Chapter 115 Emperor Wen of Han
【Ding Dong——Welcome to watch the historical live broadcast】

[Our protagonist in this issue, Emperor Wen of Han]

Tang Dynasty, Zhenguan period.

Li Shimin still admired the moral governance of Emperor Taizong of Han, Liu Heng: "In the past, Emperor Wen of Han was about to build a terrace, but he was reluctant to give up the property of ten families. Such a virtuous person is as great as heaven and earth, and his virtues are spread all over the world."

【Liu Heng ascended the throne at the beginning of the Han Dynasty when there was no precedent, and consolidated the rule of the Han Dynasty. During his reign, he adopted a policy of light taxes and levies, allowing the people to recuperate and gradually restore the national strength. He not only kept the wealth of the people, but also secured the people and consolidated the country, laying a solid foundation for the continued development of the Han Dynasty. At the same time, he also took a series of measures to stabilize the surrounding areas, giving the Han Dynasty a chance to breathe and develop.

He was the perfect successor of the Han Dynasty at that time, the protector of all ordinary people in the Han Dynasty, and a manipulator of government affairs with a ulterior motive. 】

Liu Bang keenly grasped the wording: When he heard these comments, he couldn't help but fall into deep thought. He keenly grasped the phrase "the perfect heir at that time", and couldn't help but wonder when this "at that time" actually referred to.

[Emperor Wen of Han, also the fifth emperor of the Han Dynasty, was the fourth son of Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Heng.]

"Huh? The fifth?" Liu Bang was not too surprised that Liu Heng became the emperor, after all, he was his son, but this fifth one did surprise him.

Liu Heng was still very young at this time, and he was not considered as the next emperor - so Liu Heng was definitely not the second emperor of the Han Dynasty, but the fact that he was ranked fifth also fully demonstrated that there was a certain confusion in the previous succession to the throne.

However, it is understandable that the fact that Liu Heng, as one of the kings who was granted a fiefdom, was able to ascend to the throne itself shows that there were problems in the central government.

However, this can also explain the phrase "the perfect heir to the Han Dynasty at that time", because he is now young, so there must be an appropriate time for him to truly inherit the throne.

Han Dynasty, during the reign of Empress Gao.

"It's the King of Dai," Empress Lu said slowly, her thoughts unrecognizable.

But she knew very well that if a small clan joined a big clan, then it would be obvious what happened to the big clan - with Liu Ying's level, it was not surprising that something happened to her, especially after her death, the Lu family could not help her...

It’s possible that the entire family may be wiped out.

Be it the kings of the Han Dynasty, or those meritorious officials, they will never let go of anyone who has anything to do with the Lu family.

But is she going to give up her power now?

How is that possible? Political struggles do not allow for a single step back.

However, no one had noticed Liu Heng in the past, but now it seems that he is a man of means - the group of meritorious officials chose him to be the new emperor, not because of his talent, but because they thought such an emperor is easy to control.

As for having the posthumous title of Wen, even if Liu Heng did not suppress these people in turn, at least he was able to compete with them and was not controlled by them.

Most of the later dynasties were aware of Liu Heng's benevolent rule and praised it highly.

Even for later dynasties, due to the great distance between them, Emperor Wen of Han, Liu Heng, has become a symbol and is hailed as "the first wise king after three dynasties."

[Liu Heng, Emperor Wen of Han, was the fifth emperor of the Han Dynasty.

The four emperors before him were Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang, Emperor Hui Liu Ying, Emperor Shao Liu Gong, and Emperor Shao Liu Hong. Among them, the two Emperor Shao were sons of Emperor Hui Liu Ying.

Logically speaking, as a local vassal king, Liu Heng should not have ascended the throne, especially since Emperor Hui Liu Ying had a son.

But the situation in the early Han Dynasty was different.

In itself, as the founding period of a dynasty, various laws have not yet been finalized, and the same is true for the succession to the throne. Therefore, most of the Taizong emperors in our story have unique ways of ascending the throne - most of these Taizongs are second-generation emperors.

As for the Han Dynasty, as the first dynasty after the Qin Dynasty unified the world, the Han Dynasty had no examples to refer to - the Qin Dynasty also did not leave any cases suitable for reference. Hu Hai was not a good example and had no legitimate reference value. 】

Qin Dynasty.

Ying Zheng's face suddenly turned dark. He was stabbed in the heart and died.

[When Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang started his army, he was already 48 years old, and it took him seven years to unify the country. But even so, his sons, except for his eldest son Liu Fei, including his son with his wife Lu Zhi, were all still young.

After Liu Bang ascended the throne, he faced extremely complex problems: in order to ensure the stability of the Han Dynasty, he adopted the system of enfeoffment, but in order to unify the country, he did not want to give up the county system, so he formed a parallel system of enfeoffment and county system. While dividing the country into counties, he also enfeoffed many princes of different surnames.

But this was only a temporary measure. After the world was basically stable, Liu Bang began to eliminate the kings of different surnames, and made his own descendants kings, asking them to protect the Liu family's kingdom.

There is another key reason for doing this: Liu Bang is really old!

In addition, his health was not good after several years of fighting. And the fact is that Liu Bang died eight years after he became emperor. At that time, Liu Bang's adult sons were only his eldest son Liu Fei and Liu Ying, the son of Empress Lu, who was only sixteen years old. The oldest of his other sons was only ten years old.

In such a situation, the choice of successor is extremely important. If you are not careful, the Han Dynasty may end in the second generation like the Qin Dynasty, or the emperor may become a mascot like the later Zhou emperor.

The early years of the Han Dynasty.

Liu Bang sighed. No matter how capable his son Liu Heng was, his age was an unavoidable flaw. As for Bo Ji... he really didn't see any political ability of this woman, and she didn't have a powerful enough maternal family.

She is indeed gentle, but the Han Dynasty does not need a gentle queen mother. If the throne is passed to Liu Heng, the emperor is young and must rely on the queen mother. However, a gentle queen mother does not seem to have any political means, and does not have a strong mother family...

He smiled. It was not so much that he chose Liu Ying, but rather that he saw the ability of Lu Zhi and chose her as the transitional candidate.

——How could he not know what Liu Ying was like?
[The most legitimate candidate was naturally Liu Ying, the son of Liu Bang and his wife Lu Zhi.

Before he became emperor, when he was still the King of Han, Liu Bang made Liu Ying the crown prince; later when he became emperor, he also changed Liu Ying from a crown prince to the crown prince.

But Liu Ying's character was really unlike Liu Bang's, nor like Lu Zhi's. He was not strong and brave, but rather kind and weak. Therefore, Liu Bang had many dissatisfactions with him. At this time, Concubine Qi was favored by Liu Bang, and her son Liu Ruyi was very similar to Liu Bang. Compared with the unfavored Lu Zhi and the disliked Liu Ying, Liu Bang had the idea of ​​changing the crown prince.

Qin Dynasty.

"Then Liu Ying should have found a way, right?" a minister said. No matter how kind-hearted he was, he should know the importance of the position of crown prince, not only to him, but also to his mother.

No matter how kind and weak a person is, he will at least protect the interests of himself and his family. What's more, Liu Ying was already the crown prince, so he should have a clearer understanding of this aspect.

[After learning of Liu Bang's idea, Lu Zhi asked Zhang Liang for advice through her brother Lu Shizhi. Zhang Liang suggested that they invite the Four Elders of Shangshan to come out of seclusion.

So, Lu Zhi sent someone to invite the Four Elders of Shangshan out with the prince's handwritten letter and a generous gift.

At the same time, Lu Zhi, feeling that her and her son's status was shaky, finally understood a key point: power. She must have power herself, and relying on others is ultimately a bad idea.

As a result, she participated more actively in the government affairs, assisting Liu Bang in eliminating various meritorious officials and kings of different surnames. Among them, the one that was most closely related to her was the death of Han Xin, Marquis of Huaiyin, and Peng Yue, King of Liang.

This series of events not only expanded Lu Zhi's prestige and voice, but also strengthened Liu Ying's power and allowed Liu Bang to see Lu Zhi's ability.

The early years of the Han Dynasty.

Liu Bang raised his eyebrows. He did not look at Lu Zhi beside him, because he could guess Lu Zhi's reaction, which was no reaction, at least it seemed that way.

However, Liu Ying really did not surprise him. With such a temperament and such skills, how could he not be like his son! Not only was he not like him, but he was also not like Lu Zhi, the woman.

It’s no wonder that I don’t like this son.

So, how did he develop this kind of character? He asked himself if he had treated Liu Ying too badly. He had given him all the necessary education and hired famous teachers. Most importantly, Liu Ying was not someone who had never seen war and lived in a warm environment. How could he not have a strong and ruthless character?

On the contrary, the things that Lu Zhi did sound more reliable and she seemed capable of shouldering the great cause of ruling the country.

Madam Qi, on the other hand, although indeed beautiful and charming, and of a temperament that suited his taste, did not have any outstanding political acumen. Before he died, he would have warned her, hoping that she would be obedient, otherwise, her fate would probably not be good.

Tang Dynasty, Zhenguan period.

Li Shimin shook his head: "Emperor Hui is kind, but..."

Looking through the history books, Liu Ying was indeed kind, but his kindness was a little inappropriate - he was like this when he was still the crown prince and had not yet ascended the throne, and he was still like this after he ascended the throne as emperor.

More importantly, since both were equally benevolent, why was Emperor Wen's situation and evaluation so much higher than his? Although history books always portray Emperor Wen as a benevolent monarch, and even attribute everything else to his benevolence, as emperors, no emperor with a brain would think so.

This is not to deny Emperor Wen's benevolence, but to see that behind Emperor Wen's benevolence is tenacity, sharpness, and means. Even though Liu Heng's moral level is much higher than that of the Han emperors, he actually still has a series of characteristics of the Han Liu family.

Hmm? Li Shimin suddenly thought of a question: Does Liu Ying really not have those characteristics of Liu?
Not necessarily, but the people he uses these traits on...

[After Liu Bang's death, Liu Ying ascended the throne and became Emperor Hui of Han, without a temple name.

During Liu Ying's reign, power was basically controlled by Lu Zhi. She was in charge of the world, issued decrees, respected the teachings of Huang Lao, pursued the principle of governing by inaction, implemented a policy of resting the people, abolished the law on carrying books, and encouraged people to collect and donate books.

If this had continued, the Lu family would naturally decline after Liu Ying's son grew up and Lu Zhi passed away. As blood relatives, the power of the Lu family would naturally return to Liu Ying's descendants, which means that the handover would be relatively smooth. In addition, Lu Zhi's suppression of kings of different surnames and meritorious officials further concentrated power in the hands of the emperor.

In this way, the Han Dynasty could probably realize Liu Bang's wish, that is, the country would be stable and the emperor would truly become an "emperor" rather than a common ruler like Zhou.

However, the good times did not last long, and the plan was ultimately not completed.

The early years of the Han Dynasty.

Liu Bang nodded. He expected that power would go to Lü Zhi after Liu Ying ascended the throne. He didn't care. As long as the world was still his Liu family, it was fine. As for Lü Zhi, she was Liu Ying's mother. The legitimacy of her power came from her status as the queen and queen mother. The Lü family was a meritorious service to the Han Dynasty. Their interests were consistent with Liu Ying and the Han Dynasty. As long as the interests were consistent, there would be no problem for the Han Dynasty.

And suppressing the princes and meritorious officials of different surnames? That would be even better!
Since he established the Han Dynasty, he has been thinking about how to weaken the power of the group of meritorious officials, how to clip the wings of those kings of different surnames, and even abolish them. If his successor, Lu Zhi, can stick to this policy, it will be the best thing for the imperial power of the Han Dynasty.

This is also the reason why he didn't care when he heard that Lu Zhi was related to the deaths of Han Xin and Ying Bu.

He established the Han Dynasty in the hope that it would last for thousands of years, rather than being squeezed by local princes; he ascended the throne and became emperor because he wanted to become an emperor like Qin Shihuang, rather than the ruler of the world like the Zhou emperor.

It's just - what went wrong?!

Liu Bang's eyelids jumped, and he couldn't help but look at Lu Zhi, only to see that she was also frowning. The two couples, who had long been estranged in appearance and spirit, looked at each other and thought of Liu Heng's joining the main clan: Liu Ying was dead? !

Liu Ying, on the other hand, became increasingly unhappy after seeing his mother's close relationship with the deaths of Han Xin and Ying Bu, and after seeing his mother suppressing the kings of different surnames and the group of meritorious officials. His mother's achievements were indeed outstanding, but weren't they a bit cruel?
But when he looked up and looked at Lu Zhi, he found that his mother did not even look at him, and it was obvious that she did not care about these things; he looked at his father again, but found that Liu Bang also did not care about it.

Liu Ying: “…”

Song Dynasty, the first year of Kaibao.

Zhao Kuangyin sighed: "That's true. After Emperor Hui's death, all the progress was disrupted." Just as the miracle said, if the normal process - the normal process of the Han Dynasty was followed, the power of Empress Lu would naturally be transferred, the Lu family would naturally end, and the emperor would naturally take power.

It all happened smoothly and naturally.

Although the Song Dynasty did not advocate foreign relatives in power, nor did they advocate the empress dowager being regent or even ruling the country, the Han Dynasty was different after all. It was normal for foreign relatives to be in power or for the empress dowager to be regent and rule the country, and it was also allowed by the emperor. For the emperors at that time, choosing foreign relatives to share some power was even the most common choice.

Therefore, according to the style of the Han Dynasty, if Liu Ying had lived for another thirty or forty years, sat firmly on the throne, and had children of similar age, then those chaos might not have necessarily occurred.

It’s a pity that Liu Ying died too early!
(End of this chapter)