In the thirty-first year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang died at the Yingtian Imperial Palace, leaving a testament ordering the emperor's grandson Zhu Yunjiao to succeed to the throne, and ordering that "the subjects of the world, cry for three days, are released, and do not hinder marriage." ”
Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was a legendary cloth emperor and the only emperor born in more than 5,000 years of history. He has the breath of a civilian, and he also has a sense of inferiority that cannot be shaken off. Even if the founding hero was given a token to avoid death, there was one in the dark. Before the execution, Li Shanchang took out an iron coupon to avoid death, and Zhu Yuanzhang sneered: You polish your eyes to see the words on it.
Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, came from a poor family and had a very difficult childhood. How can a person with no background and no power relationship find a way out for himself? Fortunately, Zhu Yuanzhang was talented and intelligent, and at the age of twenty-five, he resolutely chose to join the army, follow the rebel army led by Guo Zixing, and participate in the rebellion against the Mongol Yuan Dynasty regime.
Zhu Yuanzhang was not only clever and strategic, but also had a sense of the overall situation and strategic ability that ordinary people did not have, and in the battle against the Mongol army, he also defeated the enemy army many times and won many military merit rewards. Guo Zixing was very interested in this young man, felt that this young man was not an ordinary person, and asserted that he must have achieved great success. So he carefully cultivated Zhu Yuanzhang, taught him to march and fight, and left him by his side.
Guo Zixing's status became higher and higher, and the power he carried with Zhu Yuanzhang was also getting bigger and bigger, and the ability to march and fight wars was also becoming more and more mature, and he successively recovered many warlords, unified the south, and used the south as a power base to continue to go north to cut down the Yuan. Finally, in 1368, the Ming Dynasty was established, and the capital was Nanjing, taking the era name Hongwu.
In the course of Zhu Yuanzhang's arduous pioneering work, many founding fathers and elders have made indispensable contributions, and history has left a name. For example, Guo Zixing, Zhu Yuanzhang's "Bole", not only had a nurturing affection for Zhu, but also married his adopted daughter, who was Empress Ma. The other was Li Shanchang, who met Zhu Yuanzhang in Chuzhou, and Li Shanchang was a capable man who was a dispatcher who was appreciated and reused when he first came to Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang was a Ming Emperor who loved talent and valued talent, so after he established the Ming Dynasty regime, he gave Li Shanchang, Xu Da and dozens of other founding fathers an iron coupon to avoid death as a token of gratitude. Just like the death-free gold medal of Xiao Yanzi in "Huan Zhu Ge Ge", the death-free iron coupon, as the name suggests, is that once the law is violated, it can be exempted from death. To receive this highest reward, the meritorious person is naturally very happy.
"The subject is spared two deaths, and the son can be spared one death", so that even if the family commits a crime, they can save their lives. No matter who it is, even the Jinyi Guards, a secret agency of the Ming Dynasty, when they go to their homes to take their lives, as long as they take out this death-free iron coupon, they can also walk out of the ghost gate. However, Li Shanchang, who was given two death-free iron coupons, ended up with more than seventy people in the whole family being executed at the same time. What is the reason for this? Could it be that the death-free iron coupon has failed?
Zhu Yuanzhang was born into a commoner family and had a sense of inferiority brought about by his original family, and even if he became emperor, he could not completely eliminate this negative psychology, and he was always worried that some people in the DPRK were plotting rebellion. The last minister in history was called Hu Weiyong, and Hu Weiyong was recommended by Li Shanchang to serve as the chancellor of the imperial court. Although his contribution to assisting the government was indispensable, this man was too arbitrary and independent, and during his seven years in office, he cultivated many henchmen, which caused Zhu Yuanzhang's murderous intentions, and he had the prison of Hu Dang, one of the four major cases in the early Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang, for the crime of rebellion, ordered Hu Weiyong to be put to death and condemned the Nine Tribes. Seeing that Hu Weiyong was a fellow villager in Huaixi and had been recommended to the imperial court by himself, Li Shanchang could not bear to let him and other fellow villagers lose their lives for no reason, so he tried to dredge up his relations with the DPRK and save the lives of his relatives. Unfortunately, the news of Li Shanchang's use of his private power soon reached Zhu Yuanzhang, who was furious. The identification of Li Shanchang as Hu Weiyong's henchman will cause the ministers of the DPRK and the CENTRAL Government to follow suit and use their power for personal gain and special circumstances.
Under a paper order, Li Shanchang was given to death. In Hu Weiyong's case, nearly 30,000 people were implicated and killed, including 70 members of Li Shanchang's family. Before the executioner's large knife fell, Li Shanchang took out his two death-free iron coupons, thinking that he could escape the disaster, but he did not expect Zhu Yuanzhang to sneer: "Do you see what words are written on the back?" It turned out that on the back of the iron coupon were written five big words: Except for plotting against the great rebellion. After Hu Weiyong, there were no more ministers in history, Zhongshu Province was abolished, and Zhu Yuanzhang's centralized system developed to its peak.
The simple truth that imperial power is supreme and sovereign is sacred and inviolable, but Li Shanchang did not understand it until before he died. The most important thing to be a person is to put yourself in the right position, even when the spring breeze is triumphant, you must not do an offside thing.
Resources:
History of the Ming Dynasty