The emperor's thinking would naturally not change so quickly. Luo Fu guessed that the final straw that broke his resolve lay in the memorials.
The memorials submitted by the Lü Clan, Han Clan, Xiao Clan, Zhang Clan, and Luo Clan-the Five Clans and Seven Houses east of the passes who had followed the dynasty's founder.
The memorials submitted by the King of Zhao, King of Liang, King of Chu, and King of Jiaodong-that is, the King of Qi-the four vassal kings who occupied strategic positions east of the passes.
The memorials reported conditions east of the passes. These houses were all the Han Dynasty's most crucial feudal lords in the region.
Leaving the vassal kings aside, apart from Marquis Ying's Luo Clan and Anyang Han, the other houses had all intermarried with the imperial family multiple times to ensure their loyalty.
These houses controlled the major thoroughfares and sites every military strategist had to contest in the five most densely populated provinces of Guanzhong, firmly guarding every road from the Five Provinces to Luoyang.
If even these kingdoms and marquisate states could not withstand the pressure, that proved the East of the Passes was rotten through. The region's overall resources and population naturally far exceeded Guanzhong's. How could the emperor not tremble to his very core?
The East of the Passes was rotten through, the feudal lords were powerless to help, Guanzhong was unstable, and calls for institutional reform grew ever louder. Faced with such circumstances, what could the emperor do?
"During Emperor Li Liu Dan's reign, there was once a petition jointly signed by over a hundred feudal lords, requesting that Emperor Li change the laws. They even forced open the Public Carriage Office and summoned the chancellor, but Emperor Li Liu Dan refused. This emperor probably won't dare