Chapter 202

"Zhu Di, admonish, uncle, nephew, get along well.

These words are fine on their own, but when they are combined, they are, they are..."

Pirate Zhang Jie had a constipated expression: "It's just too damn strange."

"Yeah."

Tian Long Zhang Jie nodded fiercely with deep empathy.

As long as you are a Chinese person, you are familiar with the fact that Emperor Chengzu of Ming, Zhu Di, started the Jingnan Campaign from Beijing, which was not yet Beijing,

killed his way into Nanjing, the legitimate capital of the Great Ming at the time,

probably killed his big nephew Zhu Yunwen, and usurped the throne.

I don't know what kind of mood he was in when he wrote this admonition letter.

Who would have thought that a usurper who usurped his big nephew's position would admonish another uncle not to usurp his big nephew's position.

What is the difference between this and Little Mustache, the great synthesizer of Legalist thought, writing a letter to admonish,

Mussolini, the great Mohist master, caring for the Jews?

This admonition of his is fundamentally untenable!

As for Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen being missing in historical records?

How should I put this?

This is probably the charm of the Spring and Autumn brush technique of Confucius editing the "Spring and Autumn."

If Zhu Yunwen died in the chaotic army, Zhu Di would have to bear the infamy of regicide and killing his nephew.

Although he had an indelible stain since he started his rebellion, this infamy was still too great,

the matter of the Sima family killing the emperor in the street, killing Cao Mao, the Duke of Gaogui of Cao Wei, who said 'I would rather die as the Duke of Gaogui,

than live under someone else's roof,' has been scolded for thousands of years,

and it is foreseeable that it will be scolded again into the infinitely distant future.

Of course, the end of the Sima clan, cursed by the blood of the Son of Heaven, was not much better.

In the end, almost the entire family was killed cleanly by Liu Yu, Emperor Wu of Southern Song.

Since then, the direct line of the Sima clan should, possibly, have been cut off.

But it must be said that Liu Yu also set a bad precedent.

Since the Liu Song Dynasty, the previous dynasty's royal family would almost all be exterminated.

After Emperor Wen of Sui, Yang Jian, usurped Northern Zhou, he killed all the direct descendants of Northern Zhou, not even sparing his grandson.

His grandson, Emperor Jing of Zhou, Yuwen Chan, died suddenly of illness only three months after abdicating to Yang Jian,

in May of the first year of Kaihuang.

Tang Taizu Li Yuan forced Emperor Gong of Sui, Yang You, to abdicate and establish the Tang Dynasty,

Yang You died in the second year of Wu De (619 AD) at the age of only 15.

Although historical records state his cause of death as illness, there is a view that Li Yuan may have sent someone to kill him.

Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin set up a vow tablet in the Taimiao, namely the "Three Prohibitions on the Stone Tablet,"

which clearly mentioned "the descendants of the Chai family shall not be punished even if they have crimes, even if they commit treason,

they shall only be given death in prison, they shall not be executed in the market, and they shall not be implicated."

This shows that he nominally wanted to protect the members of the Later Zhou royal family.

However, judging from the actual encounters of the members of the Later Zhou royal family, Zhao Kuangyin did not fully abide by this vow.

Emperor Gong of Later Zhou, Chai Zongxun, was enfeoffed as the Prince of Zheng, but died of "illness" 13 years later, cause of death unknown.

Other royal family members such as Chai Xijin died unclearly in the early Song Dynasty, and Chai Xihui and Chai Xirang disappeared.

Most of the other sons of Zhou Shizong Chai Rong did not have a good end either.

The Qing Dynasty's liquidation of the Ming Dynasty was also extremely cruel; it is unknown how many of the millions of royal descendants were left in the end.

The name "Zhu San Crown Prince" made our Great Qing terrified for decades.

Among the unified dynasties, only the Ming Dynasty did not directly liquidate the emperors and royal family of the previous dynasty.

This is of course not because Zhu Yuanzhang was kind-hearted and couldn't bear to see bloodshed,

but because Yuan Shundi Yuan Tieguo (his name is Borjigin Toghon Temür,

where "Borjigin" is the surname and "Toghon Temür" is the given name,

his Mongolian name means "Iron Pot") ran fast enough,

and before the Great Ming army marched north to Dadu, he nimbly packed his things and ran back to the Mongolian grasslands.

The predicament of human nature makes one imperial dynasty more cold-blooded than the next.

Cutting the weeds and digging up the roots has become a bottom-level logic deeply rooted in people's hearts.

Back to the story that Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen and his fourth uncle Zhu Di had to tell.

But if Zhu Yunwen was caught, how should Zhu Di treat him, house arrest, or kill him directly?

Killing him would be regicide and killing his nephew, fratricide, and he would have to bear the infamy of the ages;

not killing him, the old subordinates of Jianwen would have a backbone, which would shake his rule.

No matter what, Zhu Yunwen was the heir designated by Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, legitimate and righteous.

So the best way is to let Zhu Yunwen "disappear," in a state of Schrödinger's cat, dead,

but not completely dead.

As long as it cannot be determined that Zhu Yunwen died in his hands, Zhu Di is not regicide or fratricide.

At the same time, it cannot be determined that Zhu Yunwen is still alive, and his person or corpse cannot be found,

which also makes the old subordinates of Jianwen have no backbone and unable to make any big waves.

It can be said that an ambiguous "disappearance" really solved Zhu Di's two major troubles.

Although everyone can roughly guess Zhu Yunwen's end, at least there is still a fig leaf.

Look, when Zheng He went to the Western Oceans, some people speculated that it was to find Zhu Yunwen, who had become the Pirate King in the Western Oceans.

Zhuan Yi Tian Zhang Jie said with a wry smile:

"Shahrukh, who usurped the throne of the Timurid Empire, was also the fourth uncle of the unlucky guy who was usurped."

Shui Hu Zhang Jie also couldn't help laughing:

"I remember someone counted that during that time, the whole world was making a fuss about fourth uncles,

all of them were uncles grabbing the thrones of nephews or nieces."

Pirate Zhang Jie touched his chin and said thoughtfully:

"But probably even if Zhu Yuanzhang knew about his good son,

and let him 'live' for another four years, he probably wouldn't care.

His enfeoffment system was essentially trying to put a resurrection armor on the Great Ming,

hoping that one day in the future when the Great Ming had a muddled emperor, a few Zhu Xius and Zhu Beis could emerge among the people.

As a result, under Zhu Yunwen's confusing operation, he used the resurrection armor at the beginning."

Zhuan Yi Tian Zhang Jie replied: "Actually, a few resurrection armors did emerge at the end of the Ming Dynasty,

such as the Longwu Emperor of Southern Ming, but they were all killed by the collectors."

Shui Hu Zhang Jie shook his head: "That can no longer be counted as resurrection armor.

To be honest, the abilities of the several monarchs of Southern Ming were not very good.

It was mainly because from Zhu Di onwards, the Ming Dynasty's policy toward vassal kings could not raise a hero capable of turning the tide.

But this cannot blame Zhu Di; originally, the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties each lasted more than two hundred years,

and from Zhu Di to Chongzhen, it was indeed more than two hundred years, which shows that the Great Ming 2.0 he established was quite qualified.

Then the problem can only be with the Great Ming 1.0, which only had two emperors, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Yunwen."