Anecdote of the Fifth Queen Mother

Chapter 5 Empress Dowager Lu (4)
With the single-handed support of the Empress Dowager Lu, Zhu Lu controlled a large part of the military and political power in the capital.But the power of the relatives is not stable at all. Once the queen mother turns [-], the relatives will become a tree without roots.The Empress Dowager Lu racked her brains to use the method of transferring flowers and trees to make the beauties in the harem have sex with Zhu Lu, or to enter the palace with pregnant concubines of Zhu Lu to give birth to children, and pretend to be the son of Emperor Hui; regime. "The Benji of Empress Dowager Lu" records that Emperor Hui had seven sons: one was the crown prince Shaodi Liu, who was abolished after four years; the second was Liu Qiang, the king of Huaiyang; the third was Liu Buyi, the king of Changshan; (also known as Liu Shan and Liu Yi), the fifth is Liu Chao, the king of Changshan, the sixth is Liu Wu, the king of Huaiyang, and the seventh is Liu Tai, the king of Liang.The above seven impersonated the sons of Emperor Hui, the prince Shaodi was killed by Empress Lu, Liu Qiang and Liu Buyi died young, and the young emperor Liu Hong and other four were killed by Chen Ping and Zhou Bo when they exterminated Zhulu.

The so-called sons of Emperor Hui all assumed the surname Liu, which is clearly recorded in "Historical Records" and "Hanshu". "Historical Records A Family of Foreign Relatives" said: "When Xuanping Hou's daughter was Empress Xiaohui, she had no children. She pretended to be pregnant. She named her a beautiful woman, killed her mother, and established the son she named as the prince." Quoted in "Justice" Liu Bozhuang said: "All the beauties were lucky to be born in Lu's family, so they entered the palace and gave birth to a child." Some people in the academic circle doubt these records, thinking that Zhou Bo and others made up "fake words" and killed them in vain.But in fact, it's not.We believe that the records in "Historical Records" and "Hanshu" are true.When Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty was 17 years old, he was stimulated by "human pigs" and became seriously ill. He died at the age of 24. Where did he get so many sons?If Chen Ping and Zhou Bo killed Emperor Hui's son in vain, how could Emperor Wen of Han stop?What's even more absurd is that Empress Dowager Lu married the daughter of Emperor Hui's sister, Princess Lu Yuan, to Emperor Hui, that is, her uncle and nephew.From the perspective of age, it is even more absurd.Princess Lu Yuan married Zhao Wang Zhang Ao in 202 BC, and was later abolished as Marquis Xuanping. Her daughter, Queen Zhang, could only be born in 201 BC at the earliest.Emperor Hui's son came to the throne in 194 BC and married Empress Zhang when she was only seven years old. A 17-year-old uncle married a [-]-year-old niece.Empress Dowager Lu let this pair of boys and girls combine to have a son, which is against the laws of nature both ethically and physically. "Historical Records A Family of Foreign Relatives" records: "The eldest daughter of Empress Lu is the wife of Zhang Ao, Marquis of Xuanping, and Ao's daughter is Empress Xiaohui. Because of her heavy relatives, the Empress Dowager Lu wanted her to have a son Wanfang, but she had no children in the end. A son." Going against her physiology, the Empress Dowager Lu did everything possible to let a seven-year-old close relative girl have a son, which was simply the destruction of her own flesh and blood.Emperor Hui cried out in despair: "This was not done by humans!" It was more than a protest against "human pigs"!Empress Zhang failed to give birth to a child, so Empress Dowager Lu made another plan, using Lu's blood to intercourse in the harem, and after giving birth to a son, she killed her mother.When the prince Shaodi was eight or nine years old, he knew that his mother had been killed. He was young and ignorant, so he vented his anger and claimed that he would avenge his mother when he grew up.It's not bad that this word reached the ears of Empress Dowager Lu.Empress Dowager Lu killed the prince Shaodi in the palace, and changed Changshan King Liu Yi to be Shaodi and renamed him Liu Hong.The Empress Dowager Lu has gone to great lengths in order to secure her power. She has done all kinds of outrageous things, which is unprecedented.

[-]. The Song of Plowing the Field
In order to support the Lu party, the Empress Dowager Lu spared no effort to embezzle flowers and trees.On the contrary, for the real descendants of the Liu family, the Empress Dowager Lv wantonly cut down and shaken their roots.Among the eight sons of Liu Bang, the one who was killed by the Empress Dowager Lu had four sons and one grandson.

Liu Bang's eight sons are: Mrs. Cao, who was the head of the pavilion, gave birth to Liu Fei, the king of Qi; the next ones are, Empress Lu gave birth to Emperor Hui Liu Ying, Bo Ji gave birth to Emperor Xiaowen Liu Heng, Mrs. Qi gave birth to Zhao Yin Wang Liu Ruyi, and Zhao Ji gave birth to Huainan King Liu Chang, Zhu Ji gave birth to Zhao You Wang Liu You, Zhao Gong Wang Liu Hui, and Yan Wang Liu Jian.

Liu Bang's eight sons, including three Zhao kings, all died miserably.Zhao Yin Wang Liu Ruyi was summoned to Chang'an to be poisoned, as mentioned above.Zhao Youwang Liu You, because he didn't like Zhu Lu's daughter, was called by Queen Mother Lu to Chang'an and imprisoned in the king's mansion. He sent troops to guard him, and starved to death without food.When Liu You was about to die, he wrote "Song of Hunger" and issued a complaint that screamed for heaven and earth.The lyrics are:

The Liu family is in danger, and the princes and princes are forced to give me a concubine.

My concubine is jealous and slanders me for evil, slandering women and messing up the country has never been wronged.

I have no loyal ministers, why did I abandon the country, and decided to be in the wild?

You can't regret it, Ning Zao cut himself off, and starved to death for the king, whoever has pity on it!

Lu's utterly unreasonable take revenge on the heavens.

Empress Dowager Lu forced Liu's children to marry Lu's daughter as their main wife, which not only covered people's eyes and ears, but also installed living bugs among Liu's children. It is natural for Liu's children not to love Lu's daughter.Liu Hui, king of the Communist Party of Zhao, did not love Lu's daughter and was forced to commit suicide. Before he died, he wrote a desperate poem to ask the ghost to take revenge.King Liu Jian of Yan died, and Empress Dowager Lu killed her son to seize the land.Because Liu Chang, the king of Huainan, was raised by the Empress Dowager Lu, he was preserved.Liu Heng, the acting king, was not favored by Liu Bang because he was not favored by Ji Ji, and he was also the king's border land, so he had to be preserved.King Liu Fei of Qi came to Beijing to pay homage. Empress Dowager Lu poisoned wine at the banquet. Emperor Hui found out and wanted to drink with brother Liu Fei. Empress Dowager Lu had to overturn the wine glass to avoid death.Then King Qi offered Chengyang County to respect Princess Lu Yuan as the Queen Mother, and then he won the Queen Mother Lu's favor and returned to Qi State.But King Qi was still worried, married Lu Lu's daughter for his third son Liu Zhang, and sent Liu Zhang to the capital as a hostage, finally avoiding the disaster.

Liu Zhang, who entered the palace as a bodyguard, was the niece and son-in-law of Empress Dowager Lu, and was named Zhu Xuhou.This Liu Zhang was born tall and imposing, handsome, unsmiling, strong and serious, Zhu Lu was afraid of him.Seeing Lu Qiang and Liu Ruo, he felt very uncomfortable.But Liu Zhang remained calm, he was thinking about finding an opportunity to kill Zhu Lu's arrogance.Once the Empress Dowager held a family banquet for entertainment in the palace, and invited courtiers to the palace to add to the fun.The Empress Dowager Lv had a good time and wanted to enforce the drinking order, so she appointed Liu Zhang as the supervisor.Liu Zhang was secretly happy, and he wanted to surprise Zhu Lu in the bliss of the people.The plan has been made, and he deliberately said to the Queen Mother: "Report to the Queen Mother, if the minister is the general, I am afraid that the law enforcement will be too strict, so I should hire someone else!" The Queen Mother said: "I appointed you as the supervisor, just to be strict. Don't play tricks." Liu Zhang said: "I obey the order, please use the military law to supervise the wine." The Empress Dowager Lu was happy for a while, and said loudly: "The wine supervision should be like a military order. If there are escapers, they should be killed first and then played." What the Queen Mother said was nothing more than Just talking casually, how could she think that she could kill someone because of drinking!

After several rounds of drinking, Liu Zhang saw Lu's nephews reveling in bliss and making a lot of noise.He thought to himself, why not take some action first, to test the limelight and establish some majesty.So he came to the queen mother and said to the queen mother: "I am very happy to see the queen mother. I made up a song "Plowing the Field Song" and sang and danced to cheer up the wine." The queen mother was very happy and agreed to Liu Zhang's request. ask.Liu Zhang then drew his sword and danced, singing while dancing:

Deep plowing and general planting, the seedlings want to be thinned;

If it is not of its kind, hoe it away.

Empress Dowager Lu immediately sank when she heard this.Those Lu's nephews, who had a wine bag and a rice bag, didn't understand what it meant, but actually applauded and applauded in unison!After a while, one of Zhu Lu got drunk and ran away from the banquet, but everyone didn't care.But Liu Zhang saw it, followed him out, yelled, raised his sword and cut off the head of the fleeing man. "Liu Zhang held up the head and told the Queen Mother, "Queen Mother, someone escaped from the banquet, and the minister has enforced the law. "When Zhu Lu saw it, they were all stunned with fright. They looked at each other and kept silent. Empress Dowager Lu wanted to maintain the dignity of the title system when facing the ministers of civil and military affairs. It was not easy to offend Liu Zhang because the king had no jokes. The family banquet broke up unhappy. Liu Zhang's sword tested Zhu Lu's temperament, which can be said to be an exercise for killing Zhu Lu.

Nine, the death of Empress Lu

On the 181th day of the first lunar month in [-] BC, a total solar eclipse occurred on this day, and the day was as dark as night.Solar and lunar eclipses were originally natural phenomena, but the ancients believed that they were warnings from heaven.For this solar eclipse, Empress Lu believed that it was God admonishing her.So she said to the left and right: "This is for me." She was extremely worried.Why did Empress Dowager Lu take the solar eclipse on herself?Because Queen Mother Lu starved to death Zhao Youwang Liu You was the eighteenth day of Ding Chou in the first lunar month of this year, and Ding Chou was only thirteen days away from Yi Chou.The eclipse came so coincidentally that she panicked and thought it was a warning from heaven.This means that the minister is not fair, and Liu's rebellion. She is always in fear, suspicious, and restless.But Empress Dowager Lu did not curb her poisonous flames.Not long after the solar eclipse, in February, she killed Liu Hui, the king of Zhao who had recently moved to Zhao.At this time, Empress Lu's psychology fell into extreme contradictions and a vicious circle.On the one hand, she was worried about the revenge of Liu's nephew, but on the other hand, she stepped up to cut off Liu's nephew.So in less than two months, two Zhao kings were killed one after another.Empress Dowager Lu was in a heavy heart and was in a trance.She often had nightmares, dreaming that two kings of Zhao came to claim her life.The Empress Dowager Lu passed another year of trembling like this.

In March 180 BC, Empress Dowager Lu went to the outskirts of Chang'an to offer sacrifices in order to pray for disaster relief.This was the custom at that time. Usually in February or March, people would go to the ancestral temple, the altar or the waterside to offer sacrifices to eliminate disasters.Empress Dowager Lu was returning to the palace after the sacrifice, and when she passed by Zhidao Pavilion, she suddenly became dazzled, like a big blue dog swishing up to her chest, and bit her armpit hard.After returning to the palace, the fortune teller was asked to make a fortune, saying that it was Zhao Wang's wishful change that caused the trouble.This terrified the Empress Dowager Lu even more, aggravated her schizophrenia, and always felt itchy and a pimple in her armpits.Later, I really scratched the skin and got armpit ulcers.The Empress Dowager Lu lived like a year, until mid-July, her condition worsened, and she knew she was dying, so she called Lu Chan and Lu Lu into the palace to arrange the funeral.Empress Dowager Lu said to Zhu Lu: "You have violated the covenant of Emperor Gao by being named king. According to the oath, 'If you are not the king of the Liu family, the world will fight against it'. Now the ministers refuse to accept you. After I die, the little emperor can't hold back Ministers, you must firmly remember to control the military power and defend the court well, and you must not send me a funeral, so as not to be ruled by others." Xinsi on August [-], Empress Dowager Lu finally closed her unwilling door s eyes.

(End of this chapter)