The general Xu Da was the number one thug under Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Emperor, and had been following Zhu Yuanzhang in his southern conquest of the northern war, although his individual combat ability was not very strong, but he was strategic, using soldiers like gods, personally leading a large army to drive Emperor Yuanshun to the north of saiwai and made a great achievement.
Although he ranked first in the list of meritorious heroes, Xu Da was not proud at all, and was especially respectful and cautious in front of Zhu Yuanzhang, who was always called "cloth brother" in private, and Xu Da was always careful to deal with it, and did not dare to cross the dignity and inferiority of the monarch.
As the saying goes, "cunning rabbits die, lackeys cook; Birds are exhausted, good bows are hidden; The enemy country is destroyed, and the conspirators are killed." In order to consolidate their rule, ancient emperors often attacked the founding heroes, and throughout ancient and modern times, especially the Ming Dynasty, the founding fathers almost did not end their lives.
Therefore, as the first founding hero, Xu Da's death is like his battle achievements, full of mystery. The Ming Dynasty scholar Xu Zhenqing's notebook novel "Zhai Sheng Ye Wen" records that after Zhu Yuanzhang learned that Xu Da had back gangrene, he heard that eating a steamed goose would aggravate his illness and lead to death, so he gave a steamed goose, Xu Da swallowed with tears, and soon died of gangrene.
This statement was later misused by Zhao Yi of the Qing Dynasty's famous work "Twenty-Two Historical Notes", and it was widely circulated by the people. "Give Xu Da to eat steamed goose" has become a typical case of Zhu Yuanzhang's sinister and vicious, is this really the case? Dapeng disagrees with this statement.
First of all, Xu Da died in the eighteenth year of Hongwu (1385 AD), when the war between the northern, western and southern sides of the Ming Dynasty had not yet been completely resolved, and it was precisely at the time of employment that Zhu Yuanzhang would not be stupid enough to kill a donkey before he had unloaded the grind, right?
On the contrary, in order to counter Hu Weiyong's remnants, Zhu Yuanzhang, instead of slaughtering the military generals at that time, vigorously recruited the military generals to deal with the civilian official clique, because he would certainly not kill the most loyal Xu Da at this time.
Moreover, Zhu Yuanzhang had never used assassination techniques to slaughter heroes, and even if he wanted to assassinate, he could send imperial doctors to attack, instead of using the well-known inferior means of "giving steamed geese".
Back gangrene, in ancient times, is a terrible disease, Liu Biao, Cao Xiu, Li Keyong, Zong Ze and other people all died of this disease, but eating steamed goose caused by back gangrene poisoning has no scientific basis.
Although the folk regard mutton, goose, pig head meat, and pig trotters as "hair objects", but their lethality is too low after all, Zhu Yuanzhang, who "either does not do it, do it to do it", how can he choose such an uninsured method?
The most important thing is that after Xu Da's death, Zhu Yuanzhang treated the Xu family not thinly, posthumously named Xu Da the King of Zhongshan, and gave him the third prince. Xu Da's three daughters were all married to Zhu Yuanzhang's sons, the eldest daughter was married to Zhu Di the Prince of Yan, the second daughter was married to Zhu Gui, the Acting King, and the third daughter was married to Zhu Yue, the Prince of An.
Therefore, it is illogical for Zhu Yuanzhang to send steamed geese to poison Xu Da, which is a kind of high-grade black, and xu Da's perennial conquest, accumulation of labor and disease, and death from back gangrene should be more credible.