The Reborn Duke of Ming Dynasty

Speaking of Liu Shan's banquet at night, Zhang Fan has been thinking about it since he returned to the Zhang Mansion and just received Liu Shan's invitation. At present, the information found in Quanzhou shows that this official with little official position Liu Shan, the eunuch guarding Yangzhou, is the real culprit behind all these corruption incidents.

It's funny to say, there have been many eunuchs in history, and there are many with huge scale and great influence. Today, the Ming Dynasty has been less than 200 years old, and in more than 100 years, Liu Jin has already appeared. up.

From some perspectives, Zhang Fan is understandable. After all, eunuchs are incomplete men. They are not pursuing female sex, so they will never do anything for women. After they are purified, All that is left is the pursuit of power and wealth. Money is something that people depend on most in society. Although money is not omnipotent, it is absolutely impossible to have it. Therefore, all eunuchs in the palace, No matter which dynasty or generation, there are very few people who are not greedy for money.

There is also the right. The eunuchs' pursuit of power is actually out of shame and fear. It sounds weird, but it is true. Eunuchs without fertility cannot pass on the family line. They are all called unfilial people. As the old saying goes, there are three types of unfilial piety, and the greatest thing is to have no offspring. Even if they live in the palace all their lives and cannot hear such words from their family members, they still face the palace. Other people in the palace, especially those normal people such as officials recruited into the palace by the emperor, even if they don't say anything, the eunuch will always feel that these people are laughing at him, and the eunuch, as the most humble servant in the palace, after all, if any The court ladies were attracted by the emperor, and they might fly on the branches and become phoenixes, but eunuchs were impossible. Even if the emperor was a manly man, he probably would not go to "lucky" eunuchs, they might be discarded at any time.

This kind of shame and fear makes most people who become eunuchs love money and power. Money is the most basic need, and they can even use it to benefit their hometown, making their blind date forget what they deserve to be ashamed of and thank themselves. Power is something for self-preservation. They have lost a lot in exchange for a better life, not like losing their lives because of it.

However, there are too many variables in the reason why people are human. If normal people are in power, they can seldom be able to grasp their minds, and they can always be humble and not arrogant, and their hearts are flat, let alone a special group like eunuchs. Small and poor, they may not even be able to eat a full meal, thus abandoning the dignity of a man and entering the palace as a eunuch. Such a person will be in power one day, just like a poor ghost getting rich overnight, one can imagine what they will do, It may be to try things that I could not do before, dare not do, and would be punished if I did it, only to find that after I did it, not only no one said I was wrong, but a large group of people flattered me. Saying that they are doing well is simply urging people to make mistakes in disguise, but no one will tell them that this is wrong, and they themselves are also in this kind of pleasure of being able to do whatever they want, so how can nothing happen.

But even so, the title of eunuch has never been abolished by the emperors of all dynasties. As an emperor, the supreme ruler of the world needs to enjoy it. In addition to concubines and maids, the imperial palace also needs the role of eunuch. After all, there are many things that women cannot or cannot do, and even with a lot of lessons learned and bloody lessons, emperors still tend to favor eunuchs. Although eunuchs are greedy for money and power, they do not want to usurp the throne. Is there anyone on the throne who doesn't want to live forever, but no matter how stupid the emperor is, listening to the people below shouting "Long live" to him, he also knows that he can live to be more than 100 years old at most, and he wants to live forever. The task only falls on his descendants.

Therefore, eunuchs who are only greedy for money and power, who do not covet their own throne, and who are loyal to themselves, have always been the emperor's favorite. How many dynasties clearly stated that the emperor's harem should not interfere in politics? , but does not point to the eunuchs, just like in the Ming Dynasty today, there are eunuchs like Zheng He who have been generals, and there are countless people who participated in politics. The East Factory of the Ming Dynasty is an investigative agency that is more terrifying and powerful than Jinyiwei , has always been led by eunuchs, as for the ceremonial supervisor with the characteristics of the Ming Dynasty, this department in charge of reading folds and criticizing reds is all eunuchs, which has to be said to be a kind of emperor's trust in eunuchs Performance.

What is strange to Zhang Fan is that all the eunuchs who can cause big disturbances are those who hold great power in their hands, guarding a party like Liu Shan. There are a few people who hate him, even if he has something to do with the current palm print eunuch Meng Chong, it's nothing. After thinking about it, this whole thing probably has something to do with Meng Chong.

When he was in Quanzhou, Zhou Quan once told Zhang Fan that Liu Shan obtained a lot of evidence from him when he took over the post of Yangzhou eunuch, and it is said that at that time, the three provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian were not as they are now Most of the officials were involved. Zhang Fan suspected that after Liu Shan accepted this "trade", he secretly dragged many other officials into the water and got their evidence. This made the group bigger and bigger. , and eventually became what it is today, and Zhang Fan estimated that the reason why Liu Shan did not expand this kind of power to Shandong was not because he didn't want to, or because there was too little oil and water in Shandong, but because officials in Shandong, especially those who could There are quite a few people who go to high-ranking officials in the imperial court. If he also goes there to play tricks and tricks to lure people into the gang, I'm afraid there will be problems with his life.

Moreover, it is said that the person in the palace who is related to Liu Shan is also related to this matter. Zhang Fan has met Meng Chong several times. If he is related to this matter, Zhang Fan will definitely believe it, but now, Meng Chong It was Gao Gong's recommendation that he became the eunuch with palm prints. He and Gao Gong can be regarded as fighting together now, but if Zhang Fan were to say that Gao Gong had something to do with this matter, Zhang Fan would definitely not believable.

You know, although Gao Gong can be said to dominate one side in the DPRK now, exclude dissidents, win over officials, and even Xu Jie, a veteran of the two dynasties, the chief minister of the cabinet, is full of peaches and plums, and even his students have already made it to the cabinet. The people who got along with him on the same stage were all demoted and returned to their hometowns by Gao Gong. Long Qing hates it, but Gao Gong's role in this is immeasurable. The most important thing is that most people in the court think so, so there must be quite a few people gathered under Gao Gong's subordinates.

But if it is said that Gao Gong created such a large-scale corruption group because of lack of money, Zhang Fan couldn't believe it. Many, even if Long Qing gave him a face like an iron scroll now, once Gao Gong committed some serious crime that cannot be tolerated, nothing can save him. As long as the emperor wants to kill someone, someone will take the initiative to offer advice , but time will definitely find a legitimate reason to kill him.

Zhang Fan did not believe that Gao Gong would be so ignorant and unable to see the situation clearly, or that he was so short of money that he lost his sanity. He believed that Gao Gong had not participated in this matter, and Zhang Fan had After Long Qing's order to come to the south of the Yangtze River to check taxes, even if he didn't say it with great fanfare, the news about it had already spread from the court at that time, and Zhang Fan had met Gao Gong a few times at that time, and even that Zhang Fan didn't pay attention to Gao Gong at that time, and in retrospect now, he can't think of anything wrong with Gao Gong, that is, some time ago, Gao Gong sent many people to Jiangnan except for wanting to convict Xu Jie. Besides, he no longer has any relationship with Jiangnan.

However, this means that Meng Chong has something to do with Gao Gong but Gao Gong does not, which means that Meng Chong has been hiding this matter from Gao Gong. If Gao Gong knew about this matter at the beginning, then he would He would not recommend Meng Chong, who might endanger himself, to take such an important position as the eunuch in charge of ceremonies. If he only found out after Meng Chong came to power, with Gao Gong's temperament, he would probably find a way to get rid of him immediately. Meng Chong went down, and then eliminated all evidence of his relationship.

Zhang Fan made a lot of guesses about this matter, but the only thing that is certain is that Zhang Fan will never let Gao Gong know that this matter has anything to do with Meng Chong.

If Gao Gong knew about this matter now, he would probably attack Meng Chong immediately, and it would definitely be a ruthless one. As soon as he came, he might not have time to clean up his relationship with Meng Chong, and it was almost impossible, not to mention that many people in the court could see it from Gao Gong's recommendation of Meng Chong, and it took so long After a while, there must be quite a few people who know exactly about this matter.

In this case, Gao Gong will definitely do everything possible to obstruct Zhang Fan, not to let him dig out the truth behind the corruption, and Zhang Fan will be in trouble.

Thinking of this, Zhang Fan began to think about how to face Liu Shan tonight, and how to minimize Liu Shan's defense against him. Moreover, Zhang Fan was still worried about one thing, that is, tonight , he will see Luo Linger again,