Zhu Can - Defeat and Death

Defeat and Death

Duan Que, who was known for binge drinking, arrived in Jutan in summer 619. One day, after a feast where both he and Zhu Can were drunk, Duan, intending to insult Zhu, asked, "I heard that you liked to eat human flesh. What does human flesh taste like?" Zhu responded, "An alcoholic human's flesh tastes like wine-marinated pork." Duan, insulted by the response, cursed Zhu, "You bandit! Once you get to the capital, you will be just a slave; how can you commit cannibalism then?" Zhu responded by arresting Duan and his followers, cooking them and eating their flesh. After he woke from his drunkenness, however, he realized that he had effectively broken with Tang, and he fled to Luoyang, where Wang Shichong made him a general. He continued to serve Wang after Wang seized the throne from Yang Tong later that year, ending Sui and establishing a new state of Zheng.

In 620, Tang's emperor Gaozu commissioned his son Li Shimin to attack Zheng, and by 621, Wang was forced to surrender. Li Shimin spared Wang, but put a number of his high level officials, including Zhu, to death. It was said that the people of Luoyang despised Zhu for his cruelty, and after his death threw rocks at his body in such great numbers that they soon piled up like a tomb.