120. Chapter 120 The Disaster of Party Confinement

Author: Magic Prince

Chapter 120 The Disaster of Party Confinement

Luo Wei told Xiang Yu that the Eastern Han Dynasty had long been greatly influenced by the two powerful forces of relatives and eunuchs. As these two forces did all kinds of terrible things to compete for power and profit, the influence of the Eastern Han Dynasty imperial power continued.

are continuing to decline.

In contrast, the dependence of the relatives on the imperial power is relatively weak. The fundamental reason for their rise to power lies in their status as relatives of the emperor. Then they gradually occupied important positions in the Eastern Han Dynasty court by virtue of their family power. The strength of the relatives' power itself will also change accordingly.

Changes occurred with the replacement of the emperor's throne, but relatively speaking, the position of the relatives is relatively stable, because the identity of the emperor's relatives guarantees that even if he loses power, he will not encounter a disaster that can destroy the entire family. At most, it will only be a few.

The relatives lost their original power.

Xiang Yu was very surprised that the influence of relatives in the Eastern Han Dynasty was so strong, so Luo Wei continued to tell Xiang Yu in detail some specific examples of some emperors in the Eastern Han Dynasty, so that Xiang Yu could better understand the whole story.

Luo Wei told Xiang Yu that shortly after Emperor He ascended the throne in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the dictatorship of Queen Mother Dou emerged. Later, during the period of Emperor Heng, eunuchs launched a coup to wipe out the influence of the Liang family's relatives. During this period, there were successively the Dou family, the Deng family, the Yan family, and the Liang family.

They all relied on their surname to rise to power. Especially during the reign of the Liang family's relatives, Liang Ji, as the most domineering person at the time, even controlled the life and death of the emperor. During the Eastern Han Dynasty,

The phenomenon of foreign relatives being dominant in state affairs also reached its peak during the Liang-Ji period.

Xiang Yu seemed to be listening very seriously. Seeing that Xiang Yu looked eager to learn, Luo Wei continued to tell him about the eunuchs.

Luo Wei told Xiang Yu that the eunuchs were another large group in the political struggle of the Eastern Han Dynasty. They were initially controlled by their relatives and the imperial power. However, with the expansion of the relatives' power and the decline of the imperial power, the eunuchs became the main support for the emperor at that time who wanted to reshape the imperial power.

He gradually emerged in the complex and chaotic political arena of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Different from their relatives, the power of eunuchs basically comes entirely from the emperor himself. If the emperor likes and trusts them, they will be able to gain power accordingly. If they lose the trust and love of the emperor, they will completely lose everything. Therefore, eunuchs have

The dependence of the emperor is very high. In a sense, the eunuchs do care more about the emperor than their relatives and protect the emperor's interests more. Therefore, in many cases, the emperor will be more inclined to the eunuchs in the relationship between the eunuchs and their relatives.

During the period of Emperor He, as the eunuchs headed by Zheng Zhong launched a coup to annihilate the relatives of the Dou family with the support of the emperor, they became more and more important to the emperor and were able to quickly grow into an army that could compete with the forces of the relatives for power and peace.

countervailing force.

Later, the two powerful forces of foreign relatives and eunuchs stood side by side on the court in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and their influence became more and more powerful. On the contrary, the imperial power gradually declined to the point where it could only seek to survive in the cracks between the two, and even some emperors themselves

Their wealth and life are also in their hands.

Eunuchs and relatives, two major political cancers in the Eastern Han Dynasty who relied on imperial power to make fortunes, seriously hindered the advancement of the majority of students and officials in the Eastern Han Dynasty. They supported party members, accepted bribes, and made the officialdom of the Eastern Han Dynasty a mess. As a result, some political movements also emerged in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

A political struggle against the exclusive power of relatives and eunuchs.

Xiang Yu gradually understood after hearing this. He had learned some knowledge about the political structure of the Han Dynasty and the way of governing the world from some places, but it was only superficial information from other people. He also wanted to know

What kind of skills did the unlearned and unskilled descendants of Liu Bang rely on to maintain this dynasty for nearly four hundred years?

Luo Wei went on to say that relatives and eunuchs took turns taking charge of the government in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, and even cooperated to take charge of the government during the period of Emperor An. This approach of the two major forces did not take the emperor and the officials in the Eastern Han Dynasty seriously.

, they just want to satisfy their infinite greedy political desires, and use their political privileges to seek the greatest economic benefits for themselves and their own forces. Through their lofty status, their relatives directly inserted all members of their own family into the Eastern Han Dynasty bureaucracy

Within the group, some have even directly entered decision-making bodies and military departments.

The eunuchs were also able to rely on their unique advantage of frequent contact with the emperor to constantly issue edicts to the officials of the Eastern Han Dynasty by controlling the emperor, and handle the government affairs according to their own wishes. Just imagine that the national affairs of the entire Eastern Han Dynasty were controlled by these eunuchs with no political experience.

How can the future direction of the Eastern Han Dynasty be so uncertain? Since Emperor He, the political situation of the Eastern Han Dynasty has never been stable and developed.

The political situation in the Eastern Han Dynasty became increasingly dark, so that many officials had long lost their ambition to serve the country, the family, and the people as officials. The Confucian ideas of governing the country were instantly covered by this chaotic party struggle. The entire imperial court was not a foreign relative.

The party members who have been supported through their years of management are those corrupt officials who paid huge bribes to the eunuchs. In order to ensure their stable control over the affairs of the Eastern Han Dynasty, these relatives and eunuchs naturally had to do their best to support their own needs.

of power.

Those honest and upright officials have not been reused for a long time because they are very dissatisfied with the way in which eunuchs and foreign relatives monopolize officials' advancement and the increasingly serious party disputes. Those Imperial College students who are deeply educated in Confucian governance also believe that these foreign relatives and eunuchs' influence

The political situation of the Eastern Han Dynasty was so chaotic that the two sides began to unite to oppose the dictatorship of their relatives and eunuchs.

Xiang Yuxin said that the corruption of the Eastern Han Dynasty seemed more terrifying than the tyranny of the Qin Dynasty. When the government of a country was completely controlled by these foreign relatives and eunuchs who only saw their own power and interests, how could they care about the lives of the people?

, Xiang Yu had personally seen the miserable lives of people everywhere before the Yellow Turban Uprising.

Xiang Yu asked Luo Wei if faced with this situation, no one among the emperor and ministers could think of ways to make some changes?

Luo Wei continued to tell Xiang Yu that facing relatives and eunuchs was a sign of their increasingly arrogant and domineering power. Many officials in the Eastern Han Dynasty had already succumbed to their powerful political power and could only remain silent about the chaotic political situation at that time.

Therefore, there were only a few enlightened officials in the beginning of the struggle against the autocratic power of relatives and eunuchs. These officials were generally people with certain qualifications and official positions in the central ruling group, such as Situ Yuan'an, Sikong Renkai and others during the period of Emperor He.

They were all senior officials with certain prestige in the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time.

Yuan An and Ren Wei lived in an era when the Dou family's relatives were under the dictatorship and brought chaos to the imperial court. Before that, the Eastern Han Dynasty had not seen a dictatorship by foreign relatives, so they were very disgusted with this phenomenon. At that time, the Dou family was at its peak.

Arrogant and domineering, Yuan An and Ren Wei secretly discussed and decided to suppress the arrogance of the Dou family, and directly dismissed nearly 40 Dou family officials in local prefectures and counties at that time.

When Deng's relatives came to power, in order to stabilize her monopoly on government affairs and the interests of the Deng family, Empress Dowager Deng advocated that the eldest son of Emperor He, who was already able to govern personally at the time, was firmly opposed by the then Sikong Zhouzhang. Zhou Zhang was in

In the evening, he discussed with some enlightened officials to launch a coup. Unexpectedly, the matter was exposed, and Zhou Zhang was forced to commit suicide. Faced with the opposition of these high-ranking officials in the court, his relatives and eunuchs could be said to be merciless. In order to protect their political privileges and ruling interests, they would do anything to protect their political privileges and ruling interests.

Don't go to extremes.

When the Yan family's relatives were in power, they were in charge of the government together with the eunuchs at that time. The then Taiwei Yang Zhen wrote to the emperor An that the Yan family and the eunuchs were causing trouble to the government, and detailed the heinous crimes they had committed. Who knows this?

The memorial was not transmitted to Emperor An at all, but was directly intercepted by the eunuchs and handed over to the Queen Mother Yan, and Yang Zhen was killed. In 142 AD, Zhang Gang, who was then the supervisory censor, came to the local government to supervise government affairs, and directly reported to his relatives and eunuchs to arrange local affairs.

Party members Du Qiao and others challenged them and severely punished them. The news spread to the central government and the whole court was shocked.

Xiang Yu couldn't help but lament that there were too few upright ministers who dared to stand up to the eunuchs or relatives. Most of the officials chose to bow their heads and remain silent when facing the evil forces, allowing their evil deeds to continue to plunder.

Luo Wei couldn't help but shake his head after hearing this. He told Xiang Yu that this kind of mutual confrontation had lasted for a long time. It was not until the last few emperors that the Eastern Han Dynasty students and officials began to oppose the political struggles of their relatives and eunuchs.

The climax is the disaster of party control.

Xiang Yu was very interested when he heard about the disaster caused by party imprisonment, so he asked Luo Wei to continue talking.

Luo Wei then continued to tell Xiang Yu that when Emperor Huan was in power, it was the time when the Liang family's relatives were in charge of the government. At that time, the Liang family, headed by Liang Ji, monopolized all decision-making and official appointment powers in the entire Eastern Han Dynasty.

Although the Liang family was eliminated by the coup launched by the eunuchs, Emperor Huan entered the period of autocratic power of the five eunuchs in the later period.

At this time, there were also a large number of imperial students and many officials in the Eastern Han Dynasty who were extremely dissatisfied with the political situation and longed to restore the Qingming Dynasty. Through their discussions and petitions, they continued to challenge the eunuchs' monopoly power, and thus a highly influential group of scholars emerged.

.

This group continued to grow. Eventually, a group of scholars headed by Li Ying and Chen Fan formed. They continued to criticize the dictatorship of eunuchs and relatives, especially Li Ying. He was born in a famous family, but he maintained a clear heart in serving as an official.

, was respected by the students and knowledgeable officials at that time.

In 166 AD, the eunuchs were afraid of Li Ying's strength, and encouraged Emperor Huan to arrest them, release them into the fields, and never use them again. In 167 AD, during the reign of Emperor Ling, the Dou family's relatives resumed control of the government and employed Li Ying and others.

The Party members resisted the power of the eunuchs, but the matter was exposed and Dou Wu was killed. In 169 AD, the eunuchs launched the second disaster of Party imprisonment, which involved thousands of Party members.

Xiang Yu felt that Luo Wei was very knowledgeable and understood various situations in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and his explanations were very clear, so he rewarded him with a lot of property, asked him to follow him, and helped him record what he saw.

Smell all kinds of things.

Xiang Yu then asked Luo Wei to make a brief summary of the various sins of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It would be best to list them one by one, so that Xiang Yu could use them when giving a speech to the entire army.
Chapter completed!