Chapter 59 Chapter Two Dictatorship of Empress Lu

After officially proclaiming the system, Empress Dowager Lu believed that the Lu family had gained absolute dominance, so she wanted to make all the Lu families kings, so as to determine the situation in which the Liu and Lu families shared power. If you want to be safe, let Empress Lu feel at ease first When Liu Ying died, although the Empress Dowager Lu cried bitterly according to the etiquette, she seemed absent-minded and could not shed tears. Zhang Liang's youngest son, Zhang Biqiang, who was 15 years old and served as a servant, was keenly aware of this phenomenon.He immediately told Prime Minister Wang Ling.

Wang Ling is neither a prince nor Liu Bang's team. Among the heroes in the early Han Dynasty, he is relatively independent. However, Wang Ling once rescued Liu Bang's family, including the Taigong and Empress Lu, from Xiang Yu, so he won the respect of Liu Bang and Empress Lu. Wang Ling has an upright personality, is loyal, talks a lot, and is not afraid of offending anyone. He is a well-known bloody man in the court. Therefore, Liu Bang's last words are that Wang Ling will take over the position of prime minister after Cao Shen. Since Wang Ling may have less experience in dealing with political affairs and less wit to deal with the situation, Liu Bang ordered Chen Ping, who is good at resourcefulness, to assist him.After Cao Shen's death, Liu Ying regarded Wang Ling as the right prime minister with a higher position, and Chen Ping as the left prime minister.

Zhang Biqiang said to Wang Ling: "Emperor Xiaohui (Liu Ying's posthumous name) is the only son of the Empress Dowager. Now that he is dead, he is crying but not sad. Does your lord know why?" Wang Ling confessed that he did not know. Zhang Biqiang said: "The first emperor did not have a son who was old enough, so the queen mother was worried that the successor would not be legal enough and would be made things difficult by the ministers. She felt uneasy and had no time to immerse herself in the mourning of the loss of her son. This may endanger your ministers and the national security. It's better to take the initiative to curry favor with her, please entrust Lu Tai, Lu Chan, Lu Lu, etc. as generals, in charge of the North and South Army of the Imperial Guard Corps, so that Lu's party can enter the palace and use it, so that the Empress Dowager Lu can feel at ease, and the king can be spared. to harm."

Wang Ling thought it made sense, and immediately discussed it with Chen Ping, and Chen Ping and Taiwei Zhou Bo also agreed.Immediately, according to Zhang Biqiang's plan, Wang Ling asked Empress Dowager Lu to reuse Lu's party. In this way, the worries in the Empress Dowager's heart were resolved, and the Empress Dowager cried bitterly for mourning for Emperor Xiaohui. Before Emperor Hui was alive, Empress Dowager Lu ordered Empress Zhang to take someone else's son to raise him, and killed his mother, making her the crown prince. Opposed to Lu's crowning the king, Wang Ling dismissed

After the formal title system, Empress Dowager Lu gave the Lu family the absolute advantage, so she wanted to make the Lu family kings in order to confirm the situation of the Liu family and the Lu family sharing power. When she asked the Prime Minister Wang Ling about this opinion, she hit a hard nail. Wang Ling expressed his disapproval: "When Emperor Gao was alive, he punished the white horse and made an oath with the ministers and generals, saying: 'The king is not the Liu family, and the world will fight against him'. Today, the Queen Mother wants to advance to the Lu family, which violates the covenant of Emperor Gao."

Empress Dowager Lu was very upset, but she had no choice but to ask Prime Minister Yu Zuo Chen Ping and Taiwei Zhou Bo for advice.Unexpectedly, Chen Ping and Zhou Bo said: "When Emperor Gao pacified the world, he named Liu's children as kings. Now that the Empress Dowager is calling Zhizhi, it is not impossible to make all Lu's children as kings." The Empress Dowager Lu was very happy to hear that, so she announced the suspension of the court and stopped the discussion. Wang Ling reprimanded Chen Ping and Zhou Bo unhappily and said: "We made a blood oath with Emperor Gao: "If it's not the Liu family, it's not the king, and it's not for the meritorious service. Aren't you two also present here?"Now that Emperor Gao died, the Empress Dowager proclaimed Zhizhi, and wanted to make the Lu family a vassal king, but you followed her will to curry favor with her and broke the covenant. What will it be like to see Emperor Gao underground in the future? ".

Chen Ping and Zhou Bo explained bitterly: "Nowadays, the Empress Dowager is calling for the system. If we oppose it to the end, it will definitely cause civil strife and endanger national security. When the Empress Dowager gets angry and kills all the kings of the Liu family, it will be detrimental to the Liu family's regime." Wang Ling: "Don't you think this is the way to compromise?" Chen Ping: "If you want to stick to the principle and strive hard in the government, the ministers are definitely not as good as the king, but if you want to try to maintain the stability of the country and use your wisdom to protect the descendants of the Liu family, the king may not be as good as us."

Wang Ling was also speechless. However, this bloody man was still unwilling to give in, so he voluntarily resigned from the position of Prime Minister You. Both the Liu family and the Lu family will receive awards After Wang Ling's resignation, Empress Dowager Lu appointed Chen Ping as Prime Minister of the Right, and the leader of the Empress Dowager's faction, Piyang Hou Shen Shiqi, was appointed as Prime Minister of the Left. However, because Shi Shiqi is close to the queen mother, he has more power. The public minister would rather discuss with Shen Shiqi secretly instead of asking the right prime minister Chen Ping's opinion.

However, Chen Ping also forbears for the time being, and does not fight for power with Shen Shiqi, so as to prevent the government from falling into internal strife and chaos. Ren Ao, the prefect of Shangdang, used to be a jailer in Peixian County. He helped the down-and-out Empress Dowager Lv at that time, and was also appointed by the Empress Dowager in an exceptional way, and was promoted to Doctor Yushi. Because the leaders of the imperial court-the prime minister, the Taiwei, and the doctor Yushi, who are known as the three princes, two of them are Queen Lu's own pro-party, and the other two also publicly expressed their obedience, so the Queen Mother Lu became more courageous. She was determined to take the opportunity to establish the Lu regime.

First of all, she honored her father Linyou Hou Lv Gong as King Xuan, and her elder brother Lu Ze who had passed away as King Mourning Wu. Since the dead have less pressure on everyone, they have less power to rebound, but as long as there is a precedent for the Lu family to be king, it will be much easier to be promoted to the Lu family in the future.It can be seen that the Empress Dowager Lu is still quite concerned about the reactions of the heroes. Coincidentally, the only daughter of Empress Dowager Lu, Princess Lu Yuan who married Zhang Ao, also passed away, so the Empress Dowager named her son Zhang Yan the King of Lu, and posthumously posthumously Princess Lu Yuan as Empress Dowager Lu Yuan. The princes, and they are the grandsons of Emperor Gao, they are less likely to object, which adds to the legitimacy of the Lu family as king in the future.

However, before the Jin party was formally appointed as the vassal king by the Lu family, Empress Lu still made Liu Qiang, the adopted son of Emperor Hui Liu Ying, the king of Huaiyang, and Liu You, the former king of Huaiyang, moved to be the king of Zhao. Liu Ying's other adopted son, Liu Buyi, was named King of Hengshan. In this way, there is a new explanation for Liu's descendants, and all who can be sealed are sealed. At the end of that year, the Empress Dowager Lu ordered Zhang Shi, the great visitor, to propose that the ministers jointly sign that Jinan County of the Qi State should be cut off as the State of Lu, and that Lu Tai, the eldest son of Lu Ze, the mourning king, should be named King Lu. But unfortunately, this Lu Wang was very unlucky, and he passed away in less than a year, and the first prince of the Lu family also died young. Empress Dowager Lu had no choice but to order Lu Jia, the son of Lu Tai, to succeed him as King Lu. In order to strengthen the relationship between the Lu family and the Liu family, she named Liu Yingke, the son of Liu Jiao, the king of Chu, the Marquis of Shangpi, and Liu Zhang, the son of Liu Fei, the king of Qi, the Marquis of Zhu Xu. It is a guard, placed beside him. Soon Hengshan King Liu Buyi died, and Liu Ying's other adopted son, Xiangchenghou Liu Shan, was named Hengshan King. Empress Dowager Lu launched a purge of the Liu family At this time, another great tragedy that shocked the court occurred. Emperor Shao was getting older, and an eunuch who knew the inside story told him that he was not the son of Emperor Hui Liu Ying, and that his biological mother had been killed by the Empress Dowager Lu. Instigated by someone with a heart, this ignorant young emperor actually publicly stated: "The queen mother killed my mother, and I will take revenge when I grow up." When the Empress Dowager Lu heard this, she was furious, and imprisoned him in Yongxiang, and announced to the outside world that the emperor was ill, and all the ministers on the left and right could not see him. But after a long time, there must be an account that the Empress Dowager Lv called a group of officials to say: "Now that the emperor is sick and confused, he may not be able to see things anymore. For the stability of the country, it seems that he should find an agent." The ministers didn't know what to do, so they had to say: "The empress dowager is for all the people in the world, and everything she does is to make the ancestral temple and the community stable forever. The ministers have no objections and are willing to act according to the imperial edict." Seeing that the ministers had no opinion, Empress Dowager Lu abolished the young emperor and killed him secretly.In May, Li Hengshan King Liu Shan changed his name to Liu Hong as the emperor.Because the queen mother called the system, the first year was not changed, and Liu Chao, the adopted son of Liu Ying, was the king of Changshan. Ren Ao, the censor, was not up to the task, and Empress Dowager Lu did not dare to shield him, so Cao Yu, the son of Cao Shen, was appointed as the censor. Soon, Liu Qiang, the king of Huaiyang, died, and Liu Wu, the adopted son of Huguan, was changed to be the king of Huaiyang. Lu Wang, Lu Jia, was arrogant and reckless. Although the Empress Dowager Lu intended to cultivate the Lu family, she still attached great importance to the image of the Lu family. Lu Chan also gradually became the leader of the Lu family. Because Liu Zhang, the son of Liu Fei, performed quite well, Empress Dowager Lu made his younger brother Liu Xingju the Marquis of Dongmou, and let him enter the palace as a guard. In the fifth year of the Queen Mother's reign, her son-in-law, Zhang Ao, the husband of Princess Lu Yuan, died.Empress Dowager Lu loved Zhang Ao very much, so she gave him the posthumous posthumous title of King Lu Yuan. Liu You, king of Zhao, married a daughter of the Lu family as queen, but fell in love with other concubines at the same time, which caused "family disputes". "King Zhao once said: 'How can the Lu family be named the king of the princes? After the queen mother is a hundred years old, our princes of the Liu family will unite and attack her.'" Naturally, these words are not only from King Zhao's psychology. I believe that many princes surnamed Liu and ministers and generals also think so, but they dare not express it publicly. Empress Dowager Lu summoned King Zhao and put him under house arrest in the mansion, without food or seeing anyone.Zhao Wangyou's ministers or those who tried to secretly provide food were arrested, so Zhao Wangyou was starved to death, and was simply buried in Chang'an with civil rites. This is the Empress Dowager Lv once again used severe measures to deal with the Liu family after the Zhao Wang Ruyi incident, and adopted quite cruel punishments, showing that her power is far ahead of all parties. So he moved Liang Wang Liu Hui to Zhao Wang, and then transferred Lu Chan to Liang Wang. The Lu family completely controlled Guanzhong and the Central Plains. However, Lu Chan did not have to go to Liang to take office, and was still the emperor's Taifu. Zhu Xuhou was the first to rebound when Zhu Lu was in power Fan Kui neglected Lu Yan's daughter and married Liu Ze, Marquis of Yingling, who was the oldest and most senior among the Liu family princes. "It is still not easy for the Lu family to make the king, and it is still not easy to get permission from the ministers. Now that Liu Ze is the elder of the Liu family princes, and has a marriage relationship with the Lu family, but now the queen mother has promoted him to be the king, which can further consolidate the Lu family regime. the power of." Zhang Qing suggested to the Empress Dowager Lv that the Empress Dowager agreed that it was reasonable to cut off Langya County of Qi State and make Liu Ze the King of Langya. Zhao Wang Liu Hui was moved from Liang Wang to Zhao Queen, and he was very unhappy.The queen mother took Lu Chan's daughter as her queen, and brought a large number of Lu officials with her. Zhao Wanghui was often ignored intentionally or unconsciously. Liu Hui's beloved concubine was also killed intentionally by the queen. As a prince and king, he had no freedom at all. Liu Hui was deeply saddened, so he committed suicide and died. Empress Dowager Lu took Liu Hui as a woman and abandoned her ancestral temple responsibility, abolished her heir, and could not succeed King Zhao. Zhao Wang, who has served three times in a row, will not "die well." During this period, it was also the most arrogant moment of Lu's party. The Liu's princes and the meritorious faction, because the imperial guards were completely in the hands of Lu's, did not dare to make mistakes, so they had to endure it. But a young member of the Liu family couldn't understand this phenomenon, and decided to give Lu's party a severe counterattack. He is Zhu Xuhou Liu Zhang who is quite appreciated and reused by Empress Dowager Lu. Liu Zhang is the son of Qi Wang Liu Fei. He is twenty years old and has courage. Therefore, he is loved by the Queen Mother and is the palace guard. Once, the court held a banquet, and the Empress Dowager Lu used Liu Zhang as the wine official, responsible for maintaining the etiquette and safety of the banquet. Liu Zhang took the opportunity to say to Empress Dowager Lu: "My minister is the descendant of a military general, please use military law to enforce the etiquette of the banquet!" Empress Dowager Lu thought it was interesting, so she approved it on the spot. During the banquet, Liu Zhang invited himself to sing "Plowing the Field Song", and the Empress Dowager might do it. Liu Zhang then sang: deep plowing Seedlings want to thin non-kind hoe away The tone implicitly satirizes Lu's party as the lawlessness of the princes and kings, and expresses dissatisfaction with this phenomenon. Empress Dowager Lu remained silent on the spot. Soon, an official of the Lu family was drunk and left without asking the Queen Mother for instructions. When Liu Zhang knew it, he drew his sword and chased him down, and took his head in return: "There is a dead wine drinker, and I would like to kill him according to the military law." The queen mother was shocked, but because she was allowed to use military law, she could not blame Liu Zhang. The Empress Dowager also deeply felt that Liu's Party and the Party of Heroes had great dissatisfaction with the Lu family, so she ordered Lu Chan to exercise some restraint. The hero sent a preparatory counterattack Due to the age of the Empress Dowager Lv, she was under a lot of pressure, and her health was deteriorating day by day. Chen Ping, the prime minister of the right, also had doubts about the expansion of Lu's power, and was even more afraid of great changes during his tenure. Therefore, he often lived alone and did not go to court, thinking about it for a long time. Lu Jia went to the Chancellor's Mansion on the grounds of visiting a sick man. After entering the lobby, he saw that Chen Ping was still in a daze for the long exam and did not notice Lu Jia's arrival. Lu Jia stepped forward to say hello, and jokingly said: "What makes the prime minister so absent-minded?" Chen Ping: "Guess what?" Lu Jia: "Your Prime Minister, you are already extremely wealthy in the world, so you shouldn't have any worries, so what you worry about must be Zhu Lu's arbitrary power, which has nothing to do with the current emperor's young age." Chen Pingran said: "Mr. is right, but what should we do with this matter?" Lu Jia: "When the world is stable, the prime minister has the power to govern. When the world is uneasy, the prime minister can coordinate and cooperate with the general. All intellectuals will be attached to you. Even if the world changes, the power will not be dispersed." "Now for the sake of national stability, we must try to regain control of the Northern and Southern Imperial Forest Army." "I once told Taiwei Zhou Bo about this matter in a half-joking manner. The Taiwei knew what I meant, and immediately talked about it, showing that he also knew this truth." "Mr. Jun, why don't you contact the Taiwei and establish enough tacit understanding, thinking that when the time comes, you will have enough resilience." Lu Jia Dangchi and Chen Ping discussed how to effectively deal with Lu's one-party plan to seize power. " Chen Ping and Zhou Bo didn't have much friendship at first, and their personalities were very different, so they seldom communicated. But for the stability of Liu's regime, Chen Ping still used Lu Jia's plan to send people to celebrate Zhou Bo's birthday with 500 taels of gold, present rich wine and food, and invite Zhou Bo to a banquet. Zhou Bo was notified by Lu Jia in advance, and he knew Chen Ping's intentions, and he immediately reported back. As a result, the two had close contacts and often thought of strategies to suppress the excessive power of the Lu family. Lu's power rushes to the highest peak At a time when the Liu Party and the Hero Party were eager to make a difference, the Lu Party stepped up its plan to seize power. Empress Dowager Lu sent envoys to discuss with Liu Heng, the acting king, and wanted to move him to be King Zhao. Liu Heng is Liu Bang's fourth son. After Liu Fei, Liu Ying, and Liu Ruyi passed away, Liu Heng became the leader of the Liu brothers. Liu Heng has a gentle, meticulous and careful personality. He thinks that Zhao is too close to the central government, so he could easily be involved in political disputes and endanger his own safety. This time, Empress Dowager Lu was even happier. She immediately made Lu Lu, the son of her brother Lu Shizhi, King Zhao, and honored Lu Shizhi as King Zhao Zhao. The next month, King Liu Jian of Yan passed away. He had no legitimate sons, only the sons of concubines. The queen mother sent people to murder him and abolish his country. Soon, Lu Tong, another son of Lu Tai, was made the king of Yan. Lu Tong's original position as Marquis of Dongping was inherited by his younger brother Lu Zhuang. During this period, the strength of the Lu family kings and Zhang family kings who were pro-empress faction gradually surpassed that of Liu family king. The Lu family has officially become the mainstream faction in the Han Dynasty. But at this moment, extreme joy gave birth to sorrow. The Queen Mother Lu, the boss behind the Lu family's party, suffered a rapid health deterioration and fell ill. During the autumn and July of the eighth year in power, Empress Dowager Lu became seriously ill. Because she knew that she would die soon, she ordered Zhao Wang Lu Lu to lead the Northern Army of the Imperial Guards, and Liang King Lu Chan to lead the Southern Army in an attempt to use military power. Ensure Lu's one-party regime. Before dying, Empress Dowager Lu warned Lu Chan and Lu Lu: "I enshrined the princes of the Lu family as king, and the ministers are not convinced. After my death, the emperor is young, and the ministers may change. You two must remember to control the military power. If necessary, do not attend the funeral until the situation is stable. Don't take advantage of others because you are busy. If the military power is in the hands of others, the Lu family will face a tragic fate. " In his last edict, Lu Chan was regarded as the prime minister, above the left and right prime ministers, and Lu Lu's daughter was regarded as the queen. When Empress Dowager Lu died, Liu's party.The heroic party and Lu's party immediately launched a fierce struggle. 【Chen Wende Commentary】 Laozi's "Tao Te Ching Chapter 69": "There is a saying about using soldiers: 'I dare not be a guest for the master, and dare not advance an inch but retreat a foot' means that there is no action, no arms, no soldiers, and an invincible disaster." There is nothing greater than underestimating the enemy, underestimating the enemy will lose my treasure, so the resistance will add up, and the mourner will win." An ancient man who was good at using soldiers once said this: "I dare not take the initiative to provoke a war. I will only fight when I have to, and I don't dare to fight for victory. I would rather adopt a modest way and retreat a foot in order to protect myself." Therefore, the focus is not on formation, fighting, or the use of weapons, nor does one dare to show one's bravery and strength to the enemy. There is nothing more harmful to an army than to be strong and invincible. Those who underestimate the enemy will lose their most precious introspection ability and bring disaster. Therefore, when two forces confront each other, the final winner is often the weaker one. The rapid rise of Lu's party was entirely due to the powerful actions of the Empress Dowager Lu alone. As a result, the princes and kings of the Lu family had power but failed, and could not be recognized by ministers and generals. What's worse is that the Empress Dowager Lu's action to seize power was carried out by force under extreme anxiety, so the methods adopted were very cruel and relentless.Especially the hatred aroused by the killing of princes and kings of the Liu family.His mentality was fully revealed in Zhu Xuhou Liu Zhang, who had always been highly valued by the Empress Dowager Lu, let alone the strong dissatisfaction in the hearts of the rest of the Liu family princes. Fearing that internal strife would lead to the collapse of the Han Dynasty, Xiao He, Cao Can, Wang Ling, and Chen Ping, all at the helm of the court, have repeatedly adopted a passive confrontational and tolerant attitude towards the Empress Dowager Lu's seizure of power, so that the dynasty still barely survived the early instability. However, in the later years of Empress Dowager Lu, the Lu Clan's party was too powerful, and even Chen Ping, who was more moderate, showed an attitude that could no longer be tolerant, and he was thinking about adapting. The rapid advancement of the Lu's Party to the realm of invincibility also contributed to the joint confrontation between the Liu's Party and the Heroic Party at critical junctures, which instead put the Lu's Party into a disadvantageous situation. When Empress Lu was dying, she should have regretted that she had expanded the power of the Lu family too much, which might lead to the collapse of the Lu family.She repeatedly warned Lu Chan, Lu Lu and other supporters to protect themselves, and it also showed that the situation was bad for Lu's party members.