Chapter 8 7. Gao Zhao's right to act

Zhongli is the shadow that Yuanying can't erase all his life, and it is also a shame that has never been seen since the Northern Wei Dynasty fought against the Southern Dynasty. Hebei's elite lost most of them.Emperor Wu of Liang rewarded his ministers in Jiankang City, and there was a lot of mourning in the Northern Wei Dynasty.Yuanying miscalculated in using troops, Xiao Baokui failed to support him, the death penalty was pardoned, and the crime of living was hard to forgive, so he was both exempted from office and became a citizen. Only Yang Dayan was a little lucky and demoted to remote Yingzhou (Helong where the government was, now Chaoyang, Liaoning) to serve as a soldier.

Yuanying only stayed at home for one year, and Emperor Xuanwu Yuanke restored his fiefdom, returned his official position, and acted as General Zhengdong.This is because Jingzhao Wang Yuanyu rebelled. Emperor Xuanwu looked around the court and found that he was the most suitable person to take charge of the rebellion. During Emperor Xuanwu's dynasty, the most troubled issue was the clan issue.Emperor Xuanwu was able to sit on the throne of the emperor only because his elder brother was deposed by accident. He subconsciously maintained a vigilant attitude towards the clan with the same surname as himself.Uncle Yuanxi's unreasonable rebellion dealt him a huge psychological blow.After Yuanxi's death, he handed over more political affairs to Gao Zhao.

In terms of blood relationship and affection, Emperor Xuanwu and Gao Zhao are indeed close.Gao Zhao's younger sister is Emperor Xuanwu's biological mother, and his niece is the concubine favored by Emperor Xuanwu's harem.Soon after, Gao Zhao married Emperor Xuanwu's aunt, Princess Gaoping, the younger sister of Emperor Xiaowen.There are these three layers of relationship with the emperor. Who dares not to be in awe of the uncle of the country from all over the court? However, Gao Zhao himself lacks a sense of security.His time in the court was short and his foundation was shallow, let alone meritorious service and knowledge. If he wanted to survive in the political arena, he had to form cliques and cultivate influence.

The people at the top want to make friends with friends, and the people at the bottom want to climb the dragon and attach themselves to the phoenix. This is a typical business model with a reasonable mix of supply and demand.As time went on, more and more people turned to Gao Zhao, and his courage grew accordingly.For dissidents, especially the cronies of the emperor, such as Zhao Xiu, the regular servant of the loose rider, Ru Hao, the champion general, and others, he tried every means to put them to death. The Northern Wei Dynasty relocated the capital to Sinicization, fully adopted the political system of the Han people, made great progress in culture (such as Confucianism), and the degree of corruption also greatly improved.It's really not that easy to pick out a few officials who have nothing wrong with them.Gao Zhao collected Zhao Xiu and Ru Hao's crimes everywhere, and achieved a lot.In the fourth year of Jingming (503 A.D.) and the first year of Zhengshi (504 A.D.), he showed the evidence in his hands to Emperor Xuanwu, and brought down the two invincible figures.

Zhao Xiu was arrogant and arrogant, Ru Hao took power and accepted bribes, the government and the public were indignant, and his death was not wronged.But Gao Zhao, who sued them, is not a good thing.In order to guarantee the death of the "thorn in the side" Ru Hao, he did not hesitate to make a false accusation that Ru Hao and several other cronies of the emperor conspired to support Beihai King Yuanxiang to cause chaos. Involving the emperor's uncle Yuanxiang is part of Gao Zhao's campaign to eliminate dissidents.When Liu Fu lost power, only Yuan Xiang rose instead of descending. He was above Gao Zhao and had close contacts with Ru Hao and others. Gao Zhao had been jealous for a long time.This move is Gao Zhao's trump card.

Gao Zhao’s evidence is not sufficient (although Yuan Xiang, like Yuan Xi, is a greedy and shameless prince who has done a lot of bullying and bullying, but he never thought of becoming an emperor himself. It’s embarrassing for our Uncle Gao Guo), but it’s just right in front of Emperor Xuanwu—uncles and brothers robbing the throne is what he fears most.He summoned lieutenant Cui Liang to enter the inner court, impeached Yuan Xiang for "greedy and extravagant", and ordered Ru Hao and others to die on the charge of "corruption of patriarchal power". As for Yuan Xiang, Emperor Xuanwu didn't want to kill him, so he ordered him to be spared the death penalty in name, deposed him as a commoner, and secretly put him under house arrest.More than half a month later, his domestic slave wanted to rescue him and fled, but the matter was revealed, and he was finally secretly killed (probably also under Gao Zhao's instruction).

As a result of black eating black, Gao Zhao won two rounds in a row.His arrogance became more and more arrogant, and he extended his claws to the harem, supporting his niece Gao Guifei to seize power.In the fourth year of Zhengshi (507 A.D.), Empress Yu died inexplicably. It is said that she was the murderer of Gao. The Yu family had a prince named Yuanchang, who was the only son of Emperor Xuanwu at the time, and he was only three years old. Of course, Gao Zhao and Gao Guifei couldn't let go of this child who might become the prince in the future.Taking advantage of Yuanchang's sudden illness, Gao Zhao privately bribed his attendant Wang Xian to let him deliberately delay the treatment. Within a few days, Yuanchang died.

Emperor Xuanwu lost his beloved son, but he couldn't suspect that Gao Zhao was the one who did it. The sporadic rumors inside and outside the palace had long been strictly blocked by Gao Zhao's people.In July of the fifth year of Zhengshi (508 A.D.), the noble concubine Gao was conferred the title of empress, and the Gao family became more powerful. (Gao Zhao’s dictatorial administration changed many systems that were effective in the past, resulting in complaints and anger. Before Li Gao, Pengcheng Wang Yuanxie, who had never cared about political affairs, came forward to oppose it. Emperor Xuanwu insisted on not listening. It can be seen that Gao Zhao at this time can already Do whatever you want.)

Only one month later, King Yuanyu of Jingzhao claimed to have received a secret report that Gao Zhao killed the emperor (“Gao Zhao’s Rebellion”), and in this name, ascended the altar in the south of Xindu (now Ji County, Hebei Province) Ping, rebellion. Yuan Yu is the half-brother of Emperor Xuanwu. He hates both Gao Zhao and his elder brother, Emperor Xuanwu.When Emperor Xiaowen was in power, he was governor of Xuzhou, fell in love with a woman surnamed Li, and took her as his concubine.After Emperor Xuanwu came to the throne, he married Empress Yu's younger sister as his concubine. He didn't like it, and he only loved Li Shi in his heart (it's rare for a prince to be single-minded in love), and the two brothers had a very stiff fight because of this matter.Someone accused Yuanyu of being corrupt. Emperor Xuanwu summoned him into the inner palace, beat him fifty times with a stick, and released him to Jizhou as the governor of Jizhou.

The more Yuan Yu thought about it, the more aggrieved he became. Emperor Xuanwu treated his other two younger brothers, Qinghe Wang Yuanyi and Guangping Wang Yuanhuai very well, but he treated himself so badly; and the hateful Gao Zhao always spoke ill of himself around Emperor Xuanwu.In a fit of anger, he killed Chang Shi and Sima of Jizhou, raised a banner and proclaimed himself emperor. Yuan Yugui is a prince, but his military strength and appeal are weak.Emperor Xuanwu took Shangshu Li Ping as the governor to do Jizhou affairs, went to crusade, and moved Yuanying out of the mountain again as a successor.However, there was no need for Yuan Ying to leave. Yuan Yu had already been beaten by Li Ping and Anle Wang Yuanquan who was stationed in Dingzhou (Zhongshan where the government was located) in the north, so he lost Xindu, fled and was captured.

Emperor Xuanwu sent someone to take him to Luoyang, intending to reprimand him face to face.Fearing that the night would be long and full of dreams, Gao Zhao bought off the escort and made Yuan Yu when he walked to Ye Wang (now Qinyang, Henan). (Yuan Yu's second son, Yuan Baoju, was later established by Yu Wentai as the Emperor of the Western Wei Dynasty. Yuan Yu, who failed to rebel, was revered by his son as Emperor Wen Jing twenty-seven years after his death.) There is one more person on Gao Zhao's blacklist—Yuan Xie who opposed Li Gao.He knew that Yuan Yu had a good relationship with Pengcheng Wang Yuanxie when he was in Xuzhou, and Pan Senggu, the prefect of Changle recommended by Yuan Xie (the seat of Changle County is also in Xindu), was coerced by Yuan Yu to participate in the rebellion.He asked Yuan Xie's Lang Zhong Ling Wei Yan and Qianfang Pavilion Gao Zuzhen to use their official positions as bait to frame Yuan Yu in Yuan Xie's Li Tong Yuan Yu and take revenge on Yuan Xie. This lawsuit is outrageous. Yuan Xie has been far away from the center of power for many years, and all the jobs are false. He spends his days writing articles and diaries without any motive to rebel against his nephew; Very contemptuous, how could it be possible to go to this muddy water? Emperor Xuanwu had always respected his uncle, so he actually believed what Gao Zhao and two witnesses said. He set up a banquet and invited Yuan Xie and other princes to the palace for the banquet. Yuan Xie was still kept in the dark, his concubine Li Shi (Li Chong's daughter) had just given birth to a child, so she didn't want to enter the palace.Emperor Xuanwu sent envoys to summon him again and again, and then he bid farewell to Concubine Li and got on an ox cart to enter the palace. Niu was psychic, and seemed to have a premonition that the atmosphere in the palace was not right, so he stopped at the bridgehead in Dongyemen (the southeast gate of Luoyang City), and would not leave no matter how hard he beat.The palace sent people to remind them, but the attendants had no choice but to enter the palace with Yuan Xie on their arms. The banquet was over, and the princes went to the side hall to rest.Just as Yuan Xie was about to fall asleep, an emperor's guard led the warriors in from outside the door, holding a glass of imperial poisoned wine in his hand. Yuan Xie didn't believe that the emperor would kill him, and argued: "I am not guilty, please let me meet the Supreme (that is, Emperor Xuanwu), even though I am dead, I have no hatred!" The guard replied: "How can the Supreme see you again!" (The implication is that I have met His Majesty the Emperor at the banquet, and now I give you poisoned wine to kill you.) "Supreme sage, it is impossible to kill me without incident, whoever falsely accuses me, I am willing to confront him face to face!" The samurai next to him took advantage of Gao Zhao, and impatiently raised his sword ring and beat him.Yuan Xie shouted loudly: "You are wronged, the emperor! I am a loyal minister, but I was killed!" The warrior beat him fiercely with the knife ring again, pushing and pressing the ground to force Yuan Xie to drink the poisoned wine. Fearing that he would not die, he stepped forward and made another knife.In the early morning of the next day, Yuan Xie's body was wrapped in bedding and sent to Pengcheng Palace.Inform the family according to the official statement: King Pengcheng was drunk and died. Concubine Li, who lost her husband, wailed loudly and cursed: "Gao Zhao killed people in vain, God has a spirit, and he will make you die!" When the news of Yuan Xie's death spread, the royal family and nobles lamented for it, and the common people mourned for it. snot.The monks in Luoyang City were so sad that they did not eat rice for a day, and drank water as a vegetarian meal. (Emperor Xuanwu and Gao Zhao probably would not have imagined that Yuan Xie's popularity was so high. If he really wanted to rebel, he might have died long ago. It's really ironic.) Yuan Xie was only thirty-six years old when he died, and his posthumous title was King Wu Xuan (same as Yuan Ke's posthumous title, but the order is reversed. In terms of feeling, Wu Xuan is slightly stronger than Xuan Wu).His third son, Yuan Ziyou, later became emperor, and he was posthumously named Emperor Wenmu.The posthumous posthumous law says: "Bao Da Ding Gong is called Wu; Shan Wen Zhou Da is called Xuan; Jingwei Tiandi is called Wen; Bu De Zhiyi is called Mu." Yuan Xie can afford these four words.It's a pity that he died at the hands of villains.