The Later Three Kingdoms: Slaying Deng Ai, and Reviving the Han Dynasty

Qiao Zhou was a renowned Confucian scholar and a prominent figure among the elite in Yizhou. Yet, in broad daylight, he inscribed these words on a pillar in front of the palace.

The news spread immediately.

The Northern Royal Palace.

The front palace was where Yang Yong and other officials worked.

The insults were particularly fierce and very offensive.

"That Qiao Zhou is really something, he's not even pretending anymore. He's going to betray the country. The emperor should issue an urgent decree to execute Qiao Zhou as a warning to others."

"Will beheading them serve as a warning to others? Their entire clan should be exterminated and their bodies left to rot in the wilderness."

"That's right, there should be rivers of blood."

Prime Minister Yang Yong and his ten guests all had ferocious expressions and were cursing loudly. They couldn't sit still while cursing, and some stood up and paced back and forth, some pointed with their fingers like swords, and some drew their swords, wanting to kill people.

The gathering is large and numerous, the meeting is scheduled, and the gifts are distributed. How can this be repeated?

Wow, those are really good words.

As a renowned Confucian scholar from Yizhou, with countless disciples and followers, and with the emperor being weak and incompetent, he was fearless and emboldened.

This is like spitting in the faces of Emperor Zhaolie and the Prime Minister, humiliating their achievements.

Steam all the women in his family.

The crowd cursed with all their might, their teeth clenched, their blood boiling with fervor, but gradually they grew frustrated, their passion cooled, and they lost their strength.

Yang Yong sighed, "What's the use of cursing him? If I had the power of the prime minister, I would have killed his entire family. But the prime minister is dead, he's been dead for many years. Now the power is in the emperor's hands. Only he can kill Huang Hao and Qiao Zhou."

At this point, Yang Yong sat down and burst into tears.

The ten guests also embraced and wept bitterly, as if the country had already perished.

"Waaaaah! How could my great Han Dynasty have come to this?"

"The achievements of Zhaolie and the foundation laid by the Prime Minister have been scattered like this. Oh, how cruel is Heaven to the Han Dynasty?"

"Our dynasty has nurtured scholars for four or five hundred years, and this is the kind of thing we've produced."

"I want to commit suicide so that I can see the late emperor before the country is destroyed." Someone drew his sword, ready to kill himself.

"Foolish." He was stopped.

Birds of a feather flock together. They were summoned to the Northern Palace by Liu Chen, where they were told stories of Zhaolie's (Liu Bei's) entrepreneurial endeavors every day.

In addition, they are all idealists, and they are old and don't have many years left to live.

Their time in the royal palace further strengthened their idealism.

It made them feel as if they had returned to the glorious years when Emperor Zhaolie and the Prime Minister were alive.

Qiao Zhou's words brought them back to reality. It turned out they were nothing more than a group of useless people who cursed behind closed doors.

Methods? Schemes? They had no ideas whatsoever.

It turns out that Emperor Zhaolie and the Prime Minister have been dead for decades. Now it is Huang Hao and Qiao Zhou's world.

They hated, they were angry, they were anxious, they... were at their wits' end.

Suddenly, Yang Yong wiped the tears and snot from his face with his sleeve, stood up and said, "I want to see the King and ask him to petition the Emperor to kill the entire Qiao Zhou clan."

The guests immediately stopped crying and looked at each other in bewilderment.

To be honest, Liu Chen treated them well. They were very comfortable with Liu Chen, but as for their impression of him...

In short, it can be summed up in one sentence: "Ashamed to be the grandson of Zhaolie."

Liu Chen was greedy and stingy, and his hunting was unrestrained. He was also very lustful. Rumors are circulating in the palace that Liu Chen is infatuated with two beautiful concubines, and spends his days…

Getting Liu Chen to step forward is probably no easier than Liu Biao persuading Zhuge Liang to come out of seclusion.

Before the guests could stop him, Yang Yong strode out of the room, sword in hand, and headed for the inner palace.

The snot and tears on his sleeves glistened and shone brightly in the sunlight.

He was the prime minister and held a high position in the palace. He went straight into the inner palace, inquired about Liu Chen's whereabouts, and then headed to the study.

Inside the study.

Liu Chen leaned back on the low table, covered with a thick cloak, and dozed off with his eyes half-closed.

"Your Majesty," Yang Yong said, bowing respectfully as he entered.

The eunuch guarding the door hurried in, glaring angrily at Yang Yong. "Do you know what it means to barge in without announcing yourself?"

"Go down," Liu Chen said, waving his hand at the eunuch after waking up.

"Yes." The eunuch glared at Yang Yong again before turning and leaving.

"Hmph, eunuch." Yang Yong was fearless, secretly scoffing in his heart. He cursed the eunuch as if he were Huang Hao.

"Why do you barge into my study?" Liu Chen sat upright, carefully covering his legs with his cloak before looking up and asking.

"This old minister begs Your Majesty to submit a petition to the Emperor to execute Qiao Zhou." Yang Yong took a deep breath, explained his purpose, bowed, and said resolutely.

"A large and numerous gathering, a planned meeting, all prepared and distributed—how could this be?" A glint flashed in Liu Chen's eyes. The history books were not mistaken; Old Qiao had indeed done this. Truly audacious and fearless.

Liu Chen felt a strange unease, but smiled calmly and said, "You are confused. I am the king, and a king listens to music and indulges in sensual pleasures. I do not concern myself with matters of the court."

"Absurd!" Yang Yong roared in anger, "Your Majesty is a vassal of the Han Dynasty. Seeing the nation in peril, shouldn't Your Majesty stand up?"

He paused, then added, "If the Han Dynasty falls, wouldn't it be a case of 'when the nest is overturned, no egg remains unbroken'? Your Majesty may also face death."

"Insolence!" Liu Chen said, his expression hardening.

"How dare you!" Yang Yong, his face flushed and neck red, refused to budge an inch. His eyes blazing, he asked, "Will Your Majesty submit a memorial?"

"No," Liu Chen shook his head resolutely.

"I'm so angry!" Yang Yong's face turned visibly red, as if steam was about to rise from it. His breathing became rapid, and the veins on his forehead bulged. His hands clenched and unclenched repeatedly, and he was furious to the extreme.

But he was also very sad. Could he really put a sword to Liu Chen's neck and force Liu Chen to submit a memorial?

Yang Yong stamped his foot and cursed, "King of the North, what kind of king are you? You are greedy, lustful, and stingy, and you have no restraint in hunting. You are unaware of impending doom. Don't you feel ashamed before Emperor Zhaolie?"

"Do you know the proper etiquette for a subject?" Liu Chen asked in return.

"I don't need this prime minister anymore." Yang Yong was furious. He took off the seal from his waist, threw it on the ground, and turned to leave.

"Hahahaha." Liu Chen burst into unrestrained laughter.

"What are you laughing at?" Yang Yong was even angrier, turning around after stopping and asking. Did I say something wrong? You coward, lecher, and miser.

Liu Chen stopped laughing, stood up, walked to the seal, bent down to pick it up, dusted it off, and carefully handed it to Yang Yong, saying, "Qing, it was certainly satisfying for you to leave in a huff. But how do you know you're useless as prime minister?"

After a pause, he said with a smile, "You think this prime minister is unsatisfactory because I am lustful, greedy, stingy, and have no restraint in hunting. In short, I am a mere boy, a wet-headed fool. But I think you are still useful. If it weren't for you teaching me, I might have done much more than these things."

"For example, abducting women, for example..."

Liu Chen gave Yang Yong a meaningful look, then carefully tied the seal to Yang Yong's belt, and said, "Now that I've said this, do you still intend to resign and leave?"

Yang Yong was immediately dumbfounded. Yes, he felt that this matter of the prime minister was meaningless. He felt even more that Liu Chen, the Prince of Beidi, had let down the descendants of Liu Bei.

But after listening to Liu Chen's twisted logic, I actually found some truth in it.

"If it weren't for me, the King of the North would have truly become a tyrant!!!!" Yang Yong's mind conjured up images of the strange and unusual Liu family princes who emerged during the four hundred years of the Former Han and Middle Han dynasties.

The Liu family has virtues, but they also have harmful influences.

Those fierce, licentious, cunning, and cruel feudal lords.

Suddenly, Yang Yong felt a great responsibility. He had already done a good job educating Wang; if it weren't for him...

Taking advantage of Yang Yong's momentary loss of anger, Liu Chen smiled and summoned a eunuch to escort Yang Yong back, also giving him food and drink.

Have a drink, old man, to calm down.

After everyone left, Liu Chen continued to laugh, but his laughter was chilling.

He was smiling, but it seemed like a prelude to murder.

"Three more years," Liu Chen said with a smile, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword, his fingers gently gripping it.