Politics is not something that an otaku can play with. Liu Jin, Boss Liu, is not an otaku. As a great eunuch and traitor, he is not interested in cute girls from the second or third dimension, so he can play politics with great success.
But recently, Boss Liu encountered a big trouble: he couldn't guess the emperor's thoughts.
This matter is more serious than the rebellion in the world, at least for Boss Liu. The power of the eunuchs comes from the leftovers of the emperor. Even Boss Liu, who has all the power in the world, will be punished as long as the emperor says a word.
It takes just a matter of minutes to get rid of it.
Therefore, classmate Zhu Houzhao is his heaven, his earth, and his superstar.
As if the earth is about to collapse and the fans are about to graduate, Mr. Liu is sitting in the grand master's chair in the mansion in the capital, touching the tiger skin on his buttocks and sighing silently.
"Ming Gong, there is no need to worry," the speaker was a handsome middle-aged uncle with delicate features and jade-like complexion. When he smiled, the corners of his mouth were raised, and his temperament was quite outstanding. "The students have come to announce the good news to Ming Gong."
This middle-aged uncle, who is more handsome than the later actor Chen Daoming, is one of the few outliers among the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty: Zhang Cai and Zhang Shangzhi, a super strategist who is called the "god man" by Mr. Liu, has just been released and is steaming hot.
The official secretary.
Originally, the position of the First Minister of the Ming Dynasty should have gone to Liu Yu, the number two dog-legger. However, a few months ago, Liu Zuodu was captured by the emperor and thrown into Fuzhou to be his maritime governor. The number three dog-legger was
Zhang Cai picked up the leak.
"Shang Zhi is teasing me again, where does the joy come from?" Liu Eunuch sighed, took out two imperial edicts from his sleeves, and handed them to Zhang Cai, "I really don't understand the emperor's intention."
Zhang Cai took the imperial edict, glanced at it briefly, then smiled. He looked at Eunuch Liu carefully for a long time, and then said: "Ming Gong can sit back and relax from now on."
Ming Gong is an old honorific title for a person with a high position. Although Zhang Cai was recommended to Boss Liu by Jiao Fang, the number one loser, he was his benefactor who promoted him from a minor official to the first minister of the Ming Dynasty.
But it was Boss Liu, so throughout Zhang Cai's life, he was loyal to Boss Liu without thinking twice.
Boss Liu advocates the theory of balance, which is a trick he learned from Emperor Hongzhi. In the civil service group, he not only hired Jiao Fang, the elder of the cabinet, but also promoted Zhang Cai and a series of other important ministers as a check to prevent the leader from losing his position.
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The same is true among the generals.
There was Cao Xiong, the famous old peasant general mentioned in the previous article, and Shenying, one of the three border heroes. Originally, he wanted to win over Yang Yiqing, the leader of the three heroes. Unfortunately, King Xiang had a dream and the goddess had no intention, so Yang Yiqing simply rejected him.
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During the Zhengde Dynasty, there were two famous gay friends: Liu Jin and Yang Yiqing; Zhu Chenhao and Wang Shouren.
Especially Liu and Yang, it can be said that since Jin was born, why was Qing born?
The relationship between the two of them can be seen by taking a small example: Cao Xiong and Zhang Cai were the first to be discovered and recommended by Yang Yiqing. In other words, Yang Yiqing made his two favorite civil and military generals
, gave it alive to Liu Jin, and finally killed these three people.
If the four of them were replaced by women, it would be a living drama of palace fighting and dog-fighting. The lotus born every step of the way, the palace locks the heart jade, compared with the sexual love between these four people, it is simply weak.
Liu Jin is uneducated. His closest personal team at present, apart from his sister-in-law Sun Cong, the director of the Ministry of Rites, and Zhang Wenmian from Huating, are Jiao Fang and Zhang Cai. After hearing Zhang Cai's words, he couldn't help but ask: "How to be worry-free? Shang Zhi, please explain slowly."
Zhang Cai took out the first imperial edict and said with a smile: "The Holy One wants to build three thousand divine guns, one hundred poisonous fire flying cannons, ten Xiangyang cannons, and divine machine cannons, cup-mouth cannons, bowl-mouth cannons, and whirlwinds." Cannons, meteor cannons, tiger-tail cannons, pomegranate cannons, dragon-tiger cannons and many other names, as well as bowl-mouth copper and iron blunderbuss, hand-held copper and iron blunderbuss, horse-killing blunderbuss, a nest of sharp arrow blunderbuss, etc., which are equipped with new weapons. army, and also wants to establish a title for the new army. This move is a great joy for Duke Ming.”….
He spoke very fast and had an extraordinary memory. All the items in the imperial edict were spoken by him clearly and clearly.
Mr. Liu smiled bitterly and said: "This move by Your Majesty will undoubtedly quench your thirst by drinking doves. How can you be happy?"
It is not easy to understand Liu Jin's disrespectful words. However, if we analyze Kuan's falling out with Liu Jin two years later, we can clearly understand that Zhu Shou's imperial edict made a very serious mistake, and it was very wrong. My underwear has fallen off.
Caikuan, courtesy name Ruli, was from Qian'an, Hebei Province. In the fourth year of Zhengde, he succeeded Hong Zhong as Minister of Industry. He was also a very talented minister during the Zhengde period. The biggest reason why he fell out with Eunuch Liu was that he opposed the large-scale production of firearms. , the reason is that the court cannot afford the transportation costs.
If you look at it carefully, it seems very reasonable. But anyone who really understands the history of the Ming Dynasty knows that this reason is nonsense.
In the Ming Dynasty, there were thousands of nonsense political reasons, but if we were to rank among the top fifty, this one could barely make it into the top fifty.
Making firearms is a military matter, and it is a matter of the Second Ordnance Bureau and has nothing to do with the Ministry of Industry. However, the Ministry of Industry is directly in charge of transportation affairs, so after the firearms are manufactured, it falls under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry.
During the Zhengde period, due to the needs of border defense, the emperor's hobbies and other factors, the court produced a large number of firearms. According to Ming history records, it ranked first in the history.
But this brings up another problem: the investment in other military supplies, such as knives, bows and arrows, crossbows, wolves, caltrops, armor and war jackets, etc., is small, because the Ming Dynasty’s military expenditure is only so much. If one side has more, the other side has more. One side is bound to be less.
The departments of war, weapons, needlework, saddlery and saddlery belong to the inner treasury and are controlled by the eunuchs. The armor factory, miscellaneous manufacturing department, etc. belong to the Ministry of War and are decided by civil servants.
On one side is the mature traditional industry, on the other side is the emerging firearms industry, both of which have huge profits.
However, the former had a huge chain of interests, while the latter was new and the beneficiaries were weak. In the Ming Dynasty, the latter did not do anything to the former, and was finally destroyed by the Manchu bows and arrows.
The contradiction between the two, between eunuchs and eunuchs, and between eunuchs and civil servants, has unfolded a history of more than a hundred years of fighting. The war between vested interest groups is always the most important war in the country. The opinions of the people, It can only be an opinion.
In the early days of the Zhengde Dynasty, this war was a battle between Liu Jin and Liu Daxia, Wang Yue, Liu Daxia, Xu Jin, Yan Zhongyu, Cai Kuan and others.
With the support of Emperor Zhengde, Boss Liu passed the test: Wang Yue was killed, Liu Daxia was kicked out, and after Xu Jin was transferred to the post of Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Yan Zhongyu, who succeeded him, was supposed to be replaced by Liu Yu, but didn't Governor Liu leave, so he Cheap Yan Shangshu and Zhang Cai Zhang Shangshu.
However, Yan Shangshu was not happy for long, because Boss Liu was preparing to replace him with Cao Yuan. In fact, it didn't take long for Boss Liu to do this.
Why does Mr. Liu want to go against the trend, support emerging industries, and fight to the death with the old interest chain?
The root cause was the will of Emperor Zhengde.
Zhengde in history had a deep interest in gunpowder and firearms; Zhu Shou after time travel was famously crazy about firearms.
Before the auction, Zhu Shou shouted at a court meeting: "I want to line up to shoot the party! I want a sailing battleship!"
The ministers had black lines on their foreheads, all pretending that they had not heard His Majesty the Emperor's crazy words. After all, in the past few months, His Majesty the Emperor's mouth has been famous for being outspoken.
Even the officials who wrote notes on daily life were worried about something every day, fearing that they would accidentally write something taboo and end up being moved.
But it’s impossible not to write, so the daily notes in the second year of Zhengde often appear to be completely disconnected from the context. Sometimes they are even confusing and unclear, which gives historians of later generations a very headache...
After understanding Boss Liu's painstaking efforts to buck the trend, and looking back at the conversation between him and Zhang Cai, we can understand why there is such a disrespectful saying as "drinking a dove to quench thirst".
The emperor who was far away in Baoding touring the mountains and rivers and admiring 1,500 young ladies would naturally not understand the painstaking efforts of Boss Liu. He was only responsible for issuing imperial edicts and speaking out. The specific matters had to be handled by Boss Liu.
Boss Liu, who was struggling to support himself in the capital, lost countless hairs after receiving the imperial edict to expand production. He didn't know what to do for a moment. When he heard Zhang Cai's announcement, he only thought he was saying good things.
"Does Mr. Ming know the three-year agreement?" Zhang Cai smiled mysteriously.
The three-year agreement is the most popular topic in the Ming Dynasty recently. His Majesty the Emperor publicly said to Eunuch Gao Fenggao: You work hard, and in three years, you will be promoted to the position of Chief of Ceremonies and Admiral of Eunuchs!
These words shocked all the eunuchs, civil and military officials, and were dumbfounded. They couldn't help themselves.
There are those who are envious and jealous, there are those who are lustful, and there are even those who add insult to injury, but Eunuch Gao Feng and Gao still sit firmly on the Diaoyutai, and no one can hit him.
"I don't dare to guess what the Holy One means." Boss Liu responded calmly. Even in front of his closest confidants, he didn't want to say what was in his heart.
The position of admiral eunuch has been held by the oldest and most powerful eunuch in the palace in all dynasties. Even I am queuing up here. How could a kid like Gao Feng dare to squeeze in front of me?
Boss Liu felt a million dissatisfactions in his heart, but he didn't dare to say it, because no matter how close the emperor was to him, when his achievements were too great and there were no rewards, he would be beheaded. In this regard, Liu
As a smart person like the boss, he naturally understands.
Zhang Cai did not ask Boss Liu to hide in the corner, but said directly: "The Holy One wants Gao Feng to be an independent minister."
Lone ministers are ministers who do not have the power to influence the government. Usually only the most trusted people of the emperor dare to jump into this crater. Most of them will end up dead at the hands of the next emperor.
"What Shang Zhi means..." Boss Liu guessed what Zhang Cai wanted to express next, but he was very hesitant and did not dare to say it himself.
"Admiral Gao is not qualified to be a lonely minister. The only one qualified in Ming Dynasty is Duke Ming." Zhang Cai said the most crucial sentence as expected.
Some people may ask, if Eunuch Liu is allowed to cut his wings, won't Zhang Cai be unable to protect himself? He is a hardcore member of the eunuch party. When the execution comes, he will definitely be among the top three beheaded.
Zhang Cai is a very complicated person.
He has high political talent, but does not have much political foresight; he can get along with people like Yang Yiqing, and can also become Liu Jin's confidant; he loves beauty, robs wives and concubines, but he also fights corruption and upholds integrity; he
He was loyal to the emperor and patriotic, but he was also a eunuch general who was notorious in the history books.
The most amazing thing is that when Liu Jin's party was punished, he was the only eunuch who the civil service group could not provide evidence to overthrow. In the end, Zhang Yong had no choice but to accuse him randomly and have him executed.
Therefore, Zhang Cai's current term "lonely minister" is completely consistent with his true character.
So what does Boss Liu mean?
As a powerful minister who has become addicted to the drug of absolute power, will he be willing to be a "lone minister"?