The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 764: Learning from History (Part IX)

Although Liu Bang was a man of extraordinary talent, he lived to be 61 years old. He started his army at the age of 48, and ascended the throne to become emperor six years later at the age of 6. He spent the remaining seven years fighting wars in order to prevent the same mistake of replacing Xiang Yu from happening again.

He pacified eight kings of different surnames, including Zhang Er, Wu Rui, Ying Bu, Zang Tu, Han Xin, King of Han, Han Xin, King of Qi, Peng Yue, and Lu Wan.

An average of one per year is not enough. In this era, it may take several years to deal with a local separatist force. However, Liu Bang is nearly sixty years old, and he is killing one per year. He is racing against time with fate!

Long years of fighting would be unbearable for a young and strong middle-aged man, let alone a sixty-year-old man. It was because of the long-term running around and fatigue that Liu Bang exhausted his last blood. Otherwise, he should stay in Chang'an City to enjoy life and take a good rest.

With the resources of a whole country to support him, given Liu Bang's health condition, it would not be a problem for him to live another ten years.

Li Shimin had also been in the military for many years, and he knew how much the high-intensity combat life would consume and destroy a person's physical energy. He was just over 30 years old, but he was left with a lot of problems.

Whenever it rains, my legs hurt so much that I can't stand up.

Thinking of this, Li Shimin suddenly felt infinite admiration and respect for Emperor Gaozu of Han.

"Liu Bang is different from his father. He is basically the oldest among the meritorious officials headed by him. Chen Ping, Cao Shen, Zhou Bo and Fan Kuai are all younger than him. This means that after Liu Bang leaves, these people will still be active in the court for a long time and hold power."

At this point, Li Yan said worriedly: "They are Liu Bang's brothers and ministers. As long as Liu Bang is here, they are loyal ministers and filial sons of the Han Dynasty. But now that Liu Bang is gone and Liu Bang's sons have taken their place, how much loyalty will they have left?"

"In the face of power, without any restraint, who can control themselves?"

"When Liu Bang was still alive, it was fine for Zhang Er, Ying Bu, and Peng Yue, who were the heroes he met later, but Lu Wan, a good brother who had followed Liu Bang in conquering the world for a long time, betrayed him. Who can guarantee that Zhou Bo, Fan Kuai, and Chen Ping would always be loyal to the kid sitting on the dragon throne?"

"If there is no protection from powerful people, Liu Ying, Liu Ruyi, or Liu Bang's sons may not have the time to grow up in this lifetime?"

"Some forces are neither good nor evil, right or wrong. If you can control them, they will be a reliable and firm force to maintain stability. But if you can't control them, the greatest danger may come from them. Father should understand this."

Li Yan paused for a moment, glanced at Li Shimin, who nodded slightly with a heavy look in his eyes, and continued, "If the skin is gone, where will the hair be attached?"

"It was precisely because of this that Mr. Zifang firmly supported Liu Ying's ascension to the throne and Empress Lü's regent. He relied on the influence of the Liu family princes and the Lü family's relatives to restrain the group of meritorious officials, first ensuring that the country remained in the Liu and Lü families, and then calmly resolved the Lü family's problems."

“Time is the most precious and the most ruthless.”

"It can take away Liu Bang, solve the problem of Lu Zhi, and allow Liu Bang's sons to grow up safely. As time goes by, the problems of Empress Lu, the problem of the weak princes, and the problem of meritorious officials seizing power can all be solved naturally."

Li Yan stretched out two fingers and shook them in front of Li Shimin, then said: "At that time, Liu Bang's country was facing two crises. One was that the princes had their own troops and were powerful, and the other was that arrogant and powerful generals controlled the government. The former was solved by Liu Bang."

"But it created a new problem, which was the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion initiated by the Liu clan princes."

"The latter was solved by Zhang Liang, but it also created a new problem, which was the subsequent Zhu Lu Rebellion."

Li Yan sighed at this point: "What Mr. Zifang said is absolutely right. Any matter or any choice will have advantages and disadvantages. It's just a matter of choosing. He and Liu Bang replaced two old problems with two new ones."

"The latter is an immediate concern, while the former is a future concern."

"But between this trade-off, the most precious time was bought. With this time, the boiling water of the late Qin Dynasty could cool down, and the people of the world could slowly settle down. Therefore, time is the most precious thing for the stability of the country."

"No matter how serious the problem is, it can be solved slowly. The key is whether there is time. Later facts also proved that both the Lu family rebellion and the Seven Kingdoms rebellion were resolved, right?"

As soon as Li Yan finished speaking, Li Shimin's expression was shocked, and then his expression became extremely solemn. Then he slowly closed his eyes and fell into deep thought.

This period of history is so precious. The wisdom of the ancient sages is indeed infinite. It has given me great inspiration.

It turns out that the problem can be solved this way: when the contradiction becomes serious and cannot be resolved at the same time, you have to eat up the food you earn next year!

You can exchange future hidden dangers for present peace. Then leave future matters to future generations to solve. If you are too impatient, you will be like Emperor Yang of Sui. If you don’t have the present, how can you have the future?
Li Shimin put himself in the situation of Emperor Gaozu of Han at that time and found that no matter how he handled it, with his current wisdom, he could not come up with a more appropriate, more thorough, or more perfect solution than what Emperor Gaozu did at that time.

If Emperor Gaozu had insisted on passing the throne to Liu Ruyi, although the subsequent situation did not happen, Li Shimin could imagine it.

Without talking about the distant past, let’s just talk about the most recent era, when Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou, Yuwen Yong, died and his son Yuwen Bin ascended the throne as Emperor Xuan.

At this time, the political situation in the Northern Zhou Dynasty was very unstable. After Emperor Xuan died, his eight-year-old son Yuwen Chan ascended the throne as Emperor Jing. Two years later, under the direct planning of Liu Fang, Zheng Yi, Gao Ying and others, the father-in-law Yang Jian forced Emperor Jing to abdicate and seized the throne from his son-in-law.

He proclaimed himself emperor and changed the country's name to Sui.

This is what happened fifty years ago. Emperor Retired Emperor Li Yuan was just fifteen years old at that time, but he saw it happen with his own eyes.

From this we can see how wise and brilliant Emperor Gaozu of Han and Zhang Liang were. Zhang Ziliang, who founded the Han Dynasty 400 years ago, deserves his reputation!

Li Yan still said with admiration: "Later history also proved the wisdom of Emperor Gaozu of Han and Mr. Zifang."

"During the 15 years of Empress Lü's reign, she soothed the people with peace, reduced taxes and levies, encouraged agriculture and commerce, and made significant achievements in various fields such as politics, law, economy, and ideology and culture, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent 'Reign of Emperors Wen and Jing'."

"At the same time, in order to suppress the willful expansion of the power of the meritorious officials through various means, strengthen the centralization of power, and consolidate the authority of the court, it is a pity that although Empress Lü's actions were beneficial to the country, they greatly offended the meritorious officials, so that after her death, the meritorious officials launched a strong counterattack."

"Not only did they sweep away all the power holders of the Lu family in the court, they also killed all the Lu family members. In order to avoid future revenge, they also killed the young emperor Liu Hong, who was established by Empress Lu, on the grounds that he was not in accordance with the succession etiquette. They chose the King of Dai Liu Heng from among the princes. He was kind and merciful but weak in character and could be easily controlled by the ministers to succeed him."

Hearing this, Li Shimin could not help but angrily rebuked: "Nonsense, it is clear that it was the Lü family who wanted to cause chaos, and Zhou Bo, Chen Ping and other ministers followed the will of Emperor Gaozu of Han to kill the rebels. The history is as iron as iron, and people's words are endless. How can you talk nonsense and clear the name of the evil queen?"

Li Yan knew that the current history books were full of one-sided condemnation of Empress Lü, and for hundreds of years, no one dared to reverse the verdict on her behalf.

So he said seriously, "Father, how was the Han Dynasty governed during the fifteen years when Empress Lü was in power?"

"Although she did make contributions, Father does not deny it."

Li Shimin flatly rejected it, saying, "But it is an indisputable fact that during her reign, she wantonly suppressed, excluded, and even persecuted the Liu clan princes. She also violated Emperor Gaozu's oath that only those with merit could be made princes and only those of the Liu clan could be kings. She appointed the Lu clan as kings, controlled the government, and killed the meritorious officials, hoping to replace the Liu clan with the Lu clan."

"Who did Empress Lü kill when she exterminated her meritorious officials?"

Li Yan did not wait for Li Shimin to finish and asked, "In fact, only Huaiyin Marquis Han Xin and Peng Yue died at the hands of Empress Lü. The others, Chen Xi, Han Wang Han Xin, Jiujiang Wang Ying Bu, Yan Wang Zang Tu, Yan Wang Lu Wan, etc. were all killed by Liu Bang."

"More than one hundred meritorious officials and generals in the court, including Marquis of Zhan Xiao He, Marquis of Pingyang Cao Shen, Marquis of Anguo Wang Ling, Marquis of Quni Chen Ping, Marquis of Jiang Zhou Bo, Marquis of Yingyin Guan Ying, Marquis of Beiping Zhang Cang, Marquis of Kaifeng Tao Qing, Marquis of Tao Liu She, Marquis of Baizhi Xu Chang, Marquis of Pingji Xue Ze, Marquis of Wuqiang Zhuang Qing Zhai, Marquis of Shangling Zhao Zhou, Marquis of Fenyin Zhou Chang, Marquis of Jiangyi Zhao Yao, Marquis of Guang'a Ren Ao, Marquis of Wuyang Fan Kuai, Marquis of Quzhou Li Shang, Marquis of Ruyin Xia Hou Ying, Marquis of Yangling Fu Kuan, Marquis of Xinwu Jin Xu, Marquis of Bengcheng Zhou Xi, Shentu Jia, Lu Jia, Zhu Jian, etc., all had a good end."

"It was because of the existence and support of these people that Zhou Bo and Chen Ping had the opportunity to restore order later on."

"If Empress Lü wanted to replace Liu, why didn't she do it while she was alive, but waited until after her death?"

"If Empress Lü had not vigorously suppressed the group of meritorious officials during her reign, encroached on their interests, and restricted their expansion, why would those people hate her so much?"

Li Yan's continuous questioning left Li Shimin speechless for a moment and he fell into silence.

Yes, everyone says that Empress Lü was cruel and vicious. She mainly turned Peng Yue into a meat paste, killed Han Xin in the palace, turned Concubine Qi into a human pig, and poisoned Zhao Wang Liu Ruyi. I haven't heard of any other large-scale purges of meritorious officials.

But why is it written like this in history books?
Li Yan said disdainfully: "If Empress Lü was really cruel and vicious, and wanted to replace Liu, she should have obeyed the emperor and ruled the world during her reign, and swept away Zhou Bo, Chen Ping and other Liu Bang's remaining ministers, and replaced them all with her own people."

"There were fifteen years, enough time for Empress Lü to complete the Lü family's move to replace Liu."

"Empress Lü appointed some members of the Lü clan, but she was a woman, and Liu Ying was cowardly and indecisive, and more importantly, he was short-lived. Facing the weak orphans of the Liu family, if she wanted to defend the Han Dynasty left by Liu Bang and not be coerced by the group of meritorious officials, could she not use some of her own family members?"

(End of this chapter)