King Yi Seong-gye of Goryeo was understandably flustered. He had initially thought that he could fight against the Ming Dynasty alongside Zhu Di, which made him somewhat happy, thinking that Zhu Di was someone who could accomplish great things.

Now that the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty is dead, Zhu Yuanzhang has created a new crown prince, and Yi Seong-gye believes that the Ming Dynasty will definitely face turmoil.

In addition, Zhu Di's desire to rebel gave Li Chenggui an opportunity, but he never expected that Zhu Di was actually the sixth son, which put Li Chenggui in a dilemma.

Even the initial promise to cooperate with Yi Seong-gye was a lie.

Zhu Di never held military power from beginning to end. Instead, he wanted to take advantage of Goryeo's invasion of the Ming Dynasty to gain military power so that he could turn around and deal with Goryeo.

This completely fooled Goryeo, treating Yi Seong-gye of Goryeo as a political tool for Zhu Di to gain military power.

When Yi Seong-gye realized he had been manipulated, he was furious.

While I was angry, how to handle the current situation became a new problem.

After all, he had already led his troops to the border, and even a fool could see that he was going to attack the Ming Dynasty's frontier.

If we were to grit our teeth and fight now, a mere 100,000 troops would be utterly insignificant in the face of the Ming Dynasty.

If you're not going to fight, just retreat. Things have already gotten this far, and you've made such a big fuss. If you just withdraw, who will believe you didn't come to attack the Ming Dynasty? Besides, how embarrassing would that be?

Could it be that a 100,000-strong army, having eaten its fill, had nowhere to digest its food, so it ran to the border, made a detour, and then went back? That doesn't make sense.

This really troubled Yi Seong-gye. Fighting was definitely not an option, so he had to find a way to get back safely.

After much thought, he couldn't come up with a good solution, so he asked the officials to brainstorm together.

Then, a strange scene unfolded: the 100,000-strong army of Goryeo was stationed outside Heukseong, neither attacking nor retreating, but just staying there, as if they were on vacation.

After several days of discussion, Yi Seong-gye couldn't think of any other solution, so he wrote a memorial and sent it to Zhu Yuanzhang in Nanjing.

Zhu Yuanzhang also learned that Goryeo had sent 100,000 troops to garrison the northern border.

He entrusted this matter entirely to Zhu Yunwen.

So when they received this memorial, they summoned Zhu Yunwen as well.

Zhu Yunwen opened the memorial, glanced at it, and was immediately dumbfounded.

After reading it, he said to Zhu Yuanzhang:

"Grandfather, Yi Seong-gye of Goryeo has submitted a memorial stating that he has realized his mistake in the matter of Goryeo recognizing masters on both sides."

Furthermore, it has severed all ties with the Northern Yuan and recognizes only the Ming Dynasty as its suzerain state.

Furthermore, to acknowledge their mistake, Yi Seong-gye personally led an army of 100,000 to the border of the Ming Dynasty to plead guilty.

Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned upon hearing this, and then said to Zhu Yunwen:

"Didn't Yi Seong-gye bring an army of 100,000 to attack the north of our Great Ming? How come he's now apologizing with thorns on his back? We've never heard of a man bringing an army of 100,000 to the border to apologize with thorns on his back."

Zhu Yunwen, however, had already figured it out, and laughed heartily a few times, saying:

"It seems that Li Chenggui has also realized the truth and is now in a dilemma. He can only come up with such an absurd excuse to try and get by. In a way, it is a way to resolve the matter, but it is somewhat ridiculous."

Zhu Yuanzhang roughly understood Zhu Yunwen's meaning, and so he said to Zhu Yunwen:

"Goryeo has always harbored malicious intentions. Although they have been tricked and immediately backed down, if they are not properly punished, they may become even more ruthless in the future."

Zhu Yunwen said, "That makes sense. So, what does Grandfather mean?"

Zhu Yuanzhang paused for a moment, then suddenly his eyes turned fierce as he said:

"Isn't Fu Youde in the north? Let him lead 200,000 troops to the border and give Goryeo a good thrashing."

Even if we don't fight, we should at least show them the might of the Ming Dynasty's army and dispel any future thoughts they might have!

Zhu Yunwen said to Zhu Yuanzhang:

“Grandpa is absolutely right. Then I will immediately issue an order for Fu Youde to lead an army of 200,000 to Black City to forcefully suppress this so-called new king of Goryeo.”

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded in satisfaction and said:

"Okay, you can handle this. We can rest assured that you're in charge of these things."

After the grandfather and grandson chatted for a while, Zhu Yuanzhang said again:

"We've heard that not only is there trouble in the north, but some chieftains in the southwest are also causing trouble recently?"

Zhu Yunwen nodded and said, "It is said that some chieftains in the southwest region are frequently engaged in civil wars. The situation there is too chaotic. In my opinion, we should send troops there to suppress them forcefully. We cannot allow the chieftains in the southwest region to run rampant."

Zhu Yuanzhang had his own concerns, and he said to Zhu Yunwen:

"Besides forceful suppression, are there any other methods? Yun-hu, we know you have your own unique way of handling many things."

The southwest region is, after all, part of the territory of our Great Ming Dynasty. I do not quite agree with directly suppressing it by force. After all, that would be a waste of resources and manpower, and would not be good for the soldiers of the Great Ming Dynasty or the people of the southwest region.

Furthermore, the southwest region has a rugged terrain, making large-scale troop movement and entry quite difficult. Therefore, we believe that if there are ways to resolve the issue, we should use those methods. We should avoid resorting to overly forceful suppression unless absolutely necessary.

Since the topic had come up, Zhu Yunwen naturally wanted to have a proper discussion with Zhu Yuanzhang, so he said:

"Of course, it's really inconvenient to use the army until the very last step. I've discussed this issue with Yang Shiqi and the others before, and my proposed solution is to revert to the original state."

Using the military to suppress the rebellion would be the most effective and quickest method. My proposed "replacing native chieftains with centrally appointed officials" would take some time, but would result in minimal losses.

Zhu Yuanzhang hurriedly asked, "What is meant by 'replacing native chieftains with centrally appointed officials'?"

Zhu Yunwen said: "The so-called reform of the native chieftain system is to change the original native chieftain system to a system of appointed officials. Every year, officials will be sent to the southwest to carry out administrative administration."

In this way, appointed officials replaced local officials and carried out administrative work in the southwest region.

It will certainly not be smooth sailing at first, but as time goes on, I believe the influence of the visiting officials will grow, their impact on the local area will increase, and the effects they produce will become more and more significant.

The local chieftain system will be gradually abolished, and eventually the entire region will be under the control of the imperial court. The chieftain system will inevitably collapse on its own!

After hearing what Zhu Yunwen said, Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes immediately lit up and he said:

"In that case, this method of replacing native chieftains with centrally appointed officials is indeed good. Although it will take some time, I don't think there will be any major problems."

Gradually and subtly bringing the southwest under the control of the imperial court, and educating the local people without firing a single shot, was indeed an excellent method.