Chapter 8 4. The Last Days of Wang Mang

The rebel soldiers ushered in their best era, and their days were counted forward; however, at this time, the days of Wang Mang, who lived deep in Chang'an City, were counted backwards.Counting and counting, he realized that he really didn't have many days to count. Wang Yi took almost all of his military property and lost to Kunyang City. Without saying a word, he rolled back to Chang'an City.If you lose, you will admit it. The problem is that the tree fell and the monkeys scattered. Yan You, who was the best at fighting but never took his words to heart, even brought his deputy, General Chen Mao, to surrender to another rebel army named Liu Wang. There went.

Taking a step back, this is not the worst.At this time, an ominous atmosphere was filling the city of Chang'an.The air was filled with conspiracy and murderous intent. First, a senior Taoist priest approached General Wei Wang She and said, "According to my research, almost all the mysterious prophecies say that the Liu family will surely prosper, while the new Wang Mang dynasty will surely fail. Think it over, it is the national teacher Liu Xiu." Wang She, the son of Wang Gen and cousin of Wang Mang.After Wang Gen's death, it was thanks to his younger brother Wang Mang that he was able to take the position of General Wei.If nothing went wrong, Wang She should have pushed the Taoist priest out and beheaded him as soon as he heard this.

The truth is quite the opposite.After hearing this, Wang She felt like he had found a treasure, so he immediately went to the national teacher Liu Xiu (Liu Xin).After Liu Xin heard this, he found two more people one after another, one was Da Sima Dong Zhong, and the other was Palace Guard Commander Sun Ji. Soon, the four of them formed an alliance.According to the current situation, it would be very foolish to push Liu Xiu, the national teacher, to be the emperor.So they all agreed that the most sensible approach at present is to use the power in their hands to mobilize troops, arrest Wang Mang, and surrender to the Liu Xuan regime.Only by doing so can the whole family save their lives.

When Wang Mang seized power in the Han Dynasty and changed the dynasty, Wang She did his best, and Liu Xiu, the national teacher, was the mastermind behind the scenes.It can be said that the four of them are all big monkeys attached to the big tree Wang Mang. If they all turn against each other, Wang Mang's days will be over. At this time, Wang Mang could no longer eat well or sleep well.The abalone delivered to his table every day, he just swallowed a little and lost his appetite.In order to relieve his worries, he drank excessively, read military books while drinking, and fell asleep on the table when he was sleepy.His previously dyed black hair turned gray overnight.

He was sad and gray-haired, but he didn't expect that the dangerous bomb was about to detonate beside him. Finally, Wang She and other four big brothers detonated the bomb of the conspiracy.There is always an accident in everything. The bomb did not kill Wang Mang, but accidentally blew up three people to pieces. Speaking of which, Wang Mang was really lucky.At the critical moment, some members of Wang She's Gang of Four repented.This person is Sun Ji, Commander of the Imperial Guard.When this guy was about to die, he suddenly remembered the loyalty and ideals of Confucianism, and thought that Wang Mang was miserable enough. If everyone stepped on him like this, he would be out of breath, and he would add insult to injury, which is too unkind .

So this shameless commander ran to Wang Mang to inform him.Wang Mang immediately summoned Da Sima Dong Zhong to inquire.Dong Zhong couldn't answer a word for a long time, so Wang Mang ordered Huben soldiers to chop him up on the spot.As soon as the news of the conspiracy leaked out, Wang She and the national teacher Liu Xiu also became nervous.Rather than waiting for Wang Mang to beheaded, it is better to kill themselves, so they committed suicide one after another. After killing three important ministers, Wang Mang was completely hopeless.These people are all old comrades-in-arms who followed him in the revolution in the early years.Now that even they have turned against them, how can anyone in the world not turn against them?

Just when Wang Mang was disheartened, news came from the scout.It is said that Liu Xuan's rebel army split into two groups, one is rushing towards Wuguan, and the other is rushing towards Luoyang. Although Wang Yi lost most of Wang Mang's belongings under Kunyang City, the emaciated camel was bigger than a horse, and he could still get the troops to guard Luoyang City and Chang'an City.He has already ordered Grand Master Wang Kuang to guard Luoyang. As for Chang'an City, as long as Wuguan is guarded, you can sit back and relax. But the question is, can Wuguan hold it? The answer will be revealed soon.Wang Mang's newly-appointed guard of Wuguan opened the gate without shame, allowing the rebel army to pour in.These rebel soldiers were like a raging fire, rolling straight towards Wang Mang.

Up to now, Wang Mang has gone out of his way.I had no choice but to wait for the fire to burn me. At this time, Da Sikong Cui Fa told Wang Mang that things were not that bad.There are still ways to put out the fire of this disaster. Wang Mang asked excitedly, like rain after a long drought, is there really a way? Da Sikong Cui Fa said slowly: "The "Zhou Li" says that when a country encounters a catastrophe, it can be resolved by crying. We have all reached this time, why don't we wail to God for a request." Anyone with a discerning eye will know that this is nonsense, big nonsense.However, Wang Mang is like a drowning man grabbing a life-saving grass in the ocean.Crying can resolve disasters, this old man believes.The reason why he believed it was not only superstitious "Zhou Li", but also that he had tasted the sweetness before.

Have you ever remembered that when Zhai Yi rebelled and was about to enter Chang'an City, Wang Mang led a group of officials to pray to the sky in front of the Han Family Ancestral Temple. After praying for a few days, good news came back from outside the city, saying that the rebel army had been wiped out up. Well, it's about time.Men cry, cry, it's not a crime. Sure enough, Wang Mang brought all the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty to the southern suburb of Chang'an City, crying to the sky.The many unfavorable things accumulated over the past few days turned into tears like a heavy rain, pouring down in front of the sky.

While crying, he complained bitterly about the grief, helplessness and depression of these years.This year, Wang Mang is sixty-eight years old.No matter how much life is, you should cry to the sky.Thinking about these years, it is really not easy. Therefore, we have no reason to doubt Wang Mang's heartbroken cry.It's not easy for the big gangsters, and it's not easy for the little gangsters either.Wang Mang was crying in front of the sky, and all the officials behind were also crying to death. The cries of Wang Mang and the officials attracted many spectators who came to watch the excitement.The spirit of spectators in China has a long history. In order to watch one more show and have more conversations, they even come from hundreds of miles away to base their happiness on the pain of others.

However, Wang Mang's play was so real that the small townspeople who watched couldn't help but be moved.The group of people who came to watch the play couldn't help but burst into grief as they watched, and burst into tears along with the officials. At this time, Wang Mang stood up and shouted to the spectators, if everyone is willing to cry, every morning and evening, we will gather in the southern suburbs.For those who come to cry, the government will not let you go home empty-handed.We have included breakfast and dinner. If you cry hard, you can get a bonus, and if you cry harder, you can get a promotion. Wang Mang threw out a word, and the people who came to cry were like mice coming out of their holes, and gathered in the southern suburbs of Chang'an City.Many of these people make it their business to cry.Wang Mang sent someone to supervise the roll call, and anyone who worked hard and cried for a long time was promoted.As a result, 5,000 people were successively appointed as court guards and Lang officials. Wang Mang knew that just crying to the sky would not solve the problem.It's very simple, God bless people, but the rebels don't believe in tears.So it's time to cry, and the actual work still needs to be done. He decided to organize an army, and he would die desperately. Wang Mang appointed nine generals.At the beginning, when Wang Yi led hundreds of thousands of troops to attack Liu and the others, he brought many tigers and beasts with him in an attempt to increase his momentum and scare the people.Despite that failure, Wang Mang believed that bluffing was still necessary.In order to bluff people, he used the word "tiger" as the title for all nine newly appointed generals. Wang Mang handed over tens of thousands of elites to the nine tiger generals.After fighting for many years, there is really only such a little loss left.If there is no return to the meat buns beating the dog this time, then the play will really be over.Therefore, in order to encourage the nine tiger generals to fight the enemy bravely, Wang Mang did two things. Taking all the wives and children of the nine tiger generals to the palace as hostages is the first; giving bonuses to the nine tiger generals' subordinates, each rewarding 4,000 yuan, is the second. As soon as this move came out, the army was in an uproar, and everyone scolded their mothers. Anyone with a little bit of common sense in the art of war knows that there is no need to doubt soldiers, but there is no doubt in using them.Before the battle, taking the family members of the generals as hostages is clearly distrust.Since you don't trust them anymore, let's fight a fart. Also, all the generals knew how much money Wang Mang had.In the palace, he has at least 600,000 catties of gold. According to Wang Mang's previous personality, he would spend money to eliminate disasters, buy people's hearts and give them favors.Now that death is imminent, it is still a question of whether they are lucky enough to bear the money, but they are so stingy that each person only pays 4,000 yuan, you think they are sending beggars. This feeling and this scene are all chilling.What else to fight, why not run for your life. Sure enough, as soon as the so-called 30,000 elites were pulled out of Chang'an City, and the rebel soldiers made a slight impact, they scattered like birds and beasts.Two tiger generals committed suicide, two ran back to plead guilty, and the rest ran away. At this time, the chariots of the rebel regiment had already driven to the city of Chang'an, ready to attack the city. Wang Mang, who was cornered, turned around in a hurry.At this time, he suddenly turned his head and found that a group of brothers were looking at him peacefully with their eyes open.Wang Mang jumped up excitedly as if seeing a light in the dark night.Hello guys, how come I almost forgot about you. Have you ever remembered that during the turmoil at the end of the Qin Dynasty, Chen Sheng's vanguard rebel corps smashed all the way to the water.Just when the Qin Dynasty was about to collapse, Qin Shaofu Zhang Han asked Qin II to pardon the hundreds of thousands of reform-through-labor prisoners who had built Qin Shihuang's tomb, and distributed weapons, and asked to lead the army to fight.It was the battle of Zhang Han that defeated Chen Sheng's western expedition army, and chased and killed Chen Sheng all the way, so unhappy. It was a group of reform-through-labour prisoners that Wang Mang called brothers to.Like Zhang Han back then, he pardoned labor reform prisoners and distributed weapons.In order to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of the gang of reform-through-labor prisoners to kill the enemy, Wang Mang slaughtered pigs and drank blood before the battle, and then gave a mobilization speech. Wang Mang said: "Brothers, you must fight the enemy bravely. If you dare to do things that are not good for me, gods and ghosts will punish you." Damn, it really is scaring the common people again.After so many years of playing tricks, he can't even speak a decent word. It seems that Wang Mang is really hopeless. Sure enough, as soon as the team of reform-through-labour prisoners drove across the moat, it was like a bird flying out of a cage and a fish swimming into the deep sea.I don't know who yelled, and everyone dispersed like birds and fish. After everyone left, there was another person who foolishly stayed where he was. That person is Wang Mang's newly appointed general to lead the team into battle.Since the founding of the Han Dynasty, he was the first person to become a truly polished commander on the battlefield. The polished commander was very kind, and instead of running for his life, he returned to report to Wang Mang.However, as soon as he returned to the city, the rebel soldiers followed him into the city.As soon as the rebel soldiers entered the city, the first thing they did was to dig Wang Mang's ancestral grave, and then they searched for Wang Mang everywhere. At this time, Wang Mang fled to the Xuanshi Hall of Weiyang Palace under the protection of Wang Yi.As soon as the rebel soldiers entered the city, they set fire to it. The fire seemed to have eyes and chased Wang Mang to burn. He had to hide in the Xuanshi Hall. Wang Mang was in a panic and out of breath.At this time, he instinctively grabbed a small knife and ran to the divination table.He waved the knife around the table several times, muttering in his mouth: "God takes care of me very much, how can Nai Bing change for me?" After speaking, Wang Mang sat on the ground, confused and motionless. At this time, Wang Mang suddenly heard the sound of hacking outside the door.It turned out that the rebel soldiers heard that Wang Mang had hid in the Xuanshi Hall and pursued him closely.Wang Yi and his son led several people to follow closely, desperately protecting.Soon, Wang Yi's father and son and a group of escorts all died in hand-to-hand combat. At dusk, Wang Mang hid in a small room again.Life is like a strange circle. Many years ago, he worked hard to get stronger and walked out of the narrow space to the broad stage of power; many years later, he retreated from the broad stage to this dark world. Life is hopeless, he has no way to escape.At this time, someone rushed into the house and screamed: "Wang Mang is here." Then, he clearly heard the sound of a sword chopping off his shoulder.In a blur, he heard more and more footsteps outside, and the sounds became more and more mixed. In the evening of September 3rd, 23 A.D., Wang Mang was hacked to death and broken into several pieces.Many rebel soldiers fought to snatch Wang Mang's body to pieces, and based on this, they fought, and dozens of people died. The curtain of Wang Mang's new dynasty finally fell.The new protagonist of history is nervously putting on makeup and preparing to appear on stage.