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

Chapter 252: Use retreat to advance, hide your strength and bide your time

After Wang Mang came to power, he often followed Bai Xuan's advice, worked tirelessly on self-denial, recruited virtuous people, and used all the rewards and money he received to entertain celebrities, and his life became more frugal.

One time, all the officials came to visit his mother. When they saw Wang Mang's wife wearing very simple clothes, they actually thought she was a servant of his family.

After that, everyone in the government and the public gave Wang Mang a thumbs up, thinking that Wang Mang was the epitome of the Han Dynasty, another saint after Confucius, a living saint, and having a saint serve as the Great Sima of the Han Dynasty meant that the Han Dynasty was about to reach its peak.

As a result, Wang Mang's prestige increased infinitely.

Under Wang Mang's instruction, he submitted a letter to reform the imperial official system. Finally, the Han Emperor issued an edict to promote Wang Mang to the rank of Cavalry General.

The general is appointed as the great Sima, and the general is dismissed. The imperial censor was named Da Sikong and was granted the title of Liehou. With the increase of Da Sima, the salary of Da Sikong is the same as that of the prime minister, which is ten thousand stones.

The twenty-sixth year of Han Dynasty (the second year of Suihe)

New Year
The Emperor of the Han Dynasty issued an edict to abolish the governor of the Ministry and install a state pastor with a rank of two thousand stones.

March
The Emperor of the Han Dynasty came to Ganquan and offered sacrifices to Mount Tai in the suburbs. On the way back, we visited Hedong to offer sacrifices to Hou Tu.

18th

The drunken Emperor of Han died violently in the arms of Zhaoyi Zhao Hede. The Empress Dowager "examined the emperor's symptoms during his daily life", and Zhao Hede committed suicide in fear of guilt.

Han Emperor Liu Ao died in Weiyang Palace.

Under the leadership of Wang Mang, the ministers gave the Han emperor the posthumous title "Cheng", which was called "Cheng" for overcoming the punishment of the people; saying "Cheng" for assisting the prime minister to overcome the end; "Cheng" for overcoming the righteousness; and saying "Cheng" for the clear instruments of ritual and music. It is for the great Han Dynasty to become the emperor.

Originally, the Queen Mother wanted to build a temple for Emperor Cheng, but the ministers and princes from various places carefully counted the achievements of Emperor Cheng and found that it was not enough to build a temple, so there was no temple name.

Liu Xin, the nephew of Emperor Cheng, went to the Ancestral Temple to pay homage to Emperor Gaozu and ascended the throne as emperor. Respecting Emperor Cheng’s mother, the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun, as the Empress Dowager, and Emperor Cheng’s empress Zhao Feiyan as the Empress Dowager

April
Emperor Cheng's coffin and coffin were buried in Yanling.

Emperor Cheng's wife, Empress Xu, originally gave birth to a son and a daughter, but they both died in infancy; later, she had a son with Ban Jieyu, who also died in infancy;

Later, because Emperor Cheng was drained by wine and sex, he also favored sisters Zhao Feiyan and Zhao Hede, both of whom had no children. The Zhao sisters were afraid that other concubines would have children that would shake their status, so the Zhao sisters continued to persecute the harem, causing the concubines in the harem to fight against each other, which eventually led to the death of Emperor Cheng. Never.

In the first year of Suihe, the Han Emperor had no choice but to confer Liu Xin, the son of his half-brother Dingtao King Liu Kang, as the crown prince.

When the Han Emperor was newly established, he immediately honored his late father, Prince Dingtao Gong Liu Kang, as Emperor Gong.

May
The Emperor of the Han Dynasty established his concubine Fu as his empress, and issued an edict as stated in the Spring and Autumn Annals that a mother is more valuable than her son, so he honored his grandmother Empress Dowager Fu (Fu Zhaoyi) as Empress Dowager Gong, and his mother Ding Ji as Empress Gong.

The Han Emperor and Yuan Cong relatives, including Empress Dowager Fu, Empress Ding, and Empress Fu, all lived in Weiyang Palace and its affiliated North Palace. The Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun exclusively occupied Changle Palace.

Seeing that the Wang family was monopolizing the government affairs, but he had no relationship with the Wang family, the Han Emperor therefore distrusted Wang Mang.

So the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, through the Empress Dowager Fu, said that Wang Mang, as a Han official, did not respect the Empress Dowager Fu, so he issued an edict to scold him. At the same time, he continued to promote his relatives, the Fu family and the Ding family, in order to compete with the Wang family.

Empress Dowager Fu always wanted to raise her title to the same status as Wang Zhengjun, but was blocked by Grand Sima Wang Mang, Grand Tutor Shidan, Grand Situ Kongguang, and even her relative Fu Xi, so she resented Wang Mang even more.

Wang Mang saw that this was not a problem, so he summoned his cronies to find a solution.

"General, now that the new emperor has succeeded to the throne, he will bring a group of ministers from the Yuan Dynasty. The general has nothing to do with him, so it is normal not to have his trust. But the emperor is the emperor after all, and we will directly confront the emperor. We have lost our inherent advantage. Nowadays, most of the political and military power, both central and local, are in our hands.

It is better for the general to take retreat as an opportunity to advance, take the initiative to resign, and keep a low profile. I think among your Majesty's relatives and ministers of Yuan Cong, only that Shi Dan is capable, but he is the only one.

But since he is not a relative, it is difficult for him to get the full support of the Fu family and the Ding family. Even if he has thousands of talents, he has nowhere to shine. Moreover, today's world is in turmoil. As long as the general continues to improve his reputation, when the situation changes, he will return to the center with the general trend.

Until then, who else can stop you? As long as we and the Wang family agree with the general, what does it matter whether the general is in the position of Grand Sima or not?

The current situation changes, officials miss you, and the people miss you, who is the most famous person in the world. When the time comes, there will be the Empress Dowager inside and close friends like us outside. When you return to Chang'an, the trend will be yours. "

Bai Xuan took the initiative to give Wang Mang a strategy to retreat in order to advance.

"General, I think Bai Yushi's plan is very good. Now that the new emperor trusts the Fu brothers and Ding Ming of the Ding family, we, the former emperor's old ministers, are afraid to avoid them if we rashly confront them.

And with the support of His Majesty and Empress Dowager Fu, even if we can win, we are afraid that we will lose our trust in the world. When the time comes, those who claim to be loyal to the Liu family will definitely start a rebellion based on this. The world should be in turmoil. But as an auxiliary minister, Wang may be involved. Even if we quell these turmoils, how much power do we still have to change the centuries-old chronic diseases of the Han Dynasty? "

This time Liu Xin agreed with Bai Xuan's statement.

Regardless of the fact that Wang Mang, as a great Sima, has all the power in the government and the public, and he dominates most of the central areas, these are all based on his ability to lead them to solve the chronic problems of the great Han Dynasty today.

Wang Mang knew very well that except for people from poor and commoner backgrounds such as Liu Xin, Zhen Feng, Ping Yan, etc. whom he had attracted with his reputation and personal charm, the other two-thirds of the people were from the Wang family and the Bai family. They are all dominated by Wang Shun and Bai Xuan.

It's because they both identify with themselves that this part of their power can be used by him.

Therefore, he attaches great importance to his relationship with Wang Shun and Bai Xuan, and treats them differently from others.

Now Liu Xin and Bai Xuan have agreed to continue to support him after he retires, but what about the Wang family? You must know that the Wang family still has an uncle-level boss Wang Li alive today. Does he agree with me?
So Wang Mang turned his attention to Wang Shun.

"General, don't worry. Your surname is Wang. If the Wang family doesn't support you, why should you still support the Fu family and the Ding family? And as early as my late father's time, the Wang family has already designated you as the future head of the family. As long as you don't give up on the Wang family , Wang will definitely stand with you."

"Okay, since all the gentlemen have persuaded me to retreat in order to advance, I will give them a son first. I want to see if this big man can bring about great rule without me, Wang Mang."

A few days later, Wang Mang voluntarily resigned under pressure from the Empress Dowager Fu.

Originally, the court officials preferred the right general Fu Xi to be the Grand Sima. However, because Fu Xi was modest and upright, he kept persuading the Empress Dowager Fu not to interfere in the government affairs, and the Empress Dowager Fu did not like it.

Therefore, the Han Emperor could only use Grand Tutor Zuo General Shi Dan as the Grand Sima to help him manage the affairs of the state. At the same time, a large number of children of the Fu and Ding families were promoted. For a time, it seemed that the Fu and Ding families had become the most prominent families in the world.

However, although Wang Mang retired, the Wang family, Bai family and other forces who supported Wang Mang were still deeply rooted in the court and local areas.

Wang Mang returned to his new capital in Henan and settled there. While keeping a low profile, he kept collecting information about the court so that he could return as soon as possible.

As soon as Wang Mang, a powerful official in the former dynasty, left, the Han Emperor immediately felt relieved.

Seeing that the government was in his own hands, the Han emperor began to solve the problems of refugees and local land annexation.

The Great Sima Shidan immediately wrote the "Book of Land Limitation and Slave Limitation" to the Han Emperor, which stipulated that the princes, princes, princesses, and officials should not occupy more than thirty hectares of land; the number of slaves of the princes and kings was limited to 200 people. There are one hundred marquis and princesses, and thirty officials and civilians; merchants are not allowed to own land and are not allowed to be officials. Those who exceed the above limit will be confiscated from the land and slaves.

This was strongly supported by the Great Situ Kongguang and the Great Sima Hewu, who believed that this would help solve the long-standing chronic problems of the Han Dynasty.

Originally the Han Emperor was very fond of it, but was blocked by the Fu and Ding families headed by Ding Ming, and was also undermined by his favorite minister Dong Xian. Therefore, this method has not been completely implemented.

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

Since the fundamental problem has not been resolved, the popular trend has intensified, natural and man-made disasters have continued, and the view that the destiny of the Han Dynasty has come to an end has been increasingly recognized by people all over the world.

The Emperor of the Han Dynasty asked his ministers to discuss how to solve the problem of the end of the Han Dynasty among the people.

Liu Xin of Imperial College offered sacrifices to the emperor, Quan Daozi of the Five Emperors Temple, Xia Heliang and others prophesied that the Emperor Gaozu was the spirit of the Red Emperor, saying that the Han family was in decline and should receive the destiny again, and that the name of the Yuan Dynasty should be changed to let God Give the great man his destiny again.

So the Emperor of the Han Dynasty issued an edict: "It has been two hundred years since the rise of the Han Dynasty, counting the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty. The emperor and heaven bless me, an incompetent person, and the Han Dynasty will receive the talisman of destiny again. My virtue is meager, how dare I disobey it! Everyone is more likely to receive the great destiny of heaven." , must be restructured and updated, and now the world is amnesty. The second year of Jianping is the first year of Taichu Yuanjiang, and I am known as Emperor Chen Sheng and Liu Taiping. The scale is one hundred and twenty."

But this method was of no use at all. Civil uprisings continued. Seeing the decline of the Han Dynasty, the nomadic peoples on the frontiers continued to invade the frontiers, causing the Han Dynasty's military expenditure to rise suddenly and almost emptying the national treasury.

There are also millions of refugees in Central Guandong who are crying for food. The relatives in the court, headed by Fu and Ding, continue to persecute capable courtiers, making the situation even more chaotic. In addition, the Han emperor spends a lot of money to reward his close ministers, and thousands of people can be killed with one move. Tens of thousands of coins, just one Dong Xian was given tens of thousands of coins by Emperor Han's order.

He also continued to recruit corvees and built his own mausoleum. It happened that his mother Ding passed away. In order to allow her mother and father to be buried together, the Empress Dowager Ding was buried in Dingtao. Fifty thousand people from the nearby counties of Chenliu and Jiyin were also recruited to dig tombs and seal the soil.

In the past few years, there have been either floods or droughts and locust plagues all over the world. Coupled with man-made disasters, it has become increasingly clear that the Han Dynasty is about to perish. People in the world are even more eager for someone to solve this dilemma.

It happened that Wang Mang's second son, Wang Huo, who was living in seclusion in Xindu, was severely punished by Wang Mang for killing his slave. He even forced Wang Huo to commit suicide in order to atone for his sin and win the praise of the world.

As a result, many officials and common people complained about Wang Mang's dismissal and demanded that he come back to save the world.

Seeing that the voices calling for Wang Mang's comeback were getting louder and louder, the Han Emperor was forced to recall Wang Mang to Chang'an due to the situation, but he only asked him to serve the Queen Mother and did not restore his official position.

(End of this chapter)