In the courtyard and under the grape shed, Zhao Mengniang and her son Li Qi were talking.

The palace maids were all over ten steps away, and there were only mother and son under the shed, so what Li Shi said was only heard by Zhao Mengniang.

"Since ancient times, the prince has been hard to be a prince and performs too well, which will inevitably make the emperor suspicious."

"But if you perform poorly, you will easily be caught."

"For the prince, how to grasp a good degree is very important. Therefore, it is impossible for the elder brother to take charge of the battle. Even if the father has this intention, the mother will dissuade him."

The "mother" that Li Qi referred to as the legitimate mother, namely the queen Huang Gui, who called her biological mother Zhao Mengniang "mother".

Zhao Mengniang listened silently. The topic was very sensitive, but she knew that her son needed a partner to talk to, so she had to listen to her son and say what she was saying.

"But, the elder brother must have 'power', and the father must want to create 'power' for the elder brother. Then, letting the second son take charge of the battle is a good choice."

When Zhao Mengniang heard this, she asked, "Why aren't the eldest son of the sage?"

Li Shi was the eldest son of the sang. After hearing his mother's question, he replied: "The child cannot go. If he goes, he will be the target of public criticism."

"How do you say this?" Zhao Mengniang asked knowingly, and Li Shi replied: "The position of emperor will be passed on to the crown prince in the future, but when the emperor is here, the crown prince cannot rob it."

"So, in order to restrain the crown prince, the emperor will generally support another prince and divide the power of the crown prince."

"For example, during the Three Kingdoms, Emperor Sun Quan of Wu, in order to restrain the prince's descendants and support the prince of Lu, Sun Ba, to fight with him, the treatment of King Lu was no different from that of the prince."

"Relying on his father's favor, Sun Ba became determined to fight for the throne, and he entangled his followers and attacked Sun He and his subordinates."

"Sunhe's mother, Mrs. Wang, had a gap with the princess Sun Luban. Sun Luban remarried Quan Cong, and Quan Cong's second son Quan was the confidant of the King of Lu. So Sun Luban slandered Mrs. Wang in front of Sun Quan all day long, causing Mrs. Wang to die in fear."

"The favored prince is getting worse and worse. I am afraid that he will be abolished, so I can only fight back. The King of Lu's desire to plan for the position of prince is stronger, and he will win over more officials to cheer for him. This is a battle between the two palaces."

"Although Sun Quan prohibits the prince, King Lu from interacting with court officials, the situation begins to get out of control, and many court officials are brought in, further arousing Sun Quan's suspicion and even taking action."

Zhao Mengniang asked again: "What is Sun Quan suspicious about?"

Li Shi replied: "The more people plead for the prince's children and grandsons, the more Sun Quan was worried that Sun He would threaten him, and believed that the ministers were all standing on the prince's side and hoping that he would die soon."

"So, Sun He was deposed as King of Nanyang and moved to other places to house arrest. The position of prince was empty, but it was not King Lu Sunba who sat on it."

"Sun Ba is just a tool used by Sun Quan to restrain the prince's descendants and grandchildren. There is no possibility of becoming a prince. When the prince is deposed, Sun Ba is responsible for the fierce discussions of the court and the country. Sun Quan must appease the people."

"The dispute between the two palaces forced the court officials to be divided into two factions. Many officials of the prince died because of this. Now the prince has been deposed. If Sun Quan made Sun Ba the crown prince, then should all the officials who supported the former crown prince be eliminated?"

"The people who support the prince's sons and grandsons are mostly Jiangdong clans, including Gu, Lu, Zhu and Zhang."

"If we want to completely eliminate it, the involvement will be extremely great, and the State of Wu will inevitably fall into civil strife and be taken advantage of by other countries."

"So, Sun Quan was afraid of Sun He and won the hearts of the people. After he abolished him, he would have to borrow Sun Ba's head to appease the Jiangdong clan."

Speaking of this, Li Shi smiled bitterly: "Historically, princes who are supported by the emperor and restrained the prince are just tools. How many can they get what they want and successfully fight for the throne?"

"Even if it succeeds, it is just following the footsteps of the former prince. My father will definitely support another prince to restrain the new prince."

"Even if someone has not replaced him, Prince Ping'an waited until the emperor became the 'Last Emperor' and successfully ascended the throne. After he ascended the throne, he remembered the days when he was bullied and trembling when he was hidden in his residence..."

"Will you have a good impression of this younger brother who almost squeezed out?"

"Next, the head coach who led his army into Guanzhong is likely to be the prince. If this prince has made such great achievements, he will be able to become the one who will restrain the prince."

"The concubine's son cannot participate in this kind of thing, because it is not the concubine's son who is the crown prince, so the child can only pretend to be stupid when choosing the head coach."

Zhao Mengniang was very pleased that her son could see so far, and signaled her to have tea, and said, "You can see this, it's good."

"When your father is here, you brothers will be safe and sound, but in the future, the new king will be a blessing or a disaster. It depends entirely on whether you will be human beings before."

"Don't think about the throne, it's not your turn. There are four legitimate princes. Even if they are brothers and brothers, it's not your turn."

"Don't be a tool for your father to restrain the prince. Doing such a thing will inevitably cause grudges. Will you let you go when the new king ascends the throne?"

"Yes, the queen is sensible. If she becomes the queen mother in the future, she may say something fair to you, but how many times can she say it? You have to make your brothers feel that you cannot pose a threat so that life can continue."

"Your father really wants to treat all the legitimate and illegitimate equally, but the fact is that legitimate and illegitimate are different. There is only one throne, so the candidate must be only selected among the legitimate princes. It is impossible for a illegitimate son to have a chance."

"So, don't think that your father is good to you and you have the chance to be the prince. That's just a flower in the mirror and a moon in the water. It looks right in front of you, but you can never touch it."

"Your father always has to take a step first. Next, the new king is the one who decides your life and death. This person can be the current prince or one of his brothers."

"No matter who it is, you should not offend you. If you are really wronged, you must also endure it. Don't think that if you have a father to make the decision, you can be unreasonable. Your father cannot protect you for the rest of your life."

"If an ordinary family turns against his brothers, they will be like strangers and never interact with each other. However, the Tian family is different. The new king will kill people and vent his anger."

"Although I am second only to the queen by your father,..." Zhao Mengniang looked around and confirmed that no one was there, and said softly: "But even if the queen dies and I am in charge of the harem, I will never become the queen."

"If the queen really leaves first, your father will not reopen, so don't be lucky."

Li Shi nodded: "Mom, I understand."

Do you really understand? Zhao Mengniang is not sure, but it is of great importance. She always mentions it at the right time to avoid her son being lucky.

If the queen "left first", Li Li would not be able to renew the strings and establish a new queen. Zhao Mengniang knew very well.

Not to mention personal feelings, just talk about reality: Is the prince born in a new queen a legitimate son?

So is the son of the first queen or the legitimate son?

How should the prince deal with himself? How should the old relatives Huang's family, in-law Peng's family, and the princess's concubine's mother's family, Wu's family?

It is impossible for Li Li to kill his first wife's sons and in-laws for a re-string, because this will shake the foundation.

Therefore, it is impossible to doubt that the throne is only due to the four sons of Huang Gui.

If Li Li wanted to support a legitimate prince to restrain the crown prince, Huang Gui might not be happy, but if he chose the concubine's son to take on this role, except for the eldest son Li Qi, the other concubine's son, were not qualified at all.

If this is the case, Zhao Mengniang will not be happy: The throne has nothing to do with my son. Is there anyone who pushes his son into the fire pit like this?

"Don't worry, mom, the child knows the right way. When my father asked, the child just said he didn't know." Li Qi comforted his mother. These days were rest days, so he didn't have to live in the school and went home to live for a while.

Zhao Mengniang asked: "So do you have any ideas? Or a solution?"

"Yes, just buried in my heart."

"Now, let me tell you?"

"good."

Zhao Mengniang knew that her son had ideas and needed to talk to someone, so she took on this "role" so that her son would not be able to talk to others and leak news.

Li Shi’s idea was actually very simple. He analyzed to his mother:

The father needs momentum, and the elder brother (the crown prince) also needs momentum. Destroying Zhou is the best opportunity to create "strategy".

If the result of "a tiger father has no dog son" can be achieved, it will be the most perfect.

But if the crown prince takes charge, his "power" will pose a threat to his father's "power".

If other princes take charge, it will pose a threat to the crown prince's "power".

There is also a solution to this contradiction, that is, appoint a prince who is friendly to the prince and has no ambition to the throne (such as being a concubine and not being able to be the throne) to take charge.

In the future, when the new king ascends the throne, the prince will be the loyal left and right arm of the new king, and can be used to hit foreign ministers or royal family at any time.

Zhao Mengniang thought this method was good, but Li Qi changed the subject: "During the Liu Song Dynasty, Emperor Wen Liu Yilong appointed his younger brother Liu Yikang, the King of Pengcheng."

"Because of Liu Yilong's brother and the young emperor Liu Yifu being deposed, Liu Yilong was extremely wary of foreign ministers. In addition, he was in poor health, so he valued Liu Yikang very much."

"First he went out to the important place in Jingzhou, and later he entered the court to record the affairs of the Shangshu, and he was in charge of the affairs of the court. His trust was beyond the reach of anyone."

"However, after a long time, Liu Yilong could not sit still because his younger brother was powerful and posed a threat to the imperial power. The people around Liu Yikang also had ideas about the throne."

"Liu Yilong was already suspicious. After hearing the news, he killed Liu Yikang's confidant, demoted Liu Yikang from Jiankang, and placed him under house arrest in Ancheng County, Jiangzhou."

"When the court officials saw that Liu Yikang was a dog who fell into the water, they realized the intention of the emperor, and they called for fighting and killing him, accusing Liu Yikang of rebellion. Liu Yilong sent someone to investigate. No accident, the evidence was conclusive, so they planned to exile him to Guangzhou."

"At this time, the Song army failed in the Northern Expedition, and the Wei army marched southward to the north bank of the Yangtze River. Liu Yilong was worried that someone would support Liu Yikang, so he sent someone to Ancheng County to be killed."

"Liu Yikang was unwilling to commit suicide by taking poison, and was suffocated to death by someone using a quilt."

After Li Shi talked about Liu Yikang's story, he analyzed: "In the face of power, father and son are still jealous of each other, let alone brothers. If the sect king who is trusted by the emperor and his elder brothers will be in power for a long time, it will sooner or later arouse the suspicion of the emperor's brother."

"Use the king of sects, and rebellion; without the king of sects, the imperial power was taken away by foreign ministers. Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, such things have been staged again and again, and there is no solution."

Seeing that his son was talking so carefully, Zhao Mengniang became worried: "What should we do? Then we will send troops to attack Zhou State, and we will take the prince as the commander, but no matter who is the commander, there will be problems?"

Li Zhi nodded: "Yes, so it's very tricky."

When he had time, he often read history books and various private history (historical books compiled by privately), so he "sees" all kinds of things that have happened around imperial power for hundreds of years.

I often think about it, so I figured out one thing: the weak power of imperial power is the key.

The world has been quarrels for hundreds of years, and dynasties are common, regardless of north or south, and the founding emperors can still hold on to the situation, while the second emperors can easily capsize.

Removed all kinds of appearances, Li Shi believed that it was the weakening of imperial power, which led to the emergence of a series of problems.

There is a lot to explain the essence of imperial power. Li Qi thinks that it is the most straightforward to explain it in one paragraph:

The basis of imperial power is military power. The essence of imperial power is instability, which is instability of military power.

In order to achieve a smooth handover of imperial power (military power), we cannot expect that the new kings are all geniuses, and they can only rely on systems to ensure it.

However, it is people who constitute the system. If there is a problem with people, any system will be useless.

Therefore, the most important thing is to make interest-related: What benefits can they get if civil and military officials support the Li family as emperor?

Or, if another family becomes a royal family, will their interests be seriously damaged?
To be continued...