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In China's feudal history, the succession to the throne has always been the top priority of a country. If the country is fundamentally stable, everything will go smoothly, but if the foundation of the country is not stable, the whole society will be turbulent.
But the dispute between the country and the foundation, since the beginning of the feudal dynasty, has been accompanied by sword light and shadow and bloody storms, Emperor Wudi of Han has the rebellion of witches, Cao Wei has seven steps into poetry, the Western Jin Dynasty has the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, the Great Tang has the change of Xuanwu Gate, and the Song Dynasty has the sound of candle shadows and axes...
And the Ming Dynasty is the same, since the death of Yiwen Prince Zhu Biao, the position of the country's crown prince has been in the air, and after Zhu Yuanzhang pondered, he did not give the inheritance to his sons, but gave the throne to his grandson Zhu Yunjiang, and Zhu Yuanzhang's move, instead of stabilizing the dynasty, brought the scourge of killing for Zhu Yunjiang...
Zhu Yuanzhang's clan kingship system
The root cause of the Jing disaster was the clan king system established by Zhu Yuanzhang, which was similar to the Jin Dynasty's division of relatives and friends of the same ethnic group, except that the target of the Daming division was only Zhu Yuanzhang's immediate family, and this system was destined to plunge the entire imperial court into a turbulent hidden danger from the beginning of its establishment.
Compared with the clan kings of the late Ming Dynasty, the clan kings of the early Ming Dynasty had independent military power, such as the Yan King, the Liao King, the Ning King in the north, etc., these are the northern strong domains with a large number of troops, and close to the border, the army often clashes with the ethnic groups of the northern steppe, and the soldiers are very strong in combat.
Especially after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, these clan kings often united to conduct military exercises, which inevitably made Zhu Yunjiang jealous, in order to stabilize the rule, those in power could only forcibly cut the domain, and turmoil was imminent.
In addition to the strong clans in the north, there are also slightly weaker clan kings in some important areas in the interior, such as King Min, King Shu, etc., although they are not as strong as the strong clans in the north, but they also have certain military strength. Of course, compared with the powerful clans in the north, these clan kings were more honest and loyal to the imperial court.
Judging from the division of seals during Zhu Yuanzhang's period, basically important places in the country were occupied by the clan king, and although the Great Ming Law stipulated that the clan king was not allowed to interfere in local affairs, the clan king had military power in his hands and could completely interfere in the local administrative economy.
Zhu Yuanzhang was actually very aware of the shortcomings of the clan king system, but he did not dare to hand over local military power to generals with different surnames, and according to the geographical location of Zhu Yuanzhang's division of the domain, this was a three-step defense policy, once the northern steppe peoples went south, these clan kings would become the first barrier of the Daming Dynasty.
Of course, in order to limit the strength of the clan king, Zhu Yuanzhang also implemented many measures, such as limiting the number of clan kings' troops, not allowing private exchanges between clan kings, and not being summoned by the monarch, and no clan king was allowed to enter Beijing.
But Zhu Yuanzhang never expected that the one who would really rebel in the end would be Zhu Di, the fourth prince he trusted the most!
Zhu Diqiren
In terms of merits, Zhu Di can be called the first emperor of the ages, during his reign, he collected Annan, conquered the desert north, went to the West, and compiled the Yongle Classic, any of which is an achievement of the ancient and shining present.
But in the final analysis, Zhu Di is a usurper after all, and the Battle of Jing is a stain that he can never erase.
There are historical records that Zhu Di has the absolute right to inherit the throne, he is Empress Ma's concubine, and Yiwen Prince Zhu Biao is his own eldest brother, but in fact, the historical truth is not so.
According to many researches, in fact, Zhu Di's biological mother was not Zhu Yuanzhang's favorite concubine, when Zhu Di was born, Zhu Yuanzhang did not even show a trace of joy, and Zhu Di's childhood favor was not even as good as the King of Jin with a bursting personality or the King of Qin, who did a lot of evil.
Although he had ambitions, because Daming was in the period of the Southern Conquest and the Northern War at that time, and Zhu Yuanzhang's attention was more on Zhu Biao, Zhu Di in this period already understood his end.
He understood that he could only be a clan king in the end, and he had to obey the will of his half-brother all his life, and Prince Yiwen's ability was very strong, even if Zhu Di had ideas about the imperial throne, he could not shake Zhu Biao's status at all.
After knowing that he had no chance for the throne, Zhu Di took the initiative to ask Ying to guard the frontier, just to escape the capital and escape the so-called political disputes!
It was also on the battlefield that Zhu Di found his talent. Under the subtle influence of Li Wenzhong and other generals, Zhu Di's military talent became more and more dazzling.
During the foreign conquest, Zhu Di had long forgotten the imperial throne in the capital and the eldest brother in the palace, but with the news of a death and the appearance of an important figure, Zhu Di rekindled his covetousness for the imperial throne.
In the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu, Prince Yiwen suddenly suffered a cold wind after inspecting Shaanxi, and finally died, and the bad news came out, all the clan kings were once again eager to move the throne, and the appearance of the "black-clothed prime minister" Yao Guangxiao strengthened Zhu Di's determination to raise troops!
Although Yao Guangxiao is a Buddhist person, he is extremely keen on power, and Zhu Di, who is strong and depressed, soon became Yao Guangxiao's target!
Yao Guangxiao took the initiative to recommend himself to Zhu Di, and said that he could give Zhu Di a white hat, and the king added white, that is, the emperor.
And just when the clan kings in various places were about to move, Zhu Yuanzhang made a strange decision to pass the throne to his grandson Zhu Yunjiang! Zhu Yuanzhang's move further catalyzed Zhu Di's grievances, and Zhu Di's desire for the imperial throne became even more frantic.
With the right to inherit and under the daily instigation of Yao Guangxiao, Zhu Di's rebellion became more and more impatient, in addition to training soldiers and horses, Zhu Di was still waiting for an important opportunity, that is, Zhu Yunjiao ascended the throne!
The preparatory stage for appeasement
Since Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiang succeeded to the throne, the first thing he did was to let the clan fighter Huang Zicheng concurrently serve as a Hanlin bachelor and began to plan a plan for the comprehensive reduction of the clan.
At that time, Qi Tai, another clan fighter, planned to start with the strongest Yan king Zhu Di, but Huang Zicheng, who was in a bookish business, believed that the clan should start with the weak clan king.
With Zhu Yunjiang's order, the operation to reduce the domain officially began, and in just a few months, many clan kings were deposed, and Zhu Di, who witnessed all this, while writing to express support for the imperial court's policy of reducing the domain, secretly accumulated strength, privately expanded the number of guards, and secretly befriended the generals of the Beijing armies to make the most perfect preparations for the army.
In fact, at the beginning of Zhu Yunjiang's reduction of the domain, although Zhu Di had ambitions for the imperial throne, he always had benevolence, trying to control the throne to a certain extent without being able to sword soldiers, but when he heard that King Xiangxian burned himself because of the reduction of the domain, Zhu Di completely realized: blindly benevolent, will only push himself to death!
On the one hand, there was a threat to his life and on the other hand, his ambition for the throne, and the two jointly pushed Zhu Di to the other side of the central government, strengthening Zhu Di's determination to resist Zhu Yunjiang, and from that moment on, Zhu Di completely transformed into a single-minded usurper.
At that time, in order to build weapons, Zhu Di dug a particularly deep basement under the palace, summoned a large number of skilled craftsmen to build weapons in large quantities underground, and raised chickens, ducks and other animals inside the palace to cover up the huge noise of underground weapons and shield external suspicions.
On the other hand, Zhu Di brainwashed the people of Beiping City with feudal superstition, and through Zhu Di's personal mythology, made the people believe that Zhu Di was the true son, which happened to affect Zhang Xin through Zhang Xin's mother and saved Zhu Di's life at the last moment.
For the military generals, Zhu Di had wooed them since the beginning of his domain, like the ostracized Zhang Yu, the little-known Zhu Neng, including Zhang Xin, who was sent by the imperial court to monitor Zhu Di, and Zhu Di tied them all to his chariot. And these people later became the key to Zhu Di's success in raising the army.
As for the imperial court, Zhu Di made a bold decision, first continuing to show loyalty to the imperial court, and then in order to reassure the imperial court, he began to pretend to be crazy, and even in order to deceive the people sent by the imperial court to monitor, in the summer, he also wrapped his body in a quilt.
However, Zhu Di's approach did not deceive the imperial court, but once again confirmed Zhu Yunjiang's speculation, in order to avoid future troubles, Emperor Jianwen immediately issued a secret edict, ordering Zhang Xin and others to monitor and take the opportunity to get rid of Zhu Di.
The Battle of Yasuk
Emperor Jianwen's secret edict completely opened the curtain on Zhu Di's conspiracy! Before starting the army, Zhu Di's first step was to send people around Beijing to lie that there were traitors around the emperor's side and that he needed the side of the clan king Qingjun, and the Battle of Jing Yan officially began.
At the beginning of the army, Zhu Di's troops had the advantage, and the Yan army's sphere of influence directly expanded to Shandong and Hebei, and Zhu Di also included King Ning's Duoyan Sanwei under his command, greatly strengthening his military strength.
However, after all, the Yan army fought against the whole country in one place, and if it did not win quickly, it would definitely be completely destroyed by the imperial court. However, the cavalry that the Yan army was proud of was eventually blocked by Jiancheng, such as Dezhou, defended by Sheng Yong, and Jinan, defended by Tie Xuan, both of which were the only way for Zhu Di to attack Nanjing, but the Yan army was defeated many times.
Seeing that the Yan army's offensive path was blocked, Zhu Di immediately adjusted his strategy, bypassing Jiancheng and directly besieging Nanjing from another direction, finally quickly ending the three-year Battle of Jing, and Emperor Jianwen burned the palace and disappeared.
Throughout the entire Battle of Jingjian, all of Zhu Di's actions have been confirmed that he is a usurper who has been planning for a long time, and in the name of Jingyan, it is just a disguise for Zhu Di to try to obscure the historical truth!
Successfully ascended the throne
After successfully ascending the throne, Zhu Di was always apprehensive, and in order to stabilize the imperial throne, Zhu Di immediately carried out a large-scale slaughter of Emperor Jianwen's faction, including Huang Zicheng, Qi Tai, Lian Zining, and so on.
And among all the former courtiers, the one who had the deepest influence on Zhu Di was Fang Xiaozi, his questioning of Zhu Di, the unjustification of Zhu Di's name, completely broke Zhu Di's psychological defense, just from Zhu Di's severe punishment of Fang Xiaozi, it can be seen that Zhu Di's heart is full of self-doubt!
In order to avoid future troubles, Zhu Di not only sent people to find and assassinate Zhu Yunjiang, but also tampered with the history books in an attempt to erase the truth of the Battle of Jingyan, and Zhu Di's move was undoubtedly to cover up!
Historical evaluation
There is no doubt that Zhu Di is one of the greatest emperors of the Ming Dynasty, but what cannot be changed, Zhu Di is indeed a veritable usurper.
Of course, Zhu Di's usurpation of the throne has ambitions for imperial power, and there is also the situation of being forced to helpless!