"Lord Yan Wang! Bad news! Your three sons have been captured by the Emperor!"
"What?!" Zhu Di shocked. His face turned purplish red. "How can it happen?!"
"Apparently the Emperor is unhappy with your pilgrimage to your father's grave. Since at that time you were carrying a large number of troops, he assumes you are trying to make revolt against him. So, he decides to kidnap your sons, locks all of them up somewhere in the capital."
Zhu Di tried hard to control his breath that suddenly got choked due to tremendous panic and anger.
"Zhu Yunwen... You're truly an angel-masked devil! You glorify the principle of peaceful and virtuous government... but in fact, you are cruel to your own family! Only for the perpetuation of your power, you even have the stomach to torture your own uncles and cousins! I will never forgive you! Never!"
Zhu Su somehow figured it out, what Zhu Di actually wanted to do was hitting the table as hard as he could, or doing any other forms of violence to vent his anger. Because Zhu Di's hand clenched so tightly, and it was already flying onto the air. But Zhu Di did not do that. He lowered his hand, adjusted his breathing to calm down himself. And now, he had been sitting in a chair, filled his cup with tea, and began to drink it.
Awesome, Fourth Brother. He knows that momentary anger will be of no use. The real action is far more useful to solve our problem. My hopes can be fulfilled since I consolidate with him.
"Brother," Zhu Su said. "Speaking of which, I have a brilliant idea, and I am sure this idea will succeed in overthrowing Yunwen from his throne."
Zhu Di, who had completely calmed down, looked at Zhu Su with great interest. "What idea is that, Su?"
"Provocation," replied Zhu Su. "Announce that Yunwen is not actually the legitimate leader appointed by Huang-Ming Zuxun. Announce that the decree about the appointment of the heir to the throne has been changed by the "Evil Chancellors" Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng, and this is the time for us to expose the unrevealed lie, by diminishing the "Evil Chancellors" and overthrowing the fake emperor from his throne."
***
Zhu Su knew it very well, that the provocation strategy they were planning to carry out was a big lie. Of course, the Hongwu Emperor indeed wanted to create Zhu Yunwen as the next emperor. The Hongwu Emperor loved Zhu Biao - his eldest son - so much, he always dreamed to create him as emperor, unfortunately, Zhu Biao died of illness. When Zhu Biao lay weakly in bed, Zhu Yunwen took care of his father day and night, and completely showed no fatigue even though looking after his sick father was unsuitable for him who was just a little child at the time. Touched by such great devotion from Zhu Yunwen, the Hongwu Emperor decided to appoint Zhu Yunwen as crown prince. The fact was widely known by the whole palace.
And to speak honestly, until now Zhu Yunwen was running the government immaculately. He even changed many of cruel and dictatorial aspects of the regime his grandfather carried out before. In his view, his grandfather had succeeded in abolishing the vandals, so now it was time to run the gentler government. He released the prisoners who were very instrumental in the formation of Ming but instead being imprisoned during the reign of Hongwu Emperor. Zhu Yunwen also changed Da Ming Lü (The Great Ming Code) by seventy-three articles, all of which contained extremely cruel punishments to prisoners. Zhu Yunwen aspired to be a preferable leader, and not to be feared by his people. He employed the Hanlin Scholars * , which consisted of the three best scholars all around Ming - Huang Zicheng, Qi Tai and Fang Xiaoru. These three scholars also had high idealism and were committed to create Ming as a country that was noble, prosperous, and remarkable. That was, what made it so difficult to dethrone Zhu Yunwen for no good reason. Neither the military nor the people would be willing to help them, for which they would lose before the war. The only way to bring down Zhu Yunwen's credibility was to make fake news about him.
Zhu Yunwen was arguably a very perfect leader, The Most Ideal Leader who was always being dreamed by people around the world to posses. Sad to say, he made a one and only mistake; that was, being excessive fearful of divination and thus leading him to implement the Politics of Xuefan. A slight mistake that was truly not commensurate with all the political wisdom he performed all this time. Zhu Yunwen was too naïve and utopian, not realizing that his "good" principle had brought great harm to others on the one hand, for example, to Zhu Su. His naïvety in carrying out book theories, as well as his unwarranted fear of divination that was not necessarily right, had provoked those - who originally would help him willingly - to be eager to revenge on him.
Zhu Di looked into Zhu Su's eyes, his eyes were getting wider and wider. He curved a smile, and thus, laughed aloud. "Hahaha! My Fifth Brother, you are a real frightening strategist! That stupid Yunwen has made a big mistake by punishing you. If only you were on his side, I would definitely lose to him!"
Zhu Su just gave a half-smile to his brother's praise. I was also naïve and simple-minded in the past, Brother. I could never think of this very evil idea. It is the misfortune of life, which forces me to be able to do this.
...
* Hanlin Scholars = the scholars in Hanlin academy. They performed secretarial and literary tasks for the court. One of its main duties was to decide on an interpretation of the Chinese classics. This formed the basis of the Imperial examinations, which aspiring bureaucrats had to pass to attain higher-level posts. (Wikipedia)