Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 196 Zhu Youjian: If you're not going to work properly, go back to raising elephants! Tang Yu: Is there really such a good thing?!

On the first day of the eighth month of the second year of Chongzhen's reign, the military merit certificates were redeemed on time. A long queue formed in front of the Ministry of Revenue. Wang Lin, the commander of the Jinwu Guard, led a team to maintain order. As usual, Tang Yu dispatched the Jinyiwei of the Northern Garrison to disguise themselves and keep watch.

"Boss, what kind of sentry did the Commander send us here to keep watch? Who are we going to arrest?!" the scholar asked, puzzled.

"I don't know. Just keep watch, stop asking so many questions!" the Jinyiwei centurion said impatiently. "In our line of work, we just need to follow orders. Don't pry into things you shouldn't know. Knowing too much isn't necessarily a good thing. Why do you have to ask so many questions? If you're so capable, why don't you become a PhD?!"

"Then, how should the arrest warrant be written?!" the scholar asked helplessly.

"If I knew how to write it, would I have asked you to write it? Since you've already asked me, why are you asking me?!" the centurion replied arrogantly.

The scholar's face fell. Alas, sometimes being too knowledgeable in literature can be a burden.

The centurion rolled his eyes: "Have you memorized the Four Books? Which of the Five Classics have you studied? Which great Confucian scholar did you study under? And you call yourself a scholar?!"

The scholar was displeased and said, "Do you think someone like me can afford to hire such a great scholar? If I had a great scholar as my teacher, I would have passed the imperial examination long ago. Why would I be reduced to squatting on a street corner like this?!"

"So what if he's a great scholar? If you can't open that door with your hand, can't you kick it open? We, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, can invite whomever we want!"

"That's not the same!" The scholar rolled his eyes, crossed his arms, and sulked, ignoring the Jinyiwei commander.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard is not what it used to be; it can no longer find out what dishes the ministers ate last night or what color bodice the concubines wearing to warm their beds.

To rebuild the intelligence system, we must start with everyday gossip. So, under Zhu Youjian's orders, the Embroidered Uniform Guard now has an additional task: to gather information. Simply put, they must go wherever there is excitement, gather any interesting or valuable news, and then report it to Tang Yu, the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Vice Commander and Commander of the Northern Garrison.

Without the internet, Zhu Youjian's days were incredibly boring. Work was work, and entertainment was entertainment, but the tedious work couldn't replace finding fun, so Tang Yu became his "Daily Mail".

Inside the palace, the tea Tang Yu held had gone from scalding hot to ice-cold, but he hadn't drunk a drop. He sat with one side of his backside on the chair, feeling extremely uncomfortable. How could he possibly sit beside the emperor? What virtue or ability did he possess?! He would rather stand with his head bowed, or kneel and prostrate himself, for these were the proper postures for a subject to meet the emperor.

Tang Yu licked his slightly dry lips and finally took a sip of tea to moisten his throat. This was pre-Qingming Longjing tea, top-quality green tea. It seemed the emperor wasn't as poor as the rumors suggested.

Then he remembered something interesting: when the military merit certificates were redeemed, the emperor stopped acting and Eunuch Cao handed stacks of military merit certificates to the Ministry of Revenue, and then used large carts to transport away a large amount of silver.

The officials of the Ministry of Revenue and the people queuing behind them panicked. The Ministry of Revenue thought that the emperor was shameless and had made a batch of genuine counterfeit certificates to cheat people out of money! A small portion of the people queuing behind were merchants, but the majority were soldiers from the Beijing Garrison. Although they were not wearing armor, they were still capable of causing trouble.

Cao Huachun spread his hands, indicating that these vouchers were genuine military merit vouchers that palace eunuchs had exchanged with soldiers for petty gains. However, since it was not easy for the eunuchs to leave the palace, they entrusted him to exchange them collectively.

The matter had escalated considerably, and Bi Ziyan emerged from the yamen. After all, it involved millions of taels of silver, and couldn't be taken lightly. He had arrived at the Ministry of Revenue early that morning to oversee the situation. He didn't believe a word Cao Huachun said. Could palace eunuchs really raise 800,000 taels of silver?!
Even if they had that much money, would they dare to take it out? Besides, if leaving the palace isn't easy, was collecting the examination papers easy in the first place?! This must be a treacherous scheme by the young emperor!

Bi Ziyan pulled Cao Huachun inside and said with some helplessness, "If His Majesty wants to withdraw silver, the IOU can be submitted to the Ministry of Revenue for verification before being transferred to the Imperial Treasury. Why make such a fuss?!"

Cao Huachun retorted defiantly, "Your Majesty? What Your Majesty? This was our private affair, and it has nothing to do with Your Majesty!"

"Sigh, alright, whatever you say, Eunuch." Bi Ziyan had lost all his strength, but he still asked with some unease, "His Majesty didn't secretly add more stamps, did he?" "After this document is printed, it still needs to be stamped with your Ministry of Revenue's seal. How could His Majesty have forged it privately?!" Cao Huachun sneered.

Bi Ziyan paused for a moment, then said, "That's true."

The noise outside continued. The Imperial Guards stood guard at the gate with their spears, and the soldiers in line pushed their spear shafts to squeeze in. The clerk from the Ministry of Revenue was pale and had been talking until he was hoarse, but no one paid any attention to him.

"I am Bi Ziyan, the Minister of Revenue. Who dares to act so presumptuously in my Ministry of Revenue?!" Bi Ziyan shouted, his brows furrowed.

The soldiers gasped and retreated like a receding tide.

"Your Excellency, we're not causing trouble, we're just worried that all the money has already been exchanged. Please give us an answer, are we able to exchange this money today?" a soldier shouted from the crowd.

"Yes, Your Excellency, we're waiting for this money to buy rice and cook. Will this money ever be issued?!"

"If you don't trust the Ministry of Revenue, do you not trust His Majesty? When has His Majesty ever lied to you? Two million taels of silver in reward coupons have been issued, and the Taicang treasury currently has tens of millions of taels of silver. Do you think he would owe you a mere two million taels?!"

That's right. Although the court's credibility is terrible, the emperor's word is law. The soldiers felt much more at ease looking at the small seal representing the emperor on their military merit certificates.

Seeing the soldiers become obedient just because he invoked the emperor's name, Bi Ziyan was speechless. The reputation of the imperial court was utterly ruined, not even comparable to that of the emperor alone. The entire Ming Dynasty had truly become the emperor's personal fiefdom. His eyes darted around, wondering if printing the emperor's portrait on banknotes could revive them.

Tsk, if paper money won't work, then we can learn from the Westerners and mint silver coins. With the emperor's profile in them, these mixed with copper and tin can be used as snowflake silver.

After finishing his tea, Tang Yu secretly looked up to peek at the emperor, only to see the emperor looking at him with a half-smile. He quickly lowered his head again and continued to report: "The price of rice in the Chaoqian Market has dropped to nine qian of silver per shi today. A new foreign firm has opened in the East Market and West Market, which seems to be the property of Zheng Zhilong, the General of the Eastern Barbarians."

"Oh?! A foreign firm?! What kind of things do they sell?!" Zhu Youjian asked with interest.

"Well, there are clocks, glassware, spices such as cinnamon, brown sugar, felt cloth, etc. Your Majesty, I suspect they are also selling firearms illegally!"

"Doubt?!" Zhu Youjian frowned.

Tang Yu explained with an embarrassed expression, "They have only recently opened for business and are acting cautiously. We have not yet found any concrete evidence, and besides, we have not received His Majesty's order, so I cannot offend Zheng Zhilong."

"What are you afraid of him for? Do you think he'll come looking for trouble for you along the Huitong River?" Zhu Youjian rolled his eyes and said.

"It's not that I'm afraid, it's just..."

"What do you mean, 'you'? I appointed you as the Commander of the Northern Garrison, and you're so timid and hesitant, afraid of this and that. Remember this: as long as you satisfy me, that's enough. You don't need to give face to anyone else. Without my word, who can dismiss you?! If you continue like this, I'll send you back to raise elephants!"

"Such a good thing?!" Tang Yu's eyes lit up.

(End of this chapter)