On the opening day of the Free Park, a new department, the Examination Department, was also established under the Supervisor of Li Li. It has fifteen departments responsible for the examination of officials at all levels in the two capitals and 13 provinces. Each department has a doctor and a foreign doctor. , one person in charge. **Bubble! Book. Bar*
On that day, officials of all sizes in the capital almost stepped down the threshold of Liu Jin's family. At this time, everyone also knew that Liu Eunuch's only employment standard was not to be used without courtesy, so they all came with heavy gifts. It is said that they only have the position of chief executive. If it¡¯s less than 10,000 taels, you don¡¯t need to come. Why is it so popular? The reason is very simple. Everyone wants to be a father, and no one wants to be a grandson and be teased by others all day long!
But that day, Zhang Cai, who was Liu Jin¡¯s number one schemer, didn¡¯t go. He went to another place, the Freedom Park. He stayed there all day.
After Zhang Cai went to the Freedom Garden, he became more and more silent. He almost didn't say a word around Liu Jin all day long. At this time, a large number of civil servants and military generals began to join Liu Jin, and Liu Jin gradually became more and more silent. He was tired of this useless boring gourd, but Liu Jin was still very interesting. In order to thank Zhang Cai for the three new policy ideas he proposed to him, he transferred Zhang Cai from the Ministry of Civil Affairs and worked under the newly established Examination Department of the Supervisor of Ceremonies. A doctor was in charge of the examination of officials up and down the Jianghuai Road. At that time, the Jianghuai area included Yingtian Mansion, Yangzhou Mansion and other places where wealthy people gathered, and the local officials were extremely rich. This arrangement was also to make Zhang Cai made a fortune.
However, there are also rumors that this proposal was asked by Li Xiang, the commander of the Jinyi Guards, from Liu Jin. In exchange, Li Xiang promised that the Jinyi Guards would dispatch to arrest those officials who opposed Liu Jin. Liu Jin was a powerful eunuch who dominated the government, but Li Xiang was more powerful than Liu Jin. It may not be clear to others what position Li Xiang holds in Li Dong's mind, but Liu Jin has been envious of him for a long time. At least Li Xiang still maintains the habit of going to the palace to have dinner every day, from ancient times to the present. , but I have never heard of any minister having such an honor, so since Li Xiang opened his mouth, Liu Jin took advantage of the situation and sold his favor to Li Xiang.
On the night after he learned that he had been promoted, Zhang Cai went to visit Liu Jin. This is also the meaning of the question. Liu Jin thought that Zhang Cai would express his loyalty to him and said that I would do anything in the future. The credit belongs to Liu Eunuch, as does the wealth. You take the big head or something like that.
But after arriving at the Liu Mansion, Zhang Cai seemed hesitant to speak. He wanted to speak several times, but sighed and stopped it. Later, Liu Jin became impatient and it was getting late. He now welcomes and drops off every day. Collecting money was also a physical job, so he wanted to wash up and go to bed early, so Liu Jin served tea to see off the guests. Before leaving, Zhang Cai bowed deeply to Liu Jin.
"My dear Zhang Cai is deeply grateful for Eunuch Liu's kindness in nurturing me. I would like to send you a message to Eunuch Liu, please remember it!"
Liu Jin was immediately overjoyed. The suggestions Zhang Cai gave him last time not only catered to Li Dong's wishes, but also increased his power to an unprecedented level. What would he say this time?
"Eunuch Liu, you can no longer accept the routine."
The so-called routine is a new special rule set by Liu Jin after discussing with Jiao Fang, the Minister of Civil Affairs. That is, every provincial official who comes to Beijing must pay thousands of taels of silver to him after reporting his work. If there is any outstanding, By the time the man returns home, the removal paperwork may have arrived first.
Although the chief envoys and governors who came to Beijing to report their work were very rich, where could they get thousands of taels of silver at once? But Eunuch Liu could not be offended. The result of offending him would be this year's test scores. Unable to survive, many officials had no choice but to borrow loan sharks from wealthy families in the capital and repay them with money from the treasury when they returned home.
After hearing Zhang Cai¡¯s words, Liu Jin was stunned for a moment, and then his face dropped and he frowned, with an angry look on his face.
"What are you talking about?"
Looking at this ignorant guy, Zhang Cai sighed in his heart, and after much hesitation, he slowly said, "Eunuch Liu, let alone sooner or later Sooner or later this matter will reach His Majesty's ears, that is Sigh . You charge each official a few thousand taels of silver, which seems like a lot. But you have to know that those officials are all veterans of corruption. How could they come up with this money themselves? They must have taken the opportunity to collect several times more in their own provinces. Money is used to repair this hole. Of course, these are all in your name and said to be tribute to you. In this way, Eunuch Liu, your reputation will probably become more and more Sigh Eunuch Liu, this is a risk of death. Tao!"
Liu Jin¡¯s eyes widened, and his face became even more angry. He was corrupt himself, but he couldn¡¯t bear to see others being corrupt.
¡°It¡¯s really unreasonable for these bastards to go around making money in our name!¡±
Eunuch Liu¡¯s anger is justified. Small corrupt officials have borrowed the reputation and portrait rights of a big corrupt official, but they have not paid royalties and patent fees. They should be angry, and indeed should be very angry.
"Thank you sir??, our family knows how to do it! "
Zhang Cai finally showed a smile on his face. His last words were a sign of Liu Jin's support for him, and he hoped to save Liu Jin's life.
But Zhang Cai didn't expect that what Liu Jin was thinking was exactly the same thing as what he said. Not only did he not restrain himself, but he also intensified his efforts. Liu Jin secretly thought in his heart, since you bastards can still find more money, then take it all. Come and honor our family. A thousand taels is not enough, so let¡¯s use ten thousand taels!
Out of anger, Eunuch Liu immediately gave the order. In view of the price of goods rising too fast, his old man has not had pork for several months. The price of silver has increased, and it is 10,000 taels each time. One penny less. You guys try it!
Zhang Cai never thought that the idea he gave to Liu Jin would have such consequences. He sighed and sat down with the doctor from Jianghuai Road. However, he did not accept local bribes as Liu Jin imagined, but wholeheartedly He took over the examination work for officials in the Jianghuai area. He also creatively simplified the examination work. The assessment results were divided into five grades: good promotion; average retention; almost transfer; useless retirement; disorderly behavior. Get out, and from then on the civil and military officials in Jianghuai were miserable.
Later, the officials in Jianghuai couldn't stand it anymore, so they pooled together a large sum of money and gave it to Liu Jin, hoping that Eunuch Liu could send this plague god away. If it was not possible, let him harm officials in other provinces. It would be better to just use Jianghuai. Here comes the place.
Liu Jin readily agreed, but when Liu Jin sent Zhang Cai's personnel transfer arrangements to Li Dong's desk, Li Dong, who had never cared about government affairs, rejected it for the first time. Li Dong also praised Zhang Cai's literary talent in front of Liu Jin. , is a talented person. When he has children in the future, he will ask Zhang Cai to be his teacher.
Liu Jin took a breath and threw the memorial into the stove without saying a word. If he dared to mess with the person Li Dong liked, wouldn't he think that he would live longer? As a result, Jianghuai officials fell into an even more perverted inspection storm. A large number of officials packed up and left. The officials who stayed behind also gritted their teeth and vowed to take revenge on Zhang Cai. You can't always be the doctor who passed the exam, right? After you lose power, we will settle old accounts and new accounts together, but we have to wait for nearly ten years. But when that day comes, those officials who swore revenge are even more afraid because the good news has spread in the delivery room.
Let¡¯s not talk about Zhang Cai, let¡¯s continue talking about Liu Jin.
In fact, Liu Jin didn't completely fail to understand Zhang Cai's words. He was also carefully testing Li Dong's attitude towards him. Sometimes he even deliberately arranged for Liu Yu, the imperial envoy of Youdu, to have several imperial censors accuse him of corruption. He put these memorials on top of all the memorials for Li Dong to read. Every time Li Dong read them, he would smile and ask, "How much more greedy are you? No, add two to one and make five. You have to remember, where is that?" It¡¯s half as good as mine!¡±
The establishment of the Freedom Park left Liu Jin confused again. What kind of charter did Li Dong have for him? He also sent his cronies to spend a day in the Free Garden. The reward they gave him was that many people in the garden were indeed scolding him, but the problem was that they were scolding Liu Jian, the first assistant of the dynasty, and Li Dongyang and Xie Qian, the second assistants. There were a lot of people there, and Liu Jin felt relieved now. It seemed that the Freedom Garden was not targeting him.
In the officialdom, Liu Jin cultivated his minions bit by bit. He extended his tentacles to every direction of the Ming Dynasty's officialdom through the examination method. From civil servants to military generals, from the center to the border, he promoted a large number of people. When an official who was friendly to him came to power, Liu Jin gradually challenged the limit of Li Dong's tolerance for him. But when he discovered that Li Dong's trust in him seemed to be endless, he gave up all his worries. , in this case, Liujin brand water pump was born.
In the first year of Zhengde, during the military affairs incident, Zhou Yao was ordered to go to Huai'an for investigation and committed suicide on the ship returning to Beijing. The blow was so severe that when people around him were trying to save him, Mr. Zhou could no longer speak. The servant brought a pen and paper, Zhou Yao wrote the words "Prefect Zhao mistakenly made me wrong" and then died.
Whether an official of the imperial court is killed or commits suicide is not a trivial matter, and the previous document has mentioned that although according to the rank, the official rank is only "from the seventh rank", it is not as high as the official of the seventh rank county magistrate. However, according to the actual status and power, the Six Sections were responsible for supervising the six central ministries and the various departments around the world by the emperor's side. Officials in various ministries and localities would not dare not to respect him. Even if the emperor himself encounters erroneous instructions, as long as they are inconsistent with the teachings of the saints and the laws of the ancestors, he has the right to "refute" them in name, and will not be allowed to issue them if he rejects them.
The officials of Kedao are the eagles in the officialdom. They are at the top of the official food chain and are the highest-level predators. They are animals that feed on the wealth and lives of officials at all levels. Serving in the Kedao and becoming a member of the Sixth Section or the Thirteenth Supervisory Censor was an official dream for scholars in the Ming Dynasty. But why would a person who had this dream come true commit suicide?
Jinyiwei investigated this matter very clearly. This matter was related to Liu Jin¡¯s regular money. Officials who were on a business tripWhen Liu Jin returned to Beijing, he would ask for a bribe heavily. Zhou Yao went to Huai'an for business and had a good relationship with the local magistrate Zhao Jun. Magistrate Zhao promised to lend Zhou Yao "thousands of gold" to deal with Liu Jin, but he suddenly changed his mind before leaving. Zhou Yao had no idea, so he committed suicide when he reached Taoyuan.
"You don't have to commit suicide if you don't have money? The worst thing you can do is not become an official!" Li Dong asked Li Xiang
Li Xiang smiled slightly: "Commander, how can Eunuch Liu's rules be broken so easily? What he means is that if an official has no money, he will die. Don't forget Eunuch Liu's shackles!"
"Oh, Li Dong suddenly realized that the heavy guy weighing 150 pounds was scary to think about. No wonder, since he was likely to be shackled to death in the wind and rain, Zhou Yao's choice to commit suicide was a bit like euthanasia.
In the second year of Zhengde, Liu Yu, the governor of Yansui, went to Beijing without any money and was arrested and imprisoned. Lu Wan, the governor of the Xuanfu, arrived late and was sentenced to shackles. Several friends pooled money and bribed Liu Jin before letting him "try the job."
In the same year, the right deputy censor of the capital pretended to be the governor of Ningxia. He was an upright and honest official, but Liu Jin couldn't ask for a bribe, so he found a mistake and arrested him. He was also fined 3,000 shi and sentenced to shackles. Li Xiang persuaded him and eventually resigned from office. It is said that he ran to Tianjin to become a minor official.
According to the regulations of the Ming Dynasty, high-ranking officials from all over the country went to Beijing for pilgrimage once every three years. In the third year of Zhengde's reign, Liu Jin demanded bribes from officials of the Third Division of the World who came to Beijing, each worth ten thousand yuan. Those who don¡¯t give it will be denounced.
The so-called "Three Divisions of the World" refer to the Commanding Envoys, Chief Envoys and Inspection Envoys of the 13 provinces in the country at that time. They were in charge of the troops, money, food, and criminal names of each province. They were known as the feudal officials. The largest official among them is the commander-in-chief of the capital, who is the second rank. His annual official salary is 732 shi meters, which is converted into 366 taels of silver according to the market price. The salary of a chief envoy (similar to a provincial governor, from the second rank) is 576 shi meters per year, which is equivalent to 288 taels of silver. Even if he has not eaten or drank for three years and paid full filial piety to Liu Jin, it is not enough.
The total number of this group of people, based on the fact that each position has at least two positions, chief or deputy, is about 70 or 80 people. A single search can bring in 800,000 snowflake silver. At the same time, Liu Jin's water pipes were also inserted into fields such as water transportation, salt administration, farming, and imperial examinations.
If Liu Jin is said to be corrupt, his greed is really creative, because the bribes paid by those officials are not investments for promotion and wealth, but insurance premiums to avoid disasters.
Regarding Liu Jin's corruption, the ministers in the court also wrote letters one after another, but Li Dong ignored it. Everyone really didn't know why Li Dong wanted to protect Liu Jin in this way.
In the third year of Zhengde, Li Xiang got married, and Li Dong went to officiate the wedding. The two got drunk in the backyard.
"Commander," Li Xiang asked, burping from wine, "The more trouble Liu Jin gets, the more outrageous he becomes. My subordinates can protect this but not that, so I'd better kill him."
Li Dong opened his drunken eyes and smelt of alcohol and said, "I heard that every time Liu Jin collected money, he locked it in a vault and marked it in separate categories. How could he be collecting bribes?" , he is obviously saving up reserves for the national treasury, and he will kill them when he is fattened up"