Chapter 48 Chapter 48: The Queen's Defeat

Empress Dowager Dou died in May of the sixth year of Jianyuan (135 BC).She left her last words: After my death, all property will be given to Princess Guantao. For Empress Dowager Dou, Emperor Wu is her grandson, while Empress Chen is her grandson, and the entire palace is completely under her dominion. For Emperor Wu, the death of his grandmother was tantamount to his freedom.He no longer has to worry about anyone, he can go forward bravely to realize his ambition. ——I want to open up a new road for the world! Emperor Wu was twenty-two years old at the time. It has been more than 70 years since Gaozu Liu Bang founded the Han Empire. Except for the chaos of the seven kingdoms of Wu and Chu, there has been no large-scale war, nor has there been any serious flood or drought.During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period and when Chu and Han were fighting for hegemony, the strong men were forced to participate in the war, and the old and weak were responsible for transporting tasks. The people were extremely exhausted. However, this phenomenon finally dissipated. Cannot be schooled.

There are so many copper coins in the capital that they are flooding, and people's savings will naturally increase a lot. "Through" is a rope that runs through a copper coin with a hole in the middle.This rope will not be able to calculate the number of copper coins due to rot, which shows how huge the amount of people's savings was at that time. "Hanshu" has the following records: The millet in Taicang is Chen Chen Xiangyin, which is full of dew and accumulates outside, so it is rotten and inedible. "Taicang" is the government's grain warehouse, and "millet" mainly refers to rice. "Chen" refers to the meaning of staleness, that is, things left for too long.Old rice is piled up on top of the old rice, and the warehouse is full, and the rice that cannot be put in the warehouse is piled up outside, and all the rice is broken and cannot be eaten.

This shows the extent of national strength. Father and grandfather didn't know how to use the goods... Emperor Wu laughed at them when he saw the unused grain and copper coins in the warehouse. However, considering that the guiding ideology of the Han Empire for the past seventy years was Lao Zhuang--it's not surprising. ——Leave everything as it is, inaction is the highest morality, and nothing can be forced. Emperor Wu also read Lao Zhuang's works by his grandmother's order, but he didn't take his thoughts seriously. So, what is the purpose of human life?Isn't such a person the same as an ant?Why can't talented and powerful people use their talents or strengths?

No matter how hard his grandmother taught him, the young Emperor Wu still couldn't affirm "inaction". If one day I can act freely... When my grandmother was still alive and Emperor Wu had no freedom of movement, he often thought to himself. There were so many things he wanted to do, so he decided on a priority for them all, and the benchmark for everything was: to carry forward the prestige of the Han Empire. The Han Empire is the region with the strongest civilization in the world.Therefore, expanding the territory of the Han Empire is tantamount to promoting civilization—Emperor Wu took this understanding as his starting point.

If the majesty of the Han Empire, the root of civilization, is damaged, it is tantamount to insulting civilization itself, and it means that people are regarded as inferior to animals.How can the world allow such a thing? And that's the reality.The relationship between the Han and the Huns is proof. The great ancestor Liu Bang was surrounded by the Xiongnu in a piece of snow in Datong, and he was able to escape only by offering bribes, and the peace terms were extremely humiliating to the Han. The Han must send a large amount of cloth and grain to the Xiongnu every year.In addition, the royal women had to be married off to the Huns.Among them, the loss of "majesty" is far greater than the loss of materials.

In terms of diplomatic relations, the Huns are brothers and the Han are brothers.Such unbearable things do exist in reality! Destroy the Huns, the shame of Xue's father and ancestors!When listing many things you want to do and ranking them in order of importance, this is the most important job that is unconditionally at the top of the list. However, it is not easy to defeat the Huns.It must be well prepared.Sending an expedition to the Yuezhi was part of this preparation. In addition to crusade against the Huns, what Emperor Wu wanted to do was to create his own family under his own will.

Empress Chen, who has a cousin relationship, began to have a grudge against Emperor Wu.Because she believed that Emperor Wu was able to ascend the throne only through the arrangement of her mother, she was very arrogant in all her actions.At the same time, she is a very jealous woman. "I want to love the woman I like leisurely. It is meaningful for people to live like this, isn't it! Why should I live with the woman I hate! Marrying Gillian is not my original intention..." The difference between the family issue and the Xiongnu issue is that "will" is more important than "preparation".As long as there is a determined attitude, everything can be solved.

Empress Chen didn't see her husband's heart, what she saw was just the appearance - under the oppression of her grandmother, she had no ability to resist at all.She decided that as long as she was suppressed, her husband would always be obedient. The object of her jealousy is Wei Zifu who was brought back by Emperor Wu from his sister's mansion and who is being favored.But no matter how daring she is, she can't take action against the emperor's concubine.Empress Chen asked her mother Princess Guantao to study countermeasures. "I heard that Wei Zifu's younger brother is serving as a Sheren (Emperor's Servant) in Jianzhang Palace..." Princess Guantao gave her daughter this information.Jianzhang Palace is the imperial palace of Emperor Wu.

"Isn't he a servant of Princess Pingyang's mansion?" "That happened in the past. After my sister became rich, my younger brother also ascended to heaven. It is said that Wei Zifu loved his younger brother very much, so he begged the emperor to arrange this job in Jianzhang Palace for him." "Really!" Empress Chen raised her willow eyebrows.How despicable it is to make many demands on the emperor by virtue of being favored! "It is said that Wei Qing is also a child whose father is unknown. People say that the father of the siblings is the same, so Wei Zifu takes special care of this younger brother!" Princess Guantao said to her daughter emphatically.

Although it is difficult to directly harm Wei Zifu who lives in the palace, killing her beloved brother will definitely deal a great blow to her.The woman who lost her mind with jealousy thought of this.The accomplice turned out to be her mother. Wei Qing, who holds a general affairs position in Jianzhang Palace, has to go to the street frequently due to work.Empress Chen and Princess Guantao then hired local ruffians to take Wei Qing away while he was on the street, and took him to Princess Guantao's mansion. ——After torturing him to death, he dumped the body on the road and tried to make Wei Zifu hear about it.She must be very sad, right?

Empress Chen tried to vent her hatred in this way. However, when Wei Qing went to the street, he had an attendant with him.The attendant took the opportunity to go to the street and wanted to go back to his mother's house, Wei Qing agreed.Wei Qing was kidnapped while waiting for his followers to return. The entourage who came back after a delay at the mother's house arrived at the appointed place, but there was no sign of Wei Qing.At this time, he inadvertently saw a dozen men walking in front of him, and they seemed to be carrying a heavy object.The attendant stepped forward, intending to ask them if they saw Wei Qing, but unexpectedly heard the following conversation between them: ——Is it true that you can receive a huge bonus if you kidnap a person? ——Don't worry, Princess Guantao keeps her word and will never break her promise. —However, this young man is too pitiful.He will probably die, right? Oh my God!Isn't this a kidnapping incident!The startled followers immediately ran to find Gongsun Ao.Gongsun Ao is a good friend of Wei Qing. When Gongsun Ao heard the news, his face changed suddenly, and he immediately gathered his friends and rushed to Princess Guantao's mansion to rescue Wei Qing at a critical moment. This Wei Qing was the figure who later became a general after seven victories against the Huns. He was indeed hired because of his sister.If it wasn't for his elder sister being favored by Emperor Wu, he might not be able to make a fortune one day.However, he was born to be a general, and his achievements were far greater than what Emperor Wu expected.Later, it even appeared that his sister's status was strengthened because of his meritorious deeds. In any case, it can be said that it was an unwise struggle for Empress Chen to send someone to kidnap Wei Qing.She fell into an irreversible abyss of destruction because of her struggle. It was in the fifth year of Yuanguang (130 BC) that Empress Chen was deprived of her status as a queen and ordered to live in seclusion in Nagato Palace. It was the ninth year after Wei Zifu was favored by Emperor Wu, and it was also the fifth year after Emperor Wu gained freedom due to the death of Empress Dowager Dou. Wei Zifu gave birth to three children in a row, but they were all daughters.She did not give birth to a boy until two years after Empress Chen was deposed.At that time, Wei Qing had participated in the first crusade against the Huns as a chariot general, and made great achievements in crossing the Great Wall for the first time since the founding of the People's Republic of China. After Wei Zifu gave birth to a son, he was established as a queen.After Empress Chen was abolished, the position of empress was suspended for two years. In order to have a baby, Empress Chen used to spend huge sums of money to search for all famous medicines.But the number of times the emperor was lucky was less and less.How could it be possible to conceive even if she took the most expensive medicine and did not have sex with the emperor? She could no longer bear the emperor's treatment like this.She was extremely willful from birth, and she would never be patient with things.In this regard, it can be said that she has a great misfortune to have an inner prince mother.Because her mother, Princess Guantao, used her status as the inner prince to bully her husband Chen Wu everywhere, and her style was extremely willful, but she, who was used to this situation, thought it was a matter of course. Willful people will do anything when things go wrong. Empress Chen thought of a way to curse and kill the enemy - witchcraft. Everyone believed it at the time.This is an ancient saying that a puppet is carved out of paulownia wood, buried in the soil, and the other party will be cursed to death after being cast by a wizard.Modern people may think this is ridiculous.At that time, people believed in the effects of spells. Although the matter was carried out in secret, the wind still spread. Empress Chen, who grew up in the deep palace and didn't know what patience is, although she thought she was completely concealed, she inadvertently leaked the matter. After hearing the news, Emperor Wu immediately sent someone to investigate.The censor (prosecutor) Zhang Tang was in charge of the investigation. This Zhang Tang is almost paranoid.He is a master of reasoning, and he can roughly judge the content of the case based on the data. Here is a story about him. When he was young, one day, before his father, who was a judge in Chang'an, went out, he told him to take good care of the house.But after returning home, he found that the meat in the house had been stolen by mice, so the father got angry and whipped his son. Zhang Tang then dug a hole in the wall, found the mouse's nest, and found a mouse and the leftover meat of the mouse.He then grabbed the mouse and tortured it, and at the same time made a confession to plead for punishment. Based on the pieces of evidence, he wrote a verdict and executed the mouse at the door of his house. The father was astonished to find that the legal documents written by his son were not inferior to those of experienced judges. Therefore, all future judgments were written by his son. Of course, rats can't speak, so the so-called confession is actually written by Zhang Tang, who has not yet grown up, based on his own reasoning.However, the content of this document is orderly and logical, and there is no contradiction in the front and back. ——If Zhang Tang was born today, he would definitely become a writer of mystery novels, right? It is of course easy for such a person to fabricate events. He also has a habit.Later, he became a censor and mastered the world's punishments. When dealing with incidents, he often prepared several kinds of judgments, and the final judgment was asked to be decided by the emperor.So, to put it nicely, it is to respect political considerations, and to put it bluntly, it is to cater to the emperor's wishes. What the emperor was looking for was the first thing he considered when investigating and making judgments. When he was in charge of investigating Queen Chen's witchcraft incident, he also started by finding out what the emperor's intentions were.With a keen mind, what he detected was: the emperor intended to abolish Empress Chen, but he couldn't bear to kill her. The conclusion is there.The method to be adopted at this time is: first prepare the judgment, and then make investigation records and various procedures of putting the cart before the horse.This is what Zhang Tang is good at. As a result, he made the following investigative report: The sorcerer named Chufu encouraged the queen to adopt the technique of witchcraft, with the purpose of cursing Wei Zifu to death. In other words, the principal culprit was a wizard, and the queen was only encouraged.Moreover, the object of the curse was not the emperor, but Wei Zifu—the Wei Zifu was not the queen at this time.Therefore, it was not considered a crime of treason, and the instigated queen was spared the death penalty. The principal offender, Chu Fu, was sentenced to be tortured, and there were more than 300 people who were seated. ——The queen was deceived by the wizard, and she failed to fulfill her duties as an assistant to the emperor. She should return the queen's seal and ribbon, and contemplate her mistakes behind closed doors at the Nagato Palace. Emperor Wu took his decision as an edict and issued it to the queen. Zhang Tang was commended for this incident, and he made great progress in his official career.