Here, we want to emphasize Zhu Yuanzhang's bottom line. If Zhu Yuanzhang can be lenient with his valued subordinates, corruption and bribery can be tolerated, but once one thing is touched, not to mention Hu, it is the heavenly king Lao Zi, his closest children and grandchildren, and Zhu Yuanzhang will not tolerate it. What is this? That is the struggle for power. Obviously, Hu's above-mentioned behavior is a power struggle, which broke through Zhu Yuanzhang's bottom line. Having said that, some people may ask whether Hu did all these things in secret. How did Zhu Yuanzhang know so much? This is another feature of Zhu Yuanzhang that I don't know. This person is good at intelligence work besides deceiving people. There are two famous "informers' times" in the history of China, one is Wu Zetian's Big Week, and the other is Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming Hongwu era. In this era, spy students are at the right time, and the emperor has eyes all over the country. Zhu Yuanzhang's intelligence work is pervasive. How detailed is its intelligence work?
This story is well known-there was a minister named Song Lian under Zhu Yuanzhang, who followed Zhu Yuanzhang when he set out. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was entrusted with an important task and was praised by Zhu Yuanzhang as "the head of the founding civil servants". But for a minister like Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhang did not relax his intelligence work. One day, Song Lian invited some friends to drink at home. Some dining tables were brought up. The next day, Zhu Yuanzhang asked him: Lao Song, I heard that a guest came to your house yesterday? What to eat and drink? Song Lian is an honest man. He answered truthfully, invited a few friends, and then began to order names ―― steamed mutton, steamed bear's paw, steamed deer's tail, roast duck, roast chicken, roasted goose, braised duck, sauced chicken, and Songhua xiaodu ... Zhu Yuanzhang nodded frequently: "Well, by the way, you are an honest man and didn't lie to me!" Originally in Song Lian's home, Zhu Yuanzhang has planted his own people. People placed by Zhu Yuanzhang monitor Song Lian's daily life every day, and report to Zhu Yuanzhang as soon as something happens at home. So Zhu Yuanzhang knew Song Lian like the back of his hand. After the menu, Zhu Yuanzhang gloated, long live Song Lian.
Similar spies emerge one after another. An academician named Qian Zai took over a cultural project from Zhu Yuanzhang and rewrote Mencius' quotations, because Zhu Yuanzhang was very dissatisfied with some of Mencius' words, such as valuing the people. People are more important than me. So he ordered his literati to work overtime and dismember Mencius again. This moneybags goes out early and comes back late every day. He is very tired. One day, after the night shift, he walked home and wrote a poem. Some grumbled: "It's too late for the four drums to change clothes, and it's too late to appear in front of the noon gate. When will he live an idyllic life and sleep until human meals are ready? " The next day, Zhu Yuanzhang said to him, "Penny, that poem you wrote yesterday was good. I didn't expect you to write it late. I'm just afraid that you are not diligent. What do you think of changing that infamous word into a sad word? " Money boy was scared out of his wits. I muttered how the emperor knew, and quickly kowtowed and apologized. You've become very good.
There is also an official who serves as a national sacrifice, named Song Ne. Once, when I met something unhappy, I sat alone in the back garden and got angry. The next day, I asked Zhu Yuanzhang: Who were you angry with yesterday? Song Na was surprised: Am I angry? Zhu Yuanzhang brought a painting. Look, isn't this you? Song Ne took a look, and like digital photos, the angry expression was vividly painted. It turned out that the spy arranged by Zhu Yuanzhang not only followed the minister, but also sketched. Speaking of spies in the Ming Dynasty, we all know Jin Yiwei. This is an invention of Zhu Yuanzhang, but besides the Royal Guards, there is another kind of spy, which was also carefully created by Zhu Yuanzhang, and that is proofreading. The proofreader is nominally a "spokesman", but what he actually does is the work of a special agent, who specializes in checking the privacy of officials. Zhu Yuanzhang's spy network consists of proofreaders and a security guard. If the Royal Guards are unified, then the calibration is unified. One of them used a sword, and the other killed people with his mouth. Zhu Yuanzhang used these people, which is equivalent to hanging a sword on each official's head and installing a camera in the bedroom. All officials are * * * in front of Zhu Yuanzhang and have no privacy at all.
Zhu Yuanzhang trained many famous spies. Yang Xian, the right prime minister mentioned earlier, and Hu, the protagonist of this speech, can all be called outstanding spies. These people are only responsible to the emperor, just like Tibetan mastiffs, they only recognize one owner, and the rest can bite people no matter what their relationship with the emperor is. When officials meet these people, it is like encountering rabies. They had to turn around and run. If you fight directly, you will be easily bitten, and if you bite, it will be hopeless. This is exactly what Zhu Yuanzhang wanted. He was very proud of the effect of training these spies, saying, "I treat these people like dogs, and everyone is afraid of them." Living under the surveillance of spies, which minister's every move can escape the emperor's sight? Although Hu was both a favorite and a big spy, he was taken care of by Zhu Yuanzhang's spy without exception, especially in the late period of disharmony between the monarch and the minister, and Zhu Yuanzhang sent people to set an ambush at Hu's gate to focus on defense. Spies are even more ruthless when they are spies. Hu's illegal behavior was embellished by a spy who was dedicated to meritorious service and spread to Zhu Yuanzhang's ears.
Then, hearing this, some people may ask: Why did Hu form a party for personal gain? Make the leader unhappy? He is already a very important person. Is it not good to obey the wishes of the leader in front of his prime minister? To solve this question, we must first talk about his leadership. Today, we still can't say that Zhu Yuanzhang is a bad king, but Zhu Yuanzhang, who cultivates the world, is completely different from Zhu Yuanzhang who sits behind the world. Before he became emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang was a respected democracy master. As we know, there was chaos in the world at the end of Yuan Dynasty, and peasant uprisings were surging. Judging from the time of the uprising, Zhu Yuanzhang took part in the revolution relatively late. By the time he led the troops alone, many "revolutionary predecessors" had become the climate. But in the end, why can Zhu Yuanzhang, who has no roots and no evidence, win the world? Mainly because of the will of the people.
First of all, he captured the hearts of the poor. Zhu Yuanzhang understands the poor. Because he was poor in his early years, he knew the hardships of people's lives and where people's expectations were, so he often compared himself with Yao Shun and advocated the establishment of a society where people lived and worked in peace and contentment without ethnic oppression. In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang also captured the hearts of intellectuals. As we know, in the history of China, without the guidance of scholars, the peasant uprising army could not have succeeded. During the period of farmland, Zhu Yuanzhang had a very good relationship with scholars and often chatted around the stove at night. These intellectuals regard Zhu Yuanzhang as their confidant. In the end, it captured the hearts of the whole nation, and the Mongol Empire carried out a policy of national oppression, and the Han people were classified as fourth-class discrimination. In the Northern Expedition, Zhu Yuanzhang played the banner of "expelling Tatars and restoring China", which was 600 years earlier than Sun Yat-sen's slogan. Zhu Yuanzhang became a national hero who led the Han people to resist the rule of Mongolian aristocrats.
As the saying goes, those who win the hearts of the people win the world. In this way, Zhu Yuanzhang gained other people's world experience. However. After becoming Emperor Hongwu, the benevolent gentleman of Manjiang disappeared and a wayward tyrant appeared. To put it bluntly, this change of Zhu Yuanzhang has a lot to do with his life experience. Zhu Yuanzhang was down and out in his early years and could not eat at all. He was forced to go to the temple to eat a hundred meals of monks and enjoy the warmth and coldness of the world. After he became the founding emperor, his life has undergone earth-shaking changes and his psychology has also undergone great changes. Before he was poor and had nothing to worry about, he became a hero and treated him like a brother. Later, pride and depression welled up in my heart, fearing that civil servants would look down on his poor background and that military commanders would usurp his throne. Psychologically, Zhu Yuanzhang was already suffering from serious mental illness. In today's words, it is anxiety, which is manifested as paranoia and moodiness.
Zhu Yuanzhang's suspicion is outrageous. During his reign, many ministers patted horseshoes and died in a mess. For example, a scholar in Zhejiang wrote a congratulatory table to flatter him, including the words "Under the skylight, natural saints rule the world". Zhu Yuanzhang actually thought that "Under the Sky" satirized himself as a hairless monk, and "For Politics" satirized himself as a thief and ordered the flatterer to be executed. The capricious Zhu Yuanzhang is undoubtedly an "irrational" strongman. What kind of psychological state will subordinates have when they are with such "irrational" leaders for a long time? With regard to "irrationality", contemporary scientists have done such a group of experiments. A group of mice were divided into two cages. The mice in one cage were regularly "shocked" and the mice in the other cage were irregularly "shocked". As a result, the group of rats who received irregular electric shocks soon went crazy. What does this mean? Irrational to a certain extent will go crazy. Those strongmen and emperors are irrational to the extreme, either crazy or driving their subordinates crazy.
Presumably, the officials in Hongwu era were also miserable under Zhu Yuanzhang, who had experienced many irregular electric shocks. The political environment is not good, the leaders are nervous, and it is too difficult to serve. Even a favorite like Hu can't help sighing in this environment. He is like a dog led by Zhu Yuanzhang, and like a kite in his hand, which makes you rise high in the clouds and fall vertically. I can't control myself completely. In this case, officials have only two ways to go, either to stay away from the power center or to get together to keep warm and form the same interests. Hu's practice can basically be explained as the latter: holding a group to keep warm.