Zhu Yuanzhang, who came from the grassroots, was a very controversial emperor. His body shows two extremes, one is a positive image of a small person who successfully counterattacked as the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty through an uprising and his own continuous efforts. The other is that the cognition is limited, the heart is fierce, and the negative image of the hero is swept away in his later years. In the second year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang gave Liu Bowen a problem: Which of the three people, Yang Xian, Wang Guangyang, and Hu Weiyong, was more suitable to be a chancellor? When Liu Bowen evaluated the three people, without exception, all three of them suffered a tragic death, is this related to Liu Bowen's evaluation?
Liu Bowen's opinion
During Zhu Yuanzhang's entrepreneurship, Liu Bowen played the role of right hand and left arm and made great achievements. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang rewarded the meritorious heroes, and unlike what he imagined, Liu Bowen did not get a very high position, but only a third-class sincere uncle. However, Liu Bowen did not care, he knew that the greater the power, the easier it was to lose his life. Although Liu Bowen was only a sincere uncle, his influence in the imperial court was still quite large, and after the establishment of the Huaixi clique headed by Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong, the Zhejiang Eastern clique headed by Liu Bowen became the main force used by Zhu Yuanzhang to balance the power of the DPRK and China. It can be said that the more fiercely the two forces fight, the more rampant Zhu Yuanzhang laughs, the forces that threaten the imperial power bite each other, the less the threat to the imperial power, and the more stable Zhu Yuanzhang's throne is.
One day, Zhu Yuanzhang came to look for Liu Bowen, and at this time, Li Shanchang retired due to illness, so Zhu Yuanzhang asked Liu Bowen about the selection of the prime minister. Zhu Yuanzhang first asked, "What is Yang Xian like?" Obviously, this candidate is more sensitive, because Liu Bowen has a very good relationship with Yang Xian, and the old owner Zhu Yuanzhang is a lot of doubts. If you say good, you will definitely be considered to be suspected of forming a party for personal gain, if you say it is not good, then you are sorry for your friends, and you play well with others on the surface, but behind your back you wear small shoes for people. Therefore, Liu Bowen thought for a moment and said: "Yang Xian is a person who has the talent of a prime minister, but he does not have the strength of a prime minister. The mixed speech, very official, successfully stabilized Zhu Yuanzhang. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang threw out a personal choice: "Is Wang Guangyang okay?" Wang Guangyang is a neutral candidate, there is no side, naturally does not belong to the Zhejiang East Group, so Liu Bowen has no reason to recommend a person who does not know the bottom, so he said: "He is even more shallow than Yang Xian." The implication is that Wang Guangyang is not as good as Yang Xian. Zhu Yuanzhang heard that the first two candidates he said were eliminated, so he directly released a big move, and this person was Hu Weiyong, whom Zhu Yuanzhang liked very much.
When Liu Bowen heard the third candidate, he said: "This person is a good cow pulling a car, but I am afraid that if it is strong, it will top the frame." Although subjectively speaking, Liu Bowen is a little selfish, but the evaluation is indeed more pertinent, so Liu Bowen successfully passed Zhu Yuanzhang's test. But the chicken thief, such as Zhu Yuanzhang, did not forget to test Liu Bowen when he came: "It seems that the only person who can be my prime minister is mr. you." As clever as Liu Bowen, how could he not hear the temptation in this sentence, so he hurriedly pushed back and said that he lacked ability and was afraid of failing the emperor's grace, and said: "There are many talents in the world, as long as you slowly find it, there will always be." After Zhu Yuanzhang listened, he did not draw conclusions, and the two of them also tacitly agreed, and never mentioned this matter again, just like going through a formality, perfunctory and necessary.
Zhu Yuanzhang's decision
Zhu Yuanzhang, on the recommendation of Li Shanchang, chose Hu Weiyong to serve as prime minister. As for why Li Shanchang recommended Hu Weiyong, in fact, it is not difficult to understand that Hu Weiyong is a member of Li Shanchang's Huaixi Group, even if he can't do it himself, recommending his own family to do it is always beneficial to himself. Above the court, everyone has selfish intentions, not to mention the heavy courtiers, and every step taken must be carefully considered. After Hu Weiyong became prime minister, he aimed his gun at Liu Boyong, who had some festivals with him and said bad things about himself, and kept looking for opportunities to get rid of Liu Bowen. Liu Bowen knew that danger was coming, and naturally would not sit and wait for death, so he took the initiative to find Zhu Yuanzhang to tell the old man to return to his hometown. As a result, Hu Weiyong wrote a book saying that Liu Bowen had the intention of rebellion at home, which frightened Liu Bowen enough to rush back to the capital from his hometown and live under Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, so as not to make Zhu Yuanzhang doubt himself. Old Liu is really not easy, the first half of his life to accompany the old owner to fight in the country, the second half of his life still has to live with trembling, afraid that Old Zhu will destroy himself if he is unhappy. After Liu Bowen stayed in the capital for a period of time, his condition worsened, and Zhu Yuanzhang opened his favor and let Liu Bowen go home to recuperate. Soon after Liu Bowen returned home, Hu Weiyong went to visit Liu Bowen with some medicine, and it was not long before Liu Bowen died. Later generations often speculate that Hu Weiyong poisoned Liu Bowen, although the truth is, we have no way of knowing, but a generation of heroes ended up like this, it is really chilling.
The outcome of the three candidates
Soon after Liu Bowen's death, Zhu Yuanzhang began a drastic campaign to clean up the heroes. As early as the second year of Hongwu, Yang Xian, who was the ruler of Zhongshu Province, was executed for the crime of "monopolizing provincial affairs, deposing old officials, using more cronies, killing Yushi Liu Bing, and impeaching Wang Guangyang, the right minister." After Yang Xian's death, Hu Weiyong, who served as the left minister, and Wang Guangyang, who served as the right minister, continued to be in cahoots, and their eyes gradually moved to the top of their heads, and zhu Yuanzhang was not taken into account at all. How could Old Zhu have suffered such a grievance, so Zhu Yuanzhang began to attack the Hu Weiyong clique. More than 30,000 people were implicated, including wang Guangyang and Li Shanchang's family of more than 70 people. After the heroes and power ministers were basically executed, Zhu Yuanzhang incidentally abolished the system of prime ministers that had been inherited for more than a thousand years, and since then there has been no prime minister in history, and the imperial power is even more supreme, which may be zhu Yuanzhang's real purpose.
Why did the three die tragically?
Many people have speculated that the tragic death of the three people was related to the opinion given by Liu Bowen at that time, but this is not the case. Liu Bowen opposed all three at that time, in fact, judging from Zhu Yuanzhang's later actions to sweep up the heroes, Liu Bowen's opposition was not a protection for the three people. At that time, Li Changshan did a good job, suddenly retired, and Xiang Quan posed the greatest threat to imperial power, coupled with Zhu Yuanzhang's suspicious personality. Smart people should guess that Zhu Yuanzhang's real purpose is to attack the prime minister system, so whoever is the prime minister will have to die. Liu Bowen guessed whether he guessed clearly, but his attitude of opposition was undoubtedly to save Yang Xian and others. Liu Bowen's opinion actually did not bring any impact to Zhu Yuanzhang's decision, Zhu Yuanzhang is likely to have made a decision when asking Liu Bowen's opinion, just a formality, want to hear Liu Bowen's thoughts, Liu Bowen said the shortcomings of the three people, Zhu Yuanzhang should be secretly very happy, because grasping the handle, it will be much easier to get rid of it in the future.
Hu Weiyong and Wang Guangyang as prime ministers are undoubtedly puppets, and Lao Zhu will destroy all the pawns when the time is ripe, so as to achieve the purpose of abolishing the prime minister system and strengthening imperial power. The same is true of the fact that the actions of the sweepers are the best evidence. In the final analysis, the fundamental reason why Yang Xian and others died tragically was that Xiang Quan threatened the imperial power, Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to destroy Xiang Quan, and the destruction of a system must be accompanied by someone to accompany the funeral, so the three candidates mentioned by Yang Xian, Wang Guangyang, and Hu Weiyong, and even all the heroes and courtiers who were later destroyed were just the funerary products that Zhu Yuanzhang used to accompany the funeral system of the prime minister.
I have to say that Zhu Yuanzhang is a fierce character, personally destroying the heroes and powerful ministers who accompanied him to fight in the country, and personally ending the system of prime ministers that has lasted for more than a thousand years. When posterity mentions Zhu Yuanzhang, I am afraid that they can't help but say: Cow!