Chapter 24 Liu Chang rebelled and sent Shu Road

After Liu Chang killed Shen Shiqi, he became even more arrogant and domineering. He thought that Liu Heng would protect him even after killing Shen Shiqi. Liu Heng should really value this brotherhood.As a result, Liu Chang became even more arrogant and arrogant, and even more disobedient to the orders of the central government. The entire court, from the Queen Mother Bo to the crown prince Liu Qi, and all the ministers were very afraid of Liu Chang. From then on, Liu Chang regarded himself as the emperor, and when he entered and left the court, he cleared the road and martial law.He formulated a set of laws and regulations in Huainan State. Not only did he not follow the orders of the central government, but he also called his orders "Zhi" - which was originally a unique title for the emperor's orders.

Liu Chang's behavior is the same as that of the emperor. In the sixth year of Emperor Wen's BC (174 BC), Liu Chang expelled the officials sent by the central government to Huainan, and asked Liu Heng to allow him to appoint important positions in Huainan. Liu Heng reluctantly agreed.After that, Liu Chang killed innocent people indiscriminately many times, conferred high titles such as Marquis of Guannei on his own, and often made rude remarks when presenting Liu Heng.In order to take into account his face and good image, Liu Heng did not dare to scold him face to face, so he asked his uncle Bo Zhao to persuade Liu Chang.Bo Zhao wrote a letter to Liu Chang, listing many examples of royal relatives who were arrogant and lawless and eventually killed, as a warning.

Liu Heng's move is suspected of deliberately angering Liu Chang, because Bo Zhao has no friendship with Liu Chang at all, and if such a person dares to write a letter to teach him, Liu Chang will think it is an insult.Sure enough, Liu Chang and Chai Qi, the son of Jipuhou Chaiwu, met to rebel, and tried to contact Minyue and the Huns to join the army. It is said that they had only forty cars and seventy people.Ordinarily, such a small amount of manpower is not enough to rebel, but whether it is "Han Shu Huainan Hengshan Jibei King Biography" or "Historical Records Huainan Hengshan Biography" are recorded according to this number.I think Liu Chang just wanted to use this to threaten Liu Heng and ask for some privileges, and he didn't really intend to rebel.

But probably Liu Chang lacked political experience, did not grasp the scale, and turned a "children's play" into a "rebellion" that shocked the government and the public.The matter of Liu Chang's "rebellion" was finally revealed, and the central government quickly figured out the ins and outs. Liu Heng called Liu Chang to Beijing for trial. At that time, Prime Minister Zhang Cang and others demanded that Liu Chang be executed, and wrote a long memorial to request Liu Heng to execute Liu Chang. At the same time, he explained in detail the ins and outs of Liu Chang's rebellion.The content of the memorial is as follows: "Liu Chang, the king of Huainan, did not abide by the laws formulated by the late emperor, did not obey the edicts of the emperor, did not abide by etiquette in daily life, rode a yellow-covered chariot like an emperor, and always put on the posture of an emperor when entering and leaving Huainan. Liu Chang also formulated laws without authorization, did not act in accordance with the laws promulgated by the Han Dynasty government, and arranged his original Langzhong Lingchun (named Chun, surname lost) as prime minister without authorization. Liu Chang also recruited desperadoes and criminals and gave them a home Marrying wives, giving them property, titles, titles, and land houses, some of them even raised their titles to Marquis of Guannei, and received a salary of two thousand shi. This is one of the manifestations of Liu Chang's plot.

"His doctor Dan (name Dan, surname is missing) and soldier Kaizhang and other 70 people conspired against Jipuhou's prince Chai Qi to endanger Liu's family. They sent Kaizhang to secretly inform Liu Chang of these plans. , Let Liu Chang send people to contact the Minyue Kingdom and the Huns. Kaizhang was summoned and entertained by Liu Chang many times. Liu Chang married him for him and supported him with a salary of two thousand shi. "Kaizhang sent someone to notify Dan, saying that Liu Chang had been contacted, and Chun also sent someone to get in touch with Dan. However, their plot was finally noticed by the officials of the court, and the court immediately sent Chang'an Weiqi (name Qi, surname) lost load) to capture Kaizhang.

"After Liu Chang hid Kaizhang, he conspired with Lieutenant Yuji of Huainan Kingdom, killed Kaizhang together, prepared mourning clothes for his coffin, and buried him in Feiling County. Then he lied to Qi that Kaizhang was not here, Another fake tomb was built, falsely claiming that it was Kaizhang's tomb. "In addition, Liu Chang personally killed an innocent person, ordered his subordinates to frame and kill six innocent people, and he also used many innocent people to pretend to be his accomplices, trying to cover up prisoner. "Chang Liu condemned others at will and did not allow them to sue. He randomly sentenced 14 people to punishments of more than Chengdan; criminals; ninety-four people were also sealed as Guanneihou.

"Liu Chang was ill a while ago, His Majesty cared about him very much, not only wrote a letter of condolences to him, but also sent someone to send him dates and preserved fruits, but he was so arrogant that he didn't plan to meet His Majesty's envoy. "At that time, some people from the South China Sea who lived in Lujiang County rioted, and officials from the Huainan Kingdom went to put down the rebellion. His Majesty felt that the people in Huainan were poor, so he sent an envoy to give Liu Chang 5,000 bolts of cloth, and asked him to reward those who had made great contributions to the suppression of the rebellion. However, he said: "There is no one here who has contributed to the suppression of the chaos."

"Nanhai Wang Zhi (name Zhi, surname lost) wrote a letter to the emperor to present a jade bi, but Fenji destroyed it on the way without authorization. At that time, someone in the court requested that Fenji be summoned to Chang'an for interrogation, but Liu Chang lied that Fenji sick. "At that time, Chun asked him that he was willing to come to Chang'an for trial, and Liu Chang shouted angrily: 'Do you want to betray me and attach yourself to the court!' In summary, according to Liu Chang's crimes, this guy is definitely a big reactionary, so he He deserves to be beheaded for public display, and I implore His Majesty to act according to the law."

Liu Chang's crimes boiled down to one point: all his actions violated the authority and interests of the central government.In the eyes of ordinary people, these actions of King Huainan are just a little willful.Unfortunately, at this time, the Han Dynasty was eager to strengthen the centralization of power, so Liu Chang's outrageous behavior was undoubtedly a challenge and threat to the Han Dynasty government.It violated the taboo of totalitarianism, tried to stir up conflicts between the kingdom and the central government, and set a bad example of splitting for other princely kingdoms.

However, Liu Heng is still unwilling to express his position easily. Although Zhang Cang and others have spoken to his heart, Liu Heng cannot give others a reason. That little ninety-nine is well known to passers-by. Besides, Liu Chang is Liu Heng's biological brother after all, and anyone who kills Liu Chang with his own hands will bear the condemnation of public opinion.At this time, Liu Heng had already conceived a plan of "killing people with a borrowed knife". He wanted to leave the responsibility for Liu Chang's death to the ministers as much as possible.So he responded to the ministers: "I can't bear to punish my younger brother, please discuss it again with the princes and the senior officials of the two thousand stones."

Immediately afterwards, Zhang Cang and others submitted the form again, requesting that Liu Chang be convicted.They said: "We have seriously considered Liu Chang's crimes with the lieutenants and forty-three people including the eunuch Xia Houying. Everyone said that Liu Chang did not abide by the law, did not obey the edict of the emperor, conspired to gather people to rebel, and relied on the court. His preferential treatment to gather desperadoes should be severely punished according to the law." Liu Heng understood that the ministers were determined to kill Liu Chang this time. Liu Heng felt more relaxed than ever, and all his worries disappeared because he saw the enthusiasm of the ministers.If you have enthusiasm, you will be willing to help others. Now Liu Heng can be sure that you don't need to kill Liu Chang by yourself, and the ministers can take the blame. So Liu Heng issued an order to pardon Liu Chang's death crime and abolished his title of king. Then, of course, the passionate Zhang Cang and others insisted on punishing Liu Chang, saying: "Liu Chang committed a capital crime. But Your Majesty, you are kind enough to pardon him, and only abolish his throne. We request that he be exiled to the post station in Qionglai, Yandao County, Shu County, and let his family, wife, children, and children go with him, and let the local government build them up House, provide them with all kinds of food and daily necessities, and put his family under house arrest. Please, the emperor will announce this to the world." Liu Heng saw that Zhang Cang and his group were so considerate, so he readily agreed to the arrangement, and at the same time made detailed regulations on Liu Chang's life.Among them, Liu Chang was required to get at least five catties of meat and two buckets of wine every day, and let ten beauties and talents he favored go to Qionglai with him, so that the frustrated Liu Chang would not be lonely. But all this is just decoration.Liu Heng had calculated it long ago, there was no way Liu Chang could reach Shu County alive. A careful summary of Liu Heng's handling of Liu Chang shows Liu Heng's powerful political means behind his intentional gesture of tolerance.He transferred his intentions to the minister after several pushbacks, and Zhang Cang and others were ultimately responsible for the entire issue.Of course, according to Japanese scholar Takigawa Ziyan, perhaps this is just a cover-up by Sima Qian in the writing process, rather than Liu Heng's own calculations. He said: "It is not a good thing for Emperor Wen to kill his younger brother. I don’t want the emperor to bear the name of killing his younger brother.” ("Historical Records Huizheng Research Note") Because Sima Qian admired Liu Heng's attitude very much, he wanted to criticize Han Dynasty by praising all of Liu Heng's benevolent policies. Emperor Wu Liu Che.So for Liu Heng's murder of Liu Chang, Sima Qian always used literary techniques to cover up Liu Heng's disgrace, and poor Zhang Cang became a victim. But no matter what, the Liu Heng we see from history is indeed such a person: he did not hesitate to sacrifice his younger brother for political purposes.But Liu Chang has a true temperament, like a child, and Empress Lu's long-term protection of him led to his tragedy, and his own responsibility may be less. A big net quietly spread around Liu Chang, and Liu Heng wanted to borrow a knife to kill someone.