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

Chapter 20 Passing the Sword
Some crimes, if only to be repaid with one's own life, are already considered lucky; what is even more tragic is that they also extend to one's descendants.

For example, during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen, Liu Chang, the Prince of Huainan, plotted a rebellion, which not only brought disaster upon himself but also caused his sons, Liu An, the Prince of Huainan, and Liu Ci, the Prince of Hengshan, to bear the reputation of being descendants of rebel kings, living in constant fear of the court's suspicion, vigilance, and scheming.

Not only would the emperor worry that they might harbor resentment and plot a rebellion because of their father's death, but the people of the land also viewed them with the same suspicion, as if their rebellion was the only reasonable option.

Everyone is in their proper place, silently pushing the tide in a direction that is both expected and unexpected.

Orphaned at a young age and plotting rebellion in adulthood, the lineage of Liu Chang, the seventh son of the Han imperial family, seemed to be cursed by fate, trapped in a terrible vicious cycle of growth.

Huainan and Hengshan have rebelled!
However, like their father, the rebellion failed before it even began.

However, unlike King Li of Huainan, who was falsely accused of treason, the rebellions of the two vassal kings were both caused by their crown princes.

The reason why Liu Ci, the King of Hengshan, became enemies with the Crown Prince Liu Shuang was that Liu Shuang, the elder brother, accused his younger brother Liu Xiao, and Liu Ci, the father, accused Liu Shuang of being unfilial.

These two major cases shocked the world and even alarmed the Emperor of the Han Dynasty.

The already small Hengshan Kingdom faced the foreseeable punishment of having its fiefdoms reduced. Liu Ci, one of the vassal kings, chose to fight to the death and made a pact with Liu An, the King of Huainan, to rebel together.

However, due to the betrayal of his son Liu Xiao, it ended before it even began.

The royal family of Hengshan was captured in their entirety by Shi De, the governor of the neighboring Pei County.

However, Liu An, the King of Huainan, was different. He had an extremely good relationship with Crown Prince Liu Qian. In order to stand up for the Crown Prince, he did not hesitate to severely punish the innocent retainer Lei Bei, violating the laws of the Han Dynasty and deliberately obstructing the warriors who were willing to fight against the Xiongnu from serving the court.

If the alarmed Han emperor could still show leniency and grant extra mercy, merely stripping two counties of Huainan Kingdom and transferring them to the court, then the forged imperial approvals by the prime minister and censor to relocate powerful figures, chivalrous individuals, and those with more than 500,000 coins to populate the border regions, deliberately inciting popular unrest, and forging imperial decrees to arrest princes, princes, and favored officials from various regions, instilling fear in the princes and princes and encouraging them to actively resist the central court, thus creating momentum for rebellion, would be intolerable to any emperor.

However, just like the Kingdom of Hengshan, the rebellion of Liu An, the King of Huainan, failed before it even began.

First, Lei, a retainer, was accused; then Liu Jian, Liu An's grandson, was accused; and finally, Wu, the mastermind behind the rebellion, was brought to justice, immediately sounding the death knell for the King of Huainan.

Sima An, the Commandant of the Central Army in Huainan, immediately led his troops to arrest the King of Huainan, the Crown Prince, the Queen, and all those involved in the rebellion. Various items related to the rebellion were also confiscated.

The Emperor of Han was furious and immediately dispatched the Imperial Clan Court to Huainan and Hengshan to try the two vassal kings. However, it was clear to everyone that the king's end was near, and he was destined to follow in the footsteps of the King of Yan and the King of Qi, who had been punished and whose kingdoms had been destroyed in recent years.

Indeed, before Zongzheng even reached Huainan, the King of Huainan had already committed suicide. Zongzheng, holding the imperial tally, followed the emperor's instructions before his departure and had Queen Cha, Crown Prince Liu Qian, and all those involved in the rebellion executed.

King Liu Ci of Hengshan also committed suicide, but Crown Prince Liu Shuang was executed for disobedience and filial impiety. Queen Xu Lai was executed for using witchcraft to kill the former Queen Cheng Shu. Prince Liu Xiao was executed for having an affair with his father's maid. All those who participated in King Liu Ci's rebellion were exterminated along with their entire families.

The states of Huainan and Hengshan were subsequently abolished and reduced to prefectures.

The whole country was in an uproar.

At this moment, on Liu Ju's desk were three prepared memorials, the first of which was secretly sent by Sima An, who was in charge of quelling the rebellion in Huainan.

In the sixth year of the Jianyuan era, after the conflict between Minyue and Nanyue was resolved, Zhuang Zhu, a senior official, conveyed the emperor's decree to the Nanyue Kingdom and Liu An, the King of Huainan.

That brief encounter allowed Liu An to establish a good relationship with this favorite of the emperor. They frequently exchanged lavish gifts and considered each other close friends. Their correspondence inevitably touched upon discussions of the court and reminders about government policies.

For a trusted minister of the emperor to secretly collude with a prince is a serious crime, let alone a rebellious prince. According to the laws of the Han Dynasty, he would be sentenced to death and would not be able to pay money to redeem himself.

After several encounters, Liu Ju could see Zhuang Zhu's abilities, but since he couldn't be used for his own purposes, there was no need to show him any mercy. The second person was Zhou Yangyou, originally surnamed Zhao, but later his father, as the maternal uncle of Liu Chang, the Prince of Huainan, was enfeoffed as the Marquis of Zhouyang, and thus he changed his surname to Zhouyang.

During his time in office, he made some achievements in governing the prefectures and kingdoms and cracking down on powerful clans. He was known for his strict governance and liked to compete for power with his colleagues and superiors. Even officials like Ji An and Sima Anruo had to show him some respect when they were ranked alongside him.

If someone committed a capital crime, he would distort the law to save that person's life.

He would distort the law and kill those he hated.

Wherever he serves as an official, he will eliminate the powerful families in that prefecture. When he is the prefectural governor, he will treat the military commander as a county magistrate. When he is the military commander, he will bully the prefectural governor and usurp his power.

Tyrannical and cruel, arrogant and indulgent, and even more unforgivable is "subordinates overthrowing their superiors".

With a long list of crimes to his name, and the rebellion of his benefactor, the royal family of Huainan, Liu Ju could not fathom why he had survived.

The third matter concerns the Imperial Censor Li Cai.

According to intelligence, after becoming the Imperial Censor, Li Cai seized the vacant land at Emperor Xiaojing's Yangling Mausoleum and even traded it, making a profit of hundreds of thousands of coins.

Liu Ju didn't know whether Li Cai was short of these hundreds of thousands of coins or whether the Li family of Longxi was short of these coins, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that anyone who encroached on the imperial mausoleum grounds was guilty of a capital offense, and there was no leniency for them.

As for whether submitting the memorial would offend the Li family of Longxi, that was not Liu Ju's concern, but rather the Li family of Longxi's concern.

"Jiang Bo".

"The old slave is here."

"Go to the Prime Minister's residence and hand it over to the Prime Minister," Liu Ju said, pointing to the three memorials.

Since this concerns one of the Three Dukes, a public consensus must be reached; otherwise, a Censor-in-Chief cannot be executed.

"Yes."

After Jiang Bo left with the music,

Wei Qing walked in and looked at his nephew, whose face was solemn and whose posture was steady. Unbeknownst to him, the person who had been sheltering under his wing had grown up.

A senior official, a cruel bureaucrat, and an imperial censor—their character and methods were remarkably decisive.

"Ju'er, isn't your brilliance a bit too obvious?"

"We should press on with our remaining strength to eliminate the enemy, rather than seeking fame like Xiang Yu."

Liu Ju stood up, recited a line of poetry, and, under Wei Qing's shocked gaze, smiled and walked out, saying, "Uncle, let's go."

Ten thousand gold coins were thrown out.

It wasn't just for a few perfunctory words of thanks from the Northern Army generals; outside the tent was a military parade of 80,000 soldiers!

(End of this chapter)