After Liu Bang's death, what happened to his eight sons?

In the brutal power struggle, life is often fragile, the prince and even the emperor will inevitably fall victim to it, and the strong side has absolute power to kill and kill.

After the death of liu Ying, the honest and cowardly Emperor Hui of Han, the underage crown prince Liu Gong took the throne, and was known as the former Shao Emperor. Lü Hou, who had been in charge of the imperial court, was even more unscrupulous in front of this ignorant little emperor. In order to achieve greater political ambitions, she began to gradually implement a plan to eliminate the Liu royal family.

At this moment, an unexpected situation occurred, so that Lü Hou had to take the ignorant little emperor to open the knife first. The reason for the incident also has to start from empress Dowager Hui's empress Liu Ying.

According to the "History of Empress Lü Benji", the empress of Emperor Hui of Han was the daughter of Zhang Ao. That's right, it was Zhang Ao, who was demoted to the Marquis of Xuanping because his chancellor Guan Gao had plotted to assassinate Liu Bang and was demoted from King Zhao to Marquis Xuanping.

Zhang Ao was also Empress Lü's son-in-law, and if Emperor Hui's empress was born to Zhang Ao and Princess Lu Yuan, then Emperor Hui was married to his niece.

Whether Emperor Hui's empress was born to Princess Lu Yuan is not clearly recorded in the "Records of History", but the "Book of Han and Gao Houji" clearly writes, "The empress dowager's sister Princess Lu Yuan is the empress.".

Perhaps because of the marriage of close relatives, coupled with the weakness and illness of Emperor Hui's Liu Yingben, the empress never got pregnant. At the behest and manipulation of Empress Lü, the childless empress first pretended to be pregnant, then took a child born of a harem beauty (a title for concubine), claimed to be born of herself, and killed the child's birth mother.

After Emperor Hui's death, this child was made emperor, and after four years, the little emperor gradually grew up, and somehow learned of his own origins, so he released the words: "When I grow up, I will definitely find them to settle accounts!" ”

After Lü Hou knew about it, he felt that this little emperor would become a serious problem when he grew up, and it was better to get rid of him as soon as possible, so he put him in seclusion and announced to the outside world that the emperor was very ill, and even the attendants around the former emperor could not see him.

Not long after, Lü Hou summoned his courtiers and said, "Now that the emperor has been ill for a long time and has become delirious, he cannot entrust the world to such a person, and he should appoint another emperor." "The ministers, who dared to say no, slapped their backs in agreement. In this way, Lü Hou deposed the former Young Emperor Liu Gong and secretly killed him.

Later, Liu Hong, another son of Emperor Hui of Han, Liu Ying, was made emperor, and was known as Emperor Hou Shao.

In the first month of the seventh year of the Young Emperor, Liu Bang's sixth son Liu You the Prince of Zhao came to Chang'an to meet him. This Liu You was originally the one who took over the position of King of Zhao after Lü Hou killed Ruyi, and in order to further control Liu's sons, Lü Hou forcibly married one of the daughters of the Lü family to Liu You as queen.

However, Liu You did not like his queen, but was fond of other concubines, and the queen of the Lü clan held a grudge and ran to Lü Hou to say bad things about Liu You, slandering him for plotting rebellion. Lü Hou was most sensitive to the two words of rebellion, and immediately summoned Liu You to Chang'an.

As soon as Liu You arrived in Chang'an, he was immediately put under house arrest by Lü Hou and did not give him anything to eat. After eighteen days, Liu You, the King of Zhao, harbored a deep resentment towards Empress Lü and was starved to death. After Liu You's death, Lü Hou buried him in a cemetery outside Chang'an City as an ordinary person.

After killing Liu You, Lü Hou changed Liu Bang's fifth son Liu Hui from King liang to King Zhao, and his nephew Lü Chan as King of Liang. Seeing that the two previous and subsequent Zhao kings (Ruyi and Liu You) had died at the hands of Lü Hou, Liu Hui had been sullen and unhappy since he became the King of Zhao.

In order to strengthen his control, Lü Hou also arranged for him to be the queen of a daughter of the Lü family, and even the palace attendant officials had many lü family members, who had monopoly power and secretly monitored Liu Hui.

Liu Hui was not so much a king as a prisoner. The Lü family did not even give him emotional freedom, and seeing that Liu Hui favored a concubine, the queen sent someone to poison her.

This incident gave Liu Hui a fatal blow, and he felt that there was nothing in this world worth nostalgia for. As a result, less than five months after being crowned King of Zhao, Liu Hui committed suicide in grief and anger.

At this point, the seat of King Zhao was vacated again, and looking around at Liu's disciples, there were already few left, and Lü Hou sealed the seat of King Zhao to his nephew Lü Lu.

In September of that year, Liu Bang's youngest son Liu Jian the Prince of Yan died, and Lü Hou immediately sent someone to kill Liu Jian's only son. In this way, the King of Yan had no heirs, and the throne naturally could not be inherited, so Lü Hou named Lü Tong, the son of his nephew Lü Tai, the King of Yan.

At this point, among Liu Bang's eight sons: the eldest son Liu Fei was almost killed by Lü Hou at the banquet, and he died four years after fleeing back to the fiefdom; the second son Liu Ying was Lü Hou's own son, who died early after being mentally tortured by his mother; the third son Liu Ruyi was poisoned; the fourth son Liu Heng lay dormant for many years and escaped from Lü Hou's clutches; the fifth son Liu Hui was forced to commit suicide; the sixth son Liu You was starved to death; the seventh son Liu Chang was raised by Lü Hou to avoid being poisoned; the youngest son Liu Jianying died early and the feudal state was deprived.

And all this happened fifteen years after the death of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao.