Chapter 4 The Great Arena of the Empire: The Confrontation of the Prime Ministers (Part 1)

Since Zhang Shuodou was brought down in the 14th year of Kaiyuan, financial expert Yu Wenrong has cheered up. He believed that with his own ability and talent, coupled with the emperor's trust and reliance on him, he would definitely be admitted to the cabinet in a short time. But at the same time, he was still a little worried. He was worried that Zhang Shuo would be used by Xuanzong again. Since Zhang said he had the ability to score twice back then, why can't he make a comeback now? In view of this, Yu Wenrong decided to use the spirit of beating a dog in the water, knock Zhang Shuo to the ground, and step on another foot, so that he will never stand up again!

Afterwards, Yu Wenrong once again joined forces with Cui Yinfu, the imperial historian, and began to make friends in the court. While stepping up to build his own power, he frequently presented secret performances to Xuanzong, desperately slandering Zhang Shuo, and was determined to make him bad. Facing Yu Wenrong who was unwilling to rest and aggressive, Zhang said of course he was not idle.Although he has already left the prime minister, he has not been a prime minister for nothing for so many years. There are still many people in the court who have been promoted by him and received favors from him, so Zhang said that with a wave of his hand, a group of old subordinates responded Then, he launched a counterattack to Yu Wenrong.

You want me to die, and I will never let you have a good time! The two sides fought desperately on this. This phenomenon of collective brawls among officials is historically known as "clique dispute". To put it bluntly, it's just that the bosses of both sides invite a bunch of gangsters to fight for their own interests, which is really meaningless. Xuanzong listened to their quarrel every day, and finally got annoyed. With my salary, but fighting all day long because of personal grievances, who will do the work of the court? ! In February of the fifteenth year of Kaiyuan (727 A.D.), Xuanzong issued an edict ordering Zhang Shuo to become an official and still study history at home; Cui Yinfu was dismissed from office and went home to serve his mother; Yu Wenrong was demoted from the imperial court to serve as the governor of Weizhou (now Daming County, Hebei).

Get the hell out of here!Let me be quiet and quiet. However, even though Zhang Shuo and Yu Wenrong were gone, Xuanzong still couldn't be quiet. Because the two prime ministers he just appointed not long ago were not fuel-efficient lamps. Of these two people, one is Li Yuanhong and the other is Du Siam. In terms of personal qualities, these two can actually be regarded as honest and honest officials.Because the former prime minister Zhang said that he was dismissed because of greed for money and bribery, when Xuanzong re-searched for prime ministers, he deliberately selected this pair of clean government models, hoping that they could work together and achieve success together like the prime ministers in the early Kaiyuan period.

There is a good story about Li Yuanhong and Du Siam's fair and honest character. During the reign of Zhongzong Shenlong, Li Yuanhong served as the secretary of Yongzhou (Gyeonggi area). At that time, his immediate boss was Dou Huaizhen.Once, Princess Taiping competed with the local monastery for a mill, and the lawsuit came to Li Yuanhong.After some investigation, Li Yuanhong found out that it was Princess Taiping who was bullying others, so no matter who the princess was or not, he immediately awarded the mill to the temple with a swipe of a pen.Dou Huaizhen was frightened and ordered him to change the sentence immediately.Unexpectedly, Li Yuanhong picked up a pen and added a line of big characters at the end of the verdict: "Nanshan may be changed, and this verdict will not be shaken!" Dou Huaizhen had no choice but to give up resentfully.

Since then, the reputation of Li Yuanhong's integrity and honesty has spread throughout the court and the public. After becoming prime minister, Li Yuanhong vigorously promoted the construction of a clean government, which to a considerable extent curbed the trend of asking for officials, favoritism and fraud, and made those who went through the back door and engaged in corruption fear and hate. "Suppressing the road of running and competing, those who strive to advance are quite afraid." ("Old Tang Book Biography of Li Yuanhong") Because of his incorruptibility, Li Yuanhong has been the prime minister for several years, but he is still poor and poor. Not only the house is the old house, the servants are the old servants, even the horse he rides every day is still the same skinny horse many years ago. old horse.The money and things bestowed by the imperial court, Li Yuanhong also casually distributed to poor relatives, never leaving any money, much like Lu Huaishen, the poor prime minister back then.

The same is true for Du Siam, who "always takes it as his duty to be honest, diligent and thrifty", and "if the crown is weak, he swears that he will not be bequeathed by relatives and friends." ("Old Tang Book·Du Siam Biography") Since his youth, Du Siam has determined to be a clean and honest official, and vowed never to accept any gifts from relatives, friends or colleagues.For example, when he served in the local government in his early years, when he left office, the local officials wanted to give him a valuable gift, but he declined. What expensive gift?

Paper.Ten thousand sheets of paper. What kind of valuable gift is paper?10,000 more?It is not only exhausting to hire people to move it, but also to find horses and carts to transport it? If we understand it this way, it is wrong.You know, that was the Tang Dynasty, not the present. Now, paper is the product of the industrial assembly line, as long as the machine is turned on, there will be as much as you want.But at that time, paper was produced by hand, with high quality and small quantity, and it was an extremely tight consumer product.Therefore, in ancient times, when children from ordinary families practiced calligraphy, they could only compare and draw in water tanks or on the sand, and could not afford paper at all.

When Du Xian saw that someone gave such a valuable gift, it seemed too unreasonable to refuse it, and to accept it was against his own will. In the end, he had to draw a symbolic one hundred of them, which was considered to have accepted the other party's kindness.A colleague who saw him off at that time sighed greatly: "In ancient times, there was a 'Yiqian Taishou'. I never thought that I would see this again today!" The so-called "Yiqian Taishou" refers to the allusion of Liu Chong in the Eastern Han Dynasty.Liu Chong was the prefect of Kuaiji in the Eastern Han Dynasty. He was transferred to the capital because of his incorruptibility and outstanding achievements.Before leaving, the local elders were grateful for his virtuous governance and insisted on giving him a few hundred dollars. Liu Chong couldn't bear to let him go, so he only took one dollar to accept.After he was on the road, he threw the money into a river near Kuaiji.It is said that after the coin was thrown down, the river water suddenly became extremely clear.This story has been spread since then, and it has been passed down as a good story by the common people for thousands of years, and this place is now Qianqing Town in Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province.

Since Li Yuanhong and Du Siam have such admirable words and deeds, and their personalities and ambitions are so similar, it stands to reason that they should cooperate and work together in work. However, they ended up fighting. Regarding the reasons for their quarrel, the records in the history books are very brief. There is only one sentence: "Yuanhong and Siam discussed many similarities and differences, so there was a gap, and they played a role in each other." (Volume 213) How to dislike gaps and how to play each other in front of Xuanzong, the history books are completely lacking.

Although there is no record in the history books, we can at least make a judgment, that is-people with similar temperaments are more likely to fight when they work together.Looking at the prime ministers in the early days of Kaiyuan, whether it is Yao Chong and Lu Huaishen, Song Jing and Su Ting, or Zhang Jiazhen and Yuan Qianyao, they are all typical one strong and one soft, one master and one assistant, so they can complement each other in character , and can separate the primary and secondary at work, the contradictions will naturally be less.But Li Yuanhong and Du Xian both have the same upright and straightforward temperament, so of course they are not good at turning corners and making compromises. Once they have different views on things, they must argue about right and wrong, so conflicts and disputes are inevitable. . Regarding the conflict between Li and Du, Xuanzong was also helpless. In the end, Xuanzong had no choice but to adopt the only and most effective solution-to drive the two out of power together. In June of the seventeenth year of Kaiyuan (AD 727), Li Yuanhong and Du Siam both dismissed their prime ministers. Perhaps it was because he was worried that his successor would be the same as them and could not complement each other in terms of personality and way of dealing with the world, so Xuanzong specially selected three people this time, hoping that through the change in the number of people, he could add some flexibility and inject some vitality into the prime minister's team. The three new prime ministers are Xiao Song, Pei Guangting, and Yu Wenrong, a financial expert we are very familiar with. The main reason why Xuanzong let the past go, and let Yu Wenrong, who was keen on party disputes, return to worship is actually one word-money. yes, money. With the advent of the peaceful and prosperous age, Xuanzong at this time was no longer as industrious and frugal as he was in the early Kaiyuan period, but in many ways showed a tendency to be extravagant and enjoyable. Therefore, despite the gradual prosperity of the social economy and the increasing fiscal revenue, it is possible Xuanzong still felt that he needed money more than ever. As for the civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty, who can make the most money? Of course it is Yu Wenrong. Yu Wenrong lived up to Xuanzong's ardent expectations. As soon as he sat on the prime minister's seat, Yu Wenrong tried his best to set up various "special envoys", and then sent them to various departments of the imperial court to start a competition for economic benefits, all-round, multi-channel , In-depth search for people's fat and people's anointing, to see who can scrape more and skillfully, who can be promoted to the top and rise straight to the top. In this way, Xuanzong was naturally happy - money is like water in a sponge, there is always something to squeeze! However, all civil and military officials complained endlessly—power was taken away by special envoys, departmental functions were also messed up, and rules and regulations were destroyed in a mess, how could this work be done? And the hardest thing is the people at the bottom—pay this donation today, pay that tax tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow there will be a clever apportionment, how can you live in this day? Of course, Yu Wenrong couldn't see the pain of the people and the troubles of the officials. He only saw the smiling face of the emperor. What better proof of a subject's ability and talent than the emperor's smiling face?What else can make a courtier more elated and motivated than the emperor's smiling face? there is none left. Because he won the favor of the emperor, Yu Wenrong, who has always been boastful and conceited, became more and more smug.Not long after he became the prime minister, he threatened everywhere: "As long as I stay in the prime minister for a few months, the world will be safe!" (Volume 213: "If I live here for a few months, nothing will happen at home!") It's hard to say whether Yu Wenrong has the ability to bring peace, but one thing is for sure - he really only stayed in the aspect for a few months, and then he stepped down in despair. The reason why Yu Wenrong stepped down was because two things happened. First of all, it was Pei Guangting and others who ruthlessly read his book behind his back.During this visit, Xuanzong finally heard the voices of the government and the public and the complaints of the people.However, he was still reluctant to dismiss Yu Wenrong. Finally, it was another impeachment case that prompted Xuanzong to make up his mind. At that time, there was a clan prince named Li Yi, who was Shuofang Jiedu envoy at that time, because he made great achievements in the battle against Tubo, which was highly valued by Xuanzong. Yu Wenrong was worried that his military achievements would threaten his status, so he always wanted to Find an opportunity to block his way to becoming a phase. In September of the 17th year of Kaiyuan, when Li Yi entered the court due to business, Yu Wenrong immediately instructed his confidant Yushi Li Yin to sort out the black materials and prepare to hand them over when the opportunity arises.Unexpectedly, this Li Yin is also a big mouth, and he leaked the matter as soon as he finished the materials.After Li Yi learned about it, he immediately went to the palace to report to Xuanzong, saying: "Yu Wenrong intends to frame me, and tomorrow I will let Li Yin, the censor, impeach me." Xuanzong was a little dubious at first, but he didn't expect that Li Yin would hand over the memorial the next morning.Xuanzong was furious, and immediately demoted Yu Wenrong to be the governor of Ruzhou (now Ruzhou City, Henan Province).However, just a few days after Yu Wenrong left, Xuanzong regretted it a little. Because the money is not enough to spend. Xuanzong couldn't help complaining to Pei Guangting: "You are always picking on Yu Wenrong's faults. This is a good time. I drove him away, but the court's expenses are not enough. Tell me, what should I do? How can I help you?" Solve the problem of insufficient national use?" Pei Guangting was speechless. Just when Xuanzong was pondering whether he should invite this money-making expert back again, Yu Wenrong's misfortune happened again.Someone wrote an anonymous letter accusing him of abusing his power and accepting bribes during his tenure as prime minister.The relevant departments checked and found that such a thing really happened.Xuanzong had no choice but to demote Yu Wenrong to the county captain of Pingle (now Pingle County, Guangxi). Yu Wenrong has been struggling in the miasma for more than a year, hoping that Xuanzong would call him back to the court every day, but he never expected that what he was looking forward to in the end was a punishment that was more severe than relegation—exile .Because his methods of accumulating money were too bad and offended too many courtiers, many people didn't want to let him go.The ministers used the time when he was relegated to collect criminal evidence desperately. Finally, Sinon Shaoqing Jiang Cen came forward to accuse Yu Wenrong of embezzling millions of public funds when he was the governor of Bianzhou. Xuanzong ordered a thorough investigation, and found that the evidence was conclusive and the facts of the crime were all there.Xuanzong was furious, and immediately ordered Yu Wenrong to be exiled in Yanzhou (now Laibin City, Guangxi). This time, Yu Wenrong knew that he was completely finished.He lost all thoughts and finally died on the road of exile.Yu Wenrong, who was keen to engage in party disputes, died. Will the remaining two prime ministers be able to help each other?Unfortunately, no. The following facts will prove to us that the court of the empire is an iron ring, and the prime ministers are just the fighters who come on the stage after you sing. As long as the ring is there, the duel will not end.