When the prime minister of the dynasty and the imperial historian Zhongcheng were assassinated at the same time, one was killed and one was injured, and for a while, the government and the opposition were shaken, and the people were turbulent. But to everyone's surprise, the first person to react violently to this matter and ask the emperor to severely punish the murderer was actually Bai Juyi, Zuo Zanshan Doctor Bai Juyi.

Liu Zongyuan's ancestor is one of the three famous families in Hedong, Liu Yuxi's ancestor is Liu Sheng, the well-known King of Zhongshan Jing, Yuan Zhen's ancestor is the Northern Wei Dynasty, Han Yu's ancestor is the Changli Wang family, in contrast, Bai Juyi's ancestor is much inferior, a small and medium-sized bureaucratic family of "Shidun Confucianism", although it is not shabby, but it cannot be said to be prominent, and it can be regarded as a "scholarly family".

It is said that when Bai Juyi was young, he studied very hard, studied very hard, studied hard day after day, studied hard year after year, and when Bai Juyi was eleven years old, he was broken, his hair was gray, not one or two white, but full of white hair.

The white-haired boy Bai Juyi continued to study hard, and at the age of 28 he was admitted to the Jinshi, at the age of 30 he and Yuan Zhi raised the same book to judge the Diocesan Department, and at the age of 34, he was awarded the title of "Talent and Mao Ming in the Physical Use Department" and was awarded the county lieutenant. In November of the second year of Yuanhe, Bai Juyi was thirty-five years old, and was appreciated by Li Chun, the son of heaven, for his poetry, and was promoted from the county lieutenant to the bachelor of Hanlin, becoming the "private of the Son of Heaven".

The Hanlin Bachelor was not an official position, just a temporary dispatch officer, but in the Tang Dynasty, especially in the Middle Tang Dynasty, this was really a beautiful difference, because they were all "private sons of heaven".

Most of the ancient emperors lived deep in the palace, and ordinary officials did not talk to the emperor, even to look at the dragon's face from afar, which was also difficult to meet. Hanlin scholars are different, they can serve the emperor in the inner court, they can freely instill their own views to the emperor, they can also assist the emperor in replying to the chapter, drafting edicts, and they can also use the opportunity of the draft edict to fine-tune the emperor's will through means such as text selection, so as to subtly affect the political situation. Lu Zhen, a scholar of Hanlin at the time of Tang Dezong, and Wang Shuwen, a scholar from Hanlin at the time of Tang Shunzong, could decide political affairs on their own, as if they had become the de facto prime minister, but the prime minister who was justified could only act according to orders, what a majestic face! As for today's son Li Chun, he is even more favored by the Hanlin Bachelor, and many of the prime ministers of the Yuan and First Dynasty have had the experience of the Hanlin Bachelor. Bai Juyi entered the Hanlin Academy, which means that half of his ass has already sat in the position of prime minister. In fact, the six people who were in the Hanlin Academy with Bai Juyi at that time: Pei Yan, Wang Ya, Du Yuanying, Cui Qun and Li Jiang paid homage to each other, and only Bai Juyi did not receive this honor, which became a regret in his life. Until his later years, Bai Juyi, who had retired, was still haunted by this regretful incident, and groaned with some sadness: "At the same time, six bachelors, five phases and one fisherman."

Long En is mighty, and Bai Juyi, a young man who is proud of the spring breeze, is grateful, his blood is boiling, and he is determined to repay the kindness of the Son of Heaven with practical actions. However, it turns out. Chang'an, the deceitful Chang'an, the mixed Chang'an, is not suitable for him, because of his uprightness and his naivety.

At one time, Li Chun trusted, admired, and even doted on this talented young talent. However, Li Chun soon discovered that this young Hanlin scholar was a person who was not very good at figuring out the holy will, let alone catering to the holy will. Not only that, in Li Chun's opinion, this is still a person who likes to go against the emperor, and even a few times, this pampered and arrogant person can't get off the stage.

In the Yuanhe era, Bai Juyi was probably the only one who dared to quarrel with Li Chun in person, and even said loudly in the public: "It's Your Majesty's fault!" Of course, this made Li Chun, who is the son of heaven, very uncomfortable. But at this time, Bai Juyi is like a fighter who has fought chicken blood. After messing with the emperor, he turned his head and went to provoke the prime minister again. In the Yuanhe three-year policy case, Bai Juyi stood on the weak side with a clear banner, pointed the spearhead at Li Jifu, the prime minister of the current dynasty, and even issued a threat of collective resignation of Hanlin bachelors, and finally forced Li Jifu to leave Chang'an and run to Yangzhou to avoid the limelight. After provoking the prime minister, Bai Juyi, who was still unsatisfied, refused to stop there, this time, he aimed the cannonball at the most favored eunuch Tutu Chengguang by Li Chun, and strongly opposed Tutu Chengguang as the commander of the crusade against the rebel Wang Chengzong. In May of the fifth year of Yuanhe, the war against Wang Chengzong reached a stalemate, Bai Juyi repeated his old tricks, put pressure on the emperor again, and gave Li Chun a choice question: Either strike the army and stop the war, or do me, there is no choice! Li Chun appointed the eunuch to go on the expedition, which was already angry, and the Tutu Chengxuan, who was neither male nor female, was very uncompetitive, and even suffered defeats, Li Chun, who was on the cusp of the storm, of course could not handle Bai Juyi, so he had to obediently quit the army. It seems that Bai Juyi fought several times on the basis of reason, and finally won the victory, but he not only annoyed the two most powerful people at the time, the prime minister Li Jifu and the eunuch Tutu Chengxuan, but also gradually lost the favor of the son of heaven Li Chun.

In the eyes of Li Chun, the Son of Heaven, I promoted you, and it was an exceptional promotion, but you didn't listen to the greetings and worked against me everywhere, typical ungrateful; In the view of Bai Juyi, a scholar from Hanlin, the emperor promoted me, I will repay you, and the way to repay is to speak up and point out the emperor's mistakes bluntly, I am thinking about Your Majesty, thinking about the Tang Dynasty, I am not wrong! The two people have different positions and look at the problem from different angles, and in the end they come to very different conclusions.

But is Bai Juyi really right? Is Li Chun really wrong? Isolated look, yes; Combined with the situation at that time, not necessarily. As far as Yuanhe's three-year policy case is concerned, Li Chun at that time had two choices: first, fair law enforcement, Li Jifu dismissed the prime minister; Second, maintain Li Jifu's authority and sacrifice Wei Guanzhi, Pei Yan, and Wang Ya. Of course, the second option is unfair to Wei Guanzhi and others, but Li Jifu is Li Chun's most powerful helper in cutting down the feudal domain by force, and from the overall situation, Li Chun is understandable to make the first choice. Of course, we can't say that Bai Juyi is wrong, no matter what, injustice is a good character that people can admire, but Bai Juyi, who is righteous and insistent, obviously did not take into account what was behind the appearance.

At this time, Bai Juyi had been in the position of Zuo Shiyi for two years, and according to the convention, he could be promoted to Zuo Buque of Menxia Province, and it was even possible to be promoted to a scrivener wailang, but Li Chun did not do this, but sent his favored eunuch Liang Shouqian to Bai Juyi's house in person to ask Bai Juyi's opinion. Hearing Liang Shouqian's words relayed by the emperor, Bai Juyi was a little confused, was it the emperor's great favor? No, the emperor doesn't seem to be very cold to me lately. He closed his eyes, wrenched his fingers, counted the current leadership team, and suddenly realized that he understood the subtext of the emperor: You are already in Menxia Province, the most powerful department, you can't stay anymore, let alone be promoted through normal channels, for the sake of you following me for so many years, give you a chance, you can run away by yourself.

It turned out that there were five members of the prime minister's team at this time: Du You, Yu Di, Li Jifu, Li Fan and Pei Yan, Bai Juyi was honored to offend four of them. Needless to say, although Li Jifu ran to Yangzhou, he still retains his phase and still has a great influence on Chang'an; Du You probably won't like himself either, because I have two satirical poems, "No Cause" and "Si Tiantai" are satirical about his old age but refusal to give up; Yu Di, but also my sworn enemy, back then, the emperor wanted to worship him as a minister, I once had a recital, it seems to be called "On Yu Di, Pei Junzhi", opposing him to enter the court as a prime minister, now that he is the prime minister, naturally he will not give me good fruit to eat; The most important thing is Li Fan, because Li Fan's official is the subordinate servant, the actual person in charge of the subordinate province, my immediate boss, and he can't be promoted normally, probably because of this person. Speaking of which, he has no direct personal grudges with Li Fan, but Li Fan can have today because someone promoted him, and the person who promoted Li Fan is called Du You; He had a teacher, also named Du You; He also has a life-saving benefactor, still named Du You. Got it, that's relationships, intricate relationships! The only one who has a little friendship with him is Pei Yan, he and Pei Yan were colleagues of the Hanlin Academy, Yuan He has been planning for three years, and he has spared no effort to help him, it is said that he should say something good for himself. It's a pity that today's Pei Yan is already a mud bodhisattva crossing the river, and it is difficult to protect himself, and he can't help it.

Bai Juyi understands that in the face of such a leadership team, it is difficult for him to get mixed up. So, he accepted Li Chun's hints, gave up his political future, left Chang'an gloomily, and joined the army as Hucao of Jingzhao Mansion. In April of the sixth year of Yuanhe, less than a year after working in Jingzhao Mansion, Bai Juyi withstood another blow, and his mother, Chen, died. When the mother died, as a son, he was naturally very sad, but people's birth, old age, sickness and death are natural phenomena, and it doesn't seem to be a big blow. If you think so, you couldn't be more wrong. Because, according to the system at that time, when the parents died, the current official had to resign from his official position and go home to observe filial piety, and the period of filial piety was 27 months. After 27 months of mourning, officials can return to work, of course, only if they receive an edict from the imperial court.

However, Bai Juyi, who had been honestly staying in his hometown of Xia Tai for 27 months, did not wait for the long-awaited edict, because in Chang'an at this time, it was his sworn enemy, Prime Minister Li Jifu, who was in charge. In the eighth year of Yuanhe, he quietly slipped away in the process that Bai Juyi was looking forward to, without an edict; In February of the ninth year of Yuanhe, there was a bad news from Chang'an, no, two bad news that made things worse: his senior colleague of the Hanlin Academy, Prime Minister Li Jiang was dismissed, and Bai Juyi lost a big backer; At the same time, Bai Juyi's other sworn enemy, the eunuch Tutu Chengguang, returned to Chang'an, and once again ascended to the peak of power, and Bai Juyi's rise and fall had another insurmountable peak.

Bai Juyi panicked, couldn't sit still, the situation was critical, extremely critical! If you don't take action, there will only be "planting beans under the south mountain" and "fishing alone in the cold river and snow", although that is also one of the ideals of the literati, but it is the ideal of the elderly literati, the ideal of the successful and famous, not the ideal of Bai Juyi, who is in the prime of life, has failed to achieve success and is not famous. Bai Juyi, who was panicked, began to wrench his fingers, weighing the ministers of the court one by one, estimating who could be his lifeline. The hard work paid off, Bai Juyi grabbed and grabbed it, and finally caught two roots, Cui Qun, the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, and Qian Hui, a member of the Zhongshu House, both of whom were old colleagues of Bai Juyi when he was in the Hanlin Academy, and their friendship was not bad, so they should be able to help.

Speaking of which, Cui Qun and the two of them are really buddies and righteous enough, and after receiving a letter from an old friend asking for help, the two of them started to act non-stop, they ran around, mediated left and right, made a move when they met people, burned incense when they saw the temple, and prepared to bypass Li Jifu and Tutu Chengxuan, and quietly did things. But the two of them went around and around, and finally sadly found a cruel truth, useless. Because no matter how they go around, they can't get around the two mountains, Li Jifu and Tutu Chengguang. With their current strength, they simply can't compete with Li Jifu and Tutu Chengxuan, let alone push them down. As a result, Cui Qun was disappointed, Qian Hui was also disappointed, and our Bai Juyi began to despair.

But it turns out that they are so pessimistic that they forget that there is a saying that things are unpredictable. What they can't do, others may not be able to do; What others can't do, God may not be able to do. In October of the ninth year of Yuanhe, Bai Juyi, who had been suffering in despair for more than half a year, suddenly received good news from Chang'an, a big good news: Li Jifu, Prime Minister Li Jifu, the indispensable Prime Minister Li Jifu, died. Perhaps Bai Juyi's unremitting efforts moved the heavens, and God took away his sworn enemy and helped him move this mountain that weighed him down.

Li Jifu died, and the phase was vacant, and this time, Li Chun chose Wei Guanzhi. Of course, he would never have thought that his appointment, inadvertently, gave Bai Juyi a chance to resurrect, because Bai Juyi had a new backer, a big backer, and the new prime minister Wei Guanzhi.

Like Bai Juyi, the relationship between Wei Guanzhi and Du You is not very harmonious; Like Bai Juyi, the relationship between Wei Guanzhi and Li Jifu is not harmonious enough. In officialdom, the enemy of the enemy is naturally a friend. Also, as mentioned earlier, Wei Guanzhi has a friend named Cui Qun; Coincidentally, Bai Juyi also has a friend named Cui Qun. A friend's friend, it seems, should be a friend. Based on these two points alone, what to say, Wei Guanzhi will spare no effort to pull Lao Bai along. What's more, in Yuanhe's three-year strategy, Lao Bai also once said good things for Wei Guanzhi as if he had given up his life, although he couldn't say that he was kind to him, at least he should leave a good impression. Now, it is the time for Wei Guanzhi to repay the favor, Bai Juyi, your opportunity has come, it has finally come.

In December of the ninth year of Yuanhe, Bai Juyi received the belated edict, Chang'an, I'm back!