Chapter 24 6. Tyrant Stone Tiger
In the second year of Shi Hong's reign, the end of his being abolished and then killed was almost doomed when he ascended the throne a year ago.After Shi Hu wiped out dissidents with his military power, he finally turned his finger on the palace.
Poor Shi Hong knew that the disaster was imminent, so he took the emperor's jade seal and rushed to Shihu's palace in Wei County, expressing that he was immoral and incompetent, unable to be the emperor, and asked Shihu for the throne of Zen (it was a begging).
Shi Hu dismissed it and said: "Everyone in the world will come to their own conclusions about the performance of the emperor, how can they comment on it?"
Shi Hong returned to his palace with tears in his eyes, and cried to the empress dowager, "There really will be no more heirs of the late emperor!" So he ordered to prepare for the abdication ceremony.
Shi Hu's attitude was very clear: "Shi Hong is fatuous and weak. If he can't be emperor, he has to be abolished. How can there be any reason to abdicate?" He led his subordinates directly into Xiangguo Palace, and deposed Shi Hong as the king of Haiyang.
At this time, Shi Hong seemed to be very "spirited". He boarded the carriage leaving the palace very calmly, and said to the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty with a calm expression: "I am stupid and unable to accept the great rule. This is the destiny, so what can I say?" What about it!" All the officials shed tears, and all the palace people wept bitterly.
Judging from this paragraph, Shi Hong is not a foolish emperor, at least he is also a mediocre emperor with average intelligence. If it happens in a peaceful world, such an emperor may be quite good for the common people.It's a pity that Shi Hongsheng lives in troubled times, and it is impossible for a person like him to stay in the position of ruler for a long time in troubled times.It is the traitors who can survive in the troubled times - I can't help but think of a sentence, I don't know whether the troubled times create the traitors, or the traitors create the troubled times.In the chaotic world, all order and etiquette are destroyed, and people like Shi Hong who follow the rules can only die.Shi Le can be regarded as a wise man for a lifetime, but he made the same mistakes as Liu Yuan and Liu Cong on the issue of heirs. He clearly knew that Shi Hu was a dangerous person, but he still could not forget that he followed him in the wars and fought in the north and south. He has made great contributions and has been reluctant to deal with it for a long time.Shi Le has always acted decisively, but this hesitation ruined the good situation of Hou Zhao.Looking back on Shi Le's life, I once wrote a poem of five rhythms to commemorate his struggle and historical merits and demerits:
Shi Hu imprisoned Shi Hong, his mother, Cheng Shi, and his two younger brothers, Shi Hong and Shi Hui, in the palace. Later, he was afraid of having long nights and dreams, so he got rid of them all.
At that time, there were many people who were dissatisfied with Shihu's abolition of the emperor. Yao Yizhong, the leader of the Qiang people, was one of them. He once questioned Shihu face to face: "I thought the king was a hero in the world, but why did he accept the important task entrusted by the late emperor?" And then turned around to seize the crown prince?"
Shi Hu didn't dare to mess with this general who had tens of thousands of Qiang soldiers in his hands, so he could only reply falteringly: "King Haiyang is young, and I just take care of the family affairs."
However, Shi Hu was the only one who could be the Lord of Later Zhao at that time.The ministers persuaded Shi Hu to be the emperor, but Shi Hu evaded and said: "The title of emperor is used by a virtuous master. I can't do it. Let me be the King of Zhao." (Very self-aware.)
In the first year of Xiankang, Emperor Cheng of Jin Dynasty (335 A.D.), Shihu took the throne, and it was changed to Yuan Jianwu.At this time, there was an interesting thing. According to the prophecy, there was such a sentence "The Son of Heaven should come from the northeast". Shi Hu was confused by it, and finally came up with a way. Capital (this is the important town in the Northeast of the post-Zhao Dynasty), and then worked tirelessly to rush back to take its place, which can be regarded as the fulfillment of the prophecy. (Hehe, although Shi Hu is cruel, he is very superstitious. This prophecy is also very interesting. It does not say when the emperor was born, and it does not refer to the Northeast. How did Shi Hu know that the Northeast emperor would be more northeast Where is Murong Xianbei?)
Shi Hu has a tyrannical nature. In the words of "Book of Jin·Shi Hu Zai Ji": "The fake leopard looks like a sheep, and the owl's heart is like a wolf." After becoming King Zhao, he became even more dissolute. Go hunting.In his first year as king of Zhao, he once traveled to the south and ran all the way to the north bank of the Yangtze River. He was so frightened that the generals of the Jin army guarding the Yangtze River reported to the emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty in Jianye that the cavalry of the latter Zhao had invaded, and the number was unknown.The Eastern Jin court was shocked and mobilized in a hurry. The army came to the bank of the Yangtze River and saw that Hou Zhao Suiyou's cavalry had already gone away.There was a false alarm inside and outside the court, and Emperor Cheng of Jin almost fell ill from fright.
The area ruled by the Later Zhao suffered the most serious damage during the war at the end of the Western Jin Dynasty and the dispute between the Zhao Dynasty and the Zhao Dynasty.But what Shi Hu thought was only how to unify the world as soon as possible, carry out round after round of violent expropriation on the people, and force them to join the army. Coupled with the continuous natural disasters for several years, the people were miserable. The good situation no longer exists.
Shihu moved the capital from Xiangguo to Yecheng, and built a lot of construction in the two places, building many palaces, preparing to upgrade and become the king of Zhao.When the palace was built, an official supervised the construction of the torch in front of the palace. The design was original. (It feels a bit like the torch that ignited the "sacred flame" in the opening ceremony of the modern Olympic Games.) Shihu liked this design very much. Unexpectedly, when it was used, the kerosene on the upper plate leaked due to poor handling, burning the people below. Many died.In a fit of rage, Shi Hu beheaded the official who supervised the construction.
Although Shi Hu is tyrannical, there is someone more "scary" than him, and this person is Shi Hu's prince Shi Sui.After Shi Hu claimed to be the Heavenly King of Zhao, he named him the Heavenly King and Crown Prince, and loved him very much. (It really is "like father, like son".)
Strictly speaking, Shi Sui can no longer be considered a brutal family, but should be classified as a pervert.Sometimes when he was drunk, he wandered around the field all night. When he saw a house, he climbed into the house from the chimney to make trouble.Sometimes he ran to the minister's house and raped women.Seeing beautiful court ladies, he dressed them up, cut off their heads, washed off the blood, put them on a plate, and "shared rewards" with the people around them.Later Zhao believed in Buddhism when he was from Shile, and respected the Indian monk Fotucheng, and there were many monks and nuns in the palace.When Shi Sui saw beautiful little nuns, he brought them into the palace, and then killed them. He mixed human flesh with beef and sheep and cooked it. When he was happy, he gave this "food" to The subordinates eat. (It's creepy that such a person will be the prince of a country, the future emperor.)
Shi Hu trusts this son very much, and often entrusts him with major affairs in the middle school for review, but conflicts arose between father and son on this issue.Shi Hu's temper was volatile, and when Shi Sui presented important matters to him, he said angrily, "Why tell me such a trivial matter!" After not seeing the submitted documents for a while, he complained : "Why didn't you report to me!"
Because of these things, Shi Sui was punished by Shi Hu with sticks and sticks every month.As time went by, Shi Sui felt resentful, so he claimed to be sick, and stopped dealing with affairs, and secretly formed a small court in his prince's east palace, ordering the officials in his palace like an emperor.
Shi Sui had always been jealous of his brother Shi Xuan who was loved by Shi Hu, so he ordered his men to go to Jizhou with him to kill Shi Xuan, and behead anyone who did not follow him.Shi Xi led the soldiers of the palace, these soldiers could play and have fun together, but they had no experience in fighting, so their discipline was lax, and they fled in all directions after walking a few miles, so Shi Xi gave up.
Seeing that Shi Sui had been ill for a long time, Shi Hu sent someone to visit him, but Shi Sui stabbed him with a sword.Shi Hu was so angry that he arrested Shi Xi's officials for interrogation, and only then did he know what Shi Xi had done in the palace.He killed the officials around the prince and put Shi Xi under house arrest in the East Palace, but after a few days his mood improved, and he wanted to pardon the prince, so he called Shi Xi to the palace to have an audience.Shi Sui was very disgusted with Shi Hu, when he entered the palace and saw Shi Hu, he did not apologize and left after saying hello.Shihu couldn't bear the prince's rudeness, so he made up his mind to abolish the prince.This time Shi Xi received the same treatment as Shi Hong (but he could only take the blame himself), Shi Hu killed all the officials in the East Palace, and changed Shi Xuan to be the king and prince of heaven. (Shi Hu canonized the prince according to his own likes and dislikes, and later facts proved that the chaos in his harem was far from over.)
This year was the third year of Zhao Jianwu (AD 337). At this time, news came from Liaodong in the northeast that Murong Hao had once again unified the Murong tribe after annexing Murong Ren's forces.Murong Hao claimed to be the King of Yan, and sent envoys to Zhao to proclaim himself a vassal, agreeing to destroy Duan's Xianbei together.Shihu had long intended to annex Liaodong, and immediately agreed to send troops in the second year.Later, Zhao Guo finally entered the Liaodong battlefield for the first time, which also means that Murong Xianbei will infiltrate the Central Plains.