After rebirth, I joined forces with my mortal enemy to seek revenge.

Two imperial edicts, written in rich ink, lay before him. The Emperor of Wei scanned them briefly, then suddenly looked up at Pei Jiaoran.

After a long pause, the Emperor of Wei smiled. "You have now completed your plan, and you understand my intentions. Why didn't I write about you and Jia Gonglu? Do you have other plans?"

"I am not as good as Prime Minister Cen. As for Lord Jia, he and Your Majesty have had a long-standing relationship as a monarch and a minister. I dare not overstep my authority and make decisions regarding his life or death. Besides... isn't Your Majesty still thinking of killing me?" Pei Jiaoran said.

As soon as he finished speaking, Pei Jiaoran grabbed the teacup on the table and smashed it to the ground. At that moment, the doors on both sides of the palace opened, and the armored Shen Ce Army suddenly jumped out, led by Xu Yan, who was temporarily in charge of the Shen Ce Army.

Xu Jian suddenly appeared, looking at Pei Jiaoran, then at the Emperor on the throne, and then at his officers and soldiers, all in bewilderment. The Emperor had secretly summoned him and ordered him to lie in wait. The toss of a cup was a signal; upon hearing the drop of a cup, they were to charge immediately, but if they saw a hand signal, they would hold their ground. But the moment the Emperor made a gesture to stop him, he threw the cup to the ground.

The Emperor of Wei stroked his beard and said, "Mr. Xu, please leave. This was just a joke between me and Prime Minister Pei."

"Wait a moment." Pei Jiaoran looked at Xu Yan and said, "General Xu, please wait outside. Then, come with me out of the palace to receive the prince's imperial edict."

Hearing this, Xu Yan hesitated for a while, but finally led his men back to the side hall and left.

Once again, only Emperor Wei and Pei Jiaoran were left in the hall.

"You know I want to kill you, yet you still dare to come?" The Emperor of Wei stared at Pei Jiaoran coldly.

Pei Jiaoran sneered, "If Your Majesty wants me dead, you must have a reason. But I know that Your Majesty wants me alive now. You need me to escort the Crown Prince to the throne."

At her soft voice, Emperor Wei closed his eyes.

"Yes, I want to kill you." The Wei Emperor's voice was hoarse. "But which emperor in history didn't guard against powerful ministers? They were kind and supported others to oppose them, while they were ruthless and waited for the opportunity to take revenge. For example, Emperor Xuan treated Huo Guang, and Yuan Ziyou killed Erzhu Rong. There are countless people in history who usurped the throne by using powerful ministers. I can't give you any chance. You say you are not as good as Cen Xi and Huo Guang, but I don't think so. You have Huo Guang's prudence and your talents far surpass Cen Xi and even others. Huo Bolu is rare, so I fear you even more. You have the capital to overthrow everything."

"You are brilliant, knowledgeable, and well-versed in history and the present. I believe you understand that once the door to political power is opened, there is no end in sight." The Emperor of Wei curled up on the couch like a child. "You have already accumulated enough political prestige for yourself, and it is carried on you like a precious vessel. You schemed to eliminate Wang Yu, allowing Su Jinghui to take the throne, and then eliminated him. That time, I gave you the power to convict the surrendered ministers, but you did not kill them all, but instead let bygones be bygones. From that moment on, I knew that you understood power more thoroughly than I did, and even than Jia Gonglu did. At this point, I was afraid..."

"A person's thirst for power grows with desire, and desire represents the status quo. I was afraid that you would not abide by the rules, so I wanted to kill you. But your answer just now has changed my mind."

"Your Majesty has already said what you just said. I understand why Your Majesty wants to kill me, but Your Majesty overestimates yourself." Pei Jiaoran looked at him quietly. "Your Majesty views everyone as chess pieces, using the King of Wu to check the Crown Prince, and Jia Gonglu to check the Duke of Changli. Everyone is a chess piece in your hands. Let me ask you, if the Crown Prince is defeated by the King of Wu, do you think the King of Wu and Jia Gonglu are capable of taking over this power? Jia Gonglu is a genius who came from a humble family, and the Duke of Changli is the hope of the aristocracy to resist the imperial power, but they are all chess pieces in Your Majesty's hands."

"In fact, the Crown Prince's governing philosophy is most aligned with Your Majesty's, but what about Your Majesty? You, as a king, scrutinize your son and condone the King of Wu's repeated provocations of the Crown Prince. The power you granted the King of Wu has become the source of all the killing and chaos. You meticulously balance the power of all parties, seemingly confident of victory, but in reality, you are facing the punishment of the rules of the political game. There is no difference between aristocratic families and humble families. How can the humble families that rise because of the fall of aristocratic families not become new aristocratic families?"

"In the final analysis, it's just a change of people sharing the power; there's no fundamental difference. The people Your Majesty hopes for, they flock like crows and swarm like wild beasts feeding on a flock of elk. Can they really, as you expect, work together to keep the great ship of the Empire sailing? As for Your Majesty's attitude towards me..."

After a pause, Pei Jiaoran continued in a cold voice, "Fu Jian said to the Crown Prince, 'If the chieftains and ministers of the Six Barbarians do not obey your orders, they should be gradually eliminated.'" "Gradually eliminate them, gradually eliminate them. Before his death, the Emperor entrusted his ministers with the government, hoping they would guide and mentor the Crown Prince, serving as his wings. And yet, since they were wings, he told the Crown Prince he could eliminate them if necessary. Isn't that courting his own destruction? Your Majesty hopes the Crown Prince will follow Fu Sheng's example and eliminate me, but the Crown Prince is not Fu Sheng. He understands these four words better than Your Majesty does, and he never acts so simply in politics."

The Emperor of Wei smiled bitterly, then suddenly roared hysterically, "So what are you going to do? Are you going to give up this chess piece of mine? Never mind, you are worse than me... I am not as good as you."

Facing the Wei Emperor's sudden surrender, Pei Jiaoran's eyes revealed a complex emotion. Then, with a gentle expression, he lowered his sleeves and bowed, "Your Majesty, rest assured. I will bring His Royal Highness the Crown Prince with me. You are not a pawn in my hands; you are the helmsman of the empire, aren't you? I will immediately obey your order and go to fetch the Crown Prince. I hope Your Majesty takes care of himself."

After saying this, Pei Jiaoran turned around and left.

Stepping out of the palace, Pei Jiaoran looked at Xu Yan, who was waiting in front of him, and the corners of his lips curled up slightly. The words of the Emperor of Wei just now floated in his ears. But the Emperor of Wei was still wrong.

The pinnacle of Machiavellianism lies not in the depth and breadth of calculations, but in a deep understanding of the dynamics of power and its dynamics. A true Machiavellian, like a master of chess, transcends the concrete actions of the board to perceive the ebb and flow of power and the shifting dynamics of each move. They understand that power lies not in rules and regulations but in the support of the people and the reality of the situation.

Therefore, his moves are never focused on superficial encirclement and destruction, but rather on building momentum. A situation where all of the opponent's options become mired in uncertainty, inevitably collapsing without a fight. At this point, victory or defeat is no longer determined on the chessboard; it is already determined before the opponent's will collapses.

Every opponent she's encountered so far has their own strengths to admire. Like a warrior, she observes each opponent's moves, and through countless attacks and blocks, she has discovered her own path and defined the boundaries of her power.