Chapter 2: The Northern Old Man Knows His Ambush 1. Spring Sunshine
On April 25th of the 13th year of Jianwu, Dou Rong, the governor of Jizhou, was appointed as the Grand Marshal.
Since the meritorious officials were stripped of their military power while being granted high titles, Dou Rong, as a representative of the Hexi gentry, came to power. This made him more cautious and humble, for fear that he would incur the emperor's displeasure.
The court officials who dared to challenge the emperor in the past became fearful, and the power of the monarch was gradually concentrated.
Dou Rong was promoted at this time. From another perspective, his promotion was like being put on fire by the emperor, and only he could understand the feeling. However, from the fact that Dou Rong submitted his resignation letter several times, it can be seen that he was really walking on thin ice as the Grand Chancellor.
Although the court had three dukes, the emperor liked to personally handle everything. Under the old system, the appointment and removal of officials with a rank of 2,000 stones required the three dukes to appoint clerks to check, but under Liu Xiu's rule, the emperor directly listened to the reports of the officials who had recommended him.
Liu Xiu's personal involvement led to the rise of a large number of Shangshu who were close to the emperor. In the previous dynasty, Emperor Wu of Han, in order to highlight the imperial power and weaken the power of the prime minister, the reading and review of memorials were transferred to the Shangshu. Now, some of Liu Xiu's actions were obviously intended to use the Shangshutai to gradually deprive the three officials of their original huge functions and powers.
If this trend continues, in five years or two years at most, the three dukes and nine ministers will be sidelined by the emperor. However, the three dukes and nine ministers are not useless. It is still unknown who will win this political struggle without gunpowder.
In October, I gave birth to a son, Liu Heng. Four months later, Empress Guo Shengtong also gave birth to the tenth prince, Liu Yan.
In the 14th year of Jianwu, Liang Tong, then Taizhong Daifu, submitted a memorial suggesting that the punishment should be increased, which sparked a debate in the court.
At the beginning of the New Year's Day in the fifteenth year of Jianwu, I gave birth to another son at the "advanced age" of thirty-five years old, and named him Liu Jing. By then, I was the mother of five sons and three daughters.
As usual, he still had to be locked in the room for a month and unable to move. Little Liu Jing was very well-behaved. In fact, I have given birth to so many children, and no matter what their temperaments were, they all seemed particularly well-behaved when they were in swaddling clothes. The wet nurses who raised them also praised us for the good prenatal education, so the children did not cry or make a fuss and were very easy to raise.
However, there are exceptions.
Liu Jing's little brother Liu Heng, although born at full term, was a little thin when he was born. He got sick when he was three months old and had vomiting and diarrhea, so he developed more slowly than other babies. In contrast, his temperament became particularly delicate. He liked to stick to me when he was less than a year old. He didn't want a wet nurse or palace maids. He would cry loudly when anyone held him. His problem of recognizing people did not improve until his younger brother Liu Jing was born, so even when I was in confinement, the wet nurse would often bring Liu Heng to my dormitory to see me.
I loved Liu Heng more than a newborn baby. This was not because I deliberately divided my children into different levels or showed partiality. Rather, as Liu Heng grew up, his little face gradually developed, and his mouth, eyes, ears, nose, and facial contours all looked like a replica of Liu Xiu. Among my children, the one who looked like their father was Liu Jing, a boy, and Yi Wang, a girl. But since I had Liu Heng as a comparison, I found that no one looked more like their father than him.
Just for this reason, I loved Liu Heng very much, often holding him in my arms and kissing his little face. Although this child was not well-fed since childhood and looked a little weak, he was very sweet. Since he was a toddler, he often called "Daddy" and "Mom".
Liu Jing was still too young, with his facial features tightly packed together, and not fully grown yet, and a round face, pink and chubby. Chen Min said the little prince looked like me, but I looked left and right and couldn't tell the difference.
Liu Heng was very jealous, and he did not have the slightest sense of being an elder brother just because Liu Jing was his younger brother. Although he was young, he was not a heartless baby behind the scenes. Once I heard Liu Jing crying while sleeping on the bed, and when I turned around to hug him, I found that Liu Heng was pressing on Liu Jing, and his right hand was secretly pinching his younger brother's hand.
"Heng'er, you naughty !" I lifted him onto my lap and swung my hand to spank his little butt. His mouth flattened, and before the slap landed, his eyes were already filled with tears, looking pitiful.
"You are so disobedient. How can you bully your little brother?" I was both angry and amused. I wanted to hit him but couldn't bear to do so. Seeing him crying was just like watching Liu Xiu crying. If I wasn't careful, I would laugh so hard that I would get internal injuries.
"Mom...brother, like...don't you like..." His speech was not very clear, and his face turned red while he was gesticulating, with a very sad and angry expression.
I deliberately put on a stern face and taught him a lesson: "Your younger brother is young, so it's only natural for you to take care of him more. Look, don't your brothers love you very much?"
I couldn't help laughing when I saw him sobbing and rubbing his eyes with his little hands, but he didn't really rub tears out. Even though this little guy is the older brother, he is only a little over a year old. Talking to him about the great principles of brotherly love is probably like talking to a cow.
I changed my mind and threatened him: "Remember not to bully your little brother in the future, or your eighth brother will do the same to you, understand?"
He looked at me with his big black and white eyes, as if he understood something, and three seconds later, his mouth pursed and he burst into tears. This time, the tears really fell.
I laughed loudly, wiped his tears, and pinched his little face. I was coaxing him softly when suddenly a voice floated over from the door: "Mom, you called me?"
Liu Jing came in like a whirlwind, looking fierce and powerful, dragging a long wooden stick in his hand. Behind him followed a group of servants, each holding various gadgets of varying lengths and sizes.
Liu Heng had gradually stopped crying, but when he saw Liu Jing, he was so frightened that his face changed and he started howling again, opening his arms and arching his head to burrow into my arms.
"What are you doing? Look how scared you are your brother." I pretended to scold Liu Jing while hugging Liu Heng and patting him gently.
Liu Jing raised the long stick in his hand: "I went to play with my sixth brother, but he said he wanted to study with my fourth brother and ignored me." He pouted and complained, "When can you play with me, mother? Why do you always have so much trouble every time you give birth to a little brother? Next time, give birth to a sister, then you don't have to hide!"
I couldn't help laughing: "Brothers, you want to study, won't you go and play with Liu Yan?"
"Seventh brother? Forget it." He waved his hands with an air of superiority, "My mother wouldn't let him play with me, saying that I was too naughty and had led Seventh brother astray... Mother!" He came closer, his expression confused and with a look of hurt depression, "Am I really a bad boy?"
"Of course not." I freed one hand and stroked his hair to comfort him. "How could my Jing'er be a bad boy?"
The child was kind-hearted and easy to coax. When he heard me praise him, he seemed to float up in the air. He patted his chest and said happily, "Yes, my father praised me, saying that I would take care of my brother for mother and that I am a good brother. Mother, isn't what my father said more effective than what my mother said?"
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The nurse who was holding Liu Jing beside me interrupted and said, "Of course, the emperor is the son of heaven."
Liu Jing immediately cheered and said, "Then I will only listen to my father and not my mother." Just as he was happy, he suddenly found that the stick in his hand was quietly grasped by a small hand. He couldn't help but frown, "What are you going to do, you crybaby?"
Liu Heng coveted the stick in his hand, his mouth pursed, tears in his eyes, his little hands clenched tightly but did not let go.
"Jing'er, aren't you a good brother?"
Liu Jing scratched his head.
"Brother, play..." Liu Heng called out timidly, with tears still in her eyes, but her little mouth slowly opened to both sides and she showed a brilliant smile to Liu Jing.
How lethal was Liu Heng's smile? Looking back at Liu Xiu, we can know the answer. As expected, Liu Jing was stunned for a moment, loosened his hand, and muttered in a low voice: "I'll let you play with it for a while." After that, he didn't forget to add, "Don't break it."
The two brothers Liu Jing and Liu Heng were playing together. I asked the wet nurse to keep a close eye on them and told them to be careful not to let the sticks hit the two princes. Then I reached out and held Liu Jing in my arms. The child's jaundice had just subsided not long ago, and his face was neither red nor white, but looked pale.
Liu Jing played for a while, then suddenly rushed over and asked, "Mom, why is my little brother so ugly?"
I was stunned and said angrily, "Nonsense, how is my little brother ugly?"
Liu Jing climbed onto the bed, stared at Liu Jing for a while, and said with certainty: "Ugly, wrinkled ..."
"My brother isn't even a month old yet. All babies look like this. You were like this when you were a child, too."
He tilted his head and thought for a while, then pointed his hand backwards and denied it crisply: "No, my ninth brother is very beautiful."
I looked in the direction of his finger, and saw Liu Heng, with his fat little legs apart, swaying around the room like Charlie Chaplin. When he heard us mention him, he turned his head, but his round body lost balance and he fell to the ground, still holding the wooden stick in his little hand.
I originally thought that he would cry after falling down, but unexpectedly, his eyes narrowed into a slit, and then he grinned, revealing seven or eight sparse baby teeth. His smile was both silly and innocent, just like a doll.
The wet nurse picked him up with concern, but he still insisted on getting down and continuing to walk. His look made me feel pity and love for him. I really wanted to hold him in my arms and give him a big kiss on his chubby face.
After finally coaxing Liu Jing to sleep, I asked the wet nurse to take Liu Jing and Liu Heng out. I was feeling tired after all the fuss and wanted to lie down in bed for a while, but Chen Min came in hurriedly from outside.
I saw that her face looked strange, so I quickly turned over and sat up in bed.
"What's up?"
She nodded slightly, took a breath, and said in a voice as cold as the unmelted frost on the eaves outside the palace: "Han Xin is dead!"
I was startled at first, but quickly calmed down: "What's going on?"
Just a few days ago, I heard that Han Xin was dismissed from his post as Grand Tutor and sent back to his hometown because he spoke against the emperor. How come he suddenly died again?
Chen Min lowered his voice and said, "After Han Xin returned home, His Majesty sent an envoy to issue an imperial edict to severely reprimand him. Afterwards, Han Xin committed suicide at home with his son."
"Suicide?" This was really a big deal. In recent years, Liu Xiu had been trying to prevent officials from staying in the three highest positions for too long, so the frequent replacement of the three highest positions was not new. However, it was still quite shocking that someone died this time.
I squinted my eyes and took a deep breath. This fact was really strange. Liu Xiu dismissed Han Xin from his post, but he was still relentless and issued additional edicts, cursing him at the door until he "cursed" him to death. This was really hard to believe.
"Have you investigated it thoroughly? Is there any hidden story behind this?"
"For the time being, we can't find any clues. Your Majesty's subordinates are very strict, and I'm afraid it will be difficult to find out the details."
I nodded. The person was dead, so it didn't really matter whether to investigate or not. What I was worried about was that Liu Xiu's hasty actions might damage his reputation.
Killing a chicken to scare the monkey is certainly a good idea, but... I always feel a little uneasy, but I can't tell what I feel at the moment. I can't help but sigh: "If we can investigate this matter, we should investigate it. If we can't investigate it, don't force it. We don't need to force it against His Majesty's people."
"promise."
The matter of Han Xin's suicide was left unsolved. Even though the officials in the court were dissatisfied, no one dared to stand up to defend Han Xin. After Han Xin's death, Ouyang Xu, the governor of Runan County, succeeded him as the Grand Tutor.
