In the early Ming Dynasty, the sage "Three Yangs" worked together to ensure the political stability of Emperor Qi Ren and Emperor Xuan
Yang Shiqi and the other three, after gaining the full trust of the two emperors Renzong and Xuanzong, showed their skills in the political arena in the early Ming Dynasty, and after Chengzu, the successor Ren and Xuanzhu emperors were slightly lenient compared to their ancestors, and their strength was not as strong as Taizu and Chengzu, and they were not as sophisticated as their ancestors in dealing with national affairs, so they relied more on the former courtiers.
Emperor Ren and Xuan consulted with Shiqi and others in everything. Under the full trust of the Son of Heaven, "Sanyang" gave full play to his talents on the political Z stage in the early Ming Dynasty, and played a decisive role in the early Ming Dynasty.
1. Assist the crown prince to stay in Nanjing
In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, although the rebel army led by Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Yuan Dynasty's rule in the Central Plains, drove the Mongol nobles out of the Central Plains, and chased them to Mobei, the power of the Mongol cavalry was still there, threatening the northern frontier of the Ming Dynasty from time to time. After Zhu Yuanhuan established the Ming Dynasty, in order to deal with the threat from the ethnic minority regime in the frontier, he divided his son as Wang Zhen to guard the frontier.
The reason why he made such a move. On the one hand, it was to transfer power from the founding fathers to the Zhu family, and on the other hand, it was also to defend against the southward harassment of Mongol forces. After Chengzu Zhu Di came to the throne, the threat of the northern frontier was still not lifted, and Chengzu was also an emperor with good military achievements, so Chengzu made many northern expeditions. During each Northern Expedition, the imperial government was entrusted to the crown prince - let the crown prince oversee the country.
During Chengzu's Northern Expedition, he took Yang Rong to advise and solicit suggestions from military aircraft. When the emperor is outside, the Jingshi must not be left unmanaged. So Zhu Di ordered the crown prince to oversee the country, and left Yang Shiqi, Yang Pu and others to assist the crown prince. Chengzu's arrangement has two benefits for the prince and Yang Shiqi.
First of all, Yang Shiqi and Yang Rong cooperated seamlessly with the prince during their stay in Nanjing to assist the prince, and the prince consulted Yang Shiqi for advice in case of accidents, and inadvertently, the relationship between the two deepened, establishing a deep relationship of monarchs and subjects, which laid a certain foundation for the later cooperation between the two to deal with national affairs.
More importantly, Yang Shiqi stayed in the Jingshi to assist the prince, helping the prince deal with state affairs, and also coping with challenges from King Han and others. This made the crown prince Zhu Gaoji and Yang Shiqi and others closer and more dependent on them.
Second, "Sanyang" worked together to ensure the stability of the prince's storage position
When the Ming Dynasty passed to Emperor Jianwen, because Zhu Yuanzhang had made his children and grandchildren to various places to be princes in order to prevent the Zhu family from falling into the hands of his surname, in the face of the threat from the northern frontier, Zhu Yuanzhang divided his proud sons into kings and guarded northern Xinjiang, and by the time Emperor Jianwen came to the throne, the power of the princes and kings had grown and threatened the centralized rule of such dynasties, of which Zhu Di the King of Yan was the strongest.
When Emperor Jianwen set out to solve the problem of kings in various places, Zhu Di raised the banner of the Qing monarch and began to march towards Nanjing. During this period, Zhu Di's second son Zhu Gaoxu followed him to fight for many years, and every time he encountered a war, he rushed into battle and made a lot of merit, and Zhu Di also loved his son very much, so he made a promise that if he took Jiangshan, the so-called would make Zhu Gaoxu the prince.
However, due to the restrictions of the long-standing feudal system of primogeniture, coupled with Jin Wenzhong and other ministers' insistence on establishing the elder rather than the young, Zhu Gaoxu was finally made crown prince, but the second son Zhu Gaoxu's heart for the position of crown prince was not dead, and he combined with King Zhao, who was loved by Zhu Di, and framed the prince.
In the seventh year of Yongle, that is, in 1409, Emperor Zhu Di inspected Beijing and ordered Yang Shiqi to stay in Nanjing and assist the crown prince in overseeing the state. King Zhu Gaoxu of Han took the opportunity to unite with King Zhao and others to fight against Zhu Gaoxu for the position of crown prince. Chengzu originally made Zhu Gaozhao the crown prince when he started his army, and under the joint efforts of the two kings of Han and Zhao, Chengzu also intended to depose the prince.
Yang Shiqi, as a close minister of the prince's side, has been tutoring the prince for a long time, believing that the prince is a talent, so he made every effort to protect the prince and resolved the doubts in Zhu Di's heart. The second king of Han and Zhao did not succeed in framing Zhu Gaochi this time. Under the efforts of Yang Shiqi and others, Zhu Gaozhi's status as crown prince was temporarily preserved.
In the eleventh year of Yongle, that is, in 1413 AD, Chengzu Zhu Di once again led the army to the north, and the King of Han and others once again set off a struggle for the position of crown prince, and Chengzu once again had the intention of deposing the crown prince. The following year, in 1414, Chengzu Zhu Di returned to Nanjing without question. Under the pretext of "greeting and slowing down", Huang Huai, and others from some official offices of the East Palace were arrested and imprisoned. The status of the crown prince was in great danger, and Yang Shiqi saw the opportunity to act and finally preserved Zhu Gaozhi's position as the crown prince.
The dispute over the throne of each dynasty is quite fierce, in the early Ming Dynasty, especially after Zhu Di obtained the honor of the Son of Heaven as a prince, the dispute for the throne in the early Ming Dynasty was no less than any other era, to some extent, because Zhu Di also relied on seizing the throne and took the throne, forming a bad influence among his descendants, so in the early Ming Dynasty, the dispute over the throne was particularly intense.
The conspiracy of the two kings of Han and Zhao did not succeed, and they did not stop their conspiracy to seize the throne. Immediately afterwards, with Zhu Di's re-expedition, an attack on the crown prince was launched. Zhu Di was also bewildered by the false accusations of the King of Han, and when he returned to Beijing, he used the excuse that the prince was "greeting and slowing" to say that the bureaucrats of the Eastern Palace were all imprisoned to be punished.
This time, Yang Pu was imprisoned until Emperor Renzong took the throne, and Yang Shiqi was arrested and imprisoned, but he was released not long after. He explained to the crown prince in front of Zhu Di, so that Zhu Di's anger was partially dissipated, and later Zhu Di was very angry when he heard that the King of Han wanted to seize the throne and other illegal acts.
King Han asked his close ministers, and no one dared to deal with it. Only Yang Shiqi cleverly answered, so that Zhu Di understood the cause of the matter. Yang Shiqi neither directly stated that the King of Han had framed the prince, nor did he directly say anything to please and intercede for the prince. However, a few words were enough to make Zhu Di wary of the King of Han and fall in love with the prince. Not long after, after Chengzu learned all the whereabouts of King Han, he confirmed that he had framed the crown prince and waited for an opportunity to seize the crown prince. So he eliminated the guard of the Han king, and put the Han king "in peace".
The King of Han was disposed of, and the position of crown prince was temporarily settled. However, King Han and the others did not die in their hearts, and they still kept an eye on the movements of Jingshi. Understand and grasp the situation between the DPRK and China. They are ready to launch new offensives. However, with the joint help of Yang Shiqi and others, the conspiracy of King Han and others never came to fruition.
Third, at the moment of crisis, the crown prince was promoted to the throne smoothly
After years of struggle, Zhu Gaochi slowly stabilized his crown prince, but the threat from his brothers was always present, especially in the period before Zhu Di's death and Emperor Renzong's accession to the throne.
Since his evil deeds were known to his father Chengzu, the Han king Zhu Gaoxu was forced to Le'an, and after arriving at the fief, not only did he not change his ways, but he became jealous and ready to seize the imperial throne. On the one hand, he sent his son Zhu Zhanzhai to Beijing in order to spy on the situation of the imperial court and understand its every move. On the other hand, he sent his henchmen to secretly attack Beijing and wait for the opportunity to launch.
In the twenty-first year of Yongle, Ming Chengzu marched north and died in Yumu River on the way back to his division. Leaving a posthumous edict, there was crown prince Zhu Gaoji who became emperor. It is very likely that this matter will be seized by Zhu Gaoxu and launch a rebellion. However, around Zhu Gaozhi, there are a group of experienced ministers such as Yang Shiqi, who are unchanged and sophisticated. On the day of Chengzu's death, Yang Rong and other ministers accompanying Chengzu went to the army to secretly discuss: "The sixth division is outside, and it is still far away to go to Beijing, and the secret will not be lost." ”
Yang Rong and Hai Shou, the junior supervisor accompanying the army, returned to Beijing to report to the crown prince about the death of the emperor. Upon learning that Chengzu had returned to heaven, the prince hurriedly discussed with Yang Shiqi and others how to deal with the matters that needed to be dealt with. Everything is arranged. Crown Prince Zhu Gaozhi was able to successfully accede to the throne for Emperor Renzong. When Zhu Gaoxu learned of Chengzu's death, Zhu Gaoxu was already on the throne of the emperor. He had no choice but to wait and wait.
4. Calm civil strife and pacify the royal family
Zhu Gaozhi died less than a year after taking the throne. This was undoubtedly great news for Zhu Gaoxu, the king of Han, and after the death of Emperor Renzong, his son Zhu Zhanji ascended the throne for Emperor Xuanzong. King Zhu Gaoxu of Han originally thought that Emperor Xuanzong was young and that it was a good opportunity for him to seize Jiangshan. So in August of the first year of Xuande, the Han king Zhu Gaoxu launched a rebellion. In his fiefdom Le'an, he raised troops against the imperial court.
Faced with this form, Emperor Xuanzong, who had just ascended the throne in the dynasty, prepared to send Xue Lu, Marquis of Yangwu, to send troops against the King of Han. At this time, the university scholar Yang Rong and others urged Emperor Xuanzong to drive his own conquest. Therefore, Emperor Xuanzong personally led the three armies to suppress the rebellion and marched towards Le'an, a fief of the Han king. Within days, the rebellion was put down.
On the way back to his division, when he was traveling to Dan Jia Bridge in Xian County, the attendant Chen Shan wanted Emperor Renzong to expose the collusion between Zhu Gaoxu the King of Zhao and Zhu Gaoxu the King of Han, and they were both traitors, and persuaded Emperor Renzong to take advantage of the defeat of King Han and send troops to attack King Zhao's fief Peng Deqi and capture King Zhao as well. In response to Chen Shan's suggestion, ministers accompanying him, such as Yang Rong, supported immediate action to capture King Zhao.
Only Yang Shiqi strongly advised that although King Zhao had colluded with King Han, King Zhao did not have the fierce desire to seize the throne like King Han. At the same time, it is said that King Zhao rebelled, without sufficient evidence, and cannot act rashly. Under Yang Shiqi's advice, Emperor Xuanzong did not express his position on whether he was seeking King Zhao, nor did he say that he would not pursue King Zhao's affairs.
After Emperor Xuanzong returned to Jingshi, he summoned Minister Wen Wu to discuss how to resolve the matter concerning King Zhao. In the face of Emperor Renzong and the Manchu Dynasty, Yang Shiqi tried to arrange the people, and Emperor Xuanzong, under Yang Shiqi's advice, finally made up his mind and issued an edict to King Zhao. King Zhao was very happy when he received the edict, and after expressing his gratitude, he showed his guard.
King Zhao's matter, under Yang Shiqi's persuasion, was finally best resolved. First, it maintained the internal stability of the royal family; On the other hand, it also established a benevolent image for the newly ascended Xuanzong, whether in the sect or in front of the people of the world. Later Xuanzong once said to Yang Shiqi: "King Zhao is so complete, Qing Li is also." Yang Shiqi also received a great reward from Emperor Xuanzong for this matter.
Through the strong assistance of Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong and others, society gradually achieved stability in the early Ming Dynasty. During the Chengzu period, Yang Rong accompanied Chengzu on many northern expeditions and won many victories, while Yang Shiqi stayed in Jingshi to tutor the crown prince. After Chengzu's death, "Sanyang" worked together to ensure that the crown prince successfully ascended the throne and ascended the throne as emperor. Renzong took the throne, Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, and Yang Pu were all in the cabinet, working together to assist in internal affairs. Emperor Xuanzong ascended the throne, and the three also gave full play to their talents to assist Emperor Xuanzong and govern society, so that the society in the early Ming Dynasty could be smoothly stabilized and embarked on the road of stable development.