Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 19 Zhu Biao is the most suitable successor

Is Zhu Biao more suitable to be emperor than Zhu Di?
After hearing Zhu Yunfeng's words, Zhu Yuanzhang still did not show much emotion, but fell into deep thought.

The reason why he did not rush to find Zhu Yunfeng to learn about good strategies for governing the country, but asked about the issue of succession first, was that he was 51 years old after all.

As the founder of a vast empire, at this age, he must consider whether the next generation can continue to rule the Ming Dynasty.

The underlying logic is still that the first concern of those in power is the concern for the regime.

The deeper reason can actually be summed up in one sentence: whoever can defend the country is qualified to become the heir to the empire.

What Zhu Yuanzhang needed was a stable and worry-free regime for the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Biao had always been the crown prince he was most satisfied with.

Although he considered changing the crown prince during this process, in fact, he was just sometimes so angry with Zhu Biao that he had this idea in his mind out of anger.

Zhu Yuanzhang only had this idea once in his life, but it was never implemented.

The reason is that he himself knew very well that Zhu Biao, both in terms of his ability and the interest groups formed around him, would enable him to successfully continue the empire.

But at this moment, he came to the afterlife.

After learning about future history and knowing that the successor of the Ming Empire was not Zhu Biao's lineage, but the lineage of the fourth son Zhu Di, Zhu Yuanzhang had to reconsider this issue.

the reason is simple.

Although Zhu Biao was the most suitable person in his eyes at that time, he died early due to illness, and his descendants lost their kingdom, which was taken away by the fourth brother's lineage.

This means that there will be no more examples for Zhu Biao's lineage to follow, and it becomes unknown whether they can maintain the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Di’s lineage was different.

Although the Ming Dynasty eventually fell, it had lasted for so many years after all, so there was a complete homework to copy.

To put it simply, even if Zhu Biao has been cured and is no longer in danger of his life, his lineage is like opening a blind box and needs to open up a difficult new track all over again. No one knows what the outcome will be.

If among Zhu Biao's descendants there were another waste like Zhu Yunwen, or a foolish ruler who ruined the Ming Dynasty, Zhu would be so angry that he died.

On the contrary, Zhu Di's lineage was ready-made. Although there were certainly incompetent rulers among them, at least the Ming Dynasty was not destroyed in a short period of time.

In comparison, as a father, Zhu Yuanzhang was very satisfied with Zhu Biao as the crown prince.

However, as the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang's first priority was always the Ming Dynasty, so naturally he needed to think about these issues.

What Zhu Yuanzhang didn't expect was that even Zhu Yunfeng, a later generation, thought that Zhu Biao was more suitable.

Didn’t he think that if Zhu Biao became the emperor, history would have no reference?

In other words, the history of the Ming Dynasty will take a completely different path. What if a foolish emperor appears and destroys the Ming Dynasty?
"The ancestor was thinking that Zhu Biao had never been an emperor in history. Although his son Zhu Yunwen was an emperor, he was quickly overthrown. This shows that the descendants of Zhu Biao are not good enough."

As if sensing Zhu Yuanzhang's thoughts, Zhu Yunfeng asked tentatively: "If our ancestors had not followed history and sent Zhu Biao to the present to cure his cold, and then let him become emperor, would it have led to the emergence of a foolish emperor and the demise of the Ming Dynasty?"

"You are like a bug in my stomach. How come you know everything?"

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed.

Zhu Yunfeng complained in his heart, "I don't know who you are. I have read a lot of history books about the Ming Dynasty, but I don't know that in your heart, apart from your wife and children, the only thing you value most is the country and the regime."

“You can find this stuff online.”

Zhu Yunfeng fooled around with it, and then said, "Grandfather, have you ever thought about one thing?"

"what's up?"

"If I help you make the Ming Dynasty strong and develop technology, do you think you have changed history?"

"This"

Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned.

"After history has changed, even if the Second Ancestor is chosen as the heir, will the descendants he gave birth to still be the original descendants? With a slight difference, for example, on the day when the Second Ancestor was about to give birth to Ming Renzong Zhu Gaochi, I asked him to go over for a drink and he got drunk. As a result, he gave birth to a child one day later than the time in history when he gave birth to Empress Xu. Then, would this child still be Zhu Gaochi?"

Zhu Yunfeng added: "Similarly, even if Zhu Gaochi has been born now, his life trajectory will be greatly disturbed by outsiders like me. Even after learning about the future history, you, the ancestor, will interfere with his trajectory. Will the child born in the future still be Ming Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji?"

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly realized and said, "I understand."

"The Butterfly Effect."

Zhu Yunfeng knocked on the coffee table and said, "Although the theory that a butterfly flapping its wings can cause a tornado is false, the effect is real. Sometimes a tiny change can change the entire world. For example, now that time travel has happened, if we go back to the Southern Song Dynasty and kill our ancestor Zhu Zhongba, will there still be the Ming Dynasty and our Zhu family?"

He looked at Zhu Yuanzhang and continued, "Similarly, after you came here, your trajectory of action was different from that of every day in history, and the future history was drastically changed. So perhaps at some point when you appeared here, the trajectory of the Ming Dynasty could never go back to the past. As long as you want to strengthen the Ming Dynasty, my intervention in this world has already changed history. What are you worried about, ancestor?"

"Yeah, that's right, that's the point."

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly understood and nodded, "Then tell me, why is Biao'er more suitable than the fourth son? Didn't you say before that the fourth son is both civil and military, and has created a great cause? I also like such an emperor very much."

He had the idea of ​​changing the crown prince once when Zhu Biao was alive. The reason for that was that he felt Zhu Di was very similar to himself, and Zhu Biao always contradicted him, which made him angry.

After he gave up this idea, Zhu Biao died again.

When it came time to change the heir this time, Zhu Yuanzhang's first thought was still to make Zhu Di the new crown prince.

He wanted to establish Zhu Di twice not only because Zhu Di looked like him, but also because Zhu Di was outstanding in character, ability, wisdom, and military strength.

In particular, Zhu Di was enfeoffed in Beiping and led his army north to Mobei to capture the Northern Yuan Dynasty's Taiwei Nairbuhua, which made him very fond of him.

However, Zhu Yunfeng shook his head and said, "Zhu Di was indeed an emperor with great achievements, but what needs to be considered is that in your period, only Zhu Biao was the most suitable. This has nothing to do with whether the Second Ancestor later became the Yongle Emperor, but the fact that Zhu Biao was the best for the Ming Dynasty at that time."

"Why do you say that?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was puzzled.

"The reason is simple, because everyone obeys him and everyone likes him."

Zhu Yunfeng said: "For an empire in the early Ming Dynasty that had just ended the chaos of the late Yuan Dynasty and was in urgent need of recuperation, an emperor that everyone trusted was more important than anything else."

"Well."

Zhu Yuanzhang pondered and said, "Tell me in detail."

Zhu Yunfeng said: "If everyone is convinced, there will be less resistance. If there is less resistance, it will be convenient to do anything and implement any policy, and the country will develop more easily." "Especially since his policy is based on "leniency and easiness", if he ascends the throne, the world will have fewer decades of turmoil, fewer deaths, and all parties will submit. His achievements will not be worse than Zhu Di's, and may even be better, ushering in a more relaxed era."

"This will relax the entire social atmosphere from the tense and high-pressure state of the Hongwu period, and will help the development of the domestic economy, agriculture and the country's productivity as a whole."

"In comparison, although the Second Ancestor created a great cause, his reign can be described as militaristic."

"Since the Second Ancestor overthrew the orthodox emperor you established, he was very worried about the problem of illegitimate access to the throne, so he continued to rule the country with spies and exercised high-intensity control over the people and the officialdom."

"In the Ming Dynasty, the cabinet and the East Factory were set up, eunuchs were heavily used, and the high-intensity control policy on officials and civilians was continued, which laid the hidden danger of eunuchs interfering in politics. In the Ming Dynasty, five expeditions to Mongolia were personally launched, but the results were very few. Zheng He was sent to the West seven times, which filled the treasury and promoted the national prestige, but seriously depleted the national strength and people's power."

"In addition, the long-term foreign wars and the large-scale dredging of the canal led to heavy taxes and corvée labor, which was very detrimental to the development of the people."

"To establish an empire, you need to be strict, but to maintain it, you need to be flexible. You were too strict during your reign, so the next emperor needs to adopt a relaxed policy to guide the people to thrive, rather than continue the high-pressure situation."

"But the Second Ancestor was not the legitimate successor, which made it difficult for him to relax social order."

"So even though there is talk of the Yongle era of prosperity, in fact, for ordinary people, the living conditions were not that good."

"It can only be said that the Yongle Era was built on the powerful military force of the Ming Dynasty at the time, rather than on the overall national strength, which is somewhat similar to the situation of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty."

"The difference is that Emperor Wu of Han had real achievements in his expedition to Mobei, and he defeated the Xiongnu so badly that they lost their way. The Second Ancestor went on several expeditions to Mobei but failed to find the enemy's main force for a decisive battle, and returned empty-handed, which was a little inadequate."

"Of course, these are just the shortcomings of the Second Ancestor's reign. There are also many advantages, including the fact that the Second Ancestor conquered a large territory during his reign and even built a city in the Strait of Malacca. His many great achievements far outweigh these few shortcomings."

"But compared to Zhu Biao, what the Ming Dynasty needed at that time was not to conquer and expand territory, but to recuperate and develop national strength. With the national strength improved, any emperor could do these things."

"That's why I said that both Zhu Biao and the Second Ancestor were capable of being emperors. It was just that in special periods, such as the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Biao was more suitable than the Second Ancestor. If it was in the late Ming Dynasty, an emperor like the Second Ancestor who was decisive and capable would be needed to calm the situation."

"And if Zhu Biao had come to power in the early Ming Dynasty, it would not have been easy to sow the seeds of disaster for the Ming Dynasty's demise. On the contrary, many landmines were indeed planted during the reign of the Second Ancestor, which can be regarded as indirectly leading to the demise of the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Yunfeng tried his best to be tactful and objective, and had no intention of belittling Zhu Di.

He writes history and often goes to Bihu to look up information.

In addition to studying history books and understanding history myself, I also look at the opinions of those big names.

The bigwigs are often divided into two factions. One faction is Zhu Biao's fans, believing that as long as Zhu Biao is alive, the Ming Dynasty will last forever.

Another group believes that Zhu Biao was just a shock wave, a false god who was blown up and whose actual ability was far inferior to that of Zhu Di.

Zhu Yunfeng was young and ignorant at the time. In addition, Zhu Di was his direct ancestor, so he naturally stood on Zhu Di's side and felt that Zhu Biao was not as good as Zhu Di.

After all, Zhu Biao died early and had no outstanding political achievements.

But later, when my thoughts matured and I did some research on politics, I realized that during Zhu Yuanzhang's period, Zhu Biao was indeed the best and most suitable successor.

This has nothing to do with the abilities of Zhu Biao and Zhu Di, but rather that he is Zhu Biao, the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty who served as regent at the age of 22 and handled state affairs for more than ten years!
During the period when he was regency, he was recognized by civil officials, convinced by military generals, supported by brothers, and loved by the people. He was recognized by the whole Ming Dynasty as the most perfect crown prince. This is the best proof.

The early Ming Dynasty was a turbulent period. Zhu Yuanzhang had always felt insecure as an emperor, fearing that the Zhu family's throne would be unstable. Therefore, he adopted a high-pressure policy towards officials and civilians. He would launch large-scale purges and torture if they were not careful, resulting in constant uprisings.

There were more than thirty peasant uprisings during the Hongwu period, second only to the Chongzhen period in the late Ming Dynasty.

In this environment, anyone could see that what the Ming Dynasty needed at this time was not to continue its conquests, but to rest with the people and restore national strength, just like Emperor Wen of Han and Emperor Jing of Han.

This is not Zhu Yunfeng's own opinion, but it has historical basis.

For example, the "Reign of Wen and Jing", "The Restoration of Zhao and Xuan", "The Prosperity of Kaiyuan", "The Reign of Ren and Xuan", etc. all follow the same principle.

That is, the previous emperor was always fighting wars, which led to the depletion of national strength and the suffering of the people. The next emperor adopted a series of policies such as lenient governance and stopping military operations to support the people, which led to the prosperity of the country.

During the Yongle period, Zhu Di fought wars in the south and the north, which consumed a lot of national strength, but in fact he was also vigorously developing agriculture, building water conservancy projects, dredging the Grand Canal, and reducing taxes. He was able to fight wars and recuperate at the same time, which prevented the country from collapsing.

It was not until the reigns of Emperor Renzong and Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty that the Ming Dynasty stopped wars and focused on development, and became truly powerful.

The "Renzong and Xuanzong Reign" is also recognized as the period when the Ming Dynasty had the strongest national power and the clearest politics.

If Zhu Qizhen had not led hundreds of thousands of the Ming Dynasty's elite troops to collapse without a fight at Tumu Fortress, causing the Ming Dynasty to decline, this era of prosperity might have continued for a long time.

Zhu Biao's policy program was actually similar to that of Ming Renzong and Ming Xuanzong. Both advocated recuperation of the country and development of national strength.

His coming to power will help restore the country's strength as soon as possible.

Although Zhu Di conquered a large territory, it was just icing on the cake.

During the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, the territory of the Ming Dynasty was already very large, reaching 722 million square kilometers.

Zhu Di mainly conquered the Northeast and the Russian Far East, which was called Nurgandusi, with an area of ​​about 186 million square kilometers.

The second largest country is northern Vietnam and half of Myanmar, with an area of ​​about 60 square kilometers.

The last one is the Jiugang Xuanweisi in Nanyang, which covers an area of ​​22 square kilometers.

The resistance of these places was already weak at the time, and most of them were under tributary rule with little actual control.

As long as the national strength is improved, unless you encounter a waste like Zhu Qizhen, you can basically do it by replacing him with a mediocre emperor, and it will even be easier.

So from an objective point of view, if Zhu Yuanzhang's successor was Zhu Biao, the early Ming Dynasty would quickly enter a stage of national strength recovery.

Given that Zhu Biao had the support of everyone, Zhu Yuanzhang would not have killed the Huaixi nobles on a large scale, ensuring that a group of capable and battle-hardened military generals in the early Ming Dynasty would still exist.

In this way, the national strength will be improved and the military power can be guaranteed. The prosperous era created may not be worse than that of Zhu Di, and may even be better.

The territories conquered by Zhu Di could also be achieved during the reign of Zhu Biao.

Therefore, if we learn from history and look at the issue correctly, we will understand why Zhu Biao is recognized as the best successor to Zhu Yuanzhang.

It is because of his political status and policy agenda that this is destined.

And most importantly.

Zhu Yuanzhang and his son Zhu Di laid the seeds for the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

Only if Zhu Biao came to power could this root of evil be eliminated, thus delaying the decline of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, taking all factors into consideration and making an objective judgment, if we take Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty as a reference, Zhu Biao must be more suitable to be the next emperor than Zhu Di.

(End of this chapter)