At that time, Liang Ji was not only able to easily depose the emperor, but also grasped the military and political power of the country. And he can directly poison the emperor, so that everyone does not dare to speak. Except for the usurpation of the throne, Liang Ji can do everything else.
This is undoubtedly a very ironic thing.
The irony of this incident is not that Liang Ji poisoned the emperor, nor that Liang Ji dared to touch the women in the emperor's harem. Throughout ancient Chinese history, the powerful ministers who dared to attack the emperor were not one or two. For example, Gao Cheng in the later period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties pointed to the emperor and asked, 'Why did the emperor rebel', which was obviously even more rampant.
The most ironic thing is that Liang Ji's power was not earned by his own efforts.
Those powerful ministers in later generations, no matter how arrogant they were, basically relied on their own struggle. For example, although Cao Cao later controlled Emperor Han Xian for most of his life, Cao Cao's power was also fought back on the battlefield. For example, Huo Guang, who abolished the emperor in the Western Han Dynasty, also relied on his own decades of caution and perennial struggle to have so much power.
But Liang Ji is not.
Liang Ji was able to take power, purely by virtue of his family background. To be precise, it depends on his father's operation and his sister's status as the queen mother.
Want to really understand, how powerful is Liang Ji? We have to talk about how Liang Ji's power came about.
According to historical records, Liang Ji has actually been very 'special' since he was a child. Since he was a child, he has been 'iris-shouldered jackals, penetrating into the eyes of the party, groaning and talking, and cutting books'. That is to say: Liang Ji's shoulders shrugged up like an eagle's wings, his eyes were upside down like a jackal, and he always looked straight when he looked at people, without any look; Speech is always slurred, and learning is a mess, at most you can only keep accounts.
If he was not born into a noble family, but into a commoner family. At Liang Ji's level, it is estimated that the pressure to find a job and a daughter-in-law is not small.
Don't think that this is the literati of later generations smearing Liang Ji! Judging from various historical materials, the real Liang Ji in history should really be an untalented 'imbecile relative'.
On the one hand, the historians of the Han Dynasty were relatively good at recording history. Wang Mang, Dou Xian and others, who are also relatives and ministers, have no such records. On the other hand, the descriptions of Liang Ji in various other historical materials of the same era are basically the same.
But he is such a person, and his life is surprisingly good.
Liang Ji's greatest luck is to have a good father and a good ancestor. Liang Ji's great-grandfather, Liang Tong, was the founding hero of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Because of the identity of the hero, the Liang family was able to marry directly with the Liu Xiu family. This directly led to the Liang family becoming the top powerful family in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
And when it comes to Liang Ji's father's generation, Liang Ji's father, Liang Shang, is a particularly shrewd person. Liang Shang struggled all his life and raised the Liang family to a higher level again. The father of the Liang family not only sent his daughter Liang Yan to the palace, but also helped his daughter win the position of queen.
The most important thing is that when Liang Shang was alive, he performed very well. This father of the Liang family has been working hard and conscientiously. Judging from himself alone, he is definitely a generation of virtuous ministers. So much so that before the death of Liang Shang, almost all circles in the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time, whether they were commoners, scholars or eunuchs, had a good reputation for the Liang family. Many ** people in the government and the opposition are also recommended by the father of the Liang family, and they are considered to be the protégés of the Liang family.
In this way, from the founding of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the era of the Liang family's father. It took four generations and nearly a hundred years for the Liang family to finally reach the position of the family of the current dynasty.
So, what did Liang Ji do in this process?
The answer is: he didn't do anything.
As the eldest son of Liang Shang, Liang Ji has been well protected since he was a child. Although he witnessed with his own eyes how his father led the Liang family to rise step by step. But because the family is relatively strong, Liang Ji has never experienced any ups and downs since he was a child. As a result, since he was a child, he had no concept of political struggle.
Perhaps, in the eyes of people like Liang Ji, power and status are what he should be born with.
And after that, when Liang Ji grew up a little, his sister Liang Yan was sent to the palace and became the queen. Because of this relationship, Liang Ji was appointed as the Huangmen squire as soon as he joined the work. Within a few years after that, Liang Ji successively served as Shizhong, Hu Ben Zhonglang General, Yue Cavalry Captain, Infantry Captain, and Zhi Jinwu.
In this process, Liang Ji actually did nothing. Even the normal job duties, he took on very little. Because among these departments where Liang Ji worked at that time, many subordinates were recommended and promoted by Liang Shang. Therefore, when Liang Ji took up his post in that department, he didn't need to do anything, and the people below would naturally finish the work for him.
Everyone can see that Liang Ji's series of position changes are actually just gilding.
In this way, after working in the capital for a few years, Liang Ji's status has been relatively high. So next, Liang Ji began to be sent to the local government as an official and served as Henan Yin. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Henan Yin was a particularly special official position. Because Henan County is a place around Luoyang. And the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty is Luoyang.
Therefore, Henan Yin's authority is basically equivalent to managing the area around the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
After being promoted to Henan Yin, Liang Ji's status at this time was actually very high. But the specific work still doesn't have to be done by him. Many of the Liang family's protégés below will still do it for him. Liang Ji can continue to live in the capital and be his shopkeeper.
But even so, next, Liang Ji quickly got into trouble.
According to historical records, after Liang Ji was promoted to Henan Yin, he was very brutal as an official, completely ignoring the law, and soon put everyone around the capital in danger. However, for this situation, everyone was afraid of the power of the Liang family and did not dare to report it, so the father of the Liang family, Liang Shang, did not know.
At this time, Liang Ji had a county commander named Lu Fang. This Lu Fang used to be a disciple of Liang Shang, and he can be regarded as a henchman of the Liang family. After seeing this situation, he felt that continuing to let Liang Ji do anything wrong would inevitably discredit the Liang family. So later, he found an opportunity to meet the father of the Liang family and found out the matter.
Judging from the records at the time, Lu Fang did this, in fact, he was also reminding the father of the Liang family to restrain Liang Ji and not to cause trouble for the Liang family. Everyone can see that Lu Fang is definitely a hardcore supporter of the Liang family, a henchman among his henchmen!
But for Lu Fang's kindness, Liang Ji was not satisfied. Not only that, Liang Ji also hated Lu Fang because of this, and felt that Lu Fang was cheating himself. So next, Liang Ji decisively found someone and directly assassinated Lu Fang. And afterwards, Liang Ji also blamed Lu Fang's enemies, and finally led to the entire family of the enemy's family, more than 100 people, all executed.
And all this is just because Liang Ji is dissatisfied, and then he is afraid that his father will blame him.
If it is an ordinary person, after doing this kind of thing, most of them will be investigated to the end. But Liang Ji relied on the power of his family to successfully cover up the past and did not receive any punishment. Not only that, but not long after, Liang Ji took a big step forward again.
In 141 AD, Liang Shang, the father of the Liang family, died. After the death of Liang Shang, Emperor Han Shun wanted to let the Liang family continue to prosper and help him sit on the throne, so he had to find someone to inherit Liang Shang's position. In this way, Liang Ji, as the eldest son of the Liang family, naturally became the best choice.
So then, just when Liang Shang had just died and was not buried, Emperor Shun of Han ordered to officially appoint Liang Ji as a general! From this time on, Liang Ji officially became the first powerful minister of the dynasty.
This is the process of Liang Ji's ascension.
In the history of the Han Dynasty, since the emergence of the position of general, no one has been able to become as easy as Liang Ji.
When Wei Qing became a general, it was the result of taking the elite of the entire Han Dynasty and completely defeating the Xiongnu in the north. Huo Guang became a general, which was the result of being cautious for decades, gaining the trust of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and then defeating other auxiliary ministers. Wang Mang was able to become a general, which was the result of his family's struggle for two hundred years, and then Wang Mang himself pretended to be a 'Confucian sage' for a lifetime.
But when he came to Liang Ji, he was able to become a general only because his father was called Liang Shang, and then his sister became the queen.
However, under the social system at that time, almost everyone thought that the queen's brother should be a general, which was a matter of course. So when Liang Ji was promoted to general, no one questioned him.
When something wrong happens, but everyone thinks it's normal at the time, what is wrong?
And then, after Liang Ji became a general, his path to power did not reach its peak. From the first minister of the dynasty to the powerful minister who really overpowered the emperor, Liang Ji still has nearly ten years to go. But in the next ten years, Liang Ji's progress is still not his own efforts.
What really prompted him to move forward was actually the protégés and former officials left behind by his father.
After Liang Ji was promoted to general, in the next two years, because Emperor Han Shun was still alive, Liang Ji was relatively peaceful during this period. But two years later, Emperor Han Shun's physical condition became worse and worse, and for the sake of his own posthumous affairs, Emperor Han Shun had to be isolated to his queen Liang Yan and the Liang family.
This time Tuo Gu undoubtedly made Liang Ji's power rise to a big step again.
In 144 AD, Emperor Shun of Han died of illness. After the death of Emperor Shun of Han, Liang Yan began to preside over the government as the queen mother. As a woman, if Liang Yan wants to completely control the government, she must rely on her mother's family. And within the Liang family, Liang Ji is the representative of power.
Under Liang Yan's arrangement, soon, the government was divided into three ministers to manage. The three ministers are Liang Ji, Zhao Jun and Li Gu. The two people in the back, one served as the Taifu and the other served as the Tai Lieutenant. It sounds like he has a lot of power, and he can compete with Liang Ji. But in fact, these two ministers were both promoted by the Liang family back then, and they were both promoted by Liang Shang, the father of the Liang family.
In this way, these two ministers will naturally take Liang Ji as the leader. As long as it is not a matter of principle, they will not oppose Liang Ji. Moreover, they can also complete the daily work for Liang Ji.
In this way, the court of the Eastern Han Dynasty easily entered the Liang and Hebei era.
On the harem side, Emperor Han Shun left only one son, who was just two years old at this time, and was known as Emperor Han Chong in later history. Emperor Han Chong was not born to Liang Yan, but to Emperor Han Shun and other concubines. So next, Liang Yan took the initiative to take Emperor Han Chong to his side to raise him, wanting to deepen the relationship between the two parties.
But unfortunately, only a year later, Emperor Han Chong died.
After the death of Emperor Han Chong, Liang Yan selected a child named Liu Zhang from other branches of the old Liu family, this is Emperor Han Qian. Because of the blood relationship of Emperor Han Qian, it is really far away. In terms of kinship, his great-grandfather and Emperor Shun's grandfather were once half-brothers. Therefore, after Emperor Han was proclaimed, there was actually no power behind it.
This situation is obviously more conducive to the Liang family taking power. And to some extent, it is also more conducive to Liang Ji taking power.
The reason why it is said to be more beneficial to Liang Ji is mainly because after Emperor Han was proclaimed, the brother and sister Liang Ji and Liang Yan gradually had differences, and the interests of the two were actually not the same.
In fact, this matter has to start with Liang Ji. Because after the death of Emperor Shun of Han, in the next two years, Liang Yan, as the empress dowager, was either raising children or choosing a new emperor. As for the government, in fact, I didn't put so much energy into it. Therefore, on the side of the government, Liang Yan handed over most things to her brother Liang Ji to deal with.
At that time, in Liang Yan's opinion, although Liang Ji's brother was not successful, he was his brother after all. Let him take power, which is naturally equivalent to taking power himself.
But later history proved that Empress Dowager Liang's idea was, to some extent, actually wrong.
Because of Liang Yan's letting go during this time, Liang Ji began to wantonly install his own people in the court. After his placement, soon, a large number of ** with Liang Ji as the core began to quickly occupy the court.
In fact, this situation not only set aside the little emperor, but even the Queen Mother Liang Yan was gradually set aside. Because many of the people promoted by Liang Ji are relatives of his daughter-in-law, or ** headed by him. And like Lu Fang, who reported Liang Ji before, a person who is loyal to the Liang family but not loyal to Liang Ji, Liang Ji is basically useless.
In this way, two years later, most of the entire court is already Liang Ji's people. Most of the remaining half were recommended by the Liang family's father back then. For example, the Tai Lieutenant Li Gu belongs to the leader of the latter.
At this stage, Liang Ji's power has undoubtedly gone one step further. The military power of the entire capital, the appointment and dismissal of high-level personnel, and the central decision-making power are all in the hands of the Liang family. And within the Liang family, it is Liang Ji who has the final say.
So after that, there was the famous 'poisoning of the emperor incident'.
In 146 AD, when he was in court one day, Liang Ji discussed government affairs with his ministers, and he was very arrogant. Then, the little emperor Liu Zhang felt a little unbearable, and directly said, "This is a general."
When he said this, the little emperor was just nine years old, and he didn't have much ability in politics, so he probably said it casually. But his words aroused Liang Ji's jealousy. Liang Ji soon discovered that the little emperor did not have a good impression of him. And the little emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty, most of them were precocious, and the previous Emperor Shun of the Han Dynasty launched a coup d'état when he was ten years old and ascended the throne.
If Emperor Han Zhen is allowed to continue to be the emperor, it won't be long before he will be like Emperor Shun of Han back then, directly launching a coup d'état and completely destroying the Liang family.
In this regard, Liang Ji does not intend to continue to forbear. He directly contacted the eunuchs he had planted in the palace, and then put the poison that had been prepared into the food of Emperor Han Qian.
Regarding Liang Ji's poisoning, there has always been a lot of controversy in later generations. The most critical point of controversy is that when this incident happened, did Liang Yan, the queen mother, know in advance? Many people believe that since Liang Ji poisoned the palace, it is impossible for Liang Yan, the queen mother, not to know about it, and it is very likely that Liang Yan acquiesced.
But if you look at the historical materials at the time, this matter really has nothing to do with Liang Yan. It is very likely that Liang Ji really made his own initiative at that time, and poisoned the little emperor without Liang Yan's knowledge.
And after the little emperor was poisoned, an even more ironic scene appeared.
Because the toxicity of the poison was relatively low at that time, the little emperor reacted quickly after taking the poison, but he was not immediately poisoned. Then, the little emperor immediately asked the people around him to go to find Taiwei Li Gu to enter the palace. And this time, when Li Gu was urgently found, the little emperor was not dead, and he could still speak.
And after seeing Li Gu, the little emperor said to Li Gu: "I just had dinner, and now I feel sick to my stomach." Give me some water, let me induce vomiting, maybe I'll still live. ”
But at this time, Liang Ji also arrived at the same time. Faced with the little emperor's request, Liang Ji decisively refused, and prevented Li Gu and the others from looking for water on the grounds that he was afraid of vomiting and could not drink water.
In this way, in the end, the nine-year-old little emperor was poisoned alive in front of two important court ministers.
Faced with the death of the little emperor, Li Gu instantly became angry. Although Li Gu was promoted by the Liang family, he did not plan to rebel with the Liang family, let alone poison the emperor. So soon, Li Gu said that he would thoroughly investigate the cause of the emperor's death, and wanted to go to the queen mother to complain!
But after Liang Ji learned about this, he didn't care. After that, just three days after the little emperor was poisoned, Liang Ji used his power to remove Li Gu from power. As for Zhao Jun, another important minister of the court, he had died of illness before this.
And with Li Gu being dismissed, next, Liang Ji completely covered the sky and controlled all the power. After this, Liang Ji and his sister selected another Eastern Han clan Liu Zhi and became the new emperor, this is Emperor Huan of Han. And later, the Liang family once again sent Liang Ji's other sister Liang Nuying into the palace and became the queen of Emperor Huan of Han.
In this way, the queen and the queen mother in the palace are Liang Ji's younger sisters. And those ministers in the court were all changed by Liang Ji. All important positions were replaced by Liang Ji with his own manpower.
As a result, in the early days of Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty, Liang Ji's power finally reached its peak. At this time, Liang Ji was only one step away from usurping the throne.
Looking back on the history of Liang Ji's ascendancy, we will find that Liang Ji was able to take power, but there are actually very few reasons for himself. At least, compared with Huo Guang, Wang Mang, Cao Cao and others, who are also powerful ministers, Liang Ji, a powerful minister, is too easy to get.
Or, this is the truth that bad money overwhelms good money.
And Liang Ji did this, and the consequences were actually very serious. Because of his arbitrary abuse of power, in those years, almost no one worked in the middle and upper classes of the entire Eastern Han Dynasty. Most of the upright ministers are being suppressed. In this way, the people at the bottom will naturally suffer even more.
When many people read Liang Ji's story, their attention is on Liang Ji, and very few people pay attention to the situation of the middle and lower classes in the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time. And if we read a little more of the official history and read the records of the reign of Emperor Zhen of the Han Dynasty in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, we will see a different Eastern Han Dynasty.
On the nineteenth day of the first month of 145 AD, Emperor Liu Zhang of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne. At the end of the first month, the Guangling thief Zhang Ying and others rebelled, and Xu Feng and others attacked and killed Quyang and Dongcheng. In March, the Jiujiang thief Ma Mian, who proclaimed himself the "Yellow Emperor", rebelled and was suppressed. In April, Danyang thieves and Lu Gong besieged the city and burned down the post house houses.
In July, the Lujiang thieves attacked Xunyang and then attacked Xutai. In November, the Liyang thief Hua Meng proclaimed himself the "Black Emperor" and attacked and killed Yang Cen, the Taishou of Jiujiang.
Within a year of Emperor Qian's accession to the throne, local uprisings began to break out frequently in the Eastern Han Dynasty. These people, who were called 'thieves' in the history books, were finally suppressed, but they showed the resistance of the people at the bottom at that time.
Obviously, by this time, the people everywhere were already very dissatisfied with the imperial court. Because of the long-term inaction of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the country quickly got out of control, and the pressure on the people increased.
And all this, in the final analysis, I am afraid that it must be counted on Liang Ji's head. If it weren't for his abuse of power, reusing his cronies at will, and degrading the virtuous, the life of the people of the Eastern Han Dynasty would probably be a little better.
On the way home is the New Year