Chapter 57 The ending of Liang Xiaowang

Facts have proved that the competition for the crown prince is like a maelstrom, engulfing everyone as much as possible, and taking away all the active figures on the political stage of the Wenjing era. For example, Yuan Ang, this guy lived a lifetime, but died in a disgraceful manner. The story has to start from Liu Wu.As mentioned earlier, Liu Rong's abolition means that Liu Wu has another chance to be the crown prince, and Dou Yifang is also gearing up to help his youngest son, so there is a banquet with malicious intentions. At the banquet, Dou Yifang spoke first, and she said to Liu Qi: "Son, let me tell you, Yin Dao kisses you, Zhou Dao respects you, they all mean that. Someday our mother and son will both die, I hope you will You can count on King Liang to preside over the overall situation."

Liu Qi was dizzy and didn't understand, so after the meeting, he asked the ministers what Dou Yifang meant. Yuan An explained: "Businessmen will end up with younger brothers, and Zhou's father will end up with sons. According to Zhou Dao, civilization should follow the principles of the earth. Therefore, according to Zhou Dao, when the crown prince dies, he should have his eldest grandson; according to the business way, when the prince dies, he should support his younger brother.” "Then what should our Han Dynasty do?" Liu Qi asked. "Of course it is based on the Zhou Dynasty. "Spring and Autumn" said that because Song Xuangong established his younger brother as the crown prince, the younger brother passed the throne to Song Xuangong's son. The younger brother's son refused to accept it and killed Song Xuangong's son. It made a big mess. "Spring and Autumn" criticized Song Xuangong a lot. This is a lesson learned from the past, Your Majesty, you can't let the Queen Mother's temper, if you are embarrassed to say it, I will go to the Queen Mother to persuade her for you."

Yuan Ang's words are very subjective, and he distorted the historical facts for this reason, because in history, Song Xuangong's son was killed by the minister Hua Du, and has nothing to do with Song Xuangong's younger brother's son.Liu Qi probably didn't study hard at ordinary times, so he was deceived by these words. In the final analysis, Liu Qi was still afraid of his old mother. After thinking about it, he thought that since Yuan An was not afraid of death, let him try it. When Yuan Ang saw Dou Yifang, the first question he asked was: If Liu Qi died and Liu Wu succeeded, then who would succeed Liu Wu after his death?

"Of course it's His Majesty's son!" The old lady didn't hesitate at all when she answered the question. Upon hearing this, Yuan Ang immediately told the story he told Liu Qi. After listening to it, the old lady felt for a while, and felt that the overall situation should be the most important thing, so she gave up the idea of ​​making Liu Wu the crown prince.In order to eliminate future troubles, the old lady also specially ordered Liu Wu to return to her feudal country. Liu Wu couldn't understand why his old mother's face changed so quickly, so he applied to Liu Qi to build a "fast trunk road" from Suiyang, the capital of Liang State, to Chang'an.The "fast trunk road" that Liu Wu wanted to build was originally a special trunk road built for transporting grain during wars in ancient times.However, the problem is that from Suiyang to Chang'an, there are more than 1,000 kilometers in the middle. Not to mention the waste of a lot of money to build a tunnel, if someone in Liang State rebels in the future and takes this "fast trunk road" to Chang'an, that is also a threat. .Of course Yuan An couldn't see such a thing happening, so he spoke to Liu Qi in time and rejected Liu Wu's suggestion.

However, Yuan Ang himself didn't realize that what he did was to let Liu Wu take care of him. Liu Wu was very angry with Liu Qi and Dou Yifang's actions.When he learned that Yuan An was instigated by this guy, he immediately became murderous and recruited his confidants Gongsun Gui and Yang Sheng. The three conspired and sent assassins to Chang'an to assassinate Yuan An.Yuan An was not serving in the imperial court at this time, he was only a consultant hired by Liu Qi, but he had a very good reputation among the common people. The assassin who arrived first heard many people praise Yuan An's talent and courage, and he knew in his heart Wu practice is wrong.It is estimated that Liu Wu instilled the content of "Yuan An is a bastard" to these assassins before they set off. Now this assassin found out his conscience after "anti-brainwashing", and said to Yuan An after seeing him: " I took Liang Wang’s money to assassinate you, but I heard that you are a good person, so I couldn’t bear to do it. There are more than a dozen groups of assassins coming to kill you, so you have to be careful.”

However, Yuan Ang was too careless. He thought it was too funny for a crazy man to come running on the road and say that Liu Wu was going to kill him. Hahaha, he didn't take it seriously at all. The massacre happened on a day in April of the seventh year of Emperor Jing (150 BC).Over the past few days, there have been many strange things happening in Yuan Ang's house, which made Yuan Ang very upset, so he went to find a sorcerer named Zhao Sheng for divination. On his way home, he passed the gate of the outer city of Anling, and was assassinated by an assassin sent by Liang Guo. up.

Yuan Ang tried to be brave and brave all his life, but when he died, he was extremely useless.Others had reminded him that he was still so careless, and when someone wiped his neck, he died without even seeing what other people looked like.When Shi Qian commented on Yuan Ang, he said that he "benevolence is the quality, and the righteousness is generous" ("Historical Records Biography of Yuan Ang Chaocuo"), he is a model of a gentleman in ancient times.Yuan An's death, in the final analysis, is that he participated in the competition for the crown prince.As for the emperor's family affairs, outsiders' participation will inevitably lead to the risk of being killed in the wrong team. Yuan An didn't understand, so he died.Zhou Yafu will die on this in the future.

In April of the seventh year of Emperor Jing, Liu Qi made Wang Zhi the queen, and Liu Che, the king of Jiaodong, the prince. The meaning was very clear, and Liu Wu gave up.At the same time, this also marks that Wang Zhi has become the final winner in the battle for the crown prince. After Yuan Ang's death, Liu Qi sent people to investigate the matter thoroughly, and soon discovered the real culprit behind the scenes—Liang Wang Liu Wu, so several groups of investigation teams from the central government arrived in Liang State one after another.At the beginning, Liu Qi didn't dare to attack Liu Wu directly. First, he was afraid that the evidence would not be solid. Second, he still feared the majesty of Queen Dowager Dou. Therefore, he chose to attack Gongsun Gui and Yang Sheng first, and wanted to collect Liu Wu from these two people. Confessions of armed rebellion.But Liu Wu kept Gongsun Gui and Yang Sheng hidden in his palace, and the people sent by the court spent more than a month unable to find them, and he was extremely depressed.

The key figure to break the deadlock is Han Anguo. Because Han Anguo has always been trusted by Empress Dowager Dou, he has already done Liang Guo's internal history (in charge of the daily political affairs of the vassal states), which was originally an official position that Liu Wu asked the court to appoint to Gongsun Gui.Han Anguo knew that Gongsun Gui and Yang Sheng were in Liu Wu's palace, so he threatened Liu Wu with death with Xuan Qiubao, the Prime Minister of Liang State, saying: "If the monarch is insulted, the minister should die one step ahead of him. Your Majesty You have no good ministers, that's why things have come to this dilemma, if you don't hand over Gongsun Gui and Yang Sheng to the imperial court, then kill us first."

Liu Wu was stunned, and said, "How did things get so messed up?" Han Anguo's tears were streaming down, and he cried and said, "Think about it, is the relationship between you and His Majesty the same as that between the Supreme Emperor and Emperor Gao back then, and the relationship between His Majesty the Emperor and King Linjiang today?" "No." Liu Wu replied blankly. Han Anguo continued: "That's right, the Supreme Emperor and Emperor Gao, and His Majesty and King Linjiang are all father-son relationships, but you see, Emperor Gao also said that the world was brought down by him with a three-foot sword in his hand, and it has nothing to do with him. , so the Taishanghuang has been living in Liyang all the time; the Linjiang King was the prince, and because his mother Li Ji said something wrong, he was relegated from the prince's position to the Linjiang King by the present majesty, and later because of the occupation of the Taimiao's land. He was tried and committed suicide in the lieutenant's mansion. The reason why these things happened was that the emperor knew how to put the overall situation first. As the saying goes, "Although you have a real father, how can you know that you are not a tiger? Although you have a real brother, How do you know that you are not a wolf?" Now, my lord, you are just a vassal king, but you have violated the laws of the country under the instigation of treacherous ministers. To put it bluntly, the emperor is because the queen mother has always loved you, so I am embarrassed to bring you to justice Yes. The Empress Dowager worries about you and sheds tears for you all day long, but you cause her troubles all day long. When the Empress Dowager passes away, who do you think you can rely on?"

Before Han Anguo finished speaking, Liu Wu was heartbroken, tears of grievance and regret poured out, and he quickly said to Han Anguo, "I will hand over Gongsun Gui and Yang Sheng." Gongsun Guihe Yang Sheng lost his protective umbrella and eventually committed suicide. The youngest son doted on by the elderly is often ineffective, and Liu Wu is a typical example.But thinking about it another way, what Han Anguo said is actually not true. The reason why the old man likes the youngest son is because only the youngest son needs their protection.Liu Wu is Liu Qi's younger brother, and he is more capable of causing trouble for others. Dou Yifang complained that Liu Wu caused her troubles, but if one day she no longer had to "wipe her ass" behind Liu Wu, she would feel that she It's useless, the old man should be blamed for this kind of thing. Anger often needs to be resolved. The deaths of Gongsun Gui and Yang Sheng undoubtedly made Liu Qi extremely angry, because he could not find a place to vent his hatred for his younger brother. on the head.Liu Wu also felt his brother's anger, so he sent Han Anguo to find Dou Yifang through the way of the eldest princess Liu Piao, and asked Dou Yifang to intercede in front of Liu Qi.Of course the old lady was very happy, she tried to shirk her reluctance, but she didn't stop under her feet, and went straight to her son Liu Qi.After an explanation, the relationship between Liu Qi and Liu Wu was eased. Thinking about it carefully, Liu Wu was also tricked by the court.Both Han Anguo and Xuan Qiubao were directly appointed by the imperial court. Although they said they were loyal to Liu Wu, they might actually be loyal to Liu Qi. Maybe the special envoy sent by the central government to Liang Guo would have a relationship with Han Anguo. Anguo has a connection, so Han Anguo went out to persuade Liu Wu on their behalf.Judging from Han Anguo's constant rewards and courting from the court when he was in Liang Guo, Han Anguo is likely to be the court's eyeliner placed beside Liu Wu. Here, Empress Dowager Dou favors Han Anguo even more. In the second year of Emperor Jing's Zhongyuan (148 BC), after Liu Qi's anger subsided a little, Liu Wu planned to go to Beijing to meet Liu Qi.When they reached Hangu Pass, the courtier Mao Lan persuaded Liu Wu to take a cloth car instead. After all, Liu Wu was bowing his head to admit his mistake to his brother, so naturally he had to restrain his usual arrogance.Liu Wu took only two people into the city quietly, and hid in the home of the eldest princess Liu Xing. When the people sent by the imperial court to welcome Liu Wu arrived at Hangu Pass, Liu Wu's chariots and horses were all there, but there were no one there. .When Dou Yifang heard the news, the old lady immediately burst into tears and shouted hoarsely: "The emperor killed my son!" Liu Qi was also very scared when he heard about it.However, at this time, Liu Wuzheng was baring his upper body, with an ax and a chopping board tied to his back, and was asking the emperor to punish him in front of the double que at the gate of the palace. Liu Qi and Dou Yifang rushed out to have a look, they were both amused by Liu Wu's innocence, the brothers, mother and son embraced and wept, and reconciled as before, Liu Qi also warmly received Liu Wu's accompanying attendants. However, in their hearts, Liu Wu and Liu Qi are getting farther and farther apart, and even on the surface, the two brothers no longer travel in the same carriage as in the past. There is an insurmountable gap between Liu Qi and Liu Wu, which was left when Liu Wu competed for the crown prince.The power struggle breaks up family ties. This is the real life of an imperial family. Behind the surface prosperity and friendship, in essence there is only cruelty and cruelty, and only the balance of interests.Being born into an emperor's family is the greatest misfortune in life. In the sixth year of Emperor Jing's Zhongyuan (144 BC), Liu Wu went to Beijing to meet and asked to stay in Chang'an, but Liu Qi disagreed.After Liu Wu returned home, he was depressed. One day he was hunting in Liangshan, and someone offered him a cow with horns growing on its back.This is an ominous sign, and Liu Wu also feels very disgusted.As a result, in April of this year, Liu Wu contracted a fever and died six days later. After his death, his posthumous title was "filial piety". , Xieshi Zhaoxiang said filial piety" ("Posthumous Fa Jie").The tomb of King Liang Xiao is located on Mount Mangdang today. After his death, he was buried in the hill where his grandfather fell into grass. The biggest stain in Liu Wu's life is his arrogance, but this is not solely his responsibility, Do Yifang's doting and Liu Qi's connivance are important factors, especially the latter.Zhu Xi said: "Emperor Jing's relationship with the King of Liang was too much at the beginning, and he could not be called benevolent; later, he was embarrassing and his body was severe, and his righteousness was lost, all of which are insignificant." (Zhu Ziyu Lei, Volume 58) His words True. Although Liu Wu is usually domineering, on the surface, he is indeed a filial son without a doubt.Of course, it is hard to say whether he wants to use Dou Yifang to fight for the position of crown prince for himself or sincerely honor his mother.Dou Yifang loved his son dearly, when she heard that her son had died, the first thing the old lady thought was that it must be Liu Qi's fault.The old lady was distraught and went on a hunger strike to protest.Liu Qi had no choice but to seek advice from Liu whoring. In the end, the siblings agreed to divide Liang Guo into five parts. The five sons of King Liang became princes and kings, and each of the five daughters was given a part of Tang Muyi.After listening to these arrangements, Dou Yifang felt a little calmer, and then he picked up his rice bowl to eat. During the meal, Liu Qi kept staring at the side, not daring to leave. The Kingdom of Liang was divided into five. Liu Wu's eldest son, Liu Mai, was the King of Liang; his second son, Liu Ming, was the King of Jichuan; his third son, Liu Pengli, was the King of Jidong; his fourth son, Liu Ding, was the King of Shanyang; Yin king.This is another tactic of "many build princes with little power". Liang Guo's power was disintegrated, and Liu Qi even fooled his own mother. In the knowledge of politics, Empress Dowager Dou is still far behind.