"Starving yourself to death..." Chu Chen looked at Princess Xinyue strangely, "Do you really think that method will work on His Majesty?"
"This won't work, that won't work, then tell me, what should be done?" Princess Xinyue said angrily, "Can you persuade the Empress Dowager to give up on my marriage?"
Chu Chen's heart leaped with joy.
He had been waiting for Princess Xinyue to say this.
If he had gone to the Empress himself to persuade her to give up on Princess Xinyue's marriage, it would have seemed very strange.
But now that Princess Xinyue said it, it was completely different. This way, he would have a legitimate reason.
Chu Chen's expression turned slightly bitter, "Your Highness, please don't make things difficult for me. How could I possibly persuade His Majesty!"
"Then what should we do?" Princess Xinyue sighed, "Perhaps we should just run away."
Chu Chen inwardly thought, "No, my acting is too good, I've overdone it."
"However, if Your Highness is willing to trust me, I can try," Chu Chen quickly said.
"Can you really do it?" Princess Xinyue looked at Chu Chen with suspicion.
She hesitated for a moment, "Forget it, it's not good if you anger the Empress Dowager and get punished."
Chu Chen said helplessly, "Would that be more serious than accompanying Your Highness to escape the palace?"
Princess Xinyue chuckled sheepishly, "That's true. Then go and try."
"Good luck! I'll be waiting for your good news!" Princess Xinyue said with a smile, "I knew it, Little Chenzi treats me the best!"
...
"Did Xinyue send you?"
Before Chu Chen could speak, the Empress saw through his intentions.
"Your Majesty is wise," Chu Chen bowed, "I have a question, may I ask Your Majesty to answer it?"
The Empress put down her work, propped her chin with her right hand, and looked at Chu Chen with interest, "Speak, I'd like to see how you intend to persuade me."
"May I ask Your Majesty, from which group of people will the Princess select her consort?"
"Naturally, it would be from the noble families and royal clans. Only these people are worthy of my daughter's status."
Chu Chen nodded slightly. It seemed that things here were not much different from ancient times in his previous life. If that was the case, then the experience he had learned from his previous life could be used here.
"I learned from Your Highness that once married, one cannot hold any power. This measure is presumably to prevent internal strife?"
"Correct," the Empress nodded lightly.
"But in my humble opinion, this rule is better than nothing," Chu Chen said decisively.
"Do you know that this is a policy I formulated?" The Empress's eyes narrowed, and her expression became somewhat dangerous.
Chu Chen nodded slightly, "I know, but even if it is a policy formulated by Your Majesty, it has many shortcomings."
The Empress's expression was calm, making it impossible to discern her emotions, "Oh? Then tell me, where are the shortcomings?"
Chu Chen bowed, "Your Majesty is magnanimous. If I have offended you, I beg Your Majesty to forgive me."
Then, Chu Chen expounded his theory.
Before the Empress came to power, the Yunyue Kingdom's previous practice was to grant married princes and princesses fiefdoms, allowing them to help defend the borders or govern the country.
However, whether it was defending the borders or governing the country, to accomplish these missions, these people needed to hold power in their hands – military power, financial power, and personnel power, all of which were indispensable.
In their own fiefdoms, they were no different from local emperors.
And this was precisely one of the problems that had plagued ancient dynasties for thousands of years: the rebellion of feudal lords.
"If Your Majesty does not allow princes and princesses to hold power, then who will hold the power that should have been given to them?" Chu Chen said calmly.
When the Empress ascended the throne, she encountered the rebellion of feudal lords. It took her great effort to quell the internal strife and successfully ascend the throne.
She naturally did not want her own children to encounter the same situation when they ascended the throne.
Therefore, the method she came up with was to not allow other siblings to hold power.
The Empress's eyes sharpened, clearly realizing the seriousness of the problem.
Power was there for the taking. Since the Empress did not allow the princes and princesses to hold it, this power would inevitably fall into the hands of outsiders.
Let alone whether outsiders were more trustworthy than her own siblings, the Empress's initial idea was that although the princess would marry the sons of noble families, the princess herself could not hold power.
This way, those people could no longer use the princes and princesses as a guise to expand their power by supporting them to ascend.
But what the Empress did not expect was that this would directly lead to those powers falling into the hands of these noble families.
They could even skip the step of supporting the princes and princesses and simply ascend themselves.
Everyone makes mistakes, even the Empress.
In ancient dynasties of the previous life, to solve this problem, for thousands of years, they often swung from one extreme to another.
And distributing power to members of the royal family, enfeoffing feudal lords, was a necessity for the dynasty.
If the royal relatives did not hold power, then when outsiders seized power, the royal family would have no ability to resist.
The Empress's actions had clearly swung to the extreme of restricting feudal lords.
And Chu Chen finally understood why the Prime Minister had been thinking of rebellion.
If he were in his place, seeing the Empress isolate herself from everyone, he would also want to overthrow the Empress and become emperor himself.
"Then tell me, what should be done?" The Empress's expression was grim.
At this moment, her mind was in turmoil, unsure of what to do.
When she set this measure, her intentions were good, but she never expected that it would now become the greatest hidden danger to the Yunyue Kingdom!
And this, in fact, was not without a solution.
In his previous life, the emperor and the court hoped that all the feudal lords in the world would be loyal kings who defended the court, not rebels.
How to cultivate more loyal feudal lords and how to curb feudal lords with rebellious intentions was a problem facing the emperor.
After the anxiety, the Empress quickly calmed down.
"Since you dare to raise the problem, you must already have a solution, right?" The Empress looked at Chu Chen calmly, "Don't play coy with me, speak quickly!"
Chu Chen smiled slightly, "The root of the problem lies in the noble families. They are not satisfied with the power they hold and want to further expand their influence, so they will naturally find ways to instigate royal relatives to seize power."
"So the first step is to restrict the power of the noble families."
"Restrict their power?" The Empress frowned deeply, "But once we act, we will inevitably face their backlash. This matter is not so easy to handle."
Chu Chen shook his head slightly, "Start from the subtle details."
"For example... if the Princess is to be married, her consort must no longer be chosen from the royal clans."