Chapter 44 Chapter 44: The Wandering Thousand Miles Queen

The Rebellion of Eight Kings did not end until Yuzhang King Sima Chi took the throne and East China Sea King Sima Yue was his assistant.Regarding the enthronement of Emperor Huai (Sima Chi), Yang Shi, the survivor of the first emperor, somewhat opposed it.Because this is the emperor's younger brother ascending the throne, she is not in the position of a mother, but only a brother-in-law, which is of course very unfavorable to her.Among the royal family, there is still King Qinghe, who has been deposed but was established as the crown prince at the age of eight. If King Qinghe ascends the throne, she will naturally become the "Empress Dowager".

However, due to the dissuasion by the servant Zhonghua, on the other hand, it was too late in time, and finally the emperor's younger brother ascended the throne.Yang's family was called "Queen Hui" at first and lived in Hongxun Palace.In other words, she failed to become the Empress Dowager. Emperor Hui's empress Yangshi can be said to be a woman with a rough fate.Empress Jia, who was at the height of her power, did not lag behind. She was established as a queen, but was deposed and restored many times later.Conversely, she was only abolished, but not given to death like Queen Jia, maybe because she didn't play with power like Queen Jia?

Even if she wanted to play with power, Yang's natal family didn't have the power.Sun Xiu, who contributed a lot to Yang's being made queen, was killed long ago. Now she actually has no background, which is why she was easily deposed many times.As a result, however, she was at peace. ——Yang is a harmless person because he does not have a strong background. Because everyone has this consensus, every time she is abolished, she resets quickly.In fact, after the Yang family was abolished, even if you intend to establish a new queen, there are still many difficulties in choosing candidates.Once the established queen's family is too powerful, the relatives may raise their heads and become the undercurrent of factional struggles.

——It's Li Yang's that won't cause problems. The conclusion is the same every time. Due to the aftershocks of the Eight Kings Rebellion, Luoyang was still in a state of instability for a while, while frightening voices began to spread from the surrounding areas of China. ——This is the footsteps of the great migration of nations.The people of the Central Plains, who were engrossed in the storm in the teacup, didn't seem to notice this. Jin's ruling authority weakened due to repeated internal strife, and rebel groups and bandits all over the country followed.In order to survive, they compete to join forces with groups stronger than themselves. In fact, this is also common in troubled times.

Shi Le, an influential figure of the Jie tribe (a branch of the Xiongnu tribe), began to lead his own large group because of his courage and leadership enough to convince the crowd, and then he joined forces with a larger group—Liu Yuan, whose country was named "Han" team up.Wang Mi, the leader of the Han bandit group, also led his people to join Liu Yuan's army. Before people in the Central Plains realized it, Liu Yuan's power had grown more and more powerful. In the second year of Jin Yongjia (308 A.D.), Liu Yuan, who claimed to be the king of Han, finally occupied Pingyang, and took Pingyang as the capital of the country and became the "emperor".He named his sons Liu He and Liu Cong General General and General Cheqi respectively, while his nephew Liu Yao was named General Longrang.In the same year, they raised their troops to attack Ye, which greatly threatened the periphery of Luoyang, the capital of Jin. The Jin people only woke up from their dreams and realized that the situation was serious.

Liu Yuan died two years after ascending the throne.Prince Liu He ascended the throne immediately.He was not very popular because he was extremely suspicious and bitter by nature.As a result, internal disputes arose, the new emperor Liu He was killed, and people supported Liu Cong as emperor. Liu Cong is regarded as a hero no less than his father, and is highly respected by the Huns. The Huns have a very special custom. After the death of their father, the son who inherits the head of the family must accept the father's concubine other than his biological mother as his own woman. The Huns call this "Zheng".The Han people despised the Huns' custom very much, criticizing it as "barbaric".

Liu Cong is not a direct son, his mother Zhang is a concubine.The father's first wife was the Shan family, and the murdered Liu He was born to her.According to the custom, Liu Cong "boiled" this single family.Shan was a young and beautiful woman who was lamenting her son's murder. She became the wife of her husband's son Liu Cong. "Even if this is the custom of the Huns..." Shan could not stop crying. After the division of the North and the South, the Southern Xiongnu had been quite Sinicized culturally because they had a lot of contact with the Han people.Shan is also a woman with a strong Sinicization tendency, and she is ashamed to be Liu Cong's woman.

"I admired you very much when my father was alive, you are the most beautiful woman in the world, you are my baby..." Liu Cong whispered in Shan's ear while hugging her tightly. The next day, when Liu Cong visited Shan after reviewing the army, she was still lying on the bed. "As the emperor, I am here, you should stand up and greet me!" Liu Cong walked to the bed while talking.Before reaching the edge of the bed, his footsteps stopped abruptly, and his cheeks began to tremble.Blood flowed from the corner of Shan's mouth lying on the bed, staining the pillow red.

"You silly woman, why did you have to die?" Liu Cong turned his face away. The fifth year of Jin Yongjia (311 AD) was the second year of Liu Cong's accession to the throne.In March of this year, Emperor Huai of Jin's assistant, Sima Yue, King of the East China Sea, died, not in Luoyang, the capital of the country, but in Xiangcheng. Luoyang was suffering from famine at that time.But this was not the reason why Sima Yue left Luoyang. He would leave because he knew that Emperor Huai, who had grown up and wanted to be independent, thought he was domineering and held a grudge.

The Jin royal family, which was shattered due to the Eight Kings Rebellion, was split into the Emperor's faction and the assistant Donghai King's faction. The two factions had frequent disputes.Isn't this the point where there is no cure? Capture the Central Plains! ——Liu Cong is very confident about this. Jin was divided into two, half of which had lost their monarch.Although the death of Sima Yue, king of the East China Sea, was kept secret, Liu Cong's intelligence network had already been discovered.The coffin of the King of the East China Sea is being escorted by Taiwei (Minister of Defense) Wang Yan, who is regarded as the successor of the King of the East China Sea, and is about to be transported to the East China Sea.Liu Cong, who got the news, ordered Shi Le to launch an attack.

"In this way, half of the Jin Dynasty can be destroyed!" Liu Cong said with a murderous look on his brows.Since Shan's suicide, his eyes have completely changed.His shining eyes were always fixed on a point in the sky, and when his retainers spoke to him, he did not respond for a moment. Wang Yan and his party consisted of hundreds of thousands of troops.However, no matter how many people there were, it was still a team escorting the coffin. Everyone was full of mourning, and they didn't have much fighting spirit to speak of.The light cavalry regiment led by Shi Le caught up with Wang Yan's troops in Ningping City, Ku County, and wiped them out. ——More than 100,000 soldiers and soldiers trampled each other like a mountain, and no one was spared. This is recorded in the history books, which shows that this is an overwhelming victory. The party included forty-eight members of the Sima clan, including Xiangyang King Sima Fan, Rencheng King Sima Ji, and Wuling King Sima Dan, and none of them survived.Liu Cong is right, he did destroy half of the country of Jin. In order to attack the remaining half—Luoyang, Liu Cong awarded 27,000 generals to Hu Yanyan, the former general of the army, and let him go first.After that, the follow-up troops he sent were Shi Le, Liu Yao, and Wang Mi who had previously attacked Kuxian.As a result, the Jin army was defeated repeatedly, and more than 30,000 people died in battle. Emperor Huai tried to escape by boat, but Hu Yanyan burned the Luoshui boat to death.At this point, Emperor Huai had nowhere to escape.Soon, the follow-up troops led by Wang Mi arrived at Xuanyang Gate, while Liu Yao's troops surrounded Ximing Gate, trying to escape to Chang'an Emperor Huai, who was captured and sent to Pingyang. As mentioned earlier, Liu Yao is Liu Yuan's nephew, who was orphaned at a young age and was later raised by Liu Yuan.Liu Yao is a great husband over two meters tall, and also a man of both civil and military skills. Liu Yuan loves him as his own son and calls him "my family's thousand-mile horse". When the friendly army Wang Mi attacked Luoyang, he entered Luoyang without waiting for him to arrive. Liu Yao was very unhappy about this.After entering Luoyang, Wang Mi said to Liu Yao: "After all, Luoyang is the center of the world. There are mountains and rivers around here, as well as ready-made cities and palaces. May we suggest that Your Majesty move the capital of the country from Pingyang to this place?" Liu Yao shook his head to express his objection: "No, Luoyang's terrain is easy to be attacked from all sides. Even Dong Zhuo abandoned this place and went to Chang'an. This terrain is not suitable for defending against the enemy." Not only that, Liu Yao even set fire to Luoyang City. The Jin Dynasty has almost perished, and the Han founded by Liu Yuan has such a crack between the upper strata. How is Queen Yang Shi now?She was taken to Pingyang together with Emperor Huai, and came before Han Emperor Liu Cong. "This woman really looks like Mrs. Shan!" Liu Cong thought so.He still can't forget Shan Shi, the Hun woman who committed suicide because she was ashamed of the Hun custom of sleeping with her husband's son. "You are still very young! How long has it been since Sima Zhong died?" Liu Cong asked.Sima Zhong was the name of Emperor Hui, and Liu Cong, who took the throne, called the emperor before Jin by his first name and surname. "It's been five years." Yang replied. "It's really not easy to stay alone for five years..." Liu Cong said expressionlessly. "I hope the emperor won't make fun of me..." Sheep lowered her face and said.She was so ashamed that her neck was red. "How about sending this woman into the harem and pampering her?" Liu Cong suddenly had this idea.Making the woman who was once the queen of Jin and was admired as the mother of the country become the concubine of the Hun emperor—the sadism that had been hidden in Liu Cong's heart suddenly raised its head again. "no!" He immediately scolded himself.In the military, Liu Cong has completely defeated the Jin Dynasty in the Central Plains.But since Sima Zhongda, there have been many people who have received favor from Jin, and he must firmly grasp the hearts of these people.If at this time the former queen of the Jin Dynasty was accepted as a concubine, wouldn't the remaining officials of the Jin Dynasty be outraged by this? "I'm not joking with you." Liu Cong said in a heavy voice, "I sympathize with you from the bottom of my heart, and I understand your loneliness in the past five years..." "But, this is human relations, what can we do?" "Human relations are not like this!" Liu Congyong said loudly, making his neighbors startled, "It is better to be happy than to be sad, everyone should be like this! Men and women are in pairs, of course, it is more ideal than being alone. This is the human relationship!  … ...I hope you can choose a good spouse to remarry and live a happy life..." "I also hope that can be the case. But, for me, isn't this a luxury?" "How can this be considered an extravagant wish? In my country of the Huns, if you find another husband and remarry, you will never be condemned....How about this, let me decide to find a husband for you, how about it?" "The emperor made fun of me again!" Yang covered his face with his hands. "This woman is really enviable..." Although Emperor Liu Cong had this idea, he did not dare to take this beauty for himself because he was worried about arousing the resentment of people in the Central Plains.Therefore, from the standpoint of a politician, he calmly thought about how to deal with Yang's family. "Whoever gets this woman will definitely become the object of hatred for those who have a good impression of Jin. Yes! I hope that one person will become the object of their hatred..." What appeared in Liu Cong's mind at the moment was his cousin Liu Yao.Liu Yao is the person whose father regards the Liu family as a thousand-mile steed and places high hopes on his future.He has read through ancient and modern books, and can write fluent articles with good handwriting; he is also suave and suave, and can play various musical instruments; archery has the arm strength to shoot through an inch of iron plate; his two-meter-tall body is of course majestic and impressive People are daunting.For the Liu family, this person is indeed a future pillar, but for Liu Cong, he is a dangerous competitor who may be replaced. If this Liu Yao becomes the object of hatred of people in the Central Plains, from the standpoint of Emperor Liu Cong, it should be a wonderful move worth considering. "There is a man named Yongming in my clan..." Liu Cong said, Yongming is Liu Yao's character, "you and this person should be married!" This is the imperial order of the Hun emperor. Yang Shi then became Liu Yao's wife. Six years later, Liu Cong died, and the Crown Prince Liu Can came to the throne.This is a very incompetent guy. In fact, in his later years, Liu Cong became completely alienated from politics and military affairs, and only knew about pleasure. Liu Can, who has been fascinated by this, may think that the emperor should be like this? Afterwards, Da Sikong (Minister of Justice) Jin Zhun rebelled, killed Emperor Liu Can, dug up the body of Liu Cong who had not been buried, destroyed the body, and then burned the ancestral temple.Liu Yao, who was the prime minister, and Shi Le, the general, joined forces to defeat Jin Zhun.Wang Mi, who was at odds with Liu Yao, had also been killed. At this time, these two were the only important ministers of the Hun Empire. In October 318 A.D., Liu Yao took the throne, and at the same time, established Yang as the queen. ——Yangshi became the queen again. The following is a rumor about Liu Yao and Queen Yang. One day, Liu Yao asked Queen Yang: "How do I compare with the son of the Sima family (referring to Emperor Hui)?" To this, the Queen of Sheep replied: "How can you compare? You are the Holy Master of Kaiji, and he is the king of the subjugated country. At that time, I didn't want to live at all. I was glad that I didn't die at that time, because I lived so long. Today, I know that there is a real husband in the world!" Queen Yang gave birth to three children for Liu Yao.