Daming: The system rejected my request for salted fish

Wei Wu carefully considered his words in his mind for a while before speaking slowly.

"The Son of Heaven guarding the national gate and the King dying for the country refer to two major events in Ming history."

"Emperor Yongle moved the capital to Beiping to guard the country's borders, and Emperor Chongzhen, the last emperor of the late Ming Dynasty, hanged himself on Coal Hill!"

Upon hearing that the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty had committed suicide, Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes immediately flashed with anger.

The king of a country ended his life in such a humiliating way.

Wei Wu saw Zhu Yuanzhang's anger, sighed inwardly, and explained:

"The Battle of Tumu led to the decline of the Ming Dynasty's military power, and the dramatic climate change during the Little Ice Age led to a significant decline in crop yields."

"Civil officials were corrupt and colluded with the aristocracy, while eunuchs formed cliques and worked together for personal gain. The people of the country suffered misery until the end of the Ming Dynasty."

"The climate change became even more extreme. The freezing weather wiped out the crops, leading to widespread starvation and uprisings among refugees."

"Emperor Chongzhen wanted to be a good emperor and was working hard to be one. He had great ambitions but limited abilities."

Wei Wu said this, hesitated for a while before continuing:

"At that time, the Ming Dynasty was already terminally ill and beyond repair. The national treasury was so empty that it couldn't even pay the military."

"On the day the city was broken, the rebels plundered the capital, but the king's treasury was short of even ten thousand taels."

"Instead, about 70 million taels were plundered from the homes of officials and gentry. The late Ming historian Tan Qian wrote "Guoqie" (National Affairs)."

"The late emperor reduced his meals and removed the hangings. Common people wore vegetables and ate only vegetables. All copper and tin utensils were given to the army. When the city was captured, the treasury was drained of countless millions of gold."

"In this situation, let alone Emperor Chongzhen, I'm afraid even you are powerless to reverse the situation. You can only overturn the heaven and earth and rebuild the world."

Wei Wu stopped here, not because he had nothing to say, but because he felt he could not say any more.

Because Zhu Yuanzhang, who was sitting opposite him, was so angry that he was gasping for breath, and his fists were clenched so tightly that the veins were bulging.

It is well known that Zhu hated corrupt officials the most. Once he caught them, the lightest punishment he would receive would be skinning and stuffing them with straw.

But the reason for the fall of the Ming Dynasty was closely related to these corrupt officials.

Of course, he also understood that the demise of a country is not just due to corrupt officials.

There must be problems at multiple levels, which will lead to an outbreak in a certain period of time.

But who makes him hate corrupt officials the most?

Queen Ma, who was sitting next to him, looked at her husband worriedly and patted his back slowly to help him calm down.

Wei Wu sat opposite him and waited until Old Zhu calmed down before continuing to speak:

"Your Majesty...Uncle Zhu, how about we call it a day today? I'll talk to you in detail later."

"No need. We are people who crawled out of the pile of corpses. We have experienced mountains of swords and seas of blood. We are not that fragile."

Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand, rejecting Wei Wu's proposal, and at the same time patted Queen Ma's hand.

After calming down, he continued to ask:

"Tell me more about the Battle of Tumu, and what the Little Ice Age means."

Zhu Yuanzhang was indeed a wise ruler, although he was very angry about what happened later.

But he accurately grasped two key points: the weakening of military strength and the decline in crop yields.

This is the source of the Ming Dynasty's decline. As long as we understand these two points, we can avoid what happened later.

"In July of the fourteenth year of the Zhengtong reign, the Oirat leader Yesen personally led his cavalry south to attack the Ming border."

"Ming Fort... Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen, who was ambitious and ostentatious, personally led an expedition to Tumu Fort to engage the enemy at the instigation of the eunuch Wang Zhen."

"Wang Zhen ignored the urgent military situation and, driven by his selfish desire to return home and show off his power, he even wasted time and energy leading his army to change its route several times."

"In the end, the Battle of Tumu Fort was defeated, and Emperor Yingzong Zhu Qizhen was captured by the Oirat Mongols. Hundreds of thousands of Ming troops were killed or wounded. This incident is known in history as the Battle of Tumu Fort!"

After talking for a long time, Wei Wu felt like his throat was about to smoke, so he took out a bottle of Coke.

As a result, just as he was about to unscrew the bottle cap and pour the wine into his mouth, Zhu Yuanzhang was quick to snatch it away.

"You little brat, you don't even know how to show respect to Uncle Zhu. Give me this bottle, and you can take another one."

Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang's rogue look of trying to rob the bottle, Wei Wu had no choice but to take out two more bottles.

He was very sensible and unscrewed one of the bottles and handed it to Queen Ma.

Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately laughed.

While the three of them were tasting Coke, Zhu Yuanzhang was recalling what Wei Wu had said.

Although Wei Wu did not mention the details in between, this information is enough.

With Zhu Yuanzhang's military capabilities, it was easy to identify the key to the problem.

But he never expected that his descendants would actually reuse eunuchs, who were useless.

They even let eunuchs take charge of military power, which led to the loss of hundreds of thousands of troops in one day. What a stupid thing to do.

Fortunately, after the previous blow, Zhu Yuanzhang is now able to control his emotions.

After hearing the news, he no longer showed anger, but there was one thing that made him very confused.

"Xiao Wu, did you just say that the Ming Yingzong was called Zhu Qizhen?"

Wei Wu nodded and responded: "Yes!"

Upon hearing Wei Wu's answer, Zhu Yuanzhang's brows immediately furrowed.

"In the sixth year of Hongwu, I ordered people to compile the 'Record of Ancestral Instructions' to arrange the generation names for the princes under my knees."

"The generation name list set by Biao'er's lineage is 'Yunwen follows the ancestral teachings, Qinwu Dajun wins, Shundao is suitable for meeting auspiciousness, Shiliang is good and uses Sheng'."

"There's no Qi generation name in it, but the one for the fourth child does have Qi in it. Could it be that later generations..."

Zhu Yuanzhang stopped here. What he least wanted to see was his sons and brothers killing each other.

Therefore, the ancestral precept was established to establish the eldest legitimate son as the crown prince, and Zhu Biao was designated as the crown prince at an early stage.

But now it seems that the thing I least wanted to happen has finally happened.

In fact, Wei Wu did not expect that Old Zhu could see the problem from this level.

He only knew that when Old Zhu named his descendants, he would follow the principle of the five elements.

The radicals of gold, wood, water, fire and earth are used repeatedly, but the importance of generation name is ignored.

But since Old Zhu brought it up, Wei Wu did not hide it.

"This matter has to start with Emperor Jianwen, in the first year of Jianwen..."

"and many more!"

Wei Wu was about to start speaking when Lao Zhu suddenly interrupted him and asked directly:

"What is Emperor Jianwen's name?"

The reason why Wei Wu did not start earlier was that he did not want Zhu to know about Zhu Biao's affairs.

After all, this is Zhu Yuanzhang's treasured child, and can be said to be the most stable crown prince in history.

If he knew that his most beloved son died young and his most beloved grandson died young.

He is sending off the young...

But who could have expected that Zhu Yuanzhang would seize on this point to ask, and Wei Wu had no idea what to do.

But on second thought, this might not be a bad thing for Wei Wu.

After all, his existence is a guarantee for Lao Zhu's miserable life.

In fact, Wei Wu didn't know whether Zhu Biao died of a cold or a carbuncle on his back, but it didn't matter.

Because whether it is antibiotics or cold medicine, he has them in stock and can get them all.

Of course, there is also Queen Ma.

So after Zhu Yuanzhang asked, Wei Wu immediately gave an answer.

"Emperor Jianwen is none other than your grandson Zhu Yunwen."

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard that Emperor Jianwen was Zhu Yunwen, his face changed immediately.

"Yunwen? How is that possible? Yunwen is a concubine's son, neither the eldest nor the legitimate heir. How can he be emperor?"