Zhu Yuanzhang wrote to Zhu Yunwen, and his purpose in telling Zhu Yunwen about this matter was very simple: he wanted to ask Zhu Yunwen how to decide.

Zhu Yuanzhang now adopts a rather indifferent attitude towards many matters of the court. As long as the overall situation is stable, he only needs to take a look at the memorials submitted by the cabinet and processed by the Three Yangs.

He doesn't get involved in most other matters, but when faced with this kind of problem, he writes to ask Zhu Yunwen for his opinion, which is actually to find out how Zhu Yunwen will resolve the issue.

Zhu Yunwen naturally understood that this was because Prince Yan, Zhu Di, was worried that he would not have military power, so he began to find ways to give himself more military power.

Zhu Yunwen naturally wouldn't let him succeed in this matter.

In Zhu Yunwen's eyes, Zhu Di had always been a powerful threat.

For example, Prince Qin, Zhu Shuang, and Prince Jin, Zhu Gang, although powerful, were ultimately not as threatening as Prince Yan, Zhu Di.

After all, both of them would eventually die. Only Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan, successfully rebelled in history.

Having learned from past mistakes, Zhu Yunwen was naturally very wary of him. The reason he sent Fu Youde to the north was to keep an eye on Zhu Di and not give him any opportunity.

Naturally, it was even less likely that he would be able to regain his military strength.

Therefore, after thinking it over, Zhu Yunwen wrote back to Zhu Yuanzhang, asking him to investigate thoroughly. If the Northern Yuan Mongols and Goryeo Kingdom did indeed intend to unite and invade the northern part of the Ming Dynasty, then Fu Youde should lead troops to prevent and suppress them.

The implication is clear: even if war breaks out in the north, General Fu Youde is there to oversee things, so it's not Zhu Di's place to do anything.

In fact, if we look at the historical reality, if some things happened in the north, Zhu Yuanzhang would definitely have sent Zhu Di with troops to suppress them.

In his mind, there was always a firm belief that the descendants of the Ming Dynasty should suppress the borders and protect the Ming Dynasty's territory.

But Zhu Yuanzhang had already read the history books. He knew that Zhu Di was ambitious, and quite ambitious. He also knew that having the descendants of the Ming Dynasty protect the country, although the ideal was good, would actually bring some serious consequences.

Ultimately, the fact that the Ming Dynasty's empire was left to its descendants to defend reflects Zhu Yuanzhang's extreme lack of confidence as a peasant after gaining imperial power.

Throughout history, many emperors were born into extraordinary circumstances. They possessed the confidence of nobles and the demeanor of those in power. As a result, when they became emperors, they were confident in granting their officials enormous power and military strength to protect the country and guard the region.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang, due to his humble origins, lacked the confidence of a nobleman and ruler. He did not trust outsiders; he only trusted his own people and his children.

Therefore, he usually sent his sons to important places to assume fiefdoms, thereby achieving the goal of protecting the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, Zhu Yuanzhang would try to kill any of his ministers if he had any doubts about them, which was also a sign of his lack of self-confidence.

Ultimately, an extremely confident emperor wouldn't have so many concerns and worries.

Of course, after reading the history books, Zhu Yuanzhang's mindset had clearly changed.

He has also realized the root of his problem and is trying to change that mindset.

The appearance of Zhu Yunwen made him feel more at ease, and he was no longer as suspicious or worried as before.

Therefore, if a turmoil were to occur in the north, Zhu Yuanzhang would not hesitate to send Fu Youde with troops to suppress it, rather than sending Zhu Di.

After Zhu Yunwen expressed his intentions in a letter and sent it to Nanjing, Zhu Yuanzhang saw the letter and immediately ordered the Ministry of War to act according to Zhu Yunwen's wishes.

Minister of War Feng Sheng immediately ordered Fu Youde to be on guard against any disturbances in the north. If any unusual activity was discovered in the north, whether it was Goryeo or the Northern Yuan Mongols, he was to immediately lead troops to suppress it.

Moreover, the order clearly stated that Fu Youde would not be under the control of Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan in the north.

In other words, General Fu Youde and his troops were separately managed by the imperial court, and Zhu Di had no right to interfere.

Upon receiving the news, Zhu Di's face darkened. He hadn't expected that his efforts to create some public opinion in the north would finally rekindle the court's intention to wage war there.

In the end, however, he was still not given any troops, and the military power was still given to Fu Youde.

This made Zhu Di start to doubt his life. He thought to himself, wasn't Fu Youde supposed to be demoted to the north by Zhu Yuanzhang to be punished?

After all, Fu Youde had seized the people's fertile land and, thinking he had done something meritorious, went too far and acted recklessly. So, on Zhu Yunwen's advice, Zhu Yuanzhang demoted him to the north to recruit and train soldiers.

To everyone else, this was Fu Youde being punished.

Yet a person who had been punished suddenly gained such great power that he could even lead troops to suppress the unrest in the north.

That's a bit unreasonable.

Zhu Di was not a fool, and he began to suspect whether Fu Youde had actually come to the north to be punished.

Or was he deliberately arranged to be sent here to seize his military power?

After all, Zhu Di's troops had already been taken away by Fu Youde from the beginning, and now that there were problems in the north and war was about to break out, Fu Youde was still the one in charge.

Zhu Di, a prince who clearly held considerable power, had somehow become a carefree prince without any real authority during this period.

This is already very unreasonable, but even if he suspects it, it's useless. After all, he really has no troops left at his disposal. If problems arise in the north, he will lose all his right to fight.

Fu Youde took all of them.

This made Zhu Di increasingly panicked. If things continued like this, he might not even have the right to speak out in court, let alone rebel.

After all, without troops, everything is just empty talk.

Zhu Yunwen used a simple method to resolve the crisis that Zhu Di wanted to regain military power.

He stopped paying much attention to the matter and left Luoyang, heading south.

There's not much time left until Chinese New Year.

The land reform policy promoted by Zhu Yunwen was being implemented vigorously in various places, and most places had entered the stage of issuing land distribution orders.

Zhu Yunwen expects the policy to be fully implemented before the end of the year, so he plans to visit some places again in the coming days.

Discover and resolve as many problems as possible. Once the land distribution order has been fully implemented in some areas and land reform has been completed, Zhu Yunwen can return to Nanjing to celebrate the New Year with peace of mind.