My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 181 Taking Office as Assistant Director of the Shandong Provincial Bureau of Personnel
Su Ze took the waist token handed to him by Xia Wei, the Imperial Secretary, and hung it on his waist.

Su Ze now has three waist tokens: one for entering and exiting the palace, one for entering and exiting the East Palace, and this Ministry of Revenue token. When he walks, the tokens clink together and make a sound, attracting the attention of the Ministry of Revenue officials.

Xia Wei said in a low voice:

"Su Hanlin can cover his waist token with a cloth bag; that's what all the Grand Secretaries do."

Su Ze quickly expressed his gratitude:

"Thank you for the reminder, Xia Zhongshu."

Xia Wei brought Su Ze to Jieyongtang.

The last time I met Zhang Juzheng was in the main hall of the Ministry of Revenue, which is the office of the official in charge of the Ministry of Revenue.

This time, Zhang Juzheng was at the Jieyong Hall of the Outer Ministry of Revenue, which was where the secretaries of the thirteen Qingli Divisions of the Outer Ministry of Revenue held meetings.

The name "Tangming" (堂名) reflects the financial management philosophy of the Ming Dynasty's Ministry of Revenue: to cut spending.

Throughout history, there have been two schools of thought regarding fiscal policy.

One faction is the open-source faction, which advocates for higher taxes and for the imperial court to assume more responsibility for social governance.

One faction is the austerity faction, which advocates collecting less taxation and that the imperial court should avoid involvement in social governance as much as possible.

Of course, most dynasties wanted both, but they always had to prioritize certain aspects in their fiscal policies.

Perhaps learning from the lesson that the Song Dynasty adopted an active fiscal policy but still perished, the fiscal policy established by the Ming Dynasty was one of thrift.

Zhang Juzheng sat in the main seat of the Hall of Frugality, with a group of officials standing below him. Standing at the front of this group of officials was a middle-aged man wearing the robe of a sixth-rank official.

After paying his respects to Zhang Juzheng, Zhang Juzheng introduced Su Ze to him:

“Zilin, this is Wei Yun, the chief clerk of the Shandong Provincial Bureau of Personnel. He was a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) in the forty-first year of the reign of the late emperor.”

He was a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) in the 41st year of the Jiajing reign (1552), which meant he was a contemporary of Shen Shixing.

Su Ze looked at the person in charge named Wei Yun, who was also a disciple of Zhang Juzheng.

It's no wonder that Zhang Juzheng had such deep control over the Ministry of Revenue, to the point that the Minister of Revenue refused to take office; this can be seen from the personnel arrangements.

Although Wei Yun passed the imperial examination earlier than Su Ze and was considered a senior in the examination process, he did not perform well the first time, otherwise he would not have been able to become a principal officer in the Ministry of Revenue.

Su Ze was already famous in the capital, and now he was Wei Yun's superior. More importantly, Zhang Juzheng's attitude made Wei Yun treat Su Ze with utmost respect.

Zhang Juzheng then said, "The position of Director of the Shandong Provincial Administration Commission is vacant, and your mentor, Grand Secretary Gao, has been refusing to fill it. Now, we can only use you, the Assistant Director, to do the job."

Is the position of chief officer vacant?

Su Ze even suspected that the position of Shandong official was specially reserved for Zhang Juzheng's trusted confidants, and that he was temporarily pulled in to fill the void.

Su Ze didn't think about it any further, and Zhang Juzheng continued to ask:

"You've never served in the Ministry of Revenue, so do you know the responsibilities of the Shandong Provincial Administration Commission?"

Su Ze, who had the entire Ming Dynasty Code memorized, immediately said:

"The Shandong Provincial Administration Office was in charge of the revenue and expenditure of Shandong Province, and also in charge of the salaries of the three guards in Beijing, including the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Liaodong Military Command, as well as the salt tax of the whole country."

The Thirteen Offices of the Ministry of Revenue of the Ming Dynasty corresponded to the Thirteen Provinces of the Ming Dynasty, but in addition to the responsibilities of the corresponding provinces, they also had corresponding responsibilities.

The Shandong Provincial Administration Commission had additional responsibilities, but the last one, "in charge of the salt tax of the whole country," was the reason why Zhang Juzheng transferred himself to the Shandong Provincial Administration Commission.

As expected, Zhang Juzheng spoke up, saying, "His Majesty has already issued an edict to abolish the household registration system for stove workers and musicians."

"Tu Zemin, the governor of Dengzhou and Laizhou, submitted a memorial proposing to use a new method for salt production in Dengzhou and Laizhou, which reduced the consumption by half and increased the output by half."

Zhang Juzheng looked at Su Ze. Tu Zemin was originally recommended by Su Ze, and Zhang Juzheng believed that Tu Zemin's salt-making method must be inseparable from Su Ze.

However, as a Grand Secretary, Zhang Juzheng didn't care about such trivial matters. He asked Su Ze and Wei Yun:
"Although His Majesty has graciously abolished the salt-making register, allowing salt producers to find their own livelihoods, the salt law is a matter of national importance. Wei Yun, what do you have to say about this?"

The fact that Wei Yun was asked first suggests that Wei Yun held a respectable position in Zhang Juzheng's mind, likely belonging to the category of "promising talent."

Wei Yun thought for a moment and said, "Prime Minister, I think we should first issue an order to all salt-producing departments to use the new method of salt production. After the new method is widely adopted, we can then announce the abolition of the salt-making system and allow salt producers to choose their own salt-producing households."

Zhang Juzheng neither agreed nor disagreed, then looked at Su Ze.

Su Ze said:

"Grand Secretary Zhang, His Majesty's great favor must be known to the salt workers immediately; otherwise, where is the court's credibility?"

"Your Excellency, I believe that the salt producers should be informed of the court's policy. Those who wish to remain should be rehired by the salt bureau, while those who do not wish to remain should be allowed to leave."

Fearing that Zhang Juzheng might hesitate, Su Ze added:

“The new method of salt production consumes far less resources than the old method, and most salt producers are poor people who will not leave rashly. The salt industry will be secure for the next year or two.”

“After a few years, when the new law has been implemented, salt production in various places will surely increase significantly. At that time, salt producers will leave, and there will be no problem with the salt administration.”

Hearing this, Zhang Juzheng nodded, but then he asked:

"Where does the money for hiring salt commissioners come from? Is it from issuing more paper money?"

Zhang Juzheng truly lived up to his reputation as a financial expert of the Ming Dynasty; he immediately started calculating costs.

Su Ze took a slight breath and said, "In my opinion, please allow the sale of salt permits."

"Special sale?"

Su Ze said:

“Grand Secretary Zhang, the salt monopoly system of our dynasty is now only in name. The salt permits in Lianghuai and other places have been blocked for more than fifty years. There are even cases where the grandsons cannot redeem the salt permits of their grandfathers.”

“The salt diversion area was blocked, and those who could obtain salt were not salt merchants. After obtaining the salt, it was resold layer by layer, and the price of official salt rose day by day.”

Actually, Su Ze's words were already quite subtle.

In reality, those who could exchange salt certificates for salt were all high-ranking officials and nobles. After obtaining salt with salt certificates, they would not sell it themselves, but would usually give it to their subordinates or sell it to other merchants.

Zhang Juzheng nodded. The salt permit problem has become a chronic issue, and everyone in the Ming Dynasty is aware of it, but there is no better solution.

Seeing that Zhang Juzheng was interested, Su Ze seized the opportunity to say, "Why don't the court directly monopolize the new salt permits, with the salt bureaus selling them openly, and a portion of the profits retained by the salt bureaus to be used as operating costs?"

Salt monopoly was not a new practice, and Zhang Juzheng immediately understood Su Ze's idea.

But Zhang Juzheng then asked:

"In this case, is the salt sold by private merchants official salt or private salt? Wouldn't it be even worse than private salt?"

Su Ze said:

"The transport company prints three copies of the ticket: one for its own records, one for the branch office, and one for the merchants to use for transport. Merchants from various prefectures and counties are issued tickets by the prefectures and counties to go to the salt fields to buy salt, pay taxes, and then transport the salt out of the fields to be sold at designated ports."

After Su Ze finished speaking, Zhang Juzheng was silent for a moment, and finally said, "Submit a memorial to the cabinet regarding the salt administration plan."

Su Ze bowed in agreement. As expected, changing the salt law wasn't so simple; Zhang Juzheng had seen through Su Ze's plan to secretly manipulate the situation. The unspoken message Su Ze kept was that issuing new salt coupons would invalidate the existing salt certificates on the market.

Those interest groups that held salt permits naturally opposed it fiercely, and this was not something that Zhang Juzheng, one of the three chief ministers of the cabinet, could bear alone.

Therefore, Zhang Juzheng passed the buck back to the emperor and the cabinet, and only the emperor and the cabinet could bear this responsibility.

Zhang Juzheng said, "Let the local salt administration offices allocate silver to the salt bureaus, and inform the salt producers according to Su Ze's method, allowing them to stay or leave as they see fit."

Although he failed to persuade Zhang Juzheng to implement the "salt ticket law," Zhang Juzheng agreed to allocate funds to the salt bureau to hire salt producers, and he himself gained something by becoming the Assistant Director of the Shandong Provincial Administration Commission.

Zhang Juzheng continued:
"Regarding the maritime trade tariffs, the Shandong and Fujian tax offices should each submit a proposal for discussion by the Cabinet."

After assigning the tasks, Zhang Juzheng left the Jieyong Hall with Xia Wei, a secretary in the Imperial Secretariat.

After Zhang Juzheng left, Wei Yun led the other officials of the Shandong Provincial Administration of Civil Affairs to pay their respects to Su Ze.

Since there was no official in the Shandong Provincial Administration Commission, Su Ze, the Assistant Director, was the head of the department.

Wei Yun understood the gap between himself and Su Ze, and knew that someone like Su Ze was destined for a position in the cabinet and would disdain a post in the Ministry of Revenue.

For a boss with such a promising future, all you need to do is serve him well so he can get promoted as soon as possible.

Once Su Ze becomes successful, his former subordinates will still be able to enjoy the benefits.

Wei Yun had been in officialdom for several years and naturally understood these principles.

After exchanging greetings, Wei Yun said, "Minister Su, shall I show you around the office?"

Su Ze said politely, "Thank you for your trouble, Manager Wei."

And so, the group left the Jieyong Hall and arrived at the Shandong Qingli Division of the Ministry of Revenue.

The thirteen offices of the Ministry of Revenue were all built around the Ministry of Household Revenue. Each office was an independent courtyard and could be regarded as an independent government office.

Each Qinglisi (a government office responsible for financial affairs) had its own storage facilities and warehouses. Due to the large amount of financial work involved, the number of clerks was also extremely large, exceeding one hundred.

These people were not qualified to greet Su Ze at the Jieyong Hall, so Wei Yun led them to pay their respects to Su Ze at the Shandong Qinglisi Hall. Su Ze also gave a brief inaugural speech, which was basically about telling everyone to work hard and abide by the laws of the court.

After the other officials had left, Su Ze said to Wei Yun, "Wei Yun, please take on the routine duties within the department."

Su Ze could also see that Wei Yun was very prestigious in the Shandong Department and was very skilled in his daily work. Before Su Ze arrived, Wei Yun must have been in charge of the daily work.

Su Ze's main focus was not on the Ministry of Revenue, so he simply explained to Wei Yun that he should continue to be in charge of the daily affairs of the Shandong Division.

Wei Yun breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Su Ze say that.

A new broom sweeps clean, and Su Ze was no ordinary new official; he was a young minister highly regarded by the emperor and the cabinet ministers.

This can be seen from Zhang Juzheng's attitude towards Su Ze. His suggestions have a decisive influence on the Grand Secretary's decisions, not to mention his "illustrious military achievements" since entering officialdom.

Wei Yun had already prepared to back down, and he was ready to hand over his responsibilities to Su Ze.

But when Wei Yun heard that Su Ze was unwilling to interfere in the daily affairs of the Bureau of Civil Affairs, he breathed a sigh of relief.

The Ministry of Revenue's work is highly specialized, and it's dangerous for laymen to give orders blindly. Wei Yun's goodwill towards Su Ze increased even more.

Su Ze also had a good impression of Wei Yun.

The affairs within the Shandong department were well-organized, which was undoubtedly due to Wei Yun's daily management.

But now that he had taken on this position as an assistant secretary in Shandong, Su Ze felt he had to do some work, so he asked:

"Is there anything difficult for the department that requires my attention?"

Wei Yun thought for a moment and said, "Aside from the matter of drafting the maritime tariff, the most difficult thing in the department recently is dealing with the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

Su Ze was startled when he heard the name "Imperial Guards".

Since the beginning of their journey, this organization, which has intrigued and frightened time travelers, has always been shrouded in mystery.

Emperor Longqing was a relatively restrained emperor who rarely used the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Of course, this does not mean that the Embroidered Uniform Guard had no presence.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard was the emperor's henchman; the emperor would use the Embroidered Uniform Guard to arrest officials.

There has always been a legend in the Ming Dynasty officialdom that the Embroidered Uniform Guard possessed a record of the conduct of all officials, which documented their weaknesses.

Of course, Su Ze still thought this was nonsense.

If the Embroidered Uniform Guard were really that powerful, the Ming emperor wouldn't have bothered with his ministers; he could have just used the Embroidered Uniform Guard directly.
The current commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard is Duke Cheng, Zhu Xizhong, but Duke Cheng is seriously ill, and the power of the Embroidered Uniform Guard is in the hands of Feng Bao, the Grand Secretary of the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Director of the Eastern Depot.

Although the Eastern Depot was nominally an independent intelligence agency, it actually had no staff.

The Eastern Depot was actually just a leadership organization; it still needed the Embroidered Uniform Guard to handle its affairs.

When the Embroidered Uniform Guard was powerful, such as Lu Bing, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard during the Jiajing reign, he was the son of the Jiajing Emperor's wet nurse and had even saved the Jiajing Emperor's life.

Therefore, at that time, the Embroidered Uniform Guard was completely disobedient to the Eastern Depot, and the Eastern Depot had no presence.

However, when faced with the power of the Eastern Depot, the Embroidered Uniform Guard was just like the eunuch's lackeys.

"What happened to the Embroidered Uniform Guard?"

Wei Yun hurriedly said, "The Shandong Division is also in charge of the salaries of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. The salaries sent by the Embroidered Uniform Guard last time exceeded the budget and were rejected by Vice Minister Zhang. I'm afraid they will have to send them again in a few days."

Su Ze now understood why Wei Yun was having a headache: Zhang Shouzhi, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, refused to approve the budget for the Embroidered Uniform Guard, meaning that these Embroidered Uniform Guards had come to the Ministry of Revenue to demand their unpaid wages.

Su Ze was also starting to feel a bit overwhelmed.

This is not Zhang Shilang's fault. The problem lies with the emperor, who often granted positions to his trusted confidants in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, causing the Embroidered Uniform Guard to be overstaffed. Naturally, the Ministry of Revenue was unwilling to bear the salaries of these people.

Since Su Ze had already spoken, he accepted the difficult task and said to Wei Yun, "Inform me when the Embroidered Uniform Guard comes next time, and I will meet with them personally."

Wei Yun agreed with delight, and his respect for Su Ze grew even stronger.

He doesn't wield power but is capable of handling things; he's practically the perfect boss. Wei Yun's resentment towards Su Ze's parachuting into the Shandong Division vanished, and he quickly took his leave to handle the division's general affairs.

Since there was no physician in Shandong, the officials set up the main hall for Su Ze to work in.

Just as Su Ze was about to look through the official documents from Shandong, a plump pigeon flew into the courtroom.

Su Ze untied the letter cage; it was Shen Yiguan's reply.

Judging by the days, Wang Shizhen, Shen Yiguan, and the others should have already arrived in Bansheng City.

Su Ze opened the letter and carefully read Shen Yiguan's letter.

Is going on a diplomatic mission really that exciting?

(End of this chapter)