Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 239: Reporting to higher levels
"Have you made any arrangements with Shen Zhengping?" Lu Jianxing's eyebrows twitched unnaturally. "No wonder he didn't come today."

"It's not really collusion, just a change of story." Lu Wenzhao gave it one last check, confirming everything was correct before he picked up the prepared envelope from the table and placed the letter inside. "The Pacification Office simply made some mistakes and arrested the wrong person. Now that they've figured it out, they'll naturally release him. Wang Gui will understand. Who told him to go to Beijing instead of filing a complaint locally? It's only natural that the Pacification Office would think he'd fled, fearing his crime, right?"

"Your Excellency is right." Lu Jianxing agreed.

"Send it by express delivery." Lu Wenzhao stamped the envelope with the Jinyiwei stamp. Then he handed the letter to Lu Jianxing. He wouldn't send anyone back to Beijing, so he could just have the express delivery shop send it by express delivery. Intercepting a courier was a capital offense, so no one dared to do it.

"Yes." Lu Jianxing took the letter and turned to leave, but was stopped by Lu Wenzhao. "Wait, don't be anxious, there is one more thing."

"My Lord's order." Lu Jianxing put the envelope into his arms and clasped his fists, waiting for orders.

"We don't have enough manpower. Send someone to Tianjin Hundred Households Office and transfer three small flags here," said Lu Wenzhao.

"Tianjin Hundred Households Office?" Lu Jianxing frowned, puzzled. "We don't even need to investigate to know that Tianjin Hundred Households Office has received countless benefits from the Three Guards over the years. They'll only cause trouble if they come over. Why don't you just transfer someone from the East Office?"

"We have to take the Tianjin Hundred Households Office. Only then will Han Tongzhi and the others feel at ease." Lu Wenzhao waved his hand. "I know what's going on. Go ahead."

Lu Jianxing didn't know what Lu Wenzhao meant by "knowing the situation," but he didn't ask any more questions. Instead, he clasped his fists and said, "Yes, I'll send someone right away."

------

Express delivery was the fastest of the delivery systems. Regulations stipulated that for official documents, one must travel to a parlor every three quarters of an hour, and a total distance of three hundred miles per day and night was required. However, when a document arrived at a parlor, regardless of the parcel's number, it must be delivered immediately, day or night, by ringing the bell.

The distance between the capital and Tianjin was less than 300 li. Therefore, the garrison soldiers arrived in Beijing almost as the city gates opened the next day. The urgent delivery arrived at the garrison, and the last garrison soldier signed for it. He looked at the clipboard and saw that the address on it was simply "Beijing Jinyiwei," without any more specific yamen suffix. He immediately knew he should go to the Lijingsi.

The Lijingsi was not only responsible for transcribing documents and sealing files, but also for the entry and exit of Jinyiwei official documents. In other words, all messages from other places to the Jinyiwei headquarters were sent and received by the Lijingsi.

Luo Yangxing, a fifth-rank captain in charge of the seventh-rank experience department, did not open the letter or send anyone to deliver it after receiving it. Instead, he personally ran to the main hall of the Commandery and placed the letter on the desk of Luo Sigong, who was in charge of the guard affairs.

"What's this?" Luo Sigong placed the brush on the inkstone, looked up and smiled, "I just finished tending to this brush and haven't even started writing the first word yet, and you're causing me trouble?"

"Father, I don't want to either. But this is news from Tianjin." Luo Yangxing smiled back, but his brows didn't relax. "It's still express delivery."

"There's news so soon, it's only been a few days?" Luo Sigong opened the envelope, shook it gently, and the letter inside fell smoothly into his hand.

Luo Yangxing unfolded the letter from Luo Sigong, and after reading it for the first time, he asked, "What's the problem in Tianjin?"

"Shen Caiyu, the chief of the Tianjin Guard, has escaped." Lu Wenzhao's writing was concise, so Luo Sigong only needed a few breaths to read through the short briefing for the second time. He handed the letter to Luo Yangxing, then took a sip of the freshly brewed tea on the table. "What about the Tianjin Left Guard and Tianjin Right Guard? Is there any news from them?"

"No news yet." Luo Yangxing stretched the letter tightly. "He wants to transfer the people from the Tianjin Hundred Households Office to serve?"

"He has the power." Luo Sigong said calmly.

In order to facilitate the work, any Jinyiwei who went out of Beijing on business had the power to directly mobilize the nearby hundred-household offices without the permission of the headquarters.

"This isn't a matter of authority," Luo Yangxing said with some concern. "He could easily transfer troops from the Jinghai Hundred Households in the south, or the Bazhou Hundred Households in the north."

"Do you want to give him instructions?" Luo Sigong put down the teacup and waved to the captain on duty, indicating that he should refill his water.

"No. I'm just saying." Luo Yangxing took the kettle from the captain, mixed the liquid, and returned it. "As you always say, if you're sending someone out, you have to trust them. If they give instructions that affect the decision to send them out when something happens, it would be better not to send them out in the first place."

Luo Sigong nodded with satisfaction. He added, "Shen Caiyu isn't an important figure, but now that he's escaped, this matter has become complicated."

"Where do you think the news might have leaked from?" Luo Yangxing picked up the envelope and stuffed the letter paper back. He wanted to take it back to file, and then put it in a briefing to be submitted to the Western Factory.

"It could be the government office or people who were involved in or even knew about this, but it wouldn't be us." Luo Sigong joked, "Humph. Unless the Tianjin Guards have a spy here. If Shen Caiyu has that ability, then he really deserves to run."

"I'm afraid the higher-ups will think too much about it. This matter is difficult to prove myself." Luo Yangxing said with some worry.

"It doesn't matter as long as the emperor doesn't think too much about it." Luo Sigong looked calm, but he was still nervous in his heart.

"Why don't we send someone to investigate immediately?" Luo Yangxing suggested.

"Where should we check?" Luo Sigong asked in return: "The cabinet? The Ministry of War? The Imperial Household? Or the palace? They are the ones who directly intervened in this matter. You know, Zhou's Ministry of Personnel, Xu's Ministry of Rites, Li's Ministry of Revenue, Wang's Ministry of Works, and Huang's Ministry of Justice all participated in the national meeting in Hongde Hall. If Shen Caiyu hadn't run away, then this would just be a small matter that was done step by step. But Shen Caiyu ran away, and this matter is not something we can decide on our own." "Then what should we do? Can we pretend that it never happened?" Luo Yangxing said.

"Of course we can't pretend it never happened. Let's just follow the procedure. Lu Wenzhao interrogated us overnight but only reported a date. That means there's been no progress. Since he doesn't know what to do and reported it to us, we'll report it to the higher-ups as well, saying whatever we have to say without further explanation. We'll wait until they have a clear message before investigating. If they don't allow us to investigate, then we won't do anything." Luo Sigong straightened his posture. "As long as we have nothing to hide, it doesn't matter how we investigate."

"Okay then. I'll report it right away." Luo Yangxing was impressed by his father's calmness. "Father, do you have any other instructions?"

Luo Sigong thought for a moment and asked, "How many centurions from the four provinces of Northern Zhili have arrived yet? Didn't you ask you to send them letters before the New Year, asking them to report to the capital after the New Year?"

"Everyone from the capital region has arrived." Luo Yangxing was referring to the northern Zhili region. "Most of them are from the two mountainous areas and one river. Only a few are from Shaanxi."

The Beijing Jinyiwei Command Headquarters directly governs the north, namely Northern Zhili, Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi and other places. The remaining centurions in the nine provinces of Southern Zhili are under the management of the Nanjing Jinyiwei Command Headquarters. Although the areas under the Nanjing Jinyiwei's jurisdiction are wider than those directly managed by the Beijing Jinyiwei, its power is much smaller than that of Beijing. The Nanjing Jinyiwei has no decision-making power, nor does it have judicial power independent of the Three Departments. It is basically equivalent to an independent intelligence collection and transit agency. The reason why it is independent is that although the Nanjing Jinyiwei has the responsibility to submit intelligence to the Beijing Jinyiwei, the personnel power of the Nanjing Jinyiwei is not in the hands of the Beijing Jinyiwei, but in the hands of the emperor himself.

"What do you think of these people? Is there anyone who can be recommended?" Luo Sigong asked.

The centurions from the four northern provinces never came to see the head of the guards when they came to the capital, and this time was no exception.

"I don't think they're all that great. They can't really give a good report, just the same old nonsense." Luo Yangxing shook his head. "But, we did make quite a bit of money this trip."

"How much?" Luo Sigong didn't react much. Local officials had to bribe officials to report to the capital. The prevailing rule was that they had to pay bribes to the government office in charge. The five major Thousand Household Offices directly managed the Hundred Household Offices in various regions, so having the Experience Office present to hear the report was an exception. Therefore, many within the Jinyiwei speculated that Luo, the Chief Guard, was trying to make a few more bucks before his retirement.

"I haven't calculated it in detail yet. Some get more, some get less, but on average, everyone should have about four or five hundred taels of silver," Luo Yangxing replied.

"Take inventory and submit it together with the report from Tianjin." Luo Sigong ordered.

Although the palace hadn't directly sent anyone to oversee this task, they had been following it. The Imperial Guard and the Western Depot knew when the centurions arrived in Beijing and what they did there. Luo Sigong had never been a big fan of money, and this time, he had no intention of embezzling anything. He had originally planned to submit all the money he had collected along with the list of nominees. Now that the situation had changed, he decided to submit the portion he had received, at least to subtly convey his position to the higher-ups.

"Yes."

------

"Director of the Factory, this is the report from the Embroidered Uniform Guard." An hour later, Li Yongzhen, director of the General Affairs Department of the Western Factory, handed the special report from the Experience Department of the Embroidered Uniform Guard to the desk of Director of the Factory, Wei Zhongxian.

Li Yongzhen was born in the 11th year of the Wanli reign. That year, Fang Congzhe, Cui Jingrong, Zhang Wenda, Wang Zuo, and others passed the imperial examination, and the emperor launched a full-scale campaign against Zhang. In the 16th year of the Wanli reign, the five-year-old Li Yongzhen castrated himself and entered the imperial palace. Thirteen years later, at the age of eighteen, he entered Kunning Palace as a close attendant to Queen Wang. However, just over a year after entering Kunning Palace, he was arrested and imprisoned. He remained in prison for eighteen years, only being released when the new emperor ascended the throne.

After his release, Li Yongzhen was promoted several times. First, he was transferred to the Military Equipment Bureau, directly filling the position of Junior Supervisor vacated by Wei Chao's rapid rise to power. Recently, he was transferred to the General Affairs Department of the Western Depot. Although he remained a Junior Supervisor, everyone knew that Li Yongzhen had been promoted again. This led to rumors that Li Yongzhen had switched allegiance to either Wei Chao or Wei Zhongxian, becoming a godson to one of them.

Later, however, it was discovered that Li Yongzhen neither claimed to be Wei Chao's "subordinate" nor called Wei Zhongxian his "godfather." This led to rumors that Li Yongzhen was arrested because he was close to the crown prince and acted as a messenger between him and his mother, Queen Wang. This theory was based on the fact that Queen Wang, despite having daughters but no sons, always treated the crown prince as her own, not ostracizing him but rather protecting him during the struggle for the throne.

"What do you want to report? Just tell me." Wei Zhongxian didn't reach out to take it immediately. He was still looking at the verification list handed over by the East Factory.

After such a long interrogation, Ma Tang, the fathead fish, had finally been squeezed dry. Counting cash alone, the total was over 1.94 million taels of silver and over 13,000 taels of gold. While this wasn't as much as Cui Wensheng's calculation based on Huang Kezan's impeachment, it was still the biggest and fattest fish. If there were any other records, the only ones would be Sun Long, the eunuch who had served as the weaving and tax collector in Suzhou and Hangzhou and, after being recalled, the seal holder of the Needlework Bureau; Gao Cai, the eunuch who had served as the mining eunuch in Fujian and the governor of Yuegang; and Qiu Chengyun, the eunuch in charge of mining taxes in Sichuan. Of these three individuals, the first was responsible for the Suzhou uprising, the second for the Fujian uprising, and the third was believed to be linked to a series of local chieftain rebellions in Sichuan.

Such achievements gave Wei Zhongxian a strong sense of crisis. Crucially, under the strict supervision of the Inspection Bureau, Cui Wensheng and his sons were as clean as water, and there was no place to start any trouble.

"To put it simply, the Jinyiwei's mission went awry," said Li Yongzhen.

Wei Zhongxian was startled when he heard this and immediately put down the book in his hand. He leaned over to pick up the report on the desk and asked, "Whose errand is this?"

"Tianjin Guard's commander, Shen Caiyu, has escaped. The Imperial Guards came up empty-handed." Li Yongzhen had already checked the relevant records before coming to Wei Zhongxian's place. "If I remember correctly, the Imperial Guards themselves requested this assignment. Now that he's gone, they reported it without finding anything." Li Yongzhen sneered inexplicably. "But they did find a date."

"The seventh day?" Li Yongzhen didn't need to say this, because Wei Zhongxian noticed the date on the report the moment he arrived.

"The Jinyiwei left Beijing on the day of the National Day court session, with a gap of four days in between. It is very likely that someone within the Jinyiwei leaked the news." Li Yongzhen only knew that the Jinyiwei reported to the inner court on the grounds of "improper discipline" and requested the arrest of the chief officer of Tianjin Wei, and the request was approved.

Wei Zhongxian nodded slightly, but he and Li Yongzhen were thinking completely different things.

Because he attended the dinner at Xu's residence, Wei Zhongxian was one of the first to learn about the planned port opening. However, since the emperor did not invite Wei Zhongxian to attend subsequent meetings, particularly the national council in Hongde Hall, and the attendees did not specifically explain the matter to him, he was unaware of the details. Therefore, Wei Zhongxian was in a state of partial knowledge, but not complete understanding.

In other words, Wei Zhongxian's intuition told him that the matter in Tianjin was not that simple, but his mind did not know where the complexity lay.

(End of this chapter)