I am a commoner, but I will lead the empress to unify the world

"Appease one group and suppress another?"

The empress seemed to be thinking about something and nodded slowly.

Shen Changgong said,

"Your Majesty, the powerful are not a monolithic group. The world is bustling with people, all driven by profit. They only care about their own interests.

When we suppress one group, we can give the other group some benefits so that they will not resist.

Once we have the initiative and control the majority of the troops, the remaining small force will not be able to cause any trouble."

"You're right. This is your first step, seizing power. What does your second step, extending favor, mean?"

The empress nodded and her eyes lit up.

"The first step serves the second step. In the second step, we will use the Enfeoffment Order to weaken the power of the vassal kings.

Your Majesty, according to my understanding, we in Great Yan have more than 20 vassal kings, both large and small, in the south and in the north. They guard the borders, and at the same time they have their own troops and are self-reliant. It can even be said that they are nurturing enemies for their own benefit!

The big vassal kings had 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers and horses, and the small vassal kings had several thousand soldiers and horses.

If the feudal lords are not reduced, they will continue to recruit troops and threaten the imperial court."

"You are right. This is what the late emperor and I are most worried about. However, if we reduce the power of the vassal states, it will inevitably lead to resistance from the vassal kings, and they will not listen to the court.

If the imperial court suppresses them by force, they will certainly unite to resist.”

"Your Majesty is right. So, the same old saying applies: if we unite, we must divide! This time, we will start from within the vassal state."

After we complete the first step, Your Majesty will have more than 200,000 troops under his command and will be able to issue an imperial decree.

Your Majesty is so gracious that he allows all legitimate and illegitimate sons in every family to have the same right to inherit titles and property as the eldest legitimate son.

If the eldest son does not agree, then the title and property inherited by the eldest son are illegal and will not be recognized by the court.

In this way, the legitimate sons and illegitimate sons, who were originally oppressed by the eldest sons and could not raise their heads, will have ideas.

They will try to win over people and troops to fight against the eldest son.

We don’t have to do anything; they will just start to mess things up on their own.”

When the empress heard this, her eyes lit up, and Gongsun Wan'er, who was standing beside her, also gasped.

The empress sat up straight and said,

"In this way, within a few generations, the territories of the princes will become smaller and smaller, their power will be divided, and they will no longer be able to pose a threat to the imperial court.

But there is still a risk. Those vassal kings might disagree. If they are still alive, they will suppress the other sons and prevent them from taking any rash actions. They might even unite to rebel against the court's policies."

"Then let them die."

Shen Changgong smiled brilliantly and showed his fangs to the powerful and the princes!

"And we don't have time to wait for them for generations. I said, within two years, we will make Dayan centralized and prosperous.

The first step in seizing military power is to allow the imperial court to have absolute power to suppress the vassal kings, so that they will have to think twice before rebelling.

After the second step is implemented, they may not be too chaotic, so we need to add some fuel to the fire.

This is step three: inciting civil unrest.

When taking the first step, Your Majesty must begin to train a qualified intelligence and assassination team. I believe Your Majesty must have such an organization in his hands.

But it is not enough and needs to be expanded.

We need a lot of assassins and intelligence personnel to bribe the servants of those princes, or poison them, or assassinate them personally, etc.

Anyway, I just want those princes to die.

Once they died, how could their sons, who had been afraid to move, not have any thoughts? How could they not cause chaos?

They have the support of the imperial court behind them.

As long as the majority of the vassal kings start to rebel, even if a small number of them rebel, the imperial court can suppress them with its superior military strength and make an example of them!"

The empress was silent for a moment, and after going over the plan several times in her mind, she finally said,

"It's indeed a good idea. Without bloodshed, it not only solves the problem of powerful people abusing their power, but also solves the situation of the separatist princes and the court competing with each other.

Mr. Shen, you, a man of common origin, really make me look at you with new eyes.

Some people still think you are a reckless man who only knows how to kill people."

Gongsun Wan'er was full of black lines, you clicked on me, right...

The Queen continued,

"Your three-step plan is indeed good. I can consider it carefully."

"Your Majesty, I am talking about four moves, and the last one is missing."

Shen Changgong said slowly.

"Oh, yes, what's the last step?"

"Horse tramples on the gate!"

Shen Changgong continued,

"The first three steps were all preparations for this fourth step. My goal has never been to kill the powerful and weaken the vassal kings, but to make Great Yan strong, the treasury full, and the country rich and the people strong."

"Do you have any other ideas? What does it mean to be a horse stepping on a family?"

The empress's beautiful eyes became brighter and brighter, and the look she gave Shen Changgong became more and more surprising.

Shen Changgong picked up the teacup, moistened his throat, and then continued,

"Your Majesty, most of our country's wealth is not in the hands of the people, nor in the hands of the court, but in the hands of the powerful families, corrupt officials, and princes.

We want to seize their military strength and rob their wealth.

True prosperity is the prosperity of the country and the people, not the prosperity of a few people.

After the civil strife in each family, they will inevitably kill each other, become a chaotic mess, and each govern themselves.

When His Majesty heard the news, he was furious and rebuked them for plotting to murder their biological father and raising an army to rebel. This was disloyalty and unfilial, and was condemned by both humans and gods. The court immediately sent troops to suppress them.

The strength of the various princes caught in civil strife has been greatly weakened, and it is impossible for them to unite in the face of the imperial army. They all have their own ulterior motives. The imperial court can march on them with a large army, and then it will be up to us to decide whether to appease them or annihilate them.

Even if we were to appease them, we would still arrest them and bring them back to the capital and put them in jail.

At that time, their troops and wealth will all belong to the imperial court."

Hearing this, the empress suddenly smiled and said what she had prepared long ago.

"Your plan is a good one, but have you ever thought about the purpose of the vassal kings? There are nine kingdoms in the world. Our Yan Kingdom is in the northeast, Kun Kingdom is to the south, and the grassland barbarians are to the northwest. If you wipe them out, who will resist the troops of other countries?"

“Why resist?”

Shen Changgong asked back without thinking.

Gongsun Wan'er snorted coldly,

"Shen Changgong, what do you mean by this? Are we in Great Yan going to allow those enemy countries to attack us? What are your intentions?"

Shen Changgong smiled slightly and said,

"It's better for you to listen to me first before you start barking, or you'll be the one getting slapped in the face."

Hearing this, Gongsun Wan'er was so angry that her face turned pale and blue, and she almost drew her sword to kill Shen Changgong.

Shen Changgong ignored her and said to the empress,

"Your Majesty, why are you only thinking about how to resist other countries? Don't you have any ambition at all? Why don't we counterattack them?

"Hit the first blow, don't wait for a hundred blows!"