Han Shizu

Coming from the north and going to the west, it was rare to go on a patrol and it was obviously difficult for Emperor Liu Wenpeng to turn back. Therefore, after entering the Yangtze River in the north, he chose to continue upstream by boat.

The Jiangnan Navy dispatched almost half of its ships and sailors to escort him. Liu Wenpeng's two thousand silver armors also became "cavalry on the water."

It is worth mentioning that when King Shizu visited the south twenty years ago, he carried out a rectification of the entire southern navy due to the navy's shortcomings (supporting bandits to respect themselves, setting up traps to collect taxes, extortion and looting). During the Taizong period, the Han Dynasty's river navy still maintained a good style and good combat effectiveness under the strong authority and serious national laws.

However, in the seventh year of Pingkang, it can only be described as a return to old ways. Of course, what Liu Wenpeng can see and hear is that everything is calm and blessed.

After passing Wuchang and entering Jiangling, the prosperous people in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River appeared in front of Liu Wenpeng with another image and temperament. Riding a dragon boat, gathering thousands of troops, and swaggering across the border, Liu Wenpeng spent his time to the fullest, "singing" the splendor of the prosperous times, while also further consuming the almost instinctive awe and respect that local officials and people had for the supreme ruler of the empire.

Putting aside the ordinary people in Guizhou, they are the simplest ruled people, and being exploited is their fate. The emperor's passing is just a temporary aggravation. What's more, there is a domesticated respect for authority in the subconscious. Most of them People just hope that life will be easier after Luan Jia leaves and that he can go back to before. Whether this extravagant wish can be realized is obviously doubtful.

In contrast, when those dignitaries who held local power put down their awe, mustered up their courage, raised their heads, opened their eyes wide, and used the rare opportunity to observe the emperor above them, they were originally mysterious and aloof. His image, not to mention collapsed, was shaken anyway.

When the glory of the emperor dissipates, all that remains is a willful and happy young man. The reason why this young man can be above everyone else and can spend as much as he likes and have fun is just because he has a good father.

Of course, the subversion of the impression will not make the local dignitaries lose their awe. In the current Han Dynasty, no matter what the emperor is, the imperial power is not so easy to shake.

However, if the emperor is like this, don't blame his ministers for imitating him, especially those powerful men with limited moral integrity and bottom line.

And this is obviously more serious than the cost of Liu Wenpeng's patrol. This is a fundamentally far-reaching impact.

Of course, Liu Wenpeng would not understand this, nor did he care too much about it. What he could see was the scene of "the arrival of the Luan Jia, the officials and the people surrendered". At least for the moment, the sanctity of imperial power and the authority of the emperor could prevent him from having to To worry about the emotions, thoughts, psychology and other inexplicable things of the subjects.

No matter what, as long as the foundation of the empire remains strong, he will be the most upright and upright emperor of the empire. Regardless of whether they are willing or not, the world's dignitaries have to support him. Liu Wenpeng himself may not be so worthy of admiration, but the heir apparent system is. It is a system that the nobles, bureaucrats and even ordinary people of the empire believe in and respect. This has even become a social consensus.

In Jiangling, Liu Wenpeng accepted the "love" contribution from Jinghu North Road and Jiangling Mansion. Here we must mention Feng Duan, the prefect of Jiangling, who was the great-grandson of Qianyou Prime Minister Feng Dao and the main lineage of the family.

In the first year of Kaibao, when Shizu granted the title of meritorious official, Feng Dao was granted the title of Duke of Ying because he was "not able to understand people well" and had made outstanding contributions to the consolidation and maintenance of state affairs at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Among the four heroes.

As for the Duke of Ying Kingdom, he is already the fourth generation, and the grace given by the ancestors of "+ undiminished hereditary status for the three generations since the founding of the country" has also been broken.

As the direct descendant of the Feng family, after the former Duke of Ying Feng Jie (grandson of Feng Dao and son of Feng Ji) died of illness, Emperor Taizong changed the title of his eldest son Feng Jing to the title of Duke of Hejian. The empire's lordship system was truly mature and complete during the Taizong era, because Taizong was a man who acted completely according to the rules. Unlike Shizu, his personal likes and dislikes were inevitably mixed in the decisions of some affairs, and he liked to do some flip-flops. Covering your hands with clouds and making rain.

The "Twenty-four Ministers of Qianyu" who attracted much attention in the early years also presented a new situation half a century later in the Pingkang era.

To put it simply, even if they are both the twenty-four ministers of Qianyou, there are still differences. Some have long since died out, and their names during and after their lifetime are only recorded in historical records, such as the two Wang clans (Wang Zhang, the Duke of Yu, and Wang Jun, the Duke of Shang);

Some are still powerful and prominent, and are still rooted in the center of power of the empire. Even though they have experienced ups and downs, they still exert important influence on the empire in all aspects, such as the Li family (Shou Guogong Li Shaoyou), the Murong family, the Guo family, the Gao family, Zhe family, Xiang family, Zhao family (Zhao Kuangyin);

Of course, there are still those who develop as usual and inherit according to the system, such as Feng. Compared with those military nobles, and even compared with several civil servant families such as Wei, Wang (Wang Pu), and Fan, they were much weaker.

Among the twenty-four meritorious families that are still in existence, the Feng family is basically only comparable to the Wu Xingde family of Geng Guogong, and the canonization of Wu Xingde back then can be regarded as the most random move of the ancestors.

The development of Feng in recent years is also the most obvious challenge to this lack of confidence. The Feng family's influence in the center of the imperial court has been minimal. In the eyes of ordinary people, it is still prominent, but in the eyes of the real people in power, it is actually not worth mentioning. In addition to Feng Jing, the Duke of Hejian, Feng Duan, the prefect of Jiangling, He is actually the highest-ranking member of the Feng family who is currently serving as an official.

The various greetings carefully prepared by Feng Duan and others did not please Liu Wenpeng as much as those of Chen Yaozuo and others in Hangzhou. Liu Wenpeng was tired of seeing all the entertainment and romance in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Therefore, Liu Wenpeng was more interested in his imperial brother Liu Wenji. After visiting him, he also sent people to investigate and inquire about King Jing's performance in Huguang.

The result made Liu Wenpeng very satisfied, because after Liu Wenji arrived in Jiangling, he had been recuperating at home, without inspecting the place, managing any government, or taking care of any affairs, and he looked completely out of his depth.

Liu Wenji also specifically apologized to Liu Wenpeng, hoping to punish him for his delay and neglect, otherwise he would feel uneasy. In this regard, Liu Wenpeng naturally pardoned magnanimously.

After meeting Liu Wenji, Liu Wenpeng was in a good mood and headed north, twisting and turning eastward on the way to Taikang Palace. Summer was approaching and he could escape the heat there.

It can be said that it was a waste of natural resources. The Taikang Palace located in Jigong Mountain spent a lot of money and resources. Not only the Shaofu, the Ministry of Industry, and the generals, but also the blood and sweat of the people of several surrounding states were almost sucked dry.

Since the completion of Taikang Palace, it was only used during Shizu's last southern tour. In the past twenty years, it has been abandoned like this. Of course, it is not completely abandoned. Every year, the Shaofu and local officials still invest a certain amount of resources in maintenance. After all, it is the emperor's largest summer palace. At the same time, these years of "waste" also gave the people around them a relatively long period of peace.

Emperor Taizong kept the whole Yongxi era simple and refused to go to Taikang Palace to enjoy it. This was also the first time for Liu Wenpeng. And with the arrival of Luan Jia, a lot of confusion and confusion are inevitable.

At the same time, more than 20 years later, an "enabling" ceremony was held again. Prior to this, an edict had been sent to Beijing, and two thousand people from the inner and outer courts and court officials were transferred from the palace and the court to take the lead in settling in. Taikang Palace, ready to serve the emperor.

Although comparing Liu Wenpeng with Emperor Shizu is really disrespectful to Emperor Shizu, one thing is that Liu Wenpeng spent all his energy on luxury, tricks, and novelties, which is not as good as Emperor Shizu who came to do it all at once.

At the same time, there is a huge gap in the management of reputation. In his later years, Shizu was unavoidably extravagant, but among the official and private sector, not many people dared to criticize and accuse him, and many people even whitewashed and beautified it.

Liu Wenpeng spent the whole summer in Taikang Palace. After autumn, he just set off to return to Beijing in mid-July of the seventh year of Pingkang. He had to return to Luoyang to catch up with the Mid-Autumn Festival.

During the few months of summer vacation in Taikang Palace, Liu Wenpeng was not very comfortable. In the summer of May, because he was having too much fun, a fire broke out and burned down the Yankang Palace in the palace. If the fire-fighting measures had not been taken, In time, the damage will be greater.

At the end of June, Liu Wenpeng's beloved Concubine Chen Shu passed away (she was from a mediocre background and had outstanding appearance and figure, but Liu Wenpeng took her back to the palace from the people).

However, the death of a beloved concubine did have an impact on Liu Wenpeng, but it was not big. What is truly connected with the fate of the empire and the direction of history is that Liu Wenpeng contracted a very bad disease: drug abuse.

Because after more than a year of hard work, there was still nothing to show for it, Liu Wenpeng himself became anxious. For this reason, he specially sought medical advice, and all the national medical experts could provide were some nourishing formulas.

So, Liu Wenpeng ordered someone to find the famous Taoist Priest Ziyang. As the true disciple of the legendary ancestor Chen Tuan, he should have two brushes. Liu Wenpeng asked him to make elixirs for him.

And Ziyang Zhenren lived up to his expectations. The result was that the prince and princess were not yet seen, but Liu Wenpeng opened the door to another world.

After a year-long tour, Liu Wenpeng was having fun and tired. After returning to Luoyang, he naturally needed to recuperate, and it was rare to rest for a while. Even when it comes to interfering with the government affairs, he actually doesn't have much confidence in his heart after being out for so long, fearing that the central dignitaries will take advantage of their power and overstep.

During Liu Wenpeng's tour for more than a year, the overall situation in the court was relatively stable, but the potential battles and pulls became more complicated and intense.

Wang Dan, who was forced to serve as minister by Liu Wenpeng, was obviously unable to convince the public, and his control was far inferior to that of Zhang Qixian. This is also normal. After all, Zhang Qixian has come all the way to Kaibao Dynasty. He has waded through water and fire, and has been the prime minister for many years. He has certain leadership abilities.

Of course, Wang Dan didn't compete with Zhang Qixian, and he didn't want to control the overall situation. The second point was simply impossible. Compared with those dignitaries and dignitaries, Wang Dan, a second-generation nobleman, was much weaker in terms of qualifications and achievements. He could cover up small things, stabilize the medium fire, but could not suppress the big fire at all.

The reason why the government was able to maintain a basic stability was mainly due to the mutual involvement of various forces. At the same time, Wang Dan was self-aware and just stayed in the middle, trying his best to coordinate and ensure the normal operation of the government.

But obviously, this situation is stumbling, and it is still difficult to say how long it can last. This is in conflict with the empire's consistent tradition of "strongman politics." The "co-governance era" that appeared in the fifth to sixth years of Pingkang was more like an attempt at a political model. If it was given a long enough time to experiment, it might be possible to explore more new things.

But this is obviously unrealistic. First of all, Emperor Liu Wenpeng will not always be so "settled", and among the powerful people in the central government, conflicts and contradictions continue to accumulate over time, and there will always be times when they break out.

In the spring of the seventh year of Pingkang, a conflict broke out. The conflict between the financial envoy Li Hang and the deputy privy envoy Guo Liangping was also a struggle between the common people's bureaucrats and the military aristocrats.

The story of the incident is very simple. Li Hang firmly opposed the navy's huge shipbuilding needs and frequent training plans. Guo Liangping plans to replace all the main battleships of the Han Dynasty's navy in the next ten years and update them all into gunboats.

The amount of money involved in such a huge plan was simply astronomical. As the prime minister of the Han Empire, Li Hang firmly refused and strongly opposed it.

For Guo Liangping, this plan was related to the century-old plan of the Han Navy. It was a way to continue to improve the status of the navy. How could he allow Li Hang, a rotten scholar, to destroy it.

What happened was that two powerful factions in the center started the most intense civil and military dispute in the empire in decades. Two old men in their seventies with white hair became red-faced and thick-nosed. When he was excited, Guo Liangping almost took action. Although he was dissuaded, he verbally insulted Li Hang a lot and severely damaged Li Hang's face.

But the result was that Li Hang lost face and gained honor. Guo Liangping had outstanding military talents and a tough style, but when it came to political disputes, he was far behind Li Hang. Coupled with the gap in authority, he quickly fell into a disadvantage.

Behind this, of course, there are obstacles set up by a group of army dignitaries. To be honest, they are the most sensitive to Guo Liangping's "Navy Twenty-Year Plan". If Guo Liangping really succeeds, won't the Navy be turned upside down?

With the help of another group of heroes, Li Hang naturally became the winner of this political battle. However, did Guo Liangping really lose? His plan to upgrade the navy is still unfolding and has actually been promoted, but the scale is smaller and the time is doubled. It is difficult to say whether this is the real goal in Guo Liangping's mind.

After learning about some unknown details of the "Li Guo Controversy", Liu Wenpeng was overjoyed and felt much more relaxed. If the ministers don't fight, how can he, the emperor, be safe?

Emperor Liu Wenpeng's silence did not last too long. At the end of the autumn of the seventh year of Pingkang, another conflict broke out in the court. The protagonist changed, between the emperor Liu Wenpeng and the financial envoy Li Hang.

The reason is that Liu Wenpeng wanted to build a summer palace in Xiyuan, Luoyang, but Taikang Palace was too far away and running around was too hard. Even after the construction plan came out, it was planned to recruit laborers, excavate manually, and open up a pond. At the same time, imitating the "Crystal Palace" built by Mengchang of the Later Shu Dynasty in Chengdu, a water palace was also built on the newly created artificial lake.

Leaving aside other things, just learning this from Meng Chang will show the nature of this matter. (Of course, the words "Your salary and your salary, the people are fat and the people are anointed, the people are easy to abuse, but the heaven is hard to bully" written by Meng Chang are still engraved on the walls and plaques of many official offices and counties in the Han Empire. )

What is different from before is that this time in the Cultivation Palace, Liu Wenpeng plans to use national finances. To put it simply, he plans to waste people and money. He stopped pretending at all. It was really the young master Liu Gui who complained to him and kept spending his "private money" for a long time. It really hurt him.

In this regard, Li Hang naturally remonstrated impartially and resolutely opposed it. There was an uproar in the court, and there were not a few official and direct ministers who stood by Li Hang.

A large number of people, including the prime ministers Kou Zhun and Xiang Minzhong, came to Liu Wenpeng to give advice one after another, hoping that he would give up his thoughts.

In this situation, things tend to turn out in the other direction. As a result, Liu Wenpeng was shocked and angry when he saw that Li Hang had set off such a big wave of opposition against him. "New and old grudges" surged up together. With his will, the imperialists attacked Li Hang one after another, and then the veterans of the three dynasties and Yong Yong Li Hang, Prime Minister of Xi, is no longer Prime Minister.

Li Hang's dismissal had a huge impact on the Han Empire. From this point of view, it can be said to be more serious than the expulsion of Liu Yan and Zhang Qixian from the court to a certain extent.

Because, as soon as this incident came out, it meant that the balance between the common people's bureaucratic power and the aristocratic bureaucratic group in the central court of the empire was completely broken. At least in the political hall, the power was imbalanced.

The person who succeeded the financial envoy was Xiang Deming, Minister of the Ministry of War. In this matter, Liu Wenpeng, who had just taken down Li Hang, did not dare to go against the wishes of the ministers. However, the remaining bureaucratic leaders of the common people at the center of the political affairs hall turned out to be Xiang Minzhong, Kou Zhun, Xu Shilian, and Wang Qinruo. They were neither boastful nor slanderous. Even if these four people were tied together, they would not be as good as Li Hang in the seventh year of Pingkang. Fame and influence among common people bureaucrats.

But for Emperor Liu Wenpeng, he really didn't care so much. At least he won the battle against Li Hang, but this victory was not worthy of joy at all. Even from the perspective of the empire, there was a trace of sorrow.

At the same time, Liu Wenpeng's "Water Palace Plan" was also successfully promoted. In the winter of the seventh year of Pingkang, tens of thousands of people entered Xiyuan and started excavation under strict management.

In the summer of the eighth year of Pingkang Dynasty (1014), the emperor Liu Wenpeng, who was extremely restless and restless, started to stir up trouble again. This time he chose to patrol the north. He wanted to go hunting in the pastures of Monan. Of course, the name cannot be so straightforward. What is advertised to the outside world is that he will patrol the north to inspect Hedong. At the same time, he will worship the heaven in Taiyuan, the land of Longxing, and go to the grassland on the way to mediate the contradiction between the Khitan and Naiman regimes in Mobei, and return to the north of the Great Wall. There was peace.

In the past few years, the situation in Mobei has never been peaceful. Under the rule of Taiyang Khan Liu Jin (the legendary son of Wei King Liu Min), the Naiman tribe has grown day by day, and after absorbing Han and Khitan culture, it formed established a basic political organization.

In the fourth year of Pingkang, Liu Jin officially proclaimed himself king and the country was named "Jin". After becoming king, Naiman began to deal with the Han Dynasty as a state, and immediately sent envoys south to surrender to the court, hoping to be rewarded by the court. Liu Wenpeng, who had just taken charge of the government at that time, was very happy to agree to his request when he was faced with such surrender. He gave Liu Jin a gold book and made Liu Jin the Golden King.

At that time, there was opposition in the DPRK and China, but not many people took this Zahu regime, which had only half a million citizens, seriously.

After becoming king, Liu Jin began to lead his "Jin Kingdom" to continue to expand eastward, attacking Khitan settlements, robbing water and grass, and plundering tribesmen.

With the rise of the "Jin Kingdom", the Khitan's reputation as the overlord of Mobei also began to waver. Faced with its provocation, it naturally formed an army to fight against it. The Jin Kingdom lies in the barbaric momentum of the new forces, while the Khitan lies in the advanced nature of civilization. In terms of paper strength alone, the Khitan still has an absolute advantage.

However, even in Yelvxian's time the Khitan could not completely eradicate the problem of the barbarians (of course there were big men acting as troublemakers at the time), let alone now.

The two sides fought almost every day, and the chaos in Mobei had already affected the tranquility of Shanyang in the Han Dynasty.

The former prime minister Wang Xuanzhen was pushed out to governor Monan in the name of appeasing Northern Xinjiang. Judging from subsequent developments, I don't know whether it should be said to be foresight or pure coincidence.

In recent years, Mobei has been like a big voodoo, with two voodoos named "Jin" and "Khitan", and perhaps the Mongol and Ushiwei people who are constantly moving south.

They are fighting, evolving, and eliminating, just like the story that has been repeated on the grassland for the past thousand years.

In the seventh year of Pingkang, the Khitan and the Jin State fought another war. The two sides mobilized a total of more than 100,000 string control men. Such a war was enough to attract the attention of the Han Dynasty, and the empire was indeed shaken.

The Han Empire had been at peace for decades, and in the bitter cold of Saibei, the Hu people began to gather, develop, and grow stronger again.

Emperor Liu Wenpeng went northward with great momentum. The Forbidden Army, the northern frontier army, and the regiment gathered a hundred thousand people to protect him. There was no choice but to be careless. The Privy Council pinched its nose and had to deploy troops and generals to ensure the safety of the emperor. Guo Yi was deployed as the camp commander and commanded the army.

It can only be said that Liu Wenpeng really went hunting. If he even thought about the Northern Expedition, no one could say what would happen. The history of the Han Empire might open a new chapter. In the process of guarding Liu Wenpeng, Guo Yi, a battle-hardened veteran, was always worried and had a few strands of white hair on his head.

Judging from the results, Liu Wenpeng's northern inspection tour was still somewhat effective, at least it played the role of "stopping the war."

Liu Wenpeng and Baishuiluo of Monan set up camp and sent envoys to invite the two kings to come and pay homage. A hundred thousand Han troops marched northward, and there might be more behind them. Both the Khitan and the Jin Kingdom were inevitably "frightened". As nominal vassals, After the two kings struggled, they all came south one after another and sat on the negotiation table set by the Han Emperor.

Under Liu Wenpeng's supervision, the two sides finally reached a settlement and agreed to a truce, stop the conflict, and stop attacking each other. At the same time, they all asked the imperial court for help because of the huge losses in the war. Liu Wenpeng generously rewarded them with money, grain, salt, and tea, and granted the two countries' request to increase border market trade.

Liu Wenpeng thought that the two countries were under the power of God and had to stop fighting and reconcile. However, the fact is that the two countries have suffered heavy losses in the constant battles. According to law, they will also fall into a period of dormancy and recovery.

After completing this "White Water Conference", Liu Wenpeng was proud to "return to the imperial court with his teacher." After having close contact with Liu Wenpeng, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, King Liu Jin of Jin expressed this emotion on his way back to the north: "I once paid homage to Emperor Taizong in person. His power is like that of a heavenly being, which makes people fear him and dare not change his mind, but he is wise. Like Emperor Taizong, he trusted others. If the Emperor of the Han Dynasty is like this, I can also be the emperor."

Being despised without knowing it, frankly speaking, Liu Wenpeng has lost his face in the foreign land of northern Saibei.

And the Northern Tour in the eighth year of Pingkang was also Liu Wenpeng's last tossing, because he couldn't do it anymore. On the way back south, he was weak and short of breath and contracted wind and cold.

After a long and arduous journey, I finally returned to Luoyang in the early winter of that year. I finally insisted on returning to the palace and did not die in a foreign country.

However, the reason why accidents are called accidents is because they often come suddenly. On November 19, the winter of the eighth year of Pingkang, Liu Wenpeng's health improved. After inspecting the construction site of the "Xiyuan Crystal Palace Project", Liu Wenpeng went to work that night. The Guanfeng Hall of Yang Palace suddenly died, completely ending his emperor career. He reigned for eight years at the age of twenty-eight.