My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 258 A Well-Informed Source Reveals
Su Ze put down the newspaper. Sure enough, those who play politics are all shrewd. The emergence of newspapers as a new tool has also brought new ways to play political struggles.

The entire article questions the whereabouts of the Public Works Department's repair funds, and the questions are incisive, pointing to the Public Works Department's core problems.

The Ministry of Works' main expenditures fall into four categories:
Palace and government building repairs, river channel management, government-run workshops, and mausoleum construction.

Of these four major projects, river management is closely related to people's livelihoods. After the establishment of the Minister in charge of the Grand Canal, river repair and Yellow River management have become politically correct matters, and the budget can only increase year by year.

There were many military workshops among the government-run workshops. The accounts of these workshops were related to the Ministry of War and national defense, and the Ministry of Industry could easily cover them up by claiming they were military secrets.

The last item is the mausoleum project. This is the smallest expenditure among the four major expenses, but it involves the finishing touches on the mausoleums of the previous emperors, the construction of the current emperor's mausoleum, and the maintenance costs of the ancestral mausoleums and the mausoleums of previous emperors. No one dares to criticize this expenditure.

Only the direction chosen by the newspaper can be said to have hit the Ministry of Works right where it hurts.

However, Su Ze did not take this matter to heart. Although he had dealings with many officials of the Ministry of Works, he did not have much interaction with the Ministry of Works on a daily basis.
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On June 18, Su Ze was invited to attend the opening ceremony of the Armed Police Patrol Training Class.

However, the five city patrol censors reached a consensus: they would keep a firm grip on the affairs of the patrol battalion.

They personally wrote the curriculum for the police training course and only invited a portion of the instructors from the military academy to teach it.

The Imperial Censor who patrolled the five gates submitted a memorial requesting the Ministry of Justice to compile a book of "Case Studies of the Patrol and Arrest." This suggestion was approved by the Grand Secretariat and the Censorate, and the Longqing Emperor also approved the memorial.

Li Yiyuan, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, was in charge of compiling this book, "Police Cases," which specifically collected difficult and complicated cases from the Ministry of Justice archives, providing a case-handling manual for grassroots police officers.

Poor Vice Minister Li, after being transferred from the position of Commissioner of the Court of Judicial Review to Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, spent all his days writing books.

However, he didn't come away empty-handed.

After the completion of the "Civil Law of the Great Ming Dynasty", Emperor Longqing appointed Li Yiyuan as the Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince and granted his son the hereditary title of Hundred-Household Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. In the eyes of the court officials, this was a signal that he had one foot in the cabinet.

All that's left is for Li Yiyuan to join the cabinet when the next cabinet vacancy becomes a natural progression.

Therefore, Li Yiyuan did not complain and took on the job again. After completing the Civil Code for the Jinyiwei Civil Litigation Division, he began to compile the Patrol Manual.

The instructors of the military police training class were all censors from the Censorate.

Outside of the Censorate, only Su Ze was granted the title of honorary supervisor, attended the opening ceremony, and gave a moral education lesson to the first batch of students in the patrol battalion.

Su Ze could only say that these censors had become smarter.

The police force is the eyes and ears of the capital. If it is managed well, there will be no shortage of materials to impeach people in the future.
Clearly, the Censorate was aware of this and wanted to use the five city-patrol censors to take control of the violent police force.

In the future, if any official in Beijing commits a crime, whether it is themselves, their family members, or even their servants and relatives, they will likely be impeached immediately by the Censorate.

Of course, this is also a good thing for the security of the capital.

The capital city is a place where all sorts of people mingle, and many thugs and ruffians have protectors behind them.

But things are different now. Who can stand up to the Censorate now?

With the full backing of the Censorate, the police force will likely be able to enforce the law with greater confidence.

Although pursuing absolute judicial fairness in the Ming Dynasty was a pipe dream, at least there was a check and balance of power, which greatly improved the security of the capital and cracked down on some scoundrels who oppressed the people.
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As the weather gets hotter, the Crown Prince's Palace has also given an early holiday this year.

Su Zelai sought refuge from the heat in the makeshift air-conditioned room at the newspaper office.

However, the "temperature" in the imperial court also rose rapidly along with the rising air temperature.

First, there was the issue of the Ministry of Works' expenditures on the construction of palaces and buildings. This was no longer something the newspapers were harping on; instead, officials from the Six Ministries and the Censorate submitted memorials demanding that the Ministry of Works disclose its accounts and explain the whereabouts of the 150,000 taels of silver.

Then, the Taipusi (Imperial Stud) was also exposed for scandal in the "New Gentleman's Daily".

Similarly, the Taipusi (Imperial Stud) had a horse farm outside the capital city.

This horse farm had twenty officials from the Imperial Stud, one hundred horse herders, and the imperial court also allocated one hundred acres of land specifically for planting fodder.

Despite such favorable conditions, the horse farm still started to lose money from the Chenghua era onwards, and every year it requested the imperial court to increase the "horse aid money".

With this money rolling over, the Imperial Stud would need to subsidize just this one horse farm with five thousand silver dollars a year.

However, the New Gentleman's newspaper investigated and found that the horse farm was bustling with people coming and going every day, but there wasn't a single horse in the farm!
The report was so bizarre that even the emperor was alarmed and ordered the censors to investigate thoroughly.

As the report stated, there wasn't a single horse in the entire horse farm. The five thousand silver dollars were used for the farm's daily maintenance and personnel expenses.

This naturally enraged the emperor, who then dispatched censors to thoroughly investigate the Taipusi's horse farms in the capital region, and discovered three more horse farms with outstanding debts.

Zhu Daqi, the Minister of the Court of Imperial Stud, resigned to take responsibility, and the most unfortunate person was the Chief of the Zhejiang Provincial Office of the Ministry of Revenue, who was in charge of horse administration.

Ding Jingxuan, the former chief of the Zhejiang Provincial Administration Commission, was dismissed from office because of the incident of crying at the temple during the provincial examination. The current chief has only recently taken office.

Unexpectedly, this happened, and the newly appointed Zhejiang Provincial Commissioner for Personnel Management was also demoted.

There is no greater uncertainty than this in the world of officialdom.

Once an ordinary official encounters such a huge problem, it can take several years or even more than a decade to climb out of the pit, and may even ruin his future.

A high-ranking official fell from power because of a single report, and more and more people have come to see the power of newspapers.

The only reassuring thing was that, under Su Ze's strict orders, the most influential newspaper, Yuefu Xinbao, refused to publish these unsigned "gossip news" reports and insisted on only reporting confirmed news.

The court officials were astonished to find that the fact that the "New Yuefu Gazette" was now in Su Ze's hands was a result that put everyone at ease.
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Su Ze originally wanted to stay at the newspaper office to cool off and behave himself for a month, but he didn't expect Wan Jing to come knocking on his door.

"Brother Su, I have come here to ask for your help."

Su Ze quickly helped Wan Jing up and said, "Brother Wan, why do you have to do this? Let's talk things out slowly."

Wan Jing said with a bitter expression, "Brother Su knows that I used to work in the Ministry of Works, and Brother Fu is the current Director of the Ministry of Works. This time, the Ministry of Works has been heavily criticized for the construction expenses reported in the newspaper. Although Grand Secretary Lei has tried to defend it, the Ministry of Works is also struggling to cope."

Su Ze asked:

"So where exactly did this expenditure go? Can't the Ministry of Works provide a clear account?"

Wan Jing sighed deeply and said, "Brother Su should know that in addition to building palaces, the maintenance of public residences in the capital is also an expense of the Construction Bureau."

Su Ze immediately understood.

The imperial residence I live in now was renovated by the Ministry of Works under the emperor's order, and the Ministry of Works probably paid for it.

Su Ze was speechless; in the end, the blame fell on his own head.

Wan Jing took out an account book and handed it to Su Ze, saying:

"This is a detailed breakdown of the expenditures of the Ministry of Works' Construction Department over the past three years. Please take a look, Brother Su."

Su Ze took the ledger, opened it, and saw densely packed entries, just as he had expected.

The entire ledger of the Construction and Maintenance Department contained records of the Ministry of Works' repairs to the residences of various powerful and influential figures.

Su Ze also saw his own name among the entries. The Ministry of Works had used labor and materials to repair the mansion, amounting to 1,500 taels of silver. Of course, Su Ze's entry wasn't the largest on the ledger.

For example, when the Duke of Dingguo and the Duke of Chengguo were building their residences, each of them used two thousand taels of silver for materials and labor.

Several Grand Secretaries were also on the list. Apart from Gao Gong, their residences were basically bestowed by the emperor and were considered government property, requiring maintenance by the Ministry of Works.

Besides these imperial mansions, there were also some low-ranking officials' residences rented out in the capital. These houses also had considerable maintenance costs each year. Although the amount per house was not as much as that of the mansions, they added up to a large sum of money.

Su Ze knew why the Ministry of Works hadn't offered any explanation for so long.

If this account book were made public, it would be a slap in the face to all the nobles and ministers in the court.

Not publishing this ledger would offend the censors, while publishing it would offend all the important officials.

Su Ze sighed slightly. Indeed, the most difficult thing in this world is this kind of interdependence, where you are in me and I am in you.

Su Ze returned the account book to Wan Jing and said, "Brother Wan, I will send someone to the Ministry of Works to pay for the house repairs."

"Brother Su, that's not what I meant."

Su Ze waved his hand and said:

"This mansion, bestowed by the Emperor, is already a great favor from His Majesty, and in principle, the Ministry of Works should not have to pay for it anymore."

"I will pay my respects to the dukes and ministers on the list and ask them to prioritize the overall situation and try their best to return this money."

Wan Jing said, moved, "Brother Su! The Ministry of Works absolutely did not mean that. How could we let you do something that would offend people?"

Su Ze shook his head and said:

"Can your Ministry of Works get it back?"

Wan Jing was stunned for a moment. Su Ze was right. With the prestige of their Ministry of Works, they probably wouldn't even be able to get in the door.

Su Ze said:

"What was the total cost of repairing the residences of high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital, which were bestowed by the emperor?"

Wan Jing immediately said:

"Less than fifty thousand taels."

Su Ze frowned and said:
"So little? What about the remaining 100,000 taels?"

Wan Jing sighed and said:

"The rest is the maintenance of official assets. Brother Zilin, you may not know this, but although the individual expenditures at the beginning seem large, the biggest burden is actually these scattered official assets."

"How to say?"

“Scattered official properties are located throughout the capital, including residences, workshops, warehouses, shops and so on.”

"However, the better locations were all seized by powerful officials in the court, while the poorer locations were left vacant and abandoned, and the Ministry of Works had to bear a large amount of maintenance costs every year."

"Take this rental housing as an example. The Construction Department has 1,500 humble residences with two courtyards or less, which were originally intended to be rented out cheaply to newly promoted officials coming to the capital."

"Three hundred of these houses are located in the east and west of the city. These houses have long been rented out, and many officials refuse to return them even after leaving the capital. The Ministry of Works still has to spend money to support them."

"But of the 1,200 humble dwellings in the south and north of the city, only those in good locations can be rented out; no one wants to rent the ordinary ones."

“The daily maintenance of these houses, plus the major repairs every five years, comes to about ten silver dollars per household. The rent simply cannot cover this, so these are fixed expenses of 15,000 silver dollars.”

Su Ze said doubtfully:
"Can't vacant houses be rented out to ordinary people?"

Wan Jing paused for a moment and said:
"There is no precedent for this in our dynasty."

Su Ze said:

"If our dynasty doesn't have it, didn't the former Song dynasty?"

“I remember that during the Song Dynasty, there was an agency called Dianzhaiwu that was specifically responsible for the government-run housing rental. There were more than 20,000 public houses in Bianjing (Kaifeng). Dianzhaiwu rented these public houses to the people, which not only covered its own expenses but also generated profits for the court.”

Wan Jing said, "But our dynasty does not have such a system."

Su Ze pulled out a blank memorial and said:

"It will be ready in a few days. I will immediately report to His Majesty to revitalize the properties under the Construction Department and strive to generate profits as soon as possible."

Wan Jing couldn't keep up with Su Ze's train of thought, so he quickly asked:
"But Brother Su, there must be some cost for repairing these houses once they're rented out, right?"

Su Ze said, "That's simple. Just get the nobles and high-ranking officials to return the 50,000 taels of silver, and we'll have the money."

A Memorial to Provide Shelter to the Poor Scholars of the World

The memorial began simply, with Su Ze recounting the situation of the Ministry of Works:
"The Ministry of Works' Construction Department was in charge of the repair of palaces, government offices, residences, and the maintenance of government property in the capital."

"According to recent accounts, the annual expenditure is 150,000 silver dollars, of which 50,000 taels are used for the repair of the residences bestowed by the emperor to nobles, ministers and high-ranking officials, and the remaining 100,000 taels are wasted on the maintenance of scattered official properties."

"However, those in slightly inferior locations are mostly vacant and abandoned, requiring nearly 15,000 silver dollars in annual maintenance fees, making it difficult to cover rent and interest, thus wasting national funds. Even worse, there are 300 poor houses in the east and west of the city occupied by retired officials, for which the Ministry of Works uses them to support them, which is tantamount to adding insult to injury."

"Recently, officials have been submitting impeachments one after another, causing turmoil in the court. The Ministry of Works has remained silent and has not defended itself, for fear of offending high-ranking officials by revealing the details. However, if this continues, it will inevitably lead to financial difficulties for the Ministry of Works and increase the burden on the people."

"I have observed that in the past, the Song Dynasty established a shop and residence administration office to manage the rental of government property. There were 20,000 public residences in Bianjing, generating substantial annual revenue. If we follow that system, we may be able to resolve our predicament."

Following that, Su Ze wrote:

"Although the residence bestowed by the emperor belongs to the imperial court, the meritorious officials and ministers have already received special favors, and it is inappropriate to waste public funds to repair their private residences."

"Please order the Ministry of Works to prepare detailed accounts and return all the silver obtained."

"If the property is recovered, the proceeds can be used to repair the vacant property."

"The humble dwellings in the south and north of the city, as well as the remaining workshops and warehouses, are now mostly dilapidated and idle. Please take the 50,000 silver dollars that have been returned and use them for repairs to make them complete, sturdy, and usable."

“Following the Song system, the ‘Capital City Official Property Affairs’ was established, which was in charge of leasing matters.”

Finally, Su Ze raised the level again:

"Renting out humble dwellings to the common people at low prices to shelter the poor is a boon to the common folk. If this virtuous policy is implemented, sheltering all the poor in the world, then it can become the prosperous era described by Du Fu, a golden age that will last for ten thousand generations!"

Wan Jing watched as Su Ze wrote such a weighty memorial in one go, and was momentarily stunned.

All that could be heard was Su Ze saying, "I will take this memorial to visit the meritorious officials and nobles. They are all reasonable and will surely agree with my memorial. Brother Wan, please return to the Ministry of Works and wait for my good news."

(End of this chapter)