My younger brother Lü Fengxian

Chapter 236 Demon King Dong Zhuo
……

"My dear eunuch, you misunderstood me. I never said I didn't want to spend money!"

"Oh my, it turns out that you are a distinguished guest. I am sorry that I did not recognize you. Please forgive me. It is windy outside the garden. Please come in quickly. Hot tea has been prepared in the garden..."

As soon as Lu Yi changed the subject, the eunuch immediately changed like a chameleon, from an impatient look to a smiling face.

Even Lu Yi, who is an excellent actor, had to admit defeat at the speed of his facial changes.

What is said about being confident at first and then respectful makes people laugh.

Lu Yi shook his head slightly and followed the enthusiastic eunuch into the West Garden.

"Humph!"

Lu Bu behind him suppressed his contempt, snorted coldly, and followed him in.

The decoration in the West Garden is extremely luxurious.

All kinds of utensils are exquisitely crafted.

Some things looked like they clearly belonged to the palace.

It seems that Liu Hong spent a lot of money in order to make more money.

"Please take a seat, distinguished guest. To be honest, I am just a small person serving tea and running errands in the West Garden. There are others to receive you."

The eunuch attentively led Lu Yi to a Hu stool and served him fragrant tea. His hospitality was so attentive that Lu Yi felt like he was back in reality and shopping in a mall.

"Oh? Who will receive you?"

Lu Yi asked with a little curiosity.

"The business of the West Garden is of great importance, and only the emperor's close attendants can be in charge. Therefore, the management of the West Garden has always been presided over by the Minister of the Chancellery, Lord Cao Jie. However, Lord Cao is now accompanying His Majesty in the palace, so today, Lord Zhao Zhong, the eunuch, will take over temporarily."

"Lord Zhao is currently receiving other distinguished guests in the inner room. Please wait for a moment."

This young eunuch was quite smart. His manners, words and actions were very organized in dealing with people, which made Lu Yi look up to him.

"In that case, I will wait here. Please take this money and have some tea..."

When the eunuch saw Lu Yi take out the purse from his arms, his eyes lit up and he hurried over to take it, but he still served by the side and did not leave.

"Please don't blame me, my lords have already said that since Xiyuan has opened its doors for business under the order of His Majesty, we must not treat you with disrespect. If I leave you alone and let Lord Zhao know, I will definitely be punished, and..."

"If the deal is successful, I will also give you a reward..."

The eunuch took the benefit and told Lu Yi the obscure things.

"Oh, in that case, while Attendant Zhao is busy, why don't we have a chat..."

Lu Yi took a look at the eunuch who looked like he was greedy for money, and his heart moved. He took out another purse from his arms.

"Since you are my distinguished guest, I dare not refuse!"

When the eunuch saw the second bulging money bag, his eyes narrowed into lines.

Not long after.

After Lu Yi's indirect hints and the golden bullet attack, the eunuch quickly leaked some of the situations inside the palace to Lu Yi.

However, although these things are secretive, they are only secretive for Lu Yi who lacks channels to collect information.

Liu Hong's every word and action was of great importance. Some so-called secrets in the imperial palace might have just happened in the morning and would have been sold out by these eunuchs at noon. By the evening, the nobles in Luoyang City who were always paying attention to Liu Hong's actions had already known them by heart.

Lu Yi mainly selected some key issues that he was more concerned about.

However, it seemed that this eunuch did not have a very high status, so Lu Yi could only get a brief answer.

But that's enough.

After distillation, Lu Yi summarized several key information points.

First, Emperor Liu Hong, now that he had defeated the Xianbei, relaxed a bit, spending his days enjoying himself and even rarely presiding over court meetings. He entrusted almost all matters, big and small, to the eunuch Cao Jie.

Second, Cao Ji is now old and frail, and it seems that he is not destined to live a long life. It is very likely that he will die next year as in history. According to Lu Yi's measurement, under the medical conditions in the late Han Dynasty, for an elderly person like Cao Ji who has no shortage of material conditions, the most likely hurdle to his life is the severe cold in winter. This is even more serious now as we are in the Little Ice Age. Many famous old men in the late Han Dynasty died of the severe cold, the most famous of whom was Tao Qian, a great hero who gave Xuzhou to Liu Bei three times.

Third, although the powerful eunuchs Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong had been granted titles of nobility, their status was obviously lower than Cao Jie, and they were not relied upon by Liu Hong, and their power was far less than in their future heyday.

Fourth, the tentacles of Zhang Jue's Taiping Taoism had extended into the imperial palace, and many eunuchs had become Zhang Jue's believers. Among them, Feng Chen and Xu Feng were the most devout and would not tolerate anyone else saying anything bad about Zhang Jue and Taiping Taoism.

The other information is of little use to Lu Yi now. Although the above three pieces of information seem unimportant, they are the most critical to Lu Yi at the moment.

Liu Hong's debauchery and stupidity can ensure that history continues to proceed according to the general trend in Lu Yi's memory.

The weakness of Cao Jie and the fact that Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong were not in power also gave Lu Yi the possibility of speculation.

Most of the time, adding icing on the cake is far inferior to providing timely help.

However, due to limited vision, people are unable to predict the next trend and can only try to cling to the powerful and influential in a relatively superficial way to protect their own interests.

But Lu Yi knew the context of history and knew the future changes of some people.

Among them are famous civil and military generals, as well as some people who did not leave many records in history but are very important in the current era.

Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong are two of the more critical figures among them.

These two men seemed to be just eunuchs, servants of the emperor.

But the emperor was trapped in the palace every day. After all, he was just an ordinary person and many things could only be done by others.

This gave the eunuchs room to take advantage of the power of others.

Moreover, for the emperor, no matter how bad the slaves are, they must be of the same mind as him. They are much easier to use and more reliable than those nobles who appear to be righteous and talk about morality but are actually thieves and prostitutes.

After Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong came to power, although they were only eunuchs, they had the ability to exercise some of the imperial power. In the late Eastern Han Dynasty when this family rule was in power, they were truly powerful.

These two people were good at calculating, and not only did they manage all the affairs to Liu Hong's liking.

Moreover, the two were very good at flattering and often contributed rare treasures, delicacies, and beautiful women to please Liu Hong, making Liu Hong rely on them as his right-hand men.

The emperor himself even said such absurd remarks as "Zhang Rang is my father and Zhao Zhong is my mother".

I wonder if Liu Chang, his biological father who was compared with Liu Hong and the two eunuchs Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong, would be so angry that he would jump out of his coffin if he knew about this.

But this does not affect Lu Yi's plan to make friends with the two.

Before, at the gate of Luoyang City, although the guard who demanded bribes was a bad person in every way, there was one thing he said that Lu Yi agreed with.

As the saying goes, it is nice to take shelter under a big tree. Although this rule does not conform to the values ​​of some so-called gentlemen, it is still an extremely important rule in the world.

If Lu Yi could make friends with these two people, even if he was just expressing his friendly intentions and did not form an alliance with them, he could still use the relationship between these two people to make things happen at certain critical moments.

Maybe you can get some good results.

Apart from other things, at least in this West Garden, Zhao Zhong is in charge today. If you have a good personal relationship with him, not only can you spend less money, but you can also buy a higher position and better official position.

The piece of information that concerned Lu Yi the most was that Zhang Jue had extended his tentacles into the Luoyang Imperial Palace and developed many loyal believers, including two eunuchs.

You must know that the imperial palace is the most strictly guarded and well-defended place in the world, but the Taiping Taoism can still easily break into it.

Even an official as high as the Eunuch revered Zhang Jue as a god, so it was not without reason that the Yellow Turban Rebellion was so powerful.

This made Lu Yi feel a sense of urgency in his heart.

After all, the Yellow Turban Rebellion was not far away.

Just thinking about it.

Suddenly, there was the sound of a door opening, and a middle-aged eunuch came out from the inner room accompanied by a burly man.

"It's Master Zhao Zhong who's here!"

Upon seeing this, the eunuch immediately gave a timely reminder.

"Oh!"

Upon hearing this, Lu Yi immediately looked over.

"Don't worry, Zhongying. You have spent a lot this time and have made great contributions in Hebei. The imperial edict for the appointment of the governor of Hedong will be delivered to your house soon!"

"In this case, I would like to thank you, Lord Zhao, and I will definitely reward you generously in the future!"

The sturdy man had a strong and sturdy figure, and at first glance he was a powerful and brave general.

After he bid farewell to Zhao Zhong, he seemed to notice Lu Yi's gaze and turned his head subconsciously.

Only then did Lu Yi see his face clearly. He looked very kind. Instead, he smiled and nodded at Lu Yi, a person who had never met him before and was looking at him somewhat impolitely. He seemed very friendly and made people feel good about him.

"This man is Dong Zhuo, the governor of Bingzhou. He also made meritorious contributions on the battlefield in Hebei Province like the distinguished guest. Now it seems that he has been promoted from the position of governor to the position of prefect. Hedong County is a wealthy county. It seems that he is lucky."

The little yellow-faced boy noticed Lu Yi's attention and started to introduce things at the right time.

"What!?"

"Is this person the future Dong Zhuo who will depose and enthrone the emperor and hold sway over the government?"

Unexpectedly, Lu Yi, who had a calm expression just now, changed his expression slightly after hearing what this person said.

He was horrified, and the good impression he had just had of this person immediately disappeared.

Considering what this devil has done, no one would have a good impression of him.

History is fickle. Lu Bu, who killed his father to prove his faith, was despised by the world because he killed his adoptive father Ding Yuan and defected to Dong Zhuo.

However, unexpectedly, after killing his new father Dong Zhuo, not only did his reputation improve immediately, he also married the beauty Diao Chan, and was granted high-ranking official titles, and was in great glory.

From this we can see to what extent Dong Zhuo was unpopular.

However, Dong Zhuo was already on the decline by then, and after suffering a series of setbacks, he no longer had any ambition.

But now Dong Zhuo is in his prime, full of ambitions and great ambitions.

His father was only a small county lieutenant, so Dong Zhuo had longed to change his life since he was a child and was eager to improve his own and his family's status.

It has to be said that he did achieve his goal in the end. He became a powerful prime minister, in charge of the appointment and dismissal of officials and the power of life and death in the court.

If we ignore his last days of usurping power and wreaking havoc on the world, then Dong Zhuo's life, which began from humble beginnings, can be considered an inspirational movie.

Lu Yi had heard of Dong Zhuo's name on the battlefield in Hebei, but he had been lurking independently from the army and had never met him.

But now I meet this person in the West Garden of Luoyang.

Think of his various deeds and the disasters he brought to the people after he came to power.

An irrepressible murderous intent suddenly rose in Lu Yi's heart.

After Dong Zhuo deposed and enthroned the emperor, he appointed himself prime minister and took control of the court.

But after this man came to power, his brutality seemed to be exposed.

Not only did he kill ministers at will, he also caused chaos in the palace.

After being defeated by Sun Jian, he moved the capital to Chang'an and forcibly relocated millions of residents from Luoyang. He also robbed the tombs of all the royal nobles in Luoyang and burned the palaces, turning Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty for 200 years, into a scorched earth.

In his later years, this man no longer had any ambition to dominate others and only sought pleasure.

After he had settled in Guanzhong, he did not work hard to govern the country and dominate the world, but instead allowed his Xiliang cavalry to burn, kill and loot.

He recruited hundreds of thousands of civilians to build Meiwu in the style of Chang'an. After Meiwu was built, he plundered famous women and stored a huge amount of food, then hid in Meiwu and refused to leave.

This caused widespread grief over the 800-li Qinchuan area.

More than a thousand years later, the French emperor once said the famous saying "I don't care about the flood after I die". Even when he saw Dong Zhuo, he would call him "ancestor".

But this was still not the greatest sin he had committed.

The greatest sin he committed was to directly destroy ten of the twelve golden men in Chang'an to make copper coins to raise military funds and for his own enjoyment.

These twelve golden men were cast from bronze weapons collected from all over the world after Qin Shihuang conquered the six kingdoms. They are extremely heavy.

Dong Zhuo completely ignored the economic laws. Not only did he destroy ten of the golden men to make coins, he also specially made small coins with only one plant to replace the original five-zhu coins.

Dong Zhuo forcibly released a huge amount of money into the market, causing hyperinflation similar to that in Zimbabwe later.

When inflation reached its peak, a dou (shi) of grain could even be sold for hundreds of thousands of coins.

You should know that before the Xianbei invaded, the price Lu Yi paid for grain was only 220 coins per stone, which was an inflation of nearly times!
Guanzhong, whose grain production had already plummeted due to the severe cold weather during the Little Ice Age, was hit hard by the looting of the Western Liang cavalry and Dong Zhuo's unwise policies.

The once rich and prosperous Guanzhong became a place where bones were exposed in the wild and no roosters crowed for thousands of miles.

It has reached the point where people are cannibalizing each other.

Therefore, Dong Zhuo definitely lives up to the title of Demon King.

That's why Lu Yi hated this person so much that he planned to get rid of him in advance to prevent future troubles.

However, Dong Zhuo has now become the governor of a county.

There were only 105 counties in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and Dong Zhuo now held one of them, making him a true official appointed by the imperial court.

At this time, he was extremely cautious and prudent, and he had military achievements. If Lu Yi killed the court officials without authorization, there would probably be endless troubles!

……

(End of this chapter)