In the 3rd year of the Western Han Dynasty, that is, the third year of the first year of the Western Han Dynasty, a terrible event occurred in the capital Chang'an, and Wang Mang, as a powerful courtier, actually gave a cruel hand, killed his son Wang Yu, and at the same time destroyed the three tribes of the Lü clan! As the saying goes, the tiger poison does not eat children, Wang Yu is Wang Mang's eldest son, can also be said to be his heir, shouldering heavy responsibilities, why is Wang Mang so cruel, even at the expense of killing his own son?
Things have to start with the Hanping Emperor! In 1 BC, emperor Ai of Han fell ill and died, and with the support of empress dowager Wang Zhengjun, Wang Mang went out of the mountains again, paid homage to Sima Da, and took charge of the affairs. Since the Han Emperor had no sons, Wang Mang chose the 9-year-old Hanping Emperor to take the throne. Emperor Hanping' name was Liu Yan (劉衎) (劉衎), the grandson of Emperor Yuan of Han, the father of Liu Xing (劉興), the Prince of Zhongshan, and his mother Wei Ji (衛姬). In order to control the power and prevent other foreign relatives from monopolizing power, Wang Mang isolated the Hanping Emperor from his mother Wei Ji.
Although the Hanping Emperor was a puppet at this time, he was the emperor after all, and as he grew older, he would one day take power. Wang Yu was very afraid, worried that the Hanping Emperor would take revenge and would take revenge on the Wang family after he pro-government, and the tragedy of the power minister Huo Guang's family being wiped out was impressive. Therefore, Wang Yu secretly corresponded with Emperor Hanping's uncles Wei Bao and Wei Xuan, asking Emperor Hanping's mother Wei Ji to write a letter of thanksgiving, and at the same time exposing the evil deeds of the Ding and Fu families.
The purpose of this was to win Wang Mang's favor, so that he could agree to Wei Ji's entry into the capital and meet with Emperor Hanping. Wang Yu's idea was to ease relations with Wei Ji, the mother of the Hanping Emperor, and to be able to save the Wang family from being killed in the future. However, Wei Ji's wish was disappointed. Wang Mang issued an edict in the name of empress dowager, praising Wei Ji, "Seven Thousand Households of Yitang Muyi", but refused to let her enter the capital. Wei Ji was very sad and wept day and night because she missed her son.
Wang Yu came up with another idea, asking Wei Ji to write directly to request to enter Beijing, but Wang Mang refused. Therefore, Wang Yu found his brother-in-law Lü Kuan and his teacher Wu Zhang to discuss the matter. Wu Zhang believed that Wang Mang was a person who did not listen to persuasion, but believed in the theory of ghosts and gods, and could scare Wang Mang through the ghost god incident and let Wang Mang return to wei. Wang Yu felt that this was feasible, so he asked Lü Kuan to sprinkle blood on wang Mang's palace gate at night.
As a result, Lü Kuan was not cautious in his actions, and was discovered by the guards in front of Wang Mang's mansion and was captured on the spot. After some interrogation, Wang Mang learned the truth of this matter, he was very angry, did not expect his son to associate with political enemies, but also wanted him to hand over power, which made Wang Mang very sad. Wang Mang ordered his son Wang Yu to be arrested and imprisoned, and then forced him to commit suicide by taking medicine. At that time, Wang Yu's wife was pregnant with Liujia and was killed after giving birth to a child.
Later, the empress dowager issued an edict praising Wang Mang, "The public occupies the position of the Duke of Zhou, and is assisted by the lord of the king, and the practice of management and Cai Zhijie, do not respect them with their relatives, and they are very jiazhi!" Wang Mang took this opportunity to kill many more people, first Wu Zhang was beheaded, Lü Kuan was also killed, and the three tribes were exterminated. After that, the Wei clan also suffered, Wei Bao and Wei Xuan were killed, and the Wei clan was slaughtered. In the end, Wang Mang expanded the scope of his killing, killing those who refused to submit to him and resent him.
For example, Emperor Yuandi's sister Princess Jingwu, Liu Li the Prince of Liang, Wang Li the Marquis of Hongyang (Wang Mang's uncle), Marquis Wang Ren of Ping'a (Wang Mang's cousin), Qiang Colonel Xin Tong, Hangu Du Wei Xin Zun, Shui Heng Du Wei Xin Mao, NanJun Taishou Xin Bo and hundreds of others. Wang Mang's behavior caused a shock in the sea, and some people of insight saw the problem clearly and took refuge in the border areas, because they knew that a turmoil was about to break out.
References: 1. Book of Han; 2. Zizhi Tongjian