prosperous age

"What was the outcome? Was it truly as the memorial described?"

The Wanli Emperor asked.

"Your Majesty, the treasury contains over a million taels of gold and silver, as well as countless other books, paintings, and antiques. However, since we have not received an imperial decree, we dare not inspect them and have sealed them all away."

Liu Ruoyu replied loudly.

After he finished speaking, the hall fell silent.

Although Liu Ruoyu's words were brief, they contained a great deal of information.

The gold and silver seized alone were worth millions of taels. What does that mean?
These eunuchs, even the most prominent ones in the palace, actually only had a combined wealth of two or three hundred thousand taels of silver. It was through their manipulations that they were able to amass such a fortune.

But Feng Bao alone has so much money in his own mansion and warehouse. What are they supposed to think?

Don't think that a million taels of silver is a small amount. In fact, even the wealthiest salt merchants in this era did not have much cash on hand.

Most of the money was either spent on salt or on buying estates and repairing courtyards.

No one understands better than them that money is useless if you just keep it in your hands.

Since they have a substantial monthly income, they naturally spend money recklessly.

The Shanxi merchants had not yet truly prospered at this time, because Liaodong was not in turmoil, and they did not have much money.

Therefore, the gold and silver in Feng Bao's house, worth a million taels, was an incredibly vast fortune.

This doesn't even include the paintings, calligraphy, and antiques that haven't been inspected. Everyone here, including Zhang Jing who followed Emperor Wanli and was privately considered an unlearned fellow, had studied at the Inner Academy.

People who read books naturally love books, calligraphy and paintings, as well as various antiques and jade artifacts.

Those works that weren't inspected in time must have been extraordinary; otherwise, they wouldn't have caught Feng Bao's eye.

The Ming Dynasty government paid in silver annually. Although Zhang Juzheng implemented the Single Whip Law, which allowed taxes in kind to be converted into silver, this was merely opening a loophole.

For most ordinary people, the only tax they could pay was the produce from their land; they didn't have that much money to pay taxes.

It was simply that the taxes in kind were converted into silver and reported in the official accounts. So, the Ming Dynasty's nominal tax revenue was tens of millions of taels of silver, but the actual amount in cash was only a few million taels.

Moreover, everyone knew very well that Feng Bao probably owned not only these movable properties, but also a large amount of immovable property, namely courtyards in the capital and estates outside the city.

People of their status wouldn't buy land here and there.

Once they started, they would often buy up large tracts of land in the surrounding area, forming their own estate, and appoint their own people as estate managers to oversee its operation.

The head of the estate kept records of the annual output and then delivered it to the household at the agreed time.

This will save a lot of trouble.

The claim that the powerful and wealthy oppress the common people often stems from this very issue.

In order to acquire large tracts of land, they would certainly use every means possible to force landowners who were unwilling to sell their land to do so.

As for the price, they generally don't care too much.

However, if subordinates are not managed well, they may be forced to buy and sell at prices far below market value.

In reality, most of these transactions ended up in the hands of the powerful and wealthy at market price, but it was mostly their subordinates who betrayed them and profited from the difference by taking advantage of their masters' power.

As for the head of the family personally making arrangements, generally speaking, they wouldn't be so shameless.

"Copy it, copy it all."

After a moment of stunned silence, Emperor Wanli finally came to his senses.

The fact that Feng Bao had amassed such a fortune in just over ten years was something the Wanli Emperor could never have imagined.

The palace's annual expenses are only a little over a million taels of silver. I never expected that Feng Bao's family fortune would be so abundant.

"Chen Ju".

Emperor Wanli made up his mind and immediately shouted.

"The slave is here."

Chen Ju hurriedly stepped forward to receive the order.

"You, along with Zhang Jing, are responsible for investigating Feng Bao's embezzled funds and quickly inventorying them to replenish the internal treasury."

With so much silver, Emperor Wanli had to put it into the palace; otherwise, he worried that if the previous dynasty found out, it would cause trouble.

When Wei Guangde saw that Chen Ju was the one who had moved the silver, he didn't say much.

Other things can be disregarded, but the gold and silver must be deposited into the national treasury.

Master Wei himself said that governing a country is about managing finances; only when you have money in your hands can you govern the country well.

Emperor Wanli was in high spirits at this moment, feeling a sense of accomplishment as he believed he had put what Master Wei had taught him into practice.

Moreover, sending Chen Ju with Zhang Jing was also part of his ulterior motive.

Chen Ju formed his own faction in the palace and was Gao Zhong's adopted son, while Zhang Jing was his own person and Zhang Hong's adopted son, belonging to Huang Jin's faction, and they were not the same group.

Having people from both sides work together on this task can also serve as a form of mutual supervision, which aligns with Master Wei's teachings.

After all, wealth is a powerful motivator, and Emperor Wanli was unwilling to use his own money to test his subordinates.

"The slave obeys the order."

Chen Ju agreed.

Just as he stood up, he heard the Wanli Emperor continue, "Zhang Hong, Feng Bao's matter has been exposed. You will temporarily serve as the Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial. State affairs cannot be delayed."

"The servant knows."

Zhang Hong also hurriedly stepped forward to receive the imperial decree.

This is the cruelty of the power struggles within the inner court. Just like the struggles in the previous dynasty, once an opponent is defeated, others will advance one step forward in turn.

If Zhang Hong replaces Feng Bao, he will become the most powerful person in the palace, the Grand Eunuch of the Inner Court, while Zhang Cheng will be promoted to become the second most powerful person in the palace.

As for himself, Chen Ju knew in his heart that if he did this job well, he might be sent to supervise the Imperial Horse Administration and become the third person in the palace.

Everyone made progress, a happy ending for all.

Chen Ju led Zhang Jing out of the Qianqing Palace, and each of them took a few capable subordinates with them as they headed towards the Feng residence.

"Ruoyu, go to the cabinet and tell Grand Secretary Wei what just happened, then come find me at the palace gate."

After separating from Zhang Jing to prepare, Chen Ju whispered to Liu Ruoyu.

"Understood, Godfather."

Liu Ruoyu immediately agreed and then quickly ran towards the cabinet.

It was almost time for the end of the day's proceedings. In Wei Guangde's office, Zhang Siwei and Shen Shixing were both present, and they discussed the day's events.

The biggest change was that the emperor forced Wang Guoguang to retire.

Even his opponent, the current Second Grand Secretary Zhang Siwei, had a pained expression on his face, as if he were completely innocent in this matter.

This is a classic case of "the rabbit mourns the fox's death." Currently, the person openly targeting Wang Guoguang is the eunuch Feng Bao.

Civil officials and eunuchs were natural adversaries, enemies.

Therefore, whether you're an official or a high-ranking one, you have to be a master of drama, because your every word and action can have a huge impact.

If someone says that Wang Guoguang was impeached by a eunuch and Zhang Siwei is still celebrating, the Censorate's impeachment memorials tomorrow will probably drown him and leave him with a bad reputation in the literary world.

"master."

At this moment, Lu Bu came in from outside, walked straight to Wei Guangde's side, and whispered something in his ear.

"Please have a seat, my savior will be right back."

Wei Guangde stood up, smiled and said something to them, then followed Lu Bu out of the duty room.

In an empty room next to the duty room, Wei Guangde met Liu Ruoyu.

"Eunuch Liu."

Wei Guangde remained polite, after all, the other party was a eunuch from the Qianqing Palace.

"Grand Secretary Wei, my godfather asked me to pass on a message to you."

Beside Wei Guangde, Liu Ruoyu quietly recounted his search of the Feng residence and what had just happened in the Qianqing Palace before taking his leave.

"I am bound by imperial orders, so I shall take my leave now."

"Please take care, Eunuch Liu."

Wei Guangde cupped his hands in greeting and said this. Only after Liu Ruoyu left the courtyard did Wei Guangde return to his duty room.

In fact, the three people on duty had already learned about the Embroidered Uniform Guard's cover-up of the Feng residence through their respective informants, but no one brought it up at the moment.

Since no one publicly reported it to the cabinet, everyone could only pretend not to know.

When Wei Guangde went out, Zhang Siwei and Shen Shixing both believed that news must have come in from outside.

However, they weren't in a hurry, since it wasn't a major matter for them, and they would find out after the meeting ended.

Zhang Siwei actually had a vague guess in his heart that Feng Bao was probably doomed this time, after all, the news was passed on by the emperor's eunuch, and it also implied that it was His Majesty's will.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and with the search and confiscation of Feng Bao's residence, there was no doubt that they could find something in his house.

Today's cabinet meeting ended after only a few sentences.

Zhang Siwei and Shen Shixing bid farewell to Wei Guangde and left his duty room, each returning to their own room.

After resting for a short while and tidying up the memorials in the room, I will be off duty.

After the people left, Wei Guangde remained seated and did not move.

Zhang Hong replacing Feng Bao is not actually a bad thing.

Wei Guangde trusted Zhang Hong; everyone likes an honest and kind person.

It was Zhang Jing. Wei Guangde was thinking about how to get rid of this person.

He couldn't contribute much to palace affairs; at most, he could only strategize, especially since it involved the emperor.

When the time came, Wei Guangde instructed Lu Bu to tidy up the room, and then stepped out of the inner chamber and headed towards the palace gate.

He's about to leave work.

As I exited the palace gate, I happened to see a procession of carriages leaving.

All of them were palace carriages, the means of transportation for eunuchs when they went out.

Wei Guangde glanced at it twice before walking towards his sedan chair.

"Master, please get into the sedan chair."

When the attendant saw Wei Guangde approaching, he hurriedly bowed.

Wei Guangde stopped and did not immediately go up, but asked, "Who got into the carriage just now?"

"The one leading the group is Eunuch Chen, and there are others, but I don't recognize them."

The attendant replied.

Knowing that it was Chen Ju and his group was enough, Wei Guangde then bent down and got into the sedan chair.

When the sedan chair arrived at the Wei residence, Wei Guangde alighted and Zhang Ji and his men greeted him at the gate.

After Wei Guangde entered the mansion, Zhang Jicai whispered, "This afternoon, the Embroidered Uniform Guard surrounded Eunuch Feng's mansion. We just received the news that the Embroidered Uniform Guard has started ransacking the house and is moving boxes out."

"So fast?"

Wei Guangde stopped abruptly and said in a low voice.

"It's being said that over a million taels of gold and silver, along with countless jewels, were found in the Feng residence."

Zhang Ji said in a low voice.

These rumors actually started circulating in Beijing that afternoon.

Zhang Ji was actually somewhat skeptical about the claim that Feng Bao's family had a million taels of silver in savings.

The Wei family, which he controlled, had a total of only two or three hundred thousand taels of silver in cash.

To raise a million taels, we need to collect some money from outside sources to make up the difference.

This is no small sum; who would keep their money at home instead of letting it circulate outside?

The Wei family was involved in many industries, and each industry required money to operate.

Money accumulates over time.

If it's just kept at home, it will always be the same amount.

This was a discovery that Zhang Ji had only come to after many years, so the Wei family actually didn't have much money.

However, the four pawnshops that the mansion owned outside each held one or two hundred thousand taels of silver, which was also a considerable fortune.

Wei Guangde stood there for a moment, and then he guessed it.

Gold and silver are the easiest things to count.

It's estimated that the palace was worried about a repeat of the situation that happened to Grand Secretary Yan's family back then, which is why they rushed to transport the money back to the palace as soon as possible.

The proceeds from the confiscation of the Yan family's property have now become a mess in the imperial court.

According to Wei Guangde, the imperial court only collected a little over one million taels of silver in total, and the remaining assets of at least two million taels were divided up by countless individuals.

Initially, only a few hundred thousand taels were handed over; the remaining several hundred thousand taels came from the proceeds of selling the Yan family's land and estates in various parts of Jiangnan.

Of this, it's likely that only half was turned over, with the rest being embezzled by local authorities.

Even if the Jiajing Emperor and the Longqing Emperor were aware of this, there was nothing they could do.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde couldn't help but blush.

He didn't realize it at the time, but now Wei Guangde feels he's lost out big time.

Not only were they pulled onto the ship, but what they received was nothing more than land deeds, house deeds, and shops in Jiujiang, totaling no more than 100,000 taels of silver.

It could be said that he only received a small share, yet he had to cover for them.

"I'm not getting a single penny out of Feng Bao's business; it's too damn bad a loss."

Wei Guangde thought to himself, then strode inside.

Meanwhile, at the Feng residence, Chen Ju had his men check the account books that had been pulled out separately, mainly focusing on the money, and found that the amounts roughly matched the amount of money confiscated.

"Godfather, the count is complete. The gold and silver are worth 1.17 million taels and are being loaded onto the carts."

Liu Ruoyu approached Chen Ju and whispered his report.

"In a little while, you will escort these silver coins back to the palace, hand them over, and then immediately go to the Qianqing Palace to report to the Emperor."

Chen Ju said.

"Yes."

Liu Ruoyu agreed, then glanced back and lowered his voice, saying, "Godfather, Zhang Jing hasn't come out of the room where the jewelry and jade are stored. Should we..."

"Don't worry about him. When we finally check the accounts, he can make sure everything is clean from beginning to end, which is his skill."

Chen Ju shook his head and said.

The job of confiscating property was a coveted one. The emperor sent him there for two reasons: to supervise them and to reward him.

Chen Ju understood this clearly.

He will take them, but only after a rough count is completed.

He paid no attention to the underhanded tactics of Zhang Jing or Liu Shouyou.

As long as the final inventory result isn't too bad, it's fine.

A few small items, whether you have one more or one less, don't really matter.

He was more interested in Feng Bao's houses and shops in the capital, as well as the fields outside the city.

While land in the Jiangnan region is valuable, it is still the most expensive in and around the capital.

In Jiangnan, a mu of top-quality farmland costs fifteen or sixteen taels of silver, but in the capital it would sell for eighteen or twenty taels.

In Jiangnan, barren hills and wastelands can be bought for four or five taels of silver per mu, while in the capital they can be bought for nearly ten taels. That's the difference.

It's still unclear how much land Feng Bao owns, but it's known that he has eleven shops in the city and nearby Tongzhou, as well as several courtyards.

Now, the Imperial Guards and eunuchs have been sent to search those courtyards, and who knows how much stuff they've hidden there.

Anyway, the amount confiscated from Feng Bao's house this time should be astronomical.

Just as Chen Ju sent Liu Ruoyu back to the palace to report the good news, Emperor Wanli was being scolded in Cining Palace.

Yes, Empress Dowager Li was certainly not happy about Feng Bao's arrest, and she was currently giving Emperor Wanli a severe dressing-down. (End of Chapter)