My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 289: Are there smart people in the Li family?
"Kurikura..."

"Ah;"

"I didn't realize that this kid still has the heart to protect the family?"

"Hehehe..."

In the first year of Emperor Rong Xinyuan, it was the fifth month of summer.

Eastern suburbs of Chang'an.

Listening to the information brought back by the doctor Zhou Ren beside him, Liu Rong was surprised and couldn't help but laugh and cry.

In Liu Rong's view, his cousin Li Cang was a very typical Han relative.

——The combat power is not high, but it is somewhat there;
Being in power can achieve something, but that is all it can do.

The main point is that one can do a little bit of everything, but is not good at anything.

The most crucial thing is: as a Han relative after the demise of the Lu family, Kurikara is like the relatives of the empress dowager's family in every generation: he has a heart to preserve the family so that it will not follow in the footsteps of the Lu family.

Once upon a time, Emperor Taizong Xiaowen's maternal uncle, Bo Zhao, also had such a heart.

But after reaching a high position of power, the years of extravagant life and the endless indulgence, or even flattery, of Emperor Taizong Xiaowen eventually made Bo Zhao lose his way.

As a result, when it came to Emperor Xianjing, Empress Dowager Dou and the Dou family's in-laws were faced with the two lessons of the past: first, the Lu family brought chaos to the government, and then Bo Zhao brought about his own destruction.

As the third generation of the Han family's in-laws, seeing that both of her predecessors had become negative examples, it would be a lie for Dou to say that she was not worried.

Fortunately, Empress Dowager Dou's brothers, Dou Changjun and Dou Guangguo, were sold to the black coal mines in Guandong in their early years and experienced the ups and downs of life since childhood.

After they recognized Empress Dou, the two brothers were looked at with a magnifying glass by all the ministers in the court. They were even assigned many respected elders to teach them how to behave in society.

Over the years, the Dou family's in-laws have finally managed to ensure that their family will not become another Lu or Bo family by relying on these two honest and kind old uncles, as well as their strict family traditions that are far superior to those of the Lu or Bo families.

After the Dou family, it was the turn of the empress dowager's family during Liu Rong's reign: the Li family, a family of foreign relatives.

Compared with the previous Lu family, Bo family, and the Dou family which still exists today and stands at the top of the Han power pyramid, the shortcomings of the Li family's in-laws are more obvious than ever before.

——Compared to the Lu family, the Li family did not have a queen mother who was outstanding, clear-headed, and had amazing means to rule the East Palace;

Compared with the Bo family, the Li family neither provided any assistance to Liu Rong in his struggle for the throne, nor did they contribute several family members who were valued by Liu Rong or even helped Liu Rong to gain control of the military power.

Compared with the Dou family, the Li family does not have honest old men like Dou Changjun and Dou Guangguo to guard the rear.

To be more precise: the current Li clan is more like the entire Lu clan of relatives by marriage during the founding years, with the helmsman changed from Empress Dowager Lu to Madam Qi.

What does it mean that Madam Qi is the head of the household and leads the entire arrogant and domineering Lu family's in-laws?
It is not difficult to see that from Liu Rong to this day, he has not granted anyone from his maternal clan, the Li family, the title of foreign relative marquis. Even in Liu Rong's view, this is a rather troublesome issue.

Now, Liu Rong unexpectedly learned that his cousin Kurikura actually had the ambition to preserve the family and lead the family in the right direction. Although he was a little surprised, he also couldn't help feeling a little relieved.

Finally there is one;
No matter what, the Li family finally got rid of such a normal person.

Not to mention whether Kurikara has the ability or means - just to have this idea, ambition, and intention, Liu Rong already felt deeply blessed by God.

As for the rest, as long as Liu Rong wants...

"Give Kurakura a message."

"Well...just say that I asked you to bring it;"

"--Tell Kurikara not to bother with the emperor's bastard son."

"When you have some free time, go to the Pingyang Marquis's mansion more often and spend more time with Pingyang Marquis and his son."

"When the queen is about to give birth, let the women in the family come to the pepper room to talk with the queen."

Liu Rong knew exactly what Kurikara wanted to do, and he could figure it out with just his knees.

—— Kurikara certainly didn’t dare to harm the royal heir, or even to sow trouble in Liu Rong’s harem and get a share of Liu Rong’s royal heir.

After all, the few times Liu Rong scolded, and even cursed his aunt Liu Piao, were almost all in front of Li Cang.

Kurikara knew very well how much Liu Rong hated people interfering in his "family" or controlling his harem and royal heirs and making profits from it.

To take a step back, even if Kurikara had the guts to persecute Liu Rong's heir, he couldn't just openly ask Zong Zheng who might be pregnant with Liu Rong's child.

Therefore, the only reasonable possibility is that Kurikara wanted to be the first to invest in the future eldest prince, and thereby gain a strong political ally for the Kurikara clan, his in-laws.

Let me give you a very simple example;

For example, at this moment, a maid in a certain noble family is pregnant with Liu Rong's child, and it happens to be a boy;
If Kurikara had heard the news in advance, he could have taken immediate action to make friends with this woman who would surely be invaluable in the future.

When the eldest prince of the emperor comes as an envoy in the future, Kurikura can escort this child, and in this way make the future eldest prince of the emperor, and even the family of the crown prince, owe a huge favor to himself and the Kuri family.

In this way, if something happens to Li in the future - in Li Cang's opinion, with the Queen Mother Li in the East Palace around, something will definitely happen to Li, but no one knows when it will happen.

When the general is robbed in the future, Kurikara can rely on this friendship that was established long ago to get help from the eldest prince's family.

At the very least, it can leave a bloodline for the Li family so that the incense will not be cut off.

In Liu Rong's opinion, there are certainly disadvantages to what Kurikara did.

Take the previous example: as long as Li Cang bets on the eldest prince, especially the eldest son out of wedlock, then let alone whether the Li family can become the political ally of the eldest prince and his mother's family - before that, Queen Cao and the Pingyang Marquis family behind her will definitely become the enemy of the Li family!

Going further, this would directly lead to Empress Cao of the Pepper Palace in the Weiyang Palace and Empress Dowager Li of the Eastern Palace Changle standing on the opposite side.

Empress Cao certainly would not tolerate her mother-in-law, and actually instructed the family behind her to support the eldest son of the emperor's concubine;

It was even more impossible for Empress Dowager Li to tolerate her daughter-in-law disrespecting her for any reason.

What’s even more terrible is that in Liu Rong’s imagination, Queen Cao must give birth to children.

Because in Liu Rong's view, since the founding of the Han Dynasty by Emperor Taizu Gao, Liu Rong was the seventh generation of Han emperor. However, among the six generations of Han emperors other than Liu Bang, there was only Emperor Xiaohui Liu Ying, who was the eldest son of the previous generation of Han emperor.

——The former Shaodi Liu Gong was the eldest son of Emperor Xiaohui;

The later Emperor Shaodi Liu Hong was not even the eldest son, but the fourth son of a concubine.

Emperor Taizong Xiaowen was the fourth son of Emperor Taizu Liu Bang.

Emperor Xiaojing of the Han Dynasty, Liu Qi, was theoretically the eldest son, but everyone in and outside the court knew that the real eldest son of Emperor Taizong had died together with the Queen of Dai, whose family was Lu, when Emperor Taizong succeeded to the throne.

Empress Dou of Emperor Taizong, now Empress Dowager Dou, was not the first wife of Emperor Taizong, and Emperor Xiaojing Liu Qi was not the eldest son of Emperor Taizong.

Not even the eldest son of a concubine.

Then there was Liu Rong - the Empress Dowager Li of the time was still not the first wife of Emperor Xiaojing, and Liu Rong was only the eldest son of a concubine, not the eldest son of the emperor.

The Han dynasty was passed down for seven generations, with six emperors inheriting the throne, but only one was the eldest son (Liu Ying, the Emperor Xiaohui), and two were concubines (Liu Gong, the former emperor, and Liu Rong, the current emperor).

The other three were neither the eldest nor the heir...

This is terrible. In BC, when the eldest son inheritance system was still highly recognized by the whole society and even became an important part of the society, this is terrible in the Han Dynasty today.

Therefore, in order to bring history back to the right track and for the long-term stability of the Han Dynasty, Liu Rong firmly believed that unless Queen Cao and the Pingyang Marquis family behind her had any major flaws, by the time of Liu Rong's next generation, the Han Dynasty would have returned to the correct track of primogeniture.

At the very least, there should be a rule of primogeniture to succeed the throne, so as to prevent the Han throne from becoming increasingly biased in the future, leading to the strange saying that "anyone can become the emperor except the eldest son or the crown prince."

Therefore, Empress Cao would definitely give birth to Liu Rong's eldest son.

——Cao Shu was the queen chosen by Liu Rong after careful selection from among the many women of marriageable age of Marquis Pingyang.

Problems such as infertility and difficulty in having children had already been ruled out by the imperial medical team sent by Liu Rong.

If the first child was the eldest son, Cao Shu would probably give birth to three or four children - at least give the eldest son a reliable sibling.

If the first child, or even the first few children, were all daughters, Cao Shu would continue to give birth until she gave birth to a legitimate eldest son.

And this is exactly the major disaster that may be caused by Kurikura's early bet on the emperor's eldest son.

——Cao Shu herself was the queen, and would definitely give birth to the emperor's eldest son;

Liu Rong was determined to restore the system of primogeniture. In principle, he would definitely support his eldest son to be the crown prince and become the next emperor of the Han Dynasty.

Under this premise, Kurikara led the charge while Empress Dowager Kurikara controlled from behind to support the eldest son of the emperor's concubine?
If there is still no trouble, then there will be something fishy...

Liu Rong understood Kurikara's motives very well and was happy about it.

As long as Li was not like the former Empress Dowager Bo or Liu Piao, the Lord of Guantao who had not given up until today and insisted on making her own woman the empress, Liu Rong would be happy for Li to make friends with the maternal family of the next generation of crown prince in advance.

However, the maternal family of the crown prince was not one that Li could freely choose.

——It must be Cao!

Fortunately, Li Cang had not started to act yet, so Liu Rong was happy to go with the flow and lead Li Cang in the right direction.

"Li befriended Pingyang Marquis Cao, and thus established a connection with the Queen and the future Crown Prince;"

"When the crown prince gains power in the future, the Li and Cao clans will work together to support and protect the crown prince."

"Wait for me another hundred years, and Li and Cao will steadily hand over the power of the Eastern Palace."

"In this way, the Li family can be considered to have a soft landing..."

Taking these into consideration, Liu Rong couldn't help but secretly admire Kuriraku's great wisdom.

——The relatives of the Empress Dowager’s family are bound to decline.

Because the Queen Mother is not hereditary;

The empress dowager is a woman in your family, so your family is prominent. When the empress dowager is replaced, it will naturally be someone else who will be prominent. Your family will naturally have to give up the throne of "the largest family of foreign relatives" and become ordinary people over time.

Since they are bound to decline, there are actually only two options left for the maternal relatives' families.

——Will it have a hard landing like Lu’s relatives, or even explode and disintegrate in the air?

Or was it like the Bo family, with a sudden and unprepared landing, which, although not a hard landing, was also a decline without any warning?

Kurikura's final choice was: absolutely a soft landing.

Make good friends with the next generation of the Empress Dowager's family in advance, and transfer power in a peaceful and smooth manner, quietly withdrawing from the political helplessness of the Han family and even the stage of Chinese history.

Such wisdom made Liu Rong extremely pleased.

Naturally, I wanted to help this cousin...

"And give Kurikara one more word."

"——In the seventh month of autumn, the imperial court may recruit 200,000 good families from Guanzhong to go north to Yan and Dai to defend against the Hu."

"Although the Yu Lin and Huben schools have not yet been trained, I have often heard that reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles."

"If you have never seen blood or experienced the cruelty of a battlefield, no matter how magnificent the drills are, they are ultimately just a show."

"Have Kurikara prepare to select five hundred men from the Yulin and Huben schools who are seventeen years old or older and braver than the left and right. A total of one thousand men will be temporarily organized as a group to observe the battle and receive training."

"Kurikura Chika was appointed as the general and led his troops north in the seventh month of autumn to experience the battle."

For some things, it is enough to say them vaguely.

Just like Liu Rong's words, as soon as they reached Li Cang's ears, people around Li Cang would surely start to bow and congratulate him, congratulating him in advance on his upcoming title of marquis.

——The granting of titles of nobility to relatives by imperial courtesy has been a political unwritten rule that began with Emperor Taizong Xiaowen and will not be eliminated in the Han Dynasty in the short term.

Liu Rong would definitely confer the title of marquis on one or two of the Li family's relatives.

Rather than just picking a cousin, it would be better to give it to Kurikara.

Giving Kurakura another opportunity to prove himself and clear the way for his future title of marquis will make Kurakura more confident in the future.

The rest depends entirely on the luck of Kurikura and the Kuri family...

"Why haven't you seen the King of Hejian yet?"

After waiting for a long time at Shili Pavilion, Liu Rong still did not see his second brother Liu De arrive, so he subconsciously asked.

But beside him, the eunuch Ling Kuiwu shook his head in confusion, and then walked quickly out of the pavilion.

After a long time, he brought back a piece of news that made Liu Rong laugh and cry.

"Your Majesty."

"The King of Hejian and the King of Linjiang passed through Xinfeng and met the King of Jiangdu. The King of Jiangdu forced them to have breakfast with him."

"It was not until the King of Lu blushed in Jiangdu that the four kings set out and rushed to Chang'an."

"At the moment, there are still fifteen miles to go..."

Hearing this, Liu Rong took a deep breath, put on a faint smile, and looked into the distance with his hands behind his back.

Liu Rong hadn't seen his brothers for years, and he missed the days when they played mahjong in the Phoenix Hall.

However, as he had already become the emperor, Liu Rong knew clearly that he and his brothers were no longer just brothers, but had the additional identity of "king and subject".

Liu Rong already had a plan in mind on how to welcome his brothers who came to the court for an audience.

But at this moment, Liu Rong couldn't help feeling a little sad.

"That was the last time I saw my 'brothers';"

"From now on, the only people I will see are my Han clan relatives and the princes appointed by the previous emperor..."

(End of this chapter)