Cao Jie is nearly seventy years old, his loose skin is covered with age spots, and his slender eyes are always half-squinted, making it impossible to guess that he is thinking about talent. Emperor Shun entered the palace in the early years to do the small yellow door of Cao Jie has lived in the palace for 50 years, experienced countless ups and downs, after Cao Teng, Hou Lan and others passed away, he has become the first leader of the eunuchs, now the lord is the Marquis of Huarong, 7,600 households, the position of Changqiu, 2,000 stone in the rank, the affairs of the main queen's palace, the brother Cao Poshi is the captain of the Yue cavalry, and the son Cao Shao is the Taishou of the East County, and there are more than a dozen other county magistrates who are too guarded, which can be described as the power of the government and the opposition. Since the end of Emperor Huan, there have been many coups in the palace, all of which ended in Cao Jie's complete victory.

The three monarchs who were once famous all over the world: Dou Wu, Chen Fan, and Liu Shu, in front of Cao Jie, none of them had the power to unite; Emperor Huan's younger brother, Liu Kui, the king of Bohai, wanted to play tricks and refused to give money, but was falsely accused of rebellion, and his wife committed suicide; Whether it is a celebrity or a royal family, they are all vulnerable in front of Cao Jie, and other trivial matters are not worth mentioning.

He Jin's sudden visit was not unexpected by Cao Jie. Empress Song's every move was in Cao Jie's ears and eyes, the reason why he didn't make any moves was just that he didn't feel that it was necessary, he wanted to see how far the Song family was going to jump, and at the same time, he also wanted to see the reaction of the He family.

The He family and the eunuchs are very close, but these eunuchs do not include Cao Jie, and the eunuchs are not monolithic, as the oldest Cao Jie and the later generation of Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong, there is a discord between each other, each has its own calculations, even Wang Fu, who is closest to Cao Jie, has his own small abacus. Although Cao Jie is a eunuch, he is not an ordinary eunuch, generally speaking, eunuchs are born poor, have not read a few days of books, ruthless, but scheming is average, and Cao Jie was born in a big family, two thousand stone officials out of several, he himself has read a lot of books, knows a lot about ancient and modern things, is a rare wise man among the eunuchs, otherwise he would not have worked hard in the palace for fifty years. He knew that the He family would not come to him unless it was absolutely necessary.

Cao Jie was very polite, and he was downgraded to greet him, which made He Jin a little flattered. The two of them gossiped in the hall, and finally talked about the Tai Chi Dao Hall, He Jin did not hide it, and directly reminded Cao Jie that Liu Xiu and the Cao family and the Song family are very close, and he does not rely on the Yuan family in the outer court, and the inner court does not rely on your old man, he wants to burn the cold stove and seek unexpected wealth. Of course, this is a huge miscalculation on his part, and with your old man here, he will definitely fail. However, he has been very lively recently, and the students in Luoyang City value him very much, and he has to speak for the party members recently, this party ban is your old man's masterpiece.

At the mention of the party ban, Cao Jie's sparse eyebrows trembled. If he doesn't pay attention to Queen Song, the party members should not be underestimated. Originally, the first party ban had ended in the Huan Emperor Dynasty, and the imprisoned party members were also pardoned and went home, but the second party ban carried out by Cao Jie and others set off a bigger storm, Li Ying, Du Mi, Fan Pan and other more than 100 party members died in prison, and the six or seven hundred people who died and abolished the ban were abolished, and the number of people implicated was thousands, which can be said to have offended all the scholars in the world.

There is no doubt that once the party members return to the court, even if Cao Jie dies early, he will be pulled out and whipped.

Cao Luan's invitation to sin Shu, Zhang Ze's invitation to worship Zhang Huan as Taiwei Shu, Cao Jie has seen it, he has long smelled the crisis contained in it, but he didn't expect that there is Liu Xiu's shadow behind it. After Liu Xiuguan worshipped, he never entered the palace, Cao Jie didn't know, he always thought that Liu Xiu was a white body, and going to Chang'an was just his personal matter, and he didn't associate it with these two things.

Thinking about it, the situation is a bit serious. The Song family is a Fufeng person, could it be that the Song family is also related to this matter, and the Song family wants to take advantage of the party's affairs to rise up, and then take revenge on him?

Cao Jie was surprised in his heart, but his face did not show a trace of discoloration, but he mentioned it casually, saying that His Majesty has often been to Queen Song's Jiaofang Hall recently, and it seems that Queen Song has a tendency to be favored.

He Jin was also taken aback, the He family spent a lot of money to send his sister to the palace, in order to be unfavored by Queen Song, and she has not given birth, He Guiren gave birth to a prince Shi Hou as early as three years ago, and it is very likely to succeed to the throne in the future, if Queen Song is favored and will give birth to a son in the future, then what chance does Shi Hou have? The queen's son is a natural prince.

He Jin's city is far inferior to Cao Jie, what he thinks in his heart is immediately colorful, Cao Jie saw it in his eyes, smiled coldly, and said in his heart, You, a pig killer, want to fight with me, but it is still too tender.

"Junhou, once the Song family gains power, I'm afraid that the matter of the King of Bohai will be brought up again." He Jin cautiously reminded.

Cao Jie shook his head disapprerovingly: "The King of Bohai rebelled, the facts are there, the evidence is conclusive, and it is an edict issued by His Majesty himself, can the queen still overturn the case?" As Da Changqiu, I can only serve the queen well, and I don't dare to have any dissenting intentions. ”

He Jin sneered, and said in his heart that this old eunuch was at ease. The two had their own thoughts, and they tested each other, but in the end, neither of them would give in first, and in the end they still couldn't do it. Sending away the restless He Jin, Cao Jie sat alone in the inner room, stroking a jade ruyi in his hand, pondering for a long time, and finally asked people to call his younger brother Cao Poshi, the captain of Yueqi, and the two discussed for a long time, and finally decided that Cao Poshi would test Liu Xiu's mind.

Liu Xiu soon held a press conference of "Chang'an Zhi" in the Tai Chi Taoist Museum, ten contrasting landscape paintings are very shocking, on the one hand, Liu Xiu's paintings of landscapes convey the spirit, and Cai Yong's poems are also brilliant, and painfully reveal the vigilance significance of taking history as a mirror, whether it is from the artistic surname or the ideological surname, it has reached a considerable height, which is enough to make people appreciate it and have a deep touch.

The 500 copies of "Chronicles of Chang'an" were soon sold out on the same day, causing another sensation in Luoyang City, and unlike the pride caused by "Chronicles of Luoyang", "Chronicles of Chang'an" brought more worries about the future. As soon as the scholars gathered from all over the world arrived in Luoyang, the first thing they felt was this atmosphere of worrying about the country and the people, and what most people talked about the most was the sense of crisis revealed in these two idle books.

Liu Xiu's reputation once again spread in the mouths of Luoyang scholars, although he was still a businessman, but he was no longer a simple businessman, and the Taiji Daoist Hall was not just a gathering place, more and more scholars liked to come to the Taiji Daoist Hall to listen to people's debates. During this period, many celebrities in Shilin, such as Liu Biao, Zhang Miao and others, also went to the Taiji Taoist Hall to meet Liu Xiu.

Immediately afterwards, the Son of Heaven issued an edict to worship Zhang Huan as a captain.

One stone stirred up a thousand waves, and the scholars smelled the breath of the Son of Heaven to lift the party ban, and their mood suddenly became excited, and then they thought of the big exam to be held in October, their impression of the Son of Heaven suddenly changed, and they felt that the Son of Heaven was not so mediocre, and he could still teach, so they wrote to ask for the lifting of the party ban, the revitalization of the dynasty, and the solution of the current crisis of the Han Dynasty.

Liu Xiu was scared out of a cold sweat, for fear that these scholars would destroy the good situation that he had worked so hard to obtain, so he specially held a discussion meeting in the Taiji Taoist Hall, re-mentioning the Cao Luan incident, hoping to pour a basin of cold water on those hot-headed guys, so that they could calm down, but unfortunately the effect was not obvious, and the words of the scholars on the book were still becoming more and more intense, as if they were not excited and not enough to show their loyalty.

The Son of Heaven gradually became a little impatient, and the news brought out by Liu Hong said that the Son of Heaven was very dissatisfied with these scholars, and hoped that Liu Xiu could play a greater role in guiding public opinion in a direction that was beneficial to the overall situation. In the current situation, if the party members are really pardoned and the party ban is lifted, things may get out of control, and the third party rebellion is inevitable.

Liu Xiu heard the discordant notes from it, and he was so anxious that he almost collapsed, he was really a little disappointed in these readers. Can't you speak well, you have to stab the emperor with a gun and a stick a few words to show that you are knowledgeable?

Liu Xiu was angry, so he had to persuade those celebrities to correct their attitudes and not be so excited, and at the same time invited the Son of Heaven, since the Confucian scholars were too arrogant, it was better to burn the fire bigger, and expand the scope of recruitment to Confucianism, as long as there is a skill, you can participate.

The Son of Heaven, who was extremely annoyed by the Confucian scholars, didn't think much about it, and quickly agreed with Liu Xiu's opinion and recruited people from all over the world to enter Beijing to discuss Taoism.

As soon as the Di report came out, Luoyang was boiling, and the Confucian scholars who originally had a good impression of Liu Xiu immediately turned their faces and scolded, saying that Liu Xiu was doing nonsense, can such a major matter allow those people to participate? But before Liu Xiu could refute them, those who had just been absorbed into the Taiping Dao by Zhang Ming ridiculed each other, why should only you Confucian scholars be able to put their beaks in the world, and others would not say anything? Besides, those who know how to practice Confucianism are not necessarily worse than you, and now that the Five Classics are all over the world, others can read the books you read, and maybe they can read better than you.

Luoyang City can be seen everywhere scolding, there are Confucian and Taiping Dao believers scolding, there are also Confucian and Confucian scolding, because Confucian families have contradictions, so it is not as good as the Taiping Dao believers are united, but for a while they fell behind.

Just when the prestige of Taiping Dao increased greatly, a strong opponent finally came, Heavenly Master Dao Bishan Zhizhi Head Sacrifice Wine Wang Ying found Liu Xiu, and said straight to the point that he would discuss Taoism with Taiping Dao in the Taiji Dao Pavilion and compete Taoism.

"Contest Dao Technique?" Liu Xiu didn't react for a while, looking at the Taoist priest in front of him who was quite immortal, and considered whether he was here to kick the hall or to talk about the Tao. I'm talking about the way to govern the country here, and you're here to compete?

Wang Ying saw that Liu Xiu was puzzled, and he didn't say anything, so he directly put down his fifty gold and said, I know that Zhang Ming has a good relationship with you, and you helped arrange his preaching in Luoyang. I don't have any other requirements, you also arrange a preaching for me, I want to challenge Zhang Ming, if he doesn't dare to come, he will withdraw from Luoyang City in the future. Heavenly Master Dao has been in Luoyang for 20 years, why did he come to Luoyang to preach?

Liu Xiu heard it, this is for Taiping Dao, Taiping Dao has been preaching in Luoyang recently, maybe Heavenly Master Dao is looking at it hot, and he also wants to come to get a piece of the pie. In recent years, natural disasters have continued, and everyone has little confidence in the future, and it is the time when religion that can give people illusions is in full swing. Although the Heavenly Master Dao opened the sect much earlier, their main believers were concentrated in the Bashu area, and Luoyang had Bishan Zhi, but the propaganda had not been large, so they were overtaken by Zhang Ming. They came to the Tai Chi Dao Pavilion, probably because they felt that the Tai Chi Dao Pavilion had enough influence to challenge Zhang Ming here, which would cause a sensation.

Liu Xiu accepted fifty gold and found Zhang Ming, who was in full swing. When Zhang Ming heard this, his face was a little ugly, and he didn't speak for a long time.

"What, you're afraid of him? If I'm not sure, I'll get the money back. Liu Xiu said pretendly: "Alas, the current price of grain is really crazy, 1,300 yuan a stone, I can't even open the pot." ”

Zhang Ming glanced at him and was silent for a moment: "I'm not afraid of him, it's just that the great sage and good teacher have taken care of him, and I can't have a head-on conflict with the people of the Heavenly Master's Dao, especially this mountain ruler and head sacrifice wine Wang Ying, everything must be conceded three points." ”

Liu Xiu was very curious: "Why?" ”

"I don't know." Zhang Ming wanted to speak and stopped, "I want to contact the great sage and good teacher, if he agrees to compete, then I will compete with him again." ”

Liu Xiu agreed, and sent a message to Wang Ying, Wang Ying was not reluctant, about mid-October, regardless of whether Taiping Dao should fight or not, I would start preaching in the Taiji Dao Hall. Zhang Ming didn't dare to slack off, he knew that the reason why Wang Ying was chosen in mid-October was because the big exam was in early October, which was when the world's scholars were concentrated in Luoyang.

From the choice of this timing alone, we can see the confidence of the Heavenly Master's victory.

Zhang Ming got up to leave, stopped again when he walked to the door, looked back at Tang Yingzi, and hesitated: "Little girl, have we met before?" ”

Except for the three days after Zhang Ming began to preach in the Taiji Daoist Hall, he has been busy preaching everywhere, rarely coming to the Taiji Daoist Hall, and it is the first time he and Tang Yingzi have met. When he saw Tang Yingzi from the beginning today, his expression was a little strange.

"Yes." Tang Yingzi licked the lollipop that Liu Xiu specially made for her, and nodded casually: "When I was in Ningcheng, I saw you, and I saw you several times, but you didn't pay attention to me." ”

Zhang Ming sighed, then he was relieved, nodded, and turned to leave.

Liu Xiu looked at Zhang Ming, and then at Tang Yingzi, and felt that something was wrong, Tang Yingzi said that she saw her in Fuyang, and now she said that she saw Zhang Ming in Ningcheng, but he had never seen Tang Yingzi in Ningcheng, and he had no impression at all, and Tang Yingzi had never mentioned going to Ningcheng before.

Who is this little girl, could it be that the person who kidnapped her is Zhang Ming or someone in Taiping Dao?

Tang Yingzi saw Liu Xiu's suspicious gaze, got up and ran away.

Things are getting more and more unfavorable, and Liu Xiu soon hears another piece of bad news.

Taiwei Zhang Huan, Situ Yuan Kui, Sikong Xu Xun and others wrote a letter, asking the Son of Heaven to issue an edict to repatriate the displaced people from all over the world so as not to cause riots. The Son of Heaven issued an edict to discuss the repatriation plan, which was originally said very well in the court, everyone thought that if the displaced people continued to wander like this, something would happen sooner or later, and they should be repatriated to the states and counties, but in the end how to repatriate, especially how to solve the related costs of repatriation, everyone quarreled again, in the final analysis, there is one problem: money.

Repatriating the displaced people requires money, and sending them back to their homeland is only the first step in solving the problem, if you want them to live in peace, you have to let them live, you have to give them land, but where is the land? A large amount of land is owned by the owner, and if it is forcibly deprived, I am afraid that those displaced people will not have an accident, and those landlords will rise up first to make trouble.

Don't think this is alarmist, Emperor Guangwu almost caused a big disaster when he wanted to do it, and in the end he had to stop it. At that time, the household registration in the world was scarce, and the land problem was not serious, so the contradiction could be concealed for a while, and in the last years of Suzong, after decades of recuperation, the household registration increased substantially, and the land problem became acute again.

The land problem is the first to solve the problem of resettlement of displaced people, but there is no second way to solve the land problem except to take it from the hands of those powerful people who occupy a large amount of land. After nearly 300 years of development, the land that can be cultivated within the territory of the Han Dynasty has basically been reclaimed, and there is no room for maneuver.

The problem is that how many of the three princes and nine ministers in the court are not big landlords? To seize the land, they are the first to bear the brunt.

The Son of Heaven looked at the court that was slowly falling silent, and his fiery heart cooled a little. He is not in the mood to discuss it again, and it is estimated that these people will not be able to come up with any good ways to go directly to the next agenda.

Next, it was a cold field again, and no one was willing to take the lead in breaking the deadlock, although the Son of Heaven had appointed the imprisoned Zhang Huan as the captain, revealing the meaning of understanding the party ban, and some time ago he also lightly sent Cao Luan, who was a party member, and the recent Qing discussion in Luoyang is also very popular, but how far the Son of Heaven can loosen up, this scale is difficult to grasp, and no one dares to be this bird.

In the end, Guanglu doctor Yang Ci broke the silence and asked the Son of Heaven to issue an edict to lift the party ban. The Son of Heaven was noncommittal, left a sentence for further discussion, and let Zhao Zhong and Zhang Rang, who were always in the middle of the meeting, listen to the side, and go away by himself.

Yuan Kui, Yang Ci and others looked at each other, they were a little confused, looking at the attitude of the Son of Heaven, he didn't seem to be enthusiastic about lifting the party ban. But since the Son of Heaven asked them to discuss it again, they couldn't disperse in a hurry, they could only discuss it in the court, and the problem was that no one knew what the Son of Heaven was thinking, and how could they come up with a result.

On the contrary, they negotiated the price of grain in Luoyang recently.

The drought has been continuing, and the price of grain in Luoyang has gone crazy, rising from about 100 yuan a stone to 1,300 yuan, and there is a trend of continuing to rise. Most of the three princes and Jiuqing have land and money, and they don't have to worry about having no food to eat, but this doesn't mean that they don't have to care about the price of food, especially Situ Yuan Kui, Henan Yin Hejin, and Luoyang Zhou Yi are the three most nervous, once there is any trouble, the most directly responsible person is the three of them, Yuan Kui is the most directly responsible, but Zhou Yi may be the first to be unlucky. Zhou Yi's official position is too low to be qualified to attend this kind of meeting, but he has already complained to Yuan Kui's mansion, and asked Yuan Kui not to die no matter what, and even pushed him out as a scapegoat.

Yuan Kui can't help it, his family has food, but can he take his own grain out of the market? Not to mention whether their family has so much food, just say that there is, he can't do this, who knows how long this drought will last. In case of another drought for a year and a half, his Yuan family will also be tight.

Henan Yin He Jin and Luoyang made Zhou Yi feel great pressure, He Jin didn't even have time to trouble Liu Xiu, once there was turmoil in Luoyang, he, Henan Yin, was directly responsible. He racked his brains to find some food to help, but where there was food, he didn't dare to touch the people who had food, and the people who dared to touch had no food, so he could only jump to his feet.

Situ Yuan Kui was also very nervous, the October plan plus the big exam was enough to give him a headache, and now there is another argument, you can imagine what Luoyang will be like in October. He felt that he really couldn't do it for long, and once the scholars in Luoyang couldn't eat, they would definitely scold him, the Situ who was in charge of the world's wealth. He was scolded by Liu Xiu, he was not afraid, but he couldn't bear to be scolded by the world's readers.

This is the real reliance of the Yuan family, how can the capital accumulated in decades be lost in one day.

Again, there was no outcome on this issue. In fact, as long as these people are willing to take action, everyone will take out some food, and with the strength of these people in the court, even if they can't completely solve this crisis, they won't let the crisis get out of control, the problem is that no one is willing to do it. On the one hand, they are unwilling to take the initiative to be this good person, and on the other hand, even if they want to take it, they hope that others will take it first, and then wait for themselves to sell it when the price of food is higher.

It can't be said that there are no noble thinkers, such as Yang Ci, such as Qiao Xuan, they took the initiative to take out some grain to level the market, but those who are willing to make a move are some who are not strong, and the real predators such as the Yuan family are indifferent at all, a drop in the bucket, and it is useless.

Once again, the court was at an impasse.

Back to Situ Mansion, the more Yuan Kui thought about it, the more angry he became, he felt that the culprit of the current situation was Liu Xiu, knowing that the famine was already very serious, Liu Xiu actually put forward a proposal to recruit people from all over the world to enter Beijing to discuss Taoism, this proposal made the famine in Luoyang worse, the price of food soared, the situation has reached the point of being out of control, the people are panicking, hoarding grain in every possible way, and those who can't afford to buy food simply go out to escape the famine. Big families are not short of grain, but they don't dare to sell grain, everyone knows that the price of grain has just begun, and when a large number of travelers are concentrated in Luoyang, that is the time to really test people.

Suddenly out of anger, he knew that it was impossible to invite Liu Xiu to Situ Mansion, so he had to rush to the Taiji Taoist Hall in person to ask Liu Xiu: What the hell are you doing, I don't know that the famine in Luoyang is imminent, you also summoned virtuous and Taoist people from all over the country to enter Beijing, how can there be food for them to eat at that time, and you are responsible for starving to death?

In the face of Yuan Kui's questioning, Liu Xiu was very calm, he said to Yuan Kui with a hippie smile, don't look for me, that's your Lord Situ, Henan Yin, Luoyang Ling, and Dasi Nong's matter, what does it have to do with me? I'm just suggesting, the Son of Heaven is approved, that's the matter of the Son of Heaven, why don't you ask the Son of Heaven? If you feel that this burden is too heavy, you can avoid being virtuous.

Yuan Kui was speechless, and he had no choice but to go to Lu Zhi again. Looking for Lu Zhi, you don't have to deign to come to the door, he asked Maren to write an invitation, inviting Lu Zhi to go to Yuan's mansion to talk about the old feelings, although Lu Zhi knew that this was a Hongmen banquet, he had no choice but to respond.

Liu Xiu, as Lu Zhi's disciple, was also invited. Lu Zhi was embarrassed to say to Liu Xiu in person, and asked Lu Shen to pass the word. As soon as Lu Shen saw Liu Xiu, before he could speak, his face turned red, and he was so ashamed that he couldn't say a word.

(To be continued)