On May 18, 1399, a caravan hurriedly arrived in Jingzhou and took advantage of the night to surround the Prince of Xiang's palace. Later, the imperial envoy took out the imperial edict drafted by Zhu Yunwen and demoted King Zhu Bai of Hunan to a commoner. After hearing the decree, Zhu Bai was shocked and angry. He pointed to the sky and sighed:
"My brother has been demoted to a commoner. Today he wants to humiliate me like a slave. How can I live in such an ignoble way?" ."
After Zhu Bai finished speaking, he set fire to Prince Xiang's Mansion. When the fire spread all over the sky, Zhu Bai dressed neatly, rode his horse and held a bow, and jumped into the fire. He was only 28 years old. After Zhu Bai's death, Zhu Di, who was far away in Peiping, finally made up his mind to raise troops to quell Jingnan. So, what was the conflict between Zhu Yunwen and Zhu Bai that forced him to self-immolate? Why doesn't Zhu Bai "be willing to be a commoner" like his four brothers? What impact did his death have on Zhu Di, who was thousands of miles away?
Qualified vassal king
Zhu Bai is the twelfth son of Zhu Yuanzhang. In 1378, Zhu Bai, Zhu Chun and Zhu Gui were named the Ming Dynasty vassal kings, and they had their own fiefdom ever since. Among Zhu Yuanzhang's disciples, Zhu Bai was both civil and military, and had good calligraphy, which was highly favored by Zhu Yuanzhang.
Seven years later, the 15-year-old Zhu Bai married the daughter of Wu Zhen, the Duke of Haiguo, as his concubine. According to the practice of the Ming Dynasty, a prince who reaches the age of 15 must go to another place to join the feudal clan. It was in this year that Zhu Bai left the capital and went to Jingzhou to become the king of Xiang.
When Zhu Bai left, Zhu Yuanzhang bid farewell to him in tears. He prepared a jade belt for all his sons who went out to join the vassal, and watched them turn and leave, with the jade belt dancing behind them to express their love for each other. However, Zhu Bai put the jade belt in front of him and walked backwards to say goodbye to Zhu Yuanzhang. When Zhu Yuanzhang asked him why he was like this, Zhu Bai replied: "A son can never carry his father on his back." Zhu Yuanzhang was overjoyed when he heard this. He firmly believed that Zhu Bai would be a qualified vassal king.
In Jingzhou, Zhu Baili ordered corporal officials to recruit talented people, build "Jingyuan Pavilion", and proofread ancient classics. As the vassal king, he also had the role of guarding Jingzhou's barrier. At that time, there were not many wars in Jingzhou, and only a few soldiers who made trouble in Changde fled to Jingzhou.
Zhu Bai loved military affairs when he was young. He was proficient in bow and horse, and was especially good at the art of war. After the rebels burned, killed, and looted in the Hudu River area, and committed all kinds of evil, Zhu Bai mounted his horse and personally led two guardsmen to encircle and suppress them. From Jingzhou to Yan'an, Zhu Bai pursued him all the way until he captured the rebel leader.
For many years after that, Zhu Bai had nothing to do in Jingzhou. Apart from dancing and writing, he also indulged in the mountains and rivers, rode horses and hunted. Although Zhu Bai loved to play, he did not torment the people like his second brother Zhu Xi. For more than ten years in Jingzhou, he lived in harmony with the local people and was deeply respected by them.
Zhu Bai who did not want to be humiliated
In 1398, Zhu Yuanzhang died in Nanjing. Zhu Bai, who hurried to the capital, received a posthumous edict and was not allowed to leave the fiefdom. When Zhu Bai heard this, he hugged his head and cried, lamenting: "As the son of the emperor, I am king in Jingzhou and hold a high and powerful position. But when he was seriously ill, I couldn't be there to fulfill my filial piety. Unfortunately, he passed away, and I couldn't attend the funeral in person." Farewell, what's the point of my life?"
At that time, Zhu Bai had no children, and Princess Wu gave birth to two daughters for him, who also died in infancy. Although Zhu Bai left Beijing as a young man, he had a very deep relationship with Zhu Yuanzhang. Therefore, after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, Zhu Bai, who suffered repeated blows, finally couldn't bear it anymore and had the idea of ??being world-weary.
However, before Zhu Bai put his idea into action, his nephew Zhu Yunwen targeted him. In Zhu Yunwen's eyes, his vassal uncles posed a great threat to his throne. Therefore, just after he ascended the throne, he adopted Huang Zicheng's suggestion and advocated the reduction of vassals.
At that time, among Zhu Yuanzhang's only remaining sons, King Zhu Di of Yan was the eldest and the strongest. Zhu Yunwen gradually cut off his wings on the grounds that "the power of King Yan is difficult to eliminate".
In 1399, Zhu Yunwen took the lead in attacking Zhou Wang Zhu Xi. He ordered Li Jinglong to capture Zhu Xi on the grounds of military training, demoted Zhu Xi to a commoner, and exiled him to Yunnan. Later, Zhu Shu, Zhu Gui and Zhu Zhen were deposed one after another.
At the same time, Zhu Yunwen asked someone to forge evidence that Zhu Bai was good at killing people and manufacturing treasure banknotes, and charged him with rebellion. He secretly sent an army disguised as a caravan to sneak into Jingzhou and take advantage of the opportunity. Surrounded the Prince of Xiang's Mansion at night.
When he heard the charges Zhu Yunwen had imputed on him, Zhu Bai smiled helplessly and looked up to the sky with a sigh. He knew very well that his four brothers in the far north had all become commoners one after another and were exiled to the bitter cold land of the southwest. Without power or foreign aid, he would not be able to escape Zhu Yunwen's clutches.
But Zhu Bai was a very strong-minded vassal king. He did not want to be a living commoner and suffer the ridicule and insults of his slaves. Therefore, Zhu Bai chose a way back in life that preserved his dignity and committed suicide.
When Zhu Yunwen's envoys came to capture Zhu Bai, he faced the northeast and cried loudly. After crying, Zhu Bai drank with his family to say goodbye, and then burned the Xiang Prince's palace. When the fire was at its peak, Zhu Bai, fully dressed, rode a white horse, held a long bow, jumped into the sea of ??fire, and committed suicide in the most tragic way to declare his disdain for Zhu Yunwen.
After Zhu Bai died, his concubines did not give Zhu Yunwen a chance to humiliate them, and they also walked into the fire one after another and fought with him to death.
Zhu Bai was forced to burn himself to death, which reflected Zhu Yunwen's cruelty and willingness to kill. As the son of Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Bai is very similar to his elder brothers Zhu Fan and Zhu Di. They are all heroes with both civil and military skills. They are very prestigious in the local area and are trusted by the people.
However, unlike Zhu Fan and Zhu Di, Zhu Bai had only been a vassal for more than ten years and had not developed his own wings. In addition, he was in Jingzhou and did not have the geographical conditions to become Zhu Fan and Zhu Di.
Therefore, Zhu Bai will not pose much of a threat to Zhu Yunwen. But in Zhu Yunwen's eyes, Zhu Bai is indeed the best candidate to be the next Zhu Di. If he is not restrained when he is still young, the consequences will be disastrous.
Forcing Zhu Di to rebel
Zhu Bai's death was good news for Zhu Yunwen. He captured the wise and powerful King of Xiang without any blood, which had a deterrent effect on other vassal kings. It will obviously be bigger. After Zhu Bai's death, Zhu Yunwen did not forget to discredit his twelfth uncle and gave Zhu Bai a posthumous title of "violent". As the old saying goes: "Not regretting past mistakes is called cruelty; not thinking about accepting one's mistakes is called cruelty; knowing one's mistakes and not correcting them is called cruelty." Zhu Yunwen's move obviously nailed Zhu Bai to the pillar of shame, so that he would never be able to stand up again.
However, thousands of miles away in Peiping, after learning the news of Zhu Bai's self-immolation, Zhu Di was more affected than Zhu Yunwen. Zhu Di knew very well that Zhu Yunwen had not left him any other path to choose except rebellion. Zhu Bai's death became the last straw that crushed Zhu Di's idea of ??"loyalty to the emperor and patriotism".
In 1399, Zhu Di raised an army to quell Jingnan. After four years, he finally conquered the world. After ascending the throne, Zhu Di took pity on Zhu Bai who was innocent and was killed. He changed "violent" to "xian", named him King of Xiangxian, and built an official temple to enshrine him. However, Zhu Bai had no children, and many of his wives and concubines were killed in the sea of ??fire. The lineage of King Xiangxian was completely cut off.
Zhu Yuanzhang had 26 sons in his life. Among them, there were the gentle Zhu Biao, the talented Zhu Fan and Zhu Di, the high-ranking and powerful Zhu Quan, the treacherous Zhu Ji, and the wicked Zhu 樉. They died in various strange ways. Some died of illness, some were poisoned by women, some died of dissoluteness, and some died while refining elixirs. Only Zhu Zi and Zhu Bai set fire to themselves.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang frightened Zhu Zi to death, Zhu Di had Zhu Zhu killed, Zhu Yunwen forced Zhu Bai to death, and Zhu Zhanji imprisoned and killed Zhu Su. Among the five generations of the Zhu family, when it comes to surgery on limbs, no one can give in too much.