In terms of attitude towards heroes, most of the ancient emperors' practices are more similar, that is, crossing rivers and demolishing bridges, rabbits and dead dogs cooking, and being rude to those military generals who have been born and died for themselves, and keeping them away from the power stage for various crimes.
In particular, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, interpreted this phenomenon to the extreme, and those generals who had made great military achievements were not only deprived of their power by him, but even killed them all, and also ruthlessly eliminated the think tanks who advised him.
On this issue, Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty, was a different kind, his attitude towards the heroes was more humane, and he deprived the general of his military power through consultation, and the monarchs shared the glory and lived in harmony.
Zhao Kuangyin was praised for doing so, and he could say a good story of a monarch.
After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, since he had successful experience to learn from, why didn't he learn from Zhao Kuangyin's cup of wine to release military power, and also kill the meritorious people?
Origin determines the worldview
Zhao Kuangyin was born into a family of officials and eunuchs, and Gaozu Zhao Shuo was a minister during the Tang Dynasty, and successively served as the county commander of Yongqing, Wen'an, and Youdu Counties.
His grandfather, Zhao Jing, initially served as an official in Later Liang, and later became a Later Tang official, with a higher rank, successively serving as the assassin of Yingzhou, Jizhou, and Zhuozhou. During the Later Zhou Dynasty, he became a high-ranking official and was given the title of General of the Left Guard.
His father, Zhao Hongyin, also served as an official in the Later Tang, Later Han, and Later Wednesday dynasties, responsible for managing the Forbidden Army, and commanding envoys from the official Zhidu.
Zhao Kuangyin's ancestors were high-ranking officials for several generations, and they grew up in such an environment, and in the chaotic situation of the five dynasties of the Tang Dynasty, although the emperor was constantly changing, the officials of the ruling class maintained a set of relatively decent political rules, basically retaining the Tang Dynasty's method of dealing with political enemies, which was much more civilized than that of the Ming and Qing dynasties in later generations.
Zhu Yuanzhang was born at the bottom of society, he himself was a monk, and his ancestors were farmers for generations. In the context of the great uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang faced a very cruel environment of life and death, and the difficulty of gaining the Jiangshan was far more difficult than that of Zhao Kuangyin, who was dressed in yellow robes.
In this regard, Zhu Yuanzhang is very similar to Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, who slaughtered the heroes. Both came from the bottom, and after years of fighting for power, they also carried out large-scale liquidation of the heroes.
Successor conditions are different
One of the most important factors in Zhu Yuanzhang's extermination of meritorious heroes was the issue of succession.
Zhu Yuanzhang's sons all grew up in a war environment, such as Zhu Di and other sons are super military ability, but only the eldest son has a gentle and elegant personality and does not have much battlefield experience.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang had to hand over the Daming River and Mountains to Zhu Biao for three reasons.
First, according to the ancestral system, the throne must be passed to the eldest son, otherwise the country will be chaotic.
Second, Zhu Yuanzhang admired Zhu Biao very much, and felt that he had a stable and peaceful personality and was the best successor.
Third, the Ming Dynasty has unified the world, and there is no longer a need for military experts to govern the country, just need talents like Zhu Biao.
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang made Zhu Biao crown prince in the year of his reign as emperor, that is, in the first year of Hongwu (1368).
Not only that, Zhu Yuanzhang established a team to assist the crown prince: Li Shanchang and the prince's young master, the right chancellor Xu Da and the prince's young master, the Zhongshu Pingzhanglu military state affairs Chang Yuchun and the prince Shaobao, and the right governor Feng Sheng and the right Zhan Shi.
Despite this, Zhu Yuanzhang was still worried that after his death, someone would challenge the authority, Zhu Biao could not control the overall situation, and someone would challenge his authority.
In a nutshell, there are two types of people, one is those generals who are in the limelight, they will support the army and respect themselves, and do not pay attention to Zhu Biao; the other is the prince who has made many military achievements and can fight good battles, such as Zhu Zhu and Zhu Di, who will directly rebel and compete for the emperor's throne.
In addition, a general who is related to Zhu Biao by blood must also guard against foreign relatives from interfering in politics.
Historical examples of foreign monopoly abound, especially the Han Dynasty.
For example, Dou Xian of the Han Dynasty, because his sister was the empress of Emperor Zhang of Han, one person was promoted to heaven by the Dao Chicken Dog, he had great power and monopoly, ran amok in the Capital Division, most of the local assassination history and shou orders were appointed by him, the emperor became a decoration, and he dared to seize the manor of the emperor's sister Princess Qinshui.
Founding General Lan Yu was the brother-in-law of the founding general Chang Yuchun, and Chang Yuchun's eldest daughter married Zhu Biao, the eldest son of Zhu Yuanzhang, and Lan Yu became a threatening figure.
Although Chang Yuchun died, his sons Chang Mao (who was stripped of his knighthood at the age of 35, "deposed himself" and "died of illness"), and Chang Sheng (Hongwu twenty-six years (1393), who was killed by Zhu Yuanzhang for implicating himself in the rebellion of his uncle Lan Yu), were also ill-confidants, and if they were not removed, they would also "collude" with uncle Lan Yu and affect Zhu Biao's authority.
Realistically speaking, Zhu Yuanzhang's indiscriminate killing of meritorious people was mainly for the smooth handover of political power and to clear the way for Zhu Biao to grasp power.
Unfortunately, the sky was not beautiful, Zhu Biao died in front of Zhu Yuanzhang, six years early, which made all of Zhu Yuanzhang's efforts in vain.
AiWu and Wu, Zhu Yuanzhang positioned his grandson Zhu Yunjiao as his successor.
At this time, he was still a teenager, one had no strategy, the other had no military talent, and he would inherit the throne in the future, and the resistance to governing could be imagined.
In this way, it is even more necessary to kill the heroes.
It is said that at this time, the greatest threat to Zhu Yunjiao was Zhu Di, the King of Yan, but the tiger poison did not eat children, and Zhu Yuanzhang was reluctant to take his own son to open a knife and kill those generals, which could eliminate Zhu Di's henchmen and ensure the smooth transfer of power to Zhu Yunjiao.
If Zhu Yuanzhang let those generals transfer power peacefully, after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, the generals could rely on their own influence to make a comeback and participate in the power struggle of the Ming Dynasty, either usurping the throne or assisting the crown prince in competing for the throne, no matter what the situation would affect the stability of the Zhu Ming Dynasty, zhu Yuanzhang did not want to see, so it was inevitable to kill the heroes.
In contrast, Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, became emperor at the age of 33, 7 years earlier than Zhu Yuanzhang, and he had enough time to complete the transition of power.
Moreover, Zhao Kuangyin was born in the Five Dynasties period, and according to the five generations tradition, he did not make a prince for 16 years (afraid of the prince usurping the throne).
Moreover, Zhao Kuangyin only had four sons, two of whom died early, which was equivalent to only two sons, and the eldest son, Zhao Dezhao, was eight years older than the younger son, Zhao Defang, and neither seniority nor ability was enough to compete with his brother.
Since there were no crown princes, there were only two princes, and there was a huge difference in age and ability, and the eldest son would not face a fierce struggle in the future; and Zhao Kuangyin was still so young that he did not worry about the generals interfering in the power struggle of the Zhao family, so there was no need for Zhao Kuangyin to kill the heroes.
It's just that Zhao Kuangyin didn't expect that he would have such a short life, he died at the age of 50, and he didn't solve the problem of succession before he died, let alone clear the heroes, paving the way for the prince.