(Emperor Liu Long of the Han Dynasty)
The first year of Yanping, 106 AD, September 21.
At the age of two, Liu Long, the emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, who had only been emperor for 220 days, died.
The little emperor was only a widow, and of course he could not have children.
Liu Long had no sons, so who would become emperor became a big problem.
Some people talk about it, some people say that there is a collective vote, some people say that those who can live in it, some people say that what to do with the abolition of that energy, is it not beautiful to draw a lottery?
The ministers have always been very enthusiastic and concerned about the ascension of the emperor to the throne.
But if we think about this question carefully, we will find that the relationship between who is the emperor and the ministers does not seem to be very large.
Because the Eastern Han Dynasty is actually the old Liu family's own, it has nothing to do with others.
Moreover, no matter who became the emperor, whether the ministers should go to work or go to work, whether they should pay salaries or pay salaries, the impact on the ministers was not great.
So what do the ministers care about?
The reason is simple, because the ministers of the feudal imperial era, especially the courtiers of the Eastern Han Dynasty, rarely mixed up their lives.
Since they don't want to mess around in the company, who is the leader and who is the new leader is very important to them.
The wise king can lead the company to finance and go public, become stronger and bigger, and even the welfare benefits of employees will be raised.
But if you are unlucky and you are on the stall, if you don't get the company right, you will have to go bankrupt by him, and if the company goes bankrupt, who will the ministers look for for a salary?
Therefore, weighing the pros and cons, the ministers must actively participate in the selection of a new emperor, after all, they have their own vital interests.
Monarchs and courtiers are not only superiors and subordinates, they also have a very obvious feature, that is:
Woe.
But the problem was that although the ministers wanted to follow along with the selection of the emperor, the final decision on this matter was not in their hands.
The person who really speaks and counts is the Empress Dowager Deng.
(Empress Deng)
As we all know, the Eastern Han Dynasty has always been called a foreign dynasty, because the emperors of this dynasty generally have a shorter lifespan, while the life expectancy of the emperor (Tai) is generally longer.
They were all the emperor's women, and the purpose of staying was supposed to be to raise and train a new emperor, but they failed to live up to the emperor's trust and instead became the emperor of the air and the queen of state affairs.
But as an author, I understand them very well.
In a sense, once the women become emperors, they have to fall into a dilemma.
On the one hand, the king is mighty, the couple is affectionate, they have left the mother's house and become the king's companion.
But from the moment they stepped into the eastern capital of Luoyang, they also carried the fate of the matrilineal family on their backs.
On the one hand, the husband, on the other hand, the relatives of the original family, how to choose?
It is difficult to have two complete laws in the world, so how can we live up to the situation?
Faced with a difficult choice, Empress Deng decisively chose the latter.
She decided to overthrow the emperor and suppress the Liu clan and achieve the glory and wealth of their Tang family.
That being the case, we must be cautious when it comes to choosing an emperor.
Too old, calculating, can't figure out what kind of moths will be made.
If you are too young, if you take a bento for two days like Liu Long, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, it will be equivalent to a white toss.
Moderate age, rich and powerful, and afraid of not being easy to control.
Therefore, for comprehensive consideration, it is necessary to choose an heir who is not too small, not too big, and not too old.
Is there such an heir?
Don't you say, there's one.
This person is Liu Hu.
(Emperor An of Han, Liu Hu)
Liu Hu was born in Qinghe County, Liaocheng, Shandong Province, the son of Liu Qing, the Prince of Qinghe, and Liu Qing's father was Liu Zhao, the Emperor of HanZhang.
The 13-year-old Liu Hugen was miaohong, and soon he was welcomed into the imperial palace by Empress Deng, becoming the sixth emperor of the Eastern Han Empire.
The old rules, still the familiar recipe, still the familiar taste.
Empress Dowager Deng sat in the middle palace, elevated the emperor, became the emperor's home, and became the emperor's lord.
Tang's relatives held confidential positions in the dynasty, and they controlled the lifeblood of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Not only that, Tang's foreign relatives also engaged in a strong alliance with the eunuch forces, and Empress Deng, Deng's foreign relatives, and eunuch forces formed the "iron triangle" of the Eastern Han Dynasty's political arena.
Such a powerful political force did not cause much trouble to the emperor himself.
The emperor who was vacated was the mascot of the Eastern Han Dynasty, although his speech did not count and he lost the dignity of the emperor, but after all, he was an emperor, with no worries about food and clothing, and his life was still relatively comfortable.
The days of the bureaucrats and doctors in the court were not very comfortable.
These people have served Emperor Liu for generations, and have been deeply favored by the king, and they can be said to be very shameful about the behavior of foreign relatives and eunuchs in power.
The scholars and masters who are full of poetry and books are very backbone, and they have the posture of not bending their backs for the magnates, and every day when they go to the court, they are verbally criticizing and writing and taking turns to play, and the attitude of the ministers is very tough, if they do not return to the emperor, we will play with you.
In the eyes of some people, the scholars are stupid, they are unarmed, they have no military power, and the only thing that can compete with Tang's foreign relatives is only a mouth.
(Eastern Han Dynasty Minister)
So their behavior is tantamount to hitting a pebble with a pebble.
But are they stupid? Are they stupid? Don't they know that the end of a head-on confrontation with Tang's relatives is only a dead end?
Of course they know.
But they are the courtiers of the state, the secretaries of the emperor, and they have their own ideals and their own beliefs.
And the ideals and beliefs support them, and they become people who sacrifice their lives for righteousness.
Two of these people who sacrificed their lives for righteousness have quite conspicuous names.
One was Langzhong Dugan, and the other was Lieutenant Deng Kang of the Yue Cavalry.
The first year of Yongning, 120 AD.
Emperor Liu Hu of Han was twenty-six years old.
Twenty-six years old, let alone ancient times, even in contemporary society, this age is already moving towards older youth.
Just at this moment, Langzhong Dugen made a fold to Empress Deng.
Dugan believed that since the emperor had grown up, the empress dowager should return the government to the emperor.
Objectively speaking, this sentence is very reasonable.
Before the emperor was small, you hung the curtain to listen to the government, there is no problem, now the emperor is twenty-six, he is not a fool, and there is no intellectual disability, why don't you let him pro-government?
(Dugan image)
Empress Dowager Deng did not tell Dugan what to do, but directly answered him with a stick.
The empress dowager sent someone to cover Dugan's head with a cloth bag, and then beat him to death with a stick and threw the body into the wild.
Duggan died, but the scholars did not give in.
Not long after, The Yue Riding Lieutenant Deng Kang went to court again, hoping that the empress dowager would retire quickly and return the government to the emperor.
You should note that this Deng Kang is not only a member of the scholar-doctor camp, he is also a relative of Empress Deng.
Even her own relatives could not look at it, but Empress Deng was stubborn and stubborn, that is, she did not step down.
So what was Empress Deng doing when she stepped down?
The answer was unexpected.
Every day that Empress Deng and her relatives of the Deng clan came to power, they were honestly working for the emperor, and the Deng family was impartial and law-abiding, did not engage in corruption, did not engage in corruption, and did not dare to act in the slightest trespass.
Compared with the old ancestors dou's relatives who were crazy all day long, and the descendants who had abused power and brought calamity to the country, the performance of the Tang clan's relatives was surprisingly good.
But the glory of the Tang family is also about to dissipate.
Because in the first year of Jianguang, in 121 AD, Empress Deng died.
As soon as Empress Deng died, the pyramid of Deng's relatives collapsed, and the emperor was finally able to take the government.
But the emperor who got rid of the foreign relatives was obviously negligent, that is, although the foreign forces were cold, the eunuch forces were still hot.
(Eunuchs of the Eastern Han Dynasty)
But for the emperor himself, this does not seem to matter, because Comrade Liu Hu did not take the mingjun route of trapping the dragon and ascending to heaven and then striving to rule.
The ministers in the court were eagerly awaiting the emperor, but Comrade Liu Hu seemed to prefer to soak in the harem.
Years of puppetry had completely worn out the emperor's courage and patience.
And when he really stood at the peak of the Empire's power, he already felt that everything was boring.
The era of foreign relatives interfering in politics is over, and the era of eunuch dictatorship has arrived.
But what makes people cry and laugh is that the power was not stolen from the emperor by the eunuch friends, but the emperor took the initiative to send it out.
What does the Dynasty have to do with me? It is better to be drunk and gentle.
The emperor preferred his empress, Yan, to power.
The emperor in the harem and the empress secretary me me, you nong me nong.
(Empress Yan)
But the Eastern Han Dynasty was chaotic.
There are historical records that from the time Comrade Liu Hu ascended the throne to the present, 18 counties and counties across the country have had earthquakes, 28 counties have suffered exceptionally large hailstones, and 48 counties have flooded.
Such a natural disaster, the people who have no power to tie the chicken can only resign themselves to their fate, and as a result, the victims of the disaster in the Central Plains are displaced and miserable.
What about the Emperor? Sorry, I went on a trip.
Yanguang 4th year, 125 AD.
The dull court life made the emperor feel extremely irritable, and he decided to take the empress with him and go to Jiangnan to play.
There is heaven on the top, Suzhou and Hangzhou on the bottom, although Suzhou and Hangzhou have not yet developed in the Eastern Han Dynasty, they are also completely different from the customs and customs of the Northern Central Plains, and they have another taste.
But as soon as the emperor arrived at Wancheng (Nanyang, Henan), he fell ill with a strange disease.
What's the weird disease?
The history books record that it was hot and cold, one would clamor for a cold bath, and the other would wrap several quilts into a ball.
What is the disease of sudden cold and sudden heat, because I am not a medical professional, I can not speculate, but no matter what the disease, the emperor is sick like this, the travel plan is in vain, can only turn the direction, hit the road back home, but only to Ye County (Henan Ye County) can not move.
The emperor's condition became more and more serious, and he had reached a state of death.
Ye County, which belongs to Pingdingshan City, Henan Province, longitude 133 east and latitude 33 north.
There is no Jiangnan smoke and rain here, and there is no dream water town here.
There is no unique customs and customs here, and there is no romance of the small town that the emperor wants to go with the empress to find hand in hand.
In the cold wind, the thirty-two-year-old Emperor Liu Hu of Han slowly died in the arms of his beloved woman, Empress Yan.
The history books record that before the emperor died, his eyes looked at Empress Yan infatuatedly and did not move away for a long time.
I think Liu Hu may have died peacefully.
(Throne)
Years ago, when he was put on the throne in the political whirlpool, he was not at peace, and his heart was ecstatic to be chosen by fate and imperial power.
When he became an emperor, but was imprisoned by foreign forces in an invisible prison, he was not at peace, and his heart was unwilling to be deprived of the dignity of the emperor.
When the King came to the world and truly became the lord of the Great Han, he was not at peace, and his heart had the desire to seek pleasure and indulge in sex.
He had everything in his heart, that is, there were no people.
Now that he had died in the arms of Empress Yan, he was calm.
The emperor stubbornly believed that this was the woman he loved the most, and she would definitely guard the Han family for herself.
The emperor's idea was very correct, and Empress Yan did help him guard the Han family.
But the emperor's idea was not entirely correct, because Empress Yan not only guarded the Han family Jiangshan, but also almost turned the Han family Jiangshan into the Yan family Jiangshan.
Obsessed people, love is ultimately wrong.
Looking at the eastern capital luoyang, it was his hometown that he could not go back to.
Looking at the smoke and rain town, it is also the Jiangnan that the emperor will never reach.