In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, a prime minister invited Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang to his home for dinner, such a normal thing, but there was a great conspiracy hidden in it.
Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know what was wrong, and when he was halfway there, he suddenly ordered: "Kill the minister who invited me to dinner!"
Who is this prime minister, and why did Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly order him to be killed?
Prime Minister of the Ming Dynasty in a high-risk occupation
If you want to say that this is the most difficult official, the officials in the early years of the Ming Dynasty were too powerful, and the position of prime minister is a very good example.
At the beginning, there were two prime ministers in the Ming Dynasty, they were two top talents in civil and military affairs - Li Shanchang and Xu Da, these two people were deeply valued by Zhu Yuanzhang, so they became prime ministers.
Some people may think that Xu Da is a military general and is not suitable to be the prime minister, but in fact, his role is to suppress those arrogant generals.
After Xu Da died of illness, Li Shanchang said to Zhu Yuanzhang because of his age: "I am too old to take on a heavy responsibility, and the court needs fresh blood, so I want to retire." ”
In fact, Li Shanchang didn't want to do it at that time because he was old, but because he was seriously ill and couldn't do it.
At that time, Liu Bowen, who influenced Li Shanchang's performance, had already returned home, so Li Shanchang became more and more powerful in the DPRK. It's when people are very proud, that's why they don't want to go. But I had to go home because of my illness.
After Li Shanchang resigned, the next two generations of prime ministers were Yang Xian and Wang Guangyang.
This Zhu Yuanzhang attaches great importance to the position of prime minister, because they are in charge of a lot of affairs, and they can help the emperor solve problems to a large extent.
Although Yang Xian did a decent job at first, this person was too arrogant and domineering after he gained power, and often turned his face and did not recognize people.
At that time, Yang Xian provoked people who were relatively powerful, such as Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong.
After Zhu Yuanzhang learned about Yang Xian's scandals, he gradually lost confidence in him, and finally Zhu Yuanzhang directly got rid of Yang Xian through a case.
Another prime minister, Wang Guangyang, did not have any good results, and in the end he was also killed by Zhu Yuanzhang.
Then there is Hu Weiyong, the last prime minister in the history of the mainland, and Zhu Yuanzhang has high hopes for every new prime minister.
Because there were too many problems in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang was not talented, and he didn't have so much energy, so he could only try to find a reliable prime minister to help him.
However, it turns out that people who work hard and have hard work are really hard to find.
In fact, it is not that it is difficult to find, but because many talents are buried.
After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, what he urgently needed was talents from all walks of life, and for this reason, he promulgated many policies. No matter how good these policies are, they are ultimately useless.
For example, those policies aimed at the selection of talents by the people have been disrupted by the landlord class in various places. They often exploit policy loopholes and rely on their own power to control everything.
Therefore, at that time, most of the talents in the people were pushed up by the landlords, and they did not have any real talents, so it was too difficult to find talents from the people.
Since the people can't do it, they can only rely on the nobles at the top, but I didn't expect this group of people to be weak.
For a long time, the officials of the "Huaixi faction" held great power for a long time, so they also had the final say in the ordinary imperial examinations. As long as the money is sent, they will nod their heads, and there is a high probability that there will be officials.
Authoritarian and domineering
Zhu Yuanzhang is also very clear about these problems, but it is too difficult to change this status quo, so Zhu Yuanzhang pinned his hopes on the prime minister.
Zhu Yuanzhang needs a prime minister who must not only be talented, but also very bold, such as daring to say no to those powerful officials, and at the same time dare to find a way to kick them out of power.
Wang Guangyang was too weak at that time, so Zhu Yuanzhang was not very optimistic about him.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang has great expectations, it is obvious that Hu Weiyong is still not the person he has to wait for.
It's not, Hu Weiyong has become more powerful because of his power, so he is also arrogant, and sometimes he doesn't even put the imperial power in his eyes.
Facts have proved that Hu Weiyong is still a bit courageous, for example, at that time, he wanted to kill a person or degrade a person, and sometimes Hu Weiyong didn't tell the emperor.
It doesn't matter if you don't talk to the emperor, don't even say that you want to kill officials, after all, the whole world is the emperor's people, and the prime minister still wants to control the emperor's power of life and death.
In the face of the accusations of other officials, Hu Weiyong did not think so, but continued to do his own thing.
The prime minister of the Ming Dynasty was still in charge of the six ministries at that time, and if the six ministries wanted to send something to the emperor, Hu Weiyong would intervene in it.
For example, if an official writes a letter to Zhu Yuanzhang, Hu Weiyong will open it and take a look.
If the content of the letter has nothing to do with you, then don't stop it. If the content of this letter is harmful to himself, such as affecting his official position or property, then Hu Weiyong will stop it.
Even Zhu Yuanzhang dared to conceal and deceive, this Hu Weiyong really wouldn't think his life was very hard, right?
Hu Weiyong's actions, doesn't Zhu Yuanzhang know?
For these unsightly things, Lao Zhu is still very clear, so why didn't he punish him immediately?
First, because the seriousness of the matter is not too great, to put it bluntly, it has not fundamentally touched the imperial power. Another point is that the position of prime minister is changed too frequently, so there must be a buffer time.
Seeing that the emperor has not taken care of himself, Hu Weiyong is becoming more and more arrogant, and even Xu Da dared to frame him at that time.
At that time, Xu Da was not dead, and he also knew about the ugly things Hu Weiyong had done, so he often told Zhu Yuanzhang about it.
Although it was a secret conversation between the monarch and the minister, this still did not prevent Hu Weiyong from knowing the secret.
Since someone dares to speak ill of himself, whoever he is, he has to be dealt with. So, Hu Weiyong began to plan how to frame Xu Da.
Hu Weiyong contacted the gatekeeper of Xu Da's house at that time, and they discussed killing Xu Da together.
At first, it was discussed, but later the gatekeeper directly sued Hu Weiyong, so the framing failed.
However, this failure did not affect Hu Weiyong's career, planning is planning, after all, no one died.
In addition to plotting to frame Xu Da, Hu Weiyong also put poisonous substances in Liu Bowen's medicine at that time.
Under the poison of Hu Weiyong, Liu Bowen's condition became more and more serious, and finally died at home.
Murder of Zhu Yuanzhang
Looking at it this way, Hu Weiyong is too easy to offend people, and he must find a backer, so he thought of Li Shanchang.
When Hu Weiyong was not the prime minister, Li Shanchang promoted him a lot. For this kindness, Hu Weiyong has always remembered it. Now, if you want to find a backer, Li Shanchang, who has a lot of power, is the best candidate.
This Hu Weiyong is also very good at things, he directly married his niece to Li Shanchang's nephew, and the two families officially married.
After a bachelor learned about this, he directly wrote to impeach Hu Weiyong, after all, it is not a good thing for the two to be mixed together.
However, this incident still did not bring down Hu Weiyong, but made Hu Weiyong's power more and more powerful.
These people, once they are powerful, they don't know who their names are. Take Hu Weiyong as an example, he actually began to prepare for a rebellion, and the cause of the incident was related to his son.
At that time, Hu Weiyong's son died in a car accident, so Hu Weiyong was angry and asked the groom to be killed.
Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't hold back anymore after learning about this: "Kill people to pay for their lives!"
This frightened Hu Weiyong, he said that he couldn't lose some money?
Zhu Yuanzhang still didn't allow it, and Hu Weiyong knew that the emperor didn't care about himself, but it wasn't time yet.
Since the emperor already has the idea of wanting to get rid of himself, it is a death anyway, it is better to fight before death, that is, to rebel, so Hu Weiyong hurriedly sent a message to his cronies: "If you want to rebel, hurry up and prepare." ”
The record of this incident in the official history says that Hu Weiyong and the matter were leaked before they rebelled.
As for the leakage method, there are still different theories. A folk history book records the situation in detail.
Hu Weiyong is very bold, and he actually wants to get rid of Zhu Yuanzhang first. After the greatest threat is eliminated, and then officially rebel, according to this idea, the victory rate is still very high.
So Hu Weiyong began to write letters to Zhu Yuanzhang frantically, begging him to come to his house for a meal. Anyway, they are going to die, and the last dinner with the emperor is a severed head meal.
Zhu Yuanzhang was still a little moved when he saw it, after all, this Hu Weiyong followed him early, and later became the prime minister, sharing his worries and worries, there is still hard work without credit.
So as soon as Zhu Yuanzhang's heart softened, he agreed to Hu Weiyong.
After cleaning up, Zhu Yuanzhang took a few guards to Hu Weiyong's house.
When Zhu Yuanzhang walked to Xihua Gate, a person suddenly came out to stop Zhu Yuanzhang and others, and he said that he must not go to Hu Weiyong's house for a banquet, because his courtyard was full of soldiers with weapons, and he would definitely die after entering.
Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat after hearing this, thanks to their slow walking, if they had gone faster, it was estimated that they would have been killed long ago.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang still said: "There is no basis for what you say, do you have any evidence?"
When the messenger heard this, he said, "Go up to the castle tower and see it." ”
Then everyone walked up to the tower of Xihua Gate together. Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Hu Weiyong's house, and the courtyard was indeed densely packed with soldiers. At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang was completely convinced.
Just a little bit, Zhu Yuanzhang became Liu Bang.
Since Hu Weiyong is so anxious to die, then he will fulfill him. After Zhu Yuanzhang went back, he quickly ordered the army to surround Hu Weiyong's house.
In the end, not surprisingly, Hu Weiyong was killed by Zhu Yuanzhang.
This is a story recorded in the folk history books, as for who the messenger is, it is said that he is a subordinate of Hu Weiyong, as for why he wants to help Zhu Yuanzhang, it is not clear.
Although the folk tale sounds wonderful, its authenticity still needs to be verified.
In any case, Hu Weiyong did have the idea of rebellion, which doomed him to the final end. Hu Weiyong also became the last prime minister in the history of the mainland.