Taiheiki

Chapter 282 The New Emperor Ascends the Throne

Upon hearing Wei Cong's words, Dou Wu coughed and lowered his head. However, Empress Dowager Dou's eyes lit up, and she laughed, "Lord Wei, if those people in the outer court heard what you said, wouldn't your reputation be ruined!"

"I don't live off fame. At most, I'll relinquish this great generalship and return to Jiaozhou!" Wei Cong laughed. "What's the big deal?"

"Most scholars and officials of this dynasty regard Jiaozhou as a perilous place, but Marquis Wei regards it as a paradise!" Dou Wu said with a smile.

“Indeed!” Wei Cong laughed. “In my opinion, compared to the honor and wealth in Luoyang City, building ports and dikes, turning swamps into fertile fields, developing maritime trade, and improving the city walls are much more enjoyable! At least a thousand years from now, the people of Jiaozhou will not forget that there was such a person as Wei!”

"Well said!" Dou Wu's eyes lit up. "Looking back, although I held a high position and great power in Luoyang these past two years, I was not as happy as I was when I was teaching students the classics in the Great Marsh. It is a good thing that I am resigning from the position of Grand General!"

"Tsk tsk!" Empress Dowager Dou clapped her hands and laughed, "You two are getting more and more excited as you talk, as if someone forced you to become the great general!"

"Although I wasn't forced by anyone else, I was compelled by the circumstances!" Dou Wu sighed and said to Wei Cong, "Lord Wei, the position of Grand General is easy to attain but difficult to relinquish. Throughout the history of this dynasty, very few Grand Generals have been able to retire unscathed. What are your plans?"

Upon hearing Dou Wu's question, Empress Dowager Dou's smile vanished, replaced by a grave expression. While the maternal relatives of the emperor during the Han Dynasty held immense power and influence—a rarity in any dynasty—their fates were also the most tragic. Even those loyal to the Han like Huo Guang, or usurpers like Wang Mang, ultimately suffered the extermination of their entire families. The fates of other families like the Dou, Wei, and Liang clans were even more dire. The only tactic the maternal relatives of the Eastern Han Dynasty could devise was to choose a young emperor and delay his rule as long as possible to prolong their own lives. However, once the emperor reached adulthood, the previous generation of maternal relatives still faced certain extermination. The reason for this was that, under the Han system, maternal relatives were essentially proxy emperors during the emperor's childhood. Once the emperor reached adulthood, a life-or-death struggle was inevitable. Since maternal relatives were merely appendages of imperial power, under the Han system, while they might be able to kill one or two emperors, their ultimate demise was unavoidable.

Although Empress Dowager Dou and her father were not professional historians, they were certainly aware of the constant shifts in power dynamics between imperial relatives and the emperor throughout the four hundred years of the Han Dynasty. Naturally, they didn't want the Dou family to suffer the same fate as their predecessors, being wiped out. Although the Dou family had already stepped out of the center of power through marriage and relinquishing the position of Grand General, as long as Empress Dowager Dou remained in the Western Palace, the Dou family would still be considered imperial relatives of the Han Dynasty. If the emperor were to truly assume personal rule and settle accounts, the Dou family would also suffer. Therefore, they were naturally very concerned about Wei Cong's ideas in this regard.

“In my opinion, the position of Grand General is a position of certain death. One possesses the power of the emperor, but this power is not one's own; it is borrowed from the emperor. By wielding the emperor's power, the people resent it; and the emperor, stripped of his power, also resents it. If this continues, death is inevitable!” Wei Cong said, “The only way to escape unscathed is to use one's own power, not the emperor's!”

"Their own power?" Empress Dowager Dou frowned. "How could that be? Don't all the civil and military officials derive their power from the Emperor? How can they have their own power?"

"Is that so?" Wei Cong laughed. "And what about when I was the governor of Jiaozhou?"

Empress Dowager Dou's eyes lit up. Although Wei Cong's words were extremely bold, they were also the truth. Just as he said, regardless of whether Luoyang Cheng acknowledged him as the Governor of Jiaozhou, he was the de facto ruler of Jiaozhou. The court's appointment of him as Governor of Jiaozhou was merely an acknowledgment of the fait accompli, not a formal grant.

“What Marquis Wei says makes some sense, but if you were the Grand General, that power would certainly be granted by the Emperor! So what would you do?” Dou Wu asked.

"It's very simple, just do your job well!" Wei Cong explained, "In ancient times, there was a great flood. Yao ordered Gun, the father of Yu the Great, to control the flood. Gun failed to control the flood and was executed by Shun. Later, Yu the Great was ordered to inherit his deceased father's will and spent thirteen years finally controlling the flood. When Yu the Great was ordered to control the flood, the power was indeed granted by Shun, not his own. But after he successfully controlled the flood, the power became his own. Even Shun could not do anything to him and had to give up the throne to Yu the Great."

What Wei Cong said came from the Bamboo Annals, but this book was not discovered in an ancient tomb until the Western Jin Dynasty. Dou Wu and Empress Dowager Dou had never heard of it before. However, the whole story was logical and reasonable. It was clear that it was not something Wei Cong had made up. Dou Wu coughed and asked carefully, "What Marquis Wei said is different from what is said in the classics. May I ask where it comes from?"

“I learned it from a hermit when I was young. It is said that his book was excavated from an ancient tomb from the Warring States period!” Wei Cong replied.

"So what does Marquis Wei intend to do?" Dou Wu asked.

“Build a bridge!” Wei Cong replied, “I plan to build a pontoon bridge across the Yellow River in Mengjin. This will not only facilitate trade and travel, but also allow us to set up tax checkpoints and increase revenue!”

"Just this?" Dou Wu couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

"This is just the beginning!" Wei Cong said. "In addition, I also plan to build water conservancy projects and canals to open up water transportation between the north and south!"

“This—” Dou Wu sighed: “Lord Wei, please forgive my bluntness, but the court has suffered from the chaos caused by the Emei Rebellion, the people are impoverished, and the national treasury is empty. It would be better to postpone these wasteful and burdensome matters!”

"The General's words are wise, I will remember them!" Wei Cong said with a smile. Anyone who wasn't blind could see that he hadn't taken Dou Wu's words to heart.

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Five days later, at Deyang Palace.

The Empress Dowager knelt beside the Emperor's coffin, holding a toddler of about two or three years old in her arms. The toddler was dressed in the Emperor's robes and crown, and the child stared with wide, round eyes at the civil and military officials, marquises, and princes on both sides.

"The auspicious hour has arrived!" the master of ceremonies announced to the Empress Dowager in a low voice. Empress Dowager Dou nodded and stood up. Almost simultaneously, the musicians behind the pillars on both sides of the corridor began to play. The previously quiet infant was startled by the sudden mournful music and burst into tears. Having never given birth herself, Empress Dowager Dou had no experience with this and could only instinctively stroke the child's cheek, whispering, "Don't cry, don't cry!"

The master of ceremonies seemed oblivious to the weeping. He continued in a loud voice, "Liu Sheng, great-grandson of Liu De, Prince Xiao of Anping, grandson of Liu Ze, Marquis of Wei'an, and son of Liu Qu, Marquis of Wei'an, ascends the throne. Empress Dowager Dou of the Western Palace is hereby appointed Grand Empress Dowager! Kneel and pay homage!"

"Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor!"

Following the commands of the master of ceremonies, the ministers and feudal lords on both sides knelt and kowtowed before the Grand Empress Dowager standing before the emperor's coffin and the new emperor in her arms. Thus, the new master of the Han Empire was determined: Liu Sheng, the two-year-old son of Liu Qu, the Marquis of Wei'an, and the nephew of the previous emperor. The former Empress Dowager Dou Miao was now a generation older, becoming the Grand Empress Dowager.

After completing the enthronement ceremony, Dou Miao issued the first edict of the new emperor: First, she accepted the resignation of the former Grand General Dou Wu, relieving him of his position as Grand General and Minister of the Imperial Secretariat, and bestowed upon him one million coins and five hundred bolts of silk, ordering him to return to his hometown. Dou Wu, as before, refused three times, and then distributed the money and silk to the people ravaged by the war in Luoyang. General of Chariots and Cavalry Feng Kun, Grand Minister of Agriculture Zhang Huan, and Left General of the Palace Guard Wei Cong were commended for their merits. Feng Kun was appointed Grand Commandant, Marquis of Le'an, with a stipend of 10,300 households; Zhang Huan was appointed Minister of Works, Marquis of Quping, with a stipend of 9,400 households; Left General of the Palace Guard Wei Cong was appointed General of Chariots and Cavalry, Minister of the Imperial Secretariat, and Marquis of Huoshan, with a stipend of 14,700 households…

The imperial edict being read aloud caused the crowds on both sides to whisper and discuss amongst themselves. Clearly, the Dou family had paid a heavy price to win over Wei Cong, Feng Kun, and Zhang Huan, three military leaders who commanded significant armies. Not only were Wei, Feng, and Zhang all granted titles and generous stipends, but Feng and Wei were even appointed as one of the Three Dukes. Wei Cong, however, gained even more. Although he was only appointed General of Chariots and Cavalry, after Dou Wu resigned as Grand General, his position was the highest military rank in the entire empire, theoretically granting him command of the entire nation's army. Furthermore, by holding the position of Minister of the Imperial Secretariat, he controlled the Secretariat, effectively succeeding Dou Wu in power. "So, Wei Cong is the biggest winner after all!"

"Yes, but then again, Empress Dowager Dou trusts him so much that she gave him the positions of General of Chariots and Cavalry and Minister of the Imperial Secretariat. Isn't she afraid that Wei Cong will turn against her?"

"Don't you know? Wei Cong is already engaged to Dou's daughter. In that sense, Wei Cong should call the Empress Dowager 'elder sister,' so they're already family. Why are you turning against her?"

"Marrying a daughter of the Dou family is enough? That's far too simple. Anyone who didn't know better would think he'd seduced the Empress Dowager herself!"

"Stop talking nonsense! How can you say such things? Do you want your entire clan wiped out?"

"What's there to be embarrassed about? It's not like the Han Dynasty hasn't done it before! But speaking of which, Wei Cong is quite handsome, and he's about the same age as the Empress Dowager. If I were the Empress Dowager, I would like someone like him too!"

"You're talking nonsense again. Have you forgotten? Marquis Wei led a large army into the city. Do you think the Dou family would dare to refuse him the position of General of Chariots and Cavalry and the position of Minister of the Imperial Secretariat?"

"That's not necessarily true. It's true that Marquis Wei has troops, but do you think he would dare to go on a killing spree in Luoyang? Don't forget that troops from Hebei and Shandong are already pressing in. If he dares to act recklessly, someone will naturally deal with him!"

"By the way, do you think this matter is settled? The new emperor has ascended the throne, and with the people recuperating, can we enjoy another ten years or so of peace?"

"In previous years, that would certainly have been the case. After all, the emperor is only two years old now, and it would have been at least twelve or thirteen years before he started causing any trouble. But now, it's not necessarily the case?"

"Why do you say that?"

"The late emperor's passing was too coincidental. If it were in the past, it wouldn't matter, since the governors of the thirteen prefectures didn't have many soldiers, and everyone could only turn a blind eye. But now it's different. The Grand General previously ordered each prefecture to raise its own troops for use in order to quell the Moth Rebellion. Now that the battle for Luoyang hasn't even started, are the governors and colonels in Hebei and Shandong who have already raised troops really going to obediently disband their armies and follow orders? It's not that simple, is it?"

"So, this war isn't over yet?"

"It's hard to say! Look at Feng Kun and Zhang Huan, one a chieftain of the Ba tribe and the other a man from Liangzhou, yet they were both appointed as high-ranking officials and granted the title of Marquis of Ten Thousand Households. Do you think the gentry of Ying and Ru will accept that?"

"So what if they don't accept? Wei Cong's troops are no pushovers. Not to mention that Feng Kun and Zhang Huan are both veteran generals, Wei Cong alone could lead his troops to wipe them out!"

"Yes, even if they all have soldiers, the difference between their generals and commanders is huge. Wei Cong pacified Jiaozhou, quelled the E'zhai, and led his troops all the way into Luoyang. He was invincible in every battle and now he has a righteous cause. Who can defeat him?"

Wei Cong, however, seemed deaf and followed the orders of the ceremony master in accordance with the rituals. After completing the ceremony of the emperor's enthronement, he left the palace, boarded a carriage, and headed to his new residence.

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"It's finally over! I'm exhausted!" Wei Cong slumped onto the brocade couch, letting Lu Ping untie the ribbon under his chin and remove the crown from his head. "Get me a bucket of hot water to soak my feet and relieve my fatigue. This funeral was more tiring than fighting a war!"

"Soaking your feet is fine, but nothing else!" Lu Ping said with a smile as she massaged Wei Cong's shoulders. "Don't forget, you're still in mourning! You're a general now, women are not to be touched!"

"I don't have the mind for that at all!" Wei Cong sighed. "There's still the burial, sealing the tomb, and summoning the spirit, which will take at least a month or two. I definitely won't be able to get away from it and won't be able to do anything. It's really killing me!"

"What can we do? You're a high-ranking official in the imperial court now!" Lu Ping sighed as she said this, "Thinking back to when we first met, it feels like a dream!"

"Yes!" Wei Cong sighed, a thought suddenly flashing through his mind: "By the way, isn't the emperor's tomb over there in Mangshan?"

“That’s right, I don’t know about that! But there are indeed quite a few cemeteries in Mangshan. Why are you asking about that?” Lu Ping asked, puzzled.

"I want to build a small town!"

"Small town?"

“Yes, as you know, I have many enemies in Luoyang, and I can't keep leading tens of thousands of men there forever. So I plan to replace all the troops under the command of the Commandant of Sili with my own. If we have a small but fortified city, it could be a lifesaver in a critical moment!”

"Where do you want to build this city?"

"It would be best to stay within Luoyang City and occupy a corner. If that's not possible, then it would be best to be near Mangshan Mountain to the north of the city. That way, if things go wrong, we can escape north to the Yellow River and then take a boat downstream. There are several waterways from there that lead to the Huai River!"

(End of this chapter)