Chapter 30 Chapter 29 Young Emperor Liu Bian

Liu Bian, Shaodi of the Han Dynasty, was a prince born to Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty by the He family.Several sons of Emperor Ling died one after another. He was worried that the little prince would suffer another misfortune, so he fostered him in the family of a Taoist priest named Shi.The mother is more precious than the son, and the He family was granted the title of nobleman, and he was quite favored.In the first year of Guanghe (AD 178), Empress Song was deposed.Two years later, Ho was made queen.The following year, Wang Mei gave birth to a son, named "Xie".Empress He was so angry that she poisoned Wang Meiren.Lingdi Longyan was furious, and when she was about to be abolished, all the eunuchs pleaded for her, so her phoenix crown was not taken off.Emperor Ling's mother, Empress Dowager Dong, took Liu Xie to him and brought him up carefully.

When Liu Bian grew up, he was very frivolous. Emperor Ling didn't like him. The ministers asked him to establish a crown prince, and Emperor Ling wanted to establish Liu Xie.But Liu Bian's mother was the empress, he was the eldest son, and his uncle He Jin was a general with a large army, so it was inconvenient to abolish him.Therefore, the prince has not been established for a long time. In the sixth year of Zhongping (AD 189), Emperor Ling was seriously ill and was dying. He entrusted Liu Xie to Jian Shuo, the captain of the military academy.After the death of Emperor Ling, according to the usual practice, Liu Bian was appointed as the twelfth emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty—Han Shaodi, who was 17 years old at the time.

The young emperor ruled the world, respected his mother as the empress dowager, appointed He Jin, appointed Yuan Kai as the grand tutor, made Liu Xie the king of Bohai, and later changed his title to king Chenliu.He Jin knew that all the people in the world hated eunuchs, so he resented Jian Shuo for plotting against him, and wanted to eradicate them.Yuan Shao, Yuan Kai's nephew, was then the deputy commander-in-chief of the national army, the Lieutenant of the Chinese Army. He also hated the monopoly of eunuchs, and wrote a letter to He Jin, discussing the punishment of eunuchs.After the burial of Emperor Ling, He Jin reported to the Queen Mother his plan to kill the eunuchs.The queen mother objected, saying that eunuchs ruled the forbidden provinces, which was the system of the Han family.He Jin had no choice but to ask for the next best thing: kill those who are known for their evil deeds.Yuan Shao disapproved of He Jin's compromise, saying that if the eunuchs were not eradicated at this time, there would be endless troubles.He suggested that soldiers from the prefectures and counties should be called into Beijing to coerce the Queen Mother and force her to agree.Therefore, He Jin called Dong Zhuo, the governor of Bingzhou, Wang Kuang, the prefect of Taishan, and Qiao Mao, the prefect of Dongjun, to lead the troops to attack the capital. He also sent Ding Yuan, the captain of Wumeng, to burn Mengjin, the ferry of the Yellow River (northeast of Mengjin in present-day Henan).Empress Dowager He was afraid and dismissed all the eunuchs, leaving only a few eunuchs who had a good relationship with He Jin in the palace.

One day in August, He entered the palace and plotted to kill the eunuch.He was tricked into Shangshu Province by Zhang Rang, the head of the eunuch, and the eunuch Qu Mu stabbed him to death with a sword.When He Jin's subordinates Wu Kuang and Zhang Zhang heard that He Jin had been killed, they marched into the palace.The gate of the palace was closed tightly, and Wu Kuang and Yuan Shao's cousin, Huben Zhonglang, led Yuan Shu to attack the palace gate together.Yuan Shu set fire to the Nine Dragon Gate of the South Palace and the East and West Palaces, trying to force out Zhang Rang and others.Zhang Rang reported to the Empress Dowager, saying that General He Jin had rebelled and set fire to the palace.Then coerced the Queen Mother, Emperor Shao and Liu Xie, king of Chenliu, to flee from Fudao to Beigong.Upon hearing the news, Yuan Shao ordered the gates of the North Palace to be closed, and the eunuchs were arrested and killed, regardless of age or youth, and anyone without beards would be hacked several times.Many people who were not eunuchs and had no beard were killed by mistake.More than 2,000 eunuchs were killed.

Zhang Rang and other eunuchs saw that the situation was over, so they hijacked Emperor Shao and King Chen Liu and fled from the north gate of Luoyang City, heading for Beimang (north of Luoyang City, Henan Province today).At this time, Bingzhou Mu Dong Zhuo responded to He Jin's call and led his army to the capital.Seeing the fire in the capital, he swung his troops forward and rushed to the west of the city. When he heard that the young emperor had been kidnapped to Beimang, he led his army to meet him.When Shaodi saw someone leading soldiers in, he was so frightened that he cried.When Dong Zhuo came to see him, the young Emperor was crying and unable to answer. King Chen Liu, who was only 9 years old, gave a brief account of the incident.Dong Zhuo believed that King Chen Liu was more capable than Emperor Shao, and that King Chen Liu was raised by the Empress Dowager Dong.Dong Zhuo thought he was of the same family as Queen Mother Dong, so he wanted to abolish Li.

The Bingzhou soldiers brought by Dong Zhuo were only about 3,000 people. He felt that this force was difficult to subdue the crowd. Every four or five days, he sent his troops to sneak out of Luoyang at night, and returned the next day with a lot of noise.The people in Luoyang City didn't know the details, and thought it was the newly arrived Bingzhou soldiers.Dong Zhuo incorporated He Jin's remaining troops and annexed the Jinwu Dingyuan tribe who was in charge of the defense of Luoyang, the capital, and gained military advantages.Therefore, Dong Zhuo instigated his minions Shangshu to request the dismissal of Sikong Liu Hong and the appointment of Dong Zhuo as Sikong.Then, he held a meeting of ministers to discuss the abolition of the establishment.He coerced the queen mother, abolished Emperor Shao as King Hongnong, and made Liu Xie, king of Chenliu, emperor.

In the second year, Yuan Shao and others launched an army to attack Dong Zhuo, and Dong Zhuo sent Li Rujin, the king of Hongnong, who was the doctor.King Hongnong knew that he could not escape this hurdle, so please bid farewell to his wife Tang Ji and others.After several rounds of drinking, King Hongnong sang in grief and indignation, and asked his wife to sing and dance for him one last time.Tang Ji was in great grief, waving her long sleeves, dancing and singing, and all the people present wept bitterly.King Hongnong said to his wife: "You are the concubine of the king, and it is impossible to be a wife of Li people who live and work in peace and contentment. You have to love yourself and say goodbye forever!" After speaking, he committed suicide by taking medicine at the age of 18.