Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 791: Death from Illness
[Perhaps because of this past history, Zhu Yuanzhang directly invited Liu Bowen into his shogunate to discuss strategies without assigning him a position. According to historical records, Liu Bowen's first official position as Grand Historian was in 1367, which was already the seventh year that Liu Bowen had served under Zhu Yuanzhang.

As for the final deviation of Liu Bowen's image, it was indeed Zhu Yuanzhang's fault. After all, the well-known origin of "Emperor Fengtian Chengyun" came from Zhu, and the capital was renamed Yingtian Prefecture. Whenever he talked with ministers and offered sacrifices, he would emphasize that the emperor was "Yingtian". These were all evidence of Zhu's superstition.

After being superstitious for too long, Zhu Yuanzhang himself might have become addicted to it, which eventually gave Hu Weiyong an opportunity.

After Liu Ji retired, he saw that Tanyang was in serious rebellion, so he wrote to Zhu Yuanzhang to report it and asked him to set up a patrol inspection office to pacify the people. Hu Weiyong pretended to be angry at first: How can the memorial be sent directly to Your Majesty without going through the Secretariat? What should I do if I am tired?
Seeing that Lao Zhu didn't care, he changed his strategy and started to play the "puffer fish style".

The rumor that Tan Yangdi had royal aura gradually reached Zhu's ears, so Liu Ji, who was already in poor health, was recalled to the capital, and eventually died of illness soon after.

Hu Weiyong certainly had some responsibility for Liu Ji's death, but it is unclear how much responsibility he had, because there are probably three popular theories:
Hu Weiyong poisoned; Zhu Yuanzhang instigated Hu Weiyong to poison; Liu Ji died of natural illness.

However, the claim that Zhu Yuanzhang was the secret agent is mostly nonsense. Regardless of whether we believe it or not, one reason is that the Zhejiang East faction did not have a strong voice at the time, and the other reason is that as we said before, Zhu Yuanzhang happily went to Fengyang, the capital, to inspect Liu Ji that year, and he had not returned when Liu Ji died.

As to whether it was Hu Weiyong who poisoned him, there is still no conclusion to this day.

But Zhu Yuanzhang, one of the parties involved, insisted that Hu Weiyong poisoned him, and told Liu Ji's descendants more than once that "your father was poisoned by Hu Weiyong". So let's just assume that this is true for now.

But as an illiterate person, Old Zhu, you should take a closer look at the level of your crappy imperial physician.

Just like the death of Xu Da, it is more likely that the imperial physician was too incompetent. As a result, during the Chenghua period, someone wrote a unofficial history based on this: "The emperor suddenly gave a meal, and Duke Wei ate it while crying in front of the envoy, and secretly ordered the physician to escape. Not long after, he died." In the end, it was spread that Zhu Yuanzhang forced Xu Da to eat roast goose and killed him.

Looking back at the story of Liu Bowen, to us in modern times it is very inspiring that Zhu Yuanzhang, who had nothing but a humble beginning, became the emperor. However, in that era when people emphasized accepting orders from heaven, Zhu Yuanzhang must have been very nervous.

Therefore, the Confucian scholars under Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice but to sing the praises of destiny for him, and eventually their image was inevitably distorted. At that time, many people under Zhu Yuanzhang had similar experiences, and Liu Ji was not an isolated case.

As for the literary officials among the same list of meritorious officials, why Liu Ji's reputation in later generations completely overshadowed Li Shanchang and Wang Guangyang, this has little to do with the ability to tell fortunes. It is purely because Liu Ji's death from illness during the Hongwu period can definitely be considered a good end.

After all, Li Shanchang and Wang Guangyang did not die of illness or old age, but were both executed by Zhu Yuanzhang. How could the descendants of these two dare to play like the Liu family? 】

Li Wenzhong has never been very fond of Liu Bowen.

In my memory, after my uncle invited him back, he stayed by my side for a long time, but he didn't say anything easily. Later, I learned that he had served Hu Yuan and had written many articles to praise the king and prime minister of Hu Yuan.

Perhaps his uncle went to great lengths to invite him back because he really had the ability, but they didn't have much interaction in normal times. At most, after they triumphantly attacked the Yuan capital, Li Wenzhong paid special attention to Mr. Liu's expression during the dinner. However, this was just a teasing thought and they did not develop a deep friendship.

So when Li Wenzhong finally heard that Liu Bowen actually had this name, he was still a little surprised. Out of boredom, he simply pulled Li Shanchang beside him:
"Grand Censor, is this man really so powerful? Does he really have the talent to unify the world?"

Li Wenzhong might have been serious about verifying this, but Li Shanchang was somewhat unimpressed by his words:

If this is the talent and strategy to unify the world, then what is the point of me, Li Shanchang, running around since Chuzhou?
So it was the back of Li Shanchang's head that finally responded to Li Wenzhong.

This made Li Wenzhong a little confused for a moment, so he went to talk to his uncle beside him: "I just said that the Grand Censor is not a good person..."

Xu Da was also quick-witted and quick-handed. Before Li Wenzhong could utter the word "jealous", he patted Li Wenzhong lightly and slapped him back.

It was at this time that Li Wenzhong felt that the atmosphere in the hall had become a little serious, and the reason was obvious - future generations were commenting on the current emperor's superstition.

Although it was difficult to understand the meaning at the moment, it was not a good word after all, because he heard his uncle gritting his teeth and retorting:

"How can we not be said to be following God's will when we sweep across the country to restore China?"

"God has determined that the Hu Yuan should be destroyed, and we should follow God's will to make China prosperous. Is there anything wrong with that?"

But before Li Wenzhong could finish his uncle's questioning, he heard the voice getting more intense:
"How could I order a traitor like Hu Weiyong to poison my old ministers? How could a ruler act like this?"

"Liu Ji died because of Hu Weiyong. What do you mean by 'just treat this as true'? This is beyond doubt!"

Fortunately, the queen was by his side, so Li Wenzhong did not end up with the Huaixi vulgar display that he had worried about, but was persuaded to go back.

Then Li Wenzhong turned his head and watched the expressions of the three people beside him change.

Imperial Physician Dai Sigong still had a hint of fatigue on his face. He politely bowed to the words of the later generations and reported in a loud but dignified voice:
"As for the imperial physician, I have followed your majesty's order and have prepared a file to examine his medical skills. Later, I will ask those who are ill to have the imperial physician examine them again."

"Those who are swindling the best will naturally be removed from the list, and must not be allowed to misdiagnose and harm others."

Uncle Xu Da's expression was mixed with laughter, but seriously speaking, Li Wenzhong also felt that what Guangmu said was too ridiculous:
The defense of Peking was all in the hands of my uncle, and both my uncle and my uncle were born in the countryside, so they were closer than my relatives, so why would they be so jealous?
As expected, my uncle's words were mostly comforting:

"Brother, please do not let this unofficial history bother you. The mediocre people who ridicule and discuss politics are shallow and worth a laugh."

In comparison, the expression on the face of the Grand Censor, who had just been criticized by him, was quite interesting.

Although he said nothing, for some reason Li Wenzhong suddenly remembered the old stories of the Three Kingdoms - it was not his fault, because his uncle was really fond of Han history.

As far as he could remember, his uncle had praised his close ministers by comparing them to famous ministers of the Han Dynasty more than once, and Zhang Liang and Xiao He had been compared to them several times.

Both Wang Guangyang and Liu Bowen were compared to Zhuge Liang by their uncles.

Then the current Chief Censor... Sima Yi?

(End of this chapter)