1380 was a big year for Zhu Di, because it was in that year that he began to truly take the throne of Beiping and thus began his own legend.
A small thing happened in this year, Zhu Di became a father, and his second son Zhu Gaoxu was born.
Zhu Gaoxu's early life was lackluster, and the only thing worth mentioning is his performance in school. At that time, Zhu Gaoxu and his brother Zhu Gaoxu, as well as other princes, were studying in Nanjing.
According to books such as the History of Ming, Zhu Yuanzhang, his grandfather, while working for state affairs, would also examine the third generation of his family.
Among the third generation that was examined at that time, Zhu Gaoxu's brother Zhu Gaoxu performed more prominently.
Once Zhu Yuanzhang asked his grandchildren to go to a military parade, and after the rest of the grandchildren had already returned, Zhu Gaozi was late. Zhu Yuanzhang was a very strict person, and he patiently asked Zhu Gaozi why he was so abrasive, and Zhu Gaozi replied that because he considered that the weather was too cold at that time, he left time for the soldiers to eat, so he came back late, and Zhu Yuanzhang did not say anything more when he saw that Zhu Gaozi was right.
Another time, Zhu Yuanzhang asked Zhu Gaozi how the people would spend time if there were natural disasters in ancient times. Zhu Gaozi said that the reason why he could survive was because the king at that time had a good policy of compassion, and Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy to hear it, he thought that Zhu Gaozi had both benevolence and wisdom, so he praised him for having "the knowledge of the king", and later personally established him as the son of the King of Yan.
As for Zhu Gaoxu's performance, the record in the history books is very short, there are no actual examples, only a record of "words and movements are frivolous, and they are not loved by Taizu". From here, we can see that Zhu Gaoxu's daily performance in his early years was far inferior to that of his brother Zhu Gaoxu.
If there were no special circumstances, Zhu Gaoxu would have been able to be a rich and idle person at most in his lifetime, but there were special circumstances at that time, and there was more than one. The first special case was that zhu Yuanzhang's vigorously cultivated successor, his eldest son Zhu Biao, died unexpectedly.
Zhu Biao's death disrupted Zhu Yuanzhang's previous arrangements, and according to the tradition of the "primogeniture inheritance system", Zhu Yuanzhang had to prepare to pass the throne to Zhu Biao's son. However, Zhu Yuanzhang was very anxious at that time, because he was the founding emperor, and the old people who fought with him in the world were all "hard work and high achievements", if Zhu Biao was still alive, then these people were still a limited threat to the royal family.
But his grandson had a hard time suppressing these people, so what to do? Since the grandson may not be able to hold it down, let's kill it. Therefore, after Zhu Biao's death, Zhu Yuanzhang killed a large number of meritorious generals for various reasons. However, although his practice had a certain positive effect, it also brought convenience to Zhu Di's rebellion.
Therefore, shortly after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, Zhu Di "took advantage of the void" and ousted his nephew Emperor Jianwen.
If it is only Zhu Di "dove occupying the magpie's nest", Zhu Gaoxu, a non-shizi, does not have many opportunities, but his brother Zhu Gaozi is not a "normal person", Zhu Gaozi is not happy to move, so he has grown into a big fat man, once the weight of the person is too fat, it will naturally bring some health problems (some people think that Zhu Gaoxu is because of illness, so fat, let the action affected), Zhu Gaozi is naturally no exception.
And Zhu Di is also a "tiger father", so he can't like Zhu Gaozi, a fat "sick cat". Just when Zhu Di was "in difficulty" in order to "change his life", Zhu Gaoxu's performance was very eye-catching, and he even "saved" Zhu Di's unfavorable situation on the battlefield, for which Zhu Di once exaggerated and exaggerated him, and even said that "the world has many diseases" that can make people think infinitely.
Because of these two special circumstances, Zhu Gaoxu felt that the rich and idle people were not fragrant, and he perhaps should have a higher pursuit.
After Zhu Di usurped power, he had considered establishing Zhu Gaoxu as his successor, but his own position was not right, and if he did not abide by the "primogeniture inheritance system", it would inevitably cause many problems, so under some consideration, he still established Zhu Gaoxu as his successor.
However, in Zhu Gaoxu's heart, at this time, he was already convinced of the hint of "many diseases in the world", so after his brother had been clearly identified as the heir, he was still eager to move. At that time, Zhu Di had a lot to worry about on the one hand, and on the other hand, he might really be worried about Zhu Gaoxu's body, so he "turned a blind eye" to some of Zhu Gaoxu's small actions.
However, when Zhu Di was alive, Zhu Gaoxu lived a good life, so Zhu Di did not change people, but suppressed Zhu Gaoxu, who was emerging. Because Zhu Gaoxu has not been able to make substantive moves, after Zhu Di's death, it was still the fat Zhu Gaoxu who became emperor.
After Zhu Gaozi succeeded to the throne, he spent less than a year on the dragon chair, but in such a short period of time, Zhu Gaoxu wanted to take the opportunity to launch a rebellion, but Zhu Gaoxu did not give him a chance, but instead used a rich reward to make him "embarrassed" to give a fierce hand.
It is worth mentioning that when Zhu Gaozi died, Zhu Zhanji was still in Nanjing, so Zhu Gaoxu set up an ambush on the way back to his nephew, hoping to "once and for all", but Zhu Zhanji successfully escaped Zhu Gaoxu's design and successfully ascended the throne.
After Zhu Zhanji ascended the throne, he did not know whether he really did not know whether his uncle had designed himself or whether he had other ideas, in short, at the beginning of his ascension to the throne, he, like his father, adopted a pacifying strategy for Zhu Gaoxu. However, Zhu Zhanji's handling of this method fueled Zhu Gaoxu's ambitions.
Therefore, a year after Zhu Zhanji succeeded to the throne, Zhu Gaoxu unexpectedly pulled the flag and rebelled in a brazen manner. But Zhu Gaoxu overestimated himself and underestimated his nephew. As soon as Zhu Zhanji heard that his uncle had shown off, he directly began to march against the crowd, and Zhu Gaoxu's rebels did not have the strength to fight back at all in actual combat.
At the beginning of the war between the two sides, Zhu Zhanji also wrote many letters of great benevolence and righteousness to persuade him to surrender, but Zhu Gaoxu did not kill, knowing that once some things began, they could only go one way to the black, so they chose to be tough... As a result, he became a prisoner of his nephew.
According to the "History of Ming", after Zhu Zhanji captured his uncle, he did not directly kill him with righteous indignation, but still tried to communicate with his uncle with the attitude of "curing the disease and saving people", but Zhu Gaoxu actually tried to take his foot to trip him when his nephew came to see him in prison, so Zhu Zhanji could not bear it at all.
At that time, Zhu Zhanji asked people to use a large vat of hundreds of pounds to hold his uncle, but Zhu Gaoxu used his spy power to top the cylinder, Zhu Zhanji saw that it was not a thing, so he let people set up a fire around the cylinder... Then this prince who had added a blockage to all three emperors died so strangely.
Judging from these records in the History of Ming alone, it seems that Zhu Gaoxu's death was completely tossed by himself, but is this really the truth? Is there a design for his brother and his nephew?