stubborn thief

The eunuch in Longzhou City was named Li Qimao.

Compared with most people in the world, eunuchs are more afraid of death, and they have to work harder to live.

Because fame after death is a false proposition for them, eunuchs have no descendants, and they are really dead when they die. No one in this world will remember that there was an eunuch who lived in this world.

In this way, he will naturally be more genuine than others, and if he has a grudge, he will usually report it on the spot, but if he can kill his enemy, he will be killed on the same day, and he will not be burdened by his reputation.

But some revenge is limited to ability, and if you can't repay it, then there is no way.

Liu Chengzong is the enemy that Li Qimao cannot avenge.

In fact, he has never met Liu Chengzong at all, and he has never met him in his life. There should be no hatred. In fact, in the past 40 years of Li Qimao's life, he has never heard of the name Liu Chengzong, and it has nothing to do with Shaanxi.

Li Qimao was considered an eunuch of the older generation, he was one year younger than Cao Huachun, and they entered the palace when they were still wearing shofar braids, so it was the same year.

At that time, he was 11 years old and Cao Huachun was 12 years old. They were both ignorant and suitable for studying. They entered the Neishutang, paid homage to the statue of Confucius, handed handkerchiefs, white wax, and dragon hanging incense to the teacher, and learned to write poems and compositions. , Appraisal of cultural relics, training and approval of memorials, and began his career as a eunuch.

Ordinarily, these little eunuchs who entered the inner school to study were all Guan Peisheng from the Supervisor of Rites, and they were young fellows with a bright future.

However, the family conditions of the two are different. Cao Huachun was sent to the palace with the atmosphere of being close to the emperor and raising relatives. A bunch of repairs in the family is investment capital. Not to mention arrogant, at least he has a cheerful personality and is likable.

Li Qimao came from a poor family and was sent to the palace because he was too poor to support half a child. His Shuxiu, who was studying, was borrowed from his teacher, and he was stabbed in the crotch. Not likable.

Neishutang was also having a hard time, especially their batch of young eunuchs were all picked by the great eunuch Wang An at that time.

Wang An had the same experience as them when he was a child, and he was very naughty and active. He didn’t study well, so Du Mao, the eunuch in charge of him, tied him to a stool with a rope and forced him to study; Just stood behind him holding a big stick and stared at him writing.

Later, this process went through again when Cao Huachun and Li Qimao were teenagers, and the two were often tied to study and beaten.

After the fulfilling life in Neishutang ended, Li Qimao started his career as the Zhidian supervisor. This department sounds very nice, and it seems that with the word "Dian", it is closer to power. In fact, it is a humanoid sweeping robot in the Forbidden City. Cleaning, less money, more work, and being scolded at every turn.

This situation of being inferior to pigs and dogs did not change until Wei Zhongxian came to power.

Wei Zhongxian is an old hooligan who can shoot left and right. He is more lenient than self-discipline and strict with others. He has a very temper.

His old classmate Cao Huachun also ushered in a major turning point in his career. He finally entered the palace of Xinxin to serve the emperor's grandson Zhu Youjian. This was not a particularly good job at the time. , but it was a great effort to help Li Qimao change jobs in another department.

But after helping, Cao Huachun's luck was gone. After Wei Zhongxian killed Wang An, Cao Huachun, who was Wang An's confidant, was sent to his capital Nanjing to be punished. He didn't come back from Nanjing until Lord Chongzhen succeeded to the throne.

And Li Qimao worked in the 24 offices of the Fourth Division, Eighth Bureau, and Twelfth Supervisor in the inner court during the entire Tianqi period. He did not make any mistakes in doing things in each office, but he was just a little bit unlucky.

In fact, it wasn't luck. Every time he was about to make a small breakthrough in his career, others would help Jiu Qiansui remember: Eunuch Wei slapped him twice for drinking too much that time, and he couldn't be promoted.

Li Qimao became the king of children among the eunuchs... Eunuchs of his age are basically leaders such as supervisors, directors, books, and writers. Only he and a group of teenage children sprinkled water and swept the floor, belonging to the Forbidden City in Big Brother.

But even though Wei Zhongxian beat him, he didn't hate Wei Zhongxian at all.

The reason for the beating is that someone was walking around the palace, and the horse's poop leaked from the dung bag to the ground, and the work was not done well. There is nothing to argue about.

Li Qimao knew that Wei Zhongxian had never tripped him, because Nine Thousand Years had no idea who he was, if Wei Zhongxian had tripped him, then his age was wrong.

He was 45 years old in the 27th year of Wanli, and should be four years old in the sixth year of Tianqi.

Because Tianqi was reincarnated in two years.

It is not only ten years is not too late for a gentleman to take revenge, but nine generations of revenge can still be avenged; but eunuchs are not gentlemen, and there are no descendants to avenge them, and they are really dead when they die, so eunuchs will not delay in taking revenge for too long.

Just because Li Qimao is still alive, he has no enmity with Wei Zhongxian, it's just because other people's memory is too good, so he suffers an indiscriminate disaster.

It wasn't until Chongzhen ascended the throne and Cao Huachun came back from Nanjing that Li Qimao finally ended his wandering days and entered the Yumajian as he wished... In fact, it doesn't matter which yamen he enters, the important thing is that he was promoted after Wei Zhongxian's downfall!
Not only does he not hate Wei Zhongxian, he even burns some paper in his mind every Qingming Festival and Zhongyuan Festival.

Li Qimao worked conscientiously in the past, worked as a handyman for 20 years, and was not promoted because he was "hated by Wei Zhongxian". However, he only spent two years in the Chongzhen period, and he was promoted to ten levels in a row because of "hated by Wei Zhongxian". Go to Yumajian to be the supervisor of the fifth rank.

The highest grade of eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty was only the fourth rank, which was only available to the chief of the twelve supervisors, the palm seals of each supervisor, and the admirals.

In other words, it took Li Qimao only two years to become a great eunuch from a low-level handyman who was dubbed a eunuch.

A eunuch is different from an eunuch. A eunuch is an official position, but a very large official title. Only after the titles of palm seal and admiral can there be the name of eunuch.

After all, Tai, Taixue, Taishanghuang, and eunuch all mean this: a little more than Da.

In the fourth year of Chongzhen, Li Qimao finally made up the most important part of his career after the experience of the Royal Horse Supervisor in charge of the horses and elephant houses of the Tengxiang Four Guards Camp, and entered the Supervisor of Rites.

This should have been his experience 20 years ago, but he didn't have it at that time, and he won't have it now. It took only half a year to be transferred to the supervisor of ceremonies. As a very reliable inner court talent in the eyes of Emperor Chongzhen, Li Qimao hit his luck and was The emperor sent Shaanxi guards to monitor the dispatch of tea horses.

Undoubtedly, this is the greatest honor for eunuchs.

Although the inner court has four divisions, eight bureaus, and twelve supervisors collectively known as 24 yamen, the eunuchs such as the seals of each yamen and the admirals are naturally the most powerful officials in the inner court, but if you want to say which of them has the most power, it has to be the supervisor The palm print eunuch and the pen eunuch.

Even the palm seal of the imperial horse inspector, who is against all courts, is incomparable.

Because the Supervisor of Rituals is the only one of the 24 yamen in the inner court that can communicate with the outer court, the admiral has the opportunity to have power over the government and the public, because he has the power to write memorials for the emperor with his pen, and his palm seal can turn this memorial into waste paper Or the ability to become a decree.

But this is not to say that in every period, every admiral of the ceremonial supervisor can have power over the government and the public. On the contrary, most of the time the ceremonial supervisor's palm print and pen are only for the emperor to seal and hand over the imperial pen.

There is a premise for them to want to take power: the emperor is too lazy to do this.

Only if the emperor doesn't care about this matter, will he have the opportunity to use his palm and pen to rule the court.

Emperor Chongzhen had many shortcomings, but laziness was definitely not one of them. At the same time, he was ruthless and had a strong deterrent effect in the court. Therefore, the power of the chief eunuch of the Chongzhen Dynasty...was very limited.

In this way, under the ebb and flow, the guarding eunuch who was released outside became a more comfortable position than the admiral of the chief of ceremonies, and his status rose with the tide.

The fate of people is so strange. When Li Qimao should be promoted most, he wasted years because of Wei Zhongxian, and those who flattered Wei Zhongxian were promoted to rank because of it; Following Wei Zhongxian's downfall, Xianyu turned over.

The day Li Qimao received the favor of the emperor and left the Forbidden City, he was full of ambition, thinking of doing something great for the emperor.

Recalling that time, the memory is still so clear. It is difficult to travel three thousand miles from Beijing to Guyuan. The officials in Beizhili escorted and served special delicacies along the way. Of course, there were also cruel scenes of local disasters after entering Shanxi. A bolt from the blue when the word 'Liu Chengzong' was written.

The official office of the guarding eunuch in Shaanxi was in Guyuan. Li Qimao was full of ambitions to rectify the horse administration for the emperor, but when he was halfway there, he was told that Guyuan was gone.

At that time, Liu Chengzong had just passed through Guyuan, Guyuan Town let alone those foolish people who died of war horses, there was no big four-legged animal left in the entire horse garden, and even the horse breeders were abducted, so there is no need for him. surveillance?
Later, he rebuilt the Shaanxi Horse Garden, and wrote a letter to the Supervisor of Rites, asking for a small middle official, Zhang Yuanheng, to send him to the Xining Tea and Horse Division, thinking about getting some horses back from Liu Chengzong, and leaving him a message at the time : "Yuan Heng, as long as you are not good at making side quarrels, Xining Wei's tea horse department, let it go!"

In fact, what he originally wanted was another eunuch named Zhang in the Forbidden City. That man was very shrewd. He used to follow Wei Zhongxian. Later, Wei Zhongxian fell and hid in Tibet for a while without dying. Instead, he was saved. So Li Qimao thought about this kid Maybe with shrewdness, he can pull his teeth out of the jaws of the Northwest Giant Bandit.

Unexpectedly, that grandson was too shrewd. When he heard that he was going to Xining, he would not go himself. The unlucky Zhang Yuanheng came out of Songpanwei, and Li Qimao had no choice. People dare not come to Shaanxi these days. Can use it as it is.

In the end, he only used it for a while, and Zhang Yuanheng let go.

For several years since then, Li Qimao has been busy with horse administration in the Northwest, trying every means to breed horses. This job is actually not easy to do, because the eunuchs who monitor the eunuchs and the civil servants who manage affairs belong to two systems. It's different, even if they have good intentions, there will be conflicts.

For example, the local Yuanma Si Qing called Zhu Ying, who was a capable official, was elected as a Juren at the age of 15, and was admitted as a Jinshi at the age of 31.

He has successively served as Xingren of the Pedestrian Division, Wailang, a member of the Tuntian Division of the Ministry of Industry, the prefect of Gongchang in Shaanxi and Luzhou in Shanxi, and the deputy envoy of the Inspection Division in Shandong and Shanxi. The empress dowager is also very powerful in repairing the mausoleum; she is also deeply loved as the magistrate to fight against mine thieves and govern the local area.

This is a talented, capable, and tempered person. When he is in the position of Yuanma Siqing, do you expect him to join hands with an eunuch like Li Qimao?But let's put it down, Chen Qiyu, the governor of the five provinces, will bow his hand first when he sees Li Qimao, and it has always been an equal gift for Zhu Ying to hand over official duties to him.

The same is true in matters, Shaanxi has been looking for military expenses everywhere in recent years, and the commanders of all towns have asked Yuanma Temple for horses and money. Just for the defense of Guyuan Road's coin casting site and racecourse, they have been arguing with each other countless times.

Li Qimao thinks it's okay, the emperor wants Shaanxi to mint money, and he, the guarding eunuch, also finds ways to find money, pay what can be paid for the army, pay for the horses, and then increase the price of horses if they can increase. .

As for Zhu Ying, he did what Yuanma Siqing was able to do to the extreme. He didn't care about you so much for things other than his duties. Don't even think about a single point from the Yuanma Temple, whoever should be responsible for the defense of the racecourse - I just don't want to be an official, and you don't even want to allocate it to our Yuanma Temple!
These two people have small conflicts when they work together, but they are clear about major issues. When the Ministry of War impeached Zhu Ying, Li Qimao also spoke for him. Unfortunately, Zhu Ying was not impeached in the end, but he resigned in frustration. Back to my hometown in Henan.

All in all, Li Qimao has been raising horses for the past few years and has done well, bringing the garden horses in Guyuan back to life. Unfortunately, just after raising a batch of horses, they were taken away by the counter-insurgency army; His mother was asked to leave, and the whole vicious circle would never come out.

Li Qimao thought to himself: Damn it!You guys who are soldiers eat horses?
Up to now, the situation in Shaanxi is still in a mess, there are not enough war horses from all sides, and he has no ambition to restore the horse administration. Li Qimao is tired and even envious of Zhu Ying.

Zhu Yingneng was disheartened. If he was disheartened, his hometown in Henan could let him go back, but Li Qimao was handicapped, so where could he retreat?
The world is so big that there is no place for him other than obeying the emperor's order.

Li Qimao figured it out, life and death are not really important.

The other eunuchs flattered Wei Zhongxian and lived a happy life for seven or eight years. After Wei Zhongxian died, he was buried with him.

He didn't curry favor with Wei Zhongxian, other people lived a good life, but he lived a hard life; when Lord Chongzhen came, he had a good life for a few years, although it took a lot of effort, he was better than a handyman.

Now Li Qimao is counting on managing Ma Zheng well, and returning to the Forbidden City to have a good time, and when the emperor dies, he will leave with him and the matter will be over.

So for him, the most terrifying thing in the world is not his death, but the arrival of Liu Chengzong.

The name Liu Chengzong may be Grand Marshal, Hanhan, and Northwest rebel leader to other civilian and military generals, but to Li Qimao, these three characters can be translated. The translation is: horse robber.

He wished he could run as far as he could from Liu Chengzong.

As a matter of fact, just as Liu Chengzong showed his chariots and horses on the front line of Gongchang, Li Qimao drove more than 4000 horses to Xi'an Prefecture in Guyuan. He would rather go to the mountains of Yaozhou to raise horses than meet Liu Chengzong.

It's a pity that people are not as good as heaven, as soon as they arrived in Xi'an, Deng Qi fell to his death on the city wall-does anyone believe this story?No.

Chen Qiyu was made suspicious of life, and worshiped the land lord. The suspicious Emperor Chongzhen was even more unbelievable. Before Li Qimao had time to rejoice in preserving the fire of the Northwest Mazheng, the emperor sent him a letter from the emperor asking him to go to Longzhou He sent it from the Forbidden City and asked him to see if Deng Qi was really dead or faked.

The cannons outside the city roared, hitting the brick wall on the city and shattering it.

Li Qimao in the city looked at the coffin with neither sadness nor joy on his face, and even clapped his hands: "It's so fast, so fast...it's all right now."

It's all right now, not only can Li Qimao see Deng Qi in the coffin, but also Deng Qi who hasn't gone far can soon see him. (end of this chapter)