During the Hongwu period, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang wantonly slaughtered the founding generals and planned the famous "Four Major Cases of Hongwu". Among them, the "Blue Jade Case" is the first of the four major cases, and more than 15,000 generals have been killed by The Cursed Lian. In the end, blue jade ended up with a "peeling and eating grass" fate, of which the original, what is the reason?
Cut off the thorns
Just as the so-called birds are hidden in the bow, rabbits are dead dogs cooking, in ancient times, most of the founding monarchs adopted the strategy of killing heroes, of which the typical one is zhu Yuanzhang, the ming taizu. One of the most important reasons for Zhu Yuanzhang's wanton massacre of the founding heroes was to "cut off the thorns" for his successor.
▲Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang
Because he was deeply influenced by Confucian culture since childhood, the crown prince Zhu Biao at that time was benevolent and kind. When Zhu Yuanzhang wantonly slaughtered the founding heroes, the crown prince Zhu Biao felt very sad, so he advised Zhu Yuanzhang not to be so extensive.
The Ming Dynasty xu Zhenqing wrote in the "Tale of Zhai Shengye" that Zhu Biao advised Zhu Yuanzhang that if he killed people too indiscriminately, he would probably hurt Heqi. After Zhu Yuanzhang listened, he did not speak. Until the next day, Zhu Yuanzhang asked the attendant to take a wooden staff full of thorns and immediately threw it on the ground. At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang asked the crown prince Zhu Biao to pick it up, and Zhu Biao did not know why, but had to do so.
▲ Yiwen Prince Zhu Biao
Zhu Biao picked up the wooden staff, but was stabbed in the hand by thorns. At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered his attendants to remove the thorns from the wooden staff and throw them to the ground again, so that Zhu Biao could pick them up. At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang said to the crown prince Zhu Biao: "If these thorns are not removed, how will you inherit this throne smoothly and smoothly in the future?" ”
In Zhu Yuanzhang's view, the crown prince Zhu Biao was weak by nature, and if he did not solve these difficult problems for him before he died, he was afraid that he would not have the ability to control these founding generals after he succeeded to the throne in the future.
But heaven did not follow people's wishes, Hongwu twenty-five years, crown prince Zhu Biao died of illness. Zhu Yuanzhang was deeply saddened, and in order to prevent turmoil, in September of that year, he immediately made Zhu Biao's second son Zhu Yunjiao the emperor's grandson. However, Zhu Yunjiao and Zhu Biao have a very similar personality and are benevolent and generous, so Zhu Yuanzhang is still worried that he cannot control the problem of heroes.
▲ Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao
The Liangguo Duke Lanyu was exterminated in the following year, the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu. Lan Yu was punished for treason, and this case involved a wide range of people, including Fu Youde, Feng Sheng and other public servants, all of whom were executed. More than 15,000 people were connected.
Why did Blue Jade annoy Zhu Yuanzhang
Lan Yu was the founding general of the Ming Dynasty, this person was brave and good at war, and he had made a lot of meritorious achievements when he followed Zhu Yuanzhang to fight the world. In the twenty-first year of Hongwu, Lan Yu was worshipped as the Duke of Liangguo, indicating that Zhu Yuanzhang was very appreciative of him at the beginning.
At that time, the father-in-law of the crown prince Zhu Biao was Chang Yuchun, and Chang Yuchun was Lan Yu's brother-in-law, so it is said that Lan Yu was actually Zhu Yuanzhang's relatives.
As for why Blue Jade ended up with a tragic death, in addition to Zhu Yuanzhang's jealousy of his power, but also because he became more and more proud of his achievements in the later period, it can be said that a large part of the reason was that he was "killed" by himself.
Blue Jade secretly raised a lot of Zhuang slaves, these people used blue jade's power to be tyrannical and fierce, and even went to rob dongchang's mintian, Yushi was ordered to investigate this matter, and was actually driven away by blue jade, which was simply a kingless law, which was the beginning of annoying Zhu Yuanzhang.
Later, Lan Yu went out to conquer the Yuan Army, and only returned in the middle of the night, at this time, the city gate of Xifeng Pass had long been closed. Lan Yu held the merits, regardless of it, began to knock on the door, at this time the generals guarding the door were waiting to find out the reason, and at this time, Lan Yu was very impatient, he directly ordered people to crash through the closed door and drive straight in. After zhu Yuanzhang knew about this matter, he was even more angry.
Then came the more mischievous thing. After expelling the Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, Lan Yu saw that the Yuan Concubine was beautiful and moving, and forcibly possessed the Yuan Concubine without any reason, and the Yuan Concubine had a strong temperament, and then hanged herself.
Even though The Yuan Concubine was a captive, she was the highest-ranking imperial concubine, and Lan Yu acted recklessly without Zhu Yuanzhang's consent, which was a major crime of trespassing.
Not only that, But Blue Jade treated his army as his own, and dismissed or promoted officers without Zhu Yuanzhang's consent. After all kinds of evil deeds, Zhu Yuanzhang had long wanted to dispose of the blue jade quickly.
Coupled with the death of crown prince Zhu Biao, Zhu Yuanzhang had nothing to worry about about this pro-family blue jade. Soon, Blue Jade ushered in his tragic end, being "skinned and grassy", which shows how much Zhu Yuanzhang hates him.
Heinous torture
"Peeling the grass" was a heinous form of torture in the early Ming Dynasty. The knife is cut from the spine of a living person, slowly separating the skin of the back from the muscles, and finally peeling off a piece of human skin intact. The peeled human skin is then filled with straw and made into a human skin scarecrow for public display.
Lan Yu finally suffered such a punishment, and Zhu Yuanzhang also gave Lan Yu's human skin to his daughter Princess Shu as a warning.
In addition to the torture of peeling the grass, Zhu Yuanzhang himself also invented many terrible tortures. Such as "shovel head will", "wash".
The so-called "shoveling club" is to bury dozens of criminals alive in the ground and finally show their heads. At the time of execution, the executioner holds a knife like a stir-fry shovel, shoveling off the heads of the criminals one by one.
The so-called "washing" is to tie the prisoner naked to an iron plate, then pour boiling water over the prisoner's whole body, and finally use an iron brush to brush off the skin and flesh, the scene is really shocking.
Zhu Yuanzhang used these tortures to punish corrupt officials, although the practice was too inhumane, but it brought some positive results. As a result, in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, when Zhu Yuanzhang ruled, most of the officials were relatively incorruptible.
Human history is constantly moving towards the development of civilized society, but it is inevitable that there will be some twists and turns in the process. His tyrannical behavior is like that of the shang dynasty king of the slave era, but there is a world of difference. The King of Lu abused people for fun, but Zhu Yuanzhang's ultimate goal was to rectify the rule of officials. This also confirms that history is constantly moving forward after all.
Resources:
The Biography of Zhu Yuanzhang (Wu Han)
The Legend of Ming Shi Blue Jade