To put it simply, it is very difficult to kill a powerful courtier, even if it is painstakingly done, it is very troublesome to deal with afterwards, it is easy to kill the enemy 1000 self-damage 800 if you are not careful, and finally let the fisherman gain profit, and even make a wedding dress for others, let's talk about it in detail below.
Killing a courtier is not easy!
As an emperor, although he is the Ninth Five-Year Emperor, he holds the power to kill and seize, to see who is not pleasing to the eye, pull out and cut it. But in addition to the grassroots emperors like Liu Bang Zhu yuanzhang, who started from scratch and worked hard to start a business, other emperors who want to kill a powerful minister are not able to kill if they want to, because people who can afford the title of power minister are not simple.
The so-called powerful ministers either have power in the world, or they support the army and divide one side, and even have both.
At this time, the power minister is no longer a simple individual, he is no longer a person, but an extremely large, intricate interest group, behind which represents the interests of thousands of people, when the life safety of the power minister as an individual is threatened, the entire huge interest group will first resist, and even the dog jumps the wall and bites back.
There are many emperors in history who have suffered this loss, such as the Han Jing Emperor who wanted to cut the domain was almost killed by the Chaos of the Seven Kingdoms, the Han Xiandi Emperor who wanted to kill Cao Cao by using the belt edict even played himself as a prisoner, and Tang Zhaozong in the late Tang Dynasty was also killed by the powerful minister Zhu Wen because he did not succeed in killing the powerful minister.
The aftermath is hard to handle!
It is not easy for the emperor to kill the powerful ministers, and it is also not easy to kill the aftermath of the powerful ministers by chance, and it is easy to put yourself in it if you are not careful. Thinking that soon after Qin II succeeded to the throne, he self-righteously killed the powerful minister Li Si, and thought that he could sit back and relax, but he did not want Zhao Gao's family to sit alone and reap the benefits of the fisherman, and he was finally forced to die alive by Zhao Gao's son-in-law.
Since Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms and established a unified centralized dynasty, such a huge administrative machine is destined to require the emperor and the ministers to share administrative power, sometimes the power held by the emperor is the majority, but the power held by the remaining ministers is also not to be underestimated, they balance each other, forming a relatively stable state.
The reason why the power lords bear this title is precisely because they have a lot of power in their hands, and these people form a delicate balance with the power in the hands of the emperor who is high above, and once the balance of power is broken, it is not impossible to establish a new balance in addition to experiencing bloody storms, and it is not impossible for the emperor to be replaced or reduced to a puppet.
When the emperor kills a power minister, the power vacuum left behind him needs to be properly arranged, and if the arrangement is not appropriate, other forces that have lost their balances and balances can easily take advantage of the opportunity to become bigger and form more terrible power lords, which is contrary to the emperor's original intention to eliminate the power lords.
?? The historical power minister Zhao Gao was quickly enlarged because of the power vacuum created by the death of the powerful minister Li Si, and later single-handedly destroyed Zhu Wen of the Tang Dynasty because Tang Zhaozong continued to struggle with several other eunuchs, and finally the eunuchs did kill a lot, but also made the big man of the clan led by Zhu Wen the final winner.
At this time, some people may say that there is a vacuum in power caused by the killing of the power lord, and it is not enough to fill the vacancy by appointing new people? If things are really that simple, that's fine.
The real situation is that most of the emperors in ancient times lived in the deep palace from childhood to adulthood, which led to the emperor's inability to contact the grass-roots level, and the people around them were eunuchs except for the palace women. Palace people? It can play the role of a separation belt, which helps to maintain the emperor's tall image and mysterious sense in the hearts of the people and grass-roots officials, but when the little emperor wants to take power in person, he has to rely on trusting eunuchs, which is really a very helpless choice.
?? It is precisely because of the disconnect between the emperor and the grass-roots level that some eunuchs in successive dynasties have been able to become stronger and bigger, and the party henchmen are densely distributed throughout the court. In fact, these ministers and generals who turned to eunuchs and even recognized eunuchs as righteous fathers were not born to be traitors, but they simply did not have the opportunity to meet the emperor, let alone establish basic trust with the emperor, and they approached the limit of the core of power and could only go to the eunuch level, to put it bluntly, it was also a helpless choice.
Understanding this truth, we will find that it is difficult for the emperor to find a replacement after getting rid of the traitors. The other courtiers did not need to control the emperor's choices, but only needed to replace the people around the emperor with their own people, so that no matter who the emperor chose as a successor, it was equivalent to making a wedding dress for others.
This is also why the courtiers and eunuchs of all dynasties are extremely opposed to the emperor's private visits or inspections of the world, because once the emperor leaves the Forbidden City, it is difficult to be controlled by the people around him, and at the same time, it also gives many grass-roots management the opportunity to establish a trust bond with the emperor, just like breaking the monopoly of the power ministers on the promotion and reuse of the emperor.
Risks that are ignored
It is not easy for the emperor to get rid of the powerful subjects, and in addition to the above reasons, there is also a risk that is easily overlooked.
Most of the courtiers had a lot of honors during their lifetime, and even every once in a while the emperor had to praise them, so it was easy to hurt the emperor's authority by hastily getting rid of the courtiers without a reason to convince everyone.
There is also a more dangerous situation, that is, the emperor himself, it is this powerful minister who has been supported, such as Huo Guang and Dong Zhuo, who are familiar with us, both of whom have used the power in their hands to depose the emperor, at this time, if the new emperor kills the power minister, or the power minister is killed by other ministers, the legitimacy of the imperial power in the hands of the emperor is shaken, because if this power minister is characterized as a traitor or an evil person, then the emperor he supported loses his legitimacy and then loses his majesty.
This is why Emperor Xuan of Han, whom Huo Guang had supported, even after the empress was poisoned by Huo Guang's wife, still chose to be patient, and after Huo Guang's death, he only liquidated Huo Guang's wife's family, and still retained a high evaluation of Huo Guang, on the surface, it was to maintain the reputation of the powerful subjects after his death, but in fact, he was protecting the legitimacy of his imperial power.
However, in stark contrast to Emperor Xuan of Han's very wise approach, Dong Zhuo was killed during the Han Xiandi period, and it should be known that the throne of the Han Xiandi Emperor was supported by Dong Zhuo, and if Dong Zhuo was characterized as a great traitor, then the Han Xiandi naturally lost his authority and legitimacy.
So how should the emperor deal with his courtiers?
Quick knife chopping mess, or grappling? The thief first captures the king is not necessarily the best way, the prudent strategy is to properly suppress one side, and then unite the weak side, and in turn deal with the strong one, wait until the strong side is no longer strong, and then reverse the operation of a wave, in short, the treatment of the power lord can not be killed by a shot, but to go back and forth, often repeated, and even provoke the relationship between the power lords and lords, sow distrust, just like playing Tai Chi to deal with the difficult enemy, the combination of movement and static, the combination of virtual and real, follow-up arrangements are almost thunderous.
2021.12.13 (night)
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