Qing Yao

Chapter 70 The First Person Below the Third Rank

Yin Zhuangtu was deliberately causing trouble for the old master. You know, the birthday celebration in the capital has not yet ended, and the old master still has to go to Shufangzhai to watch a drama with the imperial concubine and the princesses.

It's a rare occasion for him to celebrate his 80th birthday. As a minister, you don't wish him a happy birthday, but instead you are causing trouble for him. How could that not be deliberate?
Moreover, Yin Zhuangtu's memorial was very infuriating. Not only did he say that the system of negotiating criminal silver was purely a transaction between the national law and corrupt officials, which made those who violated the law have no sense of shame or fear, leading to rampant corruption and deficits in the local area.

He also said that "all governors-general have a bad reputation and the administration is lax" and that "when examining whether the officials are virtuous or not, half of the merchants and common people frown and sigh." The memorial is full of outrageous and vicious words such as "all", "all", and "disgraceful".

Finally, fearing that the old man might not believe what he said, he asked the old man to send an agent to investigate with him.

He wanted to use facts to prove that the criminal silver was the biggest scourge of the Qing Dynasty.

The old man who had read every word with a magnifying glass became furious and slammed the magnifying glass on the table with a bang.

At the same time as the mirror cracked and the table shook, the two favorite ministers Heshen and Ji Yun were also frightened, and the latter fell to his knees with a thump.

"This Yin Zhuangtu is too presumptuous. As he said, during the prosperous reign of Emperor Qianlong, the people were miserable! Could it be that I, the "Ten Perfects," am a foolish and incompetent ruler?"

The old man, in such a good mood, was so unhappy that his rage was almost overflowing. He grabbed Yin Zhuangtu's memorial and threw it to the ground, cursing: "This bastard submitted this memorial just to gain fame and to ask me to make an exception and give him a special position. He even went to the local authorities to extort bribes and blackmail him!"

"Master (Emperor), please calm down!"

Heshen and Ji Yun were so scared that they knelt there and dared not breathe, and even scolded Yin Zhuangtu harshly, saying, "Why are you causing trouble during such a big festival?"
"Calm down, what anger do you want to calm down!"

The old man, still furious, looked directly at Ji Yun and pointed at him with his old hand: "You great talent, tell me, is it really wrong for me to let Heshen handle the negotiation of the criminal silver as Yin Zhuangtu said?"

Ji Yun, who had been exiled to Hancheng (Dihua) twenty years ago for his involvement in the Lianghuai Salt Permit Case, had become a seasoned shrew. How could he dare to say the emperor was wrong? He lay there with his butt sticking out and said cautiously, "Your Majesty, I believe that negotiating the penalty silver is beneficial to the country and the people."

"Oh, tell me more about it."

When the elderly man heard these words that pleased him, the anger in his brows suddenly lessened a lot.

Ji Yun quickly said, "Your Majesty, I believe that local officials are bound to make mistakes occasionally. If they are dismissed and investigated for this reason, the court will not be able to find suitable successors who are familiar with local affairs, which will be detrimental to the local areas and the people.

"With this method of negotiating fines for crimes, we can establish a system for using fines to lightly punish officials who occasionally make mistakes. This will not only demonstrate the emperor's deep love for his officials and his appreciation for talent, but will also make local officials aware of the emperor's grace and not dare to commit the same mistakes again."

Heshen, who was listening on the side, couldn't help but think that Ji Xiaolan, the old fox, had found a good entry point. His love and cherishment of talents was in line with the original intention of negotiating the fine.

Is it easy for the court to train an official?

If someone commits a small offense, they will be punished. How many officials are enough to handle this?
"Yes, that's right. That's what I thought at the beginning."

The old man looked at Ji Yun with great satisfaction. This prostitute really understood him.

"Master, although the money collected from various places for discussing crimes has been sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs,"

Heshen was the direct person in charge, so of course he had to speak well of the fine silver. He explained that although the fine silver was uniformly remitted into the account of the Guangchusi, a portion of it would be returned to the local government after the accounting for public use in engineering projects to benefit the people. It was not like what Yin Zhuangtu said that it all became royal private property and was squandered by the emperor alone.

Even if it is the truth, it is not good to say it like this.

In fact, Heshen had already done it in the 43rd year of Qianlong's reign, but at that time only officials above the rank of governor-general could pay the silver for negotiation of crimes, and ordinary officials had no such qualifications.

The reason it was made universally applicable to all officials this time was because the Emperor's birthday celebrations had cost him so much money. Ji Yun continued, "In the fifty-five years since His Majesty ascended the throne, he has shown great kindness to the people. He has exempted the entire nation from taxes and levies four times, exempted the provincial government from paying grain taxes twice, and spared millions from the national treasury in times of natural disasters like floods. The people of the world are all grateful."

What the old fellow meant was that Your Majesty has exempted a lot of money from the people of the world, and now you have a deficit of tens of millions of taels for your birthday celebration, but you did not collect it from the people, but only collected it in disguised form from the officials through the method of negotiating the silver for crimes. Isn't this a truly benevolent policy?

As for where the officials who paid the money will be compensated, that is not within the scope of Mr. Ji’s discussion.

Heshen and others both pretended to be ignorant even though they knew the truth, but the old man didn't pretend to be ignorant?

With everyone singing the same tune, discussing the fine for crimes became a great thing that benefited the country and the people.

After hearing this, the old man's anger not only disappeared, but all the wrinkles on his face turned into a smile.

"master,"

Although Heshen was a greedy person, he had one good thing, which was that he did not harm others. Although Yin Zhuangtu's memorial was an insult to him and Zhongtang, he still pleaded for him. It was simply that Yin Zhuangtu's starting point was good, but this man had just returned from mourning and heard some rumors on the way, so he wrote a letter without any investigation.

Ji Yun, of course, understood what He Shen meant and chimed in with a few words, finally saying, "Your Majesty, since Yin Zhuangtu wants to make a secret visit, Your Majesty should grant him permission."

"That's good, so I won't be accused of being old and incompetent and unable to listen to advice."

The old man waved his right hand and said, "Issue an order to have the Ministry of Revenue's Vice Minister Qingcheng and Yin Zhuangtu to conduct an inspection tour of various places. However, they are not allowed to conduct secret visits and must notify the local authorities in advance of each destination. Also, during Qingcheng's inspection, the local authorities will pay for his horses and food. As for Yin Zhuangtu, hmm, he will pay for his own transportation, horses, food, and lodging."

"."

Heshen and Ji Yun looked at each other and thought that Yin Zhuangtu would be able to find out nothing in this way.

Our master (the emperor) is so wise!
After the old master finished his decree like a child, he looked at Heshen with concern: "It's been a while since I issued the decree on the fines. Heshen, how many local officials have voluntarily paid the fines?"

"When I arrived, the Guangchusi had just compiled a list of officials who would be paying the bank. The list is with me. I will tell my master right away."

Heshen stood up, took out the list from his arms, and read it one by one.

It takes up three full pages, and most of the content is from local governors and provincial governors, salt transport manufacturers, and generals-in-chief. However, not many officials below took the initiative to subscribe to the tax. This is nothing surprising. As the policy has just been conveyed, local officials must be waiting and watching.

Moreover, the imperial court did not set a quota for how much to pay, so everyone was looking at each other.

In contrast, high-ranking officials have a much more accurate grasp of the court's trends.

I estimate that in another month, Guangchusi will have a lot of money.

"Jiangsu Textile Factory Qifeng pledged 30,000 taels of silver, Yangzhou Prefecture School Ninth Rank Recorder Zhao Youlu pledged 1,000 taels, and Fujian Governor."

Ok?
Just as he was about to read the Fujian side, Heshen paused, turned around and looked up again, a little unable to believe his eyes.

That’s right, it was a ninth-rank academic official in Jiangsu named Zhao Youlu who voluntarily paid one thousand taels of silver to the court as punishment for his crime.

The first person below the third rank.

(End of this chapter)