Although Prince Zhou felt cold behind his back, he finally lowered his head and said, "It's... it's the Yang family's fault..."
After hearing this, Emperor Zhou finally nodded with satisfaction: "Since it is the fault of the Yang family, how should I punish the Yang family?"
"This..." The prince knelt on the ground, speechless.
The Yang family is his support. To weaken the Yang family is to weaken him as the prince. His status is already much lower than before. Now if he secretly undermines the prince, how can he survive in the future?
Has he now gone from being a confirmed heir to a semi-conquered heir apparent?
When the second prince saw that Xu Qing was silent, he cupped his hands towards the Emperor of Chu and said, "Your Majesty, if our State of Zhou negotiates peace with the State of Chu, our State of Zhou will definitely waste its people and money again. I think that the Yang family's crime this time is unforgivable and must be severely punished!"
"
When the Crown Prince of Zhou heard what the second prince said, he felt resentful, but he did not dare to say a word.
Once his father really accuses him of forming a party for personal gain, it will not only be as simple as secretly weakening his own power and followers, but also the position he has always cherished as the crown prince may not be guaranteed.
Emperor Zhou thought about it for a while and said: "Although the fault of this defeat lies with the Yang family, after all, it is my Zhou family. We have worked hard over the years and have made great achievements. Even if the punishment is deserved, the punishment cannot be too severe."
Imperial Master Zhou glanced at Emperor Zhou and understood clearly in his heart.
Since ancient times, the emperor and the aristocratic family have always disliked each other. Although they both respected the emperor, they often played tricks behind their backs.
And the aristocratic family controls most of the scholars in the world, so rashly suppressing them will only hurt themselves.
If you want to suppress an aristocratic family, you must have reason and evidence. Only when the aristocratic family is at fault can the emperor take action.
Guilty first, then punishment.
This way, there will be no backlash from scholars all over the world, and aristocratic families will find no excuse to hold their noses and admit it.
Of course, there is a more ruthless way, which is to choose a family that you don't like, start from the first person, uproot the family, and cut off all the foundations with lightning speed.
As a result, the scholars who are attached to this aristocratic family will immediately disperse and go elsewhere.
However, this method is not easy to use and has many limitations.
The country must be strong, free of major internal and external troubles, and the imperial power must be highly centralized.
Zhou Guo cannot do this at present.
It should be said that it is difficult for any of the three Central Plains countries to achieve this.
On the one hand, there were foreign enemies around, and a hasty elimination would destabilize the country; on the other hand, it was because of the opposition between the prime minister's power and the imperial power.
Nowadays, the emperor cannot command the court by himself alone, and there are two prime ministers below him.
The imperial power of the Zhou Kingdom and the power of the prime minister mutually restrict each other. The advantage of this restriction is that the emperor alone may not always be 100% sure of what he says, which can effectively prevent the emergence of faint kings. Even if the next emperor is a fool, the country will not be too chaotic.
As for the disadvantages, if the emperor is a wise and wise emperor, such restrictions will become a shackles on the emperor, and he will not be able to do what he wants to do. In the end, after brainstorming, he will become rigid and timid, and the revenge in the emperor's heart will not be realized at all.
Even Emperor Zhou could only look for opportunities to weaken the family's power bit by bit.
If he really wanted to uproot the Yang family, a century-old family, he didn't have the courage.
…
After shirking his responsibilities, Emperor Zhou also indirectly achieved his goal. He looked at the prince standing in the imperial study and asked: "Although the Yang family wants to be punished, there is something more serious than punishing the Yang family.
For important things."
Prince Zhou, who had just stood up and had a bruised and swollen forehead, asked hurriedly: "I wonder what your father is talking about?"
Emperor Zhou glanced at him and said, "Who should be sent to the Chu State to negotiate peace?"
"This..." Prince Zhou couldn't help but fell silent when he heard this. Not only Prince Zhou, but also the second prince and the third prince, who had always acted as the atmosphere team and had extremely poor presence, also lowered their heads.
When my father asked this question, it was clear that he wanted to choose someone among them to serve as the peace negotiator!
Peace envoys are not as good as regular envoys and deputy envoys.
It is quite humiliating for the defeated side to send peace talks to the victorious side.
Because the peace envoys have to sign the peace treaty, they must also write in the land cession and compensation.
Although the emperor ordered the peace envoy to agree to these conditions, do the people dare to scold the emperor?
The people did not dare to scold the emperor...
So who do you blame?
Then we can only scold the peace negotiator.
Losing territory and paying compensation, traitorous ministers...
This kind of work is not done by normal people.
If they can agree to it, then that’s a ghost!
Besides, is it possible for a prince of a country to serve as a peace negotiator?
The prince doesn’t want to lose face?
The same goes for the second prince. After all, he is also the son of a beloved concubine. How can he do such a humiliating job?
Although the third prince has no sense of existence, his mother is from a famous family and has a position in the court!
Is it appropriate to let him do the entire peace negotiation?
It’s obviously inappropriate!
The last peace envoy who went to Chu State to negotiate peace was scolded miserably by the people, and now he is still being scolded as a traitor by the people, causing them to lose hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to Zhou State.
Emperor Zhou looked at all the princes who were silent and snorted coldly: "You have been talking about sharing the country's worries and sharing the world's worries all day long. But now when I want to use you, you are hesitating and passing the blame to each other.
What’s the point?”
The prince lowered his head and found an excuse and said: "Reporting to my father, I have never been out of the Zhou Kingdom, and I am not very familiar with the Chu Kingdom. If I go there rashly, I am afraid that if I do not handle it properly, I will damage the state of the Zhou Kingdom."
Emperor Zhou heard this and asked: "Who do you think the prince is more familiar with?"
The prince said: "Reporting to my father, my sixth brother once served as an envoy to the State of Chu. He must have been very familiar with the court of the State of Chu. I think it is more appropriate for my sixth brother to go as an envoy."
The Imperial Preceptor on the side heard this and said: "The Sixth Prince is a concubine. This peace negotiation is related to the great cause of our Zhou Kingdom. If the peace negotiation envoy goes to a concubine prince, I am afraid that the Chu State will feel that our Zhou State is not sincere. If
Therefore, the state of Chu refuses peace talks, which will plunge our people into war again."
Emperor Zhou nodded and said: "What the Imperial Master said is reasonable. We are here to negotiate peace. If the status of the peace envoy is low, it will not show the sincerity of our Zhou Kingdom."
This time they defeated the enemy and negotiated peace, rather than sending someone to provoke the enemy into war.
The Sixth Prince is naturally not suitable.
Just when the prince lowered his head and was at a loss, the second prince said: "Father, I think there is a more suitable candidate."
"Oh?" Emperor Zhou asked, "Who is he?"
The second prince said: "Since the Yang family has made a big mistake this time, why not choose a high-ranking person from the Yang family to be the peace envoy? It was the Yang family that disrupted Shengting and caused the people to fall into war. Now the Yang family is sent to
