It is said that although this Tong Guan was a eunuch, he admired generals very much and dreamed of one day becoming the military commander of the imperial court, commanding thousands of troops and horses, galloping on the battlefield and establishing immortal achievements. How could the cunning and cunning Cai Jing not guess Tong Guan's thoughts? Therefore, Cai Jing said as above.
Tong Guanjian said that he was naturally very surprised and hurriedly gave Cai Jing a gift and thanked Cai Jing for recommending him as a Privy Council member in the future.
These two people are using each other.
To be on the safe side, Cai Jing not only bribed Tong Guan with a large amount of treasure, but also asked Tong Guan to bribe all the concubines in the palace. Cai Jing knew that Emperor Huizong not only needed Tong Guan to speak for him, but also needed Emperor Huizong's concubines to blow his pillow, so that he could be more effective.
Tong Guan traveled south and brought back Cai Jing's calligraphy, paintings and treasures. He also bribed the concubines in the palace according to Cai Jing's instructions. Later, in front of Emperor Huizong, Tong Guan said good things about Cai Jing in a roundabout way, tempting Emperor Huizong to use Cai Jing.
Emperor Huizong originally appreciated Cai Jing's talent, and demoted Cai Jing. It was nothing more than a warning to Cai Jing, so that he would know the position of his ministers and not be domineering and self-righteous.
Tong Guan praised Cai Jing in front of Emperor Huizong. Emperor Huizong was already relieved and had the idea of using Cai Jing again. After returning to the harem, I discussed court matters with many concubines. Many concubines also spoke frankly about Cai Jing's talents and abilities, saying that Grand Master Cai could be used. As a result, Emperor Huizong no longer resented Cai Jing, so he once again appointed Cai Jing to his original official position and returned to Beijing to resume his duties.
Therefore, Cai Jing was able to serve as prime minister three times.
Cai Jing was so happy that he filled up his poems and books, packed his bags, left Hangzhou, returned to Tokyo, resumed his duties in the imperial court, and assumed the post of prime minister.
When Cai Jing left Hangzhou, he did not forget Zhu Chong and his son, so he took Zhu Chong and his son back to Tokyo and placed them in his own mansion.
It was Tong Guan who managed Cai Jing and was able to re-employ him from the place where he was demoted in Hangzhou to Beijing. Therefore, he reciprocated the favor and strongly recommended Tong Guan to the Privy Council.
At that time, Privy Councilor Cai Bian was demoted and Zhang Kangguo was appointed as Privy Councilor. Zhang Kangguo died unexpectedly, and Zheng Juzhong temporarily acted as Privy Council member.
In normal times, Emperor Huizong often talked with Tong Guan about military matters. Tong Guan was boastful and thorough, and seemed to be an expert. Emperor Huizong was deeply impressed by Tong Guan's military talents. However, Tong Guan was an eunuch and a eunuch. , Therefore, at that time, Emperor Huizong did not think of letting Tong Guan serve as a Privy Council member and take charge of the military affairs of the court.
Now, Cai Jing recommended Tong Guan to be a Privy Council member, but Emperor Huizong was still hesitant to make a decision.
Seeing Emperor Huizong's hesitation, Cai Jing further admonished him: "Your Majesty, I am observing the generals in the court. When it comes to marching and fighting, Tong Guan is better."
Emperor Huizong replied: "Tong Guan understands military affairs, but Tong Guan is a eunuch and eunuch. How can he serve as a Privy Council member? How can he command thousands of troops? It may not be appropriate."
Cai Jing bowed and said, "Your Majesty, the purpose of war is to win, not who wins. Since Tong Guan has military talents, why not give it a try and maybe he can become an outstanding military strategist!"
Emperor Huizong smiled and said: "Master Cai, think about that Tong Guan. Since he entered the palace, he has been serving as a servant and specializing in internal affairs. If he knows a little about military affairs, how can he lead troops to fight? How can this be considered a child's play? No. It’s appropriate, it’s inappropriate.”
Cai Jing still insisted on his opinion and admonished Emperor Huizong: "Your Majesty, you might as well give it a try. I think the child worship officer is qualified for this position."
At that time, the Privy Council was represented by Zheng Juzhong. Compared with Zheng Juzhong, Tong Guan seemed to be more suitable for the position of Privy Council. At Cai Jing's insistence, Emperor Huizong was moved. He looked into Cai Jing's eyes and asked, "Master Cai, do you think it's okay?"
Cai Jing nodded and said resolutely: "Okay, it's absolutely right. Your Majesty may wish to use it. I am willing to recommend it. If there are any mistakes, I will bear the responsibility of recommending it."
Since Cai Jing said this, Emperor Huizong no longer doubted Tong Guan's ability, so he appointed Tong Guan to act as the Privy Council official.
Since then, Cai Jingyou and Tong Guan have been in cahoots.
Cai Jing, who has served as prime minister for three times, is more tactful than before. On the surface, it seems that he no longer cares about the pursuit of power, but has begun to do some institutional reform, such as the reform of the official system; in fact, Cai Jing's real intention is to further Take sole power.
The power of central government affairs in ancient times, since the Tang Dynasty, has been decentralized and controlled by Zhongshu Sheng, Menxia Sheng and Shangshu Sheng, with mutual checks and balances. Among them, Zhongshu Sheng is responsible for issuing orders (decision-making), Menxia Sheng is responsible for sealing and refuting (deliberation), and Shangshu Sheng is responsible for Palm execution. The power of the prime minister is not exclusive to one person, but is divided among many people.
If the official system from the Tang Dynasty were still used, there would be basically no chance for Cai Jing to exercise power. Therefore, through the reform of the official system, Cai Jing changed the decentralization of power among the three provinces since the Tang Dynasty to the prime minister taking charge of the three provinces. Government affairs were not discussed by the Zhongshu and his subordinates. The restriction mechanism was removed, allowing him to have exclusive power.
Then, Cai Jing created the "imperial hand-written edict" system. In the early days of the Kingdom, the emperor's hand-written edicts were unanimously discussed by the Zhongshu and the subordinates, and changed to the exclusive review and transmission system of the Prime Minister's Office. As a result, the authenticity of the emperor's imperial edicts could not be distinguished, and those who violated the rules were often punished. The conviction of "violating the rules" has created a dictatorial situation of being strong, self-willed and tongue-tied.
In order to seize military power, Cai Jing established Chanzhou (now Junxian, Henan), Zhengzhou (now Zhengzhou, Henan), Caozhou (now Heze, Shandong), and Gongzhou (now Juxian, Henan) as the four auxiliaries of Bianliang, each with 20,000 troops. , and appointed his in-laws Song Qiaonian and Hu Shiwen as county guards. In the first month of the first month, the jailer gave a sum of five hundred, a sudden increase of ten times compared to the past, to win over the morale of the army.
In addition, Cai Jing also suggested to Huizong that all "princesses" should be called "Emperor Ji", following the title of "Wang Ji" in the Zhou Dynasty.
Emperor Huizong also felt that the title "Emperor Ji" seemed more noble, so he adopted it.
Since then, all the princesses of the Northern Song Dynasty have been called emperor concubines.
In order to commend Cai Jing's erudition, Huizong also married his favorite 26th daughter, Zhao Fujin, the Maode Emperor, to Cai Jing's fifth son, Cai Wei.
Cai Jing, who put his knowledge to use, further summed up his experience through the lessons of being dismissed as prime minister twice. This time, Cai Jing summed up his experience. First, there were too many people saying bad things about him in front of Emperor Huizong; second, Emperor Huizong was intelligent and alert. As long as someone came to criticize his shortcomings, Emperor Huizong would immediately notice it. When you arrive, you can give it to him at any time!
By summing up his experience, Cai Jing felt that if Emperor Huizong did not depose him, he would have to let Emperor Huizong play with his ambitions and not care about the trivial affairs of the court. All these trivial matters that Emperor Huizong did not care about would be under his control, and others would not be able to speak ill of him. .
Look at Cai Jing, summing up experience is not about reflecting on his own mistakes or not doing bad things in the future, but how to make Huizong not care about court affairs and how to prevent other ministers from saying bad things about him.
After Cai Jing summed up the above experience, he began to seduce Emperor Huizong to covet comfort and not do his job properly.
Huizong was a very playful person. He had been lured into dating Li Shishi by Gao Qiu, Yang Jian, Wang Fu and others before. Now that Cai Jing wanted to coax him, he would inevitably fall into the trap set by Cai Jing.
Cai Jing's strategy was, first of all, to confuse Huizong's mind with the fairy-tale civil engineering affairs, so that Huizong became more and more obsessed and no longer cared about politics and court affairs.
It is not true at all to say that one loses one's ambition by playing with things. Emperors in history basically had no discernment when they believed in gods. The First Emperor was like that, and so was Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
After Emperor Huizong succeeded to the throne, he first favored Guo Tianxin and then favored Wei Hanjin. Later, Guo Tianxin was denounced for some reason, Wei Hanjin died of old age, and Huizong had no followers. At this time, Prince Wang Zhi recommended a magician named Wang Laozhi to Emperor Huizong.
In front of Emperor Huizong, Wang Zhiji said that Wang Laozhi was very good at Yin Yang Bagua and could observe celestial phenomena, so he was a divine man.
Huizong was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately issued an order for Wang Laozhi to come to Beijing to pay an audience.
Wang Laozhi was from Puzhou, and he was extremely filial to his relatives. He was a small official at first and was not given bribes. Later, he met a stranger and claimed to be Mr. Zhongli. He was given the elixir to serve as an envoy, so he abandoned his wife and went to the mountains to practice Taoism. Later, he lived in the countryside of Jielu, where he performed divination for people and made many strange predictions.
When Wang Zhi strongly recommended Wang Laozhi to Emperor Huizong, Cai Jing was thinking about how to confuse Emperor Huizong. He suddenly heard that Wang Zhi recommended Wang Laozhi to Emperor Huizong. Emperor Huizong ordered Wang Laozhi to come to Beijing for an audience. This situation This suited Cai Jing's ambitions; therefore, Cai Jing preceded Huizong and welcomed Wang Laozhi, who was preparing to enter the palace under the imperial edict, to live in his mansion and entertained him generously.
During the dinner, Cai Jing and Wang Laozhi had a lively conversation.
Not long ago, Cai Jing devoted himself to the reform of the official system and advocated changing the princess to be called Emperor Ji. This won the heart of Emperor Huizong. Emperor Huizong then betrothed Emperor Concubine Zhao Fujin to Cai Jing's fifth son Cai Ji, and Zhao Fujin was Emperor Huizong's favorite. Concubine Liu gave birth to her.
When Zhao Fujin returned to his parents' home, they were chatting away, so Concubine Liu told Zhao Fujin the love story that Emperor Huizong had told him. Zhao Fujin had a very good relationship with Cai Chi, so he learned from Cai Chi the love words between Emperor Huizong and Concubine Liu. Cai Chi had the habit of keeping a diary, so he recorded this situation in his diary. This situation in Cai Ji's notes was accidentally read by Cai Jing, and Cai Jing then learned about the love words between Emperor Huizong and Concubine Liu.
In order to make Emperor Huizong trust Wang Laozhi, Cai Jing told Wang Laozhi what Emperor Huizong and Concubine Liu had said, and secretly told Wang Laozhi to do this in front of Huizong.
Wang Laozhi also wanted to make friends with Cai Jing, so he listened to Cai Jing's advice.
Immediately, Wang Laozhi entered the palace according to the order and had an audience with Emperor Huizong.
In order to show his magical power, Wang Laozhi deliberately presented a secret letter mysteriously when he met with Emperor Huizong.
Emperor Huizong was curious, so he took the secret seal presented by Wang Laozhi and opened it to read.
Wang Laozhi's secret seal clearly contains the love words that Emperor Huizong said to Concubine Liu during the Mid-Autumn Festival last year.
Emperor Huizong secretly said that he was surprised! My heart is like, God, how can this Taoist know about such a secret thing about me? Is it possible to really predict the unknown?
Emperor Huizong secretly admired Wang Laozhi's magic and gave Wang Laozhi the title of Mr. Donghui.
Isn't that right? Even the whispers between the emperor and the concubine are clearly understood. Isn't it Mr. Dong Hui? !
