Prince Qin, Zhu Shuang, was Zhu Yuanzhang's second son. Logically, if other emperors had to choose, they would have chosen the second son to be emperor after Zhu Biao's death.

This order of succession does indeed make sense, but Zhu Yuanzhang was different; when Zhu Biao died, he chose Zhu Biao's son.

This made Zhu Shuang very unhappy. Although he didn't say it aloud, he had a lot of grievances against Zhu Yuanzhang.

To say he had no ambitions would be absolutely impossible. After all, the allure of that position was immense, and having the opportunity to take it would be an incredible stroke of luck.

So Zhu Shuang finally agreed to cooperate with Zhu Yunwen.

He didn't care whether Zhu Yunwen simply wanted to avenge his mother or whether he actually wanted to use Zhu Shuang to help him seize power and profit; it didn't matter.

Because Zhu Shuang, just like Zhu Di, never truly took Zhu Yunwen seriously, especially Zhu Yunwen at this moment.

In their view, having military power is the only true strength; everything else is nonsense.

Moreover, Zhu Yunwen doesn't have much power to draw upon right now. Neither Zhu Di before nor Zhu Shuang now is worried that Zhu Yunwen will gain any advantage after success.

When that day comes and they no longer need Zhu Yunwen, they will all think of getting rid of him as soon as possible.

However, it is now believed that Zhu Yunwen still has some value to be utilized.

So Zhu Yunwen and Zhu Shuang then planned out a general direction for their future rebellion.

In fact, there are only a few ways to rebel. The first is to find a pretext and announce to the world what problems Zhu Yunwen has and what mistakes he has made.

Then, in the name of justice, and preferably by fabricating a story that God is hinting at him to become emperor, he can then legitimately send troops to rebel.

If a rebellion were to break out, Zhu Shuang would have a certain military force. Once Zhu Yuanzhang passed away, Zhu Shuang would use his wealth to recruit a large number of soldiers and horses. He could then quickly march towards the capital with a large army.

If we can reach the capital, and there are people in the court acting as inside agents, or even inside agents at the city gates to open them, things will be much easier.

Even if an inside agent in the court were to step forward and sow discord, even a slight provocation could throw the court into chaos. Perhaps greedy and cowardly individuals would even welcome the rebels into the city and declare themselves emperors.

This is actually a similar process to Zhu Di's rebellion in history. If powerful princes like Zhu Shuang and Zhu Gang had lived until Zhu Yuanzhang's death, their separate rebellions would have been extremely troublesome.

Zhu Yunwen, far away in the capital, received news that Zhu Yunwen had secretly left the capital and seemed to be meeting privately with several vassal kings. However, Zhu Yunwen was not worried at all.

At that moment, Jiang Huan, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, was reporting this matter to Zhu Yonghu.

Zhu Yunwen remained calm, while Jiang Huan cautiously spoke again:

"Your Highness, should I arrest Zhu Yunwen and also send a warning to those princes, to put them in a good position?"

Zhu Yunwen smiled and shook his head, saying:

"No need for that. You don't need to pay too much attention to this matter. You should go do something else when you have time. You don't need to keep an eye on Zhu Yunwen."

Hearing Zhu Yunwen say this, Jiang Huan was somewhat puzzled and said:

“Your Highness, Zhu Yunwen still wields some influence in the court. If we continue to indulge him, he may inevitably pose a threat. Furthermore, his secret contact with those vassal kings raises serious concerns. If Your Highness does nothing…”

In fact, Jiang Huan's concerns were not unfounded. Any normal person would know how to face and handle this situation.

However, Zhu Yunwen was not worried at all. He simply smiled and said to Jiang Huan:

“Those few vassal kings pose no threat. I know your idea is good, but I have my own considerations. Just follow my orders. As for those vassal kings, they are unlikely to amount to anything in the future.”

If someone else had said this, Jiang Huan might not have believed it.

However, since Zhu Yunwen said this, that's a different story. After all, Zhu Yunwen had taken precautions in many things, so it was impossible for him not to have thought of the threat posed by these vassal kings.

There's only one possibility: he thought things through more thoroughly than anyone else.

Moreover, his approach to the situation is beyond the comprehension of these people.

So when he thought of this, Jiang Huan immediately nodded respectfully and said:

"Understood!"

As he was about to leave, Zhu Yunwen thought for a moment and then spoke:

"We don't need to pay too much attention to the other princes. Prince Yan, Zhu Di, can be secretly watched by someone. Remember, just keep a casual watch. As long as he doesn't do anything big, you don't need to report to me."

In fact, his actions were somewhat unnecessary, since Zhu Di was being watched by Fu Youde, and normally there wouldn't be any problems.

Of course, Zhu Yunwen had absolute methods to control Zhu Di.

However, he underestimated Zhu Di's ambition, because Zhu Di had secretly sent people to sabotage the relationship between the Ming Dynasty, Goryeo, and Beiyuan.

Although the Ming Dynasty and the Northern Yuan had no connection and had always been enemies, Zhu Di still wanted to find a way to use the double-dealing of the Goryeo Kingdom to make Goryeo Kingdom recognize the Northern Yuan as its father, and then unite with the Northern Yuan to deal with the Ming Dynasty.

In his view, this was a great thing, because once the Northern Yuan and Goryeo united, the pressure on the north would increase, and Zhu Yuanzhang might give him some troops again to defend the border.

In this way, Zhu Di, who possessed military strength, could wait patiently for an opportunity.

Like Prince Qin, Zhu Shuang, he was waiting for an opportunity when Zhu Yuanzhang died of old age.

Therefore, he needed to find a way to incite conflict between Goryeo and the Ming Dynasty, ideally with the Northern Yuan and Goryeo uniting against the Ming Dynasty, thus plunging the north into crisis. Only then would he have a chance.

So he sent people to get involved in the matter, hoping to go to Goryeo and find a way to make Goryeo recognize the Northern Yuan as its master and become an enemy of the Ming Dynasty.

Although it was indeed very difficult, Zhu Di had his own way of doing it.

It can be said that in the current situation, Zhu Yunwen has his own plans, and Zhu Di has his own tactics.

Each of the feudal lords also had their own thoughts.

They all set their sights on Zhu Yunwen's current position, or rather, on his future position.

However, Zhu Yunwen himself did not care about these matters at all.

Now he is strategizing and has effectively sidelined Zhu Di in terms of military strength.

As for the other princes who didn't live much longer, Zhu Yunwen simply didn't bother with them.

As for the people, he implemented strong policies to win their hearts and minds and strengthen the nation.

In the military sphere, Zhu Yunwen possessed the absolute loyalty and support of some of the most powerful generals in the Ming Dynasty, making him incredibly strong.

Therefore, from any perspective, Zhu Yunwen's current situation is very stable.