After Little Zhu left, Old Zhu asked, "Why did you specifically send the Crown Prince away? Is there something you want to tell us?"

Zhu Yunying then became serious, "Xu Huizu is back too. We're bound to offend him. We're thinking there are quite a few military officers who need to be taught a lesson, so let's just go for it and take a few more."

Old Zhu glanced at Zhu Yunying and then said, "If we had done these things before, you would have said we were killing meritorious officials. Now that you are the emperor, we haven't even done anything yet, and you're already eager to kill meritorious officials yourself."

Zhu Yunying remained noncommittal, only saying, "Grandfather didn't kill many meritorious officials, except for a few during Hu Weiyong's time. Nowadays, many military officers aren't making progress, so we need to give them a warning."

And that's exactly how it happened. Historically, Zhu Yuanzhang (the Hongwu Emperor) was most ruthless in killing meritorious officials in his later years. It was after Zhu Biao's death that he dealt with a group of military heroes, including Lan Yu. This was naturally paving the way for Zhu Yunwen, effectively wiping out almost the entire elite group of founding generals.

Knowing that the Lan Yu case would result in the extermination of one duke, thirteen marquises, and two earls, implicating more than 15,000 people, they immediately found a pretext to kill Duke Feng Sheng of Song, and then Duke Fu Youde of Ying. Thus, throughout the Hongwu reign, among the founding heroes of the early Ming Dynasty, only two dukes and marquises survived: Marquis Geng Bingwen of Changxing and Marquis Guo Ying of Wuding.

Zhu Yuanzhang (the Hongwu Emperor) has a terrible reputation for killing meritorious officials, largely due to the Hu Weiyong and Lan Yu cases.

However, such a thing does not exist in this life. The large-scale purge of military officers now is essentially the same as the Hu Weiyong case back then, and some military officers have been implicated as a result.

The so-called four major cases in the early Ming Dynasty are now only three. Although Zhu Yuanzhang did kill some meritorious officials, many others were able to die peacefully, which can be considered a relatively dignified end.

Zhu Yunying wasn't embarrassed and said, "Anyway, we're definitely going to kill people this time. We'll teach some of those good-for-nothing military officers a lesson and deal with the rest. That should be enough."

Old Zhu smiled and nodded, then added, "They say a kind heart doesn't make you a good general, and that's what we think too. Some military officers are causing trouble these days, and I'd be happy to deal with them. But don't kill too many. Aside from the fact that it would damage your reputation, you'll still need troops in the future, so you should keep some alive."

Old Zhu continued to remind them, "We dealt with some disobedient people in the early years, and most of the current military officers are quite sensible. They either worked for your father in the early years, or they listen to you."

There's actually nothing wrong with saying that, because that's exactly how it is in reality.

Those arrogant and unruly generals from the early days of the dynasty were basically purged, and the so-called Huai-Xi noble clique was dealt with severely, so there was no longer any problem of them becoming too powerful to control. Even though many of the current military officers still belong to the Huai-Xi noble clique, they are generally quite controllable.

Moreover, Fu Youde and Lan Yu weren't exactly true nobles from Huaixi, unlike the Xu faction, many of whom were fellow townsmen of Zhu Yuanzhang. There was still some balance among the various military groups, so the emperor could feel relatively secure.

Zhu Yunying nodded and said with a smile, "We naturally understand these principles, otherwise we wouldn't have promoted Qiu Fu and Zhang Yu in earlier years. Although they made contributions in the Northern Expedition, it was still somewhat far-fetched."

Upon hearing what Joo Yun-young said, Old Joo naturally understood. However, he felt that Joo Yun-young's approach was correct, and that he would certainly have done the same; it was the best solution.

In earlier years, the Hu Weiyong case was used to purge a large number of military officials, many of whom did have close ties with Hu Weiyong or were arrogant and lawless. However, the majority of these officials were removed because of their questionable backgrounds. This clique of old comrades was certainly not a good thing for the emperor.

Balance is very important. We can't hand over the entire army of the Ming Dynasty to the people of Fengyang. We can't let all the military power be controlled by these old brothers or their in-laws. Otherwise, the emperor will definitely not feel at ease.

The Xu faction is already powerful enough, and the Chang faction's strength cannot be ignored. As for Duke Cao, Li Jinglong, Duke Song, Feng Sheng, and even Duke Ying, Fu Youde, it seems that the military of the Ming Dynasty is also divided into factions, but we should still be careful.

People like Zhang Yu are already showing signs of forming these factions. Sometimes the emperor might want fresh blood to replenish these senior military officials, but he absolutely does not want to see all military affairs being handled internally by these few factions.

Zhu Yunying looked relaxed and said, "This trip was just right. Although we only took over some places in Goryeo, and it was only Uncle Wang and his men who benefited, it was still a feat of destroying a country and can be considered as expanding our territory. So, the hereditary marquis title is justified."

It was no secret that the military ranks of the Ming Dynasty were being renewed. Apart from some second or third-generation officials taking over, the main reason for this was the emergence of fresh blood like Qiu Fu and Zhang Yu through the Northern Expeditions.

After all, the previous upgrades and replacements seemed more like internal changes, with sons or grandsons taking over the father's position. In the world of military merit, there are only a handful of people.

Old Zhu looked at Zhu Yunying with a smile and tested him, "If we really have to talk about it, what do you think of Qiu Fu?"

Zhu Yunying thought carefully for a moment and said, "This is a fierce general, who seems to have some of the bravery of Fu Youde when he was young. He can also be considered to have some ability to command troops, but we always feel that this person is a bit unreliable. Although he is not just a brave man, he is still a bit spoiled. We are afraid that he will become arrogant if he gets a little success."

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