Liu Qi stepped onto the stage of history and was about to start his era, but he immediately bumped into an arrogant son of the Dou family. This arrogant child does not learn from his elders and behave according to the rules, but he only wants to achieve great things. His name was Dou Ying, also known as Wangsun, and he was the nephew of Empress Dowager Dou.
Dou Ying loved guests, gave generously, acted chivalrously, and loved Confucianism. Dou Ying's character is nothing like Dou Changjun and Dou Shaojun. He is powerful, arrogant and courageous.
When the late emperor Liu Heng was on the throne, Dou Ying was the prime minister of Wu King Liu Bi. Liu Heng allowed the people to mint money, and Liu Bi recruited gangsters, opened mountains to mint money, and boiled the sea into salt, making him very rich. Dou Ying served as the Prime Minister, which was a very fat position. After not working for long, Dou Ying retired due to illness.
Liu Qi ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, and Dou Ying took charge of the affairs of the queen and the crown prince. The queen has no children, the crown prince's position is temporarily vacant, and there is nothing to manage in the queen mother's womb. Dou Ying puts all his energy into the queen mother and the queen's palace. Dou Ying is brave and courageous, while Queen Mother Dou is calm and dignified. The personalities of this nephew and his aunt are not in harmony. Their personalities are incompatible, but they don't get along well, which will inevitably lead to minor conflicts. There are too many small conflicts with each other, and if they develop day by day, they will lead to big conflicts.
It was hard work in the early years, but happiness later, so Empress Dowager Dou loved her youngest son Liang Wang Liu Wu very much. As the saying goes, a father loves his eldest son and a mother loves her youngest son. Liu Wu's fiefdom included more than forty cities, and each city was very wealthy, just like the seventy cities in Qi State at that time. Empress Dowager Dou loved Liu Wu, and Liu Qi also loved him, allowing him to build palaces as he pleased. According to ancient Chinese rules, the emperor's palace is the richest and largest. If the princes and kings want to build palaces, they must meet the rank.
According to the rules of the Han Dynasty, the princes and kings could only stay for more than ten days when they came to court. Empress Dowager Dou and Liu Qi liked Liu Wu. Liu Wu came to the court every year and moved freely in Chang'an, staying as he pleased and leaving at any time. When Liu Wu came to court, Liu Qi went out of the city to greet him. Liu Wu and Liu Qi rode in the same chariot and hunted together. Liu Qi's love for Liu Wu is just like Liu Heng's love for Liu Chang. It's not that enemies don't get together, or that father and son can't be together without fate. Liu Heng and his son are not only predestined, but also very similar.
Liu Qi did not have a prince, so Liu Wu was allowed to use the prince's honor guard. Those who do things are careless, but those who see them are intentional. Maybe Liu Qi didn't take Liu Wu's use of the crown prince's honor guard seriously, but Empress Dowager Dou was very pleased to see it. Empress Dowager Dou wanted Liu Wu to inherit the throne and was determined to make it happen.
In the third year of Emperor Jing's reign (154 BC), during the pilgrimage, Liu Qi hosted a banquet for his brothers. After drinking heavily, Liu Qi said that he would pass the throne to Liu Wu after his death. After hearing this, Queen Mother Dou was very happy, as if she was going to be the emperor. Queen Mother Dou was in high spirits and happy when Dou Ying suddenly poured a basin of cold water on her head. Dou Ying stood up, offered Liu Qi a glass of wine, and said: "The world belongs to Emperor Gaozu, and it is customary to pass it down from father to son. This throne cannot be passed on to King Liu Wu of Liang." Dou Ying and Queen Mother Dou are a family, and he hinders Liu Wu. The Queen Mother was puzzled. There was already a rift between Dou Ying and Queen Mother Dou, but this time even their skin was torn apart.
The position of prince is a treasure, but it is also a hot potato.
Although Dou Ying was his nephew, his good deeds were ruined, and Empress Dowager Dou hated Dou Ying from then on. Empress Dowager Dou hated Dou Ying and looked ugly; Dou Ying resigned due to illness because his current official position was inferior. Dou Ying's resignation was in line with Empress Dowager Dou's wishes. Empress Dowager Dou did not do anything, and she simply did it neatly. Except for Dou Ying's clan, she was not allowed to see the emperor. With Dou Ying leaving, there would be less resistance for Liu Wu to inherit the throne. Empress Dowager Dou had a simple idea.
Seeing that Dou Ying was about to die, a savior suddenly jumped out—Chao Cuo. In just a few years, this ambitious Chinese doctor wrote books such as "A Note on Military Affairs", "A Note on Defending the Border and Encouraging Farmers", "A Note on Raising Borders and Practicing Fortresses", and "Countermeasures for Promoting Virtue".
After Liu Qi ascended the throne, Chao Cuo, a think tank, ascended to heaven and was promoted from a senior official to an internal historian. Chao Cuo is like the sun in the sky, the light is dazzling, red and purple. In order to display his great talents, he did nothing and never stopped, and he was so angry that he died of anger at the Prime Minister Shen Tujia.
Shen Tujia was a Liang native who had followed Liu Bang and was promoted to prime minister because of his seniority. He was first a team leader, then a Marquis of Guan Nei, and then a Censor. He is honest and upright and does not accept private guests, but he is a bit jealous. He had just become prime minister and couldn't stand Deng Tong's behavior. Once, he found an opportunity and wanted to kill Deng Tong, but at the critical moment he was rescued by Liu Heng's envoy Chijie.
What he didn't expect was that five years later, another person who was extremely displeasing to him appeared. This person was Chao Cuo, a celebrity around Liu Qi. Chao Cuo served as internal history. Because he was favored by the emperor, he had a high status and great power. He petitioned the emperor to change many legal systems. At the same time, they also discussed how to use demotion and punishment to weaken the power of the princes. Prime Minister Shen Tujia also felt that what he said was not adopted, so he hated Chao Cuo. Chao Cuo served as the internal historian. The gate of the internal history palace originally led out of the palace from the east, which made it inconvenient for him to enter and exit. Therefore, he took it upon himself to build a wall door leading to the south.
The wall cut through the door to the south was the outer wall of the Taishang Emperor's Ancestral Temple. After Shen Tujia heard about it, he wanted to use Chao Cuo's unauthorized cutting of the wall of the ancestral temple as a door to punish Chao Cuo and petition the emperor. Kill him. But someone among Chao Cuo's disciples told him about it. Chao Cuo was so frightened that he ran to the palace overnight, met with the emperor, surrendered to Emperor Jing, and explained the situation. In the morning of the next day, Prime Minister Shen Tujia petitioned Chao Cuo, the internal minister, to be killed.
Emperor Jing said: "The wall that Chao Cuo built was not the real ancestral temple wall, but the short outer wall of the ancestral temple. That's why other officials lived in it. Besides, I asked him to do this. Chao Cuo had nothing to do with it." Sin.”
Chao Cuo was not killed, but he still apologized in front of the ministers. Shen Tujia was extremely sad and angry. He said to Chang Shi: "I should kill first and then report, report first and then kill, otherwise things will definitely go wrong." Because of his delay in dropping the knife, Deng Tong was rescued by Liu Heng. Shen Tujia did not learn his lesson and deserved to die. When Shen Tujia returned home, the more he thought about it, the more angry he got, and he fell ill and died. Chao Cuo escaped and was respected by all the officials, and his status became more and more noble. After Shen Tujia's death, Chao Cuo took charge of the affairs of his own and raised the issue of cutting down the vassal vassal. Chao Cuo was a more radical person. His reduction of vassals was different from Jia Yi's soft reduction. His style was more tough. He began to find the faults of the princes and kings. In the name of punishing them, the central government directly took back the fiefdoms of the princes and kings. Jia Yi proposed to reduce the vassal status by enfeoffment, while Chao Cuo proposed to reduce the vassal status by force. In comparison, one is conservative and the other is radical. However, Chao Cuo suited Liu Qi's heart exactly.
With Liu Qi's high regard, the princes and princes did not dare to oppose Chao Cuo's reduction of vassal status. However, Dou Ying stood up and firmly opposed the reduction of vassalage. All the civil and military officials in the dynasty were obedient, but no one responded. Dou Ying was left alone and unable to sing. However, Liu Qi had already agreed to reduce the vassal status, and Dou Ying's voice would be trampled on no matter how loud it was. Because of the reduction of vassal status, Dou Ying and Chao Cuo had a rift. At this time, Liu Qi issued an edict to reduce the vassal status, and the action to reduce the vassal status officially began.
At this moment, the princes received the news and started making noises, causing the whole world to be in commotion.
Wu Wang Liu Bi
Liu Bi, who was only 20 years old, defeated the Yingbu army with great bravery and bravery, which impressed Liu Bang. After Yingbu was executed, Liu Bang was worried that no one could suppress the tyrannical people of Kuaiji. Seeing Liu Bi's bravery, he named him King of Wu and gave him more than fifty cities in Wu. Liu Bi is a capable person. Even if he is given a piece of saline-alkali land in the north, he can turn gold into gold. What's more, Wu State has unique geographical conditions.
After the awards and seals were awarded, Liu Bang took a look at Liu Bi's face and found that Liu Bi's appearance was reversed. He touched Liu Bi's back and said: "Fifty years after the Han Dynasty, there was a rebellion in the southeast. Is it you? We are one family. People, you must not rebel!”
Liu Bang's fortune-telling must be based on historical records. Maybe he saw that Liu Bi was too brave and was worried that Liu Bi would not want to live in a pool or be born underground but would like to fly into the sky, so he said this. Among the Liu family's descendants, Liu Bi was both brave and strategic. Wu State had superior conditions and could easily develop and grow. As a vassal state, Liu Bang had seen many uprisings once it became strong, so he was good at warning Liu Bi. Liu Bi was very weak at that time. After listening to Liu Bang's words, how could he not hastily reply that he didn't dare.
Wu State was rich in copper mines and was close to the sea. Taking advantage of the imperial court's permission to mint money, Liu Bi recruited desperadoes from all over the world to mine, mint money, and boil the sea into salt. Just by casting money and boiling salt, Wu suddenly became rich and the people could not use up their money. As mentioned above, "Deng Qian" and "Wu Qian" are popular all over the world, and "Wu Qian" refers to the money cast by King Liu Bi of Wu.
The Kingdom of Wu suddenly became rich, and the people did not have to pay taxes. People all over the world defected to the Kingdom of Wu one after another. Han law stipulates that wealthy people can buy people to perform corvee services on their behalf. The people of Wu State had a lot of money, so they used their money to buy people to do corvee service on their behalf, and the domestic labor force was extremely scarce. Liu Bi opened the door for convenience, and no matter who it was, he would accept it. The State of Wu was very wealthy and gave rewards to its people every year. Those who died or were injured in the line of duty were treated better. It can be seen that Wu State's financial resources are so rich that it can compete with the central government.
Previously, when Liu Heng was in power, Liu Xian, the crown prince of Wu State, came to see him. Liu Bi did not come to the court, so it was inappropriate to send the crown prince here. Liu Qi hosted a banquet for Liu Xian, and the two gambled money. Liu Xian had a wealthy family and was arrogant. During this period, Liu Xian despised Liu Qi. Liu Qi picked up gambling equipment and threw it at Liu Xian, and Liu Xian died.
Liu Heng, who was deeply apologetic, ordered people to hold a funeral for Liu Xian and asked Liu Xian's entourage to carry Liu Xian back to the Kingdom of Wu. When his beloved son passed away, Liu Bi was very sad and said to his entourage: "Liu Xian and the emperor are one family. If he died in Chang'an, he would be buried in Chang'an. There is no need to carry him back to Wu." Liu Bi ordered those who came to carry Liu Xian back to Chang'an. Liu Bi's move was clearly to let his son enjoy the treatment of the emperor.
From then on, Liu Bi hated the imperial court and gradually failed to abide by the etiquette of a vassal. He complained of illness and refused to visit the court for a long time. Liu Heng felt that the real reason for Liu Bi's long-term absence from court was Liu Xian's death rather than physical illness. When someone checked, it turned out that it was due to the loss of his son. After that, every time Liu Bi sent people to Chang'an, they were imprisoned and never returned. Liu Bi became more and more frightened. He complained that he was ill every time he went to court, and his preparations for rebellion became even faster.
When Liu Heng saw that Liu Bi had not come to court for many years, he directly sent someone to invite him, but Liu Bi still refused because of illness. Liu Heng interrogated the Wu envoy, and the envoy replied: "It is of no benefit to anyone to see the fish swimming in the pond. The king of Wu was discovered just as he was pretending to be ill. Seeing the emperor's accusations, he was afraid of being punished and didn't know what to do. For everyone Well, I hope the emperor will give him a chance." This sentence is called, "If the water is clear, there will be no fish, and if the people are clear, there will be no disciples." The messenger is clearly trying to persuade Liu Heng to pass by in a confused way, and eliminate a disaster in a confused way. .
Liu Heng, who understood his intention, immediately released the detained Wu envoy, rewarded Liu Bi with a cane, and allowed Liu Bi not to come to court. Liu Heng did not dare to cut down the vassal vassal and wanted to muddle through. He is old, and once he dies, he will be deceived. However, the consequences of raising a tiger are that a big tiger will hurt people. After his death, Liu Qi had to face it. Liu Heng was so generous, and Liu Bi became more and more arrogant. He made money, cooked salt extensively, and recruited desperadoes from all over the world. After more than thirty years of development, the power of Wu State rose to the top of the vassal states. Among the princes who were dissatisfied with the imperial court, only Liu Bi followed suit, and Liu Bi's power grew day by day.
