Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 276 The Third House Changes
Soon, a messenger from the Jinyiwei arrived and clasped his fists solemnly. "Master Guard!"

Luo Sigong did not give orders immediately, but said: "Go and call the others."

"Others?" The messenger was puzzled.

"Can you give three orders by yourself?" Luo Sigong asked back.

"Yes!" The messenger immediately understood and turned to find his colleagues.

When he came back with other messengers, there were already a lot of documents piled up in front of Luo Sigong.

"Send a message to the East Office!" Luo Sigong produced two orders and an imperial edict bearing the imperial seal, handing them to the messenger who had arrived first. "Effective immediately, Captain Luo Sigong will be relieved of his post as acting commander of the East Office and will return to the Experience Office. Captain Liu Chengxi will be promoted to assistant commander and given the seal of the East Office."

"Yes." The messenger's expression changed slightly. He took the three documents and then quickly ran out of the office.

"Send a message to the Right Thousand Household and the Western Office!" Again, two orders and one imperial edict, but this messenger had to travel to two different locations. "Thousand Household Wang Shisheng, promoted to Assistant Commander. Effective immediately, he will be transferred to the Western Office and assume the helm of the Western Office. The former Western Office Commander will be relieved of his post and made available to you."

"Yes."

"Send an order to Zhang Maozhong, the paid assistant commander, to take charge of the seal of the street housing from today. The former street housing commander will be relieved of his post and be made available to the new position." This time there were only two orders, but no imperial edict.

"Yes!"

While Luo Yangxing's dismissal and Liu Chengxi's ascension to power were within everyone's expectations, the fact that all three governors were replaced in one day was unprecedented since the establishment of the three independent offices.

For a moment, all the officials in the hall were shocked, instinctively realizing that something big was about to happen.

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Inside the East Office, Luo Yangxing was wandering the courtyard between the main gate and the main hall, a cup of tea in hand, enjoying the last rays of the setting sun. Meanwhile, Captain Liu Chengxi sat in his seat, rather angrily, cleaning up Luo Yangxing's mess.

To Liu Chengxi, the mission to track down the fugitive from Tianjin was simply incomprehensible. The whole thing was filled with an indescribable strangeness.

Who tipped off Tianjin? No one knows. Was the body that suddenly appeared and disappeared a fugitive? No one knows. If not, where did the fugitive go? No one knows.

After a series of investigations, the Eastern Office mobilized the Qianhu Division to surround the residences of the nobles and relatives. The commotion was so severe that martial law was imposed at all four gates of the imperial palace. In the end, the case was closed without any investigation, leaving behind only a mountain of troublesome matters that needed to be recorded and recorded. It was a case that began and ended inexplicably.

But it's a good thing, given how things have turned out. Luo Yangxing likely won't be able to secure his position as the Eastern Secretariat Commander. Luo Sigong might even be implicated, forced out of office amidst the impeachment campaigns from various government offices, and even held accountable. From Liu Chengxi's perspective, the palace's distrust of Luo Sigong's Imperial Guard is already evident. Otherwise, why would they suddenly remove all the Imperial Guard soldiers from the palace?
While he was daydreaming, a messenger from the Commandery ran into the East Office.

Aside from the important orders directly issued by the Chief Guard, all orders for the Jinyiwei headquarters came from the Experience Department. Every messenger was extremely familiar with Luo Yangxing. Therefore, when the messenger entered the courtyard, he immediately recognized Luo Yangxing strolling in the courtyard. Without hesitation, he went up to him and saluted, saying, "Expert, the master has an order."

Luo Yangxing seemed to have anticipated this. He simply said "OK" and walked straight into the main hall.

The messenger followed him half a step behind. When Luo Yangxing stood in the center of the main hall, the messenger shouted in his ancestral loud voice:
"General Wei has given orders! Liu Chengxi and Luo Yangxing, listen!"

Liu Chengxi was still absorbed in writing his documents, and the shout nearly knocked his brush off his hand. Frowning, he approached the messenger. Together with the calm Luo Yangxing, they lifted their robes and stepped forward, kneeling on one knee and clasping their hands in a bow. "I respectfully obey your command, Commander."

"Captain Luo Yangxing, you are dismissed from your post as acting governor of the Eastern Office and will return to the Experience Office." The messenger handed the dismissal order to Luo Yangxing. After Luo Yangxing took it, he handed the promotion order and the imperial edict to Liu Chengxi and said:
"Captain Liu Chengxi, promoted to deputy commander. Holds the seal of the Eastern Office."

"I obey your orders." Luo Yangxing stood up leisurely and returned to the newly created seat to pack up his things. Liu Chengxi, on the other hand, stood there in a daze, without any reaction.

"Admiral Liu, please take the order." The messenger reminded softly.

"Oh!" Liu Chengxi seemed to have just woken up from a dream. He hurriedly said, "I obey your orders."

Since the Eastern Office Commander was an imperial guard, Liu Chengxi had to pay homage to the emperor and kowtow from afar, even though the imperial seal was affixed by an eunuch from the Imperial Affairs Bureau after receiving orders.

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"Liu Chenshi." A short while later, Luo Yangxing, who had already collected his personal belongings, came to Liu Chengxi and said, "The seal of our office has been returned to the main desk. I have troubled you with our affairs these days, and I have nothing to hand over. I will take my leave now."

"Wait!" Although doubts were all over Liu Chengxi's face, he still held tightly to the two documents that he had been thinking about for a long time.

Luo Yangxing immediately stopped his pretentious steps, turned around, looked at Liu Chengxi, and asked with a smile: "Liu Chenshi, is there anything else you want to tell me?"

"Why?" Liu Chengxi asked in a deep voice.

"Why?" Luo Yangxing asked with a smile, his face relaxed. "I don't quite understand what you mean. Can you be more straightforward?"

Liu Chengxi had many questions, but he didn't know how to phrase them properly, so after hesitating for a long time, he only vaguely asked, "Why now?"

"Why can't it be now?" Luo Yangxing asked again.

Liu Chengxi was stuck. Rewards, punishments, promotions, and demotions all came from above. Since the order for his promotion came from Luo Sigong, it proved that he still enjoyed the emperor's trust. Considering his own recent actions, Liu Chengxi even felt that this promotion might be a subtle warning.

But was it really a knock? Was the Luo family still in the Jinyiwei power hierarchy? What exactly happened recently?
"Oh!" Liu Chengxi really couldn't ask and could only sigh.

"There must be a reason for what's happening now. You'll understand the reason sooner or later." Luo Yangxing continued to make witty remarks with the attitude of "If you don't ask, I won't tell you."

After waiting for a moment, seeing Liu Chengxi still remained silent, Luo Yangxing turned and left. "All this is for the Emperor," Luo Yangxing uttered as he neared the door, leaving Liu Chengxi to ponder. As soon as Luo Yangxing left, a group of East Office officers, led by Zou Zhiyou, immediately surrounded him, congratulating the new governor and expressing their loyalty. But Liu Chengxi didn't let this gloat him. As he perfunctorily dealt with these flatterers, a figure suddenly emerged in his mind.

He thought to himself: Was Hai Zhentao really "demoted"?
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As the sun was setting, Liu Yirong, who had returned with the imperial edict, pushed open the door of the duty room.

Shen seemed to be staring at the door. As soon as Liu Yirong came in, he immediately gave a very bright smile.

"Master Liu, you're back?" Shen's smile was warm and his tone gentle. If someone unaware of the situation saw this, they would have thought he and Liu Yirong were close friends.

"Mr. Shen, you're too polite." But Liu Yirong had no intention of paying attention to him at all.

After numerous exchanges, both overt and covert, Liu Yirong realized that even he and Han Yu combined might not be Shen's match in verbal combat. This man was a master at rambling, twisting facts, and attacking with complete righteousness. There was no effective way to deal with such a man. One could only avoid his attack and avoid verbal exchanges. He couldn't be driven away anyway, and talking too much would only make him more agitated.

Liu Yirong came up to Fang Congzhe and greeted him, "Prime Minister."

Fang Congzhe thought Liu Yirong was here to report back, so he gave him an apologetic smile and said softly, "Ji Hui, you've worked hard."

To be honest, Fang Congzhe still admired Liu Yirong. He could see that among the old men in this cabinet, Liu Yirong was the youngest and most energetic. He was not only bold in his ideas, but also had strong execution, with a lot of Zhang Xiang's legacy.

But no matter how much he admired Liu Yirong, he could not get too close to him. Under the existing political structure in the court, even if he supported Liu Yirong's ideas, he had to be roundabout and speak in a tactful way.

After decades in government, the old Prime Minister had seen clearly that factional strife would always exist, and even if he was the Prime Minister and the publicly elected leader of the Zhejiang Party, he could only mediate, not eliminate.

Just like even now, some people still criticize Xiong Tingbi, but compared to before, their words are less fierce, and they are more willing to use facts rather than conjecture as their arguments. The current popular argument is that the Liaodong teachers and old men were wasting national funds by giving away money, and they only knew how to defend without striving for progress. Now that the situation in Liaodong has stabilized, they should take the initiative to attack, recapture lost territory, and directly attack the enemy's lair.

"Prime Minister. The inner court has started to lay off staff!" Liu Yirong raised his voice so that everyone could hear clearly.

"Huh?" Fang Congzhe's smile froze. "Layoffs? Who told you that?"

"He was a student I taught when I was teaching at the Nei Shu Tang, Li Yongzhen, the director of the Western Factory. I ran into him at the Guanglu Temple just now and asked him casually." Liu Yirong did not shy away from saying that he was the teacher of the Nei Guanchang official.

In this respect, he and Shen were the same. During the Lunar New Year, the factory director Wei Zhongxian personally visited Shen and presented him with gifts and money as a student. Shen accepted the gifts as he saw no violation of protocol and even invited Wei Zhongxian to his home for a meal. This incident was impeached by the censors, but Shen simply made the gift list public and retorted with the sentiment of teacher-student friendship. The impeachment letter and the defense were sent to the Southern Study, and the emperor's reaction was also very flat, with only the three words passed down from generation to generation: "I understand."

"Abolish the Guanglu Temple?" Fang Congzhe asked doubtfully, "I haven't heard Xu Zixian mention that."

The Guanglu Temple was a government office under dual internal and external supervision. Internally, because it oversaw the procurement of food for the Imperial Court and provided food to the Imperial Kitchen, it came under the supervision of the Imperial Kitchen Supervisor, the eunuch Guanglu. Externally, because the Guanglu Temple was responsible for procuring offerings for large-scale sacrificial ceremonies and preparing ceremonial banquets, it served as a subordinate office of the Ministry of Rites. Furthermore, on the political spectrum, the Guanglu Temple was closer to the Outer Court than to the Inner Court. In principle, the eunuch Guanglu Supervisor had no authority to recommend a replacement for the Guanglu Temple's chief minister. Instead, recommendations from the Ministry of Rites or the Ministry of Rites carried significant weight.

"It's not just the Guanglu Temple, but the entire inner court," Liu Yirong said. "Li Yongzhen told me that the layoffs at the Xixinsi are almost complete. The Guanglu Temple and the Shangshenjian are the next in line."

"Oh!" Ye Xianggao said with a wry smile, "Here we go again."

When Ye Xianggao was forced to serve as the sole minister of the cabinet, he wrote to his teacher, Shen Shixing, complaining that many decisions were being implemented without the approval of the cabinet, and that ministers sometimes had to hear about them from others. As a cabinet member, Ye Xianggao even vehemently told Shen Shixing that rather than continue in this state, it would be better to abolish cabinet approval and restore the ancestral system of the Hongwu era, with the emperor directly managing the six ministries.

Of course, even Ye Xianggao himself knew this was just empty talk. If the cabinet were abolished, the late emperor would likely be the first to object. If the emperor were to make all decisions, how could he possibly rest and recuperate, acting like a living ancestor?

Fang Congzhe glanced at Ye Xianggao with a look of sympathy. Then he asked Liu Yirong, "What else did you find out?"

"The plan is very radical. They say at least half of the employees will be laid off!" Liu Yirong said seriously.

"The entire inner court is going to be cut in half!" Fang Congzhe was just as shocked as Liu Yirong, and he couldn't sit still any longer. "I have to go to the study and ask."

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"The Chief Minister of the Cabinet, Fang Congzhe, requests an audience!" Although the emperor allowed some cabinet ministers to enter and exit the Southern Study at will without notifying them, Fang Congzhe still exercised caution and asked the eunuch on duty to call out his name.

"Please come in, Lord." It was Liu Ruoyu who came to open the door for Fang Congzhe.

Fang Congzhe smiled and nodded at the young scribe, who was not very familiar to him, and then walked to the center of the hall, kowtowed to the emperor, and shouted "Long live the emperor".

"Mr. Fang, please sit down and talk." As soon as Zhu Changluo finished speaking, Liu Ruoyu moved the stool under Fang Congzhe's butt.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Fang Congzhe was already accustomed to this honor. If he came here one day and was not given a seat, he would have had some wild thoughts.

"The Prime Minister is here to ask about layoffs, right?" Zhu Changluo spoke first.

"No one is more wise than the Emperor." Fang Congzhe expressed his affirmation by praising the emperor.

"I thought the person coming here would be Liu Yirong." Zhu Changluo said with a slightly lost tone.

Fang Congzhe's heart trembled. You know, Liu Yirong's trip there and back only took a little over half an hour.

"It's good that you came." Zhu Changluo relaxed his expression and pointed at Liu Ruoyu. "If you have any questions, just ask directly. The CEO has already called you."

(End of this chapter)