Chapter 37 Chapter Thirty-Seven

When Empress Lu asked who could be responsible for the funeral, the reason why Liu Bang on the sick bed did not mention Zhang Liang was because Zhang Liang was already "avoiding the valley" at this time.After Liu Bang won the world, Zhang Liang asked to retire from now on on the grounds that his mission had been fulfilled.What he said at the time was: I hope to abandon the affairs of the world, but I just ask Chisongzi to visit. Red pine nuts are immortals in ancient times, and to become immortals, the first rule is that you must never eat five grains, which is called "avoiding grains".Therefore, for a person who intends to die, of course he cannot be allowed to take up political affairs.

If you want to become a fairy, you must take fairy medicine, which is the so-called elixir.Before taking the elixir, the stomach and intestines must be cleaned first.The prerequisite for cleaning the stomach and intestines is the fasting of grains.However, without grains, what to eat? Breathless. This is a sentence in "Baopuzi", known as the textbook of fairy arts.It is the so-called "not eating fireworks". One way of saying is: Zhang Liang sought immortality to protect himself. After winning the world, Liu Bang eliminated the heroes one by one.Those who were purged included Han Xin, Zang Tu, Han Wangxin, Peng Yue, Ying Bu, etc. In addition, even his childhood friend Lu Wan became the target of the crusade, and he was ordered to execute Fan Kuai, the commander of the crusade army.Zhang Liang, who had foreseen all these situations, of course avoided as much as possible to avoid doubting the emperor.To the emperor, a person who had left the world was naturally the least threatening.

After the unification of the world, Zhang Liang was just an object for Liu Bang to narrate the past.When talking about other matters, especially those related to politics, Zhang Liang used "this matter has nothing to do with me" as a shield to keep silent. As a result, Zhang Liang was saved from being the target of the purge. Liu Bang died on Jiachen Day in April of the twelfth year (195 BC). Because of the death of the emperor, Fan Kuai was able to save his life.He was exempted from the post of commander of the crusade against Lu Wan, and he was supposed to be executed on the spot in the army. Because Chen Ping decided to send him back to Chang'an for disposal, he was tied up and escorted back to Beijing in a prison car.The successor emperor was not Ruyi, the son of Mrs. Qi, but Ying, the only son of Empress Lu.Ying was the son of Fan Kuai's wife's sister, and they were related, so Fan Kui was never in danger of being beheaded.

On the other hand, it was Lu Wan who was completely disillusioned by the death of the emperor. "After the explanation, I will definitely be forgiven..." He originally thought that if he defended Liu Bang, who was born on the same day and month in the same year, he would definitely be forgiven, but now Zicheng has nowhere to complain.In this way, won't he never have a chance to clear his reputation of rebellion? He was watching near the Great Wall, and when he received the news of the death of the emperor, he realized that he had no hope, so he immediately fled to the Huns, who gave him the title of "East Hulu King".

Under the rule of Maodun Shanyu, the prosperous Xiongnu, because of their urgent need for talents in various fields, gave special preference to those who came from the exile of the Han Dynasty.Han Wangxin also defected to the Xiongnu and became a general of the Huns. Later, he was defeated in a battle with General Chai of the Han Dynasty. Lu Wan died of illness in the Huns about a year later.Both his grandson and Han Wangxin's grandson later surrendered to Han again and were granted the title of Marquis. According to her husband's last words, Empress Lv entrusted Xiangguo Xiao He to be in charge of state affairs.What she is most grateful for is Zhang Liang, who taught her how to use the strategies of four wise elders in the field to establish Prince Ying's position.She then asked Zhang Liang not to "avoid the valley".

"Life is short, why suffer like this? Don't force yourself to avoid valleys!" But Zhang Liang still firmly expressed his unwillingness to enter politics. "The minister's health is not good, please allow the queen to rest." Since poor health was the reason, Empress Lu naturally couldn't force it.So she changed to examine Shiqi as the object of her discussion.This person who has always been responsible for the task of purging heroes is going to adopt the same policy. ——In order to stabilize the position of the young and weak new emperor, the best way is to kill all the generals with heavy troops!

His proposals can be described as drastic.Empress Lu agreed to take this method because of her love for her son. But when Li Shang heard this, he immediately went to Shen Shiqi, and questioned him in an extremely stern manner: "Do you intend to destroy the Han Dynasty! Do you have any grudges against the Han? General Zhou Bo is holding 200,000 troops in Yandi, and General Guan Ying is guarding Xingyang with 100,000 troops. Hearing that the generals were killed When you hear the news, do you think they will not lead a large army to attack Guanzhong? Isn’t the Han Empire going to perish because of this?”

After Shen Shiqi heard it, he felt that what Li Shang said was true, so he immediately entered the palace and told Empress Lu that this policy must be abolished. The reason why Liu Bang, who was born as a rascal, was able to successfully entangle the people and finally won the world was entirely due to the support of the Lu family behind him-Lu Hou firmly believed this.However, it is a fact that Liu Bang relied on the Lu family to win the world, but it cannot be said that he completely relied on the strength of the Lu family.The biggest reason should be the credit of the officials, especially Liu Bang's leadership.However, Empress Lu believed that her family had made the greatest contribution.

The Lu family should be treated preferentially!This is her idea.She thinks that she who contributed to killing the heroes should be regarded as indispensable.Therefore, with an attitude of not avoiding relatives, she used her natal family one by one. She gave birth to a boy and a girl.Her daughter, Princess Lu Yuan, married a man named Zhang Ao, and her only son Ying, who was nearly abolished, was able to keep the throne thanks to Zhang Liang's trick. The throne was almost taken away by Mrs. Qi's son Ruyi-thinking of this, Empress Lu hated Mrs. Qi's mother and son from the bottom of her heart.In his later years, her husband, Liu Bang, only loved Mrs. Qi and didn't care about his wretched wife at all-this also made her hate her even more.

"I will never forgive the mother and child!" Empress Lu is already in power, and the only son of the emperor, Ying (that is, Emperor Hui), is indecisive, so she can do everything she wants, so she first arrests Madam Qi and puts her in Yongxiang. Yongxiang is a place where criminal court ladies are imprisoned.Mrs. Qi's hair was shaved, her neck was shackled, and she was forced to pound rice all day long in the ocher clothes (red clothes) worn by prisoners. There is a song entitled "Song of Yongxiang" that has survived to this day.It is said that this was the song Madam Qi sang while pounding rice.

This lyrics was not recorded in "Historical Records", but only in "Hanshu", so it is very likely that it was written by descendants who sympathized with Mrs. Qi. All in all, Empress Lu's revenge method can be described as extremely cruel.However, the above is only the beginning of revenge. As the words "three thousand miles away from each other" in the lyrics refer to, Madam Qi's son Ruyi is in the state of Zhao as the king of Zhao. Empress Lv, who intends to kill the mother and son, ordered Zhao Wang Ruyi to go to Beijing.The Prime Minister of the Zhao Kingdom is Zhou Chang, Marquis of Jianping. He had seen Lu Hou's intentions early on, so he said to the envoy: "The former emperor entrusted his ministers to protect King Zhao properly. Now King Zhao is young, and he is really sick at this moment. Chang'an." The envoys went back and forth three times, and Zhou Chang always insisted on not obeying Empress Lu's orders under the pretext that the first emperor had the edict to protect Ruyi. Furious, Empress Lu called Zhou Chang to Beijing instead.For the order to summon Zhao Wang Ruyi, Zhou Chang could also carry out the last emperor's edict, but he could not disobey the order to summon himself.After Zhou Chang left Zhao, Empress Lu sent another envoy to order King Zhao to go to Beijing.At this time, Zhao Guo had no retainers who dared to refuse this order. Just as those four sages praised Emperor Hui with "kindness", Emperor Hui was indeed a kind-hearted person. He knew that once his young brother Ruyi entered the palace, he would be killed by his mother.Therefore, he personally went to Bashang to meet his younger brother, Zhao Wang Ruyi, and then accompanied him into the palace to live with him.Emperor Hui did this in order not to let the queen mother have the opportunity to attack her half-brother. Emperor Hui protected him with his body, while Empress Lu waited eagerly for the opportunity. One day in December, Emperor Hui prepared to go hunting early in the morning.The young Ruyi doesn't know how to hunt yet, and she doesn't have the habit of getting up early at all.While changing clothes, Emperor Hui looked at the face of his younger brother who was still sound asleep, and thought: "It's not yet dawn, and the queen mother should still be sleeping, so Ruyi should be fine." In fact, this was Emperor Hui's miscalculation.There are always spies deployed by Empress Lu by his side.The spy's instructions were: No matter late at night or early in the morning, as long as Ruyi is found alone, report immediately. Of course, Empress Lu received the report very quickly.So she asked the female officer to bring the poison she had prepared long ago, and let Ruyi drink it. Poison poison is a venom made by soaking the feathers of a poisonous bird called "poison".This kind of bird feeds on poisonous snakes. It is said that stones sprinkled with poisonous urine will immediately rot, which shows the strong toxicity.It was a goose-like bird with black and purple feathers and a rather long beak. It is unclear what kind of bird it should belong to today.This kind of highly poisonous bird may or may not have been extinct long ago.In short, people who drink the poisonous poison are absolutely unable to be saved. "Prince Ruyi died suddenly due to a sudden illness—" Emperor Hui, who came back from hunting, heard the report from his retainers at the door. He immediately ran into his room, shut the door and wept loudly. ——He was a cowardly emperor by nature. Empress Lu used poison to kill the young Ruyi easily.But Madam Qi, who hates her deeply, is not so cheap.She planned to torture Madam Qi slowly, making her life worse than death, to vent her hatred. She cut off Madam Qi's hands and feet first.Then they gouged out her eyes, burned her ears to make her deaf, and poured medicine into her mouth to make her dumb.In the end, she put Mrs. Qi in the toilet and called it "human pig" (human pig). Such an act can be described as cruelty to the extreme.It is really unbelievable that people who have been subjected to this kind of treatment did not die immediately from excessive bleeding or shock, but survived for a few days.Later, the Lu family was wiped out, and all the evil deeds were attributed to Empress Lu.Empress Lu's evil deeds seem to have been exaggerated.She used the most vicious means to take revenge on her husband's favorite concubine, Mrs. Qi, but is the "human pig" really as recorded in the history books?The author is skeptical about this.Probably, Empress Lu tortured Madam Qi to death, abused the corpse in every possible way, and then called the deceased "human pig"? Empress Lu also showed this "human pig" to her son Huidi. "Do you know what this is?" she asked, pointing to the wriggling object. "Baby can't see what it is. It's like a creature, isn't it?" "It's a pig!" "Pig? Why don't pigs have feet?" Emperor Hui asked in surprise. "It's a human pig! And it's a female!" "What..." Upon hearing these words, Emperor Hui came to his senses.But he didn't want to believe that such a thing would happen.No matter how cruel the mother is, she will never do such a thing.He really wanted to pray to God that his mother was not such a person. "This is Mrs. Qi!" Empress Lu said bluntly. "What..." Emperor Hui cried out in shock.In an instant, his face turned livid, and his eyes were tightly closed.But the human-pig appearance he had just seen was vividly reflected in front of his eyes.His knees began to shake.His teeth chattered. "Look carefully! This is the end for a woman who is too domineering as a concubine!" Emperor Hui only heard what the queen mother said.After a tinnitus, he lost consciousness and was paralyzed on the spot. The weak-minded Emperor Hui fell ill after witnessing the "human pig", and did not gradually recover until a year later.He, who was still lying on the sickbed, sent someone to play to his mother: what the mother did was too inhumane.It is a pity for the son to be born as the son of the mother's queen, and he no longer has the confidence to govern the world. From this day on, Emperor Hui completely ignored political affairs and indulged in the life of alcoholic women all day long.In this way, political power naturally fell into the hands of Empress Lu. "I can't even keep the order of the first emperor to love my concubine. Am I qualified to protect the people of the world and perform political affairs?" This is Emperor Hui's thinking. Those who are filial piety are devoted to small benevolence but do not know great friendship. Sima Guang, a later historian, criticized Huidi's actions in this way. Liu Bang desperately wanted to change the prince, maybe it was because he was worried that Emperor Hui was so neurotic?His plan may not be entirely out of love for Mrs. Qi, right? Sima Qian, the author of "Historical Records", is a historian who puts reality first. He used "Ben Ji" to describe his deeds for the emperor, but not for Emperor Hui.Perhaps, he thinks that Emperor Hui, who is the emperor, has no actual achievements in being an "emperor"?