In the early summer of the ninth year of Zhongping, the emperor who was hiding in the Chang'an Palace, Liu Hong, the twelfth emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was thirty-six years old, and the fire of life gradually weakened. It seemed that when the next gust of wind blew, he would kick his legs and travel west.

Although the turmoil in Luoyang City in the first year of Zhongping did not take the life of Emperor Ling, it really scared the foolish monarch who liked to watch the palace maids wearing open-crotch pants, so that he made a decision to throw the power of the empire to his son who was only nine years old. He fled to Chang'an, the western capital without hesitation. This time he went there for nine years.

Although the Crown Prince Liu Bing was just a governor of the country and the major affairs in the court were still required to issue a memorial to the emperor of Chang'an before it could be decided, many ministers surrounded the prince and defended the prince's majesty and power with their strength and fists.

The Yellow Turban disaster was curbed in less than three years under the strong conquest of the three military leaders in the court and the sudden force of Zhao Xing in Bingzhou. Although the next six years, there were plagues visiting the north of the Han Dynasty from time to time, they were all blocked north of the Yellow River. The Han Dynasty has vast land and resources, with fourteen states. The four northern states are not as rich in production and densely populated areas as south of the Yellow River, so even if there is a plague, it cannot shake the foundation of the Han Dynasty.

The foundation of the Han Dynasty was not shaken on the surface, and even became more and more stable. All this was asked by Emperor Ling of Han to take away his father and mother whom he thought was loyal and reliable, such as Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong. In fact, he took away a large group of disasters that harmed the country and the people, and gave the civil and military officials in Luoyang a stage to display their talents. These corrupt people who were damaged and could not revive the heroic spirit of men, in addition to giving the emperor some fun, played the role of gravediggers of the Han Dynasty from the very beginning.

Zhong Yao, Chen Qun, Du Ji, Chen Lin, Chen Zhen, Deng Zhi, Yang Yi and others promoted by Liu Bei were all talented officials. Although they did not rank very prominently, they actually changed the decaying situation of the Han Dynasty. They were like a group of hard-working bricklayers who kept repairing a big house about to collapse. Although it was not down and reconstruction, replacing a few beams and supporting a few pillars could make the house much stronger, greatly delaying the time of the house collapse.

The state and governors in various places are now in power, and they are worried about being annexed by other forces. Therefore, they try their best to develop the livelihood and economy within their forces, and expand their troops to prepare for war. For a moment, they become an unsolvable situation of "whoever takes action first will die first, and whoever does not take action will die." The key to breaking the situation is in the hands of Guanglu Xun Huangfu Song, Wei Wei Zhu Jun and Ting Wei Lu Zhi.

The imperial army stationed in the Sili area now has reached 200,000. As long as these three bigwigs join forces to attack a certain state, they only need to worry about a few brothers under the banner of the emperor. They just need to be a large army of 400,000 or 500,000. It will be a blink of an eye if they want to destroy anyone. Of course, it may be a little more troublesome to deal with Zhao Xing in Bingzhou, but it is only a long time to delay.

Looking at the current situation, the court and Bingzhou really have the possibility of war. Both sides are just restraining and waiting.

All the civil and military officials in the eastern capital Luoyang were paying attention to the above-mentioned complex and bizarre situation, while Liu Hong, the Emperor of Han who should be concerned about the most, did not care at all. There was only one thing that satisfied him very much, that is, in the nine years in Chang'an City, he was lucky to countless underground palace maids wearing open crotch pants. Although his seeds were of ordinary quality, he still harvested three sons and four daughters under large-scale sowing.

By this calculation, Emperor Ling of Han unexpectedly left several more princes, namely the third son Liu Rong, the fourth son Liu Tian, ​​and the youngest son Liu Tian. There are many dragon sons and dragon grandsons, which may not be a good thing, especially the more little princes they don’t know, the easier it is to be used. At least that’s what Zhao Xing, who is far away in Bingzhou, thinks.

The idea of ​​using the emperor to order a deceased minister was not an old patent in ancient times. At present, at least three forces are staring at several little princes in Chang'an, namely Dong Zhuo, General Zhenxi near Chang'an, Sima Fang from Yizhou and Zhao Xing from Bingzhou.

Dong Zhuo wanted to control the little prince in his hands, so his idea was naturally given by his son-in-law Li Ru. Li Ru suggested that Dong Zhuo control the western capital Chang'an and hold the few little princes firmly in his hands. In the future, after Emperor Ling turned his head, he could put pressure on the east capital, which would bring a lot of benefits.

Sima Fang stared at the little princes, mainly worried that once Emperor Ling died, the prince in Luoyang would take office, the tycoon in the court would reduce the authority of the Sima family and even transfer the Sima family back to the Sili area. If that was the case, wouldn’t the Sima family have been working hard in Shu for nearly ten years to make wedding clothes for others? So the Sima family wanted to take advantage of Emperor Ling’s burp and get at least one prince back to Shu, and in the future, they would simply support the prince as the King of Shu, and the court would have no choice but to do anything to them.

Zhao Xing stared at the little princes, naturally worried that Dong Zhuo and others would take advantage of the day when Emperor Ling returned to the west and take the opportunity to plunder the several furry children, and then act as a blessing under the banner of orthodox. At the same time, Zhao Xing also wanted to grab a royal label in his own hands to lay a chess piece for the future match against Luoyang.

Zhao Xing, Dong Zhuo and Sima families can see clearly about this kind of political struggle, and the big men in Luoyang can also see clearly. The princes naturally cannot be killed, especially the royalist party with heavy troops. They can support Liu Bian ascend the throne, but they will never help Liu Bian harm his brothers and sisters. The reason is very mysterious to analyze.

Everyone is waiting for a message to come now, that is, when will Liu Hong, whose body was hollowed out by wine and sex, die?

On the seventh day of the fifth month of the ninth year of Zhongping, Zhang Rang, the eunuch who was serving Emperor Ling, was telling a joke to Emperor Ling who was lying on the dragon bed. When he turned around, he found that Emperor Ling was asleep, so he got up and pinched the quilt for the emperor. Emperor Ling, who was leaning against the bedside, tilted his head in Zhang Rang's arms.

Zhang Rang used his hand to explore Liu Hong's breath and found that the emperor had died, so he howled: "The emperor is dead!"

For a moment, the palace was in chaos, and the imperial physicians, palace maids, and guards were in a hurry.

The news of the emperor's death soon reached Luoyang. The ministers in the court seemed to hear the starting gun, and they all started to make clear and secret schemes, trying their best to gain a lot of benefits when the old emperor passed away and the new emperor ascended the throne.

The spies gathered in Chang'an City, and before the people who sent letters to Luoyang in the palace rushed out of Chang'an City, had already received the tips and started to take action one step ahead.

Hou Cheng, Hua Weiguo and others who had been lurking in Chang'an City for more than half a year, immediately summoned people to implement the "Save Baby" plan that had been carefully arranged for several years after receiving the urgent report from the young eunuch Sanshun (see Volume 257).

The plan is a good plan, but who gave it the broken name? Why is it so ugly! Of course, the name was given by the leader. Does it have any meaning? No one can guess except Zhao Xing.

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