Now that they had the opportunity, the Goryeo envoy naturally had to make things clear. Goryeo couldn't be blamed alone; the mastermind had to be revealed.

So the envoy immediately spoke to Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Yunwen:

"In response to the Emperor and the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty, Goryeo would never have dared to use its military against the Ming Dynasty. It was only because we were provoked by others that we did such a brainless and impulsive thing."

Zhu Yunwen asked the question knowing the answer already:

"Who instigated you, how did they instigate you, and what was their purpose?"

The envoy hesitated for a moment, then slowly spoke:

"Your Highness, it was due to the instigation of Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan, a northern vassal king of the Ming Dynasty."

These words surprised everyone in the court.

Zhu Yunwen frowned and rebuked him:

"How dare you slander a prince of the Great Ming Dynasty?"

The envoy hurriedly replied, "I dare not. Every word I have said is true, and I have evidence to prove it."

As he spoke, he pulled out several envelopes from his person. They were all letters from Prince Yan, Zhu Di, to Yi Seong-gye of Goryeo, as well as replies from Yi Seong-gye to Prince Yan, Zhu Di.

This also includes the letter Zhu Di wrote to Yi Seong-gye, saying that he had no military power.

And the letter ordering Yi Seong-gye to withdraw his troops—these are all irrefutable pieces of evidence.

After these letters were handed over to Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Yuanzhang read them and his face turned extremely gloomy.

At this point, the envoy continued:

"Zhu Di contacted the King of Goryeo, saying that the Ming Dynasty only has one grandson, who is the future heir apparent, and that the foundation of the country is unstable. This is a good opportunity to seize the world."

Therefore, Zhu Di promised that he was willing to send more than 200,000 troops, provided that Goryeo sent 100,000 troops to conquer the north. In return, he would have the opportunity to request more troops from the court and seize more power.

Then, they would coordinate with Goryeo to attack the Ming Dynasty. After their success, they would offer Goryeo all of northern China as a bribe, thus tempting Goryeo to commit this foolish act.

Zhu Yunwen continued to feign ignorance, saying:

"Then why does your Goryeo Kingdom suddenly dare not fight?"

The envoy hurriedly spoke:

"Later we realized we had been tricked. Zhu Di had no troops at all. He deliberately made Goryeo cooperate with him just to help him gain military power. So when we in Goryeo realized we had been tricked, we regretted it very much."

When the civil and military officials learned the truth, they were all extremely angry. In this court, there was basically no official who had a good relationship with Zhu Di.

Zhu Yunwen's current strength is so great that it has impressed the civil and military officials in the court. Therefore, the officials all feel that Zhu Di should be severely punished for this matter.

Immediately, some officials stood up to rebuke Zhu Di's behavior. Throughout the entire process, Zhu Yuanzhang did not say much, and he did not have a good impression of Zhu Di.

He was even more worried that Zhu Di would become a threat to Zhu Yunwen in the future.

Since he had this opportunity, he naturally felt he could make use of it.

Moreover, Zhu Di's actions did indeed make him somewhat angry.

So Zhu Yuanzhang, with a stern face, spoke:

"Prince Zhu Di of Yan, for his own selfish desires, disregarded the stability of the Ming Dynasty, colluded with foreign enemies, and introduced foreign invaders. This is a grave crime. By imperial decree, Zhu Di is stripped of his title of Prince of Yan, his northern fiefdom is revoked, he is demoted to a commoner, ordered to return to the capital, and imprisoned for life along with his descendants!"

Upon hearing this, the civil and military officials present began to discuss it, and most of them were quite satisfied with this solution.

In the current imperial court, almost all civil and military officials support Zhu Yunwen. Even those who do not support him dare not show it.

However, it is certain that Zhu Di had almost no supporters, so the court officials were happy to see him suffer such a fate.

Zhu Yunwen had no complaints about Zhu Yuanzhang's handling of the matter; he simply smiled and said nothing more.

Next, Zhu Yuanzhang began to ask his court officials for their opinions on how to deal with Goryeo.

The officials offered all sorts of suggestions, useful and useless, good and bad.

Ultimately, Zhu Yuanzhang turned his attention to Zhu Yunwen, and now many issues are resolved by Zhu Yunwen who proposes solutions.

Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang looking at him, Zhu Yunwen paused for a moment and then said:

"Although the war has been fought, an imperial edict was issued to reprimand the new king of Goryeo, Yi Seong-gye, and to order Goryeo to increase its annual tribute."

Then, the new king of Goryeo, Yi Seong-gye, publicly apologized to the Ming Dynasty and admitted his mistakes, and the matter could be considered closed.

After all, Fu Youde's leadership of the troops this time left a painful impression and inflicted a heavy price on Goryeo.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said:

"Do everything according to the Crown Prince's wishes!"

The officials nodded in agreement.

After the court session, Zhu Yunwen returned to the Eastern Palace. Yang Shiqi, a Grand Secretary of the Wenhua Hall, came to the Eastern Palace to report to Zhu Yunwen.

They had drafted a simple plan for the conversion of native chieftains to centrally appointed officials in the southwest region, which Zhu Yunwen reviewed briefly and expressed his satisfaction with.

Therefore, he directly ordered: "Let capable officials from the court go to the southwest region to serve as Pacification Commissioners of Guizhou City in the southwest region, and as Assistant Commissioners."

The two officials who originally served as the Pacification Commissioner and the Assistant Prefect were the leaders of two chieftain families in the southwest region.

Zhu Yunwen's intention was to send court officials to the southwest region to manage some affairs there and to jointly govern the southwest region with the local chieftain families.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!