Ming Dynasty: Traveling through the harem, Zhu Yuanzhang was dumbfounded

Chapter 81 Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty? (Please subscribe and read on)

I was so sad to hear that my grandson couldn't even fulfill this simple request before I left this world.

Zhu Yuanzhang felt as if all the seasonings had been spilled inside him. He felt a mixture of various emotions and was in a very bad mood.

As his emotions brewed, he laughed at himself:
"Haha. Loneliness, is this God's punishment for me? Before I die, I can't even find a son to accompany me?
Our life has been really hard.”

Sitting on the chair, although the temperature in the house was a little hot in the summer, Zhu Yuanzhang felt cold from the inside out.

It is a tragic reaction caused by knowing that one's life is truly miserable.

Did Zhu Yuanzhang have a hard life?
His life was very miserable. His parents died when he was young and he was separated from his brothers and sisters in the war. If it weren't for someone's kindness, he would have been blessed if he hadn't been given a piece of land in the wild mountains.

I'm afraid my parents' bodies will be thrown on the roadside and eaten by wild dogs.

Even after becoming emperor, he still needs to scheme against his brothers, and his only wife, with whom he can confide, may die earlier than him.

Also taken away were his grandson and son, and more importantly, he had more than one son.

How could Zhu Yuanzhang bear this?
"Father, I failed to educate my son properly, and I actually let Zhu Yunwen do something that goes against filial piety. If a son fails to teach his father, it is his fault. I will definitely not forgive him easily when I return!"

He knew that his father didn't even have the chance to see his other brothers before he died.

He was even given a false order to let his other brothers stay in his fiefdom.

Zhu Biao was shocked.

He never thought that the person who did this was his son!

Zhu Yunwen's erasure of Zhu Xiongying's historical traces had already made him feel resentful towards his son.

Now that he had done such a thing, Zhu Biao's disappointment with Zhu Yunwen increased even more.

Even Lu was displeased. He had no idea how the other party had taught his son after he passed away, which led him to do such a rebellious thing.

It's really despicable!
"Well, it's not your fault, it's just that I'm old and my eyesight is not good.

We will talk about this later. Yang Chen, please continue. Was Little Twelve also demoted to a commoner?"

At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang just felt very tired, as if his life was meaningless.

He quickly changed the subject and asked Yang Chen about his future.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty, the Prince of Xiang was not demoted to a commoner.

According to historical records, after he was rejected by your "imperial edict", he thought that Your Majesty did not like this son, so he began to think about leaving the world.

Finally, with the persuasion of his family, he did not do anything extreme.

Among all the sons of His Majesty the Prince of Xiang, he is one of the few princes who does not have any negative image.

He was intelligent and studious since childhood, often reading until late at night. He was also good at bows and arrows, swords and spears, and could ride a horse like the wind, with a heroic spirit.

Zhu Bo was also good at Taoist sayings, and called himself "Zixuzi". He had a high level of attainment in calligraphy, painting, and poetry.

His calligraphy was commented by Xie Jin as "the calligraphy deeply interprets the style of the Jin Dynasty, and the meticulous thinking is in accordance with the rules."

In the future, Your Majesty will often ask Zhu Bo to write your poems.

His poetry style is clear and elegant, and his works such as "Poems in Praise of Zhang Zhenxian" have been passed down to later generations as a model for calligraphers to learn from.

The Prince of Xiang was an outstanding person, and he was very close to Zhu Di, so he soon became the fifth prince that Zhu Yunwen wanted to reduce his power.

The reasons for reducing the power of the princes were also ridiculous. Some people said that someone in the Prince of Xiang's Mansion forged banknotes under his authorization.

Taking advantage of the cover of night, they sent troops to surround the area, hoping to capture the Prince of Xiang.

Zhu Bo was unable to justify himself, so he chose to burn himself to death to make his death clear.

Being of strong character, he cried out in despair towards the direction of Kyoto before he died.

I can't remember the exact content, but it was roughly
'I heard that my father was about to die, and I wanted to go to him to fulfill my filial duties.

But my father doesn't like me and doesn't even give me a chance to meet him.

I was not there when he was seriously ill, and I didn't even have the chance to attend his funeral when he passed away.

This kind of pain haunts me every day and night, making my life meaningless in this world.

As the son of Taizu, I was slandered by a villain today and will be put in a prison car and escorted.

If I live in disgrace and submit to a villain, I will be unworthy of my status as the son of Taizu! '

After saying this, he accompanied his family in drinking and set fire to his own Prince of Xiang’s Mansion.

He put on the prince's robes that had been prepared long ago, rode a white horse, held a bow and arrow, and jumped into the sea of ​​fire and burned himself to death. "

"What! Self-immolation! You just said Little Twelve self-immolated!"

"Yang Chen! Are you sure you remembered correctly? Zhu Yunwen forced my brother to burn himself to death?"

After the experiences of his first four sons, being demoted to a commoner was the limit of what Zhu Yuanzhang could accept.

However, what he didn't expect was that the conflict between the uncle and nephew was so intense that it even forced his twelfth uncle, who was only a few years older, to commit suicide by immolation.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Yang Chen in disbelief, trying to detect subtle changes in the other's face to judge whether what he said was true or false.

As Zhu Yunwen's father, Zhu Biao looked extremely ugly at this moment.

Although he had never been an emperor, he knew that once he sat on this chair, there would be many things he could not control, but this matter was really too much!
Zhu Biao was able to express understanding when things happened to his four younger brothers.

Everyone has some problems and defects. Not to mention being demoted to a commoner, according to the law, they should be sentenced to death.

Being able to spare his life was already a pardon from Zhu Yunwen, at least it showed that he did not do anything too extreme for the sake of family affection.

However, the death of Prince Xiang has touched the red line between the Zhu family's family ties.

This may be the curse of the royal family.

What our ancestors did not want to happen, our descendants will always find a way to make happen.

Facing the shocked father and son, Yang Chen remained calm and continued to speak without panic:
"The death of the Prince of Xiang officially brought Zhu Yunwen's campaign to reduce the power of the feudal lords to a climax.

At the same time, when Emperor Jianwen, who was far away in Kyoto, heard the news, he did not feel sad at first.

Instead, he felt very angry. In his opinion, reducing the power of the princes was to safeguard the interests of the royal family, but the self-immolation of the Prince of Xiang made him feel that it was his fault.

Yes, just as Your Majesty guessed, from the moment Emperor Jianwen started to reduce the power of the princes, even after he made the Prince of Xiang commit suicide by burning himself, he never thought that he had done anything wrong in doing so.

Instead, he blamed those who rebelled against him, so he gave the Prince of Xiang the posthumous title of "Li". The Prince of Xiang had no descendants, so Zhu Yunwen ordered the clan office to remove the Prince of Xiang's name from the family tree.

The last sentence was not spoken loudly, but it had an impact like a flood.

Zhu Biao went from being able to stand to having weak legs and feet.

He leaned back in his chair with dazed eyes. He didn't understand why his son treated his uncle like this.

I can understand your desire to reduce the power of the vassal states, but why did you treat your uncle, who has no descendants, like this after knowing that he committed suicide to prove his integrity?

"You are a traitor! You are a traitor! You are so treasonous!"

Zhu Biao had never felt so angry. He finally understood why his father had been so angry when his brothers made mistakes.

Now, he was thinking of hanging Zhu Yunwen up and giving him a good beating.

Just as his father had said, children cannot be educated through words or actions, but should be educated with the stick.

A hundred words and deeds are not as effective as one blow with a stick.

Zhu Yuanzhang on the stage was in a very bad state at the moment. His heart was churning like a storm, with mixed feelings, and his face turned blue and red.

Among all his sons, Zhu Bo was the one he felt was the most filial.

After Yang Chen said that he had passed away, his son began to have the idea of ​​dying himself. He did not doubt at all that Yang Chen was lying to him.

The reason was that when he conferred the title of vassal king on the Prince of Xiang last year, he gave the prince a jade belt.

When the princes were all tied up, he wanted to see the decorations on the children's backs, so he went around behind his son.

Only Zhu Bo moved the decoration on his back to his chest and said something that made Zhu Yuanzhang feel gratified.

"You can't betray your king and father!"

How could a person who always thinks about his son not please Zhu Yuanzhang?

Although he was young, Zhu Yuanzhang did not look down on him because of his age. Instead, he was looking forward to seeing how outstanding his son would become as a prince when he grew up.

What a pity. In the blink of an eye, she learned from Yang Chen how miserable the future of her long-awaited son would be.

He died by self-immolation and left no descendants. He was even removed from the family tree.

This is simply a murderous move.

"Unworthy descendants! How could there be such a grandson! It really, really makes us feel ashamed!"

Zhu Yuanzhang, who really couldn't stand the behavior of his descendants, finally couldn't help but curse.

If Zhu Yunwen were in front of him now, Zhu Yuanzhang probably wouldn't be able to guarantee what he could do.

A nephew forced his uncle to death. This kind of thing is very rare in history. I didn’t expect it to happen in my own family.

Zhu Yuanzhang really couldn't understand how blind he was in his old age to choose a fool like Zhu Yunwen as his successor.

Even if the third or fourth prince becomes the heir, it would be much better than Zhu Yunwen, the fool.

What made him speechless was that why did they arrange anything else but to have someone in the Prince of Xiang’s Mansion make counterfeit money.

No one with a clear mind would believe such a false accusation.

The key point is that a prince who died by self-immolation to express his will was given such an insulting posthumous title as "Li".

If you have no descendants, your country will be destroyed, and any punishment you get will feel like bullying the dead.

"Biao'er, although Yunwen is young, he is almost old enough to go to school. You and your brothers started to develop intelligence when you were less than two years old.

Yun Wen is now two years old. From the beginning, he must be taught to read and write. The most important thing is to make him understand the principles of filial piety, brotherhood, loyalty and trustworthiness! "

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Biao and instructed him in an irresistible tone.

Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang's actions, Zhu Biao also felt deeply moved.

I didn't expect that the matter of educating my son would require personal guidance from my father.

He quickly bowed and nodded in response:
"I know what my father has instructed. When I return to the East Palace tonight, I will definitely ask Lady Lu to educate Yun Wen well.

At the same time, we will find some talented students from the Hanlin Academy to teach him, so that he can understand the principles of brotherly love and respect as soon as possible. "

As a son, how could Zhu Biao not know Zhu Yuanzhang's temper.

He had already seen from the other party's every move that his father could no longer hold back his desire to help him teach his son a lesson.

However, he didn't dare let his father beat his son.

His father had been ruthless in his attack. Zhu Yunwen was only two years old and had not yet been completely weaned.

How could he possibly withstand a beating from Zhu Yuanzhang?

If he were to become disabled by carelessness, his mother would find out and would definitely have a big quarrel with his father.

By that time, the situation will get out of hand and he will definitely feel very uncomfortable being caught in the middle.

Zhu Biao's reply finally calmed Zhu Yuanzhang's excitement. He then looked at Yang Chen and asked:

"After that, which other prince was persecuted and ended up in trouble?"

He didn't want to keep these things in mind. Since they were painful, he might as well go through them all at once.

At the same time, Lao Zhu felt very depressed.

The purpose of the feudal system he implemented was to form a power network among brothers based on relatives.

In this way, the military strength of the Ming Dynasty can be firmly controlled in the hands of its own people.

Whatever uprising there is, it can be quickly suppressed.

However, he did not expect that shortly after his death, someone would die, and that one of the deaths was a very filial son.

For Lao Zhu, this future hit his strong heart hard.

After asking the question, the doubtful Lao Zhu even fell into self-doubt.

"Did I really do something wrong? I shouldn't give too much advice to the younger generation. Why does everything go against my ideas?"

"Later, no princes were oppressed, because Zhu Yunwen's behavior and the death of Prince of Xiang Zhu Bo quickly aroused hatred towards Zhu Yunwen among all the princes.

In particular, Zhu Yunwen did not admit that he had killed the Prince of Xiang. He believed that the Prince of Xiang committed suicide out of fear of punishment.

Most of the vassal kings began to rebel at this moment.

In his opinion, instead of begging for mercy from Zhu Yunwen, it would be better to rebel and give himself a chance of survival.

As a result, a fierce war broke out within the Ming Dynasty.

More than half of the generals were killed by Your Majesty, and the other half were lost in this war."

"The prince is rebelling?"

Veins gradually popped out of the armrests of Zhu Yuanzhang's chair, and his eyelids kept twitching.

He didn't expect that Zhu Yunwen would actually force the vassal kings to rebel.

At the same time, he was also very angry. He had given such great power to the princes so that they would protect the Ming Dynasty, but he did not expect that in the end they would rebel by relying on military force.

It's completely contrary to what I really want.

Zhu Biao's heart ached at this moment.

If there is a war between his son and his brother, whose side should he stand on?
He also didn't know that there was nothing wrong with the emperor reducing the power of the princes, as it was for his own benefit, but his son's methods of reducing the power of the princes were so unbearable to watch.

Others either want life or power.

Zhu Yunwen wanted both, which was really greedy.

Zhu Biao could only sigh over what happened.

When a civil war breaks out, aren't the people of the Ming Dynasty the ones who suffer in the end?

The sky was filled with flames of war, the land was barren for thousands of miles, and blood was flowing all over the wild. I thought that the Ming Dynasty could move towards a better and more glorious life under its own leadership.

I didn't expect that just after his father's death, the people of Ming Dynasty had to live in such a precarious situation because of power struggles.

Power! It's so dirty!

Yang Chen did not notice any change in the two people's emotions, but continued speaking calmly.

"When the rift between the central imperial power and the local vassal kings broke out, some people would fail and some would succeed.

Among these princes, the most capable one was Prince of Yan Zhu Di, who was enfeoffed in Beiping.

He was the first prince to raise the flag of rebellion when he learned that his younger brother Zhu Bo, with whom he got along best, was forced to commit suicide by burning himself.

In Peking, people began to forge weapons and recruit soldiers day and night.

In order to win, he also joined forces with other brothers, and in the name of clearing the court, he joined forces with the Three Doyan Guards under Prince Ning, that is, the Mongolian cavalry, to launch the Jingnan Campaign.

Later generations called it the Fengtian Jingnan Campaign! " "The fourth one? Why is it the fourth one? What about the third one?"

Zhu Yuanzhang did not immediately ask about the details of the Jingnan Campaign, but instead asked Yang Chen's own third son, Prince of Jin Zhu Gang.

From the moment he said this, Lao Zhu could already sense that something was wrong.

Zhu Yunwen started to reduce the power of his sons, and the first person to suffer was Zhu Su.

But Zhu Su's strength was not strong. A few years ago, Zhu Yuanzhang had already made a plan to establish nine vassal kings outside the Great Wall on the map of the Ming Dynasty's borders.

Princes Zhu Chong, Zhu Gang and others would be stationed in important places of the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, he also set secret orders among his sons, which was to restrain each other.

You stare at me, I stare at him, and he stares at you.

The fiefdom of Prince of Jin Zhu Gang was in Taiyuan, from which he could keep a close eye on the position of Prince of Yan Zhu Di in Beiping.

Among these sons, Zhu Yuanzhang knew the one he knew best, Zhu Di.

Someone once said that this son has the energy of a dragon, but lacks momentum. Without the right time, place and people, he is not worthy of consideration.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang was a cautious person. He had long been worried that after his death, his sons would take the initiative to rebel.

Therefore, he deliberately arranged the third brother Zhu Gang to keep an eye on Zhu Di.

Shanxi is geographically adjacent to Beijing. If Zhu Di, the vassal king, were to rebel, Zhu Gang would be the first to step forward and suppress him.

In terms of military capabilities, Zhu Yuanzhang was confident that Zhu Gang would definitely be able to defeat his younger brother Zhu Di. More importantly, he wanted to make the third brother stronger.

Zhu Yuanzhang allowed the other party to have the same power in the local area as Zhu Gang, which means that Zhu Gang was also above the commander-in-chief.

Except for the emperor's order, it would be useless for anyone to come.

"The third brother? Your Majesty should be referring to Prince of Jin Zhu Gang. He died a long time ago. He died of illness less than two months before your death.

You were already seventy years old at that time, and the death of King Jin was a big blow to you.

So within fifty days, His Majesty passed away."

After some thought, Yang Chen solved Zhu Yuanzhang's confusion.

This news exploded in Zhu Yuanzhang's mind like a bolt from the blue!

"Dead? Another son of mine died?"

"I didn't expect the third brother to do that."

At this moment, Zhu Biao was also feeling sad about the fate of his family. The four words "misfortune" were very apt to describe it.

Zhu Yuanzhang closed his eyes and reviewed the information he knew so far.

His three biological sons all walked in front of him, still in order.

This is way too dramatic.

No wonder he said the reason why Zhu Di was able to launch the Jingnan Campaign was that no one could stop him.

He didn't know what kind of organization the Doyan Three Guards were, but he could understand from the words that it should be the cavalry force of the Northern Yuan Mongolian tribe.

There are also many such organizations in the Ming army today. They are all combat personnel who were recruited after being captured.

Zhu Yuanzhang was not stupid. The Mongolian cavalry was very powerful, and ten of them could replace a hundred infantrymen.

If used tactically properly, a collective charge of ten people can instantly break up a battle formation of a thousand people.

After having captured these cavalrymen with great difficulty, how could he just kill them so easily and get away with it?

All those who can be recruited will be recruited, and only those who stubbornly resist and do not know how to judge the situation will be eliminated by him when the opportunity arises.

"Alas! Biao'er, our family is in great trouble. Your mother must not know about this, otherwise she will be very sad."

Knowing that his third son had indeed passed away first, Zhu Yuanzhang thought of Empress Ma first.

At the same time, he warned Zhu Biao not to reveal any of this news, otherwise, given Empress Ma's current health, he was worried that she would not be able to survive.

"Father, I know."

Zhu Biao bowed in response.

Zhu Biao frowned and thought about what would happen if his mother knew the ins and outs of these things.

I'm afraid he would be very angry too.

His mother had always loved him, although Zhu Bo didn't know he had a younger brother from the same mother.

However, Empress Ma was able to treat these younger brothers with equal care and love.

It can be said that he treats these younger brothers as his own sons.

If Empress Ma knew that Zhu Yunwen had such a conflict with his uncle, he dared not imagine how his mother would treat Zhu Yunwen.

Directly abolish the identity?

Zhu Biao didn’t know. He only knew that he was extremely confused and didn’t want to do anything or think too much.

Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a long time, and finally sighed and asked:
"After the Fourth Brother was arrested for launching the Jingnan Rebellion, how did Zhu Yunwen treat his fourth uncle?"

"Prince Yan was captured? Your Majesty, why do you have such an idea?"

"Hmm? What do you mean? Did the fourth brother's rebellion succeed?"

According to examples since ancient times, there have been many cases of princes rebelling, but very few of them were successful.

All favorable conditions must be met to succeed. Even if the inheritance he left to Zhu Yunwen was small, Zhu Di should not be able to succeed in his rebellion.

Zhu Biao was also stunned at this time. He could guess from Yang Chen's words and actions that his fourth brother seemed to have really succeeded.

In order to confirm his guess, Zhu Biao quickly asked:

"Yang Chen, you have to explain clearly, did the fourth brother succeed in his rebellion? Or..."

"Of course it worked! Your fourth son is awesome! Ever since he launched the Jingnan Rebellion, he has been attacking Nanjing fiercely.

Although he suffered a lot of losses along the way, the overall situation was always on his side.

So he relied on the soldiers he borrowed from his brother, as well as the constant capture of prisoners and persuasion of the other princes.

He raised a total of nearly 200,000 troops and quickly captured the gates of Nanjing city with unstoppable force.

Finally, he rushed into the capital alone, frantically searching for Zhu Yunwen.

He was thinking about asking the other party why he wanted to reduce the power of the feudal lords and why he wanted to force his uncles to death.

However, after the Jingnan Campaign ended, Emperor Jianwen disappeared in the burning palace and his whereabouts remain unknown."

"So, Emperor Chongzhen is not my descendant?"

Zhu Biao did not care about his son's fate. His son asked Yang Chen who Emperor Chongzhen was descended from.

Without knowing these things before, Zhu Biao felt very sad for Chongzhen, his "descendant".

Zhu Biao even felt embarrassed every time the other party made some incomprehensible moves.

Now the truth is clear, it turns out that Emperor Chongzhen is not his descendant.

It turned out that all the grievances he had suffered were false, and this instantly made Zhu Biao walk on the brink of collapse.

"Well, I, Emperor Chongzhen, have never clearly stated that he is your descendant, the Crown Prince."

Noticing that Zhu Biao was in a low mood, Yang Chen spoke in a low voice.

Sure enough, when he said Chongzhen was not his descendant, Zhu Biao laughed angrily and said to him:

"Yang Chen! You! You! You are really too much! Do you know how sad I was when I heard that Chongzhen hanged himself?
Now you tell me that he is not my descendant! My tears have been shed in vain!"

Zhu Biao stood up from his chair and spoke passionately to Yang Chen about the injustices he had suffered before.

Ever since Yang Chen appeared, he has been talking about how the Ming Dynasty was replaced by the Qing Dynasty.

Every day, Zhu Biao couldn't eat or sleep well. He worked even harder than before and sat in the position of regent.

The idea is to better put the Ming Dynasty's government back on the right track.

Don't let your 'future generations' repeat the same mistakes.

For this reason, he asked Yang Chen for advice on how to prevent corruption among officials' salaries.

After getting the hint, he went back to think hard, and based on what Yang Chen said, he created a full attendance salary and last-place elimination system suitable for the current system of the Ming Dynasty.

Unexpectedly, it turned out that Emperor Chongzhen was not his descendant at all.

Zhu Biao felt that the hard work he had put in over the past few days was a bit ridiculous at the moment.

More importantly, Zhu Di once laughed at his elder brother, wondering how he could have such a stupid descendant like Chongzhen.

After all this time, it turned out that this descendant was actually a descendant of Zhu Di and had nothing to do with him.

The truth of this huge injustice was finally revealed at this moment, and Zhu Biao didn't know what to say for a while.

In the end, he could only complain to Yang Chen.

Seeing Zhu Biao's reaction, Yang Chen scratched his head and smiled awkwardly, expressing his embarrassment.

"Oh, my Lord, you are so magnanimous. I was interrogated by you all so madly that I have a messy memory of the details.

I can’t be blamed for not revealing in time that Chongzhen was a descendant of Zhu Di.”

I originally wanted to continue telling Yang Chen about my grievances, but the other party had already apologized.

In the end, Zhu Biao could only swallow his anger, after all, one should not hit a smiling person.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang felt his mind was a little confused.

He tried to sort out his thoughts, starting with Zhu Yunwen ascending the throne and becoming Emperor Jianwen.

This unworthy descendant's reduction of fiefdoms caused the outbreak of internal conflicts in the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Di launched the Jingnan Campaign in the name of clearing the court of corrupt officials.

In the end, Zhu Yunwen disappeared, and Chongzhen was a descendant of Zhu Di. This means that after Zhu Di made Zhu Yunwen disappear, he did not pass the throne to Zhu Biao's direct descendants.

Instead, he took the throne for himself.

Thinking of this result, Zhu Yuanzhang anxiously asked Yang Chen for confirmation.

"You just said that Chongzhen is the descendant of the fourth prince. Doesn't that mean that after the fourth prince captured Kyoto, he took the throne for himself?"

Facing Zhu Yuanzhang's questioning, Yang Chen said with a wry smile:
"Your Majesty, I don't know how to answer your question.

Just think about it, the Prince of Yan expended so much energy to rebel from Peking, and finally succeeded in making Zhu Yunwen disappear from the Ming Dynasty.

Do you think that if you were the King of Yan, would you easily return the throne to your eldest brother's son?"

"So? My father's guess was correct. My fourth brother did ascend the throne and become emperor, right?"

Zhu Biao answered Yang Chen's words with a feeling that fate was playing tricks on him.

After seeing the other party nod, he smiled helplessly.

This was a smile of uneasiness about the fate of the Zhu family. They did not expect that their family would have experienced so many things after the death of their ancestor emperor.

After a lot of twists and turns, the throne finally passed to his brother.

Zhu Yuanzhang's face was gloomy. He didn't expect that his fourth son was even more powerful than he had imagined.

He was able to usurp the throne by joining forces with other brothers.

He was very smart and based on Yang Chen's few words he could guess that the situation would definitely be bad for the fourth brother from the beginning.

But somehow the situation suddenly turned upside down, and all favorable factors became the conditions for Zhu Di to seize the throne.

Zhu Yuanzhang absolutely did not believe that there was no one helping behind this.

"After the fourth brother became emperor, how did he treat the rest of his brothers?"

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't imagine how brutal Zhu Di would be after he came to power through rebellion, as he had already reduced the power of his grandson to this extent.

Not to mention that he stood out from a group of rebellious princes.

Observe Zhu Yuanzhang's cold old face.

He knew immediately that this guy wanted to hear him say whether Zhu Di had done anything brutal.

“In reply to your Majesty, after the Prince of Yan proclaimed himself emperor, he did use some measures to reduce the power of the vassal states, but they were different from those used by Zhu Yunwen.

Yongle adopted a conciliatory policy in his approach to reducing the power of the feudal lords. He made modifications based on the feudal system established by Your Majesty.

Let the local princes release some of their military power and use it together with the commanders of the local governor's office. Don't let the princes dominate alone."

"Hmm? Can Lao Si be so kind? Are you sure you didn't lie to me?"

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't believe that after the princes rebelled, they actually adopted a conciliatory approach to reduce their power.

This was the first time Yang Chen saw a father doubting his son, and he felt sorry for Zhu Di.

No wonder this guy in history always emphasized that he was no worse than his brothers.

It seems that Zhu Di spent his entire life proving to his father that there was a reason why he was so capable.

"Your Majesty, I really have no reason to lie to you. After Emperor Yongle became emperor, he not only used a conciliatory policy to quell the disputes among the vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty in a short period of time.

He quickly ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, then dealt with the civil strife, killing those who should be killed and releasing those who should be released.

For example, the brothers mentioned earlier, although he released several younger brothers, he also knew the temperaments of these younger brothers.

He ordered people to send these princes back to their fiefdoms, confiscate their military power, and only allow them to operate in their own territories and not run around.

Moreover, according to the ancestral precepts you set, compensation is also given, and some annual salary is given.

To avoid future generations saying that he was not good to his brothers.

In short, everything has been going well for the Ming Dynasty since Yongle ascended the throne. He launched many northern expeditions and was awarded the honor of being crowned the Wolf and the Lair as an emperor.

You can imagine how powerful he is, so Your Majesty does not need to bear any grudge against Yongle.

Later generations called the time when he was emperor the Yongle Era of Prosperity, and Emperor Chengzu was rated as the Ming emperor second only to your Majesty."

"Wait a minute? What did you say the fourth brother was called? Emperor Chengzu?"

Zhu Yuanzhang originally thought that after he, Zhu Di, ascended the throne, he would continue to use tough measures to reduce the power of the princes.

However, he learned from Yang Chen that the fourth brother did not do so, and for this reason, Zhu Yuanzhang gradually relaxed his vigilance against Zhu Di.

But Yang Chen's next sentence made Lao Zhu furious.

Emperor Chengzu!

This is really too bold! Li Shimin only dared to give himself the temple name Taizong.

You, Zhu Laosi, dare to call yourself Emperor Chengzu!

In Zhu Yuanzhang's view, this was truly treasonous!
(End of this chapter)