(Emperor Liu Ofhan Ping)
The Hanping Emperor Liu Yan held the wine glass, and he was stunned and did not say a word for a long time.
He was fourteen years old.
He was born in Weiyang Palace in Chang'an City, grew up within this majestic city wall, and was crowned in this magnificent palace.
He is the master of the world and the king of the Great Han.
But he was also the most unfortunate person under the sun.
When he ascended the throne at the age of nine, there was a great Sima Wang Mang in the upper dynasty, watching the group of courtiers creeping at his feet, and the mountain shouted long live, but he did not dare to say a word.
It was not easy to leave the court, and in the middle palace, there was the empress dowager Wang Zhengjun sitting in the town, forcing himself to learn royal etiquette and imperial norms all day, and he could not breathe for a moment.
As a puppet emperor, from his own young age, his every moment was not easy.
But now he was about to be liberated.
In winter, December, Mang was poisoned with pepper wine on the day of Mang, and the emperor was ill. - Zizhi Tongjian, Vol. 36
The cup of wine in his hand was a glass of poisonous wine sent by Sima Wang Mang.
Looking around, whether it was internal servants, eunuchs, or wenwu courtiers, they were either relatives of the Wang clan or relatives of Wang Mang of the Great Sima Dynasty.
Who can help themselves? Who can save themselves?
Emperor Liu Ofhan Ping bowed his head, bowed his head, bowed to the west for three times, and then raised his wine glass and drank it with his head up.
The poisonous wine pierced the intestines, and the emperor was momentarily in pain, and he died violently not long ago.
The next day, news came from Chang'an City that the emperor had died in the dragon and the guests.
The young Hanping Emperor Liu Yan died.
As soon as the emperor died, the most calculating person in the imperial court became Comrade Sima Wang Mang.
Many years ago, he was once a lonely and nameless grassroots civil servant in the Western Han Court, but because he was stained with the light of the empress dowager, Wang Zhengjun, he climbed to the peak of power step by step.
There were empress dowagers in the harem, the imperial court was full of wang relatives, and Wang Mang was even more dominant, with power in the opposition.
Who will stop at the peak of power? Instead of heading to the top?
Of course, Wang Mang wanted to reach the top, and he dreamed of becoming an emperor.
(Wang Mang)
But the problem facing Comrade Wang Mang is that when the emperor does not go to the market to buy vegetables, as long as you pay money, the radish cabbage is picked at will.
Being emperor is a big deal.
Gao Zu has been building Han for more than a hundred years, and the whole world knows that the surname of the Great Han is Liu, and if a foreign relative with the surname Wang becomes emperor, will the people be in an uproar? Will the Minister object? Will public opinion attack itself? Will the generals raise troops to fight?
This is all wang mang's consideration.
Under comprehensive consideration, Wang Mang decided to wait.
He could wait, but the Western Han court could not afford to wait.
When a new emperor is not established, the people are eager to talk about it, and if there is no new monarch on the throne, the ministers will be panicked, resulting in no way to carry out daily work.
There was no way, Wang Mang had to start pulling people among the Liu clan relatives.
Choosing an heir, or choosing a puppet emperor, is a technical job.
Older, easy to work for two years to hang up, engaged in turmoil on the throne, just in their prime, and not easy to control, so it is more appropriate to choose or underage.
This time, Comrade Wang Mang selected Liu Bao.
(Baby Liu)
Comrade Liu Infant was the son of Liu Xian, who was the great-grandson of Liu Xun, the Emperor Xuan of Han.
There is a blood relationship, and it is a direct royal family, the most important thing is that it is relatively young, only one year old.
The front foot sent the little emperor Liu Bao to the throne, and the back foot Wang Mang began to feel that it was not a taste in his heart.
Liu Bao is very young now, but sooner or later he will grow up one day, if he grows up like the previous Hanping Emperor Liu Yan, turning his hands back to deal with himself, then what should he do?
We can't kill Baby Liu anymore.
Wang Mang decided that even if he could not ascend the throne now, he would still want to be a "second emperor" with no name.
But if you want to really exercise the power of the emperor, you must have a legitimate reason, otherwise you, as the Grand Sima and say to the outside world every day that you are the "second emperor", then it is a virtue to rebel.
The so-called "good on the top, the next must be good", the leader has ideas, and the employees at the bottom must help find a way.
Sure enough, before Wang Mang could act, several of Wang Mang's henchmen had already reported to the imperial court that not far from Chang'an City, when the people were digging a well, they dug out a huge stone with a circle below, and the stone was written with the words "Tell An Han Gong Mang to be the emperor" in large characters.
The meaning is very simple, my brother wang should be the emperor.
This plot is simply too cheesy to be cheesy.
In the vast river of history, before any incident or a major event to be taken into action, it must be put on such a show.
When Chen Sheng and Wu Guang rebelled, they once sent people disguised as fox immortals to shout "Great Chu Xing, King Chen Sheng" in the temple, and before Gaozu Liu Bang raised his deeds, he also beheaded a talking white snake.
This time it was Wang Mang's turn.
The well is found in advance, the stone is buried in advance, the people are the extras who are found in advance, tattooed silver five or two a day, regardless of the box lunch.
This set of tricks can be said to be simple and ridiculous.
But no way, people at that time loved to believe this.
This news was soon known to the empress dowager Wang Zhengjun.
It is reasonable to say that Wang Zhengjun is the leader of Wang's foreign relatives and Wang Mang's aunt.
Her nephew was about to become emperor, and she should have been very happy.
But when Wang Zhengjun learned of this news, he was very angry.
Starting from The Han Yuan Emperor Liu Yi, this old man who had already entered the age of the wind and candle had gone through five dynasties, and she had no desire for power.
The support for Wang Mang's relatives, including Wang Mang, may be selfish, but by no means all out of selfishness.
Because all the demands of Wang Zhengjun are based on the premise of protecting the Liu family's world and the Han family.
She was not a usurper empress dowager, she was just a woman who was deeply in love with her husband (Emperor Yuan of Han).
(Wang Zhengjun)
But now, Wang Mang wants to change all that.
Not only did he generously admit his ideas, but he also gave himself a new title: false emperor.
In order to prove that his "false emperor" and Comrade Liu Bao's "true emperor" are the same, Comrade Wang Mang launched the "three fires of the false emperor".
First, change the year number.
As soon as the era name is changed, it means that the old era has completely passed, and now it is my turn wang mang to be the master.
Second, sacrifice to heaven.
Although we can see the sky every day, the sky is not a casual sacrifice, and there is only one person in this world who can sacrifice the sky, that is, the emperor.
As a "false emperor", Wang Mang naturally also enjoyed the privileges and welfare benefits of the emperor.
Third, Liu Bao was made crown prince.
For Comrade Liu Nian, what he was most concerned about was not where the future of the Western Han Dynasty would fall, nor whether he could still be the emperor, whether Wang Mang would depose him, but whether there would be someone to change his diaper tomorrow.
Because he was so small, the rise and fall of the country and other big things were really not something he could understand.
To put it bluntly, Baby Liu is just a mascot.
Liu Infant became the crown prince, which also created a strange story in Chinese history - the emperor and the prince, the same ethnic group and different surnames.
Now, Wang Mang had everything ready, and he was only one foot away from the door, deposed Liu Bao, removed the "fake" word himself, and became the "true" emperor.
But of course everything didn't go so smoothly.
Although Liu Baby was a little friend, the other Liu clan relatives of the old Liu family did not eat dry food.
In the first year of Ju Zhao, in 6 AD, Liu Chonghou raised an army against Wang Mang.
In the second year of juju, Yanxiang waited for Liu Xin to raise an army against Wang Mang.
These two forces are not too big, but they can not be said to be small, Liu Chong and Liu Xin are after all the relatives of the Liu clan, the appeal is very large, the result of the rebel army volume change, a few months will be repeated, the momentum is huge, straight to Chang'an.
How did our Comrade Wang Mang respond?
Fearful and unable to eat, he hugged his widow day and night to pray to the suburban temple. - Book of Han
The history books record that Comrade Wang Mang heard that there were people in the field who rebelled, and he was scared enough that he could not even eat, and he held Liu Bao all day and prayed in the Ancestral Temple of the Western Han Dynasty, hoping that the emperors could bless themselves.
The Book of Han was written by the great historian Ban Gu, and we should certainly respect it, but it is better to believe in books than to have no books, and here I am deeply skeptical of this historical record.
(Bangu)
Comrade Wang Mang could not eat or not for the time being, but he certainly would not go to the ancestral temple of the Liu clan to pray, because he was Wang Mang, not Liu Mang, and even if the old Liu family had a spirit in heaven, how could he bless such a person with a foreign surname?
But the final result was quite acceptable to Comrade Wang Mang, the rebel army came and went fast, three minutes of heat, did not wait for himself to send troops to suppress, basically disintegrated.
The reason is simple, because the division is unknown.
They wanted to fight against Wang Mang, but Wang Mang did not usurp power at this time, but was just a "false emperor", although he was infinitely close to the real throne, he was still a little bit worse.
But now, Comrade Wang Mang wants to make up for this difference.
Liu Chong's and Liu Xin's indisputable self-defeat made Wang Mang think that he was destined for heaven, and even the Lord of Heaven supported himself as emperor, so what else was there to say?
The first year of the first year, 8 AD.
Wang Mang deposed Liu Bao, established himself as emperor, and changed the name of the country to Xin, at which point the Western Han Dynasty, which had been established for 210 years, was declared extinct.
Comrade Wang Mang began a new era, and his real life had just begun, but Liu Bao, who had been deposed from the throne, had a life that was not so good.
After this ordinary puppet little emperor stepped down, he was imprisoned for many years, and he did not see the light, did not see people in the dark, did not read or study, or was imprisoned and imprisoned, and when he grew up, he actually became a fool alive.
Yes, literally stupid.
But we may not have to lament the fate of this little friend, because from a macro perspective, his fate is predestined.
From the moment he was selected by Wang Mang, his ending was already written.
Just like the end of the demise of the Western Han Dynasty, in the darkness, there is also a definite number.
(Western Han Dynasty)
The fall of a country, which is very common in history, is generally full of smoke, ruins and walls, the country is broken, and the empire that was once glorious and unlimited is reduced to ruins in a loud boom.
But the demise of the Western Han Dynasty was calm.
At the end of its life, the 210-year-old dynasty did not utter an earth-shattering roar, but a brief but rapid whimper.
It was so quiet, calm, and unhurriedly destroyed.
The old story closes the page, and the new story is about to begin.