In 1368 AD (the first year of Hongwu), Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne in Yingtian and proclaimed himself emperor.

Country name: Ming Dynasty.

Age: Forty years old.

After Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, he first did a big thing.

A major event concerning the fundamentals of the country.

On January 4, 1368, Zhu Biao, the emperor's eldest son, was made the crown prince.

Several other princes are kings.

They are the emperor's second son Zhu Feng as the king of Qin, the emperor's third son Zhu Fan as the king of Jin, and the emperor's fourth son Zhu Di as the king of Yan (Ming Dynasty Chengzu).

I won’t list the other sons one by one. Anyway, all Zhu Yuanzhang’s sons are princes.

As for the women, needless to say, they are all princesses.

I need to point out here that the way Zhu Yuanzhang established the prince is different from the way all previous regimes established the prince. Those previous regimes basically waited for the old emperor to die, and when he saw that he was about to die, he was about to burp into heaven.

Only then will this matter be put on the agenda.

Zhu Yuanzhang is a special case.

He did not proceed in this way. He determined his future successor on the day he ascended the throne and focused on training the prince.

This person is the eldest son of the emperor: Zhu Biao.

The other princes were trained intermittently.

It's a bit like the feeling of a biological mother and a stepmother.

Anyway, for Zhu Biao, as the eldest son of the emperor, all treatment is favorable and all enjoyments are at the forefront.

The other princes all stayed behind.

Who made you give birth late? You deserve to be unlucky.

Your brother, I jumped out of my mother's womb early, and I am the boss. All of you who are my younger brothers, please step aside and stop making trouble.

Otherwise, clean up your ass!

Maybe it was feasible for Zhu Yuanzhang in the environment at that time, or maybe it was his last resort.

But it was also because of his move that it caused huge trouble to the stability of his later regime. It was also because of his move that tens of thousands of lives were implicated and tens of thousands of families were destroyed. I think these people’s

Death is the real unjust death. They should not be involved in this matter at all, but they are destined to have this disaster in their lives.

They can't escape or hide!

On a deeper level, the reason for all this is because of one person.

This person is Zhu Yuanzhang.

If it weren't for his premature establishment of a reserve and his failure to consider uncertain factors from many aspects, these tens of thousands of people would not have died.

All this must be attributed to Zhu Yuanzhang.

We will talk about this experience later, so I won’t go into details here.

After confirming the title of the king, Zhu Yuanzhang began to allocate titles to his heroes according to five different levels of titles: "Gonghou Bozinan".

In the third year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang began the first enfeoffment since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The first to be entrusted was the Duke.

There are a total of six people who have obtained the highest title of Duke. They are: Wei Guogong Xu Da, Zheng Guogong Chang Yuchun, Cao Guogong Li Wenzhong, Song Guogong Feng Sheng, Wei Guogong Deng Yu and Han Guogong Li Shanchang.

Let’s get to know these people carefully first.

In addition to Xu Da, whom Chang Yuchun is familiar with, several others have also made great achievements in battle.

Here I need to emphasize that Li Shanchang should be ranked first in the records of "History of the Ming Dynasty", and Zhu Yuanzhang also ranked Li Shanchang first when he enfeoffed.

Zhu Yuanzhang also had a very high evaluation of Li Shanchang.

Zhu Yuanzhang evaluated Li Shanchang as: the most outstanding hero in the world!

The reason why I put Li Shanchang last here is not to belittle him deliberately, but because he is the only civil servant among these six people, and there is another more important factor. Li Shanchang is a fellow countryman of Zhu Yuanzhang and

He was among the first group of people to follow him in rebellion. He joined the group much earlier than Liu Ji, Song Lian and others who later joined the Zhu Jiajun team, and his achievements were much better than Liu Ji's.

I think this is also the most fundamental reason why Li Shanchang was able to catch a duke.

I personally think that if Li Shanchang was not a fellow countryman of Zhu Yuanzhang, no matter how great his contribution was, he would never be able to obtain the high title of Duke.

Except for Li Shanchang, who was the only civil servant, the other five were all military ministers.

Judging from this form of enfeoffment, Zhu Yuanzhang himself absolutely valued military affairs over literature.

He valued military ministers far more than civil ministers.

This also creates differences in the subsequent enfeoffment of other titles.

When many people read historical documents, they will see that Xu Da and Chang Yuchun are not dukes, but princes.

I also need to briefly note this point.

The ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty stipulated that living people with different surnames could only be crowned as dukes and not kings.

No matter how great their merits and outstanding abilities are, they will never be able to climb to the position of king.

Even people like Li Wenzhong, who was given the surname Zhu by Zhu Yuanzhang, could not be crowned king.

Again, in the ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty, living princes and kings with different surnames were absolutely not allowed to appear.

If you want to be named a prince or king with a different surname while you are still alive, there is no way.

Only when they die can they be crowned kings.

Among them, Xu Da was posthumously named King of Zhongshan, Chang Yuchun was posthumously named King of Kaiping, Li Wenzhong was named King of Qiyang, and Deng Yu was named King of Ninghe.

After enfeoffing the dukes, Zhu Yuanzhang divided the marquises, and there were a total of twenty-eight marquises.

They are: Tang He, Tang Shengzong, Lu Zhongheng, Zhou Dexing, Hua Yunlong, Gu Shi, Geng Bingwen, Chen De, Guo Xing, Wang Zhi, Zheng Yuchun, Fei Ju, Wu Liang, Wu Zhen, Zhao Yong, Liao Yongzhong, Yu Tongyuan, Hua

Gao, Yang Jing, Kang Maocai, Zhu Liangzu, Fu Youde, Hu Mei, Han Zheng, Huang Bin, Cao Liangchen, Mei Sizu, Lu Ju.

You can take a brief look at these twenty-eight people.

Among these twenty-eight people, there was not a single civil servant, but all military officials.

This also one-sidedly proves Zhu Yuanzhang’s thought of emphasizing military force over literature.

To put it bluntly, Zhu Yuanzhang's form of enfeoffment was entirely based on merit.

Except for Li Shanchang, a fellow Zhu Yuanzhang, who is a special case, all the other people received different positions based on their merits after joining the army.

To put it bluntly, whoever kills more people and conquers a larger territory will get a higher title.

In addition to these twenty-eight people who have obtained the Marquis reward, it is time for the other two protagonists to appear.

They are: Liu Ji, the one who is sincere, and Wang Guangyang, the one who is loyal and diligent.

When the Ming Dynasty first divided up the meritorious officials, there were only two people who got the earl.

One of them is Liu Ji.

And both of them are civil servants.

Many historians believe that Zhu Yuanzhang's enfeoffment of Liu Ji was biased, but I personally think that judging from Liu Ji's various performances, he could only get the title of Count.

Because in terms of family status, Liu Ji and Zhu Yuanzhang are not fellow villagers, and they joined the gang relatively late.

This is one point.

Another point is that Zhu Yuanzhang only invited the great figure Liu Ji and Liu Bowen after three requests at that time. For Zhu Yuanzhang, he was always worried about his face.

And the most important point.

That is, Liu Ji is a civil servant. Although he is engaged in making suggestions and business, he is always underhanded and destructive, and he has never led troops in a war.

Liu Ji, who had always just talked about it, had never conducted any actual training on the battlefield.

Although Liu Ji expressed many decisive and correct views on many strategic decisions, he could only get the Marquis with just one civil servant.

Again, if Li Shanchang were not a fellow Zhu Yuanzhang, no matter how much credit he had, he would have become one of the counts like Liu Ji.

The Duke would have no part in it at all.

With the completion of the enfeoffment of titles, in addition to gaining different political statuses, Zhu Yuanzhang also distributed different economic benefits to them.

Everyone who has reaped all the ready-made benefits must be happy.

And among them, I think there is only one person who is happiest.

This person is.

Zhu Yuanzhang.

Because only by settling this group of people, can his regime be stable and develop soundly.

This also goes back to the point above.
To be continued...