In the entire Hengling era, it was not only the "paradise" of eunuchs, but also the "prosperous age" of relatives. Liang Ji of the Liang family during the period of Emperor Heng, Dou Wu of the Dou family at the time of the alternation of Heng Ling, and He Jin of the He family in the later years of Emperor Ling, all three of them were worshiped as generals in history, and their power was for a while.

【Self-inflicted Liang Ji】

Among these three, Liang Ji is even more so. As mentioned above, Liang Ji caused chaos in history, poisoned the emperor, and his power was rarely matched by his relatives, Liang Ji's family had seven people who were made marquises, three people became queens, six people became nobles, and there were two generals, seven of the ladies and daughters enjoyed the food, three married princesses, and there were fifty-seven other officials and generals, generals, Yin, and schools, and their power was incomparable even to the royal family.

After Liang Ji established Emperor Huan, in order to strengthen his control over the imperial court, he first dismissed the Taiwei Du Qiao on the charge of "catastrophe", and then added the charge of killing Li Gu and Du Qiao. He has a monopoly on power, and he has to decide everything in the court and China, no matter how big or small, and the promotion, appointment and dismissal of hundreds of officials are no exception, and even the emperor's tribute has to be taken first. Among the people, under the banner of the emperor, he assigned his cronies to conduct a census of the wealth of the whole country, and registered the names, addresses, and assets of the rich one by one. After that, unscrupulous means, grasp the target, make a fuss out of nothing, frame him, arrest him, put him in prison, and torture him.

In the end, Liang Ji provoked the anger of the public, and he was not allowed to be allowed by the royal family and the outer court, and after Liang Ji's death, his property was counted to be equivalent to more than 3 billion, equivalent to more than 50% of the national tax rent that year! Because Liang Ji's sins were too heavy, after Liang Ji lost power, Liang Ji's family was all killed, even if his wife and clan no one could survive, God was happy and humble and evil, good and evil, and Liang Ji and his family were ultimately to blame.

【Moral Man Dou Wu】

Compared with the domineering general Liang Ji, Dou Wu is definitely a rare person with high morals among his relatives.

When Dou Wu was young, he was famous for his good practice of scriptures and virtues, and he once taught his protégés in Daze, not talking about current affairs, and had a significant reputation. In the eighth year of Yanxi (165), Emperor Huan established Dou Miao as the queen, Dou Wu was promoted to the captain of Yueqi, and the marquis of Huaili was sealed. During his tenure, he recruited celebrities, was honest and honest, did not accept gifts and bribes, and his family's food and clothing were only enough to eat and wear. At that time, Xiqiang used troops for many years, the grain harvest failed, the people were hungry, and all the rewards received by Dou Wujun were given to the Tai students, and they used trucks of food and meals to give to the poor on the roads. After the first party rebellion, it was also Dou Wuli to protect Li Ying, Du Mi and other "party members", who preserved the backbone of the upright scholars and doctors at that time. At that time, Dou Wu was known as the "Three Gentlemen" together with Liu Shu and Chen Fan, and was considered one of the leaders of the scholars.

In the first year of Yongkang (167), Emperor Huan died, and because Emperor Heng had no children, Dou Miao and Dou Wu established the twelve-year-old Marquis Liu Hong of Xie Du Pavilion as emperor, that is, Emperor Ling of Han. Dou Wu was also appointed as a general because of his meritorious service, and co-ruled the government with the Taifu Chen Fan and Situ Huguang, and after more than 20 years of chaos in the world by his relatives Liang Ji and the eunuch "Five Marquis", there was finally a glimmer of light on the land of the Han Dynasty.

Dou Wu and Chen Fan both had the intention of eliminating the eunuchs, so they recruited the deposed celebrity Li Ying, the servant Du Mi and others, and appointed Yin Xun as Shang Shuling, Liu Yu as the servant, Feng Shu as the lieutenant of the Tun cavalry, Yue Wei Taishou Xun Yi as the Zhonglang, Yingchuan Chen Yu as Peng's subordinate, and jointly agreed on the strategy, which can be said to be a good situation.

In May of the first year of Jianning (168), Dou Wu first killed Guan Ba and Su Kang, and prepared to further eradicate Cao Jie and others, but at this time Empress Dowager Dou hesitated, and Cao Jie escaped. After the eunuchs got a chance to breathe, they took advantage of Dou Wu's contempt for the eunuchs, and suddenly held Emperor Ling and Empress Dowager Dou hostage in August, took away the seal book, closed the palace gate, and mobilized the army in the name of the emperor to surround Dou Wu, Dou Wu finally committed suicide, and then the eunuchs launched the second party rebellion. Since then, the glimmer of dawn that finally appeared on the land of the Han Dynasty has disappeared, and the dark political era once again enveloped the Central Plains.

[He Jin who is crowned by the monkey]

Compared with Dou Wu and Liang Ji, everyone who is familiar with the Three Kingdoms must be no stranger to He Jin. In the third year of Guanghe (180), Han Ling Dili ruled out the public to appoint He as the queen, and He Jin also worshiped Zhong, will be a master craftsman, Henan Yin. In the first year of Zhongping (184), the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, and He Jin was appointed as a general to suppress the Yellow Turban Uprising. In the process of suppressing the Yellow Turban Uprising, the group of relatives and scholars led by He Jin expanded very rapidly, and after the fall of the Yellow Turban Uprising, He Jin's forces could already hold on to the eunuchs led by the "Ten Standing Servants".

In the sixth year of Zhongping (189), Emperor Ling of Han, the great backer of the eunuchs, finally died, and the contradictions between relatives and scholars and eunuchs could no longer be suppressed, and a bloody political change was imperative.

After the death of Emperor Ling, Jian Shuo, a eunuch with military power, was ready to kill He Jin first, and then set up Liu Xie, the second prince of Wang Meisheng, as the emperor, and abolished Liu Wei, the eldest prince born to Empress He, so as to completely destroy the group of relatives headed by He Jin, but the matter was leaked, Jian Shuo was killed by He Jin instead, and Liu Wei also successfully ascended the throne.

On the one hand, he listened to Yuan Shao's words, summoned more fierce generals and a large number of heroes, so that they all led troops to the capital, threatening the Empress Dowager He who did not want to do anything to the eunuchs, on the other hand, his younger brother He Miao thought that the He family could have today, and the eunuchs made a great effort, hoping that He Jin could get along with the eunuchs amicably, plus He Jin took into account the feelings of his sister Empress Dowager He, which made him sway left and right.

In this way, He Jin lost the best opportunity to make a move against the eunuchs, but let the eunuch group led by Zhang Rang know He Jin's plan, and finally Zhang Rang and others made the first move and tricked into the palace to kill. However, after He Jin's death, Yuan Shao and his uncle Yuan Kui led troops into the palace on this ground and killed all the eunuchs. Later, Dong Zhuo entered Beijing according to the previous order, welcomed back the young emperor Liu Wei and Liu Xie, the king of Chen Liu, who were held hostage by Zhang Rangsui, and soon abolished the young emperor Liu Wei and set up another Liu Xie, destroying the He family, and the Han Dynasty went to war from then on.

【The Evil of Relatives】

In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Guangwu weakened the weight of the three dukes, attributed the power to Shangshutai, and strengthened the imperial power, which made it possible for whoever mastered the emperor to run rampant in the world. When the lord of the country was young, in order to prevent the powerful ministers from bullying the lord, he often relied on his mother's family, and his relatives interfered in politics from this.

Relative politics is also a derivative of imperial power, and relatives do not need to have good skills, as long as they have a beautiful and lucky sister (or daughter), they can easily gain great power. As a result, their abilities and talents were not guaranteed, and they often easily entered the upper echelons of the imperial court without going through fierce competition and screening. Their lack of talent and virtue makes them often abuse power for personal gain, their inability to control an empire, and their lack of experience makes them incapable of understanding political struggles and often making childish mistakes.

Incompetence and immorality, coupled with the selfish desires and ambitions brought about by power, the ruling of foreign relatives often brought disaster to the empire.