Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 471 Relief
Mi Mengshang rode in a sedan chair and arrived at Qianqing Gate without any obstruction.

Seeing her approach, Shi Fuming, the chief steward of the Qianqing Palace, who was stationed in the right side room of the Qianqing Palace, immediately put down his work and went out to greet her. "Your servant greets the Concubine Shen."

Mi Mengshang nodded silently, bowed slightly in return, and went straight to the south study.

After Concubine Kang and Concubine Zhuang moved out of the Qianqing Palace, she was the only concubine in the entire Taichang harem who could enter and leave the Qianqing Palace freely without notifying the emperor.

Mi Mengshang's arrival caught the attention of everyone in the room. The three eunuchs in charge of ceremonies had different expressions. Wei Chao looked a little surprised, Liu Ruoyu was slightly startled, and Wang An's face was a little solemn and alert.

"I am Mi Mengshang, and I kowtow to the emperor." Mi Mengshang walked to the front of the imperial desk and kowtowed to the emperor.

"You're here. Please sit down." Zhu Changluo put down his pen and nodded towards Wang An.

Wang An looked at Mi Mengshang deeply. Instead of calling anyone, he stood up and walked to the corner and brought a stool to the space between Mi Mengshang and the imperial desk.

"Put it wherever you want," Zhu Changluo pointed to the empty seat next to him. "Put it here."

"Yes." Wang An lowered his head and moved the stool to the position next to the emperor.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for the seat." Mi Mengshang bowed to the emperor again before getting up from the ground.

Mi Mengshang walked to the side of the stool and nodded to Wang An who was passing by her. Although Wang An still lowered his head, he still responded to the gesture.

"Why are you here?" Zhu Changluo stretched out his hand, and Mi Mengshang also obediently extended her hand for the emperor to hold.

Mi Mengshang lowered her head, squinted her eyes slightly, and carefully observed the emperor's expression. She found that although the emperor's face was a little haggard and tired, he did not look angry, and his hair crown was still as meticulous as usual.

"Your Majesty," Mi Mengshang said, "The previous case of conspiracy to embezzle money inside and outside the palace has been concluded. This is what I came here to talk about." When Mi Mengshang finished speaking, Wang An actually breathed a sigh of relief.

"Conspiracy to embezzle wealth." Zhu Changluo had too many things to do. He was stunned for a moment, not knowing what Mi Mengshang meant. "Tell me in detail."

"The draft of the closing opinion is in my arms, with the details of the case attached. Your Majesty may wish to take it out and have a look." Mi Mengshang said.

"In his arms?" Zhu Changluo raised his eyebrows.

"Yes." Mi Mengshang puffed out her chest. "Your Majesty, please read it."

"You can take it yourself." Zhu Changluo chuckled and shook his head, letting go of her hand.

Mi Mengshang reached into her bosom, pulled out the draft of the case, and handed it over with both hands. "Your Majesty, please read it."

"Just tell me briefly." Zhu Changluo took the memorial and placed it on the table, but only opened the cover.

"Your Majesty," Mi Mengshang noticed that the Emperor seemed unrecognizable by the case, so she began from the beginning. "The incident occurred outside the palace. Initially, the military officers of various cities discovered the unusual deaths of eunuchs. Initially, they thought it was just a common criminal case, so they reported it to the Shuntian Prefecture Office. After receiving several similar reports, the Shuntian Prefecture Office realized the anomaly and believed that the case was not as simple as the military officers had assumed, but was closely related to the layoffs in the inner court. So, as usual, they reported the case to the Imperial Guard, hoping that they could assist in the investigation."

"After receiving the report, the Jinyiwei sent Zheng Shiyi, a captain from the Eastern Secretariat, to intervene and lead the investigation. During the Eastern Secretariat's investigation, another informant directly bypassed the Bingmasi and Shuntian Prefecture Office and reported what he had discovered to the City Patrol Censorate, and the Metropolitan Censorate was also involved. After that, a eunuch named Jiang Tuozi went to the Shuntian Prefecture Office to report the case. He said that he had been defrauded. He was the first eunuch to take the initiative to report the case to the yamen. It was only after this that the Western Factory, under the order of the Silijian, officially launched an investigation and arrest in the palace." Mi Mengshang had a good memory. She succinctly and comprehensively sorted out the entire process of the case in chronological order.

Zhu Changluo had a very shallow impression of this case. It wasn't until Mi Mengshang mentioned the outcome of the Censorate that he realized that these cases were actually the basis for the Censorate's report on the "serious deterioration of public security in the capital." "So, it means collusion between insiders and outsiders, robbery and murder?"

"Yes, Your Majesty is wise." As she recounted the case, Mi Mengshang had been secretly observing the Emperor's expression. By now, she was almost certain that the Emperor still didn't know about the "Nine Lotus Bodhisattva's Apparition." Mi Mengshang felt a little relieved, and she stopped wanting to comfort him.

Zhu Changluo asked, "Who did this?"

"There are quite a few. Almost every government office has several, totaling fifty-three. The perpetrators are mostly ordinary palace servants without official titles. There are only a few low-level officials, and no eunuchs above the department level were directly involved. But if we investigate negligence and dereliction of duty, there are still these people." Mi Mengshang reached out to flip through the draft of the case and showed the emperor the list. Zhu Changluo glanced at it and found that it was written on two full pages.

"Jin Yourong, Yang Wang, Xu Zixi, Ma Tao, Huang Yifan, are these the masterminds?" Zhu Changluo asked, pointing at the people who were sentenced to death.

"Your Majesty. Strictly speaking, these individuals cannot be considered the masterminds. This is because these individuals are not responsible for a single case, but rather for numerous separate, smaller crimes. They worked in groups of two or three, or even independently." Mi Mengshang leaned forward, approaching the imperial desk, running her index finger over a list of names. "Only Jin Yourong, Director of the Miscellaneous Works Bureau of the Imperial Household Department, and Yang Wang, Bookkeeper of the Imperial Clothing Bureau, along with these individuals, show clear evidence of collusion and a division of labor."

"An independent case?" Zhu Changluo gently patted the back of Mi Mengshang's hand. He then picked up the memorial, flipped to the case details, and quickly skimmed through it.

Zhu Changluo discovered that while theft, robbery, and murder were common among these crimes, fraud was the primary cause. The most common justification for these frauds was that they could "buy a way back to the palace." This was impossible. The power to recruit palace servants was entirely vested in the Imperial Household Department, under the direct supervision of the eunuch Wang An. All other government offices could only recruit new servants from the Imperial Household Department.

Furthermore, Wang An's power was limited. He didn't have the authority to independently formulate recruitment plans. The number of recruits for each quarter, where to recruit, when to begin recruitment, and when to end recruitment were all decided after thorough discussions in the imperial court. If there were unplanned additional staffing needs, reports had to be sent all the way from the lower-level government offices all the way to the emperor.

"Have you found out everything?" Zhu Changluo put down the memorial and looked at Mi Mengshang.

"Your Majesty, I have only found out what I could." Mi Mengshang turned her face slightly and did not look at the emperor.

"What can't be found?" Zhu Changluo asked.

Mi Mengshang explained: "In this investigation, the executive yamen adopted an outside-in investigation method, that is, first find the yamen to which the victimized eunuch belonged before he was laid off, and then gradually explore his interpersonal relationships. After finding out, those palace servants who were not laid off will be interrogated one by one. But some cases are simply headless cases, and there is no way to follow the clues. For example, the first case reported by the Bingmasi to the Shuntian Prefecture Office was an obvious murder and robbery, but until now the identity of the deceased cannot be determined. We only know that it was a poor eunuch who was alone. There are at least seven similar cases. The Western Factory can no longer investigate, and can only hope that the criminals involved in the case will be found..." Mi Mengshang paused, and changed his words: "We can only hope that the rectification yamen will find the criminals involved in the case." "Well, let's do this for now," Zhu Changluo nodded. "Those who have colluded with outsiders will be detained for the time being, and the Ministry of Justice will give them to them if needed. The rest will be dealt with according to this opinion. Those who deserve to be killed will be publicly executed on a chosen day. Those who deserve to be demoted will be found a place to go by the Imperial Household Department. As for the leadership responsibilities for dereliction of duty, forget about demoting them, just record it and fine them their salaries." Zhu Changluo turned to the last page and circled it with a red pen.

"Yes." Wang An and Mi Mengshang responded in unison.

Mi Mengshang stood up and bowed. "I will be leaving soon."

Wang An also held on to the chair, as if he wanted to stand up.

"Sit down. I have something to ask you." Zhu Changluo waved his hand downwards, stopping the two men's movements.

Mi Mengshang was startled and inexplicably nervous. She subconsciously glanced in Wang An's direction and found that Wang An was also paying attention to her. She didn't know whether he was looking at her or the emperor. "Please ask the emperor."

"Can't you see clearly?" Zhu Changluo asked.

Mi Mengshang nodded blankly. She had never expected the emperor to ask this. "Yes. I have an eye disease."

"You must be nearsighted." Zhu Changluo said.

"Shortsighted?"

Zhu Changluo smiled dumbly and asked, "Is it because you can't see clearly at a distance, but can only see things close to you? Sometimes, you have to squint slightly to see clearly?"

Mi Mengshang was frightened by the emperor. Her first reaction was not that the emperor was meticulous and considerate, but that the people around her revealed her daily life information to the emperor in detail. The emperor's kind smile was also blurred by her eyes and turned into ridicule. Mi Mengshang couldn't help but feel sad, her heart was sour, and her voice was choked with sobs. "Hmm"

Zhu Changluo didn't notice Mi Mengshang's abnormality and continued to talk to himself: "You can't see clearly at a distance, and you squint when you see up close. This is myopia."

Mi Mengshang was so upset she wanted to cry, feeling like something was stuck in her chest. She saw through everything but didn't say anything, simply saying, "I have a serious eye disease, and my eyes are as dark as white. I beg the Emperor to remove me from my post. I wish to live in the deep palace and not be involved in external affairs." Mi Mengshang felt that her sincerity had been misplaced. Despite her sincerity, the Emperor still suspected her to such an extent. Perhaps all the maids and eunuchs in Yongshou Palace were carefully selected spies for the Emperor's service. The more she thought about it, the sadder she became, and tears actually flowed from the corners of her eyes.

"Why are you crying?" Zhu Changluo didn't understand what was going on. He held her cheeks with both hands and wiped away her tears with his thumbs. "Myopia isn't a serious problem. It won't blind you. Wang An, go get those glasses."

"Yes." Wang An stood up, walked to an unlocked cabinet, and took out a large square box from it.

"Master, please." Wang An placed the wooden box in front of the emperor and opened it. Before leaving, he glanced at Mi Mengshang. However, at this moment, Mi Mengshang was filled with self-pity and grievance, and she didn't notice the scrutiny and vigilance in the old eunuch's eyes.

"Alright," Zhu Changluo said firmly. "Shut up!"

After being so angry at the emperor, Mi Mengshang stopped sobbing, but her tears flowed even more violently.

"Why are you crying?" Zhu Changluo didn't understand.

"I don't know either," Mi Mengshang said, still playing the trick of "seeing through but not saying it out loud." "I just got emotional all of a sudden."

"Then calm down." Zhu Changluo thought she was inexplicably sympathizing with Concubine Shao, so he gently patted Mi Mengshang's face. Because his hands were stained with tears, these two pats were like rehydrating. "It's okay for you to cry here, it's okay to cry in your own bed, just don't let Jingren Palace hear it. It's really... Alas."

The thought of Jingren Palace filled Zhu Changluo with a headache. He could easily have ignored it, letting it process itself, or simply not visit it anymore. Guo, Wang, Li, Feng, and other concubines had all gone through the same thing. But Zhu Changluo hadn't inherited a heart of stone. He couldn't remain indifferent to the pain he saw.

Mi Mengshang realized that she seemed to have misunderstood the emperor's meaning, but once her tears were opened, it was difficult to stop them.

After Mi Mengshang calmed down a bit, Zhu Changluo turned around and took a pair of glasses. "These are glasses, or you can call them '叆叇'. Whatever you call them, they're made of clear crystal lenses. I can't give you an eye test right now. You'll have to try on a pair of glasses." Zhu Changluo looked into Mi Mengshang's eyes. "However, we can measure the pupil distance. Then we can ask a craftsman to make some adjustments. It shouldn't be a problem."

Mi Mengshang had heard of such things, but had never seen them before. She took the round-framed glasses, made of tortoise shell and decorated with simple patterns, from the emperor's hand and immediately understood their purpose: to cover the eyes.

"The one in your hand was made in the palace, and the degree is not very high." Zhu Changluo said.

"Is the emperor also nearsighted?" Mi Mengshang covered her eyes with a mirror, and her vision suddenly became much clearer.

"No. My eyesight is excellent. I can even see the bloodshot in your eyes." As far as vision is concerned, the Zhu family has excellent genes. At least the Yan Zongxing branch of the family is not short-sighted. Zhu Changluo didn't have any, and neither did his two sons.

"Then why did the emperor ask someone to do this?" Through her glasses, Mi Mengshang could clearly see the smile on the emperor's face. It wasn't a mockery at all, but rather a look of doting. She blushed, not knowing if it was out of shame or embarrassment.

"Don't be touched. I didn't do this just for you," Zhu Changluo said, speaking with such eloquence. "After all, I didn't realize you were nearsighted before."

"Who did the emperor do this for?" Mi Mengshang asked in a muffled voice.

"Those old men, each one has poorer eyesight than the other. I was originally planning to give them a reward, but since you are also nearsighted, I'll let you try it first.

(End of this chapter)