A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

You can lend someone your services, but you absolutely cannot acknowledge someone as a protégé or former subordinate.

Li Longji understood the subtext in Wei Mai's tone: he only needed to obtain military power from these people and didn't care about anything else.

As long as they are willing to cooperate and hand over their troops to his men, that will be enough.

"The Prince of Wu'an is renowned throughout the land for his military strategies and tactics. I wish to send some incompetent individuals to learn from him."

His appetite wasn't limited to local armed forces; he also coveted elite border troops.

"I will write to the Prince of Wu'an, Your Majesty, and suggest that those generals worthy of cultivation be allowed to follow the Prince of Wu'an to guard the frontier."

Wei Mai frowned as he looked at Li Longji's satisfied gaze. After a moment of thought, he nodded with some difficulty.

He was faking it all.

No matter what you, Li Longji, say, if you want to control these troops, you must use people to control them.

But with such a large appetite, do you have enough manpower?

You, Li Longji, were an outstanding emperor, with countless capable people and a great number of talented individuals under your command.

The Wei family has cultivated its influence for a thousand years. What makes you think those people would choose you over the Wei family and the emperor?

It's just a matter of transferring wealth from one hand to the other. There will certainly be some loyalists among them, but the loss to the Wei family is perfectly acceptable.

Does Wei Mai not know what Li Longji is thinking?

He had already thought of that.

But he doesn't care.

Because no matter what, they will always be invincible.

My people are my people, and your people are still my people, so how can I lose?

But Wei Mai could not easily agree; emperors have always been the most suspicious people.

If he readily agreed, Li Longji would likely start to suspect some kind of conspiracy.

Seeing the troubled expression on Wei Mai's face, Li Longji felt extremely pleased.

So what if it's the Wei family? So what if you're the heir of the Prince of Yan?

Now, aren't we forced to agree to Li Longji's conditions?

I am the true ruler of the world and the emperor of the four seas!

The joy Li Longji felt was comparable to that of the day of his coronation ceremony.

After Li Longji and Wei Mai reached an agreement, they temporarily held back their troops and secretly mobilized border troops.

After the border troops arrived, Li Longji directly dispatched dozens of his trusted men, guarded by the Imperial Guards, to various parts of the country.

Border troops were also stationed in various places to assist the imperial envoy in thoroughly investigating the burning of the Changping granaries in various places.

Wei family's former protégés and officials in various places also received the notice and were instructed to fully cooperate with the local imperial envoy.

These actions all happened directly, bypassing the three provinces, and the imperial court did not receive any information at all.

It was only after the various families' influence in different regions was suddenly attacked that they wrote letters to the capital, and only then did they learn of the situation.

The group was completely dumbfounded, and they all rushed to Li Longji, begging him to retract his decision.

However, Li Longji didn't care at all. He had already decided to turn against them, so why should he see them again?!

Aren't you just asking for trouble?!

He even cancelled the grand court assembly for the next few days, just to prevent these people from bothering him.

When the powerful families saw that Li Longji refused to meet with them, they resorted to their ancestral skills and began to smear his reputation, forcing him to meet with them.

But before they could make a move, they discovered that another force was faster than them.

The details of Li Longji's dispatch of numerous imperial envoys spread rapidly throughout the country and gained the approval of the people in various regions.

This matter will be put to rest, and even these powerful families cannot shake it, because the Wei family's name is on it.

With the Wei family endorsing this matter, no one in the world would doubt its authenticity.

One by one, people from various families were implicated in the incident, and their families were implicated.

Countless people applauded and cheered.

Some family heads who were deeply involved in this matter felt as if they had fallen into an ice cave.

With the Emperor and the Prince of Yan joining forces, how could they possibly contend with them?!

They frantically contacted the top families, hoping to band together for mutual support.

They wanted to use the vast power of the interconnected aristocratic families to force Prince Yan and Li Longji to back down, and they were willing to return double all the grain they had swallowed.

When the news reached Li Longji, he looked at Princess Yuzhen with displeasure.

This was his most beloved younger sister; he never expected that these aristocratic families would actually manage to persuade Yu Zhen to help.

"You should not get involved in this matter. I know what I'm doing."

"Guards, escort Princess Yuzhen back. Order her to return to her residence and reflect on her mistakes. She is not to leave the residence even once."

Emperor Xuanzong of Tang directly sent troops to seal Princess Yuzhen's residence. Although he doted on his younger sister, as an emperor, he clearly knew what he truly wanted.

After this incident, he will make amends to his younger sister.

"Investigate who invited Yuzhen."

"Arrest them all and throw them into the dungeon for severe torture."

Watching his sister's departing figure, Li Longji said coldly.

Seeing that even Princess Yuzhen's path was not feasible, these aristocratic families did not sit idly by and wait for their doom.

They mobilized their respective resources, concealed their identities, and began to resist the imperial court.

It seemed as if the whole country was in the final years of a dynasty, with war raging everywhere and rebels everywhere.

Moreover, these rebels were extremely well-equipped, had ample supplies, and did not interfere with each other.

Even with the protection of border troops and imperial guards, these powerful families in the area were not to be underestimated.

Even the Wei family couldn't control all the military forces in the world; the human heart is the most unpredictable thing in the world.

With these powerful families going all out, a large number of imperial envoys were also killed.

Emperor Xuanzong of Tang also faced assassination attempts multiple times, encountering numerous perilous situations.

What angered Emperor Xuanzong even more was that Princess Yuzhen was assassinated. If it weren't for Prince Shou being in the capital and saving her life, Princess Yuzhen would have perished in the assassination attempt.

The resistance of the aristocratic families did not end, and Emperor Xuanzong's children were also assassinated one after another. Even though Li Longji had arranged for them to be heavily guarded, the tentacles of the aristocratic families were everywhere and impossible to guard against.

Of Emperor Xuanzong's fifty children, seven died, twelve were seriously injured, and almost all of them sustained minor injuries.

Even the powerful families weren't having an easy time. With the help of the Wei family, most of these powerful families, no matter how well they hid themselves, were eventually exposed.

They were all executed along with their entire families for the heinous crime of assassinating the prince!

Seeing that Emperor Xuanzong and his relatives were heavily guarded, it was difficult to achieve any further victories.

These powerful families began to target other members of the royal family. If we can't kill Li Longji and the many princes and princesses, can't we at least kill you?

Surely Li Longji couldn't possibly spend so much money on these distant relatives as well?

The royal family suffered heavy casualties due to the frenzied assassinations by these powerful families.

The remaining members of the royal family were also afraid. They rushed to the palace to beg Li Longji to show leniency towards these powerful families.

They didn't want to die.

Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, fell silent. He had never imagined that these aristocratic families would be so crazy as to attempt to assassinate the emperor.

When they failed to assassinate him, they assassinated his son and daughter, resulting in the deaths of seven people.

After realizing there were no more opportunities left, they began to target other members of the royal family.

Even though he slaughtered several aristocratic families involved in the assassination, they showed no fear whatsoever.

Li Longji regretted it somewhat; he had acted impulsively this time.

In fact, it wasn't just him; even Wei Wen and the Wei family lineage were assassinated, as were other members of that lineage, the descendants of the Prince of Wu'an, the descendants of the Prince of Shou, and the descendants of other branches of the Wei family. The losses were extremely heavy.

"Guards, summon the Prince of Yan to the palace immediately."

Li Longji was starting to feel the strain; if things continued like this, their royal family would be wiped out.

He felt that the Wei family must have suffered the same fate, after all, so many people from the Wei family had died.