Chapter 294 The King with Almost No Flaws
Li Niandao: "Although later generations jokingly called Liu Xiu the 'Great Magister' and the 'Son of the Plane,' it was just out of admiration for his luck. It did not mean that Liu Xiu had nothing but luck."< br>
"Liu Xiu is an emperor who is not only lucky but also very capable."
The person who could become the founding king of the Eastern Han Dynasty and restore the glory of the Han Dynasty must not be without ability.
People who can successfully make a career in history, especially emperors, are those who have both luck and ability.
If they are unlucky, they will not be able to stand out. If they are not capable, they will not be able to grasp their luck and will not be able to support their careers.
Like the First Emperor, he seemed to be quite docile, but whether it was during those days in the Zhao Kingdom or before he was personally in power, facing the pressure exerted by Lu Buwei, Zhao Ji, Lao Ai and others, if he didn't have some luck, he might be in trouble. It’s over.
Another example is Erfeng. They all knew that he became the ultimate winner of the Xuanwu Gate Change, but in fact there were many variables during the Xuanwu Gate Change. The occurrence of any one of these variables may cause the Xuanwu Gate Change to fail.
Li Niandao said: "Liu Xiu has a high reputation in history. Taizong of the Tang Dynasty once commented on him: 'I look at the first masters in ancient times to correct chaos. They were all over forty years old, but Guangwu was thirty-three years old.'"
"Of course, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty made this comment, probably because he wanted to show off himself."
"Taizong of the Tang Dynasty joined the army as a young man and made great achievements in battle. It can be said that he led his civil servants to defeat the Tang Dynasty. When he succeeded to the throne, he was only twenty-eight years old."
After listening to Li Nian's explanation, the first emperor and the other two people instantly understood that Taizong of the Tang Dynasty was also a good-looking man. He commented that Liu Xiu had brought order to the world at the age of thirty-three, but he was actually bragging about his own achievements.
"Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty also commented, 'Only Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty recruited heroes, worked hard to govern, and brought prosperity to the world. He was the one who had the virtue to rule the world and bring peace to all generations.'"
"That person also spoke highly of Liu Xiu, calling him the most knowledgeable, the best at fighting, and the best at employing people."
"It shows that Liu Xiu is very capable. How can he fail to see the dangers of being powerful with such brilliance?"
"But when the Eastern Han Dynasty was established, he and Hao Qiang went in both directions. Hao Qiang thought he could achieve great things, so he bet on him. He also needed the power Hao Qiang had to quickly pacify the world."
"If Liu Xiu doesn't use the power of Haoqiang, Haoqiang will bet on others, which will be detrimental to him. In this case, why not use it?"
"After the Eastern Han Dynasty was established and the world was gradually pacified, Liu Xiu knew the harm of powerful people and began to adopt a series of measures to restrict them. For example, he implemented the 'land transfer order' and issued an edict to all states and counties to measure land, verify household registrations, and This is an inventory of the land and population occupied by the powerful. ”
"At the same time, Liu Xiu also issued many edicts to release slaves, stipulated that anyone who abused, killed or injured slaves would be punished, abolished the law of "slaves shooting and wounding people and abandoning the market", and improved the status of slaves."
"These measures have had an effect on restricting the powerful. The reason why the powerful are strong is that they have land and people, but Emperor Guangwu restricted their land and people, and the power of the powerful naturally weakened."
"Moreover, this can also bring many benefits to Emperor Guangwu. For example, the population and land surveyed by the Dutian Order can bring more taxes to the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the release of slaves can gain prestige from the people and alleviate the social pressure at that time. Contradiction.”
"You can achieve it with one stone, why not?"
Meng Tian asked: "Didn't those powerful people resist this?"
Li Nian smiled and said: "Of course they resisted. Liu Xiu's decrees are equivalent to cutting their flesh with knives and bleeding them. How can we be willing to do so?"
"It is not ruled out that some of the powerful people are advanced and care about the country and the people, but most powerful people are greedy and want to eat more and take more."
"Faced with Liu Xiu's order to conquer the fields, they fiercely resisted and even resisted the order with armed force. Unrest broke out across the country and once threatened the Eastern Han Dynasty. But their swords and guns were obviously no match for Liu Xiu's swords and guns. He was quickly suppressed by Liu Xiu."
After hearing this, Meng Tian asked another question: "Why was Liu Xiu able to successfully deal with the powerful and implement the land transfer order, but Wang Mang failed?"
Li Niandao: "Because Liu Xiu and Wang Mang face different world situations!"
"When Liu Xiu implemented the land transfer order, the world's population had dropped sharply. Even if the powerful tyrants occupied a lot of land, if so many people died, the land vacated would still be enough for the survivors."
"With land and being able to support themselves, many people will no longer follow the tyrants to rebel."
"Most of the time, people's needs are very simple. They just want food and clothing. As long as they can survive, they will stay there peacefully."
"At the time of Wang Mang, refugees were everywhere, and Wang Mang's land could not be divided. Wang Mang could not give them food and drink. They could not survive, so naturally they had no choice but to rise up."
"Chaos in the world also weakened the strength of the powerful. In the chaos, the powerful will also suffer impacts, losing population, soldiers, food, grass and other supplies, and they will no longer be as strong as they were under Wang Mang."
"In addition, Liu Xiu's decrees are different from Wang Mang's. His land transfer decree did not state the land, but could still belong to private individuals."
"This is a very important point. Although the powerful people resisted Liu Xiu's decree, the resistance was not as strong as that of Wang Mang."
"Although Liu Xiu's decree also harmed their interests, Liu Xiu did not push them to a dead end, unlike Wang Mang who directly wanted to nationalize the land. If Wang Mang really allowed it, their land would be turned into ashes overnight. Nothing, the powerful will definitely not accept it!”
Speaking of this, Li Nian thought of Lu Xun's words and said with a smile: "A literary giant in later generations said something interesting, which can be used to describe the relationship between Liu Xiu, Wang Mang and powerful men:"
"Chinese people always like to compromise. For example, if you say that this room is too dark and a window must be opened here, no one will allow it. But if you advocate removing the roof, they will mediate and are willing to open a window. ”
"Wang Mang's land decree was to 'tear down the roof', which the powerful would certainly not allow, but Liu Xiu's was to 'open a window'. Compared to the unacceptable 'tear down the roof', of course 'opening a window' was more It can be accepted by powerful people.”
Therefore, Wang Mang is really an injustice. Without his land policy, Liu Xiu would most likely have greater resistance to implementing his land transfer order. But with Wang Mang as the pioneer who lifted the roof, the land transfer order is not so incapable. accept.
At least Liu Xiu didn't let them wipe out all their land overnight, so they wouldn't be able to continue to annex land and hide people in the future. Life would be relatively harder than before. Now that the emperor is so powerful, everyone pinches their noses and endures it!
Li Nian continued: "In the process of establishing the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu not only gained great reputation, but also developed a strong army, as well as civil servants and generals who were loyal to him, which became the strength to support him in his work. "When Wang Mang was a morally perfect man, he might be comparable to Liu Xiu in terms of reputation, but he was inferior to Liu Xiu in other aspects. After he usurped the Han Dynasty and his moral golden body was destroyed, he became even worse."
< br>
"Liu Xiu had almost no flaws in his life as emperor. He did an excellent job both internally and externally."
"Relaxing internally with the people, rectifying the administration of officials, treating heroes well, and restraining powerful forces have enabled the world to begin to recover after the great chaos."
"Although externally it was not as successful as during Emperor Wu's time, the barbarians were subdued, but the Huns were divided, the countries in the Western Regions were willing to surrender, many ethnic groups in the border areas surrendered, and Ma Yuan was sent to quell the Jiaozhi rebellion."
This Liu Xiu turned out to be an emperor with almost no shortcomings, and he was both civil and military, and he was both internal and external. It was simply incredible.
For example, Emperor Wen also had the shortcoming of not being very good at external affairs, and like Han Wu, although his achievements were great, he also had many faults...
Didn't Liu Xiu become comatose in his later years and cause some troubles?
Li Niandao: "If we really want to calculate Liu Xiu's shortcomings, as far as the ministers are concerned, it may be that he advocated Confucianism and received the footbath envoys, which gave him the name of 'Japanese country', but these are not actually shortcomings. Confucianism at that time was still There are merits, and he won’t think about what will happen thousands of years later.”
"In the second year of Jianwu Zhongyuan, Liu Xiu, who had reigned for twenty-nine years, passed away at the age of sixty-two. He left an edict saying: 'I have no benefit to the people. They are all like Emperor Xiaowen's system and serve the province. The governor, two thousand stones None of the officials left the city, and no officials were dispatched to report. '"
Upon hearing this edict, the three emperors fell silent.
Meng Tian and Meng Yi were thinking that such a promising emperor, when he passed away, said that he was "useless to the people" and asked him to manage his funeral frugally and not let the officials send letters of condolence.
The First Emperor was thinking in his heart, if he passed away, could he leave such a legacy, saying that he was "unhelpful to the people" and asked to "obey the province"?
Facing such outstanding emperors from later generations, the First Emperor felt a lot of pressure. He was high-spirited and had huge ambitions:
6◇9◇Book◇Bar
He not only wanted to surpass his predecessors, but also made it difficult for future generations to surpass him, and became a role model for future emperors.
But it seems that it is really difficult for future emperors to surpass him in all aspects!
The First Emperor knew in his heart that Li Nian's little intention of telling him about outstanding emperors such as Liu Xiu was not only to let him know the history of later generations, but also to make him think about comparing himself to outstanding emperors, so that he would change and not change. He became the First Emperor in history that Li Nian knew.
But I have to say that this kid has achieved what he wanted.
If you didn't know it before, that's fine. If you know it now, of course you have to compare it with the emperors of later generations.
Just like what the poet said in his poem, "I want to compete with God." If you can compare with God, why not compare with the emperors of later generations?
It's interesting to say that after learning about the poem from Li Nian, the First Emperor wrote it down himself and read it in private every day.
Li Niandao: "Buried in the original mausoleum, he was named Shizu in the temple, and his posthumous title was Emperor Guangwu. He became one of the three emperors in the Eastern Han Dynasty who had temple names."
"There were originally several emperors in the Eastern Han Dynasty who had temple names, but because their merits were not consistent, their temple names were eventually removed, leaving only three emperors!"
"This shows that the temple titles of the Eastern and Western Han Dynasties are very strict, unlike in later dynasties, where almost every emperor has a temple title, but it does not carry much weight."
"After Liu Xiu's death, his son Liu Zhuang succeeded to the throne. Liu Zhuang, the son of Liu Xiu and Yin Lihua, was not only the second emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, but also the second holder of a temple title."
Meng Tian had recovered from his meditation and asked: "Then Liu Xiu later married Guo Shengtong, why was it not his son who succeeded Liu Zhuang instead?"
I wanted to ask purely out of curiosity, and the reason can be guessed. It was simply that Liu Xiu preferred Yin Lihua and Liu Zhuang, so after he became emperor, he gave up Guo Shengtong's son and chose Liu Zhuang.
Li Nian's answer was not what Meng Tian expected: "Because compared to Guo Shengtong, Yin Lihua is more liked by Liu Xiu, and Liu Zhuang is also quite good."
"Yin Lihua and Liu Xiu met in the early years, and Liu Xiu never forgot her. In the later generations, Yin Lihua was Liu Xiu's white moonlight."
"When Liu Xiu was studying abroad at Chang'an Taixue, he saw the grand scene of Zhi Jinwu traveling and once said, 'When you are an official, you should be like Zhi Jinwu, and when you marry, you should be like Yin Lihua.'"
"Later, after the Battle of Kunyang, Liu Xiu got his wish and successfully married Yin Lihua."
"Liu Xiu naturally loves this wife whom he has missed for many years. In addition, Yin Lihua is not only outstanding in appearance, but also respectful, thrifty, and benevolent by nature, which is exactly the same as Liu Xiu's character."
"After Liu Xiu married Guo Shengtong, due to Guo Shengtong's background and the fact that Guo Shengtong had given birth to an heir for Liu Xiu, Yin Lihua took the initiative to relinquish the throne, allowing Liu Xiu to make Guo Shengtong his queen, and she was named a noblewoman. But Yin Lihua's This kind of concession will make Liu Xiu feel more indebted to her and love her even more."
"It happened that Guo Shengtong was resentful because of certain things and that Liu Xiu preferred Yin Lihua. In the end, Liu Xiu deposed Guo Shengtong and made Yin Lihua the queen. Yin Lihua's eldest son Liu Zhuang was also made the crown prince two years later."
This is the power of Bai Yueguang, not to mention such a beautiful and well-charactered Bai Yueguang. Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty expressed his praise.
"After Liu Zhuang came to the throne, he continued to follow the path of his father Liu Xiu, strictly guarding against relatives, suppressing the clan, and restraining powerful people..."
"It's just that compared to Liu Xiu, Liu Zhuang was more majestic and harsher on officials. If a minister of Jiuqing made a mistake and angered him, he would be whipped with a stick. Once Liu Zhuang was angered by the minister, he even raised the stick to think To hit the minister.”
"The minister fled under the bed. Liu Zhuang was so anxious that he yelled at the minister to come out. But the minister said, 'The emperor is Mu Mu, and the princes are brilliant. I have never heard of a king standing up to challenge a man.'"
You can imagine the scene. As an emperor, he angrily held a wooden stick and scolded the ministers who were hiding under the bed to come out and be beaten. This Liu Zhuang was also an interesting emperor!
"But Liu Zhuang's harsh treatment of officials also brought benefits. Officials were praised as officials, people could live and work in peace and contentment, and the population increased year after year."
"Liu Zhuang also appointed Wang Jing to control floods in the Yellow River. Over the next nine hundred years, Fuze even established schools and asked the Huns to send their children to study in Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty."
"Liu Zhuang was also tougher than Liu Xiu externally. At that time, Liu Xiu was in an early stage of peace and lacked vitality. But when he arrived at Liu Zhuang, the situation was much better, so he sent generals to defeat the Northern Huns and regain the Western Region. Ban Chao was defeated by Liu Zhuang at this time. Sent to the Western Regions as an envoy."
"The Eastern Han Dynasty inherited many things from the Western Han Dynasty, including the fierce style of the Western Han Dynasty envoys."
"Ban Chao led his men across the Western Regions, intimidating the kings of other countries, holding other countries' monarchs hostage, killing the Huns' envoys, and spreading the tyranny of the Han to the Western Regions again."
Sons of the Western Regions, your burly father is back again. Do you still remember him?
If you don't remember, it doesn't matter. Dad has a great memory recovery technique that will surely make you all remember it!
(End of chapter)