Know all about the secrets of the harem

Chapter 35
In this way, Liu Xiu, who is slender, handsome, and like a handsome young man, is often ridiculed by his elder brother. Liu Ji compares him to Liu Zhong, the mediocre second elder brother of Han Gaozu Liu Bang.Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, was unwilling to farm. Therefore, he was not seen by his father Liu Taigong and was scolded as a "rogue", but Liu Bang's elder brother Liu Zhong was very good at management.After Liu Bang became emperor, he once asked his father Taigong: "Earlier, the adults often said that I was a rascal and couldn't manage the property. I'm not as good as my second brother who is diligent and hardworking. Now, compared with my second brother's property, who is bigger? "

Liu Ji often used this story to make fun of Liu Xiu, obviously comparing himself to Liu Bang and Liu Xiu to Liu Zhong.At first, Liu Xiu didn't care about it, and still maintained the image of an honest person in everyone's mind.However, under the encouragement of his brother, Liu Xiu also gradually came up with the idea of ​​"angry and aspiring to the world".

When friends of the same age are getting married one after another and enjoying family fun, 20-year-old Liu Xiu has made another decision: to study in Chang'an.In Chang'an, he did study a large number of classics, and this short charging process later distinguished him from a large group of kings of the rivers and lakes.Soon the money was exhausted, and he returned to Nanyang.At this time, he began to get in touch with his elder brother-in-law Deng Chen.Since Yin Lihua's mother is also from the Deng family, he got acquainted with Yin Lihua.Yin Lihua is beautiful and filial, and has been famous far and wide at a young age.

Yin Lihua was born in a very prominent family. The Yin family was the empress of Guan Zhong, a famous Prime Minister of the Spring and Autumn Period.At the time of Guanxiu, the seventh generation descendant, he moved from Qi to Chu, where he was granted the title of doctor Yin, and he took the surname "Yin" from then on.At the end of Qin Dynasty and the beginning of Han Dynasty, the Yin family moved to Xinye.Not only were they born prominently, but the Yin family was also a wealthy family at that time. The Yin family had tens of thousands of mu of fertile land, and their chariots, horses and servants could be compared to feudal princes and kings.

Yin Lihua and Liu Xiu are 9 years old, but this does not affect the emergence and growth of love.The beauty of Miss Yin's family impressed Liu Xiu so deeply that later Liu Xiu accidentally saw Zhi Jinwu leading a group of people out for a trip. The grand scene deeply shocked Liu Xiu.For a while, Liu Xiu's thoughts surged, and she couldn't help sighing: "Officials are treated as Jinwu, and wives are regarded as Yin Lihua." beautiful woman.Zhi Jinwu's official position is not the largest among the hundred officials, but in terms of momentum and ostentation, Zhi Jinwu ranks first among the hundred officials.It can be said that Zhijinwu's power and Yin Lihua's beauty gave Liu Xiu, who was still a scholar at that time, a great impact.This story has become one of the most romantic legends in the emotional life of ancient Chinese emperors.

There is a saying that "heroes come out of troubled times". Although Wang Mang is good at usurping power, he is incapable of governing the country.In 17 AD, Wang Mang's regime was already on the verge of collapse amid various natural and man-made disasters such as floods, droughts, locusts, and hail.Many ordinary people who could not survive had no choice but to take risks and rise up, hoping to establish a great contribution of their own in the troubled times.

In 22 A.D., the brothers of the Liu family formally raised their troops.They first took refuge in the Green Forest Army, and the initial stage went smoothly, and they were able to capture the city easily.Liu Xiu is a handsome guy with a soft temperament and can handle conflicts very well.At that time, there were few war horses, and many leaders often fought among themselves in order to show their status by riding a horse.Liu Xiu is the younger brother of the big boss, so he should have a horse anyway, but he always gives it up to others, and he always rides an old cow brought from his hometown.After getting the property, it was also handed over to the Green Forest Army. Liu Jiajun never kept it privately.

Soon Liu Xiu suffered his first tragic defeat and was defeated by Wang Mang's regular heavy cavalry. His eldest sister Liu Yuan and three nieces died in the rebellion.But the defeat was only temporary, and they captured Wancheng after receiving reinforcements.The Green Forest Army elected one of Liu Xiu's elder brothers, Liu Xuan, to be the emperor, the so-called Gengshi Emperor.

In the process of eliminating Wang Mang, Liu Xiu contributed the most.In 23 A.D., the Green Forest Army was trapped in Kunyang City. Liu Xiu led 18 people to break out and led more than 3 reinforcements back to defeat Wang Mang's 42 troops.In the battle of Kunyang, Liu Xiu became famous overnight.Liu Xiu's bravery impressed Yin Lihua and her family.In June of this year, Liu Xiu finally fulfilled his wish for many years and married Yin Lihua in Wancheng.The happy couple are 29 years old and 20 years old.Liu Xiu was the last of the Chinese emperors to marry.It seems a bit too romantic to say that he married late because he was waiting for Yin Lihua.But as a local armed leader, he has never been sensual, and he has concubines and maidservants, which really makes people have to have this guess.However, their happy days did not last long. Although Liu Xiu was only a local general at that time and was still far away from the throne of emperor, his fate forced him to continue to devote himself to political struggles. Liu Xiu, who was born in Beijing, would not have thought that he had fallen into the civil strife of the Xuanhan Dynasty.

Not long after the Kunyang War, the Liu brothers were suspected by Liu Xuan, the leader of the rebel army at that time, because of their repeated military exploits, and Liu Xuan killed Liu Ji.In order to preserve his strength, Liu Xiu endured grief and rushed to Wancheng, confessed his mistakes to Liu Xuan, and attributed all the credit for his brother's bloody battle to the other generals of the green forest.Liu Xiu didn't dare to mourn for his brother, and he didn't even accept the condolences from his relatives and friends.His heart was bleeding.At this time, it was his new wife Yin Lihua who accompanied Liu Xiu every day to comfort and take care of him.If in the past Liu Xiu only admired her beauty and gentleness, then in these days when the future was bleak and her life and death were uncertain, Liu Xiu saw the tenacity and loyalty of this woman, and their relationship deepened further.Yin Lihua is probably the only woman in the world who has seen Emperor Guangwu cry.

Liu Xiu's patience gave the family a chance to survive.Soon, he was named Wu Xinhou by Emperor Gengshi, but his military power was deprived.

In 23 AD, Wang Mang was beheaded by the rebel army, and the new dynasty fell.Gengshi Emperor Liu Xuan, who got the news, was in full bloom, and planned to move the capital to Luoyang first, and named Liu Xiu "Xing Sili Xiaowei" to stand up for himself.

At this time, the Wang Mang regime had just perished, and no one knew what kind of danger was lurking in the chaotic city of Luoyang.What's more, Liu Xiu has no military power at this time, and only takes 1200 sergeants to Luoyang. If he is really in danger, there is only one way to die.Liu Xuan made this decision, in fact, he wanted to kill Liu Xiu again.

Liu Xiu knew that even if he could escape the catastrophe and clean up Luoyang, Liu Xuan, who thought he was in control of the world, might treat him like his brother.

Therefore, on the eve of going to Luoyang, Liu Xiu ignored Yin Lihua's objection and forced her to be sent back to her mother's home in Xinye.The reason why Liu Xiu wanted to send Yin Lihua back to her natal family instead of letting him go to Luoyang with her was very simple: he had already planned to do something bad. Yin Lihua, who is far away in Xinye, can also escape the catastrophe.

Calculated in this way, from June to early September, Liu Xiu and Yin Lihua's newly married life was only less than three months, and during that time, their eldest brother Liu Ji was killed, and the whole family was facing a life-and-death crisis.It is not difficult to imagine that they really do not have much possibility and opportunity to be together.This is the real reason why Yin Lihua failed to give birth to Liu Xiu's first child.

So, full of nostalgia and fear of her husband's future life and death.Yin Lihua left Liu Xiu and returned to Xinye under the escort of her own soldiers.

On the way to Luoyang, Liu Xiu passed through Fucheng.Feng Yi, who was very influential in Fucheng, was very happy when he heard that Liu Xiu had passed by. He personally opened the gate of the city to welcome him warmly. He not only recommended many talents to Liu Xiu, but also offered to accept Liu Xiu's leadership.Liu Xiu recruited Feng Yi's army, and after a brief stay in Fucheng, Liu Xiu came to Luoyang.With the help of Feng Yi, he quickly restored the chaotic Luoyang City to normal order, repaired the official offices and offices, and sent someone to report to Liu Xuan, the Gengshi Emperor of Wancheng.Liu Xuan, who got the news, was annoyed that Liu Xiu was not dead, but he was overjoyed that he could enter the capital and ascend the throne, and soon chose an auspicious day to "move" the capital to Luoyang.

The Gengshi regime moved the capital from Wancheng to Luoyang. At that time, Liu Xiu's position was the captain of Sili, responsible for maintaining law and order in the capital.Soon after, he also served as the chief minister and was sent to Hebei to quell the peasant uprising army.Since then, Liu Xiu has gradually established his own armed forces and launched independent military and political activities.

At this time, another queen of Liu Xiu, Guo Shengtong, appeared.Speaking of Guo Shengtong, let me first talk about her uncle Liu Yang, the Zhending King in the last years of the Western Han Dynasty. His military power should not be underestimated at that time, and he had an army of [-].And if Liu Xiu wants to defeat Wang Lang, the main obstacle in Hebei, he must cooperate with the local armed forces.Liu Zhi, who took refuge with Liu Xiu in Changcheng, was willing to lobby Liu Yang in the name of the same clan to let him fight with Liu Xiu.But the news that Liu Zhi brought back was that Liu Yang admired Liu Xiu's talent very much and was willing to take the initiative to surrender.But the condition is to marry Liu Xiu.Liu Xiu was dumbfounded when he heard about it. He didn't know where the marriage came from, so he said: "I just got married and have no children yet, and my younger sister Liu Boji has a marriage contract with Li Tong even though she is not married. How can I break the contract?" What about it?" And Liu Zhi said at that time: "The one who is going to get married is not someone else, but the lord yourself. Liu Yang has a niece called something, that's great, Liu Yang is willing to let you be his niece and son-in-law. But no matter what, I have already promised for the lord, you should agree." Liu Xiu was embarrassed when she heard this: "I already have Yin Lihua as my wife, how can I marry another woman?"

The love between Liu Xiu and Yin Lihua is deep, to his confidantes and subordinates, it is true.Something many people know.So when Liu Zhi reported back, he had already thought of a bunch of excuses.Liu Xiu's reaction, not to mention Liu Zhi, even many men nowadays will find it hard to figure out after reading it: Marrying a beautiful girl is a beautiful thing that falls from the sky, what's so embarrassing?

Why, why is Liu Xiu unwilling? Let us first talk about the couple system in ancient China. At that time, it was not polygamy, but monogamy and multiple concubines.The title of wife can only belong to one woman, and other women can only be concubines.The concubine Ji is very humble in front of the main wife: she has to bow down to the main wife and call herself a slave. She is not qualified to be the mother of her own children, and her children can only call her husband's main wife the mother.In the case of jealousy, the main wife even has the right to kill the concubine Ji at will.And Guo Shengtong has such a great background, it is impossible to be willing to be Ji's concubine.Then the matter is obvious: Liu Yang is asking Liu Xiu to stop his wife and marry his niece as his main wife.And Yin Lihua, Liu Xiu's beloved married wife, can only be retired as a concubine even if she is not divorced.Marrying a wife and taking a concubine are two very different concepts.Liu Xiusheng should not be disgusted with this system in the era when men had many concubines, but he never thought about letting other women be above Yin Lihua.He had been in love with Yin Lihua for many years, and when he finally got his wish, he must have made a vow to Yin Lihua.I'm afraid he never dreamed that someone would ask him to stop his wife and remarry now.But the current situation is: either marry Guo Shengtong as his wife and become Liu Yang's nephew and son-in-law, or there will be a melee of 10,000+ soldiers and horses, so Liu Xiu finally agreed to this marriage and sent Liu Zhi to make a real dowry .Liu Yang was very satisfied with Liu Xiu's attitude and personally held a wedding ceremony for him and Guo Shengtong.

This wedding is undoubtedly a political marriage, and it seems that it makes people feel more like a forced marriage.Liu Xiu married Guo Shengtong in embarrassment.

Guo Shengtong was born noble, beautiful and charming, and he was very talented and learned under his family education.Although Liu Xiu was somewhat reluctant when he entered the bridal chamber, but seeing such a beauty, he was somewhat tempted!He had just married Yin Lihua, and he was forced to separate within a hundred days after meeting men and women for the first time. For more than a year, he had followed a group of old men in the shadow of swords, lights and swords, and now he saw all kinds of charm again in Guo Shengtong. Although she felt extremely guilty towards Yin Lihua, she couldn't help but fell into the land of tenderness again.

Family background, beauty, and the army brought to her husband, objectively speaking, Guo Shengtong's comprehensive score at this time is still much higher than Yin Lihua's.However, she was late.If Guo Shengtong hadn't come a year late, Liu Xiu had already used Yin Lihua's affection; if she hadn't been forced on Liu Xiu by her uncle in such a situation, maybe her future life would be in a different situation.

With the 25 troops brought by Guo Shengtong, Liu Xiu finally defeated Wang Lang and cleared Hebei.In June of [-] A.D., Liu Xiu ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, with the title of Jianwu. In the same year, he wiped out Gengshi Emperor Liu Xuan and established Luoyang as his capital.Afterwards, the first thing Liu Xiu did was to send servant Fu Jun to Xinye to meet Yin Lihua.This year was also an unusual one for Guo Shengtong. Her husband proclaimed himself emperor, and she gave birth to Liu Xiu's first son, Liu Jiang. It was a glorious year; Liu Xiu's general Geng Chun defeated him and died. He lost the most powerful backer of his natal family, and suddenly realized that he was just a tool for his uncle's rebellion. Although the husband did not pursue the Guo family, but for a while , she herself has no hope of being a "queen".

It stands to reason that Liu Yang's rebellion helped Liu Xiu solve a big problem. He felt that he could finally establish Yin Li as queen with confidence.At this time, Yin Lihua's queen was justified, but Yin Lihua refused.why?It turned out that when she was forced to leave Liu Xiu three years ago, Yin Lihua's biggest disappointment was that she didn't have a child for her husband, and she just watched him go to the risk of life and death. In case he died in the chaos of war, Then he couldn't even keep a trace of blood?Complaints about her failure to fulfill her responsibilities as a wife have even surpassed her grief over her husband remarrying Guo Shengtong. Yin Lihua is about to get sick thinking about her child.So, when she first saw Liu Jiang who looked like Liu Xiu, she fell in love with this child—Liu Xiu's child.When Liu Xiu solemnly proposed that she was going to make her queen, Yin Lihua refused. She told Liu Xiu that Guo Shengtong gave birth to his child now, and she didn't know whether she would be able to serve him in the future. Bear children.Facing Yin Lihua's claim, Liu Xiu was speechless.If you want to blame, you can only blame yourself for not letting Yin Lihua give birth to her first child.

And another fact is also before her eyes: apart from having no children, Yin Lihua also has no noble family.And Guo Shengtong not only gave birth to the eldest son, but also had a noble status. Even if her uncle rebelled, she had to consider it.With Yin Lihua's persistence and Liu Xiu's consideration of the overall situation, Guo Shengtong became the first empress of the Eastern Han Dynasty on June 26, [-] AD, and her son Liu Jiang became the first crown prince.

When the concubine worship ceremony was over and Liu Xiu and the well-dressed Guo Shengtong returned to the inner palace, Yin Lihua kowtowed three times and kowtowed nine times to her husband and wife in accordance with the etiquette of a concubine's room.This is a national system, and Liu Xiu has no way to stop it, but sitting on the top with Guo Shengtong, he just feels extremely embarrassed and feels like sitting on pins and needles.Seeing her husband's uneasy state, Guo Shengtong's joy of becoming a queen was also half-cooled.

From then on, between the two women, Liu Xiu lived a "happy life" that he had never imagined in his dreams before, and enjoyed the "blessing of being equal to others" that he never wanted at all.But the guilt towards Yin Lihua in his heart was getting deeper and deeper, every time he saw Yin Lihua frankly knelt down to Guo Shengtong to pay his respects, it was even more unpleasant and uncomfortable enough.

At this time, the world of the Eastern Han Dynasty was not completely settled, and Liu Xiu often led his troops to battle.And after he left, Yin Lihua lost her care, what would happen to her first wife?Liu Xiu couldn't imagine it.Therefore, the only way he could come up with was to take Yin Lihua away every time he left Luoyang to lead the army, try not to let her be alone with Guo Shengtong, and minimize her claiming to be a concubine to Guo Shengtong. Opportunity.

In 28 AD, in the middle of Liu Xiu's campaign against Peng Chong, Yin Lihua gave birth to her and Liu Xiu's first child in the tent of the Chinese army: Liu Zhuang, the future Han Ming Emperor.

Liu Xiu also has not forgotten Guo Shengtong, he still has some feelings for Guo Shengtong.Since then, Guo Shengtong has also given birth to many children for Liu Xiu. In addition to Liu Jiang, he later had five sons, Liu Fu, Liu Kang, Liu Yan, and Liu Yan.

However, even in terms of childbirth, Liu Xiu seems reluctant to let Yin Lihua lose to Guo Shengtong.Yin Lihua also gave birth to five sons for Liu Xiu: Liu Zhuang, Liu Cang, Liu Jing, Liu Heng, Liu Jing, and several daughters.

If we say that at the beginning, Guo Shengtong was still grateful for Yin Lihua's sisterhood, but as time went by, her mood gradually changed.Especially after Yin Lihua gave birth to a son, and a large group of sons at that, Guo Shengtong's mind changed drastically.At this time, Yin Lihua's mother died, and some of her family members were killed by thieves. Liu Xiu issued an imperial edict to comfort Yin Lihua.In the imperial edict, Yin Lihua was greatly praised, but of course what was said was all the truth, and it was clearly stated that Guo Shengtong's succession was abdicated by Yin Lihua.

(End of this chapter)