Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, named Zhu Yuanzhang, was the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Starting from a poor little shepherd boy, he seized the opportunity of the fifth emperor of Zhuang Yuan, fought in the battlefield, moved to the north and south, and finally dominated the political arena, creating a 276-year Daming King Turn. He himself was a brilliant military strategist and statesman, who created the territory of the Daming Dynasty and laid a solid foundation for it.
The suffering life of a legendary emperor
Bed Yuanzhang, born in Haozhou, Anhui (present-day east of Fengyang County, Anhui) in September of the first year of the Yuan Tianli (1328), was the sixth child in the family. His father Zhu Shizhen had four sons and two daughters, and Zhu Yuanzhang was his fourth son. Zhu Yuanzhang was originally named Chongba, later named Xingzong, and later changed his name to Yuanzhang. His family was very poor. Zhu Shizhen is a landless farmer who rents other people's fields to make ends meet. He and his wife, Chen, worked hard, but still struggled to feed their family. Despite this, the Zhu couple still loved their young son Zhu Yuanzhang very much. Zhu Yuanzhang grew up slowly in this poor and warm family.
Zhu Yuanzhang has been smart and clever since he was a child, and he is very likable. When he was a child, he often went to the Huangjue Temple at the edge of the village with his friends to play, and the elders in the temple also liked him more, so they often taught him to read and read. The little Zhu Yuanzhang is so intelligent that he almost never forgets, and as time goes by, he also begins to understand the writing and ink. Zhu Yuanzhang grew up, but his family was still poor. In order to make a living, the three brothers had long gone to the landlord's house to do long-term work, and Zhu Yuanzhang also had to go to the landlord Liu Daxiu's house to release the animals to reduce the burden on the family. Zhu Yuanzhang has been bold and knowledgeable since he was a child, and he is very moral. He herded cattle with a group of equally poor children, and once, when the children were so hungry, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered everyone to kill a raw animal that he grazed and stew it. After filling his stomach, the big guy began to be afraid, for fear of being scolded by the landlord, Zhu Yuanzhang stepped forward and said that he was responsible alone. He first instructed his companions to bury the bones and other things, and then inserted the ox's tail into the crack in the stone. After returning, Zhu Yuanzhang lied to the landlord Liu Daxiu that he had entered the cave and was caught in the crack in the stone and could not get out. This kind of child's trick is really clumsy, Liu Daxiu did not believe it at all, and soon discovered the truth. He became angry and beat Zhu Yuanzhang and drove him out. Zhu Yuanzhang's errand of herding cattle was gone, but he was supported by his friends and became the child king among them.
In the fourth year of Yuan Zhizheng (1344), Zhu Yuanzhang was already a 17-year-old young man. This year there was a severe drought in the area of SHOT ONMMXZ, which in turn caused locust plagues and plagues, and many farmers were tortured to death by starvation and plague. The same is true of Zhu Yuanzhang's family, his parents, brothers and others passed away one after another, and finally only he and his sister-in-law and nephew were left After Zhu Yuanzhang buried his son's relatives in grief, his livelihood became a big problem. The sister-in-law had to take her nephew back to her mother's house for help, and Zhu Yuanzhang could only rely on himself, and when he saw that the monks of Huangjue Temple still had food, he became a monk and entered Huangjue Temple.
After Zhu Yuanzhang became a monk, although he would not starve to death for the time being, his life was also very difficult. Every day, we must not only work hard, but also be angry with the elders and masters. It was such a day, and Zhu Yuan only passed dozens of days. Because the Huangjue Temple lived on rent collection and the alms of good men and women, in the year of famine, the monks also sat on the mountain, and the elder Gao Bin had to send all the apprentices to the clouds to make a fortune and rely on themselves. In this way, Zhu Yuanzhang left the Huangjue Temple and wandered around to make a living. After several years of wandering life, he tasted the hardships of the world and witnessed the sufferings of people everywhere, but at the same time, he also broadened his horizons and enriched his life experience.
From a little monk to a troubled man
In the eighth year of Yuan Zhizheng (1348), Zhu Yuanzhang, who had been wandering for three years, returned to Huangjue Temple. However, at this time, the people scattered and his eyes were desolate, so he stayed and temporarily became the abbot of the Huangjue Temple. But he was not willing to be a monk in this life, at this time the peasant uprising at the end of the Yuan was like tea, the most famous of which was the Red Coin Army Uprising, and Zhu Yuanzhang listened to the war every day, and his heart was also eager to try. Just at this time, his childhood friend Tang He wrote a letter inviting him to join the army. Zhu Yuanzhang left the Huangjue Temple and joined Guo Zixing's Red Coin Army. Because of his wisdom and courage, both morality and ink, Zhu Yuanzhang soon rose to prominence in the peasant rebel army. Yuan Shi Guo Zixing appreciated him very much and married his adopted daughter Ma Shi to him. Ma is the famous queen of the big foot horse in history, she is brilliant and respectful to Zhu Yuanzhang. And after Zhu Yuanzhang became the son-in-law of the marshal, his prestige in the army became higher and higher. Just when Zhu Yuanzhang's value was rising, a major event happened within the rebels. Yuan Shi Guo Zi and his deputy marshal Sun Deya had a conflict due to the war, and Sun Deya tricked Guo Zixing into his home, preparing to kill him and call himself Wang Just when Zhu Yuanzhang returned from the war, after hearing the news, he immediately read Sun Dewu's home and rescued Guo Zixing, who had already turned over and tied up X. Guo Zixing was extremely grateful for this, and after that, he paid more attention to Zhu Yuantan. However, this incident, Zhu Yuanzhang began to think about his future. He believed that there were too many commanders in the Haozhou region, there were many contradictions between the generals and divisions, and there was constant internal strife, which could not achieve the climate. After careful consideration, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to recruit troops himself and join the camp of the group. Zhu Yuanzhang's decision was strongly supported by Guo Zihei, and his childhood playmates Xu Da, Zhou Dexing and others also rushed to join when they heard the news. It didn't take long for Zhu Yuanzhang to form a team of more than 700 people and start his career as a horse fighter.
In the fourteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1354), Zhu Yuanzhang left Guo Zixing with his men and horses, went south to Dingyuan, and opened up a new world. Dingyuan's donkey village was entrenched with an army of more than 3,000 landlords, and Zhu Yuanzhang had few people, so he decided to outwit him. When he found that the cottage lacked food, he ordered his soldiers to disguise themselves as the people who delivered the grain, fraudulently opened the gate of the village, and took advantage of the defenselessness of everyone in the village to quickly capture the owner of the village and occupy the donkey village. After Zhu Yuanzhang won the first battle, he took advantage of the victory to attack the landlord armed Miao who was entrenched in Hengjian Mountain. Miao Daxiang had a team of more than 20,000 people, and he did not expect that he would be taken prisoner in his sleep, so he had to surrender to Zhu Yuanzhang. After the two battles, Zhu Yuanzhang's army quickly grew to tens of thousands. In July of that year, he captured Chuzhou again. As Zhu Yuanzhang's strength grew, many small landlords in the vicinity came to annex him. In addition, some talented readers also came to join him, among which Li Shanchang, who was not only knowledgeable but also resourceful, suggested that Zhu Yuanzhang learn from the strengths of Han Gaozu to seize the world. Zhu Yuanzhang introduced him as a confidant and stayed by his side to give advice. Since then, Zhu Yuanzhang has always attached great importance to the letter and obscure strategy of the literati to seek the king, and these people have also made great contributions in the process of Zhu Yuanzhang's fight against the world.
The heroes chased the deer to establish Daming
In March of the fifteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1355), Guo Zixing, the leader of the Red Turban Army, died, and Liu Futong's peasant rebels established the Song regime in Hezhou, Anhui, honored Han Lin'er as the king of Xiaoming, and appointed Zhu Yuanzhang as the deputy commander of Guo Zixing's rebel army. Not long after, Guo Tianxu and Zhang Tianyou, two deputy commanders, were killed in battle, and Zhu Yuanzhang became the commander of Guo Zixing's rebel army. In March of the following year, Zhu Yuanzhang personally led both the land and water armies and captured Jiqing (present-day Nanjing), forcing the Yuan Dynasty's naval commander Kang Maocai and others to surrender. He then changed Qingqing to Yingtianfu, and used this as his base, and quickly attacked, attacking Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Huizhou (present-day Xiao County, Anhui), Wuzhou (present-day Jinhua, Zhejiang) and other places. Zhu Yuanzhu also established Jiangnan Xingzhongshu Province, and he was also supported by his subordinates as the Duke of Wu. In the nineteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1359), Han Lin'er, the king of Xiaoming, appointed Zhu Yuanzhang as the left chancellor of Jiangnan and other provinces. At this point, Zhu Yuanzhang already had a strong military force and had enough strength to participate in the Central Plains chasing deer.
In addition to his conquests, Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to the appointment of Confucians. In addition to Li Shanchang, Feng Guoyong, Feng Guosheng and others in the early years, after capturing Huizhou, Zhu Yuanzhang personally visited the old Confucian Zhu Sheng in Shimen Mountain (present-day Gaoxian, Sichuan) and asked him for good strategies for hegemony. Zhu Sheng gave him three sentences: "Build a high wall, accumulate grain, and slow down the title of king", which means that Zhu Yuanzhang first expands his troops and stabilizes the rear; develop strict growth and reserve grain and grass; At the same time, do not be greedy for fame, and suspend the title of king to avoid the attacks of the heroes. Zhu Yuanyuan agreed very much, and used these three sentences as a program to establish the Daming Dynasty, according to Zhu Sheng's strategy, Zhu Yuanzhang first paid attention to army building, strengthened training, and at the same time did not forget grain production. For the first time in the rebel army, he set up the Yingtian Division, with Kang Maocai as the battalion envoy, and was specifically responsible
Charged with agricultural production matters such as land and water conservancy, the lieutenant general Tu also took advantage of the difficulties of the war to open up wasteland for cultivation. A few years later, Zhu Yuanzhang's military food was sufficient, and there was still a lot of surplus, and the people under his command did not have to bear the military food, and they were overjoyed, which made Zhu Yuanzhang's rule more stable. Zhu Sheng's third sentence, Zhu Yuanzhang has always remembered in his heart, although his strength has greatly increased, Yin has always acted low-key. He had always been a vassal to King Xiaoming, and he used the Song regime's dragon wind year name to avoid the tree.
Just when Zhu Yuanzhang was lying down and trying to taste the courage and quietly rising, the situation in the world also underwent great changes. Zhang Shicheng occupied the vast territory of the Taihu Lake basin and the Yangtze River Delta centered on the Pingjiang River (present-day Suzhou, Jiangsu), dominating the east. With Wuchang as the center, Xu Shouhui ruled over large areas of Huguang and Jiangxi, and became a Western hegemon. Zhu Yuanzhang was caught in the middle, and it was not easy. In the leap month of the 20th year of the Yuan Dynasty (1360), Xu Shouhui was killed by the general Chen Youcheng, who then proclaimed himself emperor in Jiangzhou (present-day Jiujiang, Jiangxi) and established the Han state. Not long after, Chen Youcheng and Zhang Shicheng jointly sent troops to Yingtian (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu) in an attempt to eliminate Zhu Yuanzhang, but they were defeated by Zhu Yuanzhang and took some parts of Jiangxi. In the twenty-second year of Yuan Zhizheng (1362), Chen Youcheng made a comeback to avenge his former revenge The two armies fought a life-and-death battle at Duyang Lake, and the draw lasted for 36 days, and finally Chen Youtan died in the middle of the battle, and although Zhu Yuanzhang suffered heavy losses, he finally won the victory.
After the Battle of Poyang Lake, Chen Youliang's second son Chen Li succeeded his father as emperor and supported the broken Han regime. Zhu Yuanzhang's strength increased greatly, and his sphere of influence extended to the vast area of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and his desire to dominate the world became stronger. In the first month of 1364, Zhu Yuanzhang declared himself King of Wu in Yingtian, established his eldest son Zhu Biao as his son, set up hundreds of officials of culture and martial arts, and built Zhongshu Province, with Li Shanchang as the right prime minister and Xu Da as the left prime minister, like a small imperial court.
In February of the 24th year of the Yuan Dynasty (1364), Zhu Yuanzhang personally conquered Wuchang, Chen Li surrendered, and the Han regime collapsed Zhu Yuanzhang then turned his sights to Zhang Shicheng in the east. Zhang Shicheng started by selling illegal salt, and his subordinates were mostly salt merchants, small and medium-sized landowners, and some poor people, who rebelled against the oppression of the Yuan Dynasty, and although they fought bravely, after a little achievement, they became muddy, had no fighting spirit, and became very corrupt within the ruling group. Zhu Yuanzhang's crusade went very smoothly, and by the end of the sixth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1366), all towns under Zhang Shicheng's jurisdiction were occupied by Guo Yuanzhang, and even the capital Pingjiang (present-day Suzhou) was besieged. Pingjiang City was easy to defend and difficult to attack, so Zhu Yuanzhu adopted the "city locking method" and did not attack the city. Ten months later, the city of Suzhou was destroyed, Zhang Shicheng was captured, and later hanged himself. When Zhu Yuanzhang besieged Pingjiang, he successively eradicated Fang Guozhen in eastern Zhejiang and Chen Youding in Fujian, and conquered Guangdong and Guangxi. At this point, with the exception of Sichuan and Yunnan, Zhu Yuanzhang unified all of southern China and confronted the Yuan dynasty, which ruled the north.
In October of the 27th year of the Yuan Dynasty (1367), Zhu Yuanzhang sent Xu Da and Chang Yuchun to lead the Northern Expedition and launched a final decisive battle with the Yuan Dynasty. During the Northern Expedition, Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor in Yingtian in the first month of 1368, and named the state Daming, changing his name to Yuan Hongwu. In August of the first year of Hongwu (1368), the Northern Expedition army captured the capital of Yuan, and the last emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, Emperor Yuanshun. The Canghuang fled to Shangdu (present-day Duolun, Inner Mongolia), where the Yuan dynasty perished. Then Zhu Yuanzhang spent another 20 years sweeping away small regimes in various places, and by the 20th year of Hongwu (1387), except for Mobei and Xinjiang, Zhu Yuanzhang basically completed the great cause of unifying the whole country.
Severe punishment and strict law to consolidate imperial power
Zhu Yuanzhang was declared emperor at the age of 41, fixed the heavens, immediately made the empress, the eldest son Zhu Biao was the crown prince, with Li Shanchang and Xu Da as the left and right prime ministers, and set up civil and military officials, and the Daming Dynasty was established.
At the beginning of his reign, Zhu Yuanzhang invited hundreds of civil and military officials to his side to analyze the reasons for the demise of the Yuan Dynasty and discuss the governance policy of the new dynasty. In the end, everyone unanimously agreed with Gao Counselor Liu Ji's opinion: "Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, leniency has been practiced for a long time, and it is necessary to put the program and discipline in order before the implementation of the new policy." Zhu Yuanzhang also believes that governing the country according to law is the primary task. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty first hurried to formulate laws, and in the 30th year of Hongwu (1397), Zhu Yuanzhang officially promulgated the "Great Ming Law", which had been revised several times. The law is divided into six laws, 460 volumes, which are simpler than the Tang Law and stricter than the Song Law. The punishment for treason in the Great Ming Law is particularly severe, regardless of the owner or the accomplice, all are delayed, from grandfathers to grandchildren, brothers, and cohabitants, as long as they are 16 years old, they must be beheaded. The punishment for corruption is also very harsh, as long as it is confirmed that the embezzlement is confirmed, it must be sent to the northern desert to serve in the army. If the amount of embezzlement reaches 60 taels of silver, they are to be beheaded and displayed in public, and the skins of the people are peeled off, filled with straw, and placed in front of the gate to warn the successor officials. When Zhu Yuanzhang came to power, he took this strict law as the basis and set an example to resolutely govern the country according to law.
Zhu Yuanzhang's son-in-law, Ouyang Lun, the lieutenant of the horse capital, was the husband of Princess Anqing, the daughter of Empress Ma, and he used his noble status to flout national laws to sell private tea to Shaanxi, only to be denounced by a minor official. Zhu Yuanzhang mercilessly killed him and rewarded the honest official who was not afraid of the powerful. Zhu Yuanzhang's parents and brothers died early, and he only had one nephew, Zhu Wenzheng, among the children of the Zhu family. But after Zhu Wenzheng broke the law, Zhu Yuanzhang still removed him from his official position. Tang He, the founding hero of the country, was a brother in tribulation who grew up with Zhu Yuanzhang, and his uncle was mercilessly executed by Zhu Yuanzhang because he had a backer, concealed the land in Changzhou, and evaded taxes.
Zhu Yuanzhang was emperor for more than 30 years, and he also publicly punished several major corruption cases, the largest of which was the case of Guo Huan, a household attendant. In the eighteenth year of Hongwu (1385), Yu Min and Ding Juting accused Guo Huan of conspiring with officials of Beijing Cheng to declare political affairs and carry out official officials who were responsible for criminal prosecution and embezzlement of official food. Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict to thoroughly investigate the case, and as a result, it was found that the amount of embezzled money was huge, and if it was converted into grain amounted to more than 24 million stone, he was immediately furious, and ordered severe punishment. After such a severe punishment and harsh law, the rule of officials in the early Ming Dynasty was very clear, the social order was stable, and the people gradually settled down.
Zhu Yuanzhang came from a humble background, experienced all the ups and downs, and understood the suffering of the people very well. After he consolidated his rule by law, he implemented a policy of rest and recuperation to develop production. During the Yuan Dynasty, it was common for high-ranking officials and aristocrats to hold slaves, and some people had thousands of slaves. In the Ming Dynasty, in order to ensure that there was enough labor for agricultural production, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict in the fifth year of Ming Hongwu (1372): ordinary landlords were forbidden to keep slaves, and violators were sentenced to 100 rods; The slaves who have been kept are released as good citizens; Those who were sold into slavery by famine were ransomed by the government. In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang also controlled the development of monasteries, and made many monks and nuns become laity and become labor for agricultural production. Zhu Yuanzhang then rewarded the reclamation of the land, implemented the settlement of land, and vigorously built water conservancy to encourage the cultivation of cash crops such as cotton mulberry, while the tax levy was reduced as much as possible. These measures have greatly aroused the peasants' enthusiasm for labor and achieved very good results. By the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu (1393), the country's tax grain reached 32.79 million stone, three times that of the Yuan Dynasty's annual tax grain, and the country's population also increased by more than 7 million, and the social economy in the early Ming Dynasty showed prosperity.
Zhu Yuanzhang was well aware of the difficulties of crops and was very considerate of the people, so he took the lead in advocating thrift. As an emperor, he used gold ornaments for his ceremonial duties, but he always used copper ornaments. His diet and living are also like ordinary middle-class families, and the concubines in the palace and others never dress luxuriously. He also ordered the eunuchs to plant vegetables along the walls of the palace to replace the pavilions. His requirements for his sons were also very strict, and the princes not only wore bast shoes and bamboo hats on weekdays, but also went out of the city to do errands, and according to the distance of the journey, whether to walk or ride a horse must also be determined according to the regulations. Zhu Yuanzhang felt that his family was poor since childhood and he had read too little, so he said that the empress had always been diligent and studious, and often consulted Confucian students. Over the decades, he was able to write not only codexes, military orders, but also poetry. His diligent spirit of study was rare among successive emperors.
After Zhu Yuanzhang stabilized the Daming Dynasty with severe punishment and lenient administration, he reformed the entire political system and vigorously strengthened the centralization of power. During the Yuan Dynasty, the local government established Zhongshu Province, which was a branch of Zhongshu Province in the imperial court, controlling the military, civil, financial and judicial affairs of a province, and had great powers. Zhu Yuanzhang himself has also been the prime minister of Xingzhongshu Province, and he has a deep understanding of this drawback. In the ninth year of Ming Hongwu (1376), he decreed the abolition of Xingzhongshu Province, and set up the Department of Political Envoys, the Department of Punishment Inspectors, and the Department of Commandery of Commanders, which were in charge of administration, judiciary, and military, and the three were equal in status, independent of each other and restrained by each other, and all under the orders of the central government. As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang took local power into his own hands.
Zhu Yuanzhang then reformed the central organs. He claimed to be the empress, and there were two left and right prime ministers, Li Shanchang and Xu Da. Li Shanchang was in charge of political affairs, Xu Dali was military, both of them were very capable and loyal, and there was no conflict with Zhu Yuanzhang. Later, Li Shanchang passed the phase to his son-in-law Hu Weiyong, who was very ambitious, and others quickly cultivated party henchmen, acted arbitrarily, and gradually threatened the imperial power. In the third year of the Ming Dynasty (1380), Zhu Yuanzhang killed Hu Weiyong on the grounds that he had plotted against him, and then announced the abolition of Zhongshu Province, and no longer set up six departments: prime minister, minister, lu, rite, soldier, penal, and gong, to manage various political affairs, and report directly to the emperor, thus completely grasping power into the hands of Zhiji. However, as a result, Zhu Yuanzhang's government affairs also surged, and he was busy from morning to night every day, exhausted. In order to reduce the burden, in the fifteenth year of Ming Hongwu (1382), Zhu Yuanzhang set up Huagai, Wenhua, Wuying, Wenyuan, Dongge and other palace scholars, and lower-grade editors and advanced study officials were appointed to help him read the chapters and cursive documents. As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang was much relieved, and the imperial power was not affected.
Cold-blooded heroes
Zhu Yuanzhang's desire for power was very strong, and he carried out drastic reforms, holding the imperial power firmly in his hands, but still not at ease, and strengthened the supervision agency to monitor and control officials. He set up 13 supervising imperial histories in the Metropolitan Prosecutor's Office, and also created a famous secret agency, the notorious Jinyiwei in history.
During Zhu Yuanzhang's reign of more than 30 years, Jinyiwei spread throughout the country, closely monitoring the words and deeds of civil and military officials. Even after some ministers told the old man to return to his hometown, Wei Yuanzhang was not at ease, and even asked the special agents to monitor. And the ministers of the DPRK, even the fiercely loyal famous ministers, Zhu Yuanzhang was very suspicious of them. The list of dishes of the university scholar Song Lian at home banquet, the appearance of Guozi superintendent sacrificing wine angry at home, and even the lost 20,000 pieces of mahjong played mahjong with his wives and concubines at home, Zhu Yuanzhang knew it all. He also often took his attendants on private visits and might suddenly appear at a minister's house. Under his close surveillance, the ministers were all at risk. Fortunately, most of the officials in the early Ming Dynasty were relatively loyal, so there were no tragedies. However, Zhu Yuanzhu set a precedent for secret services, which was later used by authoritarian eunuchs and others as a powerful weapon to retaliate against ministers, for which many people suffered from it.
Zhu Yuanzhang's suspicion was so heavy, he was naturally even more uneasy about those founding heroes who followed him to fight the rivers and mountains. At first, he added knighthood to these meritorious ministers and married his sons and daughters to confirm their loyalty to him. He also assigned his sons to various places to become princes to monitor the military generals of the region. After the heroes gained their noble status, many people became more and more arrogant and corrupt. Zhu Yuanzhang saw that political marriage did not work, so he simply went on a killing spree. In the thirteenth year of Ming Hongwu (1380), nearly 30,000 people were killed, including more than 70 members of the family of Li Shanchang, a 77-year-old minister who had retired at home; In the twenty-sixth year of Ming Hongwu (1393), nearly 15,000 people died because of their rebellion and Lan Yu, the founding minister of the state. Xu Da, the first hero of the founding of the country, and Zhu Yuanzhang did not let go. Xu Da had boils on his back and was most afraid of eating steamed goose and other things, but Zhu Yuanzhang gave him steamed goose. Xu Da understood the intention, so he had to eat it with tears, and died a few days later. Only when the old minister Tang He took the initiative to hand over his military power, told the old man to return to his hometown, and never mentioned any state affairs from then on, could he die. Zhu Yuanzhang's killing of meritorious ministers chilled the ministers and everyone was terrified, but he did eliminate the hidden danger of usurpation for future generations. Although Zhu Yuanzhang did not publicly repent of his actions, he also warned his descendants not to follow this practice in his later years, which shows that he still has remorse. However, in order to consolidate the imperial power, he still refused to recognize the six relatives and was cold-blooded and ruthless.
In the leap month of the thirty-first year of Hongwu (1398), Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty died of illness at the age of 71, and was succeeded by his grandson Zhu Yunyu, Emperor Minghui. After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, he was buried in the Xiaoling Tomb, with the nickname "Emperor Gao" and the temple name "Taizu". During his 30-year reign, he not only founded the Daming Foundation, but also formed a mature MIDX policy platform, revised and improved laws, and mapped out the political system of the entire Ming Dynasty.