Before Zhu Yuanzhang's death, in order to consolidate the throne of his grandson Zhu Yunjiao, he ordered his son-in-law Mei Yin to secretly help Zhu Yunjiao. After Zhu Yunjiao came to power and the "Battle of Jingnan" began, Zhu Yunjiao ordered Mei Yin to lead a large army to guard Huai'an.
However, when Mei Yinzhen was guarding Huai'an, he did not actively help Zhu Yunjiao to fight. Although Zhu Di attacked Nanjing from the south, Mei Yin held Huai'an and did not allow Zhu Di to pass, and also cut off the ears and nose of Zhu Di's messengers. However, when Zhu Di bypassed Huai'an and attacked Nanjing from the south, Mei Yin had an army of 400,000 at that time, but he did not move to help Zhu Yunjiao. It can be said that this is also secretly helping Zhu Di to enter Nanjing and achieve the success of the "Battle of Jingnan".
(Mei Yin stills)
Zhu Di knew this in his heart, but why, after he became emperor, he sent someone to secretly kill Mei Yin?
Saying that Mei Yin was secretly killed by Zhu Di is not an empty phrase. In the third year of Yongle, when Mei Yin and the former military governor Tan Shen and Jin Yiwei commanded Zhao Xi and others to cross the bridge and enter the dynasty, they squeezed Mei Yin into the water and drowned. After Mei Yin drowned, Zhu Di, under the pressure of public opinion, arrested Tan Shen and Zhao Xi and others, beheaded them for public display, and confiscated their family property.
For this incident, the "History of Ming" made such a record: "Emperor Wen's sin is deep and Xi. The two of them said to each other, "This is the order of the lord, why kill the courtiers!" Emperor Wen was furious, and lily held the golden sword, dropped the teeth of the two people, and beheaded them. That is to say, when Zhu Di killed Tan Shen and Zhao Xi, the two said that the emperor let them do it, and Zhu Di was very angry after hearing it, and let people knock out their teeth and cut them off.
Both of them named and said that Zhu Di let them do it, so naturally there would be no mistake. Besides, these two people were Zhu Di's confidants, and it was reasonable for Zhu Di to tell them to do it. At the same time, Mei Yin is a donkey, these two people and Mei Yin have no hatred, for no reason, how can they squeeze Mei Yin into the water?
It can be seen from this that Zhu Di's killing of Mei Yin must be true.
Then, originally Mei Yin was secretly helping Zhu Di, and Zhu Di should be grateful. But why did he have to come up with such a despicable means to kill Mei Yin?
I think that the reason why Zhu Di wanted to kill Mei Yin was because he believed that Mei Yin's existence was a huge threat to him.
(Zhu Di stills)
So, what kind of threat is Mei Yin's existence to Zhu Di?
Although Mei Yin did not enter Beijing to help Zhu Yunjiao when Zhu Di attacked Nanjing. However, Mei Yin was obviously afraid of others talking nonsense, saying that he had been entrusted by Zhu Yuanzhang not to enter the King of Jingqin. Therefore, after Zhu Di conquered Nanjing, he made many reluctant moves.
At that time, Zhu Di conquered Nanjing, and after becoming emperor, he forced his sister and Mei Yin's wife, Princess Ningguo, to bite her finger and write a blood letter to Mei Yin, summoning Mei Yin back. Zhu Di did this, obviously fearing Mei Yin's hundreds of thousands of troops. This means that now that your wife and son are in my hands, you can watch and do it.
After Mei Yin saw the blood book at that time, she cried a lot and asked the emissary Where Zhu Yunjiao was. The Prophet said he had set himself on fire and died. So Mei Yin said, "The king dies and dies, the king survives and exists, and my aunt endures it." "Mei Yin meant that the king was dead, and I should have died with him." However, I don't want to die, so I'll just bear with it for a while.
This sentence obviously made Zhu Di very afraid. What does Mei Yin want to endure? What will he do to Zhu Di in the future? Therefore, Zhu Di obviously felt that leaving Mei Yin behind was a matter of endless trouble. If he didn't kill Mei Yin for a day, his heart would not be solid for a day.
(Stills of Zhu Yunjiao)
Later, when Mei Yin entered the dynasty, Zhu Di personally ran out to greet him and said, You have worked the horse. But Mei Yin said, not hard, hard work is fruitless. This remark was obviously satirizing Zhu Di. At that time, Zhu Di was there, unable to speak.
After that, Mei Yin continued to say something dissatisfied with Zhu Di in her words. As we said earlier, the reason why Mei Yin said this was actually to excuse him from not saving Zhu Yunjiao at that time, and wanted the people of the world to understand that mei Yin was actually loyal to Zhu Yunjiao.
In this way, Zhu Di was even more afraid, so he sent many people to monitor Mei Yin. The surveillance act was discovered by Mei Yin. Therefore, Mei Yin was even more angry and said a lot of things that Zhu Di did not want to hear.
For Zhu Di, who wanted to strengthen the centralization of power, it was obvious that Mei Yin was not allowed to talk and do things like this. However, he was not good at public punishment, so he secretly killed Mei Yin under the guise of the hands of two henchmen.
In short, Mei Yin's death was actually self-inflicted. He never stood his ground. Or you will resolutely follow Zhu Yunjiao and be loyal to Zhu Yunjiao. Or you completely fell into Zhu Di's arms. How can it be possible to think of the source left and right, to reap the benefits on both sides, and to be afraid of being told?
(References: History of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Shilu)