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

After Liu Ying left, Lü Zhi didn't know whether to be happy or angry.

Liu Ying has grown a lot compared to before. He has even learned to refuse his mother. Unlike before, he was a useless and weak person. Empress Lü could not see any imperial qualities in him.

She had always wanted Liu Ying to have some temper and some backbone.

But she never expected that Liu Ying would first demonstrate his courage and determination through his mother.

He even refused the opportunity to let the Lü family take credit for him.

Now that Liu Ying's position is secure, Empress Lü feels that the weak Liu Ying of the past was easier to control.

Liu Bang was getting old, and it seemed that in the next two years, Liu Bang would die and Liu Ying would ascend the throne.

She could then wield power as Empress Dowager and interfere in national affairs.

If we eliminate Wei Ping, Han Xin, Zhou Bo, and other veteran officials, and promote members of the Lü family, we can truly wield power over the entire country and rule the land.

But it was at this critical juncture that Liu Ying's ability to be independent awakened under Wei Ping's guidance.

This dealt a devastating blow to Lü Zhi's plans.

She had to find a way to stop this unhealthy trend and ensure that Liu Ying continued to be her obedient son.

Empress Lü secretly rejoiced that the discovery was timely; Liu Ying was only just beginning and had not yet achieved any results.

If she were to manipulate things slightly, causing Liu Ying to suffer setbacks in this promotion process, and then scold her as a mother, she could instill in Liu Ying the idea that only by listening to her mother can things be accomplished.

This could severely damage Liu Ying's newly built confidence.

Empress Lü Zhi would offer advice on whatever Liu Ying needed to do next.

Liu Ying adopted Lü Zhi's suggestion, and she then did her best to help Liu Ying get things done.

If Liu Ying opposes Lü Zhi's suggestion, Lü Zhi will do everything in her power to sabotage the matter and cause Liu Ying to fail.

After several such encounters, Liu Ying will surely be tamed by her and become a tool that obeys her every word.

It's just that Lü Zhi didn't know the term PUA, otherwise she would have discovered that Lü Zhi was actually a born PUA master.

On the third day, when Daida-ryo announced the list of personnel, Lü Tai was not on it. He hurriedly went to the palace to pay his respects to Lü Zhi.

Empress Lü had solemnly promised to arrange for him to be admitted.

"Aunt, why wasn't I able to join Shirota Rei?"

Lü Tai shouted at Lü Zhi.

Empress Lü Zhi's delicate eyebrows furrowed almost imperceptibly, but in the blink of an eye, she regained her smiling expression and personally stepped forward to take Lü Tai's hand.

"This is the Crown Prince's intention."

"The Crown Prince has now taken Wei Ping as his teacher and, under Wei Ping's influence, is gradually distancing himself from the Lü family."

"He was unwilling to let the Lü family share in the credit for this achievement."

Lu Tai was furious and said with dissatisfaction.

"If Liu Ying hadn't received the full support of his aunt and the Lü family, could he have kept his position as crown prince?"

"Now that they've crossed the river, they're starting to dismantle the bridge!"

"Don't worry, didn't the Crown Prince say he didn't want to use people from the Lü family?"

"Then we'll make sure they can't do it!"

"You personally arrange for some local thugs to infiltrate the common people that the Crown Prince wants to promote, and deliberately cause trouble."

"In some places, it may even lead to some conflicts, and it would be better to kill a few more people."

"What do those ignorant people know? They just say that the imperial court is trying to annex and seize their land, and those peasants will fight to the death."

"And those arrogant but incompetent privileged children, a little provocation will make them kill those rioters."

"If we publicize this further, it will incite public resentment."

"It would be even better if a rebellion broke out."

"When the Crown Prince is made a fool of himself, I'll give him advice and have you step in to smooth things over."

"The Crown Prince will soon realize that without the support of the Lü family, he can accomplish nothing!"

Lü Zhi said coldly.

Those who didn't know the situation might have thought she and Liu Ying had some deep-seated grudge.

Lü Tai's eyes lit up; Lü Zhi's idea was brilliant.

His aunt was indeed still on the side of the Lü family.

Liu Ying was a useless man. Even if Liu Bang died and Liu Ying ascended the throne, he would only be a puppet of his aunt.

At that time, all the power will be in the hands of the Lü family, and Lü Tai will not be unable to sit on the throne!

Fantasizing about ruling the world, Han Xin and Wei Ping groveled on the ground like dogs begging for his forgiveness. Lü Tai was so excited that he couldn't contain himself. On his way back, he saw a pretty young woman and forcibly took her home to have sex with her in broad daylight.

The young woman's husband and children were all severely injured. That night, their house caught fire, and they all died in the flames.

A few days later, the Crown Prince's first stop, his hometown of Pei County, successfully completed the popularization of the Daitian system.

At the invitation of the people of Pei County, the Crown Prince stayed here for a few more days.

Some sons of powerful families who volunteered to promote the Daida system were dispatched by the Crown Prince to several surrounding counties and townships.

Most of these sons of powerful and wealthy families came from Pei County and were very familiar with the surrounding area. Many of them owned large amounts of land in the area. With their example and Liu Bang's reputation in the area, it was easy for them to achieve results.

This is why we chose this area as our first stop.

To be on the safe side.

Liu Ying also asked Liu Bang why he didn't choose Chang'an for the sake of stability. Liu Bang told him that the Guanzhong region had been ravaged by war for many years and was already devastated when the country was founded.

He followed the example of Qin Shi Huang, relocating nobles from the former vassal states to Chang'an to suppress local power.

However, to prevent these people from opposing and directly rebelling, he exchanged large amounts of land with them.

They were also required to hand over large quantities of grain.

In addition to the rewards and honors bestowed upon civil and military officials and, more importantly, soldiers, they once again seized vast tracts of land.

There wasn't much land near Chang'an that truly belonged to the common people.

Liu Bang and Liu Ying had a good idea, but having lived in the capital for many years, they forgot about one place—Feng County.

The true birthplace of Liu Bang.

Because Yong Chi led Feng County in rebellion against Liu Bang when he raised his army, Liu Bang had a very bad impression of the area.

Since his base of operations and the place where he started his career were both in Pei County, Liu Bang always regarded Pei County as his hometown.

After Liu Bang ascended the throne, he implemented many favorable policies for Pei County, but Feng County did not enjoy them.

Ultimately, with the help of the people of Pei County, they were able to obtain preferential treatment in terms of taxes.

Therefore, the people of Feng County were very dissatisfied with Liu Bang.

Under the covert propaganda of the Lütai faction, some common people openly criticized the Daitian Law, claiming that it was the court's way of seizing their land.

They said the dai-ta method was completely useless; once this method was used, the family's harvest would drastically decrease.

In order to pay their taxes, they had no choice but to sell their land to these people at low prices; otherwise, they would be arrested and killed on the grounds of tax evasion.

This is a conspiracy to make Pei County annex Feng County!

The people of Feng County were immediately agitated.

The person in charge of Feng County was Xiahou Zao, the son of Xiahou Ying from Pei County and the ancestor of Cao Cao, the later Emperor Wu of Wei.