Liu Bei pointed out this key point.
The eunuchs did not want to directly intervene in the matter, and obviously did not want to overly stimulate the scholar group, so they used Xu Kuan and Zhang Ji as pawns to charge into the battle and try to provoke infighting among the scholars.
In this case, if everyone tries to take advantage of others and becomes Xu Kuan and Zhang Ji, what can the eunuch do?
After figuring out this joint, a group of people were overjoyed and immediately began to discuss the relevant content enthusiastically.
How to collect dirty information about Xu Kuan and Zhang Ji, how to attack Xu Kuan and Zhang Ji, how to use public opinion to force the two of them to death, etc.
In this regard, their operation is very mature, and it can be said that the risk of doing so is very low. Compared with directly attacking the eunuch, the risk of doing so is really very low.
The political rules of the Eastern Han Dynasty were that the Three Dukes had lost all their authority. Without the support of the emperor and the appointment of Shangshu Shi, the Three Dukes were purely political vases without much actual power and only had high positions.
Therefore, the removal of the Three Dukes was not a big deal in the eyes of the Eastern Han Dynasty. As long as there were some strange phenomena or natural disasters, it would be natural for the Three Dukes to be removed.
Taiwei, Sikong, and Situ were randomly selected to be dismissed as the emperor's response to heaven.
In this way, we pray to God to forgive them for their "sincerity" and not to continue to bring disasters.
In addition, when someone impeaches San Gong and exposes some dirty information about San Gong, San Gong is also very likely to face being removed from office.
What's more important is that the position of the Three Lords can be bought with money.
This is what Liu Bei and Cao Cao talked about while drinking after they got acquainted.
In the first year of Guanghe, Emperor Ling Liu Hong publicly opened an office outside Hongdu Gate to sell his officials.
As long as you can afford it, you can buy a title, an official position of 2,000 shi, or an official position of 400 to 600 shi, or even the title of Three Dukes.
Of course, there are no hidden rules when it comes to buying an official position. It costs a lot of money. A position of two thousand dan requires 20 million yuan, a position of 400 dan requires 4 million yuan, and so on.
The price of Sangong varies, mainly depending on the buyer's interpersonal relationship and family size. You can buy it for as little as 5 million, and you can buy it for more than 100 million.
So from this point of view, those who buy official positions are actually either rich or noble, and not everyone can do so.
The actual situation is also the same. The phenomenon of selling officials and getting titles in the late Eastern Han Dynasty is not without practical reasons.
The first one is naturally that the Han Empire was in financial crisis at that time.
This is something that will happen in the late period of any imperial dynasty. The collapse of the empire stems from the collapse of finances, which is not difficult to understand.
The second point is that buying and selling officials has long been a common practice in the Han Empire. Emperor Ling was not the first to do so. This happened a long time ago, but the relevant behavior has always been carried out secretly in the form of unspoken rules and has never been made public.
When high-ranking officials seek promotion, they will certainly spend a large amount of public relations expenses to ask for help from personnel officials, and then spend some money to build public opinion and momentum.
This third point is what Liu Hong sees more clearly.
Even though the sons of high-ranking noble families pretend to be more noble than the other, there must be a lot of illegal income piled up in their homes.
One or two are not only high-ranking officials, but also super big landowners. They control a large amount of land, own a large number of tenants, and control a huge amount of wealth.
Therefore, Liu Hong's move actually brought the hidden political rules of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the surface, and took the public relations expenses that were originally given to some officials into his own hands.
Anyway, you have to spend money to obtain official positions. Instead of giving it to others, it is better to give it directly to His Majesty the Emperor. I clearly mark the price, hand over the money and deliver the goods, and there is no middleman to make the difference.
Perfect!
This is equivalent to directly grabbing money from some powerful people and transferring the money originally earned by them to the Ling Emperor himself, which is equivalent to "competing with the people for profit".
Of course, the powerful men hated this very much. They felt that the emperor and the eunuchs were really unworthy and were simply messing around, disturbing their money making. It was even less possible to say good things about him in various public and private situations.
Of course, this is not all good. The disadvantage is that it affects the sanctity and mystery of the Eastern Han Dynasty imperial power.
The people who were originally unaware of this part of the insider trading - local powerful groups also successfully learned about this part of the insider trading, knowing that the power that they thought was sacred and inviolable could actually be obtained in this way.
Objectively, this promoted the disintegration process of the Eastern Han Empire.
At least for now, people's respect for the three senior officials no longer exists, and even civilians and low-level officials without official positions can plot to oust the three senior officials.
"If we want to impeach these two people, I can ask many of my friends to help write a letter."
Yuan Shao first expressed his position: "But this may not be enough. After all, they are high-ranking officials of the Three Dukes, and they are backed by eunuchs. We also need more direct evidence to prove that they violated the law."
"Not only that, we also need to have high-level officials willing to cooperate with us. Otherwise, we will be very isolated if we are alone without foreign aid."
Zhang Miao said: "In my opinion, Situ Chen Dan is a good candidate."
"really."
He Yong whispered: "Among the three princes, two have been used by the eunuchs, and only Situ Chen Dan is left. Even if he doesn't want to cause trouble, the eunuchs probably don't want to let him go. We can seek his help."
Yuan Shao nodded.
"Well, what you said makes sense, Chen Dan can try to win over him."
"One more thing, everyone, you need to know that even if we win over Chen Dan and participate in the performance of Xu Kuan and Zhang Ji, there is still a problem whether the performance can be known to His Majesty. Behind them are eunuchs, and eunuchs are not just I pressed down the officials' instructions twice to prevent His Majesty from knowing."
Xu You suddenly mentioned this.
When he said this, everyone present fell into silence.
Indeed, in the struggle between eunuchs and people, there was a very important advantage, that is, they were closer to the emperor and lived around the emperor, while scholar officials were foreign ministers and did not have direct contact with the emperor.
Someone needs to deliver the memorial to the emperor, and not every memorial needs to be seen by the emperor in person. Among them, eunuchs are an important intermediary.
In the same thing, someone took advantage of a good relationship with the eunuch to have his memorial delivered in time, while the enemy's memorial was withheld, so he brought the emperor's rhythm and won the victory.
Now this power is completely controlled by the eunuchs. As long as they guard it tightly, it will be enough to prevent Liu Hong from seeing their memorials.
So, how to break through the eunuch's information blockade on the emperor?
A group of people finally turned their attention to Cao Cao.
Cao Cao straightened up involuntarily.
Just now because his plan was rejected, he was still very depressed and felt that life was boring. Suddenly, his identity was inexplicably useful again.
"My father does know a lot of eunuchs and has a good relationship with them. It's just that this matter is related to the eunuchs' fundamentals. I'm afraid it's not that easy to handle, but I will find a way."
