A son who doesn't resemble his father? Love you, old man, see you at Xuanwu Gate!

Chapter 142 Competition
"His Highness is exhausted from the long journey and has already gone to sleep. Please meet with Princess Yangxin another day."

In front of the Chu residence.

The elders of the Chu royal family refused Princess Pingyang's request for an audience.

Without even waiting for Princess Pingyang's reply, he returned to his residence and closed the country gates.

Although she was consumed by anger, Princess Pingyang appeared calm and composed on the outside, showing no sign of embarrassment or awkwardness.

She knew very well that the struggle for power was a long one, and that it would be difficult for the Crown Prince of the Wei clan to be overthrown until the emperor returned to the capital and the people lost their trust in Liu Ju.

However, she firmly believed that a capable and domineering ruler like Liu Ju would inevitably make mistakes sooner or later.

Attack every flaw that is exposed, and over time, Liu Ju's foundation will be eroded bit by bit.

This is the "silkworm attack" strategy that Princess Pingyang came up with.

Over the long years, the soil that would devour Liu Ju was buried, growing infinitely like Gun's "breathing soil," filtering out the future floods of Liu Ju and turning them into its own dam.

Legend has it that Gun was the father of Yu the Great. He was sent by Heaven to control the floods. Gun possessed a magical soil called "Xirang," which could be scattered to create mountains. So, when Gun encountered floods, he scattered Xirang to block the water with mountains. The water was blocked, but in that era when people lived in mountain caves, they were also drowned by the rising floodwaters. Therefore, Heaven killed Gun, which led to the later success of Yu the Great in controlling the floods.

Princess Pingyang wanted to transform her "silkworm attack" strategy into "breathing soil," so that it could rival the height of water.

This is a grand goal, requiring both she and the emperor to have long lives, and the siblings to have a keen, shrewd eye for finding loopholes.

Princess Pingyang had no doubt about either of these points.

Born into royalty, she was disciplined and upright, with no vices or hidden illnesses, and never experienced the hardships of travel. Her carefree and easy life gave her the confidence to live another twenty years.

As for the emperor, unlike the "worries about the lifespan" of the ministers, generals, marquises, and imperial relatives of the two dynasties, she did not believe that Liu Che would die young like his father, Emperor Jing, and grandfather, Emperor Wen. She believed that Liu Che was more like Empress Dowager Dou and would be a long-lived ruler, with a few even living to be thirty years old.

Confident in her own and the emperor's lifespan, she was willing to continue betting on the emperor. And the ability to discern when to miss and seize opportunities was the skill that the Liu emperor and the eldest princess excelled at.

Right now, she's thinking about a subtle opportunity.

The crimes of the kings.

The emperor had informed her long beforehand; in fact, much of the evidence was provided to the emperor by her.

She wanted to inform the princes that the Crown Prince of the Wei clan had evidence of the princes' crimes, so that they could reach a pact in advance, stand together, and fight against the impending calamity.

King of Chu.

This prince, the only one under the retired emperor to have survived to this day, holds significant symbolic importance. Publicly criticizing the Crown Prince of Wei could severely damage his prestige.

Unexpectedly, Liu Zhu didn't even give her a chance to meet.

Seeing the state residence being so close to the Chu residence, the elders of the three vassal kings under Emperor Gao, namely Chengyang, Zichuan, and Jibei, immediately went to the state residence and issued a strict order that no matter who came to pay their respects or knock on the door, they should not open it.

The Han Dynasty had dozens, if not hundreds, of vassal kingdoms, yet today, not even twenty have survived. What is the reason for this?
The four kingdoms of Chu, Chengyang, Zichuan, and Jibei did not know this, but the only thing they did know was that the four kingdoms had been able to survive from the time of Emperor Gaozu, Emperor Hui, Empress Lü, and Emperor Wen to the present day because they "did not interfere".

In particular, the Chu royal family, except for the critical moment when the Lü clan usurped power and the Han dynasty was in peril, when they cooperated with the group of founding heroes to eliminate the Lü clan, briefly interfered in state affairs and politics, at other times only recognized imperial edicts.

The King of Chengyang, the King of Zichuan, and the King of Jibei did not know what the King of Chu meant by this move, but they knew that they should follow suit.

Following Emperor Xiaowen's orders, the officials of the Liang and Qinghe state residences also announced that they would remain closed to the public and would refuse visitors unless ordered by imperial decree.

This put the rulers of the vassal states under Emperor Xiaojing in a very difficult position.

Their king is either Princess Pingyang's brother or her nephew; this door is unlikely to be closed.

Zhao Residence.

The old man forced a smile as Princess Pingyang approached gracefully. "Princess Yangxin, please."

"Princess Yangxin pays her respects at the residence."

The announcement resounded throughout the National Government building.

King Liu Pengzu of Zhao had been waiting for a long time.

"Brother Wang."

"My sister Wang."

Liu Pengzu looked at his half-sister, Princess Pingyang, and said half-jokingly, "You should have come sooner. Those old princes are all arrogant and look down on us. If you had come earlier, you wouldn't have had to put up with all that."

"It's not that I look down on them, it's more that I'm afraid."

"afraid of what?"

Liu Pengzu's tone grew increasingly contemptuous as he sneered, "Is there really anything to fear about Weiyang Palace, which only has one young ruler?"

"Brother, don't underestimate the young lord's abilities."

"He wouldn't possibly disown us uncles and elders, would he?" Liu Pengzu said nonchalantly, "Sister Wang, staying in Chang'an, this den of intrigue, for too long makes you prone to overthinking."

How did this little pig lose control of the kingdom? If this little pig also wants to lose control of the kingdom, I, the king, am willing to give up my head and splatter my blood on him.

Liu Sheng, the Prince of Zhongshan, was his younger brother from the same mother. He died at the execution ground on the Wei River. With no relatives in the royal family, Liu Pengzu was not particularly angry. However, both of them were the kind of people who would spill blood on others when things were hopeless.

“Brother Wang, do not belittle him. Don’t underestimate Shaojun because of his young age. He is extremely ruthless and has concentrated all the power in his own hands.”

Princess Pingyang said solemnly, “The emperor is such a wise ruler, yet he forced him out of the capital, to the Ganquan Palace, and finally even the Ganquan Palace could not be stayed there. He ran to the mountain valley of Nanyang County, where he could not even enter the city and was harassed by bandits and thieves every day.”

"Young Master is a ruthless man. He dealt with the emperor, as well as many marquises and nobles, and even his own maternal clan, the Wei family. Now he's summoned all the princes from various regions to Chang'an. What is he planning? Brother, tell me."

Liu Pengzu's expression changed. "So young, really?"

"Won't?"

Princess Pingyang looked at him and sneered, "If you do nothing, the future world will not belong to you Liu family or Wei family, but only to the young lord."

Liu Pengzu came up with a solution that would solve the problem once and for all.

But in Princess Pingyang's eyes, her brother's silence at this moment was a sign of awakening. She continued, "Moreover, the young lord has already obtained evidence of all the princes' debauchery and illegality in their vassal states and has spread the news. Soon, the whole world, including Chang'an, Guanzhong, and Guandong, will know how vicious the princes are. Brother, what do you think the young lord is trying to do with all this fanfare and effort?"

He withdrew from the country and merged into the Han dynasty, consolidating power in the imperial court.

The thought immediately flashed into Liu Pengzu's mind. His face turned ashen, and he stubbornly retorted, "All the princes and kings of our Great Han Dynasty are law-abiding citizens and do not harm the common people in the slightest. How could that young lord be falsely accused?"

Princess Pingyang laughed, "Brother, in the past thirty years, have all the dozens of high-ranking officials in Zhao with salaries of two thousand piculs or above been found and reported by you for committing crimes and seeking personal gain? Has no one been wronged?"

"Wang Mei, what do you mean?"

"I didn't mean anything by it. I was just telling Brother Wang what I had heard, hoping that Brother Wang could prove his innocence."

Princess Pingyang's smile remained unchanged. "Brother, the taxes that Zhao Kingdom pays to the court have been decreasing year after year. A great kingdom like ours has less than the taxes of a single county. Where has the money of the people of Zhao gone? Is it because the land is poor and the people are weak, or is someone abusing their power and sending their subordinates to intercept the court's taxes?"

"The Zhao royal palace has no money."

"Are your concubines and sons wealthy, Your Highness?"

Princess Pingyang countered with a question.

Liu Pengzu was speechless.

Money held no appeal for him. He would seize the wealth he obtained from the imperial court and oppressing the people, and then distribute it to his concubines and sons.

King Zhao was poor, but his concubines and sons were all extremely wealthy.

“I remember that my brother married Nao Ji, the favorite concubine of my deceased brother, the King of Jiangdu. He doted on her and they had a son, Nao Zi Liu Chang. Nao Zi once had the idea of ​​changing the crown prince. With the decree of grace, Liu Chang was granted the title of Marquis of Wushi. The Marquis of Wushi’s mansion is comparable to the palace of a prince. My brother, where did Nao Zi get the money to build it?”

Princess Pingyang's gentle words sent a chill down Liu Pengzu's spine, and in no time, his front and back were soaked with sweat.

If the imperial court were to investigate the Wu Shi Marquis's residence, his beloved son, whom he cherished to the core, would likely die immediately.

"As the younger sister, I have one more thing to say."

Princess Pingyang's eyes turned slightly cold. "If you don't want people to know, then don't do it in the first place. It seems that there are relationships between my brother's Crown Prince Liu Dan, my brother's harem, my own sister, and my own daughter that go beyond kinship..."

“Nonsense! Utter nonsense!” Liu Pengzu interrupted Princess Pingyang. “Our Zhao royal family is a place of filial piety and loyalty, where fathers and sons are kind and sons are devoted to each other. This is slander! Slander of us, father and son!”

"Brother Wang, don't get agitated."

"Am I excited?"

"Brother Wang, do you know this person, 'Jiang Qi'?"

Princess Pingyang, facing Liu Pengzu's death stare, smiled without fading and said, "This man will arrive in Chang'an, the capital, soon."

Liu Pengzu could no longer hold on and collapsed to the ground.

“Brother Wang, do you know? That young lord despises the debauchery and lawlessness of the royal family the most. It was because of this that Wei Changsun and Princess Yangshi disappeared from the world’s sight.”

Princess Pingyang leaned down and whispered, "If this is how it is when they are cousins, what will become of my brother's crown prince, my nephew?"

"Yang Xin, what exactly do you want?"

“Brother, you, me, and the other princes are all pillars of the imperial clan. Now we have all made such a grave mistake. I will say it again: if we do nothing and let the young lord decide our fate, the lineage of the princes of our Great Han will end today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow.”

"The blood of my brother alone cannot taint that young prince of Weiyang Palace. Only when all the princes of the Han Dynasty work together can they make him hesitate to act rashly. Brother, do you understand?"

"Understood!"

Liu Pengzu became completely convinced of the method that would solve the problem once and for all.

(End of this chapter)