In ancient times, the primogeniture system was the basic principle of the patriarchal system, status and property were inherited by the eldest son, in the Ming Dynasty, the emperor's eldest son inherited the throne, other sons were crowned as princes, the eldest son of the prince inherited the throne, the remaining sons were crowned as county kings, and the eldest son of the county king inherited the position of county king.
However, in the nearly two years after Ming Chengzu Zhu Di ascended the throne, he did not crown his son Zhu Gaozi as crown prince, why is this? He was hesitating.
Zhu Di's eldest son, Zhu Gaozi, was obese, polite, and not good at riding and shooting, while the second son, Zhu Gaoxu, was brave and good at war, much like Zhu Di, and in the Battle of Jingnan, he repeatedly rushed to the rescue in time when Zhu Di was in danger.
Later, Zhu Di considered various factors and finally decided to appoint Zhu Gaozi as crown prince, but Zhu Gaozi's position as crown prince was not stable, Zhu Di was still not very satisfied with him, and his two brothers Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Gaoxuan also coveted the position of prince.
In fact, although Zhu Gaozi is not good at marching and fighting, he also has his own superiority, and it is precisely because of this that he can retain the position of prince in the various slanders and frame-ups of his two younger brothers, and eventually successfully inherit the throne, so what are the core competitiveness of Zhu Gaozi?
Zhu Gaozi was knowledgeable and very good at giving full play to the advantages of his team members, which was fully demonstrated as early as the Battle of Jingnan.
In the first year of Jianwen, the Yan king Zhu Di raised an army to jing, Zhu Gaozi was responsible for holding on to Beiping, at this time Zhu Gaozi was twenty-one years old, he had never led an army to fight before, let alone had no experience in defending the city, could he complete the task of defending the city? It turned out that Zhu Gaozi did a very good job.
After the veteran general Geng Bingwen was defeated by Zhu Di, the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao sent Li Jinglong, the Duke of Cao, to lead an army of 500,000.
Zhu Di led the elite to rescue Yongping, and then went to Daning to borrow troops from Zhu Quan, the king of Ning, leaving only 10,000 old and weak troops to defend the city.
Li Jinglong soon took the opportunity to besiege and besiege Beiping City like an iron barrel.
Zhu Gaozi was not in danger, appeased the people in the city, actively prepared defensive affairs, consulted the opinions of Empress Xu, Yao Guangxiao, Gu Cheng, and others, and gave full play to their role, and Corporal Li Xian, and experienced soldiers and knowledgeable civilian officials discussed the strategy of defending the city, he got up four drums every day, rested in the second drum, did not dare to slacken off, the people of the army in the city were united in their determination, jointly defended the city, and finally insisted until Zhu Di led the troops back to reinforcements, attacked inside and outside, and repelled Li Jinglong.
Zhu Gaozi's defense of Beiping, leaving Zhu Di without worries, was crucial to Zhu Di's eventual victory in the Battle of Jingnan.
During the Battle of Jingnan, Emperor Jianwen adopted Fang Xiaoru's suggestion and implemented a counter-plan, trying to separate the relationship between Zhu Di and Zhu Gaozi, and wrote a letter to Zhu Gaozi, asking him to send Beiping to Zhu Gaozi, promising to make Zhu Gaozi the King of Yan, but Zhu Gaozi did not open the seal after receiving the letter, and sent it to Zhu Di for disposal together with the person who sent the letter, thus dispelling Zhu Di's doubts, and Zhu Gaozi was indeed very knowledgeable.
At the same time that Zhu Gaoxu was made crown prince, Zhu Gaoxu was crowned king of Han, with a fief in Yunnan, and Zhu Gaoxu was crowned king of Zhao.
Defeated in the competition for the position of prince, Zhu Gaoxu was very unwilling, and he complained: What is wrong with me? Send me that far? He relied on the Capital Division, refused to take over Yunnan, and often compared himself to Li Shimin, and Zhu Di seemed to have the intention of spoiling him and constantly improving his treatment, xie Jin saw the situation and persuaded Zhu Di: "Qi Zhengye, not" (Ming History).
After hearing this, Zhu Di was furious and thought that Xie Jin was in a state of separation, and gradually alienated Xie Jin from then on.
At the end of the following year, Zhu Di returned to the Beijing Division, Zhu Gaoxu and others took the opportunity to frame Zhu Gaoxu, and Zhu Di, in a fit of anger, had people post a notice at the noon gate that all the government affairs handled during the period of the prince's supervision of the state were invalidated.
Was Zhu Di's move to depose the crown prince? This frightened Zhu Gaozi not lightly, and he had a serious illness, and after Zhu Di heard about it, he was also a little panicked, and under the persuasion of Yuan Zhongche, he let people tear down the notice at the noon gate.
In the eleventh year of Yongle, Zhu Di left Beijing again, and Zhu Gaozi was ordered to supervise the country for the second time, he was more cautious and cautious, reported things in time, and rarely made his own decisions.
Someone said when he played the matter: Someone framed you, does Your Highness know who it is?
Zhu Gaozi's answer was watertight: "I don't know, I know that I should just do my duty" (Ming Shi)
In November of the ninth year of Yongle, Zhu Gaoxu's eldest son Zhu Zhanji was made the emperor's grandson by Zhu Di, and the power of the grandson began to rise, and Zhu Gaoxu's position as crown prince became more and more stable, and Zhu Gaoxu saw that he was getting farther and farther away from the position of crown prince, and he was anxious.
Zhu Gaoxu took advantage of Zhu Di's dissatisfaction with the crown prince to imprison and dispose of the prince's subordinates several times, weakening the prince's power, but did not fundamentally shake Zhu Gaoxu's position as crown prince, he decided to adjust his strategy, prepared to seize the throne by force, planning to move in Nanjing, he found an excuse not to go to the new fief Qingzhou, continue to rely on Nanjing, and at the same time privately expand the armament.
In the fourteenth year of Yongle, Zhu Di returned to Jingshi, and after hearing about Zhu Gaoxu's attempts to seize the concubine and various illegal acts, he ordered zhu Gaoxu's guards to be transferred, and also summoned Jian Yi and Yang Shiqi to ask their views.
Jian Yitui said that he did not know the behavior of the King of Han, Yang Shiqi was the main official who assisted Zhu Gaozi in supervising the country, and was loyal to Zhu Gaozi, he saw that things had turned around, so he cleverly spoke to Zhu Di and exposed Zhu Gaoxu's plot to seize the throne: The King of Han's initial fief was in Yunnan, he refused to go, and later the fief was changed to Qingzhou, he still did not want to go, the imperial court now wanted to move the capital to Beijing, the King of Han asked to stay in Nanjing, and asked His Majesty to carefully consider his intentions.
Yang Shiqi's words touched Zhu Di greatly, and soon, Zhu Di asked Zhu Gaoxu to find him and ask him in person what his intentions were? He was ordered to be imprisoned inside the Xihua Gate and prepared to depose him as a Shuren.
Although he had been framed many times by Zhu Gaoxu before, Zhu Gaoxu complained with virtue, knelt down in front of his father, and cried and interceded for his brother, and Zhu Gaoxu was eventually demoted to Le'an.
Later, when Zhu Gaozhuo had an accident, Zhu Gaozi also pleaded bitterly.
As a father, Zhu Di naturally hoped that his sons could get along harmoniously with each other, and Zhu Gaozi's doing so was undoubtedly in line with Zhu Di's expectations for him, which was a plus.
Zhu Gaozi interceded for the two younger brothers successively, and successfully established the image of a generous elder brother, making Zhu Di believe that he could treat his brothers kindly, so as to safely hand over the throne to him.
Why were Yang Shiqi and others so loyal to Zhu Gaozi?
On the one hand, it is true that Yang Shiqi was an official of the Zhan Shifu, and their future was closely related to the ups and downs of the crown prince, on the other hand, it was also because of Zhu Gaozi's outstanding ability.
Zhu Gaozi was familiar with the Confucian classics, and in the hearts of Wen Chen, he was an ideal literati monarch, and Yang Shiqi, Yang Pu, Huang Huai and others formed a good cooperation model with Zhu Gaozi in the process of assisting the prince to supervise the country, and formed a precious friendship.
Zhu Gaozi knows people well, pays attention to teamwork, and is good at giving full play to the strengths of team members, Wenchen can fully display his talents under him, and Zhu Gaozi has gradually matured in government affairs handling with the help of Wenchen's dedication.
After all, a person's time, energy, knowledge, and experience are limited, and only by knowing how to borrow and learn to cooperate can they break through these natural limitations.
The university scholar Yang Rong was deeply trusted by Zhu Di, and every time Zhu Di went on a northern expedition, he let him accompany him, because he also served in the Zhan Shi Mansion, during the Period of the Beijing Division, Yang Rong had tutored the emperors and grandchildren to study, Zhu Gaozi specifically instructed the emperor and grandson to be polite to Yang Rong, not to be rude, Zhu Gaozi had great respect for Yang Rong, and Yang Rong also returned to Zhu Gaozi to repay Li, and after Zhu Di died on the way back to the northern expedition, Yang Rong and the eunuch Haishou rushed back to the Beijing division to report to Zhu Gaozi at the first time to prevent Zhu Gaoxu from seizing the throne after receiving the news.
Zhu Gaozi quickly rewarded the Northern Expeditionary Army for meritorious deeds, and at the same time mobilized cavalry back to defend the Beijing Division, and quickly controlled the situation, which showed his extraordinary ability.