<h1>Gossip About the Unification of the World in the North and South Dynasties - Fushan Dam (2).</h1>
This time, when he heard that the Northern Wei army was approaching Sichuan, Wang Zu wrote to Xiao Yan and proposed his own counterattack plan——
Shouyang was the fulcrum of the Northern Wei Dynasty in the middle of the battlefield and the barrier of Luoyang; taking this place, His Majesty could directly attack the Yellow Dragon. However, Shouyang City is high and deep, and it is difficult to effectively attack strongly; therefore, the minister suggested that the strategy of attacking Shouyang with water could be implemented in Zhong Li, eighty miles downstream of Shouyang, where there were floating mountains on both sides of the Huai River in the south and Weishi Mountain in the north, as long as a long weir was built between the floating mountains and the Weishi mountains, the Huaishui water was blocked, and after the water level increased, shouyang could be poured. When the subject was in the north, he heard the nursery rhyme singing ,Jingshan is the upper grid, the floating mountain is the lower grid, the Tongtuo is the ditch, and the giant wild ze is irrigated', referring to this matter.
The fushan weir designed by Wang Zu was generally located at the junction of today's Sihong County, Wuhe County, Anhui Province, and Mingguang City; Xiao Yan was quite excited after seeing the folds of lao Wang next door; he immediately ordered the water engineer Chen Chengbo and the material officer general Zu Hui to go to the field to see if there was any feasibility.
To put it more, Zu Hui was the son of Zu Chongzhi and a famous mathematician and astronomer in Chinese history; his "Zu Hui Theorem" predates Europe by more than 1,000 years.
After the two of them inspected, they reported to Xiao Yan that this method might not be successful; the sediment content of the Huai River water was too large, the riverbed was unstable, and it was difficult to successfully build the embankment, and once the dam collapsed, the consequences were unimaginable.
Unfortunately, at this time, Xiao Yan already firmly believed in the flooding of Shouyang; Xiao Yan ordered that 5 male strong men be drawn from every 20 households in Northern Xuzhou and Yangzhou, plus soldiers drawn from the army, totaling 200,000 people, with Prince Right Guard leading Kang Xuan as the commander-in-chief of the dam repair; this water conservancy project was planned to start from Fushan On the south bank, start from The Stone Mountain on the north bank, fill in the soil from both sides of the Huai River at the same time, and close in the center of the Huai River.
After intense construction, the Fushan Weir finally began to take shape; however, as mentioned in the previous zu weir report, the foundation of the Fushan Weir was a very fine powder sandy beach, which was very unstable; the newly built Fushan Weir soon collapsed.
In response to the dam failure, some people said to Kang Xuan that the dam collapsed because there were dragons in the water, and the dragons were afraid of pig iron, and only iron could be used to suppress the dragons; so after asking for instructions, Kang Xuan ordered tens of millions of pounds of iron to sink into the Huai River, of course, the result can be imagined, the dam should collapse and then collapse.
Seeing that this trick did not work, Kang Xuan asked people to go up the mountain to cut down trees, make a well-shaped wooden cage with branches, fill it with large stones, push the wooden cage into the rapids to block the collapse, and then plug the gap with sandbags filled with soil.
This method worked, and the collapse of the FushanYan dam was solved; but the process was extremely costly, and within hundreds of miles on both sides of the Huai River, all the large and small trees were cut down, all the large stones were used up, and the soldiers and men carried the trees and boulders on their shoulders; and it was the height of summer, and an infectious disease broke out in the dam repair army, killing countless people and corpses everywhere.
And just when Xiao Yan was nervously paying attention to the progress of the construction of Fushanyan, suddenly from the Northern Wei Came a good news that almost made Xiao Yan faint: the Northern Wei army that had entered the river in the west had suddenly withdrawn; a careful inquiry, daring to feel that the Northern Wei Xuanwu Emperor Yuan Ke suddenly died of illness, and his only 5-year-old son Yuan Xue (actual age of 4 years old) was the emperor.
Is this swelling again?
In February 515, Yuan Kelong rode the guests at the age of 33.
What illness Yuan Ke suffered, the history has no clear record; but looking at the historical data, there is a very interesting phenomenon, Yuan Ke had a private doctor (imperial doctor) who was actually given the title of uncle (knighthood) for the 'merit of diagnosis and treatment'; it can be seen that Yuan Ke's poor health has been bad for a long time.
But then again, the men of the Tuoba family seem to have a short life of the ancestors, when Yuan Ke left, he was 33 years old, and his grandfather Tuoba Hong was also 33 years old when he drove the crane to the west; his grandfather Tuoba Honghang was even younger, only 23 years old; further up, his Grandfather Tuoba Tao was 44 years old, the Ming Yuan Emperor Tuoba Si was 31 years old, and the Daowu Emperor Tuoba Jue of the Northern Wei Dynasty was 38 years old when he left; and then again, the Daowu Emperor Tuoba Zhuo was 38 years old...
From this point of view, it is not unusual for Yuan Ke to walk at this age. However, it is estimated that Yuan Ke himself did not expect that he would go in such a hurry, so he did not make any arrangements for the matter behind him, and after his death, the Northern Wei court immediately fell into chaos——
At that time, the important ministers of the Northern Wei court were: Taibao (太保), Ling Taiwei (令太尉), shizhong yuanyong (侍中元雍), great general and Situ Gaozhao (司图高肇), Sikong Yuanyi (司空元怿), Yuanhuai (元怀), Shangshu Zuo (尚書左仆射郭祚), Shizhong (侍中), Zhongshu Jian (中書監), and Prince Fu (傅祚光), The leading general Yu Zhong ,; and the general Yuan Yao (元遥) the protector general.
Yuan Ke left too quickly, and everyone was caught off guard; it could be seen from the matter of Prince Yuan's succession to the throne.
Yuan Ke left in the middle of the night, and as soon as he received the letter, Cui Guang, Yu Zhong, Crown Prince Zhan Shi Wang Xian, and The Right Guard General and Crown Prince Zhongshu Hou Gang urgently brought Yuan Xue, who was sleeping, out of the Eastern Palace and into the palace.
In this process, there was a dispute, and Wang Xian believed that Yuan Xue should wait until dawn to conduct the enthronement ceremony, and brought out Yuan Ke's daughter-in-law, Empress Gao, saying that he must repay Empress Gao.
However, Wang Xian's plan was resolutely opposed by Cui Guang and others, and those few people rushed to carry Yuan Xue into the main hall, three times five divided by two sets of dragon robes, and pressed them on the dragon chair in the front hall of Taiji, and Yuan Xuan was officially the emperor.
And when the news of Yuan Ke's death reached the ears of Empress Gao of the harem, the old ladies' first reaction was to send eunuchs to kill Yuan Xue's mother, Concubine Hu Gui.
However, the eunuch sent by Empress Gao laid a soft egg and did not dare to do anything; he actually ran to ask Hou Gang, the prince's son, who was shocked and hurried to find the leading general Yu Zhong.
As we talked about earlier, the Gao family can be said to have stepped on the throne of the Yu family, and the two families still have the kind of relationship of blood and deep hatred, and Empress Gao only ascended to the throne after poisoning Empress Yu and her son Yuanchang.
Of course, Yu Zhong could not allow Empress Gao to succeed; but at this sensitive moment, a little carelessness would lead to ruin; Yu Zhong had no idea and ran to ask Cui Guang.
Cui Guang was very assertive, although the power of the Gao clique in the imperial court was huge, but this was an opportunity, because Gao Zhao, the main backbone of the Gao clique, was leading the troops; not in Luoyang. Moreover, in the past two years, Gao Zhao's monopoly has made many enemies; there are the former emperors covered, and the Gao family can call the wind and rain, and now that the first emperor is gone, it is difficult to say what happens later.
Cui Guang thought about it, or decided to leave Hu Guifei as well; Cui Guang confessed to Yu Zhong, the current situation is unpredictable, and must ensure the safety of Hu Guifei. That is to say, when Hu Guifei was later promoted to Empress Ling and controlled the government of Northern Wei, Cui Guang and Yu Zhong had no difference in scenery.
The name has been determined, and the next group of upstarts who are about to emerge will have to face two problems, one of which is that the emperor's clothes are all badly dressed, and it is basically a luxury to expect him to handle the country's major affairs; then, who has the final say in the future government? Second, Cui Guang, Yu Zhong, and others protected Hu Guifei, which was tantamount to completely offending the Gao clique; therefore, how to clean up this uncle of Gao Guo, who was once powerful and now had a heavy army.
Of course, these two problems are actually not difficult to solve; Yuan Ke has already drawn a line with them before——
In the previous dynasty, Yuan Ke's policy was to release Gao Zhao and clean up the clan room; now Cui Guang and Yu Zhong only need to drop one by one to implement it.
Soon, Cui Guang and Yu Zhong selected target candidates: Taibao and Wang Yuanyong of Gaoyang; Prince Taibao and Wang Yuancheng of Rencheng.
Yuan Yong was the only one of Yuan Hong's six younger brothers; however, this grandfather did not have much political ambition and average ability; so at the time of Yuan Hong's death, he was not appointed to assist the government. It is precisely because of this that Yuan Yong was blessed by misfortune and was able to stand alone in the successive political movements of Yuan Ke to clean up the clan office.
Speaking of Yuan Cheng, this is an old drama bone; in the Yuanhong era, Yuan cheng played a very important role; when Yuanhong died, Yuancheng was appointed as one of the auxiliary ministers. However, contrary to Yuan Yongzhenghao, but also because of his ability, during the Yuan Ke period, Yuan Cheng was always suppressed, although he held the title of auxiliary government, but he was a local official for a long time.
Yuan Cheng was also a wise man, and when he saw this posture, he knew that he had to be raised by TaoGuang; this guy did not pay any attention to the affairs of the imperial court, and drank two drunks and two drunks all day; it gave people the feeling that this was a wine putty with no great ambition.
These two also have an advantage, that is, they are older; if you talk about it from Yuan Xue, he has to call Yuan Yong shuzu and Guan Yuancheng called Great-uncle. This generation is lifted out, and it will definitely be able to live in Gao Zhao.
With the goal set, Cui Guang and Yu Zhong began to work around, preparing to elect Yuan Yong as a recorder of Shangshu and enter Xibaitang to preside over the handling of the imperial court's affairs; to elect Yuan Cheng as Shangshu Ling and command hundreds of officials.
Most of the ministers are part-time workers, and as long as they maintain their current official positions, who cares. But there's an episode in between—
Most of the ministers didn't care, and some of them did, such as the aforementioned Wang Xian.
Judging from Wang Xian's previous performance, this guy was obviously a member of the Gao clan; Cui Guang and Yu Zhong did so, and Wang Xian was very worried that he would be liquidated after Yuan Cheng and others took power in the future; so he found Zhongchang's attendant Sun Fulian to plot and prepare to make Gao Zhao's secretary of The Record Shang Shu and Wang Xian and Gao Meng the Duke of Bohai as his attendants (Gao Meng was Gao Zhao's nephew and Empress Gao's cousin; and this boy also married Yuan Ke's sister Princess Changle as his wife, so this product was Yuan Xue's uncle. Preemptively grab power.
However, it was said that it was a conspiracy, but Wang Xian and others did a very poor job of secrecy; as soon as he finished plotting, Yu Zhong and others got the news. At such a critical time, it was better than who was quick enough to attack; Yu Zhong immediately dispatched troops to arrest Wang Xian, and then beat him violently, and the latter was killed.
On the day of Wang Xian's death, Yuan Xue 'issued an edict' agreeing that the hundred officials would be led by Yuan Yong and Yuan Cheng; Shi Zai, "internal and external obedience". Is it really 'pleasing'? hehe!
That one said, the capital has changed dramatically, how come I didn't see Gao Zhao's reaction when the commanders were outside.