In the first year of Xuande (1426), the fifth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Xuande Emperor Zhu Zhanji (Zhu Di's grandson), went to the imperial city of Genxi Gate to visit his second uncle Zhu Gaoxu. Unexpectedly, Zhu Gaoxu, who had been demoted to a concubine, saw his eldest nephew coming, and directly stretched out his foot to trip the eldest nephew who had ascended the throne, and Zhu Zhanji fell on his heels.
As the king of a country, how can Zhu Zhanji endure being teased like this?
So he asked people to move a vat weighing 1,300 catties and directly pressed Zhu Gaochu underneath, and Zhu Gaochu directly lifted the vat with infinite strength. Zhu Zhanji ordered someone to light charcoal next to the vt, and soon roasted the second uncle to death.
In addition, ten of Zhu Gaoxu's eleven sons (the eldest of whom had long since died) were executed along with their father.
Why did Zhu Zhanji hate his second uncle so much? Even his 10 cousins did not let go, just because the second uncle tripped over him?
Of course not!
In fact, Zhu Gaoxu's life is quite pitiful:
I was disliked by my grandfather
Fooled by his father
He was roasted alive by his nephew
In this article, let's get to know Zhu Di's second son, Zhu Gaoxu, what kind of existence was he in the Ming Dynasty?
01 Grandfather Displeasure
Zhu Gaochu is the fourth child born to Empress Renxiao Xu, and before Zhu Gaochu, the Xu family had given birth to two daughters and a son for Zhu Di, of which the eldest son was the later Renzong Zhu Gaochi. Zhu Gaoxu is the second son of Zhu Di and the tenth grandson of Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang. Although Zhu Gaochu is not Zhu Di's first son, he is Zhu Di's favorite son.
The eldest son, Zhu Gaochi, likes to be quiet and disgusted, and Zhu Gaochi likes to read more than riding and archery kung fu.
Because of this, Zhu Di prefers Zhu Gaoxu, the second son of Zhu Gaoxu, who is good at riding and archery.
Zhu Gaochu once went to Nanjing City with his brother Zhu Gaochi to study, but Zhu Gaochu was cunning by nature, and he was ruthless and frivolous, and Emperor Taizu did not like Zhu Gaochu's grandson, but liked Zhu Gaochi, who was dignified and quiet by nature, and praised Zhu Gaochi for his "talent for the king".
In the twenty-eighth year of Hongwu, Zhu Gaochi was named the son of King Yan, and Zhu Gaochu was named the king of Gaoyang County as the second son.
Those who know the history of the Ming Dynasty should know that after Zhu Biao, the crown prince who was trained by Zhu Yuanzhang for 25 years in Hongwu, died of illness, Zhu Yuanzhang did not choose a person with both ability and political integrity from other sons to be the prince, but chose his grandson Zhu Yunwen as the imperial grandson and inherited the throne after his death. In fact, when Zhu Yuanzhang was still there, Zhu Yunwen was quite jealous of his uncles, so he began to cut the feudal domain shortly after he ascended the throne in the 31st year of Hongwu, and successively cut off five feudal kings such as King Zhou and King Dai.
At the same time, he also sent people to Beiping to keep an eye on Zhu Di, the king of Yan.
In order not to become a fish on his nephew's chopping board, Zhu Di decided to raise troops under the persuasion of Yao Guangxiao. But for Zhu Di, what he lacked the most was weapons and horses, and in order to have enough time to prepare for the army, Zhu Di began to pretend to be sick. And on the death day of Emperor Taizu in April of the first year of Jianwen, Zhu Di pretended to be seriously ill and could not make the trip, and asked his three sons to go to the capital to pay respects.
Whether it is Emperor Jianwen or the advisers around Emperor Jianwen, they are very jealous of Zhu Di, the king of Yan, and are worried that Zhu Di will rebel. Therefore, after Zhu Di's three sons came to the capital, Qi Tai, the secretary of the military department, persuaded Emperor Jianwen: all the three sons of King Yan were left in the capital in case of accidents.
But Huang Zicheng, the companion of the East Palace, disagreed: this is not possible, if you do this, you are telling King Yan that the court is suspicious of him, and King Yan will definitely prepare for this, which will do all kinds of harm to the court and no benefit, it is better to put them all back to Beiping, but it will make Zhu Di relax his vigilance.
Emperor Jianwen followed Huang Zicheng's advice and planned to release Zhu Di's third son from the capital.
However, when Xu Huizu, the Duke of Wei (Zhu Di's brother-in-law and Empress Xu's younger brother), learned about it, he hurriedly sent a secret fold to Emperor Jianwen: Among my three nephews, Zhu Gaoxu is brave and good at fighting, and he is also a scoundrel, who will not be loyal to His Majesty, but also betray his father, which will definitely be a big disaster in the future.
Zhu Di has three sons, and they are all sons born to the Xu family, why does Xu Huizu only regard Zhu Gaoxu as a disaster?
Emperor Jianwen was a little undecided, and asked Xu Huizu's younger brother Xu Zengshou and the concubine Wang Ning what they meant, the two had already secretly colluded with Zhu Di, so they would naturally speak to Zhu Di and suggest that Emperor Jianwen put Zhu Di's third son back to Beiping. In this way, Emperor Jianwen promised to send Zhu Di's three sons back to Beiping.
Zhu Gaoxu also directly stole Xu Huizu's horse and escaped, Xu Huizu sent someone to chase him, but after all, Zhu Gaoxu escaped.
And on the way back to Beiping, he not only killed the officials and people, but also killed the Yicheng of Zhuozhou.
Zhu Gaoxu's move should be executed according to the law of the Ming Dynasty, and the courtiers accused Zhu Di, the king of Yan, of not disciplining his son
Although Zhu Gaoxu is Zhu Di's favorite son, he is not liked by his grandfather, and he is very restless. Such a person can die well with his father's protection and preference, but Zhu Di will die before Zhu Gaochu after all, so Zhu Gaoxu's ending has long been doomed.
02 was fooled by his father
In the first year of Jianwen, Zhu Di, the king of Yan, raised an army and left Zhu Gaochi, the son of the king of Yan, who was not good at riding and archery, in Beiping to guard, while the second son Zhu Zhu Gaochu followed his father Zhu Di to go on the expedition. Although Zhu Gaoxu is the son of King Yan, he often charges forward, fights very bravely, and saves his father's life many times.
In the second year of Jianwen (1400), in the battle of Baihegou between King Yan and the Southern Army, Zhu Gaoxu led the elite troops to charge into battle, killing the Southern Army general Qu Neng and his son, and made great contributions; soon, in the Battle of Dongchang, Zhu Di was defeated, and the general Zhang Yu died in order to save Zhu Di. Seeing that Zhu Di was also in danger, fortunately, Zhu Gaoxu led his troops to arrive, not only repelling the southern army, but also saving his father Zhu Di's life.
It is precisely because the second son is so brave and always accompanies him on the expedition that Zhu Di attaches more and more importance to the second son. Even Zhu Di once said a meaningful sentence to Zhu Gaoxu:
"I am sick, you work hard, and the son of the world is sick. ”
I am already old, you should work harder, and the son of the world is not in good health.
Zhu Di's words, does he mean that he wants Zhu Gaochu to replace his brother Zhu Gaochi?
It is precisely because of his father's words that Zhu Gaochu has the heart to win the heir, not only disrespecting his brother Zhu Gaochi, but also often speaking ill of his brother in front of his father. It was precisely because of this between Zhu Gaochu and Zhu Gaochi that he was known by Fang Xiaoru, a courtier beside Emperor Jianwen. Fang Xiaoru came up with an idea to Emperor Jianwen: to write a letter to the prince of Yan Wang, who was guarding Beiping, to recruit Zhu Gaochi, and promised that as long as Zhu Gaochi returned to the imperial court, he could be directly named King of Yan.
At the same time as sending a letter to Zhu Gaochi in Beiping, Emperor Jianwen also deliberately spread the news to Zhu Di, who was fighting on the front line, to let them know about it, so as to separate their father and son. And Zhu Gaochi received a letter from Emperor Jianwen and was learned by the eunuch Huang Yansu, who had always been at odds with Zhu Gaochi, so he secretly reported that Zhu Di "the prince wants to rebel".
Zhu Di naturally didn't believe it easily, and Zhu Gaoxu took the opportunity to say: When my brother was in the capital before, he was very friendly with Zhu Yunwen
Just when Zhu Di was about to believe the words of his second son, Zhu Gaochi's envoy arrived and handed over Emperor Jianwen's letter to Zhu Di intact. Zhu Di said: I almost wronged my son!
"Whew!
Zhu Gaoxu did not achieve his goal this time, and he was naturally unwilling to get rid of his brother.
In the fourth year of Jianwen, Zhu Di led his troops to defeat the southern army at Puzikou, fortunately Zhu Gaoxu led his troops to arrive, Zhu Di was overjoyed when he saw his son, and said: I am already very tired and can't fight, you should fight bravely. Hearing his father's words, Zhu Gaoxu fought harder to kill the enemy, and soon repelled the southern army.
In June of this year, Zhu Di led the Yan army into the city of Nanjing, Emperor Jianwen was nowhere to be found, and Zhu Di ascended the throne after paying homage to the mausoleum of Taizu
During the four-year battle of Jingjing, Zhu Gaoxu's merits were not lost to any of the heroes of Jingjing; moreover, he rescued his father when he was in danger many times; and many times when the Yan army was in defeat, Zhu Gaochu was always able to turn defeat into victory. This alone Zhu Gaoxu is a well-deserved first contributor to the Jingjing, Zhu Di naturally knows his son's merits, and he also likes this son who is most like himself.
03 The heart of the heir
During the four-year Battle of Jingyan, Zhu Gaoxu's prestige among the military generals was extremely high, and Qiu Fu, the Duke of Qiguo, and Wang Ning, the concubine, both preferred Zhu Gaoxu, who had been through a hundred battles, so they praised Zhu Gaochu in front of Zhu Di and asked Zhu Di to make Zhu Gaochu the crown prince.
What's more, Zhu Di once said, "The son of the world is sick, you have to work harder", Zhu Gaoxu thought that his father would make him the crown prince.
But Emperor Taizu has already established the "Emperor Ming Ancestral Teachings": there are grandchildren, but there are no grandchildren. According to Emperor Taizu's ancestral teachings, Zhu Gaochi, as the eldest son, is the most suitable candidate for the crown prince. What's more, Zhu Gaochi is not a mixture of incompetent people, facing Li Jinglong's 500,000 army with 10,000 people, holding on to Beiping City, waiting for his father's reinforcements to arrive.
No matter what aspect it is: Zhu Di can't cross Zhu Gaochi and crown Zhu Gaochu as the crown prince.
But Zhu Di really likes the second son very much, just because Zhu Gaochu is spoiled and spoiled, and does many illegal things, so he finally decided to make his eldest son Zhu Gaochi the crown prince, the second son Zhu Gaochu as the king of Han, and the third son Zhu Gaosui as the king of Zhao.
and let the Han king Zhu Gaochu go to Yunnan to take up the vassal, Zhu Gaochu was very dissatisfied with this:
What sin am I guilty of driving me so far away?
Zhu Gaochu insisted on refusing to give in, and when Zhu Di was visiting Beiping, Zhu Gaochu begged his father to let him and his son return to Nanjing. Zhu Di was already guilty of his second son, but when he saw that his second son was so sure of himself, he relented and promised to let Zhu Gaoxu and his son follow him back to Nanjing.
Not long after, Zhu Gaoxu begged his father to reward him with Tiance Guard as the guard of the Han Palace. And often compares himself to Tang Taizong Li Shimin, it can be said that Zhu Gaoxu's move is undoubtedly a direct provocation to the crown prince Zhu Gaochi.
Those who know the history of the Tang Dynasty should know that Tang Gaozu Li Yuan was finally able to ascend the throne and become emperor, which had a lot to do with his second son Li Shimin. Although Li Shimin was young, he was very brave in battle and made many achievements. However, after Li Yuan ascended the throne, in accordance with the principle of "establishing a successor and establishing a long-term successor", his eldest son Li Jiancheng was named the crown prince, while Li Shimin only "succumbed" to the position of King Qin.
Of course, Li Yuan knew the merits of his second son very well, and in order to make up for Li Shimin, Li Yuan specially set up an official for Li Shimin, called General Tiance. Admiral Tiance is above all princes and ministers, and in addition to Emperor Li Yuan and Crown Prince Li Jiancheng in the Tang Dynasty, the highest status is Li Shimin.
Li Shimin, who was named the general of Tiance, not only has status and prestige, but also can set up the Tiance Mansion and recruit military generals by himself. Later, the reason why Li Shimin was able to launch the Xuanwu Sect and replace his elder brother as the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty was inseparable from his Tiance Mansion.
Zhu Gaoxu's move is obviously to learn from Li Shimin, replace his brother Zhu Gaochi, and sit on the throne.
Not long after, Zhu Gaoxu again asked his father for permission to add two guards to his Han Palace, ranging from 3,000 to 19,000. Moreover, Zhu Gaoxu's behavior became more and more arrogant, and he often accompanied his father, so he took the opportunity to sow discord and said bad things about his brother to his father many times.
It was under Zhu Gaochu's repeated slanderous remarks that Xie Jin, Huang Huai and others, who were loyal to the crown prince Zhu Gaochi, were arrested and imprisoned.
At the beginning, Zhu Di still believed the words of his second son and was suspicious of the crown prince Zhu Gaochi.
But Zhu Di is not a mediocre person after all, after a long time, even if he loves the second son again, he will wonder if the reason why the second son insists on not leaving the capital is because he has the intention of seizing the heir?
Especially in the thirteenth year of Yongle, Zhu Di changed Zhu Gaoxu's fief to Qingzhou, Shandong, but Zhu Gaochu still insisted on not being a vassal. And he said very unhappily: What sin do I have to let me go to such a barren place?
Zhu Di had to doubt the second son's thoughts, because Zhu Di was not in Nanjing at this time, and he was out on patrol, so in order to let the second son leave Nanjing as soon as possible, he directly issued an edict to urge.
But even so, Zhu Gaoxu still refused to leave Nanjing, and even privately selected guards, recruited 3,000 elites, and used the utensils that only the emperor could use in the palace, which was really "disrespectful".
After Zhu Di returned to the capital, he learned that his second son had done more than ten wrong things, so he reprimanded him fiercely, took off his crown clothes, and locked him in Xihua Gate. And Zhu Di also planned to abolish Zhu Gaochu's title of King of Han, thanks to the kindness of the crown prince Zhu Gaochi, who pleaded for his younger brother in front of Zhu Di many times, Zhu Di agreed to release Zhu Gaochu, but Zhu Di still killed Zhu Gaochu's cronies and reduced his two guards.
In the fifteenth year of Yongle, Zhu Di changed Zhu Gaoxu's fief to Le'an Prefecture, and let Zhu Gaochu go to the fief to settle down.
Zhu Gaoxu not only did not repent, but became even more resentful of his father, and even wanted to rebel.
The crown prince Zhu Gaochi wrote a letter to persuade his younger brother, but Zhu Gaochu did not take his brother's words seriously.
In the twenty-second year of Yongle, Zhu Di died on the way to the Northern Expedition. The crown prince Zhu Gaochi ascended the throne in the capital in accordance with the edict, and when he learned the news of his father's death, Zhu Gaochu felt that this was an opportunity to usurp the throne. So he sent his henchmen to the capital to find a suitable opportunity to rebel. However, Zhu Gaochi directly issued an order to summon his younger brother Zhu Gaochu to the capital, not only increasing his annual income, but also rewarding him with a lot of property. In October of this year, Zhu Gaochi also named Zhu Gaoxu's son Zhu Zhantan as the prince, and the remaining ten sons were all named county kings.
His father Zhu Di died, and Zhu Gaoxu did not find a suitable opportunity to seize the throne.
Soon Zhu Gaoxu had another opportunity to compete for the throne:
Zhu Gaochi died of illness in only ten months on the throne, and when Zhu Gaochi died of illness, the crown prince Zhu Zhanji was not in the capital, but in Nanjing. Upon learning the news of his father's death, Zhu Zhanji naturally had to return from Nanjing to mourn.
Zhu Gaoxu planned to set up an ambush halfway and kill his own nephew.
In this way, there will be no crown prince in the court, and Zhu Gaoxu can take the opportunity to seize the throne.
However, Zhu Gaoxu was a brave and warlike general on the battlefield, but he was not good at scheming, and Zhu Zhanji was able to return to the capital safely and ascend the throne as emperor.
04 rebelled, but it was extremely embarrassing
After Zhu Zhanji ascended the throne, he once again rewarded his two uncles: Zhu Gaoxu, the king of Han, and Zhu Gaosui, the king of Zhao, and gave the two uncles much more rewards than other vassal kings.
After his nephew ascended the throne, Zhu Gaoxu made suggestions to his nephew many times, but Zhu Zhanji complied with all the proposals made by his uncle.
This gave Zhu Gaoxu an illusion: his nephew was weak and incompetent, so Zhu Gaochu began to "relapse of the old disease" and became more and more arrogant.
Even in August of the first year of Xuande, he directly rebelled, and wanted to collude with Zhang Fu, an important minister of the imperial court, to cooperate with the outside world. However, Zhang Fu was loyal to Emperor Xuande and informed Zhu Zhanji of the matter. At the same time, after Li Jun, the imperial historian who was guarding filial piety at home, learned of the rebellion of the Han king, he rushed back to the capital from the small road to inform Zhu Zhanji of Zhu Gaoxu's army.
Zhu Zhanji couldn't bear to use troops against his own uncle, so he sent the eunuch Hou Tai with his own letter to persuade Zhu Gaoxu to surrender.
However, Zhu Gaoxu did not have the slightest intention of quitting the army, and wrote letters to many princes and ministers in the court, and his heart was full of accusations. Zhu Zhanji said helplessly: King Han is really the opposite!
Originally, Zhu Zhanji planned to send Xue Lu, Marquis of Yangwu, to lead his troops to the expedition, but the scholar Yang Rong strongly persuaded Zhu Zhanji to drive the expedition in person. At first, Zhu Gaochu thought that Xue Lu, the Marquis of Yangwu, was coming with his troops, and he was very happy in his heart, because for Zhu Gaoxu, who was brave and good at fighting, Xue Lu was not an opponent at all.
However, when he learned that Zhu Zhanji was personally driving, Zhu Gaoxu began to be afraid.
Zhu Zhanji gave his uncle a letter, hoping that his uncle would be able to pull back from the precipice, but Zhu Gaoxu ignored it.
Zhu Zhanji led the army to directly press Le'an, and surrounded the four gates of Le'an, and wrote a letter here to persuade his uncle to surrender, but Zhu Gaoxu still ignored it.
However, some rebel generals in the city wanted to arrest Zhu Gaochu and give him to Zhu Zhanji to atone for his crimes, and Zhu Gaochu was very frightened when he learned about it, so he secretly sent someone to meet his nephew and told his nephew: He will definitely surrender tomorrow. At the same time, Zhu Gaochu burned all the rebellious letters, but Wang Bin and others tried their best to persuade Zhu Gaochu not to surrender, Zhu Gaochu pretended to agree to them, but went out of the city and surrendered to his nephew from the small road.
In this way, Zhu Zhanji did not abolish a single soldier, and put down the rebellion of the Han king.
The ministers all asked the king of Han and the prince to be executed, but Zhu Zhanji did not do so in the relationship between uncle and nephew. also showed the ministers the impeachment of Zhu Gaochu to his uncle, and Zhu Gaochu quickly knelt down and pleaded guilty.
Zhu Zhanji disposed of all the remnants of the Han Dynasty, changed Le'an to Wuding Prefecture, handed it over to Xue Lu, Marquis of Wuding, and others to guard, and then returned to the court. After returning to the capital, Zhu Zhanji demoted his uncle Zhu Gaoxu and his cousin Zhu Zhantan, the son of the Han Dynasty, to concubines and imprisoned them in Xi'anmen
Originally, Zhu Gaoxu and his son could spend the rest of their lives in prison, and maybe one day his nephew Kai'en would release him to freedom.
But Zhu Gaoxu killed himself, and there was a beginning scene. Not only was Zhu Gaochu executed, but all of Zhu Gaoxu's 10 living sons were executed, which is really sad.
epilogue
Zhu Gaoxu's life is actually quite sad:
When he was young, he was not liked by his grandfather because he was restless and frivolous;
During the Battle of Jingyan, he coveted the crown prince because of his father's "promise", and made every effort to embarrass and frame his brother; however, Zhu Di did not crown Zhu Gaoxu as the crown prince, but canonized the crown prince according to the principle of "establishing a successor and establishing a long line". Zhu Gaoxu, who was unwilling, refused to accept the vassal in the capital, and compared himself to Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, and asked his father to reward him with Tiancewei, which is really ridiculous
Although Zhu Gaochu is indeed the same as Li Shimin, he made great achievements in the process of his father snatching the throne, and he is the second son, but Zhu Gaochu is restless and does many illegal things, how can he compare with Li Shimin, the "first emperor of the ages" Tang Taizong?
Renzong and Xuanzong, father and son, were tolerant and generous to Zhu Gaochu many times, but Zhu Gaochu thought that the father and son were weak and easy to bully, so they intensified and even rebelled. As a result, he surrendered without a fight and ended up in captivity.
Even if he was imprisoned, Zhu Gaoxu was still unwilling to "tease" his nephew who was already on the throne, and as a result, he was not only executed, but also killed along with his innocent son.
It can only be said that it is really sad to have such a restless and unscrupulous father here.
Of course, the absurdity of Zhu Gaochu in the second half of his life is also inseparable from Zhu Di; if Zhu Di had not given Zhu Gaochu hope during the Battle of Jingjing, perhaps Zhu Gaochu would not have given birth to such a restless heart.