In 195 BC, Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, died of illness. Before his death, Liu Bang made Liu Ruyi, the son of his favorite concubine Lady Qi, the King of Zhao, sent him to the kingdom of The Domain, leaving the land of right and wrong, and sent Zhou Chang, who was kind to Lü Hou, as the chancellor of the Zhao state, in order to protect the King of Zhao nearby.
Liu Bang's arrangement, in the eyes of later scholars, seems to be intended to protect his beloved son who failed in the struggle for reserves. If Liu Ruyi grows up safely, he may also be able to take His Wife qi to live in the kingdom, so that both mother and son can die well.
Unfortunately, the sky is not the way anyone wants. After Liu Bang's death, Lü Hou immediately launched a frenzied reckoning with Lady Qi. She first killed Liu Ruyi with a glass of poisonous wine, and then tortured Lady Qi with extremely cruel means, so that many readers who have seen this blood-colored history can't help but wonder curiously: Liu Bangming knows that Lü Hou hates Lady Qi very much, why didn't he kill Lü Hou before he died to protect the life of his favorite concubine Lady Qi?
In modern romance novels, kings love beauty and do not love Jiangshan bridges abound, but in real ancient history, a founding monarch like Liu Bang always cares most about the eternal solidity of Jiangshan, and future generations can always rule the world.
Lu Hou is the partner who can help Liu Bang achieve this wish. As a "major shareholder" who followed Liu Bang's entrepreneurship, Lü Hou and the elder of Huaisi were inextricably linked. According to the "Yao Shi Yue" recorded in the "History of Suoyin", after Liu Bang ascended to the throne, he rewarded eighteen founding heroes according to the size of their merits, namely "Xiao He First, Cao Shan'er, Zhang Ao San, Zhou Bosi, Fan Xi Five, Li Shang Six, Xi Juan Seven, Xiahou Infant Eight, Irrigation Infant Nine, Fu Kuan Ten, Jin She Eleven, Wang Ling Twelve, Chai Wu Thirteen, Wang Yin Fourteen, Xue Ou Fifteen, Zhou Chang Sixteen, Ding Fu Seventeen, and Qiu Feng Eighteen." ”
Among them, Xiao He, who ranked first, was an old friend of the Lü family, while Cao San, who ranked second, was a guest of honor at the Lü family banquet, and Zhang Ao, who ranked third, was the husband of Princess Lu Yuan, the daughter of Empress Lü.
Not only that, the fifth ranked Fan Duo was also Lü Hou's brother-in-law; the eleventh ranked Jin She, a hardcore crony who followed Lü Hou's brother Lü Ze to the army, as well as Ding Fu, Qiao Feng, and so on, all of whom were Lü Ze's subordinate generals, basically equivalent to Lü Hou's concubines.
Lü Hou's strength in the Han Dynasty can be seen from this. What's more, since Lü Hou himself raised an army with Gao Zu, he destroyed his family to relieve difficulties and was taken to the enemy camp as a hostage, and after the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Lü Hou also helped Liu Bang suppress the rebellion and crack down on the separatist forces, and various deeds allowed Lü Hou to accumulate a lot of prestige in the Han Dynasty.
Because of this, the powerful Lü Hou became liu ying's best guardian. For Liu Bang, Lü Hou's power is basically equal to Liu Ying's power, after all, Lü Hou will certainly do his best to protect Liu Ying as a son of Liu Ying, and Liu Ying's throne is stable on behalf of Jiangshan in the hands of Liu Family's descendants, which is also in line with Liu Bang's core demands.
Out of the ultimate desire to let Liu's descendants sit firmly in Jiangshan, Liu Bang really had no reason to kill Lü Hou and abolish his martial arts. Who made Liu Ying a weak personality, Liu Bang knew that Liu Ying alone could not suppress the founding heroes with outstanding merits, and if there was no help from Lü Hou, he was afraid that sooner or later he would become a puppet emperor who was put on the shelf.
Some people may say that Liu Bang did not kill Lü Hou if he did not kill lü hou, so he was not afraid of Lü Hou becoming bigger and triggering a crisis of foreign relations' monopoly of power?
In fact, Liu Bang used Lü Hou to guard against Lü Hou. As early as the beginning of the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang swore an oath with the generals to kill the white horse, and established the white horse alliance of "not the king of the Liu clan, and the whole world strikes together", thus establishing the legal basis for the descendants of the Liu clan to become kings.
After that, Liu Bang also said in the "Five-Year Edict of Emperor Gao" that the meritorious soldiers who followed Liu Bang's soldiers could be awarded corresponding titles according to military merit, and were allocated rich land and land, and all military officers and their families could also receive an additional benefit of exemption from taxation and military service.
In this way, the military merit group rose rapidly and became a shackle to balance Lü Hou's forces. Foreign forces could no longer interfere too much in imperial power, and the Meritorious Group was unable to override the emperor, which directly made Liu Ying the biggest beneficiary, and also ensured that the Great Han Jiangshan was firmly in the hands of Liu's descendants both legally and in reality.
It is true that according to common sense, when Liu Ying ascended the throne, Lü Hou was not young, and she could not hold on to power for a long time, basically after Liu Ying sat firmly on the throne, Lü Hou should also withdraw from the stage of history, so that the Imperial Power of the Han Dynasty could complete a smooth transition.
However, no one expected that Lü Hou would actually wait for a long time, and after surviving Liu Ying's death, out of the consideration of self-preservation, he took the Alliance of the White Horse as a waste paper and wantonly divided Zhu Lü, almost destroying Liu Bang's balance plan.
At this time, Liu Bang's buried back hand played a role. Zhou Bo and others of the Meritorious Group killed Zhu Lü and suppressed the forces of the foreign clique, and the Alliance of the White Horse made everyone in the world think that "Liu's Jiangshan" was the orthodoxy, forcing Zhou Bo and others not to dare to establish themselves as kings, and had to choose Liu Heng, the acting king who seemed to be the best control, to succeed him as king, and return Jiangshan to Liu's descendants again.
Before the death of Xianfeng, one of the ministers of Gu Order, strongly suggested that Xianfeng follow the old example of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and kill Cixi, so as not to repeat the "disaster of Lü Hou" in the early Han Dynasty.
Presumably, Xian Feng must have rolled his eyes in his heart at that time, plus secretly rubbed his thoughts: "Does Xian feng look like a fool?" ”
According to the ancient etiquette law, the post-power can only be dependent on the imperial power, Cixi only has one biological son of Tongzhi, after Xianfeng's death, she cannot remarry, and the brothers and nephews of the mother's family are certainly not as good as the sons, so Cixi must go all out to help her son to guard the Jiangshan.
On the other hand, after Emperor Wu of Han killed Lady Hook Yi, the powerful ministers became invincible, and a "Huo Guang Rebellion" seriously injured the Vitality of the Han Dynasty. Xianfeng Danfan, who reads the history books a little, will not be willing to uproot the power of the two palaces, assist the gu order ministers to become infinitely bigger, and eventually let his son face the risk of "blackmailing the son of heaven to make him not a subject".
After all, no matter how much Cixi's dictatorship was really a royal person, it was the power of the courtiers represented by Sushun and others that really worried Xian Feng. The reason why Xianfeng set up two palaces and the eight ministers of Gu Ming to jointly assist the new king was mainly to let the two sides check and balance each other, so as to ensure that the throne of Tongzhi could sit back and relax.
It can only be lamented that Su Shun has been a high-ranking official all his life, but he can't see the situation clearly, blindly encouraging Xian Feng to break the delicate balance between the two palaces and the eight ministers of Gu Ming, perhaps when Su Shun was talking bitterly in front of Xian Feng about how terrible it was for the harem to interfere in politics, Xian Feng secretly thought with a black line on his face: "Obviously you are more terrible." ”
In the final analysis, what the emperor cares about most is always the smooth transfer of jiangshan inheritance and imperial power. Xianfeng left Cixi for the sake of Jiangshan Yonggu, and liu Bang did not kill Lü Hou. Compared with the world of the homeland, whether it is Lady Qi who spoils the sixth palace, or Su Shun, who is in power and opposition, it is just a small wave in the tide of history, and their life and death honor and disgrace are not within the plans of the emperors at all.
Ruthless is the most imperial family, vast history, dynastic rise and fall, this thousand years of historical storms, a wisp, is the blood of the inexhaustible hero.
References: "Records of History", "Book of Han", "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty", "Records of Emperor Wenzong of the Qing Dynasty"
Author: Our guest author: Zhu Yingyuejiang