Chapter 040: Eastern Han Empire 5
The five marquis conspired to destroy Liang Ji, which was very happy for a while, and some people even said that they had the credit of Yi Yin and Huo Guang, and the strategy of Zhang Liang and Chen Ping. But this is not the case www.biquge.info after the eunuchs monopolized the regime, they were arrogant and domineering, pretending to be mighty, greedy and vicious, lawless, and more serious than in the time of Liang Ji.
They also followed Liang Ji's example and used the state treasury to build luxurious homes for themselves. Originally, they had been tortured by the palace and had lost their reproductive ability, but they searched for beauties from all over the world, thought they were concubines, dressed them up like palace maids, and let them serve them day and night. They had no son, so they adopted their son and gave him the title. In order to expand their power, they also used the power in their hands to install cronies to serve as officials in various places, these people have no talent and no virtue, and only know how to loot the people, just like thieves.
Shan Chao's nephew Shan Kuang served as Jiyin Taishou, who was corrupt and bribery and was denounced. The fifth type of Yanzhou assassin sent his subordinate Wei Yu to investigate, and found out that the stolen money was 50 or 60 million yuan, and the fifth type was very angry, so he wrote to impeach Shan Kuang. Shan Kuang had Shan Chao's protection, and he was at large, and later Shan Chao fabricated charges, removed the official position of the fifth type, and confiscated him to Shuofang. The fifth knew that Shuo Fang Taishou Dong Yuan was Shan Chao's grandson, and he definitely had no way to live in Shuo Fang, so he had to find an opportunity to escape halfway.
After Shan Chao's death, the other four marquis became more domineering. At that time, people called them "Zuo Huitian, Gu Duzai, Xu Crouching Tiger, and Tang Liangfall", and their arrogance was very arrogant. Xu Huang's nephew, Xu Xuan, the commander of Xiapi County, is a guy who does all kinds of evil. He took a fancy to the daughter of the late Runan Taishou, so he sent someone to say goodbye, but the Li family did not agree, so Xu Xuan broke into the Li family with a group of thugs, snatched the daughter of the Li family into the county office, and after molesting and insulting, he shot him to death with arrows.
When Huang Fu, the minister of the East China Sea, learned of this, he immediately sent someone to arrest Xu Xuan and ask him for the crime, and his officials were afraid of Xu Huang's power and came out to dissuade him. Huang Fu was an upright and jealous person, and he said to his subordinates: "Today I killed Xu Xuan, a traitor, even if I die tomorrow, I can close my eyes." β
After saying that, he sent someone to drag Xu Xuan to the street and cut off his head. When Xu Huang heard that his nephew had been killed by Huang Fu, he hurriedly ran to Emperor Han Huan to cry, and Emperor Han Huan dismissed Huang Fu from his official position, ordered him to shave his hair, and punished him to do hard labor.
The five marquis were arrogant and lawless, and so were the other eunuchs. The Zhongchang servant Marquis Lan successively occupied 381 mansions, seized 118 hectares of land, erected the 16th district of the house, and plundered the good people as slaves. His elder brother Hou participated in the Yizhou Assassin History, in order to embezzle people's property, he even accused people of rebellion, seized other people's property after hunting and killing, and embezzled hundreds of millions of people's property before and after.
The anti-eunuch bureaucrats and students regarded themselves as defenders of the Tao and pretended to be a clear stream, and regarded the eunuchs and the figures attached to the eunuch group as turbidity. At that time, among the bureaucrats and doctors, the style of purity was prevalent, and the anti-eunuch bureaucrats and students all regarded themselves as honest people, and they fiercely attacked the eunuchs' dictatorship and disorderly government.
The students highly esteemed the upright bureaucrats Li Ying, Chen Fan, and others in order to praise their integrity. In addition, some well-known figures of the anti-eunuch group were given nicknames such as Sanjun, Bajun, Bagu, and Bahe.
The bureaucrats, doctors, and students not only attacked the eunuchs in public opinion, but also tried to attack the eunuch forces politically. Zhu Mu, the assassin of Jizhou, arrested the illegal family of the eunuch Zhao Zhong in Anping, and Emperor Huan of Han was furious, removed Zhu Mu from his post, and punished him with hard labor. Thousands of people, including Liu Tao, a student of Tai, wrote to Emperor Huan of Han to defend Zhu Mu, and Emperor Huan of Han was forced by public opinion to pardon Zhu Mu.
Xu Huang, a regular attendant, extorted money from Huangfu Gui, but Huangfu Gui ignored him, so they imposed charges and put Huangfu Gui in prison. Some officials and students wrote to defend the emperor's rules, and the emperor's rules were pardoned as a result, so the struggle between the bureaucrats and the eunuch group intensified.
The warlock Zhang Cheng instigated his son to kill and was arrested by Li Ying, the captain of the Sili school, and it happened that Emperor Huan of Han announced an amnesty, but Li Ying, because Zhang Cheng had a close relationship with the eunuchs, ignored the emperor's pardon and insisted on putting Zhao Cheng's son to death.
Zhang Cheng and his disciples wrote a book in prison, falsely accusing Li Ying and others of bribing Tai students and study tours, and colluding with Confucian students in various counties to form parties for personal gain, slander the government and government, corrupt customs, and call them party members. Emperor Huan of Han was furious and ordered the arrest of more than 300 people, including Li Ying and Du Mi, to be imprisoned. Later, after Shang Shuhuo and Dou Wu, the captain of the city gate, and others fought together, these people were pardoned and returned to their hometowns, but they were imprisoned for life and were not allowed to be officials for the rest of their lives, which was the first disaster of the party.
The following year, at the age of thirty-six, Emperor Huan of Han fell ill and died, and he made three queens successively, but did not give birth to a son. Empress Dou and his father Dou Wuli, the great-grandson of Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty, Liu Hong, were the emperors and Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty. Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty was only twelve years old, and Empress Dowager Dou listened to the government. After Dou Wu and Chen Fan came to power, they were determined to get rid of the eunuch group and take back all the power of the court.
One day, when he was in the court, Chen Fan pulled Dou Wu aside and whispered to him: "In the past, when the first emperor was in power, Cao Jie, Wang Fu and others were in charge of the government and made a mess of the country. The common people have risen up to make trouble, and this is their sin. If we don't get rid of them now, it will be even more difficult to get rid of them in the future. β
Dou Wu agreed with his opinion, so they ignored the ban of Emperor Huan of Han and re-appointed the deposed Li Ying, Du Mi and other party members to enter the court as officials, discussed countermeasures with them, and jointly prepared to kill the eunuchs.
In the first year of Jianning, there was a solar eclipse, and Chen Fan found Dou Wu again and said: "I, Chen Fan, am nearly eighty years old, and I have nothing else to do, my only wish is to help the general eliminate harm for the world." Now that the eclipse has occurred, the general can blame the eunuchs and get rid of them all. β
Dou Wu listened to Chen Fan's words, and immediately went to see the Empress Dowager Dou and said to her: "The eunuchs in the past were just slaves who guarded the gate and obeyed the instructions in the palace. However, today's eunuchs participate in the government and hold power. Their sons are in charge of the imperial court, serving as states and counties, corrupting the law and doing everything. Now the people's resentment is boiling, thieves are everywhere, all of them are the sins of the eunuch dictatorship, and the recent solar eclipse is a warning issued by God, so only by destroying all the eunuchs can the court be revitalized and the people's hearts stabilized. β
Empress Dowager Dou said: "Since the rise of the Han Dynasty, there have been eunuchs in all dynasties, and if you want to kill them, you can only kill the guilty, how can you get rid of them all?"
Dou Wu had no choice but to listen to the advice of the Empress Dowager Dou and first kill the notorious eunuchs Guan Ba and Su Kang. Later, Dou Wu repeatedly asked to kill Cao Jie and others, but because of Empress Dowager Dou's hesitation, the matter dragged on.
It wasn't until August that Dou Wu and Chen Fan took action, first finding an excuse to remove Wei Biao, the commander of the Yellow Gate, and let a eunuch named Shan Bing replace him. Then they asked Shan Bing to denounce Changle Shangshu Zheng Sa and put him in prison. Under severe torture, Zheng Sa confessed many crimes of Cao Jie, Wang Fu and others, so Dou Wu and others wrote to the Empress Dowager Dou, requesting that Cao Jie and others be arrested.
On the day of Xinhai in September, Shi Zhu Yu, the facial features of Changle, took advantage of Dou Wu's absence in the palace to peek at Dou Wu's recital. When he saw his name in the list in the recital, he couldn't help but scold: "Those lawless eunuchs can naturally be killed." People like us, who have not committed any wrongdoing, are they going to be destroyed?"
So he claimed that Chen Fan and Dou Wu wanted to rebel, and summoned seventeen cronies and eunuchs such as Gongpu and Zhang Liang overnight to form a bloody alliance to crusade against Dou Wu and others. When Cao Jie and others heard the news, they hurriedly snatched Emperor Ling of Han into their hands, closed the city gate, issued an edict in the name of the emperor, worshiped Wang Fu as the Yellow Gate Order, and ordered him to arrest Shan Bing and others with a talisman order.
Shan Bing suspected that the edict was false, refused to accept it, and was killed by Wang Fu. Wang Fu and others rescued Zheng Sa, and led the army to kidnap the Empress Dowager Dou and seize the jade seal of the country. Then Cao Jie and Wang Fu sent Zheng Sa and others to arrest Dou Wu and others with the emperor's runes. Dou Wu hurriedly ran to the barracks of the Northern Army, gathered thousands of men, and counterattacked the eunuchs.
When Chen Fan heard of the coup, he hurriedly gathered more than 80 officials and students under his command, broke into the palace with weapons in hand, and shouted with his arms raised: "The general is loyal to the country and has not rebelled, it is the eunuchs who really rebel!"
Wang Fu arrived with his army, captured Chen Fan, and imprisoned him. When the eunuchs saw that Chen Fan had been arrested, they all came forward and kicked him with their feet, while scolding: "Dead old ghost, can you still cut our posts and take away our money?" Chen Fan was tortured to death by the eunuchs that day.
At that time, Zhonglang General Zhang Huan had just returned from the Northwest Frontier and did not know the details of the capital, so Cao Jie and others falsely passed the edict and mobilized Zhang Huan's men and horses to attack Dou Wu. In the early morning of the next day, Wang Fu led more than 1,000 Praetorian Guards to join forces with Zhang Huan, and in this way, the eunuch's army gradually gained the upper hand.
Wang Fu also asked people to shout to Dou Wu's army: "You are all Praetorian Guards, you should guard the palace, why do you rebel with Dou Wu? Those who surrender first will be rewarded!"
These Janissaries have always been afraid of eunuchs, as soon as they heard this, they dispersed, and before noon, Dou Wu's sergeants almost ran out, and Dou Wu had no choice but to commit suicide. Cao Jie and others cut off his head and hung it on the street to show the public, and the clan, guests, and in-laws of the Dou family were all killed.
Empress Dowager Dou was also moved out of Changle Palace and placed under house arrest in Yuntai, and later died of depression, and Li Ying, Du Mi and others were dismissed again. And Cao Jie, Wang Fu, Zhu Yu and more than a dozen eunuchs were all made marquis. From then on, they used Emperor Han Ling as a puppet, and they did whatever they wanted.
In September of the following year, the eunuch Qiu Lan instructed his henchman Zhu and falsely accused Zhang Jian, a talented man from Shanyang, that he had formed a party with 24 people from the same county to rebel. Cao Jie sent a letter to Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, demanding that Li Ying, Du Mi and other party members be arrested and imprisoned. Emperor Ling of Han was only 14 years old at the time, and he asked Cao Jie, "What crime did the party members commit, and why did they kill them?"
Cao Jie replied, "Because they flaunt each other and plot against each other. β
Emperor Han Ling still didn't understand, and asked again: "What is a conspiracy?"
Cao Jie was a little impatient and replied: "Plotting against the government is to usurp the government and endanger the country!"
So Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty issued an edict ordering officials from all over the country to arrest the party, Li Ying, Du Mi and others were arrested and died in prison, and more than 100 party members were killed and committed suicide. The eunuchs took the opportunity to count some scholars who had nothing to do with the party members as party members, and as many as six or seven hundred people were imprisoned and killed before and after. In the first year of Xiping, more than 1,000 party members and students were arrested and imprisoned, and all party members' fathers and sons, brothers, protΓ©gΓ©s, former officials, and relatives within five suits were dismissed from official positions and imprisoned, which was the second disaster of party restriction.
After the disaster of the party, the rule of the Eastern Han Dynasty became even more corrupt, and many official positions were filled by eunuchs. In order to keep the throne, Emperor Ling of Han tried his best to curry favor with the eunuchs, and said: "Zhang Rang is my father, and Zhao Zhong is my mother." β
He was drunk and dreamed of death, openly selling official titles, and the eunuchs and their henchmen recklessly plundered the people, living a life of poverty and luxury. The dictatorship of the eunuchs further intensified the already acute class contradictions, and finally broke out the Yellow Turban Uprising, which shook the whole country.