Xiang Yu fights the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 120 The Curse of the Party
Luo Wei told Xiang Yu that the Eastern Han Dynasty had been greatly influenced by the two forces of foreign relatives and eunuchs for a long time. After these two forces did all kinds of terrible things in order to compete for power and profit, the influence of the Eastern Han imperial power has always been are continuing to decline.

In contrast, relatives are relatively weak in their attachment to the imperial power. The root of their supremacy lies in their status as relatives of the emperor, and then they gradually occupy important positions in the Eastern Han court by virtue of their family power. The position of the relatives changes with the change of the emperor's throne, but relatively speaking, the position of the relatives is relatively stable, because the identity of the relatives of the emperor guarantees that even if they lose power, they will not encounter disasters that can destroy the entire family. The relatives lost their original power.

Xiang Yu was very surprised that the influence of the relatives of the Eastern Han Dynasty was so powerful, so Luo Wei continued to tell Xiang Yu the specific cases of some emperors in the Eastern Han Dynasty in more detail, so that Xiang Yu could better understand the whole story.

Luo Wei told Xiang Yu that shortly after Emperor He ascended the throne in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a dictatorship of Empress Dou. Later, during Emperor Heng's period, the eunuchs launched a coup to wipe out the forces of Liang's relatives. The family became the most powerful foreign relatives in the ruling group of the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time. They all relied on their surnames to be the empress dowagers, especially during the reign of the Liang family's relatives.The phenomenon that the relatives in the Eastern Han Dynasty were powerful and good at state affairs also reached its peak in the Liangji period.

Xiang Yu seemed to be listening very seriously, and Luo Wei saw Xiang Yu's eagerness to learn, so he continued to tell him about the eunuch.

Luo Wei told Xiang Yu that the power of eunuchs was another large group in the political struggles of the Eastern Han Dynasty. They were initially controlled by their relatives and imperial power. However, with the expansion of the power of foreign relatives and the decline of imperial power, eunuchs were the main reliance of the emperor who wanted to reshape the imperial power at that time. With the gradual rise in the complex and chaotic political arena of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Different from relatives, the power of eunuchs basically comes from the emperor himself. If the emperor likes and trusts them, they will be able to gain power accordingly. If they lose the trust and love of the emperor, they will lose everything completely. The emperor's dependence is very large. In a sense, eunuchs do care more about the emperor than their relatives and protect the interests of the emperor. Therefore, in many cases, the emperor will be more inclined to eunuchs between eunuchs and relatives.

In the period of Emperor He, with the support of the emperor, the eunuchs headed by Zheng Zhong launched a coup to wipe out Dou's relatives. The power to counterbalance.

Later, the two major forces of relatives and eunuchs stood side by side with the court in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and their influence grew. On the contrary, the imperial power gradually fell to the point where they could only seek survival in the gap between the two, and some emperors themselves His wealth and life are also in their hands.

Eunuchs and foreign relatives, the two political cancers of the Eastern Han Dynasty who relied on imperial power to make a fortune, seriously hindered the advancement of the majority of students and officials in the Eastern Han Dynasty. They supported party members and accepted bribes, making the officialdom of the Eastern Han Dynasty a mess. Political struggle against the dictatorship of foreign relatives and eunuchs.

Xiang Yu gradually understood when he heard this. He had learned some knowledge about the political structure of the Han Dynasty and the way of governing the world from some places, but it was only superficial information from his population. He also wanted to know. What kind of skills did the ignorant Liu Bang descendants rely on to maintain this dynasty for nearly 400 years.

Luo Wei continued to narrate that the relatives and eunuchs took turns to control the government in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, and there was even a situation of cooperation and sharing the government in the period of Emperor An. This approach of the two major forces completely ignored the emperor and the officials in the Eastern Han Dynasty , They just blindly want to satisfy their infinitely greedy political desires, and seek the greatest economic benefits for themselves and their forces through their political privileges.The foreign relatives directly inserted all the family members with the same surname into the bureaucratic group of the Eastern Han Dynasty through their lofty status, and some even directly entered the decision-making organs and military departments.

Eunuchs were also able to rely on their unique advantages of frequent contact with the emperor to continuously issue edicts to officials of the Eastern Han Dynasty by controlling the emperor, and to handle government affairs with their own will. Just imagine that the state affairs of the entire Eastern Han Dynasty were handled by these eunuchs with no political experience. To deal with it, how can the future direction of the Eastern Han Dynasty be bright?Since Emperor He, the political situation of the Eastern Han Dynasty has never experienced a stable development.

The political situation in the Eastern Han Dynasty became increasingly dark, so that many officials had long since lost their ambitions of being officials, the country, the family, and the people. The Confucian idea of ​​governing the country was instantly overshadowed by this chaotic party struggle.The entire imperial court was either partisans supported by foreign relatives through their years of management, or corrupt officials who paid huge bribes to the eunuchs.In order to ensure their stable control over the Eastern Han Dynasty, these foreign relatives and eunuch forces naturally had to do their best to support the forces they needed.

And those honest and honest officials were not reused for a long time because they were very dissatisfied with the monopoly of eunuchs and foreign relatives and the increasingly serious party struggle.Those Tai students who were deeply educated in Confucianism governing the country also believed that these foreign relatives and eunuch forces had disrupted the political situation of the Eastern Han Dynasty, so the two sides began to unite against the dictatorship of foreign relatives and eunuchs.

Xiang Yuxin said that the corruption of the Eastern Han Dynasty looked more terrible than the tyranny of the Qin Dynasty. When the government of a country is completely controlled by these foreign relatives and eunuchs who only have their own power and interests in their eyes, how can they care about the lives of ordinary people? , Xiang Yu had also personally witnessed the miserable lives of ordinary people everywhere before the Yellow Turban Uprising.

Xiang Yu asked Luo Wei, faced with this situation, did no one among the emperor and ministers think of a way to make some changes?

Luo Wei continued to tell Xiang Yu that facing relatives and eunuchs was an expression of growing domineering and domineering power. Many officials in the Eastern Han Dynasty had already succumbed to their powerful political influence, and they could only keep silent about the chaotic political situation at that time.

Therefore, in the beginning of the struggle against the dictatorship of foreign relatives and eunuchs, there were only a few enlightened officials. These officials were generally people with certain qualifications and official positions in the central ruling group, such as Situ Yuan'an and Sikong Renkai in the Hedi period. They were all senior officials with certain prestige in the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time.

The era that Yuan An and Ren Wei lived in was the period of Dou's relatives' dictatorship and disasters. Before that, there was no dictatorship of foreign relatives in the Eastern Han Dynasty, so they were very disgusted with this phenomenon.At that time, the Dou family was in full swing, arrogant and domineering. Yuan An and Ren Kai secretly discussed and decided to suppress the arrogance of the Dou family, and directly dismissed nearly 40 Dou family officials in the local prefectures and counties at that time.

When the relatives of the Deng family came to power, the Empress Dowager Deng, in order to stabilize her dominance of the government and the interests of the Deng family, advocated that the eldest son of Hedi, who was already in charge at the time, was firmly opposed by the then Sikong Zhouzhang.Zhou Zhang discussed with some enlightened officials to launch a coup at night, but the matter came to light and Zhou Zhang was forced to commit suicide.In the face of the opposition of these big officials in the court, the relatives and eunuchs can be said to be relentless. In order to maintain their political privileges and ruling interests, they will do everything possible.

When Yan's relatives were in power, they were in charge of the government together with the eunuchs at that time. The then Taiwei Yang Zhen wrote to Emperor An that Yan and the eunuchs were in trouble for the court, and detailed the heinous crimes they committed.Who knew that this memorandum never reached Emperor An at all, and was directly intercepted by the eunuch and handed over to Empress Dowager Yan, Yang Zhen was killed.In 142 A.D., Zhang Gang, who was then the supervisor of the censor, came to the local government to supervise government affairs, directly challenged his relatives and party members Du Qiao and others arranged by the eunuchs in the local area, and punished them severely. The news spread to the central government, and the entire court was shocked shock.

Xiang Yu couldn't help lamenting that there were too few upright ministers who dared to stand up to the eunuchs or foreign relatives. Most officials chose to bow their heads and remain silent when facing the evil forces, allowing their evil deeds to continue to plunder.

Luo Wei couldn't help but shook his head after hearing this. He told Xiang Yu that this mutual confrontation had lasted for a long time. It wasn't until the last few emperors that the students and officials of the Eastern Han Dynasty also appeared against the political struggles of foreign relatives and eunuchs. The climax is the disaster of the party.

Xiang Yu was quite interested when he heard about the disaster of the party, so he asked Luo Wei to continue talking.

Luo Wei then went on to tell Xiang Yu that when Emperor Huan was in power, it was the period when the Liang family's relatives were in charge of the government. At that time, the Liang family headed by Liang Ji monopolized all the decision-making and official appointment powers in the entire Eastern Han political situation.Although the later Liang family was wiped out under the coup launched by the eunuchs, Emperor Huan entered the period of the eunuch's five lords' dictatorship in the later period.

At this time in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were also a large number of imperial students and many officials who were extremely dissatisfied with the political situation and eager to restore the Qingming. Through their own discussions and letters, they continued to assert power over the eunuchs, and a group of scholars with great influence emerged. .

This group continues to grow.In the end, a group of scholars headed by Li Ying and Chen Fan was formed. They constantly criticized the dictatorship of eunuchs and foreign relatives, especially Li Ying. and the admiration of wise officials.

In 166 AD, the eunuchs were afraid of Li Ying's strength, and urged Emperor Huan to arrest them and release them to the fields, never to be used again.In 167 AD, during the period of Emperor Ling, Dou's relatives regained control of the government and used Li Ying and other party members to resist the eunuch forces, but the matter was revealed and Dou Wu was killed.In 169 A.D., the eunuch launched the second disaster of party imprisonment, which involved thousands of party members.

Xiang Yu felt that Luo Wei's knowledge was very profound, he understood all kinds of situations of the Eastern Han court very well, and explained to himself very clearly, so he rewarded him with a lot of property, let him follow him by his side, and helped him record what he saw. smell all kinds of things.

Then Xiang Yu asked Luo Wei to make some brief summaries of the various crimes committed by the Eastern Han court.

(End of this chapter)