Chang En was ordered to go to Chang'an Palace. He felt a little uneasy and all kinds of thoughts were surging in his mind.
He was previously ordered to oversee the construction of Chang'an Palace. After the palace was completed, he had been idle.
He thought that the emperor and empress would no longer use him, and he had already bought a house to live in during his retirement. Suddenly, someone came from the palace to inform him that the empress wanted to see him.
Could it be that something went wrong in Chang'an Palace and the Empress wants to be held accountable?
But if there is to be accountability, there is no need for the Queen Mother to come forward in person.
After arriving at Chang'an Palace, he was informed and invited into the study.
There were quite a few people in the study, each holding an abacus and calculating with their accounts.
Gu Jiu put down the account book in his hand and waved Chang En to come over and talk.
"It's noisy here. Eunuch Chang, would you like to accompany me to the Imperial Garden for a walk?"
"This old servant will follow your Majesty's orders."
Gu Jiu got up and went to the Imperial Garden.
Chang En followed closely.
"In the middle of the year, all industries must make mid-term settlements and estimate the market for the second half of the year. Lately, my Chang'an Palace has been like an accounting office, with everyone coming in and out counting on the abacus."
"Thank you for your hard work, Your Majesty!" Chang En said with a bow.
Gu Jiu stood in front of the railing of the pool, watching the goldfish swimming in the water.
She stretched out her hand, and the palace servant immediately placed a box of fish food in her hand.
She threw a handful of fish food into the water, attracting the goldfish to come forward and take a bite.
"The annual audit and accounting process takes up a great deal of my time and energy."
Chang En was staring at the goldfish in the pond. When the Queen spoke, he quickly regained his composure and focused his attention.
"Your Majesty, do you mean to change the current situation?" he asked cautiously.
Gu Jiu glanced back at him and said, "Eunuch Chang is worthy of having served Emperor Chengzong Wende. He is very responsive."
Chang En lowered his head and smiled, "I don't understand why Your Majesty brought up all this with me. As far as I know, Your Majesty is surrounded by talented people, and the auditing and accounting can be completely handed over to the people below."
Gu Jiu smiled and said, "In the past few years, I have recruited a group of people from Shanhe Academy who have no hope of passing the imperial examinations, but are very talented in numerology. They are young, healthy, energetic, and motivated, and have indeed solved many problems for me. However, because of their youth, they are inevitably impulsive and cause some trouble."
Chang En remained silent.
Gu Jiu tapped the railing gently. "I need someone who can stabilize the overall situation, convince the people, and be clear-minded. For this candidate, I am optimistic about Eunuch Chang."
Chang En was shocked.
I made countless guesses, but I didn't guess this one.
"Your Majesty, do you mean to let this old servant discipline those accountants?"
Gu Jiu nodded, then shook his head. "I intend to establish an independent agency, temporarily called the Audit Department. I authorize the Audit Department to review and approve the accounts of Sihai and Huanyu. No one from either side will be involved in any entanglement. When the time is right, the Audit Department will also take on the responsibility of reviewing the accounts of various government offices."
Chang En's heart skipped a beat, and he asked cautiously, "Does Your Majesty know about this?"
Gu Jiu nodded. "The establishment of the Audit Department was a joint decision between Your Majesty and me. The Audit Department may seem insignificant, but in the future it will serve as a deterrent, forcing every government office and every industrial worker to be on high alert and refrain from touching money that does not belong to them."
Chang En's face turned pale. Although it was cool by the pool and there was a rare breeze, he was still sweating profusely.
"I have something to say, but I don't know whether I should say it or not."
"Go ahead. No matter what you say, I will forgive you."
"Thank you, my lady!"
Chang En carefully considered his words. "Let's talk about the palace maids first. No one has much hope. The only thing they can count on is money. This Audit Department, according to the Empress's plan, if I'm not mistaken, will definitely find out the palace's expenses in the future. Once the Audit Department reaches into the palace, the palace maids' only hope will be gone. The palace maids have completely lost hope, and I can't guarantee that they will do anything crazy. They are a group of abnormal people to begin with, and even their only source of income has not been cut off. This is hurting the enemy a thousand times and hurting themselves eight hundred times!"
Gu Jiu nodded. "What you said makes sense. Anything else?"
Chang En continued, "Take the salaries of officials, for example. They can't even support themselves, let alone their families. Entertaining guests, servants, houses, carriages, wives, concubines, and children... everything costs money. If they don't contribute, officials in the Great Zhou will live like beggars. People work so hard to study and take the imperial examinations, what for? Isn't it to live a decent life and become superior. If the court cuts off everyone's financial resources, being an official will be meaningless."
Gu Jiu laughed when he heard that.
She said, "As for cutting off the financial resources of the palace ladies, I support your opinion. This is indeed something that needs to be handled with caution. But regarding officials, Eunuch Chang's statement is too one-sided. In this dynasty, to be an official one must first be a Jinshi. Eunuch Chang must understand what Jinshi means.
Being a Jinshi meant being exempt from taxes and corvée labor, which meant countless ordinary merchants would offer their property and land to Jinshi officials to avoid corvée and taxes. A mere Juren official, with ten years of dedicated management, could become a local tyrant. It was incredibly easy for a family of a Jinshi official to become a local tyrant, one that even the local government had to respect.
How did those aristocratic families with decades, centuries, or even thousands of years of history come to be? How did those local tycoons who illegally exploited mines come to be? They all evolved from Jinshi officials. In the Great Zhou Dynasty, no official was poor. Even Zhou Shi'an, who had cut himself off from his family and was willing to live in poverty, still had gifts delivered to his room every few days after becoming an official. Was he poor? He might not have much money, but he never lacked for food, clothing, or daily necessities.
Chang En was sweating profusely. "This old servant is ignorant. Please forgive me, Your Majesty."
"You're right." Gu Jiu said softly, "There are indeed some impoverished officials in the court, but they are very rare. And what I want to check is the government's accounts, not to investigate officials who have embezzled or accepted bribes."
Chang En was a little confused. "Your Majesty, what you mean is that as long as the officials don't get their hands on the government treasury, you don't care about anything else?"
Gu Jiu scattered fish food and said, "I can't do anything about it for now. Of course, if it goes too far, the Jinwu Guards are not just for show."
After she finished speaking, she looked at Chang En and said, "Eunuch Chang, do you dare to take on this heavy responsibility? This is a job that will offend people. You will have to ignore all your relatives and only care about money and accounts."
Chang En was under great pressure and smiled bitterly.
"At this point, do I still have any choice?"
He knew everything the Queen was planning, and it was clear that he had no way out except death.
Gu Jiu laughed and said, "If you don't agree, I can only send you overseas or to the northwest desert."
Chang En's face turned pale, and he smiled bitterly and said, "This old slave is almost scared to death."
Gu Jiu chuckled softly, "How could such a small matter scare Eunuch Chang? To be honest, Chen Dachang is in the south. Unfortunately, he is old and can no longer work. I have promised him a good life and have bought him property in Jiangnan and the capital. However, this old guy refuses to accept his age and says that he can't go to sea, but he can help me keep an eye on Jiangnan and help Yang Ji. I am worried that he will take advantage of his age and ruin Yang Ji's business, so I specially asked Zhou Miao to hold this old guy back."
These words revealed too much inside information.
Chang En was speechless and was shocked.
"Chen Dachang is still alive?"
"Eunuch Chang thought he was dead?"
Chang En spoke frankly, "I haven't seen him for more than ten years. I heard he went south. I thought he had died at sea, but I didn't expect he was still alive. Zhou Miao also went south?"
Gu Jiu smiled and said, "In Jiangnan, aristocratic families are deeply rooted, and evil spirits are everywhere. To deal with these local tyrants, we need people like Zhou Miao."
Using a trouble maker to deal with evil spirits is a good choice.
Compared with upright officials, people like Zhou Miao who take unconventional approaches have more ways to deal with it.
Chang En has figured it out. "If we reject the Empress, will we have to go south and keep company with that old ghost Chen Dachang?"
"You are not yet worthy of being Chen Dachang's companion. If you refuse me, you will be taken to a ship when you reach the south. You will first spend several years overseas training, living with a group of exiles, murderers, prisoners of war, and miners."
Chang En broke out in a cold sweat.
Gu Jiu smiled at him and asked, "Have you thought about it?"
Chang En sighed, "I've made up my mind! I'm willing to work in the Audit Department."
"Excellent! From now on, you will be the Chief of the Audit Department. The former Imperial College building will become the Audit Department's office. Your first task is to review and audit the first quarter accounts of Huanyu and Sihai within two weeks. Your second task is to cooperate with the Minister of the Treasury to conduct a comprehensive investigation of illegal mines."
Chang En frowned. "An investigation into illegal mines? The Shaofu has done this before. It's only been over a decade. Why is it being investigated again?"
Last time, in order to crack down on the private minting of coins, the Shaofu conducted an inventory of the mineral resources of the Great Zhou under the pretext of issuing mining licenses.
The effect is quite good, and the number of privately minted coins on the market is decreasing year by year.
Currently on the market, people prefer coins minted by Shaofu because they are not adulterated and are made of sufficient materials.
As long as the Shaofu ensures that official currency circulates smoothly in the market and meets the people's demand for currency, private money will have no place to survive.
Of course this is an ideal situation.
The reality is that private money has never been eradicated.
Because privately minted coins can still make money even if they follow the minting process of the Shaofu and are not adulterated at all.
As long as there is money to be made in business, there will always be people who take risks.
Gu Jiu pondered for a moment, "The main purpose of this mineral inventory is to crack down on the illegal opening of iron mines. I require you to close 50% of the iron mines."
Chang En was horrified. "Your Majesty, this cannot happen! This will cause criticism in the court, and there will be disastrous consequences. Those private mine owners have strong backers, so we can't touch them lightly."
"This time, you must take action against those mine owners." Gu Jiu's eyes were determined. "The Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Imperial Guards, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs will cooperate with the Audit Department to conduct an audit. Mineral taxes are not low. Ten out of ten mines evade taxes. This is your entry point."
Chang En was so anxious that he said, "This is absolutely unacceptable. The consequences will be disastrous."
Gu Jiu smiled and said, "I know the consequences will be serious, so I have prepared a way out for you."
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