In the history of the Western Han Dynasty and even the entire feudal history of China, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty became a great king with his great talent and great ability to open up the land. However, it is undeniable that when the authoritarian totalitarian rule reaches its peak, it is bound to have deviations, and the scourge of the witchcraft occurred in the later years of Emperor Wu, and the unjust case that caused the death of tens of thousands of people broke out in 92 BC.
In his later years, Emperor Wu was very superstitious, often suspicious of gods and ghosts, and strived to learn from Qin Shi Huang, and tried his best to seek the formula of immortality, so as to enjoy wealth and glory forever. There is a way: upward and downward effects. The emperor's hobbies naturally affected the vast number of people from all walks of life below. As a result, many alchemists and wizards on the rivers and lakes gathered in Chang'an City, so they made mysterious and deceitful remarks to confuse the people, and these charlatans were especially popular with high-ranking officials and nobles, obviously wanting to use them to engage in some indiscriminate means to crack down on their opponents. Witchcraft were particularly prevalent at the time.
One day in 92 BC, Emperor Wu was resting in Jianzhang Palace, when he suddenly saw a man with a sword breaking into the Zhonglonghua Gate, he ordered someone to go and arrest him, and the man escaped and was not caught. Not long after, Emperor Wu saw many small puppets in his sleep, attacking him with weapons in their hands. He was frightened and woke up, so he was convinced that someone was going to harm him. Since then, witchcraft has become the primary target of the imperial court's crackdown, and anyone who is involved in witchcraft will undoubtedly die.
The first to fall under the case of the witches was Gongsun He, the powerful prime minister. His wife was Empress Wei Zifu's sister Wei Junru, and Gongsun He was also Wei Qing's brother-in-law. Bad luck is unlucky for their second-generation official son Gongsun Jingsheng, this guy relies on the power of the prime minister Lao Tzu to become a servant, does not do good things, does some illegal things, and even dares to embezzle military funds. Finally someone reported it to the emperor, and the boy was put in a big prison for interrogation.
At that time, the imperial court was wanting a Yangling hero named Zhu Anshi. Gongsun He requested the emperor that he would capture Zhu Anshi to atone for his son's sins. Zhu Anshi was captured by Gongsun He, but he never expected that this hero not only did not exchange his son's freedom, but became a life-sucking ghost for his family. Zhu Anshi wrote a letter in prison to reveal that Gongsun Jingsheng had an affair with Princess Yangshi and planted puppets on the Chi Road of Ganquan Palace to curse the emperor. Duke Yangshi was the daughter of Emperor Wu and Wei Zifu, and the other was Princess Zhuyi.
The emperor sent the cool official Du Zhou to investigate, the case was true, and the family of Gongsun He, the prime minister, was exterminated by the clan. The two princesses involved were also executed by order of Emperor Wu, along with Wei Qing's son Wei Ling. Gongsun He's case gave hope to the cool officials in power, and while the emperor was now in a tyrannical situation, a conspiracy against the prince was quietly brewing, and the mastermind was a cool official named Jiang Chong. Because the prince always contradicted these people, opposed these cool officials to kill innocents indiscriminately, and saved many wronged people from their hands, these cool officials held a grudge in their hearts and always wanted to find an opportunity to overthrow him.
Therefore, Jiang Chong instructed the wizard Tan He to secretly inform the emperor that if the qi found in the palace was not eradicated, it would be difficult for the dragon's body to recover. Emperor Wu believed it to be true and urgently ordered Jiang Chong to enter the palace to search.
Jiang Chong had already sent people to plant puppets in the womb in advance to plant a bribe, and the prince knew in his heart that he was obviously a ghost, but he had a hard time arguing and fell into deep fear. At that time, Emperor Wu was not in Chang'an City, but was recuperating at Ganquan Palace, eighty miles away. The crown prince Fu Shide advised Liu to kill Jiang Chong and hinted that he should not end up like Fu Su, the prince of Qin. The so-called correction is to forge the edict in the name of the emperor, which is a major crime of killing the head. Jiang Chong was good at killing, but also killed several cool officials in a row, this forged edict had to be told to Wei Zifu, Liu Zhu after his mother's approval, opened the arsenal of weapons, the Eastern Palace guards and retinues were all armed, for a time, rumors spread in Chang'an City, saying that the crown prince Liu Zhu was forced to rebel.
Some officials hurriedly informed Emperor Wu of Ganquan Palace without investigation, and Wu Chang, of course, did not believe it, and sent someone back to Chang'an City to summon the crown prince to Ganquan Palace for questioning. The emissaries sent were afraid of death and did not dare to see the prince, but instead ran back and lied to Emperor Wu that the prince had rebelled and wanted to kill me. Emperor Wu was furious and instructed the chancellor Liu Quyi to mobilize his army to quell the rebellion, not allowing anyone to slip through the net, and killing all of them. Liu Zhao also released the prisoners in the prison, issued them with weapons, and added his own retinue guards to engage in fierce battles with the officers and soldiers. In Chang'an City, there were rivers of blood and dead bodies, and Liu Zhao's men could not resist the attack of the officers and soldiers, so they abandoned their weapons and fled for their lives, and the crown prince Liu Zhao had to escape from Chang'an City and hide in a poor man's home, living a difficult life.
The pampered prince could not bear such a hard day, asked a friend for help, and was betrayed, Liu Zhu had nowhere to escape, hanged himself, and his two sons were beheaded together. Emperor Wu did not stop there, still holding a butcher knife and killing the ring, all the prince's disciples and followers were exterminated, and Chang'an City was shrouded in bloody rain. Empress Wei Zifu was not spared, and was ordered by Emperor Wu to reclaim the seal, and Wei Zifu was forced to commit suicide.
In 90 B.C., officials sent by Emperor Wu to investigate the wujiao case sent back reports showing that most of the so-called wujiao cases were false accusations of false theft. Emperor Wu reacted to this, and according to the environment and mood that the crown prince Liu was in at that time, he was completely forced to act helplessly, not a rebellion. But people can't be resurrected from the dead, so they have to build a si womb to pin their feelings on sizi.