Chapter 8 The licentious emperor who died on his concubine

Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty had a good time with the Zhao sisters in the palace, and the power of the court gradually fell into the hands of his relative Wang.The dictatorship of foreign relatives was originally a feature of Han Dynasty politics. The more famous ones are the Lu family, which was in power when Empress Lu was in power, and the Huo family, which was able to influence the emperor's abolition when Emperor Zhao Xuan was in power.When Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty became emperor, his mother, Wang Zhengjun, had suffered a lot. She suffered from powerlessness and knew the importance of power.She has eight brothers: Wang Feng, Wang Man, Wang Tan, Wang Chong, Wang Shang, Wang Li, Wang Gen, and Wang Feng. Except for Wang Man's early death, Wang Feng was named the Great Sima, the head of the government officials. The general led the Shangshushi, and later Wang Shang and Wang Gen also served in this position.Wang Chong was enfeoffed as Marquis of Ancheng, with tens of thousands of households in Shiyi, Wang Tan and others were also promoted to nobles, and he was assigned to enjoy Shiyi.

Emperor Han Cheng was also dissatisfied with the dictatorship of Wang's relatives, but he inherited his father's cowardly character, coupled with his mother's interference, so he had to let it go.When Wang Feng was in power, Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty was somewhat afraid of him, so he was still able to be cautious in his words and deeds, not to go too far.When Wang Feng died, Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty didn't care about it, so he began to indulge his good wine and sex.But the result of doing so can only be to make power more concentrated in Wang's hands.Seeing that the emperor couldn't do anything about them, the relatives of the Wang family became more arrogant and dissipated, and became unscrupulous.Wang Feng and his group of brothers competed for extravagance, searched for treasures, and plundered goods.There are many concubines in the family, and naturally they are all taken from women from good families.There are thousands of male and female servants in each family, and they are all children from poor families.Moreover, they are gradually not paying attention to the emperor.When Chengdu Hou Wangshang was sick, in order to escape the summer, he even borrowed the Mingguang Palace from Emperor Cheng, openly enjoyed the treatment of the emperor, and put himself in an equal position with the emperor.Later, he chiseled through the city wall of Chang'an without authorization.It is said that the city wall is not only an important defensive project of the capital, but also represents the dignity of the emperor, so it cannot be damaged casually.But Wang Shang did this only to introduce Lishui into his manor for boating for fun.But Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty saw all this when he came to his house, and he didn't know anything about it beforehand.Emperor Cheng was very angry, but did not attack.Another time, when Emperor Cheng traveled in micro-clothes, he passed by the mansion of Quyanghou Wanggen, and saw that the buildings in the garden were modeled after the White Tiger Palace in Weiyang Palace: red lacquer and green suo, the ground was painted with red lacquer, and the carvings were painted with blue lacquer. The windows with serial patterns can only be decorated in this way in the emperor's court, but Wang Gen dares to despise the royal family, presumptuously, and adopt the style of the emperor's palace, which is a crime of deceiving the emperor.Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty couldn't bear this kind of deviant behavior. He was so angry that he called the chariot general Wang Yin and cursed him.Seeing that the emperor was angry, Wang Yin came up with a bad idea, and asked Wang Shang and Wang Gen brothers to get tattoos on their own to plead guilty to the empress dowager.When Emperor Cheng knew it, he was even more angry, and he wanted to punish the two of them for their crimes.So the next day, Wang Yin brought Wang Shang, Wang Li, and even Wang Gen, to plead guilty to the emperor.Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty was already afraid of the power of Wang's relatives, and he was afraid that his mother would whisper in his ears because of this. When he saw this situation, he would have a headache even more. How dare he punish the crime, so the matter was left alone.

The members of the Wang family live a luxurious life in such a lavish way, and all the expenses will be passed on to the common people.The common people were extremely dissatisfied with them, so they sarcastically wrote a song: "At the beginning of the Five Marquises, Quyang was the most angry. The Gaodu was destroyed, and even the Waidu. The earth mountain gradually became the west white tiger." At that time, Wang Zhengjun's five brothers were killed on the same day. He was named Liehou, known as "Five Marquis".This folk song condemns them for building mansions and extravagance.At that time, the annexation of land was very serious, and the trading of slaves and maidservants became more and more rampant. The ruling foundation of the Western Han Dynasty had begun to be less stable.And the behavior of the Wang family is tantamount to adding fuel to the fire to this serious situation.People at that time believed in the connection between heaven and man, so in the face of this terrible political event, God also fulfilled his duty and conjured up many "disasters": another solar eclipse, another earthquake, let alone wind and rain. Next.It made the emperor and his ministers panic all day long, carefully examining where they offended God.Wang's arrogance was originally a target of public criticism, and now some ministers have picked him up to bear the responsibility of offending God.Wang Zhang, Liu Xiang and others wrote to the emperor every day, denouncing Wang's crimes.But the so-called unforeseen circumstances, what is the reason for the "disaster" caused by God, in fact, no one can say clearly.The emperor was confused by this "heavenly change" lawsuit. In the end, the Wang family was still his relatives, and the Queen Mother kept crying in his ears, so Wang Zhang and Liu Xiang were out of luck.Wang Zhang was thrown into prison and soon died there.Liu Xiang was finally driven back to his hometown to retire because he was a member of the Han clan.In this way, the power of the Wang family became even more powerful, and Emperor Han Cheng simply handed over the power and let them do whatever they wanted.

Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, who didn't care about everything, was even more indulging in the love with the Zhao sisters.Because he has the problem of "not lifting", he ordered people to look for aphrodisiacs everywhere.Soon an alchemist offered him the alchemy he had refined, which was called "Shenxiejiao".This medicine is so effective that Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty can have fun with Zhao Hede all night long with just one pill.Zhao Hede was afraid that the treasure would be obtained by other court ladies, so he coquettishly forced Emperor Cheng to hand over all the medicines to him for safekeeping.As a result, one day, both of them were drunk, and Zhao Hede fed seven pills to the emperor while drunk.The emperor was very excited after taking so many elixirs. Ninety percent of the nights in the tent were full of spring, and the maidservants standing outside the hall could hear him and Zhao Hede laughing all night long.But as the saying goes, extreme joy begets sorrow, the emperor's body, which had already been hollowed out, could no longer withstand such tossing, and he died on Zhao Hede's body.Thinking of his grandfather Han Xuandi's expectations for him, this ending is really ironic.When Zhao Hede saw that the emperor was dead, he knew that something was wrong, so in order to avoid being judged, he confessed about her bed with Emperor Cheng, so he committed suicide.

The emperor died and had no son, so Liu Xin, the son of Liu Kang, the king of Dingtao, was appointed emperor, who was Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty.The absurdity of this emperor is even worse than that of Emperor Cheng. The allusion "broken sleeve" describing homosexuality refers to him and his favorite minister Dong Xian.Although the power of the Wang family was temporarily hit, it was deeply rooted in the end. Soon after the death of Emperor Ai, the Wang family quickly took over the power of the court. When it came to Wang Mang, they simply usurped the Han and established a new dynasty.