My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 392 Another Autumn
Liu Rong has complicated feelings towards the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

It's just like Zhou Ren - he instinctively rejects spy agencies, but at the same time he has a special feeling for the spy intelligence agency he founded.
Liu Rong's instinct was also to reject it.

——Spy politics is a symbol of weakness and incompetence and the beginning of chaos and degeneration.

No matter in which era, secret agencies like Jinyiwei or Zhongtong will always cause an indelible and heavy blow to the country's political ecology.

No one will be willing to tell the truth, and maybe no one will even 'speak' anymore;
No one will criticize Liu Rong anymore, and no one will even comment on Liu Rong anymore.

Inside and outside the court, everyone focused on "being careful in words and deeds" and on not being caught by the central secret service agencies. They had no energy or mind to do anything.

It would be strange if such a central government and such a regime did not collapse.

But if you say that the Embroidered Uniform Guard should be completely abolished, Liu Rong is actually not very willing to do so.

First of all, everyone may be disgusted by secret police politics;

Only the supreme ruler will not be disgusted by it, but will place high hopes on it.

Because the secret political agency can greatly satisfy the supreme ruler's almost pathological desire for control.

Therefore, no matter what kind of personality or character one has, as long as one sits on the high position of the supreme ruler, it is difficult for him to have an instinctive and sincere resistance to the secret police politics.

——Liu Rong is of course no exception.

Secondly, there is often only a slight difference between spy politics and intelligence agencies.

A spy can be an intelligence officer, and an intelligence officer can be a spy;

The agent's mission can be to collect intelligence, assassinate, or persecute.

For example, the famous Jinyiwei of the Ming Dynasty was, in the beginning, just an intelligence agency that secretly investigated officials and collected their daily records.

It was not until later that more and more powers were assigned to it and many permissions were granted, that the Jinyiwei developed into a violent organization that scared all officials.

Therefore, how such institutions are used and what they are used for depends entirely on the supreme ruler and is not influenced by anyone else.

In other words: as long as the supreme ruler - as long as Liu Rong can resist the temptation of "mastering the daily records of officials" and give the Embroidered Uniform Guard correct guidance, there will be no big problems.

To put it bluntly, whether an intelligence agency/spy agency will become a Jinyiwei, a Zhongtong, a Juntong, or a regular department of national security depends on what Liu Rong wants to do.

Do you want to launch white terror in the Han Dynasty’s political arena?
Or do you want to set up a serious national security department to carry out counter-espionage, anti-infiltration and foreign intelligence gathering work?
Liu Rong obviously wanted the latter.

Well, since we want to set up a serious intelligence agency that does not affect the political ecological structure, the authority of this agency actually needs to be strictly restricted.

In principle, powers like "execute first and report later, imperial authorization" cannot be added to such departments.

If you want to gather intelligence, then gather intelligence honestly;
As for responding based on intelligence, the decision-making power should still be held by the central government.

This is like eyes and ears - you see and hear, and then upload what you see and hear to your brain, and let your brain make decisions;
Instead of letting your eyes kill and your ears catch people.

After clarifying these principles, when Liu Rong and Zhou Ren talked about the future plans of the Xiuyiwei, the general direction became much clearer.

"In the past, the Embroidered Uniform Guard hid behind the scenes and could not appear on the stage;"

"But from now on, the Embroidered Uniform Guards dare not hide any more—at least not completely."

"At least everyone in and outside the court should know that my Han family has a department called the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

"Even if the duties of this department are not known to the court, at least the ministers and officials should know that the Embroidered Uniform Guard is not a department that monitors the officials."

...

"As for the northern grasslands, the Baiyue in the south, the southwestern barbarians, and the Korean Peninsula, they can generally be classified as 'foreign affairs';"

"In addition, the princes of Guandong clan all need the Embroidered Uniform Guard to secretly monitor and keep track of their movements."

"In these respects, the responsibilities of the Embroidered Uniform Guard in the future will remain the same as in the past."

After saying this, Liu Rong stopped talking at the right time, giving Zhou Ren enough time to react and digest the words.

It was just as Liu Rong had expected - after hearing that the Embroidered Uniform Guard was about to undergo a formalized and normalized reform, Zhou Ren's face was filled with an expression of indescribable relief.

In fact, not only the people within the Embroidered Uniform Guard were worried about its future direction - even Zhou Ren, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, was equally worried.

As I said before: From top to bottom, the Embroidered Uniform Guard knew too many secrets and favors about the Han Dynasty's central government, the royal family in Guandong, and even the successive Han emperors.

Any spy from the Embroidered Uniform Guard can use the many secrets stored in his brain as the source of content for a complete unofficial history.

In most cases, such departments would become disposable items that feudal emperors would discard like worn-out shoes.

Therefore, in the past few years, especially after the Wu-Chu rebellion was quelled, the Embroidered Uniform Guard thought that they were about to be "put away after the birds are killed" and "the dog is cooked after the rabbit is dead", and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, from the commander Zhou Ren down, was in a panic.

But when Liu Rong clearly proposed to transform the Xiuyiwei into a formal intelligence department, or even a national security department, Zhou Ren finally felt completely at ease.

This is like a police spy mixed in the underworld, who finally gets the official position he has always dreamed of, but never dared to think of in his dreams - he has finally made it to the shore, how can he not be filled with tears?
The biggest stone in his heart fell to the ground, and it took Zhou Ren a long time to barely adjust his mood.

Then, from the perspective of the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he also gave his own opinions and views on the reform of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

"In the past few years, the Embroidered Uniform Guard has exposed quite a few problems."

"The most serious one is that in the past few years, the Embroidered Uniform Guard has been 'investigating for the sake of investigating' - when they couldn't find any other useful information, they resorted to all means to frame the clan members and princes."

"Although there have been few cases of fabricating stories or making up stories out of nothing, there have been many cases of people believing rumors, exaggerating, and making false claims."

"The reason is that the Embroidered Uniform Guard is worried that without Wu Chu, the Embroidered Uniform Guard will no longer have a need to exist, so they do everything they can to prove that they are 'useful'."

As he said this, Zhou Ren couldn't help but let out a long sigh, shook his head and smiled bitterly with a slightly bleak expression.

"In the future, such situations must certainly be avoided."

"But it's too much, and I'm afraid that Your Majesty cannot let the Embroidered Uniform Guard be completely at ease." "--If the Embroidered Uniform Guard is safe and will not be abolished no matter what, then the Embroidered Uniform Guard will probably be filled with laziness."

"Therefore, the Embroidered Uniform Guard should neither have an excessive sense of urgency, thinking that 'if we don't achieve anything, we will perish', nor should they have no sense of urgency at all."

"I'm afraid Your Majesty needs to carefully consider the degree of this..."

Zhou Ren's words hit the nail on the head for Liu Rong's worries.

——Unlike any administrative department composed of officials in the court, the Xiuyiwei intelligence department is really too special.

The special features here are not limited to responsibilities, work directions, and more complex personnel composition;
It also includes what Zhou Ren said: a sense of urgency.

As an intelligence agency, especially one that cannot be put on the table, the personnel turnover of the Xiuyiwei in the past few years obviously cannot guarantee its quality.

A truly capable person, whether in terms of military or literary strategy or professional intelligence gathering ability, could not be an outstanding talent that the Embroidered Uniform Guard could easily obtain.

To put it bluntly: unless there is some problem with one's body, such as a bad political background, or a bad resume, or a criminal record, who would be willing to give up other official jobs and go to the Embroidered Uniform Guard to be a spy or informant?
The mixed composition of its personnel not only gives the Xiuyiwei many unexpected intelligence channels, but also means that its talent team building also has some strange problems that do not exist in ordinary departments or are unlikely to appear.

Just like what Zhou Ren said just now: if you make them uneasy, they will mess around to prove that they are "useful";
But if they are allowed to feel too at ease, they will become lazy and do nothing, symbolically punching in and out at get off work, and continuing to work without putting in any effort.

The four words "rule by doing nothing" appearing in the court were enough to make Liu Rong feel sick.

If there were another intelligence department, or national security department, that followed the principle of "ruling by doing nothing", Liu Rong would be so angry that he would vomit blood.

So this problem must be solved.

After understanding the concerns of the Xiuyiwei about 'layoffs', we must also give them a sense of urgency as soon as possible, such as performance evaluation, to fully mobilize their enthusiasm.

Of course, compared with the so-called sense of urgency of a punishment nature, Liu Rong is more inclined to encouragement of a reward nature.

For example: After verification of intelligence found by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, rewards including but not limited to money will be given to the individuals and departments that collected the intelligence;

In this way, even for the sake of money, the Xiuyiwei would work seriously instead of just sitting there doing nothing while having a stable job.

It’s just that Liu Rong still needs to think about this matter.

Again, compared to other judicial and administrative agencies, intelligence departments like the Embroidered Uniform Guard are really too special.

They can easily go to extremes.

Either they mess around and arrange things among the clan members and princes, or they lie down completely and do nothing;

In their eyes, there seems to never be the option of "compromise".

Therefore, any measures taken for such a special department that is extreme and can easily shift from one extreme to another opposite extreme need to be taken with extreme caution.

——Using money as an incentive to encourage the Embroidered Uniform Guard to work harder is theoretically feasible;
However, how to prevent them from going to extremes again and having outrageous events such as "the Embroidered Uniform Guard arranged a feast for the officials in the court for rewards" still requires careful consideration and repeated deliberation.

In other words, this matter cannot be rushed.

But no matter what, the heavy burden of "I might be laid off one day" that had been weighing on the hearts of the Xiuyiwei over the past few years has finally fallen to the ground.

In Liu Rong's eyes, the Xiuyi Guard actually had a more fatal problem that needed to be solved urgently.

"Over the past few years, the money used by the Embroidered Uniform Guards to gather intelligence and bribe relatives and princes did not seem to come directly from the Shaofu treasury?"

When Liu Rong asked about this, Zhou Ren immediately understood: Liu Rong was going to take action against the chaotic financial system of the Xiuyiwei, or the "fund approval system".

Therefore, Zhou Ren did not rush to answer, but lowered his head and thought for a long time.

After choosing his words and organizing his language, Zhou Ren finally explained the general operating mode of the Xiuyiwei over the past few years.

"As your majesty said, the Embroidered Uniform Guards sent out spies, and whether it was for the spies' food, clothing, shelter, transportation, or bribery and making friends, it would cost a lot of money."

“It’s a pretty hefty expense.”

"——Take the distance before the Wu-Chu Seven Kingdoms Rebellion broke out;"

"At that time, there was a branch of the Embroidered Uniform Guard in Guangling, the capital of Wu. It had 150 people under its command and over a thousand followers."

"In order to maintain more than a thousand people to collect intelligence in Guangling City and investigate the Wu Palace, the late Emperor Xiaojing had to reward me with no less than 500 gold every year."

"And these five hundred gold are only what Guangling City needs."

"The rest - such as Handan, the capital of Zhao, Linzi, the capital of Qi, Jiyi, the capital of Yan, Pengcheng, the capital of Chu, etc., although the expenses are less, they are not much less..."

After hearing Zhou Ren's words, Liu Rong finally understood how the Xiuyiwei had obtained and distributed its funds in the past.

——The emperor directly made up a pretext to reward the commander Zhou Ren;

This reward will then be used as project funds and distributed to specific departments within the Xiuyiwei or to specific individuals.

In this way, the project funds are available, and people inside and outside the court will not be aware of the existence of the Embroidered Uniform Guard because of an unknown and unclear extra expenditure.

As for the disadvantages of doing so, that is exactly why Liu Rong just said that the Embroidered Uniform Guard "can no longer completely hide behind the scenes" in the future.

——The emperor’s reward, especially without any reason, is okay once or twice, but if it happens too often, who knows what kind of trouble may arise!
For example, Zhou Ren, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, was rewarded with thousands of gold coins by the late emperor every year. Not to mention the unofficial histories of later generations - even now, inside and outside the court, people say that Zhou Ren, the chief physician, was an old lover and good friend of the late Emperor Xiaojing.

But Liu Rong had no way to refute it!
After all, the emperor of the Liu family has never had a clean reputation in this regard.

Therefore, in order to avoid being slandered in the future and being described in unofficial history as the emperor who "fought with the imperial physician with bayonets", Liu Rong had to allow the Embroidered Uniform Guard to "surface" to a certain extent.

Because only in this way can the Embroidered Uniform Guard obtain a special grant through normal channels, rather than the so-called reward given by the emperor to the commander personally and then secretly used by the commander for the operation of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Besides: Grace comes from above!

The Embroidered Uniform Guard is a key department, and its funding clearly comes from the emperor, but nominally it is all paid out of the commander's own pocket. What is going on?
(End of this chapter)