When Wu Chenghei was summoned to Beijing and the political team of the North Gate Bachelor was formed, Li Xian, the king of Yong, was already twenty years old. He carefully studied the methods and process of building a political team in the queen of heaven, and also began to try to recruit talents.

On June 5 of the second year of Shangyuan, Li Xian, the king of Yong, was made the crown prince, and the emperor and the queen of heaven held a grand ceremony for him to establish the crown prince in Luoyang. This is also the third time that the emperor has ordained a crown prince.

A few months ago, the imperial court had discussed the issue of the queen of heaven to know the state affairs, and although he was stopped by Hao Chujun, the crown prince Li Hong's condition continued to deteriorate, and he died of illness in the Qiyun Hall of the Hebi Palace in April.

After Li Xian became the crown prince, he was also impassioned, looking down on the world, and gradually building up his own talent pool, and his method was to annotate Fan Ye's "Book of the Later Han".

Why do you want to annotate the Book of the Later Han Dynasty and not other historical books? Because the history recorded in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty was quite similar to the political situation at that time, Li Xian and his officials in the Eastern Palace were very interested in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty and wanted to use the annotation of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty to alert the Queen of Heaven and serve the emperor as a reference!

In the Chongjiao Hall of the East Palace, Li Xian held a mobilization meeting to annotate the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, and the participants noted that there should be: Zhang Da'an, the prince's left concubine, Liu Nayan, the prince's Xima, Luozhou Sihu Ge Xixuan, Xu Shuya, Shi Zangzhu, Cheng Xuanyi, Zhou Baoning and other cultural talents.

Li Xian pointed to a large pile of scrolls placed on the desk and said: "This set of "Book of the Later Han" records the history of the twenty-five years from the first year of Emperor Guangwu of the Later Han Dynasty Liu Xiu Jianwu to the filial piety Emperor Liu Xiejian'an, a total of one hundred and ninety-five years! ”

"There is a lot of content, there are a lot of places that need to be annotated, and the workload is very large, so I hope that all colleagues will work hard, work hard, seize the time, and strive to complete all the work tasks within the specified time!"

The crowd applauded. Zhang Da'an added: "This set of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty includes not only the biography of the present chronicle, but also the thirty volumes of chronicles from the legal calendar to the public service, which requires the participation of all knowledgeable scholars to edit and perfect. ”

Liu Neyan also spoke: "Liu is not talented, proficient in "Hanshu", and has taught many students. Compared with the "Book of Han", this set of "Book of the Later Han" has its own distinctive characteristics, adding seven categories such as "The Biography of Wenyuan", "The Biography of the Eunuch", "The Biography of the Dang Zheng", "The Biography of Duxing", "The Biography of Fangshu", "The Biography of Yimin" and "The Biography of the Daughters", which are worthy of careful taste and hard study by all scholars! ”

Everyone said yes. Li Xian made a concluding speech, and Zhang Daan carried out the division of tasks.

Next, each scholar received the scroll of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty within his or her area of responsibility, copied it first, and then annotated it with a red pen after difficult questions and where it was necessary to exegesis.

Li Xian and Zhang Da'an were responsible for annotating the "Empress Benji", and transcribed that "since ancient times, although the lord was young and difficult, the Wang family was provoked, and he must be appointed to the mound Zai, and he was simply loyal and virtuous, and there was no full-time woman, and he cut off heavy weapons." Only the Empress Dowager Qin Mi began to regent", Li Xian mentioned the Zhu pen for the pronunciation of the word Mi, saying that it was "Mi, the sound is dead".

Continue to read, "Therefore, the power of the marquis is more important than that of King Zhao, and the family is rich in the kingdom of Ying". Zhang Da'an looked for ancient books, and Li Xian finally understood after reading it, the story of the Queen Mother's regent began with the eighth son of the Empress Dowager Xuan, the mother of King Qin Zhao, and after the Empress Dowager Xuan's regent, she appointed her younger brother Wei Ran as an assistant and was named the Marquis.

Li Xian commented on this in detail, thinking: Isn't this very similar to the queen of heaven's reuse of Wu Chenghe? The back is even more terrifying, "Han is still fallacious, and he can't change it." The emperor of Tokyo has been repeatedly extinguished, the power belongs to the heroine, and the four emperors are outside".

The Later Han Dynasty still continued the erroneous policy of returning power to the empress dowager, and did not change it in the knowledge of the trouble, which led to the establishment of the four emperors of Emperor An, Emperor Qian, Emperor Huan and Emperor Ling.

"The Six Empresses of the Dynasty", Li Xian commented: Since the beginning of Han Xiao and Emperor Liu Zhao two years after Zhang He, there have been six empress dowagers in the dynasty, namely: Empress Dowager Dou of Emperor Zhang, Empress Dowager Hexi Deng, Empress Dowager An Siyan, Empress Dowager Shunlie Liang, Empress Dowager Huan Sidou, and Empress Dowager Lingsi He.

The Queen Mother has a common feature after the imperial system, that is: to set the policy, to entrust the father and brother, to be greedy for children to govern for a long time, and to suppress the virtuous to dictate their authority.

Zhang Da'an commented: Emperor Yan died, and Empress Dowager Deng Sui and her brother Deng Qiu and others welcomed Emperor An, who was only thirteen years old. Emperor Chong died, and Empress Dowager Liang and her brother Liang Ji met Emperor Qian, only eight years old. Emperor Qin died, and Emperor Huan was established at the age of fifteen. Emperor Huan collapsed, and Empress Dowager Dou and her father Dou Wu Yingli Emperor Ling were only twelve years old.

The result of this is that "there is a long way to go, and the benefits are deep and the disaster is fast." The mist is exposed on the cloud platform, and the baby is tied under the fence. Annihilation of the heel, pouring the road. And go endlessly, burn for a long time, and finally in the Lingyi great luck, fall into the treasure. "Poems" and "Books" sigh, slightly the same. Therefore, the deeds of the examination column are thought to be "The Queen's Benji".

This passage is a bit cryptic, Zhang Da'an checked the ancient classics, and finally figured it out, and wrote it into an easy-to-understand annotation for Li Xian to understand, which means:

The task of the Queen Mother in charge of the world is very important, and the road is very long-term, and not everyone can control it well. The power is great, the profits are also great, the relatives are useless, and the disasters they suffer are also very fast.

Cao Jiejiao, the servant of Zhongchang, killed the general Dou Wu and the Taifu Chen Fan, and imprisoned the Empress Dowager Dou in Nangong Yuntai. Langzhong Xie Bi sealed the matter to Emperor Ling and said: "Empress Dowager Dou supported Your Majesty, your Ming Jun, but you let her live in seclusion in the empty palace, if you die of illness, what face does Your Majesty have to see the world?" ”

This is just an example of the failure of the Queen Mother to take power, there are many cases where relatives are in prison, once the world loses power, it is like overturning, one after another. Because of interests, relatives are willing to go to the fire and bring about their own destruction, which eventually leads to the alternation of national fortunes and the overthrow of the throne!

After Li Xian saw it, he praised Zhang Da'an as if he had won the treasure, and carefully compiled the "Empress Benji" into a book, ready to dedicate it to the emperor's imperial review, so as to force the queen to retreat.

The Empress Deng Sui of Hexi recorded in the "Empress Benji" governed the world very well, and the people were meritorious, and the Queen of Heaven took her as a model. When Deng Sui entered the palace, he was slender and beautiful, and he was shocked left and right!

She became the queen mother, and she was called the ruler for life, and she gave orders from herself, and she was very diligent in government affairs. Every time she heard that there was a famine, she had to blame herself for reducing her meals, getting up in the middle of the night to deal with government affairs, and staying awake to relieve the disaster, so although the country had ten years of floods and droughts and four foreign invasions, they were all pacified by Deng Sui, and the people had enough food and clothing again!

Even Deng Sui, a rare model of the queen mother, was also criticized by later generations of moral people, saying that she could not learn from the Duke of Zhou to become a king, so that the heir was sideways and empty. Moreover, after Deng Sui died, her brother's general Deng Qiu and Tai Lieutenant Yang Zhen were all killed by eunuchs.

Li Xian's conclusion is that in any case, the emperor should not hand over power to the queen of heaven, and the power of the queen mother cannot be perfect, and it will leave all kinds of sequelae.

When Li Xian was writing his book, he had contacts with his uncle Li Ming, the king of Cao, and Li Yun, the king of Jiang, because they had a common hobby, both were interested in culture and art, and both expressed dissatisfaction with the empress dowager's power.

But these two princes don't have a good reputation outside. Li Ming's mother is Concubine Yang, the wife of Li Yuanji, the king of the nest, and Concubine Yang was adopted by Li Shimin and gave birth to a son, Li Ming, who was succeeded to Li Yuanji as his heir.

When Li Ming served as the assassin, he did not like to abide by the laws and regulations of the country, and acted willfully, and was advised by the long history Kong Zhen, and he was very impatient. Usually, I practice Feibaiti calligraphy in the study room when I have nothing to do, and I can look through ancient books, which can provide some information for the annotation of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty.

Li Yun, the king of Jiang, was rewarded by the emperor with hemp rope to wear copper coins with Li Yuanying, the king of Teng, he was greedy, and it was not enough to seal 800 households, he liked to expropriate and extort violently, and the people under his rule were miserable. He has the advantage of being rich and able to provide some funds for Li Xian.

Since the queen of heaven acted as the political officer, she paid attention to cultivating her eyes and ears and monitoring the movements of officials at all levels of the imperial court, and her every move in the East Palace naturally could not escape her clairvoyance.

The queen of heaven closely watched Li Xian's movements, and found that Li Xian's remarks were a little radical in the process of annotating the "Book of the Later Han", and he had the intention of forcing himself to retreat to the harem, so he used the black materials he had previously mastered to instruct Yousi to impeach the assassin of Cizhou and the guilt of Li Shangjin, the king of Qi.

Li Shangjin was dismissed as a result and settled in Lizhou. Li Shangjin is the third son of the emperor, born to the palace maid Yang, and is the third brother of Li Xian. The third brother was demoted, can Li Xian not be vigilant and reflect?

The queen of heaven meant to knock on the mountain and shock the tiger, kill the chicken and make an example of the monkey, and gave Li Xian a dismount by degrading Li Shangjin, so that Li Xian knew how powerful she was.

Li Xian was a little scared, so he wanted to stop doing it, and said something to the emperor that he wanted to abdicate. The emperor cheered him on and advised him not to worry.

Before the Double Ninth Festival, according to the emperor's arrangement, the left servant shot Liu Renliang, the right servant shot Dai Zhide, the servant Zhang Wenjun, and the Zhongshu Ling Hao Chujun and served as the prince's guest, and served as the prime minister part-time in the East Palace to tutor the crown prince Li Xian.

This is a set of teams that originally assisted Li Hong, and now they are all given to Li Xian, showing the emperor's determination to consolidate Li Xian's position as the crown prince and dispelling Li Xian's concerns.

In the spring of the second year, the earth took off its white cotton jacket and changed into a new green dress, the grass and branches grew buds, the mandarin ducks played in the water, the butterflies flew together, and the birds of all colors called on the branches!

The emperor and the queen of heaven were enjoying the spring color in the apricot garden, and suddenly received a report from the history of the Chenzhou thorn, saying that there were tens of thousands of birds following a beautiful phoenix flying from east to west, flying back and forth, neatly lined up, and divided into more than a dozen groups of colors! It is the first time for the locals to see this kind of spectacle, and it is really my Tang Xiangrui.

The emperor was very happy, and the queen said, "Isn't this kind of spectacle just a phoenix?" Congratulations to Jiulang, Jiulang ruled the country and the people, how about changing the era name to Yifeng? The Emperor nodded approvingly.

The queen of heaven said: "Jiulang can remember that before Dongyue sealed Zen, he promised to seal the five mountains, and now it has been ten years since Dongyue sealed Zen. Time is not waiting, take advantage of the auspiciousness of heaven, hurry up and seal Zen Zhongyue! ”

The emperor smiled and said, "Okay, every suggestion of the lady is very good, and it is in line with the meaning of the gods of heaven and earth, how can I not obey?" Hehe. So he issued an edict to prepare to seal Zen Zhongyue.

Unexpectedly, in the leap March, the Tibetans invaded Shanzhou, Kuozhou, Hezhou and Fangzhou, and the emperor ordered the right prison gate Zhonglang to order Hu Zhitong to recruit troops to resist the Tibetans, and issued an edict to suspend the closure of Zhongyue.

During this time, Li Xian and the scholars of the Eastern Palace were seizing the time to annotate the Book of the Later Han. Xu Shuya and Zhou Baoning, bachelors of Chongxian Pavilion, were in charge of the annotation of "The Biography of the Daughters".

Xu Shuya is a myopic old gentleman, seventy or eighty years old, he is good at "Mao's Poems" and "Rites", and once compiled ten volumes of "Mao's Poems" dedicated to Li Xian. Li Xian gave 100 paragraphs of silk and handed over "Mao's Poetry Compilation" to the Bureau of Economic Affairs for copying and dissemination.

Xu Shuya said: "The Book of Songs and the Book of Shang say that the history of female virtue is a long time ago, for example, "Guan Ju" is about the morality of the concubine! The old man's eyes are not good, so Bao Ning will write and recite, and the old man will explain it! ”

Zhou Baoning agreed, so Zhou Baoning read it, and asked Xu Shuya if he had any questions, Xu Shuya explained, and Zhou Baoning took notes and made notes.

When Zhou Baoning read "Liang Ji and Li Ji have their own family legends", he didn't know who Liang Ji and Li Ji were? Xu Shuya said: "Liang Yan is Liang Zhu's daughter. Li Ji is the daughter of Li Gu. "It's clear with a note in this way.

Speaking of Bao Xuan's wife, Huan Shaojun, although she was born in a wealthy family, after marrying the bitter Bao Xuan, she was able to pull the deer cart back to the countryside with Bao Xuan on foot, worship her aunt, and then carry an urn to draw water from the well.

The neighbors praised her husband and wife for being of the same heart and being happy in poverty. Bao Xuan, with the assistance of his virtuous wife, became the lieutenant of the school. Her grandson Bao Yu once calmly asked her: "Does Mrs. Tai remember the time when she pulled the deer cart together?" ”

Huan Shaojun replied: "My aunt has a saying: Survive and never forget death, and never forget danger." How dare I forget? The meaning of the first aunt is not easy to understand, Xu Shuya said: "Erya" said: "Uncle and aunt are called uncle and aunt when they are alive, and they are called uncle and aunt when they die." Survival does not forget death, safety does not forget danger, is what is said in "Yi Zhi Ci". ”

Luozhou Sihu Ge Xixuan passed by the study, heard it, and applauded. Zhou Baoning also told the story of Jiang Shi's wife Pang Hongmei, saying that Pang Hongmei's great filial piety moved the Dragon King of the East China Sea, so that the wonder of springing and leaping carp appeared next to his house! Even the stragglers of the Red Eyebrow Army passed by, and they all said respectfully: "Shocking filial piety will touch ghosts and gods." ”

Scholar Shi Zangzhu came over to help read the story of Zhou Yu's wife, Zhao A. Zhao A said to the left and right: "I don't have a trip to Fan Wei Erji, so you blame me." Shi Zangzhu said that he didn't understand what Fan Wei Erji meant.

Mr. Xu shook his head and said, "King Chuzhuang is too fond of field hunting, and Fan Ji deliberately did not eat fresh pheasant meat, so as to admonish King Chuzhuang and persuade him to hunt in less fields. Qi Huan Gong was too fond of music, and Wei Ji deliberately did not listen to the five tones, so as to advise Qi Huan Gong and persuade him to listen to music less. Shi Zangzhu then understood.

and studied the deeds of Uncle Cao Shi's wife Ban Zhao together, Cheng Xuanyi sighed: "Ban Zhao is erudite and talented, and continued to write his brother Ban Gu's "Book of Han" in Dongguan Zang Pavilion, and the queen worships her as a teacher and calls her everyone!" The Quartet contributed rare treasures, created by Ban Zhao, and read aloud by the palace maid, which made my generation ashamed! ”

Mr. Xu said: "The seven articles of "Female Commandments" she wrote are helpful for internal training. There are also traces of it in the "Internal Training" written by the queen of heaven. However, the fourth of women's behavior: women's virtues, women's words, women's appearance, and women's merits, comes from the "Book of Rites", and there are also quotations from Confucius in the "Analects". ”

All the scholars said: "It is not easy for a woman, who is full of poetry and books, to be able to learn from everyone!" Rare. ”

In early summer, the crown prince Li Xian led the scholars of the Eastern Palace, followed the emperor, returned from Luoyang to the west, and returned to Chang'an. The emperor and queen went to Jiucheng Palace to escape the summer, during which Li Xian was ordered to supervise the country.

When Li Xian was in charge of the country, he paid attention to the political dignitaries, compassionate the victims, repeatedly examined the punishment of the criminal program, and actively organized and promoted the annotation of the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" in his spare time of listening to the government and reviewing the recitals, and also organized the scholars to compile books such as "The Rise of Monarchs and Ministers", "The Records of the Spring Palace", and "The Essentials of Self-cultivation".

The emperor believed that Li Xian met the requirements of his successor and rewarded him with 500 pieces of silk.

The queen of heaven felt threatened, and she was angry with the prince again, and this time it was the turn of the fourth son of the emperor, King Xun Li Sujie, who was unlucky.

As early as the year when Dongyue was enshrined, the Queen of Heaven did not let Li Sujie enter the court to see the emperor on the grounds that he had an old illness. After a long time, Li Sujie missed his father and wrote a volume of "Treatise on Loyalty and Filial Piety".

Later, the queen of heaven also saw "On Loyalty and Filial Piety", and was even more unhappy, so she paid attention to collecting Li Sujie's black materials, and when the time was ripe, she sent someone to say that Li Sujie was corrupt and took bribes.

Seeing that the evidence was conclusive, the emperor naturally agreed with the Empress of Heaven's handling opinion, demoted Li Sujie, the king of Xun, to the king of Poyang County, cut two-thirds of the food estate, and settled in Yuanzhou.

On December 3, Li Xian organized Zhang Da'an, Xu Shuya and other scholars to complete the annotation of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty and present it to the Emperor, who praised Li Xian and gave 30,000 pieces of silk to keep the notes of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty in the secret cabinet of the Imperial Palace.

In April of the second year of Yifeng, Li Xian's assistant Zhang Da'an was promoted to the third rank of Tongzhongshumen, indicating that Li Xian's efforts were not in vain, and the emperor began to reuse the officials of the East Palace.

Zhang Da'an was able to stand out among the officials of the East Palace, firstly because of his excellent talent, and secondly because of his good background, he was the son of Zhang Gongjin, the Duke of Zou Guo, and Zhang Gongjin was one of the twenty-four heroes of Lingyan Pavilion.

Soon, the emperor and queen went to Jiucheng Palace as usual to escape the summer, leaving Li Xian in Chang'an to supervise the country. Li Xian did a good job in the first two years of the East Palace, but the queen of heaven attacked him one after another, and it was obviously even more difficult for him to shake the status of the queen of heaven!