Chapter 5 3. The backing of the Cao family has collapsed

Cao Teng is Liang Ji's political ally, and Liang Ji is the backer of the Cao family. Whether Cao Teng admits it or not, this is an undisguised fact. However, this backer collapsed later because Liang Ji was too domineering. The word "domineering" was coined by the little friend Liu Yan and specially given to Liang Ji.The general dictionary explains it as "tyrannical and violent". If you look at it separately, "ba" means trampling, which is extended as "crossing mountains and rivers"; The abstract interpretation of the word "domineering", to put it bluntly, is "trampling on the followers of the emperor".

When Liu Yan pointed to Liang Ji's nose and said this, he probably thought of the meaning behind it.Liang Ji lived up to this honorable title, because he dared to trample on the emperor himself, let alone the emperor's entourage. There were seven people from Liang's family who were enfeoffed as marquises, three who became empresses, six nobles, two great generals, wives and daughters who were enshrined as Shiyi, seven who were registered as kings, and married princesses as wives. There are three people, and as many as fifty-seven senior officials at the ministerial and deputy ministerial levels such as Qing, Jiang, Yin, Xiao, etc.!

Among them, Liang Ji was undoubtedly a genius.According to historical records, Liang Jisheng was ugly in appearance, with his shoulders shrugging like a hawk, and his eyes shining fiercely like jackals.This ugly monster is a typical dude who is addicted to drinking, womanizing, gambling, cockfighting, riding horses and archery, and singing obscene ditties.A large amount of evidence shows that he and his wife Sun Shou are also related to the underworld organization and are the leaders of the largest underworld organization in the country. They often engage in kidnapping, assassination, and beating sap.

In short, the history books say that Liang Ji knows nothing but eating, drinking and having fun.I often have doubts about this. The person who can manage the civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty in a 20-year period will definitely not be able to do it without two brushes.Liang Ji has his own unique skill in governing people and winning people's hearts. His methods are both black and white, hard and soft. In the days when Liang Ji was monopolizing power, from time to time, one or two hard bones who were not afraid of death would jump out to sing against him.A man named Wu Shu was appointed magistrate of Wan County, and he came to Liang Mansion to say goodbye as usual before taking office.The underworld organization controlled by Liang Ji has a branch in Wan County, and many people under him are messing around with the world there. Liang Ji directly tells Wu Shu that someone needs to be taken care of, and if something happens to someone, just turn a blind eye. .

However, Wu Shu was a stunned young man. After he took office, he focused on those people Liang Ji had mentioned, and found out that they were guilty of many crimes, so he arrested them all and killed dozens of them in one go.Liang Ji was annoyed, but the witnesses and material evidence of the case handled by him was overwhelming, so it was not easy to insist.So Liang Ji transferred Wu Shu back, promoted him to be the governor of Jingzhou, and gave him a farewell party in the mansion. As a result, the governor Wu enjoyed the treatment of Emperor Liu Zuan once: he was poisoned to death by Liang Ji.

There are several similar incidents in history books, and the original intention may be to show that there will always be people who uphold truth and justice no matter what time.However, it is difficult to draw such a conclusion after reading these materials.Most of the people who rebelled against Liang Ji were low-level officials like Wu Shu. People couldn't help asking: Where did Li Gu go?Where did Duccio go? There are no Li and Du in the world.At this time, the ministers in the court have become obedient citizens, and they all respect the breath of General Liang.Either they were recruited by Liang Ji to become thugs, or they lowered their eyebrows and followed Liang Ji's winks, and they didn't dare to show their air.

On Liang Ji's blacklist, the most influential person was named Chen Shou. He was of a relatively high rank. On May 29, the first year of Yanxi (158), a solar eclipse occurred in Luoyang.At this time, the emperor had to reflect on himself, listen to the opinions of all officials, and see what aspects he did not do well, so that God blamed him.This was originally a routine procedure, so after asking and listening, it was pulled down. Coincidentally, Chen Shou, who had a bit of a job relationship with this matter, was also an angry youth like Wu Shu. The general is to blame).Liang Ji was furious and asked his minions to find an excuse to arrest Chen Shou and kill him in prison.

If Liang Ji knew that later generations had such a bad opinion of him, even his appearance would be ruined in the history books, he would definitely regret killing Chen Shou.The reason is simple: Chen Shou is a historian. There is an anecdote recorded in "History of the Song Dynasty", which tells how good the historian is.It is said that Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin has a little hobby after work, and likes to shoot birds with a slingshot.Once, several ministers declared that they had an urgent matter to ask for an interview, and Song Taizu summoned them, but when they heard that the reports were all ordinary and trivial matters, Lao Zhao was very unhappy and criticized a few words.One of the ministers argued: "I think these things are not trivial, at least they are more urgent than hunting birds."

Old Zhao became even more annoyed when he heard that, so he picked up an ax beside him, and the handle of the ax hit the man's mouth, knocking out two teeth.The man was neither afraid nor complained of pain, but bent over looking for his teeth all over the floor.Finally, he really found the tooth, and he put it in his arms.Old Zhao scolded: "What are you trying to do with your teeth? Do you still want to keep the evidence and sue me?" The old man who was beaten all over the place by Zhao Kuangyin replied calmly: "I will not sue Your Majesty, but I will show it to the historian, who will write this matter into the history book." After waking up, he quickly apologized and rewarded him with a lot of gold, silver and cloth for comfort.

Zhao Kuangyin was the number one man in the Song Dynasty, and his great achievements Liang Ji's eighteen lifetimes can't keep up.But he is a smart man who knows what public opinion is and what history is, so Lao Zhaoxiu became "Tang Zong Songzu" and Liang Ji became "Domineering General". For Liu Zhi, in the years to come, he must be accompanied by this ugly, vulgar-spoken and cruel man who once killed his predecessor with just one word.In front of this person, he is just a little ant, but the other party is an elephant. To kill him, he doesn't even need to lift his foot, he just needs to blow his breath and he can't find his way.

At the beginning of the first year of Heping (150), Empress Dowager Liang died of illness.Liu Zhi was eighteen years old this year, and it is reasonable to say that he was old enough to be in charge of the government, but Liang Ji didn't seem to have such an arrangement.The eldest sister is gone, Liang Ji is not in a hurry, because the younger sister is still the mistress of the imperial palace.Nine years later, this empress Liang also died, and Liang Ji panicked because a major question was before him: who will fill the vacancy left by the mistress of the harem? At this time, the emperor was already twenty-seven or eight years old. If there was no girl from the Liang family by his side, theoretically, his relatives would have become "former relatives" or "former relatives". Liang Ji and his wife Sun Shou searched and searched, and finally fell in love with the daughter of Uncle Sun Shou's family, named Deng Meng.Sun Shou's uncle was called Liang Ji. Although his surname was Liang, he was not of the same family as Liang Ji.Liang Ji married a wife. History books say her name is Xuan, but I don’t know if it’s her first or last name. The eldest daughter married Yilang Bingzun, and the second daughter was Deng Meng. This Deng Meng was very beautiful. Liang Ji and his wife quietly took Deng Meng home and secretly changed their surname to Liang. Deng Meng then became Liang Meng, another younger sister of Liang Ji.At that time, Deng Meng's mother was still alive, and her family lived in a place called Yanxili in Luoyang City.Liang Meng was sent to the palace, which immediately aroused Liu Zhi's strong affection, and soon the two became like glue, unable to leave for a moment.Liang Ji and Sun Shou let out a sigh of relief, the crisis was finally resolved!Next, waiting for Liang Meng to be crowned queen, Liang Ji will continue his career as a foreign relative. On the Liang family's genealogy, he can add a fourth name to the list of queens. Unfortunately, there is a little person who doesn't want their dream to continue, and their nightmare is about to begin. The person who wanted to spoil the good things of the Liang family was that Yilang named Bing Zun, Liang Meng's brother-in-law.As Liang Meng's genuine natal family, Bing Yilang was very upset to see Liang Ji changing his family's surname on his own initiative. Bing Yilang went to Liang Meng's mother and his own mother-in-law to persuade her, and the mother-in-law also expressed her opposition to her daughter's surname change.Liang Ji found out about this, and he sent an assassin to kill Bing Yilang. Liang Meng's mother was terrified when she saw that her son-in-law had encountered an accident, and stayed at her home in Yanxili, not daring to go out. That night, when the moon was dark and the wind was high, a figure jumped onto the roof of Liang Meng's mother's neighbor's house. This person's goal was obviously to target Liang Meng's mother, but he disturbed the neighbors.History books say that this neighbor was called Yuan She. When he found out, he immediately beat the drum and shouted to scare the assassin away. Liang Meng's mother was scared to death and didn't know what to do. Yuan She said: Otherwise, I will find you a place to hide first, it is the safest place. The place Yuan She took Liang Meng's mother to was really safe because it was the imperial palace.It turned out that Yuan She was an eunuch, and under his arrangement, Liang Meng's mother not only entered the palace smoothly, but also met her other son-in-law that night: today's son Liu Zhi.Liu Zhi asked Liang Meng to come secretly, and the mother and daughter cried when they met each other. After some talk, Liu Zhiquan understood. Liu Zhi was furious, he could no longer bear it, and decided to challenge the Liangji Group.The harem was full of people from the Liang family, and there was only one eunuch named Tang Heng by his side, who seemed relatively reliable at ordinary times. Liu Zhi approached Tang Heng and asked him if he had any reliable helpers.Tang Heng told him that the Zhongchang servants Shan Chao and Xu Huang, the Huangmen Ling Juyuan, and the little Huangmen Shizuo all hated the Liang family's presumptuousness and arrogance, but they dared not speak out. Liu Zhi asked Tang Heng to call these people into the toilet and hold a secret meeting.The toilets in the palace are very luxurious and spacious, and the biggest advantage is that they are secretive. Everyone can pack them together for convenience, and hold a secret gathering without attracting the attention of outsiders.Liu Zhi said to the five eunuchs: "The Liang family is tyrannical and powerful, and the three princes and nine ministers are all under their orders. I plan to get rid of them. What do you guys think?" If one of the five people in front of him was an undercover agent placed by the Liang family, Liu Zhi might not live until tomorrow.Fortunately, these five brothers have long disliked the Liang family, and they are not angry with the colleagues that the Liang family has placed in the palace, and they always want to replace them.Now the opportunity has come, it's a gamble to follow the emperor! So everyone expressed their willingness to follow His Majesty.Thinking that once the matter is successful, prosperity and wealth will be at your fingertips, everyone is even more emotional for a while.Liu Zhi felt that it would be best to perform some kind of ceremony at this time to look tragic, so he grabbed the arm of Zhongchang Attendant Shan Chao and took a bite on it.Because it was not his own arm, the bite was more decisive, and the blood flowed out all at once.Liu Zhi took the lead and got some blood on his fingers, and the others followed suit.The six people raised their bloody fingers, and under the dim light of the toilet, made a blood oath in a low voice. The blood of the Shanchao brothers was not in vain. After a few days, several of them will become ten thousand households, because in this incident, he lost a mouthful of blood more than others. After the victory, the others will get ten thousand households. And he got 20,000 households. On the night of August 10th, a team led by Ju Yuan secretly arrested the eunuchs who were close to Liang Ji in the palace.Afterwards, Liu Zhi personally came to the imperial secretariat (Shangshutai) located in the palace, summoned all the people below Yin Xun, the secretary-general of the imperial court (Shangshuling), and officially announced the implementation of the coup plan. Shang Shuling Yin Xun immediately expressed his loyalty to the emperor.Shan Chao and the others got a batch of weapons and temporarily armed the pen holders of Shangshutai. Their duty was to protect the emperor's talisman and seal, because all the following orders would be issued from here. The first edict issued by Liu Zhi was to revoke all positions of Liang Ji and rename him Bijing Xianghou.The edict was supported by Guang Luxun Yuan Xu, Sili Xiaowei Zhang Biao and others.That night, more than a thousand warriors including Hu Gong and Habayashi surrounded the General's Mansion.Due to the sudden incident, the battalions of the Northern Army stationed tens of miles away from Luoyang City have not yet received news, and most of Liang Ji's direct descendants are here. Seeing that the house was surrounded by layers, Liang Ji knew that the end was coming.Although the northern army is powerful, their heads must have fallen before they arrived.He didn't even have the time to think about what kind of place Bijing Township was. He knew that he had done a lot of evil for more than 20 years. Even if the emperor himself was willing to let him go, he would definitely have no chance of living in this world. So the general Liang Ji and his wife Sun Shou both committed suicide. The news of Liang Ji's suicide spread to all battalions of the Northern Army. The soldiers of the Fifth Battalion knew that the world had changed, so they arrested Liang Rang, Liang Zhong, Liang Ji and other Liang family members who were in charge of the army and sent them to the Sili Xiaowei.Emperor Huan issued an edict that all men under the fifth rank of the Liang family and the Sun family, regardless of their age, should be beheaded, and their bodies should be thrown outside the market for public display. Among the people who were killed, there were not a few who were senior officials of the court, and there were as many as dozens of people whose rank was above two thousand stones.So far, the coup plan has won a complete victory, and the seemingly mighty Liang Empire collapsed within a day. For the people and officials of Luoyang City, this incident was so sudden that they felt uncomfortable.According to the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty": things happened so suddenly, the people who passed the orders ran back and forth (the envoys galloped), and the officials in the court didn't know what happened and what to do, from the government to the market, everywhere There was a lot of voices, and it took several days to stabilize.After that, the people were all happy.