Ming Dynasty Simulator: I will be the greatest emperor of all time!

Before entering the simulator, Zhu Yuanzhang first joined the group chat "[Emperors are One Family]". He was somewhat resentful that "[Emperor Chengzu Zhu Di]" in the group was ignoring him.

[Emperor Taizu of Ming, Zhu Yuanzhang: @Zhu Di, Fourth Prince, we plan to pass the throne to you!]

Now, the fourth brother should finally give us a reply.

Before Zhu Di could reply, another person in the group responded.

[Emperor Gaozu of Tang, Li Yuan: Erfeng, you and Zhu Laosi usually get along very well, but now look what's happened! Zhu Laosi's father is going to pass the throne to him, and Zhu Laosi will inherit it! You two won't be able to get along anymore!]

[Emperor Taizong of Tang, Heavenly Khan, Li Shimin: What are you saying! Father! Is this how you see me and the Fourth Prince? Is that why I'm friends with the Fourth Prince? I am the legitimate Crown Prince, tell me, wasn't I personally appointed Crown Prince by you? How am I not in line to the throne? As for the Fourth Prince, in the thirty-fifth year of Hongwu, all his brothers died, and he was the eldest son, so how was he not in line to the throne?]

[Emperor Gaozu of Tang, Li Yuan: You unfilial son! Don't you even know how you came to be the crown prince?]

Seeing Li Yuan and Li Shimin arguing in the group chat, Zhu Yuanzhang scratched his head, feeling exhausted.

He suddenly had a premonition that most of the emperors in this "family of emperors" group chat might have had problems with their succession to the throne.

Wait a minute, Emperor Chengzu Zhu Di actually replied to us. Let's see what it is.

[Emperor Chengzu (Taizong), General Who Conquers the North, Zhu Di: Father, Second Prince Feng is right, I succeeded to the throne in the thirty-fifth year of Hongwu, I…]

[Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang: You want to pretend in front of us too?]

[Father, even if you argue until the end, I was still the heir apparent in the thirty-fifth year of the Hongwu reign.]

Zhu Yuanzhang: ...

Good, good, fourth brother, you've got guts.

At that moment, Zhu Di, in the Prince of Yan's residence in Yingtian Prefecture, shivered.

Okay, let's simulate it first.

[You made changes to the Ming Dynasty after the last simulation ended. The simulation needs to be restarted. Please make a selection.]

[Currently available characters to simulate:]

【1. Crown Prince Zhu Yunwen】

(①: Zhu Yunwen, the grandson of the emperor)

(②: Emperor Zhu Yunwen)

(③: Zhu Yunwen, Prince of Guangze)

(④: Zhu Yunwen, a wealthy man)

【2. Zhu Di, Prince of Yan】

(①: Zhu Di, Prince of Yan)

(②: Zhu Di during the Jingnan Campaign)

(③: Emperor Zhu Di)

(④: Emperor Taizong Zhu Di)

(⑤: Emperor Chengzu Zhu Di)

Zhu Yuanzhang fell into a long silence.

He was wondering which step had gone wrong.

The fourth prince has become the Yongle Emperor! It's infuriating!

Also, we clearly planned to pass the throne to the fourth prince through various schemes, so how did Yunwen become the emperor?

Becoming emperor is one thing, but Yunwen, how come you never defeated the fourth prince?

Please select a simulation object.

"Choose 1, Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan."

[Selection successful; simulation of "Prince Zhu Di of Yan" will begin]

Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to see why his fourth son hadn't become the crown prince in the end.

In the twentieth year of the Zhizheng era, you were born in Yingtian Prefecture, becoming Zhu Yuanzhang's fourth son.

Because your father was busy with the war at this time, you were not named until you were 7 years old, along with your brothers.

These two passages made Zhu Yuanzhang reminisce about those difficult days.

[You were a mischievous child, and your father suffered greatly because of you. Your father's fellow villagers in Fengyang all say that you are just like your father when he was young, both of you were little devils.]

"What nonsense! What nonsense! How could we have been naughty as kids! Who said that? Was it Xu Da? Or Tang He? Humph! How dare they slander us!"

In the third year of the Hongwu reign, you were enfeoffed as the Prince of Yan. In fact, from the perspective of later generations, when you were enfeoffed as the Prince of Yan, it was already destined that you would become the emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

Since Chang'an, Luoyang, and Kaifeng failed to become the capital of a unified dynasty, Beiping has been the capital of all subsequent dynasties. Starting from the Yuan Dynasty, this place has been the true source of China's dragon vein. Your enfeoffment here, isn't that enough to prove that you are the chosen emperor in the unseen realm?

In the thirteenth year of the Hongwu reign, you were enfeoffed in Yan. Your palace was the former palace of the Yuan Dynasty. This former imperial palace of the Great Yuan Dynasty became your palace, and your imperial aura grew stronger and stronger.

After reading this passage, Zhu Yuanzhang stroked his chin:

"In other words, by unintentionally bestowing the title of Prince of Yan upon the fourth prince, he has accumulated imperial fortune. In the study of fortune, no, in the dragon veins of fortune in our China, since the Yuan Dynasty, the title of Prince of Yan is equivalent to that of the crown prince, just like the Prince of Jin and the Prince of Qin in the past, almost equivalent to the heir apparent."

In the Yan region, you were ordered to guard the border and resist the Mongols…

Zhu Yuanzhang knew almost everything that happened after that, so he simply pressed the fast-forward key to skip it.

In the twenty-fifth year of the Hongwu reign, something unexpected happened.

Your eldest brother has passed away.

Your eldest brother loved you the most. Your original ambition was to become a brave and skilled general under your brother after he ascended the throne. You wanted to help your brother and make his civil and military achievements surpass those of the Han and Tang dynasties. However, your brother's sudden death caught you off guard and disrupted all your plans.

You are deeply grieving.

But suddenly, the monk Daoyan, who was reciting scriptures to you, said, "Your Highness, I would like to present you with a white hat."

You were taken aback at first, unsure what it meant.

If you think about it carefully, you're a prince, and with a white hat on top, "king" plus "white" equals "emperor," right?

【emperor?】

[Think about it. Now that your eldest brother is dead, and although you are the fourth son, your second brother is tyrannical, and while your third brother has reformed, his reputation and abilities are still lacking. So, considering all this, aren't you the optimal choice to be your father's successor?]

When your elder brother was still alive, you had no interest in the throne whatsoever. But now that he's gone, as a prince, you naturally yearn to be emperor.

You think your advantages as crown prince are so great that if your father doesn't make you the crown prince, who else should he make?

You were extremely excited. That night, you couldn't sleep. Back in Yan, you were constantly hoping for your father's imperial edict summoning you to Yingtian Prefecture to officially appoint you as the Crown Prince.

But reality poured cold water on you. What you received was that your father had designated your eldest brother's son, Zhu Yunwen, as the crown prince. You remained silent for a long time, and that night, you didn't sleep a wink.

Recalling his past actions, Zhu Yuanzhang sighed:

"Fourth brother, we have no choice! As the founding emperor, we must set an example for future generations by practicing the primogeniture system. Otherwise, our Ming Dynasty will end up like the Tang Dynasty, with the Xuanwu Gate Incident happening every day, and that would be chaos!"

"We did consider making you the crown prince back then, but we thought that if we skipped the second and third princes and gave you the position, the second and third princes might be dissatisfied, and future generations might follow suit. Besides, Yunwen is quite capable in handling government affairs, so we had no choice but to make Yunwen the crown prince."

"What a pity. If we had known you would become emperor in the end, we might have spared Lan Yu's life. Yunwen couldn't control Lan Yu, but you, the fourth prince, should have been able to."

"Next, the simulator should explain why the fourth prince didn't become the crown prince, right?"