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

Chapter 254: Deceiving the world and stealing fame
The first year of the Han Dynasty (the first year of the Yuan Dynasty)

The emperor's mourning period ended and the country began to function normally.

The Emperor of Han was nine years old, so the Empress Dowager listened behind the curtain, and Wang Mang, the Grand Sima, handled the affairs of the country. Hundreds of officials gathered in the east hall of the court to listen to Wang Mang's instructions.

In view of the political chaos during Emperor Ping's time, officials reported on each other, causing problems in the smooth operation of the state machine. Wang Mang issued an edict: "Every time the imperial court issues a pardon, it intends to start anew with the world. It sincerely hopes that the people can change their minds in order to preserve their integrity." Of character and life.

In the past, when sentencing, relevant officials often mentioned the mistakes committed before the pardon was issued, accumulating the crimes of the offenders and even incriminating innocent people. It violates the imperial court's original intention of issuing a pardon order to reaffirm trust and be cautious about punishment and to hope that the guilty people can rehabilitate themselves.

For recommended talents, because they have made some mistakes in history and are considered untrustworthy, they are discarded and not recommended. This completely deviates from Confucius' principle of "forgiving small faults and promoting talents."

There is no need to investigate anyone who has made financial or moral mistakes but has been recommended without being reported. In order to encourage talents to concentrate on pursuing progress, and not to hinder a rare talent due to small flaws.

From now on, officials of relevant agencies do not have to submit petitions for amnesty for past mistakes. Anyone who fails to comply with this edict will be deemed to have failed the emperor's favor and will be punished for violating the imperial edict. I specially issued this order and announced it to the world so that everyone would know what happened. "

The issuance of this edict immediately reassured most officials, and they no longer had to worry about old events being exposed. As a result, the court began to operate smoothly, all officials performed their duties, and Wang Mang's reputation was further enhanced.

In order to highlight his power and issue edicts better, Wang Mang decided to improve his status so as not to cause confusion in the decrees.

However, he could not directly propose it to the Empress Dowager, so Wang Mang sent people to South Vietnam and bribed the Yue Shang clan of the far southern country with a large amount of money to present Ming rare treasures to the court.

February
The Yueshang clan of the far southern country sent an envoy to express their surrender to the central court and presented one white pheasant and two black pheasants.

Wang Mang was overjoyed and ordered the three princes to present this thing to the ancestral temple.

At that moment, the entire court was singing and dancing, as if the prosperous age had come, and no one mentioned the problems of the lower class people and millions of refugees.

March
The ministers proposed to the Empress Dowager that Wang Mang, the great Sima, had the same merit as Huo Guang in "defining the plan to install the ancestral temple" and should enjoy the same reward as Huo Guang.

After Wang Mang learned about it, he wrote a letter stating that he made the decision jointly with Kong Guang, Wang Shun, Bai Xuan, Zhen Feng, and Zhen Han, and hoped to reward only five of them and consider himself later. He ignored the Queen Mother's many edicts. , firmly declined.

However, the ministers kept making suggestions to the Queen Mother, and Wang Mang accepted the title of "Anhan Gong" after repeated refusals, but he always refused to accept the 28,000-household salary granted to him.

In addition, Wang Mang and his five closest associates were promoted to the position of "six assistants": Wang Mang was the Taifu and took charge of the fifth assistant; Kong Guang was the Taishi, Wang Shun was the Taibao, Bai Xuan was the Young Master, Liu Xin was the Young Master, and Zhen Feng was the Young Master. Shaobao is the top three official.

The "Liu Fu" had sole power. Except for the matter of ennoblement, all other political affairs were decided equally by "Anhan Gong and Liu Fu".

Wang Mang first suggested that he should first reward the princes and the descendants of the heroes, and then reward the serving officials, increase the rituals and music of the ancestral temple, and renovate the orphanage in the Renhou period, so that both the common people and the widows and orphans could benefit, and implement the policy for civilian scholars. The favor policy thus once again won the goodwill of both the government and the public.

Secondly, in order to solve the problem of millions of refugees in Guanzhong, it was suggested that the Queen Mother Wang Zhengjun should take the lead in living a frugal life to show the court's determination. Then the court would invest tens of millions of dollars, and she would take the lead in donating millions of dollars and thirty hectares of land to relieve the people. Afterwards, hundreds of officials followed suit.

For a time, millions of refugees in Guanzhong were well resettled. Wang Mang gained great reputation, especially in Guanzhong. The people called him the ancient saint, the great savior sent by God to save the people. The entire Guanzhong was controlled by the people. There are hundreds of Wang Mangsheng shrines built spontaneously.

Wang Mang realized that this was an excellent publicity opportunity, so he asked the great situ Sizhi and Chen Chong to write the matter into the "Temple of the Ten Thousand People" and print and publicize it vigorously. Wang Mang appeared as a savior throughout the world, especially in the The refugees in Guandong, seeing that the refugees in Guanzhong had been almost appeased, became even more eager for Wang Mang's rescue.

The second year of Han Dynasty (the second year of Yuanshi)

There was a severe drought and locust plague across the country. The most severely affected area was Qingzhou. There was no rain for several months in the entire state, and the entire state had no harvest. In order to survive, people went into exile.

After Wang Mang learned about it, he took the lead himself. Two hundred and thirty officials and citizens donated their land and homes to relieve the victims.

A disaster relief team headed by Yushi Zhongcheng Zhang Ai and Grand Situ Sizhi Pingyan was also dispatched to provide overall command. The former governor of Qingzhou was also removed, and Su He, the prefect of Jinan, served as the governor of Qingzhou to supervise the distribution of relief food and disaster relief houses to prevent corruption. The officials worked hard and reduced the taxes in Qingzhou area for one year. Thanks to the joint efforts of the central and local governments, rents and taxes have been generally reduced in the disaster-stricken areas, and victims have been fully compensated. Wang Mang, who came from Chang'an, only ate vegetarian food and did not use meat or wine to show his determination to relieve the disaster.

However, leaving many victims displaced and unsettled was still a hidden danger. In the end, Wang Mang decided to cancel the royal Huchi Garden in Anding County and change it to Anmin County to resettle the victims.

Even the city of Chang'an built a thousand houses for the victims to alleviate the disaster.

By the end of the year, the number of refugees in the world has been greatly reduced, and most of the victims have been successfully rescued and returned to their hometowns to restart production. But what Wang Mang didn't know was that for those victims who had left their hometowns, their original lands had been occupied by local powerful men, and local conflicts began to stir up again.

But at this time, Wang Mang's reputation was already higher than that of the Han Emperor. Especially due to Wang Mang's deliberate propaganda, his remarks that he could be compared with the ancient saints had already made a lot of noise.

The above statement by the great Situ Sizhi and Chen Chong pushed this trend to its peak:

"I saw that since Duke Anhan became an official, it was at a time when the social atmosphere advocated luxury. He was favored by Emperor Cheng and the Queen Mother in treating his relatives favorably, and he was honored by his uncles. His family was rich and powerful. He had no Man can go against his will,

However, he was able to lower his status, promote benevolence, restrain selfish desires, follow etiquette, go against the world's customs, correct customs, and stand alone resolutely; he wore coarse clothes, ate coarse food, and sat in a simple The car is driven by a bad horse, and there is no second person as a spouse. Within the family, everyone knows the virtues of being filial to the elders and being friendly to the peers.

He was indifferent to fame and wealth, and enjoyed being righteous. He was gentle and kind, treated scholars with humility, showed favor and care to his old friends, and was very loyal to his teachers and friends. Confucius said, "It is better to be poor and happy, or to be rich and love etiquette." This praise was given to Duke Anhan.

When he became a servant, Chunyu Chang, the original Marquis of Dingling, committed a crime of treason and injustice. Duke Anhan did not dare to favor his personal relatives, so he reported and recommended that he be punished. Duke Zhou had Uncle Guan killed and Uncle Cai exiled. Ji Zi poisoned Uncle Ya with poisonous wine. Duke Anhang was such a person.

Therefore, Emperor Xiaocheng appointed Duke Anhan as Grand Sima and entrusted him with the power of the country. When Emperor Xiaoai ascended the throne, Gaochang Hou Dong Hong catered to the emperor's wishes and pursued fame. He wanted Ding Ji to be the empress dowager, creating a two-throne system. Duke Anhan personally impeached him, thus confirming the outline of the dynasty. It was suggested that the Queen Mother of Dingtao should not sit behind the curtain of the Queen Mother, thus confirming the general hierarchy of the imperial court. "The Book of Songs" says, "Don't take advantage of the soft, don't be afraid of the hard, don't bully widowers, don't be afraid of tough opponents." The person who praised An Han was Gong Anhan.

···
Now, since Your Majesty is well aware that Duke Anhan has the same merits and virtues as Duke Zhou, but does not praise and reward Duke Zhou as King Cheng of Zhou did, and instead listens to Duke Anhan's firm refusal and does not consider the principles of "Spring and Autumn", then the people and ministers will What is it called and what will be recorded by future generations? This is indeed not the way to run a country.

The foolish minister thought that the feudal kingdom of Anhan Gong should be expanded to make him the same as Zhou Gong, and the eldest son of Anhan Gong should be granted a feudal kingdom and established as a king, making him the same as Boqin. The gifts given to him were also like those of Duke Zhou.

The other sons of Duke Anhan should receive the same rewards as the six sons of Duke Zhou. Then the officials will be obviously encouraged and loyal, and the people will be obviously enlightened and grateful.

If the ministers are really loyal to the court and the people are really grateful, then what else will be difficult for the government? I hope that Your Majesty will be deeply grateful for the great trust of your ancestors, respectfully obey the warnings of Heaven, imitate the generosity of Emperor Shun and King Cheng of Zhou, fully reward the birds like a bird, and not begrudge the rewards like the Duke of Zhou, so that the country's legal system can be maintained. It is a great blessing for the world to be able to be healthy and to be followed by future generations! "

The Queen Mother handed the memorial to the ministers for discussion. It happened that the Lu Kuan incident broke out. The Queen Mother asked the ministers to discuss the two matters together and report the decision to her.

After the Han Emperor ascended the throne, Wang Mang was afraid that the Han Emperor's mother's family and his wife's family would disrupt the government and take power like the Fu and Ding families during the Ping Emperor's period, so he granted the title of Queen Zhongshan to the Han Emperor's mother, Wei Ji, and to the Han Emperor's uncle. Wei Shi and Wei Bao's younger brothers, Wei Xuanguan Neihou's title, allowed them to stay in Zhongshan Kingdom and were not allowed to come to Chang'an.

Wang Mang's son Wang Yu was afraid that Emperor Han would resent himself and others when he grew up. He secretly sent people to communicate with Wei Bao and others, asking the Han emperor's mother to write a letter requesting to come to the capital, hoping to show goodwill to them and protect the Wang family.

Wang Yu's teacher and brother-in-law Lu Kuan came up with an idea for him, saying that Wang Mang had always believed in ghosts and gods, and asked Lu Kuan to smear Wang Mang's house with blood at night to create disasters and make Wang Mang afraid, and then Wu Zhang took advantage of the opportunity. The deduction persuaded him to hand over power to the Wei family.

However, things went against expectations. When Lu Kuan was spilling blood, he was discovered by the gatekeepers and was caught on the spot and thrown into prison.

Wang Mang knew the cause and effect, so he arrested Wang Yu, threw him into prison, and made him drink poison and die.

So when the Queen Mother brought the matter to the court for discussion, Wang Mang immediately wrote: "Wang Yu was implicated by Lu Kuan and others, went astray, spread rumors to confuse everyone, and committed the same crime as Uncle Guan and Uncle Cai. If he dares to conceal it, he should be punished."

Later, Wang Mang took advantage of this opportunity to kill the Wei family, thoroughly investigated Lu Kuan's case, and implicated various counties and feudal states who always criticized their outstanding talents. In the court, Princess Jingwu, Liang Wang Liu Li, and Hongyang Hou Wang Li were involved. Ahou Wangren and other relatives of the emperor sent envoys to persecute them, causing them to commit suicide. Hundreds of people died, causing shock throughout the world.

In order to restore his reputation, Wang Mang had people report this matter to the ministers. They requested that all officials in the country who could recite Anmo Gong's admonitions to his descendants should be ordered to record them in the official archives and treat Anhan Gong's documents as official documents. Treat it the same as "The Classic of Filial Piety".

(End of this chapter)