Controlling mountains and rivers since the Warring States Period

Chapter 576 Yan Family
"So many things have happened over the years?"

After sharing the countless seafood he had brought back from the East China Sea with the dead, He Bo sat in the main seat of the banquet and said with great emotion.

Over the long years,
He had already seen many amazing rulers.

But someone like Liu Hu,

He had indeed never encountered it.

As expected, the Central Plains have the most talented people!

Thinking of Augustus in Rome, who went through all sorts of trouble just to establish a stable system of "father-to-son succession,"
Who would have thought that the emperor of the Central Kingdom would turn around and abandon even his only son?

"It seems she's going to take the Emperor's place!"

Thinking about Liu Hu's actions after taking power, and his utterly clownish posthumous arrangements, He Bo couldn't help but laugh again.

The time has come for Emperor Cheng of the Former Han Dynasty to "achieve his goal" after being punished.

None of his ancestors were willing to share his cold pork after death. The only way to help him establish himself securely in the underworld was to give him the potion of forgetfulness and restart the cycle of life.

ha,
Consider the Zhao Feiyan sisters, who seemed to be living a relatively carefree life in the underworld, completely ignoring Emperor Cheng of Han, and Empress Yan, who stuffed the rotting, stinking Liu Hu into a pile of salted fish to marinate him.

God took another sip of water, shook his head, and said, "Without Xiu'er's abilities, you still want to pursue true love like Xiu'er..."

"Now look at this, the smell is even stronger than mine, which has been soaking in the sea for over ten years!"

"The person was also interrogated jointly by their ancestors and the judges of Fengdu."

Liu Hu was "supported" by a group of ancestors.

As his life force rapidly faded...

Whether it was his own curse that worked or Liu Hu's abstraction that incurred divine punishment, Guangwu immediately led his descendants to find him.

Liu Hu initially believed that he had indeed gained the favor of his ancestors.
Otherwise, why would our ancestors have made such a grand gesture to welcome this descendant?

As a result, a slap from his biological father, Liu Qing, brought Liu Hu back to reality from his reverie.

He covered his face, looking utterly shocked.

Seeing the angry faces of their ancestors again filled them with even greater panic.

He wanted to ask why, but his ancestor grabbed him and led him through the mist all the way to Fengdu in the underworld.

Liu Hu, who was extremely noble in life and often told his ministers who advised him, "If you don't listen to me, I will communicate with you through punishment," lost his status and privileges after his death and was forced to confront the mistakes he had made.

But he insisted on defending himself:
"The Deng family is eager to seize power and has shown me no respect whatsoever. Why should I be grateful to them?"

“I lost my mother at a young age and grew up drinking Wang Sheng’s breast milk. Why shouldn’t I be able to give her any kindness?”

"As for Liu Bao... he was born to a palace maid, so his status was already lowly, and he wasn't close to me. How could I be his loving father?"

"Isn't this exactly the principle that Confucius spoke of in the concepts of 'ruler and subject, father and son'?"

Confucius, in teaching his disciples, strongly opposed blind loyalty and filial piety.

He said:
"The monarch must fulfill his duties as a monarch so that his subjects can be good subjects."

"A father must fulfill his responsibilities as a father so that his son can be a good son."

“If that doesn’t work, then it’s perfectly normal for the ministers and sons to flee.”

This, in turn, became Liu Hu's justification for exonerating himself.

It was Liu Baoxian who became estranged from him.

He was never a loving father!

Liu Qing looked at his agitated and struggling appearance with a very sad expression.

He said to Liu Hu:
"Hu'er, I am very disappointed in you!"

Liu Hu was stunned by those words, then his eyes darted around, avoiding eye contact.

Finally, he murmured to his father:
"Wang Sheng told me that your death was because of the Deng family."

Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence?

He had only been on the throne for a month when his biological father, Emperor Liu Qing, died.

Liu Qing continued to lament:
"Stupid!"

"Your grandfather's bloodline is inherently incapable of producing robust offspring."

"Don't you even look at your uncles and brothers? How many of them actually lived to adulthood, let alone past forty?"

Emperor Zhang had no idea that his son's reprimand of his grandson would suddenly involve him.

But he couldn't refute that fact.

Therefore, Emperor Zhang could only retreat behind his father and let Emperor Ming cover for him.

Liu Hu also lowered his head, but still stubbornly refused to admit to his ancestors that he had a problem.

Only after the time for relatives to visit and reminisce had passed did the official Fengdu judge speak up and tell Liu Hu about his fate after death.

Upon hearing this, Liu Hu immediately fainted.

Even when he was taken away to be punished, he was dragged along by the dead ghost.

What else can be said about unworthy descendants?

The dead have already witnessed far too many of these kinds of things.

Ximen Bao thought of his descendants who had become ordinary people. He sighed at first, then felt fortunate that they had not fallen to the lowest level and that their bloodline had continued to this day.

If two people like Liu Hu emerge...
I'm afraid they won't even be able to save their own households, and will have to become slaves or servants in the homes of the wealthy.

Seeing his appearance, He Bo then spoke to his old friends Sun En and Zhou Jian beside him:
"It seems that not having children has its advantages."

The two laughed along with them, enjoying the seafood that God had brought back from the East China Sea.

In the mortal world,

The car, loaded with abalone, returned to Luoyang.

Following the example of her ancestors, Empress Yan gathered the court officials in the palace under the pretext that "the emperor is seriously ill and summoned his ministers to entrust them with his affairs after his death."

then,

Those who disobeyed were killed by the axemen she had arranged in advance.

Taking advantage of this momentum,

That very night, she selected the youngest member of the imperial clan in Luoyang, Liu Yi, as her successor, thus beginning her reign as regent.

Liu Yi,

He was the grandson of Emperor Zhang and the son of Liu Shou, the Prince of Jibei.

According to seniority, he should be the cousin of the late emperor.

but,

This child is very young, just seven years old, and his temperament can only be described as honest and obedient, without showing any extra talent.

Yan Shi valued his "weakness and vulnerability" and thus chose him as the new ruler.

However, after Liu Yi ascended the throne and the Yan family seized power...
The latter then breathed a sigh of relief, snapped out of the temptation of power, and began to think of making amends to the late Emperor Liu Hu.

anyway,

Without this man, she wouldn't be the most noble woman in the world!

After all, the Yan family was merely a minor aristocratic clan within the Han Dynasty.

The empresses of the current Han emperor were previously mostly from the families of founding heroes such as Yin, Dou, and Deng, and were formed through continuous marriages within a small circle.

Lady Yan was selected for the imperial harem and eventually became empress.
Besides her undeniable beauty, which garnered the emperor's favor, there was also an underlying intention by Empress Deng Sui to weaken powerful clans and consolidate the foundation of the imperial lineage.

can only say,
Before her death, Empress Dowager Deng had even arranged for Liu Hu to be a "relative of the empress," intending to take advantage of Yan's low social status to reduce the resistance to Liu Hu's consolidation of power and prestige.

Unfortunately, the descendants were truly disappointing.

Liu Hu not only failed to make good use of this, but also spread his authority everywhere, truly squandering his fortunes at their very core.

But Lady Yan was truly grateful to Liu Hu.

Therefore,
Empress Dowager Yan, with her sagacious will, bestowed upon Liu Hu the posthumous title "An" (meaning "peace"), despite Liu Hu's lack of accomplishments after assuming power.

Peace comes from harmony and non-contention.

The people will rely on peace and security.

Tolerance and peace bring peace.

Cultivating oneself and bringing peace to the people brings tranquility...

all in all,
When the educated ministers learned of Empress Yan's choice, they were momentarily confused as to whether she was genuinely defending the late emperor or subtly mocking him.

If it's the latter...

Ok,
If viewed upside down,
Indeed, it is very much in line with the actions of the late emperor.

Considering that Empress Dowager Yan was currently riding high on her success, honest and loyal ministers would either be suppressed and killed by her, or forced to feign illness and go into seclusion to avoid the court.
They didn't offer any words of advice, but kept their faces tightly shut, not daring to utter a single laugh. The second thing Empress Dowager Yan did was to fully utilize her jealous nature, launching a massive purge of the court—

victim,
The main culprits were the Geng, Song, and Wang families, whom the late emperor also trusted and favored, as well as the palace eunuchs.

She wasn't doing this to rid the country of traitors, but rather, for Empress Dowager Yan...

These guys are all rivals vying for power with me.

The Yan family, through their own efforts, finally had a chance to rise to prominence. Naturally, they wanted to emulate the Wang family of the Former Han Dynasty and the Dou family of the Modern Han Dynasty. How could they share their glory with others?
Kill him.
Kill them all!
For this,

The ministers fell silent once again.

Those who had spent most of their lives navigating the treacherous waters of officialdom found the Empress Dowager's behavior quite perplexing.

madness?

But she did indeed use the simple and brutal method of summoning her accomplices to a banquet in the palace, and by smashing a cup as a signal, she caught them all, either exiling them or executing them.

Wise and wise?

After eliminating rivals such as the Geng family, Empress Dowager Yan did not select other capable officials, but instead promoted her own family members, allowing the Yan family members to enjoy the life of powerful officials.

How to do?
The matter that Yang Zhen had been deeply troubled by during his lifetime—"the cunning and treacherous officials could not be punished, and the wicked and dissolute concubines could not be restrained"—was actually resolved by Yan's series of actions...

Will this expose the incompetence of these ministers?
The ministers of the mortal world fell silent as a result.

The dead in the underworld fell silent as a result.

No one knows what Empress Dowager Yan, whose actions are beyond the imagination of ordinary people, will do next.

but,

He Bo didn't pay much attention to this.

He preferred to spy on the Song envoy who was still in prison.

This envoy was able to travel all the way from the Western Sea to the Central Plains, so he must be very healthy.

So he was imprisoned for nearly a year.
His cohabiting cockroaches and mice have all been replaced, but he still looks quite energetic.

This made Gan Ying, who was sighing and lamenting across from him, appear as a listless old man.

"Do you now admit that destiny will fall to the Western Sea?"

Holding a "long stick" he had made from the toughest wheat straw in the cell, the Song envoy poked Gan Ying through the gap in the bars as she wrote a new version of her will facing the cell wall.

Perhaps it was because they enjoyed killing.
Perhaps my brain is too simple to use properly.
In any case, Empress Dowager Yan not only forgot to eliminate the former Crown Prince Liu Bao under the Western Bell, but also forgot to resolve these "historical problems".

Not to mention beheading,
They didn't even mention releasing him.
He was kept in prison and periodically supplied the court with stale millet.

As a result, the will that Gan Ying wrote in grief and indignation after entering the country has been passed down through several generations.

One wall was covered in writing.

The old man then went to ruin the other side.

There was still a hint of resentment and bitterness towards the dark side of the court at the beginning.
He then began to berate the Song envoy, feeling that it was all because of this loose tongue that he had been implicated.

Now that he had poked her, Gan Ying didn't reply. She just hit the straw stick and continued to ponder the contents of her suicide note.

The Song envoy did not give up and continued to stab Gan Ying in the back.

Since there's nothing to do in jail anyway, I might as well cause some trouble with the other party.

A little to the side,
Fan Feng and the others, who had only been imprisoned for a short time, glanced at the two with considerable envy:
Given Empress Dowager Yan's personality, it's quite difficult for her to recall things she's forgotten.

As for Gan Ying's charge of "colluding with the Song envoy," it was utterly insignificant to Yan Shi.
Therefore, their lives can probably be saved.

But they...

Ugh!
I'm afraid that after a couple of days in jail, I'll have to go and follow the late emperor.

"Arrange for them to go there and live with Liu Hu!"

God, observing from the shadows, issued a command in accordance with the will of the people, thus fulfilling the "relationship between ruler and subject" between Liu Hu and his confidants, including Fan Feng.

of course,

Whatever conflict might occur between the two sides later is none of He Bo's business.

You reap what you sow.

Who can we blame?
After all,

With a flick of his sleeve, He Bo arrived at the West Sea, intending to welcome the soon-to-be-deceased Zhao Sheng and his wife.

Witnessing his son's great achievements, the newly established State of Song growing increasingly prosperous, and recently defeating the State of Qi, and having the descendant of the high-ranking official who had humiliated the Zhao family come to Andu City to apologize with thorns on his back, he was deeply saddened.

The retired emperor and empress dowager of the Song Dynasty had no further regrets.

They met in the Western Regions
Running in the river,
They guarded the state of Qi.
And a companion by the Western Sea,
Surrounded by their children and grandchildren, they closed their eyes one after another.

When they opened their eyes again and saw He Bo, the two were very surprised.

It seems this person really did die a long time ago, after all these years.

Otherwise, why would they meet again in the underworld?
After learning He Bo's identity,
The two were naturally shocked.

Zhao Sheng seemed to remember something, and his old face flushed red.

He Bo saw through his thoughts, waved his hand and laughed, "The things I recommended to you back then, I had your father-in-law send them over long ago!"

Having already become a dead ghost, and having been told some things about the ecology of the underworld by He Bo, how could Zhao Sheng not guess the meaning behind it?

He immediately lowered his head, filled with regret.

Only Liu Yirong was completely baffled, not knowing what they were talking about.

However, she didn't dwell on it.

She simply asked He Bo, "And what about my father?"

He Bo said, "He is currently adrift in the East China Sea with Liu He and has lost contact!"

After God subdued the East Sea

Always energetic and adventurous, Liu He and Liu Jing called upon their other friends and set off together towards the East Sea, wanting to explore this sea area belonging to the underworld, where the Weak Water flows in.

However, the Weak Water already poses a considerable danger to the dead.

Not to mention the "East China Sea".

Even with ample preparation and consultation with the mother of the navigator, they still disappeared shortly after setting sail.

of course,

This applies to ordinary dead people.

The sea raged until it lost its temper in the East China Sea, and God, who willingly threw himself into its embrace, was able to sense their existence.

But nothing bad happened.

There was no need for him to intervene and interrupt the other party's adventure.

Liu Yirong nodded in satisfaction when he heard that his father was still so energetic after his death.

She didn't insist on an immediate reunion between father and daughter, but instead asked He Bo out of curiosity:
"What is the situation in the Central Plains?"

"The messenger my son sent has never returned. I don't know if he was killed on the way or if something happened to him in the Central Plains."

He Bo laughed and said, "I came here to take you all to see for yourselves!"

He waved his sleeve, and with the two men wrapped around him, they arrived in the Central Plains, where they met the Song envoy who was feeding the rats in their cage.

Upon seeing this, Liu Yirong immediately raised his eyebrows, "Even in war between two countries, envoys are not killed."

"What's wrong with the emperor of the Han Dynasty? How could he treat my Song envoy like this!"

He Bo told her, "Because he spoke recklessly, saying that the Mandate of Heaven would soon belong to the Western Sea and deviate from the Central Plains, which angered Emperor An of Han."

"Where is the mistake in this statement?"

"Isn't that the truth?"

On the way here, Liu Yirong, who had heard God talk about the recent events in the Han Dynasty, became even more furious.

"The bloodline of Liuzhuang is just so disappointing!"

"Not only did he die young, but he also left behind such a spendthrift son!"

"He alone has exhausted the blessings of his descendants!"

The discussion covers being a crown prince, an emperor, and even being a son.
Emperor Ming of Han did not encounter any major obstacles in his life, making him the envy of many.

However, He Bo pointed out:
"I think you should say this to your own grandfather."

"It's very likely that Liu Hu was cursed to death by him!"

Xiuer's luck

Sometimes, even God can't figure them out!

(End of this chapter)