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

Chapter 68 Xu Xianchun, the Chief of the Northern Garrison, Falls from Grace
A typical second-rank official's residence would have five rooms and nine bays, with three to four courtyards. Bi Ziyan only bought a small courtyard with one courtyard, but now it has been burned to ashes.

Xu Xianchun's case was handled quickly, and it was closed the next day. The arsonist was a drunkard who knew nothing when questioned. According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, he could only be flogged one hundred times and sentenced to three years in prison. Zhu Youjian suspected that the drunkard might really not know anything, because he was just randomly arrested to take the blame.

However, Zhu Youjian didn't really expect the Embroidered Uniform Guard to find anything. After all, the Embroidered Uniform Guard of today was no longer the fearsome Embroidered Uniform Guard of the Hongwu and Yongle eras. The current Embroidered Uniform Guard was just a group of high-ranking yamen runners and city management officers. Otherwise, why would they have set up the Eastern Depot and the Western Depot?

Zhu Youjian ordered Wei Zhongxian to take away the so-called arsonist arrested by Xu Xianchun. Upon investigation, it was found that he had been wrongly accused, and Xu Xianchun was subsequently imprisoned for deceiving the emperor. The Northern Garrison Command was now freed up, but Zhu Youjian was troubled by the question of who should take over, finding himself in a predicament of having no one to rely on.

After racking his brains for a long time, he finally thought of an honest man, someone whose abilities were unknown but who was at least not so cunning: Tang Yu, the Vice Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Commander of the Elephant Training Bureau.

"Your Majesty, I only know how to train elephants, not how to investigate cases!" Tang Yu was completely stunned by the unexpected windfall.

During this period, his elephant circus troupe was thriving, and with the Lantern Festival approaching, he was even busier. He had everything planned out: on holidays, he would put on circus acts to earn tips; when wealthy families held weddings or funerals, he would perform for them and receive payment; at other times, he would let the elephants rest at the mahout to prevent them from getting bored and to avoid the audience losing interest due to frequent performances.

"I believe in you. If you don't understand, take your time. Did you know how to tame elephants from birth?" Zhu Youjian said with a warm smile.

"But what about my elephant?!" Tang Yu continued to struggle.

"A concurrent post, a concurrent post, it's fine. Anyway, there are elephant handlers to take care of it, it's not like you're doing it yourself, is it?!" Zhu Youjian said with a change of expression, "Tang Yu, receive the decree!"

Tang Yu was forcibly detained and forced to kneel down. Wang Chengen read the imperial edict aloud to him.

The emperor was sent to heaven to carry the order, and the edict said:
I believe that the Northern Garrison Command is responsible for the imperial prison, a matter of great importance, and cannot be entrusted to anyone but a loyal, diligent, and capable individual.

Tang Yu, the Vice Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Commander of the Elephant Training Office, has a distinguished record in his various positions and is capable of undertaking important responsibilities.

You are hereby appointed to oversee the affairs of the Northern Garrison and to be in charge of criminal investigations. You must uphold justice, maintain order in the court, and not fail my expectations.

This is it.

"Your subject, Tang Yu, accepts the imperial decree and expresses his gratitude!"

Inside the East Investigation Factory prison, the renowned Xu Xianchun, the head of the Northern Garrison of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, was hung up. When he was taken away, all his subordinates watched coldly, and not one of them jumped out to speak for him.

With a creaking sound, the cell door opened, and a familiar figure came into Xu Xianchun's view. It was his old acquaintance, Wei Zhongxian, and he couldn't help but shiver.

Before him lay a variety of torture instruments: caning rods, shackles, finger clamps, cangues, whips, boning knives, iron brushes, iron hooks, and so on. Wei Zhongxian paused in front of these instruments, his pinky finger seemingly stroking them as if he were hesitating over which one to use.

"Xu Xianchun, you didn't expect to fall into my hands so quickly, did you?" Wei Zhongxian said without looking up. "I've heard that you usually love to humiliate prisoners in the imperial prison. This time... it's your turn to taste it for yourself." "Wei the eunuch, you'll die a horrible death!" Xu Xianchun cursed.

“Whether I live or die is not up to you, but up to His Majesty. His Majesty does not want to kill me, so I will not die. But you are different. Don’t you know that His Majesty hates being lied to?!” Wei Zhongxian said slowly.

"I understand now, it's all your fault! Wei Zhongxian! If you hadn't forced me to solve the case within a day, would I have just grabbed someone to take the blame? And would I have ended up in this state! You are the real treacherous villain who deceives the emperor!" Xu Xianchun was furious.

Wei Zhongxian shook his head and said, "Fool! His Majesty is wise and discerning; what can be hidden from him? Xu Xianchun, do you really think you can get away with this? The worst thing you could have done was to embezzle His Majesty's money!"

"You accuse me of embezzlement? Are you clean-handed?!" Xu Xianchun roared.

"I presented His Majesty with 100,000 taels of silver, did you receive any?" Wei Zhongxian tapped his fingertips on the edge of the table, his sinister smile laced with the chilling coldness of shattered ice. "Tell me all the ways you hid your silver, and I'll give you a swift death. Otherwise... I'll have your flesh scraped off piece by piece, hehehehe..."

"Ahhhhh!!!!"

Screams echoed from inside the prison, continuing for three days in a row.

Three days later, in the Qianqing Palace, Wei Zhongxian submitted his report to the emperor.

"Your Majesty, the guilty subject Xu Xianchun has confessed," Wei Zhongxian said.

Zhu Youjian glanced at the confession, which was densely written and made him dizzy. He was too lazy to read it carefully. After all, it was normal for someone to be thrown into a place like the Gongwangchang prison and the imperial prison and confess to the bombing of the Gongwangchang prison. So he asked directly, "How much money did you find out?!"

"Your Majesty, a total of 103,000 taels of silver, 3,000 taels of gold, eight residences, 200 hectares of farmland, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, gold and silver jewelry... were seized, totaling approximately 200,000 taels of silver!"

Zhu Youjian swallowed hard, feeling a pang of heartbreak. Two hundred thousand taels?! So, he, the emperor, was the only poor man?! Originally, Zhu Youjian was somewhat afraid that he had killed the wrong person, but now it seemed that Xu Xianchun truly deserved to die!
He had spent 70,000 taels of silver on this Lantern Festival, which had cost him dearly, but now he had finally made up for it. It wasn't easy!
The Aoshan Lantern alone costs 50,000 taels of silver, and that's the basic version, made entirely of paper, with many of the materials being recycled and reused from a few years ago. If it were made according to the most luxurious Aoshan Lantern of the Ming Dynasty, 100,000 lanterns would be needed, along with glass lanterns, crystal lanterns, and the like.

However, we can't not spend the money. The purpose of these spectacular buildings is to boost morale and appease the people. The Aoshan Lantern is held every year. If it suddenly disappears, the people may not be able to accept it, and the officials will not understand it either. They may all think that the Ming Dynasty is going to collapse.

Although this was an act of whitewashing, Zhu Youjian was thinking that while life was still manageable, he should let the people be happy for a while. In a few years, he was afraid that there would be no more such opportunities, and he would only be left with regrets.

"Transfer Xu Xianchun to the Ministry of Justice to determine his crime." Zhu Youjian tossed Xu Xianchun's confession back to Wei Zhongxian and said, "You've worked hard even during your rest time. Give each of your underlings ten taels of silver as a reward, and keep the rest for the imperial treasury."

(End of this chapter)