Does anyone know how Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, attacked Nanjing?

As we all know, Zhu Yuanzhang was the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the second emperor was his grandson, and the third emperor returned to his son's generation to be the emperor. Who is the third emperor? It's Zhu Di. Zhu Di is his famous name. When we refer to this person, we often use other names. It is often mentioned that he is called Ming Chengzu, but this "Ming Chengzu" is the posthumous title given to him in the late Ming Dynasty, that is, he was called Ming Chengzu during the Jiajing period. After Ming Chengzu died, he was not called Ming Chengzu, but Ming Taizong. Zhu Di also had a posthumous title, Emperor Wen. Therefore, Zhu Di, Emperor Chengzuwen of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Di, Emperor Taizongwen of the Ming Dynasty, were both this person. Zhu Di was born in the late Yuan Dynasty, the 20th year of Zhizheng, 1360. When he was 11 years old, in the third year of Hongwu, he was named King of Yan. Where is the feudal state of King Yan? In Peiping. Some people say that the name Peking is too familiar. Nowadays we often talk about the place where Beijing was called Peking during the Republic of China. So when was Peiping first called? The period of Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang sent his army to the Northern Expedition, overthrowing the rule of the Yuan Dynasty, which was dominated by Mongolian nobles, and most of the capital was changed to Beiping. Zhu Di's feudal state was in Beiping. When he was 21 years old, he established a vassal state in Beiping. What does it mean to "become a vassal state"? That is to say, go to his feudal country, also called "the vassal state", which means "zhi", go there. In other words, when he was 21 years old, he came to Peiping from Nanjing and became King of Yan. Later, in the first year of Jianwen, when he was 40 years old, he launched a war called the "Battle of Jingnan". Four years later, more than three or four years later, he ascended the throne at the age of 43. * After reading such a resume of Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, we have too many questions: How many troops did Zhu Di have, and he dared to launch such a war that might lead to death? What exactly does this "Jingnan" preached by Zhu Di mean? Why is his fiefdom in Peiping, which is very far away from the capital Nanjing? After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he faced a situation that was still not very peaceful in the country, especially in the northern Mongolian region where the remnants of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty regime still remained, which was called Beiyuan at the time. These remaining forces may pose a threat to the Ming Dynasty, so Zhu Yuanzhang made his son a vassal king along the northern defense line. The eldest son was established as the crown prince, the second son was granted the title of King Qin in Shaanxi, the third son was granted the title of Prince of Taiyuan, and the fourth son, King of Jin, Zhu Di, was granted the title of Prince in Peiping. Among the kings in the north at that time, there were two very powerful kings. One was King Yan, "King Yan was good at fighting"; the other was King Ning. Where was King Ning? It is in the area of ??Daning, which is now in the west of Liaoning and the northeast of Hebei, that it is said that "The King of Ning is good at planning." What was Zhu Yuanzhang's purpose in enfeoffing these princes? It was for the feathered royal family and to protect the country of the Ming Dynasty. However, the Ming Dynasty also had restrictions on the power of these princes. What restrictions were there? It is said that it is stipulated that these princes "will not break the soil or visit the people." What is meant by "not splitting the soil" means not dividing the land; "not coming to the people" means not managing state affairs and not managing the civil affairs of the places where he enfeoffs the country. The army cannot be large, there are 15,000 people for each of the 9,000 people, and three guards. This guard can only be responsible for the safety of the prince, and the prince is not allowed to dispatch troops outside the palace. However, the prince has a high status, what status? It's called "A prince is not allowed to give a courtesy to a prince." Although you are a prince or a prince, you can recruit veteran generals who are good at fighting, and you have made great contributions to the country, but if you want to meet the prince, no matter how young he is, you will not be on an equal footing with him. He gave a great courtesy, he was a member of the emperor's family, he was a prince. Another point is that the prince can control the armies during foreign wars. Dukes and princes, veteran generals who are good at recruiting and fighting, cannot command the various armies and horses. Who will control the armies when they go out to fight? Prince. These princes, we just talked about especially King Yan and King Ning, they tempered their military talents and developed their own power in the process of fighting the remaining Mongolian forces. During the Hongwu period, before King Yan succeeded Emperor Jianwen to the throne, Zhu Di had already become a general capable of conquering and fighting. * Since King Zhu Di of Yan only had an army of about ten thousand people, and his fiefdom was still in Beiping, far away from the center of the empire, he could completely enjoy his wealthy and comfortable life as a prince here. So why did he openly take the road of overthrowing the legitimate emperor of the dynasty by force at the risk of being beheaded? When talking about "pacification" in a secret room conspiracy, we cannot but mention one person. Who is this person? He is a monk named Yao Guangxiao.

At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang had some monks around him, and he also assigned a chief monk to each of his princes to assist him, help him, and perform some Buddhist and Dharma rituals. Who is this person arranged next to Zhu Di? That is Yao Guangxiao. Yao Guangxiao's Dharma name is Daoyan, so he is also called Seng Daoyan. Zhu Di came to Peiping, and monk Daoyan asked to follow Zhu Di to Peiping. There is a connection between Seng Daoyan and Zhu Di. Monk Daoyan once said, if you keep me by your side, I will give you a white hat to wear. What does it mean? Zhu Di himself is a prince, and a "white" hat should be added to the word "king", which means "emperor". Zhu Di knew it well and hit it off immediately. Who is Seng Daoyan? Originally a scholar, he grew up in the late Yuan Dynasty. However, this scholar later became frustrated and became a monk. After becoming a monk, he still cared about world affairs. When he came to King Yan, he had great ambitions and must do something in his career. What is the image of this person? It is said that the face is like a sick tiger, like a sick tiger lying there lazily. Although a sick tiger looks tired, it is actually brewing very ferocious power. Triangular eyes, triangular eyes, some say this is the light of wisdom. It was such a monk, Daoyan, who recommended two more people to Zhu Di, one named Jin Zhong and the other named Yuan Gong. Let’s talk about this Yuan Gong first, who is he? Yuan Gong is a person who is good at fortune-telling and fortune-telling, and his fortune-telling is very good. Yao Guangxiao recommended him to Yan Mansion. If he wanted to arrange him to be by Zhu Di's side, Zhu Di would have to test whether his fortune-telling was accurate. Once, Zhu Di brought a dozen guards to a street wine shop to drink. Yuan Gong was waiting in the hotel beforehand. When Zhu Di and his group entered the hotel, Yuan Gong saw him from a distance, rushed over and lay on the ground: Your Majesty, you Why did you come here? Hey, why do you say I am the king? I am a soldier like them. Don't deceive me. I can tell you have an extraordinary appearance right away. For the first test, if you think about a prince and the soldiers around him, his temperament must be different, and ordinary people can see it, without Yuan Gong. But Yuan Gong won the first test, and later Yuan Gong became a counselor around Zhu Di. Yuan Gong said that in the future, if you are over forty and have a beard above your chest, you will be able to ascend the throne. Zhu Di said, you can't say this casually! You can think in your heart, but you can't express it. The second one is talking about Jin Zhong. Who is this Jin Zhong? Jin Zhong was a friend of Yuan Gong. Jin Zhong was also good at fortune telling and was later recommended to the Yan Mansion. Yao Guangxiao, Yuan Gong and Jin Zhong all used the idea of ??seizing power and becoming emperor in the future to induce King Yan Zhu Di. In fact, they saw clearly the situation of the world at that time. They just wanted to use the destiny to guide King Yan to seize power. In Zhu Yuanzhang's later years, King Qin had passed away and King Jin had also died of illness. The oldest among the princes was King Yan. King Yan himself had experience in leading troops in battle, so King Yan could pose the greatest threat to the emperor. Therefore, when Emperor Jianwen ascended to the throne as emperor, he faced such a powerful King Yan who had strategy, courage, and combat experience. After Yao Guangxiao and others suggested that King Yan rebel and seize power, King Yan made up his mind. All kinds of strange talents came to the Yan Mansion to forge weapons in the Yan Mansion. They were afraid that the outside world would know about the sound of the weapons, so they raised a lot of geese and ducks and squawked wildly while they forged weapons. * As mentioned earlier, Zhu Di was intensively forging weapons in his palace of Prince Yan in preparation for rebellion. But can all this escape the eyes of the imperial spies? The conspiracy is exposed. As the saying goes, there is no airtight wall. These actions of Prince Yan's Mansion have been reported to the court by people assigned by the imperial court. Therefore, they are aware of the actions of Prince Yan's Mansion, and both of them are preparing. What should King Yan do to confuse the court? He resorted to pretending to be crazy. On hot days, he would sit around the stove, wearing thick clothes. Sometimes he would rush out to the street, talk nonsense to people he saw, eat from other people's food, and maybe just lie down on the street. Damn, you want to give others the illusion that such people have no ambition to seize power and cannot seize power. However, King Yan's conspiracy to rebel was still exposed. In June of the first year of Jianwen (1399), a householder named Ni Liang from Prince Yan's Mansion reported something unusual in Prince Yan's Mansion. So the imperial court ordered to arrest some officials under Prince Yan's palace. In the past, if the court wanted to punish a prince, it could not punish the prince directly, but had to punish the people around the prince and give him a warning. Therefore, the imperial court issued an instruction, asking the Prince of Yan to hand over these people who are responsible for the rebellion. The imperial court sent people, such as the inspector of Beijing, the commander of the capital department in Beijing, Zhang Bing, Xie Gui, and a commander of the Beijing capital department named Zhang Xin, to prepare to attack King Yan.

But this Zhang Xin betrayed the information to King Yan. After Zhang Xin got the news from the court, he knew that he would take action against King Yan. When he returned home, he felt restless. His mother said, "What's the matter with you? Are you so restless?" Zhang Xin was a filial son, so he told his mother exactly what had happened. His mother said, King Yan, you cannot move or rebel against King Yan. Zhang Xin thought about it a lot, and the next day he arrived at Prince Yan's Mansion in a female sedan. He didn't dare to go to Prince Yan's Mansion openly because the woman was sitting in a sedan chair. When he met King Yan, he said, "Now that I know you are going to rebel, the court asked me to arrest you." King Yan said, "There is no such thing. If you see how sick I am, can you still rebel?" Zhang Xin said, "Don't hide it from me. I will report to you sincerely. If you want to rebel, tell me the truth. Otherwise, I will arrest you according to the imperial court's order." As a result, King Yan got the exact information from the court, and he made up his mind to take action. Before he takes action, he still has some drama to do. There are still some people around him. Can he let these people follow him to fight? He called these people to him and said, look, the imperial court is going to attack me now. Instead of doing this, I might as well commit suicide to show my true feelings and that I am loyal to the imperial court. At this time, there was a general named Zhang Yu beside him. Zhang Yu said that this is the behavior of a woman and the courage of an ordinary man. Why can't we fight? There is another man named Zhu Neng. Zhu Neng said, we first controlled the nine gates of Peking. If others can win, we can also win by destiny! Destiny is with us and no one can stop it. Zhu Di saw that all the people around him agreed with him to rebel, so he decided to raise troops. At this time, a strong wind blew and all the tiles on the roof were blown off. They fell off and broke into pieces. Zhu Di took a look and saw that it was windy and I was going to prepare to raise troops. The wind blew off my tiles. It was really ominous! Yao Guangxiao came out and laughed: This is really a good thing. Zhu Di said that I was going to raise an army, but this tile was scraped off the ground and shattered. What is this a good thing? You monk, you are talking nonsense. Yao Guangxiao said, "Look, this tile is black. It means that God wants you to change the color of this tile to yellow." People like Yao Guangxiao used various methods to strengthen Zhu Di's confidence in raising troops, and Zhu Di finally decided to raise troops. At this time, the people sent by the imperial court to capture Prince Yan's Mansion had surrounded Prince Yan's Mansion. * At such a critical moment, what should Zhu Di do? The army sent by the imperial court to capture him has surrounded the Yan Palace, but the troops in the palace are pitifully small. What will be the fate of King Yan Zhu Di? Who will be the commander of the army sent by the imperial court to capture Zhu Di? The Peking Mutiny was led by Zhang Bing and Xie Gui of the Beijing Capital Command. Zhang Bing and Xie Gui surrounded the Prince of Yan's Mansion and put up fences to block all the passages, demanding that the Prince of Yan's Mansion hand over people according to the names specified by the court. Zhu Di sent a letter saying that it was okay, I completely obey the court's orders, you come in, I will hand over the person to you. The imperial court gathered all the soldiers and horses in the world, and it was facing a small country of Yan. Therefore, Zhang Bing and Xie Gui did not doubt that if they wanted to defeat the Prince of Yan's palace with all the soldiers and horses in the world, they would have to get rid of the King of Yan. That was not the case. Is it easy? After hearing what King Yan said, the two of them entered the palace. After entering the palace, he saw King Yan sitting by the stove. It was Xia Xia, holding a cane. When King Yan saw Zhang Bing and Xie Gui coming, he said, "Two generals, please sit down." As soon as you two sat down, King Yan became angry. What did he say? He said: "Now we have unified households and people, brothers and clans still show sympathy for each other; as a relative of the emperor, we should not care about his fate day and night." Even ordinary people, they all know brotherly love and family affection, saying that as a prince, I am an emperor Uncle, you can do whatever you want and arrest people if you want? As he said that, he threw the crutch aside. What's wrong with me? No disease at all! There is a plate of watermelon on the table. The watermelon has been cut into slices and is ready for this guest to taste. He picked up the watermelon and said, please keep it fresh! Lifting up the watermelon and throwing it to the ground, the samurai ambushing behind rushed up and captured them both. After King Yan took control of Zhang Bing and Xie Gui, he ordered his troops to rush to capture the nine gates of Peking, quickly occupying the nine gates of Peiping, and took control of the city of Peiping. Within three days, Peiping was settled, and the situation was stabilized in three days. So in the first round, King Yan won. * Although Zhu Di quickly took control of Beiping City, using the mere troops of Prince Yan's Mansion to fight against the imperial court's million-strong army was almost like throwing an egg against a stone.

Moreover, his act of rebelling against the legitimate emperor was inherently treasonous. What kind of high-sounding excuse would Zhu Di find to win the support of others? To rebel as an excuse for rebellion, you must have a reason. You must state your unreasonable and incorrect things as correct and your unreasonable ones as reasonable. Some people say that our opposition to the imperial court is called a "crusade." No, how can we use "punitive"? You are a prince, and there is a legal emperor sitting over there in Nanjing. How can you attack him? No, we have to change the wording and call it "Jing Nan". Why is it called "Jingnan"? It is said that there is a traitor in the court and the emperor is in trouble. I want to rescue the emperor and bring peace to the emperor. This is called "Jing Nan". What kind of traitor is there in the court? This treacherous minister is helping the emperor to come up with bad ideas, and is killing his flesh and blood. Princes like us have been killed and persecuted by them. They are bad people, and we must raise troops to appease them. Moreover, Zhu Di quoted the "Ancestral Instructions" left by Zhu Yuanzhang as a clause. What does the "Ancestral Instructions" say? It is said that "if there are no honest ministers in the court, if there are treacherous ministers, we must train troops to fight against them, so as to eliminate the evil on the emperor's side." If there are no righteous ministers in the dynasty, and there are treacherous ministers, the prince can attack these treacherous ministers. This is the ancestral precept left by Zhu Yuanzhang. So the war started, and the war was called the "Battle of Jingnan." * As mentioned just now, Zhu Di used Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestral precepts as an excuse to launch troops to appease the emperor, but the authenticity of this ancestral precept makes us doubtful. So, did this ancestral precept really exist in real history? The truth about ancestral precepts: Did Zhu Yuanzhang really leave behind such an "ancestral precepts"? It is good that Zhu Yuanzhang had "Ancestor Instructions", and these sentences are also good, but Zhu Di tampered with one of the sentences, and he deleted one sentence and omitted it. Which sentence? It is called that when there are no official ministers in the court or there are traitors in the court, the prince must "train the troops and be on standby". You must manage your army well, train it well, and wait for the order from the court before you can go to Qingjun's side. Now he did not say the words "train troops and be on standby", but said that I was going to Qingjun's side. He played a trick on the words and let the world see that Zhu Di did it upright and lifted the emperor's power according to the "ancestral teachings". Difficult, this war is called the Battle of Jingnan. Although King Yan controlled Peiping, the situation was still very dangerous for him. Peiping is surrounded by government troops, so it will take a lot of effort for him to directly seize power in Nanjing. Therefore, he must first clear the area around Peiping, including capturing Tongzhou, Jizhou, Zunhua, Yongping, and Miyun. He must clear these places and consolidate his base in Beiping before he can attack south. The official army seemed very powerful, but they were often vulnerable. These places were quickly captured by King Yan. King Yan's next goal is to advance south. * On this side, King Zhu Di of Yan took over the area around Peiping, established a firm foothold, and planned to attack Nanjing ambitiously. So, how would Emperor Jianwen, who was far away in the capital Nanjing, react? How will they put down this rebellion? The fall of Beiping in the Battle of Zhending shocked the court. Unexpectedly, King Yan took control of Beiping so quickly. What should the court do? He appointed Geng Bingwen as the general to attack King Yan. Geng Bingwen was the only remaining veteran who achieved great results in the late years of Hongwu. As we all know, Zhu Yuanzhang killed many heroes and generals in his later years in order to ensure that the little emperor could safely become emperor. No one could threaten the imperial power; but, conversely, there were no powerful generals to charge into battle for the imperial power. . Geng Bingwen's achievements were all that remained. Although he had fought in the war, he was already old and had no energy left. He led the Northern Expedition to fight against the King of Yan, and met the King of Yan at Zhending at the first stop. The imperial court also had its own rhetoric for putting down King Yan's rebellion. How did it say it? "The country is not built up, and the flesh and blood clan members have repeatedly conspired to rebel... Today, they are claiming to be military and creating chaos, trying to endanger the clan, and offending the ancestors of heaven and earth. It is unforgivable." It is said that our family is unfortunate, and these princes continue to have rebellions and rebellions Treason. Now he is openly rebelling and wants to seize power. This is such a great rebellion that heaven and earth cannot tolerate. We must attack him. Geng Bingwen led the army in the Northern Expedition and met the main force of King Yan. He was defeated in Zhuozhou in the first battle and then in Xiongxian County.