Chapter Ninety-Four: Opening the Sea, Part Six

Chapter Ninety-Four: Opening the Seas, Part Six

In this world, everything depends on acting.

Zhu Qizhen put on the air of a junior seeking guidance from an elder, as if he truly regarded Yang Rong as a senior and had come to him for help.

Yang Rong had spent so many years in the court that Zhu Qizhen’s performance was by no means flawless. But Yang Rong would never expose it.

For one thing, Yang Rong understood better than Zhu Qizhen the intrigue and deception between people; truth and falsehood did not always need to be drawn so sharply apart.

For another, the ancients were still somewhat different from later generations.

Zhu Qizhen had also come to realize that the identity of emperor seemed to come with its own radiance. The effect of that radiance had not yet been fully determined, but the first thing proven was that it dimmed intelligence.

And the farther one stood from the court, the stronger the effect seemed to be.

To old foxes who were always near him, it did not work very well, but it still had some effect, however slight.

Yang Rong said, “Your Majesty need not panic. With this old subject here, I shall certainly keep Your Majesty safe.”

Zhu Qizhen thought to himself, What nonsense. Even without you, nothing would happen to me.

He understood perfectly well that his throne was already secure. Great Ming was not the Han dynasty, and the Three Yangs were not Huo Guang.

His throne could not be called as immovable as a mountain, but neither could it be shaken easily.

Yang Rong appeared utterly loyal, yet he always left himself some room to maneuver.

Old fox, Zhu Qizhen thought.

Aloud, he said, “When my father was alive, whenever there was a matter that could not be decided, he would ask the master. I ask the master now to guide me through this confusion.”

Yang Rong replied, “This subject will overstep his bounds and explain the situation at court to Your Majesty.”

“There had already been undercurrents before this morning’s audience. Once word spread that Your Majesty intended to sail to the Western Seas, the court was in an uproar, and the remonstrating officials below had long been inclined to speak out.”

Zhu Qizhen asked, “So this time, was Master Li acting with them?”

Yang Rong said, “No. As far as this subject knows, Li Shimian acted alone. And he also meant to help Your Majesty out of a tight corner, because the one he impeached was Wang Zhen.”

Something stirred in Zhu Qizhen’s heart. “Could it be that those remonstrating officials would dare impeach me as well?”

Yang Rong said, “They naturally know to avoid speaking disrespectfully of their sovereign. Still, words of admonition were inevitable.”

Zhu Qizhen suddenly understood something. He had overlooked the impact that the voyage to the Western Seas would have on the civil officials. Almost instinctively, he asked, “Was it really so serious?”

Yang Rong said, “Your Majesty may not know this, but the salaries of court officials were never sufficient to begin with, and now much of it is converted into paper money, half in cash, half in salary. It is already unbearable. During the reign of the Yongle Emperor, even part of it was commuted with fragrant woods from the Western Seas. That only made matters harder for the officials.”

“Even this old subject still has lingering fears.”

Zhu Qizhen asked, “Are the salaries of court officials really so low?”

Yang Rong replied, “When the Taizu Emperor set the salaries of the hundred officials, they were not considered low. By this old subject’s good fortune and the favor of the previous emperor, I receive three salaries, which is enough to support a household. But for the officials below, it is another matter entirely.”

“Life in the capital is difficult to begin with. Their pay is not much, and then half of it is paid in paper money. If the remaining half is exchanged again for Western spices and the like, some men may not even afford to eat.”

“Although the court grants officials certain exemptions, those exemptions are not many. Some officials cannot even afford to hire the low attendants who accompany them. To let those attendants be exempted for a fee does great damage to the dignity of the court, yet sometimes it must be done.”

Zhu Qizhen also understood what those low attendants were: when an official went out, the court provided people to accompany him. In modern terms, they would include secretaries, guards, drivers, and the like.

In the Ming dynasty, however, the court did not give money directly; it assigned people to work for you, much like compulsory labor.

And officials would simply have those commoners pay money instead. Once the fee was paid, they no longer had to come.

Strictly speaking, this was illegal.

But the court tacitly allowed it, and gradually it became de facto legitimate.

Zhu Qizhen said, “I never knew the officials suffered poverty to this degree!”

This, at least, was true.

He did know that the officials were not wealthy.

But he had never truly understood how poor they really were.

For example, the five men he often met in the Grand Secretariat.

There was no need to mention Zhang Fu. He was the Duke of England, with a substantial annual stipend and many granted estates, the very picture of wealth. Even setting those aside, as a man at the very top of the garrison system, Zhang Fu may not have swallowed up garrison lands himself, but many under him did, and it had even become routine. He protected them, and they did not need to offer him any tribute.

Of course, this did not mean Zhang Fu was some first-class corrupt official. At the very least, the nobility of this era still valued the fighting strength of the army. It was only in later generations that those titled nobles were left with nothing but the skill of drawing idle stipends, bleeding the troops dry, and seizing military supplies.

As for the Three Yangs, all were first-rank officials, each receiving an annual stipend of a thousand shi, not to mention the privilege of drawing three stipends.

When stipends were calculated in the Ming dynasty, supplementary titles were generally not counted. That is, if one held several offices, only the pay attached to the highest office was included; the rest were merely honors.

But the Xuande Emperor had granted the Three Yangs the right to receive pay for all three of their highest offices, meaning triple salaries. In a year, their stipends alone could amount to one or two thousand shi of grain.

That was not a small sum.

Not to mention the imperial gifts bestowed upon ministers. When the court rewarded the chief civil officials, they could never be left out.

The ones who truly suffered were the lower officials.

Their salaries were not high to begin with. If the system were carried out exactly as Zhu Yuanzhang had established it, they could still make ends meet, though certainly not live in splendor. In fact, they might even have it a little better than ordinary commoners, since office brought many conveniences.

But once the pay was converted into paper money, trouble began.

Paper money had not been valuable since today; by now, it was almost waste paper.

The Xuande Emperor also knew that the officials were not having an easy time, but on the matter of paper money, many voices were at odds. Some wanted it abolished. Others wanted the currency laws changed.

No unified opinion existed.

So the matter was naturally dragged on.

The Xuande Emperor’s repeated rewards to the officials were proof enough. Each time, the gifts went from top to bottom, not a single civil official left out.

That was one of the Xuande Emperor’s countermeasures: if salaries were not enough, make up the difference with bonuses.

Thus the officials were especially sensitive to anything that touched their purses.

In truth, the voyage to the Western Seas did not necessarily mean that their stipends would be commuted into fragrant woods, incense, and similar goods. Even if they were, those items might not be worthless. But to make these august officials go out into the streets and sell them was asking too much.

So they were particularly sensitive to the issue. This was the only impression those officials had of the voyage to the Western Seas.

“Your Majesty, of course the officials are not only preoccupied with salaries,” Yang Rong continued. “During the reign of the Yongle Emperor, the lingering terror of the Jinyi Guards and the Eastern Depot’s Ji Gang made the officials unwilling to see such a powerful minister arise again. And now Wang Zhen shows the same beginnings.”

“This morning, the Vice Minister of War, Li Yu, was imprisoned. Your Majesty knows that Li Yu also counts as a major figure of the dynasty. The Grand Secretariat ought to have preserved some dignity, yet after discussion between myself and the Grand Secretary, we acted with such severity. Does Your Majesty know why?”

Zhu Qizhen already had a premonition. “Why?”

He had only looked at Li Yu’s offense. He had not thought about the procedure.

There was a saying that officials protected one another. For a civil official who had reached the rank of Vice Minister of War, the court would not ordinarily humiliate him too harshly. Yet Li Yu had been sent from memorial to imprisonment far too quickly.

“Because a note was delivered from the palace to the Grand Secretariat, instructing us to spare Li Yu’s life.”

When Zhu Qizhen heard this, he was furious to the point of exploding. But he had already lost his temper once today, and now, though he restrained himself, the corner of his mouth still twitched.

Those who could make decisions in the palace were only he and the Grand Empress Dowager.

The Grand Empress Dowager trusted the Three Yangs far more than she trusted him. Naturally, she would not interfere lightly, and even if she did, she would not use a note delivered in this manner.

And Zhu Qizhen certainly had not done it.

So who had sent the note? Was there any need to ask?

What troubled Zhu Qizhen even more was this: Wang Zhen had concealed from him and sent notes downward on his own. Was this the first time? How many times had there been before?

So this is what it means to be alone in the world, Zhu Qizhen thought with a faint sigh.

He was disappointed to the extreme, and strangely, he no longer felt like raging.

Whether civil officials, military generals, eunuchs, or imperial relatives, were they not all the same?

Yet however angry Zhu Qizhen might be, he knew he could not do without Wang Zhen at this moment. So he said, “Then the events of this morning were tacitly approved by the Grand Secretaries?”

Yang Rong said, “This subject only caught a hint of it. Li Shimian acted with such resolve.”

Zhu Qizhen fell silent for a moment. Then he asked, “Does the Grand Empress Dowager know about this matter?”

Yang Rong replied, “This subject does not know whether the Grand Empress Dowager knows or not. Or rather, whether the Grand Empress Dowager wants to know, or does not want to know.”