Emperor Liu Che of the Han Dynasty was made crown prince at the age of seven, and when he was sixteen years old, he ascended the throne as emperor, reigned for fifty-four years, and lived to the age of seventy, and in the Western Han Dynasty, when the average age was only twenty or thirty years old, it was really a miracle that Emperor Wudi of Han could live so long.
However, once people live for a long time, they are prone to confusion.
As a Han Wu Emperor who could be compared with Qin Shi Huang, he could not get rid of this common sense, and the first half of his life could be said to have made the Central Plains Dynasty raise its eyebrows and breathe, beating the Xiongnu to the ground to find teeth, but in the second half of his life, he did a lot of wrong things, and he began to become murderous and suspicious.
During his reign, although he expanded the territory of the Central Plains Dynasty, he also impoverished the entire dynasty, even if it is not an exaggeration to say that he was exhausted.
But after all, he played a positive role in history, and the merits he performed were enough to offset his martial arts, but he did not think that he still did a very big mistake in his later years.
This incident not only caused Emperor Wu of Han to die tragically in regret and grief in his later years, but also almost subverted the entire Western Han Dynasty.
It is also ridiculous to say that the cause of this incident is very small, so small that it can hardly even be regarded as a cause, but it only stems from a dream or an illusion that appeared in Emperor Wu of Han.
In this dream, Emperor Wu of Han saw a beautiful man, and he took it for granted that someone wanted to harm him, and at his behest, chang'an city began to search for this beautiful man, but found nothing, but searched for a bunch of puppets and spells.
Emperor Wu of Han, who was addicted to the art of Huang Lao's witchcraft, naturally understood the usefulness of these puppets, and he was so angry that he ordered a strict investigation of the matter, and a scourge of witchcraft that swept through the entire Han Dynasty palace began.
In his later years, Emperor Wu of Han did not have much thought about political affairs, and he always handed over the decision-making power of political affairs to the crown prince Liu Zhao, who traveled the world for many years.
Compared with emperor Wu of Han's harsh usage, Liu Zhao's disposition was relatively mild, and the relationship between the two of them was similar to that of Qin Shi Huang and Fu Su many years ago, and the final outcome was also strikingly similar.
In the first year of zhenghe, The King Pengzu of Zhao Jingsu died, and in the summer, there was a turbulent situation outside the palace, and the palace was not calm, and the harem concubines began to attack each other in order to compete for favors, and the means they used were the witchcraft that Emperor Wu of Han was very superstitious.
In fact, this matter had long been commonplace in the harem, and Emperor Wudi of Han did not pay attention to it, but these concubines began to intensify, and even began to frame the other party for cursing Emperor Wudi of Han with witchcraft.
Emperor Wu of Han, who was thinking about how to live forever, could allow such a thing to happen, so he executed many palace people and foreign courtiers.
Although this incident passed, Emperor Wudi of Han's heart was overshadowed, and he would always dream that someone would curse himself with puppets, so that it would be difficult to sleep and eat.
One day, Emperor Wu of Han was taking a nap in the Jianzhang Palace, and in a trance he saw a beautiful man holding a sword and directly rushed into the Zhonglonghua Gate, and to his shock, the Zhonghua Dragon Gate, which should have been heavily guarded, was empty.
Emperor Wudi of Han was a spirit of excitement, and he directly sobered up a lot, so he shouted to his men to come and escort him, but the guards did not find the man with the sword at all, but Emperor Wudi of Han did not hesitate, and had to dig three feet into the ground to find this beautiful man.
As a result, as we have already said, this beautiful man was not found, only a bunch of puppets were found, and Emperor Wudi of Han thought that this beautiful man was magically disguised to murder himself, so he ordered someone to strictly investigate the matter.
Originally, this matter could soon pass, after all, the workers who were secretly hiding puppets could be disposed of, but it did not happen, but at this time, someone accused Gongsun Jingsheng, the son of Gongsun He, of using witchcraft to curse the emperor.
The person who denounced Gongsun's honor was Zhu Anshi, who was originally a nameless person who walked the rivers and lakes, who claimed to be a yangling hero and did a lot of stealing chickens and dogs.
Gongsun Jingsheng held the position of a servant with Sun He, but he was an unrighteous lord, arrogant and lascivious, greedy for money and lust, and did a lot of wrong things, so he was also imprisoned.
Gongsun He watched his son suffer from his sins, and his doting psychology exploded, so he ordered someone to capture Zhu Anshi and wanted to help his son atone for his sins.
Before Zhu Anshi was captured, he had already left a hand and planted a puppet on the road that Emperor Wu of Han often walked, and he framed it as being buried by Gongsun Jingsheng.
Emperor Wudi of Han was originally grumpy about the curse of the puppets, and when he heard that it involved the prime minister, he naturally attached great importance to it, and when the puppets were really dug up, Emperor Wudi of Han immediately believed Zhu Anshi and ordered someone to arrest Gongsun He's father and son.
It was du zhou, a cool official, who interrogated Gongsun He's father and son, and Du Zhou had a vendetta against Wei Qing's son Wei Ling, so he vented his personal vendetta on Gongsun He's father and son.
Perhaps some friends will say that Du Zhou and Wei Ling have a vendetta, how can they involve Gongsun He's father and son?
This is because Gongsun He's wife is Wei Zifu's sister, and Wei Qing is Wei Zifu's younger brother, so to overthrow Gongsun He is to take revenge.
Under Du Zhou's severe torture to extract a confession, Gongsun He's father and son confessed and were directly killed, and Emperor Wu of Han felt that even The Chancellor was involved in cursing himself, and this matter had to continue to be investigated, so he handed the matter over to the chancellor Jiang Chong.
Jiang Chong was a villain, not only incompetent, but also extremely jealous, he relied on nepotism to ascend to the throne, once had a grudge with the crown prince Liu Zhao, after he got the Shangfang sword of Emperor Wu of Han, he felt that this matter could make a big fuss, and then overthrow the prince.
So he repeatedly framed Liu Zhao, but Liu according to his duty, coupled with the love of Emperor Wu of Han, Jiang Chong's little abacus did not start.
In the face of Jiang Chong's framing, Liu Zhao could not calm down, he decided to attack first, and directly sent troops to kill Jiang Chong and others.
Emperor Wu of Han, who had not paid much attention to political affairs, was a little unhappy to hear that the prince had killed his most trusted close minister, and at this time someone happened to take advantage of this to accuse the prince of rebellion.
At first, Emperor Wu of Han did not believe that the prince was plotting rebellion, so he ordered people to go to Chang'an City to check the situation, but the people he sent saw that Chang'an City was heavily guarded, and they took it for granted that the prince had rebelled, so they returned to Emperor Wu of Han.
When Emperor Wu of Han heard this, he was furious, so he ordered The Chancellor to order that he immediately send troops to attack Chang'an City and take the crown prince.
However, Liu Zhi had no intention of rebellion at all, and in the face of the army sent by his father, he could only barely cope, and finally Chang'an was breached, and the crown prince Liu Zhu did not want to bear the charge of rebellion and killed himself, and before that, his mother Wei Zifu had also hanged herself wisely.
And this scourge of witchcraft also continued to expand because of the death of both the empress and the prince, which eventually led to the involvement of hundreds of thousands of people, and the powerful Western Han Dynasty was almost destroyed.
A year later, in the face of the constant grievances of the princes, Emperor Wu of Han finally woke up, but it was too late, and he built a si womb to remember Liu Zhao, but it was no longer useful.
A few years later, Emperor Wu of Han completed his life in grief, and the scourge of the witches he created also cast a lingering shadow on his image.
References: Book of Han, History of History, etc.
(Figure net, invasion and deletion)