Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 352 Imperially Decreed Regulations for the Operation of Internal Transport Depots
After Zou Jiasheng recorded the expenditures according to the information on the official document, he used the small key he carried with him to open the cabinet behind him. He then pulled out a treasury key, longer than his palm. This was the key to treasury No. 1. There were three more keys like this in the cabinet, but currently only treasury No. 1 contained silver.

"Okay." Zou Jiasheng handed over the warehouse key with both hands.

"Let's go." Wang Ji waved his hand and turned away. He turned and, led by Tang Daoheng, headed towards the warehouse. Zou Jiasheng put his key in his pocket, closed the cabinet, and quickly followed.

Soon, the three officials arrived at the treasury entrance. Ambassador Cang was already waiting there with a group of officials. Beside them lay eight equally heavy silver chests, manufactured under the supervision of the Ministry of Works. "Meetings, Wang Zuotang," Ambassador Cang led the way in greeting.

"Open the position." Wang Ji just nodded in response.

"Yes." Zou Jiasheng quickly came to the door of the silver vault and used the long and thick key to open the pure copper door lock.

The lock opened, and two sturdy officials immediately stepped forward, using their arms to prop up the heavy door and push it open. After the door opened, neither Wang Ji nor Zou Jiasheng entered. Only Tang Daoheng, the head of the Taicang Treasury, the Treasury Ambassador, and a group of officials entered the treasury, carrying empty boxes to transfer the silver.

Currently, the silver stored in the Taicang Silver Vault, like the silver stored in the four branches of the Beijing branch, is almost entirely in the form of bars and blocks of "Taichang Silver." Wang Ji was not present when this batch of silver was received. Now, seeing these neatly stacked bars and blocks of silver, he couldn't help but wonder, "Why is this silver in such a shape?"

Zou Jiasheng had a keen eye and spotted a number of old-style silver ingots in a newly moved box. He walked over, holding an old silver ingot in one hand and a new silver bar in the other, and handed them to Wang Ji. "Not only are there bars, but there are also flat horseshoe-shaped ingots like this."

"But the flat horseshoe-shaped silver ingots are almost all used up." Wang Ji still refused to take it, so Zou Jiasheng had to show him the inscription "Taichang Silver". "These newly made silver bars and silver nuggets are just different in shape. There is no problem with the purity and weight."

"I saw it. Put it back. People are still waiting." Wang Ji nodded thoughtfully.

"Left Hall, I would like to ask you a question." Zou Jiasheng put the silver back into the silver box. The clerks who were carrying the box immediately put the silver box on a large scale specially used in the Taicang Silver Vault and weighed both the silver and the box together.

"That's what you said." Wang Ji no longer looked at the silver being transported out, but instead focused most of his attention on the large scale.

Zou Jiasheng thought for a moment and said, "This silver is sent back to the internal transport warehouse, and then exchanged for silver notes from the bank and issued to the officials. After the officials receive the silver notes, they take them to the bank to exchange them for cash. Isn't this a waste of time?"

"I don't know." Wang Ji shook his head and said, "I only received the imperial edict yesterday when the court was about to end."

When the eunuch came to convey the imperial eunuch's order to Wang Ji, he only told him some concepts that the eunuch himself did not understand, and did not even bring a copy of the "Provisional Banking Regulations" for him to read.

"I think this is partly due to the need to regulate currency and paper money." Wang Ji raised his lips and urged, "If you have any questions, please submit a petition."

"Then..." Zou Jiasheng hesitated.

"Haha." Wang Ji turned around and smiled, then teased, "Of course, maybe the emperor just knew you were looking at those vulgar things in the government office, so he deliberately found you some work to do so that you wouldn't be so idle." Wang Ji sighed pretentiously, "But this is really making my old bones suffer."

Zou Jiasheng probably understood the acting minister's temperament, so he retorted, "Young Minister, how do you know this book is vulgar?"

"Because I have one at home." Wang Ji smiled, but his eyes never left the scale. "But I'm not like some people who bring books to the government office and openly read them while they're there. And I study them so diligently, taking notes."

Zou Jiasheng couldn't argue with Wang Ji, so he could only smile awkwardly and change the subject, "Young Master, who do you think this Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng is?"

"I don't know. Maybe he's from the mountains of Yanzhou." Wang Ji nodded to Ambassador Cang, and Ambassador Cang instructed the clerk to close the silver box and seal it.

"Yanzhou Shanren?" Zou Jiasheng was stunned for a moment before he continued, "Are you talking about Wang Fengzhou, the author of 'Yanshantang Bieji'?"

"Yes. 'Yanzhou Shanren' is his nickname." Wang Ji asked, "Do you have this set of books at home?"

"I don't actually own this set of books. I've only borrowed them from friends." Zou Jiasheng shook his head. "Why do you say he wrote this 'Ci Hua'?"

"There's a rumor going around. I don't have the time to go to Taicang to verify it." Wang Ji continued to watch the box of silver being weighed down. "Aren't you also from Nanzhili? When you go back home to visit your family, you might stop by Taicang to pay a visit to Uncle Wang Jiong. I just don't know if he's still alive."

The Taicang mentioned by Wang Ji refers to Wang Shizhen's hometown, Taicang Prefecture in the Southern Zhili Suzhou Prefecture. Wang Jiongbo is Wang Shizhen's eldest son Wang Shiqi, and Jiongbo is his courtesy name.

Like Wang Ji, Wang Shiqi was a Jinshi in the 17th year of the Wanli reign. After the announcement of the imperial examinations, Wang Shiqi remained in Beijing as a director of the Ministry of War, while Wang Ji was directly exiled. Therefore, the two had almost no interaction until Wang Ji was transferred back to Beijing in the 26th year of the Wanli reign to serve as a director of the Ministry of Rites.

After Wang Ji arrived in Beijing, he visited Wang Shiqi several times because he admired Wang Shizhen's literary reputation. However, for a long time, only a copy of "Jin Ping Mei Ci Hua" was circulated, and it was rarely circulated. There was no speculation that Wang Shizhen had written this book, so Wang Ji naturally did not ask.

By the time he heard that "Jin Ping Mei Ci Hua" was written by Wang Shizhen and bought a printed copy in his study, Wang Shiqi had already been implicated in the second demonic book case and had been dismissed from office and stripped of his official title. Wang Ji never saw Wang Shiqi again.

"Suzhou." Zou Jiasheng, unaware of this past, simply nodded. "Well, it's not far from Changzhou. If I get a chance, I'll definitely visit. I'll write you when I find out." Zou Jiasheng was from Changzhou Prefecture. Changzhou was originally named Changzhou. Last August, Emperor Taichang Zhu Changluo ascended the throne, and to avoid using the emperor's name, the city was renamed.

"You're pretty good."

While Wang Ji and Zou Jiasheng were chatting with each other, 80,000 taels of cash had already been packed.

"Okay. Zuo Tang, the 80,000 taels of silver are here." Tang Daoheng came up to Wang Ji and waved his hand towards the eight large boxes.

Ambassador Cang and a clerk each brought an open booklet and an ink-dipped brush. "Master Zuotang, please sign this." This was the final step. Only after Wang Ji signed his name could the eight large boxes of cash be officially released from the warehouse and loaded onto the truck.

"Okay." Wang Jiquan watched the process of packing and weighing the silver, so he had no questions.

He picked up the pen and was about to sign his name in the corresponding place, but suddenly paused. He saw that after the previous date, there were three big characters "Li Ruhua".

Almost half an hour later, eight horse-drawn carriages carrying silver left Xintaicang under the escort of warehouse soldiers and drove west along Dongzhimen Street.

The distance from Xintaicang to Dong'anmen was nearly ten miles, so even if we jogged all the way and had the soldiers lead the way, it took us almost three quarters of an hour to finish the journey.

Wang Ji's sedan chair landed at the gate of Dong'anmen, and Tang Daoheng also jumped off the first carriage. His rank was too low, so even if he could afford a sedan chair bearer, he could not ride in the sedan chair.

"Let's go. It's getting late." Wang Ji bowed and got out of the sedan chair. He found that the sedan chairs that came to take the elders home were already waiting in a specially designated open space next to Dong'anmen.

"Yes."

The two of them walked to the door together. Wang Ji took out his badge and handed it to the guard, saying, "We are from the Ministry of Revenue. We have been ordered to transfer cash from the Taicang Silver Vault to the Neichengyun Vault."

"I know. We've been told." The guard checked the badge and handed it back to Wang Ji. "But only the carriage and its driver can enter. The warehouse guards must remain outside."

"Okay." Wang Ji put away his badge, returned to the convoy, and said a few words to the general flag commander who was in charge of the warehouse troops.

"Assemble!" the general flag shouted, and the soldiers guarding the treasury silver separated from the convoy.

Then, the carriage team carrying the silver started moving again.

On the way to the Neichengyunku warehouse, soldiers from the Zhishangwei followed them all the time.

Far from feeling offended, Wang Ji was actually pleased. After the assassination, the "lax palace security" had been widely criticized. Zhang Cha had originally entered the palace via the same route from Dong'an Gate to Donghua Gate. Wang Ji was pleased that the emperor had fully learned from this lesson and tightened the palace security.

When the convoy arrived at the door of the warehouse, there was already a eunuch in a red robe and several low-ranking eunuchs in green robes waiting there. Seeing the convoy approaching, the eunuchs immediately went to greet it.

The eunuchs in scarlet robes took the lead in bowing to Wang Jiban, who was wearing a third-rank peacock robe, and said, "Greetings, Minister Wang."

"Who is this eunuch?" Wang Ji took a closer look and discovered that the scarlet robe was embroidered with a bull with a python head and bull horns, its horns curving downwards. This was clearly a bullfighting robe that was not part of the order of rank.

"Hmm?" The eunuch in the bullfighting robe was stunned for a moment, then glanced at Tang Daoheng before introducing himself: "I am the eunuch in charge of the Neichengyunku, Wu Mingzhe."

Wu Mingzhe was also a veteran of the Ciqing Palace, but his importance and presence were far less prominent than those of Wang An, the Crown Prince's tutor, Li Jian, the Ciqing Palace's general manager, or Shi Fuming, the kitchen manager. Furthermore, his personal abilities were relatively mediocre. Therefore, even after the transition from old to new, thanks to his connections with the former eunuchs, he could only serve as an ordinary eunuch with no personnel authority. It was practically impossible for any of the two prisons and two factories to bark at him.

However, Wang Ji still treated him politely. "So it's Eunuch Wu. My apologies."

"You're so polite, Minister Wang." Wu Mingzhe was very pleased with Wang Ji's courtesy. After bowing again, he looked at Tang Daoheng beside Wang Ji with a slightly reproachful smile. "Meeting Director Tang too."

Tang Daoheng then realized that he had forgotten to introduce Wu Mingzhe to Wang Ji in advance, so he could only bow awkwardly and said with an awkward smile: "Greetings, Eunuch Wu."

Wu Mingzhe and Tang Daoheng had met before, when the Neicheng Transport Warehouse delivered silver to the Taicang Silver Vault. However, the person accompanying Tang Daoheng and Zou Jiasheng at that time was Li Ruhua, not Wang Ji. And just as Li Ruhua and Wang Ji held concurrent positions as Deputy Directors of the Ministry of Revenue, Wu Mingzhe also held a part-time position. If Feng Ke, the Junior Supervisor of the Treasury, hadn't accompanied Cui Zhongqing to Liaodong to reward the troops, he would have been the one to receive the silver now.

After exchanging greetings, Wang Ji said to Wu Mingzhe, "The eighty thousand taels of silver have arrived."

"Okay." Wu Mingzhe waved his hand, and the eunuchs in green robes standing behind him immediately took their eunuchs to unload the goods from the trucks.

As the recipient's internal transport warehouse, we must not only weigh the goods, but also inspect their quality.

It was impossible to inspect every ingot or bar of 80,000 taels of silver, so random inspections were the only options. Otherwise, just this inspection alone would take up most of the day.

The Nei Cheng Yun Ku's method of random inspection involved taking out all the silver and then sorting it into piles according to the weight marked on the silver. Lots were drawn from each pile, and the ingot that came up was inspected. According to the "Imperial Regulations for the Nei Cheng Yun Ku," the inspection rate was 50% for every 1 tael of silver. In other words, 4,000 taels of silver would be inspected out of the 80,000 taels.

Because so many people participated in the random inspection, it wasn't long before eighteen 100-liang silver bars, twenty 50-liang silver bars, three 50-liang old-style silver ingots, twenty 20-liang silver bars, thirty 10-liang silver bars, fifty-two 5-liang silver bars, and ninety 1-liang silver ingots were all picked out. Next, the four standard inspection steps of marking, cutting, color observation, and weighing were followed. Soon, all 233 different weights of silver were inspected.

"The seal is ready, no problem at all." Director Sang Bingzhi of the Clipping Inspection Bureau came to Wu Mingzhe and reported.

Wu Mingzhe didn't reply immediately. Instead, he glanced at the West Factory External Auditor's resident transport officer standing beside him. Seeing the officer nod silently, he gave the order, "Weigh it."

The supplementary regulations to the "Imperially Decreed Regulations for the Administration of the Internal Transport Depot" stipulated that the Western Factory External Audit Office was required to dispatch a permanent clerk to the Internal Transport Depot to oversee all inbound and outbound operations. This clerk would be replaced quarterly. Following this transfer, the clerk would undergo a comprehensive review by the Western Factory Internal Audit Office. If they passed, they would receive an assignment allowance of ten taels. Failure to pass the review would result in the clerk being transferred to the Imperial Household Department for special investigation by the Clean Materials Office. Penalties would be determined based on the circumstances of the case, with no upper limit.

Although the management of the Neichengyunku was completely reorganized, the grassroots eunuchs were merely dismissed according to Liu Ruoyu's standards, removing some of the old and weak. Since most of them were skilled workers, the eunuchs were very efficient, and it didn't take long for them to weigh the 80,000 taels of silver three times in batches.

"The total weight is 80,000 taels, no problem at all." Sang Bingzhi reported again.

"Yeah." The resident clerk nodded.

"Sign the contract." Eunuch Wu waved his hand.

(End of this chapter)