After the Battle of Jingnan, Zhu Di became emperor. However, he was extremely entangled in the choice of successor, and there was no doubt that he chose his eldest son, Zhu Gaozi, according to reason. So why did he bother? In fact, there are two reasons, the first is that he has a better choice in his heart, that is, Zhu Gaoxu, but he is not the eldest son. The second reason is that Zhu Gaozi's personality is very different from his, very benevolent, and soft side, which makes Zhu Di uneasy, after all, the pressure of the Mongols is still very large.
Zhu Di had a total of four sons, but the fourth elder Zhu Gaomu died early, so he would not mention it. The eldest son Zhu Gaoxu, the second son Zhu Gaoxu, and the third son Zhu Gaoxu were actually born to Empress Xu, so all three of them were concubines.
Let's imagine, if Zhu Di only has the eldest son Zhu Gaozi, then he naturally does not have this time to hesitate, and it is precisely Zhu Di who has a choice, so he will be entangled.
Not only did he have other choices, but there was a so-called better choice in his heart, that is, the second son, Zhu Gaoxu. In contrast, he prefers Zhu Gaoxu.
In fact, in the Battle of Jingnan, these two sons had merit. It's just that they are different, Zhu Gaoxu followed Zhu Di south, charged into the battlefield, and made a lot of merit. Although Zhu Gaozi did not have this ability, he was not an incompetent person.
However, Zhu Di himself was a trained command general, and he preferred people like Zhu Gaoxu.
Looking at it from another angle, which is the second reason we are talking about, it actually has to be taken into account. Zhu Di ascended the throne, but the relationship with northern Mongolia was not much better, otherwise Zhu Di would not have made five northern expeditions, so in view of the situation at that time, Zhu Di preferred that a person similar to him come to power, so that he could inflict a sustained blow on northern Mongolia.
If someone like Zhu Gaozi were allowed to come to power, he might handle internal affairs very well, but he who is not good at military affairs may suffer losses in the face of foreign enemies in Zhu Di's eyes.
We can see from the results that Zhu Gaozi reigned for less than a year, but his policy was obviously very different from Zhu Di's, and he adopted a policy of strategic contraction, including his son, and the internal affairs were indeed handled very well, but Annan, which Zhu Di had painstakingly occupied, was also abandoned.
So two people with different personalities on the stage, Daming will be two directions.