Although the ancient emperors were honored as the 95th Emperor, most of the emperors were actually in a bad situation, not to mention that they were rich in every word, and sometimes these emperors could not even guarantee their own personal safety. According to historians, more than 400 emperors were born in ancient Chinese history, and their average life expectancy was only about 39.2 years.
The average life expectancy of ordinary people in ancient times was usually very low, and most dynasties were only thirty or forty years old, and even in the years of frequent wars, the average life expectancy was less than 30 years. But the reason why the average life expectancy of ordinary people in ancient times was low was mainly because the medical and living conditions in ancient times were too poor, and there were long-term wars. And the ancient emperors were noble, enjoying the best living conditions, not only eating, wearing, living and traveling all had special personnel to serve, but also specially served the imperial doctors, why would their life expectancy be so low?
When it comes to the problem of the low life expectancy of the ancient emperor, we have to sigh that although the emperor looks like an infinite scenery on the surface, there is a huge crisis hidden behind it, which can definitely be regarded as the most dangerous occupation in ancient times. Most of the emperors in history have not been able to die well, few emperors have been able to enjoy their old age, and most emperors have either been killed by traitors, assassins, or the country, and some have died in the struggle between the royal family members. It was precisely because of the unnatural deaths of these emperors that the average life expectancy of ancient emperors was greatly reduced.
Moreover, the more chaotic the era, the greater the danger of the emperor, especially during the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Five Dynasties period, and the emperors in these two periods faced great danger. Taking Liu Yu, the first emperor of the Southern Dynasty, as an example, there were no less than six emperors who died at his hands, which can be called the emperor terminator. In this chaotic era, wars between countries occurred from time to time, and once the army was defeated, it was the end of death, such as Huan Xuan, Murong Chao, Yao Hong, and others who were killed by Liu Yu.
In addition to the threat posed by the enemy state, there is also a great source of danger from the power of the emperor. Also taking Liu Yu as an example, he had not yet claimed that the emperor was a powerful vassal of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and he killed Sima Dezong and Sima Dewen, two Eastern Jin emperors, before becoming the founding emperor of Liu Song on behalf of Jin Jiansong.
Of course, it was not a simple matter for the courtiers to get rid of the emperor and replace him. For example, the first person of the Five Dynasties, Yang Xingmi, the taizu of the Wu Kingdom, pretended to be blind for three years in order to save his life in the face of threats from powerful ministers, and his wife fooled around with others in front of him. In these three years, Yang Xingmi endured humiliation and burdens, secretly accumulated strength, contacted loyal ministers everywhere, opened his eyes and shamed himself, not only successfully eliminated the powerful ministers, but also expelled his wife who betrayed him from the palace.
Yang Xingmi was the son of a peasant, whose ancestors were farmers for generations, and in Yang Xingmi's generation, due to the chaos of the situation at the end of the Tang Dynasty, rebellions and peasant uprisings broke out in various places. Because he could not survive in his hometown, Yang Xingmi participated in the peasant uprising with his fellow villagers, but it was not long before this rebel army was defeated by the imperial court, and Yang Xingmi became a prisoner of the imperial court. At that time, Zheng Tang, the assassin of Luzhou, saw that Yang Xingmi's appearance was strange and unusual, so he personally ordered Yang Xingmi to be released, and also made him a state soldier of the imperial court.
Yang Xingmi fought bravely after joining the army, and was soon promoted to captain, but because of his strong personality, he has not been liked by other officers, and is often harassed by other officers. At that time, Zheng Tang had already been summoned to the capital as an official, and there was no one to help Yang Xingmi to preside over justice, so Yang Xingmi simply rebelled and occupied Luzhou to drive out the new assassin history
Lang Young
He claimed to be an envoy of the Eight Battalions. The strength of the imperial court was already declining, and there were no extra troops to pacify Yang Xingmi, so they had to push the boat along the water to seal Yang Xing as the history of Luzhou.
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and there were warlords everywhere, Yang Xingmi initially served the imperial court, and later after the division of Jianghuai, the imperial court had to push the boat along the water again and crown him as the King of Wu. Although Yang Xingmi still ostensibly still respected the imperial court orders, he was actually a veritable emperor, and later after Yang Xingmi's death, his fourth son simply called himself emperor and posthumously honored him as Emperor Wu and taizu.
Yang Xingmi's wife Zhu Shi had a younger brother named Zhu Yanshou, who fought with Yang Xingmi for many years, and since Yang Xingmi became the King of Wu, Zhu Yanshou took the opportunity to take control of the army. As a result, Zhu Yanshou became eager to try, always wanting to take Yang Xingmi's place. In order to protect himself, Yang Xingmi had no choice but to adopt the strategy of pretending to be blind, saying many times in front of Zhu Yanshou that his eye disease had recurred, and that he was afraid that time would not be long, and that he would have to assist Zhu Yanshou more in the future.
Zhu Yanshou did not know what the plan was, thinking that Yang Xingmi was really blind, so he became more and more arrogant. And Yang Xingmi's wife, Zhu Shi, after she saw that her husband was blind, instead of feeling a little sad, in order to test whether her husband was really blind, she fooled around with others in front of Yang Xingmi. All this Yang Xingmi saw in his eyes, but he did not dare to say anything, in order to paralyze the Zhu brothers and sisters, he could only bear the burden of humiliation.
In the three years that followed, Yang Xingmi continued to pretend to be blind to paralyze Zhu Yanshou on the one hand, and on the other hand, secretly contacted those ministers who were still loyal to him, and also collected a lot of evidence of Zhu Yanshou's evil. When the time was ripe, Yang Xingmi summoned Zhu Yanshou and opened his eyes in front of him, and other ministers and army generals also appeared to surround Zhu Yanshou. Seeing this scene, Zhu Yanshou was like dead ash on the scene, knowing that he had been caught in Yang Xing's secret plan to show the enemy to be weak. Yang Xingmi endured humiliation for three years, and at this moment, he finally lost his shame, not only got rid of Zhu Yanshou, but also drove his wife Zhu Shi out of the palace.
In fact, when the emperor responds to the threat of the powerful, he must be careful in any measures, even if it is to show weakness to the enemy, he must not be careless, otherwise, if he is not careful, he may lose his country and his life. For example, the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, he was able to successfully suppress Aobai is actually a very lucky thing. Because although Aobai was arrogant and arrogant, he was still loyal to the Qing Dynasty in his heart, otherwise it would be impossible to give Kangxi the opportunity to grow. As for those emperors who were finally killed by the powerful ministers because of the failure of hiding, there were more, and there were very few emperors like Yang Xingmi who could turn the tables.