In 1328, Emperor Yuan Taiding died, who would inherit the throne, and the ministers quarreled. Some ministers wanted to support Emperor Taiding's nine-year-old son as emperor, and other ministers wanted to support Emperor Wuzong's eldest son Haishan as emperor.
Woodcut of The Emperor of Yuan Taiding
You may wonder, Emperor Litaiding's son is the son who inherits the father's business, what is the eldest son of Emperor Wuzong?
This is all to blame for the chaos of the Yuan Dynasty's succession to the throne. Emperor Wuzong of Yuanwu was the great-grandson of Kublai Khan and succeeded to the throne in May 1307. A month after becoming emperor, he crowned his younger brother Bo'er Only Jin Ai Yu Li Bali Bada as crown prince.
Because Haishan can ascend to the throne, this younger brother is indispensable, and Haishan can also be regarded as a peach in return. Of course, they also have an agreement, that is: brother to brother and uncle to pass on. That is to say, Haishan's younger brother will later pass the throne to Haishan's son.
Yuan Wuzong
The agreement was quite good, but after 4 years of Yuan Wuzong's death, his younger brother Yuan Renzong turned his face and did not recognize it after succeeding to the throne. Emperor Renzong made his son crown prince and haishan's eldest son the king of Zhou, and sent him far away. Unfortunately, the dragon chair was not yet hot, and Renzong also died. Emperor Renzong's son Yingzong succeeded to the throne, and within a few years, he was assassinated, and the King of Jin took over the throne, that is, Emperor Taiding. Emperor Taiding reigned for only 5 years before he died.
The throne was exchanged like a marquee, and in the competition between various forces, the eldest son of Haishan, who was crowned as the King of Zhou, was pushed to the forefront.
The succession to the throne of the Yuan Dynasty was very chaotic
However, at that time, this King of Zhou was far away in the north of the desert, and in order to save the emergency, the ministers first took Haishan's younger son to Yuan Dadu and proclaimed him emperor, and he was Yuan Wenzong. After Emperor Yuanwenzong ascended the throne, he said: "It is only a temporary measure for me to become emperor, and I will give up the throne when my brother returns." ”
Yuan Dadu's side was so moving, and Yuan Shangdu did not show weakness on that side, pushing Emperor Taiding's nine-year-old son onto the dragon chair.
As the saying goes, mountains do not tolerate two tigers, one dynasty and two emperors, war has become an inevitable thing, which has a historical "dispute between the two capitals". In the end, it was Yuan Wenzong who sat firmly in Jiangshan.
Yuan Wenzong
Emperor Wenzong of Yuan, who was in a position of great power, did what he said, and took the initiative to send people to Mobei to invite his brother King Zhou to return, hoping to give up the throne to him. When the older brother saw that the younger brother was sincerely determined to give way, he did not resign and returned to the Yuan Shangdu with joy. In February 1329, the 29-year-old King of Zhou officially ascended the throne in Shangdu, and he was Emperor Mingzong of Yuan.
After ascending the throne, Emperor Yuanming made his younger brother crown prince, and did not make many adjustments in personnel, basically following the candidates of the Wenzong period. In front of the people of the world, the pair of difficult brothers showed a harmonious scene of the younger brother respecting the older brother and the older brother trusting the younger brother.
Yuan Mingzong
Half a year later, Emperor Mingzong of Yuan went from Yuan Shangdu to Dadu, and as the younger brother of the crown prince, he naturally wanted to meet the new emperor, and the two brothers chose the place where they met in Yuanzhongdu, which is baichengzi in the northwest of today's Zhangbei County.
According to the historical records, the older brother arrived first, and the younger brother did not arrive until the next day. That night, Emperor Yuanmingzong feasted on the crown prince and the ministers, and during the banquet, the brothers could not help but reminisce about the past, talk about the years of parting feelings, and imagine a better tomorrow.
But no one expected that four days later, Yuan Mingzong suddenly fell ill and died, at the age of 30. After Emperor Yuanmingzong died, his younger brother cried out at his corpse. After completing the matter, the younger brother ascended the throne again as the crown prince and returned to Dadu.
Emperor Yuanmingzong died too strangely, and was historically known as the "Change of the Celestial Calendar". Although the cause of Yuan Mingzong's death is not recorded in the "History of Yuan", according to the analysis of historians, there is an ulterior conspiracy hidden in it, and the murderer of Yuan Mingzong is his own brother. Although he was already the crown prince at that time, after all, he was only 4 years younger than his brother, who was only 30 years old at the time, and he was in his prime of youth, and he wanted to become emperor, so he had to wait until the year of the monkey.