After listening to Emperor Jingfeng's plan, Li Rui was silent for a while before he said, "Brother Chen wants to ask the imperial brother, why do you want to keep the Liu family?" ”

Emperor Jingfeng said as a matter of course: "Even if the father and son of the Liu family are absurd, after all, they are Che'er's mother and the concubine's maiden family, and fraud in the imperial examination is to kill the head." If I don't keep them, won't Che'er have no mother to rely on in the future? ”

Li Rui asked again: "Why do you have to keep a mother family that Your Royal Highness can rely on?" ”

As if he felt that this question was redundant, Emperor Jingfeng smiled and looked at him incomprehensibly: "Isn't this nonsense?" Che'er is the prince, and his mother family is his closest and most trustworthy force, if there is not enough power to support him in the future......"

"It's good that His Royal Highness is a prince, but he will only be a prince in the future." Li Rui suddenly interrupted, his eyes burning towards him, "Brother Dare to ask the imperial brother, why does a prince who does not need to inherit the throne have enough power to support him?" ”

Emperor Jingfeng was stunned for a moment.

Li Rui pointed at himself, and simply asked in a different way: "The younger brother is also a prince, from the position of the imperial brother, do you want to support the younger brother's power to be strong, or weaker?" ”

There is no doubt that it is naturally weak and good, so as not to threaten the status of Emperor Jingfeng.

In the era of centralized monarchy, in order to stabilize the court, it is first necessary to ensure the strength of the royalist forces, so as to suppress the ambitions of the young people and fully consolidate the imperial power. Secondly, it is necessary to ensure the stability of the elder faction, that is, the heir faction, under the royalist forces, so that the future transfer of imperial power will be smooth and the turmoil in the transitional period will be minimized.

The ideal situation is that the royalist forces and the elder forces belong to the same faction, and the emperor and the crown prince are always united and never suspicious, but the vast majority of monarchs cannot do this. But no matter whether the emperor can be united with the crown prince or not, he should ensure that under himself, the crown prince has the greatest power and is always in a stable position as the heir.

If the emperor does not appoint a crown prince for a long time, it will make the princes have different hearts, and the courtiers will also start to stand in line for various reasons and choose to take refuge in power. Once the court began to fight for the throne, internal friction began.

The current situation is that although Emperor Jingfeng has already established a crown prince, he still wants to maintain the power of the second prince, and subconsciously hopes that the second prince will have a certain competitiveness in the future - in other words, he regards the second prince Li Jinche as a candidate for the prince.

Li Rui saw the deep intention of Emperor Jingfeng to do this, and persuaded quietly: "Now that the crown prince has been established, the second highness is a sure prince, and as soon as he becomes an adult, he will leave the palace to build a mansion or go to the fief to become a vassal, whether there is support from the maternal family will not affect his future, but will threaten the status of His Royal Highness the prince." ”

Emperor Jingfeng took a deep breath and said slowly: "I understand what you said. But after all, the prince is still young, and it is not yet known whether there will be variables in the future. I am also doing this to prepare for both, in case the prince has any accidents, at least there will be Che'er. I left him the arm of the Liu family, and if there really was that day, his situation would be easier. ”

How can a father think about his eldest son's accident every day, so that he can leave the family property to his second son? This heart is really boundless.

People's hearts really can't be changed for a while, although Emperor Jingfeng set up the eldest prince as the crown prince, but deep down he still prefers the second prince, and even has a very high tolerance for the Liu family, and he still wants to keep them in every possible way at this time.

Li Rui silently slandered, but still patiently persuaded on his face: "His Royal Highness is the most righteous prince except for the crown prince, if there is really that day, there is no need for the imperial brother to cultivate power for him in advance, he will also become the expectation of the public, and take over the throne smoothly." ”

"The prince is now in good health, gentle and filial, smart and studious, no matter how you look at it, he is a qualified prince. The imperial brother was thinking about how to keep the Liu family at this time, but he was afraid that they would become a stumbling block to His Royal Highness the crown prince before they became the arms of His Royal Highness the Second Highness in the future. ”

Emperor Jingfeng is a strong person and is easy to be suspicious, if this is said by someone else, he is afraid that he will suspect that the other party has already secretly sided with the prince. But it was King Zhao who said this today, his most trusted and beloved brother, and he rarely listened to it, and fell into deep thought for a while.

And Li Rui himself knew that if he didn't say this, he was afraid that no one would dare to say it to Emperor Jingfeng, so he simply said in one go: "Brother Dare to say a word, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is the prince, as long as the imperial brother you wholeheartedly cultivate him as the only heir, and don't have two thoughts, how can he have an accident?" ”

The crown prince is a high-risk profession, and most of the dangers come from the emperor himself. There is only one Liu family, and if he doesn't keep it, he won't keep it, but as long as Emperor Jingfeng still favors the second prince and wants the second prince to be the "prince candidate", he can continue to cultivate new forces for the second prince, and the prince's position will never be solid.

Emperor Jingfeng is the king of a country, if he doesn't want the prince to "have an accident", the prince will not have an accident. If he thinks about what to do if the prince has an accident every day, and makes a series of preparations for this, then the prince will definitely have an accident.

To put it bluntly, although Emperor Jingfeng set up the eldest prince Li Jinze as the crown prince, deep down he still did not treat him as a real heir, and always wanted to let his favorite second prince Li Jinche ascend to the throne at any time.

Now that the decision has been made, it must be consistent, otherwise it will only lead to disaster - King Zhao has already made it very clear.

Emperor Jingfeng sat without saying a word for a long time, suddenly his brows relaxed slightly, he glanced at Li Rui, the king of Zhao, and said lightly: "You are really getting bolder now, and you dare to say anything in front of me." ”

Li Rui knew that Emperor Jingfeng listened to it, and he didn't really get angry, so he said with a hippie smile: "Brother Chen's son has been a taboo since he was a child, if it weren't for the emperor's brother indulging me, I'm afraid that my butt would be opened when I was a child." ”

"You, you, I really don't know how to say hello." Emperor Jingfeng scolded him with a smile, and then returned to the previous topic, "But you are right, the Liu family has repeatedly taught and has not changed, I don't know how many big mistakes have been made, if I still cover them without a bottom line like this, it will drag Che'er back." ”

Li Rui smiled and teased: "Don't say anything else, let's just say that Gu Yunji and Fang Zigui were among the first-class jinshi at a young age, and they have the support of their respective forces behind them, this is the real minister of the humerus in the future." How can you let the capable ministers and virtuous ministers not want to go to the stupid ministers and mediocre ministers? ”

Emperor Jingfeng was overjoyed when he heard this: "Well said, I naturally want to be able to serve virtuous ministers, as for those stupid ministers and mediocre ministers, they should be cleared out, so as not to have a vegetarian meal in the middle of the court." ”

"However, although Gu Yunji and Fang Zigui are indeed good seedlings, if they want to grow into real virtuous ministers, they still have to go through good training. Just separate them, lest the two of them get together and think about how to calculate each other all day long. ”

Li Rui raised his eyebrows: "What is the imperial brother going to do?" ”

Emperor Jingfeng smiled meaningfully: "I have my own success. ”