The ministers begged me to ascend the throne

Chapter 565 Deep Pit
Back then, the Xie family cooperated with the Zhao family. It seemed that the Xie family had taken a fancy to the Zhao family, but in fact, everything was a scheme of the Zhao family.

At that time, it was not only the Zhao family that was fighting for the throne, there were other forces, but these forces were far inferior to the Zhao family. At that time, the Zhao family had already conquered two-thirds of the country, which was enough to qualify to ascend the throne and become emperor. However, the Zhao family was not in a hurry to become emperor.

Although the Zhao family did not declare themselves emperor, they brought their troops to the capital. The capital was controlled by the Zhao family, and everything was decided by the Zhao family.

All the people who had followed the late emperor and the emperor in establishing their empire urged them to ascend the throne and become emperors as soon as possible, but the late emperor and the emperor did not do so yet, as if they were waiting for something.

The excuse given by the previous emperor was that there were still traitors and rebels, they had not completely conquered the country, and the world was not completely peaceful. After they dealt with the remaining traitors, they would ascend the throne and become emperor.

In fact, there was another reason why there was no rush to establish a country and become emperor at that time, and that was the shortage of weapons and food.

Seeing that the Zhao family was short of food and weapons, the Xie family immediately took the opportunity to propose cooperation with the Zhao family.

The Zhao family had settled in the capital a long time ago, but the aristocratic families in the capital had been reluctant to cooperate with the Zhao family. On the surface, these aristocratic families sent people to send some gifts to make friends with the Zhao family, but in fact they looked down on the Zhao family.

The noble families looked down on the peasants the most. In their eyes, peasants were pariahs. The Zhao family was born into a peasant family, which made them pariahs in their eyes.

Cooperating with the untouchables would damage their status. But for the safety of their family, they still sent someone to deliver some things to the Zhao family.

They felt that they had taken the initiative to send people to deliver things to the Zhao family, which was a gift to the Zhao family and an honor for the Zhao family, and the Zhao family should be grateful.

The person sent to deliver the gifts was arrogant, looked superior, and used a tone of almsgiving, but was killed on the spot. After that, many soldiers went directly to attack these noble families who looked down on others.

Although these noble families in the capital had their own troops, they were no match for the Zhao family. Many of the noble families in the capital had died, which made them realize that the Zhao family was not easy to mess with. If they dared to put on a noble posture in front of the Zhao family, the Zhao family would not let them go.

After being dealt with by the Zhao family, the noble families became very honest. They flattered and actively tried to please the Zhao family and wanted to cooperate with them.

After seeing the Zhao family's tough tactics, the Xie family no longer hesitated and took the initiative to find the Zhao family to discuss cooperation. If they were any slower, the future queen position would become someone else's.

The Duke of Zhenguo and his son went in person to discuss cooperation with the Zhao family. The father and son kept a very low profile and did not act superior in front of the late emperor and the emperor.

The Xie family experienced war and turned from a camel into a horse, but as the saying goes, a lean camel is bigger than a horse. The Xie family is still the leader of the aristocratic families in the capital.

The Zhao family's father and son were not surprised at all that the Xie family took the initiative to approach them for cooperation.

The Xie family was very sincere in their cooperation and tried their best to provide weapons and food to the Zhao family, but there were conditions. The condition was that the Zhao family and the Xie family would become relatives and the Xie family would marry their daughter into the Zhao family.

At that time, the legitimate daughter of the Xie family was too young to marry into the Zhao family, so she could only marry a concubine's daughter. Before marrying into the Zhao family, the concubine's daughter was adopted by the legitimate mother of the Xie family and became the legitimate daughter of the Xie family.

The Xie family attached great importance to this marriage. When the late queen married the emperor, the Xie family prepared a grand wedding ceremony with a length of ten miles.

The wedding of the emperor and the late queen was extremely grand and is still talked about today.

At that time, the marriage cooperation between the Zhao family and the Xie family also reassured other noble families. Before, the Zhao family taught many noble families a lesson, making them think that the Zhao family disdained to cooperate with noble families, which made the noble families uneasy.

On the surface, with the help of the Xie family, the Zhao family quickly cleaned up half of the remaining one-third of the bandit forces. After that, the world was basically peaceful and no large-scale wars would break out again.

The Zhao family was still in no hurry to establish a country and become emperor, but the Xie family could not sit still. The biggest reason for the Xie family to cooperate with the Zhao family was that they wanted the daughter of the Xie family to be the queen, so that the Xie family could become royal relatives again.

Under the urging of the Xie family and his subordinates, the late emperor was finally willing to establish a country and proclaim himself emperor.

After the late emperor ascended the throne, he immediately appointed his only son Zhao Zheng as the Crown Prince and Xie Wan as the Crown Princess.

Before he ascended the throne, the late emperor was not in good health. He had been in battle for many years and had been injured many times, and his life was on the line several times. When he was young and strong, the sequelae of these injuries were not a big deal, but when he was old, these sequelae would become fatal injuries.

Five years after ascending the throne, the late emperor died of illness.

Before his death, the late emperor repeatedly reminded his son not to forget the original plan, and not to be blinded by wealth and glory and forget to deal with the aristocratic families.

In the eyes of the late emperor, as long as the aristocratic families are not completely eradicated, the court will never be completely stable and ordinary people will never have a chance to make a breakthrough.

The late emperor hated the aristocratic families to the core.

Zhao Zheng promised the late emperor that he would eradicate the aristocratic families and would no longer allow them to control the court and endanger the people.

After the emperor ascended the throne, he continued to lay out his plans and eradicated the aristocratic families bit by bit. So far, all the powerful aristocratic families have been eradicated, and even the Xie family, the head of the aristocratic families, has fallen. Since then, there have been no more aristocratic families in the capital.

The Xie family fell, King Jing was demoted, and now only the King of Chu and the King of Wei are left to compete in the court.

The ministers all knew that the next battle would be between the King of Chu and the King of Wei. It was hard to say who would win or lose.

In the Prince of Chu's mansion, Yang Ling and the Prince of Chu were discussing what to do next.

"Your Highness, the King of Wei is more difficult to deal with than we thought." Yang Ling finally understood everything that happened in the capital. "The King of Wei first eliminated the King of Dai and the King of Han, and the King of Yue. Now, the King of Wei has eliminated the King of Jing and the Xie family. This method... is really chilling."

To be honest, these two things made the King of Chu realize that the King of Wei's methods were even more unfathomable than he had imagined. He had never underestimated the King of Wei and had always regarded him as a strong enemy, but he did not expect that he had underestimated the King of Wei.

"Your Highness, all these things, one by one..." Yang Ling paused and showed an uneasy look on his face. "Your Highness, I always thought that we knew a lot about the King of Wei, but now it seems that this is not the case." The King of Chu frowned slightly and said, "I underestimated him."

"Your Highness, let's not talk about other things. Just talk about the rebellion of the King of Dai and the King of Han. It is not something that ordinary people can plan." Yang Ling was shocked by the King of Wei's methods. "The King of Wei not only has unfathomable scheming, but also has treacherous methods. It is really difficult to deal with him."

The King of Chu said: "Counterattack when you see the move."

When Yang Ling thought of King Jing who was driven back to his fiefdom, a look of doubt appeared on his face.

"Your Highness, why did the King of Wei let the King of Jing go? This is not like his style." At first, he thought that the King of Jing would die accidentally on the way back to his fiefdom, but he did not expect that the King of Jing would return to his fiefdom safely. "Could the King of Jing still be useful to the King of Wei? The King of Jing is arrogant and looks down on the King of Wei. Even if he was demoted to a county prince, he would not cooperate with the King of Wei who came from a humble background."

The King of Chu was confused about this matter and had no idea what the King of Wei was up to.

"Your Highness, His Highness the King of Han should know something." Yang Ling still remembered that before the King of Dai and the King of Han plotted a rebellion, Zhao Yao came to the King of Chu and told him to be careful. "The King of Dai and the King of Han plotted a rebellion together, and His Highness the King of Han seemed to know about it in advance, otherwise he would not have come to you in advance and told you those words."

The King of Chu guessed that the King of Han would rebel, but he did not expect that the King of Yue and the King of Dai would also be involved.

"Even if my tenth brother knows something, I can't ask him. We have already agreed that he should not get involved in the affairs between me and the King of Wei."

Yang Ling also knew about this matter, so he did not say anything more about Zhao Yao who was far away in the Swamp Prefecture.

"Your Highness, let's send someone to keep an eye on King Jing." King Wei would not let King Jing go for no reason. He would definitely use King Jing to do something, so they had to be on guard.

The King of Chu nodded slightly: "Well, send someone to keep an eye on it."

"Your Highness, why don't we take action first?" Instead of passively waiting for the King of Wei to take action, it would be better for them to strike first.

The King of Chu shook his head slightly and said, "Just wait and see what happens."

"Your Highness, if you strike first, you will gain the upper hand. If you are late, you will miss the opportunity."

"King Wei is just waiting for us to make the first move," said the King of Chu. "We should wait and see how things develop, and stay the same in the face of all changes."

After hearing this, Yang Ling felt that it made some sense, so he nodded in agreement and said, "Then let's wait and see what happens."

At this time, the emperor in the imperial study was playing chess with Prime Minister He.

"Old He, who do you think will make the first move next, Old Four or Old Eight?"

He Xiang said: "I don't know."

The emperor glared at Prime Minister He and scolded him with a smile, "Old fox."

He Xiang clasped his fists and bowed to the emperor: "I am not as treacherous as the emperor."

The emperor accepted the compliment calmly, "Thank you for the compliment."

It was not the first time that Prime Minister He had seen the emperor being so shameless, so he was too lazy to pay attention to him and continued playing chess.

“There are only a few small Luoluo families left. Let’s clean them up together after a while.” The small Luoluo families the emperor mentioned are the second- and third-rate families in the capital.

"Your Majesty, was it your idea to cooperate with the Xie family or the late emperor's idea?"

"Of course it was the old man's idea."

He Xiang didn't believe it, "It was your idea."

The emperor denied: "No."

"Whether it is true or not, the marriage with the Xie family was a good plan." At that time, the Zhao family and the Xie family formed a marriage, and he and Lao Liu thought that the late emperor and the emperor wanted to appease the aristocratic families, not to win over the aristocratic families. Unexpectedly, the late emperor and the emperor wanted to deal with the Xie family. "This plan has been set up for decades, and I sigh that I am not as good as it."

At the same time, Zhao Yao, who was far away in the Swamp House, finally came to his senses and realized that the emperor's marriage with the Xie family was a conspiracy.

"It must not be Grandpa Emperor's idea. It must be the plan of my wicked father." Grandpa Emperor was indeed very resourceful in fighting wars, but when it came to court affairs, he was not so far-sighted.

From the beginning, they had their eyes on the Xie family, and even asked the Xie family to take the initiative to propose a marriage alliance. The Xie family was happy about this, thinking that they would have a queen in the new dynasty, and their status and power would be restored to the past. I didn't expect this to be a deep pit.

The former Duke of Zhenguo and his son never understood until their death that they had been betrayed by their wicked father, the emperor, who had turned the Xie family from the head of a noble family into the common people that they had always looked down upon.

So cruel, so cruel.

Having said that, I have to admire my father's foresight and planning ability.

It turns out that when it comes to being insidious and treacherous, no one can be more treacherous than my stinky father.