The argument did not last long.
At least, in Zhu Yuanzhang's own view, it ended because they were in the Huagai Hall, surrounded by ministers. Quarreling openly would ultimately damage imperial dignity. It certainly had nothing to do with him feeling somewhat constrained before the Empress.
Another important reason was that the princes had not yet begun large-scale enfeoffment.
At present only the second and third princes had departed.
The fourth and fifth had originally been preparing to go to their fiefs as well, but now…
As he thought about it, the Ming Emperor suddenly felt troubled.
Once the princes left the capital, they would be beyond easy supervision. Correcting their temperament and guiding them onto proper conduct would become extremely difficult.
If they then committed crimes, punishing them would be painful.
Yet if they were not punished…
Looking around, none of the ministers would dare say such words.
Yet the light screen spoke them without the slightest restraint, and he had no way to deal with it.
And despite that, he still had to rely upon this light screen.
Only in this way could he prevent the event of Hu Qing replacing the Ming.
Compared with that possibility, everything else was secondary.
---
[Lightscreen]
[Regarding Zhu Yuanzhang's motive for eliminating the meritorious nobles, an early Ming work titled Jian Sheng Ye Wen records a story.
The story roughly goes like this.
Zhu Yuanzhang had killed too many people, and Zhu Biao advised him that constant killing might damage the harmony of the realm.
Zhu Yuanzhang then picked up a thorny branch and threw it on the ground, telling Zhu Biao to pick it up.
Naturally, it could not be picked up.
Thus Zhu Yuanzhang patiently explained:
"When I kill people, I am eliminating the dangers of the world. I am pulling out the thorns for you. When the time comes, I will leave you a peaceful empire. Would that not be wonderful?"
Zhu Biao stubbornly remained unmoved and replied:
"Above there are rulers like Yao and Shun. Below there are people like Yao and Shun."
These words immediately enraged Zhu Yuanzhang.
He grabbed his chair and prepared to teach Zhu Biao the meaning of paternal love, described in the text as "lifting the seat to strike him."
Zhu Biao was not foolish. He immediately ran away.
Yet Zhu Yuanzhang refused to let the matter go and chased after him to continue the beating.
At that moment Zhu Biao used his ultimate method.
He produced the portrait of his mother that he carried with him.
Only then did Zhu Yuanzhang "burst into grief and stop."
From this record one can see that the people of the Ming dynasty clearly understood Zhu Yuanzhang's motives for killing.
However, the credibility of this story is rather low.
The famous tale that "Zhu Yuanzhang used roast goose to murder Xu Da" also originates from this same Jian Sheng Ye Wen.
The same book also records another story.
It claims that Zhu Yuanzhang felt Zhu Biao was "too gentle and lacking vigor." One day he secretly ordered a cart full of bones to be brought into the palace.
When Zhu Biao passed by, the bones were dumped onto the ground before him, frightening him so badly that he was "unable to endure the horror," after which he clasped his hands and chanted, "How merciful, how merciful."
This behavior can only be described as extremely absurd.
The writing style resembles the phrase we mentioned earlier: the emperor swings a golden hoe while the crown princess bakes flatbread.
As for Zhu Biao's true character, both official histories and unofficial accounts offer differing views.
Yet overall he did possess a sense of responsibility.
He was either pleading for his brothers or pleading for his teachers.
During the Hu Weiyong Case of the thirteenth year of Hongwu, the grandson and second son of Song Lian were implicated.
When his teacher faced death under the law of collective punishment, Zhu Biao personally brought Empress Ma with him to plead for mercy.
In the end Song Lian was spared and exiled to Sichuan instead.
But by then Song Lian was already very old, and he died of illness the following year.
As for this incident, Jian Sheng Ye Wen records a different version.
It claims that Song Lian had forgotten to submit the annual congratulatory memorial, so Zhu Yuanzhang casually found an excuse to execute his entire family.
Only because the Crown Prince and the Empress persuaded him was the punishment reduced to executing merely one son and one grandson as a warning.
Such stories cannot simply be dismissed as wildly fabricated gossip.
Rather, Zhu Yuanzhang left the Ming people with an impression inseparable from a reputation for excessive killing.
As for the even more terrifying claim in Jian Sheng Ye Wen that Zhu Yuanzhang once shared human flesh with meritorious ministers and frightened Chang Yuchun into madness, that is as absurd as the rumor that Zhu Yuanzhang once sold his own body.
It is simply far too outrageous.
One year after Song Lian's death, the Jinyiwei was formally established.
At its founding, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the institution to investigate the remaining accomplices of the Hu Weiyong Case.
Although the Jinyiwei was abolished after the Lan Yu Case in the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, Zhu Di later restored it.
It soon became an indispensable institution.
It remained active until the fall of the Ming dynasty, and even within the Southern Ming regimes it continued functioning until the dynasty drew its final breath.
During the Hongwu reign, the confirmed commanders of the Jinyiwei include Zhang Ren and Jiang Huan.
Records of Zhang Ren appear in the Veritable Records of the Ming Taizu for the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu.
Jiang Huan was the final commander of the Hongwu period and handled the Lan Yu Case.
The most debated figure is Mao Xiang.
According to the History of Ming, Mao Xiang served as commander of the Jinyiwei from the fifteenth to the twenty-third year of Hongwu.
After completing the investigation of the Li Shanchang Case, he was sacrificed by Zhu Yuanzhang as a scapegoat and executed under the accusation of being a remnant of Hu Weiyong's faction.
However, the Veritable Records describe Mao Xiang somewhat differently.
When Hu Weiyong plotted rebellion in the thirteenth year of Hongwu, Mao Xiang and Chen Ning examined the registers of all military forces in the realm.
Soon afterward Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Commander Mao Xiang to recruit men such as Liu Yubao and the fugitive Wei Wenjin as his trusted subordinates.
Before long Hu Weiyong's conspiracy was exposed and all those involved lost their heads.
Mao Xiang most likely did not escape either.
After this point his name no longer appears in the Veritable Records.
If one traces further back, Mao Xiang's earlier deeds are well recorded.
In the fifth year of Hongwu, during the three-pronged northern campaign intended to finish the war in a single stroke, news arrived that Japanese pirates had attacked the southeastern coast.
Zhu Yuanzhang therefore ordered Mao Xiang, commander of the Yulin Guards, together with Yuan Yi and others, to suppress the pirates along the coastal prefectures.
While the northern campaign advanced, Mao Xiang also sailed to sea and pursued the pirates across thousands of li.
"The Commander Mao Xiang defeated the pirates at Xiashan in Wenzhou, pursued them to the Shitang Sea, captured pirate ships… and was rewarded according to his achievements."
The Shitang Sea corresponds to what is now the South China Sea.
From Wenzhou to that region, the coastline alone stretches over a thousand kilometers.
As a brief meteor of the early Ming, Mao Xiang demonstrated to the fullest the formidable quality of Zhu Yuanzhang's personal troops.
It is therefore no surprise that the Jinyiwei, established from the emperor's personal guard, later became such a sharp blade.]
---
"Mao Xiang…"
Zhu Yuanzhang fell silent.
He remembered that Mao Xiang's father was Mao Qi.
In the early days, when Zhu Yuanzhang left in anger with only twenty-four men to seize Dingyuan, it was Mao Qi who persuaded the county magistrate to surrender.
Soon afterward Mao Qi became part of Zhu Yuanzhang's personal guard, responsible for supervising discipline among the commanders.
In terms of function, it was somewhat similar to the later Jinyiwei.
When Mao Qi died of illness, Zhu Yuanzhang had personally wept for him.
Because of this, Mao Qi's son was trusted from the beginning, rising from assistant commander of the imperial guard to commander of the Yulin Guards.
Yet in the end…
Zhu Yuanzhang let out a faint sigh that few could notice.
Then he turned back and said,
"Who would have thought that your portrait, my lady, could possess such power?"
At this moment, however, Empress Ma seemed slightly uneasy.
"Chongba, if I should fail to…"
Before she could finish speaking, the Ming Emperor immediately interrupted loudly.
"Fail how? Imperial Physician Dai has already said that if you follow the prescribed treatment, there is an eighty percent chance you will recover. Living another ten years is virtually certain, and by then there may even be a ninety-nine percent chance of completely curing the hidden illness."
"Why are you the one losing heart first?"
While the husband and wife were still encouraging one another, the brothers on the other side had already begun laughing together.
"These later scholars seem to think we brothers have never seen corpses before."
"Setting aside other matters, when Great Ming was founded, our eldest brother was already fourteen. He had seen the battlefield many times."
Zhu Biao also shook his head with a wry smile.
Then he asked curiously,
"They have mentioned it several times now. What exactly is a gouzi?"