Chapter 85 84 Fan Pang Goes to Prison

When Emperor Ling of Han came to the throne, Empress Dowager Dou came to the court, and made her father Dou Wu a general and Chen Fan a captain.Dou Wu and Chen Fan supported the celebrity faction.They recalled Li Ying and Du Mi, who had been imprisoned for life, back to serve as officials. Chen Fan said to Dou Wu: "If you don't eliminate the eunuchs, you can't make the world peaceful. I'm already an old man in my eighties. What else do I want? I stay here just to eliminate harm for the court and help the general make meritorious service." Dou Wu originally had this meaning.As soon as the two discussed it, Dou Wu proposed to Queen Mother Dou that the eunuch should be eliminated.But Empress Dowager Dou believed in eunuchs just like Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty, so she couldn't make up her mind.

Chen Fan also wrote a memorial to Empress Dowager Dou, citing the various crimes of eunuchs Hou Lan, Cao Jie, Wang Fu and others.Empress Dowager Dou still put aside the memorial and ignored it. This way, it frightens the snake.Cao Jie and Wang Fu are the first to strike first.They first snatched the jade seal and seal from Empress Dowager Dou, and put Empress Dowager Dou under house arrest; then, in the name of Emperor Ling, they announced that Dou Wu and Chen Fan had conspired against each other and killed them. In this way, the eunuchs took power again, and all those promoted by Dou Wu and Chen Fan were dismissed.

Li Ying and Du Mi were dismissed and returned to their hometowns. Some famous scholars and imperial students admired them even more and hated eunuchs even more.The eunuchs also regarded them as deadly enemies and looked for opportunities to frame them. A famous scholar Zhang Jian once reported on the eunuch Hou Lan, and Hou Lan wanted to take revenge.It happened that Zhang Jian's family drove away a servant. Hou Lan used the servant to falsely accuse Zhang Jian of forming a party with twenty-four people from his hometown to slander the court and attempt to rebel. The eunuch Cao Jie seized this opportunity and ordered his confidants to write a memorial, asking Han Lingdi to order the arrest of party members again.

Emperor Han Ling was only fourteen years old, and he didn't know what a party member was.He asked Cao Jie, "Why did you kill them? What crime did they have?" Cao Jie pointed out how terrible the party members were, how they wanted to overthrow the imperial court, and conspired to rebel, and made up a random story. Of course Emperor Han Ling believed them and quickly ordered the arrest of the party members. The arrest warrant was issued, and the states and counties rioted again.Someone got the news and rushed to report to Li Ying.Li Ying said frankly: "If I run away, I will harm others instead. Besides, I am already sixty years old, and I will let him live and die, so why run away!"

He went to prison by himself and was tortured to death.Knowing that death was inevitable, Du Mi committed suicide too. The governor of Runan County was ordered to go to Zhengqiang (now Yancheng, Henan) to arrest Fan Pang.When he arrived at Zhengqiang's posthouse, he closed the door, lay down on the bed with the edict in his arms, and cried.The people in the posthouse heard the crying and couldn't figure out what was going on. When the news reached Fan Pang, Fan Pang said, "I know Duyou must have cried because he didn't want to arrest me." He went to the county to surrender himself.Guo Yi, the county magistrate, was also a man of integrity. When he saw Fan Pang coming, he was shocked.He said: "The world is so big, you can't go anywhere, what are you doing here?"

He planned to hand over the official seal and escape with Fan Pang. Fan Pang was grateful to Guo Yi, and he said: "No need. After I die, the court may stop arresting party members. How can I implicate you. Besides, my mother is old. If I run away, I will be implicated." her?" The county magistrate had no choice but to put Fan Pang in prison, and sent someone to notify Fan Pang's old mother and his son to meet Fan Pang. Mother Fan and her grandson came to visit Fan Pang in prison on business.Fan Pang comforted her and said, "After I die, my younger brother will take care of you. Don't be too sad." Fan's mother said, "It's good if you stay like Li and Du (referring to Li Ying and Du Mi). Fame, I am satisfied enough. You don't need to be sad."

Fan Pang knelt down and listened to his mother, then turned his head and said to his son: "I will tell you to do bad things, but bad things should not be done after all; I will tell you to do good things, but I have never done anything in my life." It’s a bad thing, but it ended up like this.” The people next to me couldn't help but shed tears when they heard this. More than 100 people like Li Ying and Fan Pang were killed; there were another 600 to 700 people who were famous all over the country, or who had a little grudge against the eunuch, and were falsely accused by the eunuch as party members and arrested. , was either killed, or exiled, or at least imprisoned for life.

Only Zhang Jian, the eunuch Hou Lan's rival, escaped the government's arrest.He went into hiding, and many people were willing to risk their lives to take him in.When the government got the news to arrest him, he hid elsewhere.As a result, all the families who took him in suffered misfortunes, some were imprisoned, some were killed, and even the entire county suffered disaster. After these two "disasters of party imprisonment", the more upright officials in the court were hit hard, and almost all the big and small official positions were taken by eunuchs and their disciples.