Why did Zhu Yuanzhang kill Li Shanchang, who was old and retired?

As we all know, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, made a series of unjust, false and wrong cases in order to consolidate his imperial power in his later years, and almost all the founding fathers were executed. Of course, from a historical point of view, Zhu Yuanzhang's move is nothing unusual. It is not his patent for the founding monarch to clean up the founding heroes. Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, did the same.

However, in this series of cases in the early Ming Dynasty, one is the most puzzling, and that is the "Li Shanchang case". Why do you say that?

As we know, Li Shanchang had a high position in the Ming Dynasty. As early as Zhu Yuanzhang was a small head of the Red Scarf Army, he began to give him advice and be responsible for the supply of logistics materials. Li Shanchang is like Xiao He around Liu Bang.

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Li Shanchang was rated as the "first hero", and the official worshipped Zhongshu as the prime minister, and was named Han Gong, but he was hereditary. Li Shanchang at this time, can be said to be a minister, even Xu Da, Zhu Yuanzhang's sworn brother, failed to match.

But in the twenty-third year of Hongwu, he was accused of participating in the Hu rebellion, and more than 70 people in his family were beheaded. Li Shanchang was 76 years old at that time.

So many people are puzzled. The Hu case happened in the 13th year of Hongwu, but Li Shanchang was killed in the 23rd year of Hongwu. Even though Li Shanchang was related to Hu's case, by this time, he had reached the end of his life. Is it necessary for Zhu Yuanzhang to kill him again?

In addition, Li Shanchang is almost eighty years old, and his title is still Lord protector. If he can land safely, it is not impossible to seal the king and enjoy the ancestral temple after his death. This kind of life can be said to have reached the point of no attachment. How could he be stupid enough to participate in Hu zai's rebellion?

Besides, even if he helped Hu overthrow Zhu Yuanzhang, what would he get? Isn't it the same status as it is now? But once it fails, it will be the end of the year! Which is more important, Li Shanchang can't know!

So obviously, Zhu Yuanzhang killed him, not because of Hu, but because of other reasons! So, what is the reason?

Maybe you will say: Zhu Yuanzhang killed Li Shanchang like other heroes, just because he was worried that they were armed to the teeth and threatened the imperial power, so he killed them.

But in fact, this is not the case. What's more, Li Shanchang is just a civilian. He retired at that time and went back to his hometown to support himself. He has no relief in his hand. So this statement doesn't hold water!

In the final analysis, the root cause of Zhu Yuanzhang's execution of Li Shanchang is "Xiangquan"!

Although Li Shanchang is no longer in place, it doesn't mean that he doesn't seek politics. In other words, as long as Li Shanchang is alive, Zhu Yuanzhang's road to centralization cannot be smooth. So, he must get rid of Li Shanchang!

Of course, if you want to explain this problem clearly, you have to start with the prime minister system established in the early Ming Dynasty!

The "prime minister system" here is not unique to the Ming Dynasty, but actually existed as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. In the Qin dynasty, the prime minister also had a formal official name-the prime minister.

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the prime minister team was composed of four people: Zhongshu Zuo Prime Minister, Zhongshu Right Prime Minister, Zhongshu Zuo Cheng and Zhongshu You Cheng. Li Shanchang was the first prime minister of Zhongshu in Ming Dynasty, and Xu Da was the right prime minister. However, because Xu Da led troops all the year round, almost only Li Shanchang was in charge of state affairs.

In October of the second year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang secretly summoned Liu Bowen and asked him for advice on adjusting the ranks of prime ministers.

Zhu Yuanzhang's intention is obvious. At this time, he already had the intention of replacing Li Shanchang from the position of left prime minister, and asked Liu Bowen to let him replace Li Shanchang. But how smart Liu Bowen is, can he not know Zhu Yuanzhang's intentions? So he recommended some wise ministers to North Korea, but he didn't recommend himself.

Have to say, Liu Bowen's move is very wise, because most of the DPRK is my brother brought out by Zhu Yuanzhang from his hometown in Huaixi in his early years, and he just took refuge in the middle of the road, which could not stop the company.

Moreover, Zhu Yuanzhang's temperament is changeable and his companions are like tigers. It's hard to say that he will be prime minister under his command.

Later, Zhu Yuanzhang chose, Hu, and yang xian, while Li Shanchang sat firmly in Diaoyutai and continued to be his head!

However, the fate of this prime minister's team has changed.

First, Yang Xian, who successively served as You Cheng and Zuo Cheng in Zhongshu, was killed by Zhu Yuanzhang when he just took the position of Zuo Cheng. In the fourth year of Hongwu, Xu Da and Li Shanchang retired, leaving the position of prime minister to these so-called young heroes.

In the past four prime ministers' teams, only He Hu was left, one was the right prime minister and the other was Zuo Cheng.

On the surface, the position of prime minister Zhongshu Right is higher than that of Zhongshu Zuocheng Hu, but in fact he is always bullied by Hu and often opposes him. Wang Guangyang himself is a good man. He was bullied by Yang Xian, and now he is bullied by Hu. He is the prime minister in the middle of the book, just like a person who wants to be prime minister.

As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang became the right prime minister for two years, and was eventually demoted to Guangdong Province to participate in politics because of his poor political achievements.

Originally, Zhu Yuanzhang wanted Wang and Hu to contain each other, but he was so incompetent that Zhu Yuanzhang could only hate iron not to produce.

After leaving, Hu, the prime minister's team, occupied a dominant position. From this time on, Hu began to expand a little. First, he wanted to frame Xu Da, then falsely accused Liu Bowen, and then he was overbearing and independent, which made Zhu Yuanzhang very dissatisfied with him.

Later, in the tenth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang had to transfer Zhongshu to be the right prime minister in order to compete with Hu, who was already the left prime minister. But who knows, this Wang Guangyang didn't do anything. In a rage, Zhu Yuanzhang demoted him to Hainan and gave him the death penalty halfway.

So it can be seen from this that Zhu Yuanzhang was really worried at this time. Besides, he can't wait to get rid of Hu.

Sure enough, just over a month after being granted the death penalty, Zhu Yuanzhang executed Hu on the charge of cronyism.

After Hu's death, Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister system that existed for thousands of years and began to monopolize power.

And when these prime ministers are executed, the next step is their boss-Li Shanchang!

In the eighteenth year of Hongwu, Li Shanchang's younger brother, Hu's in-laws, was reported to have participated in the Hu case. However, after Zhu Yuanzhang learned about this incident, he only gave Li Cunyi a lighter punishment, and did not criticize Li Shanchang too much.

Zhu Yuanzhang's move, of course, is nothing more than leaving a little face for Li Shanchang to enjoy his old age. And if Li Shanchang can keep a low profile from now on because of this, there may still be a chance, but no!

Later, when Li Shanchang wanted to expand his mansion, he borrowed 300 soldiers from Tanghe. Tang he dare not hide, so we have to call all zhu yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang thought, what does this prime minister need to do to raise an old man? Isn't there a rebellion

Such a sensitive behavior is probably the last straw that caused Li Shanchang's tragedy!

So in the end, Zhu Yuanzhang was determined to get rid of Li Shanchang, who made countless contributions to the Ming Dynasty, but this did not mean that Zhu Yuanzhang hated Li Shanchang, but wanted to completely bury the "prime minister system" through Li Shanchang's death.

References: History of Ming Dynasty, Records of Ming Taizu, Encyclopedia, etc.