(Han Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu)
The fifteenth year of the Eastern Han Dynasty, 39 AD.
Liu Xiu, the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Empire, suddenly discovered that something big had happened in the imperial court.
What's the big deal? The number of acres and the number of people reclaimed do not match.
The documents sent by the officials were full of errors and omissions, and ten people planted a thousand acres of land, and fifty people planted one acre of land.
Obviously, someone is cheating.
Either the landlords annexed the land, or someone bought and sold the land privately.
There was nothing wrong with this, because Liu Xiu originally did not advocate land state ownership.
The most crucial part of this matter is that someone deceived the emperor.
This is absolutely intolerable as an emperor.
You can do good deeds, you can do bad things, but you must not lie to me.
The emperor's logic is very peculiar.
You lie to your friends, and your friends will think that you are a person who does not pay attention to credit, and at best you will not be happy and disperse, and this friend we will not do.
But if you deceive the emperor, the emperor will think that you despise the junshang, so why should you despise the junshang?
It is very likely that they want to rebel.
This cannot be blamed on the emperor for being suspicious.
In the era of feudal monarchy, any negligible move could provoke the emperor's sensitive and uneasy nerves.
Liu Xiu is a generation of British lords, of course, it is impossible to get nervous often, but the land is the foundation of the country, and things must be clarified.
Liu Xiu immediately issued an order, requiring officials of all prefectures and counties to immediately enter Beijing to report that the emperor should conduct surprise inspections.
This inspection did indeed find out that there was a problem.
Usually, when the imperial court conducts inspections, it is all given advance notice, and the officials have a lot of time to cheat at the bottom, change the account books, and make false accounts.
This time, the emperor conducted a temporary inspection, and did not give any preparation time, and some officials were caught off guard, so they had to roughly change the original documents and submit them.
In this way, there is a problem.
The emperor found the following small print in a ledger:
"Yingchuan and Hongnong can ask, but Henan and Nanyang can't ask."
This sentence may be confusing, and we must explain the background story.
The ledger was handed over by an official who was specifically responsible for reviewing land allocations, and the small letters he wrote down in the ledger amounted to a memorandum specifically for himself.
Liu Xiu turned over and looked at it several times, what does it mean? I don't understand.
At this time, Liu Zhuang, who was standing behind him, said a word:
This is an official reminding themselves that when carrying out the examination work, Yingchuan and Hongnong can focus on inspection, and Henan and Nanyang are so-so, and they can do face-saving work.
The emperor was very puzzled, the same soil, the same land, how can they still engage in differential treatment?
Liu Zhuang said in one sentence that he had broken the mystery:
Because the emperor was born in Nanyang and grew up to be in Henan, to some extent, these two places are the hometown of the emperor, and they are privileged compared to other places, so officials dare not check.
The emperor suddenly realized that he praised Liu Zhuang behind him.
(Liu Zhuang was later Emperor Ming of Han)
Liu Zhuang was the fourth son of the emperor.
He was only twelve years old.
Through this incident, of course, it cannot reflect that Liu Zhuang is a child prodigy, but at least two problems can be explained:
First, Liu Zhuang is a smart man.
Second, Liu Zhuang knew the work and civil life of officials very well.
What happened next can reflect another trait of Liu Zhuang: calmness.
Jianwu 19th year, 43 AD.
Two ministers in the court rebelled.
One of these two ministers was named Shan Chen and the other was called Fu Zhen.
The two benevolent brothers were middle-level leaders in the Eastern Han Dynasty court, the work pressure was very small, but the salary was very impressive, and I really couldn't understand why these two wanted to rebel.
The two revolted together and occupied a small city called Harawu.
Although the city is small, the rammed earth is very strong, and the grain and grass weapons in the city are readily available, and it is not a problem to stalemate inside for several months.
Defending the city is not a problem, but the problem is that the rebellion is to attack the city strategically, how do you find a turtle shell to shrink in and stubbornly resist?
Liu Xiu thought that the IQ of these two rebellious benevolent brothers was really not very high, and immediately sent his general Zang Gong to lead troops to attack, but he did not expect to fight and did not know, a dozen frightened.
The strong defense of the city made it impossible for the besieging soldiers to start at all, and under the strong attack of the troops, the casualties were huge, not to mention, and they could not even take a step forward.
When Zang Gong saw that the siege was not feasible, he changed his policy, gathered heavy troops, and surrounded the former Wucheng City.
(Zang Palace)
I cut off your water, I cut off your food, and I see that you surrender and do not surrender.
But in fact, the former Wucheng City was rich in materials, there was no shortage of water or food, and the soldiers spent the Spring Festival inside, and the problems were not very big.
When Emperor Liu Xiu saw that the war was unfavorable, he immediately held a meeting overnight to discuss what should be done about it.
Some of the courtiers said that they would attack strongly, some said that they wanted to encircle and annihilate, and some said that they should cooperate with each other inside and outside the spies.
Liu Zhuang, as the crown prince, also attended the meeting and proposed a method:
The siege must be encircled, but it cannot be encircled too tightly, too urgently, and should deliberately leave loopholes and gaps to induce the rebels in the city to break through.
Just lure them out and everything will be easy.
The clever and calm Liu Zhuang once again saw the hint that this was not a war, but a siege.
The key to the siege is that the people inside want to come out, and the people outside want to go in.
The emperor affirmed Liu Zhuang's method, and as soon as it was implemented, he lured the rebels out and broke away from the fortified city, and the gang was quickly eliminated.
Liu Xiu had many sons, but through these two things, Liu Xiu was very clear in his heart who he wanted to pass the throne to.
Liu Zhuang can be literate and martial, smart and calm, to some extent even stronger than himself, the Han Dynasty handed him over, there must be no problem.
In the second year of Jianwu Zhong, 57 AD.
Liu Xiulong, the legendary Emperor of Han Guangwu, rode away on a large journey, and without any accident, Liu Zhuang succeeded to the throne and became the second emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, known as the Han Ming Emperor.
The ministers' impression of the new emperor was only two words, that is: irritability.
Liu Zhuang's temper when he became emperor can be said to be very hot.
Dou Lin, a lieutenant of the school, was a foreign relative of the emperor and was beheaded by the emperor for corruption.
Sima Dourong, who was closer to the emperor's relatives, was deposed by the emperor because of his unfavorable handling.
The emperor's younger brothers, Liu Ying the Prince of Chu and Liu Jing the Prince of Guangling, committed suicide at the behest of the Emperor for committing adultery.
In all the dynasties and dynasties, being able to climb up with the emperor to be related can be said to be a great thing.
But Liu Zhuang dynasty, who is his relative, who can be regarded as a big unlucky.
In addition, Yin Xuezhao and Situ Wang Kang of Hedong violated the law and were executed by the emperor.
In the palace, every day you can watch the soldiers escort the minister to the execution ground.
(Eastern Han Imperial Palace)
In this way, Comrade Liu Zhuang can be said to be a murderous maniac.
Liu Zhuang did kill people, but he was not a mad demon.
If you analyze it carefully, you will find that Comrade Liu Zhuang killed all the guilty people.
Whoever engages in corruption, engages in corruption, flouts the law, and commits adultery, regardless of whether you are a big official or a small official, a relative of the emperor or a founding nobleman, will all be executed.
And, in particular, it is that it is executed according to law.
What was Liu Zhuang's attitude toward the people, who was very harsh on the ministers?
It is very interesting, in the face of the people, Comrade Liu Zhuang can be said to have changed his face.
At the beginning of his accession to the throne, Liu Zhuang immediately ordered that taxes and servitude should be reduced and the punishment for the people should be reduced.
Comrade Liu Zhuang seems to have an innate compassion for the people of Li.
He believes that the common people usually cultivate land, earn little money, the imperial court does not build houses or buildings, and the servitude and taxes of the people can of course be saved.
The popularization of the people's culture is not high, and compared with the severe punishment of those who make mistakes, it is better and faster to strengthen the construction of the legal system and fundamentally solve the problem.
The Yellow River flooded, Liu Zhuang did not sleep all day, personally organized the work of flood relief, he was responsible for repairing the Yellow River, until the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, did not break the embankment once.
In this way, Liu Zhuang is also an uncompromising benevolent jun.
So how do the history books evaluate him?
The history books say that the emperor "sexually inspected", which means that Liu Zhuang had a fiery temper and was at one point.
But I think that Comrade Liu Zhuang is very gentle.
He seemed to be no different from his benevolent father, Liu Xiu, the Emperor of Han Guangwu, but almost exactly the same.
The emperor was indeed irritable, and the emperor was indeed gentle.
His irritability was left to his courtiers, and his gentleness was left to the people.
Now the answer is clear, this is a typical Ming Jun.
Harsh on subordinates, lenient to the people.
And Ming Jun, he deserves to be praised and remembered.
Of course, in addition to governing the country, Liu Zhuang also did a very interesting and big thing.
The emperor slept at night and had a strange dream.
In the dream, a tall and burly golden man arrived at Weiyang Palace and then flew west without a trace.
Dreaming, this thing is very commonplace now.
But in ancient times, dreaming was a big deal.
Especially when the emperor dreams, he must find a knowledgeable minister to interpret the dream.
Of course, the results of the interpretation of dreams are almost the same, because no minister is not so unenlightened that he tells the emperor that your dream is not good, and you have to have a bloody disaster.
The minister interpreted the dream for Liu Zhuang and came to the conclusion that the golden man in the dream was a Western Buddha.
The emperor said, since I dreamed of the Buddha, I had to express it.
As a result, a majestic Buddhist temple rose in Luoyang, Henan, which was the first Buddhist temple in Chinese history, the White Horse Temple.
(White Horse Temple)
In the eighteenth year of Yongping, in 75 AD, the diligent and loving emperor died in the Eastern Palace of Luoyang.
The emperor's eighteen years in power are not long, nor are they short.
At the time of the Qin and Han Dynasties, compared with the Qin Emperor Han Wu, the Second Emperor Wenjing, and his legendary father, Liu Zhuang, the Han Ming Emperor, seemed to be very unknown.
But that doesn't change his place in history.
If I were to evaluate Liu Zhuang, it might be difficult for me to praise this emperor with flowery words and beautiful sentences.
Because Liu Zhuang did not need such praise.
His life was simple and pure, and my comment about him is equally simple and pure:
He was a good emperor and a good man.
As for whether it can be left in history, I think this will never be within the plan of the wise emperor.
Time flies, thousands of years.
If time is long enough, it can erase all tangible things, and the only thing that can really be left in the long river of history is the kindness and courage of being born as an emperor or being born as a human being.