Chapter 224: Corrupt Officials, You Had Better Watch Out!

Yangzhou, the traveling palace at Tianning Temple.

Once again it was time for the midday court session, that hour of fatherly love and filial devotion.

The Chongzhen Emperor of the Great Ming was in visibly fine spirits today, because he was about to become a father again! Wei Qinghui, the Lady of Handsome Deportment, just past thirty, had just been found to be with child.

If she bore a son, Zhu Cilang's status as the "only son" would be gone.

That same day he had also received word from Datong. Prince Dai, Zhu Cijiong, was still safe and sound inside his princely residence in Datong, protected by three loyal ministers — Wang Yongji, Gao Di, and Jiang Xiang — and guarded by tens of thousands of Datong's finest troops! If Zhu Cilang dared to commit treason and usurp the throne, he could wait for Prince Dai to raise an army and deliver the realm from peril!

Moreover, no word had come from Nanjing — and no news was good news!

Now that the Son of Heaven and the Crown Prince had halted their progress in Yangzhou, Zhao Zhilong, who managed the Nanjing garrison and concurrently directed the Nanjing Chief Military Commission, Xu Hongji, the Nanjing Garrison Commander, Han Zanzhou, the Nanjing garrison eunuch, and Pang Tianshou, the former seal-holding eunuch of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses who had been dispatched to Nanjing on imperial orders, had none of them come to Yangzhou to welcome the imperial presence.

What did this show? It showed that the Great Ming still had loyal ministers!

Besides the Nanjing garrison eunuch and the meritorious nobles who had refused to bow to his unfilial son, Chongzhen also knew that Zuo Liangyu and He Tengjiao in Huguang, and Huang Degong and Ma Shiying in Fengyang, had likewise not gone over to the Crown Prince.

Furthermore, Liu Zeqing, whose troops were stationed in Shandong, and Liu Liangzuo, whose troops were stationed at Guide in Henan, were merely going through the motions on the surface to keep Zhu Cilang satisfied.

At present, the subjects who had truly gone over to that unfilial son Zhu Cilang — apart from the treacherous ministers here at the traveling court — amounted to only a handful of rebels and traitors: Su Guansheng and Li Ruolian in Denglai, the Prince of Lu and Li Shiyuan in Qingzhou, Gao Jie in Xuzhou, Lu Zhenfei in Huai'an, and the Prince of Tang in Runing.

So in Chongzhen's view, he still had every hope. For the moment, however, he needed to keep a low profile and continue deceiving the Crown Prince.

Chongzhen shot a glance at Zhu Cilang, beleaguered on all sides, only to see that unfilial son smiling as he held a memorial, his face fairly glowing. Seeing that the assembled ministers had finished their obeisance, he said with a smile: "The four salt commissioners of the Huizhou guild here in Yangzhou, together with the imperial merchant Su Sheng, who has followed the traveling court in its work, have jointly submitted a memorial requesting that, after the salt laws and salt administration are abolished, they be granted the monopoly over the Lianghuai salt trade. They will pay the court a fixed tax of six million taels of silver per year! Although most of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen has already passed, they will still give the court three million taels!"

What?! Six million taels of silver a year?

When the Chongzhen Emperor heard this, the blood vessels in his brain nearly burst.

He had been emperor for seventeen years, and in those seventeen years the silver he had received from the Lianghuai salt administration had not even amounted to six million taels! Zhu Cilang came to Yangzhou, first announced he would abolish the salt administration and salt laws, then arrested four salt commissioners — and just like that, six million taels a year. What did this show? It showed that the Lianghuai salt administration had always had money, but it had all been swallowed up by corrupt officials and unscrupulous merchants!

The Lianghuai salt administration alone was embezzling six million taels a year. Other government offices surely had corrupt officials too. How much silver were they embezzling from the Great Ming every year? He, the emperor, had suffered so bitterly, begrudging himself food and clothing, with no money to pay the troops, and had nearly been beaten to death by Li Zicheng — and yet you, his subjects, were this corrupt. Had your consciences been eaten by dogs?

"However, these six million taels of salt tax need not be remitted to the ministry. They will be deposited in the Salt Merchants' Bank, jointly established by the five great salt commissioners of Yangzhou. The Salt Merchants' Bank is a commercial house specializing in bills of exchange, lending, and currency exchange. With the Huaiyang salt industry as its guarantee, it is entirely trustworthy. Keeping the silver on the Salt Merchants' Bank's books spares the Ministry of Revenue the trouble of managing it; when money is needed, one simply draws on the salt merchants' bank. Moreover, it pays five percent annual interest, which comes to two or three hundred thousand taels a year. What does the Ministry of Revenue think?"

Hou Xun, the Minister of Revenue, rose at these words and said with a smile: "In reply to Your Highness, the Ministry of Revenue considers this an excellent arrangement. Henceforth all silver received by the Ministry of Revenue can be deposited in the Salt Merchants' Bank, which will also spare it from being embezzled by the petty clerks who mind the treasuries."

What? Even the few taels in the Ministry of Revenue had people trying to embezzle them?!

Chongzhen was heartbroken to hear this. He was already so poor, and yet even the petty clerks of the Ministry of Revenue still wanted to steal.

"Minister Hou speaks well," Zhu Cilang said with a smile and a nod. "But it cannot all be left to the salt merchants' bank. Later we must also establish a maritime merchants' bank, to manage the maritime customs duties and the franchise taxes of the Southern, Northern, and Eastern Oceans. The Ministry of Revenue's silver can be divided between the two great commercial banks."

Maritime customs duties and... franchise taxes of the Southern, Northern, and Eastern Oceans? The Chongzhen Emperor was stunned again and again. What were these franchise taxes of the Southern, Northern, and Eastern Oceans? How much could the customs duties and these franchise taxes bring in? Surely not another few million?

"His Highness the Crown Prince is brilliant!" Hou Xun promptly offered a heartfelt piece of flattery.

He and Zhu Cilang were now in the same boat, and Zhu Cilang had indeed treated him generously. Second Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat, lecturer in the Eastern Palace, Minister of Revenue — and he had also been promised that once they reached Nanjing he would be enfeoffed as the Earl of Shangqiu Who Overcomes Hardship, and would be granted a residence and lands in Nanjing. In short, he could attain glory and wealth without embezzling!

Moreover, Zhu Cilang kept a very strict check on the financial accounts, so there was little opportunity to embezzle. Since there was nothing to embezzle, better to let sleeping dogs lie.

Zhu Cilang nodded and said: "The decree for contracting out the salt administration and permitting the establishment of the salt bank We have drafted Ourselves. The Grand Secretariat will review it and then draft the formal edict."

"We your subjects receive the decree."

The five Grand Secretaries rose together to receive the decree.

Zhu Cilang waved his hand, motioning them to be seated, then his tone turned grave: "Not all of Yangzhou's salt merchants and officials are good. There are some with sinister intentions, who not only evade salt taxes and take bribes, but are also suspected of colluding with the barbarians!

There are also villains whose crimes have been exposed and who tried to flee. Fortunately, the Embroidered Uniform Guard did its work well and did not let them escape! Zhu Chunjie, tell us — how goes the interrogation?"

"In reply to Thousand Years, this subject personally interrogated the four captured salt commissioners. I found no evidence that they colluded with the bandit barbarians. However, they have all confessed to selling illicit salt, evading salt taxes, and bribing officials!"

Zhu Cilang nodded. He had no intention whatsoever of investigating whether the Yangzhou salt merchants had colluded with the roving bandits and the eastern barbarians — Yangzhou had nothing whatever to do with the roving bandits or the eastern barbarians, so how could they collude? As for the four unlucky old Shanxi salt commissioners' illicit salt sales, tax evasion, and bribery of officials — those things they could not deny.

Because Zhu Chunjie's elder brother, Zhu Chunchen, had also taken bribes from them.

Zhu Cilang asked: "Whom did they bribe?"

"There were officials of the salt administration, local officials of the two prefectures of Huai'an and Yangzhou, and also officials and meritorious nobles of the two capitals, north and south."

Zhu Cilang smiled: "Understood. You have done well. But this is not a matter for the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Since it is not a case of treason, transfer it to the Censorate! Chief Censor of the Left!"

"This old subject is here!" Feng Yuanyang rose unsteadily to his feet.

"Can the Censorate handle cases at present?"

"It can hardly handle them anymore," Feng Yuanyang said. "When Thousand Years was at Dagu, you said the Censorate was to be reformed, that it should concentrate its efforts on investigating and prosecuting official corruption, and you also dismissed many circuit censors. Moreover, the Censorate lost many personnel while accompanying the imperial progress south, and after that many censors were transferred to other posts. At present there are almost no censors left who can handle cases."

"Is that so," Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "Then we shall first find a few censors who can handle cases!"

The reform of the Censorate was a process of boiling a frog in warm water. What had been accomplished so far was the abolition of the original Censorate system!

No destruction, no construction!

The Ming Censorate managed far too many things — everything except official corruption and bribery. Zhu Cilang's idea was to make anti-corruption the Censorate's chief business, and to have it meddle less in other matters, preferably not at all.

All that business of caring for widowers and orphans, inspecting granaries, auditing money and grain, encouraging schools, commending the virtuous, rooting out local bullies, rectifying customs, upholding discipline, correcting ritual at court audiences, supervising ceremonies at sacrifices, reviewing the merits and faults of governance, and the welfare of soldiers and civilians — none of it needed to be managed anymore. Just specialize in catching corrupt officials.

Besides making the Censorate shoulder the heavy task of catching corrupt officials, Zhu Cilang also wanted to make this office for disciplining officials obedient — obedient to himself!

So he had first turned the Censorate into an empty shell of an office. Now it was time to put people into it.

Zhu Cilang said with a smile: "First fill the vacancy of Chief Censor of the Right! Zhang Shize, the Duke of Overcoming Hardship, is the descendant of a meritorious official, loyal and prudent in his work, and able to share in these difficult times. He is a rare loyal subject, and may be appointed Chief Censor of the Right!"

(End of Chapter)