A grand full-month banquet was held in the imperial palace a month after the birth of the emperor's eldest legitimate son.
The kings, who had already spent quite some time in Chang'an, were finally going to see the Regent Empress Dowager, who had yet to make an appearance.
The Liu Clan's Lords King were most unwilling to see Lü Zhi.
They did not want to admit that, deep in their hearts, they felt a certain fear of her.
Lü Zhi's regency rested on the strength of the Lü Clan and the patriarchal order, as well as, of course, the support of meritorious officials such as Han Xin.
In other words, Lü Zhi's eminence had been won through the Lü Clan's struggles.
The Liu Clan's Lords King, by contrast, owed their positions to their bloodline. And because Liu Bang had come from humble origins, there were truly too few talented people in the Liu Clan.
Thus, virtually every close relative had been given a throne.
Yet even in the era of the Zhou State, when bloodline determined everything, the talented and the untalented had received entirely different treatment.
Ji Zhao had been offered the throne by King Wu, and had still been able to become regent after refusing it, because his talents were exceptional among his brothers.
King Wu had believed that only with Ji Zhao succeeding him could the Ji family's Zhou realm remain secure.
Among the Liu Clan's Lords King, only the King of Chu and the King of Huainan possessed talent.
The others could not quite be called wine sacks and rice bags; after all, there were currently no grave crises in the realm to test the mettle of these Liu Clan Lords King.
Even so, it was still apparent that most of them possessed no more than