Zhu Yunwen was also very likely to become the future emperor.
He was unaware that Zhu Yuanzhang was utterly disappointed in Zhu Yunwen, and he was even more unaware that Zhu Yuanzhang had always wanted to groom him as the crown prince.
Therefore, he believed that as long as the events along the way reached Zhu Yuanzhang's ears, Zhu Yuanzhang would know what kind of person Zhu Yunwen was.
A reputation for benevolence and kindness would naturally and easily fall upon Zhu Yunwen.
Even though Zhu Yunwen treated Zhu Yuntong this way, Zhu Yuntong never did anything to harm Zhu Yunwen along the way.
Zhu Yuanzhang hated fratricide the most and valued kindness and benevolence the most.
His son, Zhu Biao, the Crown Prince Yiwen of the Ming Dynasty, was a kind and compassionate person.
Only when such a person became the second emperor of the Ming Dynasty could the Ming Dynasty achieve good development.
Of course, possessing such character also requires great strength and a powerful hand to ensure one's benevolence and generosity.
Zhu Yunwen did not elaborate on his own plans.
He had his own ideas. Zhao Qingzhu didn't ask any further questions.
Because she also knew that Zhu Yunwen's mind and intelligence were beyond her comprehension and doubt.
By the time everything had settled down, it was already past midnight.
Zhu Yunwen returned to the post station to rest.
The Imperial Guards took turns on duty.
The next day, around noon, Zhu Yunwen and his entourage set off again.
This time, the journey took two or three days without any unexpected incidents.
Perhaps Zhu Yunwen realized that he had gone a bit too far.
Of course, he didn't think killing Zhu Yuntong was excessive, but the repeated assassination attempts had failed, and continuing would indeed be excessive.
This makes it difficult to avoid arousing suspicion and to prevent others from uncovering any clues.
If you do something and then stop halfway, and you keep persisting after failing two or three times, then you're either foolish or stupid.
Therefore, Zhu Yongwen became much more subdued and prepared to use other methods to target Zhu Yunwen.
Assassination is clearly not an option.
So for the next few days, Zhu Yunwen passed by peacefully without encountering any trouble.
They traveled leisurely, enjoying the scenery, and finally returned to the capital.
Upon returning to the capital, Zhu Yunwen immediately went to see Zhu Yuanzhang.
Inside the imperial study, Zhu Yuanzhang smiled as he saw his eldest grandson again, his joy barely concealed.
Because Zhu Yunwen handled the disaster situation exceptionally well this time, he not only quickly resettled the victims but also ensured they had enough food for the next six months.
It can be said that this fundamentally solved the problem of food for the disaster victims.
If they can survive this year, the disaster victims will be able to harvest the crops they planted next spring.
"Good grandson, come here quickly and sit down next to your royal grandfather. Tell him about the interesting things that happened on this trip. What interesting things happened during the disaster relief process?"
Zhu Yunwen first bowed in greeting, then stepped forward and sat down in a chair diagonally opposite Zhu Yuanzhang, saying:
"Nothing particularly interesting happened on this trip; it was mainly just my grandson trying to find ways to help the disaster victims. I'm sure Grandfather has already heard about these things. There's nothing new about repeating them here."
Zhu Yuanzhang laughed heartily: "We did receive the news in advance. You did a great job this time. The inaction of the officials in the surrounding counties of Hukou County towards the refugees was truly hateful. You did a good job killing them."
We should take drastic measures to punish such officials who are indifferent to the people, making an example of them to deter others, so as to achieve a positive effect.
What shocked us, however, was that the clear system of rewards and punishments that you mentioned earlier, which was used to motivate the surrounding county governments to assist in disaster relief, was, in our opinion, already a very good method.
Unexpectedly, after arriving at the destination, you were able to adapt to the situation and come up with an even more ingenious method, which instead turned the reward and punishment into a completely different outcome.
The system has become an auxiliary tool—brilliant, truly brilliant! You should tell Grandfather again how you managed to persuade those gentry and wealthy people to contribute so much money and grain.”
Clearly, Zhu Yuanzhang was genuinely interested in this. Zhu Yunwen smiled and said:
"It's actually quite simple. I just took advantage of their greed, and I also created a persona of being greedy for money for myself."
This is how we successfully gained their trust and made good use of them.
Zhu Yuanzhang praised Zhu Yuntong's behavior highly and insisted that Zhu Yuntong tell him every detail from beginning to end, word for word.
So for the rest of the afternoon, Zhu Yunwen told him about what he saw when he arrived at the disaster site, how the county magistrate did nothing, how he boldly beheaded the magistrate, how he cheated the gentry and wealthy people, and how he made them swallow their anger.
After hearing the whole story, Zhu Yuanzhang laughed heartily and said with great satisfaction:
"Great, really great, Yuntong, you are definitely the first person to make these gentry and wealthy people willingly fall into your trap and be tricked by you, and afterwards they have no way to do anything about it."
They even had to keep this a secret, not letting anyone know they'd been scammed. We think your method would work perfectly well on other gentry and wealthy people as well.
After all, they didn't know about this method, and those gentry and wealthy people who were swindled by you were too ashamed to publicize it, as it would damage their reputation and let the world know that they didn't really want to donate money, but just wanted to swindle money.
Although these gentry and wealthy people have been swindled by you, they will certainly keep it a secret, so this method of deception won't get out. We can then continue to use it against other gentry and wealthy people.”
Zhu Yunwen smiled and said, "Grandfather is absolutely right..."
The grandfather and grandson chatted happily. After they finished talking about the happy things, Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to remember something, his smile faded, and he suddenly said seriously to Zhu Yunwen:
"We heard that you haven't had a peaceful journey, and it seems you've encountered several troubles."
As he continued, the fierce and cold look in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes chilled Zhu Yunwen to the bone.
Zhu Yunwen knew that Zhu Yuanzhang was referring to the incident where Zhu Yunwen attempted to assassinate him.
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