I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 129: The Nominal Tutor

The eunuchs did not notice Yuan Shu's brutal hatred, and at this moment they had no time to deal with Yuan Shu.

Because many people who seem to be much more powerful than Yuan Shu have clearly pointed the finger at the eunuchs.

Although the eunuchs were in a strong position, this wave of actions caused heavy losses to many court officials and their families, including the Yuan family, who also lost a lot of popularity. It is unknown when they can fully make up for it.

Moreover, the Yuan family was also very clear that although the Yuan family won and the official and academic forces lost in this conflict, the losers were not only afraid but also resentful. If they were not careful, this resentment would become a hidden danger for the Yuan family.

So after Yuan Shu initially resolved the conflicts among the scholars with his flexible tactics and tolerant attitude, Yuan Feng, in order to prevent himself from becoming Yuan Shu's "dog father" behind the scenes, followed suit and pointed the finger at the eunuchs.

He and Yuan Wei joined hands, and each brother did one thing.

Yuan Feng's action was to mobilize officials such as Yang Ci, Zhang Ji, Liu Kuan, and Xun Qi to submit a memorial to the court.

On the grounds that Yuan Shu had won a great victory in the debate in Luoyang and had overwhelmed the other Confucian scholars, thus gaining their recognition, he requested the court to appoint Yuan Shu as Liu Hong's tutor to serve and accompany Liu Hong in studying Confucianism.

Yuan Wei's operation was to mobilize the political energy of the Yuan family, secretly stimulate public opinion in Luoyang City, and reiterate the old news that had been spread in the court that the emperor admired Yuan Shu and Yuan's philosophy of mind very much.

Combined with the high prestige that Yuan Shu had gained in Luoyang City, this matter immediately triggered a wave of public opinion in Luoyang City after it was brought up again.

Yes, didn’t it say before that the emperor admired Yuan Shu very much?

Now Yuan Shu has become the top star in Luoyang. He has overwhelmed all the Confucian scholars in Luoyang and won the recognition of everyone. The philosophy of mind he proposed has also been recognized by everyone as a part of Confucianism, and is no longer a unorthodox doctrine or heresy.

If that is the case, why didn’t the court appoint Yuan Shu as a tutor to accompany the emperor in his studies?
Apart from the emperor, who else is worthy of having a tutor of this level?

All the official and academic forces supported him, and Yuan's political energy exploded directly. Memorials flew to the Secretariat like snowflakes, and the huge pressure like Mount Tai was directly given to the eunuch group that actually held power.

The eunuchs gathered together and discussed the matter, but no one could come up with an idea. They could only blame each other and shirk responsibility. Blames were flying everywhere, and they almost had another fight.

Although the relationship between the eunuchs had begun to crack under the tremendous pressure and had become extremely tense, there was only one point on which they all could reach a consensus.

That is--

We must never let Yuan Shu enter the palace to become Liu Hong’s tutor!

Otherwise, within a month, Liu Hong would become a loyal supporter of Yuan Shu and would be fooled by Yuan Shu and lose all sense of the world. At that time, he would directly regard Yuan Shu as his confidant and no longer regard the eunuchs as his confidants. The eunuchs would be dumbfounded.

This kid Yuan Shu has an extremely strong power to incite and deceive people. If he is given a normal person to come into contact with, that person will become a supporter of Yuan Shu within a month at the latest.

This was the consensus reached by the eunuchs after this public opinion storm. If not allowing Yuan Shu to see the emperor that time was just a joke on Yuan Shu and to give Duan Gui some vent, then now the eunuchs are really very grateful for their bad taste at that time.

Fortunately, Yuan Shu was not allowed to come into contact with Liu Hong at that time, otherwise, Liu Hong might really become dependent on Yuan Shu!
By that time, things will be truly irreversible!
Therefore, I absolutely cannot agree to it!

Anyway, Liu Hong is under their control and has no idea what is happening in Luoyang City. The people around him are absolutely reliable people arranged by the eunuchs. Even if people from outside come in to pay a visit to Liu Hong, they will be under the close surveillance of the eunuchs and dare not say anything wrong.

Liu Hong was controlled by the information cocoon carefully fabricated by the eunuchs. All he knew was what the eunuchs were willing to let him know, and he could not hear any news that was unfavorable to the eunuchs.

This is the only thing that makes the eunuchs feel relieved at the moment.

However, the public opinion in Luoyang City and the huge pressure from the court made them feel that they had done something very stupid, which was as stupid as inviting a wolf into the house.

So the eunuchs even began to discuss how to drive Yuan Shu out of Luoyang City.

However, as the saying goes, it is easier to invite a god than to send him away. They lifted a stone and dropped it on their feet. Now the stone is still pressing on their feet, making them scream in pain. They cannot move it away, and they are extremely frustrated.

After much thought, they could not find a good solution, so Cao Jie, Wang Fu and others wanted to focus their fire on Zhang Rang who proposed the solution.

Zhang Rang used a trick of shifting the universe and threw all the problems onto Duan Gui, pointing out that Duan Gui was the source of all evil and that all the responsibility should be on Duan Gui.

As a result, Duan Gui was targeted by the eunuchs.

The panicked Duan Gui was about to drag Cao Jie into the water when he was knocked to the ground by Cao Jie's punch. Then the eunuchs surrounded Duan Gui and started punching and kicking him, knocking him unconscious.

Duan Gui fainted, and the eunuchs were able to vent a little of their anger, but the problem was not solved.

The demands of the Yuan family, the demands of the entire court, and the demands of the official academic forces that had been instigated before.

Now, in Luoyang City, other forces except the eunuchs have united together for the first time in history, which has put great political pressure on the eunuchs. Even if they have the support of the emperor, the pressure is too heavy. So in the end, Wang Fu wanted to compromise out of fear and planned to let Yuan Shu enter the palace.

Cao Jie gritted his teeth and firmly opposed it, saying that he would rather kill Yuan Shu than let Yuan Shu enter the palace as a tutor, otherwise he would be digging his own grave.

Everyone was talking at once, arguing from time to time, then rolling up their sleeves to blame each other, and they almost got into a fight again.

In the end, it was Zhang Rang who came up with a solution that was not really a solution.

The tactic of procrastination.

The emperor has a time limit for studying. It is not a one-time thing from childhood to adulthood. It depends on the circumstances. It can be as long as three years or as short as one year. Then he no longer needs to be a lecturer or a reader.

It would be better to first accept Yuan Shu's request to be a tutor, but not recruit him into the palace. At the same time, speed up Liu Hong's study schedule, let Liu Hong finish reading the Five Classics as soon as possible, receive the necessary educational content, and then, announce to the outside world that his studies have been completed.

The emperor has mastered all Confucian doctrines and can grow and govern on his own!

In this way, Yuan Shu's career as a tutor would have ended, and this position would have been automatically cancelled.

As long as they operate well, they can completely avoid contact between Yuan Shu and Liu Hong, and let Yuan Shu be a void reader, and the problem will be solved!

The overall cultural level of the eunuchs could be said to be quite low, but occasionally, there would be a few good ideas or military advisors. It was at this time that Zhang Rang played the role of this key yin-yang man, helping the eunuchs reconcile the overall contradictions and propose solutions.

The eunuchs looked at each other, with no other option but to hold another nonsense meeting. After much discussion, they realized that this was indeed the best measure they could take at the moment. Otherwise, there was really no way they could cope with the surging public opinion outside.

Eunuchs have a very bad reputation to begin with, and they cannot kill people just because someone curses at them. With the emperor's support, it is easier to kill people, but they also have to be more politically correct, such as killing people in the name of party ban.

If killing people is really possible, then there is no point in playing this political game and we will all be doomed together.

What's more, the eunuchs were also guilty at this moment, especially Wang Fu and Chunyu Deng. Considering Yuan and Yuan She, they dared not make another move, for fear that they would really push Yuan to the side of the party members, which would end up hurting themselves more than they gained.

But it must be said that at this moment, the eunuchs actually realized that they had messed up this time and had indeed lost a lot of money. What happened next would depend on what further actions the Yuan family would take.

So on June 12, the fourth year of Jianning, the eunuchs who were under great political pressure finally ordered that the position of the emperor's tutor be given to Yuan Shu, and ordered Yuan Shu to be ready and wait for the palace to issue an imperial edict so that he could enter the palace and accompany the emperor in his studies.

This news is good news, and it can be regarded as a good result of Yuan’s political offensive. Many people are excited about it.

For example, Cheng Li and Wei Jia, they all congratulated Yuan Shu on finally achieving his wish and congratulated him on his philosophy finally being able to gain recognition.

However, Yuan Shu himself could see that this was a compromise made by the eunuchs out of helplessness, so they would never really let him get in touch with Liu Hong as he wished, and would never allow him to have the opportunity to brainwash Liu Hong.

"The eunuchs knew they had messed up. Not only did they fail to achieve their goal, but they were also held hostage by the Yuan family. Is this something they can tolerate? I don't think they can tolerate it, and they will not give me the opportunity to get close to the emperor. So I am afraid that my position as a tutor is in name only."

The Eastern Han Dynasty was a master at having a name but no substance. The most typical example was the Three Dukes, who nominally held the honorable position of prime minister, but only had personnel power and no administrative power, and were the emperor's exclusive scapegoats.

The Confucian scholars wanted to practice the method of limiting the imperial power, but the emperor practiced the method of communicating with heaven instead, and ended up locking the prime minister, who was closest to the imperial power, in a cage.

The three highest officials were abolished, and the emperor's power and freedom were greatly enhanced.

What happened next was just as Yuan Shu had guessed. From June 12th to 22nd, a full ten days, he, the emperor's tutor, did not receive any imperial edict to enter the palace.

Yuan Feng instructed the Yuan family's forces to submit an inquiry, but there was no response, so everyone was sure that Yuan Shu's guess was correct. The eunuchs only admitted defeat on the surface, but actually did not want to give up any benefits.

This made Yuan Feng even more angry, and he then made two preparations.

First, invest more manpower and material resources to protect party members, rescue party members across the country, and prevent the eunuchs from succeeding.

The second is to continue to mobilize Yuan's political power to submit a petition to the court, inquiring about the matters of tutoring.

As long as Yuan Shu is not allowed to enter the palace, he will not stop submitting petitions until a result is reached.

At the same time, the only thing Yuan Feng still spent some energy on was helping Yuan Shu choose a suitable marriage partner.

Just when the situation was escalating and showing signs of escalating, Yuan She, who was on a business trip to Yingchuan, returned.

(End of this chapter)