Zhao Han consoled him. "This is not Uncle's fault."
"This has been commonplace since ancient times. Ministers never know if they will survive the next day, and the emperor cannot sit or stand at ease either. Both sides distrust each other. There are few like Liu Bei and Zhuge, but many like the Sima clan and Cao Shuang."
"Alas, is there any solution?" Wang Ziteng sighed.
His decades of experience in the old officialdom could not solve this dilemma.
When faced with an emperor's distrust, there were only two paths: rebel, or retire and die of illness.
Civil officials could choose retirement. Once they left the central court, they had little influence anyway.
A eunuch and two imperial guards would be enough to deal with them.
But for a veteran commander like him, death by illness was the only road.
Because he knew how to train troops, how to wage war, and how to rebel.
So unless he died, it was impossible for the emperor to feel at ease.
Zhao Han sighed. She thought of Cao Xueqin. Cao Gong had been imprisoned by the Manchu Qing in his thinking and knew nothing of Western ideas.
He clearly possessed Western things, yet knew nothing of the West's new systems of government.
If he had known about the West, he would have known that he could write a great family that would never fall.
The answer was to limit the monarch and enlighten the people.
Not to circle endlessly around emptiness, with becoming a monk as the only way out.
So she said to Wang Ziteng, "Uncle, this matter is like the Journey to the West to Seek Scriptures. If you want to solve this problem, the answer lies in the West."
"The West?" Wang Ziteng thought of their opponent this time.