In his later years, Liu Bang was very dissatisfied with Liu Ying, the crown prince born to Lü Yan, believing that this son did not resemble him at all, and wanted to change the third son born to Lady Qi, Liu Ruyi, as the crown prince. However, because of Lü Yan's strength and the opposition of the ministers, Yi Chu's matter could only be solved in the end. After Liu Bang's death, Liu Ying ascended the throne as the second emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, while Lady Qi and Liu Ruyi were both killed by Lü Yan's men.
The struggle for the throne in the early Western Han Dynasty was particularly fierce, liu bang's sons were fine, the eldest son Liu Fei was not in dispute with the world, and several other princes were also moved to other places early. However, in the third generation of the Liu family, the struggle for the throne gradually became fierce, especially Liu Fei's sons were ambitious. Whether it was to quell the Rebellion of Zhulu or later the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, several of Liu Fei's sons participated in it and played a key role in it.
Liu Fei's title was The King of Qi, and after his death, his eldest son Liu Xiang inherited the title of King of Qi. This Liu Xiang was not a man who kept to himself, he had always been eyeing the throne but could not find the opportunity. During Liu Ying's reign, the major affairs of the court and China were decided by Lü Hou, and she wantonly divided foreign relatives as kings, which was not only opposed by Liu Ying's clan, but also aroused the resentment of the ministers. After Lü Hou's death, the lü kings took the opportunity to rebel, which created an opportunity for Liu Xiang, an opportunity to ascend to the throne.
In 180 BC, Liu Xiang's younger brother Liu Zhang learned that Lü Chan, Lü Lu, and others were attempting to rebel, so he secretly informed his brother Liu Xiang and asked him to seize the opportunity to secretly send troops to Guanzhong to suppress the lü kings and seize the throne. However, Liu Xiang led his troops to Xingyang but was blocked by the irrigation baby, who ostensibly said that he wanted to join forces with Liu Xiang to annihilate ZhuLu, but in fact he refused to give way. It was not until the news from Chang'an that ZhuLu had been destroyed and that Emperor Liu Heng of Han had ascended the throne did Liu Xiang know that he had been placed by infants and others. Liu Xiang saw that the general trend was gone, so he had to retreat back to the fiefdom, and died depressed the following year.
Liu Fei is the eldest son of Liu Bang, although Liu Bang has not been very kind to this son, but in his heart he is still more loving. It was precisely for this reason that Liu Fei was crowned Queen of Qi and also received a vast fiefdom of seventy-three cities. After Liu Fei's death, this large fief was inherited by Liu Xiang, and although Liu Xiang was unable to enter the capital to obtain the throne during the Zhulu Rebellion, he took the opportunity to seize the three counties of Langya, Jinan, and Chengyang. Because Liu Fei's power was too strong, the newly succeeded Emperor Wen of Han, Liu Heng, was insecure and had been trying to solve this hidden danger.
After Liu Xiang's death, his son Liu Ze succeeded to the title of King of Qi, but Liu Ze was unable to leave any heirs after his death, so that the opportunity that Emperor Liu Heng of Han had been looking for finally arrived. Emperor Wen of Han ordered that Liu Fei's fiefdom of Qi be divided into six parts, and then one by one to Liu Fei's other six sons, and the originally huge state of Qi became a weak six kingdoms, and Emperor Wen of Han could finally sit back and relax as his emperor.
Liu Bang once thought that Liu Ying had no ambition and did not have a personality like himself, so he wanted to depose Liu Ying as the crown prince. For Liu Fei, his sons are not like him, they are all ambitious people. As the eldest son of Liu Bang, of the 13 sons born to Liu Fei, 9 of them attacked the throne successively. In particular, after the Han Jing Emperor adopted the "Cutting Strategy", the royal power and imperial power of the Liu clan had a fierce collision, and the famous Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms broke out.
Among the kings surnamed Liu who participated in the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, Liu Fei's son alone occupied 4 places, namely Liu Wei the King of Jiaoxi, Liu Xiongqu the King of Jiaodong, Liu Xian the King of Zichuan, and Liu Peiguang the King of Jinan. In addition to the four people who were directly involved, Liu Fei's other two sons, Liu Zhilu the Prince of Qixiao and Liu Zhi the Prince of Ziyi, were more or less involved. Although Liu Zhi may have been coerced by the rest of his brothers, he was indeed involved in the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, and Liu Was forced to commit suicide because he was suspected of communicating with other brothers.
If you count the three people who have died long ago, Liu Xiang, Liu Zhang, and Liu Xingju, there are at least nine people in Liu Fei's vein who dare to attack the throne. If Liu Bang had known about it, he didn't know how he would feel, and I'm afraid even he wouldn't have thought that Liu Fei, who had always been peaceful and almost cowardly, had all the sons born to him. As the losers of the imperial power struggle, their endings were not very good, except for Liu Xiang, Liu Zhang, and others who died of illness, several people involved in the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms were defeated and killed.
So, why did Liu Fei's sons have such an obsession with the throne? Most of them were crowned kings by the imperial court, enjoying a vast fiefdom and a privileged status, so why should they rebel one after another? This may have a lot to do with Liu Fei's life. In Liu Fei's line, it was Lü Hou and Liu Ying who stole the emperor's throne that originally belonged to them, and they naturally wanted to take back the lost throne again.
After Lü's death, Liu Ze, the chancellor of the Western Han Dynasty, told Liu Xiang: "Your father Liu Fei is the eldest son of Emperor Gao, and you are emperor Gao's eldest grandson, and the throne should be inherited by you." Liu Ze was Liu Bang's cousin, and his words had a great impact on Liu Xiang, and whether Liu Fei was really Liu Bang's eldest son, judging from the reactions of Liu Fei's sons afterwards, at least in his vein, he still believed Liu Ze's words, and it was not excluded that Liu Fei had said this to them.
The record of Liu Fei in the history books has always been the eldest son of Shu, and there is a difference between Concubine and Shu, and if Liu Fei is really the eldest son of Shu, he will certainly not be able to inherit the throne. But what if Liu Fei was really once the eldest son of a concubine? In this way, his descendants are naturally eligible to inherit the throne. The only possibility of this is that Liu Fei's mother Cao Shi may have been indeed Liu Bang's main chamber, but later after Liu Bang married Lü Yan, he changed from the main room to the side room under Lü Yan's exclusion, which also explained why Liu Ze told Liu Xiang that your father Liu Fei was the eldest son.
Liu Fei's personality is low-key, he never competes with people for power and profit, and he never mentions in front of outsiders that he may be the eldest son of a concubine. However, he may have said something different to his sons at home, otherwise his sons would not have been so angry about the throne. It's just that as the saying goes, Sai Weng lost his horse and knew that it was not a blessing, and Liu Fei's Qi king Yimei was almost extinct due to the struggle for the throne, except for Liu Xiang and others who were deposed