Hound

"When there are no hares available for hunting, the hounds will also be cooked" is a Chinese idiom. It indicates that an emperor will kill the meritorious subordinates afte assuming power in case they will plot a revolt one day. When Liu Bang established the Han dynasty, he enfeoffed many of his  meritorious subordinates as kings. Prone to suspicion, Liu Bang started to eradicate these kings one year later. Many of them were framed for plotting treason and executed. Liu Bang might seem to be callous, but he was relatively kind compared to other Chinese emperors who killed way more meritorious subordinates than him.