A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 321: Will history repeat itself? internal meeting of courtiers
Zhang He's second year
February 30

Liu Jin suddenly died of illness in the front hall of Zhang De at the age of thirty-three. The ministers gave him the posthumous title "Zhang", Wen Ke Ling Yi said Zhang;

In view of the fact that Liu Jin stabilized the people, relaxed sentences and reduced burdens, promoted culture and education during his lifetime, and solved the great famine and plague across three states. In terms of military affairs, we reopened the Western Region, defeated the Xiongnu in the north, and conquered the barbarians in the south.

Therefore, the ministers and kings decided to go to the temple with the name "Su Zong", which was Emperor Suzong Xiaozhang of the Han Dynasty.

People will imitate the achievements of Emperor Xiaozhang and Emperor Xiaoming in the former Han Dynasty. , called it "the rule of Mingzhang".

On the same day, the crown prince Liu Zhao paid homage to the Gao Temple and succeeded to the throne. He honored his aunt, Empress Dou, as the empress dowager. Since Liu Zhao was only nine years old and was temporarily incapable of governing, the empress dowager Dou took the title of emperor.

March 18

Emperor Xiaozhang Liu Jin was buried in Jingling. He left his last words before his death, asking his officials to follow the example of Emperor Ming and give him a thin burial.

Empress Dowager Dou is a descendant of Empress Dou, Emperor Xiaowen of the former Han Dynasty, and a cousin of Dou Gu, the Huns of the Northern Expedition. She was born into such a prominent family. She is a very scheming and ambitious woman. She has always wanted to imitate Empress Ren of the Han Dynasty. Create your own prosperous era.

The basis for achieving all this is to have great power. What is more worthy of belief than your own family?

But he obviously forgot, or maybe because he was obsessed with power and strategy, he read less history books. The world praised Renhou for not using his relatives wantonly. However, this was also one of the main reasons for the final failure of Renhou's legacy. one.

March

Empress Dowager Dou promoted her brother Dou Xian from the rank of Lieutenant General of Huben to the rank of Shizhong, in charge of court secrets, and responsible for issuing imperial orders; her younger brother Dou Du was appointed as the Lieutenant of the rank of Huben, to command the emperor's bodyguards; his younger brothers Dou Jing and Dou Huan were both appointed as the regular servants, Responsible for conveying edicts and administrative documents.

In this way, the Dou brothers all occupied prominent positions around the emperor and thus controlled the center of national politics.

Empress Dowager Dou knew that the fastest way to establish her own authority was through military exploits, so she targeted the Huns in the north.

However, the early days of Empress Dowager Dou's monopoly on her duties had been revealed. Many ministers were afraid that the situation of former Han relatives' monopoly on power would reappear, so they were extremely wary of Empress Dowager Dou.

So Empress Dowager Dou proposed at the Xiaochao meeting that the Han Dynasty had enough soldiers and supplies, and that it was time to complete the unfinished business of Emperor Ming, which was to completely destroy the Xiongnu.

Compared with the large court meeting, the small court meeting was held only when major events occurred in the Han Dynasty, such as national festivals, the enthronement of the emperor, the canonization of queens and princes, tributes from princes and kings, etc. It was more of a ritual Function.

In addition to the large court meetings, all other events involving the emperor are called small court meetings. Therefore, the decisions of the entire Han Dynasty were almost all decided at the Xiaochao meeting, and whether one was qualified to enter the Xiaochao meeting depended on whether he had been added to the list of ministers by the emperor.

Regarding the Northern Expedition to the Huns, the officials would not have reacted so strongly, just because the general of the Northern Expedition was named Dou, and was Dou Xian.

Therefore, all the ministers at the court were on full vigilance at this time, and they came out to object one after another, including several ministers, Shi Yushi, Qi Duwei, Yi Lang, etc. However, Empress Dowager Dou had made up her mind and forcibly passed it. this resolution.

Lu Gong, who was in charge of Sikong Lu's affairs, directly accused Empress Dowager Dou of "sacrificing one person at the expense of the lives of thousands of people."

After the small court meeting, all the ministers gathered in a restaurant. The restaurant here has a very rich background. It is rumored that the owner's surname is Bai and he comes from the Bai Kingdom.

The name of the restaurant is "Juxian Pavilion". In addition to delicious food and mellow Taibai wine, there are also famous poems written by various great Confucians hanging in the hall. They are all made of straw paper and mounted using special means, so they can be stored for a long time.

Because the writing brush was developed by the Bai Kingdom, calligraphy has also been greatly improved. The most accomplished calligrapher in the world is Bai Xu, the king of Bai. It is said that the deceased Emperor Xiaozhang was also very accomplished in calligraphy.

People say that the northern brush and the southern ink are the best, which means that the white country is the best for brushes and the Chu land is the best for inkstones.

Because Juxian Pavilion is full of calligraphy and calligraphy, scholars in Luoyang regard it as the most famous building in Luoyang.

The Juxian Pavilion is five stories high and is the tallest in Luoyang except for the imperial palace and other pavilions that do not exceed regulations.

On the fifth floor, all the ministers who had left the court meeting before, dressed in casual clothes, gathered in a pavilion and drank tea with each other. If officials who have been serving in the court for a long time are asked to identify people, they will find that the people here are the most powerful people in the court, and they can even hold a small court meeting.

Everyone is an old man who has been immersed in officialdom for many years, so they naturally know the rules well.

Bai Yan, who was the Taiwei's official secretary, took the main seat, which meant that he was the host and the person with the highest official status and background present. He is also Bai Zhi's grandfather, Bai Guang's father, and the owner of Yuzhen Bai Mansion.

Due to Emperor Guangwu's changes in the functions of court officials, Taiwei, who had been a military official in the former Han Dynasty, became a government official, leading the three ministers of Taichang Mansion, Guanglu Mansion, and Weiwei Mansion, as the head of the three princes , the leader of hundreds of officials, but the real power lies in the chancellery.

Yuan An, who was in charge of Situ Lu Shangshu's affairs, is sitting on the lower right, and his status is second to that of Bai Yan. He was born in the Yuan family of Runan, and came from the Yuan family of Baiguo together with the Yuan family in Bohai. The Bai family has always been the dominant one.

Lu Gong, who was responsible for Sikong's affairs, is sitting on the lower left. Lu Gong was from a small family in Pingling, Fufeng. Because he was favored by Emperor Ming, he had been serving as the Minister of the Secretariat. During the reign of Emperor Zhang, in order to make room for others, he became Guanglu Qing, one of the Nine Qings, and finally became the Sikong. Obviously, after Emperor Guangwu, the position of the three princes has become a leisure position for old age, and is only the head of the officials in name only.

Before the death of Emperor Zhang, because Liu Zhao was young, it was inevitable for the harem to interfere in politics. In order to prevent the Empress Dowager Dou's family from becoming dominant and regaining the exclusive power of the relatives of the former Han Dynasty, the three princes were given the title of minister, entered the minister's desk, and were eligible to participate in the affairs of the small court.

Only here did San Gong gain some real power.

In addition to these three bosses, the others include the six ministers of the Shangshutai, the six ministers of the outer court, and officials of some key departments.

Because since Emperor Zhang convened famous Confucians and Taixue doctors from all over the world in the eighth year of his reign, and held a debate meeting at Baihu Temple, Confucian thought has basically become unified.

At the meeting, everyone jointly recognized "Bai Zhuan" as the official interpretation of "Spring and Autumn".

The rest, such as "Yi", "Shangshu", "Poetry" and "Li", also have conclusive conclusions.

Among them, the "Book of Changes" is officially explained by Kong's "Zhou Yi Zhu", which is said to have been personally annotated by Confucius.

The Official Interpretation of the Book of Documents is based on the Notes of Fu Sheng, a Confucian sage and pre-Qin doctor. Fu Sheng was from Zouping and came from the Bai School, so the Fu family in Zouping could be considered a sect of the Bai family.

"Poetry" takes "Mao Shi" as its official explanation. The representative of "Mao Shi" is the Mao family from Handan, Hebei Province. According to legend, Zixia was his teacher and was passed down from Zixia. Later, he was protected by the Bai Kingdom and was dominated by the Bai family.

"Li" was based on Bai Guo's "Etiquette". Even if Liu Jin wanted to do anything at that time, he couldn't do anything, because the Confucianists in the world only recognized Bai Guo's etiquette, because Bai took out what Confucius originally learned from Bai. Historical evidence.

After the White Tiger Temple meeting, Liu Jing asked Shi Bangu, the Lantai Ling who was in charge of the royal library, to compile the entire meeting into a book called "White Tiger Tongde Lun".

Therefore, all Confucian scholars in the Han Dynasty regarded "White Tiger Theory of Tongde" as the highest academic interpretation, and named the Confucianism before Baihu Temple as the Ancient Wenjing School; the Confucianism after Baihu Temple was named as the Jinwenjing School.

After unifying their thoughts, the outer dynasties completely became one. Although Liu Jin was very afraid, the administrative efficiency was indeed improved a lot.

Therefore, Liu Jin also relaxed his supervision of his relatives and eunuchs, hoping that future emperors would be able to use these two things to suppress the courtiers.

His eyes turned back to Juxian Pavilion.

"Mr. Bai, the nepotism attitude of the Queen Mother is very obvious when she is involved in politics. Why don't you stop her behavior? She asked Dou Xian to lead the army. It was obvious that she wanted to taint military power. Military power is a taboo for foreign relatives. ah."

Lu Gong was dissatisfied with Bai Yan's failure to help him at the court meeting.

Yuan An immediately came out to persuade him: "Brother Zhongkang, don't get excited yet. Mr. Bai must have his reasons for doing this. Let's listen to what Mr. Bai has to say first."

Lu Gong snorted coldly and ignored Yuan An. He was probably cursing in his heart: "Flattery, peacemaker."

Bai Yan then said: "Putting aside her identity, the Queen Mother wants to make the Northern Expedition and completely eliminate the Xiongnu. What's wrong with this? Don't you want to see no more threats in the north of the Han Dynasty and no more wars in the northern Xinjiang?

Even if Dou Xian led the troops and took control of the military, please don't forget that the final decision still lies in the hands of the emperor, otherwise the desk will be in vain.

It's just that His Majesty is young now, so it is inevitable for the Queen Mother to take the throne. After His Majesty takes over the Yuan Dynasty, he will naturally be able to regain his power easily. I really don’t know what you are worried about?
As long as the Dou family does not act recklessly and does not interfere with the normal operation of government affairs, why should we confront them tit for tat? This will not be good for the Han Dynasty.

I am convening this meeting today to tell you that if you have any ideas, please wait until His Majesty takes over. If Your Majesty does not take over, everything will be meaningless. "

Many people in the audience agreed with Bai Yan's analysis, but Lu Gong disagreed:
"Eating the emperor's salary and being loyal to the emperor, if you wait for the emperor to be insulted by others and his power to be invaded, then it is the minister's disloyalty. If you are disloyal, you will definitely not be fair and the officials will not be honest. How can you handle the affairs of the country? Forgive me. I dare not agree with Mr. Bai’s theory.”

Lu Gong's words were also supported by some ministers. Most of these people came from poor families and were deeply influenced by Confucius. Therefore, they often regarded the emperor as their everything and believed that loyalty to the emperor was the panacea that could change everything.

Yuan An also wanted to defend a few remarks such as "Loyalty to the emperor does not mean being able to do anything, the emperor is not the only one in the world."

But he was stopped by Bai Yan. Bai Yan knew that people like Lu Gong had been brainwashed by the Liu family and the Kong family and became the most loyal vassals of the Liu family. And there are many such people in the world today.

"Everything has its own merits and conclusions. Even the Five Classics have been understood by Confucian disciples of all ages. There are countless annotations. What is correct? It doesn't matter what you say, what I say doesn't matter, only time will tell. .”

Lu Gong was dissatisfied, but there was no argument. If Yuan An argued with him, he could still argue a few words, but the Bai family is the leader in today's public opinion and literature. Although Bai Yan is the Bai family of Luoyang, not the Bai family of Bai Kingdom, haha, who doesn't know?
How many people in the world can be named Bai? He didn't believe that the Bai family of the Bai Kingdom had no relationship with the Bai family of Luoyang. He just saw through it and couldn't tell.

So the party ended with this result, but it also let the courtiers know who could help them and who could not be relied on.

(End of this chapter)