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Chapter 346 Du Fu was demoted

Fengxiang Mansion.

Zhongshu's sect was the highest authority in the Tang Dynasty, also known as the Political Affairs Hall.

However, Zhongshu Menxia is a large organization, and not only prime ministers such as Tong Zhongshu Menxia Ping Zhangshi work in it.

There are also officials at all levels assisting the prime minister in his work.

"Shiyi" belongs to Zhongshu's sect, and is a system of admonishment similar to Yushitai.

Supplement means to pick up and fill in the gaps. Together with Buque, Zhengyan, and Si Jian, it is called admonishing the doctor.

The admonishment officer has always been a low-ranking but powerful official. Zuo Shiyi was an official of the seventh rank, but he only had the power to join hundreds of officials and admonish the emperor.

However, the atmosphere under Zhongshu's sect was a little tense at this time. After an old man walked into the Mirror Hall where the admonishing doctor worked, everyone stayed away from him.

The person who walked through the door was an old man with a white beard. He was wearing the court uniform of a seventh-rank official and always had a sad look on his face.

This old man's name is Du Fu, and he is currently serving as Zuo Shiyi.

It should be said that this Du Fu also had a troubled official career. In the sixth year of Tianbao, the emperor summoned all the talented people from all over the world to go to Chang'an to take the imperial examination.

The prime minister at that time, Li Linfu, reported to the court that "when a virtuous king reigns, there will be no virtuous ones in the wild."

It means that when a wise emperor reigns, there are no wise men left outside the court.

Li Linfu actually announced that everyone would fail the imperial examination with such ridiculous reasons.

Du Fu failed in the imperial examination, so he could only become an official by making friends with powerful people.

By continuously submitting poems, by the tenth year of Tianbao's reign, his poems were appreciated by the emperor, and he was qualified to "participate in the selection process" and was waiting to be assigned an official position.

However, Du Fu's family was poor and he had no money to bribe officials, so he was never awarded an official position.

After that, Du Fu got several sesame officials, and his official career was never smooth.

When the Anlushan Rebellion occurred, Du Fu was planning to go north to join the Lingwu court, but unfortunately he and Wang Wei were captured by the rebels.

Although Du Fu had a small official position, he was not strictly monitored by the rebels.

Finally in the second year of Zhide, Du Fu escaped from Chang'an, Xijing, occupied by the rebels, and defected to Li Heng, who had just arrived in Fengxiang Mansion.

Although Du Fu was not a high-ranking official, Li Heng knew the name of his poem when he was still in the East Palace.

The important thing is that Du Fu escaped from Xijing Chang'an and joined him, which further showed the popularity of the Lingwu court.

The emperor was very happy and granted Du Fu the position of Zuo Shiyi.

The Hall of Mirrors is where the admonishing officials under Zhongshu's sect work.

It is taken from Emperor Taizong’s meaning of “taking people as a mirror to understand gains and losses.” This also explains the duty of the admonishment officer—to advise the king.

Du Fu was ostracized and neglected by his colleagues. The main reason was the several memorials he had written recently.

According to the history of the original time and space, Du Fu was demoted to Huazhou by Suzong because he petitioned Fang Guan to express his grievances.

But in this time and space, the butterfly Li Yan caused a huge storm.

Fang Guan was not dismissed from office, but was appointed as the governor of Hexi Province.

In the eyes of everyone in the court, the emperor still treated Fang Guan favorably.

Therefore, Du Fu did not write a letter for Fang Guan.

But this time Du Fu was squeezed out by his colleagues, and the reason was also the players brought by King Jianning.

The cause of the incident was a poem.

After this piece of "Shi Hao Li" copied by a player was passed from Longyou to Fengxiang Mansion, Du Fu was filled with admiration after reading it!

Originally "Shi Hao Li" was a realistic poem written by Du Fu based on his experiences while visiting relatives in Fengxiang Mansion after he was demoted to Huazhou.

"Shi Hao Li" tells the story of officials arresting common people to serve as soldiers. The son of this family died in the battle, leaving only his daughter-in-law and grandson.

The old man climbed over the wall to escape, but the officials in charge of recruiting soldiers still refused to let the family go, and even wanted to arrest the old woman to serve as a soldier.

This poem describes the suffering of the common people under the conscription system. The whole poem is catchy, but it profoundly reveals the suffering of the common people.

This poem was also copied by a player in Longyou. Because the poem did not use allusions and was easy to understand, it quickly aroused the resonance of the people.

This piece of "Shi Hao Li" copied by the players reached the hands of the author Du Fu, who was very impressed by this article.

Du Fu had a bumpy official career and witnessed the suffering of the people with his own eyes.

Therefore, he wrote to the emperor, requesting him to cancel the conscription system that forced people to serve as soldiers and restore the imperial conscription system of Zhechong Prefecture in the early Tang Dynasty.

This is of course Du Fu's scholarly opinion. The imperial military system in the early Tang Dynasty had long been unsustainable due to the collapse of the land grant system.

Zhechong Mansion has long been abandoned, and Du Fu's proposal to restore the military system is just like the former scholars who wrote to the court to restore Zhou rites. It is a political infantile disease.

It stands to reason that the emperor would receive a lot of advice like this in a year.

Officials like admonishing officials have a low position, and many people have little knowledge. They always like to put the words of saints and the Four Books and Five Classics in their mouths.

Say something like "To Jun Yao and Shun" or something like that.

It is as unrealistic as when Confucius asked the monarchs to respect the Emperor of Zhou and restore the Zhou rites to govern the country.

According to the general process, Du Fu's advice would be accepted by the emperor, and then the emperor would reply saying "I already know" and accept the advice.

This has been the rule of the Li and Tang royal family since Taizong. It is the job of the admonishment officials to admonish the emperor. Whether the emperor accepts it or not is his own business.

The emperor would also accept letters of remonstrance, showing that he was open-minded in accepting remonstrances, and would also leave a good reputation in history books for being open-minded in accepting remonstrations.

However, Emperor Taizong was the only one who could humbly accept the advice of his ministers and make corrections.

The position of admonishing doctor is mostly used to decorate the court.

Du Fu's petition was fine according to the general procedure, and the emperor would not punish a scholar like him for what he said.

But Du Fu himself was very stubborn. His letters fell into disgrace, and Du Fu wrote one letter after another.

Originally, this matter was nothing, but what people didn't expect was that Du Fu completely angered the emperor in a letter.

The reason why Du Fu angered the emperor was also very simple. Du Fu talked about the prosperity and abundance during the emperor's period, and then criticized the current tragic situation where the imperial court continued to recruit people as soldiers, leading to the displacement of the people.

This time he touched Li Heng's reverse scale.

Did I make the world like this?

It was obviously the emperor who caused the Anshi Rebellion. In order to put an end to the Anshi Rebellion, I worked hard every day, and even the newly appointed queen had to weave in the palace!

This blind Du Fu even brought up the Emperor's period to slap me in the face!

Li Heng was a gentle emperor most of the time.

There is even some weakness in his character.

Otherwise Li Heng would not have been able to serve as the crown prince in the Shang Dynasty for so many years.

You must know that being a prince under the emperor is not an easy task.

But once the matter involved the emperor, Li Heng's bottom line was touched.

So the emperor dismissed Du Fu's memorial.

This naturally aroused discussion in the court. You must know that the emperor's rejection of the remonstrance was because he was dissatisfied with the remonstrance of the admonishing officials and was unwilling to accept the remonstrance.

Zuo Shiyi's main job was to remonstrate with the emperor. If the emperor rejected the remonstrance, Zuo Shiyi would be embarrassed.

At this time, there were only two choices, either to continue to write letters to the emperor until the emperor was willing to accept the remonstrance.

Another way is to resign from office to express protest against the emperor's failure to accept advice.

But for a public official, both paths are equivalent to a death sentence for a political career.

Continuously writing to the emperor will only arouse the emperor's resentment. If things go wrong, he will be demoted to a remote state capital.

However, Du Fu was also stubborn, and he continued to write letters to the court, which made Li Heng very angry.

Colleagues in the Hall of Mirrors did not dare to talk to Du Fu, for fear of being implicated for getting too close to Du Fu.

At this time, there was a noise at the door of the Mirror Hall.

The little yellow gate announcing the decree came in!

Many of the admonishing officials stood up one after another.

The public speaking officer is a highly mobile position.

Because a piece of advice was appreciated by the emperor, many officials were promoted quickly.

Among them, Wei Zheng during the Taizong period is the best example. This man became prime minister by admonishing the king and left a good reputation.

But more people were demoted because they remonstrated with the emperor.

Every time an edict was announced through the small yellow door and walked into the Hall of Mirrors, it meant that someone was favored by the emperor and rose to prominence, or was demoted by the emperor's edict.

"Zuo picked up the relics and Du Fu took over the order."

Everyone looked at Du Fu, and many people began to secretly rejoice in his misfortune.

Du Fu has been writing letters to the emperor recently, and it is well known to everyone in the Hall of Mirrors.

Sure enough, Huangmen, who announced the edict, read out the edict.

The content of the imperial edict is in forty-six parallel prose, and the general meaning is that Du Fu made unreasonable remarks about the ministers of the imperial court, and deceived the public with his evil words to interfere with the battle of the king's army to regain the two capitals.

The emperor demoted Du Fu to the post of Captain Zhechong of Wuwei City and ordered him to rush to Liangzhou immediately to take up his post.

Everyone looked at Du Fu with gloating, the emperor's appointment was quite darkly humorous.

The position of Captain Zhechong is an ancient one. Nowadays, the official position is almost never given to a single person. It is usually held concurrently by the county magistrate or the governor.

The job of Captain Zhechong is to manage Zhechong Mansion, and now almost all Zhechong Mansion in various parts of the Tang Dynasty are abandoned.

Don't you, Du Fu, want to restore the government army system? The emperor asked you to be the captain of Zhechong and see how you can restore the government army system.

Du Fu accepted the imperial edict with a normal expression. Huangmen who delivered the edict asked him to immediately take off Zuo Shiyi's seventh-rank imperial uniform. Wuwei Zhechong Duwei was an eighth-rank official, and Du Fu had been demoted.

The other officials in the Hall of Mirrors all smiled as they watched Du Fu walk out of the Hall of Mirrors. After the Huangmen who conveyed the order left, the well-informed began to discuss.

"I heard that Your Majesty was planning to demote Du Fu to Huazhou."

"Huazhou? Isn't Huazhou located in Guanzhong? Why was it changed to Yuan Wuwei?"

"I heard that the envoy from the Longyou Governor's Palace reported to the emperor that King Jianning admired Du Fu's poetic talent, so the saint let Du Fu go to Wuwei."

"It's so tragic. I heard that Wuwei is a remote and desolate place, and there are barbarians around it."

"Yes, Wuwei is sandwiched between the Uighurs and the Tibetans, and is constantly intruded by barbarians. Du Fu may be in trouble this time."

"This King Jianning is really harmful to people. You must not have anything to do with him!"

"Yeah yeah!"

------Digression-----

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