Chapter 72 Chapter 72: The Han Dynasty once perished

After the death of Emperor Ping, the Han Dynasty designated the child Liu Ying as the heir to the throne, but the enthronement ceremony has not yet been held.Liu Ying was only called "Ruzi".Since it has not yet ascended the throne, it is said that the "Seal of Chuanguo" passed down from Qin Shihuang is still preserved in Changle Palace.In China in the past, this imperial seal was the proof of imperial lineage. The owner of Changle Palace is the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun.Nearly eighty years old, she is Wang Mang's aunt.This person made Wang Mang very afraid.She is from the Wang family and has been married to the Liu family of the Han Dynasty for sixty years.

The empress dowager was furious like a raging fire.Expecting that she would be angry, Wang Mang specially sent Wang Shun, his aunt's favorite, to pass on the message.But even though the envoy she sent was someone she liked, her anger still couldn't be appeased. "The Wang family made their fortunes by relying on the power of the Han family. They don't try to repay the favor, but even usurp the position when the benefactor's strength is weak. Is this what people do! The leftovers of this kind of people are probably not even pigs and dogs. Eat it? Is there such a thing in this world? Wells, copperplates... Aijia knows that those are the ghosts of Wang Mang! He also changed Zhengshuo and uniforms. In this case, he can create his own legend The seal of the country! Why bother with this ominous jade seal that has subjugated the country! Ai’s family is an old widow of the Han family, and her life is limited. After Ai’s death, this jade seal will be buried with Ai’s family!”

Hearing her words, no one present did not shed tears. Wang Shun also cried on the spot and said in a broken voice: "But... Mr. Wang is determined to obtain the Chuan Guoxie... this point... the power of the Empress Dowager can't resist him..." "That's right—" The eighty-year-old widow sighed deeply and gave up the idea of ​​defense.Whatever she wants, she has to do whatever she can to get it—she knows Wang Mang's personality very well.Wang Mang is a person who is ruthless enough to kill his two sons in order to achieve his ambitions!Would he care about killing an aunt in order to obtain the proof object of the Lord of the World—the Seal of Chuanguo?

The Empress Dowager recalled the scene of the execution of traitors that she had heard from her retainers.During a certain execution, Wang Mang once asked a doctor to dissect the traitor alive.He did this in order to know the location, size, weight, etc. of the internal organs of the human body for medical reference. ——When the bamboo was picked up, those organs were still wriggling! The day she heard this sentence, she couldn't help but vomit all day long.If he persisted in not handing over the Seal of Chuanguo, maybe he would have the same experience, right? Aijia doesn't care about anything!

The Empress Dowager took out the Seal of Chuanguo, threw it on the floor and said, "Take it! I am old, and I will soon go home. I think you will not live long! And you must die a good death!" The following year - due to the renewal of Zhengshuo, December of this year is the New Year.Wang Mang named Liu Ying, the six-year-old "children" who was originally scheduled to inherit the Han Dynasty, "Prince Anding". The content of the "Ce" (edict) read aloud by Wang Mang is as follows: Zierying.The great ancestor of the former emperor Tian Youer lived twelve lives and lived in the country for two hundred and ten years.Counting (destiny) is bowing to me.The Poetry (Book of Songs) says: "(The descendants of Yin) are also Houfu Zhou, and the destiny is impermanent." Hereby, you will be the Duke of Anding, and you will always be the guest (guest) of the new royal family.Yu play!

It is advisable to respect the rest of the sky, practice the (princes') position, and not abolish the orders given to you. Then, holding the hand of six-year-old Liu Ying, he said with tears: "In the past, the Duke of Zhou used to assist the young Chengwang as a regent. After the Chengwang grew up, he returned the great government. The emperor's command is not fulfilled. I became the son of heaven under unavoidable circumstances." The eunuch took Liu Ying out of the palace for a while, and then made the child sit facing north, and performed the courtesies to Wang Mang. Hundreds of officials accompany the seat, and everyone is moved.

"Han Shu Wang Mang Biography" records this scene in this way. It means that none of the officials present was not greatly moved.But why are they moved? Were they moved by thinking about the difficulties of Wang Mang, who had no choice but to ascend the throne due to the imperial order?Or seeing that the ignorant boy Liu Ying changed his mind to the former minister Wang Mang's ceremonies, and shed tears of sympathy for his ill-fated fate? Counting from the year 206 BC when Gaozu Liu Bang became King of Han, the Han Dynasty was usurped by Wang Mang in the 214th year and perished.

Emperor Guangwu revived the Han Dynasty ten years later, and the subsequent part is called the Later Han Dynasty, but this should really be regarded as another dynasty. The Han Dynasty usurped by Wang Mang - that is, the former Han Dynasty, with Chang'an as its capital.The later Han Dynasty made Luoyang, which was located in the east, the capital.Therefore, the former Han is also called the Western Han, and the later Han is also called the Eastern Han. After the fall of Qin Dynasty, Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, worshiped the land of Hanzhong from Xiang Yu and became the king of Han Dynasty.The King of Han was originally a local lord, but after unifying the country, he still used "Han" as the country's name.

The style of naming the country as the national government in the era of local lords was followed later.The Cao family, which was named Marquis by Wei, the Yang family, which was named Marquis by Sui Dynasty, and the Li family, which was named Marquis by Tang Dynasty, all used the name of the leading country as the name of the dynasty. Wang Mang took retroism as his political ideal.His so-called "returning to the past" is to return to the Zhou Dynasty, which is known as the sun generation.For this reason, he adopted the formalism that even the official name was changed to the Zhou Dynasty system.

For example: Dasinong was changed to "Xihe", and later changed to "Nayan" again.In addition, the post of Taichang was changed to "Zhizong", and Dahonglu and Shaofu were changed to "Dianle" and "Kongwang" respectively.These are the names of officials in the Zhou Dynasty. Not only the job titles, but also the names of the palaces were changed: Changle Palace was changed to Changle Palace, and Weiyang Palace was changed to Shoucheng Palace.The capital Chang'an was also changed to Chang'an. Since the dynasty has changed, all the seals and ribbons granted by the Han Dynasty to the kings, princes and officials of various places in the past were taken back, and the tokens issued by the new dynasty were replaced.At this time, Wang Mang moved out of the ancient system of the Zhou Dynasty, and based on the concept that "the 'Hua' and 'Yi' in the past are completely different", he made the following new policy:

Taking the Xiongnu as "king" violated the ancient system, so it was downgraded to "hou". In the past, the seal and ribbon granted to the Xiongnu Chanyu by the Han Dynasty was called "Xi", but now it is changed to "Zhang", which is a very obvious downgrade.The Xiongnu demanded to give the "Xi" as usual, but Wang Mang refused.In a rage, the Xiongnu attacked the border areas, killed officials and residents, and plundered. Therefore, Wang Mang changed the name of the Xiongnu Shanyu to "Subdue Yu".The reason why the direct use of the word "surrender" is avoided is that it is afraid of angering the Huns. As for Goguryeo, because it did not send reinforcements when it attacked Donghu, its name was changed to "Xiagouli". Isn't it like child's play to have fun changing "high" to "low"? Retrograde measures that return to antiquity fail as a matter of course at the most realistic level of economic policy. Wang Mang called the land of the whole country "Wang Tian" and attributed it to the imperial court. In addition, he called private slaves other than official slaves "private property". Like Wang Tian, ​​trading was strictly prohibited.Those who violated this regulation were sentenced to death in serious cases, and exiled in light cases. But the fact is that the annexation of land and people is going on everywhere, and all the "bans" issued by Wang Mang, in a state of being unstoppable, did not have sufficient preparations or countermeasures, and they only used the reason of following the Zhou system , Issuing orders casually as soon as I think of it, such measures will of course lead to contradictions with reality.In order to make adjustments, it is necessary to amend the laws that have already been enacted. This is really "changing from day to day". The government issued a new currency and banned the use of Han five baht coins, a measure that greatly disrupted the economic life of the people. Private money casting is as rampant as Wang Tian and private sales, so Wang Mang has to admit it. The state control of wine, salt, iron, etc., also oppressed the people's life because of the strict measures. It would be strange if society were not thrown into chaos, given the severity of the failure of government. In the second year of the founding of the People's Republic of China (AD 10), Wang Mang launched a war against the Huns.He summoned 300,000 strong men and divided his troops into twelve groups to attack the Xiongnu.Later, the target of the attack was not only the Xiongnu, but also sent expeditionary troops to the Western Regions and the Southwest many times. In order to cover up the failure of government and divert the people's attention to foreign countries, this is a common strategy used by politicians in China and abroad in ancient and modern times. When expanding mobilization for foreign expeditions, a large number of bloody young people who may rebel are brought to the frontier, where they are killed or starved to death-this is the most ingenious way to kill two birds with one stone. When attacking Zhijuding in the southwest, six out of ten of the 200,000 troops mobilized died of starvation or disease. Peasant riots occurred frequently in various places. In fact, peasant uprisings occurred in the Chengdi era when Han politics began to be chaotic.However, those riots were all local disputes, and the scale was not very large. Wang Mang's loss of power expanded the scale of peasant riots that had already had this tendency.