The ninth emperor of this top ten emperor series made me hesitate for a long time, because at the beginning the ranking was basically formulated, and the tenth place was given to the legendary emperor Liu Bang, and it would take a lot of space to write three articles, after all, there are too many stories of Liu Bang.
So who should this ninth be given to? I have two candidates in my heart, one is Ming Cheng Zu Zhu Di, and the other is Qing Shizong Ai Xin Jue Luo Yinhe. Why is it difficult to choose, although the two emperors belong to different dynasties, they have many similarities:
First, the father and the emperor are all the top ten monarchs in history. Zhu Di's father, Zhu Yuanzhang, and Ama Xuanye of Yin Yu were both great monarchs in Chinese history, and their achievements in martial arts were all exemplary monarchs, the former just ruled the country fiercely and opened the rule of Hongwu, and the latter reigned for sixty-one years, creating a prosperous Kangxi era. Under the shadow of the great deeds of the father and emperor, either stable and conservative, mediocre life, or needle the shortcomings of the times, and create brilliance again, obviously Zhu Di and Yin Yu did not stick to the rules, but chose to forge ahead.
Second, they are all fourth-ranked princes, and none of them are concubines. Needless to say, the only concubine of the Kangxi Dynasty was the "forty-year" old prince Yinren. The history books say that Zhu Di's biological mother is Empress Ma, which is also suspected of tampering with history, and it can be seen from the current historical materials that Zhu Di's biological mother should be Mongolian, and then raised by Empress Ma and grew up with her sons. And the reason why Zhu Di wants to say that he is from Empress Ma, on the one hand, shows that he is also a concubine and qualified to inherit the throne, on the other hand, because he was still fighting with the Yuan army at that time, and if he had Mongolian blood, he would also attract criticism.
Third, they all succeeded to the throne by extraordinary means. If it were not for the early death of Zhu Yuanzhang's crown prince Zhu Biao, Zhu Di estimated that he would not have thought of right and wrong in his life, but it was precisely because he was succeeded by his nephew and was eager to cut the domain that Zhu Di had a reason to launch a quarrel. Although Yin Yu did not seize power by force, the "Nine Sons Seizing the Crown" was full of power schemes and struggles, which were bloodier and more ruthless than the Battle of Jingjian.
Compared with the two, I actually admire Yin Yu more, who reigned for only thirteen years, swept away the maladministration of Kangxi in his later years, and vigorously implemented new policies such as apportionment of money into acres, return of fire consumption to the public, and integration of official gentry as errands and grain, leaving more than 60 million taels of silver for Qianlong's treasury in the future. At the same time, he sent Nian Xinyao to lead an army into Qinghai to quell the Luobuzang Danjin rebellion and incorporate the whole province of Qinghai into the territory of the Qing Dynasty. It has made achievements in politics, economy and military, and can be said to be a key part of the Qing Dynasty's achievement of the Kang Qian dynasty.
But the emperor's achievements also have an important indicator, that is, to build the grandeur of the country and realize the Weijia Hainai. Compared with the Yongle Dynasty, which Zhu Di established in his lifetime to expel the Tatars and make a name for himself abroad, the core of the Yongzheng Dynasty was internal control, and with the struggle against the Eight Kings Party for more than a decade, it still lacked in national scientific and technological innovation and diplomatic influence.
Therefore, I have included Yongle Emperor Zhu Di as the ninth of the ten great emperors, and below, I will tell his life.
Portrait of Zhu Di
First, the prince is followed by the grandson
Either continue to endure or accumulate outbreaks. The 40-year-old Zhu Di faces an unprecedented choice. The first half of his life was generally splendid, as Zhu Yuanzhang's fourth son, and also the son appreciated and used by his father, although he was not the eldest son and did not have the position of crown prince, he was also entrusted with the heavy responsibility of King Yan and garrisoned Beiping with heavy troops. Zhu Di married Xu Da's daughter and learned the art of war of blue jade, and it can be said with certainty that Zhu Di is the most capable of fighting among Zhu Yuanzhang's more than twenty own sons.
But Zhu Di also has his sorrows, the crown prince Zhu Biao has a deep sacred heart, although his personality is relatively gentle, but as the eldest son, Zhu Biao has been taught by famous teachers since childhood with the support of his father and emperor, and after years of grinding, the ability to govern the country has been perfect. At the same time, Zhu Biaode is equally respectful, and can control his father's arrogant generals and brothers of the clan king.
However, Zhu Biao, who has been by Zhu Yuanzhang's side for many years, has too much pressure, on the one hand, he is influenced by the subtle Confucianism of his teacher, that is, Song Lian among the four sages of western Zhejiang, and the way of handling government affairs is very different from Zhu Yuanzhang's fierce governance of the country; On the other hand, Zhu Biao personally experienced Zhu Yuanzhang's wanton killing, and in the Hu Weiyong and Lan Yu cases, one case was concluded, involving a lot, and tens of thousands of heads fell to the ground, this psychological impact made Zhu Biao physically and mentally exhausted and died early in middle age.
The death of the crown prince Zhu Biao made Zhu Yuanzhang extremely sad, a successor who has been cultivated for decades, a prince who has devoted everything to eradicate all thorns for it, saying that if it is gone, Zhu Yuanzhang seems to have turned white overnight. Of course, there was something more difficult, that is, his sons began to move, including Zhu Di. But Zhu Di is not a concubine born to Empress Ma, even if he has talent, he is not supported by the ministers of the central government, and Zhu Yuanzhang has fought for half of his life and killed half of his life, and in the heart of Wen Chen, he longs for a ruler of the world.
Zhu Yuanzhang buried Zhu Biao, who had failed to inherit the throne, with the gift of an emperor, and with thoughts of his son, he finally heeded the advice of the ministers, performed a weak crown ceremony to Zhu Biao's son Zhu Yunjiang in advance, and canonized him as the crown prince.
The image of Zhu Di in the TV series "Zheng He Goes to the West"
Second, the empire that is difficult to take over
From Zhu Yunjiang's point of view, the position of successor of the Daming Dynasty is not good, after all, there are too many arrogant generals in the hands of the imperial grandfather who can fight a good battle, these people are sharp weapons to seize the world, but once there is no war to fight in the world, the arrogance and indulgence of these people will become a great disaster for the empire.
After all, they are all from poor backgrounds, and they finally followed Zhu Yuanzhang as the masters of the world, and it is natural to enjoy life well, but it is good to just be corrupt, and if they rise to rebellion or establish themselves as kings, it will be difficult to handle. However, Zhu Yuanzhang's small-scale peasant ideology led him to split more than twenty sons and crown them kings.
Since ancient times, there have been many examples of the same surname princes and kings and countries eventually going to chaos, but Zhu Yuanzhang could not listen to these words, in his opinion, there is no better way to make the Ming Dynasty desperate than his own sons to hold the moon in their hearts. It's just that he seems to have forgotten that he is alive, and his sons still dare not rebel, if Zhu Biao succeeds to the throne, his younger brothers will still buy it, but Zhu Yunjiang succeeds across levels, which of these uncles will be happy and sincere?
However, Zhu Yunjiang's biggest mistake was not that he was too young to convince the public, after he succeeded to the throne, he reused Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng, and he did not stand firmly, and began to kill his uncles.
You must know that Emperor Han Jing was also eager to cut the sword, and eventually caused the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, but at that time, Emperor Han Jing had Zhou Yafu and Dou Ying to lead troops to battle, and his own brother Liu Wu the King of Liang acted as a human shield for the Han army to attract rebel firepower, so the Han army was finally able to reverse the unfavorable situation and defeat the Seven Kingdoms Alliance.
But what does Zhu Yunjiang have at this time? A group of idealistic civil servants who had never been on the battlefield, a few second-generation generals who could only talk on paper, and Geng Bingwen, the only one who could fight, were abandoned, all of which gave Zhu Di a chance.
3. Start the battle of appeasement
Although the Yan army was small in number and fought particularly difficult in the early stages of the war, Zhu Di adjusted his strategy in time, implemented the tactic of directly attacking Huanglong, bypassed the heavily guarded town, and crossed the river to attack Jinling.
Li Jinglong, the son of Li Wenzhong, who was trusted by Zhu Yunjiang and "ordered in danger", once led a Ming army of 500,000, thinking that he was ten times the Yan army and was in control of victory, but he repeatedly lost to Zhu Di, so Li Jinglong also became a key figure in the reversal of the battle.
After the defeat, he retreated to Jinling, and later, under the persuasion of Zhu Di and others, he took the initiative to open the city gate and surrendered to Zhu Di, and became the key figure in Zhu Yunjiang's forced abdication.
When Zhu Di entered the capital Jinling City, he was full of emotion, this is a capital city that he is very familiar with, and now it is an indescribable new home for him.
For the Jianwen courtiers who did not submit to his accession to the throne, Zhu Di chose to slaughter wantonly, because in the hearts of the officials who served in the Jianwen dynasty, he Zhu Di would always be a chaotic courtier and thief, and his battle of Jingjian from north to south was an orthodox way of succession that could never be recognized by the history books.
For Fang Xiaoru, the great Confucian at that time and also Zhu Yunjiang's teacher, Zhu Di still had a glimmer of hope, but Fang Xiaoru was straightforward and would never write an edict for Zhu Di to ascend the throne, so Zhu Di put down the last mercy and slaughtered his ten tribes.
The image of Zhu Di in the TV series "Da Ming Fenghua"
4. A brief description of Yongle's achievements
After Zhu Di ascended the throne as emperor, he struck all fronts:
Politically, the first is to continue to implement the policy of reducing domains and strengthen the centralization of power; The second is to reform the official system, set up a cabinet and an east factory, and escort the imperial power; Third, in order to strengthen control over the north, the capital was moved to Beijing, the Grand Canal was dredged, and the Forbidden City in Beijing was built.
Militarily, Zhu Di personally conquered Mongolia five times, occupied Annan, and actively managed the frontier. In the northeast, the Nuer Gandu Department was set up, the northwest was set up Hamiwei, and the southwest was set up as the Guizhou Chengxuan Political Envoy Department, which actively operated the South China Sea region and implemented the policy of integrating administration and religion in Tibet.
Diplomatically, Zhu Di sent Zheng He six trips to the West to strengthen friendly exchanges between China and foreign countries and publicize the national prestige of the Daming Dynasty.
Culturally, Zhu Di organized a large number of Wen Chens to revise the "Yongle Dian". During his reign, Daming was economically prosperous and his country was strong, and the history was called "Yongle Prosperous".
However, Zhu Di's five expeditions to Mongolia (he died on his fifth return to Beijing), sending troops to Annan, sending Zheng He to the West, and moving the capital to Beijing all cost a lot of national strength, and at the same time, the incompleteness of the policy of reducing the domain also laid the groundwork for the rebellion of his son Zhu Gaoxu the King of Han after his death. Fortunately, his good prince Zhu Gaoji and his good saint Sun Zhu Zhanji were both Ming monarchs, and after Yongle, they once again opened the "Reign of Renxuan" of Zhongxing Daming.