Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 188 Marriage
Luo Yangxing certainly wouldn't take advantage of others and cheat them, then act like a benefactor. This would only push those who were originally close to him away.

"The Emperor has granted promotions to General Hai, Captain Lu, Small Banner Lu, Small Banner Shen, and Captain Yin. This is the promotion order issued by the Commanding Generals." Luo Yangxing pulled out the promotion order from his chest and asked, "Are they all in the government office?"

"Manager Luo is a step late." Hai Zhentao shook his head and said, "I haven't assigned them any tasks recently, so they all went their separate ways after the roll call." The rules of the East Office are still very strict. Even on holidays, you cannot run around and can only move around within the capital. You have to roll in every morning.

"Then I'll have to ask you to pass it on." Luo Yangxing handed the promotion order to Hai Zhentao. "The Experience Department has already compiled the list. You can have them make new uniforms and badges."

"Okay. Thank you, Mr. Luo." Hai Zhentao accepted the promotion order. Then he asked quietly, "What's the situation at the Northern Pacification Office? Tian Ergeng and Xu Xianchun have both been arrested, and the current person in charge, Sun Yunhe, seems to be only a centurion?" Hai Zhentao felt he had a chance to advance further. If he could take this step, he would be willing to spend any amount of money.

"I don't know. I really don't know the specific situation." Luo Yangxing shook his head. "But I can tell you a guess."

"I'd like to hear the details." Hai Zhentao asked eagerly.

"Let's go somewhere else." Luo Yangxing said solemnly, "I'm not here just for the promotion, I have something important to share with you."

"Okay." Hai Zhentao didn't hesitate and immediately stood up and took Luo Yangxing to a frequently used quiet room.

After the charcoal fire and tea were served, Hai Zhentao said again: "Please continue, Mr. Luo."

"It's highly likely that Tian Ergeng is hooking up with a certain eunuch in the palace." Luo Yangxing picked up his teacup, took a sip, and then said, "Father speculates that this person is most likely Wei Xichang."

Hearing this, Hai Zhentao felt a chill, but he still held onto a glimmer of hope, unwilling to admit defeat. "Why?"

Lu Wenzhao didn't dare tell him the whole story, which resulted in incomplete information in Hai Zhentao's hands. In his mind, Tian Ergeng was arrested because he messed up the task assigned to him by the palace and caused the criminal to commit suicide.

"Because Xu Xianchun wasn't summoned to the Northern Pacification Office until the day of the trial. Before that, Xu Xianchun had been imprisoned in his own home by Tian Ergeng." Luo Yangxing paused and continued:
"Furthermore, Tian Ergeng was arrested in the emperor's study by armed guards, accused of accepting bribes totaling two hundred taels from Xu Xianchun. My father was present at the scene, and Tian Ergeng admitted this himself. Xu Xianchun accused Tian Ergeng in court, and given Tian Ergeng's character, how could he allow him to rise to power? Xu Xianchun was simply a scapegoat, and he will probably never be released from prison."

"Could it be that Zhao Nanxing was given land by the palace?" Hai Zhentao stopped talking midway. He suddenly realized: the task assigned by the palace was to kill people!
Hai Zhentao's surprise surprised Luo Yangxing greatly. Because in the opinion of Luo's father and son, the palace had bypassed the Commandery and issued an order directly to the East Office, so Hai Zhentao should know the real cause of Zhao Nanxing's death.

Luo Yangxing wondered: Could it be that the palace had bypassed even Hai Zhentao and issued the order directly to the executor? If that was the case, there was something that needed to be adjusted slightly.

In order to verify this idea, Luo Yangxing picked and chose, and put the facts that could be said in front of Hai Zhentao: "Things are just as you think. Someone from the palace said that Zhao Nanxing wanted to be executed secretly, so the Commandery temporarily ordered the East Office to hand him over to the North Pacification Office." He omitted the part about making a false confession and reversed the order of events.

"Thank you so much, Master Guard, for saving me. If I had this job, I wouldn't have the connections in the palace to rely on." Hai Zhentao was horrified. "Could you please ask Mr. Luo to thank you for me when he gets back? I'll come to thank you again another day."

"Mr. Hai, you are too polite. We are all one family." At this point, Luo Yangxing got all the information he wanted.

Luo Yangxing added, "In any case, the matter is over. Tian Ergeng will most likely be reinstated, with a demotion and salary reduction at most. What I'm about to say next is more important."

"Can't it see the light?" Hai Zhentao subconsciously glanced at the closed door.

"Of course, this is a legitimate imperial order. But the situation is too serious and is still in the making, so it cannot be made public for the time being." Luo Yangxing replied.

"Please go ahead." Hai Zhentao nodded.

"The emperor has ordered my father to make drastic cuts and clear out the Beijing Jinyiwei." Luo Yangxing took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly.

"Cut off redundancies, clear out?" Hai Zhentao's brows furrowed. "How many cuts, how many clear outs?"

Hearing Hai Zhentao ask the same question he had asked before, Luo Yangxing couldn't help but smile, but he quickly restrained his smile. "We'll cut down as many as we have," Luo Yangxing said seriously.

Hai Zhentao was horrified and immediately asked, "What is the attitude of the Chief Guard?"

"Resolutely carry it out," Luo Yangxing replied. "The Emperor is a valiant ruler. His previous actions, such as rebuilding the Western Depot and pacifying the Eastern Depot, were resolute and decisive. Today, he arranged for all officials in the capital to observe the imperial caning at the Meridian Gate, clearly demonstrating his resolve to eradicate current ills. We can no longer afford to hesitate."

"Okay." Hai Zhentao nodded solemnly, and then asked, "What does the Chief Guard want me to do?"

"Southern Pacification Office." Luo Yangxing said.

"Sir, are you going to use a knife on Nan Si?" Hai Zhentao suddenly felt a little dry in the mouth, so he raised his teacup and took a sip.

"The Southern Division must be moved." Luo Yangxing affirmed: "Except for the main office, the Southern Division has the most redundant staff in the entire capital. There are four commanders who receive salaries but have no official positions. We have to move." After saying this, Luo Yangxing was silent and sorted out his thoughts before saying:

"Furthermore, my father has decided to use his authority as the Supervisor of the Imperial Guards within the Southern Pacification Division to legitimately launch an investigation into officers at all levels of the Five Institutes in Beijing for allegedly drawing empty salaries. He'll use this as an excuse to get rid of some of the unemployed. Then, at the same time, he'll announce layoffs and clear out positions, ordering the officers on the roster to compete for the positions. This way, with new, real vacancies available, there'll be less resistance."

"Competition for the job?" Hai Zhentao asked doubtfully.

"That's what the Emperor said. He meant to select the best from among the military and political officials," Luo Yangxing replied. "The Emperor is certainly wise. But after the elimination of the unpaid salaries, what will happen to the incomes of officers at all levels? Those with salaries are looking for a pay raise, isn't that just to increase their income? If there were no unpaid salaries to be collected, who would be willing to do this job?" Hai Zhentao asked. "To be frank, with this little money, you can't even afford a tea party at Huanghuafang."

The Dongsifang was a confidential, criminal-investigating office. It maintained no military presence and no idle salaries. Its primary sources of income were protection fees collected from businesses and shops, as well as extortion from those implicated and their families. Occasionally, to generate revenue, they would fabricate charges and kidnap wealthy but powerless individuals, extorting a substantial but not painful fee. As the saying goes, if you don't kill the chicken, you'll have eggs every day.

"Don't worry, this is also continuous." Luo Yangxing exclaimed: "The emperor is right. He said to cut redundancies but not salaries. This way, the salaries of the officers who remain should increase by about eight times."

"Eight times? Are there so many redundant staff?" Hai Zhentao asked in surprise.

Hai Zhentao was a 4th-rank deputy commander, and his annual salary from the imperial court was approximately 30 to 40 taels of silver in the form of rice. Eightfold, that's 200 to 300 taels, a considerable sum in an era when workers generally earned only 10 to 12 taels a year.

"Yes, after checking the register, I found that there are only 142 vacancies for officers above the rank of centurion in the Beijing Jinyiwei, and this is after taking into account the number of centurions in various places." Luo Yangxing is in charge of the experience department that manages the core documents of the Jinyiwei, and it can be said that he knows the personnel and financial situation of the Beijing Jinyiwei better than Luo Sigong.

"But there were 1,063 officers on the Jinyiwei payroll, many of them fifth-rank officers and above. After removing these 921, the salaries of the remaining officers suddenly increased. Furthermore, the officers who competed for the positions never received any unpaid salaries; they only knew that their salaries were increased eightfold." Luo Yangxing spoke eloquently, "Now that salaries have increased, if anyone tries to take advantage of others, their hands and heads will be chopped off. This is also what the emperor said."

"So it's not just about temporarily utilizing the power of the Southern Division, but also about completely rectifying the Southern Division?" Hai Zhentao's thinking was very active.

"That's what Father meant," Luo Yangxing nodded. "If the Internal Supervisor doesn't follow up, even if they receive extra money, the practice of stealing salaries without working will inevitably occur again. Rather than letting things escalate to an irreversible point, leading to the Emperor ordering the Western Depot to intervene and crack down on the Imperial Guard, it's better to let the Southern Pacification Office return to its proper function. It's better to chop off your own hands than have your head chopped off. Where are those twenty-eight lives taken from the old Eastern Depot?"

"Why did the Chief Guard ask me, rather than Sun Tongzhi, to take the lead in rectifying the Southern Division?" Hai Zhentao asked.

Luo Sigong was neither stingy nor greedy, and was quite resourceful. Before Tian Ergeng's rebellion, the chief officials of the four yamen, including the East and West Offices, the North and South Pacification Offices, all followed Luo Sigong's lead. Therefore, Hai Zhentao believed that Luo Sigong and Sun Guangxian had a good relationship.

"The Southern Pacification Office has been corrupted for a long time and is in a state of disrepair. As the chief officer, Sun Tongzhi cannot escape blame. Father believes that it should be completely and thoroughly rectified." Although it is "father's opinion," this is actually Luo Yangxing's own opinion. "Sun Tongzhi is old, so he should return home to retire with dignity."

After that, Luo Yangxing asked again: "Is Hai Qianshi interested in taking it a step further?"

Hai Zhentao wanted to climb the ladder, but the Southern Pacification Office, a place that was always a poor government office no matter how it was changed, was not a good place to be. He couldn't blackmail his colleagues, could he?

Even though Luo Sigong eventually jumped from the Southern Pacification Office to the Commandery Office and became the head of the Beijing Embroidered Uniform Guard, this was not a fixed promotion path.

The Jinyiwei chief had one and only one criterion for promotion and retention: continued favor with the emperor. Hai Zhentao had no connection to the emperor, nor any extraordinary achievements, and he never believed he could rise to such a high position. So, deep down, he didn't want to give up the lucrative Dongsifang for the less lucrative Nanzhenfusi. But without even a second thought or hesitation, he said, "I was recommended by the chief guard. I'll go wherever the chief guard wants me to go."

"Good!" Luo Yangxing praised.

Unbeknownst to Hai Zhentao, his words had hit a nerve with the Luo family. Luo Yangxing was too young. With Tian Ergeng and Luo Sigong falling out and Tian Ergeng's ascent to the position of High Eunuch, the Luo family desperately needed a close relative who could succeed Luo Sigong as head of the imperial guards and push him up the ladder. Their first choice was Hai Zhentao, a man who was grateful and, according to Luo Sigong, had connections with the palace.

Although the speculation that Hai Zhentao had contact with the palace had been disproven, it now seemed that Hai Zhentao's loyalty was beyond doubt. Therefore, Luo Yangxing decided to pull out the last card they had agreed upon to win over Hai Zhentao: marriage.

"Hai Chenshi, I suddenly remembered something," Luo Yangxing said. "Or rather, a suggestion."

"Mr. Luo, please feel free to tell me your experience." Hai Zhentao waved his hand.

"Captain Lu is your son-in-law?" In order to prevent Hai Zhentao from interrupting him, Luo Yangxing asked the question first to frame the goal.

"Yes, Lu Wenzhao is my son-in-law." Hai Zhentao didn't understand, but nodded in agreement.

"Captain Lu hasn't taken a concubine yet, right?" When Luo Yangxing asked this, Hai Zhentao knew what he was going to do.

"Yes. Lu Wenzhao has not taken a concubine yet." Hai Zhentao replied.

"I happen to have a cousin who is still unmarried, and it's almost time for her to be betrothed. Instead of betrothing her to her in-laws, it's better to marry her to a young talent like Lu Qianhu. The Luo and Hai families can then become a family, what do you think?" Luo Sigong originally wanted to marry his niece to Hai Bokang, but at the same time, Luo Sigong did not say anything final, and he gave Luo Yangxing room to make his own judgment.

"Good thing!" Hai Zhentao replied immediately.

A son-in-law isn't a son-in-law, so if he wants to take a concubine, Hai Zhentao can't stop him, nor will he, as that would ruin the Hai family's reputation. Being able to establish a bridge marriage with the Luo family through this relationship would be a good thing. As for why he couldn't give his son a concubine, but rather a son-in-law, Hai Zhentao could convince himself. After all, his son not only had a concubine, but also a concubine.

"Mr. Hai, we are relatives now." Luo Yangxing said with a smile and bowed.

"I'll definitely bring my son-in-law to visit you someday." Hai Zhentao also bowed in return. In the blink of an eye, the marriage was decided as a matter of course, without even asking Lu Wenzhao's opinion.

"We're family, so we shouldn't talk behind each other's backs." Luo Yangxing said slowly, "The Emperor issued a death order to my father to cut redundancies and clear out all the staff. And now, even before I've done anything, the Emperor has already promoted me four levels. If you can make outstanding contributions in the Southern Pacification Office, the Emperor will definitely notice you."

(End of this chapter)