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

Guangwu County Town.

As soon as Liu Bang entered the city, he personally untied Liu Jing and sincerely apologized to him.

Wei Ping discreetly observed this man, who was the one who proposed the marriage alliance policy that modern people have been criticizing.

He seriously overestimated the influence of marriage alliances on other ethnic groups.

Sometimes, marriage alliances can bring short-term peace, but they involve more than just sending a princess; they also bring seeds, artisans, and technology.

These things greatly enhanced the strength of the foreign tribes, leading to a significant increase in their threat to the Central Plains.

Take the famous Princess Wencheng's journey to Tibet as an example. If Princess Wencheng hadn't gone to Tibet, would the Tibetan Empire have dared to provoke the Tang Dynasty?

When Princess Wencheng entered Tibet, she brought with her a large amount of gold and silver treasures, brocade mattresses, medical equipment, doctors and craftsmen, and high-quality medicinal herbs.

It also includes agricultural tool manufacturing, textiles, silk reeling, construction, papermaking, brewing, pottery making, grinding, metallurgy and other production technologies from the Central Plains.

This leaped Tibet directly from a tribal period to a higher level of feudal society.

As a result, in the later years of Songtsen Gampo's reign, Tibet's production technology was almost on par with that of the Tang Dynasty, which also triggered centuries of wars and invasions between Tibet and the Central Plains.

Liu Jing believed that after the marriage alliance, relying on the remaining prestige of the Central Plains dynasty and its abundant wealth, he could surely make a child with Central Plains blood become the Chanyu, and make the Xiongnu begin to learn the etiquette of the Central Plains. After that, he could subdue the enemy without fighting.

However, it was actually useless; the Xiongnu people didn't buy into it.

They still raided southwards every year.

The Hu people fear power but not virtue. The more you act this way, the more they will think you are afraid of them and easy to bully.

Repeatedly, this completely destroyed the Hu people's fear of the Central Plains dynasties.

It was not until the reign of Emperor Wu of Han that it was re-established. The subsequent two hundred years of suppression of the border nomads re-established the nomads' fear of the Central Plains dynasty.

Especially now that he's here.

When he was away, our great China was plundered by the Xiongnu. Now that he's here, it's still being plundered. Isn't this a wasted trip?

If Liu Jing dares to propose the policy of marriage alliance again, he will definitely slap him in the face in front of all the ministers.

Because of Wei Ping's existence in this world, Liu Bang decisively defeated Maodun and beheaded him.

While everyone acknowledged Liu Jing's previous judgment to some extent, it was just so-so, neither particularly high nor low.

After returning to Chang'an, Wei Ping began to live a secluded life.

He rarely appears in public except during grand court assemblies.

One day, an uninvited guest arrived at Wei Ping's residence as he was reclining in a chaise longue, enjoying being fed by his maid.

Liu Bang.

"Your Majesty, I have come to pay my respects."

Wei Ping bowed respectfully, his eyes lowered.

"Don't be shy."

Liu Bang waved his hand casually and walked straight to Wei Ping's reclining chair.

"Mmm, that feels good."

Liu Bang made a complete fool of himself as an emperor, humming and groaning.

"Those officials in the court are always thinking about putting you in a cage called rites and laws."

"You can't do this, you can't do that."

"Being an emperor is not as enjoyable as it was before I raised an army."

"Zi'an, the happiest time of my life was before I raised an army, the time I spent fooling around with Fan Kuai and the others."

Wei Ping chuckled inwardly. Yes, you're the emperor, everything you say is right.

"Your Majesty shoulders the responsibility for the fate of the nation and the people, and the life and death of countless citizens are no longer what they once were."

Wei Ping said against his will.

Has everyone, from ancient times to the present, loved this Versailles set?

From now on, Versailles should be listed alongside farming and infrastructure as one of the three major genetic talents of the Chinese.

"Zi'an, today at court, Liu Jing submitted a memorial proposing a marriage alliance."

A marriage alliance!

Wei Ping straightened up and frowned.

"The Xiongnu have now elected a new Chanyu, who is the former Left Wise King."

"Liu Jing said that if the eldest princess could be married to Maodun, and with your reputation, Zian, and some gold and silver treasures, he would definitely make the eldest princess his principal wife, and the son she gave birth to would surely be the crown prince and succeed to the throne in the future."

"In this way, the new Xiongnu Chanyu will have the bloodline of the Han Dynasty, and the Xiongnu can be made a vassal of the Han Dynasty without bloodshed."

"But the Empress was unwilling to let her daughter go."

"I'm in a difficult position!"

Wei Ping was a military officer who had been training soldiers at the military camp these past few days and had not attended court.

He never expected that Liu Jing would propose a marriage alliance at this time.

"Your Majesty, I request that this man be executed."

???

Liu Bang looked at the excited Wei Ping with some confusion. It was his daughter who was going to be married off, so why did it seem like Wei Ping's daughter was getting married?

"How can a princess of the Central Plains be matched with a barbarian king!"

"If the Xiongnu dare to invade my Han Dynasty from the south, grant me ten thousand soldiers, and I will march straight to the imperial court!"

"Moreover, he is too presumptuous. The succession system of the Hu people is different from that of the Central Plains. Just because of his Han bloodline, he will never grow up and will never inherit the position of Chanyu."

"Not to mention, the Hu people also have the custom of fraternal succession, where the elder brother marries the younger brother, and the husband and wife have children together—shameful, utterly shameful!"

"Liu Jing is the kind of pervert who would kill his own children to entertain guests for the sake of his reputation. Killing him would not appease public anger."

Liu Bang kept rubbing his chin, looking at Wei Ping with a strange expression.

"You wouldn't be thinking of marrying Lu Yuan, would you?"

Liu Bang smacked his right hand with his left, and the case was solved.

"puff!"

Wei Ping almost spat out the water he had just drunk.

"I've never even met Her Highness the Princess, and what's so good about marrying a princess? It's uncomfortable."

"I just don't want to be recorded in history books."

"It is said that Wei Ping was merely a figurehead, setting a precedent by having to send princesses and annual tributes to the Hu people after winning battles to appease them."

"If anyone in later generations can't defeat the Hu people, they can use us as an example, saying that even you and I did this, and there are precedents for them sending princesses and gold and silver treasures to the Hu people, so it's not shameful."

"Then the later dynasties, those with a little backbone, would nail us to the pillar of shame, saying that we set a bad precedent."

"I, Wei Ping, can't afford to lose face like this."

Liu Bang jumped up, exclaiming, "Damn it!"

He hadn't thought that far ahead before. As a rogue emperor, he would never overestimate the limits of future emperors.

This is not a possibility, it is a certainty!

He won't take the blame for this!

He vowed that once he returned, he would exile Liu Jing to the border, wherever it was most dangerous.

"There's one more thing."

Liu Bang put his hand on Wei Ping's shoulder and gestured with his eyes for all the maids to leave.

"Zi'an, who do you think is more capable of bringing peace to the realm, the Crown Prince or the Prince of Dai?"

Zhao Ruyi is currently the Prince of Dai, but he will be renamed the Prince of Zhao later, and then Liu Heng will be the Prince of Dai.

Wei Ping lowered his head helplessly. The struggle for the throne has always been extremely cruel.

He had no desire to get involved; with military force and troops at his disposal, whoever became emperor would have to rely on him.

Why get involved? The risks and rewards are disproportionate.

Moreover, the one who had the last laugh was not either of these two, but the next Prince of Dai, Liu Heng.

The emperors who would become idols for thousands of years to come were known as Emperor Taizong Wen, whom emperors would emulate.