Daming: I can’t kill such a greedy prince-in-law?

"I second your proposal. The times are different now. How can the Ming army go out so easily? The kings at the border have a very important mission, which is to guard the border! Now that there is something unusual happening in the Northern Yuan Dynasty, they should go and solve it!"

"Of course, considering the lack of supplies and food for the kings at the border, the court can give some subsidies!"

"In my opinion, we don't even need subsidies. The fiefs of the border kings have been expanded accordingly. In addition, the development of each fiefdom has been good during this period. We can rely on local resources to support the war against the Northern Yuan Dynasty! At worst, we can agree to let the border kings expand their territory again, and any spoils of war will belong to them!"

In the court, officials expressed their opinions one after another, but officials from the Huaixi Party and the Prince Consort Party did not take any action.

After hearing what these officials said, Zhu Biao nodded silently. He thought that the suggestions put forward by these officials were quite good.

Zhu Biao was also aware of the strength of his vassal king brothers. They were no longer the same as in the past and their strength had greatly increased. If he handled things according to the advice of these officials, the Ming court would be much more relaxed. After all, it would not have to send troops to fight the Northern Yuan Dynasty!

It is also a good opportunity to test the frontier vassal kings. Even if the frontier vassal kings fail, the Ming court can still take action. If the nine frontier vassal kings act together to directly solve the Northern Yuan Dynasty, it would be perfect.

After this analysis, Zhu Biao couldn't help but praise the officials who made these suggestions in his heart.

It is difficult to find a perfect solution in the court. The suggestions put forward by the first batch of officials are certainly the most reliable solutions at the moment, but they are seriously inconsistent with the Huaixi Party. To be more precise, they are not in line with the interests of Lan Yu!
Lan Yu's face was a little gloomy at the moment. He also noticed that most of those who had just proposed to let the princes deal with the Northern Yuan Dynasty were officials from the middle factions or those without factions. Although these officials seemed to have no factions, they were quite close to the princes on weekdays. Otherwise, they would not have risked offending the Huaixi Party and suggested to the retired emperor Zhu Yuanzhang and the emperor Zhu Biao to let the princes deal with the Northern Yuan Dynasty!
Once permission was obtained from the imperial court, the nine border vassal states entered a state of war. It should be noted that in a state of war, the power of the vassal kings was comprehensively enhanced, and the military and political power would be completely controlled by the vassal kings. By then, marching north to destroy the Northern Yuan Dynasty would be another great achievement, and they could also take advantage of the opportunity to occupy more territory again.

This is definitely a great benefit for the border vassal kings!
Damn!

This great general has worked so hard to get this information, spending countless manpower, material resources and thoughts, but you guys are just saying one thing after another and want to snatch the credit for destroying the Northern Yuan Dynasty away from me, Lan Yu. Don't even think about it!

Thinking of this, Lan Yu became a little anxious and winked at Li Shanchang, but Li Shanchang seemed not to notice and did not respond to Lan Yu's gaze at all.

This cunning old man!

Lan Yu cursed in his heart. He didn't believe that Li Shanchang didn't see it. He believed even more that this was a sign that Li Shanchang didn't want to help him.

Since Li Shanchang refused to help, Lan Yu had to seek help from others!
Lan Yu was worthy of being the second in command of the Huaixi Party. Under his glance, an official of the Huaixi Party quickly understood what Lan Yu meant and stood up decisively.

"Your Majesty, I think what those people said just now was just empty talk!"

"I think if the imperial court just wants to resist the Northern Yuan cavalry, then it is extremely simple. It only needs to let the border vassal kings take action!"

"But, the Northern Yuan people are still ruthless. They have always wanted to invade and plunder the Ming Dynasty!"

"In my opinion, we must take advantage of this opportunity to wipe out the Northern Yuan Dynasty and make sure they can no longer pose a threat to our Ming Dynasty. Only in this way can we completely solve the problem."

"So if the goal is to completely resolve the Northern Yuan Dynasty, then sending the border vassal kings to take action may not be enough!"

As soon as the official finished speaking, another Huaixi Party official stood up immediately.

"Humph! Although the Northern Yuan Dynasty is not as powerful as the Yuan Dynasty, it is still a country after all. The only one who can destroy the Northern Yuan Dynasty is the central army of our Ming Dynasty. If other vassal kings can do this, won't the world look down on our Ming Dynasty?"

"It is indeed the duty of the vassal kings to guard the borders. It is no problem to resist the Northern Yuan army, but to wipe out the Northern Yuan, the imperial court must take action. We can't always rely on the vassal kings, right?"

After the Huaixi Party official finished speaking, Lan Yu also stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, the current strength of the vassal kings is indeed much better than before, but their armies are still far behind the Ming Central Army!"

"We can only resist. If we want to annihilate the Northern Yuan Dynasty in one fell swoop, this will undoubtedly require the elite troops of the Ming Dynasty to take action!"

Lan Yu spoke loudly.

Lan Yu has paid a lot for this opportunity today. It is absolutely impossible to ask him to give up like this!
Whoever dares to stop him today will be Lan Yu's mortal enemy.

Lan Yu was a man who had fought on the battlefield. Once he got angry, murderous intent would burst out of him. His words frightened many officials so much that they dared not speak.

At the same time, it also made the atmosphere in the court tense.

At this moment, the officials also understood Lan Yu's intention. It was nothing more than that Lan Yu wanted to lead his troops out again to win this great achievement. Lan Yu's thoughts were completely clear to everyone!
Some officials were afraid of Lan Yu and chose to keep silent, but there were also some who were not afraid of Lan Yu's power and continued to stick to their opinions.

Although Li Shanchang did not speak, many officials from the Huaixi Party still spoke up for Lan Yu. Seeing that the Huaixi Party had the upper hand, the officials from the Prince Consort Party did not need Ouyang Lun's orders at all, and directly chose to stand up and confront the Huaixi Party officials.

For a time, several political forces in the court, including the Huaixi Party, the Prince Consort Party, and the middle faction, each expressed their own views and opposed each other!
After a while, the whole court was as lively as usual.

Listening to the increasingly noisy court, Zhu Yuanzhang's brows furrowed deeply, while Zhu Biao smiled bitterly with helplessness.

"enough!"

I don’t know if it was because it was too noisy, but this was definitely a torture for the elderly Zhu Yuanzhang. After he couldn’t bear it anymore, he immediately spoke up to stop it.

With Zhu Yuanzhang's rebuke, the originally noisy court immediately quieted down, and the officials hurriedly turned to face Zhu Yuanzhang, waiting for his instructions.

"We asked you to come up with a solution, not to quarrel. If anyone wants to quarrel again, go to the market outside the palace. It's disgraceful for high-ranking officials of the imperial court to quarrel like this!"

"Could it be that you are all so presumptuous during court meetings when we are not present?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was really angry, his face was gloomy.

Except for Ouyang Lun who remained motionless, all the civil and military officials in the court knelt down.

"Please calm down, Your Majesty!"

"I know I was wrong!"

Civil and military officials shouted repeatedly with panicked expressions. They were really scared!

"Your Majesty, all of you are planning for the Ming Dynasty. You have different ideas, so quarrels are inevitable. Please forgive them this time." Zhu Biao also hurriedly pleaded for the civil and military officials. He knew very well that if his father really wanted to take action, these civil and military officials would be guilty.

Hearing Zhu Biao's plea, Zhu Yuanzhang's expression eased slightly, and he said in a deep voice: "Since the emperor pleads for you, I will not bother with you. Remember the emperor's kindness to you. If I see you like this again, I will never let you off easily!"

"Okay, now who will tell us what you think!?"

this.
Before the civil and military officials had time to be happy, they fell into deep thought again.

They had just proposed a lot of solutions, but it was obvious that no one solution could satisfy all parties. If they proposed them again at this time, they would most likely be opposed. If they could not help but start another dispute and anger the emperor again, they would suffer again.

At this moment, Li Shanchang stood up, walked to the middle of the hall, and saluted Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao, appearing extremely formal.

"Your Majesty, I believe that the Northern Yuan Dynasty is a stubborn disease for the Ming Dynasty. The best way is to eradicate it!"

Li Shanchang's voice was not loud, but it attracted the attention of everyone present!
This time, even Ouyang Lun, who had been resting with his eyes closed, slowly opened his eyes and looked at Li Shanchang. Having attended court meetings together for so long, Ouyang Lun knew Li Shanchang quite well. He jumped out and spoke at this time, probably because he had some bad intentions in his mind!
And nine times out of ten, these bad intentions are aimed at him.

However, Ouyang Lun was not worried about this at all. He would just counter the moves as they came. He also wanted to see if Li Shanchang had made any progress after suffering so many losses!
Zhu Yuanzhang frowned slightly when Li Shanchang jumped out, but Li Shanchang was a cabinet minister after all, so if there was a good idea, it would be quite good for him.

"Li Shanchang, if you have any good ideas, just tell me directly!"

"Yes!"

Li Shanchang bowed again, "Your Majesty, I just heard from other ministers that to deal with the Northern Yuan Dynasty, we only need to ask the border vassal kings to take action. This method seems to be very suitable, but it is actually unreasonable, illegal and unreasonable!"

"The Northern Yuan Dynasty and my Ming Dynasty have been fighting against each other almost from the time of its founding to the present day!"

"If we have to solve the problem, the Ming Dynasty Central Court should take the lead. If we only let the vassal kings take action, if they lose, the Ming Dynasty Central Court will have to take action in the end. It will be a waste of money and manpower to deal with the same thing twice. If the vassal kings win, the people will only think that it is because of the vassal kings' strength, not the merits of the Ming Dynasty Central Court, which will damage the dignity of the court!"

"So I think this matter cannot be dominated by the frontier princes!"

"We need the Ming Dynasty's central government to send out royal divisions and heavenly soldiers to completely wipe out the Northern Yuan Dynasty!"

Li Shanchang's words took effect immediately when they reached Zhu Yuanzhang's ears.

It's not that Zhu Yuanzhang agrees with Li Shanchang's words, but the legitimacy of the Ming Dynasty's central court cannot have any problems. If a few princes really destroy the Northern Yuan Dynasty, then the territory of the Northern Yuan Dynasty will naturally be divided up by the princes! The power of the princes will inevitably be further enhanced!
Even though Ouyang Lun had restricted the rights of the princes in the prince management system, Zhu Yuanzhang was still not at ease. The prince management system could indeed manage the princes well, but this was based on the fact that the Ming central court had absolute power to crush the princes!

But if the princes take advantage of this opportunity to suppress the Northern Yuan Dynasty to rapidly expand their territory and strength, and the power gap between the Ming central court and the princes changes in the future, then this prince management system will be a piece of waste paper!
In Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, everything else may be trivial, but anything that threatens the Ming Dynasty's rule is a huge matter.

Li Shanchang knew Zhu Yuanzhang very well. He said so much just to plant a seed of doubt in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart. If trust is not absolute, it is equivalent to absolute distrust. Zhu Yuanzhang may have absolute trust in Zhu Biao, but not necessarily in his vassal son.

As Zhu Yuanzhang remained silent, the officials of the Huaixi Party seemed to have received some kind of signal and stood up to speak out, all of which supported Li Shanchang's point of view.

"Your Majesty, it is especially important to let the people of the Ming Dynasty know how powerful our Ming Dynasty's royal army is!"

"This war must be fought, and it must be led by our central court!"

"Instead of using a capable and skilled commander, they use the inexperienced and poorly trained vassal troops. Do they have a chance of winning against the Northern Yuan? Can they destroy the Northern Yuan?"

"Your Majesty, please think twice!"

Huaixi Party officials spoke one after another.

After this verbal attack, even Zhu Yuanzhang had to be affected at this moment. Previously, Ouyang Lun's various consolations had suppressed the doubts and suspicions in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart, but now they were activated again.

During this period, Zhu Yuanzhang heard a lot from the Jinyiwei about the development of the vassal kings. It was really good. The various vassal states were growing rapidly in economy, military and other aspects. Zhu Yuanzhang was of course happy, but he also had some worries in his heart. For example, what should he do if the vassal kings became too powerful to be controlled?
Such situations have occurred many times in past dynasties, and finally led to rebellions by vassal kings.

Of course, judging from the current situation, while Zhu Yuanzhang is still alive, the local princes will definitely not rebel, nor do they dare to rebel. What they are most worried about is that after his death, Zhu Biao will not be able to control his brothers.

Theoretically speaking, there was no problem with Zhu Biao. After all, Zhu Biao was older and had raised a group of brothers, making him half a father to these princes.

But if the power of the princes is allowed to continue to develop, it will be different. People's ambitions are constantly expanding. Take Zhu Yuanzhang for example. He didn't want to rebel at the beginning. He just wanted to have something to eat. As a result, he developed better and better in the Red Turban Army. In the end, he even started to have his own army and became the King of Wu. The leader of the Red Turban Army. He ruled the world and unified the world!
All of this is due to his ever-increasing strength, and Zhu Yuanzhang has a deep understanding of this! (End of this chapter)