![[Portrait_assis_de_l'empereur_Ming_Chengzu.jpg]] Zhu Di marched his troops to Nanjing and burned the imperial palace. It is unclear whether his nephew was killed or allowed to flee to a Buddhist monastery. In 1402, Zhu Di declared himself emperor, took the name Yongle (Perpetual Happiness), and began a coverup and revision of the history that destroyed all the records of his nephew's brief reign and claimed his father had always secretly hoped he would gain the throne. ![[Ming_Bronze_Gun,_7th_Year_of_Yongle_Reign_(14153037521).jpg]] *A Ming bronze hand cannon, 1409.* As emperor, Yongle promoted the eunuchs who had been his allies and sometimes even spies in his predecessor's court. One of the new emperor's most effective eunuch allies was a general named Zheng He. Zheng He had been castrated as a boy of ten or eleven at about the same time his father died opposing Hongwu on behalf of the Mongols on the eastern frontiers of China. Eunuchs were valued because it was believed being unable to sire children would eliminate any conflicts of loyalty. Attached to Prince Zhu Di's forces in Dadu, the boy became a warrior and gradually a trusted commander. When the prince made his move against the young heir to Hongwu's throne, Zheng He had been at his side. As a reward for loyalty, the young man was put in charge of the new Yongle Emperor's navy. ![[景山公园_(19687188164)_-_panorama.jpg]] Yongle was much less focused on China's internal affairs, perhaps because his father had made so many improvements to the lives of Chinese people at the beginning of the Ming era. He completed repairs and reopened China’s Grand Canal, the 1,104-mile waterway that linked the Yellow and Yangxi Rivers and enabled the new capital to receive rice shipments from the south. And because he had burned the royal palace in Nanjing, between 1406 and 1420, Yongle directed 100,000 artisans and 1 million laborers in building the Forbidden City in Beijing as a permanent imperial residence. ----- Next: [[14.6 - Zheng He]] Back: [[14.4 - Zhu Di]]