Chapter 89: Catching the Fish and Forgetting the Fishing Net
The original prefect of Nanyang County was Gai Sheng, who got this lucrative position because of his old relationship with Liu Hong. Now Liu Hong rewarded Su Che as the prefect of Nanyang County, and Gai Sheng was naturally promoted to the capital and was named Taizhong Daifu.
This position was to serve the emperor, provide advice, participate in state affairs, and carry out diplomatic missions in accordance with the emperor's imperial edicts. Most of the people in this position were favored ministers and noble relatives.
Liu Hong made Gai Sheng his Taizhong Daifu, which was something that had been decided long ago. Being the prefect of Nanyang County was just a gilded title.
Although the local governor has a noble status, equivalent to a local emperor, he is far away from the center of power and cannot enjoy the prosperity of the imperial capital. Therefore, Gai Sheng is still very satisfied with this promotion.
but.
Su Che was rewarded as an exception because of Chengjin Chamber of Commerce's efforts to treat the plague. He was not only given the position of prefect of Nanyang County, but was also given the title of Marquis Jishi.
Although this Marquis Jishi is the lowest of the five ranks of marquis - Marquis Ting.
But even so, he still made an exception to the reward, which made many people jealous.
This instantly caused an uproar. For a while, discussions were heard one after another, and the voices attacking Su Che were endless.
Some people with ulterior motives immediately brought up the rule of "no military merit, no title of marquis" to attack Su Che, saying that he was not worthy of the title.
Some people even said that he was just a businessman of low status and a doctor, who was lucky enough to obtain heavenly merit and was promoted to the prefect of Nanyang County as an exception, which was already a gift from heaven. How could he be so virtuous and be granted a title of nobility?
Although the Nanyang Zhang family was also a prominent family, and Zhang Zonghan had once been an official in the court, Zhang Zhongjing it was normal for him to be deliberately attacked in this way.
According to the normal historical trajectory, Zhang Zhongjing became an official under the system of selecting filial and honest officials. Zhang Zhongjing inherited his family's reputation and was selected as a filial and honest official by the prefecture and county and became the prefect of Changsha.
But this time, he was rewarded by the emperor for his contribution in eradicating the plague, which was bound to cause discussion.
No matter how great your achievements are or how famous you are, you cannot stop the gossip of people with ulterior motives.
This day.
In the court, all officials advised Liu Hong to remove Su Che from his title of Marquis of Jishi, and preferably also his position as prefect of Nanyang County.
Liu Hong was furious at the time: "Once I have spoken, I cannot take it back. How can you go back on your word? What do you think of me?"
Liu Kuan said: "Our ancestors have long established a rule that no one can be granted a title of nobility without military merit. This Jishihou really shouldn't be awarded. Although Zhang Zhongjing has made great contributions in curing the plague, even if he is rewarded based on merit, he definitely shouldn't be granted a title of nobility. Giving him the title of Nanyang Taishou is already the highest level."
Liu Hong frowned and said, "No military merit, no title of nobility. That's a rumor from the early Han Dynasty. Are you using the sword of the previous dynasty to kill an official of this dynasty?"
Yang Ci said: "Your Majesty, our dynasty inherited the great tradition of the Han Dynasty, and there is no such thing as a previous dynasty. We should inherit these rules."
These so-called rules all appeared when they should appear. Not to mention the Eastern Han Dynasty, even in the Western Han Dynasty, there were a lot of relatives by marriage who were granted titles without any merit. The reason why this group of court officials kept biting Su Che was simply to eliminate dissidents.
In this era, if you want to become an official, there are several other ways besides recommending yourself as a filial and honest official.
1. Officials are awarded based on military merit.
2. To recruit and establish a new regime.
3. Writing on the bus.
Four, Imperial College.
5. Examination system.
When Su Che was appointed as the prefect of Nanyang County by Liu Hong, he adopted the second method of "recruiting".
Zhengpi is the selection of specific objects, and it is not scheduled at a fixed time. It is divided into two types: conscription and removal. It is also called special edict, which means that the emperor personally issued an edict to recruit some people with high reputation, special talents or good character to grant them official positions.
Generally, this type of people are famous scholars who are very old and have many students all over the world.
This was the first time that someone as young as Su Che was specially appointed as an official for suppressing the plague.
In addition, he was conferred the title of Marquis Jishi, which directly promoted him to a high position in one step, so it was normal for him to cause "stress" among these important officials of the court.
Under normal circumstances, Liu Hong would have had no choice but to bow his head and agree to remove Su Che's title of marquis under the advice of these ministers.
But this time, he deposited 30,000 kilograms of gold in Su Che's Chengjin Money House, and was expecting to get generous interest in the future. How could he possibly have an unpleasant argument with Su Che over such a small matter?
Thirty thousand gold, with an annual interest of fifteen thousand, would be the interest of forty-five thousand kilograms of gold after three years!
With such a huge sum of money, Liu Hong would be willing to be awarded a small title of Marquis of Jishiting, or even the highest level of Marquis of Guannei!
Liu Hong listened to the grumbling and said impatiently: "The emperor's order has been issued. There is no room for regret. Stop talking and leave the court!"
Originally, Liu Hong did not have a good reason to end this meeting, so he pretended to be angry, waved his hand, turned around and ran away, leaving the court officials looking at each other in bewilderment.
The emperor disagrees, but that doesn’t mean they will give up!
The next day, attacking words about Su Che appeared in the official newspaper.
Since they cannot get the emperor to abolish the title of Marquis Jishi, they will take the initiative to attack and force Su Che to resign this unworthy marquisate himself!
Among them, the official bulletin issued by Jingzhou was the most straightforward.
The above article argued that Su Che had little experience and was too young to take on such a big responsibility. In the end, it even directly concluded:
[If a person does not know the past and present, he is like a horse or an ox; if a scholar does not know shame, he is like a dog or a pig.]
【Why don't you look at yourself in the mirror and see if you can be the Marquis of Jishiting? 】
The first sentence means that if people do not know the principles of the past and present, they are like cows and horses wearing clothes; if scholars do not know shame, they are like pigs and dogs wearing clothes and hats.
The meaning is very straightforward. If Su Che doesn't know these principles, he would be a beast in human clothing, worse than pigs and dogs.
The meaning of the second sentence was even more cruel. It directly asked Su Che to pee and look at his own face to see if he was worthy of being the Marquis of Jishiting!
If the first sentence was somewhat implicit, did not name anyone, and did not constitute a rude awakening, then the last sentence was an insult directed directly at Su Che by name.
As soon as this official report came out, it instantly caused countless discussions in Jingzhou.
Some people applauded. They were jealous and going crazy because Zhang Zhongjing from the Zhang family had achieved such great achievements and rewards at the young age of fifteen or sixteen. Now, after reading this article, they naturally took it as a golden rule and applauded.
When another group of people saw this article, they were so angry that they wanted to smash the Jingzhou newspaper.
Su Che eradicated the plague, rescued the dying and the wounded, and saved people from danger. It is unknown how many lives he saved. His merits are immeasurable. Not to mention Jingzhou, even other states and counties in the world all praised Zhang Zhongjing's noble character.
Su Che was granted the title of Marquis Jishi, which was well deserved, and he was appointed as the prefect of Nanyang County, which was even more popular. However, this group of pedantic literati actually dared to attack Su Che in the official newspaper. They were so ungrateful and forgot the fishing net after catching the fish!
Isn't it the time for you to beg Cheng Jin Clinic for medicine?
