Chapter 337: Take full control of the government and become a slave of three families!
The elder returns to the cabinet.

The news of a 50% salary increase spread throughout the court and the country, and countless officials shed tears. After two hundred years, the court finally increased salaries.

On the night of the reunion, the Cabinet announced that the six ministries and nine government offices should close early. After the civil and military officials said goodbye to each other, they walked with their feet feeling light.

Only a small number of officials were retained in the four ministries of Personnel, Revenue, Military Affairs, and Justice, as well as the Censorate, the Supreme Court, and the Ministry of Public Security, while more officials and craftsmen were retained in the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Works.

As for all matters in the school, except for the Jinyiwei who are responsible for punishing officials, the two departments must immediately start to change the academic atmosphere and style.

As the chief minister of the cabinet, Gao Gong asked the elders to leave their duties, turned off most of the lights in the cabinet, and only left the elders and several cabinet members on duty in the cabinet.

When the reunion fireworks rose from all directions of the capital and the sound of fireworks was heard, the atmosphere in the Government Hall was subtle.

On New Year’s Eve, the ministers could not return home, but their families sent them a reunion dinner and some news.

At the suggestion of Li Chunfang, the five cabinet ministers gathered together for the reunion dinner. Dozens of reunion dishes with specialties from all over the world were placed together, giving it quite a sense of a grand feast.

Gao Youshi, the secretary of the Cabinet, wanted to leave, but was stopped by Li Chunfang and sat at the end of the desk, which was slightly dim due to the light and shadow blocking it, which was in line with his status in such an occasion.

After tasting the five-flavor dishes and drinking the spicy wine, the ministers put down their chopsticks one by one, and their appetites were obviously poor.

There were no outsiders here, Gao Gong said slowly: “My father asked the Jinyiwei to send a few pieces of silk and satin to my house during the day, and left one thousand taels of silver.

Just a few days ago, my wife complained to me that she was short of new clothes for the years to come. An elder in my hometown, Xinzheng, said he wanted to build a ancestral hall before moving the tomb, so I asked someone to bring back a thousand taels of silver.

This world is full of all kinds of coincidences, but basically no coincidences exist. Once coincidences occur one after another, it is terrifying to think about it carefully.

The complaints between husband and wife at home are private conversations in the room and should not be known to outsiders, but the king and father happened to send the best silk at the right time.

The matter of repairing the ancestral temple was not a secret, as many people inside and outside the mansion knew about it. However, Gao Gong never told anyone the exact amount of silver he gave to the clan.

After a short silence, the Deputy Prime Minister Hu Zongxian also spoke, “An old friend of mine, I haven’t contacted for many years. Not long ago, after the news of Wan Ru’s entry into South Asia came out, he came to see me and wanted to ask me to do something to keep him in the country. For this, he also wanted to leave a hundred taels of gold for the arrangement, but I declined. People in the mansion said that the king and his father sent a hundred taels of gold during the day. In addition, my old friend also forwarded a letter to thank me for arranging the connection and keeping him in the country. However, I did nothing.”

If they can be called old friends, then they are old acquaintances. When Gao Gong and others heard this, they knew that they were the “remnants of Yan Song.”

However, the fact that he was able to remain safe and sound when Yan Song and Yan Shifan, father and son, fell, and was not captured by the Embroidered Uniform Guards, proves that the problem was not serious.

He is a Confucian scholar.

In order to stay in the country, he did not hesitate to lose face and take the risk to ask Hu Zongxian for help. However, as it was related to national policy, Hu Zongxian did not dare to lend a helping hand, so there was no arrangement.

But this is definitely a secret known only to God, the earth, you and me.

Neither Hu Zongxian nor his old friend dared to tell anyone else. After all, the lesson of trying to escape from the imperial order was the lesson of the hero Guo Jie of the Western Han Dynasty.

The emperor and his father must have known it through the Jinyiwei. So the question is, how did the Jinyiwei know it?
Even the exact amount of money that the old friend bribed Hu Zongxian was clearly known.

After Yan Song’s death, Yan’s party immediately fell apart. Many of his disciples were killed or punished. The court that once filled the city was now in pieces.

Yan Song and his son had never done anything useful, and their disciples mostly followed them for personal gain. So when Yan Song fell, their disciples turned against him one after another.

For this reason, this story of “kind teacher and filial student” was ridiculed and criticized by countless corrupt scholars and intellectuals. Among them, the one who suffered the most severe criticism was Hu Zongxian.

Although Hu Zongxian did not say anything unfavorable to Yan Song and his son, he still used his position as a duke and cabinet minister to try to save his mentor Yan Song’s life in front of the emperor, which angered the emperor and his father, and he was thrown into prison.

However, these efforts were ignored by corrupt scholars. The scholars in the country only saw that after Yan Song’s death, Hu Zongxian was granted a title of nobility and appointed as prime minister, and rose to higher positions step by step. Out of envy, jealousy and hatred, they ignored the facts and criticized and ridiculed Hu Zongxian.

Hu Zongxian was a very filial person and never denied or refuted this, so much so that his reputation among the people was in disgrace.

The so-called old friend is one of the people who criticized Hu Zongxian and has a great reputation in the market. Now the emperor has spared this person in the name of Hu Zongxian and allowed him to stay in the country. I believe that person will understand how to speak in the future and how to clear Hu Zongxian’s name.

In the Li Lou chapter of Mencius, it is said: “If the ruler treats his subjects as his own hands and feet, then the subjects will treat the ruler as their confidant. If the ruler treats his subjects as dogs and horses, then the subjects will treat the ruler as a fellow countryman. If the ruler treats his subjects as dirt, then the subjects will treat the ruler as an enemy.”

The fact that the emperor and father were able to find ways to clear Hu Zongxian’s reputation at the end of the year shows that he was more than just treating him like a brother.

This should have been a scene that moved the emperor and his subjects, and made them cry together, but the emperor was not there, and Hu Zongxian, Gao Gong and others present felt a chill from head to toe.

He subconsciously tightened his sleeves and even his breathing slowed down.

After Hu Zongxian finished speaking, there was another long silence. The Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister were like this, and the cabinet ministers Li Chunfang and Zhu Heng also looked a little unhappy, obviously they had also received the “year-end reward” from the emperor and father.

“It seems that the rewards received by my peers are much greater than mine.”

Hai Rui suddenly laughed out loud, spread his hands, and said, “My mother said that my father sent me a new mat, nothing else.”

Gao Gong, Hu Zongxian, Li Chunfang and Zhu Heng were stunned. A new mat, even if it was made of gold thread, was not worth much money. So what did this represent the thoughts of the emperor and his father?

“After winter came, my wife put a mattress on the bed mat and didn’t lift it up for a long time. Before she knew it, the mat had become torn. After she was given a mat, my mother asked my wife to change it. Only then did she realize that the old mat could no longer be used.” Hai Rui narrated calmly.

This time.

Cold sweat broke out on the backs of the ministers again. The bed mat is what people lie on during the day and sleep on at night. Because of the quilt, even Hai Rui and his wife didn’t know that it was torn. But the emperor and his father knew about it and kindly sent a new mat. Is there anything more terrifying than this?

As the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, countless political and military affairs at home and abroad, and the final decision-making all come to the Emperor. Speaking of busyness, there is no one in the world busier than the Emperor.

Even so, the emperor still pays close attention to the lives of his subjects. To what extent do the Jinyiwei, the emperor’s eyes and ears, serve?
The size of the imperial power depends on the control of information. When the emperor makes decisions, the most important thing is to have a comprehensive grasp of information. Therefore, controlling information is the prerequisite for all control.

What the ministers know, the monarch and father also know. What the ministers do not know, the monarch and father also know. It is horrifying and terrifying to think about it carefully.

It would have been fine if it was just a few people in the cabinet, but according to the emperor’s wishes, on this reunion night, the Jinyiwei sent “year-end rewards” and “New Year’s blessings” to nearly one million officials and clerks in the two capitals and 18 provinces.

“I’m afraid most of our officials can’t sleep tonight.” “Of course, they are staying up tonight to celebrate the New Year.”

……

Ok Hee Palace.

Jinyiwei commander Zhu Fang came to the audience.

Zhu Houcong looked at the reborn “Lv Fang” with great emotion, while Huang Jin, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department and the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Factory, kept wiping away tears.

Compared with the ministers outside the court, Huang Jin believed that he had three fathers in his life. The first was his biological father who gave birth to him, the second was the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and the third was his adoptive father, Lu Fang, who had always taken care of him after he entered the palace.

Huang Jin was happy to see his adoptive father regain his youthful handsome appearance and good health, but at the same time, he couldn’t help feeling a bit bitter about being “abandoned by his father”.

“Your Highness, Slave…”

After decades of habit, Zhu Fang was about to blurt out the word “maid”, but he swallowed it back, swallowing all the past, and said slowly: “I, in compliance with the imperial decree, have sent people to deliver the year-end rewards for officials at all levels in the two capitals and 18 provinces, a total of 981,100 people.”

In the Royal Guards.

Under the commander-in-chief are two deputy commanders, and then the deputy commander.

It can be said that Zhu Fang’s ranking in the Jinyiwei was fourth or fifth, but under the deliberate decentralization of Zhu Qi, the acting commander of the Jinyiwei, Zhu Fang’s actual ranking was second, or even first.

Relying on decades of experience in the ups and downs of the inner court, Zhu Fang seized the administrative, personnel, financial, supervisory, judicial, and procuratorial powers of the Jinyiwei in the shortest possible time.

He also used iron-blooded means to purge the Jinyiwei internally, from the commander-in-chief to the imperial guards and strongmen, and captured tens of thousands of people.

There was also a detailed division between domestic and foreign secret envoys. The support received from the Embroidered Uniform Guards was different for secret envoys who were loyal to the country and the emperor and those who were paid to do things.

The working atmosphere inside and outside the Jinyiwei was rectified, serious corruption was curbed, and the amount of confiscated and fined dirty silver amounted to over 100 million taels of silver.

The year-end rewards for more than 980,000 officials in 18 provinces in the two capitals were paid without using the national treasury or the internal treasury. All of it was paid from this sum of money.

Such a huge amount of corruption was not inferior to what Zhu Houcong had gained from his previous rectification of the court, and the Jinyiwei had only been in power for four years.

From the perspective of the national dynasty, the use of the Jinyiwei and the Tiqi throughout the country is a means to allow traitors to be allowed to stay.

In order to make everything transparent to the people of the world, Zhu Houcong supported the Jinyiwei, who were specifically responsible for intelligence gathering. He also encouraged his subjects and the people to inform on others, and full-time and part-time officials cooperated with each other to form a dragnet of intelligence.

However, their excessive abilities also allow the professional Jinyiwei to obtain wealth anywhere and at any time. As long as they have the intention, even a small Jinyiwei strongman can get more money than they can spend in a lifetime.

The temptations and tests faced by the people in the Jinyiwei at all times were far greater than those faced by court officials and clerks.

The most crucial thing is that officials are supervised by the Jinyiwei, but the Jinyiwei does not supervise them.

After Zhu Fang entered the Jinyiwei, he immediately set about establishing the “Supervision Department” and selected personnel to conduct internal supervision of the Jinyiwei. The results were obvious, as evidenced by the hundreds of millions of taels of silver that were given to those who were removed.

But that was the cooperation of Zhu Qi and Zhu Fang, which caught the internal party off guard. As time goes by, new means of corruption are emerging, and internal supervision will become more and more difficult in the future, but that is a story for later.

No matter how corrupt the Jinyiwei were, they could not corrupt the common people of the Ming Dynasty. However, corruption among court officials could directly cause loss of life and unrest in the country.

To this end, the Jinyiwei continued to work hard to establish an “archive library” for nearly one million court officials. The tips and information obtained by the secret envoys will be summarized in the officials’ personal files for easy query and review at any time.

Among the nearly one million court officials, the vast majority of them have something in their favor.

In official circles, “it is better to use mistakes than to make achievements”. It is always useful to catch some small flaws at critical moments. You can even deliberately induce officials to make mistakes and then use them to punish them. This trick is not something a gentleman would do.

Putting aside other things, the issue that the cabinet ministers are worried about is actually very simple: how did the Jinyiwei get those secret intelligence?

Beside Gao Gong, the Jinyiwei had a high-level secret envoy who could contact and monitor the every move of the chief minister of the cabinet at any time.

As for Hu Zongxian’s secret affairs, it was the Jinyiwei who planned them. It was the Jinyiwei who asked Hu Zongxian’s old friend to come and ask for mercy. In this way, what Hu Zongxian talked about and did with his old friend would naturally be known clearly.

As for Hai Rui’s torn mat, it was really a coincidence. This winter was a warm one, and Hai’s mother often asked Hai’s wife to dry the quilt. One time, Hai’s wife moved a little too much and the mattress was lifted a little, revealing the torn mat underneath. Hai’s wife was blocked by the quilt and did not see it, but was seen by the “people” in the mansion.

Everything depends on one’s determination, so Hai Rui’s year-end reward was just a new seat.

This made the ministers have more associations and their emotions were in turmoil.

This is just the ministers chatting with each other in the cabinet. Tomorrow, which is the first day of the first lunar month in the 44th year of Jiajing, the minor officials will greet the major officials, the major officials will greet the minor officials, the minor officials will greet the major officials, and the major officials will greet the ministers. When they meet each other and verify the methods of the Jinyiwei, that will be the real climax.

Regardless of whether the cabinet elders, ministers of the six ministries and nine departments, Beijing officials, or local officials guessed that the emperor and his father were as good at predicting things, or were afraid of the methods of the Jinyiwei, with such deterrence, the court officials would always think twice before they were bent the law for personal gain, and would not get hot-headed when they saw the silver and do things that persecute the people.

No matter how much money you have, you have to live to spend it.

Sacrificing yourself to save money for the national treasury and the emperor and father is a job that is not worth the effort. Only a fool would do it.

Zhu Houcong noticed that Zhu Fang’s back was gradually straightening up, which really seemed like a capable official. He nodded with satisfaction and said, “Thank you for your hard work.”

Zhu Fang had already married and could have lived out the rest of his life in Nanjing. He returned to the capital to take charge of the Jinyiwei not for the pursuit of power but more to help him as the emperor.

The word “hard work” here does not refer to the hard work of the Jinyiwei, but to the hard work of Zhu Fang.

Seeing the kindness of his father, Lu Fang’s eyes turned red. He moved his lips slightly, wanting to say something, but was interrupted by Zhu Houcong, who said, “Come and have a reunion dinner with me.”

“The minister obeys the order!”

(End of this chapter)