Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 197: Refining Silver
Cui Wensheng ordered Zhang Chongzhao to take over the defense of Xuanwu Gate, Xihua Gate, and Dong'an Gate, leaving Wumen Gate alone. This was not because he thought Wumen was unimportant, but because Cui Wensheng planned to lead his personal guards to guard it himself.

When Cui Wensheng saw Han Benyong, he understood that the transfer of the seal of the Imperial Stables was over.

"Ancestor Han." Cui Wensheng walked forward and knelt down to kowtow.

Cui Wensheng and Li Jian were of the same generation, both in terms of age and time of entering the palace. But rules were rules, and after Han Benyong took over the Imperial Stables, the only person in the entire inner court who could even slightly outdo him was Wang An.

"Yeah." Han Benyong also disliked Cui Wensheng. "Give me the token. Take the people from the East Factory back."

Cui Wensheng wanted to compliment him a few more times, but Han Benyong cut the conversation off.

Cui Wensheng took out the golden order and handed it to Han Benyong.

This special golden order had a very narrow scope of use, being used only to guard the four gates of the Forbidden City. If used to guard any of the gates of the Imperial City, the "Twenty Guards of the Imperial Guard" would immediately stop them. This would then trigger a chain reaction, from the Jinyiwei to the Five Military Commandery and even the military government, until the nobles and senior civil officials confirmed the emperor's safety.

The strength of this anti-rebellion mechanism lies in its independent control over each other. Its primary purpose isn't to protect the emperor, but to ensure that anyone who could kill him can't become emperor. This minimizes the possibility of a palace coup, leaving only the possibility of a murderous act of vengeance. Emperor Yingzong's restoration wasn't due to a flaw in this mechanism, but rather to the extreme circumstances of Emperor Jing's critical illness and childlessness.

After Cui Wensheng and his men left, Han Benyong said to the leading officer in charge of guarding the Meridian Gate, "You stay here and I'll go in and return the token to His Majesty."

"Yes, sir." The officer clasped his fists and accepted the order.

------

Arriving at the Southern Study, Han Benyong discovered that Wang An was the only one in the room. So he stepped forward, bowed, and said, "Meetings, Elder Wang."

"Oh, Han Yuma is here." Wang An raised his head and saw that it was Han Benyong. He immediately stood up to return the greeting.

During this back-and-forth, the two men reached a tacit understanding. Han Benyong considered Wang An a peer of Li Jian's generation and his own elder, addressing him as "Grand Ancestor Wang." However, since their positions were equal, Han Benyong did not kneel. Meanwhile, Wang An did not deliberately act like a superior; he still returned the greeting, but his bow was slightly shallower than Han Benyong's.

"Is everything going well?" Wang An asked kindly.

"It went smoothly. Yang Songquan was very cooperative." Han Benyong replied.

"He stayed?" Wang An asked again.

"He said he wanted to fulfill his filial duty to the Shang ancestors, and he immediately withdrew with the older generation." Han Benyong added: "He voluntarily withdrew before I announced the decree of 'Even if I associate with those who are not partisans, I will not quarrel with them.'"

"It seems that Old Ancestor Shang still has filial sons." Wang An suddenly began to admire Yang Songquan.

The matter involved one's own concerns and one had to be cautious. The decrees of "keeping Yang Songquan" and "not punishing those who were not part of the party" were specifically issued in order to minimize the risk of resistance from the Imperial Horse Supervisor.

"I like him, too." Han Benyong nodded, then asked, "Where is the Lord?"

"Your Majesty has taken Lady Mi to the main hall," Wang An replied.

"So early?" Han Benyong looked at the clock and was surprised to find that it was not yet 5 p.m.

"That's called staying calm in the face of adversity." Wang An's face showed a subtle expression. "Not only Mi Cairen, the master also sent people to Chuxiu Palace to call the sisters here as well."

"Good job." Han Benyong was inexplicably relieved. The emperor's unusual behavior after his recovery had made him think he was a completely different person. Abstaining from sex and alcohol, was he still the crown prince?
"Do you have any urgent matter to discuss with the master? If not, it's better not to disturb his meditation." Wang An said.

"Two things, but no rush." ​​Han Benyong took out the token. "The first is to return the token to the master."

"It's the first drawer under the imperial desk. It's unlocked, so just open it and put it in. Just let me know tomorrow." Wang An asked, "What about the other one?"

"Yang Songquan wants the Emperor to order the execution of his two junior apprentices." Han Benyong briefly repeated Yang Songquan's words, then offered his own assessment. "After being sent abroad, they acted recklessly and without restraint, ultimately bringing discredit upon the late Emperor and ruining the reputation of our old godfather. I think this request is quite reasonable."

Wang An was silent for a moment, then decided to take this as a lesson and never send any of his godsons outside of Beijing. "What does Elder Shang have to say?"

"I haven't asked, so I don't know." Han Benyong shook his head.

"Then let's not disturb the master's meditation today over such a trivial matter. We'll ask tomorrow. Anyway, these bastards still have some filth to spill, so they won't die anytime soon." Wang An thought for a moment and continued, "I'll have someone come and tell you whether it succeeds or not. You probably have a lot of things to attend to lately, so there's no need for you to come here in person."

"Okay, I'll do as you say." Han Benyong bowed and said goodbye: "Grandpa Wang, I'm going back first."

"Please stop by Ciqing Palace and tell Wei Chao to withdraw the guards assigned to the two princes," Wang An said. "Send the soldiers from the Western Factory back."

"It's not a problem, it's just on the way." Han Benyong replied.

------

The next day, in the main hall of the Inner East Factory.

"Oh! Great Ancestor, you're here!" Cui Zhongqing greeted Wei Chao eagerly upon seeing him. His face, seemingly neither handsome nor pretty, but not particularly ugly, was sculpted into a pale yellow chrysanthemum. "Your servant greets the Great Ancestor," Cui Zhongqing said, reaching Wei Chao and kowtowed rapidly.

"Get up." Wei Chao looked around but didn't see Cui Wensheng, so he asked, "Where is Director Cui?" "Godfather went to the Ministry of Justice to try those dishonest slaves. I'll take you there right away." Cui Zhongqing got up from the ground and answered.

"Yeah." Wei Chao nodded, then asked, "Have they all been caught? Did anyone escape?"

"To answer your question, my ancestor. Those peasant centurions are quite capable." Cui Zhongqing looked down upon these centurions of humble origins, even though he himself was a poor man sold into the palace by his parents.

Cui Zhongqing led the way, saying, "Of course, the eunuchs in charge of the palace seals were all captured. We went to the government offices and caught them all. We brought them all back before lunch. Those who were not in the imperial city but still in Beijing were also captured. Although it took a little longer, we finally caught them all. The only trouble was with a few mining supervisors who returned from previous years."

"Just because they haven't been caught all yet?" Wei Chao interrupted.

"To answer your great ancestor's question, the people are not all here. But they should have just returned to their hometown. My godfather has sent people out of Beijing to catch them. They will be brought to justice in a few days!" Cui Zhongqing said confidently.

"I hope so."

Soon, the two arrived at the East Factory's Judicial Office. Wei Chao saw from afar that Cui Wensheng, sitting in the torture chamber at the end of the cell, was watching with great interest as the Judicial Officer tortured a tall, fat man.

"Who is that guy?" Wei Chao turned his head and asked Cui Zhongqing who was following him. "It looks like someone slaughtering a pig in the countryside."

"That's Ma Tang, the eunuch who collects taxes in Shandong. Before the late emperor abolished the mine supervisor, he was also working as a miner." Cui Zhongqing was a little nearsighted, and he had to squint his eyes several times before he could roughly see the appearance of the person being punished.

"Ma Tang?" Wei Chao thought for a moment and then asked, "Is he one of the tax collectors recalled by the late emperor?"

"Your Excellency, it's that batch." Cui Zhongqing nodded and said, "Shandong is so close, but this fat pig didn't arrive in the capital until mid-September."

"So long? Wasn't the decree issued at the end of July?" When asking this question, the two had already come to Cui Wensheng's side.

"Hey! Wei Chao's here!" Cui Wensheng turned around at the noise and immediately made eye contact with Wei Chao. "Come on, here are some salt-baked watermelon seeds. Want some?" He sat up from his recliner and handed the small plate of watermelon seeds to Wei Chao. This action interrupted the conversation between Wei Chao and Cui Zhongqing.

"No need for the sunflower seeds." Wei Chao shook his head. Although he had no physical aversion to corporal punishment or death, he wasn't so perverted as to eat sunflower seeds in the torture chamber while smelling the stench of roasting meat.

"Godfather, senior brother." Cui Zhongqing saluted Cui Wensheng and Cui Yuan who was standing beside Cui Wensheng.

"Great Ancestor." Cui Yuanxiang only nodded in reply to Cui Zhongqing, then knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Wei Chao.

"Get up." Wei Chao had met Cui Yuan before, but he didn't have a deep impression of his ordinary face. "You're back. What did you do outside the capital?" Wei Chao's tone was like an elder asking a child where he had been playing.

Cui Yuan kowtowed again, then stood up and replied in a flattered tone, "I just went home to do some trivial things. Thank you for your concern, Great Ancestor."

Wei Chao had no intention of revealing Cui Wensheng's actions here, so he didn't pursue the matter any further. "It's good that you're back. Come back and spend the Lantern Festival with your godfather."

"This child is filial." Cui Wensheng didn't know that his deeds had been exposed, so he laughed it off at Wei Chao's words, then changed the subject and said, "I just heard you two talking. What were you talking about?"

"Let's talk about Ma Tang," Wei Chao asked cooperatively. "Looking at this fat body, I think this guy must have quite a lot of money. We used clamps, branding irons, whips, salt water, finger picks, and so many other things, but he was still unconscious. Did you find anything useful during the interrogation?"

"You know what, this guy's a real fat pig. Just this morning, someone reported that he's hoarded antiques, calligraphy, and paintings worth over 100,000 taels in his Beijing house alone. He also has nearly 20,000 taels in cash, but that's not even close to enough." Cui Wensheng's spirits immediately lit up at the mention of money. Even in the dim dungeon, Wei Chao could still see Cui Wensheng's eyebrows moving. "We found a rubbing of an imperial edict from fifteen years ago, in the thirty-third year of the Wanli reign, in the archives of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Guess who wrote it?" Cui Wensheng deliberately kept the secret.

"Who is it?" Wei Chao was a good listener. "Tell me quickly, tell me quickly."

Cui Wensheng said proudly: "Huang Butang!"

"Tang Huang from the Ministry of Justice?" Wei Chao asked.

"Oh! That's right, it's him. In the 33rd year of the Wanli reign, Huang Kezan was appointed Governor of Shandong. He submitted a memorial impeaching this fat pig for 'collecting more than he paid, and embezzling and concealing tax silver.' Huang Kezan said in that memorial that this fat pig withdrew no less than 260,000 taels of tax silver from various customs offices under various names every year, but he only paid 78,000 taels to the Imperial Treasury every year. Over the course of seven years, the embezzled and concealed tax silver exceeded 1.3 million taels. He has been in office for another 15 years since the 33rd year of the Wanli reign. If we also calculate based on the difference of 182,000 taels, this bastard has embezzled at least 4 million taels. Damn it! Damn it, this is the Emperor's money!"

"So much!?" Wei Chao was very surprised. This number was more than the silver seized from the Zheng family.

"Yeah. Otherwise, how could this fat pig keep more than a dozen pairs of brothers and sisters in his filthy horse manure pond for his sexual pleasure?" Cui Wensheng sneered, "He Mengzhun, the East Captain of our factory, came back to report that this guy just likes to watch brothers and sisters within five degrees of mourning sleep, preferably biologically. He Mengzhun also said that this guy can't fall asleep without holding someone else's eggs and steamed buns. He's really fucking sick! I want to see if he can sleep without anyone waiting on him."

Wei Chao didn't care about Ma Tang's personal interests; he just wanted to know how much money he could get out of these people. So he waved his hand and said, "Civil officials always like to exaggerate. Even Huang Butang is no exception. His memorials aren't necessarily accurate. Even if they were accurate back then, fifteen years have passed. The key is to see the actual transcripts. How much have been copied so far?"

"If we're only talking about this moment, it's really just that little. His current residence was newly purchased before he came to Beijing in September, so it's normal he doesn't have much hidden silver. Don't rush, lard needs to be cooked slowly to be fragrant." Cui Wensheng gave Ma Tang a sinister look. "A cunning rabbit has three burrows, and a cunning pig is similar. He has six houses in Beijing, all of which have been confiscated, and all the piglets born in Beijing have been arrested. Now we're investigating his gold hiding place in Shandong, and I suspect he has hidden silver outside of Shandong as well. He received the imperial edict in July, and only returned in September. This guy must have hidden money somewhere."

"Yes." Wei Chao nodded and reminded: "Check, copy and hand over the facts. Don't make the same mistake again this time." Wei Chao might be the only eunuch in the sequence of eunuchs who was not nice to Cui Wensheng just for the sake of the emperor's face.

"That's a relief." Cui Wensheng pointed to a clean table in the torture chamber, which had only paper, pen, and candles on it, but no torture instruments. A young child sat behind the table. "Look there."

"What do you mean?" Wei Chao asked.

"That's the 'military supervisor' sent by Lady Mi to watch over me. It changes every day, never the same," Cui Wensheng said sarcastically. Although Cui Wensheng knew he wasn't a good person, he still felt uncomfortable being distrusted like that.

(End of this chapter)