I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 117: Dethroning the Emperor
When Yuan Shu heard Yuan Feng mention Yi Yin and Huo Guang, he felt helpless.

The past is the past, and the present is the present. How can the two be confused?

He then spread his hands.

"Of course, I dare not compare myself to Yi Yin, but father, since the revival of the Han Dynasty, how many emperors have been deposed or murdered? There are very few who ascended the throne as adults, and most of them are infants or even young children. Can they be good emperors? Aren't they still controlled by their supporters?

The emperor is not a god. He will die and be manipulated by others. Besides, even if he is the emperor, he is different. Since ancient times, the son will succeed the father, and the younger brother will succeed the elder brother. But when it comes to the Han Dynasty, most of the minor clans will join the major clans. According to the clan system, the rituals and music have long been broken. "

Yuan Feng blinked, looking a little surprised.

"what do you mean?"

Yuan Shu nodded.

"Father, before Emperor Xiaohuan, the Han Dynasty had several generations of young emperors, and they were deposed and enthroned many times. At least at the moment, deposing and enthroning an emperor is very normal and not special. As long as there are sufficient reasons and the interests of all parties can be taken into account, a young emperor is not worth paying attention to."

Yuan Feng still felt very surprised. He didn't quite understand why his son could talk about deposing and enthroning the emperor so easily and freely.

It's just like eating and drinking water.

When did it become normal to depose and enthrone the emperor?
Or is he, Yuan Feng, the only one who thinks this is abnormal?

At this moment, Yuan Wei arranged things outside and came to the father and son, so Yuan Feng quickly pulled Yuan Wei over and asked Yuan Wei to listen to what Yuan Shu said.

Yuan Wei was very surprised at first, but after listening to Yuan Shu's explanation, he realized why his brother had such a strange expression.

Yuan Shu actually said that deposing and enthroning the emperor was a normal thing?
"Shu, you... do you really think it is normal to depose and enthrone an emperor?"

Yuan Wei stuttered a little and looked at Yuan Shu as if he was an alien.

Yuan Shu nodded calmly.

"Empress Dowager Dou and Dou Wu can do it, and so can eunuchs. So why can't we, the Yuan family? Although not everyone is qualified to do this, I think the Yuan family should be qualified, right?"

The two brothers Yuan Feng and Yuan Wei looked at each other, both confused.

Is it really that the times have changed, they have grown old and can’t keep up with the times?
Seeing that the two were not moved, Yuan Shu had no choice but to continue fooling them.

"Although the late emperor had no sons, he had brothers. The only relationship between the present emperor and the late emperor is that of a common clan. Since ancient times, the son succeeds the father, and the younger brother succeeds the elder brother. This is common sense. Choosing someone else out of this is mostly the selfish wish of the person who established the emperor.

It was nothing more than that the Dou family's maternal relatives saw that the emperor's brothers, King Pingyuan and King Bohai, had already come of age and it was inconvenient for them to control the government, so they chose a young man from the same clan to inherit the throne, thinking that they could control the government. As a result, the Dou family was just a name with no ability, and was all show and no substance.

Logically speaking, the current emperor and the late emperor do not have a very close relationship. The King of Bohai and the King of Pingyuan are more qualified to inherit the throne than the current emperor. If it were not for the Dou family, how could the current emperor inherit the throne? Now that the Dou family is gone, the current emperor relies on eunuchs instead. Isn't this repaying kindness with enmity?"

Yuan Shu deliberately pronounced the four words "repaying kindness with enmity" very heavily, which immediately hit certain thoughts in Yuan Feng and Yuan Wei's hearts and made them agitated.

Can a person who repays kindness with enmity rightfully become the emperor?
In fact, when choosing an heir for Liu Zhi, many ministers suggested choosing one from Liu Zhi's brothers, but the Dou family's relatives rejected this proposal on the grounds that Liu Zhi's brothers had bad character.

But to be honest, the one with bad character was King Pingyuan Liu Shuo. He liked to drink and eat meat and indulge in pleasure without cultivating moral principles. He really did not have a good reputation.

In comparison, Liu Zhi's other brother, King of Bohai Liu Kui, did not do anything so excessive.

However, Liu Kui was not completely without any black spots. For example, he was once impeached for plotting a rebellion. When Liu Zhi learned about it, he said he could not bear to kill him, so he took away his fiefdom and only left him a county, asking him to reflect on himself.

Then, before Liu Zhi died, he softened his heart and ordered the fiefdom to be returned to Liu Kui, allowing him to become the King of Bohai again.

However, Yuan Shu heard some gossip that Liu Kui was just drunk and said that his brother had no son and the throne would definitely be passed on to him in the future. Then someone reported this to Liu Zhi.

Liu Zhi must be angry after being treated like this.

However, Liu Zhi probably understood his younger brother and knew that he was just talking big and had no intention of treason, so he did not kill him.

Liu Zhi was dead, but Liu Kui was still alive, and another King of Pingyuan, Liu Shuo, was also alive. In terms of blood relationship, these two younger brothers were more qualified to be emperor than Liu Hong. Moreover, since they were born of the same mother, the throne could be passed on to their younger brothers, so it was not considered as the younger branch entering the larger branch.

Therefore, this matter was still controversial in the court and the public at that time, and many people doubted the intentions of Dou's relatives. However, Dou Wu himself was very famous, and Empress Dowager Dou could legitimately control the power, so it did not cause too much trouble.

But this does not mean that Liu Hong’s throne is secure.

If there had been no such thing as the Factions and Factions Persecution, Liu Hong would have grown up peacefully, received the emperor's seal and imperial seal from Empress Dowager Dou in a reasonable, legal and proper manner, and successfully inherited the imperial power, and his throne would have been secure.

But the problem is that he did not seize the imperial power through formal channels, but used a coup to snatch the imperial power from his benefactor.

To put it more seriously, this is repaying kindness with enmity, undermining the legal system, and putting the legitimacy of one's own power into an embarrassing situation.

It is better to let anyone be the foundation of your imperial power than to let eunuchs do it!
Liu Zhi also relied on eunuchs to seize power, but Liu Zhi was aware of this fact, so he took the initiative to kill the five eunuchs who helped him ascend the throne. This was equivalent to launching another coup d'état, establishing the foundation of his own regime, and resolving this embarrassing situation by himself.

But Liu Hong does not have this ability now.

So in the current situation, Liu Hong's throne is still unstable and the legitimacy of his power will be questioned.

Not to mention that the eunuchs launched the Party and Faction Persecution, killed countless scholars, and caused public outrage. They also used Liu Hong's righteous banner to make people hate them. It would be strange if Liu Hong didn't become hated!

Yuan Feng and Yuan Wei couldn't help but follow Yuan Shu's thoughts and found that Yuan Shu's ideas were actually very interesting.

Liu Hong was indeed the emperor with the weakest power legitimacy and the most embarrassing one in the Han Dynasty. He was more dependent on eunuchs, killed more scholars, and more seriously undermined the internal unity and interests of the ruling class.

If this continues for a long time and the purge continues at all costs, who can bear it?
According to the information Yuan Feng and Yuan Wei had heard in the past few years, local officials, scholars, landlords and other middle and upper class people who were not in the eunuch system were very dissatisfied with the eunuchs' behavior, and were also very dissatisfied with Liu Hong.

The eunuchs do not quite understand the rules of the political game, and their attacks and plunder of the interests of the party group are all-round. This has led to the fact that from the central government to the local governments, those who are dissatisfied with the current political landscape are definitely not a minority group.

After his thoughts reached this point, Yuan Feng didn't dare to imagine any further.

"Shu, I feel that this matter is too big and too disrespectful to the emperor. Let's not talk about it anymore!"

Yuan Wei, whose thoughts were interrupted by Yuan Feng's words, came back to his senses and became somewhat dissatisfied with Yuan Feng's attitude.

"Brother, this is indeed a big deal, and it is indeed a bit offensive, but...Brother, as a Han minister, when it comes to the orthodox succession of the throne, shouldn't we give it more consideration to rectify the imperial lineage?"

"Ci Yang, you..."

"Brother, I think what Shu said makes sense."

Yuan Wei seemed to have his mind opened up, his eyes flashing with strange brilliance, and he said softly: "Everyone in the world knows how the current emperor got the throne, and many people are dissatisfied with it. It is precisely because of this that the emperor's killing of Dou Wu has angered the world.

In the past, Duke Hui of Jin fled and was welcomed back to Jin by the Jin official Rik to ascend the throne. However, he later killed Rik with various reasons. The reason was that if Rik could support him, he could also betray him, and he felt uneasy about this, so he wanted to kill Rik.

It was indeed wrong for Rick to offend his king, but Duke Hui killed his ministers who had done him a favor, which violated the principles of human ethics. This also made Duke Hui unpopular for a long time, and he was even captured by the Qin army. In the end, his successor was replaced by Duke Wen of Jin. This is a precedent!"

"This……"

Yuan Feng didn't know how to respond to Yuan Wei's words, because what Yuan Wei said did make sense.

Duke Hui of Jin did indeed do such a thing. He was not trustworthy, so he did not receive sincere support. He did not even repay his benefactors, so no one was willing to protect his descendants.

Although Liu Hong was only a passive participant in the Second Party Persecution, he was still the biggest beneficiary. Dou Wu died there and Dou Miao was placed under house arrest. What he did was no better than that of Duke Xian of Jin.

Yuan Shu didn't expect that Yuan Wei would be convinced so quickly.

The main reason was that Yuan Wei was very angry about the eunuchs' disorderly politics and backstabbing, and he had a strong desire to take revenge on the eunuchs, but because it involved the emperor, he did not dare to act rashly.

After hearing Yuan Shu's entire set of ideas for revenge, Yuan Wei instantly felt that his confusion was resolved and his thinking was opened.

My eldest nephew is right!
The difficulty in eliminating eunuchs lies in the fact that it involves the emperor and the legitimacy of the emperor's power, so it will naturally be resisted and countered by the emperor.

But wouldn't everything be logical if we just enthroned a new emperor who had nothing to do with the eunuchs and deposed the current emperor?
(End of this chapter)