In 1566 of the Ming Dynasty, the eunuch Lu Fang annoyed Emperor Jiajing many times. Why was he able to escape unscathed?

1.

As the head of the five eunuchs of the Bureau of Ceremonies, Lu Fang has considerable power. As the eunuch in charge of the seal, he controls the final policy execution power of the Ming Dynasty - Pihong.

The Si Li Supervisor was in charge of the twenty-four yamen of the inner court, plus Jinyiwei and Dongchang. It was the transfer station for issuing orders with Emperor Jiajing as the center. It is also used to balance and check the cabinet, as well as the officials of the six ministries, two capitals and thirteen provinces, as well as the people of the world.

We can imagine that before the plot began, that is, forty years before Emperor Jiajing, the court had been stable for at least twenty years. In the past twenty years, Yan Song and Lu Fang had been in power, and the two had a tacit understanding of each other. The real balance was broken at the opening of the imperial financial meeting.

The reason why the Qing faction opened fire on Yan Shifan during this meeting was that the forces of both parties had fundamentally changed. This change was that King Yu had a wife...

Because of the death of Zhou Yunyi , filling the whole meeting with the smell of gunpowder, Lu Fang was still trying his best to maintain the balance, and set the tone before the meeting: "Dear ministers, everyone knows about Zhou Yunyi's incident on the 29th of the twelfth lunar month... On the deficit If something can get over, we will do our best to get over it. We have to work together to deal with such a big thing."

But the meeting still got into a fight. Faced with a fierce conflict, Yan Song took the lead and broke it up. Balance:

"Some people are using this to slander the imperial court... This snow was brought down by the emperor..."

Lv Fang has been mediating during this period, allowing everyone to discuss the matter. After correcting the direction of the discussion, the meeting was successfully concluded and the national policy of "changing rice into mulberry" was established.

From this moment on, Lu Fang felt that a big change was about to occur. In order to ensure that everything was safe, he took advantage of the opportunity to congratulate Prince Yu and asked Emperor Jiajing to send eunuchs and maids to Prince Yu's Mansion. , and at the same time cleverly sent Feng Bao to take precautions.

2.

The theory he told Feng Bao can be regarded as one of the classics in the whole drama, that is, "thinking of danger", "thinking of retreat" and "thinking of change" , and told him clearly:

"If there ever comes a day when Prince Yu takes over the palace, my godfather's life will still depend on you!"

Lu Fang is the biggest person. What are its characteristics?

In fact, it is kindness. The so-called kindness brings wealth. If you can't make enemies, you will never make enemies. If you can save a life, you will never stand by. This is true for Feng Bao, Yang Jinshui and others.

In the play, Emperor Jiajing mentioned several times that he was tired of Lu Fang being called "ancestor" and said that only dead people were called ancestors. Why didn't Lu Fang change it?

In fact, this is a name that the people below are willing to call. It comes from the heart and cannot be changed. From this, we can also see that Lu Fang knows how to be a good person. But Lu Fang was too kind, and problems would arise if he was too kind. In the end, Lu Fang was withdrawn because of this. Of course, this is something we will talk about later.

Lu Fang's first crisis happened after "destroying embankments and flooding fields" and happened to his favorite godson Yang Jinshui. In Lu Fang's words, Yang Jinshui is worse than anyone else when he is bad, but he is better than anyone else when he is good.

If nothing happened later, it is conceivable that Yang Jinshui would definitely return to Beijing after his term at Jiangnan Weaving Bureau expired. His political awareness and methods are by no means inferior to Chen Hong's, especially his wise words that he can't weigh anything even if he doesn't weigh four ounces, and even if he weighs a thousand kilograms, it runs through the whole play.

This crisis was resolved with Yang Jinshui's loyalty. He immediately gave up Li Xuan, confessed Yan Shifan in front of Emperor Jiajing, and protected Hu Zongxian. This won my favor. Not only was he not punished, but he was praised. .

3.

Lu Fang’s first crisis was solved by Yang Jinshui, and the second crisis was still solved by Yang Jinshui.

The changes in the imperial bureau far exceeded Lu Fang's imagination, including the destruction of dikes and flooding of fields, major Japanese cases, land purchases under the banner of the Weaving Bureau, and corruption cases in Zhejiang. Faced with Hai Rui's aggressiveness, Yang Jinshui was dumbfounded and felt that he had failed to fulfill the important task assigned by his ancestors and the emperor:

"I am the emperor, a dog sent to Zhejiang by my ancestors. I have to take care of this house!"

As a dog, you have to protect your owner. Once the incident of destroying dikes and flooding fields is revealed, Emperor Jiajing will have to investigate, and he will find out the head of the weaving bureau. superior. By then, both Yang Jinshui and Lu Fang would be implicated, and even Emperor Jiajing's sage would not be able to be saved, let alone Hu Zongxian, who was still fighting.

But Yang Jinshui cannot die. Once he dies, he will give the hostile force of the Supervisor of Ceremonies, namely Chen Hong, a handle, which will be extremely detrimental to Lu Fang. He can't live soberly. When a person is sober, he has to answer questions. No matter how he answers, Lu Fang will be implicated and the Holy One will be tarnished.

In desperation, he could only go crazy. Emperor Jiajing also knew that he was pretending to be crazy, but he still wanted to know if this matter had anything to do with Lu Fang. Yang Jinshui replied:

"Who is Lu Fang? There is him... there is him... he died a hundred years ago..."

It is also said that Yang Jinshui died, which means that the clue ends here. Yang Jinshui assumed all responsibilities and would never tarnish the Holy One.

The second crisis ended with Yang Jinshui being imprisoned in Chaotian Temple, but Lu Fang also lost his buffer, that is, Yang Jinshui. When the next crisis comes, he will have to go in alone.

4.

In fact, as soon as the news of Yang Jinshui's madness reached the capital, Lu Fang panicked. In the panic, he made the biggest mistake, which was to hide it from Emperor Jiajing. He went to see Yan Song and Xu Jie, and was finally sent to Jirang.

In fact, Lu Fang definitely has good intentions. At this juncture, once the Qing faction and the Yan Party come into conflict, it will inevitably affect the overall situation of the southeastern anti-Japanese war. In fact, he knew very well that Yang Jinshui went crazy and he was guilty and could not escape. He did not want to embarrass Emperor Jiajing, so he still wanted to fight for Emperor Jiajing.

Lü Fang made the final decision:

“We still drink the emperor’s drink together!”

Later, Emperor Jiajing was convinced that Lu Fang was not involved in the Zhejiang corruption case. , also understood his painstaking efforts, and at the same time kindly reminded him because he could not read enough poems and books, do you know what Taizu said when he persuaded the ministers to drink?

"You drink from the golden cup, and I won't spare you with my sword!"

Lü Fang went to persuade him to drink. Yan Song and Xu Jie, who were well-read in poetry and books, would definitely understand that this was the Jiajing period. How could the emperor not try to deal with us?

But Lu Fang did something bad with good intentions and was still loyal to Emperor Jiajing, so this time he saved the day.

The last time Lu Fang was demoted was the plot mentioned at the beginning, because Lu Fang was always talking to Prince Yu, which aroused Emperor Jiajing’s dissatisfaction:

“He was the one who replaced I am speaking, or are you speaking for him, or for my son?"

In other words, Emperor Jiajing discovered that Lu Fang had also moved closer to Prince Yu. As a eunuch, he could only have one master. That is the emperor. I'm not dead yet, so you're leaning against the future emperor. What do you mean?

5.

In fact, the fall of Yan Dang has already heralded Lu Fang’s fall as well.

On the surface, Lu Fang is leaning towards the Qing school and towards King Yu. It seems that he started to put treasure on King Yu. After all, in this party struggle, the Qing faction headed by King Yu succeeded, and Lu Fang and the Li Supervisor he represented were also leaning on King Yu.

First, Hai Rui appeared halfway, insisting on rectifying Emperor Jiajing's heart, Jing Fu said:

"It's just that no one explained clearly why he did this, so the rumors spread everywhere. ...I will make a footnote for you with this word "must", to correct people's opinions and calm down the lies!"

Hai Rui is the person recommended by King Yu, so Emperor Jiajing will definitely think too much, I am not dead yet! , are you coming to force me to have a baby?

That's not all. Even two Jin Yiwei who always only obeyed the emperor came to plead for mercy. The key is that Lu Fang agreed. What are the characteristics of people like Lu Fang? In Huang Jin’s words:

“We, originally, were not human beings. With the emperor, we are only half human. With the care of our ancestors for many years, We are only half human."

The prerequisite for being a human being is the emperor. Without the emperor, you are nothing. Lu Fang violated this taboo.

In fact, this is not entirely the case, and the balance has been broken. With Lu Fang’s character, it is difficult to find a balance. If power cannot check and balance each other, it will inevitably get out of control. This is what Emperor Jiajing is most worried about. In fact, after Lu Fang left and Chen Hong came to power, the fighting did not stop.

When Yan Dang was in power, there were the Four Remonstrants from Yue Zhong, the Three Sons of Wuwu, and Zhou Yunyi scolding them. After the fall of Yan Dang, Xu Jie came to power, and the same group of people scolded them. There was no such thing in the play. Mention, but this is the case in history. For example, Li Qingyuan and others of the Imperial Academy and Imperial Academy; Xu Jie stepped down, and later Zhang Juzheng came to power. There was also a group of people who were scolding the so-called Qing school. I will scold whoever is in power!

Without the coordination of the powerful Chief of Ceremonies, the imperial power would have no status. Later, after the fall of Wei Zhongxian, the Donglin Party became dominant and Emperor Chongzhen was consumed. This is the reason.

Lü Fang always made mistakes in the later period. He replied to Emperor Jiajing that he was also old, in exchange for Emperor Jiajing's sympathy. Emperor Jiajing was not a heartless and unjust person, and he would also take care of such a loyal minister. Lu Fang has been in power for forty years and has already integrated with Emperor Jiajing. To oppose Lu Fang is to oppose himself. Emperor Jiajing is not stupid.

It can be understood that Lu Fang's "thinking twice" saved him, it can also be understood that his "loyalty" saved him, or it can be understood that Emperor Jiajing's nostalgia for the past saved him...

"We don’t have to cry in the future, let them cry!"