Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 253 The Achievements of the East Factory

In the Southern Study, the emperor was leaning back in a chair, holding a teacup filled with mist, sipping tea and warming his hands.

At this moment, Cui Wensheng, summoned by the emperor, pushed open the door and walked in. At his side was his second son, Cui Zhongqing. In his hands, Cui Zhongqing held a stack of books, which recorded the recent work of the East Depot.

Cui Zhongqing placed the stack of books on Cui Wensheng's desk, then knelt beside his godfather and saluted the emperor together with his godfather.

"Your servants, Cui Wensheng and Cui Zhongqing, bow to the master and say, 'Long live the master! Long live the master!'"

"Get up." Zhu Changluo put down the teacup in his hand and said to Cui Wensheng, "Go to your seat and sit down to talk."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." He kowtowed again and the ceremony was completed.

Cui Zhongqing stood up and walked quickly to the third chair in the South Study. Just as he was about to make a move, Wang An's voice drifted over from a distance: "Donald Cui, you're so arrogant! You even have someone here to help you pull out the chair."

Cui Zhongqing froze in place, a thin layer of sweat immediately seeping out of his forehead. He suddenly began to have wild thoughts, thinking that the emperor's command of "stand up" might not include him.

"Get out. I'm not old enough to need to be served everywhere." Cui Wensheng scolded, then hunched his body, tremblingly pulled the chair out to a suitable position, and sat down.

"Yes." This rebuke was like heavenly music to Cui Zhongqing, who was lost in thought. He kowtowed quickly to the emperor, then took small steps and walked backward out of the Southern Study.

After Cui Wensheng sat down, Zhu Changluo also smiled slightly. He pretended to be concerned and seemed to be completely oblivious to the incident. "Is your back injury feeling better?" Zhu Changluo asked.

Cui Wensheng's eyes lit up, and he slowly stood up, supporting himself on the table, and said, "Thanks to the great blessing of the master, I have recovered and am fine."

"It's good that you're healed. You should sit down and talk." Zhu Changluo nodded slightly and said, "Just talk about the important things and don't talk about a lot of things."

"Yes." Cui Wensheng sat back and then took out a compendium from his arms.

He hadn't actually intended to read the pile of books filled with confessions and records of properties and hidden treasures. Cui Wensheng had asked Cui Zhongqing to bring the pile, firstly to show his godson before the emperor, and secondly to give the emperor a direct view of the East Depot's recent work. He had only the outline to read from beginning to end. With the emperor saying so, he felt his goal had been achieved.

"Ahem." Cui Wensheng cleared his throat twice, like a civil servant reporting to the court, and continued, "Currently, we've discovered that Ma Tang, the eunuch who once worked as a mine operator in Shandong and collected taxes at the Linqing customs, has 1,943,621 taels of silver and 13,231 taels of gold. He also owns over 23,000 mu of private land in Shandong, Zhili, and Henan. He also owns over 129,300 mu of donated land. The land is only recorded in the register; we haven't been able to inspect it on the ground."

The East Depot was authorized to inspect and confiscate hidden treasures in other places, but that was all. They were not authorized to survey local lands, and the emperor even explicitly forbade them from requesting assistance from local officials. Even the food, lodging, and travel expenses of the East Depot agents were not covered by local authorities. Instead, their monthly salaries were doubled, allowing them to pay for their own expenses. This was a stark contrast to previous imperial envoys.

"More than 23,000 acres of private land? Are they all registered under his own name?" Zhu Changluo asked.

Cui Wensheng thought for a moment and replied, "In response to the emperor's question, according to the investigation, most of the private land of Ma Tang's family is registered in the names of Ma's relatives. Ma Tang himself does not have much land in his own name."

Aside from heroes like Liu Ruoyu, who suddenly castrated himself after experiencing a strange dream, most eunuchs came from impoverished families, struggling to raise children. However, poverty didn't mean they had no relatives. Once an eunuch achieved success, he often had relatives come to him. Instead of rejecting them, the eunuchs would generously support them, protect them, and even keep them close and use them for important purposes.

Eunuchs, who entered the palace at a young age, had no experience in farming and therefore had no particular desire for land. Rather than purchasing their own land, they preferred to accept donations, like civil servants, to provide "tax and labor avoidance services" in exchange for a stable "currency income."

However, their relatives who came from farming families insisted on the "long-term plan" of buying land if they had it and storing gold if they didn't, and bought land in their hometown to become local landlords. The foolish ones took advantage of it by trickery and plunder, causing unrest in the area, while the smarter ones asked the eunuchs in the palace for money to buy land.

However, the privileges of eunuchs only lasted until they were favored, which was very different from the civil service families that continuously produced successful candidates. Once the favored and powerful eunuch died, the pace of these relatives' annexation of land and property would come to a halt. If the eunuchs landed peacefully, it would be fine. At least they could become wealthy but powerless, and enjoy a period of stability. But once the eunuchs fell out of favor and were abandoned, or even liquidated by the emperor, then these relatives who relied on the eunuchs to make a fortune would also suffer.

"Well. Go on." Zhu Changluo nodded, signaling Cui Wensheng to continue speaking.

"Yes," Cui Wensheng continued, "In addition to the land, we also confiscated 109 properties under Ma Tang's name. Six of these were in Beijing. The others were mostly scattered across prefectures and counties in Zhili, Shandong, Henan, and other places. The estimated value, converted into silver, is 20,000 taels. Finally, there are 31 boxes of antiques, jewelry, and famous paintings and calligraphy. The specific items have been reported truthfully, and the estimated value is approximately 400,000 taels of silver."

Real estate wasn't particularly expensive back then. For example, a courtyard in a small county town would cost only thirty or forty taels of silver, even less than a fine official uniform. A conscript who received his pay and was willing to save on food and women could buy a modest property like this in his hometown within three years. If it weren't for the six large courtyards in Beijing, which had significantly raised prices, the hundred or so properties under Ma Tang's name would probably be worth only five or six thousand taels of silver. Of course, Ma Tang's properties weren't intended for living, but rather for storing wealth and hiding his body, as the saying goes, a cunning rabbit has three burrows.

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After that, no one else asked questions, and the only voice in the Southern Study was Cui Wensheng's. Just as Cui Wensheng was reciting the outline, the Huijimen Commander, who had been demoted to Junior Supervisor, delivered another batch of draft memorials. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this would be the last batch for today.

The reception process remained as quiet as ever. The Vice-Minister of Huiji Gate directed two eunuchs to carry a load of memorials to the entrance of the Southern Study. Liu Ruoyu then instructed the eunuch on duty in the Southern Study to transfer the load to his desk. Finally, he sorted the memorials into categories, placing them in piles on the imperial desk and on the desks of Wang An and Wei Chao. Once the categorization was complete, he sat back down and returned to his tasks.

When Liu Ruoyu sat down again, Cui Wensheng had already read the "To sum up" part by rote.

"To sum up, the confiscated property of Ma Tang is worth 2.51 million taels of silver, the confiscated property of Sun Long is worth 2.23 million taels of silver, and the confiscated property of Qiu Chengyun is worth 1.94 million taels of silver." After a long list of items, Cui Wensheng finally reported, "To sum up, the estimated silver proceeds are 17.95 million taels. The actual proceeds so far are 9,367,344 taels. They have already been deposited into the various treasuries." After this, Cui Wensheng respectfully placed the outline on the imperial desk and said, "Presented to the master for your review."

"You've done well." Zhu Changluo reached out and pressed the compendium, swiping it aside. He didn't immediately examine it. Instead, he smiled and asked, "I heard you've dealt with quite a few people who have tried to get their hands on it?" Zhu Changluo tapped the compendium's hardcover with his index finger as he spoke. "To answer your Majesty, that's true." Cui Wensheng stepped back, head bowed, and listened silently.

"Wei Zhongxian came to complain to me." Zhu Changluo maintained a smile, his tone and expression unchanged. "Wei Zhongxian said this was the work of the West Factory. Even if the East Factory found something wrong, it should be the West Factory, not the East Factory, that should have handled it themselves."

Cui Wensheng did not defend himself, but knelt down and confessed his guilt: "I am guilty, Your Majesty, please punish me."

During this operation, the interrogation and the confiscation of property were completely separate. Before the confiscation, the East Factory's Criminal Division presided over the interrogation, with the West Factory's External Audit Division acting as an accomplice. The West Factory participated in the interrogation, but remained silent, recording only a single word. After the interrogation, the East and West Factories would each create a book titled after the accused, containing the confessions of the accused and their associates. Once the originals were created, they were submitted directly to the Imperial Household Department for rubbing. Once the rubbings were completed, the originals remained with the Imperial Household Department for archiving, with only the rubbings distributed to the two factories for their use.

The East Factory's copy would serve as the basis for the confiscation and guide further actions, while the West Factory's copy would serve as the basis for the review. With such a complex process, large-scale corruption would be impossible unless the two factories colluded.

Cui Wensheng had learned his lesson and had no desire for further corruption. He also worried about collusion among his subordinates, preventing the two factories' accounts from reconciling and causing trouble for him. He personally participated in important interrogations, often spending time at the Judicial Department eating sunflower seeds. He also completely prohibited interrogators from participating in property raids. Even so, many still took the risk and tried to make money from the scheme.

The most typical method was for the entire patrol unit responsible for confiscating stolen funds, often a general flag team of over fifty people, to work with inspectors sent from the Western Factory to underreport the seized funds. They knew headquarters kept a tally, but that tally might be inaccurate. As long as everyone agreed and didn't go too far, it was fine.

But Cui Wensheng didn't care. As long as the accounts didn't match, he would arrest and interrogate everyone. The prisoner's dilemma Cui Wensheng created in the bloody and terrifying environment of the Ministry of Justice prison was enough to break through the psychological defenses of anyone with a guilty conscience.

After investigation, all but the first to confess had their hands chopped off. As for the culprits who initiated the corruption, their hands were then hanged, often hanging in the parade grounds for public display until maggots began to infest their bodies. Cui Wensheng only used this extremely horrific method twice at the beginning. After that, no one dared to embezzle anymore. Any further underreporting was due to genuine problems with headquarters' accounts.

As for those who were wrongly convicted, Cui Wensheng would take money from his own salary to treat these people to a good meal and a nice whore.

This combination of firmness and flexibility gave Cui Wensheng great prestige. But the problem was that the East Factory did not have an internal supervision department; that was the job of the West Factory.

"Let's not talk about whether it's a crime or not. Why did you do this?" Zhu Changluo asked.

"I believe that some rules must be established with blood," Cui Wensheng replied.

"Let's set the rules." Wang An raised his head and said, "You should learn from this and try a better approach."

"Only by learning a lesson can one learn from it. The emperor taught him well." Cui Wensheng understood the implication of Wang An's words.

Zhu Changluo neither criticized nor scolded him. Instead, he said calmly, "Since I taught you well, I will teach you again. Even if someone from the East Factory is corrupt and guilty, they should be handed over to the West Factory for punishment according to the regulations. You killed them without authorization, which will easily lead to gossip."

"Yes. I will listen carefully to your instructions." Cui Wensheng kowtowed, and his tone became more relaxed.

Zhu Changluo took the first memorial from the pile Liu Ruoyu had just placed in front of him. As he flipped through it, he said, "Is that Cui Zhongqing out there your godson?"

"He is my godson." Cui Wensheng replied.

"The Chief Justice of the Ministry of Justice is your eldest son, Cui Yuan, right?" Zhu Changluo asked casually, "Why don't you ask him to come over?"

"When the master summoned him, he was still working in the prison." Cui Wensheng suddenly felt that the atmosphere was a little subtle.

"Bo, Zhong, Shu, Ji. Why did you change your eldest son's name to Cui Yuan?" Zhu Changluo asked again.

"'Yuan' also means the first place," Cui Wensheng replied.

"'Yuan' also means 'head'." Zhu Changluo picked up his red brush, drained the remaining ink, and began writing his comments at the end of the memorial. "How many heads did your son take last year?"

Although Zhu Changluo's tone was as flat as if he was asking, "How many peaches did Cui Yuan pick in the orchard last year?", this question itself was enough to frighten Cui Wensheng's still rosy old face into a pale paleness.

Zhu Changluo didn't look at him and continued, "He killed people for you, so when he comes back, you'll give him the second-in-command position in the East Factory?"

"." This time, Cui Wensheng didn't dare to plead guilty or ask for punishment, but at the same time he couldn't explain, so he could only maintain his posture, kneeling there and shaking.

Cui Wensheng remained silent. The Southern Study fell silent. Only after Zhu Changluo finished writing his comments did a voice emanate again. "Wang An. Have the Cabinet draft an edict based on this idea. Also, have Master Sun come to the Southern Study tomorrow."

"What time tomorrow?" Wang An walked straight to the imperial desk and took the memorial, as if Cui Wensheng was not in the hall.

"After my morning run," Zhu Changluo said. He looked down at Cui Wensheng and asked calmly, "You've been lying there for so long, you should have thought it through, right? Tell me, why did you kill those people? And in the end, you still want me to clean up your mess?"

(End of this chapter)