Since ancient times, people's pursuit of power has been endless. As the most powerful emperor in the world, this position has made countless people crazy. Even sometimes for the throne, there will be tragedies of father and son killing each other, brothers killing each other, and each other in the same room. And such an emperor, for the sake of the emperor's throne, even did not hesitate to extend the butcher knife to his nephew.
And he is the only emperor in Chinese history who successfully rebelled against the king of the clan, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di. Zhu Di used Jing's difficulties as an excuse to send troops to capture the city of Beijing. In a raging fire, Emperor Jianwen's life and death are unknown, and the prince and empress are buried in the sea of fire. So what happened to Emperor Jianwen's father, Zhu Di's eldest brother Zhu Biao's wife, and other children?
1. Zhu Di and his people
When Zhu Di was born, Zhu Yuanzhang was still just a warlord who divided one side and was competing with Chen Youyu for territory. At that time, the military situation was urgent, and Zhu Yuanzhang did not even have time to look at Zhu Di a few more times before he hurried to the front line. It was not until seven years later, after Zhu Yuanzhang had proclaimed himself emperor, that he named the seven-year-old Zhu Di and his six other sons in the ancestral hall.
After that, Zhu Yuanzhang also let his son receive training from the military from an early age, starting from the grassroots level, receiving the most basic and harsh military training, and even often had to test his children's martial arts. At the same time, we also do not forget to let children receive a complete cultural education, and hire Confucians and well-educated people to give lectures to children.
And Zhu Di also knew from an early age that his father was a king who aspired to the world, so he had little energy to pay attention to his family, and he had many heirs, and it was even more difficult for him to be noticed as a prince. If you want to get your father's attention, it's all in your own efforts, and Zhu Yuanzhang is also a son who will only pay attention to and reuse his own excellent.
Therefore, Zhu Di was extremely hard to learn literature and martial arts since he was a child, and soon stood out from the brothers. Even among the many princes, only Zhu Yuanzhang's eldest son, Zhu Biao, could suppress him. After he became an adult, he was even named the King of Yan, and his fief was in Beiping, and Zhu Di was sent to Beiping when he was sixteen years old.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang did this with the purpose of consolidating his rule, it was more of an expression of expectation for Zhu Di of Yunwen Yunwu, hoping that Zhu Di could make a military contribution in the north near the desert. Zhu Di also shouldered the heavy responsibility of eliminating the desert in disbelief.
In the year when he was thirty years old, Zhu Di led his troops into the desert, attacked the enemy army in the snow, defeated the Yuan army, and finally forced the enemy army to surrender with a strong political skill, and cleared the northern desert in one fell swoop. When the good news reached Nanjing, even Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but sigh: "Purge the desert, The King of Yan!" After this, Zhu Di was even more heavily relied upon.
Second, the change of difficulties
That is, when Zhu Di showed his might in the north, Zhu Yuanzhang, a male prince, also entered the old age of his life. At this time, the issue of succession to the throne was slowly placed in front of everyone. Originally, the crown prince Zhu Biao had a high prestige among the kings and courtiers, and he had both civil and martial arts skills, and he was deeply loved by Zhu Yuanzhang.
With such a prince pressed there, naturally there will not be too much wind and waves. Even Zhu Di, who had distinguished himself in military service, could only bow his head to this elder brother, after all, Zhu Biao had been supervising the country for twenty years at this time. But at this point, Zhu Biao unfortunately died of illness.
The crown prince's seat immediately hung in the air, and at this time the kings naturally had ideas. As the second only zhu biao among the kings, Zhu Di, coupled with the heavy troops in the north in his hands, at this time, the ambition in his heart began to grow continuously.
In his later years, Zhu Yuanzhang became more and more suspicious of others as his body aged. The kings' covetousness for the crown prince and even the throne also became more and more intense, which led to Zhu Yuanzhang's inner uneasiness, in order to avoid the change of Xuanwumen, and also to avoid making himself an emperor like Li Yuan.
Zhu Yuanzhang eventually accepted Liu Sanwude's suggestion and made Zhu Biao's son Zhu Yunxiu the emperor's grandson as his successor. This not only cut off the thoughts of the kings, but at the same time, the young and weak Zhu Yunjiao, who had no foundation, would not have any impact on himself.
Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang also considered that after a hundred years, Zhu Yunjiao could not convince the public. On the one hand, a number of capable men were left for Sun Tzu, and on the other hand, they severely restrained the kings, reduced their strength, and even left the kings with no summons to enter the capital.
But even so, after Zhu Yunjiao ascended the throne, he still could not fully obey the people, and the weak lord himself had no confidence in his heart, so he rushed to cut the domain, and within a year, many clan kings were deposed. Zhu Di was naturally terrified of this. Finally, in the name of Jing Nan and Qing Jun's side, the army was finally raised.
Zhu Yunjiao, the emperor who grew up after the women of the deep palace, was naturally not a rival to Zhu Di in the Southern Expedition and the Northern War, and soon, Zhu Di went all the way north and captured the city of Nanjing. Zhu Yunjiao also disappeared into a raging fire in the palace.
Iii. The fate of Zhu Biao's wives and children
After Zhu Di ascended to the throne, Zhu Di of course knew that he was not in the right position, and even if he was severely tortured, he still could not stop gossiping. This made Zhu Di have the idea of consolidating his own position, on the one hand, he worked hard to govern the country, hoping to use his own wenzhi martial arts to cover up the fact that he had usurped the throne.
On the other hand, it is to eliminate all factors that may threaten his throne. For the kings of the various clans, naturally there is no need to say much, they are strictly guarded to avoid the same things as themselves. As for the brothers and mothers of The Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao, that is, Zhu Biao's wives and children, they would not be soft.
Lü Shi, the wife of Zhu Biao, who had been honored as empress dowager, directly lost her honorific title, and Zhu Yunxi, the King of Xu, was sent to the Ming Tombs to guard the tomb, and finally the two disappeared in an "accidental" fire. Zhu Yunxi, the King of Wu, and Zhu Yunxi, the King of Heng, also died unexpectedly after being imprisoned for several years. At this point, Zhu Biao's three sons, except for zhu Xiongying and Zhu Yunjiao, the eldest sons who died at an early age, were also all killed.
There are even legends that because Emperor Jianwen did not find a corpse, coupled with the rumors that Emperor Jianwen ran to Nanyang, Zhu Di did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to send Zheng He to the West seven times to explore the traces of Emperor Jianwen. Zhu Di's emphasis on the throne is evident.
summary
Later history proved that Zhu Di did have a lot of achievements in the field of wenzhi martial arts. It can even be called a generation of male lords. However, like those male lords in history, Zhu Di also had a suspicious common disease, and even used cool officials to punish those who had objections to himself in order to keep his throne, and he was even more bitter about the royal family.
And this kind of inferiority in his personality cannot be concealed no matter how much wenzhi martial arts are used. Of course, this is not Zhu Di's fault alone, but also reflects the problem of this feudal monarchy. When the monarch holds absolute power, he often reaches the most dangerous position.
Because when he grasps this absolute power, he will face the covetousness of other people who have the same desire for this position, in this case, only by becoming fierce and decisive enough can he survive in this sinister environment, otherwise Zhu Yunjiao's fate is the best example.