Among the many emperors in feudal history, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang is the most dramatic, and quite a lot of wild history anecdotes can almost be pressed on his head.
What is very helpless is that some untrustworthy wild history has been imposed on Zhu Yuanzhang's body, and it is still very suitable.
For example, when you meet a melon farmer who sells watermelons, you turn around and order someone to get rid of him; for example, smirk at a woman who feeds pigs, after Empress Ma summoned her to the palace, Zhu Yuanzhang threw her out again, and for example, Linxing had a Jiangnan beauty, but executed her the next day...
As for the reason for this phenomenon, it is naturally due to Zhu Yuanzhang's personality and life experience.
Zhu Yuanzhang was born in the grassroots, very grounded, if you count forward, the three generations of his ancestors and even counting up are poor peasants, so it is a miracle that he can become an emperor.
There are many reasons why Zhu Yuanzhang was able to counterattack in his life, in addition to the chaotic environment at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, he needed someone to stand up, and his own talents were also indispensable factors.
In the impression of many people, Zhu Yuanzhang was murderous and tyrannical, which was certainly his shortcoming, but before he became emperor, he could make many generals willingly follow him and fight for his life, which required the wisdom of people.
It is undeniable that Zhu Yuanzhang is indeed a good boss, at least in the entrepreneurial period, he never skimped on rewards to his subordinates, and after he became emperor, he naturally carried out a large-scale reward.
However, in this process, Zhu Yuanzhang missed a person, and it was precisely because of this negligence that he encountered a troublesome thing when he went out to inspect.
On the way, there was an old lady in rags who blocked Zhu Yuanzhang's way and insulted him for being ungrateful, Zhu Yuanzhang was very strange, so he asked her who her son was, and when he knew, he quickly apologized to the old lady and declared that he wanted to retire her.
So who is this old lady's son that can make Zhu Yuanzhang have such a big reaction?
We also have to start with the duel between Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youyu.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="18" > The Battle of Poyang Lake</h1>
In the peasant uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Chen Youyu, Zhang Shicheng and Zhu Yuanzhang were the strongest, and compared with these three forces, Zhu Yuanzhang was the weakest for a long time.
Due to the influence of geographical factors, Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to expand his sphere of influence outward, and he must first solve Chen Youyu and Zhang Shicheng.
At that time, Chen Youyu's power was very large, and his ambitions were not small, and he naturally could not tolerate Zhu Yuanzhang's muffled development around him, but he once thought that Zhu Yuanzhang was vulnerable, as long as his army killed, he only had to surrender.
Zhu Yuanzhang also knew that Chen Youyu was extremely difficult to deal with, but when he formulated a strategic direction with his subordinates, he tried his best to overcome public opinion and decided to deal with Chen Youyu first.
The subordinates were very confused, obviously they could deal with Zhang Shicheng first, seek a buffer in time, and develop their own forces, why did they have to forgive Chen Yougang first?
Zhu Yuanzhang's words, said:
Dealing with Chen Youyu first, Zhang Shicheng will only look at the scenery from the sidelines, but if Zhang Shicheng is attacked first, Chen Youcheng will certainly not sit idly by, so that he will definitely be attacked on both sides, and then defeated.
And the later historical development also proved Zhu Yuanzhang's prejudgment, when he fought with Chen Youyu, Zhang Shicheng really became an audience.
In 1363, Chen Youyu and Zhu Yuanzhang had already had many frictions, and Chen Youyu took advantage of the opportunity of Zhu Yuanzhang's main force to rush to Anfeng to rescue King Xiaoming and sent 600,000 troops to attack Zhu Yuanzhang's stronghold of Hongdu.
Zhu Yuanzhang hurriedly led the main force back to the rescue, and the two sides met at Poyang Lake, and a great showdown began.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="57" > Han Cheng jumped the river for Zhu Yuanzhang</h1>
In the early stage of the decisive battle between the two sides, Zhu Yuanzhang has always been at a disadvantage, first, there are few soldiers, second, the warships are broken, and what is even more uncomfortable is that Zhu Yuanzhang is not familiar with the actual environment of Poyang Lake, so that these dilapidated warships are still stranded.
When Chen Youyi's generals Zhang Dingbian and Chen Yingjie saw this situation, they almost burst into tears, and without saying a word, they directly surrounded Zhu Yuanzhang's large army and asked Zhu Yuanzhang to kill himself, otherwise a wave of regiments would be destroyed.
When Zhu Yuanzhang saw that the general situation had gone, he planned to kill himself, but when he was writing his suicide note, a general named Han Cheng appeared and said to Zhu Yuanzhang:
The subject wishes to die in his place in return for his kindness. Dare to ask the lord to wear robes, crowns, and shoes, and change with the clothes of his subjects. When the subjects are designed to retreat from the thieves, the lord can take the opportunity to escape with the generals.
It turned out that this Han Cheng was Zhu Yuanzhang's confidant and beloved general, he had learned martial arts since childhood, and his heart was straight, and soon after Zhu Yuanzhang defected to Guo Zixing, he defected to Zhu Yuanzhang, and was reused because his figure and appearance were very similar to Zhu Yuanzhang.
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard that Cheng cheng was going to kill himself instead of himself, he could not bear it for a while, but under the repeated persuasion of Han Cheng and others, Zhu Yuanzhang responded with tears.
After that, the two exchanged clothes, and in full view of everyone, Han Cheng jumped into the river instead of Zhu Yuanzhang and died.
When Zhang Dingbian, Chen Yingjie, and others saw this situation, they took it for granted that it was Zhu Yuanzhang who had committed suicide by diving into the water, so they ordered their men to salvage Han Cheng and ask Chen Youyu for credit.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Zhu Yuanzhang escaped from the siege, and later reorganized the confrontation force, thus destroying Chen Youyu.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="59" > Zhu Yuanzhang's negligence</h1>
After Zhu Yuanzhang destroyed Chen Youyu, he purged Zhang Shicheng, and then the spearhead was directed at the Yuan court, and the Yuan Shun Emperor also knew the current affairs, and when he saw that the momentum was not right, he directly took everything he could take with him and fled north.
Since then, Zhu Yuanzhang has won the world, and after he became emperor, he has been awarded a great meritorious service, and almost all those who have merit, hard work, and so on have been rewarded, but later Zhu Yuanzhang almost all took it back, of course, this is the last word.
When Zhu Yuanzhang rewarded the meritorious service, he only missed Han Cheng, who killed himself, and thought about it, after all, Han Cheng had been dead for many years, and it was reasonable not to think of it.
However, this pained Han Cheng's old mother, who was helpless and destitute after she lost her son, and when he heard that his son was killing himself for Zhu Yuanzhang, it was even more uncomfortable.
Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, and Han Mu thought that he would remember his son, at least he had to give some rewards, but he didn't wait for anything.
One day, when she took advantage of Zhu Yuanzhang's outing for inspection, she blocked his way and insulted Zhu Yuanzhang by name, zhu Yuanzhang was very strange when he heard the report from his subordinates, so she ordered someone to take Han Mu to him and asked who her son was.
After Han's mother saw Zhu Yuanzhang, she said that her son was Han Cheng, and she burst into tears and accused Zhu Yuanzhang of being ungrateful.
Zhu Yuanzhang heard Han Mu's explanation, and after seeing that she was dressed in rags, he immediately apologized and said to him, Shuo will replace Han as your pension.
In this way, Zhu Yuanzhang took Han Mother back to the palace to entertain him, and also posthumously honored Han Cheng as the Marquis of Gaoyang, and built a large Gaoyang Marquis For Han Mother.
It can be seen that although Zhu Yuanzhang is known for his viciousness and does not blink an eye at the execution of those powerful heroes, he also has a benevolent side, especially for those who are not a threat to himself, Zhu Yuanzhang is more willing to give deep care.
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang is an extremely complex figure, but it is undeniable that he ended the chaotic life of the Yuan Dynasty, which is a great achievement.
References: "History of the Ming Dynasty", "Records of the Ming Taizu", "Allusions to the Dynasty", etc.
(Figure net, invasion and deletion)