However, we can still make speculations from various clues in history, according to historical records, the Northern Parallel Capital Command Department has about more than 30 guards, and some independent thousands of households, according to a guard with 5,600 people, Zhu Di can probably command nearly 200,000 troops.

This does not include his guards, later, Zhu Di performed very well in the north, and Zhu Yuanzhang gave him the privilege of controlling the soldiers and horses along the border, so that, theoretically, the 800,000 border guards of the Ming army along the Great Wall in the north have become Zhu Di's subordinates, which is also the capital why he dares to be so arrogant.

Without this capital, he dares to rebel? Joke. Even if he can fight, he can't stop the other party from crushing him, and Geng Bingwen, Sheng Yong, Qu Neng and others are not eating dry rice.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang clearly stipulated before his death that the vassal king could only directly command his own guards, he could not interfere in the affairs of the border guards in peacetime, and could only command after a major event.

However, this regulation is often just a dead letter, you must know that the north can be said to be a frontier at that time, basically fighting every year, that is, there are major events every year, so that those vassal kings can use this as an excuse to control the army in their feudal country.

What's more, what is the standard of the so-called big thing? There is no clear provision in Zhu Yuanzhang's edict, and in the end it can only be reduced to, the vassal king said that this matter is a big thing, that is, a big thing, and no matter how small it is, it is a big thing.

The most important thing is that the generals and officials under the hands of the vassal king also know in their hearts that the court is far away in the sky, and it can be said that they are beyond the reach of the whip, and they are still fooled, but the vassal king is in front of them, and they can be said to be begging for a living under the nose of the vassal king, so they dare not fool the vassal king casually, so when the court has an ambiguous attitude and the events are ambiguous, most of them follow the vassal king.

Anyway, Zhu Yuanzhang's edict asked them to listen to the king's moderation at every turn, and they listened to these princes according to the requirements of the edict, which was the safest way, and they would never make mistakes.

This also caused that those vassal kings in other places could have a significant impact on the local army, both tangible and invisible, which was actually the result that Zhu Yuanzhang wanted, he just wanted to divide the country's resources into two parts, one part to the emperor and one part to the vassal king, so as to prevent figures like Sima Yi and Yang Jian from appearing in the court.

Once there are traitors in the court who want to usurp power, the vassal kings can use their influence on the army to raise troops and make it difficult to resist others, and most of those traitors will also restrain themselves when they see this.

Zhu Di is one of the vassal kings who made good use of the policy of the imperial court, he took advantage of the opportunity of his war with the Mongols, killed decisively, cleaned up the generals who thought of the court and did not obey him one by one, and finally put the generals in his vassal kingdom into obedience one by one, and no longer dared to disobey his orders, so as to control the army of nearly 200,000 in his own hands. It is worthy of the true character of a hero.

Zhu Di's power is very large, and it can be said that he has become too big to fall, so he is not as timid as other vassal kings, and he does not dare to come when he sees the edict of the imperial court, but directly comes to the funeral with tens of thousands of soldiers and horses.

He was very unconvinced by Zhu Yunwen in his heart, he thought that his brothers were dead, and he was very capable of fighting, so Zhu Yuanzhang should pass the throne to him, but Zhu Yuanzhang didn't pay attention to his inner appeal at all, but happily handed over the position of prince to Zhu Biao's son Zhu Yunwen, which made him depressed for a long time.

What did he want to do when he came to mourn with soldiers and horses? There is no record in the history books that it is unlikely that there will be a direct rebellion, after all, this is really too ostentatious, and he probably wants to figure out Zhu Yuanzhang's two military deployments before his death.

According to the record of "Ming Shilu", in the thirty-first year of Hongwu, before Zhu Yuanzhang died, he issued three edicts in a row, the first of which was that of Zhu Zhi, the king of Liao, and Lao Zhu let him, the fifteenth son who had always performed well, preside over the defense of Liaodong. The second is for Guo Ying, the Marquis of Wuding, and let him lead the army to be Zhu Zhi's deputy. The third was for the governor Yang Wen, and asked him to command the soldiers and horses of Beiping as Zhu Di's deputy. Two-phase constraints.

From these three edicts, Zhu Di obviously smelled the smell of checks and balances, since the death of Zhu Zhang, the king of Qin, who has been able to compete with Zhu Di in the north and has been competing, is Zhu Li, the king of Jin, the third and fourth sons are very capable of fighting, and no one is convinced.

Zhu Yuanzhang gave them a lot of power, let them fight openly and secretly, and they were in the middle to check and balance, which was very comfortable, but what Zhu Yuanzhang never expected was that in the thirty-first year of Hongwu, Zhu Li, the king of Jin, also went one step ahead of him. At this moment, the situation of the two males standing side by side suddenly became the monopoly of the Yan Wang family, which made Zhu Yuanzhang, who had always been cautious, feel a little uneasy.

He was desperate to find someone to check and balance Zhu Di, and after looking for it, he found Zhu Zhi, the fifteen-character Liao King, because the sons of King Qin and King Jin were still too young and too tender, and they were Zhu Di's nephews, so they couldn't play Zhu Di at all. And Zhu Zhi is also a very capable person, and he is doing very well in the north, so Zhu Yuanzhang began to support his forces so that he could balance King Yan.

Zhu Di obviously felt this, and there were two purposes for bringing people into Beijing this time, the first was to cry in Xiaoling, so as to show his filial piety to the world; The second is to feel the bottom of the imperial court, and further find out what arrangements Zhu Yuanzhang made before he died, and whether he was aimed at himself.

However, just as he led his men to gallop and was about to reach the river, a small colonel came rushing to meet him.

Such a small colonel was the scout he sent first, and when Zhu Di saw him come back, he immediately stopped his horse and asked anxiously, "How is the situation ahead?" ”

The junior colonel gave a military salute on his horse, and said with a heavy face: "Your Highness, the situation is not very good. The riverside was filled with troops, and the ferry crossing was sealed. The guard general said that the first emperor had an edict to prevent the vassal king from running for funeral, and let us go back. ”

"How can that be?" Zhu Di only felt a wave of anger rising from his chest, his face turned purple with anger, and he glared and said: "This king is the son of the first emperor, and his father is dead, how can there be any reason not to let his son run for funeral?" You go and tell the people by the river, and let them tell Yun Wei. This king just wants to pay tribute to his father to fulfill his filial piety, isn't he the most filial piety? You can't just let him be filial, not let this king be filial. ”

"The villain obeys." The little colonel gave a military salute on his horse, then turned around, and came to the riverside, of course, when he spoke to the guards of the riverside, he would certainly not be as arrogant as King Yan, but politely consulted with people.

The guards of the riverside were also embarrassed when they saw this situation, and after discussion, they decided to report to the leader, and when they encountered something that they could not solve, they would find the leader, which is the only secret book that has been handed down in our country since ancient times.

This problem was reported by the guards on the riverside layer by layer, and finally reported to Zhu Yunwen. Zhu Yunwen sat on the Jinluan Palace, looking at the twists and turns in front of him, and felt very troubled, let King Yan run to the funeral, who knows what he wants to do with so many troops? Don't allow King Yan to run for funeral, I am afraid that this kind of thing will not be able to be said if it is not allowed to let the family fulfill filial piety, and I am afraid that it will cause discussion among the people of the world and damage the reputation of his virtuous king, so he calmly faced his henchmen and said to his henchmen with a very embarrassed look: "Ladies and gentlemen, what do you think of King Yan's request?" Will I promise him, or will I not promise him? ”

"This ......" Huang Zicheng also made a difficulty, he is a believer in Confucianism, Confucianism attaches the most importance to the word "filial piety", not to let others be filial, it is unreasonable to say it, but he knows very well what King Yan is, he is the strongest among today's vassal kings, as early as when Zhu Biao was alive, Lan Yu reminded him that King Yan coveted the throne, Zhu Biao was gone, King Qin, King Jin, these vassal kings older than him all died, in terms of seniority, in terms of strength he was the strongest, at this time you said that King Yan suddenly obeyed the law and did not want to be the emperor, he didn't believe that Huang Zicheng was killed.

At this time, Qi Tai, who was still the most strategic in Emperor Jianwen's team, stood up and said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that Your Majesty can order King Yan to come to mourn alone, and he said that the troops he brought are not allowed to cross the river. ”

Wake up the person in the dream with a word, Zhu Yunwen suddenly realized, don't you want to be filial? Come alone, what's the matter with so many troops, I'm waiting for you here, come if you want, a smile suddenly appeared on his face, and he said very happily: "Quasi-play." According to the Shangshu of the Ministry of War, he ordered someone to tell King Yan that if he wanted to come to mourn, he could do it, but he could only come alone. ”

"Obey." Qi Tai saluted Zhu Yunwen again, and then immediately sent someone to send the edict.

It is said that Zhu Di, the king of Yan, waited by the river for a long time, and finally saw the messenger from the opposite side, the messenger was also a colonel of the Ming army, and he came to the opposite bank with a retinue and rowed a boat.

After going ashore, the envoy of the imperial court dressed up and slowly walked to Zhu Di, saluted him first, and said, "The villain sees King Yan, please accept the decree of King Yan." ”

Zhu Di rode on the horse, didn't move, and said proudly: "Read it." ”

The little colonel was stunned for a moment, and secretly said that the head of the kings is really arrogant, and he has no scruples as soon as the old emperor dies, anyway, it is their Zhu family's business, we can't go to this troubled water, take out the holy decree, and read word by word: "Fengtian carries the emperor, and the edict says: King Yan came to mourn from afar, which is a great act of loyalty and filial piety, why bother to bring soldiers and horses." The king of Yan rode into the city alone and bowed to the tomb of filial piety. Chin this. ”

Zhu Di listened to this little school read the holy decree word by word, his face became more and more ugly, since the little school took out the holy decree from his arms, Zhu Di felt uncomfortable, he felt that this holy decree should be issued by him, not that he listened to others to release it, and when the little school finished reading, his heart had already held his stomach, and he said with a calm face: "I know, you go back first." ”

The little school couldn't wait to run, who was willing to get involved in the affairs of their group of heavenly families, wouldn't that be asking for trouble for themselves, so he immediately gave Zhu Di a salute and said, "The villain retires." Then he turned and jumped into the boat, and slowly rowed to the opposite side.

Zhu Di looked at the distant court envoys, the anger in his heart was as uncalm as this surging river, and he said with a calm face and very unhappy: "Master, what do you say to do now?" ”

The master in his mouth was naturally Yao Guangxiao, who was later known as the black-clothed prime minister. Yao Guangxiao was wearing a monk's robe, slowly rushed over from behind, looked at the surging river, and squinted at Zhu Di, who was angry, his eyes narrowed into a line, and said with a smile: "The king originally wanted to enter Beijing in the name of filial piety, but he didn't expect to be caught by the other party and used filial piety to block back." Now that the king is fledgling and is not an opponent of the imperial court, it is better to go back for the time being, taoguang and obscurity, accumulate strength, and wait until the time of the future when the wind and clouds meet, and go straight to the clouds. ”

Zhu Di pursed his lips and looked at Da Jiang with a calm face, his eyes were full of unwillingness and anger, and he also had very strong expectations, and after a long time, he gradually withdrew his gaze, turned his head, and sighed at his most powerful strategist and said, "It can only be like this." ”

After that, as soon as he pulled the reins with his right hand, he turned the horse's head and returned to Beiping with a group of men.

Someone had already told Zhu Yunwen about Zhu Di's departure, and when he heard that the most powerful vassal king had left, Zhu Yunwen secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, I don't know why, although he is now the emperor, but those vassal kings can still give him a lot of pressure, making him restless, like a fish in his throat, sighed slightly, and then sat down on the dragon chair heavily, and said with a melancholy face: "Now we drove King Yan away, but what will we do in the future?" These vassal kings have no court, and they are not a day or two. Do you want to send them by decree this time? ”

The ancients paid attention to the king's worries and humiliation, and the king's humiliation and death, seeing his own king Zhu Yunwen with such a sad face, his henchmen suddenly felt embarrassed, and knelt on the ground and kowtowed: "The ministers are incompetent, please forgive the emperor." ”

Zhu Yunwen just sighed slightly, he didn't expect that the three ministers under his command really took it seriously, and they were much more thoughtful than when he was the grandson, to be honest, he enjoyed this kind of etiquette very much, he felt that this was a respect for him, and said: "Three gentlemen, please get up quickly." I don't mean to blame you, you are all my henchmen, I just want to discuss with you what to do? ”

Qi Tai, Huang Zicheng, and Fang Xiaoru, who were kneeling on the ground, glanced at each other, and then slowly stood up. Fang Xiaoru has just returned to Beijing after the edict, he is very moved by the emperor's weight, he is the kind of person who admits death, and wants to establish a Confucian utopian court, he thinks that since the emperor has the grace of knowing him, then he should swear to repay the service, and stood up and said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the vassal king is already a big trouble for the imperial court, and the minister agrees with the views of Lord Qi and Lord Huang, and advocates cutting the feudal domain to calm the society." ”