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

Chapter 285 Going Up the Pickaxe
Winter is coming to an end.

Langchi Palace.

Liu Che gazed at the withered plum blossoms.

Spring is near.

All the conspiracies and schemes, all the power struggles, will finally be decided in the spring of the third year of Yuan Shou.

The Crown Prince and the imperial court took continuous action to weaken the restoration movement, but while they could weaken the giant wave, they could not weaken the undercurrents.

To avoid being accused at the Imperial Ancestral Temple, the emperor, who was hiding in the temporary palace, never stopped making secret meetings. He met with all the powerful families, officials, wealthy merchants, wandering knights and thieves—any force he could use.

Faced with the cries of the wealthy and powerful who had been wronged by the Crown Prince and who still longed for the reign of His Majesty, Liu Che was somewhat dazed. It seemed that for the first time, the people of the Han Dynasty were so supportive of him.

Faced with the support of the meritorious and wealthy, Liu Che provided them with as much manpower, money, and food as possible, and clearly told them that he would restore the ancestral system of the Han Dynasty and return to the era of the sage king.

After the wealthy and powerful officials left, Liu Che couldn't understand why all this had happened, but this might be his last chance.

The Crown Prince is leading the Han army in a turn, and soon everything will be destroyed.

Opportunities are fleeting.

Hesitation will lead to eternal regret.

Liu Che could not imagine himself becoming the retired emperor, nor could he imagine having to beg for his life from Empress Wei, from his own crown prince, or having all his grand ambitions reduced to nothing.

“Yes, spring is coming,” Dong Zhongshu echoed.

The restoration army will soon arrive at Beiban, Chang'an. Zhou Gong sent the news in advance. Although he mentioned that the army suffered unavoidable losses during the march in order to conceal their movements, he did not care at all.

Whether the restoration succeeds or not is not important; what matters is that we can give that so-called model of a sage ruler a good slap in the face.

I'd rather die than let the Crown Prince see the power of Confucianism.

Your Majesty and the Crown Prince use the world as a chessboard and your subjects as chess pieces to fight and compete.

Who knew that he would personally enter the game, using the true Son of Heaven as a pawn, and severely damage the Crown Prince, the "eternal Confucian enemy"?

Those who truly understand me are none other than the Spring and Autumn Annals!

Those who condemn me are none other than the Spring and Autumn Annals!

For decades, through the Gongyang Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, Dong Zhongshu knew that this was his only chance to overcome fate.

For a moment, both the emperor and his minister were filled with emotion.

“When I was seven years old, my father decided to depose my elder brother from the position of Crown Prince.”

Liu Che recalled the past, the first crown prince in the true sense of the word in China to be deposed, Liu Rong, the eldest son of Emperor Xiaojing.

He had done nothing wrong; he was simply disliked by his father, the emperor, because his mother and maternal relatives were arrogant and domineering.

"At that time, I saw my elder brother, having lost all his abilities, slump to the ground, powerless..."

Scenes from the past flashed through Liu Che's mind like a revolving lantern.

He still remembers the sorrowful look in his elder brother's eyes.

“At that moment, I thought, if I could become the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, I would definitely win everything.”

Liu Che's voice was as firm as it had been back then.

His elder brother's fate made him unable to accept a life of being at the mercy of others, and it also made him feel a strong aversion and fear towards his maternal relatives.

Therefore, after being made crown prince, he married his aunt, Princess Guantao's daughter, Chen Ajiao, seeking Princess Guantao's influence and the power of his grandmother, Empress Dowager Dou.

His forbearance and appeasement eventually won him the favor of the Emperor of Han. After ascending the throne, he once thought that by sitting on that throne, he had the power to rule the world and that everyone in the land would be at his beck and call. Then, he deliberately distanced himself from his aunt, Chen Ajiao, and even launched a power challenge against his grandmother, who had become the Empress Dowager of Han.

The lesson was painful.

If he hadn't knelt before Empress Dowager Dou quickly enough, regaining Chen Ajiao's favor and comforting Princess Dou, the early years of the Jianyuan era would have been the year he died on the throne.

The imperial power was seized by Empress Dowager Dou, and it was not until her grandmother passed away that the imperial power was slowly returned to his hands.

However, the rampant influence of the Dou and Tian families, relatives of the emperor, in the court thoroughly fueled his dissatisfaction with them, leading him to believe that there was nothing good about them.

They further argued that maternal relatives should have disappeared from the Han Dynasty.

But just after eliminating the Dou and Tian families, Liu Che suddenly discovered that another talented person had emerged among the imperial relatives, namely Wei Qing.

Although he was reluctant to admit it, in the Han-Xiongnu War, apart from Wei Qing who was always victorious, the performance of most other Han generals was not satisfactory.

For the sake of his own martial prowess and virtue, Liu Che reluctantly employed Wei Qing. Wei Qing's performance surpassed everyone else's, and the entire Yuanshuo era was practically Wei Qing's era.

He rose rapidly to the position of Grand Marshal, and even official titles and ranks were insufficient to recognize his achievements. Even the three sons of the Wei family were promoted to marquises without any merit.

Feeling the threat of powerful relatives of the emperor once again, he desperately needed someone to challenge Wei Qing's position in the army. As luck would have it, he found the right person.

The only problem is that the man was also a relative of the emperor and had a close relationship with Wei Qing; his name was Huo Qubing.

Even Liu Che himself didn't know what he was feeling at the time, but under his deliberate actions, the Han military really did split into two factions in the early years of Yuan Shou: the Grand Marshal and the Marquis of Champion.

Liu Che still remembers the joy he felt when he saw the military divided, and the smug satisfaction he felt at his own brilliance.

Then, after the succession ceremony, with the Crown Prince's mediation, the two factions in the military immediately merged. The three closest uncles and nephews in the world made him seem like the biggest joke in the world.

As the emperor of the Han Dynasty, he was actually fooled!

However, in his anger, he was powerless to even punish those who deceived the emperor. In fact, he was at a disadvantage in the power struggle between the Crown Prince, the Prime Minister's Office, and the Northern Army. He relinquished his rule, retired to the Ganquan Palace, and after the fall of Chang'an, he was so frightened that he went on a southern tour... His incompetence made him feel that he had let down his past self.

"Now that restoration is imminent, I must consider whether this may be my only chance in this lifetime."

Liu Che said this from the bottom of his heart.

If successful, the Han Dynasty will be upheld for another twenty years.

If he loses, he will abdicate and become the retired emperor.

Success or failure depends on this.

"I believe that the Crown Prince deserves much credit for the Han Dynasty's current supreme status."

Liu Che readily acknowledged the Crown Prince's achievements, stating that if he had continued to rule, the strength of the Han people would never have been restored, and the victories in the wars between the North and South would never have been so great.

As the emperor and as a father, he could not tolerate allowing the crown prince to take over the power of the Han Dynasty and lead it to infinite glory while he was still alive.

His page cannot be erased from the annals of history.

Liu Che experienced many failures; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that failure permeated his entire life. Yet, he firmly believed that he would be the ultimate winner.

"PhD."

"Your subject is here." Dong Zhongshu suddenly became nervous.

"Let the wealthy and powerful escort the gatekeepers into Chang'an. Tomorrow, the army will enter Beiban, and I will take up my sword and march on Hao."

"To rebuild the glory of the Han Dynasty is my inescapable duty."

(End of this chapter)