Han officials

Chapter 131 History is a cycle!
If Wei Zhe remembered correctly, in a few years, after Dong Zhuo came to power, he would force the emperor and all the officials in Chaoyang to move the capital to Chang'an.

At that time, not only would the millions of people inside and outside Luoyang be forced to migrate westward, resulting in deaths and corpses piling up on the roads, but all the palaces, palaces, mansions and private houses within 200 miles of Luoyang would also be burned down by Dong Zhuo.

You should know that when Emperor Guangwu returned to Luoyang, it took more than 2,000 vehicles just to transport the scriptures and secret books. Now, two hundred years have passed, and the collection of books is probably three times as much as before.

But later, Wang Yun only collected more than 70 carts along the way, and even had to abandon nearly half of them because the road was long and difficult and he was unable to transport them.

Putting aside Dong Zhuo's other actions, burning Luoyang was definitely a heinous crime.

In this respect, history truly seems like a cycle that cannot be escaped.

When the Qin Dynasty fell, Xiang Yu set a fire in the Afang Palace, which burned countless pre-Qin ancient books collected by the Qin Dynasty.

At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, the Red Eyebrow Army also burned down Chang'an, turning it into ruins.

After Dong Zhuo burned Luoyang, only a few ancient books from the pre-Qin period remained.

Thinking of this, Wei Zhe immediately made a decision.

Rather than letting these crystallizations of wisdom of the ancient sages be destroyed by Dong Zhuo's fire, it would be better for him to keep them first.

Anyway, there were still two or three years before Dong Zhuo burned Luoyang, so there was plenty of time for people to copy it slowly.

……

The next day, Luoyang.

After reading Wei Zhe's letter, Yuan Jun couldn't help but frown.

"Copying the books from the Eastern Palace?"

"Yes, the Lord has ordered that if you are short of money and goods, you can ask for it."

The messenger handed over a list of goods, which contained pearls, jade, ginseng, sable fur, fox fur and the like.

By the way, Wei Zhe even sent two very handsome Buyeo BMWs.

There is no way. In Luoyang, these rare treasures are more valuable than gold and easier to cash than checks in later generations.

Seeing this, Yuan Jun immediately understood Wei Zhe's determination.

"Understood. Let me plan this matter carefully!"

After asking someone to take the messenger away to rest, Yuan Jun thought about it for a while, packed up and went out.

Although Yuan Jun was a Censor with a rank of 600 stones, he was nothing in the huge city of Luoyang.

In a narrow sense, Luoyang City mainly consists of two building complexes, the South Palace and the North Palace. The two palaces are connected by a corridor and are surrounded by the outer city.

As for Luoyang's outer city, it is about nine miles long from north to south and six miles wide from east to west, with a total of twelve city gates.

To the east of Beigong is Yong'an Palace; to the west of Beigong is the royal garden "Zhulong Garden".

In the northeast corner are Taicang and the armory, and in the west of the city is the gold market, which is the official trading market.

As for the southeast of Nangong, it is where government offices such as the Taiwei Mansion and the Sikong Mansion are located.

Only Buguangli and Yong'anli to the east of Beigong were inhabited by dignitaries.

Not to mention the common people, even officials with lower titles and family backgrounds could only live outside the city.

For example, after Yuan Jun came to Luoyang to take up his post, he could only rent a small courtyard in the southern suburbs to live in.

Don't be disgusted, this is already pretty good. After all, in a broad sense, this is also within the city of Luoyang.

In fact, the distinction between the city and the outer city is not obvious in Luoyang, because even the outer city of Luoyang is very prosperous.

You should know that to the south of Luoyang, outside the Pingcheng Gate are Lingtai, Mingtang, Biyong and Taixue.

In the peaceful days of the past, Pingchengmen Avenue outside the city was not much worse than Tongtuo Street, and was often visited by dignitaries.

As for the eastern suburbs of Luoyang, there is the Horse Market, and on the outskirts of the southern suburbs is the South Market for people to purchase supplies.

The truly lower-class scholars and literati often could not even afford to live in the southern suburbs and could only live together in the eastern and western suburbs.

But even so, there were still a large number of people flocking to Luoyang, including traveling scholars, local tyrants, knights-errant swordsmen, wealthy merchants, great scholars, etc., one group after another flocked to Luoyang.

Even the petty officials in Luoyang County dared to mock the wealthy businessmen as vegetable sellers, which shows how arrogant the people of Luoyang are.

Fortunately, Yuan Jun has Wei Zhe as his backer, which makes his life in Luoyang much easier.

For example, with the help of Wei Zhe's name card, Yuan Jun established a relationship with the eunuch who often went to Liaodong to announce imperial decrees.

Despite the eunuchs' terrible reputation in the court and the country, there was no one who had no secret dealings with them except those in the Party. The only difference was that some had connections and some did not.

Faced with Wei Zhe's request, Yuan Jun had no other choice but to ask the eunuch for help.

After all, the Dongguan is located in the Nangong Palace, and outsiders cannot enter without the help of eunuchs.

This was indeed the case. Yuan Jun was busy for a long time before he was able to meet Dongguan Ling.

……

The next day, at a private residence outside the palace.

I saw a middle-aged eunuch with a wealthy face sitting on the couch leisurely sipping honey water.

Looking at the surrounding decorations, it is even more gorgeous and luxurious.

After a moment, after listening to Yuan Jun's words, he glanced at him lightly and said:

"Copying a collection of books? That's a serious crime!"

Yuan Jun was not at all flustered when he heard this. He smiled and said, "Mr. Duan, you are too serious. It's just a small matter."

But he also knew that this matter required an explanation, so after a brief pause, he pretended to sigh, "Mr. Duan, you don't know that education is not flourishing in Liaodong. The children in the village don't even have books to read, and they don't learn etiquette. I am fortunate to have entered the imperial capital now, and I just want to do my best to help my village!"

After these words were spoken, Duan Xu, the governor of the Eastern Palace, finally looked relieved.

"...If that's the case, it's not impossible to discuss it."

As the saying goes, if you live by the mountain, you eat from the mountain; if you live by the water, you eat from the water. Duan Xu naturally lives by Dongguan.

Yuan Jun smiled brightly upon hearing this: "I understand. This is just a small token of my sincerity. Please accept it, Mr. Duan!"

After saying that, he skillfully handed over a gift list.

Just a quick glance and Duan Xu immediately smiled warmly.

"Haha~ Censor Yuan is indeed kind and righteous. If that's the case, there's no need for discussion."

After saying this, he gave a look to the eunuch beside him, who quickly handed over a waist badge.

After Yuan Jun took it, Duan Xu said casually, "Just come here to pick up the book on the first day of every month."

Nangong is a forbidden area in the imperial palace, so Duan Xu naturally would not let Yuan Jun bring a group of scholars in to copy. He still has this vigilance, otherwise he would lose his head if any accident happened.

Although eunuchs are powerful in the court, that is only the case for those eunuchs who can rise to the top.

In fact, there are a large number of eunuchs in the palace who live like cattle and horses, and are driven by these eunuchs of all sizes.

For example, Duan Xu has many literate eunuchs under his command who can be used to do this kind of hard labor.

This is actually the legacy of Empress Dowager Deng.

After Empress Dowager Deng entered the palace, she was taught classics, astronomy, mathematics and other subjects by great Confucian scholars.

Empress Dowager Deng was also intelligent and fond of studying. Therefore, after she came to power, she ordered the imperial envoy Liu Zhen and the Five Classics Doctors and others to proofread the Eastern Palace's Five Classics, various philosophers, biographies, hundreds of schools of thought, art and other literary books, and correct them.

She also ordered that all eunuchs and close ministers must study in the Eastern Palace and recite on both sides to teach the palace ladies.

What the superior likes, the subordinates will follow. When the eunuchs become incorrupt, they are no worse than the scholars.

Even because there was no family background to speak of in the palace, it was not easy for eunuchs to come to the fore.

If they were truly ignorant and incompetent, the Ten Attendants would have been overthrown by their factions long ago, and would not have been able to maintain their current glory.

However, Yuan Jun was too lazy to pay attention to all this at the moment. In his opinion, party members and eunuchs were the same anyway.

No, from a certain perspective, eunuchs are even more reliable than party members.

At least the eunuchs will really do their job after receiving the money, but those party members and celebrities will only take the money because they think highly of you.

What this means is that whether or not to get things done depends entirely on their mood.

With such complicated feelings, Yuan Jun quickly returned to his residence.

However, he had just sat down for a while when he heard the old man report: "Sir, Gongsun Du is here to visit again."

Hearing this, Yuan Jun immediately sighed helplessly...

(End of this chapter)