Cai Jing has a very high artistic talent and is known as a talented man. He has brilliant performance in various art fields such as calligraphy, painting, poetry, and prose. His calligraphy is among the four great masters of Su, Huang, Mi and Cai in the Northern Song Dynasty. When people talked about his calligraphy, they often used words "the best", "no one is right", etc., so even the arrogant Mi Fu once said that his calligraphy was not as good as Cai Jing. It is said that once Cai Jing chatted with Mi Fu, Cai Jing asked Mi Fu: "Who is the best calligraphy today?" Mi Fu replied: "From Liu Gongquan in the late Tang Dynasty, you have to be considered as you and your younger brother Cai Bian." Cai Jing asked: "What's the second?" Mi Fu said: "Of course it's me."

According to historical records, one summer, two lower-level officials served Cai Jing very respectfully and kept fanning him with fans. Cai Jing was happy, so he wanted to pass the fan and mentioned two poems by Du Fu for them. Unexpectedly, a few days later, these two guys suddenly became happy and generous. After asking, they realized that their fan was bought by a prince for 20,000 yuan. Twenty thousand yuan was about the year-on-year expense of an ordinary family at that time. This prince was Song Huizong who had ascended the throne. It is conceivable how much Song Huizong, who was a master of calligraphy, loved Cai Jing's works.

The first year of Jianzhong Jingguo, 1101 AD, was the second year of Emperor Huizong of Song ascended the supreme. At the beginning of this year, Empress Dowager Xiang, who was in charge of the affairs of Song Huizong, passed away, and Emperor Huizong of Song began to truly take power. In fact, in September last year, Empress Dowager Xiang had already brought the major policies to Zhao Ji on the grounds of being unwell. However, at this time, he was truly scruples.

At the end of this year, he suddenly demoted Cai Jing, who had personally gone to Hangzhou, as the prefect of Dingzhou, and then became the prefect of Daming Prefecture. Before he took office, he was appointed as the Hanlin scholar and the national history was compiled and transferred back to the court. Two months later, he was promoted to the Left Prime Minister, who was equivalent to one of the deputy prime ministers or assistants of the prime ministers, and had already entered the central decision-making level; in two months, Cai Jing was promoted to the right Pushe and the Secretariat of the Central Secretariat, roughly equivalent to the second prime minister. By this time, it took only half a year for Cai Jing to become the main figure in the decision-making level of the empire. In another half a year, Cai Jing officially took office as the Left Pushe and the Secretariat of the disciples, and became the first prime minister of the dynasty.

From 1100 AD, that is, in October of the third year of Yuanfu, Cai Jing was demoted to Hangzhou to live in Hangzhou, to the end of the first year of Jianzhong Jingguo in 1101 AD, Cai Jing was still guilty; from this time to July 5, 1102 AD, that of the first year of Chongning, Cai Jing had become the second prime minister of the empire in three steps. This dazzling dramatic change was so dazzling.

When Cai Jing was demoted to Hangzhou, in 1101 AD, the early autumn of the first year of Jianzhong Jingguo, the eunuch Tong Guan, as an entrusted official in the inner court, was sent to Hangzhou to establish the Mingjin Bureau. His duty was to collect literary, calligraphy and paintings for the emperor. At this time, Cai Jing had been demoted to Hangzhou for nearly a year. It is said that he just provided a list for Tong Guan and helped him provide advice, so that several immortal works of Tibetans from the people in Hangzhou could fall into Tong Guan's hands. Among them, there were Wang Youjun's calligraphy, Gu Hongzhong's paintings, and the original works of Zhou Wenju of the Southern Tang Dynasty that Emperor Huizong loved the most and dreamed of, "Chongpinghui Chess Picture", which made Tong Guan show his face in front of the master who had served for a short time. Some of the calligraphy and painting works that Cai Jing himself carefully created were naturally not unknown.

The establishment of the Mingjin Bureau this time shows that Huizong did not intend to use his hard work to bury his leisure and leisure. The frivolous character of the romantic and talented emperor showed up again and became uncontrollable from then on. Tong Guan and Cai Jing formed a mutual support and unbreakable friendship. Facts show that in the years to come, it is this terrible friendship that tempted and carried Song Huizong to drag the Song Empire step by step into the quagmire of disaster.

Since I have written this, let’s talk about Tong Guan together.

When Tong Guan entered the palace, he was already in his twenties and was a disciple of the senior eunuch Li Xian. This Li Xian was a famous eunuch of the Shenzong Dynasty. He served as a military supervisor on the northwest border for many years and had some military achievements. Tong Guan studied in a private school for four years and had some basic scriptures. He followed Li Xian to the front line and laid a military foundation, which was a bit of a literary and military flavor. In addition, he went deep into the northwest ten times and knew the local mountains and rivers, which made him very unusual among eunuchs. However, it seems that Li Xian did not have any special promotion and care for him, which led to Tong Guan entering the palace for more than 20 years and never making a name for himself. If it weren't for Zhao Ji's personality as emperor, or in other words, if Emperor Shenzong could live for twenty years, he might have died in the palace in obscurity.

It was actually too late to castrate Tong Guan. It would be best to cut off the "lifeline" at around ten years old. The older he was, the more dangerous he was. Li Lianying was 30 years old at that time, and the greater the risk. Only one out of ten could survive. The reason why these two people took risks was of course that they were planning to use their lower body for the second half of their lives. It was very likely that the bicycle would turn into a motorcycle. After entering the palace, in addition to eating and drinking, they would not have to worry about supporting their families, and they would have the opportunity once in a century. They would definitely be inferior to one person and above millions of people.

The method of castrating eunuchs was derived from ancient castration. The secret method of the palace ban for more than two thousand years has almost no change. When castration is done, you must avoid the wind and be warm, just like raising silkworms must not be ventilated, so you have to go down the "silk room". Castration is in a cellar, with a special wooden kang. When a person lies down, he tied his hands tightly, lifted his feet, and then used an extremely sharp razor to cut off the "lifeline", insert a goose feather tube into the wound, and apply a secret knife and medicine. In this way, he kept shouting day and night, and at least five or six days could not move, so he should not talk about big and relieve small slags. Before that, he had to starve and endure thirst and "clean the stomach" before he could do it. At that time, there was no anti-inflammatory medicine, which was completely joking about life.

At that time, Li Lianying's parents worked in Beijing and were called "Skin Li". At this time, the Li family's living conditions were not very good, so Li Lianying joined Prince Zheng's Duanhua Mansion to be a eunuch. According to folk legend, Li Lianying came to Beijing. Because of her mastery of a new hairstyle, she also asked her fellow eunuch Shen Lanyu to introduce her to the palace and became the eunuch of Empress Dowager Cixi, and thus was favored by Cixi.

Let’s stop talking. When Huizong entered Dabao, Tong Guan was already forty-eight years old. This age was the peak of his life experience, experience and energy. Huizong sent him to Hangzhou to set up a Mingjin Bureau to collect Luo Wenwan calligraphy and paintings in the name of the Neijing court, which opened up a channel for him to rise for the first time. Generally speaking, the Neijing court officials were generally equivalent to the director of the procurement and supply department of the imperial palace. They were not a very high position, but a very good and fat person. Tong Guan was not satisfied with getting benefits. His use of this opportunity was called scheming and meaningful.

During his trip to Hangzhou, Tong Guan was particularly enthusiastic about his understanding of the emperor and instructed Cai Jing to create a number of beloved calligraphy and painting works, which were delivered to the emperor by Tong Guan. These work achievements surprised the emperor and began to look at Tong Guan differently. After returning to Beijing, he took action and took great pleasure to the concubines in the palace, and once predicted that Zhao Ji could become the emperor's Taoist priest, the emperor's close ministers, and the eunuch Liang Shicheng, who was deeply trusted by the emperor, gave generous gifts to Cai Jing's return to Beijing.

At that time, it was said that Tong Guan's several confidant disciples were very confused and did not understand why the master was so enthusiastic about helping a bad boy who was demoted to another place. Tong Guan told them: "No one takes us seriously. Even if it is not impossible to flatter you, it will be extremely difficult. If you see it correctly and use our own strength to help a prime minister, it will be completely different."

Facts have proved that Tong Guan's eyesight and skills in burning cold stoves were all first-class. In less than a year, Cai Jing sat in the prime minister's seat like a triple jump. This has far-reaching significance for Tong Guan.

A major move after Cai Jing presided over the national affairs was to recommend Tong Guan’s army to the northwest, with the intention of regaining the four prefectures in Qinghai and Gansu. At that time, something happened, and Tong Guan’s temperament was quite obvious:

After Tong Guan served as the military supervisor, he followed the army to Huangchuan. They killed the animals and sacrificed flags here and held a oath-taking meeting. Then, when the war was about to begin, they suddenly received the emperor's edict. It turned out that the palace had caught fire. The emperor thought it was not suitable for war and urgently ordered the troops to stop the army. After Tong Guan read the edict, he folded it up and stuffed it into his boots as if nothing had happened. The general in the army asked him, what did the emperor write? Tong Guan replied: The emperor hopes that we will succeed as soon as possible.

In this war, Tong Guan performed low-key. He supported and cooperated with the leading generals to fight a series of beautiful battles and quelled the rebellion of the northwest tribes. At the celebration meeting for the regaining of the four states, the generals happily received the merits and rewards, while Tong Guan did two extremely revealing things:

At the celebration banquet, he slowly took out the emperor's hand edict and told the generals in the army to watch. Everyone was shocked when they saw it. The leader general asked him in a panic. Why did he do this? Tong Guan replied: "The morale was in high spirits at that time. If the troops were stopped like this, how could he fight in the future?" The general asked: "What if he was defeated?" Tong Guan said: "This is the reason why I didn't show you at that time. If you defeated, of course I will be alone to take the crime." It is said that the generals knelt on the ground at that time, and everyone was grateful and admired. Everyone knew that the military order was as high as a mountain, let alone violated the order. This was really not a joke. If you were defeated, Tong Guan might indeed lose his head.

At the same time, Tong Guan also did another very touching thing. After the war started, a general who was very desperate was killed. At that time, the general's wife had passed away. After he died in battle, his only son was wandering on the streets and became a beggar. Tong Guan ordered him to be found, and he recognized the child as his adopted son in public, and declared that he would treat the orphans well as he was to his own children and raise him into a human. This is a very powerful move. The generals who fought on the field of life and death every day were very moved and believed that Tong Guan was a boss worthy of his life. From then on, Tong Guan firmly established his prestige in the Northwest Army. Unfortunately, this child, who changed his name to Tong Shimin, helped Tong Guan do a lot of bad things when he grew up. One year before 1127 AD, when the "Six Thieves" were eliminated, Tong Guan was ordered to beheaded by the new emperor at the same time. This is a later story.

This victory was extremely important to the Great Song Empire. The empire had no military glory and glory for a long time, which made the imperial monarch and ministers very depressed. You should know that since the "Zhenyuan Alliance" and the Empire formed a "brother country" that constantly fought against each other, the northeast and northern regions have calmed down, and the northwest military has become a long-lasting pain in the empire. Fan Zhongyan, a famous minister in Chinese history, had all failed here and made it very dirty. Therefore, Tong Guan became a dazzling star rising in the Song Empire, and was warmly welcomed by the government and the people of the capital like a hero, and shone for a long time in the dark northwest of the empire.

Later, Tong Guan appeared in the northwest for many years, presided over the military of the region, led his troops to win several battles, and successively recovered the Jishi Army, which is today's Guide, Gansu, Taozhou, and Gansu Lintao. From then on, Tong Guan became a veritable pillar of the empire, supporting the sky that had almost collapsed many times in the northwest. There is also a saying that the northwest region was barren and poor, and the sky was not to collapse for many years, indicating that it could not really collapse; it was just Cai Jing, Tong Guan's disciples sought to seek credit, so they were able to gain military force and repeatedly provoke wars. This statement must have its own truth. What we want to express here is just saying that the imperial court and the people at that time were actually very needed and welcomed such military success. Its psychological foundation is likely that it should not just be just about military force.

At this time, in the second year of Daguan, that is, in 1108 AD, a serious conflict occurred between Tong Guan and Cai Jing, which was caused by the emperor's order to be appointed Tong Guan as the "Kaifu Yitong Sansi". People at that time called this official position "the prime minister", and was generally used to be promoted when the prime minister was released as a military governor. It was extremely noble, and its meaning was treatment, status, and glory were equivalent to that of the prime minister. In the past, this official position had never been granted to eunuchs. Cai Jing said: "It was too much for Tong Guan to be granted the title of Jiedu as a eunuch. How could he deserve the title of honor?" As the prime minister, Cai Jing refused to be appointed by the imperial edict, and the emperor left it alone.

In fact, Cai Jing had been dissatisfied with Tong Guan for a long time. He believed that Tong Guan had violated his dignity and power as prime minister. The reason was that for a long time, when Tong Guan selected generals and schools in the northwest region, he had no government procedures, but directly appointed the emperor. Some of them simply made his own decisions and appointed them first. This greatly hurt the self-esteem of Prime Minister Cai Jing, the head of government, and therefore decided to know it.

Tong Guan was of course very annoyed. However, he remained calm and observed the situation calmly. The next year, in the third year of Daguan, that is, in 1109 AD, Tong Guan took three steps to pull Cai Jing off the position. This time, he instigated three forces: the palace was the chief supervisor of the inner court, including his disciples, and in time, he kept blowing the bad things Cai Jing did in their ears; in the court, he looked for officials who had always had grudges with Cai Jing, and in time, he was looking for officials who had always had grudges with Cai Jing, and in time, he was the time.
Chapter completed!