Chapter 22 Yuan Zhen's official career: officialdom is a net
In all fairness, Mu Zong's court has done its best to suppress the Hebei rebellion this time.For example, in terms of military strength, a total of 170,000 to 80,000 troops were dispatched before and after, and the coach was the former prime minister Pei Du who was able to make decisions and had a long reputation. Li Guangyan and Wu Chongyin were also famous generals under his command. Why is it still a waste of time and money, and no success?
If you ask Mu Zong and his ministers this question, they will definitely emphasize two objective reasons. First, the imperial court is too shy and the treasury is becoming increasingly empty, making it difficult to support a protracted war; The supply line was broken, resulting in the shortage of food and grass on the front line, and naturally the battle could no longer be fought.
It has to be said that the above-mentioned objective factors do exist.However, if the cause of the failure is only blamed on the objective, then the so-called experience and lessons will be out of the question, and it will be meaningless for future generations to study history.
Subjectively speaking, the Muzong court made at least three serious mistakes.
First, Mu Zong and his ministers were short-sighted and made completely wrong predictions about the future situation, thus laying the groundwork for future failures.
At that time, as soon as Mu Zong came to the throne, the prime ministers Xiao Yu and Duan Wenchang suggested to him that since the world was already peaceful, there was no need to keep too many troops, so it should be disarmed at an annual rate of 8%.Mu Zong Li Heng is a playful emperor. He knows nothing about politics and military affairs, and he has no interest in studying it. Hearing this, he immediately implemented it.As a result, those soldiers who were eliminated could not find a way out, so they gathered in groups and turned into bandits.Later, when the Hebei rebellion broke out, these people defected to Zhu Kerong and Wang Tingcouu one after another; on the contrary, the imperial army faced a serious shortage of personnel and had to temporarily recruit some unemployed vagrants to go into battle in a hurry.As a result, the rebels were all well-trained soldiers who fought hundreds of battles, while the imperial court was a gang of mobs who had never fought before, and the merits of both sides were determined.Under such circumstances, no matter how well Pei Du strategized, and no matter how brave Li Guangyan and Wu Chongyin were, they could not save their doomed failure.
Second, in order to control the army, the imperial court sent a group of eunuchs who supervised the army to the front with insufficient success and failure, which greatly interfered and restrained the general's military operations.
In the history of this dynasty, the precedent of using eunuchs to restrain generals was set in the first year of Qianyuan.At that time, it was in the late period of the Anshi Rebellion. In order to complete his achievements in one battle, Tang Suzong Li Heng assembled hundreds of thousands of heavy troops, preparing to wipe out An Qingxu who was entrenched in Yecheng in one fell swoop.Out of distrust of generals, Suzong invented the title of "Envoy of Military Appearance, Consolation and Disposal", and awarded the eunuch Yu Chaoen as the actual commander.What happened later is well known-the battle of Yecheng suffered a disastrous defeat, and the 600,000 army was scattered in an instant.Despite the lessons learned from the past, the later Emperor of the Tang Dynasty still had the same old habits and still had a soft spot for eunuchs.For example, during the reign of Emperor Xianzong, he repeatedly suffered great losses on the battlefield because he favored the eunuchs. Later, because Pei Du pointed out the crux of the problem, he recalled the eunuchs in time to supervise the army. The great victory in Huaixi led to the ensuing "Yuanhe Zhongxing".However, in Mu Zong's reign, everything returned to its original state.The eunuchs in charge of the army still point fingers on the battlefield, and when there are occasional small victories, they fly to report the victory.What's more, some eunuchs even selected some elite soldiers to serve as their own guards, and pushed the remaining old, weak and remnant soldiers into the battlefield.With such a group of plague gods controlling the situation of the war, how can the court's victory start?
The third and most deadly problem is that the Mu Zong court not only sent eunuchs to restrain the generals, but also preferred to dictate to the battlefield thousands of miles away.
According to records, at that time, "everything used soldiers, the actions were all given strategies from the ban, and the orders were changed from day to day", so that the frontline soldiers "did not know what to do".In many cases, the imperial court will ignore the specific situation on the front line and "doesn't matter whether it is possible or not, but only the supervisor orders to fight quickly."The death of Tian Bu, the governor of Weibo, was to some extent caused by the court.
In view of the above three reasons, the loss of the war by Mu Zong's court can be regarded as self-blame and deserved.
If you want to sum up the political performance of Mu Zongjun and his ministers in the past few years in one sentence, maybe you can only use the following eight words-the emperor is fatuous and the prime minister is incompetent.
Since Mu Zong came to the throne, the prime ministers who have appeared successively include Xiao Zu, Duan Wenchang, Cui Zhi, Du Yuanying, and Wang Bo.Regarding these few people, Sima Guang has a comment in the book, which is called "all mediocrity, no long-term strategy... I don't know the general safety and dangers".
Such an evaluation can be described as hitting the nail on the head.
In the spring of the second year of Changqing, Xiao Zu and Duan Wenchang had left the prime minister one after another, and Cui Zhi, Du Yuanying, and Wang Bo were still in the prime minister's team.
Cui Zhi, who became prime minister in August of the fifteenth year of Yuanhe, used to be Yushi Zhongcheng; Du Yuanying, who became prime minister in February of the first year of Changqing, was a minister of the household department, and was a scholar of Hanlin before.Neither of these two people has any outstanding talents, and they are also mediocre after taking the position, which is beyond praise.And Wang Bo, who finally got into the picture, is not a good bird.
This person was originally the envoy of Xichuan Jiedu, and he was able to return to the court by currying favor with eunuchs, so he was quite criticized by the court council.The former prime minister Xiao Zu resigned angrily because he couldn't get used to him, but Mu Zong favored Wang Bo very much, and appointed him as Minister of the Ministry of Punishment and envoy of salt and iron transfer as soon as he returned to the court.
Wang Bo has always been good at flattering horses, and of course he will not disappoint Mu Zong.As soon as he became the transfer envoy of salt and iron, Wang Bo immediately made major arrangements and imposed heavy taxes on the private tea business.But Mu Zong saw that Wang Bo was rich and well-off, and appreciated him even more. It didn't take long for him to become a prime minister, and he still retained his post as a salt and iron transporter.After Wang Bo came to power, he spared no effort to flatter Mu Zong, "It's only about accepting and welcoming, never talking about the safety of the country."
Obviously, none of the prime ministers appointed by Mu Zong after he ascended the throne satisfied the government and the public, and none of them could take the world as their own responsibility.
In February of the second year of Changqing, when the war in Hebei had just ended in compromise, Mu Zong appointed another prime minister.
This person is very talented, and his poems are very good. He has considerable popularity and influence in the poetry circle of the Tang Dynasty.He has written thousands of poems in his life, among which are "Once the sea was too difficult for water, but Wushan is not a cloud", "I sincerely know that this hates everyone, poor and lowly couples mourn for everything", "the white-headed palace maid is here, sitting idle and talking about Xuanzong" and so on. The ancient famous sentence.
This awesome man is Yuan Zhen.
Yuan Zhen, whose courtesy name is Weizhi, lost his father since he was a child, and his family was poor, but he was intelligent by nature and studious, so he was "rarely famous for talent" and became an official at a young age.He and Bai Juyi were on the same rank in the imperial examination and were also good friends. They entered official careers almost at the same time, and their poems were on par with each other, making them the best in the world.It is said that during the Xian and Mu years, those who spoke poetry must be called Yuan and Bai.Yuan Zhen's poems, "From the well-dressed scholars to the sluts in Lu Yan, they have been passed down satirically, and the title is 'Yuan He Ti'." ("Old Tang Book·Biography of Yuan Zhen")
Since he did not have any background or backing, being able to become an official depends on his personal struggle, so Yuan Zhen was very high-spirited and full of ambition when he first entered politics.His first official position was Supplements from the Right, which belonged to the list of admonition officials.
Yuan Zhen believed that since he was an admonisher, he should speak faithfully and point out that Chen Chaozheng was flawed. Therefore, shortly after taking office, he presented a thousand-word memorial to Xianzong who had just ascended the throne at that time.
After reading it, Xianzong appreciated it very much, and then called him in Yanying Hall to ask questions.
The cry of the first test attracted the attention of the emperor, which greatly inspired Yuan Zhen.However, his actions inevitably offended the minister at that time.
In the eyes of those veterans in the officialdom, this brat who dared to talk nonsense to the government before he had worn his black hat for a few days clearly did not know the rules, so he had to give him some flair.
Within a few days, Yuan Zhen was expelled from the court and demoted to Henan County Captain.
Young people who have just entered the society, especially those who have just entered the officialdom, have the greatest advantage that they are not afraid of tigers and dare to shoot at all ugly phenomena, but the biggest disadvantage is that they will not learn a lesson if they stumble.
Yuan Zhen didn't learn to behave because of this setback.A few years later, the imperial court appointed him as the supervisory censor and ordered him to go to Dongchuan.As soon as Yuan Zhen arrived in office, he rolled up his sleeves and dug up an old case. The person involved in the case was the late Dongchuan Jiedu envoy Yan Li.
Since ancient times, power and corruption have always been a pair of twins. The bigger the official, the dirtier the buttocks are. The only difference is whether they are exposed or not.Yuan Zhen found out that Yan Li had abused his power during his lifetime and wantedonly embezzled the property of lower-level officials and common people, and the amount was huge.Xianzong ordered someone to re-examine, and it turned out to be true, but Yan Di was dead, and there was no one to apologise. In a fit of anger, Xianzong punished the governors of the seven states of Dongchuan.As Yan Li's old subordinates, even if they didn't collude with each other, at least they were suspected of covering up without knowing it.
Yuan Zhen's move annoyed those in power again.
The officialdom is like a net. No matter how far apart one official is on the surface, there may be an invisible but solid connection of interests behind it.The young Yuan Zhen couldn't see this net, let alone everything behind this net, so he had to pay the price for it.
At that time, several prime ministers in the court had a deep personal relationship with Yan Li. Seeing that this kid Yuan Zhen used the dead to make a fuss in pursuit of political achievements, he was immediately annoyed and transferred him away from Chang'an immediately. Go to Luoyang, the eastern capital, to sit on the bench.
However, after arriving in Dongdu, Yuan Zhen's bad temper still remained unchanged, and not long after, he set his eyes on his immediate boss, Henan Yin Fangshi, and reported some of his illegal activities to the court.
Emperor Xianzong ordered people to check and confirmed Fang Shi's illegal behavior, so he fined him for one month and called Yuan Zhen back to the court.
Yuan Zhen, who is not afraid of the powerful and outspoken, was demoted twice, but recovered twice, which is enough to show the emperor's trust and appreciation for him.
Yuan Zhen felt very relieved, and became more and more convinced that his way of being an official was correct.
In February of the fifth year of Yuanhe, Yuan Zhen embarked on the road back to Beijing in the warm spring breeze.
However, Yuan Zhen at this time never expected that the biggest setback in his career was already waiting for him not far ahead.
On this day, Yuan Zhen walked to Huazhou, and seeing that it was getting late, he stayed at a post station called "Fushui Post" nearby.At that time, posthouses for receiving officials usually had rooms of upper, middle, and lower sizes. Higher-ranking officials lived in upper rooms, and those of the same level lived on a first-come, first-served basis.When Yuan Zhen arrived at the post station, there was no one living in the upper room, so the post officials naturally arranged for him to be in the upper room.
Moments later, trouble came.An eunuch named Liu Shiyuan also came here, clamoring to live in the upper room.The post official saw that he was an eunuch, so he didn't dare to be negligent, so he quickly discussed with Yuan Zhen and asked him to move a place.
The young and vigorous Yuan Zhen didn't like eunuchs, and he came first, so of course he refused to let him go.The post official had no choice but to tell Liu Shiyuan the truth.
As soon as Liu Shiyuan inquired about it, he was just a little censor who was not in the top class. He dared to compete with him, and suddenly became furious.
At this time, Yuan Zhen had already taken off his clothes and shoes, and was about to go to bed.Liu Shiyuan rushed in ferociously, without any explanation, he swung his whip and hit him in the face.
Yuan Zhen clutched his hot and painful cheeks, and was stunned on the spot.
A hero does not suffer from immediate losses.Yuan Zhen saw that the other party had a lot of people and was carrying a guy with him, so he didn't dare to resist at all, so he ran away quickly, even ignoring his clothes and shoes.
The eunuchs at that time were all arrogant and domineering masters, of course Liu Shiyuan was not willing to let Yuan Zhen go easily.While waving his whip in hot pursuit, he asked his men to take away Yuan Zhen's horse and bring back his bow and arrows, as if he wanted to kill Yuan Zhen.
Yuan Zhen was frightened out of his wits, and ran around the post station wearing socks. Finally, he managed to escape from Fushui post station and returned to Chang'an in a state of embarrassment.
This incident caused an uproar in the court.
As we all know, Emperor Xianzong always favored eunuchs.Although he had a good impression of Yuan Zhen, in this matter, Xianzong finally favored the eunuch.In addition, the prime ministers thought that this boy surnamed Yuan was not pleasing to the eye, but now that this incident happened, they happened to add insult to injury and took him into action.
A few days later, the imperial court demoted Yuan Zhen to Cao Canjun, a Jiangling official, on the grounds that Yuan Zhen was "a young man who is a great success".
When the order of relegation was issued, his friend Bai Juyi was very aggrieved, and went to the doctor to appeal for his grievances.Li Jiang and Cui Qun, who were Hanlin scholars at the time, also met with Emperor Xianzong and said that Yuan Zhen was innocent.
However, Emperor Xianzong remained unmoved and upheld the original verdict.
In this way, Yuan Zhen was expelled from Chang'an for the third time, and began his relegation career of "cutting off thousands of mountains and rivers" and "dark wind and rain into the cold window".
This young and frivolous talent who once showed his sharpness would never have imagined that he would be gone for a whole ten years.
Where did I go wrong?
During the days when he was exiled to Jiangling, Yuan Zhen had been thinking painfully.
Among the sage books that I have read since I was a child, is there any one that does not teach me to be an honest official and help the world and the people?Is there another book that teaches oneself to bow down to the rich and powerful, or even go along with them?
No.
He has always believed that strengthening the righteous and eliminating evil, promoting good and eliminating evil is not only the duty of a scholar, but also the foundation of an official's conduct in the world, and it is also the duty and responsibility that should be fulfilled.Even if it cannot completely eliminate the darkness and evil in the world, at least it must bring more light and justice to the world.However, the cruel reality tells Yuan Zhen that if he continues to insist on this ideal, the result will be only two words - destruction.
After all, Yuan Zhen is a smart person. He soon realized that if he wanted to survive in the dangerous officialdom, he had to abandon the old concept of life and learn new rules of the game.
And the core of this rule is two words: connections.
Yes, officialdom is a network, a network of interest connections made up of contacts.Therefore, those who pretend to be lofty and make enemies on all sides will end up with a dead end, and only being slick in all directions and making good friends is the correct way to be an official.In the end, Yuan Zhen, who was beaten to the ground in front of the iron wall of reality, after a painful soul struggle, finally woke up suddenly, had a great understanding, and began to weave his own network of relationships.
Yuan Zhen's first official network was an eunuch named Cui Tanjun, who was then Jiangling's military supervisor.
Yuan Zhen hated eunuchs the most in the past, and it was the eunuchs who caused him to get to where he is today, so when he was relegated to Jiangling, he hated the eunuchs to the bone.But now, Yuan Zhen no longer thinks so.Because, in a sense, the whip that Liu Shiyuan lashed at Fushuiyi had already killed the jealous Yuan Zhen.
Today's Yuan Zhen has been completely reborn, he will no longer pretend to be lofty, and flaunt himself to the world as a gentleman, and he will no longer stick to the sage ideal of cultivating Qi Zhiping.Now he just wants to let go of his figure and make friends. No matter who he is, as long as his thighs are thick enough, he is willing to hug them.
And Cui Tanjun is just a friend with thick thighs.
Because he is the old man of Mu Zong Li Heng's East Palace.
In the fourteenth year of Yuanhe, Emperor Xianzong amnesty the world, and Yuan Zhen returned to the court when he was amnesty, and was appointed as a member of the food department, Wailang.The so-called catering department member Wailang refers to the person in charge of food in the palace.Yuan Zhen looked up and saw that the people with him were all juniors who had just entered the official position, while his colleagues who were admonishing officials with him back then were already in the top ranks, and some of them even became high-ranking ministers.
Yuan Zhen's depression and depression can be imagined.
In the fifteenth year of Yuanhe, Mu Zong ascended the throne, Cui Tanjun was recalled to the court, and Yuan Zhen's good days finally came.
As early as when he was the prince, Mu Zong Li Heng often listened to the palace people chanting Yuan Zhen's poems, and had a good impression of him.Of course Cui Tanjun was well aware of this, so as soon as he returned to court, he presented Mu Zong with more than one hundred new works by Yuan Zhen.Mu Zong was very happy, and asked about Yuan Zhen's recent situation by the way.Cui Tanjun quickly explained his embarrassing situation.Mu Zong frowned upon hearing this. How could such a talented person be allowed to take care of food in the cafeteria?
In May of that year, Yuan Zhen was promoted to be a doctor of the ancestral hall and Zhizhigao.This is a position to help the emperor draft the edict, which is equivalent to the emperor's secretary. Although the rank is not high, it is very important.
Yuan Zhen was promoted by eunuchs, so many courtiers were very dissatisfied with this appointment.Unexpectedly, only a few months later, the emperor issued another edict, promoting Yuan Zhen to be a scholar of Hanlin and a scholar of Zhongshu.Everyone knows that at this point, there is only one step away from phase.
Yuan Zhen's soaring skyrocketed, the public opinion in the DPRK and China was in an uproar.He had just been working in Zhongshu Province for a few days, and someone embarrassed him.It was midsummer, and one day during a break at noon, Yuan Zhen and his colleagues gathered to eat watermelon, when a fly flew over and buzzed annoyingly.Wu Ruheng (Wu Yuanheng's cousin) from Zhongshushe immediately picked up his fan and waved it desperately, and said in a low voice, "Where did the annoying things come from, and they came here!"
When everyone heard the words, they immediately turned pale.Wu Ruheng was in a calm mood.Only Yuan Zhen wanted to find a crack in the floor and get in.
However, embarrassment is embarrassment, and Yuan Zhen still does what he should do.
Today's Yuan Zhen is very realistic, he will never be impulsive, and he will never give up weaving his official network because of the cynicism of his colleagues.In fact, from the day he returned to the court, Yuan Zhen had already started to build another important network.
That was Wei Hongjian, the eunuch who was the privy envoy at the time.
Relying on Cui Tanjun's line, Yuan Zhen squeezed into the power center; now, he is climbing up Wei Hongjian's high branch, of course, with the purpose of ascending to the position of prime minister in one fell swoop.
However, if Yuan Zhen wants to manage his aspect, he must remove a stumbling block in front of him.
This stumbling block is Pei Du.
At this time, when the Hebei rebellion broke out in an all-round way, Mu Zong urgently appointed Pei Du as his commander, and relied heavily on him.As we all know, Pei Du has unrivaled prestige and influence in the court and the public. If this time the rebellion is successfully suppressed and he makes new contributions to the court, then he will most likely return to the position.At that time, what will Yuan Zhen compete with Pei Du?
Therefore, to prevent Pei Du's reunification, Yuan Zhen must do everything possible to prevent him from making contributions in Hebei.
We are very clear about what happened next - Pei Du and the soldiers fought bloody battles on the front line, while Yuan Zhen and Wei Hongjian tried their best to trip him up in the rear.What we said earlier that "every use of troops and actions are given strategies by self-restraint, and orders are changed from day to day" is basically the ghost of Yuan Zhen and Wei Hongjian. "Du (Pei Du) played and painted military paintings, and (Yuan Zhen) was mostly frustrated with Hongjian."
Pei Du couldn't bear it anymore, and angrily went to Mu Zong: "The rebellion against the vertical will shock Shandong (east of Taihang Mountain); treacherous officials will be friends and defeat the country's government. If your majesty wants to sweep up the quiet town, you should first clean up the court. ...... If all the treacherous officials in the court go away , the rebels in Heshuo will not seek peace; if there are still treacherous officials in the court, it will be useless for the rebels to be pacified!" (Volume 242)
The "traitor" that Pei Du kept talking about was of course Yuan Zhen.
So far, the contradictions between the two parties have fallen into an irreconcilable situation.
On the one hand, there are honorable officials, who shoulder the important task of countering the rebellion; on the other hand, the upstarts of the court, who are favored by the emperor.No one knows who Mu Zong's inner balance will eventually lean towards...