Among the founding monarchs of previous dynasties, Zhu Yuanzhang can only suffer with his brothers and cannot share wealth and prosperity. After his ascension to the throne, the killing hero Yuan Su was so vast that he could not be called a person who had never come before, although many of those who were killed were corrupt, bribed, and proud of their achievements, but in general they all served as victims of authoritarian power. Zhu Yuanzhang's killing of meritorious heroes implemented a central idea that others should not snore on the side of the bed, and as long as any meritorious person could threaten the political foundation of the Zhu family, he would be charged with political crimes such as embezzlement, conspiracy to rebel, and foreign countries, and be completely eliminated from the body to the spirit without mercy. Otherwise, Lao Zhu would not be able to eat well and sleep. In the era of Zhu Yuanzhang's rule, it can be said that "officials do not talk about life", which official does not know when his head will be moved, from the Hu Weiyong case Li Shanchang case to the Blue Jade case, each time tens of thousands of people have become ghosts under the knife.
However, there were also people on the tip of Lao Zhu's sword who escaped the bloody killing and became one of the few people who could get a good death, such as Zhu Yuanzhang's think tank Zhu Sheng. Speaking of this great strategist with the same surname as the Hongwu Emperor, what posterity most talked about was his political strategy of "building a high wall, accumulating grain, and slowly becoming king" proposed to Zhu Yuanzhang, and it was precisely by relying on this strategic policy that Lao Zhu's strength to kill in the east and the west continued to accumulate and grow, not only wiping out Zhang Shicheng, Chen Youyu and other local powerful factions, but also driving away the Tartar soldiers, sitting on the emperor's throne, and transforming from a poor monk into a nine-five-year-old man.
When Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, Zhu Sheng was already nearly an ancient rarity, perhaps because he was well aware of the most reasonable saying that "cunning rabbits die and good dogs cook, high birds do their best to hide their bows, and enemy countries break through and plot their subjects die", Zhu Sheng, who looked down on fame and fortune, was not blinded by the hustle and bustle of the court, but resolutely chose to retreat bravely, planning to stay away from the capital. When he made a request for retirement to Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Yuanzhang was very surprised, and he repeatedly retained this great meritorious man, hoping that he would continue to assist him, and said that as long as Zhu Sheng did not leave, any title could be given to him. But Zhu Sheng was already determined, no matter how Old Zhu made a wish, Zhu Sheng was not moved. Seeing that Zhu Sheng's heart was iron, Zhu Yuanzhang was no longer reluctant. He asked Zhu Sheng, "How many children does Ai Qing have?" Zhu Sheng said: "There is only one only son under my knee named Zhu Tong, and this is still my old son." Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Since you can't serve the country anymore, let your son come out and become an official, and as long as he really has the ability, I will let him be a high-ranking official." ”
Hearing Zhu Yuanzhang say this, Zhu Sheng's heart trembled and shook his head, he did not expect that Zhu Yuanzhang would start the idea of his son Zhu Tong. So Zhu Sheng said to Zhu Yuanzhang: "Your Majesty, if Zhu Tong is an official, although he will be loyal to His Majesty and fulfill his duties. But this child is born stupid, not good at official communication, afraid of self-preservation, is not an official material at all, please Your Majesty must not let him come out to be an official. If His Majesty had to make him an official, and one day when he made a mistake and was about to be beheaded, he hoped that His Majesty would remember the old minister and leave him a whole corpse. Speaking of this, Zhu Sheng had long been unable to cry.
Seeing that Zhu Sheng was frightened like this, Zhu Yuanzhang had to persuade zhu Sheng, and he said to Zhu Sheng: "Ai Qing need not worry, although I am a monarch and a courtier, I am actually a father and son, Zhu Tong is my good brother, I will definitely take good care of him, today I will give your family a gold medal to avoid death in front of you, if one day Zhu Tong really commits a crime, I will never pursue it, so you can rest assured." ”
After listening to Zhu Yuanzhang's political remarks, Zhu Sheng's hanging heart was slightly calmer. However, in order to prevent his son from having the idea of becoming an official, after returning to his hometown, Zhu Sheng gave his son thousands of instructions every day: We must honestly study at home, the family does not worry about eating and drinking, and the muddy waters of the official field must not be waded, once it is deeply trapped, it will not be able to extricate itself, and if it is not good, it will be crushed to pieces. Regarding Zhu Sheng's nagging, although the young Zhu Tong agreed in his mouth, he couldn't understand in his heart why Grandpa didn't let himself become an official, and he had such a fear of being an official. He thought to himself: Which reader does not read for the sake of being an official, and what a scenery it is to have a dynasty and the first shining lintel. What's more, the emperor also gave a death card, and with this amulet, there was nothing terrible. Even if you encounter a minefield or an abyss in the official field, the death card can help you to kill yourself.
In the third year of Hongwu, that is, the second year after being given the death card, Zhu Sheng died in his hometown, and Zhu Yuanzhang was very sad to hear this, ordered someone to go to mourn on his behalf, and instructed the local officials in Anhui to take good care of Zhu Sheng's family and solve any difficulties with all their strength. With the emperor's orders, local officials dared to be sloppy, and Zhu Sheng's family became the living ancestors who were offered up, and during the New Year's Festival, local officials would also go to Zhu's house to pay respects and greet him warmly. Therefore, although Zhu Sheng died, the Zhu family was still a prominent political family in Anhui Province. Speaking of Zhu Tong, at the beginning, he was able to obey his father's orders, study and govern in his hometown, teach in his spare time, and compile a county chronicle to pass the time. But after a long time, this tasteless life makes him very bored, just as the so-called good boy is determined to be in the four directions, nesting in this small place in his hometown is really not Zhu Tong's life wish.
Later, unable to bear the political loneliness, he finally chose to become an official, and at this time, Zhu Tong had long forgotten the teachings of his father. He first worked in the Ministry of Personnel for a period of idle time, and because of his outstanding political performance and excellent professional level, he was promoted by Zhu Yuanzhang to vice minister of the Ministry of Culture in the eighteenth year of Hongwu. Zhu Tong secretly thought: According to such a political momentum, it is not certain that only by working hard one day he may become a big member of the Yipin Dynasty. Zhu Tong, who thought more and more beautifully, was a little fluttering, but just when his spring breeze was triumphantly dreaming of the spring dream of the officialdom, a political catastrophe had quietly struck. Just a month after serving as a ceremonial attendant, he was shot in the face of the exposure of vice minister of finance Guo Huan, together with the ministry of personnel, the ministry of construction, the ministry of justice, and many other ministers who had betrayed the corruption of grain from the national treasury.
To tell the truth, Zhu Tong did not participate in the act of Guo Huan and other high-ranking officials selling grain from the state treasury. However, Zhu Yuanzhang, who had already killed the red-eyed Zhu Yuanzhang at that time, suspected that none of the officials of the six ministries were clean, so he killed most of the ministers and vice ministers of the six ministries and officials below, and actively encouraged the whistle-blowing to make meritorious deeds. In this anti-corruption storm, Zhu Yuanzhang firmly adhered to the policy of "preferring to kill ten thousand by mistake than let one person slip through the net." Zhu Tong, who had not yet sat in the position of vice minister of culture, also became the target of accusations, inexplicably became a corrupt member, and was sentenced to capital punishment after only a simple interrogation. Until the execution, Zhu Tong thought that he would not die, because he had not done anything corrupt, and there was a gold medal for avoiding death at home. However, these were extremely pale and weak in front of Zhu Yuanzhang's butcher's knife, and he was still pulled under the knife.
I don't know if Zhu Yuanzhang remembered the verbal promise to Zhu Sheng and the gold medal given to Zhu Sheng's family at the same time that Zhu Yuanzhang was killing Zhu Sheng, and this untrustworthy emperor not only deceived Zhu Sheng, but also pit Zhu Tong, and knew that such a sinister and dangerous official field did not have any security guarantees, presumably Zhu Tong would not be an official when he was killed, and he could not afford to play even more. Under authoritarian power, the so-called death-free gold medal is just a trick to deceive political dwarfs, and it is okay to be obscene but must not be taken seriously. The death card is not so much a life-saving safety charm as a killer.