Identity Sets Identity

Chao Cuo had a straight face and still had no good feelings toward the emperor's brother.

During these days, the only one Chao Cuo considered his greatest enemy was the King of Wu in the south.

The king of Yan was brave but violent and arbitrary, the king of Liang was strong but had few talents and knowledge, the king of Qi was rich but had no great ambitions, the king of Changsha had strong generals but was cowardly, and the king of Zhao was mediocre and incompetent.

And kings such as Jiaodong, Hexi, Chengyang and others are not worth mentioning.

Only this King of Wu, who has a strong country and a peaceful people, is united as one, is ambitious, resourceful, and good at winning people's hearts, is simply the temple's number one enemy.

The entire Wu Kingdom was willing to fight to the death for him, and the ministers sent by the temple to supervise him were all willing to be used by him in the end.

The reason why Chao Cuo had such a strong desire to cut down the vassal clan was probably due to his deep fear of the King of Wu.

His prestige is too high and his strength is too strong. I don’t say whether he has the idea of ​​​​rebellion, but he already has the preliminary ability to rebel. If he does not rebel, what about his son? Where is his grandson?

Chao Cuo looked at the King of Wu in front of him with hostile eyes, not hiding his malice at all.

Liu Heng was very calm and not afraid at all.

"The King of Wu is really brave. He came to me pretending to propose cutting off the vassal clan? Haha, isn't your Majesty afraid of losing the heart of the clan?"

Chao Cuo said sarcastically.

"In the past few days, I have received a lot of attention from Mr. Chao. Mr. Chao has provided a large number of talents to our country of Wu every year. I am deeply grateful. I have come here today to express my gratitude."

Liu Heng replied very seriously.

Chao Cuo immediately broke his guard and almost cursed.

From time to time, he sent some people to divide the power of the King of Wu and supervise the King of Wu, but the people he sent stopped listening to him when they went to the Kingdom of Wu. They were moved by the King of Wu and defected to the King of Wu directly, and some even wrote back letters.

, persuade Chao Cuo not to be so hostile to his own king.

Chao Cuo gritted his teeth and said angrily: "If you have anything to do, just tell me and don't delay me from doing my business!"

Liu Heng then spoke: "I'm here this time for the royal power. What you want to do is to reduce the vassal state. I'm afraid it's not appropriate. Your Majesty has never said that you want to weaken the vassal states.

It should be the king's power. It is a good thing for the Han Dynasty that the princes and kings are strong. It is a bad thing for the princes and kings to be strong. These days, I have always disagreed with your idea, not because I object to your restriction of the princes and kings, but because I oppose it.

You weaken the vassal states."

"You yourself often say that the people in the vassal states only know their own country and don't know about the temples, but why don't you do the same? You always treat the vassal states as outsiders, and when you hear which vassal state becomes rich and powerful, you start to grin. Could it be that

Say, aren’t the people of these vassal states the people of the temple? As the third prince of the temple, you should be happy for the prosperity of the vassal states."

Chao Cuo was no longer angry at this moment, he sneered.

"According to your opinion, I should write a letter to reduce taxes to the vassal states, so that they can accumulate more food and raise more armies?"

"You have been promoting the equality of counties and states. To be honest, I have been looking forward to this and have been paying attention to your approach. Unfortunately, your approach has disappointed me."

"I thought you were going to turn the vassal states into counties, but I didn't expect that in the end, you turned the counties into vassal states."

"What is the difference between today's counties and vassal states? There is no difference between county guards and princes and kings. You also noticed this, so you couldn't wait to attack the county guards this time, right?"

Chao Cuo's face darkened, "After all, the time for the unification of the world is too short. The concept of region is difficult to change. Every place regards other counties as foreigners and has no recognition, let alone vassal states. I want to change this view.

, all that can be done is to open up communication between various places on a large scale.”

"That's why you agree so much with the Food and Drug Administration. Chao Cuo, who has always emphasized agriculture, supported the Food and Drug Administration in a high-profile way because business can speed up exchanges between different places and break down the barriers between people of different races, right?"

Upon hearing Liu Heng's question, Chao Cuo's eyes flashed with surprise, and then he shook his head.

"There are many people who can guess this. Your Majesty once told me that there are two kinds of exchanges, one is war and the other is trade. Of course I can only adopt the second option. Merchants are running around everywhere, and Your Majesty has opened the door to the people.

We impose restrictions on them, allow them to go out, and even encourage those who are left to live in various counties. This is all to change the situation of treating the county as the country and excluding other counties."

Because we have not experienced the situation of almost annihilation by the barbarians, at this moment, there is no common identity as the same ethnic group among various places. When we meet, we will not say that we are all Han people, but that we are Runan.

Man, since you are from Yingchuan, we have nothing to do with each other. Many times we are even hostile, even in counties, let alone vassal states.

Liu Heng nodded, "That's why you want to actively organize the governor system, right? The prince proposed the governor system to govern the local area, but you want to form the same state identity in the county, at least in the future, Runan

When people meet people from Yingchuan, they will not fight each other, but will think that everyone is from Yuzhou. They are from the same area. Under the governor, there are counties and vassal states. In other words, the counties and vassal states will have the same

Regional identity. In fact, you are quite thoughtful and talented. I dare say that there are very few temple ministers who can compare with you."

Chao Cuo just felt very angry. He gritted his teeth and said, "Oh, I didn't expect that."

What made him angry was not that King Wu saw his thoughts, but that the people in the world who could understand his thoughts and were his confidants were actually his biggest enemies in his heart.

"I can help you handle this, whether it's to be the governor or to limit the royal power. Of course, I'm still better at the royal power. I still have a lot of say in the clan. What do you want the royal power to achieve? If you want to

The princes and kings have completely become decorations, and the power is completely handed over to the ministers. In this generation, at least it is still impossible. It is not that we are unwilling to let go, but the situation does not allow it. The temple still needs people like us, maybe three or four years from now.

In ten years, local governance will be great, roads will extend in all directions, and orders from the temple can be conveyed to any place. At that time, the princes and kings can play in the palace with peace of mind, and power will come from the prime minister."

"I understand this. I want to promote the reform of the vassal states, so that the vassal states will be the same as the counties, with three powers. The princes and kings can supervise them to do things. If the temple allows, they can command them to face the enemy, but they can no longer be the king of a country.

, act wantonly and must obey the dispatched governor. The governor must be qualified to supervise the princes and kings."

"Can."

Liu Heng nodded.

"Then what do you need me to do?"

Chao Cuo asked. He didn't believe that the man in front of him would help him unconditionally. Liu Heng stared into his eyes and said, "It's very simple. After the matter is completed, I want you to resign from the position of the Three Lords."

"Does it make you feel threatened if I serve as the third official?"

"No, what the big man needs now is to move forward steadily. You are too radical and are not suitable to continue to be the third official."

"Okay, if this can be done, I will submit a letter to resign. However, it is hard to say whether His Majesty will agree."

The two reached an agreement on this.

At the same time, in Changle Palace, Zhao Tuo was chatting with Empress Lu about some past events. The two elderly people had quite a lot in common.

When they talked about the situation in the Qin Dynasty, the young people around them seemed to be listening to a book from heaven and could not understand that era at all.

"I see that the King of Nanyue is getting tougher and tougher. He is much younger than when he first paid homage to me."

Queen Lu sighed with emotion.

Zhao Tuo shook his head, "How could it be? I have been in the south for a long time. You also know the situation there. There is miasma everywhere. When it rains, it will rain endlessly. I am such an old man. When it happens,

When it rains, the pain is unbearable. I really don’t know how much time there is left. I hate that my son has no talent and is very young. But the Queen Mother is getting younger and younger."

"No matter where. Now, I can no longer walk without a cane. My appetite is getting less and less, and I can't even eat a bowl of rice."

Zhao Tuo chuckled lightly, "That Zhang Xiang is still in the best health. I heard that Xiang Zhang can still eat meat and drink wine, and often takes concubines. Seriously..."

"You're not bad either. I heard that you often fought with soldiers in South Vietnam, winning and losing. I know you are brave. Because you were the most outstanding in martial arts, you stayed with the First Emperor to protect him, and later went to South Vietnam.

, often defeating more with less, charging on foot with spears in hand, beheading dozens of people, and rising to the rank of three nobles in one battle, unstoppable."

"The people of South Vietnam are extremely frightened and dare not fight again when they see you. To this day, your reputation has not been weakened."

Zhao Tuo's expression changed and he shook his head hastily, "These are all rumors. How can I fight with soldiers at my age? It's just for physical exercise. Those soldiers also let me go, just for fear of getting hurt. I don't know.

Why is it spread that I fight with soldiers? Is there anyone in the world who is nearly eighty years old and can still fight with soldiers? It’s you who is so radiant."

Liu Chang, who had been listening all the time, finally couldn't bear it anymore.

"Yes, yes, you are both young. One is a warrior, and the other is glowing with light. I am old. I can't lift it with my hands or carry it on my shoulders. Can we change the topic?"

The conversation between the two was immediately interrupted.

Liu Chang grabbed Zhao Tuo's hand and said, "Now that we're done talking, come with me. I have something very important to discuss with you!"

Zhao Tuo was dragged by Liu Chang all the way to Houde Hall. Liu Chang let go of his hand and looked at the old man in front of him, "Mom is really right, you are still quite strong. If you were thirty years younger,

Years old, maybe we can still have a fight."

Without Empress Lu, Zhao Tuo's expression immediately became a lot more wild.

He said proudly: "If I were thirty years younger, I could hold you here and beat you."

"Oh, Xiang Yu doesn't even dare to say such things!"

Liu Chang was quite disdainful and raised his arm with bulging muscles, "Did you see it?"

"You dragged me here from Changle Palace just to show me this?"

Liu Chang sat down boredly, "I need your help with something, and you have to do your best to help me."

"I have lived in the south for too long. I don't even know that the etiquette in the Central Plains has become like this. Looking for someone to do things is still the same. You can just lie on the bed and say: Zhao Sheng, help me do this.

Wouldn’t it be better this way?”

"Chao Cuo wants to kill the king, and the fourth brother has promised to come forward. The fourth brother is the most prestigious among the kings, and you are the oldest among the kings. You are almost as old as the four Jiaodong kings, so

, I hope you can help my fourth brother and follow him to complete this matter. As long as you two agree, I think the other kings will not dare to object. I will not leave this matter completely to you.

I will personally take care of it, but you still have to handle the specific matters."

"If I speak in person, they will definitely not object, but my second brother has just passed away, and I don't want to speak at this time. It's better for you to do it."

Zhao Tuo's eyes twitched, "I am the king of the princes. You want me to cut myself?"

"You don't have to cut it. There is a difference between being forced to cut it and cutting it on your own initiative, right?"
To be continued...