Chapter 10 An emperor who loves to do business

Since Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty handed over the government affairs to eunuchs and ten permanent servants who were comparable to "parents", he himself no longer bothered about these things.But he is still a teenager at this time, it is the time when he loves to play and move, and he will not sleep in the harem every day, he always finds some ways for himself to entertain himself.Speaking of which, the emperor was very economical, and his favorite thing was doing business. The emperor's interest in doing business is also related to his origin.He was originally the son of a little Tinghou, who belonged to the impoverished royal family. If he hadn't been lucky enough to become the emperor, he would be equivalent to a small landlord among the people.However, although he became the emperor, he did not forget his roots, and still maintained the style of a small landlord in the countryside.The emperor is known as the lord of the world and is rich all over the world, but in the eyes of Emperor Ling, these are too empty, and he feels that the money must be held in his own hands.Therefore, every time foreign countries, counties, and feudal states pay tribute, before it is included in the national treasury, he will take the tribute and keep it for private use, and send it directly to the palace, which is also called "guide fee".Even the eunuch Lu Qiang beside him couldn't stand this kind of behavior.I wrote a memorial to tactfully persuade him that as the emperor, he should put the world first and not disturb the common people for a few small money.Before Lingdi finished reading it, he was furious, threw the memorial on the ground, and scolded Lu Qiang to be hateful to his "father" Zhang Rang. "Father" naturally followed him, and also scolded Lu Qiang.From then on, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty continued to go his own way, and the "guide fee" was accepted as usual.

Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty collected a lot of "guide fees" and accumulated a large sum of money for himself, so he set up a small treasury in Xiyuan to store the money.With a huge amount of principal and wealth, he started his own commercial business and built a "commercial street" in the harem.Imitating the street market outside, there are also various shops and vendors. Some of the maids and concubines pretend to be various merchants selling goods, the other part pretends to be shopping customers, and some pretends to be singers and monkeys.The variety of things sold is also very rich, from rouge, hairpins, jade pendants to women's underwear, from books, paintings, pianos, chess to various pornographic services, all kinds of, and the bustle is very lively.The emperor himself put on the clothes of a merchant, pretended to be a merchant selling goods, walked around in the market, or drank and had fun in the hotel, or quarreled, fought, and fought with the shopkeeper and customers, and had a good time. Happy.The emperor was so economically savvy, and those "extras" were unambiguous.Many of the goods in this "commercial street" are rare treasures that were looted, and the court ladies and concubines stole away one after another, and even secretly fought endlessly for stealing more from you, but Lingdi didn't care about it at all. have no idea.But it doesn't matter if he knows, the money collected from all over the country will flow into his small treasury.With such sufficient capital, these losses would not be placed in the eyes of his big boss.

However, although Emperor Han Ling was very business-minded, he still did not change his true nature as a small landlord: it is good to have money in hand, but it is still necessary to have a house and land.So, besides starting a "commercial street" with the large amount of money he scavenged, he also took it back to his hometown in Hejian to buy fields, build houses, and invest in real estate.He also has a sense of urgency, and feels that with these family properties, if he fails to become emperor, he can go back and be a local rich man.However, the money he scavenged was really too much, besides buying fields and land, he still had a lot of leftovers.Of course, the wise Han Lingdi knew the truth not to invest all the money in one place, so he put the money in the eunuch's house that was favored by him. The last tens of millions.

The emperor's business is getting bigger and bigger, and the mere "guide fee" is not enough.So Emperor Han Ling used his economic mind to come up with various ways to search.His caring "parents" Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong also offered advice and advice to him, asking him to use the name of building palaces and bronze casters to increase the land tax and pay an extra ten dollars per mu, so that he naturally accumulated a lot of wealth.But Emperor Ling was not satisfied, and ordered the states and counties to transport timber and aragonite to Luoyang, the capital.Let the eunuchs hold the power of inspection and acceptance. They are picky in every possible way during the inspection, and those who are judged to be unqualified will force the states and counties to sell them at a low price of one-tenth of the original price. The eunuchs will then sell them back to the states and counties to earn the difference.Zhou and county bought these unqualified timber and shipped them to Luoyang, but the eunuch still said no.Just like this, the wood was piled up like a mountain, and it was all rotten in the end.The palace has not been completed for several years, but Emperor Ling made a lot of money from it.As for the states and counties that have suffered this big loss, they will inevitably pass on the losses to the common people, but he doesn't care.

However, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty also gradually discovered that although it was effective to think of these money-raising methods, it was still too troublesome.Now that I have become the emperor, I have to give full play to the advantage of the emperor as a resource.Finally, he discovered that the emperor held a unique and hot product, that is, the official position. This trick was provided to him by his mother, Empress Dowager Dong. Empress Dowager Dong was born in a small family, and she was originally a person who was greedy for money. Suddenly, she became the empress dowager overnight, and her greed became even more extreme.Lingdi's searching everywhere, buying land and buying land had received her strong support.Now seeing her precious son worrying about getting money again, Queen Mother Dong, who is of the same heart and mind with him, is naturally very anxious.However, the land tax has almost been raised, and the offerings have long been in the private pockets of Emperor Han Ling, so it is not so easy to find a way to make money.At this time, Empress Dowager Dong learned that the previous generation had sold officials, and she immediately felt that this was a huge potential source of income, she immediately beamed with joy, and reported it to her son.The business-minded Emperor Ling of Han also hit it off, and immediately issued an edict to set up an agency to sell officials in Shanglinyuan to sell officials openly.

The prostitution of officials in the Eastern Han Dynasty started with the Empress Dowager Deng, but at that time it was only occasionally, and it was a relatively gentle way to collect money from the rich for "urgent use of the country", and it was not used as a tool for making money.But the situation of Emperor Hanling was different. He took this as the No. 1 business in Tianzi. Clearly mark the price of each official position, and list a price list.The price initially set at that time was: 6 million yuan for an official position with an annual salary of 600 shi, 20 million yuan for an official position with an annual salary of 2,000 shi, and so on, priced according to the official.Except that the emperor's seat is not for sale, everything from the Sangong down to the county magistrate can be bought with money.Even the special talents selected by the state have to pay half or one third of the fee.If it is a fat vacancy or an important position, you have to add money.Of course, it’s not very pleasant to say that buying an official with money is so straightforward, so a special name for the money obtained from selling an official is "liqian"-it is just a gift from a loyal official to the court, so the buyer Seller, there is nothing to be ashamed of.

The big business of selling officials by Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty lasted from the first year of Guanghe (178) to the first year of Zhongping (184).If the business has been done for a long time, the price will also be adjusted according to the market.Because local officials directly face the people, it is more convenient to scrape land, and the price is twice as high as that of court officials. The rich and poor of the counties are different, and the price of county officials is also different.Not only do commoners want to be officials, but even officials who want to be promoted have to pay for it.In order to stimulate their enthusiasm for paying money, those who seek official positions can also evaluate their bids, and the person with the highest bid can win the bid.Of course, the price of buying an official is not fixed, and it can also increase or decrease at any time according to the worth and property of the applicant.For example, Cui Lie wanted to be Situ, because he came from a famous family in the north and was a famous scholar, so he bought Situ worth 10 million for only 5 million through his connections.On the day of worship, the palace held a grand worship ceremony. The Lingdi came to the front of the hall in person, and all the officials stood in silence.Looking at Cui Lie's smug look, Emperor Ling suddenly felt that the position of Situ was too cheap for him, and couldn't help but muttered regretfully to his entourage: "This official is at a loss. He should have been paid 10 million." The Zhongchang attendant then interjected: "He can pay five million, which is already very good. Your Majesty, you need to have a sense of brand. How can a celebrity in Jizhou like Cui Gong be willing to buy an official easily? Now even he recognizes your majesty's products. It just happened to be a free advertisement for us, and this position will be more popular in the future. Your Majesty is still worried that you won’t be able to get it back?” Afterwards, Cui Lie’s son said to him: “Your Excellency really shouldn’t buy this Sangong. This official has the smell of copper." The allusion of "copper smell" came from here.

Even so, Emperor Ling was not very willing to sell his official position at a discount.Therefore, he stipulated that in the future, officials must pay one-third or one-fourth of the official post price for transfer, promotion, or appointment of new officials.As a result, many officials were frightened to abandon their official positions because they could not pay such a high "official fee".If no one is an official, wouldn't Emperor Han Ling lose money in his business?Therefore, some people refused to take bribes and break the law, and asked not to be officials, but were forced to send them.For example, Sima Zhi was a well-known upright official at that time, so the emperor specially reduced the price, only charged him three million yuan, and appointed him as the prefect of Julu County.After getting the edict, Sima Zhi was very reluctant, and wanted to ask for leave in the name of not taking up his post, but he couldn't get approval, so he had no choice but to reluctantly agree.Walking on the road, the more he thought about it, the more angry he became, he wrote to the emperor, and after citing scriptures and criticizing the current disadvantages, he committed suicide by taking poison.

Of course, there are far too few people who are as determined as Sima Zhi.Emperor Han Ling was so "economically savvy", those officials were not fools.Most people desperately make money as soon as they become officials, trying to earn back the money they paid for buying officials in the shortest possible time.This will naturally increase the exploitation of the common people, causing mourning everywhere, and the people living in dire straits, which is another heavy smear on Lingdi's dark rule.