Looking at the past history, the life of the royal family can only be described as cold. Under the influence of power, brothers who were once brothers and sisters can also turn against each other in order to ascend to the throne, and there are countless intrigues. Just as the so-called ruthlessness is the most imperial family, there have been too many tragedies in order to seize power. But there are always exceptions to everything, and the emperor who has been called cruel will also have a warm side, such as illustrating Taizu.
For Zhu Yuanzhang, the world has always had an extremely complex evaluation. The story of his self-made crackdown on corrupt officials is undoubtedly very worthy of recognition, but the ruthlessness of the founding heroes who cleaned up the founding heroes for the sake of Prince Zhu Biao had to be sighed. However, this does not mean that he is an indifferent emperor, which can be reflected in the story of him and his adopted son.
In 1344, Mu Ying was born in Haozhou to a very poor family. When he was young, a serious illness took away his father and made the family even more difficult. In 1351, the outbreak of the Red Turban Rebellion was even more peaceful. He had to embark on a journey to escape the chaos of war, but his mother, who was dependent on him, also ended up in this turbulent displacement.
In this way, Xiao Muying could only follow the exiled people around alone, and he didn't even know his name. It was not until 1352 that he circled around and returned to Haozhou City again, and this time fate did not give him any more twists and turns, but instead let him meet the rebel army that had just laid the city.
The general of this army was Zhu Yuanzhang, who had just joined the army, and his talent was appreciated by Guo Zixing, who not only married his wife Ma Shi, but also had considerable prestige. And when the couple saw this miserable child, the soft moment in their hearts was poked. They were all from poor backgrounds in their early years, and Zhu Yuanzhang experienced too much upheaval and displacement. They felt sorry for the poor boy from the bottom of their hearts, and when they were childless, they did not hesitate to adopt him as an adopted son.
Faced with this nameless child, the couple named him "Zhu Ying" and personally taught him to read and write. During this period, Zhu Yuanzhang also discovered the superior wisdom of his adopted son, and he began to teach him some of the ways of war, after all, in the chaotic world, this is the ability to ensure that he has food to eat. Since then, Zhu Ying has devoted himself to serving the couple and the couple, and has gone out with the army early, accumulating combat experience on the one hand, and on the other hand, gaining extremely deep family affection.
In 1362, the 18-year-old Zhu Ying began to fight in the army, successively guarding military strongholds such as Zhenjiang and Guangxin. His talents were becoming more and more apparent, and he had considerable prestige in the army. However, in 1367, when he achieved a great victory in the Battle of Chong'an, his adoptive father Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly interviewed him. According to the "History of Ming", after this conversation, he suddenly changed his name to "Mu Ying", and the reason was that his adoptive father said that the surname Zhu was not good, and he did not have a surname.
It turned out that by now, Zhu Yuanzhang's unification of the world was basically a foregone conclusion, and the most important thing as an emperor was the crown prince. In the years of his conquests, Mu Ying's merits have been described as deep and indescribable in words. But in the final analysis, he is only an adopted son, and children without blood will eventually become the throne, but will become victims of the conquest.
So, in order to protect his beloved son, he and Empress Ma jointly made this decision before ascending the throne. And this result Mu Ying himself did not feel inappropriate at all, he still bowed down for Daming, fought on all sides, and even more poorly ruled the Yunnan area very well in his lifetime. He was very grateful to his adoptive parents from beginning to end, Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma regarded them as their own, even though the life of the royal family was confusing, but this warmth was real.