In the first two Northern Expeditions, Zhu Di achieved many results. For example, in the first Northern Expedition in the eighth year of Yongle, he defeated the Tatar Khan Benyasili in the area of the Onan River in , and used his time to defeat the Prime Minister , Alutai , and the wise king killed countless enemies, and Alutai fell off his horse and fled.
In the second Northern Expedition in the twelfth year of Yongle, the Ming army defeated a group of raiders from the Ola tribe in the Three Gorgeskou area, and then defeated the 30,000 Ola troops in Hulanhushen, which made Ola never dared to spy on the border for many years since then.
But at the same time, the Ming army suffered great losses in these two Northern Expeditions, especially in terms of materials. Therefore, officials such as Xia Yuanji, Lu Zhen, Fang Bin, and Wu Zhong all expressed their disagreement with Zhu Di's continued attack. For example: Fang Bin, Minister of War, told Zhu Di that the cost of carrying out the third expedition was not enough.
, and the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue Xia Yuanji said more nakedly that most of the previous expeditions returned in vain, and the results obtained could not make up for the losses. The reserve materials for military and horses have been consumed by eight out of ten, such as natural disasters in various places are constantly occurring again today. Now the court is in a dilemma of internal and external difficulties, and your Majesty is in poor health and needs maintenance. If you have to go on an expedition, Your Majesty can send your generals to the expedition, and you must not command the imperial guards in person.
Zhu Di was furious after hearing this and immediately asked Xia Yuanji to go out to manage the grain reserve in the Kaiping area. On the one hand, he can solve the situation of insufficient military supplies and food, and on the other hand, he can also drive him out of the power center of the capital.
Not long after, Zhu Di summoned the Minister of Works Wuzhong . His views on this matter were basically the same as those of the Secretary of the Army, Fang Bin, and did not support Zhu Di's expedition to Mongolia. Zhu Di became even more angry about it and recalled Xia Yuanji and detained him in the internal custody. My colleague, Dali Temple Chief Zou Shiyan, was also detained. The reason given by Zhu Di was only because he used to act as an agent of the Ministry of Revenue. Now the Ministry of Revenue cannot provide enough money, grain and materials to support his northern expedition, and many officials of the Ministry of Revenue have been convicted of this.
At the same time, Fang Bin, the Minister of War, committed suicide because of fear.
This is how Zhu Di was still angry and searched Xia Yuanji's house before he was expelled, confiscating all the money he had given to him, leaving only coarse cloth clothes and jars and jars in his house. More than 0 years later, on Zhu Di's way back to the fifth northern expedition, he said to the people around him, "Xia Yuanji loves me!" After that, he died.
As the saying goes, it is good to say that people are about to die. It was not until Zhu Di died of illness that he knew that Xia Yuanji advised him not to command the army in person, and that he was really thinking about him. However, now he thought of this, it was too late. After the Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi became Emperor Renzong, he released Xia Yuanji from the prison.
