In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor in Nanjing and established the Ming Dynasty. The first thing he did when he became empress was to find a way to kill the hero.
People often say that a companion is like a companion of a tiger, and this is not false at all. In China's feudal society, this was the case throughout the ages, especially in the Ming Dynasty. The old friends who fought the world with Zhu Yuanzhang were almost all killed by him, Xu Da, Liu Ji, Li Shanchang... Almost none of them were spared.
Zhu Yuanzhang's reason for killing the heroes was very simple, nothing more than to stabilize the jiangshan of future generations and prevent another Zhao Kuangyin from emerging. Whether it was Zhu Biao, the crown prince who was established first, or Zhu Yunjiao later, he was honest, which made Zhu Yuanzhang very uneasy, and he looked at the great heroes under him and moved to kill.
Lan Yu, a native of Dingyuan, often met Chun's wife and brother, and was the founding general of the Ming Dynasty. He has courage and strategy, is brave and good at fighting, and has repeatedly accomplished great feats. He was the first to meet the spring tent, "brave in the face of the enemy, and victorious in all directions." After that, he followed Xu Da's northern expedition and together with Mu Ying pacified Yunnan, with great achievements.
The highlight of Lan Yu's life was Hongwu's twenty-one years of fishing and naval battles. Lan Yu led an army of 150,000 deep into the desert north, defeated the Northern Yuan Khan Degusi Timur at the Fishing Sea, captured more than 80,000 Mongol princes, concubines, and soldiers, and degus Timur was shocked, and fled with dozens of horses including the prince. Soon, Lan Yu led his troops to pursue the Wu king Duo'er, acting as King Dali Ma and Ping Zhang's subordinates of 3,000 people, more than 77,000 men and women. After that, Lan Yu attacked the Hara Zhang camp and captured 60,000 people and livestock. After returning to Beijing, the emperor was overjoyed and made him the Duke of Liangguo.
In the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu, Lan Yu led 70,000 troops to pacify Xifan and quell the rebellion of Timur of Thergon Moon. He basically destroyed the bureaucratic system of the Northern Yuan and brought the Northern Yuan back to the nomadic era. Since then, the Mongols have been afraid when they hear the name sapphire.
After Gongcheng returned to Beijing, Lan Yu was given the title of "Prince Taifu". Hearing this, he was sullen and unhappy, and said, "Can't I be a master of my merits?" When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he was shocked.
What Lan Yu did wrong in his life was that after the battle of The Fishing Sea, he did not report the large number of treasures, camel horses, concubines, etc. captured to Zhu Yuanzhang. He took the treasure for himself and took over emperor Yuanshun's concubines. This incident made Zhu Yuanzhang furious and said, "Blue Jade is rude like this, isn't it the so-called great general!" At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang had already killed Blue Jade. However, because Blue Jade had just made a great contribution, he had a heavy army in his hand, and it was not easy to start.
Twenty-six years after Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang finally seized the opportunity. The Jinyi guard officials accused Lan Yu of plotting rebellion, and Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the situation to beat Lan Yu into heavenly prison.
According to the prison records: "Lan Yu conspired with Cao Zhen, the Marquis of Jingchuan, Zhang Yi, the Marquis of Heqing, Zhu Shou, the Marquis of Baojia, Dongguan Bo He Rong, the official Shangshu Zhan Hui, and the Hubu Attendant Fu Youwen, and others to rebel, and they would serve the emperor to go out to cultivate the fields." The veracity of this passage is questionable.
After experiencing the Hu Weiyong case, Zhu Yuanzhang deeply felt the threat posed to him by these heroes.
In the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang wantonly killed the famous generals on the grounds that Lan Yu wanted to rebel. As many as 15,000 people were implicated in the blue jade case, which is known in history as the "blue jade case". Remembering that Sapphire and him were his children's relatives, Zhu Yuanzhang made a lenient treatment: the crushing was changed to peeling. The executioner peeled off the entire skin of the blue jade and sent it to the princess of Shu.
In fact, this case is only a follow-up to Hu Weiyong's case. Even if Lan Yu didn't make a mistake, Zhu Yuanzhang would find other reasons to kill him.
Nowadays, it seems that among the old ministers under Zhu Yuanzhang, the luckiest ones, in addition to Tang He, are Chang Yuchun and Deng Yu, who died of illness earlier, and the two not only became kings after death, but also their descendants were saved.