During the Cao Wei era, an emperor praising a prince as virtuous and wise was positively deadly.
Cao Mao brought Cao Ju back into the Imperial Palace.
The reason Cao Mao had granted audiences to Cao Ju and Cao Qi was that he had arrangements in mind for them.
Like Cao Yu, Cao Ju was an elder of the Imperial Clan, but because he had once passively competed with Cao Mao for the throne, he was better known within the clan.
To reassure the Imperial Clan, starting with Cao Ju would actually accomplish a great deal.
Cao Mao had to change the Imperial Clan's fixed impression of emperors. Not every emperor would set about persecuting his own clan.
Cao Mao had high hopes for these princes. Of course, he would not follow Anshi's example and make all his relatives kings, giving them land, money, people, and armies, and trusting them completely.
Doing that would simply invite disaster upon himself, with consequences even worse than the rebellions of the princes in the early Han.
But even without military command or control over finances, the princes could still serve as a check on the local great clans.
The inspectors were effectively the emperor's eyes, but they had ties of interest with the local great clans, and some were even related by marriage. Cao Mao could not decree that all future inspectors must come from humble families, so he needed other eyes.
The princes could write to the emperor at any time, and they would not have much entanglement of interests with the local great clans unless they planned to rebel.
Even if the princes dared to approach the great clans in their territories, the great clans might not dare to reciprocate.
Cao Mao wanted his eyes spread throughout the realm, allowing him