Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 782 Fading away
[In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang in the early Ming Dynasty was obviously still in the novice period of being an emperor.

After all, Zhu Yuanzhang conquered the world with nothing, so to say that he had little family knowledge was an exaggeration. Whether it was his early travels or his later rise to power after joining Guo Zixing, Zhu Yuanzhang's transformation process is quite clear.

The same is true for being an emperor. It always requires a process of getting familiar with the job, and wishing that his old brothers would help him build a family empire is obviously one of the tuition fees he has to pay.

In fact, before the big pot meal was divided in the third year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang had announced in the second year of Hongwu that he would move the capital back to his hometown in the future. Not only did he go there in person to select a site and name it Zhongdu, he also went to great lengths to move wealthy people from Jiangnan and Shanxi to populate the city and drive development.

Set up the capital in his hometown, give honors and favors to a group of brothers in his hometown for generations, and have his sons become vassal kings to rule the four directions forever. This was the structure that Zhu Yuanzhang originally envisioned for governing the world.

So do you think Zhu knew about the dispute between Huaixi and Zhejiang? He probably knew.

As for whether I care or not? Who cares? The Huaixi Party are all my commoner brothers. Who do you think you are from Zhejiang?

But as the saying goes, eight out of ten things in life are not satisfactory, even if you become an emperor.

In the eighth year of Hongwu, Zhongdu, which was personally selected by Zhu Yuanzhang, was basically completed, and the matter of moving the capital from Yingtian Prefecture to his hometown of Haozhou could be officially put on the agenda.

For this reason, Old Zhu went there in February to inspect the progress of the project and enthusiastically wrote a "Prayer from Zhongdu to Heaven and Earth", in which he officially decided to rename his hometown Fengyang.

But soon after Zhu Yuanzhang finished his inspection and returned to Yingtian Prefecture in April, he issued an edict stating that moving the capital would be a waste of money and labor, and the plan to make Fengyang the Zhongdu was abandoned, which was a slap in his own face.

In fact, the waste of money and labor is just an excuse, because Fengyang New City has been under construction for five years. If you say you don't want to relocate now, then what about the rich families who have worked hard for the past five years and have been relocated here with promises? Can you explain to me what the waste of money and labor means?
Moreover, shortly after issuing the edict in April, Zhu Yuanzhang began to build a new imperial palace in Yingtian Prefecture in September of the same year, apparently forgetting the previous claim that it would be a waste of money and time.

Regarding the abolition of the capital relocation, the "History of Ming Dynasty" states that when Zhu Yuanzhang was inspecting Fengyang, Li Shanchang reported that he had discovered that craftsmen were using the method of warding off evil spirits. After Zhu Yuanzhang executed the craftsmen involved, the matter of relocating the capital was shelved. This is the case of the warding off evil spirits in the eighth year of Hongwu.

Does this statement alone hold water? Perhaps, but it is not enough.

After all, it is true that Zhu Yuanzhang did show superstitious behavior in history books, but we cannot ignore the fact that he was essentially an extremely pragmatic politician. It was somewhat absurd to give up five years of investment simply because of superstition.

But if we look back and forth from the eighth year of Hongwu, we can sort out a basic timeline:
In the second year, he planned to move the capital to Fengyang; in the third year, he gave commoner brothers iron certificates to protect them from death;

In the fourth year, the chief of the nobles, the Left Prime Minister Li Shanchang, retired due to illness; in the fifth year, an iron order was issued to punish the nobles for breaking the law;
It can be clearly seen from this line that Zhu Yuanzhang gradually drifted away from the founding nobles because of their arrogant behavior.

At the same time, as some people retreated, others advanced, and another line was advancing in parallel. The protagonist of this line was the person involved in the Hu case - Hu Weiyong. 】

When Li Shanchang heard himself being mentioned, he did not feel very happy.

On the one hand, it was because these things were things he had experienced in the past, and if you counted carefully, it was only ten years ago. He still remembered them very clearly and did not need a younger generation who had been separated by hundreds of years to help him recall them.

On the other hand, as one of the only three civil officials who were honored as meritorious officials in the third year of Hongwu, and praised by His Majesty himself as being comparable to Xiao He, it was clear that Li Shanchang's brain was quite useful.

Judging from the direction of the younger generation's narrative, Li Shanchang vaguely sensed a sense of crisis. He was also clear about the Hu Weiyong case, and that Lan was most likely Lan Yu. Combined with what later generations said about his true achievements in destroying the remnant Yuan Dynasty, and considering the Iron List, it seemed that he could vaguely guess a thing or two.

But even if the two cases were added together, there were only seven or eight nobles and a dozen old officials involved. But listening to the tone of the junior, Li Shanchang felt a little chill on his back.

Why does it feel like all the nobles in Huaixi are not allowed to survive?

When this thought came to his mind, Li Shanchang's heart trembled, but then he laughed at himself and said it was probably impossible.

Even if some of the Huaixi nobles are contrary to Your Majesty's wishes, it is indeed as the younger generations said, the capital is now in eastern Zhejiang, and the Huaixi Party is still Your Majesty's base after all. It would be fine to punish them, but who would cut off their own base?
However, adhering to the principle of caution, Li Shanchang still stood up and confessed:
"I promoted him to be the Junior Minister of Rites, and it was because of him that the disaster began. I feel ashamed."

In response, Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand and signaled Li Shanchang to sit back down:

"This matter is beyond your imagination, nor is it within your knowledge. If you are to be convicted of this, shouldn't I first confess my crime to the world?"

The meaning of the words is very clear. Although Hu Weiyong entered the central government with the recommendation of you, Li Shanchang, but who finally agreed to the recommendation?
Besides, as long as Hu Weiyong is willing, it will not be difficult for him to find a way out in the capital where "half of the people with high buns in the city are from Huaixi" as a native of Huaixi and an old man who had defected there in the 15th year of Zhizheng.

Therefore, Emperor Ming had no intention of pursuing responsibility at this moment. He just looked at the speculations of later generations, which were almost the same as what he thought when he was enlightened, and finally sighed:
"It's true that eight out of ten things in life are not what you want to see."

Enjoying wealth and guarding the Ming Dynasty forever for generations, this is the greatest sincerity he can show to his old friend, but it is obvious that his old friend is not satisfied with this utmost sincerity and has been testing the bottom line step by step since the issuance of the iron certificate.

Before the Enlightenment, in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, the old friends from Huaixi might be brave or unyielding, or selfless or loyal and courageous, but after they were crowned with the title of dukes and marquises, he discovered for the first time that the greed of the old friends from Huaixi was so glaring.

Empress Ma was a little concerned about her husband's slightly frustrated sigh. She held Zhu Yuanzhang's hand tightly and said:

"Even if it can't be Zhongdu, it is still Chongba's hometown. Why don't you follow Biaoer's example and hire a scholar to assist you so that you can go back to Fengyang in your spare time?"

After Ming Tianzi pondered for a while, he finally shook his head:
"There are north and south in the land, but the people have the same heart. I should treat everyone equally. The world is the homeland of the Son of Heaven, so how can there be any distinction?"

These were supposed to be the words he used many years later to refute the North-South debate, but he felt it was appropriate to use them here.

Although he still had twenty years to live, Zhu Yuanzhang already had a vague feeling that his return to Fengyang in the eighth year of Hongwu would probably be the last time he would return home in his life.

But the thought of this actually made me feel quite excited:

"Let us see how future generations will comment on what happened last year!"

(End of this chapter)