Chapter 242

【Ranking the Top Ten Corrupt Officials in History: Third Place, Liang Ji】

【Dynasty: Eastern Han (Reigns of Emperor Shun, Emperor Chong, Emperor Zhi, and Emperor Huan)】

【Title: "The Overbearing General"】

【Official Rank: General-in-Chief (Position above the Three Excellencies, the highest military and political official)】

【Background: The premier consort-kin family of the Eastern Han】

"The pinnacle of consort-kin, power eclipsing the sovereign.

Killing emperors and installing monarchs, as easy as cooking small fish.

Three billion in bribes, wealth rivaling the national treasury.

The overbearing eventually meet their end, Liang Garden becomes ruins."

The scene unfolds in the mid-to-late Eastern Han dynasty, that turbulent era when imperial power was sidelined and consort-kin and eunuchs took turns holding the reins.

【Liang Ji, courtesy name Bozhu. A native of Wushi, Anding.】

【He was born into the best family under heaven—the Liang family, the most prominent consort-kin family in the mid-Eastern Han.】

【His father, Liang Shang, reached the rank of General-in-Chief, recorded the affairs of the Secretariat, and held the reins of government.】

【His younger sister, Liang Na, was the Empress of Emperor Shun of Han, Liu Bao (Empress Shunlie).】

【The Liang family produced three Empresses, six noble ladies, two Generals-in-Chief, seven people enfeoffed as marquises, three who married princesses, and fifty-seven others who served as ministers, generals, governors, and colonels. It was truly a house of unparalleled splendor, where the sound of bells accompanied their meals.】

In the scene appearing on the Heavenly Screen, Liang Ji is shown living in luxury from childhood, running rampant in Luoyang, with no one daring to provoke him.

The Liang residence is bustling with carriages and horses, with long lines of officials coming to curry favor.

【After Emperor Shun of Han died, Empress Liang presided over the court as Empress Dowager.】

【Liang Ji, relying on his status as consort-kin and his family's influence, logically succeeded his father as General-in-Chief, taking full control of the nation's military and political power and becoming the actual master of the empire.】

【For the next twenty years, the Emperors of the Eastern Han were changed like a revolving lantern (Emperor Chong, Emperor Zhi, Emperor Huan), but the shadow sitting behind the dragon throne was always Liang Ji.】

In the scene, the young Emperor sits on the throne, acting as a puppet.

Liang Ji, dressed in the uniform of a General-in-Chief, stands below the imperial steps, yet he looks more like the master than the Emperor.

When the hundred officials report matters, their eyes all look to Liang Ji first.

【After seizing power, Liang Ji pushed his "overbearing" nature and "greed" to an outrageous degree.】

The tone of the scene becomes dark, bloody, and filled with the stench of copper.

【Fierce and tyrannical, killing emperors and installing monarchs.】

【Liang Ji was "kite-shouldered and jackal-eyed," with a cruel nature.】

【When Emperor Zhi of Han, Liu Zuan, ascended the throne, he was only eight years old, but he was clever and precocious.】

【At a court meeting, seeing Liang Ji acting arrogantly in the hall and not taking him seriously at all, he could not help but point at Liang Ji and say: "This is an overbearing general!"】

【These childish words brought him a fatal disaster.】

【Liang Ji's face turned ashen upon hearing this.】

【After the court adjourned that day, he sent his confidants to poison Emperor Zhi's food.】

【The little Emperor suffered from agonizing abdominal pain and urgently summoned the Grand Marshal Li Gu into the palace, asking: "I ate some boiled cakes and my stomach is aching; if I drink some water, will I live?"】

【Liang Ji, standing to the side, said coldly: "Drinking water will cause vomiting; you cannot drink it."】

【Before the words had faded, Emperor Zhi had died from the poison, at only nine years old.】

【Liang Ji then consulted with his sister, Empress Dowager Liang, and welcomed the fifteen-year-old Marquis of Liyu, Liu Zhi, to the throne, who became Emperor Huan of Han.】

In the court, the little Emperor points at Liang Ji and scolds him angrily.

That night, in a secret room, Liang Ji hands a packet of poison to a confidant eunuch, his eyes cold.

Inside the palace, the little Emperor writhes in pain, while Liang Ji stands by the bed, watching him stop breathing with a blank expression.

Subsequently, Liu Zhi, under Liang Ji's "support," sits trembling on the dragon throne.

【Eliminating dissenters and harming the loyal and virtuous.】

【Liang Ji showed no mercy to the upright ministers who dared to oppose him.】

【Grand Marshal Li Gu and Du Qiao repeatedly submitted memorials impeaching Liang Ji for monopolizing power and corruption, demanding the rectification of the court.】

【Liang Ji harbored hatred, fabricated charges, threw Li Gu and Du Qiao into prison, and eventually persecuted them to death.】

【From then on, there was no one in the court who dared to speak the truth.】

【Liang Ji installed his confidants, clansmen, and party members in every key department of the court, and the orders issued by his "General-in-Chief's Mansion" were more effective than the Emperor's edicts.】

In the scene, Li Gu and Du Qiao speak passionately in prison, cursing Liang Ji, and are eventually dragged out and killed.

In the court, most of the officials are members of Liang Ji's clique, acting submissively toward him.

【Insatiable greed, wealth rivaling a nation.】

【After clearing out dissenters and monopolizing power, Liang Ji began his frantic accumulation of wealth. His methods were simple, crude, and extreme.】

The scene begins to display his corrupt "achievements":

【Forcibly occupying civilian fields and enclosing land to build parks.】

【When Liang Ji took a fancy to fertile fields, mountains, forests, and lakes near Luoyang or anywhere in the country, he would directly send his servants and soldiers to forcibly occupy them, expelling or even killing the original owners.】

【He enclosed a large area of land in the western suburbs of Luoyang and built a "Rabbit Park" spanning dozens of miles, specifically to raise exotic birds and beasts offered as tribute from various places for his own hunting and pleasure.】

【A Hu merchant from the Western Regions, unaware of the prohibition, accidentally killed a rabbit in the park; as a result, Liang Ji pursued the matter, and more than ten people were implicated and executed.】

In the Heavenly Screen's scene, Liang family servants, fierce as wolves and tigers, ride horses and hold weapons, rushing into villages, beating farmers, seizing land deeds, burning houses, and driving weeping commoners out of their homes.

On the wilderness, boundary markers are erected: "Liang Family Rabbit Park, Trespassers Will Be Killed."

The Hu merchant is tied to a wooden stake and beaten to death.

【Selling offices and titles, with clear price tags.】

【Liang Ji turned the court's official positions into goods in his own shop.】

【From Commandery Governors and County Magistrates to the court's Nine Ministers and even titles like Marquis within the Passes, everything had a fixed price.】

【Want to be an official? Bring money!】

【Moreover, the prices were ridiculously high, because Liang Ji "was not short of money"; he wanted the prices of "top-tier luxury goods."】

【Many officials, in order to be promoted, transferred to good places, or simply to keep their positions, had to exhaust their family fortunes to bribe Liang Ji.】

【At the time, there was a folk song: "The Liang family sells offices, ships full of gold and silver. If you want a position, you'll lose your family fortune."】

The scene is highly satirical:

At the side gate of the Liang residence, those seeking office carry boxes of gold and silver and carts of silk, waiting in line.

Liang Ji's confidant steward holds an account book and shouts prices arrogantly:

"Governor of Liaodong, vacant, price 50 million coins!"

"Assistant Governor of Nanyang, 30 million! If you're one coin short, get out!"

Some empty their family savings to exchange for a piece of appointment paper, overjoyed;

others, not having enough money, are kicked out the door, looking as if their parents had died.

【Extorting the hundred officials, plucking feathers from every passing goose.】

【Not only did one need money to seek office, but officials already in office also had to "pay tribute" to Liang Ji every year, euphemistically called "annual respect."】

【The amount was determined by the "fatness" of the official position and the wealth of the region.】

【When local officials went to the capital to report on their duties, the first thing they did was not to see the Emperor, but to go to the General-in-Chief's Mansion to "pay respects" and present thick gift lists.】

【Even tribute offered to the Emperor by surrounding vassal states and tribes had to be selected by Liang Ji first, and the best items often ended up in the Liang residence.】

In the scene, the carriage processions of officials from various places do not head toward the Imperial Palace, but turn into the even more magnificent Liang residence.

Liang Ji sits in the hall, looking at the gift lists, nodding with satisfaction.

Tribute envoys carry treasures, entering the Liang residence first, then the Imperial Palace; what the palace receives are already second-rate goods.

【Extravagant and luxurious, the residence exceeding regulations.】

【Having gathered heaven-defying wealth, Liang Ji's life was luxurious to the extreme.】

【The residence he built in Luoyang stretched for miles, with countless pavilions and towers; its magnificence even surpassed the Imperial Palace!】

【Inside, rare treasures were piled like mountains, and there were thousands of singing girls and dancers.】

【He and his wife, Sun Shou (also a woman who loved luxury and was jealous and vicious), competed in showing off their wealth; the residence Sun Shou built was equally extravagant.】

In the scene shown by the Heavenly Screen, the Liang residence is boundless, with layers of palaces inside high walls, glittering with gold and jade, and the sound of silk and bamboo music never ceasing day or night.

Its specifications and form clearly exceeded regulations, with double watchtowers, corridors, and even a "Lingxiao Tower" imitating the Imperial Palace.

In the palace, the Emperor looks at the lights of the Liang residence in the distance, his expression gloomy.

【Committing many unrighteous acts, the entire family is executed.】

【Liang Ji's tyranny and overbearing nature finally made Emperor Huan of Han, Liu Zhi, who had been swallowing his anger for many years, unable to endure it any longer.】

【Emperor Huan was growing older and was unwilling to be a puppet forever, and he feared even more that he would become the next Emperor Zhi.】

【He secretly formed an alliance with five eunuchs who were dissatisfied with Liang Ji: Shan Chao, Zuo Guan, Xu Huang, Ju Yuan, and Tang Heng.】

In the scene, the young Emperor Huan is in a secret room deep in the palace, swearing an oath with five eunuchs, pointing to the sky and swearing to eliminate Liang Ji.

【In the second year of Yanxi, Liang Ji's sister, Empress Dowager Liang (Emperor Huan's Empress, not his biological sister, but another woman of the Liang clan), passed away, and Liang Ji lost a major internal support.】

【Emperor Huan took advantage of his lack of preparation and suddenly launched an attack, ordering the eunuch Shan Chao and others to mobilize the palace guards and, with lightning speed, surround the General-in-Chief's Mansion and Liang Ji's various residences in the city.】

In the scene, late at night, the streets of Luoyang are suddenly lit with torches, and armored soldiers swarm toward the Liang residence like a tide.

Liang Ji wakes up from his sleep, hears the sounds of fighting outside, and is terrified.