In the twenty-third year of Hongwu (1390) in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang honored him as the first hero of the founding of the Ming Dynasty. The seventy-seven-year-old Li Shanchang was executed by Zhu Yuanzhang. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang killed more than 70 members of his family, but Zhu Yuanzhang did not kill Li Qi because Li Qi was Zhu Yuanzhang's son-in-law, and Zhu Yuanzhang showed leniency to Li Qi and his grandson.
Li Shanchang followed Zhu Yuanzhang in rebellion when he was very young. He was good at strategizing and logistical support. Although he was a scholar, in the process of Zhu Yuanzhang establishing the Ming Dynasty, his contribution was no less than that of other generals, so Zhu Yuanzhang said Li Shanchang served as Han Dynasty Xiao He, and rewarded him with iron coupons of alchemy, which saved him from two executions. However, even so, the 77-year-old Li Shanchang was still executed by Zhu Yuanzhang. How could Zhu Yuanzhang insist on killing the 77-year-old Li Shanchang?
Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong
Li Shanchang was from Dingyuan in Haozhou, Anhui (now Dingyuan County, Anhui). He was fourteen years older than Zhu Yuanzhang, and he and Zhu Yuanzhang were also from the same hometown. Li Shanchang liked reading since he was a child, and he was extremely intelligent. The evaluation of him in "History of Ming Dynasty " is: "When he was young, he was resourceful, learned the words of lawyers, and had many strategies."
Li Shanchang rose to prominence under Zhu Yuanzhang She took refuge in him from the beginning. Since then, Li Shanchang has been helping Zhu Yuanzhang clear the world. Li Shanchang suggested that Zhu Yuanzhang should be like the emperor of the Han Dynasty Liu Bang, be magnanimous, know people well, and not be bloodthirsty.
Later, Zhu Yuanzhang went on an expedition, and Li Shanchang was responsible for Zhu Yuanzhang's logistics in the rear. No matter how bad the situation was, Li Shanchang could provide supplies to Zhu Yuanzhang's army. Li Shanchang can be said to have made great contributions to the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, when Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he once compared Li Shanchang to Xiao He, who helped Liu Bang make great contributions.
After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang canonized Li Shanchang as the Duke of Korea. Prime Minister Zuo also rewarded Li Shanchang with an alchemy book, allowing Li Shanchang's descendants to inherit the position of Duke of Korea, and spared Li Shanchang and his son from being executed twice. Zhu Yuanzhang loved Li Shanchang very much, and Li Shanchang had the iron scroll in his hand, but Li Shanchang never expected that the iron scroll would kill him.
When Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he relied on fellow Huaixi people, Li Shanchang, Xu Da, Tang and . These people from Huaixi were all from Huaixi, and they followed Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the sky. After Zhu Yuanzhang came to the throne, he made great contributions, so after Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, he rewarded the Huaixi people very high. By the Ming Dynasty, more than half of the meritorious officials in the dynasty were Huaixi people. When Zhu Yuanzhang went to court, almost half were Huaixi people, so the court meeting was like a meeting of people from the countryside.
After Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, he promised his colleagues in Huaixi that he would share the glory and wealth with them, so Zhu Yuanzhang gave the best fief to the honorable ministers in Huaixi. , was also very good to the Huaixi ministers, so over time, many Huaixi ministers thought that with the emperor's colleagues as their backers, they would become arrogant. This kind of arrogance and lawlessness made Zhu Yuanzhang very disgusted.
Before the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Li Shanchang gave advice to Zhu Yuanzhang and planned many important things. He was Zhu Yuanzhang's most trusted adviser. Because he was also from Huaixi, many officials in Huaixi looked at Li Shanchang with admiration and called him military adviser, so he was more convincing.
After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang even called Li Shanchang the first of the founding heroes of the Ming Dynasty, compared him with Xiao He, and was canonized as Zuo Xiangfu. Li Shanchang was second only to the emperor in the Ming Dynasty, and he was also quite prestigious in Huaixi. Therefore, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the honorable ministers in Huaixi have been headed by Li Shanchang.
However, Li Shanchang's reputation is not high. The Huaixi honorary ministers all stick together to keep warm, and attack those who oppose him. Liu Bowen is one of them.
Liu Bowen was squeezed out by the Huaixi Xunchen Group under the leadership of Li Shanchang and had to return to his hometown. However, Li Shanchang of the Huaixi Xunchen Group dared to exclude Liu Bowen, the founding hero of the country. Zhu Yuanzhang was very dissatisfied with what they did, but Zhu Yuanzhang could tolerate it for the time being. But Hu Weiyong's case made Zhu Yuanzhang even more suspicious and dissatisfied with the ministers in Huaixi.
Hu Weiyong was the last prime minister in Chinese history. After his death, Zhu Yuanzhang deposed the position of prime minister, and there has been no prime minister since then. Hu Weiyong was Li Shanchang's relative, and they had a very good relationship. Li Shanchang was old and resigned not long after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty. However, Li Shanchang secretly supported Hu Weiyong and gathered all the ministers in Huaixi to Hu Weiyong's side. So Hu Weiyong became Li Shanchang's spokesperson and took charge of the government.
Hu Weiyong won Zhu Yuanzhang's favor because he was good at figuring out Zhu Yuanzhang's thoughts. Later, Hu Weiyong became the prime minister and took control of the real power. Seeing that Hu Weiyong had replaced Li Shanchang, many Huaixi ministers took refuge in Hu Weiyong. In fact, Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong had a close relationship with the Huaixi ministers.
Of course, people like Xu Da and Tang He still have a relatively cold attitude towards Hu Weiyong. Only some simple-minded generals have close relations with Hu Weiyong. Xu Da not only drew a clear line with Hu Weiyong, but also repeatedly warned Zhu Yuanzhang not to use Hu Weiyong again, because he was a person who was good at forming cliques.
Hu Weiyong soon became arrogant and domineering and colluded with the ministers of Huaixi. Xu Da said a word, and Zhu Yuanzhang immediately became vigilant.
Therefore, in 1380, Zhu Yuanzhang executed Hu Weiyong and his cronies, including nine members of Hu Weiyong's family, on the charge of "conspiracy". This is the historical Hu Weiyong case , but Zhu Yuanzhang did not have much influence on Hu Weiyong. He only executed Hu Weiyong and his men, and the Huaixi officials did not receive much punishment. This also means that Zhu Yuanzhang was kind to Huaixi officials, including Li Shanchang.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Li Shanchang to be executed and his entire family was wiped out. Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to take this opportunity to expand Hu Weiyong's case and teach the officials in Huaixi a lesson.
Li Shanchang offended Zhu Yuanzhang
Li Shanchang's death was actually because Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to use Hu Weiyong's case to deal with the ministers in Huaixi. Li Shanchang could have survived, but Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude towards him was different from that of the officials in Huaixi, because he helped Zhu Yuanzhang a lot, but Li Shanchang himself had problems, and Zhu Yuanzhang could not tolerate him.
Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang has been full of praise for Li Shanchang and called him "Han Xiao He". Li Shanchang was arrogant and felt that Zhu Yuanzhang was inferior to him, so he was so arrogant and domineering.
The reason why Li Shanchang met Hu Weiyong was entirely because of the recommendation of his brother Li Cunyi. Li Shanchang's brother Li Cunyi's son Li You was Hu Weiyong's niece and son-in-law, that is, Li Cunyi and Hu Weiyong's in-laws. The two had a deep friendship. Li Cunyi recommended Hu Weiyong to Li Shanchang, which was why Li Shanchang fell in love with Hu Weiyong.
Five years after Hu Weiyong was assassinated, that is, Hongwu eighteenth year (1385), Li Cunyi and his son Li You were exposed to be close to Hu Weiyong and were considered to be Hu Weiyong's minions. However, Zhu Yuanzhang did not attack Li Shanchang. Therefore, out of Li Shanchang's affection, he did not hold Li Cunyi, Li You and others accountable. He only dismissed Li Cunyi and Li You and settled in Chongming.
Li Shanchang did something wrong. Zhu Yuanzhang spared his life for the sake of his brother Li Cunyi. Logically speaking, he should enter the palace to thank Zhu Yuanzhang, but Li Shanchang did not enter the palace to thank Zhu Yuanzhang. It seemed that Zhu Yuanzhang should forgive his brother. This made Zhu Yuanzhang very unhappy with Li Shanchang, which shows Li Shanchang's behavior in this matter.
This is not the first time that Li Shanchang has shown such arrogance. In the ninth year of Hongwu (1376), Zhu Yuanzhang betrothed his daughter Princess Lin'an to Li Shanchang's son Li Qi. After Princess Lin'an and Li Qi got married, , Zhu Yuanzhang was seriously ill, Li Qi, the son-in-law, did not enter the palace to visit Zhu Yuanzhang, and Li Shanchang, the daughter's in-laws, did not enter the palace to visit Zhu Yuanzhang. If it was an ordinary person, it would be a normal thing, but Li Shanchang did not do this, which made Zhu Yuanzhang even more disappointed with Li Shanchang.
Afterwards, Li Shanchang was impeached by Yushitai. Zhu Yuanzhang used this as an excuse to cut off Li Shanchang's salary of 1,800 stone years. Zhu Yuanzhang also gave Li Shanchang a disincentive, but Li Shanchang did not take it seriously. He even felt that he had made great contributions to the Ming Dynasty. As long as he did not do anything too outrageous, Zhu Yuanzhang would not do anything to him.
This led to Zhu Yuanzhang's dissatisfaction with Li Shanchang. Zhu Yuanzhang always compared Li Shanchang to Xiao He. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang no longer called Li Shanchang Xiao He, nor did he call him the most important hero of the Ming Dynasty.
After Zhu Yuanzhang forgave Li Cunyi and Xu Da died, Zhu Yuanzhang specifically called Xu Da the greatest contributor to the Ming Dynasty in his memorial text, and gave this honor to Xu Da, who had always been cautious. This can also be said to be Zhu Yuanzhang's warning to Li Shanchang again, but Li Shanchang did not realize his mistake and still did not restrain himself.
The emperor's tolerance is never overestimated. The emperor's patience is far less than that of ordinary people. Li Shanchang was already 77 years old in 1390. He felt that his mansion was not big enough, so he decided to continue to expand his mansion.
So Li Shanchang found Xin Guogongtang and borrowed three hundred soldiers to help him expand his mansion. Tang He was a smart man. At the beginning, he was very proud and often got drunk. He was reprimanded several times by Zhu Yuanzhang. So after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, he understood that he could not make the emperor suspicious, so he always kept a low profile. Until the end, he could become one of the few heroes in Huaixi.
Li Shanchang asked Tang He for help. Tang He, who had always been cautious, immediately realized that no matter what Li Shanchang wanted to do, he had to tell Zhu Yuanzhang about it, because he could not mobilize the army without authorization, and Zhu Yuanzhang would definitely doubt him. So as soon as Li Shanchang left, Tang He went into the palace and reported the matter to Zhu Yuanzhang.
Li Shanchang's borrowing money to expand his mansion immediately attracted Zhu Yuanzhang's attention, because Li Shanchang had retired. If he wanted to expand his mansion, he could directly ask Zhu Yuanzhang for instructions. However, he did not go to Zhu Yuanzhang, but went to his old subordinate Tang He. In other words, although Li Shanchang had retired, he was still secretly controlling his subordinates, which made Zhu Yuanzhang suspicious and disgusted with him.
Zhu Yuanzhang's tolerance for Li Shanchang has reached an extreme. It didn't take long for Li Shanchang's nephew Ding Bin to be sent to the border.
In order to plead for his nephew Ding Bin, Li Shanchang went to the palace to ask Zhu Yuanzhang to forgive Ding Bin. This made Zhu Yuanzhang so angry that Zhu Yuanzhang secretly cursed: "Li Shanchang, you Li Shanchang, you didn't ask me to expand your mansion, so you borrowed it from Tang He in private." Bing, now you come to ask me to forgive your nephew, what do you think of me, Zhu Yuanzhang?"
Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and immediately reprimanded Li Shanchang, saying that he ignored the laws of the country and would never let Ding Bin go. Zhu Yuanzhang even interrogated Ding Bin personally and wanted to punish him severely.
Ding Bin was previously recommended by Li Shanchang as Hu Weiyong's secretary. Now seeing that Zhu Yuanzhang was really angry, he took the initiative to drag his uncle Li Shanchang to participate in Hu Weiyong's case in order to protect himself.
So Ding Bin took the initiative to report the relationship between Hu Weiyong and Li Shanchang to Zhu Yuanzhang, and often bribed Li Shanchang. When Hu Weiyong was plotting against Zhu Yuanzhang, he contacted Li Shanchang several times to persuade him. He helped him plot against Zhu Yuanzhang, but was opposed by Li Shanchang. Finally, Hu Weiyong sent Li Shanchang's brother Li Cunyi to persuade him. Li Shanchang said to Li Cunyi: "I am old. When I pass away, please take care of yourself.""
Ding Bin's words made Zhu Yuanzhang furious. It turned out that Li Shanchang had known that Hu Weiyong was going to harm him, but he did not report it. Zhu Yuanzhang sent someone to take Li Cunyi back to the hall. What Li Cunyi said was similar to Ding Bin's situation. , which confirmed the conspiracy between Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong.
Li Shanchang's servant Lu Zhongqian stood up because he offended Li Shanchang and exposed that Li Shanchang had concealed the information between Hu Weiyong and Beiyuan 's contact person Feng Ji. This made Zhu Yuanzhang very angry. Zhu Yuanzhang did not feel that he had anything to feel sorry for Li Shanchang, but Li Shanchang let him down.
The relationship between Hu Weiyong and Li Shanchang was exposed. After some investigation, Zhu Yuanzhang found that Hu Weiyong not only colluded with Bei Yuan, but also colluded with the Japanese. This made Zhu Yuanzhang furious, and he also wanted to kill Li Shanchang and others in Huaixi.
Although Li Shanchang has the iron coupon for the elixir of immortality rewarded by Zhu Yuanzhang, the iron coupon for the elixir is from Zhu Yuanzhang It was signed in person, Zhu Yuanzhang had the final say.
In ancient times, the changes in the stars represented the coming of disaster stars, so the Qintian Supervisory Committee immediately performed a fortune-telling for itself to solve this problem. The Qintian Supervisor calculated that the emperor would suffer a bloody disaster. The best way to solve this problem was to find a highly respected and powerful official to ward off the disaster for him.
Zhu Yuanzhang thus put his responsibility on Li Shanchang, and the iron coupon of the immortal elixir was not It is said that one cannot go through fire and water for the emperor, so Zhu Yuanzhang's methods were very ruthless, and Li Shanchang's iron book of alchemy was also invalid for him.
Zhu Yuanzhang executed the 77-year-old Li Shanchang in the name of avoiding disaster. According to the conspiracy of Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong, Zhu Yuanzhang just handed over the iron certificate of the alchemy book to Li Shanchang to save him from death, so that Li Shanchang and his son would not be executed, and Li Shanchang's relatives would not be spared. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang showed no mercy and killed more than 70 members of Li Shanchang's family.
Zhu Yuanzhang also Fulfilling Li Shanchang's last wish and asking him to spare Li Qi's life, Zhu Yuanzhang played this move very well and did not violate the rules of the "death-avoiding pill". He killed Li Shanchang and his family and saved his daughter from death.
In this way, among Li Shanchang's family, only Li Qi, Zhu Yuanzhang's son-in-law, was still alive. The others were wiped out. Although Li Qi escaped, Zhu Yuanzhang still removed Li Shanchang from the position of Duke of Korea. Li Qi and his descendants could not inherit Li Shanchang's position as Duke of Korea.
Li Shanchang's death implicated many of the founding fathers of Huaixi, such as Lu Zhongheng, Zhao Yong, Tang Shengzong, Fei Ju, These people were all implicated, and their families were executed by Zhu Yuanzhang. Hu Weiyong's case, promoted by Zhu Yuanzhang, involved more than 30,000 people. Zhu Yuanzhang even wrote a book "Records of Revealing Traitors", which labeled Li Shanchang as a traitor.
In fact, Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong Although the friendship was good, he would not necessarily intervene because he was more loyal to Zhu Yuanzhang. Some people even doubted whether Hu Weiyong really wanted to rebel, or whether Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of this opportunity to massacre all the heroes.
Many people felt that Li Shanchang's death was too unjust. The then censors Jie Jin and Wang Guoyong complained to Zhu Yuanzhang one year after Li Shanchang was killed.
Xie Jin and Wang Guoyong thought that Li Shanchang was the founder of the Ming Dynasty The greatest hero of the country is married to Zhu Yuanzhang. He is now the prime minister of the dynasty. Why should he help Hu Weiyong seek to usurp the throne? Even if Hu Weiyong dies, Li Shanchang's position will not be better than it is now. Therefore, anyone will find a way to solve this matter. Li Shanchang cannot take the risk of colluding with Hu Weiyong. If Zhu Yuanzhang executed Li Shanchang because of weather changes, it would be an indiscriminate killing of heroes. This behavior is likely to damage Zhu Yuanzhang's popular sentiment. The method used by Xie Jin and the kingdom is for Zhu Yuanzhang to learn from Li Shanchang's lesson and stop killing heroes indiscriminately.
With Zhu Yuanzhang's violent temper, the two of them were likely to be executed. However, the result was beyond everyone's expectations. Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a long time, without expressing any opinions or blaming Xie Jin and Wang Guoyong. Judging from Zhu Yuanzhang's actions, he probably acquiesced that he had killed Li Shanchang's family.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang was deeply impressed by the memorials of Xie Jin and Wang Guoyong, Zhu Yuanzhang did not stop the massacre, but continued the massacre. Zhu Yuanzhang also created a " blue jade case", killing many founding heroes, including blue jade .
Reflections on the death of Li Shanchang
The main reason for Li Shanchang's death is because he made great contributions during Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming Dynasty. Huaixi Xunchen's power is getting bigger and bigger, more and more arrogant, more and more rampant, and more and more rampant. Li Shanchang, the leader of Huaixi Xunchen Group, will inevitably be hunted down by Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang compared Li Shanchang to Xiao He. Compared with Xiao He, Li Shanchang is nothing but a witch. Xiao He can survive from Liu Bang to the present, and his emotional intelligence and wisdom are first-rate.
Li Shanchang, on the other hand, was a man who was open to outsiders but jealous at home. He liked to fight for power and intrigues. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, he had been dazzled by his achievements. He always thought that Zhu Yuanzhang had given him the iron book of alchemy, and Zhu Yuanzhang did not dare to attack him, so he was so unscrupulous. If he could be as humble as Xu Da and Tang He, he would not be executed, let alone be executed.
Reference: "History of the Ming Dynasty"
The above are personal opinions and are for reference only.
I am a brother of literature and history. Literature is inseparable from history, history is inseparable from literature, and literature and history are two brothers.
Creation is not easy. Plagiarism must be avoided and any reproduction must be investigated.
