Chapter 27 The emperor who survived under the sword
In the first month of the fourteenth year of Taijian (582), Emperor Chen Xuan of the Southern Dynasty died of illness. When he was young, Chen Shubao, the prince, fell to the ground and cried bitterly.At this time, Chen Shuling, the second younger brother of Shixing Wang who was standing behind him, suddenly took a medicine knife and slashed at his neck. Immediately, blood flowed profusely, and Chen Shubao yelled and fell to the ground.Seeing this, his biological mother, Empress Liu, rushed to rescue him, but was also hacked several times by Chen Shuling.Wu Shi, the prince's nurse, hurriedly grabbed Chen Shuling's arm from behind.At this time, Chen Shubao woke up in time, and took the opportunity to get up hastily. Chen Shuling was still holding on to Chen Shubao's clothes tightly, but he broke free.The fourth brother, Changsha King Chen Shujian heard the news and rushed over. He took a step forward, grabbed Chen Shuling's neck with one hand, grabbed the medicine knife with the other, and led him to a pillar to tie him up.
According to the regulations in the palace at that time, no one entering the palace could carry weapons.That's why Chen Shuling had to cheat a medicine cutter from a pharmacist. Although it was sharpened again and again, it was still very blunt.So Chen Shubao escaped from the knife by chance.Although history cannot be assumed, but if the knife is sharper, the prince may not be able to be the successor of the Chen Dynasty, and then the famous "Yushu Houting Flower" may not appear in the future. There are many colors.However, what is going on in this situation where brothers cannibalize each other, we have to start from the beginning.
Chen was the last dynasty of the Southern Dynasties, established by Emperor Wu Chen Ba in the first year of Wuding (557).In the first month of the first year of Taijian (569), Emperor Chen Xuan ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, and made his eldest son Chen Shubao the crown prince.Since then, Chen Shubao has been the prince for thirteen years. There was no problem in ascending the throne, but Emperor Chen Xuan loved his third son Chen Shuling very much.In the first year of Taijian, Chen Shuling, who was only 16 years old, was named the military governor of the three prefectures of Jiang, Ying, and Jin, and he was in charge of it alone.In the third year of Taijian (571), Emperor Chen Xuan moved him to be the governor of the four prefectures of Hunan, Heng, Guangxi, and Wu, and the general of Pingnan.In the ninth year of Taijian (577), he had to be awarded the governor of Yangzhou, and the military governors of the four states of Yang, Xu, Dongyang, and Nanyu.In the tenth year of Taijian (578), he was allowed to govern in Dongfu, almost the first person under the emperor.He was harsh and cunning, arrogant and arrogant. During his tenure in the local area, he punished and punished severely, plundered wantonly, and asked for servants. He did everything. When the towns of Zhuzhou heard that he was coming, they were very afraid.He also abused his subordinates to the extreme. Anyone who flatters them can be promoted and get rich; while those who are upright will be humiliated to death by him.Because he was so cruel and rude, no one dared to report to the court, so Emperor Chen Xuan didn't know about it, and thought he was talented, so he was promoted repeatedly.Chen Shuling also has a special hobby, that is to be a tomb robber.For the many ancient tombs around Jiankang, people on the left and right are often excavated.Take out the treasures, playthings and even bones from the tomb and hide them in the mansion.In the eleventh year of Taijian (579), his biological mother died. In order to find a good cemetery, he actually dug up the tomb of the Eastern Jin Dynasty Taifu Xie An, and discarded the bones of this famous "Jiangzuo great man".The Xie family of Chenjun was also a noble family in the Southern Dynasty, but they dared not intervene in this matter.Emperor Chen Xuan had heard about this son's misbehavior to some extent, but he always loved him, and he just scolded him.Although Chen Shubao is the prince, he has no soldiers and no power because of his father's reign.So Chen Shuling became more and more unscrupulous, and began to covet the crown prince.It is said that he was a hostage of the Western Wei Dynasty together with Chen Shubao when he was young, but he had no brotherhood.However, although Chen Xuanzong doted on him, he didn't mean to make him the prince.He colluded with his fifth younger brother Chen Shugu to conspire against him, and finally found an opportunity when Emperor Chen Xuan was seriously ill.
At that time, he was serving the sick in the palace together with the prince Chen Shubao and the king of Changsha Chen Shujian.Seeing that there was no hope of being crowned prince, he secretly plotted to kill him.First, I cheated a medicine cutting knife from the pharmacist, but it was not easy to sharpen it.Taking advantage of the fact that Emperor Chen Xuan had just died of illness and there were many people in the palace in chaos, he sent his left and right back to his residence to fetch swords.But the left and right didn't know what he meant, so they brought a wooden sword.Chen Shuling was so angry that he jumped, so he had no choice but to go to battle that day with a medicine-cutter knife.Chen Houzhu failed, and let the prince escape, but he was captured and tied to a pillar.But he was extremely strong, and when Chen Shujian, the king of Changsha, was visiting the prince, he broke free from the bondage and escaped from the palace gate.When he returned to his residence, he began to raise troops to rebel, but he dressed neatly and went up to the west gate tower to recruit the people and the kings and generals, but no one responded, only Chen Shugu, who was in collusion with him, came.He worked together for a long time, and his men were only a thousand or so.At this time, Changsha King Chen Shujian sent troops to attack in the name of the prince, and soon he and Chen Shugu were captured and killed.Two days later, Chen Shubao healed the wound on his neck, and officially ascended the throne as the emperor, that is, Empress Chen.
Although the medicine cutter wasn't fast enough, it was enough to slash it.Empress Chen ascended the throne, but her neck was seriously injured and she was unable to come out to act as a council member. The power of the court and government naturally fell into the hands of Chen Shujian, the king of Changsha, who was a hero in suppressing the chaos.Once the prince is in power, he will be a little dizzy, domineering and domineering, and will not pay attention to the empress, so Chen empress also began to take precautions against him.And when he was the crown prince, the former officials of the East Palace had long been dissatisfied with Chen Shujian's monopoly on power, and often sued him in front of the queen master.Therefore, the later master granted Chen Shujian the title of Sikong, but took away all the real power of soldiers, horses and personnel appointments from him.Chen Shujian resented this, so he asked craftsmen to make a life-sized puppet, dressed it in Taoist clothes, and set sophisticated mechanisms inside, so that the puppet could move and kneel freely.Then put it under the sun and moon day and night to perform religious rituals, so as to curse the early death of Empress Chen.But not long after this matter was told to Empress Chen, the empress was furious and sent people to search his palace. After all the evidence was complete, Chen Shujian was imprisoned in the palace and was about to be sentenced to death.He ordered the eunuch to read the pardon and enumerate the crimes of King Changsha.Chen Shujian knelt down, wept bitterly, and even claimed that he deserved to die.However, this prince is also very scheming. While crying, he emphasized that he has no other intentions, but just wants to "love" the emperor.He also said that if he died, he would definitely see Chen Shuling.Ask the emperor to let me bring a message to him, and then reprimand him for the crime of disobedience in the past.Having said that, Empress Chen recalled the achievements of the fourth younger brother in the past, and thought that he had saved his own life, so he pardoned his sins, retained his status as a prince, and was exempted from government and returned home.Soon, this brother was reappointed, and he was named Shizhong and Zhenzuo General.Compared with many tyrants in the Southern Dynasties who killed fathers, sons and brothers in darkness and blood flowed like rivers, Empress Chen can be regarded as benevolent and magnanimous.The Chen Dynasty also became the only dynasty in the Southern Dynasty that did not massacre.But Chen Houzhu is not a tyrant, it doesn't mean that he won't become a faint king.And his "potential" to be a faint king was also manifested when he first came to the throne.
His neck was slashed with a medicine knife, so he held a banquet in the apse, and gathered his courtiers to enjoy singing and dancing while drinking and composing poems.At that time, his father Chen Xuandi died less than a year ago, and those who make sons according to rituals should not drink and have fun.A minister couldn't understand it, so he pretended to be sick and passed out, which disturbed Chen Houzhu's interest.Chen Houzhu was very upset, and even wanted to find a fault to kill him, but fortunately someone dissuaded him from doing so.But after all, it is the new emperor ascending the throne, so he has to put on an appearance of trying his best to govern.So the imperial edict was issued repeatedly, showing that he did not dare to covet ease and forget state affairs.He also said that in order for the emperor to prosper, he must spare no effort to adopt good suggestions everywhere, so ministers and workers must know everything about him, the emperor, and he will listen to it with an open mind and choose what is good.He also said that he hates extravagance and corruption the most. He doesn't look down on those piles of gold, jade, and gaudy decorations. He will never collect such scourges in the palace...
After reading the above remarks, we must marvel at the rebirth of Yao and Shun.It's a pity that "today, I listen to people's words and watch their deeds." Although Chen Houzhu's words are hot, his "deeds" are really not very good.