#精品长文创作季#洪武十三年, Zhu Yuanzhang has been on the throne for 13 years, and the Ming Dynasty has initially stabilized. However, Zhu Yuanzhang directly launched the Hu Weiyong case, not only executing Hu Weiyong and his family, but also abolishing the prime minister system that has existed in history for more than 1,000 years. Since then, the emperor has been above the six departments, not only that, but Zhu Yuanzhang also used the Hu Weiyong case to get rid of a large number of founding heroes and courtiers, and tens of thousands of people have been killed for a time.
It can be said that everyone who is an official in the DPRK is very worried, can they live to retire?
No one in the court dared to question Zhu Yuanzhang, so they were worried that they would anger Emperor Taizu and implicate the family.
But there is such a person who does not dare to directly persuade Zhu Yuanzhang, and also dares to criticize Emperor Taizu, who is so bold?
This person is Cao Guogong Li Wenzhong!
At this time, Li Wenzhong was in charge of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, and he was uneasy about Zhu Yuanzhang's wanton killing of heroes, so he sent two reports to Emperor Taizu, and Li Wenzhong mentioned three points in the recital:
First, he asked Emperor Taizu to send troops to Japan;
Second, do not rely on the eunuchs to deal with the affairs of the court, so as to avoid causing the eunuchs to have too much power;
Third, is it the act of Ming Jun to execute officials at such arbitrariness?
Zhu Yuanzhang saw Li Wenzhong's recital and was not angry, but according to Zhu Yuanzhang's temperament, he naturally would not agree, so he put it aside and ignored it.
Li Wenzhong saw that his twists and turns did not have an effect, and Emperor Taizu still killed the heroes, and he was really worried in his heart, and if it continued like this, it would definitely affect the stability of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, Li Wenzhong planned to admonish for the third time:
The night before Shangshu, Li Wenzhong didn't sleep all night, wrote a good song and waited for the court.
Li Wenzhong knew very well the consequences of offending the emperor, so he told his wife before going to the court: You must educate your son well and serve the court in the future. After separating from his wife, Li Wenzhong handed over the recital to the emperor in the court.
Zhu Yuanzhang opened the fold and looked at it, and his face changed greatly.
"Traitors and thieves are punished without mercy, but they can only exercise and slander, kill innocents indiscriminately, make people feel uncomfortable, and hurt the vitality of the country. ”
suddenly left his dragon chair and scolded Li Wenzhong: You kid is really bold and nonsense. What does it have to do with you if I kill the traitor?
While scolding Li Wenzhong, he threw the fold directly again.
In the face of Zhu Yuanzhang, who was furious, Li Wenzhong was not afraid at all, but said: If Your Majesty kills all the loyal ministers and good generals, if there is a difficulty in the frontier, or if there is a rebellion in the dynasty, who will put down the rebellion? I hope Your Majesty will think twice!
Hearing Li Wenzhong's words, Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and was about to kill Li Wenzhong, and immediately ordered the warriors to take Li Wenzhong down and lock him up. After getting the news of Li Wenzhong's arrest, Queen Ma was very anxious, but she understood her husband's temper very well, and she was angry at the moment, so she naturally couldn't advise directly.
When Zhu Yuanzhang returned to the palace, he was very surprised when he saw Queen Ma crying, so he hurriedly asked why the queen was crying?
Empress Ma said: "I heard that the emperor is going to kill Li Wenzhong, I am feeling sorry for Wenzhong. If Wen Zhong is executed, how can I not be sad! Wen Zhong is not only the hero of the founding of the country, but also your only nephew, can the emperor spare his life?"
Queen Ma's words touched Zhu Yuanzhang's heart, Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a poor family, his brothers and sisters died early, and there was only Li Wenzhong, a nephew, by his side, how could Zhu Yuanzhang be willing to give it?
But in the court, his nephew did not save face for himself, Zhu Yuanzhang naturally couldn't bear it.
Therefore, Li Wenzhong was dismissed from office and let him think about it at home.
Those who know Zhu Yuanzhang know that Hu Weiyong's case was widely implicated, and more than 30,000 people were killed. At that time, officials in the court were all worried, worried that a wrong sentence would implicate the family in distress, but Li Wenzhong not only did not restrain his hands and feet because of this, but spoke out and admonished, which is indeed very rare. What is even more rare is that Li Wenzhong was able to die a good death after offending Emperor Taizu, which has to admit that in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes: family affection is still very important.
Of course, the reason why Li Wenzhong was able to save his life was not only because he was Zhu Yuanzhang's nephew, but also because he was the founder of the country with great military achievements, and was named Cao Guogong by virtue of his military achievements. It's a pity that his title ended in two generations of the Ming Dynasty, because his title was passed on to a son who had no talent and no virtue and could only talk on paper.
What's going on here?
01
Li Wenzhong's ancestors lived in Sizhou for generations, but Li Wenzhong's father, Li Zhen, moved to Haozhou (Fengyang), the place where Guo Zixing's Red Turban Army revolted. Li Zhen was a very kind person and later married Zhu Yuanzhang's sister (Princess Cao).
When Zhu Yuanzhang was a child, not only Zhu Yuanzhang's family was poor, but Zhu Yuanzhang's relatives and friends were also in very bad conditions; that is, Li Zhen's family was not bad, at least they could eat enough, so they often tried to help Zhu Yuanzhang's family.
So Zhu Yuanzhang has been very affectionate to this brother-in-law since he was a child.
In 1339, Li Wenzhong was born.
In 1350, Anhui suffered a drought, followed by a plague, and most of Li Zhen's village died in this plague, including Li Wenzhong's mother and Zhu Yuanzhang's sister.
Li Zhen was kind-hearted, so he took out all the food in the family and distributed it to the villagers, and killed the family's cattle and pigs, hoping to survive the disaster with the villagers. It's just that he didn't expect the rebels to enter the village, and Li Zhen had to take his only son Li Wenzhong to avoid trouble. This year, Zhu Yuanzhang is turning his fortune everywhere and begging for a living.
Two years later, Zhu Yuanzhang joined Guo Zixing's Red Turban Army under the introduction of fellow countryman Tang He. Guo Zixing admired Zhu Yuanzhang very much, so he kept Zhu Yuanzhang by his side; and Zhu Yuanzhang soon emerged and made a lot of contributions, Guo Zixing not only regarded Zhu Yuanzhang as his confidant, but also married his adopted daughter Ma to Zhu Yuanzhang.
Since then, Zhu Yuanzhang has been called "Mr. Zhu".
When Li Zhen learned that his wife and brother were under Guo Zixing's command, he hurriedly took his son to defect, and after a month, Li Zhen finally arrived in Chuzhou.
When Li Wenzhong saw his uncle, whom he hadn't seen for a long time, he suddenly thought of his mother who had died of illness, and he burst into tears.
Being able to see his own nephew, Zhu Yuanzhang was overjoyed and let his nephew follow his surname Zhu.
At this time, Ma had not yet given birth to children and treated Li Wenzhong as his own son; Zhu Yuanzhang treated his nephew like a son, and hired a teacher for his nephew to teach Li Wenzhong to read and write.
(hereinafter referred to as Zhu Wenzhong)
In 1357, when Zhu Wenzhong was 19 years old, he followed his uncle to fight in the north and south, and made great achievements when supporting Chizhou, defeated Zhao Pusheng's soldiers, and followed closely after conquering Qingyang and other four counties.
When Zhu Wenzhong first went to the battlefield, he began to emerge, which is indeed rare.
The following year, Zhu Wenzhong followed Deng Yu and others to seize Jiande from the Yuan army, and entered the capital with military exploits. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered his nephew to guard Jiande, and when he was guarding Jiande, Zhu Wenzhong subdued more than 30,000 old troops of Yang Wanzhi.
It didn't take long for Zhu Wenzhong to capture Zhuji with Hu Dahai, followed by Zhang Shicheng sending troops to attack Yanzhou, and Zhu Wenzhong used the stratagem to defeat Zhang Shicheng. Only a month later, Zhang Shicheng attacked Yanzhou again, and Zhu Wenzhong not only defeated him, but also directly beheaded Marshal Lu.
Zhang Shicheng, who learned that Zhu Wenzhong was powerful, did not dare to attack Yanzhou easily.
And Zhu Wenzhong was promoted to "Privy Councillor" by virtue of his military exploits.
And it is worth mentioning that Zhu Wenzhong is not a person who only relies on courage to establish military exploits, and is extremely strategic: Hu Dahai captured the two generals under Chen Youliang and handed them over to Zhu Wenzhong for disposal. Zhu Wenzhong did not directly execute them, but honored them as guests, and asked the two guards to go to recruit Wang Pu, the guard general of Jianchang, and with the efforts of the two, Wang Pu surrendered.
To be able to harvest a city without spending a single soldier, Zhu Wenzhong is not simple.
02
In 1362, the Miao soldiers betrayed Zhu Yuanzhang and killed Hu Dahai, who was guarding Jinhua. Zhu Wenzhong sent troops to drive away the Miao soldiers in Jinhua and personally pacified his subordinates. At the same time, the Miao army in Chuzhou rebelled and killed Geng Zaicheng. Zhu Wenzhong sought to take the state, and it was precisely because of Zhu Wenzhong's impromptu response that Zhu Yuanzhang's losses were minimized and he was promoted to Zuocheng in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
In the same year, Zhang Shicheng sent an army of 100,000 to attack Zhuquan.
Xie Zaixing asked Zhu Wenzhong to be rescued, but it happened that Zhu Wenzhong had no troops to send, so he thought of a plan and sent people everywhere to say: General Xu Da will soon lead a large army to come to the rescue. When Zhang Shicheng learned the news, he immediately led his troops to flee overnight. And Xie Zaixing and others took advantage of the night to directly lead troops to raid Zhang Shicheng, not only protecting Zhuquan, but also defeating Zhang Shicheng's army. If Zhu Wenzhong hadn't outwitted Zhu Wenzhong, Zhuquan would probably have fallen into Zhang Shicheng's hands.
It's just that he didn't expect Xie Zaixing to betray Zhu Yuanzhang the following year, take refuge in Zhang Shicheng, and lead his troops to attack Dongyang.
Zhu Wenzhong led his troops to meet the battle and defeated Xie Zaixing.
Immediately afterwards, Zhang Shicheng sent his general Li Bosheng to lead an army of 160,000 to attack Zhuquan, but he did not win.
In the spring of the following year, Zhang Shicheng sent Li Bosheng to lead an army of 200,000 to attack Xincheng, and Zhu Wenzhong led troops to rescue and set up camp ten miles outside Xincheng. The general under his command told Zhu Wenzhong that the other side was outnumbered, and that we should wait for the arrival of the army before attacking. However, Zhu Wenzhong did not agree with his opinion: The strategy of fighting a war does not depend on the number of people.
The next day, Zhu Wenzhong took advantage of the fog and the darkness of the sky to personally lead his troops to attack. It happened that the reinforcements from Chuzhou arrived in Xincheng, Zhu Wenzhong rode a war horse and held a spear and only led ten soldiers to rush into the enemy army together.
Reinforcements took the opportunity to attack Zhang Shicheng's troops, and the enemy was defeated and fled.
Zhu Wenzhong led his troops to chase after the defeated and fleeing enemy army, killing tens of thousands of enemy troops, while Li Bosheng fled alone.
Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy to get the news of Zhu Wenzhong's victory, so he ordered his nephew to return to Wuchang and set up a banquet for him.
In 1366, Zhu Yuanzhang personally led his troops to attack Zhang Shicheng, and Zhu Wenzhong's task was to attack Hangzhou to contain the enemy. During the attack on Yuhang, Zhu Wenzhong recruited Xie Wu and Xie Zaixing's son, a total of five people, and the soldiers suggested that Zhu Wenzhong put these five people to death, but Zhu Wenzhong did not agree.
The reason why Zhu Wenzhong did not kill the surrendered army was also so that Zhang Shicheng's other generals who defended the city could also surrender.
Sure enough, the Hangzhou defender Pan Yuanming surrendered, and Zhu Wenzhong led the troops into Hangzhou and issued a military order:
Those who disturb the common people without permission will be put to death!
Zhu Wenzhong did what he said, and a soldier was directly ordered to be executed by Zhu Wenzhong because he borrowed a pot from the common people. For a time, the city of Hangzhou was in good order, and no one dared to disobey military orders. In this way, Zhu Wenzhong captured 30,000 enemy troops, and Zhu Yuanzhang added his nephew to the title of Ronglu Doctor. And since then, let him restore the surname Li, and no longer have the surname Zhu.
(hereinafter referred to as Li Wenzhong)
In 1367, Li Wenzhong attacked Fujian and successively pacified Jianzhou and other places. Moreover, Li Wenzhong was quite merciful and asked the soldiers to adopt abandoned babies along the way, so many abandoned babies were adopted by Li Wenzhong's soldiers and survived.
03
In 1395, Zhu Yuanzhang formally established the Ming Dynasty and ascended the throne as emperor.
Although the Ming Dynasty had been established, the Yuan Dynasty still existed, competing with the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, even if Zhu Yuanzhang has already been proclaimed emperor, he still needs generals to fight in the south and north to get rid of the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty. The most important ones were the Northern Yuan and the Yuan army entrenched in Yunnan
In the second year of Hongwu, Li Wenzhong followed the generals Xu Da and Chang Yuchun to go out to the north, and Emperor Yuan Shun was driven out of Beiping, the capital of the Yuan Dynasty.
The Ming army won a great victory in this battle, but on the way back to Beijing, Chang Yuchun suddenly died of illness, and Li Wenzhong obeyed the order to replace Chang Yuchun's position to lead the army and went to Qingyang to join General Xu Da.
As a result, when he went to Taiyuan, he learned that Taiyuan was besieged, so Li Wenzhong led his troops out of Yanmen Pass and relieved the siege of Taiyuan. In this battle, Li Wenzhong not only broke the enemy army, but also captured the Yuan general Toleb alive and captured more than 10,000 Yuan troops.
In the third year of Hongwu, Li Wenzhong once again followed the general Xu Da to the north, this time Li Wenzhong was no longer a partial general, but as a deputy general of the expedition, it can be seen that Li Wenzhong's status in the DPRK at this time is getting higher and higher, and Zhu Yuanzhang is also relieved to entrust his nephew with important tasks.
Emperor Yuan Shun, who was driven away by Xu Da, Chang Yuchun and others this year, died of illness and was succeeded by his son Yuan Zhaozong. After learning the location of Yuan Zhaozong, Li Wenzhong led his troops to Yingchang overnight, and Yuan Zhaozong immediately fled north when he heard the news of the arrival of the Ming army, but in a panic, his eldest son, concubine, and palace maid did not have time to take away, and all became Li Wenzhong's prisoners.
Immediately after Li Wenzhong passed through Xingzhou, he captured Jiang Wenqing, the Duke of the Northern Yuan Kingdom, and recruited more than 30,000 Yuan troops.
And the Northern Expedition Li Wenzhong's merits are far more than that, when he reached Hongluo Mountain, Li Wenzhong captured more than 16,000 people, which was the army of the Yuan general Yang Sizu.
Hearing the news of Xu Da and Li Wenzhong's complete victory, Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy and accepted the congratulations of the Manchu Dynasty at Fengtianmen.
In this year, Li Wenzhong was awarded the title of Duke of Cao Guo, one of the "Six Founding Dukes", and participated in the deliberation of major court and political affairs
At this time, Li Wenzhong has reached the apex of his life, and we all know the saying "when the moon is full, it will be lost". But it doesn't apply to anyone, a nephew like Li Wenzhong, who is not spoiled, cautious, and loyal to Zhu Yuanzhang, will naturally not go downhill so quickly. After being named the Duke of Cao Guo, Li Wenzhong was still active on the battlefield of the Southern Expedition and the Northern War, and made many military exploits:
In the fourth year of Hongwu, Li Wenzhong was ordered to go to Sichuan to pacify the surrendered Yuan army;
In the fifth year of Hongwu, he was appointed as the left deputy general of the northern expedition and captured tens of thousands of enemy troops. The Northern Expedition was supposed to be a great victory, but because Cao Liangchen, the commander of Xuanning, Zhou Xian and others died in battle, Li Wenzhong's merits were offset and he was not rewarded by the emperor.
In the seventh year of Hongwu, Li Wenzhong led troops to defend the border many times.
In the tenth year of Hongwu, Li Wenzhong was ordered by Zhu Yuanzhang to discuss important military affairs with Li Shanchang, the Korean duke. At this time, Li Wenzhong was already a very popular minister in the court, and Taizu trusted him very much.
In the twelfth year of Hongwu, Li Wenzhong was ordered to fight against the rebellion of the Fan clan with Muying, the Marquis of Xiping. When the class teacher returned to the court, Li Wenzhong told Taizu that the water in Xi'an City could not be drunk directly, and it contained salty brine, and hoped that the emperor would agree to bring the water from the Longshou Canal into the city for the people to drink.
Hearing Li Wenzhong's words, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately agreed.
Li Wenzhong was not only a great general with great military achievements, but also cared about the common people; on the way to conquer the enemy army, if he encountered any difficulties for the common people, he would do his best to help the local people. This is also one of the reasons why Li Wenzhong was able to die well, of course, this has something to do with Li Wenzhong's life since he was a child, after all, a few years before he met his uncle Zhu Yuanzhang, he followed his father Li Zhen to live a difficult life, and he understood the suffering of the people very well.
From this year onwards, Li Wenzhong began to take charge of the Metropolitan Governor's Office.
In the thirteenth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang launched the Hu Weiyong case, and soon tens of thousands of people were killed.
As Li Wenzhong, who was concerned about the safety of the Ming Dynasty, he really couldn't bear to ignore anything under such circumstances; but Li Wenzhong's three advances angered Zhu Yuanzhang, and although Li Wenzhong saved his life, he was confined at home and had no real power.
Li Wenzhong was bedridden for only three years at home.
Zhu Yuanzhang personally went to the Cao Guogong Mansion to visit his nephew, and asked Hou Huazhong of Huai'an to treat Li Wenzhong. However, in March of the following year, Li Wenzhong died of illness at the age of 46.
The death of his nephew made Zhu Yuanzhang very sad.
He suspected that he was the nephew of Huai'an Hou's poisoning, so he lowered the title of Huazhong and drove his whole family to Jianchangwei.
After Li Wenzhong's death, Zhu Yuanzhang posthumously named him the king of Qiyang, worthy of enjoying the Taimiao, ranking third among the heroes.
In this way, Li Wenzhong ended his life of dedication to duty and concern for the people of the Ming Dynasty, it stands to reason that Li Wenzhong not only made great achievements in war, but also was the nephew of Taizu, and his Duke of Cao should be passed down from generation to generation until the end of the Ming Dynasty; however, Li Jinglong, who inherited the title of Duke of Cao State, stubbornly lost the title of Duke of Cao State, and the title of Duke of Cao State of the Ming Dynasty was cancelled after only two generations.
04
After Li Wenzhong's death, his eldest son Li Jinglong inherited the title of Duke of Cao State. Li Jinglong has clear eyebrows and beautiful eyes, and he has been familiar with scriptures and allusions since he was a child, and Taizu likes his nephew's son very much. After inheriting the prince, Zhu Yuanzhang sent Li Jinglong to various places to train troops many times, and then he took the position of the governor of the left army.
As the second generation of generals that Taizu likes very much, he will naturally not be affected by the blue jade case and survived the Hongwu Dynasty safely.
In the thirty-first year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang died of illness, and Emperor Jianwen ascended the throne.
Emperor Jianwen trusted Li Jinglong very much, and the five vassal kings that were initially cut off, Emperor Jianwen asked Li Jinglong to take people to arrest them, and brought them back to the capital to be reduced to concubines. It can be said that when Emperor Jianwen first ascended the throne, Li Jinglong was still a great hero.
However, because Emperor Jianwen was anxious to cut the domain, it was difficult for Zhu Di, the king of Yan, to raise troops.
At the beginning, Emperor Jianwen sent the veteran Geng Bingwen to conquer Zhu Di, but Geng Bingwen was defeated in the initial battle, so he began to adopt a siege strategy against Zhu Di and fight a protracted war. If it is about a protracted war, Geng Bingwen is behind the entire imperial court, but Zhu Di, the king of Yan, only has Beiping, and it can be said that Zhu Di can't afford it.
However, Emperor Jianwen listened to the suggestion of Huang Zicheng, the "companion of the East Palace", and asked Li Jinglong to replace Geng Bingwen and lead his troops to conquer Zhu Di.
In this way, Li Jinglong led an army of 500,000 and went north to conquer King Yan.
However, Li Jinglong was defeated again and again, and Emperor Jianwen had no choice but to replace Li Jinglong.
In the fourth year of Jianwen, Li Jinglong persuaded Zhu Di together with Shangshu of the Ministry of War, but Zhu Di directly refused.
Soon Zhu Di led the Yan army to the city of Nanjing, and Li Jinglong saw that Emperor Jianwen was gone, so he opened the Jinchuan Gate with Zhu Xi, the king of the valley, to welcome Zhu Di into the city. In this way, Zhu Di entered Nanjing City, replaced his nephew Zhu Yunwen, and ascended the throne as emperor.
Although Li Jinglong had conquered Zhu Di, he was also the hero who welcomed Zhu Di into Nanjing City, so when Zhu Di ascended the throne, Li Jinglong was named Guanglu Doctor and Zuozhuguo. However, in the second year of Yongle, because the courtiers impeached Li Jinglong, Zhu Di put Li Jinglong under house arrest, although Li Jinglong went on a hunger strike for ten days, but did not starve to death, until he lived to the end of the Yongle Dynasty.
It is precisely because of Li Jinglong that the title of Duke of Cao Guo has disappeared in Daming since then, which is a pity.