The so-called noble relatives often refer to a series of clans such as the emperor's own grandfathers and brothers, and a series of relatives such as the emperor's own grandmother's family, his wife's mother's family and his daughter's in-law's family.

Once the emperor ascended the throne, the huge group of nobles and relatives composed of these two series around him, especially the latter series, would rise rapidly, and through the emperor's reward power, the government and the opposition, the rich and noble, and enjoy all kinds of privileges that even the founding heroes could not enjoy.

Whoever can get involved with your relatives, or follow and do chores with your relatives, often feels that they are superior.

In all dynasties, how to treat noble relatives has become a major issue for emperors.

Liu Bang fought all the way and leveled countless opponents, and later his country was almost finished by Lu's relatives.

As for how Wang Mang's group of relatives brought down Liu Hanjiangshan, Liu Xiu felt the same way.

As for the lessons learned from the previous dynasty, Liu Xiu has spent a lot of effort pondering them.

Liu Xiu treats noble relatives very well from beginning to end, specifically in two aspects: one is a high degree of trust, who else can you trust if you don't trust your own relatives? Second, it is strictly regulated, especially in the areas of personnel and law and discipline, Liu Xiu himself stresses principles and requires everyone to abide by the rules.

At the beginning of his ascension to the throne, Liu Xiu had a high degree of trust in his relatives and used them boldly, giving them high titles and letting them hold very important positions.

Soon after he ascended the throne, he gave forty or fifty relatives the title of marquis at once.

Among them, 5 people from his maternal uncle Lao Fan's family are Hou, and 4 people from Yin Lihua's family are Hou. and the important positions that participate in the confidential and are in charge of the elite soldiers, such as the servant and the guard captain, he also mainly arranges for his relatives to fill them.

However, Liu Xiu is extremely sober-minded in dealing with noble relatives, that is to say, while he favors these noble relatives, he also has very strict and inadmissible principles, specifically there are three:

First, there can be no rebellion. No matter who wants to compete for the position of the first brother, or threaten his position, Liu Xiu will definitely not let go.

The second is to strictly restrict the rank of nobles and relatives in politics, all of whom are below Jiuqing. Although Liu Xiu let these noble relatives of his own occupy important positions, these positions are not of high rank, and these positions can only appear to have great power when they serve Liu Xiu wholeheartedly.

During Liu Xiu's reign, although the three most prominent relatives, the Lao Fan family, the Lao Guo family and the Lao Yin family, were vigorous, the Hou Ye was in groups, and the high-ranking cadres were in piles, but none of them were in Jiuqing.

Third, extrajudicial privileges are not allowed. Liu Xiu never tolerated and accommodated the behavior of his relatives who violated law and discipline, and basically supported the relevant departments and cadres in dealing with them according to law.

In this way, because the scale of Liu Xiu's noble relatives was too large, and Liu Xiu consciously suppressed the expansion of their power, many stories happened.

Not allowing anyone to compete for or even share the authority of the first brother is Liu Xiu's political bottom line.

Back then, Liu Xiu once said to the envoy of Wang Lang of Hebei that even if Emperor Cheng was resurrected, the throne could not be his.

Soon after ascending the throne, Liu Xiu found out that an old relative wanted to rebel, so he did not hesitate to cut him down.

This old relative's name is Liu Yang.

Regarding this Zhending King Liu Yang, everyone is an old friend.

In Zhending, Hebei Province, he was a genuine Liu clan, with more than 100,000 elite soldiers, first attached to the clan to fake Wang Lang, and soon supported Liu Xiu on the condition of recruiting as a nephew and son-in-law, and is now the uncle of Queen Guo Shengtong.

We can't say that Liu Xiu has no feelings for Guo Shengtong, but no matter what, for Liu Xiu, the marriage that he came to broker after he just married Yin Lihua, and it was bargaining on the battlefield, must have made his mood very complicated.

We can't tell whether Liu Yang was able to identify the authenticity of Wang Lang as the Liu clan when he joined Wang Lang, but it is completely certain that his marriage to Liu Xiu was a result of sophisticated and practical political calculations.

Because, when he helped Liu Xiu when he fought Wang Lang, it was neither out of his own political opinions, nor out of trust and support for Liu Xiu, he wanted to achieve his ambitions and maximize his own interests in the chaos of the crowd.

After only 2 years of marriage with Liu Xiu, Liu Yang had the idea of rebellion and self-reliance, and implemented it in a planned and step-by-step manner.

Liu Yang felt that Liu Xiu ascended the throne and became his nephew and son-in-law, although he was the emperor's uncle, he was still a big step away from the first brother!

What's even worse is that Liu Yang thinks that according to the normal organizational approach, he will never be able to be a brother within the framework of Liu Xiu's regime!

If you don't give it organizationally, you have to rob it!

Of course, no matter what you say, it is always embarrassing for the uncle to snatch the position of his nephew and son-in-law, Liu Yang wants to fool the cadres and the masses, first muddy the water, and then take advantage of the chaos.

I don't know if I want to be a brother who is too anxious to get angry, or for some other reason, Liu Yang has a big lump on his neck. There is nothing to make a fuss about, if you want to treat, you can treat, if you don't want to treat, observe and observe.

However, Liu Yang wanted to make a fuss about his tumor.

He sent people to compile and spread some folk songs everywhere, such as "After the Red Nine, the gall is the main one", and so on. It means that the Liu Han Dynasty, which advocates fire virtue, has been revived, and the ninth generation of Gaozu has passed it to Liu Xiu, and now, it should be Liu Yang, the tenth grandson of Gaozu and a tumor on his neck, as a brother!

Speaking of which, we have to say that Liu Yang once again played the "seniority card" for his own political needs!

Because, according to accurate and reliable evidence, he Liu Yang is the tenth grandson of Liu Bang of the former Han Dynasty and the eighth grandson of Emperor Jing, that is to say, he and Liu Xiu are blood relatives of the same blood, at least in Emperor Jing's place, it is difficult to verify how the bloodline inheritance was developed later; At the same time, in terms of seniority, he should call Liu Xiu his uncle.

Liu Yang, a person who marries his niece to his own uncle for some kind of calculation, is difficult to respect. Of course, he now takes the initiative to ask to be the heir of his nephew and son-in-law Liu Xiu for the same calculation, which is also not respectful.

In January 26 AD, that is, the year after Liu Xiu became emperor, Liu Yang used his power to cultivate power, and at the same time secretly colluded with the peasant army and local heroes who were being attacked by Liu Xiu, intending to cooperate with Liu Xiu to get Liu Xiu down.

At this time, Liu Xiu was really busy.

Although the Great Sima Wu Han continued to achieve victories in the extermination of local forces around Luoyang, the Red Mei Army set fire to Chang'an, Xijing, excavated the tombs of the Liu clan of the previous dynasty, and plundered Guanzhong. Deng Yu followed west to Chang'an, and the outcome was unpredictable. Not only that, Peng Pet in the north and Liu Yong in the east, the intention of resistance is already very clear, and it is only a matter of time before the fight starts.

In this case, Liu Yang saw that Liu Xiu was too busy and the soldiers around him were on a lot of business trips, and accelerated the pace of counterattack.

Liu Xiu's mind is very clear-headed, no matter how busy he is, he can't tolerate anyone to rebel.

After discovering Liu Yang's actions, Liu Xiu still wanted to talk to Liu Yang at the beginning with the idea of curing the disease and saving people, and did his ideological work first.

After all, Liu Yang is the Liu clan and the queen's maternal uncle, and he is too close to him, so he can't do it until he has to!

Therefore, he sent Deputy Chen, the cavalry commander, and Deng Long, a guerrilla general, to Zhending to summon Liu Yang and let him enter Beijing to meet the emperor.

Liu Yang had a weak heart and made up his mind to go it alone, for fear that Deputy Chen and Deng Long would see their flaws, so they closed the city gate tightly and did not let the two brothers enter the city.

The princes are alone with their troops and resist the envoys of the court, which is to make it clear that they want to go it alone.

So, Liu Xiu no longer hesitated and immediately sent the former general Geng Chun to kill him.

(Zhending Wang Yang and Linyi Marquis rebelled, and sent the former general Geng Chun to punish him.) ）

Liu Xiu outwitted Liu Yang.

He sent Geng Chun as an envoy to Youzhou and Jizhou to issue imperial edicts to publicize national policies and comfort local princes.

Before leaving, Liu Xiu secretly ordered Geng Chun: "If you can see Liu Yang, put him away!" ”

(Mi Yichun said: "If Liu Yang sees it, he accepts it.") ”）

It should be noted that the "receiving" that Liu Xiu confessed here means "cleaning up" and "killing", not "catching up" as some historical materials say, otherwise Geng Chun's actions would not be so fierce.

Geng Chun led a hundred and ten cavalry retinues and set out to meet with Deputy Chen and Deng Long in Yuanshi County. Everyone informed each other of the situation, discussed countermeasures, and came to Zhending together and stayed in the hotel.

When the imperial court envoy came, whether it was a local cadre or a local prince, he should take the initiative to ask for a meeting.

Liu Yang had a ghost in his heart, so he pretended that he was sick and didn't go to see Geng Chun.

However, he thought that it was not a way for him to avoid Liu Xiu's people all the time, this Geng Chun was still his distant relative, so it was better to try and test to see if he could win him over.

Geng Chun's mother and Liu Yang are sisters and brothers in their own family, that is to say, Liu Yang is still Geng Chun's uncle.

So, Liu Yang wrote a letter and sent someone to Geng Chun, first to set it up, and then said that he wanted to see Geng Chun and invited him to come to his house to talk about it.

Although Geng Chun is a Confucian general and a scholar-type cadre, he has been in troubled times for a long time, and he is also very skilled in the skills of cutting people on the battlefield and playing with people in officialdom.

He told the visitor: "I have been commanded to be with me, and not to go first when I receive the princes and governors of all places. If King Zhending wants to meet, please come to the hotel. ”

At this time, Liu Yang thought that he had a huge number of troops, and his younger brother, Liu Rang, the Marquis of Linyi, and his cousin Liu Xi had tens of thousands of troops respectively.

Moreover, he saw that Geng Chun's attitude was calm and his language was calm, forgive me that there would be nothing wrong, everyone is a relative!

Of course, Liu Yang had something to do in his heart, and felt that he was engaging in a conspiracy, and it was necessary to make preparations with both hands.

So, he arranged for Liu Rang and Liu Xige to lead the light cavalry to surround and wait outside the hotel, and he took a few subordinates in.

Geng Chun saw Liu Yang coming, and treated him respectfully.

Everyone talked freely and laughed continuously.

After all, the banner of Liu Yang's rebellion has not yet been played, after all, everyone is still relatives, after all, this is a routine condolence from the imperial court to the prince!

Taking advantage of the good atmosphere, Geng Chun proposed, hurry up and let my two uncles outside come in to rest, the New Year has just passed, and it is quite cold outside.

Okay, Liu Rang, Liu Xi! Come in, you two, let's talk!

Hearing Liu Yang's greeting, Liu Rang and Liu Xi brothers also walked in.

As soon as he saw that Liu Yang's brothers and his children had arrived, Geng Chun immediately turned his face, ordered his subordinates to close the door and beat the dogs, and quickly cut down Liu Yang's brothers and his children on the spot.

Immediately afterwards, Geng Chun led his troops away.

In this way, first treating others gently and politely, and then looking at the opportunity to give a fatal blow, this is Liu Xiu's signature move, and many of his apprentices and fans can master and use his technical essentials.

Geng Chun's doing this is just a classic of Liu Xiu's actions.

The three brothers Liu Yang were cut down, and the entire Zhending cadres and masses were both shocked and terrified, and no one dared to talk nonsense in the case of a group of dragons without a leader.

(It is really terrifying, and there is no one who dares to move.) ）

But then again, Liu Yang's rebellion is still in the brewing and planning period, or in other words, what Liu Yang did a few days ago is at best an attempted rebellion, and there is a lack of evidence.

Saying that the maternal uncle of a clan, the prince, and the current queen will be cut will be cut, this is obviously unconvincing to the public, and it is not what Liu Xiu is willing to let the cadres and the masses see.

After completely eliminating Liu Yang from the **, Liu Xiu said that in view of the unsuccessful rebellion of Liu Yang and Liu Rang's brothers, they themselves should be punished for their major crimes, and their families were exempted from the crime, so they named Liu Yang's son as the new king of Zhending and inherited his father's feudal state.

Playing the opponent to death, acting compulsively and very measured, is also Liu Xiu's classic action style.