Liu Zhao's sudden death made the entire court uneasy. The ministers had a fierce debate whether Liu Sheng ascended the throne or Liu Long ascended the throne. The two sides were quarreled for a while. At this time, Empress Deng, as Liu Long's biological mother, stood up. After discussing with his uncle Deng Zhi, he believed that after Liu Sheng ascended the throne, he would not only not be able to play a role in stabilizing the court, but also likely to make the situation even more chaotic.

In addition, at this time, Liu Qing took out the imperial edict left by Liu Zhao during his lifetime, so Empress Deng decided not to worry about how the world would evaluate him and forcibly helped his son Liu Long to the throne.

However, what Liu Zhao was worried about during his lifetime still happened. Less than a year after Liu Long ascended the throne, he suddenly fell seriously ill and died. At this time, the situation that had just stabilized under the rule of Empress Deng's reign, many ministers stood up and submitted a memorial to ask the King of Pingyuan Liu Sheng to help the throne, and the court fell into a chaotic situation again.

Perhaps because of his understanding of Liu Zhao, Empress Deng quickly thought of Liu Qing's son Liu Hu when choosing a successor, but Liu Hu thought of Liu Ji, the son of Liu Zhao and Ban Yue, who had just been born under one year old. He wanted to tell Empress Deng about this matter and asked her to reconsider the heir to the throne, but Ban Yue rejected Liu Qing's proposal.

There was no way Liu Qing had to agree to let her son inherit the throne. Empress Deng learned from Liu Qing that Ban Yue and Liu Zhao still had a son. Although she did not agree with Liu Zhao's actions, she even believed that Liu Ji's existence would have a certain threat to the stability of the country. However, when she thought that this was Liu Zhao's only healthy son, she couldn't bear to harm him.

But Empress Deng's brother Deng Zhi didn't think so. He believed that the Deng family had basically controlled the government and that other external factors were not allowed to be destroyed by the country. So in 107 AD, he carried Empress Deng and Deng Ke and others on his back to take advantage of the moonlight to secretly surround the Qinghe Palace and carried out an inhumane massacre of the old and young people in the palace.

During the crisis, Liu Qing handed Ban Yue and his son over to Yu Ping, his personal guard beside him, and asked him to safely send them to Ban Yong's place in the Western Regions Army for a temporary retreat. He thought that Ban Yong, as Ban Yue's brother, would do his best to protect their vigor.

Yu often likes to study Taoism. Under the cover of his role as a sorcerer, Ban Yue and his son successfully escaped from Luoyang City.

However, the outcome of the Qinghe King Liu Qing was not so good. He was placed under house arrest by Deng Qi for refusing to disclose the whereabouts of Ban Yue and his son. Soon, Liu Qing was murdered by Deng Qi with poisoned wine. In order not to arouse Liu Hu's future resentment, Deng Qi deceived Empress Dowager Deng and Liu Hu and said that the Qinghe King's Mansion had a plague and that everyone in the mansion died of illness.

Liu Hu, who was young and worried, believed him, but Empress Dowager Deng was not stupid. After she noticed Deng Zhi's behavior, she angrily denounced him as a detriment to her. However, she could not attack her younger brother because of this, so she had to give up...

Before escaping from the Qinghe Prince's Mansion, Liu Qing handed over the military and political leaders sorted out by Liu Zhao to Ban Yue and told her:

"This is the hard work of Your Majesty during his lifetime. I hope you will urge your son to study hard in the future and not let his father down. You also want to tell him that he can only pass on the knowledge learned in the bamboo slips to his eldest son, and never reveal it..."

Shortly after arriving in the Western Regions, Ban Yue and his son encountered a rebellion in the Western Regions. Empress Deng issued an edict to ask the two Ban Yong brothers to lead their troops back. Ban Yue was unwilling to return to the place of right and wrong in Luoyang, so he stayed in Guzang City, Wuwei County, Liangzhou, and lived in Guzang City.

Time flies rapidly, and Empress Dowager Deng, who has been in charge of the government for many years, passed away on March 13, 121 AD (the second year of Yongning).

At this point, the heyday of the Eastern Han Dynasty came to an end with this watershed. In the following decades, the Han Dynasty royal court experienced a long political window period between Emperor Shun, Emperor Chong and Emperor Zhi, and finally ushered in the subversive control period of Emperor Huan and Emperor Ling.

The "Yongyuan bud" buried in the dust of Liu Zhao's era has spread to the second generation in line with the passage of time.

In 159 AD (the second year of Yanxi), due to the debauchery of Emperor Huan of Han and the bad influence of the "party and imprisonment disaster", more places broke out in uprisings against the imperial court, and large-scale resistance and struggles broke out in the Qiang and Hu areas bordering Liangzhou.

At this time, Emperor Huan of Han Liu Zhi sent Duan Ying, who had rich combat experience. As a Guzang native, who was familiar with the terrain and had courage and strategy, as the commander of the Qiang Guard, responsible for quelling the rebellion of the Qiang people in the Qiang Hu area. At this time, Duan Ying had just quelled Mount Tai, and the rebellion of the Langya generation was named Marquis. Not long after he received the order of Emperor Huan of Han, he immediately rushed to his hometown to start preparing for the rebellion and war.

After taking office, Duan Ying discovered that the reason why the Qiang people were able to provoke trouble unscrupulously was that the military defense in Liangzhou was too weak, so he immediately issued a conscription order in the local area, but it had little effect.

In order to understand his original appearance, Duan Ying came to Guzang City in person to understand the people's sentiments. He found that most of the people in the city were afraid of officers and soldiers, because they were deeply exploited by local officials before Duan Ying arrived, so no one was willing to serve the court.

When Duan Ying was passing by the street market, he met a child who was pale and thin due to hunger and fell in front of him.

Seeing this, the soldiers rushed forward and drove away, but just as they wanted to use the long halberd in their hands to pick the dying child aside to avoid blocking Duan Ying's path, suddenly one hand grabbed the long halberd in his hand:

"You are really brave and commendable soldiers when attacking a child..."

At this time, Duan Ying, who was standing behind, saw the man in front of him who was about twenty-five or twenty-six years old. He looked very pretty and dressed very ordinary, but his mighty heroic spirit and indescribable nobleness actually made the soldiers who were used to being domineering to the people stunned for a long time. It took him a long time to react and pushed away the man who was blocking him.

"Who are you? You are so bold and dare to block the general's way!"

Facing the loud scolding of the soldiers, the man was not afraid at all, but squatted down and helped the child who fainted from hunger. After seeing him gradually awakening, the man took out a piece of dry scone from his arms and handed it to him:

"Take it..."

All of this was seen by Duan Ying, who had no sound from beginning to end. He reached out to stop the soldier who was about to make further trouble for the man. He walked up and bowed to the man and said, "My subordinates were so rude to you just now, please don't blame me."

The man who wanted to leave stopped after hearing Duan Ying's words, turned around and looked up and down at the imperial court official who was dressed in gorgeous clothes but was still majestic:

"I have seen the previous Qiang Hushang in Liangzhou, but I have never seen anyone like you."

From then on, Duan Ying and the man fell in love with him. During many deep chats, Duan Ying discovered that the man's name was Liu Cheng, who was from Guzang like him. Both his parents died at the age of fifteen, so he lived alone for many years.

However, what Duan Ying cares even more was that Liu Cheng had his own unique and incisive insights on political situation and war. In the fight to suppress the Qiang rebellion, Liu Cheng gave Duan Ying very favorable suggestions many times. After defeating the Qiang army, he comforted the local people with a gentle approach, avoiding the resurgence of war here.

Out of appreciation for Liu Cheng, Duan Ying mentioned the idea of ​​recommending him to the court many times during drinking, but Liu Cheng politely declined, claiming that he helped Duan Ying not to serve the court, but to avoid the poison of the war in the land he lived in. To put it bluntly, it was just for himself.

Liu Cheng, who had been in and out of Duan Ying's family many times, fell in love with Duan Ying's daughter Duan Pei, who had been in love for a long time. Duan Ying tried his best to match this and eventually made the two become husband and wife. Later, Liu Cheng assisted Duan Ying to win repeatedly in the battle to pacify Qiang and Hu, and ushered in the birth of his son Liu She in 160 AD. In 169 AD, Duan Ying defeated Xianling Qiang and the Waigu in the Shoothusai, and completely quelled the rebellion of the Eastern Qiang. Emperor Ling of Han gave him many rewards, and in the same year he was granted the title of Xinfeng County with a fief of 10,000 households.

At that time, Cai Yong and Duan Ying had a deep relationship. He was not interested in official career and often visited Duan Ying when he was traveling to Yongliang. Therefore, he also introduced him to Liu Cheng to strengthen his relationship. The two met too late and formed a lifelong friendship.

In the spring of 170 AD, Liu Cheng and Duan Pei's daughter were born, which happened to be the time when the court summoned Duan Ying and Cai Yong into the court. At first, Liu Cheng was not willing to go with him. However, considering that Duan Ying had only Duan Pei, a daughter, and no male, and because of his deep relationship with his grandson, he was reluctant to part with him, he had no choice but to follow them to Beijing.

At this time, Emperor Ling of Han had ascended the throne, and the political situation in the eastern capital Luoyang was turbulent. After the death of major threats such as Liu Zhao, Liu Qing, Deng Sui, etc., the Dou clan headed by Dou Wu once again stood on the stage of history with Empress Dou and formed a sharp conflict with eunuchs such as Wang Fu and Cao Jie. In August 168 AD, Dou Wu, Chen Fan and others were defeated in the struggle for royal power, and the eunuchs reached its peak for a while, but the country of the Eastern Han Dynasty was slowly heading to the end...

After Duan Ying entered the court, he was appointed as the Minister of State and was soon promoted to Jinwu, the Yin of Henan. Liu Cheng lived in Duan Ying's mansion and rarely went out. Not only that, he also told Duan Ying that he should try not to mention his details in front of outsiders.

Soon Liu Cheng became infected with a bad disease. He knew that his life was not long, so he looked at his wife's young son Liu She, who was standing next to him, and took out two old bamboo slips and jade seal wrapped in brocades from the secret wall under the bed and handed them to his wife Duan Pei. After revealing his identity, he instructed:

"I have never been willing to reveal my true identity to you because I don't want to implicate you, mother and son. Now I can only pass on the things that my father and grandmother have entrusted to me to the She'er, and pass on the legacy of the late emperor."

Duan Pei then understood why his husband refused to come to the capital. She held Liu Cheng's hand tightly and said:

"Husband, don't worry, I will definitely supervise the society."

Ten days later, Liu Cheng passed away. Duan Pei thought that this matter should be known to his father, so he revealed the relationship between Emperor Liu Zhao and Liu Cheng of Han and Duan Ying and Pan. After Duan Ying learned about it, he believed that the matter had a great relationship, so he had to be cautious.

Seeing that Wang Fu and others controlled the government, the Han Dynasty was in danger as if they were buried in the wind, Duan Ying began to think about whether he should take out the imperial edict of the late emperor to depose Emperor Ling of Han, but he was hesitant about this and had to discuss the matter with Cai Yong.

Cai Yong was also very shocked at first after learning about Liu Cheng's secret life experience, but he believed that the arbitration and establishment was a huge impact. Now, although Wang Fu, Cao Jie, Jian Shuo and others in the court have corrupted the court, they have great power. If there is a slight mistake, they will affect Liu Cheng and Liu Yan's brother and sister. So he advised Duan Ying not to act recklessly, otherwise he would probably follow Dou Wu's footsteps.

However, Liu Cheng's secret was heard through the spys who Wang Fu placed in Duan Ying's mansion, which made Wang Fu start to make his own plans. He privately asked Duan Ying to tell Liu Cheng's affairs openly and express his idea of ​​"destroying the Spirit Emperor and holding a new king". Duan Ying temporarily delayed Wang Fu's proposal on the grounds that Liu She was young now. In the subsequent court, Duan Ying was forced to be threatened by him and had to persecute the political enemies of the eunuchs in the court as a lie.
Chapter completed!