In the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu, Zhu Biao, the eldest son of Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, died of illness, and people who know a little bit about the history of the Ming Dynasty know that Zhu Yuanzhang and Queen Ma love Zhu Biao very much, but after the death of the prince, the throne will be passed to a big problem.

In the thirty-first year of Hongwu, that is, in 1398, Zhu Yuanzhang died of illness, and the throne passed to Zhu Yunwen, after Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne, he listened to Huang Zicheng, Fang Xiaoru, Qi Tai's advice, the power of the vassal kings is a little too big, if one day they rebel, we have no way to resist in the capital, it is better to let them return the military power to the court, and then be a happy prince in peace, Zhu Yunwen felt that it made sense after listening to it, alas, if one day does not listen to me, these uncles are too powerful, Wouldn't it be over if I couldn't command, so I began to cut the feudal domain, and began to try my best to "deal with" my uncle. At the time of the last dynasty, he also asked the ministers of the court about their thoughts, and these ministers were divided into two factions, some of them thought that such a thing as cutting the feudal domain should not be rushed, and they could learn from the Tui'en Decree issued by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, requiring that the areas under the jurisdiction of the previous princes should be inherited only by their eldest sons, and then changed to their eldest sons, second sons, and third sons to inherit together, and then according to this decree, the vassal states were divided into smaller and smaller countries, and then took the opportunity to weaken their power. There are also some ministers who believe that they should attack decisively, taking advantage of the fact that Taizu has just died, and the vassal kings have not yet had the heart to rebel, so they should quickly cut through the chaos and deal with it as soon as possible, and unify their military power.

Speaking of Zhu Yunwen himself, he is not as ruthless as his grandfather, but like a humble gentleman, you must know that a person who is not ruthless is not suitable to be an emperor, Zhu Yunwen was very good to all literati during his reign, and he tried to reduce taxes for the common people, and even changed some of the inhumane regulations set by Zhu Yuanzhang, so many ministers dared to express their opinions, which is a good thing for Zhu Yunwen.

As mentioned before, Huang Zicheng Fang Xiaoru and Qi Tai gave advice to Emperor Jianwen to cut the domain, because most of the ministers in the court and the central government also agreed to cut the domain, so now it is necessary to come up with the final plan in the order of cutting the domain, Huang Zicheng said that he can cut the Yan King Zhu Di first, because his strength is the strongest, he can deter other vassal kings, Qi Tai also said that you can slowly come from weak to strong, first, the weak vassal king is not strong enough, and he has the certainty of victory, and second, he can also slowly accumulate our strength. The two argued with each other, each with their own reasons, and finally Zhu Yunwen concluded that in fact, what the two said made sense, but the strength of King Yan is too strong, let's start with King Zhu of Zhou, first of all, King Zhou's strength is not strong, and the relationship between King Zhou and other vassal kings is not too close, we can also use King Zhou to contain King Yan, so let's start with King Zhou.

In the first year of Jianwen, Zhu Hu, the king of Zhou, was accused of rebellion, and Zhu Yunwen sent Li Jinglong, the son of Li Wenzhong, to surround the palace of the king of Zhou, arrested the king of Zhou, and escorted the king of Zhou and the female relatives of the family back to Beijing.

The king of Zhou has solved it, and the next one is Zhu Rong, the king of Qi, who, like the king of Zhou, was accused of rebellion, and Zhu Yunwen then also demoted his seventh uncle to a concubine, and did not distribute anywhere, but was imprisoned in Jinling City. The next one is Zhu Bai, the king of Xiang, who originally planned to be escorted back to Beijing like the previous two princes, falsely accused of rebellion, and then demoted to a concubine, but Zhu Bai already knew that Emperor Jianwen sent someone to arrest him, and actually set himself on fire and died, until Emperor Jianwen heard the news, he couldn't help but burst into tears, and couldn't help but say: "Uncle Twelve, I just want to invite you to chat with me, and I didn't think that you would die!" ”

Other vassal kings heard the news of the self-immolation of Zhu Bai, the king of Xiang, and felt desperate, and could only pray that their good nephew would not attack him, but the truth would not be as they wished, and soon there were rumors in the palace that Zhu Gui, the acting king, was corrupt and corrupted the money used for disaster relief, Zhu Yunwen ordered the arrest of the acting king, and after the arrest, he ordered the acting king to be sent to Chengdu, so that the king of Shu could educate him, and then demoted to a concubine, escorted back to Datong to be imprisoned. In less than half a year, there were already four vassal kings or were demoted, so that the other uncles were very afraid, almost at the same time, the vassal king in Yunnan, that is, the Min king Zhu Yang was accused of deliberate rebellion, and Emperor Jianwen used the same method to demote him to a concubine and sent it to Zhangzhou, Fujian. In less than a year, the five vassal kings have been cut, and at this time, the people in the court are panicked, and almost every minister has some relationship with the vassal kings, but fortunately, Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen only targeted his uncles, but turned a deaf ear to the ministers.

What is Zhu Di doing at this time?

Far away in a prince's mansion in Beiping, Yao Guangxiao and Zhu Di seemed to be plotting something.

Yao Guangxiao said to Zhu Di: "I have to rebel, if it is reversed, there may be a glimmer of life, if not, then Zhu Yunwen will try his best to kill you!" ”

After hearing this, Zhu Di sighed deeply and said: "Master Daoyan, I also know what you said, but the teacher is unknown, and the soldiers below may not all listen to me, we have to find a good reason." ”

Yao Guangxiao said: "What the prince said is reasonable, you see, what Zhu Yunwen did today was caused by the evil words of Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai, we only oppose the traitorous ministers, not the emperor, and kill the traitorous ministers in the name of Jingnan!" ”

"Okay, that's it, but I have to go to Nanjing before the Jingjing, first to see what the situation is, and then decide when to go on the expedition."

"But after Taizu died, he left a special edict, saying that the vassal kings from all over the country would not come to the capital to attend the funeral, and they were not even allowed to attend the funeral, so how could they agree to go to Jinling casually, I think this is very dangerous." Yao Guangxiao said worriedly.

"If you don't enter the tiger's den, you can get the tiger!" Zhu Di was in high spirits.

"Okay, but we need to plan it well......"