu Yuanzhang was overjoyed, and picked up his thumb and said, "Yes and yes!" There is no easy way to go. ”
The translation is, first, to persuade education, to influence them with softness. Second, if it doesn't work, warn them, cut the clan, and let them move away from the nest. Third, if it did not work, it completely deprived him of all treatment and abolished him. Fourth, if all this is the case, but the coffin is still not seen and does not shed tears, it can only be destroyed.
Zhu Yuanzhang: That's all right, there's no better plan than this.
Third, Emperor Jianwen's own cleverness was abolished
Obviously, these four cards must rely on strong strength, and Zhu Yuanzhang's actions have always been based on strengthening and consolidating Emperor Jianwen. Therefore, as long as in this game, Emperor Jianwen did it according to these four hole cards, there would be no chaos at all. But what Emperor Jianwen did after he ascended the throne.
There would be people who said that the King of Zhou was outlawed, so he ordered Li Jinglong to attack and insist on it, and the words were even Xiang and Daifu. As a result, he deposed Su and The Min King Yu as Shu Ren, the Youdai Wang Gui Yu Datong, and the imprisoned Qi Wang Yu Jingshi. Xiang WangBai set himself on fire. (From the History of the Ming Dynasty)
Emperor Jianwen ignored the first card, impressed with virtue, and convinced people with reason, skipping the second card, warning the bottom card, and almost simultaneously flipped over the next two cards: abolish and destroy.
Emperor Jianwen was very happy, but it was equivalent to completely abolishing these four hole cards. So a few uncles, jailed, imprisoned, committed suicide. Zhu Di saw this and had to turn on the mode of pretending to be crazy and self-protection.
Therefore, in this case, even if King Ning hated Zhu Di anymore and did not want him to become emperor, he had to choose to cooperate with Zhu Di in order to survive. It was equivalent to Emperor Jianwen, who directly forced King Ning into Zhu Di's camp, and suddenly stabbed Zhu Yuanzhang's bureau with a big hole.
If you don't believe it, we can make a hypothesis, after Emperor Jianwen opened these four cards in order, Zhu Di still rebelled, and when he ran to King Ning, it was still possible to chat with King Ning and drink tea, and by the way, did he rebel against Duoyan Sanwei? He didn't have the time—he was either immediately arrested or killed when he went, and the Battle of Jingnan was over.
In the same way, if Emperor Jianwen really did this, Zhu Di would never be able to rebel. He once pretended to be crazy and self-preservation proved that Zhu Di at that time belonged to a thief at most, and he had no thief's guts, and he had no preparation for rebellion at all. That is, he knew that there was no possibility of rebellion.
Therefore, the reason why Zhu Di's Battle of Jingnan was successful was mostly on Emperor Jianwen, and Zhu Di indeed belonged to passive rebellion. All this has nothing to do with Zhu Yuanzhang, not that Zhu Yuanzhang did something wrong, but that Emperor Jianwen was really too wrong.