A young butler with delicate features walked up to Li Jie softly and reminded him softly.
Li Jie raised his head and glanced at him, and the man's identity quickly emerged from his mind.
Zhang Maoze!
"Let's stop lunch today. I can't eat anything."
Li Jie waved his hands with a 'sad' look on his face, and he was ready to go on a hunger strike!
(PS: In informal situations, the emperors of the Song Dynasty called themselves more casually, including me, me, me, etc.)
The purpose of the hunger strike is naturally to attract others' attention.
This is also a helpless move.
Zhenzong had just passed away, and the new emperor was still in his infancy. Whether it was the ministers in charge or Liu E, who was about to take charge of the affairs behind the curtain.
Their eyes are all fixed on the vacuum of power. Who has the heart to pay attention to a young emperor?
Even if there are loyal people in the outer court who pay attention, there is no channel for communication between the two sides.
Although Li Jie is now the emperor, he is only an emperor in name only and has no real power at all.
There is a famous saying from the Five Dynasties to the early Song Dynasty: The emperor should be the one with strong soldiers and horses!
This sentence is similar to the idea that political power emerges from the barrel of a gun.
If Li Jie wants to rule personally, he must firmly hold the military power.
But the current Queen Mother Liu E is not a fool. As early as the third year of Tianxi (1019, the end of Zhenzong), she took control of the military.
In May of the third year of Tianxi (1019), Xia Shou'en moved to Pengri and commanded the four compartments of Tianwu. Liu Mei moved to Shenglong and commanded all four compartments of Shenwei.
Xia Shou'en was an old man from Zhenzong's latent period and was also Liu E's confidant, while Liu Mei's identity was even more interesting.
Liu Mei's original name was Gong Mei, who was Liu E's ex-husband. Although Liu E became Zhenzong's favorite concubine, she did not forget Gong Mei.
So, she asked Gong Mei to change her name to "Liu Mei", and she suddenly became Liu E's brother.
The four columns of holding the sun and Tianwu, plus the four columns of dragon and god, were almost the entire palace guard. Xia Shouen and Liu Mei sat in this position, which was inseparable from Liu E's promotion.
Military power is also an important bargaining chip for Liu E to covet imperial power. At the same time, it is also her last line of defense.
Based on the current situation, the possibility of Li Jie obtaining military power is almost zero.
In addition, the inner court was almost full of Liu E's informants.
Thinking of this, Li Jie glanced at Zhang Maoze without leaving any trace.
Whose person is he?
There are not many records about eunuchs in historical materials. Even if Zhang Maoze became a great eunuch in the future, there are still very few records about him.
Before entering the dungeon, Li Jie specifically checked Zhang Maoze's information, but he didn't know much information. He only knew that he was from Kaifeng.
During the Song Dynasty, the main source of eunuchs was mostly the eunuch's adopted son Yinbu, that is, the eunuch in the palace adopted the adopted son and then entered the palace through Yinbu.
(Yinbu, simply put, means that if I have merit, my descendants can use the merit of their elders to become officials.)
Of course, in addition to the eunuchs who adopted sons, there were also those who voluntarily castrated themselves into the palace.
In the eyes of future generations, being a eunuch must be one of the most vicious things in the world, but looking at the cannibalistic feudal society, being a eunuch is actually a bad job.
After all, as long as you are careful when entering the palace, you will not have to worry about food and drink, and you may even have a chance to prosper.
Low investment, high return, I don’t know how many poor families want to send their children to the palace as errands.
Historical records do not introduce who Zhang Maoze's adoptive father was, so it can be seen that he was mostly voluntarily castrated and entered the palace.
But this is somewhat inconsistent with reality.
There are seven-rank officials in front of the prime minister, let alone the emperor.
A little eunuch with no power, no backing, wants to work as an errand for the emperor?
What a joke!
On the other side, Zhang Mao didn't know that His Majesty was examining his origins. He was only thinking about whether he should persuade His Majesty.
He knew that the officials were benevolent and filial to heaven, and that the great emperor and his distinguished guests were in great mourning.
However, people are the foundation of the country, food is the life of the people, and food must be eaten after all.
However, he didn't know how to persuade him. This dynasty wanted to govern the world with filial piety, so no matter how he tried to persuade him, it would be wrong.
After a while, Zhang Mao sighed silently. Since the official didn't want to eat, he should stand beside the official to accompany him.
Tick tock!
Tick tock!
Time passed slowly. Li Jie's eyes were unfocused and he sat motionless on the couch. Zhang Mao beside him also stood motionless.
Suddenly, there was a commotion at the door. Li Jie heard it, but still chose not to move.
After a while, Zhang Maoze, who was beside him, suddenly moved and tiptoed back.
Realizing this, Li Jie calmly glanced at the door.
Zhang Maoze was seen half-bowed, reporting something in a low voice to a tall-faced man with big ears.
After just one glance, Li Jie quickly looked away.
The man with the big ears is Lei Yungong, the most popular eunuch in the palace today.
Lei Yungong was Liu E's confidant. In just a few years, he rose from an ordinary eunuch to a high-ranking chamberlain. Not long ago, Lei Yungong was promoted to the provincial guard class of the chamberlain.
(The supervisor belongs to the management, which is roughly equivalent to a certain director of a large company, such as the human resources director, financial director, etc.)
The next level up from the imperial guard class is the deputy governor of the inner city, the next level is the inner governor, and then the highest rank of the inner minister is the inner governor.
In other words, Lei Yungong is only two levels away from the highest level of minister.
In fact, the reason why Lei Yungong is so popular is not because he was admitted to the internment class, but because his promotion was an exceptional appointment.
Generally speaking, if a minister wants to be promoted to the rank of adjourn, he must meet the following conditions.
First, he must serve as a border official for five years (outside the country), and then he must serve as an imperial officer for five years (the first five years of imperial service). He must still be over 50 years old and has no personal crimes in his previous office (over 50 years old and has no record of corruption).
However, of the above four items, Lei Yungong only satisfies the second one.
But even so, he was still promoted to the position of guard class with super funding, which shows how much Liu E loves him.
door.
Lei Yungong frowned slightly and said unhappy.
"Didn't you eat the official lunch?"
"yes."
Taking the opportunity to answer, Zhang Mao quickly glanced at Lei Yungong's expression, and when he saw Lei Yungong frowned, his heart suddenly lifted.
Who doesn't know that Leiban has a very bad temper?
Especially for young eunuchs like them, they were beaten and scolded at every turn, and some were even sent directly to the former province to work as sweepers.
(PS: There are two departments for internal servants in the Northern Song Dynasty. One is the internal servant province, which is closer to the emperor and the concubines, and is called the rear province. The other is the internal servant province, which is responsible for serving as servants in the palace and preparing to serve as sweepers, which is the former province.
To understand simply, those in the former province are responsible for standing guard and doing odd jobs, while those in the latter province are responsible for serving the emperor and concubines.)
Seeing Zhang Maoze's trembling look, Lei Yungong felt very happy.