The West Mansion is the imperial garden in the west of the North Palace, also known as the West Garden, the West Garden, which is a place for Emperor Liu Hong to play and rest.

At the end of the first month, the emperor first opened the West Mansion to sell officials, and after that, people who want to be officials in the world must first go to Xiyuan to discuss the price of official positions, and then they can take office as officials. For a while, the originally embarrassed treasury was filled up all of a sudden, but the amount and purpose of the money were no longer known, which made the Han Dynasty scholars quite complaining.

After Fu Wan and Fu Quan's uncle and nephew consulted Lu Qiang, they were led into the West Mansion by him. Two days ago, he had already received Lu Qiang's letter, and knew that he was on duty today, so he specially chose this day to buy officials with Liu Hong, after all, if he proposed to buy the lieutenant of Sili in front of Yuan Yu, Zhang Rang and others, he would not be able to be seen by those eunuchs and desperately opposed, which would not be beautiful.

The weather in spring is still a little cold, the breeze is coming, and people who go out wear a little thinner, they will feel a trace of coldness unnaturally. But in the garden of the West Mansion, at this moment, there is a group of thinly dressed young palace maids, dancing to the melodious music played by the musicians, looking at their white and tender arms and chests that are bare from time to time in the air, Fu Quan's unnatural heart tightened, they are not cold, he feels cold for them.

Liu Hong was watching the dance in the west mansion in an orderly manner, and when he turned his head and saw the two uncles and nephews of the Fu family who had passed the report, he ordered the palace musician to step down, and then smiled slightly: "What day is today?" Let the uncles and nephews of the Ru family come here together? ”

"I've seen Your Majesty!"

After hearing this, the two hurriedly saluted Liu Hong, and then Fu Wan may hold his own identity, and it is difficult to talk about buying an official, Fu Quan saw that he did not move for a long time, and secretly said that his uncle is really a literati who wants to save face. Obviously thinking about being an official, but he wants to take a serious official path to be an official, and looks down on those who buy officials, but he doesn't want to think about how many courtiers there are in the court, and he scolds "buying and selling officials" on the face of evil politics, but in private, for his own career, he ran to this west mansion to deal with the emperor, and the promise of seeking promotion at the cost of money is really shameless!

No matter how Fu Quan is, it is difficult to say after Fu Wan, he doesn't care at this time, I saw him step forward and say: "Your Majesty, I heard a few times ago that Your Majesty opened the West Mansion at the beginning and selected good ministers for the country." Uncle Yu has been in the position of captain of Yue Cavalry for a long time, and he has not achieved an inch of merit, so he came here only to ask His Majesty for the position of captain of Si Li, thinking that the court would share his worries, and begging His Majesty for permission. ”

Lieutenant Sili?

Liu Hong heard Fu Quan's words, a glimmer of light appeared in his eyes, he listened to the first half of Fu Quan's words, and knew that Fu Wan had been a captain for a long time, and wanted to change his position, this thing has been used to since the opening of the West Mansion recently. In his opinion, his cousin-in-law should have been a military attache for a long time, with enough qualifications, and he wants to enter the ranks of Jiuqing, and then wait for the opportunity to enter the ranks of the three princes and reach the peak of his career. But now that he is finished, he actually wants to be a lieutenant, what does this mean?

Although the position of Si Li Lieutenant is the same as Jiuqing, but after all, it is not the real Jiuqing, Liu Hong can't figure it out, he thinks that he has seen through this cousin-in-law who is very well-behaved and conscientious as an official, but now he has chosen Si Li's school captain, which is completely unexpected by Liu Hong, could it be that this cousin-in-law is interested in Si Li's right to picket illegality?

All kinds of thoughts in his heart were mixed, but it was only a matter of a moment, Liu Hong quickly replied with a smile: "Captain Sili is inevitably low, and now there are a lot of vacancies in the middle of the court, it is better to let the horse ascend to the throne as soon as possible, and he will be able to enter the position of the third prince in the future." ”

Fu Wan and Fu Wan's uncle and nephew were shocked, they don't want the position of Jiuqing now, with the current situation, compared with the all-encompassing supervision power of the Captain of Si Li, the position of the Three Princes and Nine Secretaries is simply weak compared to the Captain of Si Li. It's just that they can't say what they think, if they tell Liu Hong that they are going to deal with his relatives and eunuchs, they can't say that they can't agree on the spot, but for a while, the uncle and nephew who didn't expect Liu Hong to say so much can't think of a suitable prevarication countermeasure, so they don't say anything.

Anxious in his heart, Fu Quan raised his head slightly, and his eyes signaled to Lu Qiang, who was waiting beside Liu Hong, for help. Fortunately, Lu Qiang, the middle attendant, had already communicated with the uncle and nephew of the Fu family in advance, although he didn't know the two of them at this time, why he didn't want the position of Jiuqing, but wanted the position of the lieutenant of Si Li, but it did not prevent him from persuading Liu Hong.

I saw Lu Qiang, who had an upright and resolute face, and said with a slight smile: "Why did Your Majesty change his personality today?" In the past, those who came here to seek officials only paid money, so why can't they change the officials they seek today? Your Majesty is not afraid of outsiders, and then he has no faith in the West Mansion to seek officials? ”

Liu Hong's face was stunned after hearing this, and then he pondered in his heart and did not speak. Lu Qiang's words can be said to have touched the deepest point in his heart, and if you want to ask Liu Hong what he is most afraid of now, that is, after he opened the West Mansion, no one came to the West Mansion to buy officials, and he had no source of money, which was very unfavorable to him.

Since a few years after his accession to the throne, in addition to the huge expenses of disaster relief and military spending, Liu Hong's own continuous construction of palaces is also very large. But this can't be blamed on him, after all, there are too few emperors who don't like pleasure, and emperors who are content with pleasure must be extremely good at spending money, so as the government's financial deficit is getting bigger and bigger, this is why he opened the West Mansion to collect money in such a simple and effective way as buying and selling officials. And now, if he changes the official position he seeks because he has changed the person he is looking for, and the outside world thinks that his business of buying and selling officials is not honest, it will be a great blow to himself, so he will seriously consider it.

Finally, Liu Hong seemed to have figured out something, glanced at Lu Qiang, and said with a smile: "What Han Sheng said is reasonable, it is me Menglang." "Hansheng is Lu Qiang's expression, Liu Hong will only call it so on formal occasions, and he doesn't call it much in private, after all, most of the eunuchs are free and poor and enter the palace, and there are very few people who have a table. When Fuquan first heard about Lu Qiang's words, he couldn't help but wonder if Liu Hong was interested in it because of Lu Qiang's words, after all, Hansheng, Hansheng, and Han were prosperous.

After speaking, Liu Hong turned his head to look at the uncle and nephew of the Fu family, and glanced at them sharply, as if he wanted to see through their thoughts, and Fu Quan was shocked when he saw it, and secretly said Is this the Spirit Emperor described in the history books who is like Qin II and has no brains at all?

It's a pity that the history books are recorded like this, and I can't help but secretly despise the people who write history in my heart, if Liu Hong can live for a long time, those party members can jump so hard, and they will only bully orphans and widows in the end, and end the Eastern Han Dynasty in their hands, which is really shameless.

I don't know how Emperor Ling's two sons felt when they heard that their father got this nickname, after all, it was also very painful to see his father being splashed with dirty water.

Chaos without damage is for the spirit, which means that there is turmoil in the country and cannot be stopped, but in Fuquan's view, Liu Hong "can't stop it", but he "doesn't want to stop it" at all, how can he stop it? Waiting for the party's power to recover, dominate the court, and threaten the imperial power?

After all, after the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the party people lifted the ban, and the power was already many times stronger than the eunuchs.

(Tianjin)