The eighth month of the lunar calendar is the second month of autumn, so it is also called "Mid-autumn", and August 15 is in the "Mid-autumn", so it is called "Mid-autumn".

The Mid-Autumn Festival originated from the worship of celestial phenomena and evolved from the autumn and evening moon festivals in ancient times. Moon worship is a very ancient custom in Chinese civilization, which is a kind of worship activity of the ancients in some places to the "moon god", and later gradually evolved into activities such as moon appreciation and moon singing.

The earliest surviving written record of the term "Mid-Autumn Festival" was found in the Han Dynasty documents, and it was written between the two Han Dynasty in the "Zhou Li" (written by Zhou Gongdan, in fact, written between the two Han Dynasty), that the pre-Qin Dynasty had the activities of "welcoming the cold on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival", "offering good Qiu in the Mid-Autumn Festival", and "worshipping the moon at the autumn equinox".

Nowadays, the Mid-Autumn Festival is not common among the people, but on this day, the imperial court will reward officials over 60 years old with clothing and food, as a sign of respect and courtesy for their work for the country.

Among the ten permanent attendants, there is only Cao Jie.

Today, Liu Hong, the son of heaven, accompanied his biological mother Empress Dowager Yongle in Yongle Palace to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the ten permanent servants are also rare to be idle.

So after receiving the reward, Cao Jie invited the other nine middle attendants to the secluded flower hall to meet.

At this time, the weather was slightly cool, Cao Jie wore a brocade dress rewarded by the imperial court, sat at the top position, glanced around, and slowly spoke: "I summoned you here today to ask you for your views on the two major events that have happened recently. ”

The recent situation in the imperial court has been very unfavorable to them, and Sikong Liu Huan and Tingwei Tang Zhen have been deposed by the Son of Heaven one after another, which makes them feel a sense of oppression in their hearts.

In the past, when Sikong Liu Huan and Tingwei Tang Zhen were in office, their eunuch group still had a certain right to speak in the court, and now the two have been deposed, this situation naturally makes Cao Jie and others extremely depressed, which means that they will basically be blind to national affairs in the court in the future, even if someone wants to be unfavorable to their ten permanent servants, there is no news channel.

This made them a little frightened, but the nobles and the elite had always wanted to drive them away from the Son of Heaven.

These eunuchs are not from a good background, and all their wealth and honor come from the favor of the Son of Heaven, if they lose the support of Liu Hong, the Son of Heaven, their property is estimated to be divided among the nobles and magnates.

Especially recently, I saw that Liu Hong, the son of heaven, ordered the world's famous craftsmen to cast four swords, named "Zhongxing", in order to revive the prestige of the Han Dynasty. Then he spurned the darkness of Emperor Huan's dynasty, and had the heart of the world.

This made them even more anxious, knowing that only the Son of Heaven indulged in pleasure could they have a place for eunuchs! If the Son of Heaven wants to work hard, he can only rely on the support of the nobles and magnates, what else do they need these eunuchs to do......

Therefore, under such a crisis, the 10 permanent servants had to get together to discuss future countermeasures.

Everyone in the hall heard Cao Jie's question, everyone look at me, I look at you, and was silent for a while, and finally Wang Fu took the lead in breaking the dull atmosphere and said in a shrill voice: "The most important thing at the moment is to win over a few three dukes and nine ministers who are close to our eunuchs in the court, so that they can say good things for us at a critical moment!" ”

"This is very much in my heart!" Cao nodded his head, and then sighed: "Fortunately, Cao Teng was kind to me back then, he entrusted me to take care of his adopted son Cao Song before his death, and I have always kept it in mind all these years, and pushed Cao Song to the high position of the Great Si Nongqing." I really didn't expect that the kindness of the thought back then would not prevent us from being isolated in the court. ”

"Cao Gong is benevolent and righteous, we are all convinced!" The crowd chimed in.

At this time, Cheng Huang also smiled and said: "Shaofuqing Liu He is the husband of my adopted daughter, and he can also help me at a critical moment." ”

Hou Lan on the side sneered: "Back then, we worked together to kill his brother Liu Qian, but then I was afraid that he would think that we didn't die fast enough, so let's stab him in the back." ”

Cheng Huang immediately glared at him angrily, and shouted: "Hou Lan, you don't talk cool here, Liu Hewei has been an official in the past few years, I have to wait once, that is, your brother Hou Shen can become the assassin of Yizhou, and I also have a share of the credit of my son-in-law." Do you now see that I have been favored by the Son of Heaven more recently than you, so you deliberately tell the truth! ”

Hou Lan was dumbfounded, and finally Cao Jie said: "With Cheng Huang's relationship, I don't think Liu He will make any unfavorable moves against us." ”

Then he solemnly said to everyone: "Now this situation, I won't hide it from you, Situ Xu Xun has found me several times and wants me to help him say a few kind words to the Son of Heaven." In the past, because Liu Huan was the commander, I didn't dare to agree to him easily, for fear that it would cause the displeasure of the Son of Heaven, thinking that our eunuchs did not keep their duties. ”

After a pause, he continued: "It seems that we were still too low-key before, so that this group of scholars thought that we were weak and could be bullied. When I get back, I'll talk to Situ Xu Xun about what he thinks in his heart and see if he can be used by us. ”

At this time, Hou Lan asked again: "Could he be here to deceive us, so as to increase his reputation among the scholars?" ”

Cao Jieleng paused for a moment, and then sneered: "If he really dares to do this, I still think he is a gentleman, but he wants to seek an official position for his son Xu Xiang, and he wants to be unaffected by his position as the third prince all the year round, this is a typical villain's practice." In the past, I looked down on him a little, but now the situation is becoming less and less unfavorable for us, so we can only start with him. ”

"If this is the case, then according to what Cao Gong said, we will fully support him in power."

Everyone in the hall unanimously agreed, but they were all worried that there would be no one in the court and someone would launch a surprise attack on them.

Cao Jie was also very satisfied with everyone's reactions, and his hard work was not in vain.

At this moment, Yuan Yu suddenly said in a loud voice: "Some time ago, I made contact with Yuan Kui, the Great Hongluqing, and he was willing to accept me into the genealogy of the Yuan clan in Runan, or he could bring in foreign aid. ”

Everyone else looked at Yuan Yu with a stunned face, and even Cao Jie glanced at Yuan Yu, and laughed: "I didn't expect you to do such a big thing unconsciously, with this Runan Yuan clan as foreign aid in the DPRK, what else can I be afraid of!" As long as we serve the Son of Heaven wholeheartedly, all the marquis in the future are just around the corner! ”

"With Cao Gong's words, we are willing to obey orders!" Seven of the ten permanent servants were not marquised, so they were very moved by Cao Jie's words.

Seeing that all the ten permanent servants were willing to listen to his call, Cao Jie smiled even more happily. After laughing, he said with a straight face: "We must not take it lightly, if today's son is about to become an adult and has great power, we don't want to learn from my cousin Liang Ji, arrogant, and finally end up with a bleak end." ”

After a pause, he then spoke: "Although we are eunuchs, it is not very convenient to enter and exit Yongle Palace after all, and the Son of Heaven is very filial to his biological mother. ”

As he spoke, he sighed again: "If it weren't for Emperor Huan's nurse Zhao Rao and the Empress Dowager Dou having an old relationship, it would really be a good idea to introduce her to the Empress Dowager Yongle!" ”

After hearing this, everyone also regretted it, if there was no Dou Wu, they would get along well with the Empress Dowager Dou, and they would be able to get what they wanted. Now that they have destroyed the Dou family, they are afraid that the Empress Dowager Dou will gain power, and the first thing they do is to kill them to avenge their relatives. This is something they can't allow, so all the people who have a relationship with the Empress Dowager Dou are squeezed out of the palace by them.

At this moment, Zhao Zhong, who had been silent, suddenly said in a loud voice: "Today's mother, Mrs. Cheng, has some relationship with me, or she can be used as a help!" ”

"God help me! In this way, we can rest easy in the future! Cao Jie laughed.

When the others heard this, they also laughed, but how long did their laughter last, and a little eunuch came to report: "Your Excellency, the Son of Heaven reads Wu Yong and asks to see him outside the door." ”

"Why is he here!" Everyone was obviously stunned and looked at each other.

At this time, Cheng Huang hurriedly explained: "I asked him to come over!" ”

"Let's get together and call him here for something! His last proposal made us miserable, and we are in the situation we are in today, and we have nothing to do with him. Cao Jie was a little dissatisfied.

Cheng Huang smiled bitterly: "You also know that I have an adopted daughter who married into the Hou Mansion, this Wu Yong is my junior after all, and I don't want to make trouble because of what happened last time." What's more, let's ask him about this matter first, if it weren't for the improper operation, there would not be today's situation. ”

Guo Sheng, who had not spoken today, also said with a smile: "Hehe, why should you be like a child!" I heard that this Wu Yong helped the five surnamed Hou Mansion open a Taixu restaurant, and every day is a day of money! I can't say that we will use others in the future. ”

Cao Jie thought for a moment, raised his hand to stop the people who were still about to speak, and said to the little eunuch outside the door: "Let him come in." ”

"Whoa!" As the little eunuch's answer fell, Wu Yong appeared in front of everyone after a while.

Wu Yong saw that the ten permanent servants were all here today, so he stepped forward and saluted one by one.

Everyone else greeted each other with smiling faces, but Cao Jie sneered and said, "You came here today to see our jokes?" ”

After speaking, he also glanced at Wu Yong intentionally or unintentionally.

Wu Yong raised his eyebrows, and said with a straight face: "Why did Cao Gong say this!" Like Cheng Changshou and Guo Changshi, you are all young elders. What's more, the boy and you don't have a holiday, so why talk about shame and laughter. ”

"Oh, you're going to be clever at it, so how do you solve the problem of toilet charges? We have spent a lot of money to build these toilets, and now we have not returned to our original cost, this situation has occurred, you say that there is no responsibility for you, but you suggested to build toilets, and promised to only make money and not lose! Cao Jie's words were very flat.

"You just pretend, this Nima can also be blamed on me, if you are not too greedy, you have to charge five yuan once, how can this happen, but if you have a little conscience, collect two yuan once, you will not make such a big disturbance, attract public anger. I've really seen shamelessness, I've never seen you so shameless! ”

Wu Yong complained in his heart, but his face was silent, and he said with a smile: "I think this time the officials and ministers may have made a mistake, they only have to charge for going to the toilet, in fact, it is to give those poor people a job, and they can't let them clean the toilet without paying the maid, this is about the livelihood of the people, you can't be sloppy, you elders should be clear!" ”

Hearing this, everyone in the hall was really dumbfounded, and after a long time, Cao Jie reacted and sighed: "When you say this, I want to understand that we are building toilets completely to save the people." The reason why there are so many fees is also because I want to give the people more money! ”

Then, he stood up again, patted Wu Yong's shoulder, and said with a smile: "You are very good!" If something happens in the future, just let people come to me. ”

"Thank you Cao Gong!" Wu Yong pretended to be a little flattered, and then said: "Actually, this time, the kid has one more thing, please agree!" ”

Cao Jie was stunned for a moment, and asked suspiciously, "What's the matter?" ”

Wu Yong smiled and said: "Your lords should know that the Son of Heaven rewarded the boy with an imperial village, and the people in the Zhuangzi happened to need dung water, so they wanted to buy the dung water from the toilets from the elders." ”