In the palace of the Crown Prince, more than a dozen people gathered, all of them with faces as dark as water and a look of fear in their eyes.
too suddenly!
For many people, it was simply a disaster. The prince walked out angrily, looked at the silent crowd, and sneered: "My death is not far away."
He didn't even have any fear, and said: "Wait until Gu is deposed as a vassal king, is charged with a crime in two years, and then commits suicide in prison.
Dear ministers, those who are closest to Gu should die by sitting in the law. The close branches of the three clans will die by sitting and the distant branches will be exiled.
The rest of you, those who deserve to be promoted, those who should not be promoted, will be removed from office, and will not be employed for life, which will affect the children of the family. It is really a tragic image.
How miserable. "
Liu Heping spoke calmly and vividly described everything he would experience in prison. Everyone who listened felt chills in their hearts and fear increased in their hearts.
"What should I do?"
Suddenly, someone became confused and looked at Liu He with a sense of boredom and shouted: "Why panic, the worst is just death.
Anyway, it’s not just you and me who will die. If my father wants to destroy Gu, then he must prepare for a hundred thousand people to be buried with me. "
There was a trace of madness in Liu He's voice.
One hundred thousand people!
This is definitely not a lie. If Liu Xun did what he did when he liquidated Liu Dan, there would definitely be 100,000 people involved.
The problem is that no matter how many people there are, the powerful people here are not willing to be involved. Thinking of this, these people have a hatred for the emperor.
You raised the prince so high in the first place and transferred us people to the prince. But now you are not satisfied and want to change the prince?
dream!
"Prince, His Majesty has not yet issued an actual edict. We still have a chance, so why not write to His Majesty and ask His Majesty to strictly investigate those who spread rumors.
As long as His Majesty sees the turbulent public opinion in the world, he will definitely change his mind. Liu She is just a child with a yellow mouth. Can he bear the weight of the world on him? "
Check rumors strictly.
Regardless of whether this person could be caught or not, at least the tone was set and the emperor did not want to change the prince.
Liu He heard this and said: "You don't need to submit a letter. Once this news spreads, there will be countless people in Chang'an City alone who are frightened.
Take a look.
There is no need to act alone, someone will speak out against it tomorrow, and the father will find out that he has done something extremely ridiculous. "
After all these people left the Crown Prince's womb, anger suddenly surged on Liu He's face, but his mind was extremely clear.
Until now, he still thinks that he is as stable as Mount Tai.
Of course it was not because of the so-called turbulent public opinion in the world. There were only 100,000 people. Not to mention exile, even execution, even he could do it. He did not think that his father would be soft-hearted.
Since his father came to the throne, he had been cleaning up a series of major cases and had countless people killed and exiled. The butcher's knife had never been softer.
His confidence was that he felt that his father was doing something ridiculous.
It can even be said to be stupid!
He never listed Liu She as a contender for the throne, even though Liu She was also his legitimate son.
Because Liu She was too young.
Liu Xun had a total of fifteen children, but only nine of them lived to be twelve years old. Two of them died in infancy, one died of illness at the age of three, and three did not live past six years. age.
Even though the royal family had the best doctors, the infant mortality rate was still so high.
Liu He didn't curse Liu She. There was no telling whether Liu She would live past ten years old.
It is simply crazy to make a child who may die at any time the crown prince.
Liu He felt that although he was far from as wise and powerful as his father, at least he couldn't do this kind of wise operation and would not leave the ancestral temple and the country to luck.
"Father can't be so stupid to rebuild a prosperous career. Is he using this matter to beat me?"
Liu He began to think about other aspects, "My father has always been dissatisfied with me. He might be old and confused when he criticized me for being too mean. It seems it's time to go to the palace."
…
There is no shortage of political speculators in this world, but Liu She’s base is indeed too small.
He had the advantage of being a legitimate son, which made him second in line to the throne.
The disadvantage is that all the support of the queen's family has been taken away by his eldest brother, and he is too young. Unlike his great-grandfather Emperor Xiaowu, who had an entire Liang team at his disposal, he can be said to have no power at all.
As the news gradually spread, many people who had not been able to get close to Liu He before wanted to get close to Liu She. But the problem was that Liu She still lived in the palace and could not get in touch with him even if they wanted to.
So interested people began to visit Huo Guang, the emperor's first close official. Although his official position was not as good as the three gongs and nine ministers, he was always by the emperor's side, counselor and confidential, and his power was not weaker than that of the prime minister and the imperial censor. , he must be present, and the dignitaries in Chang'an are all fawning over him.
There was always silence in the palace. Rumors among the people spread more and more widely. All kinds of rumors appeared. Until the meeting of the imperial court, Chang'an City had a stagnant atmosphere as if a storm was about to come.
The courtiers filed in uneasily, and almost all of them had a hint of anxiety on their brows. No official would like a political storm, because it represents uncertainty. No one can know anything about a political storm before it comes to an end. Know how long it will last and how broad it will be.
When the four major cases of Ji Zhao's previous life in the early Ming Dynasty just started, who would have thought that they would become major cases involving tens of thousands of people?
Who would want a case to go on for years without resolution?
Who would have thought that the emperor's order would eventually become a tool to attack political opponents, and countless officials and ordinary people who had nothing to do with the case were imprisoned and died.
Although the officials of the Han Dynasty had never seen such sweeping killings, they had witnessed Liu Xun's purge in Guanzhong. Many people were wrongly accused, but under the strict and severe purge policy, A large number of officials and their three clans were exiled.
This makes many people scared, and they are very worried that changing the crown prince will be a new political purge.
Liu He has been the prince for more than ten years and has contacts with too many officials. In a political storm, a little relationship is enough to convict someone.
It is better to kill the wrong person than to let it go.
From ancient times to the present, there is no exception.
This was unacceptable to many people. As Liu He expected, even if he did not contact him, many officials were ready to write letters to oppose this matter.
Liu He's reputation is bad, but not that bad. How much harm can a person do with so much energy?
Even if he does bad things every day, can he still do more than a thousand things a month?
Liu He mainly harmed those ministers who had beautiful concubines and wealthy ministers in their families. What harmed the common people and ordinary officials were the lackeys under him who used his banner.
Liu He didn't care too much. If he did too much and affected him, he would kill him with one sword. He usually turned a blind eye. After all, he still needed these people to talk dirty to him.
As the courtiers entered the palace, Liu He did not attend the court meeting. Instead, he entered the palace to visit his mother.
Queen Xu didn't expect that the prince would come to visit her. Thinking of what Liu Xun had done, and then thinking about the choices she made, she couldn't help but feel guilty for a moment, and even didn't dare to face Liu He.
Although Liu He was a bastard outside, he was still relatively filial to Queen Xu. After bowing respectfully, he said with a smile: "Mother, my son has not come to the palace to visit you for a while. It is because his son is unfilial. This is because he has never been in the palace." The things purchased by merchants from the Western Regions are rare in the Central Plains and given to my mother."
The maid next to Queen Xu took the things away, and then Queen Xu asked softly: "Is there anything wrong when the prince comes to the palace?"
Liu He shook his head and said with a smile: "My son is already older than he was when he was young. This time he came to the palace just to chat with his mother.
My son still remembers that when he was young, he got seriously ill and almost went to see my ancestors of the Liu family.
Fortunately, the queen mother prayed for her son, otherwise we, mother and son, would have parted ways. Last year, your grandson died in infancy, and my son was heartbroken. Only then did he understand how the queen mother prayed for her son. "
As he spoke, Liu He actually shed tears, with a sad expression on his face. Queen Xu comforted him: "He is unlucky and cannot bear the fate of being born into the heavenly family. Don't be too sad, Your Majesty."
Liu He barely controlled his emotions and sighed slightly: "Fortunately, my mother gave birth to brother She again. Otherwise, if my son had an accident, I don't know what you would do."
Queen Xu's pupils shrank, she was a smart woman, she looked deeply at her son, and somewhat understood what he was doing.
Liu He didn't care that his mother saw his purpose, because he was speaking from the bottom of his heart. In this world, only sincerity is the most murderous thing. He was not alarmist or making up nonsense. He just said something very... In the possible situation, he didn't even guide Queen Xu's thinking, but Queen Xu herself would involuntarily think in that direction.
Queen Xu was a little shaken, and she began to think about whether she was doing the right thing. Liu He discovered this and smiled secretly. Everyone has a weakness. If you catch the weakness, that person will be used by you.
The emperor and his ministers fight hundreds of battles every day, so why not just the emperor and his ministers?
There is such a game between people. Han Fei explained it very clearly in the classics, thoroughly analyzing human nature and the human heart.
The mother and son were having a heart-to-heart talk here, and fierce arguments had begun to break out in the court hall. Liu Xun himself did not expect that there would be so many ministers who would object, many of whom he could not even imagine.
Liu Xun did not fully anticipate the political consequences of the purge he carried out. He did not know how much the political terror made officials all over the world change their minds.
Liu He's reputation was not good, and his ministers could accept orders to reprimand him, deprive him of rewards, even ban him, or punish the ministers around the prince, but no one was willing to let him depose the prince unless he had to.
Liu Xun finally felt a little bit of trouble, but he was a powerful monarch and naturally he would not back down.
(End of chapter)
