In many film and television drama works or literary works, there is often an emperor or a descendant of the royal family who laments before dying, saying that he hopes to be born in the family of ordinary people in the next life, and not to be born in the emperor's family again. Ordinary people say how noble the emperor is, rich and honorable, as if the imperial palace is a fairyland on earth, but how many emperors died miserably?
The emperor is a high-risk profession, and the causes of death are really various, they are starved to death, they are killed by brothers and siblings and even their sons and nephews, they are surrounded and killed by ministers, they are poisoned by their own mothers, their heads are cut off, they are covered alive, they are drowned, they are killed by gas... There are all kinds of tricks, and there are not many people who can really die.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were two grandchildren, one after the other became emperors, and the other died tragically, one was drunk and was covered alive, and the other was locked up in a secret room for many years, escaped with difficulty, and was thrown into the water and drowned.
These two men were Xiao Gang, emperor of Liang Jianwen, and Xiao Dong, the king of Liang Yuzhang. Xiao Gang was the son of Xiao Yan, the founding emperor of southern Liang, who was born in 503 AD with a golden spoon in the high-walled compound of the imperial palace.
At the age of three, he was made the King of Jin'an, at the age of six he was given the post of general, at the age of seven he supervised the military work of five states, he was changed to an envoy, at the age of ten he entered the imperial court, at the age of twelve... The curriculum vitae is very rich.
If Xiao Gang and his eldest brother Prince Zhaoming had lived a little longer, or if his father Xiao Yan had not neglected the government because of his belief in Buddhism in his later years, resulting in a traitorous courtier, perhaps Xiao Gang's life was to grow up smoothly and smoothly, to be a prince, to live a leisurely life as an official in the dynasty or a crane, and most likely to become a literary master of fame and age.
Unfortunately, if not. Xiao Yan lived for a relatively long time, reigning for forty-eight years, and the eldest son was made crown prince early, called Prince Zhaoming. In 530, when Xiao Gang was twenty-seven years old, he was ordered by his father to return from other places to serve in the capital city.
Xiao Gangren was still on his way back to Beijing, and before he reached the capital, Prince Zhaoming once said to the attendants around him, I had a dream, I dreamed that I was playing chess with king Jin'an, I didn't play well, I messed up the rules, so I gave him my sword. This giving away the prince's sword had a different meaning, and at that time, Prince Zhaoming said that I was afraid that this would really happen.
As a result, not long after, Prince Zhaoming died suddenly, so a month later, Emperor Xiao Yan re-established Xiao Gang as the crown prince, and Prince Zhaoming's dream really came true. As for why he re-established himself as crown prince after the death of Prince Zhaoming, but chose Xiao Gang, who was neither a long nor a concubine, it can only be said that Xiao Yan was willful, all by preference, he liked Xiao Gang, so he let Xiao Gang be the prince.
Because Xiao Yan reigned for too long, Xiao Gang, the prince, also served for a long time, and he did not have anything important in the East Palace, anyway, he inherited his father, he had a great literary talent since he was a child, and there was a group of literati teachers and friends around him, so they simply got together all day to write articles and poems.
When he was once the King of Jin'an, Xiao Gang had a literary group around him, and later became a prince, and his Jin'anWang Literary Group was changed to the Donggong Literary Group, and the scale continued to expand. It would be nice if this could have been so leisurely developing literature with like-minded people, but unfortunately another one would not have been possible.
Hou Jing rebelled, subverted the imperial court, LiangWu Emperor Xiao Yan YingMing I, but unfortunately in his later years neglected the government, traitors, rebellion, the reason for Hou Jing's rebellion is said to be Hou Jing once from other countries to defect to the Liang Dynasty, Xiao Yan placed him, and later the two countries negotiated peace, the other country put forward the condition is to let Hou Jing go back, Hou Jing heard about it, and led troops against Xiao Yan.
Poor Xiao Yan was wise for half his life, thrifty and thrifty, diligent in government and loving the people, once in order to take the lead in frugality and only eat one meal a day, and finally died of starvation, I don't know how this cause and effect are repaid. At this time, Xiao Gang, as the crown prince, naturally could no longer be like before, only knowing poetry and scriptures, and not knowing about major state affairs.
When Xiao Gang met Hou Jing, he seemed to be infected by his father's perennial worship of the Buddha, and he was very calm and calm, even if Hou Jing had already mastered the power, if Hou Jing wanted to claim himself emperor, his own prince was his biggest obstacle, and Xiao Gang could calmly and calmly deal with Hou Jing.
Therefore, under Hou Jing's arrangement, Xiao Gang successfully succeeded to the throne, although he did not have real power, but he was an emperor, and he had several sons under his knees who should be crowned kings, and he should be crowned princes. No matter how much he wanted to take power himself and save the Liang Dynasty, Hou Jing was really guarding against him and killing his heirs, and he had no way to do anything about it.
At that time, natural disasters and man-made disasters arose, there were great droughts everywhere, the people's lives were in dire straits, the court was scattered, the king did not become a king, the subject did not become a subject, and who cares about the people. At that time, the disaster even spread to the capital, and the famine was so severe that there was a scene of people eating people, and it is said that there were four or five people who were eaten at that time, which shows the fierceness of the time.
It is said that at that time, there were also envoys sent by small countries to pay tribute, but when they arrived in the capital, they saw that the houses and temples were deserted and desolate, which frightened the envoys to cry at the city gate. Since ancient times, the capital city has been the most prosperous in a country, and Kyoto has become such a bleak appearance, you can imagine how the world is.
Soon after, Hou Jing killed countless of Xiao Gang's brothers and grandchildren, almost killing them all, and then forced Xiao Gang to write an abdication edict, saying that Xiao Gang was not a concubine at the beginning, and that he had inherited the throne because Shu had occupied the throne, and that he should return the position to the concubines. Xiao Gang never had the ability to resist, and could only write while shedding tears, and the infected Surrounding Hou Jing's subordinates all followed him in tears.
As soon as the edict was written, life was almost over. Xiao Gang could only obediently wait for death, and when Hou Jing gave the order, he himself drank heavily, just like the former emperor Qi Hedi, whose father had forced him to die, preferring to be killed in a drunken dream rather than commit suicide.
When the people sent by Hou Jing saw that Xiao Gang was already drunk, they put a cloth on his face and covered the person to death. There was no coffin containing the buried body, so he unloaded the doors and windows next to him and put it together casually, after that, Xiao Gang's body was placed, knowing that Hou Jing was destroyed half a year later, someone changed him into a good coffin and buried him.
A generation of emperors, a lifetime of helplessness, almost never saw a coffin after death, let alone seen the corpse uncared for, placed in the ground for half a year before being buried, to this point, Xiao Gang, the emperor, can only be said to be miserable.
However, Xiao Gang was forced to give up his position because of his "concubine", to whom did he give up? It was originally said that Xiao Gang became the crown prince because of the death of Prince Zhaoming, so Prince Zhaoming was a concubine, and if he wanted to return the throne to the concubines, he naturally had to give it to the descendants of Prince Zhaoming. He was succeeded by Prince Zhaoming's grandson, Xiao Dong.
Because Xiao Gang and Prince Zhaoming were brothers, Xiao Gang was also Xiao Dong's grandfather, and the situation in which the two grandchildren successively became emperors was not uncommon, but there were not many. The power of the Liang Dynasty had already fallen irretrievably, Xiao Yan had lost the half of the prosperous world he had built in his later years, Xiao Gang was just a pawn under Hou Jing's hands, and he couldn't even rely on his own life, let alone do anything to Jiangshan.
So much so that Xiao Dong, who became the emperor to take over Jiangshan, was simply another Xiao Gang, and the power was still Decided by Hou Jing, and Xiao Dong still could not save the foundation of the Liang Dynasty. At the beginning, because hou Jing wantonly killed, xiao's descendants had an easy life, not to mention the descendants of Prince Zhaoming, who died early.
Xiao Dong and his wife have personally gone down to the land to cultivate the land, when someone came to him to let him return to the palace as emperor, he and his wife were still weeding in the field, a confused Xiao Dong was brought back to the palace, and became the emperor in a daze, it is said that when he held the enthronement ceremony, he accidentally blew a strong wind, blowing over the canopy dedicated to the emperor above his head, blowing out a long way.
This situation was "Providence" in the superstitious psychology of the people at that time, that is, the heavens were showing that Xiao Dong would not be the emperor for long, and sure enough, it was not long before Hou Jing let Xiao Dong write an edict and give up the imperial throne to Hou Jing. Emperors who gave up the throne generally could not survive, and Xiao Dong felt that he was still lucky and did not lose his life for the time being.
After Hou Jing got the throne, he did not kill Xiao Dong at the first time, but had Xiao Dong and his two younger brothers locked up and locked up in a secret room. The Chamber of Secrets, you can imagine what life is like after being locked up in the Chamber of Secrets, if you can survive, it is worth it to be locked up in the Chamber of Secrets and tortured.
Unfortunately, the next year, Hou Jing was defeated and fled, the Xiao family's people recaptured Jiangshan, Emperor Liang Yuan led the army to defeat Hou Jing, and he ascended the throne himself, Xiao Dong's three brothers could only support each other when they came out of the secret room, they thought that after suffering a lot, they finally saved their lives, but they did not expect to live.
Before Emperor Liang Yuan raised an army, he had no intention of keeping the previous emperor alive. His subordinate Wang Shengquan once asked him how he planned to deal with the emperor who succeeded him after he pacified Hou Jing's thieves. What Emperor Liang Yuan replied meant was that he was going to kill in the palace. Monk Wang then said, "Leave the matter of the crusade against Hou Jing to me, and after that, you should find someone else."
Emperor Yuan of Liang entrusted the matter to Zhu Maichen, and later after Hou Jing escaped, because Xiao Gang had been dead for a long time, Zhu Maichen's target was Xiao Dong alone. Xiao Dong and the others had just come out of the secret room and met Du Shanze, who unshackled them and said nothing. Xiao Dong's brother said that he finally came back to life, but Xiao Dong said that I always had a bad feeling.
Later, they met Zhu Maichen, who showed great enthusiasm, saying that several of them had suffered for a long time, and now that Hou Jing had been defeated, we should celebrate well, and then invited them to the boat and set up a banquet to invite them to drink and eat.
The banquet was only halfway through, Zhu Maichen let the three brothers sink into the water, Xiao Dong, the emperor did not do a few days, but was locked in the secret room for a long time, just came out and was drowned alive, although after death was posthumously the emperor, but the life was gone.
If Hou Jing had not been forced to kill Xiao Gang and did not want to find the so-called "concubine bloodline" to inherit the throne, perhaps Xiao Dong had lived a poor life with his wife, planting fields and weeding, and working hard, but for the imperial palace that accidentally lost his life, although such a life was poor, what was so bad about it.
The history books do not record why Hou Jing had to abolish one by one in one fell swoop, it is reasonable to say that when Xiao Gang was in power, Hou Jing wanted to be emperor himself, there was no problem at all, and even Xiao Gang was not a descendant of Emperor Liangwu's concubine, did not he give him an excuse? Why did Hou Jing depose Xiao Gang, establish Xiao Dong again, and then take over the throne in Xiao Dong's hands? It's confusing.
It's just that this is a meaningless abolition in our eyes, taking Xiao Gang's life and taking Xiao Dong's life. Xiao Gang was originally the crown prince, succeeded by him, and he gave up the throne by Zen, he always couldn't hide from this death, but it was only a matter of sooner or later, but Xiao Dong was pulled out halfway and walked through the emperor's formalities, but he was really innocently put into a life.
If Xiao Dong and his wife had not appeared that train frame when they were weeding that day, they would have finished their work and returned home to eat rough tea and light rice, and it would have been very good to live like this. Unfortunately, it was the Tianzi frame, and the frame appeared to take him back to the palace, Xiao Dong may have understood his ending at that moment, he was crying and getting into the car.
Xiao Gang and Xiao Dong, the grandson of the ancestors, nominally became the supreme emperor, but in fact they did not touch the rights from the beginning to the end, and the treatment that the emperor should have was not affected at all, and the emperor should not have suffered a lot. One was covered alive in a drunken dream, and after death, there was no coffin, and the demolished doors and windows were used to make up the burial of the body; one was locked up in the secret room for a long time, and it was difficult to get out of the secret room, and he did not eat a full meal, and he was drowned alive in the water, which was really sad.