"It has now been confirmed that Prince Zhaode abused and murdered palace servants in his residence. He poisoned and killed no fewer than three servants." Zhu Jixi did not hide anything, but he himself felt a chill down his spine when he thought about it. "When he was drunk, he often abused servants and the princess. When drunk, he often said disrespectful things."

Zhu Yunying nodded slightly and said, "Close the residence. Such an arrogant person is unworthy of being a descendant of the Emperor. We will deal with him when the Emperor returns to the capital."

Zhu Jixi didn't know what to say, because his father was the kind of person who liked to scold cooks, bind people with horses, or tear them apart by chariots. If it weren't for the protection of the eldest Zhu, the title of Prince of Jin would have been abolished by the old Zhu long ago.

Zhu Jixi really didn't intend to protect his half-brother. The main reason was that having such a venomous snake watching him all the time was terrifying.

After Zhu Su and Zhu Jixi left the palace, Zhu Yunying sighed silently, unsure of what to say.

Among Zhu Yuanzhang's children and grandchildren, there were indeed some cruel people. Not to mention the imperial family, even among the nobles and powerful landlords, there were many who did not value human life. This seemed difficult to completely eradicate, because that is human nature.

It seems that Zhu Yunying should not only rectify official corruption, but also deal with the imperial clan. It was not enough to just give the nobles a warning; the imperial clan also needed to be dealt with.

When Zhu Yuanzhang was in power, many princes committed illegal acts. Now that Zhu Yunying has ascended the throne, even though the Ming dynasty's imperial family members are only residing in Yingtian Prefecture or Beiping Prefecture, seemingly without much power, they are not particularly powerful.

However, given their status as members of the imperial clan, they all held themselves in high esteem. Relying on their knowledge that Emperor Zhu valued blood ties and on the fact that the new emperor, Zhu Yunying, was either a junior or a cousin, they were quite fearless.

"In the end, our Great Ming has never truly punished any members of the imperial clan," Zhu Yunying sighed. "They're acting with impunity, as if they think our Ming emperors only know how to blindly protect their own?"

The Ming Dynasty never truly punished members of the imperial family severely. For example, Prince Jin, Zhu Gang, was extremely cruel, but because the First Emperor (Zhu Zhu) protected him, the Old Emperor (Zhu Gong) simply let him off the hook. Zhu Gang's posthumous title was even 'Prince Gong of Jin'.

When Zhu Su left his fiefdom without permission, Zhu Yuanzhang actually only gave him a minor punishment as a warning and let it go after a scare.

Zhu Wenzheng, the nephew who guarded Hongdu, was dissatisfied with his father, but Zhu only placed him under house arrest. Even so, Zhu still bestowed the title of Prince of Jingjiang upon Zhu Wenzheng's son, Zhu Shouqian. Even though Zhu Shouqian was also guilty of plundering, killing innocent people, plundering, and repeatedly defying orders, Zhu only stripped him of his princely title initially, but quickly restored it.

Many people are well aware that Emperor Hongwu was absolutely ruthless towards outsiders, but he always protected his own sons and nephews.

Thinking about it this way, Zhu Yunwen in history successively deposed the Prince of Zhou, the Prince of Dai, the Prince of Qi, and the Prince of Min, forcing the Prince of Xiang to commit suicide by burning himself. That's quite ruthless, but it did have some effect, because Zhu Di was even forced to feign madness to protect himself.

It's best not to let Lao Zhu be the bad guy in this matter, otherwise it will only cause him trouble.

“It seems that my grandfather might not be able to accept abolishing the title of Prince of the Second Rank. He might think it’s too much.” Zhu Yunying thought for a moment and analyzed, “Besides, after a series of reductions in the treatment of the imperial clan, a title of Prince of the Second Rank is not unacceptable.”

The excessively generous treatment of members of the imperial clan was historically primarily the fault of Emperor Zhu (Zhu Di). Then, Zhu Di, who ascended the throne illegitimately, further elevated the status of the imperial clan in an effort to win them over, which is the origin of the claim that the Ming court couldn't afford to support its imperial clan.

However, that no longer applies. Zhu Yunying will not support the imperial clan indefinitely; when the time comes, he will definitely cut them off.

“Why don’t we send him to Taiyuan? Second Uncle’s royal tomb is there. Although there are guards protecting the tomb, we should still send a son there.” Zhu Yunying smiled, thinking it was a good idea. “Let’s keep the title of prince for him and for his son. This is the last bit of dignity we, as the eldest brother, can give him.”

Sending offending members of the royal family to guard their fathers' tombs seems like a good idea. Unless the crime is extremely serious enough to warrant execution, they shouldn't be directly exiled and imprisoned within the high walls of Fengyang.

However, this is only a 'minor punishment to serve as a warning.' If they don't learn their lesson, they might really be demoted to commoners, removed from the clan register, and exiled to the high walls of Fengyang. That would be the last resort.

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