Chapter 464: Minister Wen

Xue Haiyuan set out for Beijing on April 2nd.

The day after Amin's force was annihilated, Xue Haiyuan took a ten-man mounted squad, disguised as Ming Army soldiers, and departed from Yongping City, parting ways with the main force and heading straight for Beijing.

The journey from Yongping to Beijing was over four hundred li. The ten-man squad rode hard day and night, eating and sleeping rough, and finally caught the opening of the city gates in the early morning of April 4th.

Carrying the waist-tallies for delivering urgent military intelligence, the mounted squad passed directly through Chaoyang Gate on the east side of Beijing and into the Inner City without any hindrance.

At the very moment Xue Haiyuan entered the city, over three hundred li away at Santunying, the city gates were slowly opening, and the two grandees, Sun Chengzong and Ma Shilong, were also entering the city side by side.

This was precisely why the Transmigrators insisted on delaying the meeting at Santunying by one night: to buy Xue Haiyuan, far away in Beijing, more time to operate.

After entering Beijing, since the lead soldier was a local, the squad did not need to ask for directions. They went straight to the gate of a residence in Huanghua Ward, Dongcheng.

The lintel of the residence was brand new, its lacquer gleaming. Its style clearly marked it as no poor household. The plaque overhead bore two large characters: "Luo Mansion."

After dismounting and presenting a name card, the gate steward quickly went inside to announce them. Before long, the owner of Luo Mansion, Luo Lishi, Director of the Bureau of Construction in the Ministry of Works, came out personally to welcome them.

Luo Lishi was a native of Jiading. His clansman who managed the family business in Jiading was named Luo Shizhi. The Luo Family owned a "Luo Garden" in Jiading. When Master Xiong first arrived in Jiading, Luo Shizhi had hosted Lao Xiong at Luo Garden for a period.

The Luo Family was a distributor under Master Xiong of the Shanghai Station. Within the Beijing area, they handled the sale of various construction materials from Master Xiong, including cement, glass, and wood.

After receiving a secret letter the day before yesterday, Vice Director Luo, a key node in the commercial network established by the Transmigrators, had taken sick leave from the ministry. For the past two days, he had gone nowhere, quietly "recuperating" at home.

Then this morning, he finally received the expected name card, and so Master Luo hurried out of his mansion gate.

Seeing a middle-aged man in a soft robe of fine homespun cloth, accompanied by a servant and steward, come out to greet him, Xue Haiyuan quickly stepped forward and performed the cupped-hand salute common among Ming soldiers. Master Luo, seeing this colonel who stood out from the group, understood instantly. The two sides exchanged brief pleasantries and surnames, and the ten soldiers were led into the Luo residence.

Because Zhu Yuanzhang had set the base salaries for officials far too low back in the day, the trope of the impoverished Beijing official persisted all the way to the late Ming.

Officials in Beijing were as numerous as dogs, yet apart from those in lucrative posts who could rake in huge benefits, most lived ordinary lives. Beyond their base salary, they could only rely on "Ice Tribute" and "Charcoal Tribute" and such disguised subsidies from provincial officials to maintain the bare minimum of an official's dignity and social expenses.

In fact, the Qing Dynasty was the same; the impoverished Beijing official was a real phenomenon, not a joke. Back when Ceng Guofan was in Beijing, he had already reached vice-provincial rank, yet he still owed over a thousand taels of foreign debt and could not even afford a trip back to his old home — a telling example.

The Luo residence Xue Haiyuan entered today, though not overly large in area, was exquisitely decorated and lavishly furnished inside, clearly not the wretched state of an ordinary poverty-stricken Beijing official.

Then again, no Ming person who did business with the Transmigrators ever failed to prosper. Since the Luo Family was one of the agents in Beijing, they were certainly among those raking in a fortune daily.

After the group was settled in a side courtyard, Master Luo first ordered the household staff in a rapid stream to bring all sorts of food and washing utensils for the guests to rest and refresh themselves, then held a brief private discussion with Xue Haiyuan alone.

After this, Xue Haiyuan ate a little something, took a quick bath, and then collapsed into bed — he urgently needed to recover his physical strength and mental energy.

On his side, after settling the guests, Master Luo changed into the black straight-hemmed robe proper for formal visits, took a retinue of attendants, boarded his sedan chair, and set out for Xianyi Ward.

Xianyi Ward lay west of the Imperial City, north of Xuanwu Gate. Like the other wards of West City, it was among the areas closest to the Imperial City, and thus was territory thick with high officials and nobles.

After Master Luo entered the ward, his sedan chair twisted and turned through the alleys, finally docking at a mansion gate within a bluestone lane. This mansion had a broad gate frame, built to the highest official specifications of the Ming Dynasty. The gate plaque read "Wen Mansion," and its master was the current Minister of Rites, Wen Tiren.

After dismounting and having his personal attendant present a card, the Wen Mansion gate steward promptly ushered Master Luo into the guest hall for tea.

Though Master Luo was merely a Fifth Rank Ministry of Works Vice Director, the bureaucratic world was not a place that judged solely by rank. Master Luo Lishi not only had wealth but also a wide circle of acquaintances, and he held authority over the construction of public offices below. Even the grandest of grandees had to give him a bit of face.

What's more, this master had recently come to Wen Mansion in person, directing craftsmen to install large panes of glazed windows in several rooms of the back residence, and had chatted and laughed freely with his own master — he was one of the guests who could not be slighted.

And so Master Luo sat at ease in Wen Mansion, drinking tea, placed first in line among today's petitioners seeking an audience with the great man. As for Wen Tiren himself? Regrettably, Old Wen was still at the Ministry of Rites at work at this hour.

Thus he sat idly drinking tea. His heart anxious, Master Luo did not converse with the other guests who arrived one after another to queue — though the Ministry of Rites was not as scorchingly sought-after as the Ministry of Revenue or the Ministry of Personnel, it was still nominally the foremost ministry, so every day there were visitors coming to call on the great man.

It was not until 11 a. m. that Master Luo finally waited for Wen Tiren, Minister Wen, to return to his mansion by sedan chair after finishing work.

After that came another half an hour. Only after Minister Wen had washed, changed clothes, and eaten some pastries to tide him over was Master Luo led by a household servant to the large study where Minister Wen usually received guests.

Walking halfway there, Luo Lishi could not help but inwardly remark on his luck: today's visit had been arranged very abruptly. That he could see Wen Tiren "in time," without any mishaps along the way, was already quite fortunate.

But he had no choice. The information the Transmigrators had given him before had been very vague; it was only the day before yesterday that a messenger had brought explicit demands. So he had been unable to arrange or lay groundwork all along, leaving the current situation somewhat passive.

Amidst his wild thoughts, a servant lifted the door curtain, and Luo Lishi stepped over the study's threshold. In the bright room illuminated by glass light, a lean, hale-looking old man in an indigo cotton soft robe, reclining on a rattan chair, turned his head with a beaming smile: "Bensong, you've been well, I trust?"

Luo Lishi hurried forward, bowed deeply, and said, "Lishi pays respects to the Minister of Rites."

"Quick, dispense with formalities. Have a seat." The still-smiling Wen Tiren pointed with a jade ruyi in his hand at the empty chair beside him. "Have some new construction novelties arrived in the capital?"

At these words, Luo Lishi's expression turned solemn. He stepped two paces closer and said in a low voice, "My lord, novelties are indeed arriving in the capital — but they are Tartar heads!"

"Hm?"

"Four thousand in total, among them those of Amin and Shuotuo!"

"You little monkey, have you lost your mind?"

"My lord, this matter is absolutely true."

"Then what have you come to me for?"

"To deliver the heads!"

Half an hour after Luo Lishi met with Wen Tiren, the Wen Mansion steward suddenly came to the gatehouse and notified those waiting for an audience: the master had suddenly felt unwell and would receive no guests today.

At the same time, among the Luo Lishi's household staff left in the Wen Mansion sedan hall, one received a message and immediately rode back to the mansion, rousing Xue Haiyuan, who was still snoring loudly.

Having slept all morning, Xue Haiyuan felt much better in spirit after getting up. After washing, changing, and hastily eating something, he followed a Luo Mansion servant all the way to the back gate of Wen Mansion. Then Xue Haiyuan, dressed in a black tunic and felt cap, disguised as a personal attendant, was led in through the back gate by the steward.

Commander Cao's visit to the capital this time had a crucial strategic mission: to recruit a Cabinet ally for the Crossing Faction.

The role a suitable ally could play was immense. Just look at Xiong Wencan: after the Transmigrators' recruitment and amnesty, they could practically do as they pleased in Fujian. In a short time, both regions had seen tremendous development, truly achieving a win-win.

So this time, seizing the opportunity of visiting the capital, Commander Cao, with military merits in hand, would naturally recruit a Cabinet ally to lay the groundwork for future arrangements on a broader scale. That was part and parcel of the plan.

Now the question arose: whom should they recruit?

Without a doubt, the first choice was Comrade Wen Tiren, the current Minister of Rites.

Wen Tiren, courtesy name Changqing, was a native of Jili Village, Nanxun, Huzhou. He passed the imperial examination in the twenty-sixth year of the Wanli era and, by the early Chongzhen era, had risen through successive promotions to become Minister of Rites, concurrently managing the affairs of the Supervisorate of Imperial Instruction.

On this matter, the Transmigrators had a very simple selection criterion: whoever stayed in power the longest, recruit them.

Since Cabinet personnel changed frequently during the Chongzhen reign — in just the first ten years after Chongzhen took the throne, over fifty Cabinet Ministers were shuffled — the Transmigrators' primary consideration could only be the length of a collaborator's tenure.

And Wen Tiren, historically, would formally enter the Cabinet in two months. After entering the Cabinet, this fellow would set a record: the longest-serving Grand Secretary of the Chongzhen era.

Counting from Junior Grand Secretary to Senior Grand Secretary, Wen Tiren served as a Cabinet Minister for a total of seven years.

That span of time was sufficient for the Transmigrators. In seven years, who knew what the Crossing Faction would have developed into? Perhaps by then cannons would already be aimed at Chongwen Gate, and whether they had an ally or not wouldn't matter.

As for Wen Tiren's political leanings, administrative ability, and other such criteria, they were actually not important to the Transmigrators.

First, in the eyes of the Transmigrators, whether it was the Donglin faction, the Eunuch faction, or even the Qi-Chu-Zhe Clique and other powers in the late Ming, they were all birds of a feather. These people appeared to be in opposition, but it was all infighting among the Scholar-Officials; not a single group could save the nation, rescue the people, or turn the tide.

Therefore, the Transmigrators did not care about Wen Tiren's political leanings.

Besides, right now it's essentially a giant picking allies among a crowd of dwarves. With the Transmigrators' support, whichever dwarf is selected — no matter what style they had before — will afterward receive massive Resource backing, allowing them to sail smoothly through the court and display "outstanding" governing Capability.

So the Transmigrators don't really care about this person's governing Capability either.

Besides, looking at the mess that was the Chongzhen court, Historically they swapped one after another all the way until the dynasty fell, and no Senior Grand Secretary ever left behind any deeds worthy of posterity's praise.

So since they're all One Sample, then it's him: Wen Tiren.