Zhu Chao accompanied me to watch short videos

According to the official statement of the Ming Dynasty, that is, the statement of Zhu Di and his descendants, the fire was caused by Emperor Jianwen who was ashamed to face the Prince of Yan, so he set a fire in the palace as a way to apologize for his crime with his death.

Empress Ma and Crown Prince Zhu Wenkui also died. Zhu Di cried bitterly at the bodies that were burned beyond recognition, saying, "Why did my nephew do this?"

After crying, Zhu Di ordered that Emperor Jianwen and his wife be buried with the rites of an emperor and empress, without posthumous titles, temple names, or mausoleums. In this way, Emperor Jianwen became a dead person in the political sense.

So is Emperor Jianwen really dead? Although Zhu Di repeatedly announced that Emperor Jianwen died by self-immolation, he still couldn't stop the world from talking about it. Even Zhu Di himself didn't believe that Emperor Jianwen was really dead.

In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, there was a very popular theory about the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen: Zhu Di sent two groups of people to find Emperor Jianwen. One group was Zheng He who sailed to the West to look for him overseas; the other group was Hu Yi who traveled around the world to look for a new person.

However, Zheng He's voyages to the West were extremely expensive, and his main purpose was to promote national prestige and expand tribute trade. Even if he wanted to find someone, he could only do so along the way. Hu Yi was ordered by Zhu Di to travel around the world, ostensibly to find an immortal, but in fact to investigate people's hearts and minds.

Zhu Di came to power illegitimately and was worried that people would be dissatisfied, so he sent people to investigate the people's sentiments. In 1423 AD, Hu Yi suddenly asked to see Zhu Di in the middle of the night. After the report was made, Zhu Di's response was "to use this to make things happen."

So is this "one" really Emperor Jianwen? Not necessarily. According to the epitaph written by Grand Secretary Li Xian for Hu Yi, Zhu Di suspected that Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi was plotting something behind the scenes, so he sent Hu Yi to investigate.

After knowing that the prince was still clear about his filial piety, Zhu Di breathed a sigh of relief and no longer doubted the prince.

Did Hu Yi find Emperor Jianwen? No one knows. At this time, Emperor Jianwen's mother, brother and sister had died in confinement, and his youngest son Zhu Wengui was imprisoned in Fengyang without seeing the sun.

The threat of Emperor Jianwen to Zhu Di's throne no longer existed, but there were still some people who wanted to rebel in the name of Emperor Jianwen. In 1416, Zhu Chun, the Prince of Shu, sent his son-in-law to Beijing to report to Zhu Di that Zhu Tan, the Prince of Gu, was plotting something illegal.

Zhu Di didn't know until he checked. When he checked, he was shocked to find that Prince Gu had spread rumors that there was Emperor Jianwen in his palace and wanted to overthrow Zhu Di in the name of supporting Emperor Jianwen. However, this so-called Emperor Jianwen was actually Zhu Yue'an, the third son of Prince Shu.

Because he was punished by his father for making a mistake, he ran to his uncle, Prince Gu's mansion. Prince Gu made a big fuss about his nephew, saying that he was Emperor Jianwen. The King of Shu was frightened and quickly asked his son-in-law to report to Zhu Di.

Zhu Di sent someone to send Zhu Yueyan back to the Shu Palace, demoted Prince Gu to a commoner, and rewarded the Shu King for sacrificing his relatives for the greater good. Not long after this incident, Zhu Yueyan died at the age of 25.

With Zhu Di's death, his feud with Emperor Jianwen finally came to an end. His successor Emperor Renzong of Ming issued an edict to release the families of some of Jianwen's loyal ministers, so that they would no longer be enslaved for generations.

However, the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen remained unknown. In 1440 AD, an old monk named Yang Yingxiang went around Guangxi and told people that he was Emperor Jianwen.

The local officials quickly reported the matter to the court and found that the monk was not Emperor Jianwen, because Emperor Jianwen should have been in his 60s, but the monk was in his 90s, which did not match his age. Later, the monk was thrown into the Tianlao and died in prison.

Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty later ordered the release of Emperor Jianwen's family. When Emperor Jianwen's youngest son Zhu Wengui was released, he was already over 50 years old and did not know cattle or horses. He died soon after being released.

Emperor Jianwen's younger brother Zhu Yunhuan had descendants, but they were extinct by the time of Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty. At this time, even if Emperor Jianwen was still alive, he would have been over 90 years old, and it had been more than 60 years since the Jingnan Campaign. The social atmosphere was more open-minded than in the early Ming Dynasty, and various unofficial histories were published.

The whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen has also become a hot topic. Some say he became a monk, while others say he went to sea. There are many different opinions, and no one knows the answer.

So where do you think Emperor Jianwen went? Please leave your opinion in the comment section.

[From a slave to an emperor: an inspiring life story, little knowledge about historical emperors]

The lowest class of people in ancient China were slaves. They had no power or authority, and could not even decide their own lives. However, during the Jin Dynasty, there was a slave who leveled up and fought monsters all the way, and finally even became an emperor. He was Shi Le, the emperor with the lowest starting point in history.

So how did Shi Le complete the three-step jump from slave to emperor and establish the Later Zhao regime? Today, let us take a look at the history of the rise of the slave emperor Shi Le.

In 302 AD, when there was a famine in Bingzhou, Shi Le happened to be a tenant farmer in Bingzhou. Seeing that he was about to starve, he decisively resigned and ran away. On the way, Shi Le met an acquaintance, Guo Jing.

As soon as they met, he couldn't help but complain to Guo Jing about his experience of starvation. Halfway through his complaint, Shi Le suddenly had an idea and thought of a good way to make money. He used the excuse of famine to lure the Hu people to Xizhou to make a living, and when they were on the road, he would take the opportunity to capture them and sell them as slaves.

In this way, Shi Le and Guo Jing hit it off and started the slave trade. Another big shot who was eyeing this business was Ma Teng of the Dongying Company. Compared with Shi Le, Sima Teng's method of obtaining slaves was simple and crude. He chose to kidnap the Hu people directly.

Shi Le was unfortunately one of the kidnapped people, and was sold to the slave owner Shi Huan. For Shi Le, becoming a slave meant the lowest point in his life.

But for Shi Huan, who likes investment, Shi Le, a potential stock, is undoubtedly the best opportunity to win Long Aotian's favor. So Shi Huan saw that Shi Le had a strange appearance and directly exempted him from slavery.

After several twists and turns, Shi Le decided to follow Liu Mingjun's commander Ji Sang to fight guerrilla warfare to make a living. In 304 AD, Chengdu King Sima Ying held the emperor hostage, attracting various princes to attack.

After much consideration, Shi Le and his current boss Ji Sang went to Sima Ying's subordinate Gong Shifan. However, Gong Shifan was a fool and was soon eliminated from the Three Towns and died at the hands of Gou Xi.

Ji Sang and Shi Le had no choice but to gather up their remaining troops and start to flee. During their escape, Shi Le saw an opportunity to make a comeback, so he released prisoners along the way and recruited desperate criminals into his army.

Then he led his troops to support Ji Sang. With the help of Shi Le, Ji Sang sent out troops again under the pretext of helping Sima Ying to eliminate Sima Yue and Sima Teng. This time, without the pig teammate holding him back, Shi Le was unstoppable.

In 307 AD, he attacked Yecheng, killed Ma Teng, a Japanese general, and robbed a lot of treasures and beauties.

This move made Shi Le rich and also made Sima Yue, the King of Donghai, feel sympathetic. As Shi Le's No. 2 target, Sima Yue thought it would be better to take the initiative to attack instead of waiting for Shi Le to attack.

In order to save his life, he invited Shi Le's old enemy Gou Xi. After Gou Xi accepted the defense mission, he blocked Shi Le in the Yangping area, and the opponent could not advance even after launching more than 30 decisive battles.

In July 307 AD, Sima Yue also took advantage of the situation to station troops at Guandu to cheer for Gou Xi. Seeing this, Ji Sang remembered the previous times he was beaten up by Gou Xi, and hurriedly ordered his men to set up fences outside the city wall to strengthen defense.

Gou Xi did not attack immediately, but chose to play a psychological game. He sent people to Jisang Town to deceive and intimidate them. Jisang had always had a shadow over Gou Xi, so after being attacked, he abandoned the fence he had built and retreated directly back to the city, wanting to hold on.

Gou Xi took advantage of this opportunity to lead his troops to attack the city. Ji Sang and Shi Le were defeated again and were beaten by Gou Xi. But this time Ji Sang's fate was not so good. In December 307 AD, he was killed by the imperial guards and withdrew from the competition.

After Ji Sang's death, Shi Le summed up his experience of failure and concluded that if he wanted to reach the pinnacle of his life, he had to find a good boss. At this time, the boss he was looking at was Liu Yuan, the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty.

In order to gain his appreciation, Shi Le decided to offer Liu Lalai several groups of people as a "letter of surrender". After some consideration, he chose the thousands of people led by Zhang Weidu and Feng Motu.

Shi Le first pretended to surrender to them, and then told Zhang Wei that everyone in the army had received rewards from the Chanyu and wanted to betray him and follow Chai Yugan.

However, it was obviously difficult to seize the world with the remaining strength. If they continued like this, everyone would be cannon fodder in the troubled times. Zhang Wei believed it and quickly asked Shi Le for a way out.

Shi Le took the opportunity to suggest that everyone should join Liu Yuan. He had a chance to compete for the throne of the Central Plains, and if they followed him, they could at least become a king, a prince, a general or a minister. In this way, Shi Le successfully brought a force of several thousand people to Liu Yuan.

Afterwards, Shi Le pretended to surrender to Zhang Fuli and took the opportunity to undermine his power. He led Zhang Fuli's men to surrender to Liu Yuan again. After these two operations, he was indeed reused by Liu Yuan.

In 308 AD, Shi Le received help from his strategist Zhang Bin. Zhang Bin was a man of extraordinary talent, no less talented than Zhang Liang and Pang Tong. Unfortunately, the Western Jin Dynasty was an era of relying on one's father, and Zhang Bin was only the son of a prefect, with a low birth, so he was naturally unsuccessful.

But Shi Le used talents in a flexible way. Zhang Bin had many ingenious plans under his command, which made Shi Le very successful. He captured Julu and Changshan, and more than 100 fortresses in Jizhou counties and prefectures, and was awarded an unprecedented military achievement by Liu Yuan.

During this period, many Hu people also came to surrender. Shi Le finally completed the advancement from a bandit to a hero, and he also helped Liu Yuan get the qualification to fight against the Western Jin Dynasty.

In 310 AD, Liu Yuan died and Liu Cong succeeded him as Emperor of Han Zhao. At this time, Shi Le also had a new goal, which was to compete with the Western Jin Dynasty and seize the Jiangnan region.

However, Wang Dao, a famous prime minister of the Western Jin Dynasty, was no pushover. He quickly defeated Shi Le's army and caused them to run out of food and grass, so Shi Le retreated.

Fortunately, Zhang Bin acted in time to interrupt Shi Le's retreat. He told Shi Le that if he retreated at this time, it would give Wang Dao an opportunity to take advantage of him. It would be better to continue moving forward, conquer Jiangxia, obtain supplies, and then plan a retreat.

Shi Le followed the plan, but his advance frightened Sima Yue, who was guarding the capital of the Western Jin Dynasty. In order to prevent Shi Le from reaching Luoyang, Sima Yue took the initiative to attack and led 20 troops to attack Shi Le.

But as soon as Sima Yue left the central government, the Western Jin Emperor Jin Huaidi could no longer sit still. He had long been dissatisfied with Sima Yue's power. While Sima Yue was away, Jin Huaidi simply ordered the King of Qin to attack Sima Yue.

In April 311 AD, under internal and external troubles, Sima Yue was overloaded and died suddenly on the march. His successor was Wang Yan, who knew nothing but passing the buck.

He was soon defeated by Shi Le, and the Western Jin capital Luoyang was captured by the Han Dynasty emperor Liu Cong himself two months later.

Later, with the help of Zhang Bin, Shi Le occupied the Xiangguo area and laid a solid foundation for his hegemony. Just as the foundation was laid, in 318 AD, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, Liu Cong, died of illness.

The new emperor Liu Can was kicked off the throne by his father-in-law Jin Zhun. If not now, when? Liu Cong's adopted son Liu Yao and Shi Le simultaneously tried to kill the rebels and ascend to the throne by taking advantage of the merits of suppressing the rebellion.

But before they could capture the city and kill the rebels, a split occurred among the rebels. Jin Zhun was killed, and his cousin Jin Ming surrendered to Liu Yao holding the imperial seal.

When Liu Yao ascended the throne, he changed the country's name to Zhao, which was the Former Zhao. Shi Le almost lost the throne, and could only continue to be a vassal of the Former Zhao, serving as the second in command for a thousand years. At this time, Shi Le was enduring and dormant, but Liu Yao could not sit still.

In 319 AD, when Shi Le sent an envoy to present victory news to Liu Yao, Liu Yao mistakenly thought that the envoy was coming to spy on him and directly killed the envoy.

This cut severed the relationship between him and Shi Le, and also made Shi Le realize that it was better to start his own business than to work for others. In November 319 AD, Shi Le proclaimed himself king and established the Later Zhao. Since then, he and the Former Zhao have been fighting each other, and the king has not met the king.

In 328 AD, Liu Yao and Shi Le, two former colleagues, finally met on the battlefield for the battle of Luoyang. However, in this peak duel, Liu Yao failed at the critical moment. He drank too much and was attacked from three sides by Shi Le, and was eventually defeated and captured.

In 330 AD, after resolving foreign enemies, Shi Le officially proclaimed himself emperor. However, this emperor on horseback could never have imagined that he was smart all his life but confused for a moment, and ignored Shi Hu's ambition, so that when Shi Le was seriously ill in his later years, Shi Hu blocked the news and plotted to ascend the throne.

In 333 AD, the slave emperor Shi Le died on his sickbed, and the Later Zhao regime he had worked so hard to build only existed for 32 years.

[Review of the life history of Zhu Di, the hero of the Jingnan Rebellion]

As we all know, being a founding hero in the Ming Dynasty was a very dangerous job. No matter how senior your experience was or how great your achievements were, you could lose your life or even have your entire clan implicated.

However, if you become a hero in the Jingnan Campaign in the Ming Dynasty, the return rate is surprisingly high, with high positions and generous salaries, and 300 years of wealth and honor. It is better to follow Zhu Di in the rebellion than to follow Zhu Yuanzhang in founding the country. So who are the heroes in the Jingnan Campaign in the Ming Dynasty?

Why did they have a better ending than the founding heroes? In this video, let's take stock of the heroes who helped to win the Jingnan Campaign.

In 1402, Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan, entered Nanjing and ascended the throne. He then conferred titles on meritorious officials, including two dukes, 13 marquises, and 11 earls. He also conferred titles on meritorious officials who had died in battle.

Compared to Zhu Yuanzhang's bloody purge of meritorious officials, Zhu Di focused his energy on dealing with Jianwen's remaining officials and eliminating opposition forces. He was much more tolerant of his brothers who followed him in the rebellion, so most of the meritorious officials of the Jingnan Campaign had a good ending. However, there were also some who were unlucky.