Establishing a thousand-year family from the nobles of the Western Han Dynasty

Chapter 52: First Meeting with Wei Qing
In June of the first year of Yuanshuo, a major event happened on this day, which was the famous Guan Fu scolding the audience!

Since the death of Empress Dowager Dou, Liu Che became increasingly alienated from the Dou family and even began to rely on the power of the Legalist Party to carry out a liquidation. Now that he has the support of officials from the Imperial Academy, he no longer needs to worry about any influence.

The control over the government was very terrifying. The meritorious officials and old ministers finally understood the horror of the academic cliques. Because of Xu's influence in the literary world, he trained and recruited a large number of scholars.

Such institutions had been established before, during the reigns of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, and even during the Warring States Period, but they ultimately failed to grow on a large scale. The reason was that they were too exclusive of children from poor families, thus missing out on talented people; they were also infiltrated by the nobles, and the monarchs did not trust them much.

The Imperial Academy of the court is now mainly run by the Xu family, and most of the students selected are children of wealthy and poor families without any family background. The descendants of meritorious officials can also enter to study, but the proportion is not high.

Liu Che had absolute trust in Xu, so he would employ the talents she produced. At the same time, Xu was absolutely loyal to the royal family, so he did not have any ulterior motives and just ran the school.

Zhang Tang studied Confucianism, so he did not become a cruel official, but he had other ways to do things for the emperor.
The laws customized by the Han Dynasty were actually not too harsh. This was also the influence of Confucianism. Officials strictly used laws and regulations to persuade people, while also paying attention to moral education, and appropriately making exceptions for certain special cases. Under this "big stick and sweet date" approach, the people were very moved, so they took the initiative to obey the law.

Today, the national policy of the Han Dynasty is to govern the country from two aspects: to follow the law and to focus on the moral education of the people.

However, the Legalists also had a unique way for the emperor to eliminate dissidents.

That is to first guide public opinion to ruin this person's reputation, make people all over the world angry and criticize him, and finally use strict laws to make him a criminal and execute him.

This set of operations can minimize the impact, and the only ones who may be in danger are the ministers.

In the early days, Tian Fen was flattered by Emperor Wu of Han and was very arrogant, but he became obedient after being warned by Xu Gong. In order to protect himself, he chose to resign from the post of prime minister and took full responsibility for the affairs of the Imperial Academy.

Liu Che also agreed. The Imperial Academy was really important. It was the main source of talent in the Han Dynasty.

Now the only one left was Dou Ying, Marquis of Weiqi, and Liu Che's way of dealing with him was "Guan Fu's Cursing at the Seat", but there was one difference, that is, the protagonist was changed to the Imperial Censor Zhang Tang.

Half a month ago, Zhang Tang married the daughter of Prince of Liang, and everyone in the court and the public congratulated him. Dou Ying and Guan Fu, who had fallen from power, also accepted the advice of Queen Mother Wang Zhi and wanted to go to congratulate him.

Guan Fu toasted him, but Zhang Tang, who had already made a plan, deliberately ignored it, which eventually angered the hot-tempered general, so he started to curse at him.

Zhang Tang took the opportunity to launch an uprising, using the excuse that Guan Fu had committed a crime and using his power as the Imperial Censor to arrest Guan Fu's entire family and put them in prison. Soon after, Wang Zhi came forward and executed them.

As an "accomplice", Dou Ying was particularly nervous.

"Dou Ying, I believe that Guan Fu's rude words cannot be helped without your instructions." Zhang Tang looked at Dou Ying coldly. As a person from the Legalist school, he showed almost no mercy.

Dou Ying felt extremely humiliated. He knew he could not survive, so he did not say anything.

Zhang Tang shook his head upon seeing this, took out an imperial edict and had someone bring it to him.

"Look, His Majesty has already ordered a cup of poisoned wine. You should know what that means."

"You should have thought of this day earlier."

Dou Ying shook his head, picked up the poisoned wine that had been prepared long ago, and drank it all in one gulp.

Dou Ying, Marquis of Weiqi, died in this way.

.........

A great happy event happened in Chang'an, and the imperial palace became busy preparing for a banquet to celebrate. Today could be said to be one of the happiest days for Liu Che.

Because today, his first son Liu Ju was born! His biological mother was a dancer from Princess Pingyang's family. She was favored and taken into the harem, and gave birth to a son in just a few years.

Xu Gong walked into the Weiyang Palace with the gait of a dragon and a tiger. His beard had turned a little gray and he was already middle-aged. He was no longer the heroic general of the past.

"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you." When Liu Che saw Xu Gong coming in, he quickly called out, "Teacher, come quickly and take a look at Ju'er. This is my first son!"

"I wonder if this child is qualified to inherit the destiny of the Han Dynasty?"

As he spoke he began to laugh, in a very good mood.

Xu Gong walked over slowly. During the walk, he saw a guard next to him who was very heroic and did not look like an ordinary person. He gradually became curious and asked.

"Your Majesty, who is this person?"

Liu Che looked back and said casually, "He, he is Wei Zifu's younger brother, and now he is the Minister of the Court, Wei Qing."

"This man is good, skilled in archery and horse riding, and quite clever. I will bring him with me to attend government affairs, and perhaps he can be promoted in the future."

"Wei Qing?" Xu Gong was also a military general so he was very good at judging people. He knew at first sight that this person was extraordinary and had quite a bit of his former style.

"Your Majesty, I think Wei Qing is very talented, and it seems a bit of a waste of his talent to be just a court attendant."

Hearing Xu Gong praising Wei Qing so much, Liu Che paid more attention to him. He could feel that this person was extraordinary, but not everyone had the courage to ascend the altar and worship a general like Liu Bang, so he kept him by his side to observe.

"I also feel that this person has talent, so I keep him by my side. After all, he is still young and needs to be observed."

Wei Qing beside him couldn't help but get excited. This was Prime Minister Xu of the Han Dynasty, a god-like figure! He killed Hu Duo in battle, turned the tide, entered Wu alone and shocked the world, and founded the Imperial Academy, which was praised by scholars.

He was hailed as the second best minister of the Han Dynasty after Grand Tutor Xu!
Of course he was flattered and overwhelmed to be praised by such a person.

Xu Gong also considered this issue, thought for a while and said: "I think we can promote him to the position of Taizhong Daifu, and then test him. If he is qualified, he can lead the army as a relative of the emperor."

"General Zhou also needs people."

Liu Che nodded: "Just follow the teacher's instructions."

He looked at Wei Qing again and said, "This is the wealth and honor that Prime Minister Xu has sought for you. You must remember it well."

Wei Qing knelt down and said, "Thank you Prime Minister Xu for your recommendation. I will definitely live up to your Majesty's expectations!"

"Get up, it's enough for you to serve His Majesty and the Han Dynasty well." Xu Gong helped him up.

"Zi Fu has met Prime Minister Xu."

A gentle and pleasant voice came, he turned his head, and a beautiful figure came into view, with delicate features and perfect oval face that made people stop.

However, Xu Gong was a man who had seen the world, and he was not disturbed at all: "Yeah."

"Your Majesty, do you want to establish a queen?" Xu Gong also understood what the other party meant.

Wasn't this the purpose of deposing Queen Chen? In fact, it was normal. Wei Zifu was very lucky to be the first concubine to become pregnant.

Liu Che laughed: "Teacher really understands me. Those guys in the court only know how to fight for power."

Xu Gongshen agreed with this. Although the advantages of the Imperial Academy were obvious, its disadvantages were also evident. It was too exclusive, and the court wanted to use it heavily. It was likely that it would not be long before most of the main officials would come from the Imperial Academy.

(End of this chapter)