Chapter 37 Chapter 6 The Road to the Emperor

In May of the third year of Gengshi (AD 25), the refugees in Hebei were largely pacified. In addition, Feng Yi's southern theater and Deng Yu's western theater were also news of success. The generals saw that the time had come, so they mobilized Liu Xiu to proclaim themselves emperor. Ma Wu took the lead and came to remonstrate with Liu Xiu. His original words were: "There is no master in the world. If there is a sage who rises up, even though Confucius is the chancellor and Sun Tzu is the general, I am afraid that it will not be beneficial. If you don't accept it, you will regret it. Your Majesty Even though he insists on retreating modestly, what is the state of the Naizong Temple? It is appropriate to return the Ji to be the honorable position, and it is advisable to conquer. Now who is the thief and rushes to attack?"

Ma Wu's words roughly have two meanings.One is the disadvantage of not claiming the title of emperor: the title of emperor must be attacked first.If you, Liu Xiu, don't claim the title of emperor now, if in the future a terrific sage comes out to claim the title of emperor ahead of you, at that time, even if you have Confucius as prime minister and grandson as general by your side, there is nothing you can do.The second is the advantage of proclaiming the emperor: in wars now, such as attacking Luoyang and Hedong, it is said that they are all friendly troops and colleagues, and they are always somewhat unreasonable.Only by proclaiming the emperor and completely drawing a clear line from the Gengshi court can the war be justified, and you can beat anyone you want without any scruples.

After hearing this, Liu Xiu was shocked and said, "Why did the general say that? You can kill him!" Ma Wudao: "All the generals think so!" Liu Xiu then told the generals that the matter of proclaiming the emperor should not be mentioned again, and those who dare to speak will be executed! Returning to Zhongshan, the generals once again jointly played.His book says: This memorial also has two meanings: one is the country of the imperial court, which was originally brought down by you brothers Liu Xiu. Now that you are proclaiming emperor, you are just taking back what originally belonged to you, and there is nothing to be ashamed of.The second is that your current strength is completely enough to be called an emperor, and there is nothing to be humble about.

Liu Xiu has made a decree that anyone who dares to call himself emperor will be executed!The generals are still unable to persuade them to advance, why?Without him, the generals would not believe that Liu Xiu did not want to be emperor.If you don't want to be called emperor, you will kill Xie Gong?Will you fight Luoyang?Can you Pinghe River?This is all against the Gengshi court!This is already a flagrant rebellion!In short, you have not missed any of the things you should do to become an emperor, and you have done it with gusto.If you don't want to be called emperor, who will believe it!

Liu Xiu withheld the memorial and ignored it without criticizing it, but this time he stopped talking about killing people. Returning to Nanpingji, the generals united again and persuaded them to advance face to face.Liu Xiu still declined and said: "The bandits have not yet been defeated, and they are surrounded by enemies. Why do you want to take the position? All generals come out." According to Liu Xiu's meaning, he no longer refused to proclaim himself emperor, but said that the time is not yet ripe. Compared with him, his attitude has improved a lot, and the generals were very pleased, so they resigned.

Everyone resigned, but Geng Chun stayed alone, admonishing Liu Xiudao: "The scholars and bureaucrats in the world donate their relatives, abandon the soil, and those who live between the king and the arrows and rocks, the plan is to hope that they will climb the dragon scales and attach the phoenix wings to achieve what they want. Now that the meritorious deeds are established, heaven and man should also respond, but the king stays against the crowd, and is not in the right position. He is purely afraid that the scholars and bureaucrats will be hopeless, and he will have the thought of going home, doing nothing for a long time, and suffering for a long time. Once the masses are scattered, it is difficult to get back together. Time. Can't stay, everyone can't go back."

Geng Chunzhi's rhetoric is exactly the same as the analysis of "Cambridge History of China", that is: the reason why everyone follows you is that after you become emperor, you eat meat and everyone follows you to drink soup.Now that you keep refusing to claim the title of emperor, it doesn’t matter if you don’t eat meat, but everyone can’t even drink soup.Once everyone despairs of you, it will be difficult to win back their hearts! Geng Chun spoke sincerely, and Liu Xiu was also moved when he heard it, and solemnly replied: "I will think about it." Thinking of this, he thought of Yancheng, but Liu Xiu still didn't respond, and the generals couldn't help wondering, did they misunderstand Liu Xiu?Does Liu Xiu really have no ambition to become emperor?

Some people even used their wild imaginations—could it be that when Liu Xuan released Liu Xiu from Luoyang, there was some secret agreement between the two?And what Liu Xiu is doing now is actually to save Liu Xuan from the clutches of the Green Forest Army and the Red Eyebrow Army?It's weird to think so, but it's not impossible after all. After all, although they followed Liu Xiu through life and death, and even sacrificed their lives for it, how much did they really know about Liu Xiu? On this day, a thin and small Confucian scholar suddenly broke into the city, with messy hair and a wild appearance, chanting Liu Xiu's name in the street madly.When Wu Han passed by, he was furious, and if he grabbed the Confucian scholar, he would beat him up.Zhu You on the side hurriedly grabbed Wu Han: "Don't beat him up yet." Wu Han said angrily, "Why didn't you beat him up?" Zhu You said, "This man looks familiar. Before you beat him up, I want to recognize him first." recognize."

Zhu You brushed the Confucian scholar's messy hair, rubbed his facial features, looked at him for a long time, and then exclaimed in surprise: "Qiang Hua!" Turning around, he said to Wu Han, "It's a good thing I didn't beat him. This is my lord and my classmate from the imperial school. Qiang Hua who lived in the same dormitory with the lord back then." Zhu You took Qiang Hua to meet Liu Xiu.As soon as Qianghua entered the gate, he immediately danced and ran in, calling Liu Xiu's name, and shouted: "I found it! I found it!" Liu Xiu heard the sound and greeted him. When he saw Qiang Hua, he was also overjoyed, and asked, "What did you find?"

Qianghua replied proudly: ""Red Fu Talisman"!" After finishing speaking, he nags to Liu Xiu, "I saw that you have the appearance of the horn of the sun when you were in Taixue, and it is your destiny to be an emperor. I have been looking for it hard. After eight years, I finally found the prophecy book "Red Fu Talisman", and guess what? You are indeed destined to be an emperor." In "Chi Fu Fu", the most important are the following twenty-eight characters: "Liu Xiu sent troops to catch the Tao, and the four barbarians gathered in the dragons and wilds. On the occasion of April and Seventh, the fire is the main one, and the gold and virtue are the son of heaven."

The meaning of the first two sentences is clear, but the last two sentences are somewhat magical and half-understood.Qianghua then explained to Liu Xiu: "The so-called April 7th, April 7th, 28th, from Han Gaozu's proclaiming emperor to your uprising, there are two hundred and twenty-eight years in the middle, and when you uprising, it happened to be 20 Eight years old. Fire is the main thing, and Han is fire virtue, which means that the Han Dynasty should be revived. The addition of Maojin is a character Liu (Liu), which means that you will inherit the orthodoxy of the Liu family." Zhu You suddenly found that Liu Xiu had already laughed long before Qiang Hua explained. This is the smile of relief that "there is no place to find when you break through the iron shoes, and it takes no effort to get it." This is the knowing smile of "looking back suddenly, but the man is in the dimly lit place". For Liu Xiu, Qiang Hua and the prophecy book "Chi Fu Fu" came at the right time!On the issue of proclaiming the emperor, the generals tried their best to persuade them in turn, but the effect was far inferior to the twenty-eight words brought by Qianghua. The generals talked for a long time, nothing more than telling Liu Xiu that proclaiming emperor is not only reasonable, but also reasonable.On this point, Liu Xiu didn't need the generals to remind him, he knew it better than anyone else.The reason why he has been unable to make a decision is that the generals have said a thousand things and said ten thousand things, but they still can't solve his biggest heart problem-the problem of the legitimacy of proclaiming himself emperor. Back then, when Liu Bang proclaimed himself emperor, Xiang Yu was already destroyed, and the world belonged to him, so there was no need to consider legal issues, because no one could judge him, he was the law!Therefore, as soon as the officials persuaded him to come in, Liu Bang unceremoniously proclaimed himself emperor after a few symbolic humility. However, at this time, Liu Xiu did not have the absolute strength of Liu Bang. He could only control 9% of the land and 13% of the population of the empire.Therefore, he must face the question of whether it is legal to proclaim himself emperor, and he must tell the world why he proclaims himself emperor! More importantly, if Liu Xiu proclaims himself emperor, he will have an inherent moral disadvantage.He was originally Xiao Wang conferred by Gengshi Emperor Liu Xuan, once he proclaimed himself emperor, it would be tantamount to a complete betrayal of Liu Xuan.Therefore, he must also convince the world that his claim to be emperor is moral and has nothing to do with betrayal. This is almost an unsolvable problem.It wasn't until Qianghua appeared with the "Red Fu Talisman" that this problem was perfectly solved-it wasn't that I, Liu Xiu, wanted to be the emperor, it was God who had appointed me to be the emperor, and I had no choice.This is God's choice.God's will is the greatest morality. The arrival of Qianghua was spread through Zhu You's big mouth, and the enthusiasm of the generals to persuade him was aroused again, and they jointly played together again: "The talisman of fate, people should be big, and they are trustworthy, and sympathy is not discussed. Zhou Zhibaiyu , How can it be compared? There is no emperor today, and there is chaos in the sea. Fu Rui's answer is clearly heard, and it is appropriate to answer the gods and look at them." Liu Xiu stopped being polite this time, and only said one word: "Yes." At the end of June, in the south of the city, the Qianqiu Pavilion is half a block away.The high platform stands tall, all the officials gather together, and the fire burns to the sky.Liu Xiu put on the emperor's crown, slowly stepped onto the stage, lit the sky-reaching beacon, and offered sacrifices to the six heaven and earth—water, fire, thunder, wind, mountain, and lake, and then offered sacrifices to the gods of heaven and earth, and then personally read out the blessings to heaven.Zhu Wen said: After the completion of the wish, all the officials knelt down and prayed for long live.Liu Xiu then ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, Jianyuan became Jianwu, and amnesty the world.