Why did Zhu Yuanzhang kill Shen Wansan? Thank you.

"Yunjiaoguan Jitan" records such a story: After Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, he wanted to expand the city of Nanjing, but at that time the treasury was empty and he could not come up with money. At this time, Shen Wansan volunteered and expressed his willingness to pay half of the project cost. He also agreed with Zhu Yuanzhang to start construction at the same time to see who could build faster and better. In the end, Shen Wansan completed the task three days faster than Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang set up a banquet to reward him, but he was not happy. After all, you, a commoner, are better than me, the emperor. Finally, he found a reason, saying that Shen Wansan used Maoshan stone as his heart and had the intention to rebel, so he was killed and all his property was confiscated.

Personally, I think this story is just a listen, don’t take it seriously, it’s not trustworthy.

The "History of the Ming Dynasty" has this record about Shen Wansan:

"During the Hongwu period, Shen Xiu, a wealthy citizen of Suzhou, helped build one-third of the capital and invited manuscript troops. Emperor Ren said: The army in the world is in chaos and it is appropriate to punish them. The later admonishment said: If I hear the law, I will punish the lawless ones, not because they are unlucky. If the people are rich and the country is unlucky, God will bring disaster to them. "Zhu Yan!" is Shi Xiu, Xu Yunnan."

("History of Ming Dynasty·Hou Yan")

It means that during the Hongwu period, there was a wealthy man named Shen Xiu in Suzhou. That is, Shen Wansan helped Zhu Yuanzhang build one-third of the capital (Nanjing City), and also took the initiative to use money to reward the army. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and said: "This man dares to reward the emperor's army and win over the army's morale. He has ulterior motives. He is a rioter and should be killed." Empress Ma admonished and said: "I heard that the law is used to kill lawless people. , but it is not used to kill unlucky people. The people are so rich that they are unlucky. God will definitely bring disaster to the unlucky people. Your Majesty, why would you kill him yourself and ruin your reputation? "Zhu Yuanzhang. After hearing this, I felt that what she said made sense, and the resentment in my heart was relieved a lot, so I stopped killing Shen Wansan and exiled him to Yunnan.

There is another version of Shen Wansan’s account. The "Wujiang County Chronicle" compiled during the Qianlong period records: "Zhang Shicheng reported that Wu Shi Wansan was dead, and his two sons, Mao and Wangmi, transported rice to Yanjing by sea."

It means that when Zhang Shicheng occupied the title of King of Wu, Shen Wansan had passed away, and his two sons, one Shen Mao and the other Shen Wang, transported rice from the sea to Yanjing

It is said that "Wujiang The material of "County Chronicle" comes from "Wujiang Chronicle" written by Mo Dan. The Mo family is related to the Shen family, so what Mo Dan said should be reliable, so the compiler of "Wujiang County Chronicle" finally adopted his statement. However, the official history at that time said that Shen Wansan was exiled by Zhu Yuanzhang. Naturally, they did not dare to overthrow him, so they added a note at the end: Mo Dan said that Shen Wansan was already dead when Zhang Shicheng occupied Wuhui, but the "History of the Ming Dynasty" also said that Shen Wansan helped Emperor Gao ( Zhu Yuanzhang) built the city of Nanjing, asked for rewards for the army, but was confiscated and exiled by Emperor Gao. We can’t figure out who is right and who is wrong

The "History of the Ming Dynasty" was compiled by the Qing Dynasty. We mentioned earlier that Zhu Yuanzhang burned the Qinggong Tower and Zhu Yuanzhang poisoned Xu Da with a steamed goose. They were all deliberately fabricated by the Manchu Qing government in order to demonize Zhu Yuanzhang. Therefore, I am more suspicious of Shen Wansan being exiled by Zhu Yuanzhang because he wanted to reward the army.

I personally think Mo Dan's words are more reliable. Shen Wansan was from the Yuan Dynasty and died before Zhu Yuanzhang founded the country