In June of the eleventh year of Taiping Zhenjun (450), Emperor Taiwu issued an edict to execute his closest comrade-in-arms, Situ, the first Han minister in the court, and killed his three tribes. The northern Han tribes were implicated by him, including Cui Hao's in-laws, including the Lu family, the Guo family in Taiyuan and the Liu family in Hedong. The forces of the Han people in the north suffered a devastating blow.
Cui Hao was killed three months before Emperor Taiwu personally conquered Liu Song. At the critical moment on the eve of the Southern Expedition, why did Emperor Taiwu execute his most trusted confidant? Why did Cui Hao, who was extremely smart, end up being exterminated?
This matter starts with a job that Cui Hao accepted.
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2nd year of Shenyi (429), Emperor Taiwu summoned Cui Hao and other civil servants to announce the opening of the museum to review history, and Cui Hao was the person in charge of the history. At this time, it had been forty-six years since the founding of the Northern Wei . History review is the top priority of all dynasties in our country. Each dynasty not only needs to compile the national history of the dynasty, but also needs to compile the historical books of the previous dynasty, various daily notes, records, and national history, which are diverse.
The Xianbei Tuoba tribe, which established the Northern Wei Dynasty, became famous in the cold and cold Daxinganling . They had no words and usually rely on knots to record things. Due to the special living environment of the nomadic peoples, they do not pay attention to history writing.
After the founding of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Tuoba Gui learned from Han culture everywhere and learned the fine tradition of the Central Plains dynasty, which was the best tradition of the Central Plains dynasty. As early as the early years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Emperor Daowu appointed the book Lang Deng Yuan 4 to write the "Agenda" of the Northern Wei Dynasty.
Deng Yuan was a famous general. He read a lot of books and knew very well about the old stories of the Xianbei Tuoba tribe. Emperor Daowu admired his talents very much, so he handed over the important task of studying history to him.
Deng Yuan spent ten years as a writer and focused on his history. He sorted out the "Song of the Chronicles" passed down by the Xianbei people and planned to write it into a systematic and comprehensive history of the Northern Wei Dynasty. However, Deng Yuan only wrote ten volumes, and the content was very brief, similar to major events, and could only be regarded as a compilation of historical materials, which was still too early to be written.
Deng Yuan was later sentenced to death for some reason, and historian writing went to a standstill, becoming the first unfinished project in the Northern Wei Dynasty. After Emperor Daowu died, the ascended Emperor Mingyuan was busy setting things right and fighting in all directions, and had no time to take care of the work of studying history. It was not until the second year of Emperor Taiwu Shenyi that he started to revisit history, and he appointed the first Han minister Cui Hao to be responsible for his work. Cui Hao attached great importance to this work, which is an excellent opportunity to leave a name for history. Being able to lead the study of history through ancient times is the highest honor of civil officials. After the Tang Dynasty, the practice of being led by the prime minister was formed.
The ambitious Cui Hao quickly built a history study team, and the Minister of the Secretariat Gao Yun and the Stage of the Sanqi Changshi Zhang Wei became his right-hand man. In addition, his younger brothers Cui Lan, Gao Xi, Deng Ying, Chao Ji, Fan Heng and Huang Fu are all his right-hand assistants.
Cui Hao's history review was expanded on the basis of Deng Yuan's "Agenda". He and Deng Yuan have been colleagues and friends for many years. They have a good relationship, but Cui Hao is not satisfied with Deng Yuan's "Agendada". Cui Hao believes that Deng Yuan's book is too brief, only records some simple daily life, and does not have a perfect format. It is not like a historical book, at most it is a compilation of historical materials.
What he has to do is to compile these historical materials into real historical books, which is a good opportunity to become famous.
He vowed that he would surpass Deng Yuan and write a history of the Northern Wei Kingdom that could be passed down from later generations.
After ten years of careful writing, Cui Hao's history writing team finally compiled a thirty-volume history of the Northern Wei Dynasty, named it "Book of the People". After the book was completed, Cui Hao was very proud and a little inflated.
Not only did he swell, but even his assistants swelled. Two subordinates flattered Cui Hao and asked to establish a monument for Cui Hao, praising his great achievements in his history. They had a sudden idea and proposed to carve the original text of the national history on a stone tablet for public display and publication.
At that time, Emperor Taiwu was leading troops outside to fight, not in Pingcheng , only the prince Tuoba Huang stayed in Pingcheng and stayed in Taiwan. Cui Hao reported the matter to the prince, and the prince also expressed his approval.
With the recognition of the prince, Cui Hao felt confident.Cui Hao, who has always regarded himself as "Zhang Liang", finally took the most stinky move in his life this time. Not only did he not object to the suggestions of his subordinates, he praised him very much. Cui Hao took the initiative to order people to build a stele forest in the east of Sanli, Dong of the eastern suburbs. It is said that it took three million laborers to build it.
Beijing Forest is located in the neighborhood avenue, which is very eye-catching and attracts many people to watch, very high-profile and ostentatious.
The National History Monument caused a huge sensation in Pingcheng, almost reaching the point where there were thousands of people. Cui Hao was very proud after hearing this, and was intoxicated by the dream of success and fame, not knowing that the disaster was coming.
He seemed to have forgotten that Emperor Taiwu was still fighting in other places at this time, and the prince Tuoba Huang, who stayed in Pingcheng, was not friendly to him, and the two had deep grudges. When Cui Hao vigorously promoted the destruction of Buddhism, he had a direct conflict with the devout Buddhist prince Tuoba Huang, who hated him to the core. Tuoba Huang's East Palace gathered another group of political enemies who opposed Cui Hao. These people were monitoring Cui Hao's every move at all times, deliberately looking for his black materials.
This time Cui Hao's big move attracted their attention immediately, and these people couldn't wait to go and watch the stone tablets that recorded the original text of the national history. It doesn't matter if this looks bad, it really makes them see the problem.
It turns out that when Cui Hao was complacent, he actually recorded a large number of scandals in the early days of the Tuoba tribe that could not be put on the table, such as Emperor Zhaocheng Tuoba Shiyijian marrying his daughter-in-law, Emperor Daowu married his aunt, etc.
These political enemies accused Cui Hao of "exposing family sluts and promoting national evil", blaspheming the ancestors of the Wei Dynasty and being ruthless.
One stone caused a thousand waves, and there was no doubt that Cui Hao had lost the face of the Great Wei royal family. This problem was very serious.
Soon someone reported this to Emperor Taiwu. After learning about the situation in detail, Emperor Taiwu was furious. He was keenly aware of the seriousness of the problem, and the face of the Tuoba royal family was completely wiped out, which would have a heavy blow to the morale of the military and civilians across the country, with an extremely bad impact.
Emperor Taiwu ordered without hesitation to arrest Cui Hao's history-recording all the team and imprison it and interrogate it quickly.
When the arresting soldiers rushed into the gate of Cui Mansion, Cui Hao was stunned.
In the next two months, Emperor Taiwu had been thinking about how to deal with Cui Hao, and he was a little hesitant.
Cui Hao and Emperor Taiwu have a very strong relationship. They are both monarch and ministers and friends. The two often talk together for a long time and discuss major plans, and are intimate. Emperor Taiwu also obeyed Cui Hao, and was very loyal and trusted. Relying on Emperor Taiwu's favor, Cui Hao rose to the top, reached the high position of Situ, becoming a powerful figure in the court and a leader of Han officials.
For such a confidant and important official, Emperor Taiwu really couldn't bear to kill him.
But -
Emperor Taiwu was Emperor Taiwu after all, he was not Emperor Mingyuan. There is no such word as "Women's Benevolence" in his dictionary. He is decisive and decisive. Cui Hao made such a big mess on him this time, which made him look disgraceful, which was something he could not tolerate.
He gave Cui Hao supreme respect and courtesy, but Cui Hao's actions made him extremely disappointed and angry.
Emperor Taiwu and Cui Hao were once regarded as good stories about the ruler and ministers who were wise and upright.
Is the relationship between the two of them really that good?
Judging from what happened later, it was actually not that glamorous. Emperor Taiwu had long been dissatisfied with Cui Hao. As early as the fall of the second year when Cui Hao was ordered to write history, he angered Emperor Taiwu.
That time, not only Emperor Taiwu was dissatisfied with him, but from the crown prince Tuoba Huang to the Xianbei nobles in the court all hated Cui Hao to the core.
His tragic ending has laid the root of disaster from that moment on.
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