During the Western Han Dynasty, in order to strengthen public order in the Jingshi area, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty specially set up the post of lieutenant colonel. At the beginning of his establishment, lieutenant colonel was a military attaché with a force of two thousand men. Moreover, in nature, the lieutenant colonel belonged to the position specially dispatched by the emperor, with the "festival" symbolizing the imperial court. Later, the division of lieutenants was reduced, and the "festival" was abolished, gradually evolving into a local supervisory position like the assassin history. The area overseen by the Lieutenant Colonel was the Sanfu district where the capital was located, the Hongnong County, the gateway to Guanzhong, and the areas of Henan, Hanoi, and Hedong, and had a special status, so the Lieutenant Colonel was also more prominent than the general history of thorns.
Han Wudi flower fragrance
As early as the establishment of the First Dynasty, the Guangwu Emperor had taken over the city of Luoyang as an acting lieutenant. After the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the importance of lieutenants was further enhanced. Sima Biao's Book of Continuation of the Han Dynasty records that lieutenants were responsible for "supervising and prosecuting offenders below the hundred officials and in the nearby counties of the Capital Division." According to Cai Qian's "Han Yi", the lieutenant of the division was said to be "omnipotent". (Book of the Later Han Dynasty, p. 3625) Lieutenant Colonels enjoyed high courtesy. In the early years of Jianwu, when Emperor Guangwu ordered him to participate in the imperial meeting, Yushi Zhongcheng, Lieutenant Si Li, and Shang Shuling sat in special seats, so the people in the Beijing Division called them "three solo seats". Neither the marquis nor the secretary of state could casually argue with the lieutenant colonel about his dignity and inferiority. If a lieutenant enters the palace, he can walk the middle road, which ordinary people cannot just walk casually. If there is a meeting, the lieutenant colonel can go first.
Lieutenant colonels of the Eastern Han Dynasty played a great role in political life. The first is the impeachment of hundreds of officials for illegal acts. For example, during his tenure as a lieutenant colonel, He "corrected adultery, did not avoid noble relatives, and took the name of sternness." (Book of the Later Han Dynasty, p. 1608) While serving as a lieutenant colonel, Zheng Zheng dismissed his foreign relative Dou Jing from his post as governor of Jingwu. Soon after Yu Xue became a lieutenant colonel, he impeached Taifu Fengshi, Taiwei Liu Xi, Zhongchang Cheng Huang, Chen Bing, Meng Sheng, Li Yan, and so on, and for a time the hundred officials were afraid and did not dare to look at him head-on. During the reign of Emperor Huan of Han, Zhang Biao, a lieutenant colonel, also participated in the round-up of Liang Ji.
Secondly, lieutenant colonels had certain judicial powers, and even some death penalty cases did not need to be reported to the imperial court and could be handled directly. In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the younger brother of the eunuch Zhang Rang served as the county commander of Yewang (野王, in modern Qinyang, Henan), and was corrupt and even mutilated pregnant women. After Li Bing served as a lieutenant colonel, Zhang Rang's younger brother, fearing Li Bing, took the initiative to flee to the Beijing Division and hid in the pillar of Zhang Rang's family. When Li Bing heard about it, he directly took someone to Zhang Rang's home, searched Zhang Rang's brother out of the pillar, conducted a trial, and immediately executed him. Zhang Rang found Emperor Huan of Han to sue for injustice, and Emperor Huan of Han sent someone to find Li Bing and ask him why he did not ask for instructions first and deal with it directly. Li Bing recounted the incident in detail, and then said to the emperor: "Since I served as a lieutenant colonel, I have often worried that if I cannot quickly handle the case and punish the adulterous and evil, I will betray Your Majesty's trust. I really did not expect That Your Majesty would accuse me of dealing with it too quickly. Now that I know that I have sinned, I would like to ask Your Majesty to appoint me as a lieutenant colonel for five more days, and I must let the culprit and the great evil get the punishment they deserve. Emperor Huan of Han was dumbfounded, and turned back to Zhang Rang and said, This is your brother's fault, there is nothing wrong with Li Sili. Later, when Emperor Huan of Han found out that when it was time for vacation, the eunuchs in the palace did not dare to go out of the palace, and asked them why, and they all said that they were afraid of Lieutenant Li.
During the reign of Emperor Ling of Han, Lieutenant Yang Qiu was usually very resentful of the eunuchs, and once said: "If Yang Qiu is a Si Li, this Cao Zi is safe and tolerant?" (Book of later Han, p. 2499) In the second year of Guanghe (179), Yang Qiu really became a lieutenant colonel, and when he thanked the emperor, he impeached the eunuch Wang Fu and the eunuch Duan Jiao and more than a dozen others. Yang Qiu directly threw these people into the prison in Luoyang and personally interrogated them. Wang Fu and his son Wang Meng of Changle Shaofu were tortured to death by Yang Qiu, and Duan Hao also committed suicide in prison. Not only that, Yang Qiu also dismembered the corpses of Wang Fu and others and displayed them in the Luoyang City Gate, confiscated all the property of Wang Fu and others, and sent their families to the distant southern border of Bijing County (which belonged to the jurisdiction of the Eastern Han Dynasty, located in present-day central Vietnam). Wang Fu, Duan Hao, and others were all powerful people in the sky at that time, and Yang Qiu's disposition of them did not report to the emperor or other government departments, and the emperor did not blame them afterwards.
Lieutenant Colonel Si Li has a relatively wide range of political and deliberative powers. Some of the major sacrifices of the imperial court were often participated in by the lieutenant colonels. Lieutenants often expressed their opinions on major decisions of the imperial court. For example, when the foreign relative Liang Ji was most arrogant, he once asked the imperial court to discuss his own courtesy. At that time, Zhu Tian and others greeted Liang Ji and proposed that Liang Ji should enjoy the courtesy that Zhou Gong had enjoyed in those years. Lieutenant Colonel Si Li also had the power to recommend talents to the imperial court. During the reign of Emperor Shun of Han, Zuo Xiong recommended Feng Zhi to the imperial court as a general during his tenure as a lieutenant.
The tomb of the dim-witted Emperor Huan of Han
Of course, whether or not the duties of the lieutenant colonel can be performed normally has a lot to do with whether the politics of the imperial court are clear. Bao Yong, a lieutenant colonel under Emperor Guangwu, even impeached Emperor Guangwu's uncle Liu Liang the Prince of Zhao, who had nurturing favors for Emperor Guangwu, and Emperor Guangwu certainly could not punish Liu Liang, but Emperor Guangwu also commended Bao Yong for his actions. Later, in the first year of Jianwu (56), Emperor Guangwu appointed Bao Yong's son Bao Yu as a lieutenant colonel, and when Bao Yu was thankful, Emperor Guangwu also sent someone to tell him that he had opened up the relationship between Bao Yong and Bao Yu in order to let people know that "the son of a loyal subject was restored to Si Liye". (Book of the Later Han Dynasty, p. 1022) With the support of emperor Guangwu, lieutenant Colonel Si Li performed his due function. And when the emperor was dazed, it was difficult for the lieutenant to perform his functions. Yang Qiu severely attacked the eunuch forces, causing panic among the eunuchs, and the eunuch leader Cao Jie and others approached Emperor Hanling and said that Yang Qiu was not suitable for serving as a lieutenant, and as a result, Emperor Hanling immediately sent someone to appoint Yang Qiu as a lieutenant. Yang Qiu pleaded with the emperor to allow him to stay for another month in order to completely eliminate the eunuch forces, even if he prostrated his head and bled, but did not get the emperor's permission. When the criminal and evil forces came to power, the lieutenant colonel not only could not perform his functions normally, but even became an accomplice of the criminal and evil forces. During the Dang Gong incident, the imperial court ordered Liu Meng, a lieutenant colonel, to arrest the party members and send someone to supervise them every ten days. Liu Meng, on the other hand, sympathized with the party members and did not actively arrest them. After more than a month, there is still no progress. The eunuchs instigated the emperor to depose Liu Meng, and eventually even threw him into prison. Duan Hao, who succeeded Liu Meng, tried his best to ask the eunuchs for credit, and arrested more than a thousand tai students at one time. Li Xuan, who was in collusion with the eunuchs, was corrupt and perverted the law when he was serving as a local county commander, and committed wrongdoing. DuYoubu of Wei Commandery (魏郡, in modern Linzhang County, Hebei) denounced Li Huan's crimes, and Li Huan was dismissed from his post and sentenced to hard labor. Later, Li Huan colluded with eunuchs to enter the official field again, and served as a lieutenant colonel. He returned to his hometown after retiring from the taishou of Jincheng (金城, in modern Lanzhou, Gansu). According to the provisions of the law at that time, without the conscription of the imperial court, dismissed officials could not go to the Beijing Division at will. Bu Qian later came to Luoyang privately, and was discovered by Li Huan, who put Bu Qian in prison and tortured him to death, repaying the revenge of being exposed by Bu Qian. Li Wei announced his personal vendetta, but the imperial court did not punish him, and Li Huan was even promoted to the position of Grand Si Nong.