Chapter 9 two sides of the times

Liu Heng recalled what he had seen and heard during Huilu's period, whether it was the Empress Lu's dictatorship he personally experienced, or the turbulent political struggles, all of which made him gasp.The days of dormant in the country of Dai were the low point of his life, the princes and ministers of the entire empire were kneeling under the majesty of Lu Zhi, a powerful woman.Fortunately, Empress Lu is an outstanding politician herself, and is quite familiar with the art of governing the country. Liu Heng not only saw the political turmoil caused by Empress Lu, but also the benevolent government she brought to the people.Is it a blessing or a curse, should I love it or hate it?Liu Heng was not sure.

The prince Liu Ying was only sixteen years old when he came to the throne. His personality flaw was too obvious - weak and weak, while his mother Lu Zhi had a too strong personality.Liu Ying is too immature, maybe he is not a person with no ambitions, but he still can't overcome strength with softness, and can only paralyze himself and waste time in the extravagant life of drinking and having fun all day long.His body became weaker day by day, but Empress Lu's desire for power expanded day by day. Although Empress Lu has weathered many storms, she is inevitably a little arrogant after taking the supreme power.At the beginning, she wanted to cleanse the forces that opposed her in the entire empire, but she did not expect to be informed by Qu Zhouhou Li Shang.

Li Shang is the younger brother of Gaoyang alcoholic Li Shiqi. Li Shiqi persuaded Qi Wang Tianguang to surrender for Liu Bang during the Chu-Han War, but he did not expect Han Xin to take the opportunity to attack Tian Guang.Liu Bang felt guilty facing Li Shiqi in his heart, so he attached great importance to his younger brother Li Shang.Relying on Liu Bang's respect and his own outstanding military exploits, Li Shang entered the list of heroes and veterans, and his name was impressively written in the sixth place in the list of founding heroes of the Han Empire. Li Shang found Empress Lu's male favorite Piyang Hou to examine Shiqi, straight to the point, and explained to him directly that Fan Kuai and Zhou Bo led 200,000 troops to station in Yan and Dai areas, and Chen Ping and Guan Ying led 100,000 troops to station in Yan and Dai areas. In the Xingyang area, these people are all members of the hero group. As soon as they hear about the turmoil in Chang'an, they will send troops to quell the coup, and let Empress Lu figure it out.Empress Lu was very shrewd, and realized that her power was not strong enough, her arms could not twist her thighs, and her plan to launch a large-scale military coup was immediately abandoned.

However, Empress Lu's ambition has not been extinguished since then.It's just that her way of fighting against the hero group has become more mature.She first found an opportunity to deprive Li Shang Wei Wei of his position. Wei Wei was a military officer in charge of the palace guard, in charge of the Southern Army, and one of the Nine Ministers. Empress Lu pulled out Li Shang's thorny thorn, and changed Liu Ze, Marquis of Yingling, to Weiwei. On the surface, the high-sounding reason is that Liu Ze is more trustworthy because he is a relative of the Liu family, but in essence, it is because Liu Ze is the son-in-law of Empress Lu's younger sister Lu Wei.Empress Lu believes that Liu Ze has both royal status and Lu family background, so he can neither be accused by the hero group, but also protect the interests of the Lu family.

In addition to replacing Wei Wei, Empress Lu also appointed Chen Ping as Lang Zhongling.Chen Ping was the enemy of Zhou Bo, Guan Ying and others. These people excluded each other during Liu Bang's period, and they had a lot of verbal battles all day long. Besides, Chen Ping had no political integrity and was driven by interests, so Empress Lu chose to let him do it. Lang Zhongling is really suitable. After solving the problem of personal safety, Empress Lu began to eliminate dissidents, especially the princes and kings surnamed Liu in the Kanto, and Lu Zhi wanted to deal with them one by one.

Qi Wang Liu Fei was the first person she chose.Liu Fei was the illegitimate son of Liu Bang and his mistress Cao Shi in Pei County, and also Liu Bang's eldest son.Probably Liu Bang felt guilty about this son in his heart, and granted him the state of Qi, which is the largest country in terms of land area. In October of the second year of Emperor Hui (193 BC), Liu Fei came to Chang'an for a court meeting. At the banquet, Emperor Hui let Liu Fei sit on the seat based on the principle that Liu Fei was the eldest brother.Liu Fei didn't think much about it, and sat up on it, which aroused Empress Lu's anger.

From Empress Lu's point of view, Liu Ying is the emperor, while Liu Fei is just a vassal king, and he is still a concubine, so he should give way to Liu Ying a few times. Empress Lu invited the eunuch to whisper a few words, and the eunuch brought two glasses of poisoned wine, and Empress Lu asked Liu Fei to toast Liu Ying.Although Liu Ying is cowardly, she is kind-hearted and intelligent in nature, and she can tell at a glance that his old mother is about to play tricks again.He hurriedly picked up the wine glass first, and made a motion to drink it.After all, Empress Lu was a mother and loved her son very much. Seeing this posture, she quickly grabbed the wine glass that Liu Ying was holding and poured the poisoned wine away.

Seeing Empress Lu's strange behavior, Liu Fei knew that there was a fraud, so he hurriedly escaped from the banquet with an excuse. From then on, Liu Fei pretended to be a grandson every day, and he was obedient to Empress Lu. He also offered to donate Chengyang County of Qi State to Empress Lu's precious daughter, Princess Lu Yuan, as Tang Muyi (a fief where the clan and relatives of the Han Dynasty collected taxes).Empress Lu felt that Liu Fei was quite sensible, so she didn't pursue him anymore, and was busy with celebrating the increase of Tang Muyi for her daughter. Politically, Emperor Hui's period mainly inherited the policies of Liu Bang's period.After Xiao He's death, Cao Shen became the prime minister. He drank and had fun all day long, ignored political affairs, and drove away all those under him who were flamboyant and flirtatious, and picked many honest, calm and quiet people to be his subordinates.As long as someone wants to give him advice, he will go up to toast and get them drunk, and never give others a chance to give advice.

Emperor Hui saw what Cao Shen did, but he didn't understand Cao Shen's intentions in his heart. He thought that Cao Shen looked down on him, so he asked Cao Shen's son Zhong Dafu (a subordinate official of Lang Zhongling, with a rank of two thousand stones, The main duty is to advise the emperor as a staff member) Cao Yu went to ask about it.Liu Ying even taught Cao Yu to go home and say: "Emperor Gao has just passed away, and the new emperor is still very young. You are the prime minister, why do you just drink and have fun all day long and ignore the government?" He sent it himself.

Cao Yu went home to learn from his father.Cao Shen is so shrewd, he understood what was going on as soon as he heard it, not only beat Cao Yu two hundred boards, but also drove him back to the palace to serve the emperor, and warned him not to meddle in state affairs. When he went to court the next day, Liu Ying blamed Cao Shen for beating Cao Yu, and told Cao Shen that Cao Yu was sent by him. Where do I put my face?" Cao Shen hurriedly pleaded guilty after hearing this, and said, "Your Majesty, who do you think is stronger, you or Emperor Gao?" Liu Ying replied: "Of course it was the first emperor."

Cao Shen asked again: "Then who do you think is more capable than Xiao He or I?" Liu Ying replied: "Huh, with your virtue, Lao Cao, you are far behind Xiao He!" Cao Shen went on to say: "Your Majesty is so right! Back then Emperor Gao and Xiao He settled the world and formulated various rules. Now these things are there. We don't do what they designed, but we have to toss about it." Aren't you full to get up and make new regulations? What's more, you just said that I am an unreliable person..." After hearing this, Liu Ying suddenly realized, and never blamed Cao Shen again.Cao Shen served as prime minister for three years, and always pursued the policy of governing by doing nothing. Xiao Gui Cao Sui was able to stabilize the court. Looking at the political situation during the Huilu period, the bloody storm mainly occurred within the court, that is, between the Lu family, the Liu family, and the group of heroes.For lower-level officials and ordinary people, they have enjoyed many good policies. In order not to disturb folk production, the imperial court reduced the land rent of the common people.People only need to hand over one-fifteenth of the production results to the state, which is much less than the 10 percent they paid in the past.The common people were overjoyed. After all, there was not much yield per mu in the field at that time. It was a waste of money to hand over so much to the state and wait for it to rot in the granary. At the same time, the government provided titles to the people in a restrained manner. As a symbol of social status, these titles brought many benefits to the common people, such as exemption from taxes and corvees, reduced sentences, etc., which stimulated the enthusiasm of the common people to farm to a certain extent. In addition, the imperial court also relaxed the control on businessmen. Although they are still unable to enter politics, the environment for the development of private capitalism is indeed much looser. In the fourth year of Emperor Hui's reign, the imperial court also abolished the "Decree of Holding Books" promulgated by the Qin Dynasty. Social and cultural undertakings flourished, and various schools of thought ushered in a second spring. Due to the "Decree of Holding Books", in the Qin Dynasty, the classics of various schools of thought were either destroyed by the government, or they were hidden very secretly by the inheritors, and a mezzanine was often made inside the wall to store banned books such as "Poems" and "Rituals". go in. Now that the government of the Han Dynasty lifted the ban on books, the big guys hurriedly tossed out these precious classics from the walls of their homes. Regardless of the fact that many of the contents had been damaged by moths, they hurriedly took them outside to preach, and the cause of spiritual civilization construction was greatly improved. good push. In short, the people in the Huilu period stayed away from the suffering of war, recuperated socially, rested with the people politically, and governed by doing nothing.Penalties were used sparingly, and criminals were not many.The people worked hard to produce, and their lives became more and more prosperous.All this made a good start for Wenjing Zhizhi. Liu Heng watched all this in front of the Gaodi Temple, all beings were sad or happy, the undercurrent of politics was surging in the palace of Weiyang Palace, and the neighborhood in Chang'an in the distance was full of prosperity. His era of Liu Heng was coming.