Chapter 26 Breaking the Game: The Death of Yu Chaoen

Obviously, in the triangular game between Yu Chaoen, Guo Ziyi and Yuan Zai, Yu Chaoen has gradually occupied a strong position.As a result, he became more and more carried away, not only seeing Guo Ziyi and Yuan Zai as nothing, but also gradually ignoring the emperor. Civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty made a memorial to the emperor, whether it was possible or not was up to the emperor to decide, but before Yu Chaoen handed over the memorial, he had already predicted that the matter would come to fruition.In other words, other people's memorials are asking the emperor for approval, while his memorials seem to be informing the emperor to execute.

In addition, as long as he is not notified in advance and not allowed to participate in decision-making in government affairs, large or small, Yu Chaoen will yell wildly: "Is there any evil in the world that cannot be controlled by me?" (Volume 224) Hearing such rebellious words, Daizong Li Yu was of course very upset, but in order to maintain the stability of the government, he could only swallow his anger and pretend he didn't hear it. However, there is a limit to human patience.In the first month of the fifth year of Dali (770 A.D.), two events finally aroused Daizong's anger and made him unbearable.

The first thing is that Yu Chaoen and his subordinates actually set up a black prison in the forbidden army. Why set up a black jail? The answer is simple: for money. Yu Chaoen has two confidantes under his command, one is Liu Xixian, the Marquis of Yu, the capital of the Shence Army, and the other is Wang Jiahe, the envoy of soldiers and horses.They coveted the property of some rich men in Chang'an, so they urged Yu Chaoen to set up a secret spy agency, and recruited a group of local hooligans to fabricate evidence and frame some rich men for crimes, and then put them in the black jail of the Imperial Army, where they were tortured in every way , Forced them to confess, and finally confiscated all their property.

On the surface, these confiscated properties went into the treasury of the imperial army, but in fact, everyone knew that only a fraction of them went into the public account, and most of them fell into the private pockets of Yu Chaoen, Liu Xixian, Wang Jiahe and others. Since the Forbidden Army is not under the jurisdiction of any department, and there is no need to go through any judicial procedures for setting up a black prison, Yu Chaoen and others have been doing this for several years without any scruples. inside. After learning of this incident, Daizong Li Yu was shocked. At the foot of the emperor, at the root of the imperial city, such a thing happened, where is the law of the country?Where are the rules and regulations of the imperial court?

While Daizong was surprised and angry about this, Yu Chaoen intensified the "Purple Clothes Incident". Although Yu Chaoen was an eunuch, he raised a large group of sons. The youngest adopted son was Yu Linghui, who was just over ten years old. He served as an envoy in the palace and wore green clothes (sixth and seventh rank official uniforms).One day, Yu Linghui quarreled with his colleagues for some reason, and complained to Yu Chaoen when he came back.Early the next morning, Yu Chaoen angrily dragged his son into the palace, and said to Emperor Daizong in front of all civil and military officials at the court meeting: "My son's official position is too low, and he is often bullied by others. Please give him purple clothes (three grades) above the official uniform)."

A young child actually wants to wear purple clothes? Daizong felt that the matter was too absurd, so he kept silent. Unexpectedly, before the emperor could speak, the relevant officials, frightened by Yu Chaoen's coquettish power, hurriedly held out a purple robe.Yu Chaoen ordered his son to put it on on the spot, and then thanked the emperor. Now that the matter has come to this point, Daizong could only force a smile and said, "It's quite appropriate to wear a purple robe here." Yu Chaoen is triumphant, Yu Linghui is joyful, and all civil and military officials in the court hang their heads in silence.

At this moment, few people noticed the murderous intent in the eyes of the emperor. But one noticed. He was born in Yuan Zai. Yuan Zai smiled silently.A few days later, he found an opportunity to play to Emperor Daizong in secret—"Chaoen is unruly and unruly, please get rid of it." (Volume 224) Although Emperor Daizong trusted Yu Chaoen very much and regarded him as an indispensable part of triangular politics, this did not mean that he could allow Yu Chaoen to do whatever he wanted. Everyone has a bottom line, let alone the emperor who still holds the power of life and death!The "Black Prison Incident" and "Purple Clothes Incident" have undoubtedly broken through the bottom line of the emperor Li Yu.

If Yu Chaoen's desire and power are allowed to expand like this, Daizong believes that the triangular political situation he has painstakingly maintained will be broken by Yu Chaoen sooner or later. In this case, it is better to take the initiative to break it in order to create a new situation. Therefore, Emperor Daizong adopted Yuan Zai's suggestion and ordered him to devise a perfect plan to get rid of Yu Chaoen in one fell swoop. After a period of observation, Yuan Zai discovered that to deal with Yu Chaoen, the most important thing is to deal with two key people first: one is Yu Chaoen's personal bodyguard Zhou Hao, every time Yu Chaoen enters the palace, Zhou Hao will lead a A hundred soldiers from the imperial army accompanied him; the other was Huangfu Wen, the Jiedu envoy of Shanzhou, who was Yu Chaoen's confidant and henchman.

As long as these two people are settled, it will be easy to clean up Yu Chaoen.And as long as Yu Chaoen dies, the generals of the Forbidden Army under him will not be worried at all. But how to deal with Zhou Hao and Huangfu Wen? Yuan Zai's method is very simple, one word: money. In this world, most of the so-called interpersonal relationships are piled up with money, and the most effective way to dismantle such relationships is of course money.To be precise, it was money! Yuan Zai immediately took out a lot of money and threw it at Zhou Hao and Huangfu Wen, and he hit them all at once.From then on, Yu Chaoen's every word, deed, and every move fell into the eyes of Yuan Zai and Daizong, but Yu Chaoen was unaware of it.

At the end of the first month, Yuan Zai proposed to Daizong that Li Baoyu, who was then Fengxiang Jiedushi, was transferred to Shannan Xidao Jiedushi, and then Huangfuwen was transferred from Shanzhou to Fengxiang.Yuan Zai's plan has two purposes: first, to paralyze Yu Chaoen, making him feel that his confidant Huangfu Wen is closer to him, so he feels safer; second, if the plan does not go well, it can also make Huangfu Wen suddenly turn against him, Shayu Chaoen was caught off guard.In addition, Yuan Zai suggested that Daizong put Xingping, Wugong, Tianxing, Fufeng and other places under the jurisdiction of the Shence Army in order to further stabilize Yu Chaoen.

Daizong followed his plan. Yu Chaoen was overjoyed when he found an extra piece of land out of thin air. But he didn't know that an invisible noose had quietly wrapped around his neck. At the beginning of February, Yu Chaoen's confidant Liu Xixian suddenly smelled danger. In his view, "receiving rewards for no merit" is not only something to be happy about, but it may be a harbinger of disaster.Because there is never a pie in the sky.Yu Chaoen hadn't done any meritorious service recently, how could the emperor allocate an extra piece of land to him for no reason? There must be something strange in this! Liu Xixian told Yu Chaoen about her concerns.At this point, Yu Chaoen began to have a trace of doubt and fear.However, every time he entered the palace, Daizong always looked amiable, and his favor and courtesy to him remained the same as in the past. There was really no problem, so Yu Chaoen gradually let go of it. At the beginning of March, Huangfu Wen entered the court to perform affairs, Yuan Zai took advantage of the situation to keep him, and then secretly summoned Zhou Hao, and the three of them worked out a plan to kill Yu Chaoen.Later, Yuan Zai secretly reported to Daizong, saying that the plan has been made and can be done at any time.Daizong solemnly warned: "Be careful, don't beat a snake to death and be bitten by a snake instead!" On March 10th, the Cold Food Festival, Daizong arranged a banquet in the palace and invited some relatives and close officials to the banquet, including Yu Chaoen of course.As a precaution, Yuan Zai did not attend the banquet on this day, but sat in the Zhongshu Province so that he could dispatch troops at any time. After the banquet, Daizong left Yu Chaoen and said he had something important to discuss with him. As soon as Yu Chaoen entered the inner hall, Daizong changed his usual amiable look and sternly reprimanded him for being arrogant and harboring different ideas.Although Yu Chaoen felt that the situation was not good, he still firmly believed that the emperor would not dare to do anything to him, so he still looked arrogant, tried his best to defend himself, and uttered rebellious words. Daizong Li Yu stared at Yu Chaoen for a long time, and finally smiled coldly and waved a hand gesture gently. Zhou Hao rushed in with a group of forbidden soldiers. Then, a rope tightly strangled Yu Chaoen's neck... On the day Yu Chaoen was hanged and killed, Emperor Daizong issued an imperial edict to dismiss his military envoys, shence military envoys, and the general of the left prison gate guard, and only retained the post of internal servant. He hanged himself. Daizong handled it this way, of course, hoping to stabilize the group of imperial generals under Yu Chaoen.A few days later, Emperor Daizong appointed Liu Xixian and Wang Jiahe as Yushi Zhongcheng, and then announced an amnesty for all Yu Chaoen's party members (some of whom had been arrested and imprisoned), and said: "The soldiers of the forbidden army are all ours. My sons and soldiers, from now on, I will personally lead the imperial army, and everyone's official and noble treatment will remain the same, so don't have any worries or doubts." After such a wise and prudent handling of the aftermath, Daizong finally succeeded in appeasing the imperial army.Although quite a few generals of the imperial army knew the truth about Yu Chaoen's violent death, and they could not help but feel some resentment towards the emperor Li Yu, but the matter has come to this point, and they can only use the words "a man who knows the current affairs is a hero" to comfort him For myself, I have become a man with my tail between my legs. The only person who didn't clench his tail was Liu Xixian, Marquis of Yu, the capital of the Shence Army. He was Yu Chaoen's number one confidant, and he was also the first person who noticed that the emperor might do something to Yu Chaoen.Now that the facts were as expected, Liu Xixian was naturally more afraid than anyone else.Afterwards, he was always worried that the emperor would settle accounts later in the autumn, so he was in constant fear. He often expressed his doubts and fears to Wang Jiahe in private, and vented his dissatisfaction with the emperor. Liu Xixian never expected that his buddy Wang Jiahe actually remembered all these words in his heart, and then reported everything to the emperor. Daizong didn't intend to settle accounts after the fall, but Liu Xixian was so ignorant of current affairs, Daizong didn't need to be polite to him. In September of the fifth year of the Dali calendar, that is, half a year after Yu Chaoen was punished, Daizong ordered Liu Xixian to be killed.Since then, the topic of Yu Chaoen's death has become a taboo among the soldiers of the Forbidden Army. Unless you are impatient with life, you must erase the three words "Yu Chaoen" from your memory, completely erase it! In the action of killing Yu Chaoen, Prime Minister Yuan Zai performed really well, he can be described as resourceful, bold and careful.Daizong was very satisfied, and from then on he "favored him more and more". However, although killing Yu Chaoen solved the problem of the eunuch's disorderly government, at the same time it was difficult to avoid a new problem. what is the problem? The question of the prime minister's dictatorship. With the death of Yu Chaoen, the original relatively balanced triangular political situation was broken, so the power of the government was bound to be concentrated too much in the hands of Yuan Zai, who had succeeded in eradicating rape.That is to say, before Daizong cultivated a new check and balance force, Li Tang's court would face the danger of the prime minister's monopoly. So, will Yuan Zai have exclusive power? The answer is yes. Because Yuan Zai was not a good bird.Once there are no restrictions, he will not only monopolize power, but also exercise power!