Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 779 Xiong Cai likes to kill
"Dad has said that before."

Zhu Biao was unsure of his father's attitude, but out of precaution he decided to say a few words to comfort him:
"Hu Yuanyong's incompetent government has brought disaster to the world. The Ming Dynasty should revitalize the government to restore the country."

"Since we are in power, we should rectify the lawlessness to purify the government and the world. It is inevitable that there will be many slanders."

Zhu Yuanzhang remained silent for a while after hearing his eldest son's words. He knew this simple truth.

At this moment, the words that the Han general Zhao Yun had written on the screen were remembered again:

"Don't be impatient..."

Taking a deep breath, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at his son and shook his head, saying:
"I am not impatient. What I have done should be recorded in history books for future generations to learn from. Praise and criticism are to be expected."

As he said this, Ming Tianzi laughed out loud:

"Tang Taizong often said that history is a mirror that can help us understand the rise and fall of nations, but few of the previous emperors could know the final conclusion. So we should be happy if this is the case."

Having said that, the words that followed the light curtain's opening made Zhu Yuanzhang lose his smile.

[Nowadays, when we discuss the achievements of emperors in the feudal era, we often use the phrase "the greatest emperor of all time" to describe those who have made great contributions.

This evaluative title was coined by Li Zhi, a thinker in the Ming Dynasty, and was used to make the final judgment on Qin Shihuang in his work "Book Collection".

Only after he pioneered it did others later use it widely. For example, the contemporary scholar Wang Zhijian followed suit in his works, calling Li Shimin "a truly unrivaled emperor of all time."

However, this is just adding the word "true". Later, Li Zhi evaluated Zhu Yuanzhang in his work "Continuation of Collection of Books". Perhaps he felt that this newly created word was not enough to evaluate Zhu, so he simply wrote without hesitation:
"Our Taizu Gaohuangdi is the greatest emperor in the history."

This title can be said to be extremely high. Although Li Zhi was known as the first madman in the Ming Dynasty and had the experience of giving up his official position to teach, he was indeed a master of his time in terms of academic attainments and had thousands of followers. His assertions could more or less represent the views of a considerable number of people in the Ming Dynasty at that time.

If we want to summarize the image of Zhu Yuanzhang without just reading history books, the most intuitive method is of course to look at the historical materials of the time. During the Hongwu period, the four major cases were the most notable.

Although they are classified into one category, their nature is not the same. For example, the Empty Seal Case and the Guo Huan Case are quite clearly related to the rectification of official administration, while the Hu-Lan Case is also said to be a Hu-Lan Party Prison. Their overall nature tends to take action against the founding heroes.

However, the four cases do have one thing in common, which is that they have been criticized by many people for hundreds of years.

Those who hold a favorable view do not say anything, while those who oppose the case believe that the four cases were all false and wrongful convictions, and that Zhu Yuanzhang always implicated tens of thousands of people and even massacred entire counties. The four cases resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 people, so it is concluded that Zhu Yuanzhang was the undisputed number one butcher and executioner in the Ming Dynasty.

The most well-known of these is the remarks made by Qing Dynasty historian Zhao Yi.

In his "Twenty-two Histories Notes", he bluntly said that Zhu Yuanzhang "relying on meritorious officials to conquer the world", but when the world was peaceful, he "took all the people in the world and killed them", saying that Zhu Yuanzhang's "cruelness was unprecedented in history."

But that’s not all. After this paragraph, there is another smooth connection with a heart-breaking comment:
"Gai Xiong guesses that he likes to kill, it's his nature"

If the previous words can still stand up to scrutiny based on historical data, then these eight words of judgment have a bit of a curse on the Qing Dynasty, which somewhat loses the professional qualities of a historian.

So, was Zhu Yuanzhang a bloodthirsty monarch who was "unprecedented in cruelty"? How many wrongful deaths were there in the four major cases?

Today we will try to trace the origins and look at the four major cases in the early Ming Dynasty from the source. 】

"The greatest emperor throughout the ages." Zhu Biao muttered the title, feeling somewhat envious.

To be called this by the people was a testament to his great achievements, but Zhu Biao also knew that his father would probably not notice it given his temperament, and would probably care more about... "Butcher? Executioner?"

Zhu Yuanzhang repeated with a strange look:
"You are so cruel, you are murderous by nature?"

Instinctively, he almost immediately wanted to utter a few Huaixi swear words.

Firstly, this was an accusation that he considered to be almost groundless.

Secondly, it has only been a few years since the Ming army entered Dadu and destroyed the Hu Yuan regime? The seals and ribbons of the Song, Jin and Yuan dynasties are still lying in the Ming treasury, but the one who is cursing in the street at this time is a person with a Chinese name under Hu Qingzhi.

But in the end Emperor Ming fell silent. He thought of those fools who would rather die for Hu Yuan, those fools who tried every means to bypass the garrisons and run to Mobei to serve Hu Yuan, and even more so those fame-seeking people who relied on their talents to retire to the mountains and forests and did not serve the Ming Dynasty. For a moment, his mind was no longer here.

Zhu Yuanzhang said nothing, but Empress Ma was unhappy:

"Did Chongba dig up his Zhao family's ancestral grave? Or did he imprison his Zhao family's ancestor? How could he say such hateful words?"

"Moreover, Chongba has always been kind to his old ministers, so how could he kill people in the world? Such sarcastic remarks are not biased and are not in line with the correctness of scholars."

Zhu Biao was the first to jump out and agree with his mother's words:
"The matter of the empty seal was originally a mistake made in the previous Yuan Dynasty. Daddy was only correcting the original rule. How can you say that it was wronged?"

"Before and after the empty seal, there were only a few hundred criminals involved, and they were all guilty. There was evidence and documents. How could there be tens of thousands of people involved?"

With his elder brother as an example, Zhu Di also spoke quickly:
"Since both are aimed at rectifying the administration of officials, then I think the case against Guo Huan must not be without purpose."

"I think that it is my eldest brother who should take action and investigate according to his name. Maybe it can break the bad habits of officials just like the empty seal."

After Zhu Di finished speaking, he glanced at his third brother. The meaning was self-evident, but it made Zhu Gang a little dumbfounded.

In later generations, the three words "Hu Lan'an" sounded light, but when they were placed in this Huagai Palace, they felt as if they weighed a thousand pounds.

After all, it has been less than a year since the Hu Weiyong case. Just by guessing, one can tell that this Hu Ding is Hu Weiyong, and this is not something he can easily discuss.

As for Lan, this surname is really uncommon, but for Li Wenzhong, Li Shanchang and Xu Da, they almost immediately remembered the event in which Lan Yu led his army to a great victory at Buyuerhai in the 21st year of Hongwu, which was casually mentioned by later generations three months ago.

Moreover, Lan Yu is not in the capital now. In the first month of the year, Your Majesty had already decided to conquer Yunnan, and together with Yingchuan Marquis Fu Youde, he decided to send a brave general to lead a separate army to attack Wusa, and then share the key points with the main army to achieve a surprise victory.

This brave general was naturally Lan Yu. Before the Lantern Festival, Lan Yu had already rushed to Bashu to prepare for war.

However, compared with these, Li Shanchang cared more about the later evaluation of the Hu Lan incident as "attacking the founding heroes."

Now, the only ones who can be given the title of Huagai Palace are him, Li Wenzhong and Xu Da.

But now we know that Xu Da died of a carbuncle on his back, and the relationship between Li Wenzhong and Your Majesty is beyond description, so...

Li Shanchang couldn't help but feel a little regretful: Could he take back the business card he had thrown at Lan Yu's mansion during the New Year?

(End of this chapter)