Jingtai: Making the Ming Dynasty Great Again

Chapter 156 The reason is not in Nanjing

Liu Dun stood by the river for a long time; he had come out to clear his mind.

He had been rebuffed all day at the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate and felt extremely frustrated.

Upon returning to the inn, he was unable to find Yu Shiyue to report the investigation results.

Instead, he changed into a blue cloth robe and came to the riverbank alone, wanting to feel the breeze and clear his mind.

It was dusk, and boats were shuttling back and forth on the river, with fishing boats singing their evening songs and merchant ships returning to port.

On the dock, porters were busy unloading goods, their shouts and calls rising and falling.

The river breeze, carrying the fishy smell of water, swept over Liu Dun, which somewhat eased the knot in his chest.

He strolled along the riverbank for a long time, and before he knew it, he had drifted far from the dock.

The riverbank was covered with withered weeds, with only bare stalks shivering in the wind.

A man was squatting by the weeds, drinking water from an earthenware pot. Judging from his attire, he was a boatman.

After finishing his water, the man looked up, saw Liu Dun, and grinned. "Sir, are you also here to see the river view?"

Liu Dun nodded and sat down on a clean rock next to the man.

The boatman, a man in his forties, sized up Liu Dun and asked, "Sir, are you from out of town?"

Liu Dun casually replied, "From the capital."

The boatman's eyes lit up: "The capital? That's a great place! I heard the city walls are even higher than Nanjing's?"

Liu Dun smiled but did not reply.

The boatman didn't seem to care and said to himself, "I've been sailing on the river for twenty years, what kind of people haven't I seen?"

A gentleman like this doesn't look like someone in business, and there aren't any candidates taking the imperial examinations this season.

"Sir, you are most likely a government official."

Liu Dun glanced at him and said, "Old man, you have a good eye."

The boatman waved his hand: "What eyesight do you have? You've just seen a lot."

A few years ago, there was a high-ranking official from the capital who would often come to the riverbank and chat with us boatmen.

later----"

He stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence, looked around, and then lowered his voice: "Then that person disappeared."

I heard he was transferred, either to Guangxi or Yunnan.

I don't understand those things, I only know that I haven't seen him since then.

Liu Dun's heart skipped a beat: "Old man, do you still remember that person's surname?"

The boatman thought for a moment: "Perhaps the surname is Chen?"

Yes, his surname is Chen.

That year was the tenth year of the Zhengtong era; I remember it clearly.

Because that year the river flooded, submerging many docks.

He pointed to the distance: "Back then, that guy surnamed Chen often sat in that teahouse over there."

Invite the boatmen for tea, ask how much tax is collected on the river, ask the dockworkers how much they earn a day, and ask if the government is making things difficult for anyone.

We found it strange at the time, wondering why an official would be asking such questions.

Liu Dun asked, "And then?"

The boatman shook his head: "Later I heard that he was transferred, and after that, no one in the teahouse asked about these things anymore."

After saying that, he stood up and patted the dirt off his clothes: "Sir, we have to go now. We need to get home before dark."

We're just saying this to you; just listen and don't spread it around.

Liu Dun nodded: "Thank you, sir."

The boatman took a few steps and then suddenly turned back: "Sir, if you really want to find out something, don't go to the teahouse or the restaurant."

In those places, there are many people and a lot of eyes, so whatever you say will be heard.

"It's windy by the river here, so our conversations won't get carried away."

After saying that, he picked up the earthenware pot and disappeared behind the withered grass.

Liu Dun sat on the rock, gazing at the gradually darkening river surface without moving for a long time.

In the tenth year of the Zhengtong reign, an official surnamed Chen was transferred to Guangxi.

This matched something he had vaguely heard about when he was in the capital.

In those years, several censors from Nanjing were indeed transferred to remote provinces.

Liu Dun recalled the setbacks he had encountered at the Censorate during the day.

The fact that Censors Zhou and Wu refused to say anything didn't necessarily mean they didn't know; they simply didn't dare to speak.

The river wind blew even more fiercely, and Liu Dun got up, dusted off his robes, and walked back.

He didn't go to the teahouse or the restaurant, but went straight back to the inn.

Some things are enough to hear casually from a boatman on the riverbank.

Inside the inn, Yu Shiyue's room was brightly lit with candles.

Zhao Rong, Li Xian, and Liu Dun returned one after another and each reported the results of their investigation over the day.

Zhao Rong spoke first: "Governor Yu, I spent the whole day at the Armory today."

He then recounted in detail what Manager Li had said, as well as the blank ledgers, the old goods from the Xuande period in the warehouse, and the things that had been labeled.

Finally, Zhao Rong said, "Governor Yu, in my opinion, the problem with the Armory is not corruption, but a lack of funds."

Starting from the sixth year of the Zhengtong reign, the funds allocated by the imperial court to the Bureau of Military Equipment decreased year by year.

By the thirteenth and fourteenth years of the Zhengtong reign, the number had simply dropped to zero.

Without money, how can we make firearms?

They could only clear out their old stock and transport it to Beijing.

The manager, Mr. Li, even put up labels to remind people that these firearms had been in stock for many years and had not been inspected.

But we didn't see those labels at all when we inspected the premises in Tongzhou.

Yu Shiyue frowned: "So those labels were torn off?"

Zhao Rong nodded: "Very likely."

I had someone ask Manager Li carefully, and he said that every single box was labeled, and he labeled it himself.

He also kept a copy, a labeled list.

I brought back a copy of that list.

He took a folded booklet from his sleeve and presented it to him.

Yu Shiyue took it and examined it carefully.

Li Xian continued, "Governor Yu, I checked the expenditure records from the sixth to the fourteenth year of the Zhengtong reign at the Ministry of Revenue today."

The situation is consistent with what Vice Minister Zhao said.

The Bureau of Armaments submits a budget every year, but the amount of funding approved by the imperial court decreases year by year.

By the thirteenth or fourteenth year of the Zhengtong reign, it had reached zero.

The archives of the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing contain applications from the thirteenth and fourteenth years of the Zhengtong reign, but there are no official replies from the imperial court.

I also discovered something else.

The materials requested by the Ordnance Bureau every year were the same: 8,000 catties of copper, 40,000 catties of iron, and 120,000 catties of charcoal.

This number remained unchanged from the sixth to the fourteenth year of the Zhengtong era.

I think this number of applications might not have been determined by the Ordnance Bureau itself.

He didn't finish his sentence, but his meaning was clear.

Yu Shiyue spoke up: "Are you saying they knew from the beginning that the imperial court wouldn't allocate that much money, so the Bureau of Armory work was just a formality?"

Li Xian nodded: "I have this suspicion, but I still need evidence."

Yu Shiyue turned to Liu Dun: "Imperial Censor Liu, what about you over there?"

Liu Dun said, "Governor Yu, I visited several censors at the Censorate today, but they refused to say anything."

Later, I went for a walk along the river and met a boatman.

He repeated what the boatman had said, including the official surnamed Chen from the tenth year of the Zhengtong reign.

Yu Shiyue's brows furrowed even more after hearing this.

He paced around the room for a few steps, then suddenly stopped: "Minister Zhao, Minister Li, your investigation results have given me a guess."

Both of them looked at him at the same time.

Yu Shiyue: "The root cause of the Nanjing firearms problem may not lie in the corruption of Nanjing officials, but in Beijing."