In February, the warm spring breeze blew the sorrow of Luoyang, even if the military situation on the frontier was urgent, but for the rulers of the Han Dynasty, the ensuing Spring Festival was the most important thing now.

This day is a good auspicious day, in the morning, the ministers and officials, the guard of honor are all wearing cyan ceremonial clothes, the queen led the ladies inside and outside to wear cyan costumes with the emperor Liu Hong to the south of the city of Luoyang, hundreds of cars, car flags and costumes are all cyan. Fu Quan led Yu Linlang to escort him, and the group went out of the Middle East Gate to welcome the spring in the eastern suburbs of Luoyang.

After a spring ceremony, the sacrificial convoy turned to the Ming Hall in the east of the imperial road outside the Pingcheng Gate, which was the place where the royal spring society was sacrificed since the Eastern Han Dynasty set the capital of Luoyang.

The major events of the country, in the worship and Rong, after the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the ancestor Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiuchu was in Luoyang in the south of the city of Luoyang seven miles, the suburbs were sacrificed, and in the first year of the Middle Yuan Dynasty to create the Ming Hall, and then the Emperor Liu Zhuang of Xianzong Xiaoming changed to worship in the Ming Hall.

Mingtang seeks its base structure, the upper circle is below, the nine rooms are in the corner of the twelve halls, the earth is made on all sides, the trench is made as a bridge, there is no water in the trench, it is also called "the temple of the Son of Heaven", it is the place where the emperor worships the ancestors of the gods and accepts the worship of the vassals. "White Tiger Tongyi" has a saying, "The Son of Heaven established the Ming Hall, so through the gods, the heaven and the earth, the four times, the teaching, the virtue, the Tao, the ability, the praise of the doers", this is the main significance of the hall is to use the divine right to govern, "inherit the heavens", the sky is clear, so it is called the Ming Hall.

Every time the earth warms up in spring, the people within a radius of a few miles near Luoyang will raise their clans and families to carry out social sacrifices, in order to pray for the blessing of the shrine gods throughout the year, and each family can harvest more food in their own land.

All the way to the south, there are quite a lot of pedestrians on the road, and within a radius of several miles around the place of Mingtang, it is already crowded with people, rubbing shoulders one after another, and the people gathered here make the surrounding of Mingtang, which was quite quiet in the past, become extremely lively and noisy.

"Humph! Dasi Nong is not good at using money, he can't even pay for the counterinsurgency, and I have no money to build a palace this year, so I don't want to find a way to have money to supplement the economy? On the car in a hurry, Liu Hong was still sulking resentfully, talking to the eunuchs around him, completely ignoring his loud voice, Fu Quan saw that his Shangguan Yuan Pang's face was very unnatural.

Fortunately, the ministers and ministers were far away from the emperor's car, and only the Guangluxun Shangguan who did not cause trouble was there, otherwise it would be impossible to say that the other officials and ministers would have heard this and said it bluntly, and this scene has been seen too much since Fuquan joined the company. The foreign courtiers hated the emperor and favored the eunuchs, and used the eunuchs to compete for power with them, but they couldn't take it by force, so it was natural to retaliate in another way, and it was necessary to find fault and brush a wave of existence from time to time.

"All the wealth of the world belongs to Your Majesty, and Your Majesty is not at fault for taking it, and the officials have advised and dissuaded it, how can it be so reasonable since ancient times?" Yuan Yu has not spoken yet, after all, there are also people from the Yuan family who were dissuaded before, and they need to avoid suspicion, but Zhang Rang beside him is not afraid, and he greeted Liu Hong with a smile.

"This is reasonable, I have this intention when I open the West Mansion, the country is poor, the treasury is empty, military affairs, civil affairs, everything needs money and finance, I don't integrate it, how to govern the country." Liu Hong laughed.

Zhao Bao, who was in contact with Fuquan, had a bad face, and said in a deep voice: "The eunuch temple is a disaster for the country, the west mansion is opened, the selling of officials is prevalent, the court rewards and punishes the move, all of them are filled with money, such a chaotic thing, it is not good at dissuading, but it is supported, and bribes are privately given from it, thinking that it is a benefit, and it should be killed!" It deserves to be killed! ”

Zhao Bao didn't speak loudly, and only Fu Quan and Yuan Peng could hear it, Yuan Peng turned around and took a deep look at Zhao Bao, and walked forward quickly, obviously preparing to close the distance and no longer listen to what Zhao Bao said. Listening to it may cause trouble, it's better not to listen, it's really pure-hearted, indisputable, but, such an official, the more like this, the more you can rise to a high position, the court heard the news, plus the Xidi buying officials are rampant, a little money to buy officials, I want to come to the position of the three princes not far away.

After looking left and right, and finding that there was no abnormality around, Fu Quan replied softly: "Ming Gong is angry, Your Majesty is also helpless to open the West Mansion. The West Mansion was opened today, just to raise money to make up for the lack of use of the imperial court, and there was a precedent to follow, so didn't the public know? The eunuch is His Majesty's belly, and it is understandable to supplement it, if the two are chaotic and alarmist! ”

"How do you know that Your Majesty is a public servant? For selfishness? Yu's cover is the way to govern the country, and the prosperity of the people is the beginning; The key to enriching the people lies in frugality', the first emperor was diligent and thrifty all his life, the palace was simple, and he couldn't bear to repair, Duan Taiwei went west, but he could raise money in the palace treasury for military expenses, and he was determined to be chaotic for a hundred years. Today, His Majesty often compares with the first emperor, mocks the first emperor's actions, and sighs that the first emperor can't be a home. Although Fu Quan's words were light, Zhao Bao naturally heard it, although he didn't agree with what he did to buy officials, he also knew that this was something that the Han had to do, so he didn't talk about buying and selling officials, but about whether Liu Hong meant it was for public or private.

"What about the male? What about selfishness? If the country is stable, what will the ministers and officials say? In the case of Xidi, there are many people who lose money and gain office, and they are the ones who benefit, but they are inappropriate, which is really shameless. Fu Quan sneered, he knew that Zhao Bao was not against the imperial court selling officials, as early as the former Han Taizong Xiaowen Emperor, there was a mistake in the implementation of "losing Su and donating the lord", this thing even in later generations there is the existence of "running officials", this is the case in all dynasties, and it is not forbidden at all. Moreover, it is different from the later generations, which are purely buying officials, only for personal gain, and now they are measures for the normal operation of the central court.

At this time, the Han court was peaceful and peaceful on the surface, but it had an Achilles heel inside, that is, there was no money, the government financial deficit was obvious, the treasury was empty, the court had no money, and it needed money everywhere, which could be said to be beyond its means. This point has actually been obvious since Emperor Huan, but Emperor Huan has been from the people since he was a child, and obviously knows how to deal with this matter better than Liu Hong. And throttling is to live frugally, do not repair the palace, this is why Duan Cheng pacified Xiqiang, military spending is insufficient, it can take money from the internal funds for its conquest, and end the Han and Qiang Hundred Years War that almost brought down the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Zhao Bao's face was indifferent, and he said coldly: "The courtiers are only afraid that Your Majesty will collect wealth for personal gain, if it is really like the first emperor, how can anyone say it?" ”

Fu Quan's face was stunned after hearing this, and then he was silent, not that he had nothing to say, but that he couldn't say it, whether Liu Hong's opening of the West Mansion was public or private, no one could tell clearly, and he couldn't help but let the emperor not use a penny for his personal money. As for Zhao Bao's saying that Liu Hongruo is like Emperor Huan, no one dares to say it, but Fu Quan laughed secretly in his heart, sure enough, everyone has to paste gold for the same kind. What was Emperor Huan said to be like in later generations, the history books had already told him, how could he argue? Even if Emperor Huan is good as an emperor, he has already doomed his reputation in the history books of scholars.

At this time, although the scholars did not have the appearance of the shameless hypocrites of the later Song and Ming dynasties, if they really want to make a comprehensive judgment, most of them are indeed people with high morals, loyalty, righteousness and martyrdom, but if you only look at the struggle for power and profit, it is no worse than the Confucian scholars of later generations.

Think about it, is it really selfless for them to prevent Liu Hong from opening the West Mansion and selling the official mantle? I'm afraid it's not necessarily the case, you must know that most of the people who sell officials are those scholars, otherwise they don't buy officials, how can they be promoted? What they prevented was that Liu Hong would take the state finances into his own possession, because the state finances could be supervised and used by everyone, and if they were used by the emperor for private use, no one would know how to use them, and the final use of the money was all determined by the emperor's personal intentions, which greatly damaged the system of the court.

For the scholars who are bent on controlling power, without the most important financial power, they will have to take care of the emperor in the future, if the emperor does not pay, then they can't do nothing? That's why they're blocking.

Finally, the sacrificial convoy arrived near the Ming Hall, the core area of the Ming Hall, which is now in charge of the officials of Henan Yin, and while they were busy preparing for the Spring Society sacrifice, the periphery was also guarded by several soldiers of the Northern Army in heavy armor to prevent idle people, etc., rashly approaching the forbidden land of the Ming Hall, and colliding with the shrine god who was about to enjoy the worship of mortals. However, the people present did not dare to take one more step towards the forbidden land of the Ming Hall stipulated by the Son of Heaven of the Han family, but just waited within the scope stipulated by the government. Outside the guard circle guarded by the soldiers, at this time has been densely gathered a large number of people, the spring society day is the most critical part of the agricultural sacrifice, related to the whole year of the wind and rain, so many people in Luoyang rushed to the Ming Hall early, ready to pray to the shrine god, bless their fields in the year of harvest, and it is a harvest season.

The outermost part of the gathering of the people, where the merchants who are busy chasing profits gather, although the agricultural sacrifice has nothing to do with the personal interests of these merchants, but such a grand sacrificial activity on the Spring Society Day, how could the merchants who win by tricks miss such a good opportunity, the large number of people, soon formed one or two temporary small markets here, in this place where the flow of people gathers, the end is particularly conspicuous.

Although the auspicious time of the sacrifice has not yet arrived, the county temple officials, the village leaders, and the wanderers have arrived, and everyone is looking forward to the car, waiting for the car carrying the Son of Heaven, the princess, the hundred officials, and others from the city.

"Woo! Woo! Woo......"

The loud horn sounded, and the faces of the soldiers of the Northern Army who maintained the order of the society festival changed, and they hurriedly cleared a road that could lead to the inside of the Ming Hall, and a blank area was cleared out of the bustling wilderness in an instant.

"Your Majesty has arrived!"

"Ministers to see Your Majesty, long live Your Majesty!"

"Xiaomin greets Your Majesty, long live Your Majesty"

Before long, the emperor and empress, hundreds of officials and ministers rode in hundreds of cars, and the carriages and horses arrived, and the surroundings of the Ming Hall suddenly quieted down, and the people and officials lined up on both sides to salute.

"Up!"

Liu Hong's words fell, ended the etiquette, and then took the hand of the queen Song, the emperor and queen took the lead in entering the Ming Hall, and the ministers and ministers behind him entered. Fu Quan followed Yuan Peng and was in the middle of the crowd.

In the Han Dynasty, there were two festivals a year, which were divided into "Spring Shrine Day" and "Autumn Shrine Day", and the spring shrine prayed for the valley and prayed for the blessing of the shrine god and the abundant harvest of the five grains. After the harvest, report the good news of the harvest to the god of the shrine and thank the god of the shrine.

The society, the land also, the Han Dynasty refers to the land god, "White Tiger Tongyi Sheji" has a saying that "people do not stand on the soil, do not eat the grain, the land is vast and can not be respected one by one, so the land is established", which is the meaning. Since ancient times, there are people who have a country and a family, all of them have built temples, established sheji, shrine gods and jishen, these two original land gods and this god of five grains, in the early days of the Chinese nation based on agriculture, are the most important primitive worship gods.

The gods of the community in various places are also different because of the different regional customs, "Huainanzi Pan Commentary" said that "Yu worked the world and died for the society", which means that it believes that Yu is the world's water diversion, the power covers the world, and the incarnation of the god of the society after death, and Cai Yong's "Dictatorship" said that "the god of the society, the son of the Gonggong clan, Julong, can level the water and soil, the world of the emperor, the world depends on its merits, and the Yao Temple thinks it is the society...... Ji Shen, the son of the Gaili Mountain clan, the pillar can breed a hundred grains, the world of the emperor, think that Tian Zheng, the world depends on its merits. Zhou abandoned and sowed a hundred grains. "It is believed that the shrine god is the son of the Gonggong clan, Julong, and the son of the Lishan clan, Zhu, together with the two gods of the shrine.

In addition, there are other areas of the Houtu Ancestral Hall, the same is also the shrine shrine, Luoyang is the capital of the Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty emperor sacrifices, only worship the Qing Emperor Jumang, so the sacrifice of the car flag clothing is all cyan. Jumang, also known as the god of mang, the god of wood, and the god of spring, is the god who governs the growth of plants and trees and all kinds of life, and is also the god who dominates agricultural production.

In the Ming Hall, the square altar built according to the system is full of cattle, sheep and other kinds of livestock sacrifices, plus some seasonal fruits and vegetables, the emperor and queen hundred officials are listed under the altar according to the ceremony, and the face shows a pious color.

"The Emperor God, the God of the Earth...... The magnificence of the world, the king's industry, His Majesty the Emperor of the Han Dynasty. With the greatness of the sky and the thickness of the earth, pray for the god of mang, the harvest of grains, and the prosperity of the people......"

The voice is loud, the book of heaven is recited, all the rituals are finished, the drums are ringing, Liu Hong holds the Song family in his hand, ascends the square altar, submits the book in the altar, and prays for the blessing of the shrine. The ministers and officials then begged, and in the distance, they saw the scene of the Ming Hall, and the people who had been waiting for a long time also saluted and prayed, looking forward to the good weather of this year.