Chapter 41 Chapter 41: The World Returns to the Liu Family

The Lu family was destroyed, and the world once again became the Han of the Liu family.Emperor Liu Hong, ostensibly the son of Emperor Hui, was actually born to a woman of the Lu family, which is known to everyone. The puppet emperor was of course deposed.So, who should be elected as the emperor now? The ministers and princes held a meeting on this issue.The chairman of the meeting is the largest elder of the Liu clan—Langya King Liu Ze. ——Let me persuade the leaders and important ministers of the clan to make King Qi take the throne! Under this promise, Yu Qi was released.But he had no intention of keeping this promise.He will never forget being fooled by the junior King Qi, and the humiliation of being detained in Qi.

"No matter what, I will not let King Qi take the throne!" He had made up his mind. The number of candidates for emperor is of course limited. Among Gaozu Liu Bang's eight sons, only Dai Wang Liu Heng and Huainan King Liu Chang survived.These two were naturally considered candidates. Liu Heng is the fourth son, and Liu Chang is the seventh son. The difference between the two is obvious at a glance.Dai Wang Heng is a very compassionate and generous person.Comparing the two, the king of Huainan is less prudent, and he is very proud.If it is necessary to choose the emperor from among the descendants of Gaozu, Dai Wang Heng is naturally the only candidate.

"Since the first emperor died, can the grandson of the great ancestor be considered emperor?" Someone also raised this opinion. According to this statement, Qi Wang Liu Xiang is the eldest grandson of Gaozu's direct line, and seems to be a candidate for emperor.What's more, this time because of dissatisfaction with Lu's domineering, King Qi was the first to revolt among the princes.He is not only the eldest grandson of the direct line, but also has meritorious deeds. Therefore, everyone decided to make the final choice between Dai Wang and Qi Wang. King Qi certainly expected King Langya to fulfill his promise.Liu Ze, king of Langya, made an important speech at this meeting, but the content of his speech was greatly unfavorable to King Qi.

"Liu's Han Empire encountered such a major disaster, entirely because of the influence of his relatives, the Lu family. The same thing must never happen again in the future! Therefore, when electing a new emperor, I think it is necessary to carefully consider the issue of relatives. No. People from the wife or mother’s natal family hold power—we don’t want the new emperor to have such a situation. The lesson I have learned this time can be said to be painful, and we must never repeat the same mistakes!” Liu Ze said in a heavy tone. The meeting scene was suddenly so quiet that not a sound could be heard.No one objected to this statement.

The issue of "foreign relatives" became a key consideration in this meeting. There is a powerful foreign authority named Si Jun beside King Qi.King Qi is quite dominated by this uncle - this is a well-known fact. ——Once the King of Qi becomes the emperor, the Sijun family may gain power and become the second in the Lu family. Everyone can't help but think so. Dai Wang's mother was Bo. After the death of Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang, the jealous Empress Dowager Lu once locked all the women her husband loved into palace prisons.Among them, Mrs. Qi, whom her husband loves the most, was even turned into a "human pig".

Only Bo was allowed to take his son Heng to Daidi.In other words, Empress Dowager Lu was the only one who was not jealous of Mrs. Bo.How quiet and unobtrusive this woman Bo is, I want to see it from this. The Bo family was favored by the great ancestor, and there is an interesting story according to legend. There are countless beauties in the harem of the Han Dynasty, and Mrs. Bo has a very close relationship with Mrs. Guan and Zhao Zier among them. These three good sisters agreed a long time ago: ——No matter who gets to the top first, we promise to be friends forever. Mrs. Guan and Zhao Zier, who are beauties, have long been favored by Gaozu.

——The two of us have long been favored by the King of Han and were able to live in Henan Palace, but she has not had this opportunity until now... ——She is a terrible person.Too unfeminine! When the two were chatting, they were heard by Liu Bang who just passed by. ——Which one do you mean when you say there is no feminine woman? Liu Bang thus learned that Bo was such a woman.Driven by curiosity, he summoned this woman once. As a result, because of this favor, Bo became pregnant and gave birth to Heng.After that, she rarely saw Gao Zu again. Because she is such a woman who seems to have nothing, Bo was able to escape the clutches of Queen Mother Lu.

This time, the most important condition for the selection of the new emperor is "the less entanglement with foreign relatives, the better". In this regard, she is completely qualified. Dai Wang Heng was then welcomed to Chang'an to take the throne.This is Emperor Wen, who is called Mingjun. The rule of Emperor Wen and his son Emperor Jing can be said to be the era when the people were fully rested and recuperated. The nearly forty years of rule of these two emperors was tantamount to preparing for the golden age of Emperor Wu. The father-son governance of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing is superficially similar, but in fact there is a huge difference.

His father, Emperor Wen, was elected to the throne by the royal family and important ministers after the demise of the Lu family, so he must give rewards to those who have made contributions to the destruction of the Lu family. The reason why Liu Heng, who was the acting king at that time, was able to take the throne was due to the speech of Langxie King Liu Ze.Therefore, Emperor Wen established Liu Ze as the king of Yandi, who was higher than the king of Langya, in order to reward him for his contributions. Liu Zhang, the brave general who killed Lu Chan and was regarded as the greatest hero of the crusade against the Lu family, was established as the King of Chengyang, and his younger brother Liu Xingju was established as the King of Jibei.

Zhao Wang Liuyou, who was imprisoned by the Empress Dowager Lu and starved to death, was abolished although he had a son.Emperor Wen appointed Liu Sui, the son of Liu You, as the king of Zhao, and his younger brother Liu Piqiang as the king of Hejian. Liu Xiang, the king of Qi who hated losing his throne, died in the year when Emperor Wen ascended the throne. Emperor Wen returned the Langya and Jinan territories that Empress Dowager Lu had taken to him, and made his son Liu Fang succeed him to the throne. Qi Wang Liu Chuan died fourteen years after his reign, leaving no heirs.According to regulations, the territory should be taken back by the central government at this time, but the kind-hearted Emperor Wen did not do so.

Although King Liu of Qi had no sons after his death, he had quite a few brothers.Fortunately, the land of Qi was very large, so King Wen distributed the land to the brothers of Liu Fang, and named them kings.The land of Qi in the past became the territory of the Seven Kings. Since the acting king Liu Heng ascended the throne as the emperor, his son Liu Wu then succeeded him as the acting king. During the twenty-three years of Emperor Wen Liu Heng's reign, there was no increase in palaces, gardens, clothes, daily necessities, and even toys such as dogs and horses. His younger brother Liu Hui was changed from King Liang to King Zhao, and because the woman he loved was killed by his wife Lu, he committed suicide in grief and anger, as mentioned above. It was Lu Lu who became the king of Zhao afterwards. In fact, there was a discussion before that that Liu Heng, the acting king, should be the king of Zhao.Daidi is close to the Xiongnu, the so-called "border".And Zhao is in the south far away from today's Beijing, in the area with Handan as its capital.Therefore, it cannot but be said to be a special encounter from Dai to Zhao. Liu Heng, the acting king, rejected the proposal. ——Dai was very close to the Xiongnu. For this reason, King Wei worked hard for many years on border defense affairs. At this time, the sudden transfer of title was a great loss to the country.Therefore, please revoke the proposal to transfer the seal. This is the reason he put forward at the time.The Empress Dowager Lu was of course very happy to hear this.Perhaps this is Liu Heng's strategy to protect himself.Dai Wang Heng didn't bite the bait as soon as he saw it, so he bit the "Emperor Throne", which was many times bigger. Once, Emperor Wen wanted to build a balcony, but the artisans estimated that it would cost a hundred taels of gold.He therefore immediately discontinued the project. ——One hundred taels of gold is equal to the property of ten middle-level families.It doesn't matter if such a thing is not built. His reason. At that time, women in the harem wore long skirts, but Emperor Wen did not allow the skirts to be so long as to drag the floor. Although the purpose of wearing a long skirt is to show elegance, it is indeed a waste.Emperor Wen, who was frugal in everything, did not allow this. In addition, Emperor Wen did not allow the curtains in the palace to be embroidered. The emperors of all dynasties in China began to build their own mausoleums when they ascended the throne.Of course, Emperor Wen was no exception, but he never decorated the mausoleum with luxurious metals such as gold, silver, copper and tin, and all he used was pottery. Therefore, the tomb of Emperor Wen is the most simple among the tombs of the emperors of the Han Dynasty. Emperor Wen died in June of the seventh year of the Yuan Dynasty (157 BC). In the 16th year of Emperor Wendi (164 BC), a jade cup representing auspicious signs was discovered.This jade cup is engraved with four auspicious words "The Lord prolongs life".A fortune-teller named Aragakihei, who often came and went to the court, had predicted before that—— Ruizhao jade will appear in the near future. Later, the auspicious jade cup really appeared. In order to commemorate this event, Emperor Wen announced: ——From next year, the yuan will be changed to "Houyuan". This is just another year name before and after, and a decent year name will not be determined until the time of Emperor Wu.In short, Emperor Wen's "Houyuan first year" (163 BC) can be said to be the beginning of the year. Unexpectedly, it was later discovered that this jade cup was a gift from the fortune teller Xin Yuanping to Emperor Wen.It turned out to be a scam. Therefore, Xin Yuanping killed the three clans for the crime of deceiving the emperor.There was something ominous about the birth of this year name. After Xin Yuanping was executed, it was inconvenient to change the Yuan, and the reign title of "Hou Yuan" was still used.Emperor Wen died in the seventh year of the Later Yuan Dynasty, and the imperial edict left behind fully revealed his personality. All living things must die, this is the principle of heaven and earth, the nature of all things, and it is not worth mourning at all. I am not virtuous and have failed to take good care of the people, so I don't want to drag the people down for mourning after death.After my death, the people will only have to perform the crying ceremony for three days. After the ceremony, they should quickly take off their mourning clothes. Afterwards, they can marry, worship, eat meat and drink at their own discretion. After the death of Emperor Wen, his son Liu Qi came to the throne. When Liu Qi came to the throne, he issued an amnesty decree, reduced and exempted half of the rent and tax, and established the princes as kings. The only king with a different surname other than the Liu family—Changsha King Wuzhu had no heirs, so he took back his territory and changed the new emperor's son Liu Fa as Changsha King. The new emperor is Emperor Jing.This man is the father of Emperor Wu, who has reigned for more than fifty years and is known as the Sun King of China. Emperor Jing originally hoped that Xiao Gui and Cao Sui would follow the path paved by his father, Emperor Wen, but he had a problem that must be reformed.Because this matter is no small matter. At the beginning of the founding of Gaozu Liu Bang, the number of kings in various places was less than ten fingers, but when Emperor Jing came to the throne, it had swelled to more than twenty. The founding ideal of the Han Dynasty was still a centralized system. In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the Qin Dynasty, the number of vassal screens was deliberately reduced. However, because of Emperor Wen's meritorious deeds and soft-heartedness, the number of kings became more and more numerous.Leaving aside the fact that the tax revenue from the king's land is not included in the national treasury, the spiritual unity of the Han Empire has been hindered by the separation of various places by the kings, which is already a very serious problem. It is better to establish a king at a minimum—this was the consensus among the courtiers in Emperor Wen's time.According to this point of view, most of the kings of various places must be abolished. In the era of Emperor Wen, whenever someone raised this opinion, the emperor always shook his head and said, "This is indeed something that must be dealt with sooner or later. However, after I die, let future generations deal with it!" Emperor Wen himself was the past king.People who were once kings are now going to abolish other people's thrones or reduce their territories - Emperor Wen probably couldn't bear to do such a thing. In the era of Emperor Wen's son Jingdi, since the emperor was practiced by the crown prince, he did not have the same sympathy for the kings of various places as his father had. Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing are very similar to father and son in all aspects. The biggest difference between them lies in their different attitudes towards the respective kings. Emperor Jing did what his father failed to do.That is - to slowly reduce the territories of the kings in various places and gradually incorporate them into the territories directly under the central government.