After the death of Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, Empress Lü seized the power of the court, and several of Liu Bang's sons were killed by her directly or indirectly, while the Lü family was crowned a prince and a marquis, controlling the military and political power.
Due to Empress Lü's violation of the benefit distribution agreement between Liu Bang and the heroes, which led to the dissatisfaction of the heroes group, the heroes headed by Prime Minister Chen Ping and Taiwei Zhou Bo began to plot secretly and were ready to attack.
In 180 BC, Empress Lü died, and her nephews Lü Lu and Lü Chan were in charge of the northern and southern armies respectively, so they had the idea of rebellion, but the news was unfortunately leaked, and was known by Liu Xiang, the king of Qi, and Liu Zhang, the marquis of Zhu Xu, in order to ensure the Han dynasty and seize the throne, they got in touch with Zhou Bo, and planned to join forces inside and outside, and kill Lü.
As a result, since the founding of the Western Han Dynasty fifteen years ago, the largest political bloody conflict immediately began, and the meritorious group and the kings of the Liu family jointly launched the Xulu operation to eradicate the Lu family.
As a foreign relative, the Lü family should not interfere in politics in the first place, so the action of Xulu was very important to maintain the Han Dynasty's Jiangshan Sheji, which was no problem.
However, after the Xulu action, the kings of the Liu family and the group of heroes had their own ghosts, and new contradictions immediately arose.
For the kings of the Liu family, with Liu Xiang as the representative, they thought that they were the descendants of the Liu family and the heroes of Xulu, and they should be the emperor.
However, the meritorious group does not think so, because Liu Xiang's uncle Sijun is not a good type, if he becomes the emperor, then a new foreign relative force will be generated, and the interests of the meritorious group cannot be guaranteed.
Moreover, Liu Xiang himself has a heavy army, which is not very easy to control, such a person becomes the emperor, in case he crosses the river and demolishes the bridge, and the group of heroes who threaten the imperial power will be wiped out, wouldn't it be a big loss.
Therefore, for the heroes, they hope to find someone who is easier to control and whose mother family has little power to be the emperor, so that they can ensure that their position is not shaken.
After thinking about it, the heroes finally set their sights on Liu Heng, the fourth son of Liu Bang, known for his generosity and kindness, and his reputation is also good, his mother Bo Ji is honest, and his uncle Bo Zhao is also a kind person, if he becomes the emperor, there will be no second Lu disorder.
First, step by step
The reason why Liu Heng went to Daiguo, a small and remote country, was actually the idea of his mother Bo Ji, in order to stay away from right and wrong and avoid being harmed by Empress Lu.
Bo Ji is smart, her approach not only protects Liu Heng, but also protects herself, after Empress Lu took power, seeing that she knew how to advance and retreat, and was respectful to herself, she let her go to live on behalf of the country.
During the fifteen years of Daiguo, Liu Heng, with the help of his mother and uncle, governed Daiguo very well, but at the same time, he also kept an eye on the dynamics of Chang'an, because he knew that Empress Lu was a person, and he was always worried that he would encounter accidents.
It can be said that Liu Heng has been living in trembling, this experience has created his cautious and calm character, and he has learned how to use power and tactics under the cultivation of his mother Bo Ji.
Don't underestimate Bo Ji, this second-married woman can give birth to a child for Liu Bang, and she can survive under the obscenity of Empress Lu, which shows that she is a very powerful character, Liu Heng has such a mother, which is his greatest luck.
After the Zhulu Rebellion, Chen Ping and Zhou Bo sent people to ask Liu Heng to succeed to Chang'an on behalf of the country, Liu Heng's first reaction was not to be happy, but to feel very puzzled, and there were three doubts:
First, there was an emperor in the Han Dynasty at that time, that is, Liu Hong, the young emperor of the Later Emperor of the Emperor of Lü, that is, the son of the son of the Empress Lü, the son of Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty, Liu Ying, so why did the heroes set up another emperor?
Second, Liu Heng is just an unfavored prince, why don't the heroes support Liu Xiang or others, but have to appoint him?
Third, the heroes have just killed the Lu family, and they are red-eyed, will there be fraud in letting Liu Heng go to Chang'an at this time?
With these questions, Liu Heng did not leave for Chang'an immediately, but convened the ministers to discuss, and Zhang Wu and others thought that there must be something strange in it, and they should refuse on the grounds of illness.
Lieutenant Song Chang and others believed that the heroes were just targeting the Lu family, and they were still loyal to the Liu family, so they should not be too suspicious, and they should go to Chang'an.
At this time, Liu Heng's heart was entangled, on the one hand, he wanted to be the emperor, but he was afraid that Chang'an was not safe, what should he do?
In the end, after careful consideration, Liu Heng still decided to go to Chang'an, but he had to take every step of the way, and he couldn't make mistakes in every step, so as not to lose his life.
Before leaving, Liu Heng sent his uncle Bo Zhao to Chang'an to investigate the truth, Bo Zhao came to Chang'an to meet Zhou Bo, had in-depth communication with Zhou Bo, learned of Zhou Bo's sincerity, and returned to Daiguo to tell Liu Heng that everything was fine, and Liu Heng then set off with the Minister of Civil and Military Affairs of Daiguo.
When Liu Heng came fifty miles outside Chang'an City, he was still not at ease, and asked Song Chang to enter the city to find out the truth.
When Song Chang came to Weiqiao, he happened to meet the civil and military officials who had been waiting here for a long time, so he was very happy, so he went back to inform Liu Heng, and Liu Heng quickly came to Weiqiao.
At this time, Liu Heng was actually not completely relieved, because he didn't know whether the heroes really supported him, so he was still cautious, for fear that something would go wrong.
At that time, Chen Ping and Zhou Bo led hundreds of officials to kneel in Weiqiao to greet Liu Heng, and Liu Heng was very modest to bow back to the hundred officials, and after the ceremony was completed, Zhou Bo said to Liu Heng, I have something to tell you in person.
Song Chang was worried that Zhou Bo was cheating, so he preemptively replied that if it was official business, he could say it in front of hundreds of officials; If it is a private matter, then the Son of Heaven is selfless.
Seeing this, Zhou Bo no longer insisted, but took out a box and knelt on the ground to present it to Liu Heng.
At this point, Liu Heng believed that the heroes sincerely supported him, but he knew very well that he was observing the heroes, and the heroes were not examining him.
Therefore, Liu Heng did not take the jade seal at that time, but said that he would discuss this matter when he returned to the palace of the acting king in Chang'an.
Everyone pays attention to a detail, Liu Heng proposed to go to the palace instead of going directly to the palace, which is very important for three reasons:
First, if he goes directly to the palace, it will appear that he is too anxious, which will make the heroes feel that he is in a hurry to succeed to the throne, and thus doubt him;
Second, there is still an emperor and a young emperor sitting in the palace, if you go to the palace at this time, you will inevitably be embarrassed and will inevitably be criticized by the world;
Third, the Lu family has been in power for a long time, and the situation in the palace is unknown, what can be done in case of danger, so it is the safest choice to go back to the palace of the king first.
After Liu Heng came to the palace of the acting king, the ministers asked him to accept the jade seal to succeed him as the emperor again, and he resigned twice to the west, three times to the south, and accepted the jade seal after resigning to the world five times.
At this point, Liu Heng's name has been decided, and he only needs to hold the enthronement ceremony on a certain day, and all the procedures will be completed, but before that, he has a few things that he must do.
Second, the heir Liu Ying
Although Emperor Liu Ying of the Han Hui Dynasty died relatively early, only living to be 23 years old, he left behind six sons, namely the former Young Emperor Liu Gong, the King of Huaiyang, Liu Yi, the King of Changshan, Liu Budo, the Marquis of Xiangcheng, Liu Chao, the Marquis of Yi, and the Marquis Liu Wu of Huguan.
Among them, the former young emperor Liu Gong was born to a palace maid, and was taken over by Empress Lu to Liu Ying's queen, and was also her granddaughter Zhang Yan as her son, and inherited the throne after Liu Ying's death, but Liu Gong was killed by Empress Lu because he threatened to avenge his mother who was killed by Empress Lu.
In addition to Liu Gong, Liu Ying had several sons who died young, and when Liu Heng entered Chang'an, only Liu Wu, Liu Budo and Liu Hong, the later young emperor, were left.
In the rebellion of Zhulu, the heroes killed all the Lu clan, but they did not dare to attack the emperor Liu Gong, because no one dared to bear the infamy of killing the emperor, so Liu Hong survived.
However, the heroes will never let Liu Hong continue to be the emperor, because he has the blood of the Lu family, and his queen is still the niece and granddaughter of Empress Lu.
As a result, the heroes declared to the outside world that Liu Wu, Liu Budo and Liu Hong were not Liu Ying's own sons, but the children of others robbed by Empress Lu, and the mothers of these children were killed, and they were raised in the harem, and later made emperors and princes to strengthen the position of the Lu family.
The young emperor and the kings of Liang, Huaiyang, and Changshan are not true filial piety. Empress Lu deceived his son, killed his mother, raised the harem, and made the filial piety of the son as the queen, and the kings to take the Lu family.
In other words, the heroes denied the legitimacy of Liu Hong's life experience and succession, but did not abolish him or kill him, but left him to Liu Heng, this move is actually very clever and did not leave a handle for anyone.
For Liu Heng, if he wants to sit on the throne and not leave hidden dangers, he must kill Liu Wu, Liu Budo and Liu Hong, the heroes dare not kill, but he must kill.
So, on the night when Liu Heng entered the mansion of the acting king, he sent Liu Xingju, the marquis of Dongdong, to clean up the palace, in fact, he asked him to kill Liu Ying's sons, but he did not say it explicitly, but gave some hints.
This practice reflects Liu Heng's superb scheming, because he also does not want to bear the charge of killing the emperor, and Liu Xingju is Liu Xiang's younger brother, who was jumping up and down at that time, looking for an opportunity to make meritorious contributions to the king, Liu Heng took advantage of the situation and used him as a gunman.
Sure enough, after Liu Xingju entered the palace, in order to make great contributions, he and Xiahou Ying, Marquis of Ruyin, drove him out of the palace on the grounds that Liu Hong was not a descendant of the Liu family, and then sent people to kill Liu Hong, Liu Wu and Liu Budo respectively.
At this point, Liu Ying is completely desperate, and no one can compete with Liu Heng for the throne, I have to say that his move is smart enough and ruthless enough.
3. Killing wives and children
Before and after Liu Heng entered Chang'an, a very strange thing happened, his wife and the four sons born to him died of illness within two months.
We all know that Liu Heng's queen is Dou Yifang, which is later known as the Empress Dowager Dou, but what many people don't know is that before Dou Yifang, Liu Heng actually had a queen, and this queen also gave birth to four sons.
And Dou Yifang was originally just Liu Heng's concubine, but he was more favored, and gave birth to two sons and a daughter for Liu Heng.
But the strange thing is that on the eve of Liu Heng's entry into Chang'an, the acting king and queen suddenly fell ill and died; When Liu Heng succeeded to the throne as emperor, the four children born to the acting king and queen also died of illness one after another.
In the last generation, the acting king was fortunate to have Dou Ji, gave birth to a female prostitute, and later gave birth to two boys. And the king and queen gave birth to four boys. The first king was not established as the emperor and the queen died. and the king became emperor, and the four sons born to the queen died of illness.
After a lot of research, historians came to a conclusion: the five mothers and sons of the king and queen did not die naturally, and they were most likely killed by Liu Heng!
What's going on?
It turned out that when Empress Lu was still alive, in order to control the kings of the Liu family and stabilize the status of the Lu family, he had married the daughters of the Lu family to various princes and kings, such as the wife of Liu Zhang, the Marquis of Zhu Xu, was the daughter of the Lu family, and the reason why he was able to get the news of the Lu family's rebellion was precisely because his wife found out of conscience and informed her of the news.
There are also several sons of Liu Bang, who also married the daughters of the Lu family, such as Liu Hui, the king of Zhao, Liu You, the king of Huaiyang, and even the queen of the later young emperor Liu Hong is also the daughter of the Lu family.
Liu Heng, as the son of Liu Bang, although he is far away in Daiguo, Empress Lu will not relax his control over him, and his queen is very likely to be the daughter of the Lu family, so the four sons of the queen and the acting queen have the blood of the Lu family.
Then, the matter is very clear, Liu Heng is about to enter Chang'an and ascend the throne as the emperor, but the power of the hero group is still strong, in order not to let the heroes worry about him, he can only exchange the lives of the queen and her four sons for the stability of the throne.
Imagine, if the acting queen and her four sons are alive, then she will be the queen in the future, and her son will be the prince, Liu Heng will be a hundred years later, the prince with the blood of the Lu family will succeed to the throne and become the emperor, will he avenge the Lu family?
Liu Heng believes that the heroes still recognize him, but they are still not at ease with his queen and four sons, so he must let the queen and his four sons disappear.
That is to say, the death of the acting queen and her four sons was a political tacit agreement reached between Liu Heng and the heroes, and afterwards the heroes no longer mentioned the acting queen and her four sons, but supported Dou Yifang as the queen, and the eldest son Liu Qi born to Dou Yifang as the crown prince.
4. Consolidate the throne
After Liu Heng sent someone to kill Liu Ying's sons and purged the palace to ensure safety, he entered the palace to hold the enthronement ceremony and officially sat on the throne.
However, sitting on the throne does not mean that Liu Heng is the real emperor, because his foundation is not stable, and he only brought Song Chang, Zhang Wu and other six people to Beijing with him, and the strength of the meritorious group and the kings of the Liu family is far stronger than him.
How to consolidate the throne, the answer is actually very simple, that is, to grasp the military power and suppress the heroes and kings, but not to come openly, but to boil frogs in warm water, step by step.
Specifically, Liu Heng did the following things:
First, on the night that Liu Heng entered Weiyang Palace, he appointed Song Chang as General Wei to take over the Northern and Southern Army; appointed Zhang Wu as Lang Zhongling, responsible for the guards of the palace, and thus he grasped the military power and fundamentally guaranteed the safety of his life;
Second, soon after Liu Heng succeeded to the throne, he rewarded the heroes who supported him as the emperor, and he appointed Zhou Bo as the right prime minister, Chen Ping as the left prime minister, and Guan Ying as the captain, and other heroes who followed Liu Bang to fight the world were also rewarded and divided.
Liu Heng did this in order to appease the heroes and let them relax their vigilance against themselves, so as to buy time for their plans.
Especially Zhou Bo, as the person with the greatest credit, not only became the right prime minister of the head of the hundred officials, Liu Heng was also very respectful to him, his opinions Liu Heng adopted, and every time Liu Heng went down to the court, he also had to see him leave, giving him full respect.
Moreover, Liu Heng also gave Zhou Bo the most rewards, with 5,000 catties of gold and 10,000 more households, which made Zhou Bo feel very satisfied.
At the same time as rewarding the heroes, Liu Heng also inserted his henchmen into the court, they gradually grasped the real power, and became an important force for Liu Heng to compete with the heroes, because the heroes were paralyzed by Liu Heng's rich reward, so there was no strong reaction.
After Liu Heng had enough strength, he began to deal with the heroes, and it was Zhou Bo who bore the brunt.
Liu Heng changed his awe of Zhou Bo in the past, and every time he saw him, he was very serious, which made Zhou Bo feel very drumming in his heart.
At this time, one of Zhou Bo's subordinates told him to be careful of being a master of high merit and setting himself on fire, and he saw that Liu Heng was gradually sitting on the throne, and he was no longer the acting king who had just entered Beijing, so he resigned from the post of right prime minister very interestingly.
A year later, Chen Ping, the prime minister of Zuo, died, and Liu Heng made another plan, he reappointed Zhou Bo as prime minister, but only ten months later, he told Zhou Bo that there are many princes living in Chang'an, these people are the founding heroes, and now the food supply in the capital is tight, I want them to return to their respective fiefdoms, but they refuse, you, as the head of the princes, should take the lead to go back.
At this time, Zhou Bo could only be at the mercy of Liu Heng, so he took the lead and returned to the fiefdom, and the other princes saw that even Zhou Bo had left, so they did not dare to continue to stay in the capital, and they all returned to the fiefdom separately.
At this point, the group of heroes headed by Zhou Bo was completely driven away, and Liu Heng took control of the court from this field and became the real son of the Han Dynasty.
Third, when Liu Heng first succeeded to the throne, in order to stabilize the throne, he recalled those princes of the Liu family who were belittled by Empress Lu back to the capital and restored their titles and fiefs, so they supported Liu Heng very much.
Later, on the basis of the original princes and kings, Liu Heng divided more than a dozen princes and kings, including his son Liu Wu, who was also named the king of Liang, this step was to further win the support of the kings of the Liu family and confront the meritorious group.
After Liu Heng suppressed the hero group and sat on the throne, he changed hands and began to deal with the princes and kings, especially at that time, the rebellion of Liu Xingju, the king of Jibei, and Liu Chang, the king of Huainan, broke out, which made him think that the princes and kings must be weakened.
Later, Jia Yi submitted the "Public Security Policy" to Liu Heng on the issue of princes and kings, and put forward the suggestion of "building princes and kings with less strength", which was the prototype of the Tui'en order implemented by Emperor Wu of the Later Han Dynasty.
However, because Liu Heng was anxious to stabilize the political situation and restore and develop the social economy at that time, he was not allowed to take too drastic measures to weaken the princes and kings, so he did not put Jia Yi's suggestions into practice.
It was not until the middle and late period of Liu Heng's reign that he began to implement Jia Yi's policy, dividing the Qi State into six countries and Huainan into three, weakening the power of the princes and kings in Chengdu.
However, due to various reasons, Liu Heng did not completely implement Jia Yi's policy, which also laid the groundwork for the turmoil of the Han Dynasty in the future, his son Liu Qi, that is, after Emperor Jing of Han succeeded to the throne, the famous Seven Kingdoms Rebellion broke out, until Emperor Wu of Han succeeded to the throne, and took the Tui En order of the lord father Yan, which fundamentally solved the problem of princes and kings.
However, in any case, Liu Heng's pacification of the princes and kings during his reign was still successful, ensuring that he had one or two decades to promote the development of the Han Dynasty without distraction, which was considered to have achieved good results.
Fifth, Liu Heng and his people
Liu Heng has grown from a weak prince to a man of great power, fully demonstrating his dark belly, scheming and methods, but this does not mean that he is not a good emperor.
Historically, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty was known for his benevolence and filial piety, implemented the national policy of ruling by inaction, and focused on a non-toss, giving benefits to the common people, hiding wealth from the people, and was known as a generation of holy masters, and many people believed that he was the best emperor in Chinese history.
How good was the period of Emperor Wen of Han?
After Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty succeeded to the throne, he changed the fifteen taxes to thirty taxes and one tax, and many times exempted from taxes on a large scale, and he rarely levied forced labor, did not build magnificent palaces and luxurious mausoleums, and other large-scale projects that cost the people and money.
Liu Heng also gave up the salt and iron official camp and allowed the people to buy and sell salt and iron; The ban on mountains and rivers was abandoned, and the people were allowed to exploit minerals and fishery resources.
Militarily, Liu Heng adopted the strategy of living in harmony with the Xiongnu and other neighboring countries, and rarely took the initiative to start wars except for self-defense, providing a strong guarantee for the development of the Han Dynasty.
In short, as long as it is good for the people, he is willing to do it, he himself is very thrifty, and he is strict with his family, and his wife Dou Yifang's mother's family has no one knighted, not even an official.
Because of Liu Heng's efforts, the famous Wenjing rule in history was officially opened, and he also got the top nickname of "Wen" because of his remarkable achievements.
Even before Liu Heng died, he still thought about his people, because he was unwilling to consume too much people's wealth, he planned to change the thick burial to a thin burial, not to let the children and grandchildren prepare too many funeral goods for themselves, and not to let the people get married and funeral because of his death, and even let go of eating meat and drinking wine, and the courtiers only needed to mourn for three days.
How many such emperors are there in history?
Of course, Liu Heng has never been perfect, in addition to his black belly and scheming methods mentioned above, he is also a lustful emperor, and he loves Mrs. Shen to the point of no return; He likes to gallop and play around; He also re-engraved Deng Tong so much that he even gave Deng Tong the power to mint coins privately.
However, Liu Heng never affected his governance of the country because of these things, nor did he cause harm to the people, he had a good grasp of proportion.
In some ways, Liu Heng is still quite similar to his father Liu Bang, such as black-bellied, scheming and means, but he is above Liu Bang in terms of his ability to govern the country, and it is a great luck for the Han to have an emperor like him.