Previously, Liu Bei had planned to transfer all the power of the inner palace to the Shaofu to handle it, and establish a big housekeeper system like a normal big family in the outside world.
But then he thought about it, and the royal family was different from ordinary families. There would be problems if things were applied mechanically. If the eunuchs were not given any power, some bad phenomena would inevitably occur in the young mansion.
Even though the Shaofu is the emperor's personal butler, he is still an outsider after all. When it comes to matters involving the eunuchs who serve him closely, it is better for the eunuchs to maintain a relatively independent position.
Otherwise, even the people around the emperor would be controlled by the chief steward. Wouldn’t the authority of the chief steward be too great?
So Liu Bei took back the authority of the Shaofu and handed it over to Zhang Rang, who asked Zhang Rang to set up an internal affairs office. Zhang Rang himself served as the general manager of the internal affairs office and took charge of all eunuch affairs, from the selection of eunuchs to Specific services are managed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The food, clothing, housing, transportation, food and clothing of the royal members are all arranged and managed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. All internal affairs of the royal family are taken care of by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, including Liu Bei's own food, clothing and daily life. The Ministry of Internal Affairs also has to be deeply involved to solve all internal affairs for Liu Bei. trouble.
As a result, the main responsibility of the Shaofu to the Ministry of Internal Affairs is to provide funds, but not to participate in specific service operations.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs is in charge of all close service matters, but does not control financial power. Funds for activities need to be provided by the junior government, and they must also be reviewed by the junior government in terms of funding.
In the middle, adding the queen, a special being who can intervene in the internal affairs of the palace, allows the three aspects to reach a more delicate balance in the palace's internal affairs, influencing each other and checking and balancing each other.
In this way, the stability of the inner palace can be maintained to a considerable extent.
Zhang Rang was excited about this appointment.
After handing over Dongyuan, he thought he would completely transform back into the super-server who did everything he could to get the upper hand. He would become a senior servant who would serve tea and water before and after the job, doing the job he once relied on. A matter of survival.
After all, after becoming the emperor, Liu Bei became obviously different from the Liu Bei in his impression, and their identities were completely unequal, from former allies to masters and servants.
However, what he didn't expect was that Liu Bei still had an old crush on him, and actually established another Ministry of Internal Affairs, asking him to head the Ministry of Internal Affairs and take charge of the affairs of the eunuchs and maids in the palace. This felt like a higher status than what he had been when he became a regular servant. Even higher.
Because there were twelve regular attendants in the junior high school, but now, there is only one general manager of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
He is the only eunuch and someone close to Liu Bei.
What is trust?
What is Lao Zhang?
A feeling of pride suddenly arose in Zhang Rang's heart.
He even felt that he could proudly claim that he was the only eunuch in Liu Bei's heart.
So, he decided to take care of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and let Liu Bei see that there was a reason why he could become the "father" in Liu Hong's mouth.
According to Liu Bei's request for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Zhang Rang divided the Ministry of Internal Affairs into several departments.
Front-line service department, appliance repair and manufacturing department, family canteen, and external purchasing department.
The front-line service department is dedicated to serving Liu Bei himself and his family. Because they are personal service people who hang out in front of the royal family all day long, their appearance must be passable, regardless of gender.
The young eunuch must be good-looking, and the young palace maid must also be beautiful. Then, he must receive at least three months of special service training in the front-line service department, and must pass an assessment and meet with the elders in the palace before he can finally take office and serve the royal family. .
Those who can serve in front of Liu Bei need to be personally assessed and reviewed by Zhang Rang. There can be no mistakes. If Liu Bei frowns, it will be Zhang Rang's great failure.
And in order to ensure safety, the eunuchs and maids who can come to the front-line service department must understand the identities and backgrounds of the three generations of their ancestors. Anyone who has the slightest connection with Liu Bei's enemies will be passed directly and will also be investigated.
As for how many enemies Liu Bei has, Zhang Rang, who has been working closely with Liu Bei for a long time, knows very well, so it is really appropriate to leave this matter to him.
The appliance repair and manufacturing department is dedicated to making or repairing utensils for the royal family, and all require craftsmanship. Eunuchs must master carpentry, and palace maids must master textile and embroidery skills, otherwise they will never be able to get in.
The family cafeteria is also important.
Because the inner palace is inconvenient for outsiders to enter, Zhang Rang decided to train his own cooks for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He will send a group of young eunuchs and maids with cooking experience to serve as apprentices to the master chefs in the central kitchen of the imperial city. After a while, I will come over and cook for the nobles in the inner palace.
The purchasing department collects operating expenses from the Shaofu every month in accordance with regulations, sends the pocket money to each palace first, and then purchases all the materials needed for each season according to the rules and regulations.
All in all, Zhang Rang built the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a miniature service court. He also wrote a construction plan for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, found a free time, and handed the plan to Liu Bei for review.
At that time, Liu Bei had just had lunch and was taking a nap. Zhang Rang handed the plan to Liu Bei to read. Liu Bei took it and looked at it, and he was happy.
"Okay, Lao Zhang, it seems that you haven't improved since I told you back then. The plan is very organized. Even if these things are done, is it too much money?"
Zhang Rang's face immediately smiled like a chrysanthemum in full bloom.
"Your Majesty, isn't it right to spend a little money to do things for you and the people around you? The young master will not be able to get even this little money. I know that you have always been frugal, and everything here is after frugality. of."
"Is this all after frugality?"
Liu Bei was a little surprised: "What if you are not frugal?"
"The money spent in preparing a Western Garden for the late Emperor was enough to build ten of your current Houses of Internal Affairs."
Zhang Rang smiled bitterly and said: "If you are really not frugal, you can use all the money in the young manor. It is not even enough. Because you have always been thrifty, this old servant is careful with your calculations. To put it bluntly, even if the late emperor came from Jiangnan Introducing some fighting cocks and lackeys, etc., will cost more than a small kitchen in the Ministry of Internal Affairs."
"Did the late emperor spend so much money?"
Liu Bei was a little surprised.
He knew that Liu Hong liked money and was very good at making money. He also knew that Liu Hong was very good at spending money, but he really didn't know how much he spent.
As an important participant in Liu Hong's making and spending money, Zhang Rang was of course well aware of this, so he used his fingers to calculate for Liu Bei how Liu Hong spent his money.
It was okay when Liu Honggang became emperor, and he didn't spend a lot of money. But when he built the West Garden, he really spent money like water. The cost of going to Luoyang is enough to run a house of this size for more than half a year.
"Actually, those big things are not worth much in themselves, but when they are transported all the way, people eat horse chews on the way. A little delay can cost hundreds of people several months, and some people can enrich their own pockets and spend such money. The flowing water is really not just talk."
Zhang Rang said with an expression that he had come from before: "But His Majesty has always been simple and hates his subordinates spending money indiscriminately, so I paid more attention to this aspect and blocked some holes so that some people could not get involved in corruption." ."
Liu Bei nodded.
"Sure enough, professional matters should still be left to professional talents. Lao Zhang, you are not as good as me in running the country, and I am not as good as you in handling internal affairs. I don't ask for anything, not even exotic animals, flowers, birds, fish, insects, etc., I don't want them. Having enough food and clothing is enough. For the rest, if you save more money, I can give the soldiers a few more meals of meat."
"Your Majesty, don't worry, I will do my best!"
Zhang Rang paused.
Liu Bei also considered the decision to leave Zhang Rang to handle internal affairs. Now it seems that this decision was not wrong.
No one knows how to be corrupt better than a master of corruption. Naturally, if you use him in reverse and practice the Sutra of Corruption backwards, you can also make the corrupt person have no way out for a while.
As for whether there will be new roads as time goes by, that's for sure, but at least the old roads are blocked. It takes time to open up new routes. This time is enough for Liu Bei to do a lot of things.
There are many important things at present, both concrete and cultural and ideological. The compilation and early release of "Chiade Tongyi" is one of them.
This "Constitution of the Han Dynasty" compiled based on the premise that the ancient literature school was in power was being processed in an intense and orderly manner before the regime change, and almost one-third of it was completed.
Then Liu Bei became emperor, and only one-third of the people who were responsible for compilation were left. Two-thirds were killed by Liu Bei because they were involved with Zheng Tai and others.
Now "Jia De Tong Yi" has no idea how to proceed, so everyone looked at the new Minister of Rites, Ruan Yu, and asked Ruan Yu to make up his mind.
How on earth will the Constitution of the Han Dynasty be compiled, and how will the public opinion and ideological system of the newly born Third Han Dynasty be constructed?
Do you, the Minister of Rites, want to come up with an idea?
After Ruan Yu learned about it, he was also very confused.
Ruan Yu can make his own decisions on ordinary matters, but this matter involves too much and cannot be decided by the Minister of Rites alone. Ruan Yu is not sure about making a decision, so he still wants to ask Liu Bei for his opinion.
After all, you, old man, have wiped out the family that controls the inheritance of "Zhou Guan Li", and you have thrown all the living people into the border areas. Now without their certification and endorsement, how can this "Jia De Tong Yi" borrow the content of other people's classics and meanings? To compile it?
One day at the end of November, Ruan Yu came to see Liu Bei with a third-of-compiled draft of Jiade Tongyi and asked him for "tactical guidance."
After learning about this matter, Liu Bei gave some opinions of his own.
"The absence of the inheritance family does not mean that there are no classic articles. The article itself is there. How to do it, can't you decide on your own? If the inheritance family is gone, it will be gone. The classic articles no longer need their explanation. The court cannot explain it by itself. ?"
Ruan Yu smiled bitterly.
"General article classics don't matter, but in the opinion of everyone, it is more appropriate for the content of this kind of family classic article to be confirmed by someone who has passed down the family classic..."
"The person who passed down the classics in his family is dead."
Liu Bei sneered: "Do living people need to care about what a group of dead people think? Classical articles are originally the property of the imperial court and were decided by the emperor. It was only that the previous emperors were young and could not master the classics, so they stole the classics."
Not only did they openly claim it as their own, but they actually had the nerve to say it was their family heirloom? If it's not convenient for you, just show it to me and I'll make the decision myself. It's a family heirloom? What family tradition? There has never been a family tradition! Only Chinese studies! "
Liu Bei slapped the table, frightening the people around him.
Ruan Yu searched for Liu Bei's meaning and suddenly had some bold ideas.
"Your Majesty, the reason why classic articles are studied by families is mainly because some people's interpretation of the meaning of the scriptures is more appropriate. However, each school actually has different views on the interpretation of the meanings of the scriptures, and only one of them has been accepted. Approved by the court.
In fact, the root cause, as His Majesty said, is the relationship between the approval of the imperial court. If the imperial court no longer recognizes it, then such an explanation will naturally not be recognized by the people of the world. Therefore, why doesn't Your Majesty take back the power of interpretation of classics to the imperial court? Take back the emperor? "
"Take it back to the emperor?"
Liu Bei was stunned for a moment, but quickly reacted.
Ruan Yu is right.
The right to interpret classics actually originated from the White Tiger Temple Conference during the period of Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty.
From the very beginning, the power of segmentation and annotation of Confucian classics was really in the hands of Emperor Zhang of Han Dynasty. The entire "White Tiger Tongyi" was discussed by old Confucian scholars and then handed over to Emperor Zhang of Han Dynasty for personal decision-making.
How to explain the Confucian classics and the constitution of the Han Dynasty were controlled by Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty. He inherited the greatly expanded imperial power handed over to subsequent emperors by Liu Xiu and achieved the great cause of the Holy Emperor. It is a pity that the subsequent monarchs did not live long, so this Power gradually fragmented and was lost.
From official and emperor's to private and family.
After more than a hundred years of evolution, people today have almost forgotten that the power to interpret Confucian classics was still in the hands of the emperor and the government. The major families said it was inherited, but they could only bow their heads and obey orders. Whatever the emperor said was whatever it was. .
Few emperors after Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty lived to adulthood, and could not control this crucial right to interpret classics. Therefore, the right to interpret the classics naturally fell into the hands of "highly respected" family heirs.
The practice has been passed down for more than a hundred years, and everyone has even considered these doctrines to be private rather than official.
That's why Liu Bei had such a big advantage before.
But as of now, Liu Bei, who has mastered this huge advantage, has become the emperor. His imperial power has far exceeded that of the adult Emperor Huan of Han and Emperor Ling of Han, and is even more stable than Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu.
With the blessing of such powerful power, coupled with his own extremely profound foundation in Confucianism, why can't he work harder and return the power of interpreting Confucian classics to the emperor and the imperial court again?
This in itself is the power he should have.
This is the important power that Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty left to future generations of emperors.
So Liu Bei was confused.
"Yuan Yu, your words have awakened the dreamer. You are right. It has always been a matter that can only be decided by the court. How can you still treat your power as being stolen by these thieves? What’s a natural thing? This is absolutely unacceptable.”
Ruan Yu showed a proud smile as if he had made great achievements.
"Of course, you are the head of the Wenyue family. There are only three Weyue families in the world. How to deal with it? Isn't it just a matter of your words?"
"That's true, but if I really want to do this, I have to discuss it with my teacher."
Liu Bei smiled and said: "Let's not talk about other things for now. The teacher still needs to pay attention to it. Then let's settle this matter first. You can postpone the compilation until I notify you."
"only."
Ruan Yu paused and left.
After Ruan Yu left, Liu Bei thought for a moment and decided to call Ma Rixi first.
If you want to pick the soft persimmon, start with Ma Rixi, who is easy to handle, and then discuss it with Lu Zhi.
(End of chapter)
