I am a temporary worker in Jinyiwei, how did I become a powerful official?

Chapter 59: The Generous Emperor Jiajing, the Small-minded Huang Jin

Huang Jin said angrily: "Yes! It's the bastard who wrote "Journey to the West: The Evil's Path"!"

Huang Jin explained why he, a deputy prime minister, had a grudge against a 51-year-old imperial student who had failed the imperial examinations for a long time.

Emperor Jiajing lived in the deep palace of Xiyuan for a long time and was bored on weekdays. At night, he liked to read strange novels to a group of eunuchs in the green gauze curtains of the Yongshou Palace.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard even had a special officer who purchased strange stories from the public for Emperor Jiajing.

In the past two years, "Journey to the West" has become popular in the Ming Dynasty. Naturally, it was included in the list of books by the imperial edict and was sent to the Yongshou Palace.

One night, after reading the fifth chapter about the Monkey King causing havoc in Heaven to the eunuchs, Emperor Jiajing shouted three times: "Mystical book! Mystical book! Mystical book!"

"Good! Good! Good!"

Huang Jin, who was standing by at the time, thought: The author of this book can make the emperor happy, so he is a talent. I don't know the author's background, I have to praise him when I have the chance.

Ten days later, Emperor Jiajing read the passage about Sun Wukong's battle of magic in Chechi State at night. He was furious: "Evil book! Evil book! Evil book! How dare you mock me!"

King Chechi was superstitious about Taoism and devoted himself to seeking immortality. He also favored the immortals Yangli, Huli and Luli. The incarnations of the three demons were all Taoists.

Anyone with a little common sense can see that this is a mockery of the current emperor's obsession with Taoism!
This is similar to Shi Naian's insinuation in "The Water Margin". The three fools of Shaohua Mountain, Zhu Wu, Chen Da, and Yang Chun, are almost the names of Zhu Yuanzhang, Xu Da, and Chang Yuchun.

From ancient times to the present, it is common for writers to include personal opinions in their articles and to implicitly satirize the current situation. There is no way around it, writers have that stinky habit of being sour.

The Jiajing Emperor was so enraged by the contents of the book that he threw the bronze chime in the green gauze curtain to the ground and let out a dragon roar: "You are deceiving the heavens!"

Huang Jin knelt down immediately and said, "Your Majesty, please calm down. I will ask Chen Hong from the East Factory to capture the author of this evil book and skin him alive."

In his rage, Emperor Jiajing showed the magnanimity that an emperor should have.

Emperor Jiajing said, "Why are you arguing? If the emperor were to argue with a poor scholar who wrote a book about strange things, wouldn't I be petty?"

Emperor Jiajing did not bother with Wu Cheng'en, but Huang Jin kept the name Wu Cheng'en in his heart.

He instructed Lu Bing of the Imperial Guard to find out the details of Wu Cheng'en. It turned out that he was an old scholar who had failed in the imperial examinations for a long time and was admitted as a student of the Nanjing Imperial College when he was nearly 50 years old.

Huang Jin is kindhearted, but sometimes a little childish and petty. He plans to teach the poor scholar Wu Chengen a lesson on behalf of Emperor Jiajing.

But the "lesson" that Huang Jin, the little Maitreya in the palace, was planning was definitely not to hurt anyone's life or ruin anyone's future.

Huang Jin just wanted to play a childish prank on Wu Cheng'en.

But Wu Chengen was in Nanjing Imperial College. In Huang Jin's opinion, Nanjing Imperial College was an important place of learning in the Ming Dynasty. It was inappropriate to play a prank there. So he gave up.

Finally, this year Wu Cheng'en was selected as a tribute student and went to Beijing to participate in the Ministry of Personnel's selection.

Huang Jin was secretly delighted when he got the news: Oh, now that Wu Cheng'en has come to the capital, I can finally play a good trick on him and help the emperor vent his anger.

Huang Jin heard that Wu Cheng'en had raised a monkey named "Sun Wukong" for more than ten years and treated the monkey like a son.

So Huang Jin asked Chang Qingyun to find Lin Shisan and steal Wu Chengen's monkey to make him suffer for a few days.

Of course, Huang Jinxin is kind-hearted enough that he would not go too far even if he wanted to play a prank on someone.

He planned to return the monkey to Wu Cheng'en after a dozen days.

Huang Jin finished telling everything. Lin Shisan bowed and said, "I understand."

Huang Jin told him, "It would be best if you could steal the monkey before the first day of the Lunar New Year. Return it to him after the Lantern Festival."

"He made the emperor unhappy for a while. I want to make sure he has a bad New Year. Isn't that too much?"

"Amitabha, the monkey is also a living being. You must take good care of it after stealing it, and don't harm its life." Lin Shisan sighed: "Eunuch Huang, you really have a kind heart like a bodhisattva."

Huang Jin added: "I heard that although this fellow is an old scholar who has failed the imperial examination for a long time, he is very rich."

"Oh, relying on the Jiangnan bookstores to print a large number of his evil books, this guy must have earned tens of thousands of taels of silver."

"After you catch the monkey, you can write him a letter and extort three thousand taels of silver from him. The pillars of the west hall of Yongshou Palace should be painted red. This silver is his tribute to the emperor."

"I'm going to make him suffer for more than ten days, and he'll have to bleed three thousand taels of blood!"

What Huang Jin said was true, Wu Cheng'en was indeed very rich.

Books printed in the Ming Dynasty were divided into two types: official prints and private prints.

Fangke is a bookstore that prints and publishes books. If the book is written by a contemporary author, the author will be given a generous commission based on the sales.

Moreover, people in the Ming Dynasty were quite aware of copyright protection, and they would print words like "No Reproduction" and "Reproduction beyond a certain distance will be punished" on the back of the book cover.

This is not just talk. All the big bookstores in Jiangnan employ lawyers and legal experts. If they find any copying, they will definitely sue the authorities.

Although the Great Ming Code and the Great Edict did not contain any punishment for reprinting, officials were also scholars, and scholars would subconsciously favor scholars.

Usually, when receiving a complaint about reprinting, officials would fine the reprinter until he was bankrupt, pocketing part of the fine and returning the rest to the bookstore or author.

Therefore, Wu Cheng'en became a real rich man relying on the two major sources of income, namely, the bookshop's remuneration and the fine for reprinting.

Although he failed in the imperial examinations and never became an official, he was still very wealthy.

Closer to home.

Chang Qingyun laughed and said, "Frame-up, kidnapping, and beating are the specialties of the Jinyiwei. In the past, they kidnapped people, but this time they kidnapped monkeys. Interesting."

Lin Shisan bowed and said, "The captain is right." He thought to himself, I always feel that I am not cruel or evil.

Compared to Eunuch Huang, I am still a ruthless person. He is unwilling to even kidnap or extort people. He only wants less than one tenth of Wu Chengen's wealth.

If it were my insect-fighting apprentice Luo Longwen, he would definitely swallow up all of Wu Chengen's wealth and make him disappear from the world.

Huang Jin said again: "I don't like to owe favors to others. Lin Shisan, 10% of the money will be yours after you get it."

Lin Shisan said, "Thank you, Eunuch Huang."

He had already figured it out in his mind: If I want to save my life, I have to climb up. If I want to climb up, I have to seize every opportunity to get close to big shots. Working for the Deputy Prime Minister is a godsend opportunity to get close.

After the plot was accomplished, I took the three hundred taels of bribes from the kidnapping. I picked out a piece of ink from the one Luo Longwen had given me and gave it to Eunuch Huang. I said I bought it with the three hundred taels of bribes and gave it to Eunuch Huang as a gift to use when he reviewed official documents in the Imperial Household Department.

Eunuch Huang is such a kind-hearted person, shouldn’t he be very happy? Remember my name, Lin Shisan?
If Eunuch Huang could say a few good words for me in front of the chief and junior managers, it would be worth more than ten years of hard work.

Although Lin Shisan is only twenty-one after the Chinese New Year, he has become a little fox in the officialdom with his natural intelligence.

Huang Jin stood up and said, "Forget it. I'm sorry for delaying your New Year's celebration. Lin Shisan, and that fat guy, you two should go home and celebrate the festival first."

Lin Shisan and Sun Yue walked out of Chang Mansion.

Sun Yue smiled and said, "Hey, Master, this is a really good job. It only involves a small tribute student. It's not like the case of Xun Ye Wu Long, which involved so many big shots and risked losing their heads."

Lin Shisan said, "Yes. If we do this job well, we can also curry favor with Eunuch Huang. Let's go home and recuperate. Tomorrow morning, we will go and find out where Wu Chengen lives and prepare to take action."

(End of this chapter)