I'd rather give a good man a horse to pull and pedal, than give Rixiangsong (a nest of waste) masterminds to make a plan.

- Hui proverb

Gong Jiagui immigrated to Qinghai. His younger brother Gong Jialu was fortunate to stay in Yingtianfu. Gong Jialu began to follow Zhu Di, the king of Yan, when he was young, and became his left arm and right hand in his career.

Zhu Di is Zhu Yuanzhang's fourth son.

On May 2, 1360, when he was born in Yingtianfu, an urgent document came from the front to inform Chen Youliang of an attack on Taiping (present-day Tu County, Anhui Province). If Chen Youliang captures Taiping, it is equivalent to opening the channel to attack Ying Tianfu. The military situation is urgent.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't have time to take a look at his son, let alone choose a name for the child, so he went to the front line to command the war.

In ancient times, the son born to a wife was called a son-in-law. A son born to a wife who is not a proper wife is called a concubine. For the imperial family, there is a major difference in the name between the concubine and the concubine. According to the feudal patriarchal system, when the emperor died, the throne was inherited by the eldest son. Even if the eldest son dies early, if the eldest son has a son, it must be inherited by the eldest son of the eldest son, and the other concubines must not covet it.

Zhu Di said that he was the son-in-law of Queen Bigfoot. In fact, his biological mother was not Queen Ma, but Concubine 碽 (gōng).

At the beginning of 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang was ready to officially ascend to the throne as emperor, and saw that he already had 7 sons. At this time, the situation had been initially stabilized. He decided to officially name his sons. He named his eldest son Zhu Biao, and the fourth son Zhu Di.

In 1370, Zhu Di had just turned 10 years old and was named King of Yan.

In 1376, Zhu Di and his brothers came to their hometown of Fengyang in Anhui. The lives of the common people of Fengyang are very difficult. Their grandparents are buried here, and it is also the place where their father, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, herded cattle and sheep for large families when he was a child.

Zhu Di has lived here for three or four years. He is a person with a heart, and he knows everything about the people. Folk life had a profound impact on his ideology. Later, after he became the emperor, he often told his sons about this life, thinking that he could fight in the north and south, and he benefited from this experience.

Zhu Yuanzhang implemented the feudal king, and gave the border plug to his sons.

The princes were all over the entire border defense line of the Ming Dynasty, such as Taiyuan, Beiping, Xi'an, Kaifeng, Datong, Ningxia, Pingliang, Guilin, Yunnan, and Daning. In their respective feudal states, they built cities and trained their troops, and in the event of war, they could bring their respective soldiers to the battlefield, and gradually replaced the founding fathers.

In 1380, at the age of 16, Gong Jialu accompanied Zhu Di to the fiefdom of Beiping (i.e., Beijing), where he assisted the King of Yan and closely defended against the attacks of the Northern Yuan from the Mongolian steppe.

One day in 1384, Gong Jialu saw an officer who had returned from Yunnan to suppress the rebellion and send a show boy he had brought back from Yunnan to the Yanwang Mansion in order to curry favor with Zhu Di.

Gong Jialu saw that this show boy was handsome, fair-skinned, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, and his mind was also very smart and clever, Zhu Di liked him very much and kept him by his side as an entourage.

This show boy was Ma He, who later became the famous navigator Zheng He.

Ma He told Gong Jialu that his nickname was Sanbao, and that he was an outstanding politician of the Great Yuan, the first Pingzhangzheng of Yunnan Province, and the sixth grandson of Saidianchi Gansdin, a Bukhara native of the Khorezm Empire.

In 1371, Ma He was born in the family of an official eunuch in Zhidai Village, Baoshan Township, Kunyang (now Jinning), Yunnan. Both his grandfather and father had made the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, and they were known as Aji (pilgrims) by the local people. Ma He's mother's surname is Wen and she is a very virtuous woman. He has an older brother and two older sisters. The Ma family is a big family in the local area and is very respected by people.

In 1381, in order to eliminate the remnants of the Great Yuan entrenched in Yunnan, Zhu Yuanzhang sent the generals Fu Youde and Lan Yu to lead an army of 300,000 and launched a war to pacify Yunnan.

Lan Yu killed Ma and his parents who resisted resolutely in the war, captured Ma He, who was only 10 years old, and saw that he was good-looking, so he brutally castrated him and left him in the army as a show boy for officers and soldiers to play with for several years.

The young horse has tasted the humiliation and desolation that is difficult to describe in the world.

Gong Jialu listened to Ma He's tragic experience, not only felt a lot of pity for him, but also took good care of him. Although Gong Jialu is 7 years older than Ma He, the two still become good friends.

Zhu Di is a heroic man with great ambitions and great plans. In order to improve the cultural level of his entourage, he not only selected knowledgeable officials to teach in the palace, but also let them read the books in the palace at will.

Gifted and diligent and studious, Gong Jialu and Ma He quickly became knowledgeable people.

When Ma He grew up to adulthood, he was burly, knowledgeable, and quick-thinking, and he was able to complete the tasks assigned to him by Zhu Di every time, and Zhu Di was particularly important.

In 1390, 26-year-old Gong Jiagui married his wife in Beiping and formed a small family. The following year, his wife gave birth to a baby boy. He named the child Gong Chengxiang.

Although Ma He is 19 years old, he is a eunuch who cannot marry a wife and have children. He was sincerely happy for Gong Jialu, and specially bought a pair of silver unicorns and gave them to Gong Chengxiang.

When Zhu Di stayed in Beiping, he accepted Zhu Yuanzhang's orders many times, and took Gong Jialu and Ma He to launch military activities against Northern Yuan Mongolia.

In the year when Gong Jiagui got married and married his wife, Zhu Di led the army on a large-scale expedition for the first time. He and Zhu Li, the king of Jin, attacked Prime Minister Yuan Cheng and Zhang Nai'er Buhua. The founding fathers of the Ming Dynasty, Fu Youde and Feng Sheng, were also subject to their moderation.

In the north in April, heavy snow covers the mountains and the roads are muddy.

Zhu Li, the king of Jin, was afraid that the Northern Yuan army had mastered the time and place, and did not dare to send troops to pursue. Zhu Di was not afraid of hard work, marched in the snow, and surprisingly sent Gong Jialu and Ma He two vanguard teams to surround Naier Buhua and force him to raise his hands and surrender.

In the end, the 30-year-old Zhu Di returned home with a full load and successfully won this major battle, which not only greatly strengthened his military strength, but also made him famous among the princes, which became a good start to the throne of imperial power.

Zhu Yuanzhang was particularly happy about Zhu Di's performance of wisdom and bravery, and clearly stipulated that Zhu Di and King Jin together had the right to report military affairs directly to his father.

Zhu Di also paid more attention to Gong Jiagui and Ma He, and consulted with them in everything, trusting them very much.

When Zhu Yuanzhang was in his later years, the heroes of the Ming Dynasty would be killed. The power of the feudal lords in various regions is growing day by day. The military affairs of the north were in the hands of the vassal kings.

In 1392, the eldest son Zhu Biao, the second son Zhu Fan of Qin, and the third son Zhu Feng of Jin died successively, and Zhu Di, as the fourth son, became the head of the kings not only in terms of military strength, but also in terms of family order.

Zhu Yuanzhang did not make Zhu Di the crown prince, but made Zhu Biao's son Zhu Yunwen the emperor's grandson, which dealt a very heavy blow to Zhu Di, who wanted to ascend the throne.

Gong Jialu and Ma He were both indignant at what happened to Zhu Di and suggested to him: "The emperor may have set up the emperor's grandson on a whim. King Yan must calm down and keep quiet, and in time, he will definitely point out the country. ”

Zhu Di was silent.

Zhu Di and the brothers of King Zhou, King Qi, and King Dai supported the army and were condescending, and they all disdained their childish nephew Zhu Yunwen.

Zhu Yunwen also realized that the Ming court was facing a crisis, and was deeply worried about the power to balance the vassal king.

On June 24, 1398, the 71-year-old Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang bid farewell to the Ming Dynasty he personally founded and died of illness. Zhu Yunwen officially succeeded to the throne as emperor and was known as Emperor Jianwen in history.

After Emperor Jianwen ascended the throne, he immediately secretly discussed the matter of cutting the feudal domain with his cronies and ministers Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng. They considered that Zhu Di, the king of Yan, had the largest power and it was difficult to start for a while, so they used the knife from Zhu Di's half-brother King Zhou.

The kings of Zhou, Dai, Min, Xiang, and Qi were successively stripped of power. The king of Xiang was forced to set himself on fire. The rest of the uncles were deposed.

At the same time, Emperor Jianwen deployed troops in and around the city of Beiping, and transferred Zhu Di's elite guards to the outside of the fortress in the name of defending the frontier, and finally officially began to cut down the powerful King of Yan.

Seeing Emperor Jianwen vigorously cutting down the domain, Zhu Di, who was far away in Beiping, knew that he would have a hard time in the future. He decided that he could not sit idly by, but to rely on the strength and strategy he had painstakingly managed for many years to make a big difference.

He discussed with the Gong family, and first sent a messenger to Yingtianfu to spy on the emperor's thoughts.

Emperor Jianwen's henchman Qi Tai took the messenger into custody, ordered people to torture him, and obtained information that Zhu Di was going to raise troops to rebel.

Emperor Jianwen immediately ordered troops to be sent on the Northern Expedition to arrest the officials and family members of the Yan Palace

The common people of the Han region in the Central Plains have abided by the rules of imperial inheritance since ancient times, and only recognized Zhu Yunwen appointed by Zhu Yuanzhang as the orthodox emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and regarded Zhu Di as a rebel minister who disturbed the norm. They volunteered to help the royal army fight against Zhu Di.

Zhu Di is not an idle person. His mind was smart and wise, and he pulled out the banner of eradicating the traitors around the emperor and eliminating disasters for the country, and justifiably led Gong Jiagui and Ma He to attack at the right time.

As soon as Zhu Di's men and horses walked out of Beiping City, they met the royal army from the south in Dongba.

The East Dam is backed by mountains and faces flat land. The Ba River, the Liangma River and the Wenyu River meet here, connecting the river to the sea.

The two sides engaged in fierce fighting and confrontation.

Zhu Di rode a green horse and rushed to the front of the team.

The officials of the royal army recognized Zhu Di and immediately commanded his soldiers to surround him and force Zhu Di to the edge of a ditch.

In front is the army, behind is the ravine. Zhu Di is in danger, and he will not be able to die. In a hurry, he asked his mount, "Can you cross this ravine and get me out of danger?" ”

After Zhu Di finished speaking, he shook the reins suddenly.

The green horse flew into the air, carrying Zhu Di across three river ditches in a row, and shook off the pursuers behind. He saved the day and won the battle.

The young horse eventually collapsed to the ground and died from overwork. After Zhu Di later moved the capital to Beiping and changed it to Beijing, in order to commemorate the loyalty and courage of the young horse, he built a horse temple in Dongba, and set up a statue of the green horse in the temple, and worshiped it as a sacred horse.

Since then, Zhu Di and the royal family have been back and forth, and they have started a tug-of-war, winning and losing each other. In the end, the balance of victory was still in favor of Zhu Di, who was more intelligent and brave. After several major battles, the army led by Zhu Di basically wiped out the main force of the royal army.

In January 1402, Zhu Di learned that the troops in Yingtian City were empty, and his eyes shone brightly. He decided to change his strategy and ordered Zheng He and Gong Jialu to lead their divisions south, conquering Sizhou (present-day Si County, Anhui Province) and Yangzhou in succession.

Emperor Jianwen saw that King Yan's army was rapidly moving south, and hurriedly sent his grandfather Zhu Yuanzhang's niece and his cousin Qingcheng, the county lord of Qingcheng, to envoy Beiping and beg Zhu Di to cede land and sue for peace.

Zhu Di warmly received the cousins. However, he categorically rejected the request for peace.

At this time, some generals in Jiangnan also chose to fall to Zhu Di.

Zhu Di's military strength increased sharply. He was full of confidence, flexibly used strategy, crossed the Yangtze River with his army, captured the important town of Guazhou (now Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province) in the south of the Yangtze River, and approached Yingtianfu, the imperial capital of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Lu, the king of the valley in Yingtianfu, saw that Emperor Jianwen was unable to return to heaven, and in order to avoid the chaos of war and poison the living beings, he reluctantly opened the Jinchuan Gate, the northern city gate, and let Zhu Di's brigade enter the city, officially surrendering to him.

Zhu Di entered the Jinchuan Gate, looked back and carefully looked at the majestic city gate for a while, and did not have the heart to accept the surrender of the frightened royal family, but went straight to the palace of Emperor Jianwen.

When they arrived near the palace, they suddenly saw a fire burning in the palace. Red flames swept through the draped brocade curtains, engulfing the magnificent palace. Billowing smoke rose straight up the clouds for nine days. The courtyard was filled with people running in a panic.

Zhu Di did not find Emperor Jianwen in the palace where the fire danced.

He immediately ordered Gong Jialu and Ma He to lead all walks of life to search the whole city, but they still did not find Zhu Yunwen's figure.

Zhu Di thought for a long time, his eyes suddenly rolled, and he immediately thought of a clever plan. He sent Ma He to dress up the body of Empress Ma as Emperor Jianwen, and then carried it to the open space in the square in front of the palace.

Zhu Di saw the fake corpse of Emperor Jianwen, regardless of everyone's obstruction, he rushed forward, knelt on the ground, held her hands with both hands, and cried loudly and pretendedly: "My foolish nephew, how did you get on this desperate road? ”

Many royal families, officials, soldiers, palace maids, and eunuchs were at the scene. Some of them wept bitterly for the death of Emperor Jianwen, some were moved to tears by Zhu Di, some showed disdain on their faces, and some showed weird smiles.

Zhu Di issued an official document to announce to the world: Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yun died, and the imperial court will hold a grand funeral for Emperor Jianwen with the etiquette of the Son of Heaven.

Zhu Di deliberately created the fact that Emperor Jianwen was dead.

After Zhu Di later became the Yongle Emperor, he attached great importance to Jinchuanmen, and appointed his sister Zhao Hui, the husband of Princess Baoqing, to serve as the Qianhu guard of Jinchuanmen.

Zhao Hui guarded the Jinchuan Gate for 64 years. This is unique in the history of China.

One day, Gong Jiagui and Ma He made an appointment to visit Zhao Hui at Jinchuanmen.

They raised their heads, looked up at the majestic Jinchuan Gate, and were glad that they had followed Zhu Di, the king of Yan, all the way and entered the new era of the Ming Dynasty.