prosperous age

Wei Guangde didn't care at all about the Eastern Depot investigating him, although it had a slight impact on his opening of the Daming Money Shop.

However, in his view, the impact was minimal and there was no need to worry about it too much.

The current Wanli Emperor is more cunning than the Wanli Emperor in history.

Perhaps having gradually come to understand Zhang Juzheng's character, he presented himself as a frugal and hardworking man in front of him, frequently advising him to be thrifty and to remember that as emperor, everything he had was provided by the people, so he should not waste it.

Thinking back to those years, every time Chef Zhang said something like that, he would order the Imperial Kitchen to reduce the amount of food served and the Imperial Household Department to cut back on expenses.

However, now that he is the emperor, he can naturally obtain intelligence that even Wei Guangde has not yet obtained.

That was information about the Zhang residence, sent from Huguang (Hubei and Hunan provinces) to the capital via the Jinyiwei's emergency communication channels.

Although Hai Rui has only just begun to verify the Zhang family's assets, the general amount of property can be determined by reviewing the account books and checking the storerooms.

More than 100,000 taels of silver, several thousand taels of gold, and dozens of boxes of valuables.

The Zhang family owned countless fields and houses, and according to the account books, they also owned extensive properties in Tianjin, Songjiang and other places.

Well, Wei Guangde made his fortune through the Chamber of Commerce, and Zhang Juzheng was certainly not blind to it.

However, he lacked Wei Guangde's boldness in publicly acknowledging his involvement in business.

So, very discreetly, they allowed the servants in the mansion to also participate in the merchant guild to make money for the mansion.

These business transactions naturally had to be recorded in the government's ledgers, along with the deeds for holding the Chamber of Commerce shares on behalf of others; nothing could be omitted.

The ancients actually cared a lot about this point; it's not that they only developed a sense of property rights after modern legal provisions came into being.

Master Zhang is quite shrewd; he's got over 100,000 taels of silver. Even when I asked the Ministry of Revenue for tens of thousands of taels, he kept making excuses, but it turns out he already had it at home.

Although it cannot be confirmed that Zhang Juzheng embezzled the treasures of the Prince of Liao's mansion, the Wanli Emperor's impression of Zhang Juzheng had already become extremely poor based solely on the silver confiscated from his home.

He appears to be a charming and elegant man, but in reality he is a hypocrite with a heart full of wicked and immoral intentions.

Yes, the fact that Zhang Juzheng had several concubines and many maids in addition to his principal wife was also revealed in the investigation by the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Didn't the Embroidered Uniform Guard know this before?
They genuinely didn't know, because they dared not investigate Chief Minister Zhang.

Without the emperor's order, it's really not easy for cabinet ministers to send people infiltrate their residences.

They could only record some of the officials and people closely associated with them from the outside, and build a file.

Moreover, their attention was actually drawn to Wei Guangde.

After all, the relationships between the people Wei Guangde came into contact with were far more complex.

Zhang Juzheng was surrounded by mostly civil officials.

Wei Guangde was surrounded not only by civil officials, but also by nobles and military generals.

If Wei Guangde really wanted to cause trouble, he could be even more ruthless than Zhang Juzheng.

Liu Shouyou was obsequious in front of Wei Guangde, but he did everything that the Embroidered Uniform Guard was supposed to do.

Just like Lu Bu, who still has a dual identity to this day.

If Wei Guangde's documents contained even the slightest word that was detrimental to the Ming Dynasty, it would appear before Liu Shouyou's desk that very night, and would be guaranteed to be seen by the Wanli Emperor the next day.

Of course, Wei Guangde had no such intention.

At this time, plotting a rebellion would be suicidal; no military generals or nobles would follow him.

If one were born a few decades later, during the Chongzhen era, it was only then that a slight trend began to emerge in the court and among the people.

Especially when military leaders began to defy the imperial decrees, and Emperor Chongzhen could only deal harshly with civil officials while appeasing military generals, that was when there was a real opportunity for rebellion.

During the Wanli and even Tianqi reigns, the Ming Dynasty was stable and peaceful, and officials and the people had absolutely no intention of rebelling.

As for the "righteous army" mentioned in later textbooks, they were actually just bandits and robbers, and had nothing to do with the word "righteousness".

The Wanli Emperor was furious, feeling that he had been completely deceived by Zhang Juzheng and had been fooled like a fool.

Fortunately, there was Master Wei, an "honest" man; otherwise, I don't know when I would have realized my mistake.

While Wei Guangde was away, he made money through business, but he also didn't forget to send money to the imperial court.

The imperial court now collects hundreds of thousands of taels of silver annually in exchange for subsidies, and this is after subsidizing schools in various regions and then turning it over to the Ministry of Revenue.

And all this silver was squeezed out of the Chamber of Commerce.

Master Wei held shares in many chambers of commerce, which was essentially equivalent to sending a lot of money to the imperial court through Master Wei.

That person truly loves money, but acquires it in a righteous way.

But what kind of work does Master Zhang do?
They kept it all to themselves, secretly making and enjoying their wealth, while also teaching themselves not to be greedy for beauty or to be extravagant and dissolute.

You big liar.

At this point, Zhang Juzheng's image in the eyes of the Wanli Emperor had completely collapsed.

If the initial reason for Emperor Wanli's dissatisfaction with Zhang Juzheng was the rumors in Gao Gong's will, by now Emperor Wanli only felt disgust towards Zhang Juzheng.

Even though he knew that Gao Gong's will was full of nonsense, he couldn't help but think about it, which made him hate Zhang Juzheng even more.

Emperor Wanli was in a bad mood, very bad, and the news naturally reached Zhang Jing's ears.

Zhang Jing was also in a bad mood.

He has ordered a thorough investigation into Wei Guangde's loan records from his arrival in the capital until now. From the very beginning, he has been charging a monthly interest rate of three percent when lending through those chambers of commerce.

Even the small amount of money Wei Guangde lent in Jiujiang Prefecture in his early years was found in documents reported by the Jiangxi Imperial Guard.

However, there wasn't a single case he was looking for where Wei Guangde charged more than three percent interest per month.

In fact, the Eastern Depot didn't have that many rules when handling cases.

As is customary, they would simply find a few people, tell them what to say, and then have them sign and put their fingerprints on it, and that would be their confession.

Then, naturally, they would ask for the driver's pass to pick up the person.

No matter who it is, once they're in their hands, what confession can't they get?

That was the usual practice, but Wei Guangde's situation was different this time.

Emperor Wanli only wanted to find out the truth, not to take action against Wei Guangde.

This was Wei Guangde's protective charm.

Even the Eastern Depot dared not disobey the emperor's wishes in handling cases.

If you never intended to harm him, why are you fabricating charges against him? Whose face are you slapping?

They couldn't even get past the emperor.

However, by now, both the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, while still possessing investigative capabilities, have weakened somewhat.

In particular, after some of the best agents were sent abroad to the grasslands, island nations, Korea, and vassal states in Southeast Asia, the Jinyiwei's ability to gather intelligence declined in the short term.

In the short term, it will be difficult to recover until new staff are trained.

Well, this made Zhang Jing and the people around him feel very uncomfortable and unaccustomed to the investigation.

Especially when they saw Wei Guangde's large-scale transactions, and how he had just borrowed 500,000 taels of silver from someone, which the Wei family had readily agreed to without batting an eye.

What is the concept?
This means that as long as they successfully bring down this person, their Eastern Depot can have a prosperous year.

Some of the more astute individuals were already estimating just how much wealth the Wei family possessed.

If the Wei family were raided and millions of taels of silver were hidden, it wouldn't be an easy task.

As for the chambers of commerce outside, due to their complex ownership structure, even if the Eastern Depot accessed the archives of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, it could only get a glimpse of them in a short period of time.

What should I do if I can't find it?
At this moment, Zhang Jing had mixed feelings. He originally wanted to take this opportunity to badmouth Wei Guangde in front of the Emperor.

"Are we just going to hand it over like this?" Looking at the loan records of the Wei family compiled by his subordinates, he felt extremely unhappy.

The Emperor will surely be pleased with this document, but why do I feel uneasy about it?
Logically, if the emperor is happy, I, his servant, should also be happy.

Zhang Jing sat there, with the four large characters "Serve the Country with Utmost Loyalty" above his head. Now, this image was framed in a picture, and it looked completely out of place.

Because Zhang Jing was sitting there, his thoughts had absolutely nothing to do with the inscription on the plaque above his head.

Although the Eastern Depot was infamous, it always upheld the spirit of "loyalty to the emperor" and "Yue Fei" when dealing with superiors.

Throughout history, eunuchs have always kept the phrase "serving the country with utmost loyalty" on their lips and regarded Yue Fei as their spiritual idol.

In the backyard of the Eastern Depot, there is a special ancestral hall where a statue of Yue Fei is enshrined.

This is quite different from the worship of Guan Yu in folk customs and some government offices.

"If we add something to this document, will it give us away?"

Suddenly, an idea popped into Zhang Jing's mind.

Will His Majesty ask Wei Guangde to verify this, or will he order the Embroidered Uniform Guard to investigate again?

If that's the case, then this information shouldn't be included; it won't stand up to scrutiny.

But if the Emperor doesn't say anything to Wei Guangde, but only feels dissatisfied, then it seems that this veiled criticism can be applied without Wei Guangde noticing.

At this moment, Zhang Jing began to struggle intensely within himself.

He knew that the Wanli Emperor would be ruthless towards anyone who dared to deceive him.

Don't be fooled by the emperor's lofty position and seemingly indifferent attitude towards worldly affairs; once he reaches that position, there's nothing left for him to worry about.

Even when the outer court rejected his petitions, he didn't seem angry, but that was only directed at civil officials.

At most, there was dissatisfaction with the Ministry of Revenue within the palace.

In fact, the Ministry of Revenue was the one that most frequently criticized the emperor's decrees, followed by the Ministry of Works.

The palace needs money to purchase some items.

When the emperor wanted to repair the palace, he needed the Ministry of Works to summon craftsmen.

Their reason for opposing the emperor's order was naturally to oppose extravagance and waste, citing the court's tight finances.

Even with a so-called legitimate reason, Emperor Wanli often had no choice but to send Zhang Hong to negotiate with the cabinet and the Six Ministries.

Emperor Wanli wasn't that foolish to directly punish officials; that would destabilize the court.

However, the Emperor's punishments for the palace eunuchs were extremely severe.

The distinction between the inner and outer courts was vividly demonstrated within the palace.

What if His Majesty knew that he had made some underhanded moves in this document?
Zhang Jing felt a little guilty and didn't dare to gamble.

Especially the message sent in last night, I heard that His Majesty has been very unhappy since last night.

If this is reported now, and the Emperor is enraged, he might seek justice against Wei Guangde, and I would be exposed.

After much deliberation, Zhang Jing still couldn't make up his mind and decided to postpone it further.

If the Emperor presses for answers, you can use the excuse that the Wei family has lent out too much money and that it will take time to investigate to deflect the question.

Most importantly, it is to tell His Majesty that the Grand Secretary you rely on is very wealthy and can lend out so much money, making a fortune from the interest every year.

I wonder what His Majesty will think if he finds out.

After careful consideration, Zhang Jing ultimately decided to continue delaying and to investigate as much as possible the scale of Wei Guangde's lending activities, ideally uncovering the entire annual income of the Wei family's lending operations.

Using huge profits to incentivize the emperor might have a surprising effect.

Zhang Jing had a good grasp of the Wanli Emperor's temperament and knew the personality of the emperor on the dragon throne.

Aside from the somewhat timid and submissive personality he developed from childhood, his greed and lustful nature were entirely inherited from the late emperor.

Prince Yu may not have been greedy for money, but his early experiences made him particularly fond of the imperial treasury.

If they can use the money from the outer court, they will absolutely not use their own money.

The young emperor, to some extent, inherited this habit.

When faced with large expenditures in the palace, the first thing that came to mind was to send a note to the Ministry of Revenue to request funds.

Grand Secretary Wei is wealthy. If he can make an impression on the Emperor, the Emperor might develop other ideas for the sake of money.

Up to this point, although Emperor Wanli had ordered Zhang Hong to take stock of the palace's treasury, only the emperor knew that Wei Guangde planned to establish the Daming Money Shop.

However, within the outer court, very few people knew about this.

The confidentiality measures are quite good.

Even those families who borrowed money everywhere were only known to the master of the mansion.

The servants knew nothing about the money exchange except that their master had recently made a big deal.

That is, Zhang Ji, could vaguely guess something.

After all, Wei Guangde had asked him many questions, and had even summoned his managers to inquire about lending matters.

However, with his limited knowledge, he naturally couldn't have imagined that his master would bring in the emperor and the imperial court, so that everyone could lend money and act as creditors.

"Someone come here."

Without hesitation, Zhang Jing summoned his trusted subordinates and instructed them: "In addition to continuing to investigate the amount of money lent by the Wei family, we should also focus on taking stock of how much silver the Wei family has received in interest each year over the past few years."

"Calculate it carefully for me, not a single penny less."

His words were practically a blatant message to his subordinates that he wanted more, the more the better.

In any case, even if the final figure exceeds the actual situation, Wei Guangde will never take out the ledger to check it, as he probably doesn't know his family's annual income.

In this way, even if there are mistakes, it won't be a big deal.

He now wants to make a huge impression on the emperor with a massive number.

Wei Guangde amassed a huge fortune through lending, and had already fattened himself up.

In the evening, when Wei Guangde returned to his residence, he only told Zhang Ji the news he had received that day.

"Come down and investigate thoroughly again to see if any of the stewards in the manor have done anything underhanded."

"Yes, sir, I will check the ledgers immediately and have someone else investigate."

Zhang Ji is clever; if those people were to tamper with the accounts on their own, it might not be noticeable in the ledgers.

We should also ask the servants who follow the manager, especially the separate group of men under his command.

Following Wei Guangde's instructions, Zhang Ji established a streamlined version of the "Jinyiwei" (Imperial Guard) early on to supervise the stewards and servants within the mansion.

Of course, these also extend to external matters, responsible for intelligence gathering outside the government.

It was simply two separate lines, with both internal and external functions, similar to the current Embroidered Uniform Guard.

This is actually a taboo subject, so it is kept very secret.

He rarely contacts them unless there is an emergency.

"To forge iron, one must be strong oneself. If one is not at fault, one need not fear Zhang Jing's investigation."

This matter needs to be taken seriously. If anyone has indeed tampered with it, you need to clean it up properly.

Wei Guangde reminded him. (End of this chapter)