Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 734 Robbing Peter to Pay Paul
Hearing Wang Yingjiao's tone, Wang Ji suddenly recalled something he had overheard not long ago: "I heard that when Xiong Feibai was young, he once served under you, Minister?"

"That was twenty-two years ago." Wang Yingjiao nodded, a layer of distant reminiscence slowly clouding his eyes.

"Twenty-two years ago? That would be the twenty-seventh year of the Wanli reign?" Wang Ji changed the first year of the Taichang reign to the forty-ninth year of the Wanli reign and quickly calculated the exact year.

“That’s right. It was the 27th year of the Wanli reign.” Wang Yingjiao took a deep breath, his eyes filled with even more reminiscence. “That year, the Eastern Expedition ended, the Tianjin Governor’s Office was abolished, and Tianjin was returned to the Baoding Governor’s Office. I was then transferred to Baoding as Governor. Xiong Feibai was around that time when he finished his observation period and came to Baoding as a judge. He was the top scholar in the Huguang provincial examination in the 25th year of the Wanli reign, and his essays were also very beautiful, so at first, I only thought of him as the kind of scholar who was good at writing. But I later discovered that whether it was evaluating officials and governing the people, or dealing with military affairs and civilian affairs, he handled everything with ease and without any delay. As for accurately judging the situation and the law, and redressing injustices, he was even more adept at it. He seemed to be born with a knack for getting things done. It’s just that sometimes he couldn’t help but be impatient and speak without thinking.”

Wang Yingjiao picked up the tea and gently blew on it.

"In the twenty-eighth year of the Wanli reign, a severe drought struck the capital region, and even the area under the jurisdiction of the governor was not spared. Therefore, the governor's office sent a document to all prefectures, hoping that wealthy households would donate funds for disaster relief, but unfortunately, few responded. One day, when I returned from an outing, he suddenly found me and said something to me in front of everyone—'It is indeed a great good to persuade the people to donate for disaster relief. But if the people also question the officials, saying, "Your salary and emoluments are the people's blood and sweat, then how will you respond?'"

"That's quite a blunt remark," Wang Ji chuckled, noticing the lack of anger on Wang Yingjiao's face.

“That’s right.” Wang Yingjiao smiled as well. “Although he usually has the nickname ‘Mr. Temper’, he’s still quite polite to me. So when he blurted out those words to me in a flustered manner, I was quite surprised.”

"So how did you deal with him?" Wang Ji asked with a smile.

"What else can we do to him?" Wang Yingjiao glared, his beard bristling. "The region is suffering from a severe drought, and people are dying. He's anxious, but I'm even more anxious! Besides, I've already done a lot. I've opened the granaries and personally led teams through the villages to ensure that the relief grain reaches every household of the disaster victims. But as soon as I returned, he started making sarcastic remarks to me in front of everyone. Of course, I wasn't having it, and I argued with him right then and there."

"and then?"

"He was a top scholar after all, still young, and his tongue was quick and sharp. I was older and couldn't argue with him, so I burst into tears." Wang Yingjiao wasn't ashamed at all, and with a smile, he continued, "While wiping away my tears, I ordered someone to drag him away. But this old fellow came prepared! Just as my standard-bearers tremblingly surrounded him, he took the bundle hanging on his shoulder, presented it to me, and said, 'I believe that if you want to persuade the people to donate, you should start with the officials; if you want to persuade the officials to donate, you should start with your superiors. If you take the lead, even though I am poor, I can still exchange my robes and belt and donate a hundred taels of silver to support your good intentions.'" Wang Yingjiao remembered it very clearly, and even imitated Xiong Tingbi's tone by shaking his head.

"It was then that I noticed that when he came up to me that day, he wasn't wearing his official robes, but rather a coarse cloth outfit covered in mud."

"He pawned his official robes?" Wang Ji began to relax and even picked up a pastry and put it in his mouth.

“Not really. Official robes are a respectable garment for the court, after all. He didn’t wear those coarse clothes when he went to the yamen the next day.” Wang Yingjiao shrugged and took a sip of tea. “I think he was just making a gesture, to show it to me and the others present.”

"What happens next?"

"And then the donation was settled." Wang Yingjiao sighed. "I'm not as good as him. 'What the superiors do, the inferiors follow.' Such a simple principle, yet I, an old man who has been navigating the officialdom for over twenty years, am not as well-versed as a newly arrived young scholar. I accepted that bag of silver on the spot. It wasn't light, but it wasn't heavy either, but it was still much more than his salary."

"After that, I also took out several hundred taels myself. Soon, officials from the prefectures, sub-prefectures, and counties all began to donate money, some donating two or three hundred taels, others one or two hundred taels. And those wealthy families and scholars, seeing that we officials had donated, finally followed suit and donated money and rice. Little by little, they accumulated to the point that each county could accumulate a thousand taels of silver and a thousand bushels of grain. Grain was distributed in the countryside and porridge was set up in the county town, and we finally managed to survive the natural disaster of that year."

"So, you really bestowed upon Xiong Feibai the title of 'Number One Judge in the World'?" Wang Ji asked.

“Hmm,” Wang Yingjiao shook his head. “I did indeed draft the best evaluation for him as a judge, but before the year for evaluating prefectural and county officials arrived, I was promoted to the Ministry of Works. His so-called ‘number one judge in the world’ was either something he boasted about himself, or it was something Sun Chunyu arranged for him to be evaluated.”

"Sun Chunyu?" Wang Ji pondered. "You mean Sun Gongwei, the Southern Secretary?"

Sun Wei, courtesy name Chunyu, was a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) in the fifth year of the Wanli reign. In the thirty-seventh year of the Wanli reign, he served as the Vice Minister of the Granary and concurrently as the Acting Censor-in-Chief. In October of the forty-first year of the Wanli reign, he requested to resign and return home. In August of the forty-eighth year of the Wanli reign, he and Wang Yingjiao were reinstated. Wang Yingjiao served as the Acting Minister of Revenue in the south, while Sun Wei served as the Acting Minister of Personnel in the south.

“Yes. In the thirtieth year of the Wanli reign, I was promoted to Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works. Although I didn’t end up going.” Wang Yingjiao muttered under his breath. “The person who took over as governor of Baoding at that time was Sun Chunyu. If I remember correctly, in the thirty-second year of the Wanli reign, Baoding was hit by floods again. At that time, Xiong Feibai was still serving as the magistrate of Baoding. They must have worked together to provide disaster relief. I wonder if Sun Chunyu was humiliated in public by Xiong Feibai, just like I was.”

"I'm afraid so." Wang Ji took a sip of tea and rinsed the food residue in his mouth into his stomach.

"Oh?" Wang Yingjiao raised an eyebrow.

"In the 41st year of the Wanli reign, regarding the case of Tang Binyin," Wang Ji said, "didn't Lord Sun ultimately impeach both Jing Yangqiao and Xiong Feibai?"

"Ha. That was a muddled case where everyone had their own version of the truth, and it even turned into a factional struggle in the end." Wang Yingjiao shook his head. "Sun Chunyu did this simply to appease everyone." Wang Yingjiao regained his composure and promptly cut off the topic that was starting to become troublesome: "By the way, sending 30,000 more troops to North Korea shouldn't add two million in military pay, right?"

Seeing that Wang Yingjiao had suddenly returned to the main topic, Wang Ji straightened up a bit, leaning on the armrest. "Actually, it didn't come to two million; roughly speaking, it's around one million four hundred thousand. This includes the initial settlement allowance and the compensation for clothes and shoes. Combined with the original eight million three hundred thousand, it's close to ten million."

"So how does the Ministry of Revenue plan to raise this 1.4 million?" Wang Yingjiao asked.

“It happened so suddenly,” Wang Ji sighed softly. “I only have a rough idea.”

“Then please explain your approach.” Wang Yingjiao nodded slightly, indicating his understanding. “Actually, my approach is quite simple.” A helpless expression flashed across Wang Ji’s face. “It is to provide more silver and less grain. Instruct the Korean Supervisory Office to use cash to purchase goods locally in Korea as much as possible. If the purchases are insufficient, then have the Ministry of Revenue find ways to raise funds for transportation.”

"Buying locally in North Korea? Is that even feasible?" Wang Yingjiao's first reaction was that it was unreliable.

"I don't know either." Wang Ji's smile turned bitter, and he shook his head.

“I think it’s unlikely. Back when I was governor of Tianjin, one of my important tasks was to transport provisions and supplies for the soldiers on the Eastern Expedition. As far as I know, Korea was poor and weak, with scarce resources. At that time, let alone providing provisions for our soldiers, even the Korean soldiers themselves did not receive adequate supplies. You should know that the rations they allocated to their own soldiers were less than 60% of ours, and they didn’t receive a single penny in pay,” Wang Yingjiao said. “Although we are now only sending 30,000 men to supervise Korea, which is 40% less than the 50,000 troops we had back then, I think it will still be difficult to sustain ourselves relying entirely on local supplies. After all, money can’t be eaten.”

“Things are different now. Twenty years ago, when our troops entered Korea, only half of Pyongan Province remained. Although we later recovered the lost territory, it was still thoroughly exploited by those beastly Japanese pirates. But now, after more than twenty years of recuperation, even at its worst, the situation should be much better than it was back then,” Wang Ji said. “Moreover, what I’m saying is just a concept. Whether it will come to fruition depends on what our Supervisor Yuan says. If it really doesn’t work out, the Ministry of Revenue will have to find a way to make room for him.”

"Yuan guardianship? Which Yuan?"

“Yuan Keli. A native of Suizhou, Guide Prefecture, Henan Province, he was a fellow townsman of Minister Li. He was a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) in the seventeenth year of the Wanli reign. In the twenty-fourth year of the Wanli reign, while serving as a Supervising Censor in Shanxi Province, he was dismissed for disobeying orders. He was reinstated last year and immediately assumed the position of Left Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review.” Wang Ji said slowly, “This year, for the special imperial examination, he was again selected by the Emperor as one of the examiners. As soon as the special imperial examination ended, he was transferred to Liaodong to serve as the Military Commissioner of Zhenjiang. However, I think that the Military Commissioner position was just a cover. I'm afraid that from the beginning, his real job was to oversee Korea.”

"Why choose him?" Wang Yingjiao had some impression of the name Yuan Keli, but that was all for now.

“I don’t know him very well either,” Wang Ji clicked his tongue. “Legend has it that it’s because of Jiao Hong.”

“Jiao Hong.” Wang Yingjiao thought for a moment. “Are you talking about Jiao Ruohou, the top scholar of the seventeenth year of the Wanli reign?”

“That’s right. It’s him,” Wang Ji said.

"But hasn't Jiao Ruohou already passed away?" Wang Yingjiao and Jiao Hong were both from Southern Zhili. Although they weren't close, they still had some contact.

Wang Yingjiao knew very well that Jiao Hong was not only the top scholar in the imperial examination, but had also served as a tutor to the crown prince. During his time as a tutor, Jiao Hong had even compiled a book called "Illustrated Explanation of Cultivating Righteousness" to enlighten the emperor's mind. Yet, even though the former crown prince, and now the emperor, still remembered Jiao Hong, he couldn't appoint Yuan Keli based on Jiao Hong's recommendation.
Wang Ji smiled, a hint of sarcasm in his smile: "Master Jiao has passed away. But he is still the mentor of our Grand Master Xu."

"Jiao Ruohou and Xu Zixian?"

"Yes. Our Grand Secretary Xu was the top scholar in the Shunzhi provincial examination in the 25th year of the Wanli reign. According to popular legend, it was the top scholar Jiao who picked out our Grand Secretary Xu's paper from the pile of rejected papers and forced him to become the top scholar." Wang Ji originally had neither good nor bad feelings towards Xu Guangqi. However, when he thought about how the Ministry of Rites colluded with the cabinet to stage a grand show of protecting Korea behind the back of the court, without any prior warning, and then "notified" the Ministry of Revenue to arrange for grain and salaries, Wang Ji couldn't help but feel a surge of anger.

Wang Yingjiao's mind was somewhat confused, and he failed to discern Wang Ji's dissatisfaction with Xu Guangqi. "Weili, you mean that Jiao Ruohou is Xu Zixian's mentor, and also has a deep friendship with this Yuan... guardian?" Wang Yingjiao had originally wanted to address Yuan Keli by his courtesy name, but not knowing it, he could only use his official title instead. "Because of this relationship, Xu Zixian recommended him to the Emperor?"

Wang Ji nodded, but said, "This is not my opinion; it's just a rumor circulating in the streets. I can't guarantee how much of it is true or false."

Wang Yingjiao didn't want to delve into the truth at this time, so he simply nodded slightly and steered the conversation back on track: "Isn't the troops being transferred to supervise North Korea this time the Beijing Garrison? We could easily intercept the portion of the rations and pay originally intended for the Beijing Garrison and send it to North Korea."

"Hmm," Wang Ji said, frowning slightly. "I'm afraid that won't work."

"Why not?" Wang Yingjiao asked.

“This Korean Guardian Army wasn’t just made up of the Beijing Garrison. According to our Cui Benbing, the Beijing Garrison only made up about half of the entire Korean Guardian Army. The other half consisted of soldiers from the former Shandong Coastal Defense Battalion under Shen Yourong, and a battalion of soldiers sent to aid Liaonan. These three groups totaled 25,000 men, who crossed the sea from Dengzhou and Weihai respectively, heading straight for Pyongyang and Hanyang,” Wang Ji explained. “More importantly, these gaps created by the transfers will need to be filled later.”

"In other words," Wang Yingjiao immediately understood, "the military rations needed for the reinforcements are entirely additional expenses?"

“That’s right, they’ve already started replenishing their troops in Shandong,” Wang Ji let out a long sigh, his hand constantly rubbing his receding hairline. “These funds and provisions are all extra expenses.”

“Wei Li,” Wang Yingjiao turned his head. “You just said that the troops that crossed the sea to Korea totaled 30,000. But you also said that the Beijing garrison, the Shandong troops, and a battalion of troops sent to aid Liaonan totaled 25,000. What about the other 5,000?”

“Oh. That’s how it is.” Wang Ji smiled with a slight apology. “Our Chief Minister Fang said before that in order to resist the Amin tribe entrenched in Kuandian, Zhenjiang Circuit will likely be separated from Liaodong and placed under the supervision of Korea. Mao Wenlong’s and Zhang Changyin’s troops, which were originally stationed in Zhenjiang, will also be placed under the Korean Guardian Army after that. These two battalions together number about five or six thousand, so in total, there are about thirty thousand people.”

Wang Yingjiao nodded. "So, in reality, it only adds the cost of over 20,000 people?"

“Strictly speaking, that is indeed the case,” Wang Ji said. “But even a skilled cook cannot cook without rice. It is really difficult to raise more than 20,000 people from the interior. Just like the beans we mentioned earlier, even if the Ministry of Revenue does its best to raise them, it can only squeeze out less than 700,000 shi (a unit of dry measure) to supply Liaodong. If Korea takes a little, Liaodong will take less. In the end, what we are doing is just robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

(End of this chapter)