Dressed as the prince's substitute? I took the throne

Everyone filed in and stood in the imperial study, looking at Emperor Wu with a worried look on his face, and guessed the reason in their hearts.

"My dear ministers, I have secretly summoned you here to discuss an important matter!"

Emperor Wu rubbed his brows and said in a deep voice, "As you all know, there are four great vassal kings in the current Wu Dynasty: the King of Qi, the King of Zhao, the King of Yan, and the King of Wei!"

"In the early years, the King of Yan and the King of Zhao in the north suffered heavy casualties while resisting foreign invasions. Now they are retreating into their own fiefdoms to recuperate. It is estimated that they will not cause any trouble for decades!"

"However, the King of Qi and the King of Wei in the south have been frequently mobilizing their troops recently, even sending two honor guards to the capital. They claim they want to demonstrate their strength to the capital, but in reality, it's just a demonstration!"

Everyone looked at each other secretly. They had also heard about the affairs of the vassal kings, but since the last major changes in the court, each of their intelligence networks had been damaged to varying degrees, so they did not know much about the current actions of the vassal kings.

Moreover, those vassal kings are all of the same generation as the current Emperor Wu’s brothers. Some of them are old, even much older than Emperor Wu.

"The ambitions of the King of Qi and the King of Wei are already clear. I have secretly summoned you here today to ask for your opinions on how I should deal with these two vassal kings!"

After the words fell, there was a moment of silence among the ministers. An elderly official slowly bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I have a suggestion. Your Majesty could send envoys to the vassal kings' camps and offer them generous terms to temporarily appease them! In addition, reducing their annual tribute to the court might reduce their rebellious intentions!"

Another official stepped forward, but this one was a military commander, and his opinion was diametrically opposed to the previous civil official's. "Your Majesty, the vassal kings are no different from those foreign tribes. How many troops can they command? And even if they do, they are under the rule of our Wu Dynasty and have a deep respect for Your Majesty and the imperial court! If the vassal kings raise an army, I suggest gathering our forces to wipe them out once and for all, eliminating this threat forever!"

Xu Qinglong half closed his eyes, feeling quite disdainful. These generals in the court were very excited when they heard about the infighting, and everyone wanted to go up and get some military merit.

But when the foreign enemies really invaded and they had to fight with real weapons, they had long disappeared, and none of them dared even to raise their heads.

Zhou Chuxuan pondered for a moment, but did not speak now. When the opinions of these ministers failed to satisfy Emperor Wu, it would be time to turn to him, Yang Li and Xu Qinglong.

Sure enough, after asking several ministers for their opinions, Emperor Wu still shook his head, feeling very dissatisfied. The methods of these ministers were either too soft or too hard, and it would be difficult to eradicate the threat posed by the vassal kings.

Emperor Wu was silent for a while, then looked at Zhou Chuxuan and the other two: "Crown Prince, Sixth Brother, and Lord Xu, if you three have any opinions, feel free to speak up!"

The three of them were silent for a moment, tacitly waiting for someone else to speak first. Finally, Yang Li couldn't hold back any longer and spoke first, "Father, I think we should focus on recruiting them! If we use military force against these vassal kings, they will likely no longer care about the imperial court under their long-term rule!"

"If the imperial court forces them, they will surely follow the vassal kings in rebellion. Furthermore, our Wu Dynasty is threatened by foreign races. Isn't this a time of internal and external troubles?"

Emperor Wu nodded and looked at Zhou Chuxuan and Xu Qinglong: "Sixth Brother, Lord Xu, what are your opinions?"

Seeing Xu Qinglong pretending to be deaf and dumb and keeping silent, Zhou Chuxuan could only say in a deep voice: "Father, I think we can use the method of using the opponent's force to counterattack!"

"Borrowing strength?"

Emperor Wu's eyes flickered with doubt: "Then tell me more!"

"Father, to our east, the Liao Kingdom is eyeing us covetously. Now, the nations of the Western Regions have also deployed troops on our borders, ready to attack at any moment!"

"As long as the court promises them more generous titles and conditions, and lets them go to war, and rewards them according to their merits as long as they succeed! In this way, even if they return victorious, how much military strength will they have left?"

"Then we just need to separate them from our soldiers. Then we can do whatever we want with them. We can send them wherever we want."

Upon hearing this, Emperor Wu slowly nodded, "That makes sense! My dear ministers, I deeply agree with you. What do you think?"

"I second the proposal!"

The ministers did not have many firm opinions of their own, so when they saw that Emperor Wu agreed with Zhou Chuxuan's idea, they naturally did not have much objection and nodded in agreement.

After leaving the imperial study, Yang Li quickly caught up with Zhou Chuxuan from behind, smiling: "Your Highness is so smart and talented, he should be holding an important position in the court. Isn't it a bit of a waste of talent for you to be an idle prince in a remote corner?"

Zhou Chuxuan pulled the corner of his mouth and forced a smile: "Forget it, forget it, I am not very talented and learned, it was just a coincidence just now, I don't have any real ability, I don't deserve such an important position!"

After saying that, he quickened his pace. An important plan emerged in his mind. He had to rush back to train the Fuling Army and infinitely enhance the combat effectiveness of this army.

"Coincidence, I'm afraid it's not? Never mind, since Your Highness doesn't want to talk about this, then forget it!" Yang Li had no intention of letting Zhou Chuxuan go. He hurried after him from behind, chattering non-stop: "Your Highness, do you know that I'm going to be a father?"

Zhou Chuxuan paused, and looked at Yang Li in fake shock: "You mean Xu Hanyan..."

"Oh, that's right!"

Yang Li slowly folded his hands across his chest, the smile on his face growing more intense: "I never thought that I would give birth to a dragon seed for Wu Dynasty so soon!"

"It's just a pity that my father has already ordered that if I have a child, only my child can ascend the throne. I will never rule the world in this lifetime!"

Zhou Chuxuan sneered inwardly, but outwardly he still clasped his hands and said, "In that case, I would like to congratulate His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

"That's not right. How come I didn't hear Father mention such an important matter just now?"

Yang Li's expression froze slightly. He grabbed Zhou Chuxuan and walked forward, "Shh! Shut up! I don't want to tell Father yet! If I tell Father, I'm afraid my East Palace will be in turmoil from now on!"

"Oh! I see! This is His Royal Highness's private matter, I have no right to interfere! If there is nothing else, I have to go back first!"

Zhou Chuxuan sneered in his heart, and had already concluded that the person behind the scenes must have discovered that the child was his. That was why Yang Li took over and prepared to train the child to be his enemy!

It's a good calculation.

"Hey, Your Majesty, please stay!"