In 1384 (the seventeenth year of Hongwu), Zhu Yuanzhang's nephew Li Wenzhong died of illness at the age of 46. After Li Wenzhong's death, Zhu Yuanzhang posthumously made Li Wenzhong the Prince of Qiyang, "Wujing", and was entitled to the Taimiao Temple, but at the same time, he killed more than 60 people, including tai doctors and slaves around Li Wenzhong.
What is Zhu Yuanzhang doing this for? What did he perceive, or did he want to kill the people around Li Wenzhong in order to cover up the truth?
Li Wenzhong is the son of Zhu Yuanzhang's second sister, and his nickname is Bao'er. Zhu Yuanzhang came from a poor family, and his father worked as a tenant for the landlord's family. When Zhu Yuanzhang was 16 years old, haozhou suffered a severe drought, locust plague, and plague, which led to the death of his parents and brother.
After the death of his parents, Zhu Yuanzhang's brothers and sisters were scattered. In order to survive, Zhu Yuanzhang begged for a while and then went to the temple to become a monk. Later, the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, and Zhu Yuanzhang joined the Guo Zixing Rebel Army in Haozhou. After Zhu Yuanzhang came under Guo Zixing's command, because of his bravery in battle, he won the favor of Guo Zixing, and Guo Ziyi married his adopted daughter Ma Shi to Zhu Yuanzhang in order to win Zhu Yuanzhang over.
As Zhu Yuanzhang's prestige in the rebel army grew, Guo Zixing and his son Guo Tianxu became jealous of Zhu Yuanzhang and prepared to join forces to kill Zhu Yuanzhang, and finally Zhu Yuanzhang was saved by Ma Shi, but his relationship with Guo Zixing was rifted. In 1353, Zhu Yuanzhang left Guo Zixing with 24 of his cronies, including Tang He and Xu Da. After Zhu Yuanzhang established himself, his power grew stronger and larger. During this period, Zhu Yuanzhang also began to look for his relatives, but found nothing. Soon after, Zhu Yuanzhang led an army to conquer Chuzhou, which made him famous, and his brother-in-law Li Zhen, nephew Li Wenzhong, and nephew Zhu Wenzheng were all famous for coming to zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang's brother-in-law Zhu Zhen used to take good care of Zhu Yuanzhang's family, so Zhu Yuanzhang was very excited after seeing his brother-in-law Zhu Zhen and nephew Li Wenzhong. At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang's second sister had died, so Zhu Yuanzhang loved his nephew Li Wenzhong even more, regarded him as his own, and named his nephew Zhu Wenzhong, the character Siben. Under the careful cultivation of Zhu Yuanzhang, Li Wenzhong became a fierce general who was brave and good at war.
In 1357, Chang Yuchun led an army to attack Chizhou, because the soldiers were in trouble, Zhu Yuanzhang sent troops to support Xu Da, but Hu Dahai and other generals were not around, and could only let his 19-year-old nephew Li Wenzhong lead the troops. Li Wenzhong was originally only a helpless choice for Zhu Yuanzhang, but he did not expect that he was a blockbuster and performed very heroically on the battlefield, helping Xu Da win the Battle of Chuzhou and making Xu Da look at him with admiration.
After Zhu Yuanzhang saw his nephew's heroic performance, he was surprised and let Li Wenzhong continue to fight for himself. In just one month, Li Wenzhong took four cities including Qingyang and Taiping. Subsequently, Li Wenzhong joined forces with Deng Yu to take Jiande, assist Hu Dahai, and take Zhuji. Li Wenzhong's first expedition was to capture more than a dozen cities for Zhu Yuanzhang and recruit more than 30,000 enemy troops, which was not an eye-catching achievement.
After this battle, Zhu Yuanzhang began to reuse Li Wenzhong, making him one of the most important generals under his command. In 1357, Miao killed Jiang Ying, Liu Zhen and others and hu dahai, and rebelled in Jinhua, Chuzhou and other places. At the critical moment, Li Wenzhong had time to ask Zhu Yuanzhang for advice in the future, so he led his troops to kill Jiang Ying and other rebels with the momentum of thunder, quelled the mutiny in Chuzhou, and then enwei and shi, stabilizing the situation in Zhejiang.
In 1365, Zhang Shicheng's general Li Bosheng led an army of 200,000 to attack Xincheng. The defenders of Xincheng were small and widowed, not Li Bosheng's opponents, so their subordinates persuaded Li Wenzheng to lead his troops to die, but Li Wenzheng was surprised, he took advantage of the fog, led his troops to raid Li Bosheng's army, fought an opponent by surprise, and finally defeated Li Bosheng's army, beheaded tens of thousands, took countless prisoners, and Li Bosheng fled back alone.
After Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, Li Wenzhong relied on his outstanding military achievements to rank alongside Li Shanchang, Xu Da, Deng Yu, Feng Sheng, and Chang Mao as the six founding dukes.
Zhu Yuanzhang was quite serious about his nephew Li Wenzhong, but Li Wenzhong's death was full of doubts. In the sixteenth year of Hongwu, after Li Wenzhong fell ill, Zhu Yuanzhang went to visit him and arranged for Hou Huazhong of Huai'an to personally adjust Li Wenzhong's medicine. Unfortunately, in March of the following year, Li Wenzhong died of illness.
After Li Wenzhong's death, Zhu Yuanzhang suspected that Huazhong had been poisoned, demoted Huazhong to an official, and killed several tai doctors who treated Li Wenzhong, as well as their families.
Hua poisoned and killed Li Wenzhong, and there were many unreasonable points. At that time, Li Wenzhong's son Li Jinglong was already an adult and could take care of Li Wenzhong, so why did Zhu Yuanzhang arrange for Central China to take care of him. At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang arranged for Huazhong to take care of Li Wenzhong, and after Li Wenzhong was poisoned and killed, Huazhong would not be able to escape the interference, so Huazhong would not do such a stupid thing. Also, Li Wenzhong was seriously ill and may have died, so why would Zhu Yuanzhang suspect that he had been poisoned by someone, and that he would kill a doctor, a slave maid, and other people who might know the truth?
Li Wenzhong's death may have other hidden feelings. According to the "Deeds of the Beginning of the Kingdom", after Zhu Yuanzhang killed Hu Sanshe, the only son of Hu Dahai, regardless of his feelings, Li Wenzhong began to fear Zhu Yuanzhang. His advisers Zhao Bozong and Song Ruzhang also persuaded Li Wenzhong to find a way back for him, and Zhao Bozong secretly went to Hangzhou to contact Zhang Shicheng. After Zhu Yuanzhang learned of this, in order to appease Li Wenzhong, he rewarded him with a lot of property. Afterwards, Li Wenzhong, fearing that the matter would be leaked, secretly killed Zhao Bozong and Song Ruzhang, and did not betray Zhu Yuanzhang.
This incident left a deep impression on Zhu Yuanzhang. After Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he was quite jealous of his generals and killed Lan Yu, Li Shanchang, Feng Sheng, and others. Li Wenzhong is Zhu Yuanzhang's nephew, strong ability, high prestige, and many meritorious achievements, Zhu Yuanzhang can not rest assured of him, he is likely to stay in Huayun to take care of Li Wenzhong, in order to spy on Li Wenzhong, and Li Wenzhong, it is also possible that Zhu Yuanzhang sent people to poison and kill, but Zhu Yuanzhang demoted Huayun in order to cover up The emperor, and other people who knew the truth, such as Taiyi, were killed by Zhu Yuanzhang.
Of course, this is just a speculation, Li Wenzhong is likely to die of illness, it may also be poisoned by Central China or Zhu Yuanzhang, and it still needs expert verification.