Chapter 21: The Downfall of Blue Jade

  Lapis Lazuli's Dizziness

  "Kunzhao" is a term used in Go, referring to the phenomenon where an exceptionally skilled player makes an inexplicable mistake. This term suits Lan Yu perfectly, as after leaving the battlefield, this brilliant and powerful general seemed to have become inseparable from the word "arbitrary".

  On the way back, Lan Yu did something that was quite shameful. He bullied the wife of Yuan Zhuo, and this woman's temperament was also very strong-willed, so she killed herself. (Private note: The concubine of Yuan Zhuo was shamed to death.)

  Lan Yu's actions violated Zhu Yuanzhang's ethnic policy and were extremely unpopular. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious, but considering Lan Yu's great contributions, he did not pursue the matter further. However, Lan Yu took this as a sign of tacit approval and became even more arrogant.

  After that, this kind of performance became more and more frequent. When he returned to the Xifeng Pass, it was already dark at night, and the officer guarding the pass had rested. Hearing someone calling for the pass, he immediately ran to open the door, but Lan Yu did something that no one expected.

  He ordered his soldiers to attack the gate, break through the city wall and force their way in, and was quite pleased with himself.

  This is too much! The gate-keeping officials are also human beings. They have already gone to open the door, and you can't even wait for a moment. Are you in such a hurry that you're rushing to put out a fire?

  These two things made Zhu Yuanzhang extremely angry. He had originally planned to seal Lan Yu as the Duke of Liang, but in order to warn him, he changed the character "Liang" to "Liang". Everyone can also see from this the change in Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude towards Lan Yu.

  Lan Yu should have been vigilant, but he was destined to be a person who would start dyeing as soon as he had two cents. Not only did he continue to indulge in his own behavior, but he also extended his hand to the military power, appointing his trusted officials in the army without Zhu Yuanzhang's permission and deploying his own forces.

  All this naturally did not escape the eyes of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and so Zhu Yuanzhang began to consider how to deal with this second Hu Weiyong.

  Lan Yu was an excellent general, but after achieving success, he did so many illegal things that seem difficult to understand. However, if we connect it with the Nahachu surrender event mentioned earlier, Lan Yu's behavior can be reasonably explained.

  From the arrogance of treating Nahachü as a guest to the pride of Jifengguan, we can give Lan Yu another conclusion: he is a coarse man.

  What is meant by "unrefined person" is not that he lacks culture or behaves rudely, but rather that his actions are inconsiderate and he doesn't understand human relationships. He belongs to the type of person who acts first and thinks later.

  His character has always been like this, even if he didn't make a mistake in this matter, he would still mess up in that matter sooner or later.

  This is what they say, "personality determines fate", but the key issue is that Lan Yu's fate was not entirely in his own hands. To a large extent, his life and death depended on Zhu Yuanzhang's tolerance and patience, and Zhu Yuanzhang was not a patient man.

  Lan Yu soon committed another mistake, but Zhu Yuanzhang took into account Lan Yu's contributions and exceptionally granted him the title of Taizi Taifu, a first-rank official position that ordinary officials could only dream of, and it can be said that he had already reached the pinnacle of power.

  Lan Yu was like having eaten the wrong medicine, and actually shouted in front of many people: "Can't my merits be rewarded with a Taishi? (Am I not worthy of being a Taishi?)"

  This is no longer asking for progress, but rather being dissatisfied with living too long.

  Zhu Yuanzhang could no longer bear it; if he could still bear it, he would not be Zhu Yuanzhang.

  He drew his butcher knife once again.

  It is worth noting that in history, there was another reason for the death of Lan Yu. According to the "Ming Tongjian", Lan Yu's death had a great relationship with Yan Wang Zhu Di.

  Zhu Di was the fourth son of Zhu Yuanzhang, and his way of doing things and means were very close to Zhu Yuanzhang, so many people said he was the most like Zhu Yuanzhang. Everyone should also have some understanding of his later story, which will not be mentioned here for now, and there will be a special topic introduction later.

  Lan Yu was the younger brother of Chang Yuchun, and Chang Yuchun's daughter was the consort of Crown Prince Zhu Biao, so Lan Yu had a good relationship with the crown prince. After returning from the expedition against Nahachu, this benevolent elder brother found the crown prince and said to him: "The King of Yan is not an ordinary person, he will inevitably rebel in the future, I have asked people to observe his aura, there is the air of a Son of Heaven, you must be careful."

  Lan Yu considered it enough friendship, told these words to the prince, only hoping that the prince would be careful, but he forgot an idiom "distance makes no difference in kinship", you Lan Yu are at most just a relative by marriage, how can you compare with biological brothers!

  The Crown Prince later told Yan King Zhu Di what Blue Jade had said to him in a casual conversation, and then Zhu Di severely accused Blue Jade. Zhu Yuanzhang only took action against Blue Jade under Zhu Di's instigation.

  Of course this is just a saying, in my opinion, the main reason for Lan Yu's death should still be his arrogance and lawlessness. In any case, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to take action against Lan Yu.

  Since the decision to take action has been made, a crime must be pinned on Lan Yu. After all, procedures still need to be followed. It can't just be done without reason, and if Lan Yu is accused of theft, no one will believe it. At that time, Ba Ernai's lifestyle issues seemed to be a kind of honor.

  It seems that treason is a better name for this crime, with an eye-catching title, a clear theme, and convenient to use, we've been using it all along.

  In February of the 26th year of Hongwu, Jin Yiwei commander Jiang Yan accused Lan Yu of plotting a rebellion, and the last case of the Four Major Cases of the Hongwu era - the Lan Yu Case finally began.

  Heads will roll soon.

  After the Jin Yiwei's report, Zhu Yuanzhang quickly arrested Lan Yu and put him on trial. To be fair, Lan Yu was indeed arrogant and lawless, but there was no solid evidence of his treason. As a newly risen general without deep roots or sufficient preparation, Lan Yu would not have dared to rebel.

  If you want to add crimes, how can you worry about having no excuse?

  It is estimated that Lan Yu was subjected to a lot of torture in prison, because this person who originally had no intention of rebellion actually wrote out a long confession, not only explaining his own rebellious intentions but also revealing the methods and locations of his planned rebellion. It seems that he played the lead role in a "prison storm" while in jail.

  Since Lan Yu has confessed, let's just execute him and close the case. But as mentioned earlier, if Zhu Yuanzhang really did that, he wouldn't be Zhu Yuanzhang anymore.

  Whenever there is a plot, it will not be just one person, this is the clue, and an investigation must be conducted. As a result, Zhang San, Li Si, Wang Er, and Ma Zi all came out. The Embroidered Uniform Guard has also had extensive experience with this kind of thing (for specific operational procedures and methods, see the Hu Weiyong case).

  In the end, a total of 15,000 people were implicated, including Lan Yu and his associates. From this number, it can be seen that Lan Yu's interpersonal relationships were not bad after all.

  Lan Yu himself was exterminated, and the number of people involved in his case is countless. As a result, one duke, thirteen marquises, two earls, and many officials at all levels were killed. Those who survived the Hu Weiyong case had been lucky, but they did not expect that they would only live for another decade or so, and ultimately could not escape this sword.

  These people killed in the Blue Jade case did not rest after death, and their names were compiled into the "Record of Rebellious Officials". I estimated that if 15,000 names are listed, with at least two characters per name, plus a word, it would be around five characters. This "Record of Rebellious Officials" is probably between 30,000 to 75,000 words, roughly the length of a master's thesis.

  But what makes this thesis different is that every single word in it was written with blood.

  The Blue Jade Case has almost completely eliminated the meritorious generals of the Hongwu era, from Hu Weiyong in the 13th year of Hongwu to now, it should also come to an end. Those who should be killed were killed, and those who shouldn't be killed were also killed. Let's all take a break.

  Lan Yu's life was extremely dramatic. His first half of life was always overshadowed by the shadow of a famous general, with little opportunity to show himself. History did not treat him unfairly, making him the protagonist in his second half of life, establishing his own achievements, but then pulling him down from his peak at the height of his success. Is this fate?

  Of course not, the tragedy of General Lan Yu was not caused by history, but was the inevitable result of his own character defects. Fortunately, he ultimately lived up to his name as a famous general and proved himself with outstanding military achievements, which will be recorded in history for posterity to remember.

  From this perspective, he seems lucky again.

  That night, I dreamed of millions of brave soldiers.

  The Real Motive

  In the Blue Jade case, Zhu Yuanzhang wielded his butcher knife for even deeper reasons.

  It's actually possible for everyone to think that killing a small blue jade doesn't have to involve so many people, and Blue Jade is not Hu Weiyong, his accomplices are not many. Zhu Yuanzhang, however, keeps killing many innocent people as Blue Jade's accomplices. This makes us wonder what hidden purpose is behind Zhu Yuanzhang's behavior?

  Our detective is on the scene again. As mentioned earlier, many seemingly unrelated things are actually closely related. In those dry historical materials, the truth of the matter is often hidden, waiting for you to dig it out. The same is true in the Blue Jade case, and the answer may be in that complex historical event. Let's start our investigation, detectives!

  I'll start by sharing my own thoughts. The Blue Jade case occurred in February of the 26th year of the Hongwu era. Let's use this as a clue and see what events took place around that time. These events should have had a profound impact on the handling of the Blue Jade case.

  After a period of searching and analysis, I found my own answer.

  It is recorded: in the 25th year of Hongwu (1392), in April, Crown Prince Zhu Biao died of illness. His son Zhu Yunwen succeeded as crown prince.

  If you think about it carefully, Zhu Yuanzhang's behavior is not hard to understand.

  Zhu Biao was the eldest son of Zhu Yuanzhang, but not his legitimate heir (his mother being a concubine), yet Zhu Yuanzhang had him appointed as crown prince early on, showing how much he valued Zhu Biao. Zhu Yuanzhang's deep affection for Zhu Biao led him to choose Zhu Biao's son Zhu Yunwen as his successor after Zhu Biao's death.

  This choice should also be good, from the situation later on, Zhu Youwen was also a very good successor. But the problem is that Zhu Youwen was too young, he didn't experience the hardships of the founding period like his father, and he didn't have the ability to control the officials.

  This batch of founding fathers, including Lan Yu, were all capable and wise, but only Zhu Yuanzhang could control them. Zhu Biao still had some prestige, as the saying goes, he was barely able to hold his own, but Zhu Yunwen was completely unable to do so. The empire that he had worked hard to build, how could it be handed over to others? First, they had to get rid of the likes of good bows and stray dogs, only then could Zhu Yunwen's throne be guaranteed.

  Modern historical books also basically hold the above views on Zhu Yuanzhang's motives for killing his meritorious ministers, but we cannot follow suit. We should analyze the connection of historical materials and draw our own conclusions, which is a scientific view of history.

  Zhu Yuanzhang killed off the capable ministers, but he also had to consider that someone had to defend the country, and those bookworms who had not experienced war could not complete this mission. Zhu Yuanzhang perfectly solved this contradiction (at least he thought so), he divided his sons into various places, these people are called vassal kings in history, allowing them to have troops.

  We can't help but admire Zhu Yuanzhang, who also thought that these vassal kings might rebel, so he created a complete system to balance the power of each vassal king. This system will be detailed later. It should be said that the vassal king balancing system he formulated is quite perfect, but not perfect. Even the most careful person will have omissions, and Zhu Yuanzhang is no exception. His system has a tiny loophole, which was later proven to be fatal.

  Another story can also illustrate Zhu Yuanzhang's motive for killing his meritorious ministers.

  Once again, Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to kill a large number of meritorious officials, but Zhu Biao couldn't bear to watch and advised him:

  "Your Majesty has killed too many people, I'm afraid it will hurt the harmony." Zhu Yuanzhang didn't say a word, and ordered someone to find a thorny wooden stick and throw it in front of Zhu Biao, letting him pick it up. Zhu Biao wasn't an idiot either, seeing that there were thorns he naturally didn't move his hand. Zhu Yuanzhang looked at him coldly and said: "I kill people just to remove the thorns from this wooden stick for you, these are all dangerous characters."

  This matter clearly illustrates Zhu Yuanzhang's motive, but there is a second half to this story. From this part, we can understand what kind of person Zhu Biao was. As the crown prince, Zhu Biao had never enjoyed the dignity of an emperor, but he was also an important figure, and it is necessary for us to introduce him.

  Against Zhu Yuanzhang's expectations, his tone did not intimidate Zhu Biao. This son, who usually spoke in a soft and gentle voice, dared to retort, and what he said was extremely unpleasant.

  Zhu Biao said in a similarly cold tone, "The emperor is as virtuous as Yao and Shun, and the ministers will be loyal subjects who support Yao and Shun."

  This sentence is really too heavy-handed, implying that there are emperors of a certain kind, and there will be ministers of a certain kind. If you yourself are not wise, how can you blame your ministers?

  Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned, this honest and simple-minded son actually dared to make fun of himself! He suddenly became furious, took out the momentum of conquering the world back then, casually picked up a weapon - a chair, and threw it at the crown prince. Zhu Biao dodged quickly, but Zhu Yuanzhang's move still scared him badly, and he fell seriously ill after returning.

  From this story, we can see that Zhu Biao was indeed a benevolent ruler who dared to uphold his principles and had a gentle yet firm personality. Throughout his life, Zhu Yuanzhang had a keen eye for people, so the successor he chose must have been quite good.

  It is also worth noting that from Zhu Biao's words, we can also see his extraordinary insight. The sentence "The emperor is a virtuous ruler like Yao and Shun, and the ministers will be loyal subjects who support Yao and Shun" is indeed very insightful. If the later Chongzhen Emperor could understand this point, he might not have lost his kingdom so quickly, and would not have sighed "all ministers can be killed".

  From any point of view, Zhu Biao was the ideal heir. He had followed Zhu Yuanzhang since childhood, was humble and courteous to others, had a good relationship with his ministers, had experienced the stormy weather and was not surprised by changes, and had rich experience in handling government affairs.

  Zhu Yuanzhang also attached great importance to Zhu Biao. In the tenth year of Hongwu (1377), he had already entrusted many state affairs to Zhu Biao and taught him the four-character motto for handling national affairs: "Ren, Ming, Qin, Duan". He placed all his hopes on Zhu Biao, and it can be said that at that time, Zhu Yuanzhang trusted only two people, one was Empress Ma, and the other was the Crown Prince.

  However, Heaven seemed to want to punish Zhu Yuanzhang, and Zhu Biao died before Zhu Yuanzhang. This news thoroughly destroyed Zhu Yuanzhang, who disregarded the advice of his ministers and passed the throne to the young Zhu Youtang. This also shows how deep his feelings were for this son.

  It can be seen from this that Zhu Biao was indeed a rightful heir.

  However, in some historical records, there are completely different accounts of this event. What's going on here?

  History can be altered

  One of the most important historical records of Zhu Yuanzhang's life, "The Real Record of Ming Taizu", records it this way: At first, it still says that when Zhu Di was born, there were omens everywhere and five colors filled the room (for specific descriptions, please refer to the record of Zhu Yuanzhang's birth). Then it says that Zhu Yuanzhang liked Zhu Di very much, but did not like the Crown Prince and the Grandson. It even says that Zhu Yuanzhang repeatedly wanted to change his will, and before he died, he wanted to pass on the throne to Zhu Di, but was stopped by the Crown Prince's forged edict.

  These plots are all familiar and there is nothing new, but after all, this is a historical record, so we have to carefully distinguish.

  We've said before that this article not only narrates a piece of history, but also tells everyone some methods for analyzing history. For example, as mentioned earlier, when looking at a historical document, we must first identify who the author is and what their inclinations are. Mastering this rule can help us avoid taking many detours.

  The so-called "Ming Shilu" is the historical record of the Ming dynasty's historians. After Yongle seized power, there were many alterations to the history of the previous dynasty, which is an undisputed fact. Zhu Di attached great importance to explaining that he did not seize power and confirming the succession issue, so it is not surprising that these records appeared.

  What is more convincing, however, is that later historians and orthodox historical records did not adopt these claims. These experienced historians carefully distinguished and screened the historical materials, and their attitude towards these records is very revealing.

  Based on the above situation, we can infer that Zhu Biao and Zhu Youxiao are worthy successors. It cannot be denied that Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di's personalities and ways of doing things are very similar, but this cannot be used as evidence that Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to pass the throne to Zhu Di.

  In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang later recognized the problem of being too strict in governance. He taught the crown prince to "govern the country with benevolence" and made many corrections to his early policies. Zhu Yuanzhang was a mature politician who understood the principle of governing by both leniency and severity. Choosing the kind-hearted Zhu Biao as his successor was reasonable.

  Zhu Biao was an unfortunate person, his whole life lived in the vast shadow of Zhu Yuanzhang, without autonomy or self-determination, and his lifespan was not long. His son Zhu Youwen was even more unfortunate. These two father and son can be considered as miserable brothers.

  Although history has passed for hundreds of years, the yellow sand has long buried those past events, but we should still find out the truth from those piles of old papers and give Zhu Bao and his son a fair judgment.

  Justice delayed is still justice.