I have lived forever since the end of Qin Dynasty

Chapter 422: Posthumous title, conspiracy to seize power

At this moment, the hall was silent.

Liu Che looked at the eyes of all the courtiers. They were waiting for him to read out the resolution and express his final attitude.

Taking a deep breath, he slowly spoke: "The Queen Mother followed Emperor Taizong Xiaowen to Beijing to receive the canonization, to control Changle and govern Ning Palace.

When Emperor Xiaowen passed away, the seven kingdoms were in chaos, and the country was in crisis, the Queen Mother worked hard all day and night, thinking and worrying, adhering to the legacy of Emperor Taizong Xiaowen, helping the late emperor to put an end to the chaos, finally quelling the rebels, and bringing peace to the sea.

Since I came to the throne, the Queen Mother has also put in a lot of effort. However, the complicated government affairs have made her both mentally and physically frightened. Even if she returned the government to me, her energy has gradually declined, and her dedication has never rested.

Yesterday, my illness worsened sharply and I passed away in the palace. It was really a great mourning for the country, and I am deeply saddened.

In view of the empress dowager's life achievements, I would like to give her the posthumous title of Empress Xiaowenduan. What do you think? "

Xiaowen refers to Liu Heng, the queen refers to Dou Yifang's identity, and the word "Duan" is her real posthumous title.

Gongji has the capacity to say Duan.

Observing etiquette and respecting yourself is called Duan.

This is a good posthumous title, and it can well summarize Empress Dowager Dou's behavior over the years.

She is not like Lu Pheasant, who has the ambition to take charge of the imperial court and the talent to make the entire Han Dynasty go further.

In the final analysis, she was just a gentle and virtuous woman. When she first became Liu Heng's wife, she probably only wanted to live a peaceful and happy life in Yandi, by her husband's side.

Unexpectedly, as fate would have it, when King Yan came to Beijing, she actually became the mistress of the world.

Then Liu Heng died and Liu Qi succeeded to the throne, and her identity became the Queen Mother.

As a result, more than 20 years later, as Liu Che ascended the throne, the status of Empress Dowager Dou took a further step and became the Empress Dowager, the first Empress Dowager in history.

During her years as regent, all she did was maintain the political situation established by her husband and occasionally support her family, but she did not go too far.

As for Liu Che's desire to reform, Empress Dowager Dou was unwilling in her heart.

She felt that her grandson was messing around and would destroy the foundation laid by two generations of emperors. His treatment of his relatives seemed too cruel.

However, seeing that the descendants of the Chen family in Yangxia supported the reform, and that those policies seemed to be based on old practices, she did not interfere much and acquiesced in Liu Che's approach.

Throughout Empress Dowager Dou's life, her conformist attitude seemed too old-fashioned and backward for the entire era. However, she had no ill intentions and just wanted to guard her husband's inheritance and not allow others to destroy it.

She may not be a qualified ruler, but she is a qualified wife, mother, grandmother and elder.

Therefore, Liu Che's evaluation of "Duan" can be said to be very consistent with Empress Dowager Dou's life.

As his words fell, the ministers stood up one after another to express their opinions.

"The Queen Mother is virtuous and meritorious, so it is very suitable to use the word 'Duan' as her posthumous title." Zhao Wan stood up and said. When he was appreciated by Liu Che, he put forward some innovative ideas, which made the Queen Mother dislike him very much.

It's just that China has the traditional concept of "the dead are the most important".

Now that the Queen Mother has passed away, those little conflicts between him and her have undoubtedly disappeared long ago.

Prime Minister Wei Wan also stood up and saluted: "What the Queen Mother said and believed were all serious and respectful, which made us deeply enlightened. Your Majesty's decision is undoubtedly the right one."

He was able to reach the position of prime minister purely because of Empress Dowager Dou's respect.

After all, one has to make a choice based on the ability of truth theory. There are too many people in the court who are more suitable to serve as prime minister than him. However, Wei Wan knew in her heart that she could continue to stay in this position after Liu Che took charge, mostly because Liu Che felt that it would be inappropriate to immediately replace the person promoted by Empress Dowager Dou, so he kept him in the position.

At the same time, those descendants of the Dou family who were officials in the court also praised Liu Che's decision.

In a peaceful atmosphere, Liu Che once again announced a new decision, promoting many of the Dou family's children to officials, and giving three hundred households to each of the two Dou family princes, as well as land, gold and silver as a token of condolences.

After hearing the contents of this edict, the Dou family's children expressed their gratitude again and again.

Seeing this scene, Chen Luo narrowed his eyes slightly and sighed inwardly.

Liu Che's handling method was just like one of the many methods he had expected. He used an upright conspiracy to deprive the Dou family of all power.

Let’s start with the posthumous title.

Empress Dowager Dou was named Empress Xiaowenduan. The word "Duan" alone is indeed a good word, but combined with her life deeds and the obstacles to reform after Liu Che ascended the throne, it seems to imply that she is conservative and unchanged.

Of course, benevolence sees benevolence and wisdom sees wisdom. Whether Liu Che meant this or not, Chen Luo could not make a conclusion.

As for rewarding the Dou family's children, he is a master.

Chen Luo can guarantee that this is using kindness to silently eliminate their power in the court.

You must know that the positions originally occupied by these Dou family's children are quite critical. Even those humble positions have considerable influence.

Therefore, many of the Dou family's descendants in the DPRK can form a quite terrifying network of relationships if they are connected in series.

Therefore, Liu Che naturally did not want to have such an uncontrollable force under his command, so he used promotion methods to split up the existing network of relationships and moved them to idle positions with higher salaries and status but greatly reduced power.

As for the method of increasing the number of households in the fiefdom, it is purely a smoke bomb, used to cover up the purpose of the previous method.

After all, the two princes of the Dou family are the nephews and nephews of Empress Dowager Dou, and they are already quite old.

Liu Che granted a fiefdom of 600 households. It is estimated that they will die in a few years. Then under the "Tianfa Order", the fiefdoms of these two people will be broken down into pieces. Even if there are 600 more households, the fiefdom will be broken into pieces. It won't have any impact.

It has to be said that Liu Che's approach made perfect use of human nature.

Most people only see immediate benefits.

As vested interests, even if they are moved to a position with less real power, these people will comfort themselves.

I have less power now, but my position and development prospects are broader. As for the interests of the family, what does that have to do with me?

Is it comparable to my personal future?

Therefore, Liu Che's approach seems simple and crude, but it is very practical.

The reason why he had not been able to use such methods in the past was because Queen Mother Dou was here and Liu Che's actions would not have much effect. After all, she could easily remove the official positions of the Dou family's children without any effort. Change.

But now that the influence of Queen Mother Dou is gone, it will not be so easy for these Dou children to break free after falling into the trap.

According to Chen Luo's estimation, it won't take long for the Han Dynasty to be completely under Liu Che's control.

A new era is really coming.

(End of this chapter)