(Thanks to the Great Alliance!) Thank you Zhao Wuxian 2014, UFGW, take off the confusion, glorious charter)

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Liu Xie, the Son of Heaven, died, and for the people of Luoyang, the Son of Heaven died very suddenly, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he died violently. As a result, there were many rumors and rumors. Ma Han is fortunately not in Luoyang, otherwise there will be people with ulterior motives who will create rumors and attack him with hidden arrows. In the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty, people believed in this, and there were many people who got on and off the horse because of proverbs.

Ma Han's political enemies are full of regret, although this is an excellent opportunity for political attack, but Ma Han is thousands of miles away at this time, no matter how much dirty water is splashed on him, it is not convincing enough.

For the people, the Son of Heaven died violently, but for the officials, especially the Inner Palace, the death of the Son of Heaven was a matter of time, and no one would be surprised by this.

Since the fourth year of Jian'an, the Son of Heaven's health has been declining, although he looks refreshed on the surface, but the kind of "health" like waxing, who sees it, understands. At the first banquet of the fifth year of Jian'an, the Son of Heaven fainted for no reason, accompanied by signs of vomiting blood, which was a sign.

After that, the Son of Heaven's body became weaker and weaker, and at the age of six years of Jian'an, the Son of Heaven vomited blood several times, and finally fell ill and was bedridden. The doctors tried their best to treat him, but his condition recurred from time to time. It was in early February that his condition suddenly deteriorated. When the doctors arrived, the Son of Heaven vomited blood, his clothes were stained with blood, and his eyes were full of sadness and anger, but he could only vomit blood, and could not say a word.

And Queen Fu, who served beside her, was unusually pale. It's just that there was chaos in the palace at that time, no one paid attention to it, and no one dared to pay attention.

It was night, the twelfth emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xie, collapsed. Posthumous name...... Well. This will have to wait for the next Son of Heaven to decide.

Early in the morning, hundreds of officials entered the court as usual, and when they arrived at Quemen, Huang Menlang announced the news of the death of the Son of Heaven.

The Son of Heaven collapsed, and the whole country mourned.

When the hundreds of officials in the court and the people of Luoyang were sad and gloomy because of the sudden departure of the young son of heaven, the important ministers of the court could not care about their grief, and they all gathered in the Chongde Hall to discuss the aftermath. There are three major events: the funeral of the Son of Heaven, who is the prince, and whether to recall the general.

The queen Fu family hangs the curtain, and the princess of Wannian accompanies the hall. In front of the palace, the three princes and nine kings are all there, and the high-ranking officials of more than 2,000 stones and some of the lowly and powerful officials of the thousand stones are in line. At a glance, Taiwei Yang Biao, Sikong Zhang Xi, Imperial Historian Liu Ai, Shangshu Ling Jia Xu, Dasi Nong Zhao Wen, Zhijin Wu Fuwan, Imperial History Zhongcheng Zhong Xuan, Shaofu Ling Kong Rong and other important ministers were all present.

Inside and outside the hall is covered with tiger Ben, feather forest, dragon and wolf three guards, the three guards Zhonglang will Fu De, Fu Ya, Zhou Cang, etc. are all wearing armor, all the time patrolling.

The ministers first bowed to the empty dragon chair above the Danqi, and then saluted the queen and princess behind the curtain. After the ceremony, Huang Menlang read out, and the court meeting was presided over by the three dukes. The queen decides. Subsequently, the court meeting began.

The first issue, the funeral of the Son of Heaven, is not controversial. Just discuss the etiquette specifications, and come up with a few alternative nicknames for the successor to choose.

The second issue is more difficult. The country cannot be without a monarch for a day, if Liu Xie has a queen. This problem is not a problem, but now it is Liu Xie's queen. According to the practice of the Han Dynasty, it was necessary to choose a new son of heaven from among the princes and kings. Dozens of emperors of the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty generally did not have prosperous heirs. He is by no means the first to be the heir like Liu Xie. In the heyday, the problem is how to choose the best of the best from a large pool of candidates. However, after more than ten years of war, especially the Yellow Turban Rebellion that swept half of the Han Dynasty, many princes and kings died, fled, and separated, and their families were scattered.

On this second issue, the one who has the most right to speak is Liu Ai, one of the three publics. Liu Ai's position at this time is very special: Zong Zhengqing, the imperial historian who holds the festival.

Zongzheng is one of the nine kings, in charge of the imperial family's clan affairs, the emperor, the princes and kings, the relatives of men and women, and other relationships are recorded by Zongzheng, usually by the royal family of the highly respected person. The previous Zong Zhengqing was Liu Yu; Although Liu Ai's reputation is not as good as Liu Yu, he will never abandon Liu Xie from birth to death, and he is very trusted by the Son of Heaven, so he deserves this position. With Zong Zhengqing as the main position, he acted as the imperial doctor. Although it is said to be "okay" (agent), everyone knows that if the Son of Heaven says yes, you can't do it; The Son of Heaven said no, and you can't do it. Therefore, Liu Ai's agent is no different from a regular job. It is equivalent to concurrently serving as the third prince and the nine kings.

Although this was a bit out of line, Ma Han did not object at that time, because this was an agreement reached between the royal group and the foreign relatives group. Ma Han's relative is too powerful, and the royal family needs someone who can check and balance him, or rather, his position, Liu Ai was driven to the shelf.

Because Zong Zhengqing knows the distribution and origin of the members of the imperial family best, and also knows the heirs and conduct of the princes and princes of various countries best, he has irreplaceable authority in the nomination of the candidate prince. Therefore, all the ministers looked at Liu Ai and waited for him to speak.

Liu Ai is also the one who deserves it, and the thirteenth emperor of the Han Dynasty will be nominated by him, and he is a little excited to think about it. At that moment, he cleared his throat, picked up a pile of genealogies on the desk, and said in a hoarse voice that had obviously howled: "Before the election of the prince, a few clan relatives must be excluded from the office. The following clansmen will not be discussed, namely the first line of King Lu Gong and the first line of King Gong of the East China Sea. ”

There is no need to use a hammer to sound the drum, and the ministers will understand it as soon as they hear it, and they echo it in unison. The queen and the princess also agreed, in fact, to put it bluntly, Liu Ai must have reported to them before, maybe this is what the two princesses meant.

King Lu Gong refers to Liu Biao and Liu Zhang, both of whom are descendants of Liu Yu, the former king of Lu Gong of the Han Dynasty; King Gong of the East China Sea refers to Liu He. For Mao, these three are excluded? In terms of prestige among the royal family, the top two even surpassed Liu Ai, and the reason why they were excluded was precisely because of their prestige and strength.

Needless to say, Liu Biao sits in Jingzhou, with 100,000 armor, and is a real prince. Fang today, except for Ma Han, who represents the central government, he is the strongest Liu Biao. According to the practice of the Han Dynasty, there are already princes or older ones, which are basically not candidates, but their heirs can. In other words, Liu Biao is impossible, but his three sons, Liu Qi, Liu Cong and Liu Xiu, are qualified.

And Liu Ai's words directly erased Liu Biao's qualifications. I also know that if you choose Liu Qi, Liu Cong or Liu Xiu, there is such a powerful family power in the local area, and you will become the master of Luoyang, when the government and the opposition are combined, where will there be room for others to mix? It will definitely have a strong impact on the various forces in Luoyang, and break the stable and good situation since the first year of Jian'an and the delicate balance between the various forces, and if it is not done well, it will cause chaos. This is the result that all those who have come from the turbulent era of the early peace period are most afraid to see. Therefore, you can only choose weak clansmen, too strong royal families, absolutely not!

Liu Zhang's situation is similar, this is the strongest prince in the southwest of the Han Dynasty.

Liu He's situation is a bit special, he is the son of Liu Yu, and he also served the Son of Heaven in the court. But later he ran to Youzhou, united with his father's old department, and won over the Karasuma people, raised troops to avenge his father, and crusaded against Gongsun Zhan. Although Youzhou is now unified, Liu He has also returned to Luoyang, but this person and Karasuma have always been unclear, and they are quite prestigious in the northwest of Youzhou, and it is not difficult to raise a large army if necessary, and such a person is not considered.

Excluding a few impossible options, here are the possible options.

"Liu Ying, the king of the river, is twenty-one years old, young and strong, skilled in bows and horses, and heroic and extraordinary; Liu Tuo, the king of Rencheng, is twenty-six years old, heroic, a famous teacher, well-read and strong, and his name moves his country; Liu Mi, the king of Liang, is twelve years old, bright and wise, and has few talents; Pei Wang Liu Yao, 12 years old, gentle as jade, filial piety; There is also Liu Kai, the heir of the king of Dongping, who is twenty-two years old and quite famous......"

Liu Ai has a lot of lists, listing more than ten candidate princes, basically all of whom are young and healthy, or not yet adults, but they are not considered children, and being the king of a country will not lose their dignity and all the people.

In this process, the ministers had different reactions. Yang Biao was engrossed, Zhang Xi's eyes wandered, Jia Xu's old god was there, and Zhao Wen was calm. And Zhong Xuan, Fu Wan and others raised their eyebrows and lowered their eyes, looked at their noses and noses, and looked at their hearts, as if everything followed the crowd. Even Kong Rong, who has always jumped out, didn't dare to make nonsense, after all, this is a candidate for the Son of Heaven.

In fact, among the ministers here, who can get to this point is not a human spirit? The candidates listed by Liu Ai all sound like they are the best among the people, but no one knows what is actually going on, and if they are half as good, they will burn high incense.

Although Zongzheng has the right to nominate people, there are only two people who finally make up their minds, one inside and one outside, the queen inside, or about to be called the queen mother, and the general outside. Whoever these two people belong to together is the next Son of Heaven.

So the question is, there is still a shortage of one of the most important people, which is the third issue: should the general be recalled?

The Southern Expedition was staged every other month, and it was rushed for 400 miles, although it was thousands of miles apart, everyone knew the course of the war. At present, the battle of the Southern Expedition has reached the most critical juncture, and once it is defeated, the turmoil in the Han world since the end of the early peace will be calmed down in the near future. As long as Jiangdong is pacified, Jingzhou and Yizhou are all princes of the Liu family, and there is great hope for a peaceful settlement. The inner palace and the outer dynasties all regard this southern expedition as a battle for the unification of the world, and at this juncture, the general is recalled, the achievements are falling short, the mountains and rivers are broken, who can afford this responsibility?

This time, the ministers set their sights on one person - Jia Xu. As that person's right-hand man, he should have the most say.

Above the court, Jia Xu didn't play Tai Chi either, and proposed very realistically: "Choose slowly, it will take a month or two if you choose well, and by then, the battle of the Southern Expedition will be almost over......"

The ministers looked at each other, and they all felt that only in this way could they have the best of both worlds.

So, Empress Fu announced: "The Son of Heaven takes governing the country first, taking filial piety as the foundation, and talent and heroics are not the way of kings." Liu Mi, King of Liang, Liu Yao, King Pei, and Liu Kai, the heir of King Dongping, were selected to determine the prince. The day of the agreement is the time to recall the great general. (To be continued......)