Chen He sat down stupidly, the drum noise of the young lieges suddenly lowered a few notches, ordinary old lieges have their own circles and don't like to deal with young people, but once the old men start a fire, the young people really can't eat a few times, fortunately, the old guys' faces are not very good-looking, and they don't have time to teach the young people how to behave.

The old princes have endured it all their lives and don't care about the changes in three and five years, it stands to reason that the old men should calm down and wait and see, but the premise is that the liehou group has no leader, and the six gods and masters will naturally obey the words of the old people, and their old bones can show their old faces and ask for grace, maybe the emperor will allow the liehou to return to his hometown to become a rich man.

However, the liehou group is not what they say, Cao Shi is not only the spiritual leader but also the actual controller, the meaning of his standing up is completely different, the liehou must respond to the emperor's attitude, but what kind of response should be made, except for Cao Shi himself, no one knows for the time being.

"In other words, Pingyang Hou went to Weiyang Palace, His Majesty gave Pingyang Hou a way to retire and protect himself, and Pingyang Hou responded after careful consideration." Li Ji's eagle-like eyes stared at him for a moment: "So, what exactly is your response?" ”

Cao Shi did not intend to give him an answer.

"We have feudal state-owned households, countless farms and houses, stores and shops purchased with a lot of money, and rich deposits that rival the country, and more than 1,000 servants when traveling, spending money in Chang'an City to bring about luxury, how many scholars who advocate the simplicity of the Han style are dissatisfied with our existence, how many Kanto talents who are wandering in Chang'an and have no place to settle are indignant against us, resentment is quietly accumulating and slowly expanding, and we don't know that we enjoy a luxurious aristocratic life.

In addition, we have a complex network of relationships. There are 3 million military meritorious lords who have the natural position of chieftain, and the generals and ministers control the formulation of imperial court policies, influence the appointment of officials, disturb the emperor's will to govern, and interfere with the abolition of the empress. All of the above behaviors have led many bureaucrats who are not from military aristocratic backgrounds to think that we are the moths on the towering tree of the Han Empire, and it is clear that the emperor also approves of this. ”

Zhou Zuoche was puzzled: "Just because of this?" Our income is legitimate, it is fought out by several generations with a knife and a gun, and according to the system of twenty-rank military merit, anyone who accumulates meritorious service can be crowned a marquis. If you have the ability to go to the battlefield to fight for a future, what kind of ability is it to hate us. ”

"You're right, they didn't hate the princes originally, but our existence squeezed out a large proportion of high-ranking officials in the imperial court, and the imperial court has filial piety, honesty, virtuous and upright. The shadow seal of the sons of 2,000 stones, and the four channels for recommending talents recommended by high-ranking officials of 2,000 stones, but 80% of the high-ranking officials of 2,000 stones come from military meritorious positions, and there are our lieges and second-level marquis of Guannei, so that young scholars lose valuable opportunities to advance, and they cannot be promoted and can only continue to circulate in the middle and low-level bureaucrats, and the new talents will only be squeezed to the back, layer by layer. Until the passage to the upper echelons of the court was closed, it was no wonder that they did not hate the princes. ”

Cao Shi was aware of this trend a long time ago. Reason told him that the solution was to break the tradition of monopolizing the bureaucratic system by military meritorious, especially the liehous, so that more talents could be promoted and appointed by the Son of Heaven, and the contradictions and frictions between various strata could not be done by all, but as the leader of the liehous, he could never do this, and could only watch the contradictions accumulate and explode.

The rise of the power of the relatives represented by Tian Wei, Tian Sheng and Wang Xin. and Zhao Zhou, Shi Jian, Shi Qing, Gongsun He and other new ministers who received the favor of the Son of Heaven quickly rose to prominence, which was just in line with the trend of breaking the monopoly of military merit. The emperor consciously suppressed, weakened, and even strangled the princes, and indeed the credit of the instigation and influence of these two factions. At a deeper level, the contradiction is a great purge of the imperial power to the strata and the aristocratic group.

Breaking through this unavoidable contradiction, the princes suddenly realized that they had unconsciously walked to the edge of the cliff, and what was waiting for them was a hell from which they could never recover.

The princes were panicked, including the old princes, who had always been very calm, were also nervous.

Just imagine, the bureaucratic grassroots from top to bottom are full of evil feelings towards themselves, the emperor is sharpening his knife to the pigs and sheep, the princes are the lambs to the slaughter, as a person in the bureau, each prince feels a deep sense of powerlessness, once the emperor's will cannot be stopped, what awaits them will be a shattered homeland, the glory of the collapsed aristocracy and endless darkness.

No one knows how to deal with it, and the coup d'état deposed the Son of Heaven? If you don't have the right to fight, you're looking for death!

Lieutenant Xue Ze followed Wei Qing to the Northern Expedition to the Huns, and there were 200,000 troops in the north and south who stayed in Chang'an, and the proportion of military merit in this group of soldiers was less than one-tenth, and there was no middle and senior officer who reached the rank of lieutenant and lieutenant.

What's more, from the era of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty to the present, the three generations of emperors have been very deeply guarded against the generals who have mastered the military power, and deliberately subdivided the tiger talisman into several types, such as the tiger talisman of King Qin, the tiger talisman of suppressing bandits and the chaos, and the tiger talisman of the border fortress against the enemy.

Left and right, the princes are really flustered.

Fan Qiguang said urgently: "Pingyang Hou, if you have anything to say, as long as your method is good, everyone will listen to you." ”

"I said that I would give up our official position, donate our land, and Yihou Yi (resealed) to the distant border to resist the Huns, can you understand and support it?"

"What did you say?"

The princes jumped up in shock, letting them give up their official positions is equivalent to giving up resistance, donating land is equivalent to cutting off the source of wealth, and the first line of Yihou Yi to fight against the Xiongnu without is equivalent to self-exile, these three are superimposed to self-extermination, and the princes are thinking about how to live better, which means the opposite.

"Don't be nervous."

Cao Shi waved his hand and motioned for them to sit down, and said with a smile: "You probably also heard the rumors, a few days ago I issued an order in Guanzhong in the name of the general of the Che Cai, saying that the imperial court is going to set up four new counties in the west of the river, and it will take about two million people to migrate over, of course, this edict is not the emperor's intention, and there is no imperial court seal, only my personal order, in a sense, it is an edict." ”

The princes gasped, they did hear this rumor, and thought that the emperor nodded and agreed, otherwise they would not dare to say that they would build four new counties in the west of the river, but they did not expect that this was his own judgment at all, and he did not get the permission of the emperor and the court.

"Pingyang Hou, are you crazy?"

"Don't give up on yourself, we still have a chance, Pingyang Hou is young in the end, it's not right for you to do this."

"The Son of Heaven did not pursue your actions, so did the Son of Heaven say anything to you?"

Cao Shi smiled slightly: "Don't be nervous, doesn't it mean that I'm standing here?" The Son of Heaven did not pursue my pretentious behavior, and of course he did not let me go so simply, His Majesty meant that Jiangxia County and Shaxian City were built very well, so I planned to exchange 2 million people for the 20 billion assets I invested in Jiangxia County. ”

The princes exclaimed again.

Everyone says that the Pingyang Hou Mansion is rich and rivals the country, and it is rumored that Cao Shi has tens of billions of assets for a day or two, and no one has said clearly how much money Pingyang Hou has, some people think that it is 20 billion assets, and some people think that there are 30 billion assets, and there are many various statements that just do not get any answer from the front.

Today, an astonishing figure was drawn from his mouth, the investment of the Pingyang Hou Mansion in Jiangxia County was 20 billion yuan, and the news of the construction of Jiangxia County, which was thousands of miles away a few years ago, came to Beijing, at least it shows that the annual profit of the Pingyang Hou Mansion will not be less than 3 billion yuan, monopolizing high-end steel manufacturing, monopolizing high-end papermaking, monopolizing high-end textiles, mastering the main horse farms in the Hehuang Valley of the Longxi Plateau, and participating in and manipulating the horse racing industry, polo industry, Keju industry, and the inflow and outflow of good horses in Chang'an. The sum of all kinds of business reached such an astonishing number, and the princes exclaimed that they had underestimated Pingyang Hou.

Cao Shi explained in a relaxed tone: "Do you think I am at a loss? Losing a Shaxian City that costs 2 billion a year and will grow to 3 billion in the future, in exchange for only 2 million people who may not be able to control it, it seems that I am losing, but my own algorithm is not a loss, not only does not lose but stands on the rare initiative, I can finally get rid of the shackles of political struggle in the court and expand the territory for the Han Dynasty. ”

Li Yan was furious: "You want to be Han Xin, the king of Qi, have you forgotten the story of your great-grandfather Cao Shen's refusal to be crowned king?" ”

"This time and that time! At that time, the Marquis of Huaiyin did not measure his own strength to forcibly seal the king, and automatically classified himself from the military merit to the camp of the princes and kings with different surnames. You don't see that when Zhou Yafu, the Marquis of Tiao, died, the nursery rhyme that circulated in Chang'an sang a good boy and begged to be crowned king! ”

Qu Shunhou Chen He jumped out again, this time his speech was sonorous and more resolute, he was a die-hard supporter of Cao Shi, the future of Yulin Cavalry is closely related to the general of the Che Cavalry, once Cao Shi is gone, they are the end of the rabbit and the dog.

The old princes stood up and resolutely reprimanded, they are all second-generation princes, childhood and youth experienced the early Han Dynasty purge of the princes and kings with different surnames, such as Liang Wang Peng Yue, Jiujiang Wang Yingbu also could not escape death, they resolutely disagreed with the idea of splitting the earth and sealing the king.

Cao Shi shook his head and smiled: "I didn't say that I wanted to tear the earth and seal the king, it is my ambition to fight the Huns and eliminate the life and death enemies of the Han family, and it is my ideal to go west and continue to expand the territory. ”

"But you have to have a reason to say the past, otherwise why would the Son of Heaven let you go west instead of letting someone else?"

Cao Shi smiled: "I naturally have a way, you can wait and see!" (To be continued)