Chapter 21 1. The rise of the Liang family

Strange things happen every year.In 131 A.D., after autumn, Liu Bao announced to the public: Listen up, everyone, I am going to draw lots to choose a queen. As soon as the news was released, the Han Dynasty exploded like boiling water.Inexplicable, really inexplicable.Since the founding of the Han Dynasty, only the emperor has personally called the name, and whoever is pleasing to the eye will be appointed as the queen. There is no lottery to decide, how can it be a joke? Liu Bao, if you compare him with his father Liu Hu, this person is still okay.We know that Liu Hu loves to play, and he ruined himself, and most of the country was destroyed by him.For example, he never took care of Taixue, a national university.After Liu Bao came to power, he refurbished Taixue and recruited students.

Liu Bao understands the principle of rejuvenating the country through education, but why didn't he understand the matter of choosing a queen? In fact, Liu Bao didn't have a high fever and burned his head. He thought that the matter of drawing lots to choose a queen was not a joke, but a very serious matter. It's just because among the four nobles he loves, each of them can't put it down, so in order to reflect the principle of openness, fairness and justice, he had to adopt the trick of drawing lots, which seems like a joke. He thought Liu Bao's statement was fine, but others still couldn't accept it.Among these others, the first to bear the brunt are Shangshu Pushe, Shangshu and others.They surged up in groups and collectively wrote a letter, telling Liu Bao that he should think twice before acting.

They said this: The method of drawing lots to select the queen has never been used by the ancestors of the Liu family, so you'd better not fight for the first place.You can't call names in person now, mainly because you haven't seen many outstanding women.Why not do this, issue an edict to recruit girls from good families into the palace, go to a few more houses, shop around, and maybe you will find someone who is really suitable to be a queen. Upon hearing this, Liu Bao thought it was a good idea, so he decided to change his mind and increase the number of queen candidates.Everything is God's will. Liu Bao never expected that this seemingly most reasonable suggestion would bring disaster to himself and the Han Dynasty.

Soon, the news that Liu Bao wanted to choose a queen by audition spread. Soon, many girls from good families were sent to the palace one after another.Soon, Liu Baoyou met his eyes. The girl's surname is Liang. After comprehensive quality inspection, Liu Bao believes that the queen must be her. The six major families of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Deng, Geng, Liang, Dou, Ma, Yin, etc., from Liu Xiu onwards, almost all the queens of the Han Dynasty came from these six families, with the exception of the former Queen Yan.The girl Liang that Liu Bao liked came from the Liang family, one of the six major families.

In 132, in the spring and the first lunar month, Liu Bao officially named the nobleman of Liang as the queen. By the way, the love between Liu Bao and Liang Guiren is a typical sibling relationship.This year, Liu Bao was eighteen years old, and the queen was twenty-seven years old.The so-called, one person attains the Tao, and the chicken and dog ascend to heaven.Three months later, Empress Liang's father, Liang Shang, was granted the title of "Special Jin", and soon he was appointed as Executive Jinwu. The relatives in the Han Dynasty were really worse than each year. The mother clan was behind one generation, and the wife clan continued to be in power.In fact, as long as he is a good person, anyone can be in power.Soon, the officials of the Han Dynasty discovered that the precious father of Empress Liang was not very capable, but he was quite kind.

Although the queen is very virtuous, Liang Shang is very kind.In fact, it was not easy for the Liang family to survive until today.Anyone with a good memory knows that when Empress Dou had no children, she robbed the nobleman Liang's child, murdered her, and exiled the Liang family.At that time, Liang Guiren's father, Liang Song, was extremely talented and known as a writer, but unfortunately died under the wrong prison created by the Dou family. The Liang Shang in front of him was the grandson of Liang Song.Perhaps it was because the Liang family had such a catastrophe that Liang Shang kept a low profile.Because he knows that in such an era, everything is just a cloud. Isn't the Ma family, Dou family, Deng family, and Yan family all proof?The same goes for his Liang family. If they want to die in peace, they have to keep a low profile.

Liang Shang realized the truth, but Liang Shang's son-in-law Liu Bao didn't think so.He is still young, and the days when he can protect the Liang family are still far away. In order to show his love for the Liang family, he named Liang Ji, the elder brother of Queen Liang, as a lord. Liu Bao is really blind, Empress Liang is very good, and Liang Shang is also recognized by scholar-bureaucrats, but this Liang Ji is a big bastard. It is said that all the jerks in the world look like jerks, and Liang Ji is like that.His jerk is not only shown on his mouth, but also on his face. "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" describes him like this: kite shoulders and jackal eyes, slurred speech, but very calculating.He has nothing to do all day long, is addicted to alcohol, can draw a strong bow, can play chess, etc. He is proficient in everything that a dude can play.Whenever he went out, he always took the dog with him and carried the eagle on his arm, usually either at the cockfight scene or on the way to the dogfight.

Seeing old at the age of three, let alone a young junior.At a young age, he is no longer down-to-earth, and he still needs to be named a marquis, and God knows what he will be granted after the feudal marquis.Therefore, when everyone saw Liu Bao's unrestrained love for the Liang family, they all became anxious and wrote letters one after another. The first one to play was Shang Shu Ling Zuo Xiong. In order to show that he attached great importance to this matter, Zuo Xiong raised the level of Shangzuo, and gave Liu Bao a seal.The seal, that is, the personal secret memorial, must be opened by the emperor himself, and the department in charge of the memorial has no right to open it for inspection.

Because it was a secret rehearsal, Zuo Xiong said very bluntly: Emperor Gao Liu Bang had long ago stipulated that those who do not have the surname of Liu are not allowed to be named Marquis, and those who must be named Marquis must have martial arts.Your father, Liu Hu, was named a marquis by the eunuch Jiang Jing and others, causing the Liu family to almost disappear. You can't be so impulsive like him. Zuo Xiong's book, after careful study, is full of nonsense.As early as in the Western Han Dynasty, those who did not have the surname of Liu, and their relatives without martial arts, had already been enshrined as marquises. What is the meaning of mentioning this matter now?What's more, Liu Baofeng is not an eunuch, but a relative with the surname Liang, so why talk about impulsiveness?This is called Aiwujiwu.

After reading Zuo Xiong's book, Liu Bao threw it aside. Zuo Xiong read the memorial, but nothing came of it, and continued to play, but Liu Bao read it, still with the same attitude, and ignored it.However, Liu Baofeng felt at ease when Liang Ji was ennobled, but Liang Shang couldn't sit still. A kind man, after all, he was a kind man, and he followed Zuo Xiong to make a fuss, not once, but ten times in succession, saying that Liang Ji's seal must be removed, and if he didn't remove it, it would be endless. Liu Bao was very depressed, he couldn't think of the reason, but he couldn't hold back his father-in-law, so he had to obey and took down the Marquis of Liang Ji.

Liang Shang finally gave up his heart.But Liang Shang never thought that Liu Bao was not finished yet. AD 135, summer, April. Liang Shang suddenly received an imperial edict, and Liu Bao wanted to worship him as a general. Since Huo Guang, the title of Great General has been the most honorable title bestowed by the royal family to relatives.For many years, the relatives of the royal family have been proud of being a general, and ashamed of not being a general.Feng Shui took turns, and today it was finally the Liang family's turn to be a general. Perhaps you never thought that as soon as Liu Bao made an announcement over there, Liang Shang asked someone to decline. Liang Shang is not for show, but for fear. What he was afraid of, he couldn't say.In his view, power is like an artifact of a country. Once you hold it in your hands, you will hurt people, or it will hurt people, and you can't escape.So one more thing is worse than one less thing, and there is nothing wrong with living his little life honestly. Liu Bao is a novice in politics, and he was quite depressed when faced with Liang Shang's refusal.He is an old revolutionary who has encountered new problems. As a new recruit, it was the first time he heard that his relatives voluntarily refused to be a general, and his tone was so firm. What is going on? There is only one possibility, and that is that Liang Shang looks down on the emperor.In other words, it can be said that he is afraid that someone outside will gossip, he can't stand it, and even the emperor can't stop it. If you really think so, it would be too unreasonable.I want everyone in the world, including my father-in-law Liang Shang, to see if I, Liu Bao, really can't even cover my relatives. Having made up his mind, Liu Bao sent someone to tell Liang Shang that you must be the general. Unexpectedly, Liang Shang was also very stubborn here, and sent someone back to say that he was sick and couldn't even get out of bed, how could he be a general. Liang Shang said that he was sick in body, and ghosts would not believe it. He was sick in his heart, and that was the truth.However, Liu Bao is also a sensible person, since you are sick, I can wait.The post of general will be reserved for you temporarily, and you will have to come back when you recover from your illness. In this way, the tug-of-war between the two sides lasted for a year. A year later, Liu Bao finally lost his composure.He ordered Taichang Hengyan, and personally sent the general Ren's order to Liang merchants. This trick was really ruthless enough that Liang Shang had to obediently get up and go to the palace to accept his post.It wasn't that Liang Shang had figured something out, and it wasn't that he didn't want to pretend to be sick, but that he really couldn't pretend anymore. In the Han Dynasty, in the ceremony of conferring or appointing three princes, all civil and military officials had to go to the Jinluan Hall to participate in the inauguration ceremony of someone.This kind of ceremony, not to mention other people, even if the person concerned is paralyzed on the bed, he has to roll down and crawl into the palace to receive orders.If you don't go, it's giving you face and you don't want it, that's disrespectful. There is always an exception to everything. Some people did not show up at the scene back then, but the emperor handed over the letter of appointment to him, and it was over.The person who enjoys this honor must be a master, and his name is Wei Qing.But having said that, it wasn't that Wei Qing didn't want to be ordered in the palace, but that he was on the battlefield and couldn't come back. Liang Shang is a self-aware person. He is not Wei Qing. He has been in hiding for more than a year. He doesn't want to be a general, but he is afraid of the opening mouths of scholar-bureaucrats.But now that Liu Bao sent Ren's order home, isn't that gossip flying everywhere? Therefore, he had no choice but to settle for the next best thing, pretending to be happy on his face, swallowing bitterness in his heart, and went to the palace to accept orders. After Liang Shang's appointment ceremony was completed, Liu Bao felt more at ease as if he had completed some major political task.In order to strengthen this sense of steadfastness in his heart, he soon worshiped Liang Shang's son Liang Ji as the mayor of the capital Luoyang (Henan Yin). Liu Bao made another mistake. What Liang Shang tries to avoid is exactly what he strives for.He never dreamed that the one he introduced to Luoyang City was not some heavyweight talent, but a big bad wolf, a terrifying hungry wolf that only eats fat sheep.