Fu Shanhe

Chapter 33: The Eunuch Party’s Dirty Tactics
The matter of Qianhu Suo has been settled, and the results of the handling of the offending officials have also been made public.

Except for a few unlucky people who were targeted and exiled to remote places, the results for most people were relatively lenient, with the nearest exile being only a hundred miles away from the capital.

The places of exile for some convicted officials were even right at their doorsteps.

Anyway, based on the capital, he was indeed exiled hundreds or thousands of miles away.

It should have been a happy outcome for everyone, but the eunuch party did not do their job and implicated a large number of the offended officials' family members.

Exiling the entire family was a basic practice. Most direct blood relatives within three generations were also on the list, and sometimes even the entire clan was exiled.

With just one operation, the number of people exiled reached tens of thousands.

The scope of the involvement is rare in the history of Dayu.

If it weren't for the mass killing, it would have been included in the top ten cases of Dayu.

Naturally, the criminal officials could not stand such a result.

Especially for those whose entire clan was exiled, the spit of their clan members could drown them, which was even more painful than killing them.

The civil service group was also collectively furious. It was really too deadly to play like this.

Everyone who works in the government has bad luck sometimes.

In the past, only the criminal officials were exiled. How could they target their family members like this? It was clearly a deliberate attempt to torment them.

If you don't help now, if you get unlucky in the future, you will suffer the same treatment.

There was a fierce quarrel in the court. Facing the pressure from the ministers, the eunuch group produced a large amount of evidence and held up the "Dayu Law" as a weapon.

The legal basis is so sufficient that all the sentences were given leniently.

In the early years of the founding of the country, these people were not even qualified to be exiled and were directly dragged out and executed.

The civil servants who have always been good at output never imagined that one day they would be criticized so badly that they could not even raise their heads.

Some things cannot be made public. Just because people don't take the law seriously doesn't mean that the Dayu Law has no effect.

To deny the "Dayu Code" is to deny the legitimacy of the court.

When it comes to political correctness, no one dares to publicly criticize the law.

If you want to change the processing results, there is only one other operation - amending the law.

Reformists support it, and revising the law is itself part of the reform.

Once the law is revised, the ancestral system will be broken.

"The laws of our ancestors cannot be broken" has become a false proposition. Conservatives can no longer use the laws of our ancestors as an excuse, which has cleared the legal issues of the reform.

When it comes to core interests, conservative officials will naturally not let the reformers get their way.

Then an interesting scene appeared in the court. First, the civil service group collectively criticized the eunuchs, and then the reformists and conservatives started to tear each other apart.

Standing at the back of the crowd, watching everyone scolding each other, Li Mu became a happy spectator.

The senior civil servants were responsible for the output throughout the process.

According to the Dayu Law, only officials of the fourth rank and above were qualified to speak, and others could only listen from the side unless the emperor allowed it.

He didn't even have the qualifications to speak, so the scene of a minor censor of the sixth or seventh rank scolding the emperor was naturally impossible to appear.

Basically, every time there was a court meeting, the civil servants would quarrel with each other.

Military generals generally do not speak unless it involves the part they are responsible for.

Eunuchs also suffered in this regard. It was often seen that Zuo Guangen was forced to engage in debates with scholars and then was scolded to the point of becoming autistic.

No wonder the eunuch party was so active in the civil service. Anyone would seek revenge for the grievances they suffered in the court.

……

"Retreat!"

When the eunuch's voice sounded, Li Mu knew that it would be another fruitless day.

Before the court could reach a conclusion, the criminal officials had already embarked on the road to exile.

There was no point in being dissatisfied, as they were being escorted by the Imperial Guards themselves and they had just been released from the Imperial Prison and they did not dare to protest at all.

The most tragic thing was that group of scholars, who shouted a few words in a fit of passion and were then stripped of their titles and joined the exile group.

As a large number of relatives of imprisoned officials left, the originally crowded cells became empty again.

The Qianhu Office had sufficient funds, so Li Mu directly ordered the construction of a row of cells. His intuition told him that it would come in handy in the future. "Sir, there is a candidate outside who claims to be the teacher you hired."

Yan Shuli reported in a low voice, with a hint of envy between his brows.

Although they both worked in the government offices, clerks were officially employed by the court, but their actual status was far lower than that of a legal advisor.

When Pastor Li's position was vacant, he, a clerk, did some of the work of the legal advisor and his status in the yamen rose sharply.

Even high-ranking officials were polite when they met him.

Now that the real culprit is here, I'm afraid these good days will come to an end.

"Bring him in!"

Li Mu said calmly.

He no longer had the initial expectations for this late-coming master.

Shaoxing is more than a thousand kilometers away from the capital, and it does take a long time to get there by land, but there is a large canal in between.

He had asked his uncle for permission, and as long as he arrived at the dock, he would be given a ride on either a government ship or a private merchant ship.

If he had been willing, he should have arrived in the capital a month ago.

At that time, party struggles were at their most intense, and officials were often arrested and imprisoned.

If you wait until the dust settles before coming here, you are probably just waiting to see the situation.

It is human nature to seek benefits and disadvantages.

If it were Li Mu himself, he would also choose to wait and see when he was completely in the dark.

People still need to be used, but they must be tested.

It has nothing to do with loyalty. An employment relationship is a transaction and you can't expect too much.

The test is mainly on political vision.

To survive in the officialdom of Dayu, political vision is more important than personal ability.

It is understandable that political misjudgments occur due to poor information.

If one does not have good political vision, then no matter how capable one is, one can only be an aide and cannot be a strategist.

In a flash, Yan Shuli came in with a middle-aged scholar in a blue round-necked suit.

"Student, Lan Linjie greets the Master Qianhu!"

Before Lan Linjie finished his greeting, Li Mu hurriedly grabbed him and responded with a smile:
"Mr. Lan, you kept me waiting.

Before Mr. Ouyang left Beijing, he repeatedly recommended me, saying that Mr. Ouyang was extremely talented and had great ambitions! "

Mr. Ouyang mentioned by Li Mu is his uncle's aide.

He was also a juren from Shaoxing, but he was a generation older than Lan Linjie. After failing the imperial examinations for many consecutive times, he had lost his ambition.

There have been many vacancies in the recent reshuffle of court officials.

He then accepted the recommendation of Marquis Zhenyuan and entered the officialdom directly as a juren. He was sent to serve as a county magistrate in Tongzhou.

It was not easy to be a county magistrate in the Dayu Dynasty. It was not uncommon for a juren to serve as a county magistrate, but most of them were in remote prefectures.

In places with better conditions, priority should be given to Jinshi candidates.

It was obvious that the Marquis's Mansion had contributed to his being able to serve as a county magistrate under Tongzhou.

"Brother Ouyang has entered the government!"

After being surprised, Lan Linjie quickly regained his composure.

It was not uncommon for people who failed in the imperial examinations many times and could not bear the hardship of taking the examinations to choose to enter the officialdom.

Theoretically, there is no age limit for taking the imperial examination, but the age at which one passes the examination will directly affect one's future career development.

Those older Jinshi scholars who are in their sixties or seventies might be even older than my teacher, so it would be awkward to meet them.

Even if the imperial court is willing to train them, it would still have to worry about whether these people's bodies can handle it.

If someone is sent out to take up an official post and dies suddenly on the way, the Ministry of Personnel will also be held responsible.

(End of this chapter)