Chapter 6 Wang Shuwen: The whole world is turbid and I am alone

Wang Shuwen realized that if the military power in the hands of eunuchs could not be seized, the fire of reform that had just been ignited might be extinguished at any time.On the third day of May, Wang Shuwen, in the name of the emperor, appointed Fan Xichao, the former right Jinwu general, as the envoy of the camps in the cities and towns of the left and right shences in the west of Beijing, and appointed Duzhi Langzhong Han Tai as the marching commander. At this time, the left and right shence troops stationed in the west of Chang'an were the most elite troops of the Central Forbidden Army. Since Emperor Dezong returned to Luan, eunuchs have been in charge.Wang Shuwen's appointment is obviously repeating the old trick.He hopes to push the veteran Fan Xichao to the front and replace the eunuch, and then let his confidant Han Tai take over Fan Xichao and take control of the real power.

But Wang Shuwen's wishful thinking this time was completely wrong. The army is different from civil institutions, and it is absolutely impossible to obtain the loyalty of the army overnight with just a letter of appointment from the emperor.One of the very important reasons is that the generals of the forbidden army at all levels and eunuch leaders such as Ju Wenzhen have already established deep-rooted interest relations.So don't say that a young civil servant like Han Tai has nothing to sing at all, even if a veteran with deep qualifications like Fan Xichao takes the lead, the generals of the Imperial Army may not buy him.

Soon, Wang Shuwen will understand this helplessly. On May 23rd, Ju Wenzhen and others threatened Shunzong again, and gave Wang Shuwen the title of servant of the household department, but removed him from the post of Hanlin bachelor.It stands to reason that with the title of Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, the position of the Imperial Academy is not important, but the problem is that Wang Shuwen has always used this position to sit in the Imperial Academy to lead the reform, and now he is removed. The status of Hanlin bachelor is tantamount to expelling him from the stronghold of reformists.

This move is very damaging, of course Wang Shuwen and others cannot accept it.Wang Yu immediately came forward and went to Shushunzong, requesting to retain Wang Shuwen's Hanlin bachelor's degree.However, the result still disappointed Wang Shuwen and others.The eunuch group quickly responded in the name of the emperor, allowing Wang Shuwen to enter the Imperial Academy every three to five days, but the request for reinstatement was exempted. Wang Shuwen realized painfully and angrily that at this moment the emperor Li Song had basically been controlled by Ju Wenzhen and others. The power of the eunuch really caught him by surprise.

In the following days, things that made Wang Shuwen more painful and angry followed one after another. That was not a blow from the opposition, but from an internal split in the reform camp - Prime Minister Wei Zhiyi has changed from his comrade-in-arms to his enemy. The reason why Wang Shuwen and Wei Zhiyi turned against each other is first of all that their personalities and ways of dealing with the world are too different.Wang Shuwen must not be harsh, hard to tolerate, has too many enemies, and his expectations for reform are too high, and his methods of attacking political opponents are too harsh; while Wei Zhiyi's temperament is relatively soft, his way of handling things is more tactful, and he pays more attention to tactics, but also a little less Integrity, a little more scheming.

In early June, a fortuitous event turned this potential difference between the two into an open conflict. The matter originated from a magistrate named Yang Shier. Because this person was dissatisfied with Wang Shuwen's reforms, he took advantage of the opportunity of going to Beijing to do business, and openly criticized Wang Shuwen's policies on various occasions.Wang Shuwen was furious, and decided to kill everyone, and prepared to issue an imperial edict in the name of the emperor to behead Yang Shier.Ke Wei Zhiyi firmly opposed it.Wang Shuwen had no choice but to take a step back and demanded that he be beaten to death with a stick.Wei Zhiyi still refused, and only demoted Yang Shi'er to a county captain in a remote mountainous area.Wang Shuwen was so angry that he scolded Wei Zhiyi in front of others.The two fell into a deadlock.All members of the Reform Party were deeply disturbed by this, but there was nothing they could do about it.

Around this time, a similar incident further intensified the conflict between the two. It was at the end of May that Xichuan Jiedu envoy Wei Gao sent his confidant Liu Pi to Chang'an to meet Wang Shuwen in secret, intending to form a community of interests with him.Speaking of which, this Wei Gao can be regarded as a famous man with a reputation far and wide.Over the years, since he was in charge of Xichuan, the vicious Tibetans could no longer cross the border, and they suffered a lot in his hands.Because of this, Wei Gao has always been somewhat self-reliant.The purpose of his sending Liu Pi here this time is firstly to get close to Wang Shuwen, an upstart in the court, and secondly to make a deal with him.

What deal? Wei Gao felt that Xichuan's territory was too small, and wanted to use Wang Shuwen's influence in the court to help him seek Dongchuan (the government of Zizhou, now Santai County, Sichuan) and Shannan Xidao (the government of Xingyuan, now Hanzhong City, Shaanxi). ), and took all the land of Sanchuan into his pocket; in exchange, he was willing to serve as Wang Shuwen's foreign aid, to cheer for his reform actions, and to use force to help him if necessary. If Wang Shuwen had been more sophisticated, pragmatic and flexible, he should not have rejected this olive branch.

Because, in terms of Wei Gao's strength and prestige, if he can become an ally of the reformers, it will definitely be of great help to Wang Shuwen.But unfortunately, Wang Shuwen has never been a sophisticated, pragmatic, and flexible person, so it is impossible for him to accept this olive branch. When Liu Pi came to see Wang Shuwen, Wang Shuwen didn't give him a good face as soon as he met him.Of course Liu Pi was upset, so his tone of voice became wilder.He said: "Taiwei (Wei Gao's central official position) asked me to express my sincerity to you. If you can put Xichuan, Dongchuan, and Shannan West Road under the jurisdiction of Taiwei, then he will repay it with death; if you don't give , he will definitely repay it in other ways!"

When Wang Shuwen heard this, he immediately flew into a rage. He didn't want to make friends with a martial artist like Wei Gao. Although he had some military merits, he was still a warlord after all. Wang Shuwen felt that it was an insult to him to come to him for a deal.At this moment, this lobbyist who looks like a cowhide but is actually not a fart actually said "repay each other in other ways". Is this discussing things?This is simply a blatant threat and intimidation! Wang Shuwen was so angry that he threw Liu Pi out immediately, and then gave Wei Zhiyi the order to clean up Liu Pi.

This order is still one word: cut! But Wei Zhiyi still gave him one word: No! Liu Pi did not complete the task assigned by the leader, so he stayed in the capital temporarily, intending to find other breakthroughs.But a few days later, he heard that Yang Shier was almost slaughtered because he offended Wang Shuwen. Only then did he realize that something was wrong, and quickly fled back to Chengdu. When Wang Shuwen heard that Liu Pi had escaped, he took all his anger on Wei Zhiyi.Wei Zhiyi played Tai Chi with him, and sent someone to apologize to him, saying: "I will never break our original covenant. Everything I do now is to help my dear brother's career!" Wang Shuwen yelled at him, saying he was trying to quibble. Wei Zhiyi didn't bother to explain. Since then, the relationship between the two has completely broken down, and the situation is the same. To say that Wei Zhiyi's apology was a sophistry did not wrong him, because Wei Zhiyi did have his own little girl. The so-called struggle of opinions is all false, and only the struggle of interests is real. In the past, when he was also a young scholar, Wei Zhiyi, like Wang Shuwen, was full of ideals of managing the world and helping the people, but as he stayed in the officialdom for a long time, his old ideals became paler and paler.Especially after becoming prime minister, Wei Zhiyi felt that there was nothing more important in the world than the black yarn on his head.Therefore, when Wang Shuwen was still pointing fingers at him like in the past, even bossing him around, Wei Zhiyi's resistance and disgust could be imagined. To put it bluntly, he felt that with his current status as prime minister, there was no need for him to be controlled by Wang Shuwen anymore.If this kind of behavior is crossing the river and demolishing the bridge, then Wei Zhiyi would rather demolish the bridge than be Wang Shuwen's puppet and vase again. For Wei Zhiyi's mentality, Wang Shuwen naturally saw it clearly. Therefore, Wang Shuwen's hatred for Wei Zhiyi is not only his betrayal of friendship, but his betrayal of the cause of reform. In Wang Shuwen's eyes, reform is an ideal, a belief, and the whole meaning of his life. But in Wei Zhiyi's eyes, what is reform?It's just a tool, a springboard, and a speculative means for him to exchange for high officials and rich salary. Thinking of all this, Wang Shuwen had only one mood other than anger. That is loneliness. A vast and invisible loneliness that fills the sky and the earth. A kind of loneliness where the whole world is turbid and I am alone clear, and the whole world is ignorant and I am alone awake... Xichuan Jiedu envoy Wei Gao had a bad nose at Wang Shuwen, and couldn't help becoming angry from embarrassment, so he deliberately presented two memorials. The first one is for Emperor Li Chan: "Your Majesty has become sick from overwork, and he has to take care of everything, so his body will not recover for a long time. Please temporarily order the crown prince to supervise the country, wait for your majesty to recover, and then let the crown prince return to the East Palace. As a general and prime minister, what you say now is your duty." The second is for Prince Li Chun: "The Holy Majesty entrusts political affairs to his ministers, but he does not entrust them to people. Although Wang Shuwen, Wang Yi, and Li Zhongyan have heavy responsibilities, they reward and punish arbitrarily, corrupt the court, and plant parties for personal gain." , internal and external collusion. The minister is deeply afraid that his disaster will set up Xiaoqiang, dump Taizong's prosperity, and destroy your highness's homeland. I hope that your highness will start to play the emperor immediately, reprimand the small groups, and let the government go to the master, so that the four directions will be safe." This Wei Gao is obviously not a fuel-efficient lamp. These two memorials show that he has a highly keen political sense.He knew that Wang Shuwen's only backer was the emperor, except for the emperor, almost everyone was Wang Shuwen's enemy.Therefore, as long as he, Wei Gao, stands with Prince Li Chun, and finds a way to push Li Chun up and get Shunzong down, then there will be many people in the world who want to clean up Wang Shuwen, and there is no need for Wei Gao himself to do it.In other words, the day the "Prince Supervising the Country" is accomplished, the day Wang Shuwen will die without a place to bury him. Immediately after Wei Gao went to Shu Shun, Jingnan Jiedu envoy Pei Jun, Hedong Jiedu envoy Yan Shou and others also went to Shu Shunzong one after another, saying exactly the same thing as Wei Gao. In this way, the united front against Wang Shuwen was established virtually. The prince, the eunuch, and the feudal town, these three forces are twisted together, and the only result is only one - Shunzong is over, the reform is over, and Wang Shuwen is definitely dead.