The Ming Tong Jian says: "Taizu Zhuzi, King Yan shan zhan, Ning wang shan mo".
Needless to say, Zhu Di, the King of Yan, went out with Taizu as a young man, performed meritorious deeds, and finally defeated Zhu Yunjiao to seize the throne, becoming the only king of the clan who successfully rebelled. And King Ning's "good strategy" is often questioned, after all, every time he is mentioned, it is always used as a background board for Zhu Di, which seems to be mediocre in ability. In fact, King Ning's evaluation of "good strategy" was not wrong, his misfortune was only to meet Zhu Di when he was too young.
Zhu Quan was the seventeenth son of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Emperor, and Hongwu was born in Jinling in the tenth year. Zhu Quan was intelligent and studious since childhood, and was very loved by Zhu Yuanzhang, and at the age of thirteen he was crowned the King of Ning. Zhu Quan's fiefdom Daning was outside Xifeng Pass, east of Liaodong, west of Xuanfu, to say the image point, this is the Song Dynasty's most coveted Yanyun heavy land.
This place borders the northern steppes and Liaodong, and the vicinity is full of strong and tyrannical ethnic minorities, and its strategic location is very important, which is an important barrier to balance the Mongols in the north. Zhu Quan was crowned king of Ning at the age of thirteen, and at the age of fifteen, he went to the domain and officially took charge of Daning, which shows Zhu Yuanzhang's trust in this young son.
Zhu Quan did not live up to his father's trust, he had courage and strategy, repeatedly broke the enemy, and together with the rest of the northern kings defended the frontiers of the empire. Zhu Quan's strength was the most powerful among the northern kings, he "ruled over dozens of cities, more than a thousand miles, with 80,000 armor, 6,000 leather cars, and regarded the kings as the strongest", holding in his hands the Three Guards of Duoyan, who were brave and good at war, and his prestige was far and wide.
It was precisely because of this that Zhu Di coveted the soldiers and horses in the hands of Zhu Quan, the King of Ning. At the beginning of Zhu Di's rebellion, he said to the generals: "On the patrol of Yu Yu, see the fierceness of the daning armies. I have Daning, break liaodong, take the side to ride to help the battle, and the big things will be done. Obviously, Zhu Di intended to swallow this brother's soldiers and horses from the beginning.
The victim, Zhu Quan, the King of Ning, was not ignorant of this, he sat in the northern border pass for several years, commanded 80,000 male soldiers for many years, often fought with the king of the clan, and was not a gentleman who lay in the palace all day. Therefore, as soon as Zhu Di rebelled, Zhu Quan knew that Daning, who was close to Zhu Di with heavy troops, could not stay out of the matter.
Unlike the rest of the brothers who fled into the wilderness, Zhu Quan chose to watch the fire from the other side. Zhu Di wooed Zhu Quan, Zhu Quan did not comment, and Zhu Yunjiao ordered him to enter Beijing quickly, and he did not go to the order. Zhu Quan just sat back and watched Zhu Di and Zhu Yunjiao fight, as long as he did not take a stand for a day, the emperor and the King of Yan could only give him conditions to win him over. Zhu Quan's move was obviously wise, after all, no one knew at that time that Zhu Di would succeed, and taking sides in the face of unclear situations was undoubtedly a way to seek his own death.
Zhu Quan's composure was not unrelated to the eighty thousand armored soldiers in his hand, but he could also see the strategy of the king of the border pass domain. Unfortunately, However, Zhu Quan met Zhu Di, who was much more cunning than him. At the time of Zhu Di's rebellion, Zhu Quan was only in his early twenties, and although he had experience in border warfare and a reputation for strategy, this was only compared to the rest of the clan kings. However, Zhu Di was not an ordinary king of the clan, he had been tempering in the army since he was a child, and the tribulations he experienced were far from being comparable to other brothers, comparing the King of Yan with the rest of the clan kings, it was a dimensional reduction blow.
Zhu Di was almost twenty years older than Zhu Quan, and he was almost able to be his father, and Zhu Quan was naturally not Zhu Di's opponent in terms of old scheming and deep calculations. And Zhu Di's performance is so exquisite that he uses himself as bait. When Zhu Di entered Daning, he rode to the meeting alone, and did not bring a single soldier or pawn with him. Zhu Di lied that he had no way out and did not want to rebel, and asked Zhu Quan to apologize for his sins. This reason is not convincing, but the crux of the matter is that Zhu Di did indeed enter the city, and his life was in Zhu Quan's hands. It can be said that Zhu Di is gambling with his life, betting that Zhu Quan will not turn to Zhu Yunjiao.
Zhu Di won the gamble, and Zhu Yunjiao cut Zhu Quan's three guards, which doomed Zhu Quan to be impossible to defect to Zhu Yunjiao. After experiencing the rebellion of Zhu Di, if Zhu Di ambushed him, Zhu Yunjiao would definitely make a big fuss, and Zhu Quan and other clan kings would not have a good end. So Zhu Quan wouldn't kill Zhu Di, at least not now. This gave Zhu Di the opportunity to seize power, and he ostensibly wept bitterly at Zhu Quan and stated his difficulties, but in fact he ambushed the elite outside the city and bribed the commanders and defenders of the Three Guards with heavy money.
After all, Zhu Quan was not as hot as Zhu Di, and gave Zhu Di an opportunity to personally practice for Zhu Di, only to be attacked by ambush troops and the whole family was escorted to Beiping.
Zhu Quan's choice to watch the fire from the other side was not wrong, but he underestimated Zhu Di. Now that King Ning was forced to leave Daning, the 80,000 elite armored soldiers in his hands could not be commanded, and could only be reduced to Zhu Di's vassals. In order to win zhu Quan over, Zhu Di obtained the 80,000 Daning army, and promised Zhu Quan that after the success of the matter, the world would be divided equally.
Zhu Quancai would not believe Zhu Di's lies, but reality could not allow him not to believe it, and now that he was deeply trapped in the enemy camp, Zhu Di said whatever he said. Therefore, Zhu Di obtained Zhu Quan's 80,000 elites through intrigue and trickery, and successfully defeated Zhu Yunjiao to ascend the throne.
Zhu Di became emperor, and Zhu Quan did not want him to fulfill his promise of dividing the world equally, he just wanted to find a rich fiefdom and not to treat himself badly. But Zhu Quan did not expect that Zhu Di was ungrateful, he asked Zhu Di for Suzhou, Zhu Di said that Suzhou belonged to Gyeonggi, it was not appropriate, he wanted Qiantang, Zhu Di also said that Qiantang this place is not good feng shui, or change the place. In the end, Zhu Di gave Zhu Quan several choices, Jianning, Chongqing, Jingzhou, nanchang are all good places, you can choose at will. Where is this good place, it is clear that it is the most barren and remote place, but when things reach this point, Zhu Quan can only admit that he is unlucky, and it is important to save his life, so he chose Nanchang.
However, when he arrived in Nanchang, Zhu Di was still not at ease, and first suppressed Zhu Quan from the specifications, and then sent someone to investigate Zhu Quan's rebellion. Zhu Quan now completely understood that Zhu Di was even more ruthless than Zhu Yunjiao, and if he wanted to survive, he could not show any signs of posing a threat to the central authorities.
Military, political, and economic work could not be carried out and did not dare to be engaged, and Zhu Quan could only immerse himself in literary creation. Zhu Quan was rich in talent and learning, and in his later years he spent all day with scribes, and he covered a wide range of fields, including Taoism, literature, history, astronomy, philosophy, and all of them. Zhu Quan immersed himself in creation and eliminated the threat to imperial power, which ended well in the Yongle Dynasty. From a powerful feudal lord with good planning to a literary scholar, Zhu Quan only wanted to survive.
Resources:
Records of Emperor Ming Taizu
History of the Ming Dynasty
Ming Shilu