Ming Dynasty: Traveling through the harem, Zhu Yuanzhang was dumbfounded

Chapter 206: The Ming Dynasty God of War! Mingzong Fort!

It seems that it is the tradition of the Zhu family to pamper their grandchildren.

There is no need to say much about Zhu Yuanzhang's doting on Zhu Xiongying; it can be seen from the details in all aspects.

Even though he initially wanted Zhu Xiongying to live under his wing forever and not leave the imperial city as a minor, now when Zhu Xiongying wants to go out, Zhu Yuanzhang will personally accompany him. It can be said that he has made a lot of concessions.

The same was true for Zhu Di. Zhu Zhanji's favor to him could be said to be to the point of loving the man and his family as well.

Historical records show that if Zhu Zhanji had not been outstanding enough, the person sitting on the throne would probably not be Zhu Gaochi, but Zhu Gaoxu.

"This fourth brother must keep up with us in everything."

Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile, stroking his beard.

Yang Chen added:

"Your Majesty, please do not think that Yongle's favor was for nothing. Zhu Zhanji fought for it all by himself. He also knew how his grandfather felt about him. So, under the education of his junior teachers and tutors in various fields, Zhu Zhanji showed amazing talent.

Whether it was politics, commanding troops, tactics, elegant literature, or having fun and relaxing, he was an outstanding talent in all areas.

Everyone knows that when Emperor Xuanzong was young, he could bring peace to the world with his writing and decide the fate of the world with his military skills. Among the sixteen emperors of the Ming Dynasty, he was definitely at the forefront. At the same time, the prosperous era he created was also linked to his father. In the Ming Dynasty, it was called the Reign of Renzong and Xuanzong. "

At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang could be said to be in a very good mood. For this reason, his bad impression of Zhu Di's rebellious act of seizing the throne was reduced a bit.

Because it doesn't seem to be a bad thing to let Zhu Zhanji take the throne.

But unexpectedly, Yang Chen sighed and continued:

"It's a pity. No one is perfect. During Zhu Zhanji's reign, he did a lot of bad things, including steaming his uncle alive. No, no, it should be said that he was roasted to death, because there was no water around him when he died, so roasting is the most appropriate description."

Yang Chen said this fact with a smile, and Zhu Yuanzhang's face turned ashen and almost black.

What did he hear?
Among his descendants, there was actually a nephew who burned his uncle to death in such a brutal way?
Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't understand this at all. He suppressed his frustration and asked in a stern voice:

"Tell me honestly, what is this roasting to death all about?"

Yang Chen paused, and only dared to continue speaking after making sure that Zhu Yuanzhang could still listen.

"The thing is, Zhu Gaochi was not liked by Yongle, so when Yongle was the crown prince, this guy played Li Yuan's tricks, supporting the eldest son but admiring the second son, and occasionally speaking some encouraging words to the second son, fearing that the other party would not work hard and slack off during his Northern Expedition.

It was not until the Northern Expedition was almost over that Yongle told the second son that he could not become the next emperor. How could this make Zhu Gaoxu feel comfortable?

So during the period when Zhu Gaochi was emperor, he protested frequently in Nanjing City. By the way, I forgot to tell you that the capital of the Ming Dynasty had been changed to Beijing at that time.

Faced with this noisy younger brother, Zhu Gaochi let him go again and again until he died of obesity. Seeing that his elder brother was gone, Zhu Gaoxu gathered his old subordinates and started making trouble again, wanting to emulate his biological father and carry out the Xuanwu Gate succession method. Unfortunately, Zhu Gaoxu inherited Xiang Yu's bravery, and also Xiang Yu's brains.

When it comes to maneuvering and political tricks, he is not only outclassed by his elder brother, but also by his nephew. You can definitely guess the final result.

Failure in the struggle will naturally result in imprisonment.

But you treat a man who has fought and killed for decades like a piglet."

"Who do you call Piggy?"

Yang Chen was about to continue speaking metaphorically when he was suddenly interrupted by Zhu Yuanzhang.

Only then did he realize that he seemed to be dancing among Zhu Yuanzhang's taboo words.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang carried out a period of literary inquisition in the early days of the founding of the country during the Hongwu period. After all, the surname was similar to the food pig, and he would not allow others to make jokes about it.

Later, Empress Ma persuaded him that literary inquisition was something only tyrants did. Zhu Yuanzhang then relaxed the policy and allowed pigs to continue to be used, but with one prerequisite: they could not shout loudly.

Now Yang Chen not only said it in front of him, but also described his grandchildren as pigs. Isn't that saying in front of him that Zhu Yuanzhang is the ancestor of piglets?
"Ahem. Your Majesty misunderstood, Your Majesty misunderstood. This is just a metaphor."

After finally calming Zhu Yuanzhang down, Yang Chen continued to go down to the club.

"Zhu Gaoxu didn't like being imprisoned, so he sent someone to tell Zhu Zhanji that he had sent someone to kill his father. In a rage, Zhu Zhanji didn't think much about it and directly sent someone to imprison Zhu Gaoxu and put him in a copper furnace, lit charcoal fire and piled wood around him, and roasted him alive for a day and a night. Finally, he suddenly remembered that all the people around Zhu Gaoxu had been dealt with long ago. How could he kill his own father with his own butt?

By the time he rushed to the execution ground, Zhu Gaoxu had already turned into a dried corpse."

At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that there were too many talented people in his family. To be precise, it was Zhu Di's lineage that was hard to describe.

He never expected that his great-grandson could be so cruel to his uncle.

It’s normal to think about it. Who can keep their last bit of sanity when they know their father was murdered by someone?

If Zhu Yuanzhang were in Zhu Zhanji's position, he would probably have impulsively killed Zhu Gaoxu with a sword.

The main reason why he felt so regretful was that Zhu Gaoxu possessed the bravery of Xiang Yu, which is a unique praise throughout the ages.

How could Zhu Yuanzhang not be happy that among his descendants there was a talent comparable to Xiang Yu?

Now, this grandson was roasted to death by his great-grandson.

"When the fourth son comes back, we must tell him not to let Gao Chi eat too much, so that he won't become as fat as a pig and eventually die of this. If other people find out, where will the reputation of our Zhu family be?"

Zhu Yuanzhang said this with a smile and tears in his eyes. When he looked up at Yang Chen, he found that Yang Chen was staring at him with a very strange look.

This made Zhu Yuanzhang very unhappy, and he frowned and asked:

"What's that look in your kid's face?"

"Your Majesty, you didn't allow me to say that word just now, but why did you say it yourself?" "Get lost! Why do I need to explain to you clearly what I did? What happened next? What happened after Zhu Zhanji killed his uncle? What happened to Yu Qian?"

At this moment, Yang Chen could only criticize Zhu Yuanzhang in his heart for his double standards.

After all this time, it turns out that he doesn't allow outsiders to talk about his family's affairs, but he himself can.

"What happened next was that Zhu Zhanji lived in regret. After all, you had already established the Imperial Ming Dynasty's ancestral precepts, which clearly stated that the Zhu family could fight among themselves, but they could not kill each other. Now, he killed his uncle at such a young age and used torture. This matter has become his nightmare.

During one of his Northern Expeditions, he was affected by a nightmare and suffered a defeat in the battle, which hit him hard. From then on, he began to focus on the people's livelihood in the Ming Dynasty.

After years of war, the Ming Dynasty had suffered severe losses and people's livelihood was declining, so he made a decision that was widely discussed by later generations.

"Cease the land!"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes became very unfriendly. He had made it clear that the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty could die on the battlefield, or sacrifice in any kind of heroic way, but he would no longer allow the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty to do anything that would damage the reputation of the royal family.

Now, when Zhu Yuanzhang heard the news that Zhu Zhanji had ceded land, he was furious and wanted to beat his unborn great-grandson to death.

If he can't beat the kid, he can beat me. Zhu Gaochi is still young, so let's beat Zhu Di!

Poor Zhu Di didn't know that he had deserved a beating from Zhu Yuanzhang many times.

“Ahem, to be precise, it’s not about ceding land, it’s about giving up these territories.

At that time, the Ming Dynasty had expanded its territory to the South China Sea and Southeast Asia. The area north of the Great Wall and the Songhua River and Changbai Mountain in the northeast were all Ming territory. Unfortunately, Zhu Zhanji believed that instead of arranging armed forces and wasting time in these places, it would be better to gather troops back to the Ming Dynasty and properly deal with people's livelihood.

In the end, he simply gave up Annan, Nurgandusi, Hamiwei and other areas. These areas were all important places and were also the foundations that Yongle had worked hard to build. "

"Asshole! Asshole! This Zhu Zhanji is really stupid! Doesn't he know that the larger the country's territory, the stronger the country's strength will be! How can he act like Wu Zetian! Shame on you! It's really shameful!"

The annoyed Zhu Yuanzhang raised his hand and slammed the table hard, causing stones to fall all around. It was enough to show how powerful the force was, which was very terrifying.

No matter what the reason was for Zhu Zhanji to give up these territories, in Zhu Yuanzhang's view it was a shameful act, almost no different from the Li Tang period and the Wu Zetian era.

At that time, Wu Zetian inherited most of the power of the Li Tang Dynasty, and naturally also owned the world conquered by Li Shimin. It could be said that the Tang Dynasty at that time was a place where all nations came to pay tribute, but after Wu Zetian came to power, she also believed that these territories were meaningless.

He used his overbearing power to declare that these territories no longer belonged to the Tang Dynasty, causing confusion among many states.

Originally everyone was a friend, but now after what she did, the enemy is right at the doorstep. How can we not be cursed by future generations?
Obviously, this is what Zhu Zhanji did.

This made Zhu Yuanzhang very unhappy. Such a person appeared among his descendants. He wanted to slap Zhu Zhanji twice in front of him and call him a waste!
"What happened to this bastard boy later?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was like a volcano that could erupt at any time and anywhere, and Yang Chen's tone of voice couldn't help but slow down.

"What happened next? Then he died! I think I told Ah Biao, but not you, that Zhu Zhanji, as the last of the Five Dragons, had less than ten years to live, and he died in exactly ten years."

Upon hearing that his great-grandson's life was so short, Zhu Yuanzhang's original anger disappeared by half.

At this moment, he felt the ups and downs of a family.

Zhu Yuanzhang brought honor to his family and made the Zhu family the founders of a dynasty. However, he did not expect that the fate of his descendants would be so unfortunate starting from himself. Perhaps this is what it means that fate is unpredictable.

With a sense of loneliness all over his body, Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand:
"You should tell me about Yu Qian's affairs. We are really the only ones who know our family's affairs."

Zhu Yuanzhang was speechless at this moment.

After making sure that Zhu Yuanzhang was fine, Yang Chen slowly spoke:
“Your Majesty, Yu Qian’s matter is too complicated to be dealt with in a short time, but don’t worry, things will be much simpler from now on.

Zhu Zhanji left so suddenly that he was less than 40 years old when he passed away, and his only two sons were still young. So the cabinet ministers at the time assisted the young emperor to ascend the throne. Those in power at that time included cabinet officials, civil servants, and Zhu Qizhen's mother, the Empress Dowager of the Ming Dynasty.

At that time, Yu Qian had already begun to touch the core of Ming Dynasty power, but was still a little short of it. Yu Qian was active under your son Yongle, and was gradually reused during the period of Zhu Gaochi. During the period of Zhu Zhanji, he gave Yu Qian certain promotions. Before Zhu Zhanji's death, Yu Qian was already the second in command of the Ministry of War.

Zhu Qizhen grew up under the care of many ministers. It is said that Zhu Qizhen was quite awesome. Your great-great-grandson was called the God of War of the Ming Dynasty by later generations!
Because his great-grandfather and father had both led troops to fight in person, Zhu Qizhen always wanted to find an opportunity to prove himself after he came of age. So when the Tatar tribes provoked the Ming Dynasty's border, Zhu Qizhen wanted to prove himself, so he led the Ming Dynasty's elite troops to lead the army in person on a massive northern expedition.

This battle completely established his position in history, and the title of the Ming Dynasty's God of War came from this.

He led the elite troops of the Ming Dynasty to fight a jaw-dropping war with the Tatars and Oirat tribes in the north. The war took place in Tumubao, where a total of 500,000 people died. Zhu Qizhen became famous in one battle. He went to more territories than Yongle had conquered. Even Xu Da, Lan Yu and others could not conquer as far as he could. What was even more incredible was that Zhu Qizhen actually made the Oirat princess pregnant. Don’t you think he was amazing?”

When it came to Zhu Qizhen, Zhu Yuanzhang felt happy at first, but as Yang Chen's words became more and more exaggerated, he felt something was wrong.

Especially every time Yang Chen mentioned the title of Ming Dynasty God of War, his look and tone made it clear that he was trying to hold back his laughter?
What on earth could have caused Yang Chen to behave like this? The more Zhu Yuanzhang thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong.

And this war actually killed 500,000 people!

What does 500,000 people mean? Even if it was 500,000 pigs, it would take ten days or half a month to kill them, right?

But if Yang Chen was deceiving him, then what’s the point?
Could it be that he was worrying too much?
In fact, the descendants of the Ming Dynasty are really promising, not as he worried?
Questions came to Zhu Yuanzhang's mind one after another, and he felt as if his heart was being stabbed. He wondered if he didn't know the truth.

He must have been having trouble sleeping and eating, so he asked tentatively:

"Did Zhu Qizhen use any advanced weapons? Or did he use some strategy? Otherwise, how could he annihilate the coalition forces of 500,000 Tatars and Oirat?"

"Or did he take all the millions of Ming soldiers with him to fight these enemies to the death?"

This issue seemed very important to Zhu Yuanzhang.

According to the records in the Art of War, if you want to completely annihilate the enemy, you will need three times more troops to accomplish it no matter what.

Of course, this statement is not true in later generations, but in the thousands of years of feudal era, this view was the absolute standard.

(End of this chapter)