Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 795 Lin Xian Case

[In the 19th year of Hongwu, the commander of Mingzhou Guard, Lin Xian, was found to be colluding with the Japanese. The general record in "History of Ming Dynasty" said that Hu Weiyong had taken Lin Xian, the commander of Ningbo Guard, as his confidant, and then fabricated a crime to demote him to Japan. In fact, he let Lin Xian plot a rebellion in Japan.

After three years of Lin Xian's activities, Hu Weiyong waved his hand and reinstated him. Before Lin Xian left, he agreed with the King of Japan on matters of rebellion. In the 13th year of Hongwu, the King of Japan sent a tribute team of 400 people with hidden gunpowder and swords. Unexpectedly, when they arrived, Hu Weiyong's head had already fallen to the ground, so the matter had to be left unresolved.

Later, when the Lin Xian incident was exposed, Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and pursued the Hu Weiyong case again, so another group of officials were implicated and executed. The case of collusion with the Japanese also involved many powerful people in the south of the Yangtze River, and they were all executed for the same crime.

Nowadays, people generally tend to believe that the rumor that Hu Weiyong colluded with the Japanese was a fabrication, and that Zhu Yuanzhang was actually taking advantage of the situation to investigate dissidents.

But if you study the original text of the Lin Xian case, you will find many interesting points.

First of all, the source of the record of the Lin Xian case is "The Three Compilations of Great Edicts: Chapter 9: Commanding Lin Xian and the Hu Party" written by Zhu Yuanzhang himself, so it was later included in the "History of Ming Dynasty" when the Qing court compiled history.

Today, the question of whether the relationship with Japan is real or not is firstly because Japan was far away in ancient times, and it was too unreliable to rely on it for help;

Secondly, "The Great Edict" is Zhu Yuanzhang's one-sided statement, so you can make it up however you want.

The most important thing is what we said before. The Northern and Southern Dynasties period of Japan did not end until the 25th year of Hongwu. At that time, not only did Japan not have a king recognized by both sides, but even the Prince Huailiang who was blamed by Zhu Yuanzhang was sent to the countryside to farm in the 5th year of Hongwu, and died of illness in the 16th year of Hongwu. It was impossible that he was the "King of Japan" who conspired with Hu Weiyong.

Although there are loopholes in the Lin Xian case left in the Great Edict, Lao Zhu's record of the case reveals two clues:
During the Hongwu period, the Japanese "falsely claimed to pay tribute" more than once; there were indeed traitors within the Ming Dynasty who were in collusion with the Japanese.

As for "falsely claiming to pay tribute", we have already said that it was related to the relationship between the Northern and Southern Dynasties of Japan. The local daimyo and even pirates and merchants of Japan deceived others in the name of envoys. Although they could not produce any letters of credence or tribute, they were all received by the Ministry of Rites and brought to Zhu Yuanzhang.

In the Great Edict, Zhu Yuanzhang reflected on this and believed that the Ministry of Rites allowed in all kinds of people because there was interference from an insider, who used the name of civil strife in Japan to cover it up so that the Japanese could come and go freely under the banner of envoys, making it easier for them to cause trouble.

This can be corroborated by the sudden closure of the Ningbo Maritime Customs Office, as recorded by Shen Defu in Volume 12 of Wanli Ye Wai Bian in the mid-Ming Dynasty. Since the Song Dynasty, Mingzhou (renamed Ningbo in the 14th year of Hongwu) played a very important role in foreign trade. Its sudden closure was not reasonable. The reason recorded by Shen Defu was that "Ningbo is also close to the capital, and it is for defense against treacherous people."

Looking back again, the position of Lin Xian, the protagonist in the second phase of the Hu Weiyong case, was the commander of Ningbo Guard.

If we go back in time to before the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng, Fang Guozhen and others who were entrenched in the Yangtze River Basin and were competing with Zhu Yuanzhang for supremacy all attached great importance to Ningbo.

After these forces were eliminated by Zhu Yuanzhang, most of the remaining forces fled to the sea through Ningbo, which eventually led to the "Japanese invasion of islands and plunder" in the early Ming Dynasty.

In the Lin Xian case, Zhu Yuanzhang was most likely aware that the Japanese pirates were no longer scattered bandits. They were familiar with the coastal terrain and could move freely in Ningbo. Considering that before the fall of Hu Weiyong, any Tom, Dick or Harry who claimed to be a Japanese envoy could be sent to the emperor by the Ministry of Rites, the problem in Ningbo was already very serious in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes.

As for why Zhu Yuanzhang concluded that Hu Weiyong was colluding with the Japanese, Shen Defu's other eight words when describing the reasons for the abolition of the Ningbo Maritime Customs Office may serve as the best annotation: "He was close to the capital, or was spying."

In Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, even if Hu Weiyong did not have any contact with the Japanese, he must have had contact with Zhang Shicheng and other remnants through Lin Xian's window in Ningbo. This may also be a reasonable explanation for Zhu Yuanzhang's reflection on the Lin Xian case in the "Three Collections of Great Edicts". Whether it is collusion with the Japanese or collusion with the remnants of the Ming Dynasty, it makes little difference to Zhu Yuanzhang. They are all ironclad evidence of treason, and the charge of collusion with the Japanese is more of a hassle-free way of doing things.

Then the true story of the Lin Xian case can be pieced together:
Between the sixth and eighth years of the Hongwu reign, the powerful Hu Weiyong took Lin Xian as his confidant. After Liu Bowen passed away, Hu Weiyong, whose position had been consolidated, began to prepare for his next move.

In the ninth year of Hongwu, under the arrangement of Hu Weiyong, Lin Xian was sent to Japan on a not-so-small charge. This mission lasted for three years. Lin Xian might have really gone to contact Japan, or he might have just been contacting anti-Ming forces under the guise of Japan.

In the eleventh year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang began to issue an edict that "the six ministries and departments should not report their affairs to the Secretariat", that is, the memorials of the six ministries could be sent directly to the emperor without being shown to the prime minister. This could actually be seen as a signal that Zhu Yuanzhang was about to take action.

In the 12th year of Hongwu, Hu Weiyong, sensing the crisis, recalled Lin Xian and prepared to stir up trouble. However, in this year, incidents such as the tribute envoy from Champa, the private killing of a groom, and the confiscation of Wang Guangyang's concubine broke out one after another. Hu's party quickly fell, and Lin Xian's backup plan became useless.

It was not until the Jinyiwei was formally established in the 15th year of Hongwu that this hidden mine officially exploded in the 18th year of Hongwu.

Zhu Yuanzhang also took advantage of the situation to eliminate dissidents and made a big case. 】

In the Huagai Palace, the busy Jinyiwei envoys felt extremely strange.

According to later generations, the Jinyiwei was established in the 15th year of Hongwu, but according to their own experience, the Jinyiwei was officially established in the 13th year of Hongwu.

The difference was difficult for them to detect at first, but it was talked about by later generations, and it seemed that the Jinyiwei had played a big role in the incident of Lin Xian, the commander of the Mingzhou Guard who was a traitor, which made them have a wonderful feeling of honor.

But no matter what, they all knew clearly that some of them might have to set out for Mingzhou that day after this secret meeting was over.

It is not difficult to find out from the fragmentary words of later generations that there were probably many dangers around Mingzhou. In addition to Lin Xian, who served as the local guard commander, there were also the remnants of the anti-Ming forces who were looming in the mouths of later generations, as well as the Japanese pirates who were in cahoots with them.

Also, the powerful people from the south of the Yangtze River who were implicated in the Lin Xian case are probably hiding in the vicinity of Mingzhou.

But even so, the Jinyiwei envoys in the Huagai Palace did not feel afraid. Instead, they felt their blood boiling - if it were not dangerous, how could the Jinyiwei's reputation as His Majesty's sharp sword be spread?

Just as the Jinyiwei envoys thought, Zhu Yuanzhang's face was now clouded with gloom, and the entire Huagai Palace seemed to be covered with an invisible layer of frost.

"The Ministry of Rites is colluding with the rebels from within and without!"

"From his strange appearance, he is indeed a bandit!"

(End of this chapter)