Qing Yao

Chapter 332 The Emperor's Southern Tour Left Behind!

Yangzhou, the Salt Administration Office of Lianghuai.

Akdang'a was calculating accounts with the accountant, who was calculating the Mid-Autumn Festival gifts for the ministers and officials in the capital this year. In previous years, the custom was to give the Mid-Autumn Festival gift of 20,000 taels to Minister He, but this year, because Quan De, the Zuo Ling of the Imperial Household Department, was secretly eyeing the Salt Administration's throne, Akdang'a increased the Mid-Autumn Festival gift to Minister He to 30,000 taels. In addition, he privately gave Minister He's chief steward, Liu Quan, another 10,000 taels.

As the saying goes, "It's easier to see the King of Hell than to deal with his underlings." Based on the various reports from the capital, Lord A concluded that the reason Quan De dared to covet his position as Salt Commissioner was because he had the support of Liu Quan, the chief steward of the Grand Secretary.

He Zhongtang trusted this chief steward implicitly, so in order to keep his position as salt commissioner, he had no choice but to heavily bribe Liu Quan.

Thus, including the tribute to the palace, the Mid-Autumn Festival tribute to Akdang'a alone would cost more than 160,000 taels of silver. However, this huge expense, equivalent to the annual tax revenue of Fuyu County, was insignificant in Akdang'a's eyes.

Because Master A is neither greedy nor greedy, he receives tributes from salt merchants amounting to over a million taels of silver every year. With just a slight change in his writing, earning two or three million taels a year is no big deal.

This is why he is called the living God of Wealth.

Of course, Lord A's own expenses were also high. His personal living expenses alone amounted to several hundred thousand taels a year. The two opera troupes that the Salt Administration Office supported year-round cost tens of thousands of taels a year, not to mention that Lord A was constantly finding ways to spend money.

Well, the higher the income, the higher the expenses.

If we're talking about "net profit," Akdang'a only actually earns five or six hundred thousand taels a year; the rest is distributed among all the higher-ups and lower-level employees.

This is why, despite everyone knowing that Akdang'a was extremely wealthy and lived a life of extravagance, no one, from the imperial court to the local authorities, dared to expose him.

After the accountant finished calculating the accounts, Akdan'a took out his personal seal and stamped it. These gifts of money were not sent through Hengli Money Exchange, which was run by the Imperial Household Department in Yangzhou, but through Yuyuan Draft Bank, which was run by Shanxi merchants. The reason for this was to keep it secret.

After finishing his work, Akdang'a was about to go to the main hall of the yamen to handle official business when his clerk, Zhou Fu, hurriedly walked in, holding a newly delivered official gazette in his hand.

"Just sent from the capital?"

Akdan'a extended his right hand, adorned with a jade thumb ring, to accept the gazette. He wasn't particularly interested in such gazettes because most of the news was "delayed," meaning it was information from several days or even half a month ago. Furthermore, the news published in the gazette was utterly unimportant to an official of his position.

Important news is either sent over in advance by the "sitting in Beijing" or it is never published at all.

Zhou Fu had been following Akdan'a for several years, so how could he not know his master's habits? Yet he still personally delivered this official gazette, clearly indicating that there was some "news" on it that was worth his master's attention.

Akdang'a curiously opened the book and glanced at it casually. His body stiffened, and the fat on his face trembled slightly. He exclaimed, "Zhao Youlu has been officially appointed as the Provincial Treasurer of Anhui and is still acting as the Governor?"

His eyes were filled with disbelief.

He knew that Zhao Youlu had been exceptionally promoted by the Emperor to the position of Grain Commissioner of Jiang'an last year, and he also knew that this young man, who had just been promoted to the position of Grain Commissioner of Jiang'an, had been temporarily appointed as the Provincial Treasurer of Anhui due to disaster relief needs. Not long ago, Zhao Youlu had written to him, this "living god of wealth," wanting to borrow 300,000 taels of silver from the Lianghuai Salt Administration to purchase grain for disaster relief. However, Akdan'a did not lend this money. Firstly, it was against regulations for such a loan. If Zhao Youlu had borrowed the money in his capacity as the Provincial Treasurer of Anhui, there should have been relevant documents from the Ministry of Revenue to "endorse" it, but the Ministry of Revenue had not sent any such documents.
If Zhao Youlu is borrowing the money in a private capacity, then it is even more unacceptable to lend it.

Three hundred thousand taels of silver is no small sum. How can a mere acting provincial governor repay it?

Secondly, Akdan'a looked down on Zhao Youlu, thinking that the boy was just an opportunistic scoundrel. He had only approached him to tell him about Quan De, the Zuo Ling of the Imperial Household Department, because he wanted to curry favor with Akdan'a, the Salt Commissioner of Lianghuai. So at the time, Akdan'a only approved a thousand salt permits and treated him like a beggar.

Akdanga never expected what would happen next. He really didn't know what kind of luck Zhao Youlu had, that he could rise from a lowly ninth-rank official to a third-rank Daotai in just one year.

There were some regrets, but not many. After all, Lord A, who was a living god of wealth, didn't even put the governors and viceroys in his eyes, let alone the grain transport commissioner.

The two sides had absolutely no connection whatsoever, even though outsiders said that Zhao Youlu was also a person of the Grand Secretary.

There are plenty of people in the Grand Secretary's circle; surely we can't expect Lord Ah to befriend them all?
Tired?
So even though Zhao Youlu was temporarily acting as the governor of Anhui, the emperor did not waver in his opinion. He believed that once the disaster in Anhui was relieved, Zhao Youlu would definitely return to his original post. No matter how confused the emperor was, he could not possibly let a young boy become a second-rank official. Wouldn't that be a huge joke?

As it turned out, this young man really did transform into a high-ranking official of the second rank, serving as both provincial governor and acting governor. Akdang's temples throbbed, and a sense of unease welled up in his heart. He suddenly looked up and stared at Zhou Fu: "Investigate this Zhao Youlu for me. Find out what his background is. How could a bondservant who came from a family that donated money for a position rise so quickly!"

"Alright, I'll have someone investigate right away!"

Zhou Fu agreed. Zhao Youlu was from Yangzhou, so it would be easy to find out his background. Just as he was about to make arrangements, someone rushed in and handed a letter to the Salt Commissioner.

The letter was sent by Tong De, the Imperial Textile Commissioner of Jiangning. He was from the Tong family, one of the eight great families of the Han Army, and later transferred to the Plain White Banner of the Imperial Household Department. His family had long been in charge of lucrative positions such as textile manufacturing and customs duties. Tong De himself had been appointed as the head of the Imperial Textile Commissioner of Jiangning two years ago.

Because both Tong De and Akdang'a came from the Imperial Household Department, they were very close and often exchanged letters. Tong De was on Akdang'a's Mid-Autumn Festival gift list, but instead of silver notes, he was given a painting and calligraphy work by Dong Qichang of the Ming Dynasty, which was quite valuable.

Upon receiving the letter, Akdan immediately noticed a magnolia flower drawn in the lower right corner of the envelope, a unique mark used by the Ministry of Internal Affairs for encrypted correspondence.

He couldn't help but wonder why Tong De had sent him an encrypted letter.

Without thinking twice, he hurriedly ordered Zhou Fu to bring him the Imperial Household Department's special codebook, "Imperial Collection of Leshan Hall Writings." He then opened the envelope, took out the contents of the letters, and searched through the collection one by one, while having Zhou Fu write them down as he searched.

After a flurry of activity, the final contents written on the paper startled the living god of wealth, Akdang'a, so much that his fingers trembled, and the coded text of the Imperial Household Department clattered to the ground.

Because the paper contained the sentence: "It is rumored in Jiangnan that Zhao Youlu is a gem left behind by the Emperor during his southern tour."

(End of this chapter)