A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 168 Political credibility, Xiao Gui and Cao Sui

Empress Lu asked someone to give Bai Jun a seat so that he could be closer to her. After all, she was in her forties and could not hear clearly because she was too far away.

"Thank you, Queen Mother!" After Bai Jun saluted, Shi Shiran took a seat.

"The Queen Mother wants to get rid of King Zhao and Qi Ji so much. I think that in addition to the old grievances, she is also afraid that those clan princes will take advantage of the fact that the new emperor's succession is not stable and take action."

Empress Lu nodded, and Bai Jun continued: "As for Qi Ji's matter, this is the Queen Mother's family matter. I will not comment, but you need to be cautious about the matter of King Zhao!"

When Empress Lu saw that Bai Jun did not stop her from taking revenge, her face became much better and she said, "Please tell me, the chief minister!"

Bai Jun continued: "As for today's decision, the recent war only ended two years ago. The people have decided that they do not want a war. Therefore, if it is not an invasion by a foreign enemy, whichever party initiates the war will definitely lose the support of the people. It will definitely fail.

Secondly, all the princes and kings are still young now, the youngest one is only five or six years old, so the Queen Mother does not need to worry about the princes and kings rising up to fight for the throne.

He also said that if someone kidnaps the princes and rebels in the name of inheriting the throne, there is no need for the central government to send troops. With just an edict, the rebels will be eliminated by the soldiers of the surrounding princes and counties.

Therefore, the most important thing we should do at this time is to implement benevolent government, reduce the driving of the people, reduce external wars, and let the people have a rest. In this way, all the people in the world will be grateful to the Han, the Queen Mother, and even Your Majesty. From this point of view, the longer the time , His Majesty’s throne will become more stable! "

"The Ai family knows that this is what Prime Minister Xiao did."

"Another question about how to deal with King Zhao, the Queen Mother should also know that your Majesty does want to save King Zhao's life, but this does not mean that your Majesty will protect King Zhao's throne!
The reason why I agree with Your Majesty’s meeting with the Queen Mother and to protect the King of Zhao is because it is very important for the Queen Mother to stabilize the world. The Queen Mother does not know something. In the course of hundreds of years of development, I, the Bai family, came up with a word, It's called political credibility. "

"Political credibility?"

"Yes, political credibility. Take me, Mr. Bai, for example. What we have always abided by is that we must do what we say and be resolute in our deeds. As long as it is a promise made by Mr. Bai, we will definitely do it. This also makes it possible for the common people to do what they say. , or other families, including the late emperor, highly recognized the Bai family's credibility. After all, the Bai family had almost never broken their trust for hundreds of years.

It was precisely because of the political credibility of the Bai family that the late emperor did not directly lead troops to attack the Bai Kingdom like he had done to eliminate other princes and kings. Instead, he followed the advice of the Liu Hous and paid homage first before attacking because the late emperor knew that as long as we agreed and did not oppose him, He will definitely not oppose him, and he will not worry that the Bai family will threaten his empire.

What the Queen Mother lacks at this time is political credibility. If the Queen Mother really kills King Zhao because of this matter, this will definitely arouse the vigilance of other princes and kings surnamed Liu. Even if they will retreat because of the strength of the central government, they will never do so. Compromise will definitely leave hidden dangers later.

By then, the princes and kings surnamed Liu will definitely not think that this is the emperor's decision, but will think that the Queen Mother is suppressing the Liu family for the Lu family. By then, the Lu family and the Liu family, who were originally in a cooperative relationship, will definitely break out. Fierce conflict.

How should His Majesty make a decision? Is it Lu who supports the Queen Mother because of her filial piety? Or do you support the clan's Liu surname because they share the same surname? Aren't you leaving a legacy for His Majesty? "

Queen Lu quietly digested Bai Jun's point of view, and after a while she said: "The Ai family can not take action against the princes and kings for the time being, but what should we do about King Zhao? He will definitely threaten the emperor's throne."

Bai Jun said: "The King of Zhao can threaten Your Majesty. Apart from the issue of inheritance, only the military strength of the Zhao State. And the inheritance rights are not only owned by the King of Zhao, but also by other princes and kings. So in the final analysis, it is the military strength and the national strength of the Zhao State. The Queen Mother can directly use Qi Ji's crime or other reasons to continuously reduce King Zhao's fiefdom. By then, King Zhao will have the title of King Zhao and will not have the strength to intervene in Chang'an."

After listening to Bai Jun's big talk, Queen Lu stood up and said, "The Ai family already knows what you said. You should go back first!"

Bai Jun didn't know if Empress Lu heard it, so he had to leave.

December

Seeing that Empress Lu could never find the time to attack King Zhao, she had no choice but to follow Bai Jun's suggestion.

Weiyang Palace suddenly issued an order saying that Qi Ji, the late emperor, had conspired to rebel and was thrown into Yongxiang and was not allowed to come out for life. Then, it issued an order: "Qi Ji's rebellion was all for the sake of her son Zhao Wang Liu Ruyi, but because of King Zhao did not know about it, so for the sake of being the son of the late emperor, he retained the position of King Zhao, but he needed to hand over all the counties except Changshan County and put them directly under the central government."

After King Zhao thanked the Han Emperor for his protection, he decisively accepted his punishment, wrote a letter confessing his crime, and said that from now on he would keep to himself and obey the Han Emperor's orders. In this way, King Zhao was allowed to leave Chang'an by Empress Lu.

After leaving Chang'an, King Zhao felt deeply that he was back from the brink of death and breathed a sigh of relief. The other princes and kings surnamed Liu relaxed a lot when they saw that King Zhao had landed safely. However, when they saw that King Zhao was reduced to only one county, they were also frightened by the cruelty of the central government and treated the court with even more respect.

The king of Dai, Liu Heng, was afraid that his mother would be harmed by Empress Lu, so he wrote a letter requesting that Mrs. Bo be sent to Dai. Empress Lu agreed, and upon seeing this, the other princes and kings wrote letters requesting to take back their biological mother. This meant that they completely gave up their identity as the sons of Lu Fei and voluntarily gave up their inheritance rights. Empress Lu was very happy and agreed.

Qi Ji, who was located in Yongxiang, had a life worse than death. Empress Lu had no place to vent her anger, so she had to vent her anger on her. And because King Zhao was always under the terrifying threat of Empress Lu, he even He didn't have the courage to beg for mercy for his mother, so he returned to Xiangguo in despair.

Empress Lu had Mrs. Qi's hands and feet cut off, her eyes gouged out, her ears deafened, and she drank dumb medicine. She threw her into the toilet and called her a "human pig". She also issued a gag order not to allow this. Everything here reached the ears of the emperor, and it was announced that Qi Ji lived in Yongxiang.

The second year of the Han Dynasty
October
The kings of Chu and Qi came to Chang'an to pay homage.

Emperor Han held a banquet in front of Empress Lu to entertain King Qi. Because King Qi was his elder brother, Emperor Han arranged for him to sit at the top of the table and treated him according to the etiquette of ordinary people. However, King Qi did not react because he drank wine. He sat at the top.

Queen Lu was very angry when she saw it, and she immediately walked away from the banquet. King Qi didn't react, so he had to find an excuse to leave.

When he sobered up, he realized that he had made a big mistake. Thinking of Empress Lu's unyielding character, she became very panicked and summoned the historians of Qi to inquire about countermeasures.

The internal historian said: "The Queen Mother only has two children, the emperor and Princess Lu Yuan. Now the king has more than 70 cities, while the princess only has a few cities for food. If the king dedicates a county to the queen mother, as the princess, Tang Muyi, The Queen Mother will definitely be very happy, and then the King will have no worries."

So on the same day, King Qi went to the palace to meet the Queen Mother, dedicated Chengyang County to the princess, and respected the princess as the Queen Mother.

Queen Lu was very happy and agreed to King Qi's request. She held a banquet at King Qi's official residence and drank happily. After the banquet, King Qi went back.

same year
Xiao He, the prime minister of the Han Dynasty, passed away, and Cao Shen, the Marquis of Pingyang, succeeded him as prime minister.

Because the Han Emperor had grown a lot older, Empress Lu released some of her rights to let the Han Emperor handle government affairs. After Cao Shen became prime minister, the first thing he did was to get rid of all the people who were trying to gain a good reputation, leaving only the old and dull people. As for the country's political system, Xiao He's system continued to be used, and nothing changed. He also explicitly ordered that no one else be allowed to raise opinions. Except for Bai Jun, who was the chief historian, no one else understood it.

What's more, Cao Shen drank and had fun day and night. One of his subordinates couldn't stand it and wanted to give him advice. Cao Shen immediately called him to drink. Until the admonisher was drunk, he couldn't say a word.

After the Han emperor began to get involved in government affairs, he suddenly became ambitious and wanted to learn from the late emperor and do something great, so he looked forward to some government affairs every day.

But what he didn't expect was that for several months, the daily government affairs consisted of three or two big cats and kittens, and they were all handled in less than a quarter of an hour.

The Emperor of the Han Dynasty asked the official who sent the memorial: "Is this the only memorial you send every day?"

The official replied: "Yes!"

Emperor Han asked unhappily: "Did you all send the memorial to your mother?"

The official said in fear: "Your Majesty, please forgive me, these are sent here at the request of the Queen Mother."

Emperor Han didn't believe it. In such a big country, this was the only thing that happened every day? Thinking of this, Emperor Han walked towards Queen Lu's palace.

When he arrived at Queen Lu's palace, he saw Queen Lu admiring flowers accompanied by her maids. The Emperor of the Han Dynasty said awkwardly: "Queen Mother!"

When Empress Lu saw Emperor Han coming, she smiled and said, "What do you want from me?"

Emperor Han told Empress Lu about his lack of memorials every day. Empress Lu smiled and said: "The officials did not lie to me. There are indeed not many memorials every day, and the memorials I give you every day have almost taken up to 100%." Two-thirds of it."

The Han Emperor wondered: "So few? Impossible. There are more than a hundred counties and counties in the Han Dynasty, and there are more than tens of millions of common people. There can't be only so many." He also thought of the powerful ministers in history who ignored the monarch. The Han Emperor believed that Cao Shen was that kind of person. He then said: "Cao Shen must have deliberately intercepted the memorial and deceived our mother and son. The child will go find him now!"

After saying that, he turned around and went to find Cao Shen. When Empress Lu saw this, she just smiled and shook her head and ignored him.

The Emperor of the Han Dynasty first summoned the playmate of Cao Shen's son, Cao Cheng, a doctor, and asked him to go home and ask his father why there were so few government affairs. However, Cao Cheng failed to ask, and was whipped by Cao Shen for meddling in political affairs.

The next day, Cao Cheng limped to see the Han emperor and told him everything about yesterday. Seeing Cao Cheng being beaten, he became more and more certain that Cao Shen was the first powerful official of the Han Dynasty. He thought that he could bring down the first powerful official. Then he felt angry.

So the Emperor of the Han Dynasty first prepared the guards in the side hall, waiting for his orders, and then summoned Cao Shen into the palace. He thought that he had just come into contact with government affairs and met powerful ministers. He was thinking about what method he would use later, and whether he could Mild means took the power back from Cao Shen.

"I, Cao Shen, have come to see your majesty. May your majesty live forever!"

"Hello, Prime Minister Cao, please rise! Please give me a seat and serve tea!"

Although Cao Shen wondered why the Han Emperor summoned him, he did not do anything bad. Perhaps the Han Emperor wanted to consult on some political matter! Then he sat down following Emperor Han's words, picked up the tea cup and sipped tea leisurely.

When the Emperor of the Han Dynasty saw Cao Shen drinking tea leisurely and confidently, he looked confident. He was indeed a powerful minister with a Yanghu style. He thought that he could not be lowered by him. In addition, he was in the palace. With absolute military strength, the advantage lies with me.

Thinking of this, Emperor Han suddenly became furious and slapped several cases with force, scattering all the tea on them.

"Bold Cao Shen, why did you deceive me?"

Cao Shen was so frightened that he poured all the tea on him, but he didn't care. He saluted the Han Emperor and said, "I wonder what your majesty means?"

The Emperor of the Han Dynasty asked him why he had so few government affairs in his hands because he only used ignorant people.

Cao Shen understood the reason and said: "Who do you think is more sage than the late emperor?"

Emperor Han did not react for a moment and said honestly: "Of course it is the late Emperor. How dare I compare with the late Emperor!"

Cao Shen asked again: "Your Majesty, who do you think is more worthy, me or Prime Minister Xiao?"

Emperor Han said: "It seems that Prime Minister Xiao is more virtuous!"

"That's right. The late emperor and Prime Minister Xiao have established the world, and the system and laws have been very clear. Your Majesty only needs to surrender, and we ministers only need to perform their duties, abide by the law and make no mistakes. This is why daily government affairs That’s why there are so few!”

Knowing that he had misunderstood Cao Shen, the Han Emperor personally escorted Cao Shen out of the palace with a smile on his face and said: "You are right, it is the words of a mature man who upholds the country!"

Cao Shen, who had been in the military for a long time, heard the sound of soldiers and armor next door and asked: "Who is there in your Majesty's side hall? Wearing armor and wielding a sword? Is it to do harm to Your Majesty?"

Emperor Han said awkwardly: "Ah, haha, it's the sword dancer I found to train him."

Cao Shen looked at Emperor Han without saying anything, just smiled, bowed, and left.

The Han Emperor wiped the sweat from his head and ordered the troops in the side hall to withdraw. It was embarrassing!

(End of this chapter)