Liu Yu's words were like the sound of thunder, which shocked many officials who did not know the truth into speechlessness.
No one thought that Liu Yu, who originally wanted to pass the throne to Emperor Zhang's descendants, would actually say at this time that he wanted to give the position of emperor to Qi King Liu Bei?
This shocked everyone.
Eight years have passed since Chang'an arrived in Luoyang. The Three Officials and Nine Ministers have also changed many times. Some have died of illness and others have resigned. They are no longer the same group as before.
Nowadays, the only remaining ministers are Yang Biao, Zhao Wen, Zhong Fu, Shi Sunrui and others. The rest can be regarded as veterans, but they did not serve as ministers when they were in Chang'an, so they are ministers who have made up for their seniority.
At present, there are Sangong Jiuqing, Taiwei Yang Biao, Situ Zhao Wen, Sikong Zhongfu, Taichang Shi Sun Rui, Guang Luxun Zhou Zhong, Taipu Lu Xu, Da Sinong Wang Yi, Zongzheng Liu Ai, Honglu Xu Qiu,
Wei Wei Tian Bing, Ting Wei Zhang Yi, and Shaofu Chen Mu, as well as the three independent officials Xuan Fan, Shangshu Ling Zhong Yao, and Yushi Zhongcheng Huandian.
Since it is not a large court meeting, only the ministers and Sandu are sitting there. The other ministers are a few servants and younger councilors sitting further down. When Liu Yu announced the news in front of all the ministers, everyone
They all looked at each other and whispered to each other.
"Passing the throne to Liu Bei? Wasn't it agreed upon at the beginning..."
"Your Majesty, what's going on?"
"Although Liu Bei belongs to the clan, he is not a descendant of Guangwu, or even a descendant of the King of Changsha. How could he..."
"Perhaps Your Majesty has other considerations."
The lower ranking ministers, the Sili Xiaowei, Yu Shi Zhongcheng and some of the ministers, Yi Lang, whispered.
The other highly respected ministers sat down like old monks, but did not speak immediately.
After a moment, Yang Biao sighed and was the first to stand up and said: "I second my opinion."
"I also second the proposal."
Chen Mu is the second one.
"I second the proposal."
"I second the proposal."
"I second the proposal."
Immediately afterwards, Shangshu ordered Zhong Yao, Henan Yin Sima Fang, and several officials from the Qingzhou faction to follow.
At the end, Zhao Wen, Zhong Fu, Shi Sunrui and others also joined in.
They were the closest people to Liu Yu, and like Yang Biao, they were deeply trusted. Therefore, after learning the truth of the matter, they could only sigh helplessly. Liu Xie and Liu He were forced to compromise for the sake of Liu Biao.
The rest, such as Guang Luxun, Zhou Zhong, Imperial Servant Lu Xu, Da Sinong Wang Yi, Zong Zheng Liu Ai, Hong Lu Xu Qiu, Wei Wei Tian Bing, Ting Wei Zhang Yi and others did not know the truth and could not explain it.
Wang Yi once served as the governor of Hedong and had always been upright. When he saw that the entire court seemed to have become Liu Bei's empire, he was surprised for a moment. He stood up and raised his hands and said, "Your Majesty, I have an objection."
Liu Yu had known that some people would disagree, so he was not surprised and asked aloud: "What objection does Da Sinong have?"
Wang Yi said: "I have three questions. First, why doesn't your Majesty pass on the throne to the emperor's heir?"
Liu Yu had already prepared this question and answered: "The Taiwei went to Hebei for more than two months. After the investigation, he found that the household registrations of the heirs of Emperor Zhang were destroyed in the war and their identities were difficult to identify. And I have also thought deeply about it. If the country is weak and the children are young, it may not be the same.
It's a good thing, we should choose a wise king to restore the Han Dynasty."
In fact, this is just an excuse. In the Han Dynasty, there were two kinds of household registrations for clans. One was the royal household registration, which was recorded in the royal genealogy. This was called the clan ultimatum and was controlled by Zong Zheng.
If it is not recorded, it is not a clan. For example, Liu Bei previously said that he was the queen of Prince Jing of Zhongshan, but starting from his grandfather Liu Xiong, the magistrate of Fan County, he did not inherit a marquis and was excluded from the genealogy until Emperor Xiaokang of the Han Dynasty re-established it.
Only by entering can one return to the ranks of the Han Dynasty clan.
The second type is the household registration information of the local government, which has a separate line for the clan.
In addition, there are also genealogies of local clans, but they are considered private genealogies and are not official authorities, so they are not included in it.
Most of the clan documents were destroyed during the Dong Zhuo Rebellion, and the information Chen Mu destroyed was the clan household registration of the local government.
But Chen Mu couldn't destroy the private genealogy, because many families often had copies, and you couldn't go to every clan's house and destroy their family's genealogy.
So if you really want to investigate carefully, through these local materials, visits and searches, you can still find many descendants of Emperor Zhang scattered among the people. For example, King Anping, King Bohai, King Qinghe, and King Pingyuan are all of that lineage and belong to that lineage.
Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty was a close cousin of Emperor Kang of the Han Dynasty.
This answer obviously did not satisfy the courtiers, but it was an excuse to silence everyone. Wang Yi asked again: "Second question, why did Your Majesty choose Liu Bei? Is it because Liu Bei has strong soldiers and horses?"
Liu Yu said in a deep voice: "Liu Bei has done great service to the country by destroying Yuan Shao. Moreover, he is a descendant of His Excellency Emperor Jing. He is a man of great talent and great strategy. He is the one who can restore the world in the future."
"The third question is, if Liu Bei succeeds to the throne, will this big man still be a big man?"
Wang Yi finally asked a question that many people want to know.
Later generations divided the two Han Dynasties into the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Western Han Dynasty, thinking that they were two dynasties. People at that time generally believed that the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Western Han Dynasty were one dynasty, but there were differences.
Ban Gu's "Book of Han" calls the Western Han Dynasty the Han Dynasty, while Zhuge Liang calls the Western Han Dynasty the Early Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty the Later Han Dynasty. This means that by the Eastern Han Dynasty, although people thought the two dynasties were one dynasty, they already had
Priority.
The crux of Wang Yi's problem lies here. Regardless of the emperor's position in the Western Han Dynasty, the emperor's position in the Eastern Han Dynasty must be the descendants of Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu. This was recognized at the time. Even if you are a member of the Western Han Dynasty clan, you are not qualified to inherit.
This is the difference, and it is the biggest obstacle to Liu Bei's rise to power. Although it is said that the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty are the same country, there is a difference here, that is, the clans of the Western Han Dynasty are worthless in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and only the clans of the Eastern Han Dynasty are valuable.
Inheritance rights, the clan in the Western Han Dynasty did not have inheritance rights.
Now that Liu Yu wants to give the throne to Liu Bei, I am afraid that not only many courtiers who are loyal to the Eastern Han Dynasty will not agree, but also the Eastern Han royal family in the world, that is, all the descendants of Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu will not agree. This means that the empire created by Liu Xiu will not be allowed.
It fell into someone else's hands.
Even if this so-called other person is also named Liu and is a descendant of Liu Bang, in the eyes of these people, he is still an outsider. Because at that time, will Liu Bei have created a new dynasty, or will he continue to continue the Eastern Han Dynasty?
After all, the emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty claimed that the two Han Dynasties were one country, but the Eastern Han Dynasty separated ancestral halls and temples into Gaozu Temple and Shizu Temple, that is, the emperors of the Western Han Dynasty and the emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
The Gaozu Temple enshrines five people, and the Shizu Temple enshrines seven people. Moreover, the Gaozu Temple and the Shizu Temple are juxtaposed, which equates Liu Xiu's status to Liu Bang, no less than founding another country.
Now that Liu Bei, an outsider, has inherited the throne, everyone naturally wants to know the answer to this question.
Chen Mu stood up and said, "What does Da Sinong mean by this? King Qi's surname is Liu, and he is also a Miao descendant of the great ancestor. Could it be that after he revived the Han Dynasty and restored this troubled world, he would violate his ancestors and change the name of the country?
?”
"Forehead......"
Wang Yi was at a loss for words. Of course he didn't mean this. What he meant was that when Liu Bei came to power, should he inherit according to the order of the Eastern Han Dynasty and continue the rule of the Later Han Dynasty, or should he be regarded as the founding emperor like Liu Xiu and rebuild a new Han Dynasty?
It's just that he didn't dare to say it clearly for a while, because it was an unspoken rule among the people and the court to separate the two Han Dynasties, and even the clans of the Western Han Dynasty were not valuable in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The official statement should be that the Han Dynasty was inherited from the same strain, which means that the clans of the Western Han Dynasty also had inheritance.
Rights are just suppressed by this unspoken rule.
If he said it clearly, it would be against political correctness. Chen Mu could definitely accuse him of dividing the country and saying that he was spreading rumors to cause trouble. Because even Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu recognized that he was a continuation of the previous Han Dynasty and that the two Han Dynasties were one political power.
Instead he started a new empire from scratch.
Being squeezed out by Chen Mu, Wang Yi had no choice but to say: "Young Master should understand what I'm talking about."
Chen Mu originally wanted to say, "I don't know." In that case, Wang Yi could be squeezed to death.
But after thinking about it, he could easily offend others by doing so, so he changed his face and said with a smile: "Of course I understand what Da Sinong said. The King of Qi has always been benevolent, righteous and filial. If he can inherit the throne, he will use Gaozu Temple and Shizu
It has been more than 400 years since the temples were unified, and the Han Dynasty can never stop worshiping them."
Merge Gaozu Temple and Shizu Temple into one?
Many ministers looked at each other and nodded vaguely. This result could be regarded as reluctantly accepted by them.
Because during the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Gaozu Temple and the Shizu Temple held separate sacrifices. Although they said that the two Han Dynasties were unified, there was still a sense of separation.
And if the ancestral temples are unified, it means that the Han Dynasty is still a continuation, just like the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty, unified into the Song Dynasty, instead of like the people of the Eastern Han Dynasty, who often call the Western Han Dynasty after the Han Dynasty.
This can be regarded as a result acceptable to all parties. After Wang Yi got this answer, he handed over his hands and said: "In that case, I have no objection."
"Um."
Liu Yu coughed a few times, and his pale face lost a lot of color. He saw that many ministers from all over the court agreed with him. After confirming that there was no obstacle, he said: "Then let's pass on the edict. This edict will be written by the Taiwei.
Situ and Taichang Zongzheng Shaofu are going."
"My lord, obey the imperial edict."
The imperial edicts of the Han Dynasty were not called imperial edicts, but edicts. Since it involved the throne, this edict had to be sent by heavyweight officials. Five of the three ministers and nine ministers were sent, which is enough to show respect for Liu Bei.
Soon after the dynasty dispersed, the news spread all over the world through various channels in an instant. Before the ministers who delivered the edict were on their way, countless memorials came like snowflakes.
All princes and emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty wrote letters of opposition one after another, and the memorials filled the Mingguang Hall.
You know, although Qingzhou has developed Zuobo paper, which has greatly reduced the cost of paper, it has not been fully popularized yet.
Therefore, more than 90% of the memorials require the use of bamboo slips. There are countless princes, county officials, and local royal families all over the world. When the bamboo slips are folded, it is not as simple as a few pieces of bamboo, but hundreds of thousands of pieces, adding up to half a ton.
It was so heavy that it almost submerged the Chancellor's desk.
But no matter what the imperial court's reaction is, anyway, the whole country has nothing to do with the imperial court. Because the actual area controlled by the imperial court is actually very small at present, only Sili, Hebei, Qingzhou and part of Guanzhong.
Even though Henan, Xuzhou, Jingzhou, Youzhou and other places ostensibly submitted themselves to the imperial court, they were actually still controlled by various princes. As for the places east of the Yizhou River, it was even worse. They were directly controlled by rebel princes, so these people should oppose it.
They objected, and the court didn't bother to pay attention to them.
As for the royal family members of the Eastern Han Dynasty, their number is indeed huge, but they have no real power. Some of them are remarkable and serve as local governors, but they have no ability and cannot affect the situation of the court. Therefore, this matter was successfully implemented in the court, and various
The local princes and many heirs of the Eastern Han Dynasty had no choice but to do anything.
And just when the world was bustling and noisy, far away in Yecheng, Liu Bei had just sent people to pacify Hebei, sent troops to occupy the entire Jizhou, and was about to take advantage of the victory to pursue and annihilate the high-ranking cadres who had fled to Bingzhou.
, suddenly heard a strange rumor.
"The emperor wants to pass on the throne to Gu?"
Liu Bei was dumbfounded.
At this time, he was still at the Yecheng County Government House.
He did not move the Yuan family's house, but returned it all, and Liu Bei lived in a relatively simple county government office.
At this time, he was chatting with Jushou Xunyou, Tianfeng and others in the backyard.
Yesterday, he sent Guan Yu north to prepare to cross Feihuxing and pursue the high officials. Today, he was discussing with several counselors the issue of food and follow-up troops, when suddenly someone came to report this matter.
Liu Bei was stunned. He was stunned for a moment and said displeasedly to Cao Shihouxu, the military intelligence officer who came to report the matter: "Bo Zhu, the fourth brother said that the imperial court is now afraid of us. If such rumors are spread,
The court has heard about it, but I'm afraid it's not good, so I'd better say less."
Hou Xu smiled bitterly and said, "But this is news spread from Luoyang."
In fact, at this time, Liu Yu had just issued the edict yesterday, and the government group headed by Yang Biao had just set off today. Since Yecheng was relatively close, the Military Intelligence Department rushed to deliver the good news, and sent it to Liu Bei first.
Therefore, except for the princes relatively close to Luoyang, many places in the world did not know the news. Liu Bei had just heard about it and thought it was just a rumor, and blamed Hou Xu not to spread it.
However, when he heard the news that Hou Xu said came from Luoyang, Liu Bei, who had already been awakened by Chen Mu and had certain political experience, suddenly became serious. He looked at Ju Shou and others and said: "Oh no, this must be deliberately released by the people in the court."
The news, I want to tarnish my reputation."
Jushuo, who knew the inside story, suppressed his laughter and said with a serious face: "This is the emperor's plan to retreat in order to advance. Now that we have captured Hebei and hold the two richest states in the world, with strong soldiers and horses, the emperor must be afraid of Qi Qi."
The king is planning to seize the throne, so he deliberately spreads the news. If the king of Qi has this idea and asks your majesty, your majesty will definitely scold him and spread it throughout the world, which will summon public opinion to criticize him."
"When King Cheng of Zhou was young, the Duke of Zhou took charge of the affairs of the state, and was known as the Duke of Zhou's regent in history. King Wu's younger brothers Guan Shuxian and Cai Shudu, and Huo Shuchu suspected that Duke Zhou was trying to harm King Cheng, so they spread rumors everywhere, saying that Duke Zhou had bullied the young king and was plotting to usurp the throne.
As time went by, King Cheng became suspicious. In order to avoid disaster, Duke Zhou resigned from his position and fled to the Eastern Kingdom, fearful in his heart."
While talking about the allusion, Xun You said to Liu Bei: "The same is true now. Now that King Qi has won Jizhou, his strength has greatly increased. The court is afraid of King Qi's power, so it spreads rumors. This is to force King Qi to resign from military affairs and return home like Duke Zhou.
Qi State takes refuge."
"ah?"
Liu Bei was shocked and said: "What should we do? Do you really want to submit a letter requesting to hand over military power and be crowned king and return to the country?"
Jushou and Xunyou looked at each other and could see the smile in each other's eyes.
What to do?
Liu Yu gave way to Liu Bei, which was arranged by Chen Mu. He couldn't tell him the truth now, so he could only hide it first and pretend not to know.
Tian Feng was a relatively upright man, and he couldn't stand it anymore. The two of them frightened Liu Bei into a daze, so he tried to test it out: "King Qi, is there a possibility...I mean what if...
...This is real?"
"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"
Liu Bei immediately said: "No matter how stupid your Majesty is, it is impossible to pass the throne to an orphan."
"But it's true."
Hou Xu couldn't help it any longer and said to Liu Bei: "The captain who came to deliver the imperial edict is already on the way. He will arrive at Yecheng as soon as tomorrow or the day after tomorrow!"