Chapter 76 Chapter 75 Taizu Shihu

Shi Hu's father died of starvation during the Great Famine, and he lived with his uncle Shi Le since he was a child. For unknown reasons, Shi Hu suddenly disappeared when he was 11 years old, and Shi Le was in a hurry.In the fifth year of Yongjia (311 AD), when Shihu was found again, he was already a 17-year-old youth.After not seeing him for many years, Shi Le was very kind to him, but it didn't take long for Shi Le to find that Shi Hu was idle and cruel at this time, and he was very disappointed.Soon after Shi Hu beat people with bullets many times, the officers and soldiers were dissatisfied. Seeing this, Shi Le said to his mother Wang, "This child is too cruel, so just kill him!" Niu often crashed the car when he was young, and Shi Hu is a good cow, in my opinion, you'd better bear with it!" Shi Le listened to his mother's words and nodded silently.Shi Hu is seven feet five inches tall, and he is good at horseback riding and archery. Every time he goes out to battle, he kills the enemy bravely and is invincible. Gradually, Shi Le thinks that Shi Hu is a good material for leading troops to fight, and he thinks highly of him, so he is promoted later. For General Zhenglu.

In the fifth year of Xianhe (330 A.D.), Shi Le proclaimed himself emperor, and made Shi Hu the king of Zhongshan and Shang Shuling.Shi Hu originally thought that after Shi Le became emperor, he would give him the seat of the Great Chanyu, but Shi Le gave it to his son Shi Hong instead.Shi Hu was furious, and said to his son Shi Sui: "Since Shi Le occupied Xiangguo (now Xingtai, Hebei), I captured Liu Yue in the south, chased Suotou in the north, flattened Qilu in the east, and settled Qinyong in the west. I conquered 13 states. He has made great contributions. The position of Da Shanyu should have been given to me, but it was given to Shi Hong. Every time I think of this, I am so angry that I can’t eat or sleep. After Shi Le dies, I will kill all of Shi Le’s descendants !" Three years later, Shi Le died of illness, and Shi Hu had a chance to vent his personal anger.He first forced Prince Shi Hong to succeed to the throne, but all the power was in Shi Hu's hands.In November of the second year of Yanxi (334 A.D.), Shi Hu deposed Shi Hong as King Haiyang, proclaimed himself King Zhao Tian, ​​changed Yuan Jianwu, and made his son Shi Sui the crown prince.Soon, Shi Hu killed Shi Hong, Shi Hong's mother Cheng Shi, Qin Wang Shi Hong, Nanyang Wang Shi Hui, etc., and finally relieved his hatred.

In the second year of Jianwu (336 A.D.), Shi Hu ordered the construction of the Taiwu Hall in Xiangyang, and the construction of the East and West Palaces in Ye (now Linzhang, Hebei), which were all completed within one month.The base of Taiwu Hall is two feet and eight feet high, with 75 steps from east to west. The columns, beams and walls are all made of gold, silver and jade beads.In order to have fun for himself, Shi Hu sent people to select more than 10,000 women from the people and distribute them to various halls. Shi Hu only cared about building the palace and having fun, and entrusted all the political affairs to Prince Shi Sui.Shi Sui was also a drunkard, a lecherous thug, who often broke into the minister's house at night and raped the minister's wives and concubines.He often killed Meiji, washed her head and put it on a plate for the ministers to pass on.It is a big joke to let such a person run the country!What's even more ironic is that Shi Sui sometimes told Shi Hu what he thought should be reported, and Shi Hu said angrily, "It's worth telling me about such a trivial matter!" Report to me!" He was beaten as soon as he raised his whip, and Shi Xi was beaten two or three times a month on average.Shi Sui couldn't take it anymore, and took 500 cavalry to Jizhou, preparing to kill his younger brother Hejian Gong Shixuan and launch a rebellion.After walking for a few miles, the cavalrymen did not want to follow him to die, and fled one after another. Shi Sui had no choice but to return to the palace in a daze.When Shi Hu learned the details, he saw Shi Sui scolding and beating him with a whip. After he was exhausted from the beating, he put him under house arrest in the East Palace.After a few days, Shi Hu calmed down and released Shi Xi again.When Shi Xi saw Shi Hu, he turned around and left without even saying a word of thanks. Shi Hu ordered him to stop, but Shi Xi acted as if he didn't hear him, and walked away.Shi Hu was so angry that his face turned livid, and immediately announced that he was deposed as a commoner, and that night he killed Shi Sui, his concubine Zhang, and 26 children.

Like all tyrants, Shi Hu also has the characteristics of militarism.In January of the fourth year of Jianwu (338 A.D.), Shihu mobilized 30,000 soldiers and horses to conquer Xianbei in western Liaoning.Not long after, he was able to send troops to attack Qianyan again, but was defeated. Shi Hu was not reconciled to failure, and two years later, he was ready to send troops to Qianyan.For this reason, Shi Hu ordered that as long as the people in the seven prefectures of Si, Ji, Qing, Xu, You, Bing, and Yong have 5 males in their families, they will get 3 soldiers, and if they have 4 males, they will get 2 soldiers. An army of 500,000 people; 10,000 warships were used to transport 1 million dendrobium millet to Le'an City; war horses were collected across the country, and a total of more than 40,000 horses were obtained.In September, Shi Hu had just inspected the officers and soldiers in Wanyang when he heard that King Qianyan had led an army to attack Jicheng of Hou Zhao. Break through Wusuijin, enter Gaoyang, burn the military supplies of Hou Zhao, and rob more than 30,000 households.

Shihu became angry from embarrassment. In the eighth year of Jianwu (342 AD), he ordered the three prefectures of Qing, Ji, and You to prepare for the Eastern Expedition. They sent out men to serve as soldiers. Out of 5 men, 3 came out, and from 3 out of 2, they were conscripted again. More than 500,000 people made weapons and 170,000 people made warships. One-third of them were either drowned or swallowed alive by tigers and wolves.Shihu is afraid that the people will cut corners, so he often disguises himself and goes to various places to supervise the migrant workers.At this time, someone in Qingzhou said that a stone tiger in the north of Pingling City, Jinan suddenly moved overnight to Shanshigou in the southeast of the city.After hearing this, Shi Hu said excitedly: "Shi Hu clearly refers to me. Migration from northwest to southeast shows that God has arranged for me to pacify Jiangnan." So he decided to go to Jiangnan in the second year, and ordered: Soldiers must be supplied by their families with one car, two heads of oxen, fifteen dendrobiums of rice, and ten bolts of silk.The people did not hesitate to sell their sons and daughters to supply the army, and many were forced to hang themselves.Shihu thundered loudly, but the raindrops were very small. After blowing out the big bull, he only sent a small-scale army to plunder, and most of them ended in failure.

Shihu always liked hunting. In his later years, he was unable to straddle the saddle due to his fat body, so he made 1,000 hunting carts with a shaft length of three feet and a height of one foot and eight feet for his use.Shihu's hunting ground is very large, from Lingchang in the west to Yangdu in the east.Shihu ordered the censor to supervise the hunting grounds and forbid people to harm the animals.The censor took the opportunity to do his best and oppress the common people.When they saw someone with good cattle, horses or beautiful women, they would ask for them. If they could not get them, they would frame the family for hurting the animals in the hunting ground and put them to death. More than 100 people died because of this. The people in Dai and Heji could not find peace.

Shi Hu had already recruited more than 30,000 women over 13 and under 20 years old from the private sector to enrich the harem. Shi Hu didn't think it was enough, so he added female officials in the eleventh year of Jianwu (AD 345) to search for civilian women.In order to curry favor with Shihu, the officials of various counties and counties, as long as they saw a beautiful woman, regardless of whether they were married or not, they would grab and give it to Shihu. More than 9,000 married women alone were looted.Local officials also took advantage of the fire to loot and rob beautiful women, and many people were ravaged by wild animals.Lu Ming, the doctor of Jinzi Guanglu, couldn't stand it anymore, so he wrote a letter to persuade Shihu. Shihu not only refused to listen, but killed Lu Ming.

In August of the thirteenth year of Jianwu (AD 347), a monk named Wu Jin said that the fortunes of the Hu people would decline and the Jin people would recover. Only by enslaving the Jin people to work hard can they get rid of this decline. He believed the nonsense and believed it to be true, so he ordered Shangshu Zhang Qun to conscript 160,000 men and women and 100,000 vehicles to build Hualin Garden and a garden wall dozens of miles long in Yebei.Zhao Lan and Shi Pu repeatedly advised them on the grounds that the astronomical disorder and the people were not able to live. After hearing this, Shi Hu was furious and said, "Even if the garden wall is built in the morning and collapses in the evening, I will never regret it!"

In September of the thirteenth year of Jianwu (AD 347), Shi Xuan, the prince of Shi Hu, killed his younger brother Shi Tao because of his power struggle.For this reason, Shi Hu was furious. He asked people to pile up dry firewood in the north of Yecheng, and asked Shi Xuan's cronies Hao Zhi and Liu Ba to drag Shi Xuan's hair and tongue, and drag Shi Xuan to the dry place. On top of the firewood; Shi Hu asked Liu Ba to cut off Shi Xuan's hands and feet, goug out his eyes and intestines, and then light the dry firewood.Shi Hu boarded the Zhongtai and watched the fire burn Shi Xuan to ashes with his own eyes. He still felt puzzled, so he killed all nine of Shi Xuan's wives and children.Shi Xuan's youngest son was only a few years old, holding Shi Hu's leg and crying, Shi Hu suddenly felt compassionate and picked him up, but the executioner who carried out the order still snatched the child from Shi Hu's arms and killed him .

After Shi Xuan was burned to death, a new prince needs to be established.Taiwei Zhang Ju advised Shi Hu to choose Shi Bin and Shi Zun arbitrarily, but Shi Hu was not interested in either of them, and chose Shi Shi, the king of Qi who was only 10 years old.In October of the fourteenth year of Jianwu (AD 348), Li Shishi became the prince.Two months later, Shi Hu proclaimed himself emperor and changed his name to Taining. Shihu, who was sick, wanted to gain peace by proclaiming himself emperor, changing the Yuan Dynasty to eliminate disasters and illnesses, but his past military arrogance, spared no effort to spare people's power, and excessive debauchery had made the people of Later Zhao unbearable, so how could he be given peace.Not long after Shihu proclaimed himself emperor, the soldiers who were exiled by Shihu launched an uprising under the leadership of Liang Du.The rebel army raised the banner and captured counties and counties, and the number of soldiers grew to more than 100,000.Shi Hu exhausted all the troops in the country to suppress the rebel army.

In April of the first year of Taining (349 A.D.), Shi Hu's condition worsened, and he ordered Shi Zun, Shi Bin, and Zhang Jack to assist the prince.Within a few days, Shi Hu died of illness and Shi Shi succeeded to the throne.