Time: 2014-02-15 10:31 Source: Story Network Author: Li Chuchu
The twelve supervisors of the four divisions and eight bureaus in the Ming Dynasty were collectively called the Twenty-Four Yamen, among which the most powerful one was the Si Li Supervisor. Xiao Dezi was deeply favored by Mao Cheng, the eunuch Bingbi, the eunuch who was responsible for the rites, and he served as the eunuch in charge of the eunuch.
Emperor Shenzong ascended the throne for the first time and sent an order to officials of sufficient rank from all over the Ming Dynasty to come to Beijing to see him. At this moment when the whole country was celebrating, Xiao Dezi was even more excited, knowing that it was time to make a fortune again.
Xiao Dezi sent his eunuchs to open an official clothes shop in the Clothes Alley of the capital. There were many officials in the capital. In order to curry favor with the eunuch, they all went to the official clothes shop opened by Xiao Dezi to make official clothes. Nowadays, a large number of officials from other places come to Beijing to meet the saints, and they all need to make new official uniforms. Isn't this just sending money to him?
But that day, a young eunuch reported that the officials from other places, especially the large number of poor magistrates, thought the official clothes in Xiao Dezi's official clothes shop were expensive and refused to enter!
You must know that in the Ming Dynasty, the monthly salary of a first-grade official was eighty-seven stones (about twenty taels of silver), and the monthly salary of a county magistrate was seven stones and five buckets. If you are not greedy or possessive, it is really difficult to live on this meager amount of money, let alone buy expensive official uniforms. Seeing that he cannot make money, Xiao Dezi rolled his eyes, found a confidant, a little eunuch, and whispered a few words in his ear, that little lady The supervisor said "Ah", "Is this done?" Xiao Dezi scolded: "If I say it will be done, just tell the tailors to do it my way!" Soon, the low-priced official clothes made in Xiao Dezi's official clothes shop were very popular after they were put on the market. But at noon that day, when Sheshan County Magistrate Zhang Nai saw the cheap magistrate official uniforms in the official clothing store, he actually quarreled with the clerk selling official uniforms.
Why is this? Sheshan County, where Zhang Nai worked, was a poor county, and he was an upright and upright official. In order to come to the capital, Zhang Nai had to borrow fifty taels of silver from his twin brother Zhang Ding. Zhang Ding is in the business of going in with a white knife and coming out with a red knife - butcher.
Zhang Nai came to the capital wearing an old official uniform, and then went to Clothes and Hat Lane to buy new official uniforms. But when he went to the official clothes shop and asked about the price of the official clothes of the seventh-grade magistrate, it was as high as thirty-six taels of silver. Zhang Nai couldn't help but take a breath of cold air, because he brought only ten taels of silver to Beijing this time, excluding the round trip expenses.
Zhang Nai was in trouble when he was pulled to the warehouse by a clerk. When he saw the blue seventh-grade official uniform hanging on the wooden shelf, he couldn't help but be stunned. This official robe with the 鸸鸒 (reading the red) embroidery on the chest patch is of good style, but the material is wrong. It is actually a paper robe made of rice paper, and the colors are painted on with pens!
Zhang Nai shouted repeatedly: "How can you go to Beijing to meet the emperor in a paper official uniform? How can you deceive this county like this!"
It happened that Xiao Dezi was in the shop. Hearing this, he came behind Zhang Nai and smiled: "I have sold more than a hundred such paper official uniforms!"
When Zhang Nai faced the paper official uniform, he just couldn't understand. Can he really meet the emperor in a paper official uniform?
Xiao Dezi said proudly: "Before you enter the imperial city, the officials of the Ministry of Rites can take care of you, but after entering the imperial city, hehe..." All civil and military officials, including officials of the Ministry of Rites, once they enter the imperial city, the people responsible for supervising their dress and etiquette become eunuchs in charge of rituals.
Only then did Zhang Nai realize that the boss in front of him was Xiao Dezi, the eunuch in charge of the Supervisor of Ceremonies. He quickly bowed to the ground and spent ten taels of silver to buy this set of paper official uniforms.
Before dawn the next day, Zhang Nai carefully put on the paper official uniform outside his middle coat in the inn, then walked quickly and arrived at the Meridian Gate outside the imperial city early.
At this time, two to three thousand officials had been waiting quietly outside the Meridian Gate. Zhang Nai was of low rank, so he quietly stood at the end of the official team. He turned his head and looked around, and the heart that was hanging in his throat gradually dropped to his stomach. It turned out that there were at least a hundred people in the county magistrate's team standing around him, wearing the same paper official uniform as him!
As for the other officials, since they are all new to the capital, they are cautious in their words and deeds for fear of doing something wrong. Not to mention other officials wearing paper official uniforms, even if they are naked, they will pretend to turn a blind eye.
Zhang Nai followed Xiao Dezi's instructions. Before arriving, he used a brush to make an ink dot the size of a grain of rice on his right earlobe. Xiao Dezi led several eunuchs who were responsible for inspecting the clothes and etiquette of county magistrates from all over the country who came to Beijing. When they saw magistrates with ink spots on their ears, they would open one eye or close one eye and let these "poor" magistrates get away with wearing paper official uniforms.
When the sun rose three poles, there was only a "creak" sound, and the Meridian Gate opened. Hundreds of imperial guards armed with weapons lined up on both sides of the Meridian Gate. Officials began to file in according to their positions. Emperor Shenzong has been enthroned in the Golden Palace and began to accept the worship of officials.
Zhang Nai knelt behind the team of officials and followed the crowd to bow down to Emperor Shenzong three times and kowtow nine times. After the ceremony, the eunuch began to recite Emperor Shenzong's imperial edict urging civil and military officials to be diligent in government affairs and loyal to the country.
When Zhang Nai knelt down to listen to the order, he saw dark clouds surging in the sky to the north. After a while, it was like a big black pot was placed in the sky over the capital. Zhang Nai's heart suddenly jumped. He was praying not to rain when he heard a thunder above his head, and then the raindrops fell down like beans.
Raindrops fell on the paper official robes of Zhang Nai and others. The colorful oil paints were blurred at first, and then the official robes made of rice paper disintegrated one after another. Zhang Nai, who was kneeling on the ground, only had a middle coat left on his body at this time. You must know that wearing a middle coat to see the emperor is a disrespectful crime of beheading. Zhang Nai was horrified. He turned around and looked around, only to realize that the county magistrates wearing paper robes were different from him. They were all wearing old official uniforms under their paper robes!
Fortunately, Emperor Shenzong hurriedly conveyed the decree when he saw the rain. The audience ceremony was over, and the officials could go out of the palace to take shelter from the rain and dispersed.
The officials shouted long live the mountain and hurriedly turned around and left the palace. Zhang Nai was among the crowd. He was not sure how to get out of the palace under the eyes of the imperial guards. He saw Xiao Dezi taking off his eunuch clothes, "snoring" and putting it on Zhang Nai. Then he stretched out his hand and pulled Zhang Nai and ran straight towards the harem.
Zhang Nai, an unclean man is hiding in the harem. Once exposed, it will definitely be a capital crime of confiscating the family and exterminating the family. But now, if he doesn't go with Xiao Dezi, he will die faster in the hands of the imperial guards who don't recognize their relatives!
This is what Xiao Dezi thinks. In the harem, there are dung trucks that transport toilet waste. The old eunuch who drives the dung trucks is Xiao Dezi's confidant. He wanted to hide Zhang Nai in a dung cart and send him out of the palace secretly.
Xiao Dezi's wishful thinking was very good, but what was unexpected was that the old eunuch had a few too many drinks in the evening, accidentally walked up the steps, and broke his thigh with a "click". Xiao Dezi was not familiar with the new eunuch who drove the dung truck.
Zhang Nai had no choice but to wear eunuch clothes and hide in Xiao Dezi's house for several days, not daring to come out. This morning, Zhang Nai and Xiao Dezi had just finished breakfast together and were discussing how to get out of the palace. They saw the door of the room being pushed open with a bang, and an old eunuch wearing bright yellow clothes walked in.
When the old eunuch saw Zhang Nai, he frowned and asked, "Xiao Dezi, who is this person?" When Xiao Dezi saw that the paper could not contain his anger, he knelt down with a "plop" and said, "Eunuch Mao, please spare your life!" and then explained the whole story.
Zhang Nai was shocked when he heard that Xiao Dezi called the old eunuch Mao Eunuch. It turned out that this old eunuch was Mao Cheng, the fourth-rank eunuch in charge of rituals! Zhang Nai hurriedly knelt down to salute him. He was trembling because he didn't know whether it was a blessing or a curse.
Mao Cheng came here today because he had another urgent matter.Xiao Dezi was in charge of more than twenty eunuchs, but last year, a eunuch named Li died of illness. After Xiao Dezi secretly disposed of Eunuch Li's body, he did not cancel Eunuch Li's account. Instead, he took Eunuch Li's free salary for a year.
After the emperor summoned all the ministers, Eunuch Mao's arch-rival, Eunuch Liu, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony, got the news from nowhere, saying that some of Eunuch Mao's men were being paid for free, and he was going to attack him at noon today.
Mao Cheng had some ears and eyes around Eunuch Liu. After he got the news, he hurriedly found Xiao Dezi. Xiao Dezi took out Eunuch Li's badge and put it on the table next to Mao Cheng. He wiped the cold sweat while trembling his lips and said, "Eunuch Mao, what can we do?" Mao Cheng took the Eunuch Li name tag handed to him by Xiao Dezi. He read the description of Eunuch Li's appearance. , said: "Eunuch Li has fair skin, big eyes and square mouth. He has similar appearance and characteristics to Zhang Nai. At noon, you can let Zhang Nai temporarily replace Eunuch Li!" After Mao Cheng finished speaking, he glanced at Zhang Nai coldly, and led several young eunuchs to leave the place where Xiao Dezi lived in a hurry.
Zhang Nai was also an official of the imperial court, but the current situation was that if he didn't listen to Xiao Dezi's arrangement, his head would definitely fall to the ground with a "click", so he had no choice but to agree.
At noon, Eunuch Liu led the people to Xiao Dezi's residence. He had just finished counting the number of eunuchs and eunuchs, and was about to order his eunuchs to check carefully. He saw the eunuch beside the emperor running over in a hurry, shouting: "The emperor has decreed that the two father-in-laws Liu and Mao come in immediately!"
In order to help Xiao Dezi out of trouble, Mao Cheng gave Emperor Shenzong a set of jigsaw puzzles made of colorful jade under the guise of the Empress of the West Palace this morning. The emperor spent a long time trying to piece together the jigsaw puzzle, but he couldn't complete the puzzle, so he sent his young eunuchs, the smartest Eunuch Liu and Mao Cheng in the Xuan Palace.
Xiao Dezi was overjoyed after a catastrophe. In the evening, he invited Zhang Nai to drink. As soon as Zhang Nai drank a glass of wine, he felt dizzy and fell to the ground with a "gudong" sound. When he woke up at noon the next day, he felt a burning pain between his legs. It turned out that he was knocked unconscious by the ecstasy wine, and was purified by Xiao Dezi!
Zhang Nai shouted: "You, how dare you harm me..." Xiao Dezi glared and said: "Harm you? I am here to help you! From now on, you can work as an errand in the Li Jian."
What Xiao Dezi said is not an exaggeration. The eunuch who serves as the Chief of Ceremonies is the most popular eunuch in the harem. Most people would not be able to become one. Zhang Nai had been the county magistrate for three years and was so poor that he couldn't even afford official uniforms. Xiao Dezi sold paper official robes, and dared to sell them for ten taels of silver each... As for Zhang Nai being castrated, it was because he knew that Xiao Dezi had too many things, such as the matter of being paid for free, and he must not be allowed to leave the palace. Now that Zhang Nai has been purified and become a eunuch, everyone is the same and just stay in the palace.
Zhang Nai shouted with a mournful face: "I am also the seventh-rank county magistrate of the imperial court. If I disappear, how can the people of Sheshan County and the county government be willing to let it go?"
"Hehe" Xiao Dezi sneered: "Zhang Ding is Your twin brother, right? I wrote a letter to Magistrate Li of Mengzhou and asked him to replace you as the magistrate of Sheshan County!" Zhang Nai saw Xiao Dezi's extraordinary tricks, so he had to stay in the palace and become a eunuch. After Zhang Nai became an eunuch, his temperament changed drastically. In order to be promoted, he actually licked sores and sucked hemorrhoids, worshiped his hair and became his godfather. Three years later, he secretly took an eight-treasure purse from Mao Cheng's side, then emptied the eight-treasure purse and put five locks of hair of the empress and the emperor's concubine with name tags inside... Then he reported Mao Cheng to Manager Liu. Mao Cheng was an eunuch who carried the empress' hair with him, which was a treason. He was soon executed by Ling Chi by the emperor's order. Zhang Nai occupied Mao Cheng's position, while Xiao Dezi became Zhang Nai's subordinate.
Ten days later, Zhang Nai took a glass of poisonous wine and forced Xiao Dezi, who knew his details, to drink it.Xiao Dezi held the poisoned wine in his hand and said through gritted teeth: "You, you are so damn inhuman!" Zhang Nai had a sneer on his face, and his eyes were radiating a fierce light like a wolf!
Oh, woe! In the darkness, one can fall from man to beast so quickly!
