Xuande

Chapter 57 No middlemen to make the difference
Liu Bei pointed out this key point.

The eunuch didn't want to directly deal with this matter, and apparently he didn't want to over-irritate the scholar group, so he used Xu Yu and Zhang Ji as pawns to charge forward, trying to provoke the scholars to fight among themselves.

That being the case, everyone sees the trick and makes Xu Qu and Zhang Ji, what can the eunuch do?

After figuring out this joint, a group of people were overjoyed and immediately began to discuss the relevant content enthusiastically.

How to collect black information about Xu Qu and Zhang Ji, how to attack Xu Qu and Zhang Ji, how to use public opinion to drive them to a dead end, and so on.

In this regard, their operations are very mature, and it can be said that the risk of doing so is very low. Compared with directly attacking eunuchs, the risk of doing so is really very low.

The political rule of the Eastern Han Dynasty was that the power of the Sangongs was completely lost. Without the support of the emperor and the appointment of Lushang Shushi, the Sangongs were purely political vases, without much actual power, and only had a high position.

Therefore, the removal of Sangong was not a big deal in the eyes of the Eastern Han Dynasty. As long as there were any visions of heaven and earth or natural disasters, Sangong's dismissal was a matter of course.

Taiwei, Sikong, and Situ randomly selected one to be dismissed as the emperor's response to heaven.

In this way, I pray to God to spare them for their "sincerity" and not to continue to bring disasters.

In addition, when someone impeaches Sangong and exposes some black information about Sangong, Sangong is also very likely to face the situation of being dismissed.

More importantly - the position of the Three Dukes can be bought with money.

This is what Liu Bei and Cao Cao talked about while drinking after getting acquainted.

In the first year of Guanghe, Lingdi Liu Hong publicly opened a museum outside Hongdu to sell officials.

As long as you can afford the money, you can buy a title, an official position of two thousand shi, an official position of four hundred shi and six hundred shi, and even the position of three princes.

Of course, buying an official is not without unspoken rules, and it costs a lot of money. A position of two thousand shi requires 2000 million yuan, a position of four hundred shi requires 400 million yuan, and so on.

The price of Sangong varies, mainly depending on the relationship between the buyer and the size of the family property. You can buy it for as little as 500 million yuan, and you can buy it for more than [-] million yuan.

So from this point of view, those who buy official positions are actually either rich or expensive, and not everyone is eligible.

The same is true of the actual situation. The phenomenon of selling officials and nobles in the late Eastern Han Dynasty was not without practical reasons.

The first one, of course, was that the Han Empire was in financial crisis at that time.

This is something that will happen in the late period of any imperial dynasty. The collapse of the empire stems from the collapse of finances, which is not difficult to understand.

And the second point is that buying and selling officials has long been a common practice in the Han Empire, and it was not initiated by Emperor Ling. Such a thing happened a long time ago, but the relevant behavior has been operating secretly in the form of unspoken rules and has never been made public.

When high officials and dignitaries seek promotion, they will definitely spend a lot of public relations expenses to ask for help from personnel officials, and then spend some money to create public opinion.

The third point is what Liu Hong sees clearly.

Don't look at those sons of high-ranking noble families pretending to be noble, but there must be a lot of illegal income piled up in their homes.

One or two are not only high-ranking officials, but also super-big landlords, holding a large amount of land, owning a large number of tenants, and controlling a huge amount of wealth.

So Liu Hong's move is actually to put the hidden political rules of the Eastern Han Empire on the table, and to control the public relations expenses that were originally given to some officials by public relations into his own hands.

Anyway, it takes money for you to seek official positions. Instead of giving it to others, you should give it directly to the emperor. I will clearly mark the price, pay the money and deliver the goods, and there is no middleman to make the difference.

perfect!

This is equivalent to directly stealing money from some powerful people, and transferring the money originally earned by them to Lingdi himself, which is tantamount to [competing with the people for profit].

Of course, the rich and powerful hated this very much. They felt that the emperor and eunuchs were really not human beings, and they were messing around to disturb them from making money. It was even more impossible to say good things about him in various public and private occasions.

Of course, doing so is not all good, and the bad thing is that it impacts the sanctity and mystery of the Eastern Han Empire regime.

Let the people who didn't know about this part of insider trading - the local powerful groups also know about this part of insider trading, and know that the power that they thought was sacred and inviolable can be obtained in this way.

Objectively, this promoted the disintegration process of the Eastern Han Empire.

At least for the time being, people's respect for the senior officials of the Sangong no longer exists, and even civilians without official positions and low-ranking officials can plan to drive the senior officials of the Sangong out of power.

"If I want to impeach these two people, I can ask many friends to help me write a letter."

Yuan Shao first stated: "But this may not be enough. After all, they are high-ranking officials of the Sangong, and they are backed by eunuchs. We still need more direct evidence to prove that they broke the law."

"Not only that, but there must be sufficiently high-ranking officials willing to cooperate with us, otherwise we will be isolated without foreign aid."

Zhang Miao said, "In my opinion, Situ Chen Dan is a good candidate."

"really."

He Yong said in a low voice: "Among the three lords, two of them have been used by the eunuch, and only Situ Chen Dan is left. Even if he doesn't want to make trouble, the eunuch probably won't let him go. We can seek his help."

Yuan Shao nodded.

"Well, what you said makes sense, Chen Dan can try to win him over."

"One more thing, gentlemen, you need to know that even if we win over Chen Dan and present Xu Qu and Zhang Ji on the table, it is still a question of whether His Majesty will know about this table. Behind them are eunuchs, and eunuchs are not just one time. Press the official watch twice to keep His Majesty from knowing."

Xu You suddenly mentioned this.

What he said did indeed make everyone present fall into silence.

Indeed, in the struggle between eunuchs and real people, there is a very important advantage, that is, they are closer to the emperor and live around the emperor, while scholars and officials are foreign ministers and do not directly contact the emperor.

The memorial table needs to be delivered to the emperor, and not every memorial table needs to be seen by the emperor in person. Among them, the eunuch is an important intermediary.

For the same thing, someone took advantage of the good relationship with the eunuch to get his watch to be delivered in time, while the enemy's watch was withheld, so he brought the emperor's rhythm and won.

Now this power is completely controlled by the eunuchs, as long as they strictly guard against it, it is enough for Liu Hong not to see their performances.

So, how to break through the eunuch's blockade of the emperor's information?
A group of people finally set their sights on Cao Cao.

Cao Cao straightened up involuntarily.

Just now because his plan was rejected, he was still very depressed, and felt that life was boring, but suddenly, his identity was inexplicably useful again.

"My father does know a lot of eunuchs and has a good relationship with them. It's just that this matter is related to the eunuch's fundamentals. I'm afraid it's not so easy to handle, but I will find a way."

(End of this chapter)