Chapter 20 Human Tragedy
The King of Chu and the King of Jing did return.
But the problem is that only the King of Chu and the King of Jing returned.
The King of Chu was called Liu Jiao, Liu Jiao was Liu Bang's youngest brother, and the uncle of Liu Chang and his brothers. But this uncle was really remarkable, and he was nothing like Liu Bang.
Liu Chang and his men all liked this gentle uncle very much. Liu Jiao was elegant in appearance and character, handsome and heroic, and with a long sword, he gave people the first impression of being an unparalleled Confucian general. Liu Bang's sons seemed to like this uncle more than their father.
Liu Jiao liked Confucian scholars, or in other words, he respected learned people very much. He kept a large group of retainers. At that time, many people with ulterior motives compared him with Prince Wei Wuji of the pre-Qin period, and believed that he was Wei Wuji of the Han Dynasty.
Well, Liu Jiao might really be Wei Wuji, but Liu Bang was not the King of Wei. Facing this brother who was both civil and military, respected and loved, and had a lot of retainers, Liu Bang had no fear at all. The memorials they wrote on weekdays did not seem like memorials, but rather like family letters.
Liu Jiao reported to the emperor that Chu had a good harvest this year. Liu Bang wrote back and told him: I see. I ate too much last night and my stomach hurts a little.
Liu Jiao again wrote to the emperor, "Your Majesty, please take care of your health and eat less." Liu Bang wrote back again, "The food made by the imperial chef is so delicious. I'll let you try it next time you come."
The relationship between the two brothers was really good. Liu Bang seemed ruthless, but he was very sentimental. He was a very complicated and tangled person. He could smile and ask his enemy to give him a bowl of his father's meat, and he could treat his father's concubine as his biological mother. He also created an emperor and an empress dowager, and doted on his half-brother.
The day after Liu Jiao came back to worship, he was surrounded by his sons.
The guys all liked this uncle who was full of charm in his every move. Liu Ying liked to talk about learning with him, Liu Ruyi liked to talk about the situation in the world with him, Liu Heng would also ask him about strategies for governing the country, and Liu Chang liked his uncle to tell him stories.
When Liu Chang was young, Liu Jiao always liked to tell him stories. He would compile some interesting things in history into stories suitable for children and then tell them to Liu Chang. Liu Chang learned about many great figures, such as the Four Princes of the Warring States Period and many wise rulers in the pre-Qin period, from his uncle.
As for the King of Jing, Liu Jia was Liu Bang's distant cousin and could be considered the uncle of Liu Chang and his family. However, Liu Jia was not that close to them. After all, he was different from Liu Jiao and could not visit Liu Bang's family at any time. Moreover, he had a bad temper and did not like children very much.
He obtained the title of king because of his military merits and his surname Liu. He always has a stern face and is easily irritable and explosive.
There were indeed quite a few Liu family members who came to worship, which could be regarded as a big gathering of the Liu clan. In addition to the two kings, there was also the former King of Dai, Liu Xi, who is now the Marquis of Heyang. In the seventh year of Emperor Han, that is, three years ago, the Huns attacked the Dai Kingdom, and Liu Xi, the King of Dai, fled.
Liu Bang was furious and demoted him to a marquis.
In addition to him, there is also Zhang Ao, the former King of Zhao, who is now the Marquis of Xuanping.
He was also considered a member of the royal family, mainly because he married Princess Lu Yuan. Princess Lu Yuan was the eldest sister of Liu Chang, second only to Liu Fei in age, and the sister of Liu Ying and others. Zhang Ao was the "son-in-law" of Liu Bang's family. He inherited his father Zhang Er's title of King of Zhao and became a vassal king of the Han Dynasty.
But soon, "Rebellion, rebellion, the Liu family's son-in-law rebelled!"
The story goes like this: Liu Bang once went on an inspection tour to the north and passed through Zhao State. When Zhang Ao saw his father-in-law coming, he would definitely take off his coat and personally serve him food and drink from morning to night with a humble attitude. However, as for Liu Bang, we all know what kind of person he is. He sat on the ground like a winnowing basket, stretched out his legs and scolded Zhang Ao.
In fact, Liu Bang did not look down on Zhang Ao. This was his usual practice towards those close to him, not to mention that Zhang Ao was his son-in-law. However, Guan Gao, Zhao Wu and other ministers under Zhang Ao did not think so. They were very angry and thought that Liu Bang did not respect Zhang Ao. They decided to get rid of Liu Bang and recommend Zhang Ao as emperor.
So, one year later, when Liu Bang came back from Dongyuan and passed by Zhao State, Zhang Ao hurriedly presented the beauty to his father-in-law, and the beauty became pregnant. Because the beauty was already pregnant, Zhang Ao did not dare to keep her in the palace, so he built a palace outside for the beauty to live in.
Zhang Ao's guests decided to kill Liu Bang on the way, but Liu Bang was very careful and did not stay anywhere. Soon, someone told Liu Bang about this. Liu Bang was furious and directly arrested Zhang Ao and all his ministers and put them in jail.
Empress Lü hastily pleaded for mercy, saying that with Princess Lu Yuan around, it would be impossible for Zhang Ao to rebel.
Liu Bang scolded her: "If Zhang Ao takes over the world, will he still consider your daughter?"
Liu Bang began to interrogate Zhang Ao's followers, but no matter how he tortured them, they gave up and said that Zhang Ao knew nothing about the rebellion and that they were the ones who planned it. More than a dozen of them were ready to commit suicide. In the end, even Liu Bang felt that these people were very loyal, and pardoned Zhang Ao and was ready to pardon the leaders of the rebellion.
However, after these people learned that Zhang Ao had been released, they committed suicide in prison.
Liu Bang exclaimed: It is really enviable to have such guests.
Although Zhang Ao was released, he could not keep his throne as King of Zhao and was demoted to Marquis Xuanping.
Many people think that Liu Bang killed his meritorious officials... However, he did not kill Han Xin when he wanted to rebel, and he did not kill Zhang Ao's followers when they rebelled. He did not kill Liu Xi when he abandoned his country and ran away. The only person who was killed was King Zang Tu of Yan. After all, this guy personally led his troops to attack Liu Bang, and was defeated and killed by Liu Bang.
Many people also said that Zang Tu rebelled because Liu Bang had harmed Xiang Yu's former subordinates. Not to mention that they could not say which people Liu Bang had harmed that caused Zang Tu to be so scared and even to rebel. Even if this was true, there was nothing wrong with him purging the subordinates of his former enemies after he ascended the throne. After all, these enemies' former subordinates were kings, princes with soldiers, food, and people.
There is something else worth mentioning.
Do you remember the beauty that Zhang Ao presented to Liu Bang and then got pregnant? This beauty was called Zhao Ji , which was a very strange name. After she became pregnant, she gave birth to a son named Liu Chang.
After the news of Zhang Ao's rebellion was exposed, Zhao Ji was also thrown into prison.
While in prison, Zhao Ji said to the jailer: I have been favored by your majesty and I am pregnant.
The jailer was shocked and hurried to report the incident to his superiors, but Liu Bang was dealing with Zhang Ao at the moment and ignored it. Zhao Ji's younger brother Zhao Jian asked Shen Yiji, Marquis of Piyang, to tell Empress Lü about the incident, hoping that Empress Lü could save their lives.
When Empress Lü heard this, she was very angry. "When you go out on patrol, you will find me a mistress and a bastard?"
So, Empress Lü scolded Shen Yiji and told him not to meddle in such trivial matters anymore.
Zhao Ji gave birth to Liu Chang in prison. Because of resentment in her heart, she committed suicide after giving birth to the child.
When the jailer brought the child to Liu Bang, Liu Bang regretted it so much that he ordered Empress Lu to adopt him.
Logically, Empress Lü should have hated this child, but after raising him for a long time, she gradually forgot his life experience and treated him as her own child. In history, Empress Lü wanted to poison Liu Fei, and she poisoned the generous Liu Ruyi, killed the generous Liu Hui, killed the quiet and inconspicuous Liu You, and even killed the son of Liu Jian, who died early.
Liu Ying died of grief because of his mother's series of actions. The only ones who did not suffer any attack from Empress Lu were her favorite Liu Chang and Liu Heng, whom she did not hate.
However, in history, Liu Chang was still lawless after growing up, and eventually attempted to rebel and was captured by Liu Heng. Liu Heng did not kill this naughty brother, but wanted to send him to Shu. Some ministers persuaded him, saying that this brother was spoiled by you, and what if he couldn't stand the way you treated him?
Liu Heng confidently told the ministers that it was okay, let him experience some setbacks, and then let him come back and become a marquis or something, because he had to change his character.
As a result, the extremely stubborn Liu Chang was extremely angry in the prison car. Because of his natural brute force, no one dared to approach his prison car. He shouted: "How can I endure such depression in this world?"
So Liu Chang committed suicide by fasting. That guy who loved eating meat starved to death.
When Liu Heng heard this, he burst into tears and executed the officials who had escorted his brother. He thought that these officials were irresponsible. How could they watch the prisoners starve to death?
Later, he made his three sons kings.
The early Han Dynasty was a tragedy. The one who loved his brothers the most watched them being poisoned by their mother, and died of depression at an early age. The one who watched his brothers grow up also didn't survive for long because he was shrouded in the fear of being poisoned. The one with great ambitions was forced to drink poisoned wine shortly after his father left.
The kindhearted one also had the same fate, and the one who saw the only brother who cared about him being killed also died in pain. The most wicked and greedy one starved to death, and the youngest one didn't even have time to see these scenes.
In the end, only a lonely soul was left, sitting alone in the Weiyang Palace. I don’t know if he would occasionally think of those figures playing in the Tianlu Pavilion. If he did, would he cry for them?
