Chapter 1564

Feng Bao was Wanli's close attendant and the manager of the Prince's mansion. Having worked diligently for Prince Yu for so many years, he was also highly trusted.

Now that Prince Yu had ascended the throne and become the Longqing Emperor, Feng Bao, as an old official from the Prince's mansion, naturally rose to the heavens in one step. He was now the Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, having taken over Huang Jin's position and leading the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

"Oh my, Cabinet Minister Wang, you really are something. Everyone could see that it was His Majesty who sent me to break up the fight; why couldn't you just play dumb and let it pass? Why did you have to make it clear and anger Cabinet Minister Gao again?"

"The old thing is getting a bit crazy. When the late Emperor was alive, he couldn't decide the affairs of the world in a single word; now that he's a Senior Grand Secretary, he's jumping up?" Wang Yan looked at Feng Bao with a smile. "Don't you think so, Eunuch Feng?"

"Why does it sound like the Cabinet Minister's words are directed at me?" Feng Bao also started to laugh. "The Cabinet Minister's recent words and actions are also not like they were during the late Emperor's time. I also have to remind the Cabinet Minister: the late Emperor was the Master, and the current one is also the Master; you must not neglect either."

"Your words make no sense. During the late Emperor's time, I whipped Yan Shifan, scolded Yan Song, and scolded Xu Jie. When fighting the Tatars, I scolded them even more in the cabinet. At that time, I hadn't even entered the cabinet. Now that I've entered the cabinet and can participate in decision-making, isn't it just right to scold them every day?"

"Eunuch Feng, you are also a reasonable person. You can see clearly and distinguish who is good and who is bad, and who is benefiting from many things. After so many years, you know how Wang Yan stands. You tell me, can I not scold them?"

Wang Yan stood with his hands behind his back, looking at Feng Bao. "As for whether what I said earlier was directed at Eunuch Feng, you misunderstood. I was just talking about Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng; they are becoming more and more outrageous now, and they are the ones neglecting His Majesty. Eunuch Feng, you tell me, when the late Emperor was alive, who among them dared to cause trouble?"

"That was my misunderstanding of the Cabinet Minister. The Cabinet Minister has a loyal heart, and I will certainly report it truthfully to His Majesty in a moment."

Feng Bao changed the subject and said, "I heard that it was the Cabinet Minister who sent the Old Ancestor to his final resting place? The Cabinet Minister truly has high righteousness; you were willing to take time out of your busy schedule to go there in person at such a time. As the Old Ancestor's godson, I have to thank you; Cabinet Minister, I bow to you."

"Hey, I have had a friendship of over ten years with Eunuch Lü and Eunuch Huang, and they have helped me a lot over the years. Now that they are retiring, I cannot just watch them being bullied. It's fortunate that I made the trip, otherwise they would have really suffered."

"Chen Hong's heart is too small. When I entered the palace earlier, he specifically blocked the gate of the West Garden to wait for me, and told me a bunch of nonsense. You must be careful, Eunuch Feng; if you ever fall into Chen Hong's trap, don't blame me for not reminding you."

"Cabinet Minister, rest assured, I have it all under control."

"Then that's it, we can communicate at any time if there's anything. It's the end of the year, and there are so many things; I, the accountant calculating for the Great Ming, really don't have a moment of leisure. Other government offices are blocking my door, just wanting the budget for next year to be a bit more, and wanting the Ministry of Revenue to make up for this year's deficit. You look, damn it, they are all asking me for money, and not one is thinking about how to make me earn more."

"Damn it, I get angry just talking about this. Eunuch Feng, you judge: the great opportunity I fought for with my life, I could have plowed through the entire Great Ming easily. In the end, they handled things neither here nor there, and they still want to point out my faults, blaming me for being too serious, not knowing how to be flexible, and not considering the overall situation..."

"When it's time to make money, they block me, but when it's time to ask for money, they are very happy. You take a little, he takes a little, everyone gets rich, and they just treat me like a fool. Eunuch Feng, you tell me, shouldn't this group of bastards be scolded?"

"Uh... Cabinet Minister Wang, I have things to do, so I'll take my leave first, let's chat again."

Feng Bao didn't answer, turned around, and left with the little eunuchs.

Wang Yan smiled and strolled back to the Ministry of Revenue office to work...

Wang Yan was truly not lying; the financial inventory at the end of the year was a very major matter, and one had to have a count of how much family property one had.

Especially after he became the Minister of Revenue, he reformed the tax law, unified tax items across the world, and also reformed statistical standards, work processes, and naturally expanded the boundaries of power, etc. By now, the Ministry of Revenue office had grown quite a bit, and there were even more things to do.

One had to urge the payment of various taxes and reports from local areas and supervise them, calculate and supervise the reports of other government offices, review and supervise the expenditure reports for the coming year, calculate the expenses of the imperial clan, calculate the expenses of the inner court, carry out unified accounting and necessary supervision and review with government offices like the Royal Bank and the Shipping Commissioner, and go back and forth with government offices like the Provincial Administration Commission below, and so on...

As the highest financial institution, the Ministry of Revenue's power was already very great. Wang Yan had even raised the power of supervision and auditing to the highest level. In theory, after requesting instructions, he could audit all government offices in the Great Ming.

And in the actual execution process, he could audit all government offices below the Provincial Administration Commission level without requesting instructions. As for the finances at the Provincial Administration Commission level, that was not a matter of auditing; that was a problem between factions, between the central and local governments, and between local governments.

If one really wanted to investigate, to put it bluntly, an ordinary emperor couldn't solve the problem either. Just look at the many things that happened over a decade ago with the conversion of rice fields to mulberry fields; Longqing, Wanli, Tianqi, and Chongzhen—none of the four emperors after Jiajing were effective.

Oh, there was also the Taichang Emperor, Zhu Changluo, who died one month after taking the throne and was a legend who held three major cases of the late Ming. He was also ineffective!

The current Longqing was a bit lacking in self-awareness. Your father is your father, and you are you. The greatness of the Great Ming was built by Mr. Wang leading the officials and people who followed him, and it had nothing to do with the emperor.

After all, at the root of it, the premise of everything Wang Yan did was to allow Jiajing to have silver to spend, and it was to be good to Jiajing as a person. Whether it was material enjoyment, the expansion of power boundaries, or the strong spiritual feedback of the empire's growth, it was all because Wang Yan satisfied Jiajing's needs that he could operate flexibly with Jiajing's support, and it took a lot of effort to create such a situation...

Yet Longqing, just after taking the throne, was thinking about being able to order Mr. Wang around and being able to get silver just like Jiajing.

Nowadays, even if Wang Yan didn't give Longqing silver, Longqing didn't have the ability to kick him out. If nothing else, even if Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng, and others were unhappy with Wang Yan, they would absolutely not agree to kick Wang Yan out.

No one knew Wang Yan's contribution to the Great Ming better than they did.

The emperor could die, but Wang Yan could not step down. Otherwise, lacking Wang Yan's life-risking suppression, the Great Ming Dynasty, which looked like a flower-covered brocade, would instantly be like oil in a fire, and the powerful families would really counterattack.

And the counterattack of the powerful families could not be suppressed by the army, or rather, it could not be suppressed by the group represented by Gao Gong and others. They were already "you in me, and me in you." When given the opportunity, with Wang Yan standing there, they could still handle things incompletely, let alone without Wang Yan's deterrence.

Many times, Wang Yan was the bargaining chip they used to compete for interests with others; they were all very bad.

Once they counterattacked, the Great Ming would immediately step from a prosperous age into danger. Although it wouldn't collapse so quickly, the reform achievements were not yet solid, and it would return to the previous situation in ten or twenty years.

Anyone who dared to reform would definitely die quickly. But not everyone had a life as tough as Wang Yan's...

As for Zhang Juzheng's reform, some said that Zhang Juzheng's reform extended the life of the Great Ming by fifty years, and others said that thinking about it the other way around, the Great Ming only had fifty years left after Zhang Juzheng's reform.

How his reform actually went is a matter of opinion.

But what is certain is that it was not as good as Wang Yan's reform...

For a period after Longqing took the throne, the biggest gossip circulating was that Cabinet Minister Wang angrily scolded the other three cabinet ministers in the cabinet, and focused on carrying out major investigations in the hometowns of the various cabinet ministers, as well as Xu Jie's hometown and Yan Song's hometown. And he announced to the world that he would further clear farmland and check household registrations, rectify illegal and criminal activities, and investigate commercial taxes in detail.

And released along with it was the headline news in the newspaper, mobilizing the Beijing Garrison soldiers to go south to guard Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, and other places. The navy in the south also contracted its forces, patrolling the waters outside Songjiang Prefecture, and the army also began a state of combat readiness.

Thus, the Great Ming world became quiet, and then it seemed as if nothing had happened, and the Great Ming continued to be great at its original rhythm.

It was just that in the monthly newspaper, there was temporarily no other news; it was all information about the illegal and criminal activities of officials at all levels and local powerful families, strings of names, and bolded labor reform penalties, making people shudder.

And after another investigation action began, the first name at the top of the newspaper after the New Year was surprisingly Xu Jie!

Actually, Wang Yan dealing with Xu Jie was something Gao Gong agreed to. Even without Wang Yan speaking, Gao Gong himself wanted to deal with Xu Jie. The one who opposed it was Zhang Juzheng; he was his teacher, and he had also taken over Xu Jie's political power, so naturally, he had to stand up for Xu Jie.

The reason Gao Gong stood up to Wang Yan was that Wang Yan didn't just want to deal with Xu Jie, he also wanted to deal with him, Gao Gong, along with him. Once this wave of thorough investigation was completed, the powerful families would have to be reshuffled, the officials would have to be reshuffled, and even the lowest-level clerks would have to be reshuffled. The entire Great Ming would have to be reshuffled from top to bottom.

But Gao Gong had to agree, because Wang Yan directly denied his existence as Senior Grand Secretary, attacking him from the perspective of his character, his reputation, and the history books passed down to future generations.

Previously, there was Jiajing's suppression, and Wang Yan gave Jiajing a lot of face; if Jiajing said not to cause trouble, he wouldn't. But now that Jiajing was gone, Wang Yan's attacking power was displayed.

Another point was that Wang Yan also had a reason for having to cause trouble.

Actually, Feng Bao was right; Jiajing was gone, and not only did Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng, and others jump up, he also became more aggressive and offensive.

Longqing's opinion actually didn't matter anymore; just raise him with money and let him be extravagant. In this way, Longqing spent money happily and enjoyed the life of an emperor, while Wang Yan reluctantly helped Longqing manage the Great Ming, and everyone was quite happy; it was truly the best of both worlds.

As for the suppression from Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng, and others, as well as the connection of eunuchs like Chen Hong and Feng Bao, it didn't matter. If it wasn't intense, it wouldn't work; if it was intense, they would all be finished.

Wang Yan just did his own thing...

"I'll arrange a good job for you."

In the main hall of the Shuntian Prefecture office, Wang Yan was eating and drinking, saying this to Hai Rui.

"What job?" Hai Rui looked suspicious.

"Look at you, you still don't trust me?" Wang Yan smiled. "You've been here for quite a while, and now my Great Ming is carrying out a new round of thorough investigations, and there are many cases of local powerful families and officials colluding to resist."

"You, Hai Gangfeng, are incorruptible and famous as a 'Blue Sky' official. It just so happens that I'll let you go to the Censorate to be a Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief, raise your official rank, and then take on the task of inspecting farmland and household registrations, traveling all over the world. Help me see if the local execution is in place, clean up the pests in the local area, and let the people live better."

"Rest assured, safety issues are definitely guaranteed. I'll send you a team of elite troops from the Beijing Garrison, and let the Eastern Depot and Embroidered Uniform Guard send people to follow you. On the land of my Great Ming, no one will be so foolish as to find trouble for you. Just don't get killed by some people who don't know the situation; it's better not to have the incident of capsizing in a gutter."

This was truly a good errand; not to mention the public-funded travel, the power was also extremely great. Wang Yan was not thin on Hai Rui. It was not easy for Hai Rui's appointment to be passed; Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng both opposed it, and only Longqing was willing. Why was he willing? Wang Yan said that after the Ministry of Revenue finished calculating the accounts, they allocated 500,000 taels to the inner court.

So Longqing agreed, happily researching things like selecting palace maids...

Looking at it this way, Longqing was not useless...

And in terms of the actual situation, Hai Rui had actually reached the end of his rope in this position; after all, Hai Rui was only a Juren. A real power position of the fourth rank was already quite rare. To go further, he would really enter the Ministry.

Each imperial examination only had two or three hundred Jinshi, all of whom were top-notch smart people waiting to enter the Ministry. It really wouldn't be Hai Rui's turn. And to be honest, Hai Rui didn't have a sufficiently grand vision, didn't have such a broad overall view, and didn't have the talent of a prime minister; he couldn't do anything higher. He had a very difficult time handling the Shuntian Prefecture mess, and he had aged several years after working for three years.

Hai Rui said guardedly: "I tell you, if you want me to help you attack Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng, I definitely won't do it!"

"Rest assured, there are no good people under them anyway. You just need to perform normally and it will be enough for them to suffer."

Wang Yan raised his glass solemnly. "Old Master Hai, whether this brother can become the Senior Grand Secretary depends entirely on your help; the people of my Great Ming need me..."

"Utterly shameless!"

Wang Yan laughed out loud: "At least I have always been consistent inside and out, and I am truly thinking for the people. Alright, go to the Ministry of Personnel tomorrow to handle the procedures, and you can put down the errand here."

"Who will take charge next?"

"Shen Shixing."

"Did he defect to you?"

Wang Yan shook his head: "What defection? It's that he understands righteousness, knows what is right, and knows how to make my Great Ming even greater!"

Hai Rui was speechless.

After drinking with Wang Yan, he handled the procedures the next day and set off in less than a week.

Wang Yan was really not wrong; as long as Hai Rui performed normally, his lethality was already enough; where would there be a need to specifically target anyone?

Of course, it was mainly because Wang Yan didn't let Hai Rui go to other places; the inspection of the world was just the area north of the Yangtze River and south of Jiliao...

Thus, Wang Yan began to encounter assassination attempts again...

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