Chapter 206: Audit Department

Hearing Chen Hong say this, Zhu Youxiao finally withdrew his gaze, waved his hand, and said casually, "You handle the arrangements as you see fit. Just get everything done as quickly as possible so we can move over."

"Yes, Your Majesty. This servant will dispatch people to handle it immediately." Chen Hong hurriedly agreed.

Watching Chen Hong's retreating figure, Zhu Youxiao shook his head and walked out to the front of the great hall.

Leaning against the marble balustrade, gazing into the distance at the azure sky and the sea of clouds rolling slightly with the wind, Zhu Youxiao felt a measure of relaxation and comfort.

This trip outside the palace had thoroughly settled the doubts that had lingered in his heart, and had also shown him the direction for his next move.

The road ahead was rough; he might as well find a relatively safe place to stay.

The Western Park was severely neglected right now. After he moved over, he could clear out everyone there, then screen and select only those he trusted enough to bring along, thereby ensuring his personal safety.

At the same time, the Western Park was quite spacious, suitable for him to do some other things.

The palace was so vast—who was loyal and who had their own agenda was perhaps very hard to tell. Because there were too many people, and human hearts were too complicated.

But selecting a few loyal people was actually simpler. The inner court's eunuchs and palace maids had been purged several times already; if any remained suspicious, then simply don't use them.

So this was a good way to ensure safety, and Zhu Youxiao prepared to move to the Western Park.

As for the Empress and the two consorts, naturally they would be brought along.

As for everyone else, forget it—let them all stay here.

Once he arrived at the Western Park, he could begin planning and implementing new matters.

But how to begin—that was still something he needed to think about.

Naturally, the news that His Majesty was moving to the Western Park could not be concealed. After the news spread, everyone throughout the court had different attitudes.

People like Xu Guangqi and Shen Tingyun felt it was no big deal—His Majesty could live wherever he pleased. He wasn't launching massive construction projects, so why should anyone interfere? Besides, His Majesty hadn't neglected his proper duties, so why should they meddle?

But others believed it wouldn't do. The Western Park was a bad place—once His Majesty moved there, it would remind people of the Jiajing Emperor. Moreover, His Majesty was currently keeping a Daoist priest in the palace, which made this even more worrisome. So they felt His Majesty should not be allowed to move to the Western Park.

In fact, these two attitudes were not merely attitudes—they represented two factions of power in the court, or rather, two trends.

One faction, led by Xu Guangqi and Shen Tingyun, advocated that ministers should interfere less in matters within the Emperor's palace—that was not a minister's business.

The other faction believed that the Emperor had no private matters, only matters of state, so ministers should and must involve themselves.

This latter view was actually a remnant of the Donglin Faction. Back when Donglin was still in power, people had attacked them for this very viewpoint, arguing that they interfered too much in the Emperor's harem affairs—that this was not something a minister should do.

Now, although the Donglin Faction had been rooted out, this way of thinking still lingered in the minds of some officials who had been deeply poisoned by Donglin.

As for all the clamor outside and how the two factions fought among themselves, Zhu Youxiao simply didn't care; the routine memorials sent into the palace on this matter he didn't even read—he left them all unanswered.

For an emperor, the most important thing was not what people said, but whether people got things done for you.

How many people were dissatisfied with Yan Song? How many people impeached Yan Song day after day? But what use was that?

As long as Yan Song could win over a group of people to handle affairs for the Emperor, then he couldn't be toppled. For the Emperor, Yan Song was a useful minister. As for whether those others were just all talk or not—let them be.

Outside the palace walls there was clamor and strife, but inside, everyone was busy with the move.

At the same time, the Imperial Household Department outside the court had entered the substantive stage of consolidation.

Once this consolidation was complete, the Imperial Household Department would become the grand steward for both inside and outside the palace.

First, all palace expenditures and budgets would need to be completely recalculated and re-procured.

Second, the palace's properties—including the imperial estates and the various workshops and artisans under the Eight Bureaus—would also need to be fully incorporated into the internal composite system. This was an extremely massive undertaking.

Although it looked like one could simply take things over and use them directly, in fact that was not the case at all.

If things could truly be taken over and used as-is, then what difference would that make from before?

What he wanted was precisely to be different from before—that was why he had established the Imperial Household Department. If anyone dared to run the Imperial Household Department the same way as before, then they needn't bother continuing in their post.

Under such circumstances, the workload became even heavier.

Yet no one throughout the Imperial Household Department complained; instead, everyone was extremely excited. Originally, everyone had thought the Imperial Household Department would be an office with enormous power, but its external perception was that of the Emperor's household servants, so matters would be hard to handle and its reputation would not be good.

But when they actually arrived at the Imperial Household Department, they discovered that was not the case at all.

The Imperial Household Department's power was extraordinary—beyond what they had imagined. Moreover, if one performed well in the Imperial Household Department, whether one was later posted to the provinces or entered the central government, both were possible. This point gave people considerable motivation.

Although the Imperial Household Department was still a newly established office, everyone was fairly familiar with the work procedures, so they quickly settled into things.

But one day, something happened that no one could quite understand—an office suddenly appeared within the Imperial Household Department that hadn't been there before.

This left everyone somewhat puzzled. Originally, there didn't seem to be such an office. What was going on?

So when this office put up its signboard, quite a few people came over to look.

Audit Directorate.

The name was somewhat odd, yet it gave people a feeling of being distant and unfriendly. So everyone regarded this office with caution—no one knew what this Audit Directorate office did. Could it be for internal auditing?

Wasn't there already an Inspectorate Directorate? Why set up an Audit Directorate as well?

Soon, people began going in and out of the Audit Directorate, and the onlookers noticed that these were all unfamiliar faces. No one knew where these people had come from.

Seeing the Emperor's father-in-law, Zhang Guoji, walk out from inside, everyone smiled and crowded around him, hoping to pry some information out.

From an official standpoint, the Imperial Father-in-Law was the leading minister of the Imperial Household Department, ranked first among them. There was no way he wouldn't know about a newly established office in the department.

From a personal standpoint, Zhang Guoji was His Majesty's father-in-law—for something like establishing a new office, His Majesty would certainly have consulted with him, or at least given him word. So the Imperial Father-in-Law should know.

"Imperial Father-in-Law, where did all these people come from? We've never seen them before."

"Imperial Father-in-Law, this Audit Directorate..."

"Imperial Father-in-Law..."

But Zhang Guoji seemed to disappoint them—he had no intention of telling them anything about the matter. He merely waved his hand and stood there quietly watching, as if none of this had much to do with him.

But Zhang Guoji knew full well in his heart that the Audit Directorate would become the core office of the Imperial Household Department in the future—yet it had nothing to do with him. Because every single person in this office, from top to bottom, had come out of the palace.

Even those who hadn't come directly from the palace had been brought in by the office's chief official. As for who that chief official was, Zhang Guoji did in fact know.

That person had come out of the Duke of Ying's household—his name seemed to be Hu Fei, and he had previously been a merchant.

As for this Hu Fei, Zhang Guoji held him in considerable contempt.

First of all, this man had gotten his position through connections, which Zhang Guoji found utterly disgraceful. As for himself—Zhang Guoji would never see it that way.

Although he was the Empress's father, he believed he had gained his position through his own ability; whereas this Hu Fei relied entirely on connections.

Next was the pridefulness of the literati. Zhang Guoji not only looked down on hereditary nobles and imperial in-laws, he looked down even more on these merchants—especially merchants like Hu Fei.

Yet this Hu Fei had indeed gained important employment, and it seemed the Duke of Ying had exerted some effort on his behalf. Although the man who came here was Hu Fei, he was the Duke of Ying's man.

As if sensing that enough time had passed, someone finally walked in from outside—a thin, clean-shaven middle-aged man.

Everyone felt the newcomer's face was somewhat unfamiliar, never having seen him before, so they hesitated and did not step forward to greet him.

Zhang Guoji's expression suddenly turned somewhat sour. He recognized this man—this man was Hu Fei.

"Gentlemen, were you all waiting for me?" Hu Fei looked at the crowd, smiled, and cupped his hands in greeting, then said to Zhang Guoji: "This humble officer pays his respects to Your Excellency. You waited here for me—is there some matter you wish to instruct?"

"I heard you were coming here today, so I came to take a look, and also to tell you a few words." Zhang Guoji looked at Hu Fei with an expressionless face and said in a deep voice: "You come from a merchant background. To receive His Majesty's important appointment and be brought into the Imperial Household Department is your fortune and honor."

"So you must devote yourself to every matter and must not do anything improper. This officer will be watching you at all times. Should any mistake occur, this officer will absolutely not let it pass lightly."

"Of course, if you accomplish something meritorious, this officer will also report it to His Majesty to commend you. As long as you do your work well, there will still be a place for you in the Imperial Household Department. But you must learn to know your place—do you understand?"

Hu Fei's expression did not change in the slightest. He smiled, cupped his hands, and said: "Thank you for your reminder, Your Excellency. This subordinate understands."

The expressions of those present all shifted somewhat—one could say each had different thoughts—yet it was impossible to tell what each person was thinking.

It seemed Zhang Guoji's show of force had been played rather well—one could say he had combined favor with authority—but it was riddled with holes. This caused quite a few people to harbor other intentions.

As for this Hu Fei before them, he also let everyone know another thing. This man's arrival at the Imperial Household Department had been approved by His Majesty himself. And since he came from a merchant background, that was rather intriguing.

Either Hu Fei was an exceptionally capable man, or he had exceptionally deep backing—that was how he could sit in this position.

Or perhaps he had both capability and backing, which was why he was so composed. Facing the Imperial Father-in-Law's words, this man's neither humble nor pushy attitude, and the smile that seemed to hear nothing beneath the surface, made everyone sense a hint of the unusual.

After Zhang Guoji left, Hu Fei cupped his hands to the crowd and said with a smile: "I've troubled you all. But since my Audit Bureau has just been established and matters are still unsettled inside and out, I won't keep you any longer. Once this officer has sorted everything out, I'll properly get acquainted with you all."

Although Hu Fei's words were polite, in truth he was showing everyone the door.

Everyone was taken aback. This Hu Fei didn't seem like a man who didn't know how to handle affairs—so what was this attitude supposed to mean?