His life was a roller coaster ride, leaving only money in the end
On April 17, 74 BC, Emperor Liu Fuling of the Han Zhao Dynasty died suddenly at the age of 21. Because his queen was only 15 years old at the time and could not have children, and Huo Guang did not allow him to pamper other palace concubines, Liu Fuling did not leave any heirs, which made the Manchu civil and military very troublesome.
The emperor has no children, so he can only appoint another one from among the kings, but this is a very sensitive matter, and Huo Guang has no idea where to start for a while. However, Huo Guang, as the general Da Sima, decided to come forward, he stabilized everyone's emotions, and said that when the sky fell, he would also stand up.
Original text: Emperor Wu Liu Che has six sons, in addition to the youngest son Liu Fuling ascended the throne as the king, among the other five sons, the eldest son Liu Yi died of the witch Gu disaster, the third son Yan King Liu Dan committed suicide due to the defeat of the rebellion, the second son Liu Hong, the king of Qi, and the fifth son Liu Ji, the king of Changyi, have already died, and finally there is only one fourth son, Liu Xu, the king of Guangling, who thinks that the emperor should be his.
But Huo Guang disagreed, and this Liu Xu gave him a headache. Liu Xu gave Huo Guang a headache for two things: first, Liu Xu was strong, could carry the tripod, and could fight with bears and beasts empty-handed, and dozens of strong men couldn't get close to him; At the same time, he is uninhibited and likes to advocate fun and travel; In short, this guy is too fierce and too wavelike, once he angers Long Yan, Huo Guang can't be killed by him!
Second, Liu Xu and Liu Dan were born to the same mother, and they have a close relationship, Liu Dan's rebellion was killed by Huo Guang back then, and now if he becomes the emperor, will Huo Guang and the others still have a way to live?
Moreover, there has never been such a precedent in the Han Dynasty for the elder brother to inherit the throne of the younger brother, which is a violation of etiquette. It seems that Liu Xu can't be chosen (Note 2), so who should he choose?
Huo Guang suddenly remembered that Liu Ji, the king of Changyi, who died early, also had a son, Liu Henian, who was nineteen years old, and he was very young, so he could first pass him on to Liu Fuling as his son, so as to become the emperor, wouldn't it be appropriate?
More importantly, Liu He's parents died, his uncle Li Ji and Li Yannian raped the harem and were exterminated, and another uncle Li Guangli also fled to the Xiongnu and died.
Okay, just pick him! Regarding this matter, General Zhao Chongguo resolutely stood on Huo Guang's side. Stability, the key is for stability, with Liu Xu's temper, if he becomes the Son of Heaven, he will inevitably fight with Huo Guang** day and night.
Can the country still be good? The news spread to Changyi (now Juye, Shandong), Liu He was too surprised, the sky, the earth, this is the big pie that the fairy sister threw down to me, so he immediately packed up his baggage, ran all the way to the dead horse, and galloped to Chang'an, that is, the Son of Heaven, the monarchs and ministers of the Manchu Dynasty, all of whom were happy.
Liu He became the Son of Heaven, but caused a tragedy. The emperor and his ministers were deeply involved. Liu He lost the freedom and happiness he had in Changyi, and he had to call his uncle Liu Fuling, who was two years older than him, his stepfather, and keep filial piety and weep for him.
At the same time, he also has to deal with a bunch of old ministers, all of whom are boring and boring. In order to change this situation, Liu He promoted his former courtiers and let them become big officials in Chang'an, accompany him for pleasure, and at the same time strengthen his own strength.
However, Huo Guang also regretted Liu He's actions. Liu He's greed for extravagance, disrespect for etiquette, robbing the people's daughters, feasting and noisy, and fornicating with Emperor Zhao's palace concubines during the mourning period of the first emperor made him ungrateful and disrespectful to the old ministers of the first emperor.
He also brought more than 200 servants of Changyi to Chang'an, and promoted them to the next level, filling the inner court, in a vain attempt to seize power. Huo Guang was very dissatisfied with this, and remembered the actions of Emperor Liu Heng of the Han Dynasty, who vigorously promoted the former ministers of the country and controlled the power of the Praetorian Guard.
However, Liu He brought more than 200 people who grabbed jobs in one go and tried to control the palace. This touched Huo Guang's bottom line, and he decided to take action immediately and abolish Liu He.
At the enlarged meeting of the Standing Committee on June 28, Huo Guang summoned all the **, liege, generals, and civilian staff officers to propose the abolition of Liu He. Although the ministers didn't dare to answer, Huo Guang's younger brother Tian Yannian raised his sword and shouted: "This is for the country and the people. ”
Everyone was startled and hurriedly raised their hands to pass, waste! However, there is no precedent in history for the abolition of a monarch by a courtier. Although it is said that in the era of the ancient aristocratic republic, Yi Yin, the founding assistant minister of the Shang Dynasty, once deposed the Shang king Taijia, but that is a legend.
Since the Qin Emperor and Han Wu established the foundation of the emperor system, the emperor is the supreme and transcendent existence of the mandate of heaven, who can abolish him?
Huo Guang and the others found a small opportunity. According to the etiquette of the Han Dynasty, after the new emperor ascended the throne, he had to visit the temple of Emperor Gao in person in order to truly complete all the enthronement ceremonies.
And Liu He has been on the throne for twenty-seven days at this time, but he has not yet visited the high temple, which means that he has not accepted the mandate of heaven, and can only be regarded as a "trainee emperor".
Perhaps Huo Guang was stalling for time in order to further investigate, persuade and plan. Therefore, on the same day, Huo Guang, Zhao Chongguo and other 31 important ministers jointly wrote to the Queen Mother to "drive Liu He".
This was the first emperor in Chinese history to be deposed, known as the Emperor of the Han Dynasty. Originally, the ministers planned to exile Liu He to Fangling, but the Empress Dowager was gracious and finally sent him back to Changyi.
However, the status of the king of Changyi was no longer suitable for him, and his country was changed to Sanyang-gun, and he became a concubine and was placed under house arrest in the former Changyi royal palace. Fortunately, he kept all the royal family property and received a pension allowance of 2,000 households.
Although Liu He was still very young at the time.
In the earth-shattering event of abolishing the monarch with ministers, Huo Guang's high position and power, the support of Prime Minister Yang Chang and the later general Zhao Chongguo played a crucial role. Yang Chang was born in the Hongnong Yang family, was Sima Qian's son-in-law, and was very prestigious among scholars; General Zhao, on the other hand, was known for his fairness and dignity and had a profound influence on the military circles.
Zhao Chongguo is not only good at fighting, but also understands politics, is familiar with officialdom, and can stand in line, and is sincere and impeccable, so no matter the wind and rain, he can be unswerving.
Next, let's talk about Liu He's ending. After Liu He had been a duke for eleven years, the later emperor Emperor Xuan of Han decided to give him a reasonable arrangement. After investigation, Liu He behaved very well in Changyi, did not do anything wrong, and everyone sympathized with his suffering, so Emperor Xuan was lenient, lifted his house arrest, and named him the Marquis of Haidu, with 4,000 households.
Although the Marquis of Haihuang is located in the wild and humid land south of the Yangtze River (in today's Nanbei, Jiangxi), and the 4,000-household Hou State is already very large, Liu He's sealing here is of great significance to the development of the history of southern China.
Liu He was sent to Jiangnan by Emperor Xuan, not only to eliminate his political influence, but also to prohibit him from participating in the activities of sacrificing to the temple to prevent him from colluding with the clan princes or being used.
Liu He was indignant about this, coupled with severe rheumatoid arthritis, his physical condition deteriorated, and finally died of depression four years later at the age of 34.
When Emperor Xuan heard the news of his cousin's untimely death, he didn't know what kind of mood he would have, whether he would feel sympathy or be glad that he had solved another trouble? Although politically frustrated, Liu He's life was very luxurious.
Archaeologists have found a lot of wealth in the tomb of the Marquis of Haiyang in Nanchang, including a mountain of copper coins weighing more than a dozen tons and priceless gold objects. In addition, since Emperor Xuan forbade him to use jade clothes, his tomb used the more precious gold-threaded glazed mat, and a hundred gold cakes were placed at the time of burial.
Picture: A visit to the tomb of the golden glazed mat was shocked, and 20,000 pieces of burial goods were found, which are exquisite, and are now on display in the Jiangxi Provincial Museum. It shows that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty deeply favored Mrs. Li's mother and son, even if they do not count their cultural relics and artistic value, these ** copper coins and treasures are worth billions.
This was the legendary life of the shortest-reigning emperor in the history of the Han Dynasty, who had almost nothing but wealth and a reputation that was notorious for his mesophobia.
Although Liu He was accused of doing a lot of bad things during his time as emperor, it was probably because he lost his father at a young age and lacked discipline, rather than because he was a bad person. His former teacher, Wang Shi, was a great Confucian in "Lu Shi", and his students were also very well-known.
Liu He's Confucian literacy will not be low. The absurd image of Liu He in the historical record may have been fictional, in order to establish the legitimacy of future emperors. Liu He's biggest mistake was to underestimate the core interests of the old ministers and oversimplify the power struggle.
As a vassal king who has no foundation in the imperial court, if he wants to enter Beijing as an emperor, there is only one way to go, that is, to completely obey the arrangements of Huo Guang and other supporting ministers, safeguard their interests, and let them have no reason to depose themselves, and then wait for Huo Guang's death with the help of the laws of nature, just like the later Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty.
Another way is to reward these old ministers with official titles and rewards, in exchange for installing cronies in the forbidden army, and then waiting for the time to be ripe before seizing power, just like the previous Emperor Wen Liu Heng.
But Liu He did not choose these two paths, but engaged in some inexplicable small actions, and the only way to go was to be deposed. Of course, judging from the development of later events, this incident of abolition of the emperor is not as simple as it seems.
According to the "Hanshu Huo Guang Biography", after Liu He was deposed, more than 200 of his former ministers were executed by Huo Guang for the crimes of "dereliction of duty in assistance" and "failure to report knowledge". ”
It seems that there are some undocumented behind-the-scenes circumstances in the deposition of the new emperor. There may be a situation: the former ministers of the king of Changyi planned to get rid of Huo Guang and unify the power of the side to the new emperor, but apparently their coup plan was leaked, and Huo Guang was the first to attack.
If this assumption is true, then among the more than 200 former ministers of the king of Changyi, Wang Ji, the lieutenant of the state of Changyi who had been pardoned and survived, and Gong Sui, the lieutenant of Lang Zhongling, who had been pardoned and survived, could be the whistleblowers of the coup plan.
It is very unrealistic for a newcomer to want to take control of Chang'an's army and confront the entrenched Huo Guang. Liu He's idea was even more naïve, he thought that he could control the palace ban by replacing a guard or changing the color of the festival, but he didn't know that Huo Guang had been operating in the Inner Dynasty for many years, and the forbidden army Lang Wei was Huo Guang's people, who would listen to a newcomer and a foreign group with no reputation?
Wang Ji and Gong Sui were the real people who knew the times, and they grasped military power when they served as military attachés in Changyi State. Gong Sui later became the commander of Bohai Taishou and Shui Heng, and Wang Ji became a doctor and doctor, and they all got rid of the identity of "Zuoguan" and became famous ministers during the Xuan Emperor period.