Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

"Although Lan Yu committed crimes, did he really commit treason?"

"His murder was the result of Zhu Yunwen being made the crown prince."

"Otherwise, if Lan Yu colluded with Zhu Yunwen to seize the throne, how could Zhu Yunwen sit firmly on the throne?"

Affirming Wen Tihen's statement, Zhu Youjian attributed the cause of the Lan Yu case entirely to the fact that Zhu Yunwen was appointed as the crown prince.

Let the descendants of the meritorious officials who died in the Lan Yu case bear a grudge against Emperor Jianwen and his ministers, so that the descendants of Emperor Jianwen's loyal ministers will not jump out in the future.

In order to create hatred between Emperor Jianwen and his ministers, Zhu Youjian even attributed the deaths of Feng Sheng, Fu Youde and others to this incident, and continued to say to his ministers:
"After Lan Yu was killed, there was no one to check and balance Feng Sheng and Fu Youde."

"Especially since Fu Youde is the relative of the Prince of Jin, he was also removed for the sake of the stability of Zhu Yunwen's throne."

"Taizu went to great lengths to secure Emperor Jianwen's throne."

"It's a pity that Jianwen Jun didn't understand Taizu's thoughts and acted recklessly after ascending the throne."

"If it wasn't Chengzu who led the rebellion, his reputation today might be on par with Hu Hai and Yang Guang."

These words are really heavy, putting Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen on the same level as the two emperors who died in the second generation.

Some of the ministers who were on the side of Emperor Jianwen could not help but want to refute.

But more of the ministers were horrified.

More than 15,000 people died in the Lan Yu case. Whenever they think about it, they can't help but feel a chill in their hearts.

Han Yu, who was worried that someone would jump out and argue with the emperor, spoke before the others:

"It is for this reason that we, the ministers, fought hard to secure the foundation of the country during the Wanli reign."

"Only when the order of succession is clear can we avoid disputes over the throne and waste of national strength."

This shifted everyone's attention to the dispute over the country's foundation.

The reason why they fought for the foundation of the country was to maintain the rites and laws and avoid disputes over the throne. From then on, every time a crown prince was determined, all the ministers had to take sides.

Now the emperor is also talking about the horror of fighting for the throne, they really shouldn't say too much and only create disputes again.

Zhu Youjian was very satisfied with Han Yu's support. After nodding slightly, he continued:
"The cause of the dispute between Zhu Yunwen and Zhu Yunhuan was actually the omissions in the etiquette and laws at the beginning of the country."

"Since ancient times, a husband has one wife and multiple concubines, but in my Ming Dynasty, in addition to the main wife, there are also secondary concubines."

"After the death of Crown Prince Yiwen's first wife, Concubine Chang, the second concubine, Concubine Lu, was quickly canonized as the successor concubine because of her similar status."

"As a result, Zhu Yunwen was promoted to the heir apparent, ranking between Zhu Xiongying and Zhu Yunhuan in terms of age."

Criticizing this system, Zhu Youjian said:
"The purpose of establishing etiquette and laws is to prevent the evil of human nature."

"So during the reign of Emperor Wanli, the imperial court stipulated that royal family members with children were not allowed to choose a successor concubine."

"It's because I'm worried that the concubine might have a child, and she might have evil intentions in her heart."

"As for Prince Yiwen, even though Concubine Lu may not have a bad heart, how could the people around her treat Zhu Xiongying and Zhu Yunhuan as devotedly as when Concubine Chang was alive?"

"Zhu Yunhuan was originally the second son of Prince Yiwen, but was demoted to the third son for no reason. How could he be willing to accept this after he understood the truth?"

"This is the fault of Taizu and the ministers at the beginning of the country. There are omissions in etiquette and law."

Such almost malicious speculation made some pedantic ministers frown.

But more people agree with it, otherwise there would not have been the regulation formulated during the Wanli period.

Some people even felt a chill in their hearts when they thought of Zhu Xiongying's death.

If Concubine Lu or someone around her did something secretly, who could find out?

Some people thought of the death of Zhu Xiongying in the 15th year of Hongwu and the civil servant inheritance system established in the 16th year of Hongwu, which stipulated that the first heir was higher than the successor heir. They even speculated that some people might have used this matter to remind Taizu, but unfortunately Taizu did not pay attention to it at the time.

With their minds full of thoughts, the ministers heard Liu Zongzhou say:

"Your Majesty, what the emperor said about etiquette and law is to prevent the evil of human nature, which is indeed the truth of the world." "Mr. Yangming said: The sage expounded the Six Classics just to correct people's hearts, just to preserve the principles of heaven and eliminate human desires."

"I have been ordered to re-establish rituals and music, so that I can clarify rituals and music and correct people's hearts."

Zhu Youjian nodded in approval and said:
"Thank you for your hard work, sir!"

"We must be extremely cautious in remaking rituals and music."

"Don't learn from the Jianwen emperor and his ministers, who ignored the situation of the Ming Dynasty and only knew how to use Zhou rituals."

“The sage is not stagnant in things, but moves with the times.”

"Rituals and music must conform to the current situation and cannot be out of date."

"After your rituals and music are formulated, they should be tried out in Zhuolu District and other places, then tried out in the vassal states, and then used in all other places."

Zhu Youjian was specifically reminded that what he was most worried about was that someone would link his reforms with the Jianwen reforms and criticize his own changes.

Therefore, he deliberately distinguished himself from Emperor Jianwen so that his ministers could learn from it.

Guided by such a thought, he naturally had nothing good to say to Jianwen Jun, and continued:
"The civil service hereditary system established by Taizu in the 16th year of Hongwu established the system of primogeniture and the primogeniture system and the superiority of the first son over the second son."

"He used the system of primogeniture to enthronize Prince Yiwen as the Crown Prince, but this also violated the system that the eldest son was superior to the successor son."

"This is Taizu's second mistake in etiquette and law."

After reaching this conclusion, Zhu Youjian defended Zhu Yuanzhang and covered up his measures to kill meritorious officials:

"Zhu Yunwen was not established according to the law of etiquette, so his position is naturally not secure."

"Jiang Lin and others saw what Taizu was thinking, so they triggered the Lan Yu case and then started a big prison."

"Many of the founding heroes were killed because of this, including one duke, thirteen marquises, and two earls."

"During the reign of Taizu, four dukes and twenty-eight marquises were killed, and the Lan Yu case accounted for nearly half of them."

"Feng Sheng, Fu Youde and others later died as a result."

"Taizu really hurt his own virtue by helping Zhu Yunwen succeed to the throne."

Apart from the Lan Yu case, Zhu Yuanzhang did not kill many meritorious officials, and many of them were implicated in the Hu Weiyong case.

But if you add the Lan Yu case, it would be too many. Of the 25 dukes and 79 marquises conferred at the founding of the country, four dukes and 28 marquises were killed.

This is also the reason why Zhu Youjian chose to redress the Lan Yu case among the four major cases.

It was really too far-fetched to describe the killing of Lan Yu and others, and after they and the related heroes were rehabilitated, most of the heroes who were killed were also rehabilitated.

The rest were naturally left unrehabilitated, which meant that Taizu did not make a mistake in killing them.

Of course, the more crucial thing is that the rehabilitated Lan Yu case can throw dirty water on Zhu Yunwen, allowing the descendants of the rehabilitated founding heroes to fight against the descendants of Jianwen's loyal ministers.

If anyone continued to speak up for Jianwen's loyal ministers in the future, Zhu Youjian would release the descendants of the founding heroes and let them engage in verbal battles.

After such a long speech, Zhu Youjian rehabilitated the Lan Yu case as a whole, and included Lan Yu and Geng Bingwen in the Temple of Meritorious Officials of Taizu.

As a result, there were thirty-five meritorious officials in the Taizu Temple of Meritorious Officials. Zhu Youjian thought this number was not nice, so after much deliberation, he added Zhu Wenzhen.

Zhu Wenzhen was posthumously named King of Nanchang and given the posthumous title of Zhongwu, completely defining him as a subject, so as to prevent the Jingjiang King's faction from having any disloyal ideas.

In this way, the number of meritorious officials in the Taizu Meritorious Officials Temple is thirty-six, which is exactly the number of Tiangang.

It will most likely not change in the future and will remain fixed at this number.

Zhu Youjian also ordered his ministers to record the other founding heroes who were conferred titles by Taizu, and grant their sons baronial titles based on their achievements and whether they committed crimes later.

Most of the descendants of the 150 founding heroes and some ministers with outstanding achievements were granted titles and allowed to establish fiefdoms overseas. (End of this chapter)