In 1398, in the thirty-first year of Hongwu, Zhu Yunjiao, who was only 21 years old, succeeded to the throne and changed his era name to Jianwen, known in history as "Jianwen Emperor". Emperor Jianwen was Zhu Yuanzhang's grandson, that is to say, after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, he bypassed his own son and directly let his grandson take over.
Such a succession of power made the future of the Ming Empire not very clear for a while, because Zhu Yuanzhang's sons were still there, especially the powerful Yan king Zhu Di, who had long coveted the throne. In fact, the throne had not yet been the turn of the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao. Emperor Jianwen's father, Zhu Biao, the eldest son of Zhu Yuanzhang, was the first chosen successor.
However, Zhu Biao's blessing score was too low, and he had not yet waited for Zhu Yuanzhang to return to heaven, so he took a step first. For Zhu Biao's death, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was sent by the white-haired man, was very sad, so he chose Zhu Biao's son, Zhu Yunjiao, as his successor. Although the Kings of Qin, Jin, and Yan are all there, if the King of Yan is chosen, what will the King of Qin and the King of Jin think?
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang accepted the suggestion of the scholar Liu Sanwu and established The Emperor's grandson Zhu Yunjiao as the Emperor's grandson. "King Liyan, where are the kings of Qin and Jin?" And the emperor's eldest grandson returns to his heart, and the emperor has no worries."
Therefore, the purpose of this is also to dispel the thoughts of the other kings.
In order to let his grandson Zhu Yunjiao succeed smoothly, Zhu Yuanzhang also made two arrangements, one was his own funeral. "The subjects of the world, weeping for three days, are all relieved, and they do not hinder marriage." Why he did this, the purpose is very simple, that is, to end his funeral as soon as possible, so that Zhu Yunjiao can quickly ascend the throne, so as not to have too many dreams in the night.
The second arrangement is that "the kings shall come to the kingdom and shall not go to beijing." The civil and military officials of the kingdom listened to the court's moderation. ”
What does that mean? This means that after their death, the kings should not come to mourn for themselves, but stay in their own country. At the same time, the officials of each feudal state were arranged by the imperial court. The purpose of this is actually very clear, that is, to prevent his sons from trying to seize the throne while they enter the capital to mourn.
Through this series of arrangements, we found that Zhu Yuanzhang had worked hard for his grandson Zhu Yunjiao. But the result? Zhu Yunjiao still failed to keep the assets left to him by his grandfather and was taken away by his uncle Zhu Di, the King of Yan. Not long after Zhu Yunjiao ascended the throne, Zhu Di, the King of Yan, launched the "Battle of Jingnan", and it took four years to successfully take the throne from his nephew.
So, why did Zhu Di, the King of Yan, do it so quickly? Zhu Yunjiao's own hand, his three stupid actions, accelerated the rebellion of the Yan King, but also accelerated his own downfall.
The first action was to take the Zhou King to open the knife.
"In August, King Zhou was convicted, deposed as a Shuren, and moved to Yunnan."
Zhu Yunjiao took the throne in May, and in August began to cut the policy of the domain, and the first target was zhu Xu, the king of Zhou. Why did you take the Zhou King's knife first? The main reason was the special relationship between the King of Zhou and Zhu Di, the King of Yan, and the two people were born of a mother. Zhu Xu was Zhu Di's half-brother.
First of all, he took the Zhou King Zhu Xu to open the knife, the purpose was to fear that he would help Zhu Di in the future. Zhu Di, the King of Yan, was originally powerful, and if he joined forces with Zhu Xi, the King of Zhou, to rebel, it was the situation that Zhu Yunjiao did not want to face.
Emperor Jianwen was right, but he ignored a problem, that is, to hit the grass and scare the snake, and clearly told Zhu Di that my ultimate goal is you. Isn't this equivalent to directly provoking Zhu Di?
Then Emperor Jianwen did another stupid thing, that is, to monitor Zhu Di.
The second wrong action, monitoring Zhu Di.
"In the winter of November, Zhang Fu, a servant of the Ministry of Works, was appointed as the envoy of Beiping, and Xie Gui and Zhang Xin were in charge of the envoys in Beiping, and the affairs of Yan were inspected." After disposing of the King of Zhou, Zhu Yunjiao immediately sent someone to Beiping to monitor Zhu Di.
Of course, surveillance is also correct, and the fault is that the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao's employment is unknown. He used a person from Zhang Xin, a person sent by Zhang Xin Zhu Yunjiao, and one of them was called Zhang Xin. Zhang Xin, Zhang Fu, and Xie Gui were all people sent by Zhu Di to monitor Zhu Di, the King of Yan. The only difference was that Zhang Xin was not firm in his political stance, and soon he rebelled, and directly said that he was sent by Emperor Jianwen to capture Zhu Di.
As a result, after Zhu Di heard about it, he was very angry and decided to raise an army.
Of course, the main reason why Zhu Di dared to boldly raise an army was the third stupid thing that Emperor Jianwen did, that is, to release Zhu Di's son.
The third wrong move, released Zhu Di's son.
Zhu Di's son was originally in Nanjing. "Taizu's collapse, the kings and the kings of the county are all in the capital division, the death of three years of mourning, Yan Shizi and Zhu Gaoxu, Gao Fu foreshadowing", when Zhu Yuanzhang died, there was a will not allowing the king of the domain to enter the capital to run for funerals, so Zhu Di let his three sons, instead of himself, to run for funerals, and the third son remained in the beijing division.
Even if Zhu Di, the King of Yan, was desperate, his son still had some concerns, so he chose to let his son return from Nanjing before he started the army, "When the King of Yan was worried, he called the three sons in the Capital Division, called sick, and begged the three sons to return."
When Emperor Jianwen learned that Zhu Di had asked to let his three sons go back, he couldn't make up his mind for a while. His adviser Qi Tai advocated taking Zhu Gaozi's three men hostage in order to hold king Yan hostage.
However, this suggestion was rejected by Huang Zicheng, who did not think so: "If the three brothers of Zhu Gaozi are really detained, but instead grant the Handle of the King of Yan, he will use this as an excuse to really attack, we will lose the advantage of public opinion, it is better to let them go back."
Ironically, Emperor Jianwen took Huang Zicheng's advice, "Sending Gao Zi (高炽), the son of the Prince of Yan, and his brothers Gao Xu (高煦) and Gao Fu (高燧) to Beiping." ”
As a result, Zhu Di no longer had any worries, so "In the autumn of July, King Di of Yan raised an army to rebel and killed the envoys Zhang Fu and Dusi Xiegui." ”
In 1399, in June of the first year of Jianwen, Zhu Di officially raised an army, and in the name of Xue Qitai and Huang Zicheng, he removed the Jianwen era name, still known as Hongwu Thirty-second Year. The banner raised was "There is no righteous subject in the dynasty, and there is treachery and evil within, and the soldiers will be trained to seek revenge, so as to clean up the evil on the side of the king." Thus began a four-year-long war, known in history as the "Battle of Jingnan". The final result is that Zhu Yunjiao lost his own Jiangshan, and without knowing the end, Zhu Di was proclaimed emperor.
In fact, Emperor Jianwen's fate was completed by himself, and his three tricks accelerated his collapse and Zhu Di's rebellion.