I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 549 Ouchi is greedy for ink (second update)

There was silence in the room. The two Japanese samurai had already retreated. Huang Cheng and Li Dan were silent and the atmosphere was solemn.

After a while, Li Dan sighed, and then said slowly:
"Oh, you're right. If you want to do it, do it thoroughly."

After Huang Cheng's repeated hints, Li Dan finally compromised.Since you want to recruit people, you must be sincere, otherwise you will be unfavorable to the future.Huang Cheng was overjoyed when he heard this and said immediately:
"That's very good. Mr. Li is indeed a sensible person, so it's settled. In a few days, I will ask Mr. Li to send his trusted aide to follow me to Nanjing to meet with Governor Bi in person, to tell the truth and to finalize the matter. After all, the sooner it is finalized, the better it will be for you.”

Li Dan nodded slowly when he heard this. This matter is naturally feasible.But since he accepted the recruitment, he naturally wouldn't mind giving another big gift.

"There is one more important thing I need to tell you."

He immediately asked Huang Cheng to come forward and murmured a few words in his ear. Huang Cheng didn't understand what was going on at first, but the more he listened, he felt horrified, and then his pupils dilated, as if he had heard a shocking secret.
-
Naturally, no one else would know the news Li Dan told Huang Cheng.

But at this moment, in the Forbidden City in Beijing, three thousand miles away from Nagasaki, Zhu Youxiao frowned.

In front of him, the three eunuchs, Wei Zhongxian, Wang Boyu and Wang Chengqian, stood respectfully with their hands down, as quiet as a chilling cicada.

"Is this really true?"

"Your Majesty, what I just reported is true. Eunuch Wang has also been involved in the thorough investigation of corruption in the imperial court, and he can testify."

"Your Majesty, what Eunuch Wei said is true. These things have been verified by Dongchang and the Supervisor of Ceremonies. If there are any mistakes, I am willing to take responsibility."

Wang Boyu saw this and quickly stepped forward to respond. Zhu Youxiao sighed slightly when he heard this.

Last year, in order to regain the emperor's trust and at the same time ensure his status as the eunuch in charge, Wei Zhongxian advocated to Zhu Youxiao to inventory the internal assets and thoroughly investigate corruption in the palace.

Zhu Youxiao had long wanted to rectify corruption in the palace, but the matter was deeply involved, and these eunuchs were all close to him, so he did not want to do it himself.

So after seeing Wei Zhongxian volunteering to do it, Zhu Youxiao had no objections.He immediately agreed to let Wei Zhongxian take the lead and Wang Boyu as the assistant to thoroughly investigate the corruption in the palace.

Now after four months of investigation, this matter has gained some insights, and it has also given Zhu Youxiao a certain understanding of the basic situation of the inner court institutions of the Ming Dynasty.

But the more he looked at it, the more he realized that the inner court was really full of problems, and it would take a short time to change it.

The most important among them are the problems of bloated numbers and corruption.

The entire eunuch institution in the Ming Dynasty was very complex, with 24 yamen, namely the Twelve Supervisors, the Fourth Division, and the Eighth Bureau.

There are a lot of eunuchs in these yamen. According to statistics from Wei Zhongxian and others, the current number of eunuchs is about 4000, of which about 8000 are receiving full monthly rations, and about 6000 are receiving half monthly rations. In addition, there are palace maids and about 100 female officials.

This number of people is not a small number, and these people alone are a huge expense.

We must know that the 6000 palace maids and eunuchs consume 11 shi of rice and 8 taels of clothing and silver every month. Seeing this, Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but have a headache.

And these are only the eunuchs and maids recorded in the palace. There are many people who voluntarily left the palace outside the palace. Even if they are not selected, they are unwilling to leave the vicinity of the imperial city.Instead, they gathered in one place, or scattered outside the imperial city, in a Buddhist temple with a temple, commonly known as the Wuming White Inner Palace, waiting for the next wave of selections for the imperial palace. There were also many of them, thousands of them.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but have a headache. There were really too many of these people.

This is only the number of eunuchs and maids. You must know that there are more than just eunuchs in the 24 yamen.

For example, in yamen such as Nei Zhi and Dyeing Bureau, Shangshan Supervisor, Nei Zhi and Dyeing Bureau, etc., in addition to eunuchs, there are also various handymen.This number is considered to be the largest. According to statistics from Wei Zhongxian and others, there are about 3 people.

This is the number of people Zhu Youxiao had after his craftsman status was abolished last year.If the craftsmanship status were not abolished, the number of people would probably be even greater.Based on this calculation, the total number of people in the entire imperial city is estimated to be 5.

More people means more things to do. There are [-] maids, eunuchs and servants in the imperial city, which naturally leads to many corruption problems.

This is the top priority reported by Wei Zhongxian and others.

Among the internal corruption problems, the most serious one is corruption through false claims and forced apportionment. The amount is huge and many people are involved.

Due to the high expenses in the palace, there was no time to pay tribute to many things, so they would often purchase them from the private sector.Originally this was a good thing for merchants, but now most eunuchs are greedy. When they go out to make purchases, they lie about the number and blackmail merchants at will.

This kind of behavior caused complaints from private businessmen, and even some eunuchs were very ambitious. Seeing the high profits of Daming Trading Company, they even wanted to point their fingers at Daming Trading Company. They overtly and secretly hinted that Zheng Zhilong, Huang Dong and others would give them gifts and receive kickbacks.Wei Zhongxian wrote several examples for this purpose, such as Yang Zhizhong, the eunuch in charge of the Xixin Department.

The Fire Cherishing Department was mainly responsible for the fuel (firewood and charcoal) for the palace and the 24 yamen of the inner court. Yang Zhizhong relied on purchasing coal for the palace and the inner court. He received huge kickbacks and made a lot of profits. Just Dongchang torture statistics , found that he had as much as 50 yuan worth of money.

His method of corruption was also very simple, which was to lie about the number of people and exaggerate the number of people in the palace who needed fuel, and then asked the merchants to purchase according to this amount.

Wait until the merchants buy fuel charcoal.He withheld the money allocated by the palace for purchasing fuel and did not pay the merchants.

This way you get both money and goods.As a result, such accumulated abuses were formed. The same method was followed the next year and distributed to other merchants, causing the merchants to go bankrupt. The palace spent a lot of money on fuel. The annual purchase cost was nearly 10 taels, almost all of which was taken advantage of by Yang Zhizhong and his followers.

It's just that his shameless behavior also caused a large number of businesses to go bankrupt. These businessmen could only kneel outside the Salary Cherishing Department every day and pray for him to provide charitable funds, but they were all beaten back by Yang Zhizhong and others.

When Zhu Youxiao first saw this, he thought Wei Zhongxian was lying to him. He couldn't imagine that Yang Zhizhong could be so greedy.

It was normal for general purchases to be repurchased, and Zhu Youxiao was not surprised by this, but this Yang Zhizhong actually robbed for nothing without paying, which is really a sign of the royal family.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao became very angry, but this was just the tip of the iceberg, and there were many others who were corrupt and perverted the law.

For example, Du Chongzong, the eunuch in charge of the Shangshan Supervisor, indulged his eunuchs in concealing expenses, deducted fees from food merchants, and arbitrarily raised prices. An egg was quoted for one tael of silver, and a chicken was quoted for 20 taels of silver.

Another example is Chang Xuanbi, the eunuch in charge of the silver production bureau, who took advantage of his power to secretly embezzle gold and silver materials. When he was caught, as much as 5000 taels of gold were confiscated from his home. Such things are everywhere, which made Zhu Youxiao dumbfounded.

They really regard him as Daoguang. An egg is worth one tael of silver, and a chicken is worth 20 taels. How did they come up with this? Do they really think that they dare not kill them!
"It's too much to bully people! We must strictly interrogate them and make them spit out all the stolen money. Their accomplices will also be arrested. We will never tolerate them!"

Everyone had already thought of this outcome. Now after hearing the emperor's order, they immediately knelt down and said:

"The servant accepts the order."

But Wei Zhongxian asked another question after replying.

"Your Majesty, what should we do with the stolen money?"

"What should I do with the stolen money? Should I confiscate it all? Return all the money that was stolen from Mo Mo to the merchant, and the rest will be confiscated. In addition, you must keep an eye on it when you repay the money to the merchant. If anyone dares to use Mo Mo's money again, I won't have to look at it. If you live, you will be beaten to death with sticks!”

After Zhu Youxiao finished speaking, he couldn't help but think about it.He knew that there were many people in the palace who were greedy for money, and the money for money was definitely not stolen by just one person. He didn't know how many people were involved behind the scenes. I was afraid that Wei Zhongxian, Wang Boyu and others might have taken their kickbacks.

Thinking of this, he looked at the three people kneeling down and stared at them directly, making Wei Zhongxian and the other two people feel uneasy.

Although he knew that these three people were actually corrupt, Zhu Youxiao had no intention of punishing them.There is no other reason than that these three people are still useful to me. They are of great use.

"You guys, get up!"

Zhu Youxiao watched Wei Zhongxian and the others slowly stand up, and then continued to give instructions:
"I originally knew that corruption in the palace was very serious, but I never thought it would be so serious. There are so many people in the entire Forbidden City and even the Imperial City, and more than 300 million taels are spent every year. I don't know how many people use this amount of money. How many people have been corrupted by these people.

You three are the people I trust the most. Since you guys took the lead in this matter, don’t stop and continue to investigate this matter.Investigate what needs to be investigated, arrest what needs to be arrested, and this evil spirit must be reversed.

I don’t believe it anymore, I can’t reverse this unhealthy trend.In addition, I will give instructions to the cabinet to ask the officials and censors involved in the Sixth Section to also participate in it, so as to share some of the pressure with you. "

Upon hearing this, Wei Zhongxian and the other two people had different thoughts.

Wei Zhongxian now feels a bit stuck. He originally thought that the emperor abhorred corruption, so he wanted to regain the emperor's trust by rectifying corruption in the palace.

Although he knew that doing so would offend many eunuchs, he knew very well that the more isolated the ministers were, the more the emperor liked them.This is true whether it is civil servants, military generals or eunuchs.

That's why I did this, but now it seems that the anti-corruption campaign in the inner court can't stop the train.In the eyes of the emperor, the corrupt officials he and Wang Boyu had "deliberately" arrested were not enough. They actually wanted to introduce officials and censors, which was clearly an attempt to expand the matter.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel worried. As the initiator, the emperor was clearly putting himself on the fire by doing this.

And he has no way out, he can't retreat, he can't refuse, otherwise he will be doomed!
"Wei Zhongxian, do you think this is feasible?"

(End of this chapter)