Four hundred years of agitation: Yuan Hong's illness and southern expedition were temporarily stranded, and the empress was deposed and the Feng family fell

This article is the 460th in a long series of articles, Four Hundred Years of Turmoil

After the period of the Southern Expedition was set, Yuan Hong sent emissaries to send troops to Gao Che, but the Gao Che people were afraid of long-distance labor, so they elected the leader of Yuan Qi's tribe, Shu Ren, and led the people to defect north.

Yuanhong sent the northern general Yuwen Fu (宇文福) to go on a crusade, but was defeated and Yuwen Fu was deposed. Yuanhong also ordered the general of Pingbei and the prince of Jiangyang To succeed him as the governor of the north to fight against Gaoche, and all the east of Huaishuo was returned to him and sat in Pingcheng.

In the autumn of the first year of Yongtai (498 AD), the period of the Southern Expedition had arrived, but Yuanhong was ill, and his illness was not light, and he could not receive the left and right attendants for more than ten days in a row, only Pengcheng Wang Yuanxun and a few others around to take care of him. Yuanxun not only served Yuanhong to see a doctor and take medicine, but also took charge of state affairs, internally and externally, handled it very thoroughly, solemnly near and far, and no one had any objections.

The right general Xu Jian was good at medicine and was in Luoyang at the time, and Yuan Xun hurriedly summoned him. After Xu Xiao arrived, Yuan Xun took his hand and cried while saying, "If you can cure the Lord's illness, you can get a bonus of accident; if you can't cure it, there will be an unexpected disaster that will befall you." This is not only related to your honor and disgrace, but also related to your life and death. ”

Yuan Xun also secretly had people build an altar on the shore of Rushui, personally praying to heaven and earth and offering emperor Wen's spirit in heaven like Zhou Gong, begging him to replace Yuan Hong with himself and let him heal quickly. In the end, I don't know whether Xu Xiao's medical skills played a role, or Yuan Xun was touched by heaven, and Yuan Hong's condition improved slightly.

On September 21, Yuan Hong issued an edict saying that "the ceremony should not be cut down", abandoning the southern expedition and leading the troops to return. The next day, Yuan Hong ordered the Northern Expedition to Gaoche.

On September 28, YuanHong set out from The Hanging Urn, stayed at the shore of Rushui, and gathered hundreds of officials and courtiers, invited Xu Xiao to the table, praised his merits, and made him Hongxuqing and was awarded the title of Jinxiang County Bo, with a reward of 10,000 strings. The reward for the kings was not less than a thousand horses per person.

In November, Yuan Ji wrote: "The Gaoche people are stubborn, evaded military service, and rebelled far away, but if they are all pursued and killed, I am afraid that it will cause great chaos." The courtiers suggested that the court send an emissary to each town, ordering it to reorganize the town, behead only one culprit, and comfort the rest, and if he regretted it and was willing to serve, then let him rush to the army. ”

Yuan Hong's edict approved Yuan Ji's proposal, and the rebellious Gaoche people returned one after another. Yuan Ji first sent someone to comfort and persuade the tree people, and the tree people fled to Rouran, but soon regretted it and led the crowd to surrender. When Yuanhong heard about it, he praised: "The King of Jiangyang can be entrusted with a big responsibility. ”

On the eighth day of the first lunar month of the first year of the Yongyuan Dynasty (499 AD), Yuan Hong departed from Yecheng and returned to Luoyang.

On the twenty-first day of the first month, YuanHong returned to Luoyang and passed by Li Chong's grave. At that time, Yuanhong could not get up due to illness and looked at Li Chong's grave and wept. After returning to the palace, he saw other officials who were staying in Luoyang with Li Chong at the time, and when he talked about Li Chong, Yuanhong burst into tears.

At this time, Li Biao took the initiative to come to apologize, and Yuanhong said to him: "I wanted to use you again, but when I thought of Li Biao, I gave up this idea." "Take a good look at it and send it away."

Soon, Yu Shitai ordered Shi Longwenguan to report: "When the deposed prince Yuan Ke was arrested, he wrote a handwritten complaint, but Li Biao did not report it. "The intention is to fall into the well. Yuanhong believed that Li Biao would definitely not do so and would not pursue it. Two years later, Li Biao died of illness in Luoyang.

In fact, Yuanhong is most concerned about reform. To this end, he asked Rencheng Wang Yuancheng: "Since he left Beijing, how many old customs have changed?" Yuan Cheng said, "Under the indoctrination of the Lord, the customs are changing with each passing day. ”

Yuanhong asked again: "When I entered the city, I saw that the women sitting on the car were still wearing hats and small jackets, which were all old customs, how can it be said that they are changing with each passing day?" Yuan Cheng replied, "There are fewer people wearing it, and more people who don't wear it." ”

Yuanhong was displeased: "Rencheng King, what are you talking about?" Do you still want women all over the city to wear hats and small coats? Yuan Cheng and the other remaining officials rushed to apologize to Yuan Hong.

From this incident, we can see how difficult it is to completely change the customs of a nation.

In addition, Yuanhong's trip back to Luoyang also had a knot in his heart, that is, Empress Feng actually had an affair with the eunuch Gao Bodhisattva, and the whistleblower was Yuanhong's sixth sister, Princess Pengcheng.

Princess Pengcheng was once the daughter-in-law of Liu Chang, the King of Song, and lived as a widow. Empress Feng wanted Princess Pengcheng to remarry her brother, Feng Su, the Duke of Beiping, and specially proposed marriage, and Yuanhong agreed.

However, Princess Pengcheng was not willing to marry Feng Su, and Empress Feng forced her to marry, so Princess Pengcheng had to brave the rain with her servants to rush to The Hanging Urn, tell Yuanhong about Empress Feng's forced marriage, and also report empress Feng's adultery with Gao Bodhisattva. Yuanhong had doubts in his heart after listening to it, and he kept it secret.

After Empress Feng heard the wind, she was very frightened, and secretly with her mother Chang Shi, she asked the witch to pray that the ghost god would descend on Yuanhong, cursed him to die soon, and made a wish: "If the emperor's illness does not get better, once I can listen to the government like Empress Wenming, I will be rewarded heavily, no matter the cost." ”

After Yuanhong returned to Luoyang, he immediately detained Gao Bodhisattva and others, and after interrogation, they all confessed and confessed.

On this day, Yuanhong sat in the greenhouse, summoned Empress Feng at night, told her to sit in the east room, how far away from her seat, and then ordered Gao Bodhisattva and others to confess to the adultery with the empress.

Finally, Yuanhong summoned YuanXun and Yuanxuan, the King of Beihai, into the palace, sat them down, and pointed at Empress Feng: "In the past, she was your sister-in-law, and from now on she will be a passerby, and there is no need to avoid it." He continued, "This old woman wants to assassinate her, because she is the daughter of the Civilized Empress Dowager's family, and she cannot be abolished, but only left her in the palace, and if she has a sense of shame, she may be able to kill herself." Therefore, don't think that you still have any affection for her. ”

After Yuan Xun and Yuan Xiang left, Yuan Hong asked Empress Feng what else she had to say, and Empress Feng saluted Yuan Hong again, knelt on her knees, prostrated her head, sobbed, and then left. When she was living in the harem, the concubines still performed the empress's ceremony on her, but ordered the prince not to ask her for peace every morning.

At first, Feng Xi, as Empress Feng's brother, married Tuoba Huang's daughter Princess Bolingchang as his wife, and his three daughters, two as empresses, one was Zuo Zhaoyi, the family's favorite courtiers, and the rewards given by the imperial court alone accumulated in hundreds of millions.

Princess Boling gave birth to two sons, Feng Shi and Feng Xiu. Feng Xi himself served as Taibao, Feng Shiren served as Situ, Feng Xiu served as Shizhong and Shangshu, and Feng Yu served as Huangmenlang, and the father-son power fell to the world.

Feng Xiu was flashy in temperament and aggressive, and Feng Shi repeatedly warned him, but there was no sign of repentance, so he went to Empress Feng and Yuanhong and taught him a hard lesson with a stick.

Therefore, Feng Xiu hated Feng Shu very much and plotted to poison him. After the matter was revealed, Yuanhong prepared to kill Feng Xiu, but Feng Shi blamed himself and begged Yuanhong to let him have a way to live. Yuanhong remembered that their father was old, so he spared Feng Xiu from dying, but only beat him with more than a hundred rods and reduced him to a commoner.

When Feng Shi and Feng Xi died one after another, Empress Feng was deposed, feng Yu was also abandoned, and the Feng family fell.