It is said that the Ming Dynasty is a legendary dynasty, and each of his emperors can write a legendary story alone. In the previous program, I have talked to you about several emperors who are more interesting in the history of the Ming Dynasty, such as the most dedicated emperor Zhu Youfan and the carpenter emperor Zhu Youxiao.
So what we want to talk about in this issue is the enigmatic emperor in the history of the Ming Dynasty - Zhu Zhanji, the fifth emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He was the grandson of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di and had a particularly interesting nickname, "Cricket Emperor", because this emperor was particularly keen to play crickets and fight crickets.
Emperor of the Ming Dynasty
In addition to this hobby, Zhu Zhanji was also obsessed with the art of room in the room, at that time there was an old lady doctor in the palace with very good medical skills, Zhu Zhanji had privately asked him for the house technique, this old doctor replied: My family's ancestral medical skills are used to save lives and help the injured, like the room technique, which damages people's minds and harms people's bodies, I know nothing, and I also ask the emperor to respect himself.
After hearing this, Zhu Zhanji became angry and worried that the matter would be leaked out, so he immediately imprisoned the old lady doctor and imprisoned him for a long time before being released. But if you think that Zhu Zhanji is an absurd emperor who does not do his job, you are very wrong.
In history, Emperor Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji was a legendary emperor of the rich and handsome style who had both culture and martial arts and wisdom, and in his body, there was still a mystery that could not be solved so far, let's take a look at his legendary life.
When Zhu Zhanji was a child, he was very much loved by Zhu Di, and Zhu Zhanji's father, Zhu Gaoxu, was the eldest son of Zhu Di, but on the issue of making a prince, Zhu Di was a little hesitant, because he also had a second son, Zhu Gaoxu.
Zhu Gaoxu was obese and honest, but Zhu Gaoxu had repeatedly relieved Zhu Di on the battlefield, so when he was establishing the reserve, Zhu Di asked the university scholar Xie Jin's opinion, and Xie Jin replied: The emperor's eldest son, Ren Xiaoxiao, the world returns to his heart. This means recommending Zhu Gaozi as a candidate for the crown prince.
However, Zhu Di was more hesitant, and after listening to it, he was silent, and Xie Jin hastily added another sentence: There is also a good saint grandson! Remind Zhu Di, although you are not particularly satisfied with Zhu Gaozi, his son Zhu Zhanji is your most satisfied grandson.
When Zhu Di heard these words, he made up his mind to make Zhu Gaoxu the crown prince and establish Zhu Zhanji as the emperor's grandson, which was equivalent to determining the successors of the third generation, and Zhu Gaoxu, who was originally full of hope, was named the King of Han.
Then, of course, Zhu Gaoxu was very dissatisfied with this ending, and from then on he began to secretly plot to usurp the throne. As we said earlier, Zhu Gaoxu was originally more fierce and brave and good at leading soldiers, and after he was sealed in Le'an, Shandong, he began to prepare for the opportunity.
In 1424, Zhu Di died, which was originally an opportunity for Zhu Gaoxu, but because this news was blocked by the imperial court, it was not until two months after Zhu Gaoxu's succession that Zhu Gaoxu learned that Mu had become a boat, and had to pat his thigh and sigh. But it didn't matter, Zhu Gaoxu's second chance came soon.
After Zhu Gaozi ascended the throne, Zhu Zhanji naturally became the crown prince in name only, and in April of the following year, that is, in 1425, when an earthquake struck Nanjing, the old capital of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zhanji, as the crown prince, was ordered to go to the disaster relief and visit the imperial tomb. However, shortly after arriving in Nanjing, Zhu Zhanji received an edict ordering him to return to Beijing urgently, because his father, Zhu Gaozi, suddenly fell seriously ill and was already dying.
At this time, it is about the middle of May of that year. At the same time, Zhu Gaoxu in Shandong also received a tip-off, and he knew that this was a godsend opportunity for him to seize the throne, so he immediately arranged a group of daredevils to ambush Zhu Zhanji on his way back to Beijing.
From Nanjing to Beijing, the journey is more than a thousand kilometers, and at normal speed, Zhu Zhanji will take at least a month, that is, until the middle of June, to return to the capital, so Zhu Gaoxu's plan to intercept and kill halfway has a very sufficient time to prepare.
However, when Zhu Gaoxu's death squad stopped Zhu Zhanji's team returning to Beijing, they were surprised to find that in the vast honor guard team, the officials and guards accompanying him were all available, except for the figure of the crown prince Zhu Zhanji. Even more surprising things were still to come, just when Zhu Gaoxu was pondering the matter of Zhu Zhanji's disappearance, in early June, news came from Beijing that Zhu Zhanji had returned to Beijing in advance to mourn and successfully succeed to the throne!
This also means that Zhu Gaoxu once again failed to seize the opportunity. Subsequently, Zhu Gaoxu, who had already been exposed, openly launched a rebellion in August of that year, and Zhu Zhanji, who had just succeeded to the throne, thundered out and attacked the imperial conquest, quickly quelled the rebellion, and imprisoned Zhu Gaoxu.
However, how Zhu Zhanji escaped from Zhu Gaoxu's halfway interception and how he returned to the capital in advance has become a major mystery in the history of the Ming Dynasty, and some people speculate that Zhu Zhanji left a line of people in the capital and quietly left before his father had just fallen ill and received the edict of his will; some people said that Zhu Zhanji had never been to Nanjing at all, but a blindfold method directed and performed by father and son, in short, all kinds of coincidences allowed him to evade Zhu Gaoxu's poisonous hands.
Zhu Zhanji reigned for ten years, and died young at the age of thirty-six, but he created the third prosperous era of the Ming Dynasty - the rule of Renxuan, so among all the kings of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zhanji can be regarded as a more accomplished emperor, and the life and death contest between him and his uncle Zhu Gaoxu and the race against time has become an eternal mystery.