Chapter 101
Something new? Of course he had something new~
Xie Chengze swayed his head from side to side. “This son believes the paltry sums you ministers can offer probably won’t be of much use. Why not call on every official in the capital to donate, from Prime Minister Li down to the lowliest clerk? We can compel donations based on the number of carriages in each household, the floor area of their properties, the number of ponds and lakes, the number of concubines and bedchamber maids, and so on, weighting each category differently and increasing the rates progressively. The more carriages a household owns, the more silver it must donate. Anyone who cannot pay can have the Ministry of Revenue take a good, thorough look at his household ledgers!”
The officials instantly paled in horror: ?!
What a vicious scheme!
What a fucking unconscionable trick!
As a rule, without an impeachment memorial and evidence from someone else, even the emperor could not arbitrarily confiscate a family’s estate and exterminate its entire clan. Such acts were the work of tyrants, after all. A proper ruler and his officials were supposed to “trust” one another.
Their ledgers recording “exchanges of courtesies” were therefore reasonably safe. As long as no one investigated, nothing would happen.
Even if someone did investigate, there would be little trouble provided the ledgers were well hidden.
The problem was that even if they kept no record of their own embezzlement, or hid their ledgers securely enough, that did not mean the officials beneath them who sent gifts would refrain from recording those gifts, or hide their own ledgers with sufficient care.
If those petty officials could not donate enough silver, any hidden ledgers discovered during an investigation would ultimately implicate them too…
This meant that to keep their misdeeds from coming to light, they would not only have to pay themselves, but might also have to cover the donations of the officials beneath them!
And there were so many officials entangled in all this. If their political opponents exploited those connections…
The officials’ hearts pounded like drums, and they felt their vision go black.
Compared with the Crown Prince’s benevolence and leniency, the Second Prince truly wore a savage grin as he aimed his kicks straight at their hearts!
“Your Majesty, surely this is inappropriate!”
“Our last donations already emptied our coffers. We truly cannot scrape together any more!”
“Your Highness, you cannot keep fleecing us, can you? Earning our monthly salaries is no easy task either. Besides, this official’s own household must prepare for the bitter winter…”
“Come now, gentlemen. You’re exaggerating.” As if Xie Chengze did not know exactly what these people were scheming. He declared with righteous indignation, “Can your suffering compare with the people’s suffering? Can your hardships compare with theirs? Besides, how am I singling you out for a fleecing? Am I not fleecing every official in the entire capital as well? That is called impartiality and fair treatment!”
“This…” What utter nonsense!
“Could it be that you gentlemen are unwilling?” Looking profoundly disappointed, Xie Chengze lambasted them. “Only three days ago, you were all shouting that you would devote yourselves to the court and work to your dying breath! Now that donations are mentioned, you immediately change your tune?”
With an air of bitter disgust, he continued, “To think Father cared so deeply for you that he specifically had me propose raising your monthly salaries in this very hall that day! What a waste of Father’s painstaking concern. So you ministers can share the good times, but not the hardships!”
“Father -” Xie Chengze rose with an anguished cry. “This son’s heart is broken! We might as well behead all these faithless men!”
The ministers: …
Emperor Jian: …
Oh, so he had demanded a salary increase that day to give himself a legitimate pretext for demanding donations today. He had even dumped the blame for raising their monthly salaries onto his father!
What a “fine” son he had.
Xie Chengze’s speech truly left no room for rebuttal. The loyal ministers, in particular, stepped forward one after another to express their willingness to donate silver and weather the crisis together. This left the unwilling ministers no choice but to choke down their resentment and resign themselves to their bad luck.
Emperor Jian nodded in satisfaction. Having reaped the rewards of Xie Chengze’s proposal, he could not help wanting another taste of success. “Ze’er, how do you think we should go about collecting donations from the public?”
Who could have guessed that Xie Chengze would change his tune faster than anyone could turn a page? The sorrow on his face vanished in an instant, replaced by impregnable indifference. “Dunno. Ask Shen Yuan!”
Shen Yuan: …
Emperor Jian: …
Shen Yuan shook his head with an amused laugh, then stepped forward. “Donations from the public can only be voluntary, and the amounts will be small. There is no need to go to great lengths over them. We would do better to focus on wealthy merchants throughout the realm and have them donate money and supplies to aid the nation and the northern regions afflicted by the snow disaster. To encourage larger donations, we could erect monuments to their good deeds in prosperous locations in the capital and elsewhere, engraving their names and charitable acts on the stone. If Your Majesty also contributes an inscription in your own hand, it will both demonstrate Your Majesty’s benevolent rule and inspire others to do good, making charitable donations a widespread practice.”
Shen Yuan had learned this method from Xie Chengze. If the merchants were so fond of prefectural permits, then the emperor’s calligraphy would be even more highly prized, beyond any price. Countless people sought it in vain; obtaining it would bring glory to their ancestors. When the time came, the merchants were bound to flock to the opportunity.
“Oh? An excellent idea!” Emperor Jian could not help nodding in approval. With a snow disaster seldom seen in a century approaching, condescending to wield his brush in exchange for generous donations from the rich was an excellent bargain indeed. “We shall leave this matter to the Director of the Treasury Bureau.”
Court went on for a long time that day, with all the officials planning for the snow disaster. They had not even eaten lunch, and their legs had grown numb from standing, their mouths and lips parched.
After dragging his chair over and giving it to an elderly minister whose legs were bad, Xie Chengze secretly slipped out of the hall and took a deep breath of the cold air outside.
Then he murmured to himself, “I wonder whether there’s any news from Sheng Yiren yet.”
After gazing at the sky for a while and doing a set of eye exercises, Xie Chengze lifted the hem of his court robe and slipped over to the Ministry of Works. Few people were around. There was not even a guard at the entrance, and the main gates were shut tight, as if to keep outsiders away.
Xie Chengze knocked, but no one answered. He called for Wuhen, who carried him over the wall into the Ministry of Works.
Sure enough, the main gates were locked from within. The courtyard was deserted, and even the officials on duty were nowhere to be seen. Wuhen’s ears twitched. He pointed in one direction and said, “Your Highness, everyone is over there.”
In that direction lay the Ministry of Works’ Bureau of Forestry and Parks, which oversaw the capital’s streets and lanes, gardens, the vegetation of the mountains and marshes, and hunting.
Xie Chengze walked over. Sure enough, the ministry’s officials were all gathered there. Some stood in the courtyard, looking up at something, while others stood in a workshop on the eastern side, tinkering with who knew what. Everyone looked tremendously excited.
Xie Chengze sidled up without a sound. “What are you looking at?”
“Gah!” A head suddenly appeared over their shoulders and spoke out of nowhere, giving several officials such a fright that startled cries escaped their mouths. Only when they recognized Xie Chengze’s face did they relax. They bowed one after another. “Your Highness, we heard that Elder Gu has completed a heated bed for sleeping on in winter, so we came especially to see it.”
Oh! They had built a large Northeastern-style heated brick bed already?
The Ministry of Works was pretty efficient!
But… “Who’s Elder Gu?”
The officials exchanged looks, then answered, “Elder Gu is our ministry’s Manufacturing Supervisor. He excels at making implements for every craft. Whether they are articles for everyday use or equipment for attack and defense in the army, anything manufactured under his supervision improves by several grades in quality.”
“I see. Then I must take a look at what he can do.” Xie Chengze nodded and entered the workshop on the eastern side. Two officials were squatting inside, feeding firewood into two beds: a large heated bed fitted with a cooking wok, and a heated brick bed without one. Clearly, they wanted to test their performance and compare the two.
As the wood burned, smoke gradually began issuing from the chimneys outside. Once the beds had been heated sufficiently, an elderly man with gray-white hair walked steadily toward the heated brick bed. With a stern expression, he slipped a hand beneath the bedding.
Then he whipped it back out, his expression growing graver still.
Xie Chengze could not help covering his mouth and snickering.
The old man had definitely burned himself.
Hearing the laughter, the old man frowned slightly and looked up, his tone displeased. “Who is laughing here?”