Faced with Xin Qiji's aggressiveness, Yuan Shao could only surrender again. What he was concerned about was not Xin Qiji's arrogant and domineering, but poisoning the deeply rooted policy of buying and selling officials in the late Han Dynasty. If Liu Yu was really the leader of the three dukes, wouldn't he, the general, be suppressed again?

The corruption of buying and selling officials in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

Official positions are famous tools of the country.

Looking at the corrupt dynasties in history, most of them have the phenomenon of buying and selling official positions. However, even the very corrupt courts still cover up when selling official positions and cleverly set up names to operate.

However, Emperor Ling of Han Liu Hong pushed the act of selling officials to the extreme: not only opened an official store, and publicly sold officials with clear prices, but also institutionalized and continued the act of selling official positions and titles, and publicly sold officials for several years.

The reign of Emperor Ling of Han and his predecessor Emperor Huan of Han was the darkest period of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Even Liu Bei, who was falsely benevolent and righteous, always "sighed and hated Huan Ling."

What Emperor Huan of Han left to Emperor Ling of Han was a mess full of holes.

After Emperor Ling of Han ascended the throne, the Han Dynasty's politics had become very corrupt. The world was full of drought, floods, locust plagues and other disasters, and complained everywhere, and the people lived in poverty and the country's power declined further.

In addition, the eunuchs seized power from their relatives. In the end, the eunuchs overthrew the relative Dou and put Empress Dowager Dou in house arrest, seized the power, and killed more than 100 righteous students including Li Ying and Fan Shuo, exiled and imprisoned more than 800 people (most of these people died tragically in prison), and tortured the great tutor Chen Fan who dared to speak out for justice and bluntly (Chen Fan's famous saying "If you don't sweep a house, how can you sweep the world" have a great impact on later generations).

The virtuous, loyal and righteous progressive forces were completely hit.

Through suppression, the eunuchs eliminated the power to compete directly with themselves, and their autocracy reached the peak of history.

But the eunuchs were also a very corrupt political group. The incomplete body and the contempt of society made them have a despicable personality and a strong revenge mentality. Therefore, when this group influenced the emperor, controlled the government affairs, and took over the power, the fate of the Eastern Han Dynasty inevitably declined.

In addition to indulging in wine and sex, Emperor Ling of Han also favored eunuchs, respecting Zhang Rang and others as the "Ten Constant Eunuchs" (the constant Eunuchs are the most powerful position among eunuchs, responsible for managing the emperor's documents and issuing eunuchs on behalf of the emperor), and often shamelessly said, "Zhang Changshi is my father, Zhao Changshi is my mother." The eunuchs beheaded the emperor's favor, acted nonsense, blackmailed money from the people, and plundered the people's wealth and omitting people's wealth. It was extremely corrupt, and the court and the country complained.

Emperor Ling of Han was very lustful. He took advantage of any woman in the harem anytime and anywhere. In order to facilitate his happiness, he would do everything he could.

In the third year of Zhongping (186), Emperor Ling of Han built a thousand naked tour hall in Xiyuan. Emperor Ling and his many concubines played naked here, often spending all night long.

Emperor Ling asked the inner supervisor in the palace to learn the rooster crowing, and built a rooster crowing hall on the north side of the Naked Tour Hall, where many chickens were stocked. Whenever Emperor Ling couldn't wake up from a drunken dream, the inner supervisors rushed to learn the rooster crowing and awaken the Ling Emperor with falsehood.

Emperor Ling of Han loved doing business and was the first emperor in history "stubborn".

In his harem, he specially opened up the "Palace Market" to imitate street markets, markets, various shops, vendors, and let some palace maids and concubines disguise themselves as various merchants and hawkers, while others disguise themselves as customers who buy things, and some disguise themselves as singing and monkeys. He himself put on merchants' clothes and pretended to be merchants selling goods, walked around this artificial market, either drinking and having fun in hotels, or quarreled with shop owners and customers, fighting, and fighting with each other. It was very lively.

Emperor Ling was hiding here and had a lot of fun. The goods in the store were all rare treasures plundered and were stolen by greedy palace maids and concubines. He even fought secretly for the sake of the more you stole, and I stole less. Emperor Ling didn't know at all.

Emperor Ling also drove a car with a donkey, personally bridle and whip, and drove it into the garden. This matter was known by the people of the capital and followed suit. The originally low donkey price suddenly rose, the same as the price of a horse.

Such absurd behavior is tolerated because it did not cause much damage to the country after all. But sadly, Emperor Ling of Han quickly developed his love for business to the point of selling official positions and titles, and the consequences were naturally unimaginable.

Some emperors before Emperor Ling of Han also had the phenomenon of selling official positions, but they only made it occasionally, and the money they earned was generally "urgent for assisting the country."

By the time Emperor Ling of Han, everything was naked. The most ridiculous thing was that Emperor Ling of Han actually opened an official exchange in Xiyuan, with clear prices and openly selling officials.

All the money obtained from selling official positions flowed into Emperor Ling of Han’s own pocket.

Emperor Ling of Han personally formulated the regulations on selling officials: the price of local officials is twice as high as that of court officials, while the price of county officials is different; the promotion of officials must also be based on the price. Generally speaking, the price of official positions is calculated based on the annual salary of officials. For example, the price of official positions with an annual salary of 2,000 shi is 20 million yuan, and the price of official positions with an annual salary of 400 shi is 4 million yuan, which means that the price of official positions is 10,000 times the annual income of officials.

In addition to a fixed price, it will also increase or decrease at any time based on the value of the person seeking official and the property they own.

Emperor Ling of Han sold his official positions and did not miss any opportunity. Even Zhang Wen, Duan Bing and others, who had made great contributions and had a high reputation, paid enough money to buy an official position to Emperor Ling of Han first.

Although Zhang Wen and others had great achievements and reputations, they all delivered money and became the official position.

As the changes were made intensified, the transfer of officials, promotions or new officials had to pay one-third or one-quarter of the official position price, that is, officials had to pay a legal income of more than 25 years as soon as they took office. Many people who wanted to be officials had to sigh because they could not pay such a high "official fee" and could not help but sigh.

Among them, the story of Cui Lie buying an official is very funny.

Cui Lie was born into a prominent family in the north and served as a county magistrate and court minister. In March of the second year of Zhongping (185), Cui Lie wanted to be a Situ, so through his relationship, he spent 5 million yuan to buy a Situ.

On the day of worship, the palace held a grand ceremony of worship. Emperor Ling personally came to the palace and all the officials stood at the steps. Looking at Cui Lie's pride, Emperor Ling suddenly felt that his position as Situ was too cheap, and he couldn't help but mutter to his followers and confidants with regret: "This official sold his losses, and he should have asked him to have ten million."

The Zhongchangshi next to him interrupted, "It's already very good that he can pay five million. Your Majesty, you have a brand awareness. How can a famous scholar in Jizhou like Mr. Cui be willing to buy an official easily? Now even he recognizes His Majesty's products, which is just for free advertising for us, and this official position will be more popular in the future."

Afterwards, Cui Lie asked his son Cui Jun one day: "I live in the third duke, what are the people who are discussing?"

It means, what do people have to say about me becoming the Three Dukes? Cui Jun told the truth: "Those who comment on this are terrible."

This is the origin of the word "copper smell".
Chapter completed!