Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 274: Massive Layoffs

February has arrived, and the spring examination is approaching, and the number of memorials regarding the imperial examination has suddenly increased.

The disputes boiled down to who would be the chief examiner, who would co-examine, who would supervise, and who would read the papers. For officials of all factions, these issues were crucial, as they would determine long-term relationships. The examiner was the natural mentor of the candidate he selected, and even if one's political leanings did not align with the examiner, they should at least not differ significantly. When Zhang Juzheng seized a love interest, he drew criticism from his own students, a furor that even surpassed the incident itself.

But for the emperor, none of this mattered. It didn't matter who had taken the throne; as long as he had a scale in his heart and a sword in his hand, he would have loyal ministers, not treacherous ones. He would employ them when they were virtuous and dismiss them when they were not.

Zhu Changluo didn't waste much time on this matter. He listened to no one's opinions. No matter how well-written the recommendation was, he didn't even bother to look at the name. He simply looked at the name and, searching for the right person, he gave a positive comment. As for the other memorials, he followed the old emperor's customary practice of reading them without reporting them.

Zhu Changluo originally wanted to throw Shen in and pair him with Xu Guangqi, as the two had never faced off against each other. Putting them together would be a form of balance. But then he thought, balance doesn't mean forcing unnecessary conflict. If they were to be thrown together, it wouldn't be impossible for the exam hall to become a competition. He didn't know Shen well, but Xu Guangqi's martial virtues were quite abundant.

For the sake of the court's reputation and to prevent Shen from being distracted, allowing him to focus on "spurring" Liu Yirong, Zhu Changluo ultimately decided that the chief examiners would be Shi Jikai, Minister of Rites and Grand Secretary of the Dongke Academy, and Xu Guangqi, Minister of Rites and Seal. Co-examiners would be Yuan Keli, the newly appointed Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs; Gu Bingqian, Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel; and Wei Guangwei, Junior Secretary of the Imperial Household Department. The rest of the candidates were free to choose.

"There's no need to show me any more memorials from examiners regarding the Imperial Examination." Zhu Changluo tossed a memorial about the Enke exam into the "not reported" pile. These things were already getting too much and getting annoying.

"Yes." Wang An replied.

"Why is it this guy again?" Zhu Changluo opened the impeachment document and saw the three characters "Zhao Yanqing" in the signature again. "Oh. He really is hooking up with Luo Sigong." Zhu Changluo read the impeachment document with great interest, filling in the blank spaces with his comments.

At this time, the eunuch on duty in the Southern Study brought in the secret box he had just obtained. Because the fourth eunuch Liu Ruoyu was not there, he handed the box to the table of the chief eunuch Wei Chao.

"Master. This is Master Sun's secret memorial." Wei Chao picked up the box and immediately identified the source of the secret memorial as soon as he saw the unique carvings on it.

"Open." Zhu Changluo took out a plain key from his waist and threw it to Wei Chao.

"Yes." Wei Chao took it steadily and used it to open a key cabinet. Then, Wei Chao found the corresponding silver key from the key cabinet, unlocked the silver lock of the box, and carefully held the secret letter before the emperor.

There are only two silver keys, one is in the hands of the box holder, and the other is in the key cabinet of the other person. In other words, after the box is sent out, no one can see the secret letter before him unless the box is destroyed.

"Summary. Read." Zhu Changluo lightly dipped his brush in red ink and crossed out a sentence he had just written. Then, in a more sloppy hand, he rewrote another comment with the same meaning, but with even more intense wording. He wasn't angry, and his heart wasn't stirred at all. But this style of writing made anyone who read the comment mistakenly believe the emperor was furious.

Wei Chao quickly glanced through it, omitting all embellishments and descriptions, and said concisely:

"Your Highness, your Majesty, beseeches your Majesty."

"The Governor's Office has taken over all the affairs of the Command Headquarters. Everything is going smoothly. Your Majesty, please do not worry."

"All officials from the Commanding General's Office have been detained, but no trial has been conducted. I humbly request the emperor's decision on the matter."

"Under Captain Lu Wenzhao of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, under the pretext of acting at his own discretion, demanded a total of 88,600 taels of silver and banknotes from the various criminal officials before I arrived in Tianjin. Embroidered Uniform Guard officer Lu claimed to have reported this to His Majesty. All the silver and banknotes have been collected. There was an error in the amount of silver; the actual weight was 892 taels, 3 qian, and 6 fen. The silver was a mixture of official and miscellaneous, with the majority being miscellaneous."

"I have begun planning to recruit the Governor's Standard Guard, and have already selected 342 guards to join the program."

"To establish my credibility, I promised to pay the selected guards a month's salary and grant them cloth and clothing. However, the Acropolis's treasury and cloth warehouses are completely empty, leaving no salary and no cloth to reward. I have no choice but to falsely use Your Majesty's name to arbitrarily transfer the stolen silver. I have recorded 342 taels as a temporary measure. I humbly request that Your Majesty punish me."

"On the day this secret memorial was drafted, the Imperial Guards had already sailed south."

"Your Majesty, your servant, Sun Chengzong, wishes you the best of health. I bow with tears in my eyes."

After reading it, Wei Chao closed the secret memorial and respectfully placed it on the imperial desk.

"Send this down." Zhu Changluo picked up the secret decree and handed the prepared red comment to Wei Chao.

"Yes." In order to improve efficiency and save trips, Wei Chao simply took away the other memorials waiting to be sent.

Zhu Changluo put down his secret report and suddenly asked, "Why does Zhao Yanqing keep chasing after Luo Sigong?"

Wei Chao, who had reached the door, turned back when he heard the voice and found that the emperor was not looking at him, so he curled his lips awkwardly and walked out.

"I don't know." Wang An put down his pen and said, "I've checked. Zhao Yanqing has no connection or hatred with the Luo family. He has nothing to do with the recent case. He should be just a pure censor. He is picking on Luo Sigong, perhaps just because he thinks Luo Sigong has done something wrong?" Even though he had already checked, Wang An didn't dare to guarantee anything with absolute certainty.

"Then why was he able to get such a clear picture of the Luo family's assets? And why did he choose to impeach Luo Sigong when the Jinyiwei was investigating the case of the harem?" Zhu Changluo said, "I don't think this is a coincidence."

"Do we want to arrest him and interrogate him?" Wang An asked.

"Who will arrest him and who will interrogate him? What's the reason?" Zhu Changluo said, "We can't spoil Luo Sigong too much. If he becomes arrogant, that would be putting the cart before the horse. So, make a note. Once Luo Sigong has completed his mission, find a random excuse to transfer Zhao Yanqing to another place to gain some experience. If he's really daring and hardworking, he'll shine there. It'll be like a place of enlightenment. But if he's just a talker who's good at talking, then there's no need to send him back."

"Yes." Wang An took out a small notebook and wrote down Zhao Yanqing's name and the reason for his planned exile.

After taking note, Wang An looked up and found that the emperor was writing something and seemed to have no intention of talking anymore. He lowered his head again and continued to write the half-written word.

In the main hall of the Imperial Household Department, Wei Zhongxian, the Third Eunuch and Commander-in-Chief of the Western Factory, and Liu Ruoyu, the Fourth Eunuch and Chief of Staff for the Imperial Court, sat side by side, a rare sight, behind a long desk placed horizontally in the center of the hall. Behind them stood a large desk belonging to Wang An. This desk and its accompanying armchair were the only two pieces of furniture in the hall that remained unmoved.

Beside the two eunuchs, dozens of large boxes pulled by ox carts were placed side by side.

Outside the main hall, in the Silijian front courtyard, Wu Mingzhe, the seal-holding eunuch of the Inner Transport Warehouse, and Tang Zhong, the financial eunuch of the Silijian Liancaifang, sat side by side. In front of them each lay a thin account book.

Further ahead, near the gate of the Silijian Courtyard, there were twenty people, the cashiers of the Neichengyunku and the auditors of the Liancaifang, working in teams of two, arranged vertically in the shape of a "1" on the left and right.

On the road from the main gate of the Imperial Household Department to the Huangwa East Gate, the executive officers of the first squadron of the first executive brigade of the Western Investigation Bureau were holding jujube wood sticks and monitoring the long snake team that was trapped in the middle of the road every five steps to prevent these people from causing unnecessary trouble in the Forbidden City.

Hundreds of people from the three government offices, namely the Imperial Household Department, the Western Factory, and the Internal Transport Depot, gathered here to pay severance pay to the redundant staff who were laid off from the Salary Reduction Department.

The Xixinsi once enjoyed a brief, fleeting glory. During the Zhengde reign of Emperor Wuzong, Liu Jin, at the height of his power, transformed the Xixinsi's Outer Wage Factory into a Service Factory, which he personally managed. The capital, then, called it the Neihang Factory. In the fifth year of the Zhengde reign, Liu Jin fell from power, and the fleeting glory faded. Both the West Factory and the Neihang Factory were abolished, but the East Factory remained. Now, the West Factory has been reinstated, tasked with safeguarding the Xixinsi's layoffs. It feels like a struggling brother has become prosperous, only to turn around and step on his younger brother.

Liu Ruoyu targeted the Xinxinsi (Preserving Firearms Department) as the first target of his inner court cuts because it was severely overcrowded, but not complex. During the Wanli reign, Emperor Shenzong's indolence led to the slackness of both the inner and outer courts. The number of staff in various inner court offices surged, and the Xinxinsi (Preserving Firearms Department) was no exception. It was said at the time that "one person was promoted each morning and one each evening, resulting in a rate of several dozen times higher than before."

But the current Xixinsi, after all, was merely an agency responsible for managing the distribution of charcoal, devoid of any technical expertise. Simply sorting through the ranks, from top to bottom, was enough. The Xixinsi director was quite cooperative; after all, his salary had increased, while his predecessor had lost everything and was on his way to Dingling to guard the late emperor's tomb.

"You, come here, don't dawdle." The young cashier of Neichengyun Warehouse rudely waved his hand to an old eunuch who could be his grandfather.

The old eunuch walked up tremblingly and handed the note given to him by the new chief to the cashier.

The cashier took the note and, with just a glance, knew how much severance pay he should give the man. But he didn't bend down to take it immediately. Instead, he gave the note to the equally young auditor in the clean materials room to stamp it.

The auditor took the note, turned to the corresponding page according to the information on it, and stamped his own small seal in the blank space behind the entry and on the note.

After the auditor put the note into the box on the table and nodded to the cashier, the cashier quickly counted out the corresponding amount of silver.

"The year you entered the palace and your age are no longer known. But judging from your facial features, you should be an old man. Therefore, I will give you a generous pension. I will give you 20 taels of silver. Go back to your residence immediately to pack your luggage and belongings, and leave the palace before noon tomorrow." The cashier placed the silver in the middle of the table, checked it again, and then put two standard five-tael official ingots and ten small silver balls weighing one tael into a small bag made of coarse cloth, and handed it to the old eunuch.

"Sir, I don't want money. I just want to continue staying in the palace to serve the emperor." The old eunuch had a flattering smile on his face.

"What you said is true. Who among the people here doesn't want to serve the emperor? The emperor is kind and compassionate. He gives you twenty taels of official silver that is as pure as it can be. If you move out of the capital and spend it sparingly, it will be enough for your retirement." The cashier waved to the person below.

"Sir! I really don't want to leave the palace. Please, please." The old eunuch had worked as a charcoal distributor in the imperial city all his life and could not imagine how he would live after leaving the palace.

The imperial city was like a giant well crawling with frogs. While there were many rules and internal strife, at least there were no outsiders to bully. As long as one was careful and cautious and didn't offend anyone, one could always survive. The old eunuch didn't know what lay beyond the imperial city's high walls, nor did he want to know. He had become a celestial frog, completely unwilling to leave the well.

"Next!" the cashier shouted loudly. He no longer wanted to waste time talking to the old eunuch. No matter how much he said, it was all nonsense. He had no way to keep the old eunuch in the palace. And he had to pay out at least 5,000 taels today, otherwise it would be considered not meeting the standard. Not only would his monthly salary be deducted, but his performance evaluation would also be affected. Although the specific standards for the internal officials' assessment had not yet been posted, it would be bad if he failed to meet them.

"Sir! Sir! I beg you, I beg you." The old eunuch's flattery immediately turned into crying full of despair.

The noise made by the old eunuch attracted the attention of the Western Factory's officers. Before they could even greet him, the flag officer in charge of maintaining order in the hall took the initiative and took two people to hold the old eunuch's arms and drag him out.

"Silver!" The cashier of the transport warehouse threw the cloth bag containing the severance pay to the small flag officer of the Western Factory as if avoiding the plague. The small flag officer understood and immediately tied the bag to the old eunuch's belt.

The rules for distributing severance pay were very strict. In addition to the rule that "auditors cannot touch money, and cashiers cannot touch account books," Liu Ruoyu also stipulated that everyone, including himself, must undergo a strict body search after the mission was completed before leaving. If anyone was found to have done something dishonest, they would be dragged out and hanged without asking the details. Rule by terror alone is not enough; virtue is also required. Silver is virtue. After the mission was completed, the low-ranking eunuchs who received this task would receive a reward of silver equivalent to half a year's salary.

Thanks to the Western Factory's suppression, the minor disturbance quickly died down, and the work of distributing severance pay continued in an orderly manner.

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"How much money did this cost? It's just given away for nothing?" Seeing another big box being carried out, Wei Zhongxian couldn't help feeling regretful.

"If they were just dismissed without any money, tens of thousands of people would cause chaos in Beijing." After Liu Ruoyu finished recording, he put the brush back on the Penholder Mountain.

"Let's make a fuss. If they do, they'll have a pretext for violence. You don't really think they can turn the tables, do you?" Wei Zhongxian clenched his fists and chuckled, "You're still too young and too kind. Even if the inner treasury is rich, you shouldn't spend it this way. Wouldn't it be better to use all that money to finish the renovations on the Huangji Hall? That's the dignity of the Ming Dynasty."

Wei Zhongxian felt that this task should be given to him, and he would definitely save the emperor several million taels of silver.

Hearing Wei Zhongxian's words, Liu Ruoyu's eyes twitched. "How dare I pretend to be merciful? It is the Emperor who is so merciful."

"."Since Liu Ruoyu brought up the emperor, Wei Zhongxian had nothing to say.

(End of this chapter)