Liu Dejia, the landlord, told a story about Zhu Yuanzhang herding cattle in Liu Bowen. Let's talk about this story first: one night after Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor, he dreamed of the neighbors of Fengyang's hometown. The scene 20 years ago is still vivid. Familiar people and familiar land are the flavor of hometown. So Zhu Yuanzhang decided to return to his hometown. However, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't want to see the villagers in his hometown look sallow and emaciated. He only made preparations for returning to his hometown six months in advance to let the villagers in his hometown get rich first.
To this end, Zhu Yuanzhang wrote a letter to Sacred Heart Township, asking Prime Minister Li Shancai to announce the imperial edict in Fengyang first. The main purpose of the law is to benefit the village, and each household will be given 20 hectares of land and 220 pieces of silver. But they don't need to farm their own land. Their task is to guard the imperial tomb, and the land can be rented. In this way, every household has become a big landlord. In the imperial edict, Zhu Yuanzhang also mentioned a person he didn't want to see, and this person was the landlord Liu De. There are also imperial envoys Liu Bowen and Dai Shen who arrived in Fengyang in advance. They collected stories about Longxing in Fengyang, and then the villagers talked about the grievances of landlords Liu De and Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang, who was fifteen or sixteen years old, used to be a cowherd, herding cattle for the landlord Liu Dejia. One day, Zhu Yuanzhang was hungry when he was herding cattle, so he killed a calf of Liu De with seven friends in the village and roasted it. When you come back, tell Liu De that the cow is missing. Liu De didn't believe it, and sued Zhu Yuanzhang for stealing cattle. When the punishments were shot down, all seven friends confessed. Fortunately, the day after they stole the cow, Zhu Yuanzhang quickly ran to the Huang Jue Temple to become a monk, so he escaped being beaten and prosecuted.
This is one thing that the two became enemies, and another thing made Zhu Yuanzhang hate Liu De. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang's parents and eldest brother died of hunger and plague in half a month. The Zhujiajian family had no money for funerals, so coffins and cemeteries became a big problem. Zhu Yuanzhang went to Liu De's house to borrow land. Liu De not only refused to borrow land, but also scolded Zhu Yuanzhang. Fortunately, neighbor Liu Jizu lent Zhu Yuanzhang a piece of land with compassion, and Zhu hurriedly buried his relatives.
This is why they became enemies, so Zhu Yuanzhang didn't want to see Liu De, but everyone interpreted Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude as killing Liu De, so Liu De had to hide.
Liu Bowen saw an opportunity from this incident, because Liu Bowen knew one thing, that is, there were nursery rhymes many years ago? Eight children and a cow, how about Kyushu's sun and moon counterparts? It's circulating. Isn't this nursery rhyme about Zhu Yuanzhang stealing cattle? So Liu Bowen asked Dai Shinto to sing this nursery rhyme in front of Zhu Yuanzhang. The meaning of this nursery rhyme is self-evident, that is, regime change, Zhu Yuanzhang wants to be emperor. After such romance, Zhu Yuanzhang knew that everyone was covering up the incident of eating cattle for him, but he was still tempted by this nursery rhyme. In the land of Longxing, it turned out that he had long predicted that he would be an emperor, and his heart was full of joy.
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang's hatred for Liu De has decreased somewhat. Later, he summoned Liu De, who, according to Liu Bowen's instructions, once again weaved a fairy story for Zhu Yuanzhang: After the incident of losing cattle, Liu De once went out to look for cattle and met Zhu Yuanzhang. Then Liu De called Zhu Yuanzhang's name while chasing him, panting and asking where Zhu Yuanzhang's calf had gone. Zhu Yuanzhang ran to the west slope and pointed to a place with his finger. Liu De saw that it was his calf. I saw the calf drilling into a crack in the stone, leaving only the cow's tail exposed. Liu De ran to pull the cow's tail, but he couldn't pull it out. Later, oxtail turned into stone, and this hillside is also called oxtail slope.
Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang knew that this was another story to cover up his eating cows, so he let Liu De enjoy the 20 hectares of land owned by the villagers. As for the silver, he didn't mention it. Although he didn't blame, there was always a difference. No one will be so generous as to completely ignore it, and Zhu Yuanzhang is no exception.
Of course, real history is not so dramatic and there are no fairy tales. From 1366, Zhu Yuanzhang built Ming Taizu Mausoleum for his parents and younger brother, and the project continued to 1379. 1378, Zhu Yuanzhang was afraid that the minister boasted in the inscription and personally wrote an inscription for the tomb, one of which was:
Tian Zhude ignored me. He was arrogant, out of touch with the land and disappointed his neighbors. Suddenly, Brother Yi's generosity benefited this yellow land. This is probably one of Zhu Yuanzhang's shortest memories of that history. These memories are not beautiful, and even many people will try their best to cover up such a past after success, but Zhu Yuanzhang did not shy away. He wrote this story in the inscription in order to remind future generations of this hard struggle.