Li Shanchang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, once won high praise from Zhu Yuanzhang for his outstanding merits and talents. However, his fate in his later years took a sharp turn for the worse, and finally ended in a tragic end. The reason for this, in addition to his collusion with Hu Weiyong, is also due to his own character and behavior.
Although Li Shanchang held a high position, he did not remain humble and cautious because of this. On the contrary, he became increasingly arrogant and domineering, commanding his colleagues and subordinates, and even showing disrespect to Zhu Yuanzhang from time to time. This attitude naturally aroused the dissatisfaction and disgust of the ministers of the DPRK and China. They began to secretly form a party for personal gain, squeezing out Li Shanchang in an attempt to protect themselves.
Under these circumstances, Li Shanchang did not realize his dangerous situation, but intensified his expansion of his power. His collusion with Hu Weiyong put him in a situation from which he could never recover. Hu Weiyong was ambitious and bent on seizing higher power, and Li Shanchang became an important pawn for him to realize his ambitions. The two used each other and acted in embarrassment, which finally angered Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang had a strong desire to control imperial power, and he could not tolerate anyone posing a threat to his power. When he learned of the collusion between Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong, he immediately took action to wipe out the two and their henchmen. In this political turmoil, Li Shanchang finally tasted the bitter fruits he planted.
Li Shanchang's death was not only his personal tragedy, but also the epitome of the political struggle in the early Ming Dynasty. In this struggle, the contradictions and conflicts between the heroes and the imperial power reached their climax. Li Shanchang, as the representative of the meritorious heroes, his defeat and death marked the complete defeat of the meritorious group in the face of the imperial power.
In that era, the relationship between imperial power and meritorious heroes was delicate and complex. On the one hand, the emperor needed to rely on meritorious officials to consolidate his rule, and on the other hand, the power and status of meritorious officials posed a threat to imperial power. The existence of this contradiction made the political struggle in the early Ming Dynasty extremely fierce and cruel.
In order to avoid a similar tragedy from happening again, the later emperors of the Ming Dynasty began to strengthen the centralization of power, weakening the power and status of the meritorious heroes. They dispersed the power of the meritorious officials by establishing various institutions and official positions, so that they could not pose a threat to the imperial power. At the same time, they have also strengthened supervision and punishment of officials to prevent them from forming cliques for personal gain and corruption.
Although this practice alleviated the contradiction between the imperial power and the meritorious heroes to a certain extent, it also brought new problems. For example, officials attacked each other and excluded dissidents in order to protect themselves, and the emperor's excessive control and surveillance of officials caused officials to lose their independence and creativity. These problems are reflected in the later history of the Ming Dynasty.