What can make Li recite the report of hatred is indeed not good news. According to the report of Lu Yuanying, who has taken over the grain statistics department, there was a secret meeting between a certain prince and several No. 2 and No. 3 of the big family and even non-mainstream figures in a certain gorgeous Fengyue in Pingkangfang. To some extent, such a meeting can be understood as a carnival between the two ancestors, but Lu Yuanying said that there are vague clues to be found between this meeting and the Gou Sheng's case the year before last. As for the purpose of this meeting, Lu Yuanying summed it up in two words:

"Take the heir."

This kind of thing is not the first time in the history of Datang. The most famous is Taizong Li Shimin's Xuanwumen Change, and a little less is Xuanzong's bloody case against his cousins and his own son. There are also those who do not use swords, such as Li Chengqian and Emperor Rang. Even Li Yu himself had encountered such a threat, and the result was that in the end, Li Yi, the king of Shu who threatened him, turned him into a dead man who would not threaten people. With the lessons of the past, Li Yu naturally vigorously consolidated the position of the crown prince Li Chun, but he didn't expect that the green mountains would not change, the green water would flow for a long time, and those who did not open their eyes still did not open their eyes. Originally, with Li Xu's strength and Li Chun's foundation, a slap could extinguish the minds of other princes who had the heart to win the heir, but this time this matter really pierced, Li Yu thought that this cheap rebel was very discerning, at least he knew how to take advantage of the situation.

The crown prince Li Chun has made great contributions many times, and his position now seems unshakable, but it does not mean that it cannot be shaken. Right now, it's starting to work among some people. In fact, whether the prince can stand up or not depends not on how much credit the prince has, but on how many supporters the prince has. Otherwise, even if the crown prince ascends the throne, he will be ousted. The manipulators of this conspiracy have seen this.

From the beginning of Li Chen's loosening of commercial bonds, to the development of maritime trade, the reclamation of wasteland to resettle displaced people, the encouragement of agriculture, the reduction of the army, the elimination of redundant officials, the establishment of martial arts, the reform of the imperial examination, the increase of the weight of subjects such as clear calculation, and the leveling of feudal towns, when Li Chen's new policy first went down, except for the resettlement of displaced people and the elimination of redundant officials, most of them were not obvious, but after a few years, they showed great power, one of the aspects was the impact on the old vested interest groups represented by the big families. When these families were immersed in the joy of power and interests, they suddenly found themselves in danger of being replaced by a new group. Once this danger is revealed, the struggle for life and death is about to begin. And for the entrenched families and the emerging forces that benefited from the New Deal, the key to this life-and-death struggle is whether there is anyone above, in other words, whether the monarch who controls the state apparatus is inclined to the New Deal or conservative.

Now, with the deepening of the new policy, the old and new parties have gradually formed, and the most important thing for the crown prince at the moment is to maintain the emperor's trust while gaining strong support from the outside world to consolidate himself. The story of Shangshan Sihao is a good lesson for the princes of all dynasties. In this era, are the Shangshan Sihao families with deep roots, or the emerging families and businessmen who have benefited from the implementation of the New Deal? And both the new and the old faction hope to have a son of heaven who can protect their own interests, and if the successor monarch favors either side, it will definitely be a catastrophe for the other party. In other words, if the prince is close to one side, he is doomed to lose the support of the other. The support of the other side is likely to be the external factor that will determine the future monarch.

The contradiction between the old and the new broke out eight years ago, when Li Chun, who was supported by the old faction and came to power, denounced the radical reform of Wang Shuwen and his party, and issued a vicious edict of "no pardon in case of pardon". Li Yu slowed down the pace of reform, and even exiled the backbone of the original Donggong group one by one, maintaining the unity within the imperial court, and at the same time adopting a gradual reform of equal interests, which achieved a brilliant victory in the economic, political, and military fields. However, no matter how gradual reform is, there will be a day when contradictions will erupt. In fact, Li Yu knew very well that if he hadn't taken a decisive step to solve the eunuch clique at the beginning, he was afraid that the old faction with strong support would have been in trouble a long time ago, and he would never have waited for the clique that had profited from the new deal to grow to this day.

One of the people who profited from the new policies of the imperial court was the merchants, the small families and the new families, and the peasants. Now the imperial court's mercantile policy has made the merchant class gain huge benefits, and most of the merchants who had no status were dependent on the family, and with the gradual relaxation of the political constraints on the merchants, the children of the merchants began to be equated with the sons of good families and began to tend to be independent. Since the beginning of "This Spring and Autumn", businessmen have made their voices heard. Under Li Yu's acquiescence and even indulgence, now the merchants have become a group with interest appeals, and are eager to make their voices heard in the government, such as the battle to recover Longyou Hexi planned this time, there are several big chambers of commerce behind it, after all, the Hexi Corridor is opened, and the trade routes of the Tang Dynasty can be opened. Some big merchants on land even threatened that if the imperial army could recover Anxi and Beiting, he was willing to donate half of his net worth as military expenses. Although it is a bit of a nouveau riche mentality, it also shows the self-confidence and wealth of Datang businessmen.

Out of the need for balance, the small family and the new family have always been indispensable lace in the court, and there are many times when the small family can often produce big people, which is the result of the compromise of all forces. However, the foundation of the small family and the new family is not as deep as the old family after all, and most of them choose to form an alliance of interests with the old family through marriage and other forms in a short period of time, and consolidate their position with the help of the power of the big family, and at the same time become the peripheral vassals of the big family. Therefore, the imperial court has been balancing the big family by cultivating new families and supporting small families for a hundred years, but efforts are always like meat buns beating dogs. The Maison still occupies a large amount of resources. By the time of Li Yu, the levers of mercantilism stirred up the original distribution of power among the families.

From the beginning of the sea trade, Li Yu instructed Liu Zongyuan to focus on supporting small families and medium-sized businessmen who kept a distance from the family, and after seven or eight years, many medium-sized businessmen became wealthy, and their net worth far exceeded the original big businessmen who depended on the family, so that the political centers of Chang'an and Luoyang and the commercial cities of Yangzhou, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Jiangling skyrocketed, and many small families who lived a tight life in the veil of light commerce rose sharply. In time, these emerging families will inevitably have a shorter and longer power than those old families who hold on to the defects, and become a thorn in the side of some old families. And the new families who relied on the New Deal to achieve military merits and achievements, such as Gao Chongwen, were born in the market, did not have so many constraints, and benefited a lot from the New Deal, and these people must also be supporters of the New Deal.

One of the most important results of the New Deal was that a large number of peasants who had been reduced to displaced people had land or more stable jobs again, and although most of these lands were in the border areas and the undeveloped barren land in the Jingchu area south of the Yangtze River, the peasants were still grateful to Dade and worked hard, even if they were displaced people who had become tun people in the border areas. Therefore, the Chinese people's requirements are the lowest, and if they have something to eat, they will not rebel, and officials who have done their part will be promoted to the sky. It's a pity that those families who are known as the heirlooms of poetry and rites refused to even give them this mouthful of food, and finally got a jade burn.

With the demolition of the walls between the squares in Chang'an, all parts of the country have followed suit, the citizen economy has also become active, and the citizens have gradually formed a class, different from the peasants, this class grew up in the city, the predecessor was people of various identities gathered in this class, such as the poor scholars, the down-and-out nobles, the emerging merchants, the migrant farmers. This class is not short of money, knowledge, and money, and many of them have been running for several generations to go up to the new Shi clan. Farmers and townspeople were also natural supporters of the New Deal.

In the imperial court, the supporters of the New Deal were also powerful. Wei Zhiyi, Liu Zongyuan, Wang Ling, Cheng Yi, Lu Wen, Han Tai, Chen Ji, Han Ye, Ling Zhun, Lu Zhen and other members of the Donggong Group gradually grew into important forces in the government and the opposition and the locality, while Yuan Zi, Zheng Qi and other conservative forces were successively degraded and released from the court, and the old ministers such as Lu Zhen, and the newly promoted officials such as Li Jifu, Li Jiang, Pei Yan, Pei Du, Han Yu, Cui Qun and others Although some people were born in families, most of them were enlightened people, with a long-term vision, and they were also the beneficiaries of the New Deal. Even if you are still psychologically on the side of the conservatives, can you resist psychologically, and can you push your hand away?

However, the strength of the new party, although it grew rapidly, was after all shallow and largely due to the strong support of the state apparatus controlled by the emperor, and if this support was lost, good times would come to an end, and their industry could easily be transferred to vested interests. Although the old party, which is a vested interest, is not as profitable as the new party from the New Deal, the emaciated camel is bigger than the horse, and the family families that have been in the past for hundreds of years, and countless new families who have changed from the former New Deal profiteers to vested interests are like a charcoal fire, although the fire does not seem to be big, as long as it is flicked, it can ignite a monstrous flame.

As far as Li Yu himself is concerned, it is natural to hope that his successor will be biased towards supporting the New Deal. Li Yu knew that only if the New Deal continued, the empire would not decline day by day, and when it withdrew from the stage of history in the ninth century, the Zhongxing cause he founded could continue. And will his successor be a supporter of the New Deal?

This problem must be dealt with, otherwise the beginning of the Western Expedition will be the beginning of infighting, and the end of the Western Expedition may also be the end of the New Deal.