A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

Wang Mang glanced around the court and immediately saw through their thoughts.

"The final reform of the reform was the enfeoffment system."

"Your contributions to the numerous reforms will be recorded by the state."

"Your contributions to the reform are a crucial factor in determining the number of fiefs to be granted."

"If you were already entitled to a fiefdom, these contributions would be converted into resources and become the nation's support for you."

"If you ultimately fail to obtain a fiefdom, these will be considered as your accumulated wealth and can be converted into titles or official positions."

Wang Mang's words reassured the court officials, as Wang Mang's credibility was still good, and the Wang family couldn't bear the consequences of offending so many powerful families.

With Wang Mang's guarantee, the abolition of slavery proceeded smoothly.

Having learned their lesson from the last time, the powerful local lords dared not provoke them again.

The servants of the major noble families were all transformed into employed workers, receiving different wages depending on the type of work they did.

"Thirdly, there are imperial highways."

"The current territory of the imperial court is too vast, and the court's control over the borders is insufficient."

"Whether it's military operations on the border, transporting supplies and troops, or population migration, it's all extremely inconvenient."

"Therefore, it is necessary to build a road from Chang'an City to the port of Donghai County, Yanmen Pass, the Pamir Mountains, and Zhuyai County."

"Once the imperial road is completed, it will be extremely convenient to travel to the border or to transfer supplies and people from various places."

"After the enfeoffment is carried out in the future, resources and people will definitely be mobilized from all over the country to completely transform the local area into the land of Yan and Huang."

After realizing just how useful the enfeoffment system was, Wang Mang associated everything he did with it.

After you are enfeoffed in the future, you can't just rely on your own family members to rule a country.

Should we draw population from within the country to form the basis of our rule?

Should we transport supplies from within China to ensure survival in the early stages?

Should domestic support be able to arrive quickly? We hope the country can exert greater deterrence against those forces on the border, and that these roads can all achieve this.

So, are you going to do it or not? Are you going to repair this highway?

build!

Can't these people see what Wang Mang meant?

How is that possible!

They're all ancient foxes, why are they playing at Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio?

Knowing full well that it's a trap, yet still jumping in, that's a blatant scheme.

At their level, they rarely resort to underhanded tricks; they only care about the righteous path, and you have no choice but to follow it.

The construction of the imperial highways was not a matter of a day or two; it took a full eight years, until Emperor Ping of Han officially came of age, when the four imperial highways were finally completed.

It involved a large amount of manpower and was a major project second only to the management of the Zhuohe River.

The land has been brought under royal control, slavery has been abolished, and the imperial roads have been built. Is it time to begin the process of enfeoffment?

But at this very moment, the emperor came of age and needed to assume personal rule.

This introduced great uncertainty into the feudal system.

Would Wang Mang obediently relinquish power?

Will the new emperor agree to a non-feudal system? That would be creating enemies for his descendants.

Perhaps the very countries he personally granted off will be the ones that destroy the Han Dynasty in the future.

Wang Mang was ultimately a subject, standing on the same side as them, but the emperor was different.

What the emperor wanted to protect was the stability of his own dynasty.

Just before the emperor ascended the throne, Wang Mang proposed another reform.

Its name is "Sage Emperor, who rules the world with his hands clasped in reverence".

As soon as this reform was introduced, the court officials responded enthusiastically. They were about to enfeoff the emperor and were determined not to let the young emperor seize power, lest it ruin their grand plan.

Limiting the emperor's power and having virtuous ministers assist him is the most appropriate course of action.

They were also shocked by Wang Mang's audacity; this man was truly remarkable, openly proposing to limit imperial power—he was a ruthless character.

Thus, during this reign, Emperor Ping's power was firmly restricted. Even with his extraordinary abilities, he could not gain the help of any court official, nor even the support of the Liu clan princes. He was simply no match for the rising power of Wang Mang.

Especially since there was a woman named Wang Zhengjun in the harem whose seniority was ridiculously high. It should be noted that Wang Zhengjun was the Crown Princess during the reign of Emperor Xuan of Han.

She later became Empress of Emperor Jing of Han. Emperor Jing of Han passed the throne to Emperor Huang of Han, Emperor Huang of Han passed the throne to Emperor Ai of Han, and only after Emperor Ai of Han did it become his turn.

Their seniority is frighteningly high.

Unless the Wei family intervenes, the mere mention of filial piety would be enough to crush him.

Under these circumstances, Emperor Ping of Han was greatly stripped of his power.

Even after he took power, he only held one-third of the military power and the authority over the court's sacrificial rites.

The purse strings belong to the Grand Minister of Agriculture, while administrative affairs belong to the Prime Minister.

He couldn't get involved at all.

Ultimately, he was a descendant of Liu Bang and did not surrender easily.

Unable to rely on the imperial court, he used the power he had accumulated over the years to support three people among the common people.

One was named Wang Kuang, another Wang Feng, and the third Fan Chong.

Furthermore, they converted all the private treasuries of past emperors into money and grain to allow them to expand their power.

Once the enfeoffment system is officially launched, a large amount of money and grain will be used for this policy. Taking advantage of the weakness of the court, the emperor will then launch a peasant uprising.

He wanted to overthrow the current court and establish a new one under his rule.

This was truly the first time in history that an emperor had led a rebellion against himself.

Even Wang Mang, a time traveler, never expected the emperor to make such a bizarre move.

People from good families often rebel against themselves.

Throughout China's 5000-year history, this has never happened before.

Therefore, Wang Mang was not prepared for this, and Emperor Ping of Han successfully established his own power among the people.

They stabbed him in the back when he was at his most vulnerable.

Once the court's power was confirmed to be excessively stable, even Wang Mang's best efforts could not suppress the desire of the major aristocratic families for fiefdoms.

So on that day, he summoned the leaders of the major power groups together, with the Wei family as witnesses, to discuss the details of the enfeoffment.

"The matter of enfeoffment is of great importance. In order to ensure that the enfeoffed states can be established and become self-sufficient, the court must invest a large amount of resources and manpower."

"Therefore, the first batch of quotas will not be too many. The imperial court also needs to consider whether it is appropriate to grant fiefs in this era."

"The location available for everyone to choose from is the Western Regions (present-day parts of Western Siberia, Central Asia, South Asia, and West Asia)."