(Thank you for the Alliance! Thank you Zhao Wuxiu 2014, ug, get rid of confusion, glorious charter)

The death of Emperor Liu Xie, for the people of Luoyang, was very sudden and it was not an exaggeration to say that the emperor died suddenly. :. So much so that rumors spread everywhere and rumors spread. Fortunately, Ma Han was not in Luoyang, otherwise there would be people with ulterior motives who would create prophecies and attack them with secret arrows. During the Han Dynasty, people believed this, because they got on horseback because of prophecies, and many people were dismissed.

Ma Han's political enemies were extremely regretful. Although this was an excellent opportunity to attack, Ma Han was thousands of miles away at this time, and it was difficult to splash him with dirty water. It was not convincing enough.

For the people, the emperor died suddenly, but for all officials, especially the inner palace, it is a matter of time before the emperor dies, and no one will be surprised by this.

Since the fourth year of Jian'an, the emperor's health has become increasingly deteriorated. Although he looks refreshed on the surface, whoever sees the "health" as waxing. At the beginning of the fifth year of Jian'an, the emperor fainted for no reason and accompanied by signs of vomiting blood, which is a sign.

After that, the emperor's body became weaker and weaker. By the beginning of the sixth year of Jian'an, the emperor vomited blood several times, and finally fell ill and was bedridden. The doctors and servants tried their best to treat them, but their condition often changed. In the early February, the condition suddenly worsened. When the doctors and servants arrived, the emperor vomited blood, blood stained his clothes, his eyes were filled with sadness and anger, but he could only vomit blood, and could not say a word.

Queen Fu, who served her side, looked extremely pale. However, the palace was in chaos at that time, no one noticed it, and no one dared to pay attention.

That night, the twelfth emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xie, collapsed. The posthumous title... Well, it has to be decided by the next emperor.

Early in the morning, all officials entered the court as usual. When they arrived at the Quemen, they heard that the Huangmen Lang had announced the death of the emperor. They immediately shocked the crowd and cried.

The emperor died and the whole country was mourned.

When hundreds of officials in the court and the people of Luoyang suddenly left as young emperors, they were sad and sad. The important officials in the court no longer cared about their sorrow and all gathered in Chongde Hall under the edict to discuss the aftermath. The main things were three major events: the emperor's funeral, who was the crown prince, and whether to summon the general to return it.

The Empress Fu family was covered with curtains, and the Wannian Princess was accompanied by the side hall. The three dukes and nine ministers in front of the hall were all there. High officials of more than 2,000 stones and some of the powerful officials of Qianshi were in charge. At first glance, the Grand Marshal Yang Biao, Sikong Zhang Xi, the Censor Liu Ai, the Shangshu Ling Jia Xu, the Grand Marshal Zhao Wen, the Chief Minister of the Jinwu Fuwan, the Chief Censor Zhong Yao, the Shaofu Order Kong Rong and other important officials were all present.

The hall was covered with tiger, Yulin, Dragon and Wolf Guards, the three guards of the three guards, Fu De, Fu Ya, Zhou Cang and others were all wearing armor and patrolling for a moment.

The ministers first kowtowed to the dragon chaise on the sky above the Danmu, and then delivered a gift to the queen and princess behind the curtain. After the ceremony, the Huangmen Lang read it out. The court meeting was chaired by the third princess and decided to seize it. Then, the court meeting began.

The first topic: The emperor is mourning, there is no controversy. It is just a matter of etiquette and specifications. Then take out a few alternative posthumous titles and leave them for the successor to choose.

The second issue is difficult. A country cannot be without a king for a day. If Liu Xie has a descendant, this issue will not become a problem, but now it is Liu Xie has no descendant. According to the convention of the Han Dynasty, it is necessary to choose a new emperor from the princes and kings. Dozens of emperors in the Han Dynasty generally have not had a prosperous descendant, and he is definitely not the first one. If it was in a prosperous era, this problem was how to select a true emperor from a large number of candidates. However, after more than ten years of war, especially the Yellow Turban Rebellion that swept half of the Han Dynasty, many princes and kings died, fled and separated. The family fell into the house, and the problem at this time became "how to find enough candidates that meet the conditions."

On this second issue, the one who has the most say is Liu Ai, one of the three ministers. Liu Ai's position at this time was very special: Zong Zhengqing, the censor and the chief censor.

Zong Zheng was one of the nine ministers, in charge of the royal family affairs, the relationship between the emperor, princes, relatives, men and women, and other relationships are recorded by Zong Zheng, and are usually held by those who are highly respected in the royal family. The previous Zong Zhengqing was Liu Yu. Although Liu Ai was not as famous as Liu Yu, he followed Liu Xie through life and death and never left him, and was extremely trusted by the emperor, so he deserved this position. Zong Zhengqing was the main position and acting as the censor. Although it was "actual" (agent), everyone knew that the emperor said it was OK, but you could not do it; the emperor said it could not do it, but you could not do it. Therefore, Liu Ai's agent was no different from the official position. It was equivalent to serving the positions of the three dukes and the nine ministers.

Although this was a bit outrageous, Ma Han did not object at that time because it was an agreement reached between the royal family group and the foreign relatives group. Ma Han, the foreign relative, had too much power, and the royal family needed someone who could check and balance his position, or in other words, Liu Ai was driven to the shelves.

Since Zong Zhengqing is the best at the distribution and origin of the royal family members and is also the best at the sons and charity of the princes and princes of various countries, he has irreplaceable authority in the nomination of the candidate crown prince. Therefore, all the ministers looked at Liu Ai and waited for him to speak.

Liu Ai was also unscrupulous. He would recommend the thirteenth emperor of the Han Dynasty. He was a little excited to think about it. He cleared his throat, picked up a stack of genealogies on the desk, and said in a hoarse voice that had obviously been hurt by howling: "Before the crown prince, the post must be ruled out several clan relatives first. The following clan relatives will not be discussed, namely the King Gong of Lu and the King Gong of Donghai."

There is no need to hit the drum, and the ministers understood it as soon as they heard it and agreed in unison. The queen and the princess also agreed. In fact, to put it bluntly, Liu Ai must have reported it to them before, maybe this is what the two princes mean.

King Gong of Lu refers to Liu Biao and Liu Zhang, both of whom are descendants of Liu Yu, the former Han Dynasty; King Gong of Donghai refers to Liu He. Are Mao’s three excluded? In terms of prestige in the royal family, the first two even surpass Liu Ai, and the reason for excluding them is precisely their prestige and strength.

Needless to say, Liu Biao was in Jingzhou, with a 100,000 armor, and a real prince. Today, in addition to the Ma Han representatives, Liu Biao was the strongest. According to the Han Dynasty, there were already royal titles or older people, which were basically no candidates, but their descendants were possible. In other words, Liu Biao was impossible, but his three sons, Liu Qi, Liu Cong and Liu Xiu were qualified.

However, Liu Ai's words directly erased the qualifications of Liu Biao. I think it is true that if Liu Qi, Liu Cong or Liu Xiu chose such a powerful family force in the place and entered Luoyang again, when the government and the opposition were combined, how could there be room for others to do anything? It would definitely have a strong impact on the various forces in Luoyang, breaking the stable and good situation since the first year of Jian'an and the subtle balance of various forces, and perhaps causing chaos. This is the result that all people who have passed through the turbulent era during the Chuping period are most afraid of seeing. Therefore, they can only choose weak clans and too strong royal families, which is absolutely not possible!

Liu Zhang's situation was similar, he was the strongest prince in the southwest of the Han Dynasty.

Liu He's situation was a bit special. He was the son of Liu Yu and had also joined the court to serve the emperor. But later he ran to Youzhou, united with his father's old subordinates, and won over the people of Wuhuan, raised troops to avenge his father, and attacked Gongsun Zan. Although Youzhou was unified and Liu He also returned to Luoyang, but this person and Wuhuan were not clear about it, and he had a good reputation in the northwest of Youzhou. It was not difficult to pull up a large army when necessary, and such people would not be considered.

Exclude several impossible options, and the following are possible options.

"The King of Hejian, Liu Yang, was twenty-one, was young and strong, skilled in archery and horses, and was extremely heroic; the King of Rencheng, Liu Tuo, was twenty-six years old, was heroic, worked as a famous teacher, was well-informed, and was famous in the country; the King of Liang, Liu Mi, was twelve years old, was smart and had little talent; the King of Pei, Liu Yao, was twelve years old, was as gentle as jade, served his parents respectfully and filial; and the heir of the King of Dongping, Liu Kai, was twenty-two years old, was quite famous..."

Liu Ai has a lot of bars, listing more than ten candidate crown princes, who are basically young and healthy, or have not yet grown up, but are not considered young children. Being a king of a country will not lose their etiquette.

After this process, the ministers responded inconsistently. Yang Biao was focused, Zhang Xi's eyes wandered, Jia Xu was old, Zhao Wen was calm and composed. Zhong Yao, Fu Wan and others lowered their eyebrows and lowered their eyes, looking at their noses, and looking at their hearts, as if everything was following the crowd. Even Kong Rong, who had always been out of the way, did not dare to speak nonsense, after all, this was the candidate for the emperor.

In fact, who can get to this point is not a human elite? The candidate crown princes listed by Liu Ai sounds like all the best among people. No one knows what is going on. If half of the real thing is better, it will burn the incense.

Although Zong Zheng had the right to nominate, there were only two people who made the decision in the end, one was the inner and one outside, the inner being the queen, or the outer being the queen, or the outer being the general. Whoever these two people share the same wish would be the next emperor.

So the question is, there is still a lack of the most important person, which is the third issue: Should we call back the general?

The war in the Southern Expedition is remarked every other month, with four hundred miles of rapid teleportation. Although it is thousands of miles apart, everyone knows the progress of the war. The Southern Expedition is at its most critical moment. Once it is defeated, the turmoil in the Han Dynasty since the beginning of the end of the year will be settled. As long as Jiangdong is pacified, Jingzhou and Yizhou are all the princes of the Liu family, and there is great hope of a peaceful solution. The inner palace and the outer courts regard this southern expedition as a battle of unification of the world. At this critical moment, the general was recalled and the efforts were lost and the mountains and rivers were broken. Who can bear this responsibility?

This time, the ministers turned their attention to Jia Xu, who was the right-hand man of that person, he should have the most say.

In the court, Jia Xu didn't play Tai Chi, and he suggested very realistically: "Select slowly, it will take one or two months to choose. By then, the Battle of the Southern Expedition will be almost done..."

All the ministers looked at each other and felt that only in this way could they be in the best of both worlds.
Chapter completed!