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

Chapter 344: Changing the soup without changing the medicine

October
The situation in the northwest cannot be controlled, the captain Hu Hong has no power, and the invasion becomes more serious. Liu Zhi was furious and issued an edict to rebuke him. He also appointed Huangfu Gui, the prefect of Taishan, as Zhonglang General to attack in Hu Hong's place.

November

Huangfu Gui, who was lightly charioted and cavalry, entered the northwest camp and quickly stopped the army's defeat. He waited for the army to stabilize and found an opportunity to defeat the Qiang people and flee.

When the news came back to Luoyang, Liu Zhi was very satisfied, but then he felt dissatisfied with the five princes in his heart. It was not that they were corrupt, but that they could not distinguish between national affairs and their priorities.

Five years of Yanxi
Shen Di and others invaded Zhangye and Jiuquan counties again. The local troops in Liangzhou were unable to control them, and most of Liangzhou was plunged into war again. The imperial court once again sent Huangfu Gui to attack.

This time Huangfugui did not send troops easily, but used his own power to surrender him first. Shen Di Zhuzhong thought that Huangfugui was too fierce. After weighing the pros and cons, rebelling might not be a good thing. In addition, the things he robbed were already gone. There was enough for the tribe to survive the winter, so all Shen Di surrendered to the court.

Winter:

Five or six thousand people from Dian Na and others attacked Wuwei, Zhangye, and Jiuquan again and burned down people's houses. This time, instead of asking the imperial court to send troops, Sun Qiang, the prefect of Longxi, led the soldiers of Longxi County to defeat them. More than 3,000 people in Yunnan were beheaded or drowned.

The sixth year of Yanxi
Hu Hong, the Colonel Protecting the Qiang, was seriously ill. In order to stabilize the situation in the northwest, Liu Zhi once again appointed Duan Jun as the Colonel Protecting the Qiang. The Qiang chaos in the northwest has calmed down again.

Eight years of Yanxi
The five princes became more and more rampant in the court, and even Liu Zhi began to worry and began to demote the five princes.

March
Han Yan, the lieutenant of Sili School, impeached Zuo Ning and other eunuchs. Liu Zhi imprisoned Zuo Ning and ordered the Tingwei Mansion to try him.

The ministers of the outer dynasty had hated the eunuchs such as the Five Marquises for a long time, and now that they were in their hands, Zuo Ning naturally couldn't get over it.

So after Ting Weiqing squeezed out all the information about Zuo Ning, Zuo Ning successfully committed suicide in Tingwei Mansion out of fear of crime.

April
Han Yan also reported that the eunuch Ju Yuan's brother was guilty, so Liu Zhi took Ju Yuan to the court for questioning.

There were various signs that Liu Zhi had lost patience with the five princes. The officials immediately wrote letters accusing the five princes of their crimes, and the remaining three princes also hurriedly gathered together to discuss ways to survive.

"Now His Majesty has lost patience with us. In the past, Zuo Ying was tortured to death, and today, Ju Yuan was beaten to the rank of Tingwei. As expected, one of you and me will be next. We can't just surrender and capture him. ah!"

Shan Chao, Xu Huang, and Tang Heng gathered in a secret house. Not only that, the three of them also wore cloaks with hoods, as if this could hide their figures.

Facing Tang Heng's worry, Xu Heng snorted coldly: "Humph, Liu Zhi deceived people too much. Don't forget that it was only through us that he gained political power and became the real emperor. Otherwise, he would still be in the hands of Liang Ji. Just a puppet on a string.

Let me tell you, we can push him up and pull him down, so why don't we do it one at a time, do it, and make him an obedient emperor! "

Faced with Xu Heng's shocking and rebellious remarks, Shan Chao and the other two were not surprised at all, because many years of manipulating power had made them fearless.

If they didn't have some ambition, they wouldn't have been in power for so many years.

"Are you trying to kill us?"

Although he was not surprised by Xu Heng's words, Shan Chao disagreed with his proposal: "Let's not talk about whether we can kill Liu Zhi. Even if we kill him, can we still survive? ?
We must know that all our authority comes from Liu Zhi. If Liu Zhi dies, believe it or not, those officials will rush into the palace and tear us all to pieces. Create another emperor who will listen to them. "

"This won't work, that won't work either. So what should I do? I can't just wait to die. I don't want to die in such a miserable way like Liang Ji."

Faced with Xu Heng's dissatisfaction and Tang Heng's panic, Shan Chao showed a calmness that was different from theirs. Whether it was when he led them to make an oath with Liu Zhi, or now when they are at the end of their rope, Shan Chao is the most powerful among the five of them. The smart one and the calmest one. It is precisely because of this that he can be the leader of the five princes.

"Actually, His Majesty has already decided the outcome for us!"

Xu Heng and Tang Heng looked at Shan Chao in confusion, and Shan Chao said calmly: "Your Majesty did not directly send troops to capture all of us, but captured us one by one. This is giving us a chance.

Do you think Han Yan really only impeached Zuo Ying and Ju Yuan? How is it possible? We, the five princes, have always been one. You have not read the memorials to impeach us. Which one was not impeached by the five of us, one by one? "

"did you mean?"

Shan Chao sighed: "Delegate power!"

Xu Heng said with some reluctance: "Delegate power? Shan Chao, you have to know that if we let him go, we will really become meat on the chopping board for others to slaughter."

"Otherwise, what should we do? Now that His Majesty is wary of us, it is impossible for us to harm him again. I can tell you responsibly that as long as we decide on the strategy of rebellion, the next day will be The anniversary of our death.”

"What if, I mean just in case, these are all our own wishful thinking and one-sided guesses, and we are wrong?" Shan Chao's eyes were extremely bright: "So we are going to see Ju Yuan, we will send people there immediately Tingwei Mansion asked Ju Yuan to write a letter of apology to His Majesty and hand over the seal and ribbon to the Marquis to see how His Majesty responded.

If His Majesty accepts it, it means that our guess is not wrong. His Majesty still misses the old relationship. If His Majesty still punishes according to the law and is unselfish, then don't blame us for not missing the old relationship. Even if it means death, we will pull him together. "

Looking at Shan Chao, whose tone became colder and colder as he spoke, Tang Heng felt a little uncomfortable, while Xu Heng hesitated: "But if we resign our official positions and titles, what will happen to our relatives and friends?"

Shan Chao snorted coldly: "You are almost dead, and you still care about those people. You don't really think that you have descendants? In their eyes, we are just their cash cow and protective umbrella, and they won't talk about anything with us. Family, friendship.

Wake up, since we chose to enter the palace, everything in the past and the wealth behind us have nothing to do with us.

Over the years, we have collected a lot of money and bought a lot of real estate and land. Even if we lose the title and official system, we can still live the rest of our lives safely and securely when we return to the local area.

Isn’t this what we work so hard to get? It's much better than those old eunuchs who were sent to guard the late emperor's mausoleum!

Now that His Majesty is willing to give us a way out, we must endure it well, otherwise our heads will be dislocated and we will end up dead. "

Listening to Shan Chao's extremely calm analysis, Xu Heng and the others also figured it out and agreed to his method.

April 15th

In prison, Ju Yuan wrote a letter to apologize to Liu Zhi, and handed over his seal and ribbon of Marquis Dongwu, with an attitude of letting him do whatever he wanted.

However, Liu Zhi did not kill them all. He could avoid the death penalty but could not escape the living penalty. Thinking of his contribution to the Han Dynasty, he demoted him to the title of Duxiang Hou.

Upon seeing this, Shan Chao and the others knew that their guess was correct, so they came to Liu Zhi together, crying about their crimes and begging Liu Zhi for punishment.

Liu Zhi pointed at the three of them and said with sorrow on his face: "You, how can you do this? I treat you well, why do you do such a hateful thing? Now that things have happened, I can't protect you. You will Please hand over the official seal and marquis seal and ribbon, and I will see if I can intercede for you from the officials!"

Shan Chao and the others knelt on the ground, crying and thanking Liu Zhi for his magnanimity. Liu Zhi waved them away with a tired look on his face.

When they left the main hall, Liu Zhi's expression suddenly turned cold:
"In preparation for the move, the Changshi Xinfeng Marquis Shan Chao, Wuyuan Marquis Xu Heng, and Ruyang Marquis Tang Heng were guilty. However, they were exempted from the death penalty because they had made great contributions to the state. The three were demoted to Guannei Marquis and ordered to return to the fiefdom. They could not leave the fiefdom without an edict. "

The eunuch Hou Lan on the side immediately drafted the edict and handed it to Liu Zhi to read. Liu Zhi nodded, and then another eunuch Wang Fu stamped it with the emperor's treasure.

Liu Zhi looked at the two eunuchs in front of him and said nonchalantly: "Shan Chao and the others have committed crimes and left the palace, and the position of the Changshi is also vacant. You two will be promoted to the rank of the Changshi in the future!"

Hou Lan and Wang Fu were overjoyed. They immediately knelt down in front of Liu Zhi and said with tears of gratitude: "Slave Wang Fu/Hou Lan thanks your majesty!"

May
After the five princes were liquidated, all the fiefdoms of the five eunuchs who were attached to them were also confiscated by Liu Zhi. This greatly filled the empty treasury, but it was still a bit stretched for the big Han who was fighting on all sides.

Seeing this, the newly appointed Zhongchang Shihou took out five thousand pieces of silk from the wealth he had collected and handed it over to Liu Zhi.

Liu Zhi was overjoyed, and immediately promoted Hou Lan to the post of governor of Yizhou. When the other eunuchs saw this, they also "ruined their families and caused trouble", and the treasury was filled for a while.

Liu Zhi selected those who donated the most to fill the vacancies of the five princes, namely Huangmenling Cao Jie, Xiaohuangmen Duan Gui, etc.

The position of Zhongchangshi was once again increased to five people.

These regular servants all relied on handing over goods to fill the treasury. Therefore, they believed that only money could maintain their status, so what they did was no different from the previous five princes.

Liu Zhi, suffering from the high military expenditures to maintain the frontier, also turned a blind eye to the eunuchs' manipulation, corruption and selling off officials.

The ministers saw that the five princes had been removed, but the new eunuch still went his own way, so they switched from their previous hatred for the five princes to the new eunuch.

Among them, the eunuch group headed by Hou Lan and the courtier group headed by Taiwei Chen Fan, Situ Yuan Xu, and Sikong Ya continued to compete with each other over the Han Dynasty, which led to local chaos.

Without the restraint of the central government, local powerful people have become more and more wanton, making the people who are already suffering even worse.

In a Taoist temple in Julu County, Hebei, a Taoist created his own Tao with the support of many disciples.

In order to preach, he asked his disciples to go out, and they must spread his teachings throughout the world and save the people in danger.

(End of this chapter)