Chapter 59

Chapter 59

It was April when the Crown Prince proposed building official roads during court.

The proposal to build official roads met with overwhelming support from civil officials.

At that time, Dayuan desperately needed good governance to stabilize people's lives.

Last year's snow disaster damaged the official roads, blocking relief grain deliveries. The Crown Prince passionately argued at court that this was for the people's welfare and to prevent another snow disaster. Thus, the road construction project was proposed. Not only that, but the Crown Prince also suggested building a backup official road for emergencies.

Hence, the Crown Prince made a promise at court to construct the official road at Heshui Slope. This stunned the entire court. Considering the difficult terrain of Heshui Slope, if the road could be built there, the travel time to Jiangnan would be cut by three days!

The proposal was timely, submitted by the Ministry of Works, and approved by the Emperor on the spot. The Ministry of Revenue allocated funds, and the Ministry of Works was ordered to gather artisans and begin construction.

Within the Xu residence, Grand Secretary Xu sat listening to reports on the movements in the Eastern Palace and Kunning Palace. Ever since the Emperor awarded the Ten Thousand Springs Hall, the political landscape at court had subtly shifted. Consort Yun was taking control of the imperial harem, and the Eldest Prince Faction had reversed its decline, showing strength at court. The civil officials led by the Xu family kept backing down to avoid a clash.

The Emperor's anger came abruptly. Afterward, the Xu family spent considerable effort to investigate and learned that the palace assassin was connected to the former dynasty.

"Since Qi Hanzhou took charge of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he has replaced many people one after another. He's in charge of this matter, and we can't easily investigate his subordinates in the Guard," an official said. "We have no idea how far their investigation has reached. Could they discover and implicate us..."

Upon hearing this, Grand Secretary Xu glanced at him, a cold glint passing through his murky eyes: "Matters of the former dynasty are the Emperor's taboo. You must know that the Xu family has no connection to the former dynasty."

The official fell silent, then asked, "But the Crown Prince made that promise about the Heshui Slope project. In the short term, I'm afraid..."

Hearing this, Grand Secretary Xu frowned slightly and, after deep thought, looked at the chessboard: "If the Crown Prince wishes to accomplish something concrete, let him proceed. For now, we need to retreat to advance. Do not clash with the Eldest Prince, nor commit rash acts against the other princes."

"As for the Heshui Slope road matter, we can only let the Emperor see it completed."

If it fails, it has nothing to do with the Xu family.

A look of understanding crossed the official's face. "Grand Secretary intends to..."

Grand Secretary Xu looked at him meaningfully, and the official quickly understood and took his leave.

He went back to studying the chessboard.

Shuang Yue's dealings with former dynasty people had really caught him off guard. The assassination attempt on the Crown Prince had placed the Xu family under the Emperor's suspicion. Regaining trust was now of utmost importance. However, the network of civil officials at court was no longer something the Emperor could easily break. If the Emperor wanted to take away the Xu family's power, he'd have to see if he could actually pull it off.

If necessary, push things forward.

...

At the official relay station at Heshui Slope, artisans gathered nearby, with distant mountains and rushing torrents.

The artisans who had traveled here looked weary, and the government officers urged them on. The blueprints sent by the Ministry of Works were already soaked. With the water level at Heshui Slope rising and a storm approaching, the deadline loomed over them, forcing the artisans to press on.

Just as they thought the work was nearing completion, a thunderous crash echoed, followed by a massive deluge of water. Someone shouted, "The embankment has burst!!!"

A flash flood surged, washing away the soil. Mudslides cascaded down the mountain peaks. The river blocked their escape route. Before the artisans even knew what was happening, disaster struck.

The construction of the Heshui Slope official road encountered a burst embankment nearby, triggering floods and mudslides. The road-building artisans died tragically, and nearby villages were destroyed.

An urgent report was sent through the relay stations and reached the court within days. Upon hearing the news, the entire court was stunned.

After the birthday banquet, the palace had been quiet for a long time. The mastermind had vanished, and even messages from the Eastern Palace had dwindled.

When Ying Fusheng heard the news of the Heshui Slope disaster, he was clearly shaken. How could something happen at Heshui Slope?

"Does Shen Changcun have any information?" Ying Fusheng asked.

Song An replied, "The news came through the relay stations all the way to the capital. It's accurate."

The news was correct. Something had indeed happened at Heshui Slope.

"Since the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Works has been pushing forward the construction of official roads to prevent a repeat of last year's road disaster and ensure timely disaster relief. This project has been steadily progressing," Song An said, noticing the Prince's troubled expression. "Everything was going smoothly, and the project was even ahead of schedule. Just a few days ago, we received word that the Heshui Slope road was nearly complete. Nobody saw this coming."

"Why did it have to be Heshui Slope?" Ying Fusheng was filled with doubt.

In his past life, the construction of official roads would have happened a few years later. At that time, the capital had suffered multiple snow disasters, and the people south of the Yangtze were displaced, with countless dead. To expedite disaster relief, the Emperor, on the recommendation of the Ministry of Works, ordered new official roads built. The most difficult section was Heshui Slope.

Its terrain involved both rivers and mountains. In later times, building that road section had even become a celebrated feat.

Why, in this life, had it directly caused landslides and mudslides at Heshui Slope, burying all the artisans alive, resulting in heavy casualties?

Moreover, the national treasury in this life was more abundant than in the previous one. If it could be done before, there was no reason it couldn't be done now.

Ying Fusheng frowned. The official roads were under the Ministry of Works. If something went wrong, the first to take the blame was Zhou Bingjun, the Minister of Works: "Has the Minister of Works been summoned?"

"Yes. Word is the Vice Minister of Works was in charge, and the Minister was also implicated. Morning court is going to be a mess."

When news of the Heshui Slope disaster reached the capital, the Ministry of Works, responsible for road construction, was immediately held accountable. The Emperor was furious and ordered a swift investigation. The Court of Judicial Review and the Censorate acted simultaneously. After half a month of inquiry, they found that the number of artisans at Heshui Slope was only half of what was registered in the Ministry of Revenue's artisan register!

With fewer workers and a tight deadline, the construction ran into the mountain floods.

To dispatch artisans, the Ministry of Works had to request transfers from the Ministry of Revenue's register. The road construction involved multiple sites simultaneously, and the number of artisans assigned to each location was based on the registered artisan population in the Ministry of Revenue's household registers. The Ministry of Works insisted that they had arranged the schedule according to the number of artisans and could not have made a mistake. The construction was almost done when problems cropped up among the artisans, leading to inadequate reinforcement of the embankment at Heshui Slope. When the mountain floods hit, the embankment broke, and everything collapsed.

Ying Fusheng finished his classes at the Imperial Academy and went to the tavern. Over the past half month since the Heshui Slope incident, Weng Yanqing had already compiled the information: "Someone bribed Ministry of Revenue officials to tamper with the household registers."

The investigation was handled by the Court of Judicial Review and the Censorate. The Court of the Imperial Stud, which handled message relays, often had to exchange information with them. This intel came from the Court of Judicial Review. Their investigations were always reliable; what they uncovered would not be false.

Also, Qi Hanzhou sent word that the Embroidered Uniform Guard was investigating too.

The Xu family's connection to the Ministry of Works was tied to the faction from the former dynasty. Since Shuang Yue's death, these people had gone into hiding. Now that the Ministry of Works was in trouble, the Emperor would inevitably investigate.

Ying Fusheng took the detailed report from Weng Yanqing—

Someone in the Ministry of Revenue—which was under the Eldest Prince—had accepted bribes. By altering household registers, they had helped wealthy families switch their registration to artisan status to evade taxes, resulting in false reports in the government's artisan registry.

Out of good intentions, the court had reduced the tax burden on artisans to facilitate road construction.

Because of this, some wealthy families in the private sector, seeking to lower their other taxes, paid to have their household registration changed to artisan status, thereby avoiding taxes. The Heshui Slope disaster occurred because the expected number of artisans was insufficient. These wealthy merchants hired ordinary craftsmen or commoners to do the work. The commoners weren't as skilled as artisans and were slow, while the artisans were overworked and feared delays. That's how the disaster struck!

"So, according to this, it was corruption within the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works rushing to meet the deadline that caused the Heshui Slope disaster?" Shen Yunfei listened for a while. "I've heard that Heshui Slope's terrain made road construction difficult anyway. It seems like an accident... A pity, it was almost completed."

"The Crown Prince Faction is falling back to move forward. The Eldest Prince wouldn't let the Ministry of Works smoothly push through the road construction. If the Crown Prince succeeded and achieved results, it wouldn't benefit the Eldest Prince Faction," Weng Yanqing said, pitying the lives lost among the artisans. But based on the deductions so far, "That seems to be the case."

As a Grand Secretary at court, even though Grand Secretary Xu was currently resting at home, the responsibilities of the civil officials and the Ministry of Works had not been neglected. Grand Secretary Xu was a veteran official who had served two reigns. Many of the court's civil officials had been promoted by him. The Emperor clearly wanted to take away the Xu family's power, but the more stable the Xu family remained, the harder it would be to remove that power.

Over the past few months, the Ministry of Works, seeking to appease the Emperor's anger, had been diligently pushing forward the road construction. Whether it was reducing taxes or promoting road construction, it all seemed like beneficial deeds by the Ministry of Works for the people.

The Eldest Prince Faction, watching this, certainly wouldn't want them to succeed.

Wealthy families evading taxes led to a false count of artisans. Misreports at every level caused misjudgment of the schedule. To finish on time, the artisans had no choice but to push ahead recklessly.

Both sides pulling in opposite directions caused the entire project to fail.

Ying Fusheng frowned deeply. At first glance, it appeared that both parties had problems—the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works each had their faults. But he knew that, given the Ministry of Works' capabilities, they had solved this problem in his past life. Moreover, with the national treasury full in this life, his father had already revised tax policies ahead of time. In the past life, bribery to alter household registrations had been even more rampant!

To everyone else, this looked like an accident, but to him, it was not.

The incident at Heshui Slope had not occurred in his past life. It was obviously a sudden event, yet it happened at this critical juncture, making Ying Fusheng feel something was off. If the Crown Prince truly wanted to achieve tangible results, completing the official road ahead of schedule would be far more useful than any other project.

Since the Xu family's downfall, they were no longer in the court and countryside, but Grand Secretary Xu still kept an eye on court affairs, especially since the Ministry of Works' projects were closely tied to the Ministry of Revenue's finances. If someone in the Ministry of Revenue had indeed altered household registrations to evade taxes, the Xu family must have known, and there was no need for them to take such a risky gamble.

At that moment, a sound came from outside the window. An elderly woman, carrying a sign, was crying out as several officials dragged her through the streets. Seeing the crowd gathering around, the officials abandoned the old woman and turned to disperse the onlookers.

"That's rough."

"Rough? She just couldn't afford the standby fee."

"Indeed, artisans already have such light tax burdens."

The sudden commotion drew attention, and Ying Fusheng's focus shifted to the old woman below. "What happened to her?"

"Two months ago, an artisan went to the Ministry of Works office to cause trouble, refusing to pay the standby fee, claiming his elderly mother was critically ill and he couldn't show up for work. He was dragged out after failing to make a scene, but dropped dead." Weng Yanqing knew the local gossip. "That woman is the artisan's mother. She still comes here every few days, sick and seeking justice for her son."

"Standby fee?" Ying Fusheng was slightly surprised.

Rarely seeing the Sixth Prince with that look, Weng Yanqing explained, "The standby fee can be considered a rule silently approved by the court, handed down from the previous emperor's time. By paying the fee, artisans could be excused, and the Ministry used that money to hire willing laborers, easing the burden on artisans."

When Grand Secretary Xu was young and served as Minister of Works, the new dynasty had just been established, and the court faced heavy workloads. Artisans were overburdened. Gradually, with Xu's toleration, artisans were allowed to pay silver in place of labor, reducing their suffering. Because of this, the Ministry of Works and the Xu family gained a good reputation among the people, alleviating the artisans' plight.

Compared to other household registrations, artisan households were already better off—their taxes were lighter, and they were only called for work during court projects; otherwise, they could work for themselves.

Weng Yanqing said, "The deceased artisan's records show he had missed work multiple times and owed standby fees. The authorities handled the case according to the law..."

The more he spoke, the more he sensed something wrong.

Turning back, he saw Ying Fusheng staring at him.

"If the Ministry of Works was good at hiring laborers, why did the artisans end up overworked this time?" Ying Fusheng asked.

The two exchanged glances. Weng Yanqing went out to give some orders, and soon someone brought the old woman into the tavern.

The old woman only cried and spoke indistinctly, so they had to send two people to gather information. She wept, saying that in the past few months, the court had pushed to speed up construction and repeatedly demanded payment of standby fees.

"You see, if you don't pay one month, you have to pay double the next." The old woman was seriously ill, and her household depended on the artisan's labor. "They say the court is in a hurry to finish several official roads and cannot allow delays. But how could we afford it?"

Hearing this, Shen Yunfei immediately ran off to inquire about the daily wages of laborers in the capital and the standby fee situation at the Ministry of Works. Ying Fusheng stopped him, looking toward Ye Xuanjiu behind the curtain. "Let Adjutant Ye go with you. Take the Ministry of Works badge and pretend to be from the ministry. Question them separately."

Ye Xuanjiu: "..."

The Embroidered Uniform Guard often impersonated officials from various departments to conduct investigations.

They were far more familiar with this than Shen Yunfei.

The questioning yielded two different results.

Ye Xuanjiu, skilled at disguising himself as other officials, got a price from the labor broker that, after some initial suspicion, was half of what Shen got.

In other words, the actual cost for the Ministry of Works to hire laborers was much lower than the standby fee reported to the court. They hired cheaply and collected the fee at a high rate, pocketing the difference—more than double. Where did that money go?

Everyone's face turned pale. The standby fee seemed to be for the artisans' benefit, but in the past, when there was a shortage of artisans, the Ministry of Revenue provided funds to hire substitute laborers on their behalf.

Now, with the standby fee, the Ministry of Works handled hiring themselves, and they set the prices.

"So what does that mean? Is the Ministry of Works embezzling through the standby fee?"

The Eastern Palace... Ying Fusheng thought of the person pulling the Crown Prince's strings and the expensive Jade Beast Statue from the Empress Dowager's birthday feast.

The official road map lay before them. The Crown Prince, eager to achieve results, had promised to complete the Heshui Slope road by year's end.

But the timeline was too tight. Some artisans could afford the standby fee; others couldn't. Only so many cheap laborers were available. With insufficient manpower, they had to settle for inferior workers. Consequently, due to ongoing corruption within the Ministry of Works, difficult projects like Heshui Slope could barely be finished on schedule, yet the Crown Prince still made that promise.

If they failed, the Crown Prince's promise would anger the Emperor... but failure also offered an escape route: blame the Ministry of Revenue for the delay.

At that moment, a message arrived from the palace via falcon.

Ye Xuanjiu received the report and said gravely, "His Majesty has recalled Grand Secretary Xu to the Grand Secretariat."

After this incident, coordination between the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue had broken down. When Grand Secretary Xu was in the Grand Secretariat, even with factional struggles, such major problems never occurred. Xu's previous retreat was also a message to the Emperor: the Grand Secretariat still needed him.

"They sacrificed a Vice Minister of Works to drag down the Eldest Prince Faction's favorable position." Ying Fusheng looked at the official road map spread out in the private room. "The Xu family is gambling."

Weng Yanqing was shocked. "Gambling on what?"

"If they manage to finish in time, the Crown Prince can show tangible results and solidify his position in court." Ying Fusheng pointed to the impossible road construction. "If they fail, they could sabotage Heshui Slope completely and dump the blame on the Eldest Prince Faction."

From the very beginning, the lives of those artisans at Heshui Slope had been put on the scale.

The Xu family was betting the lives of these people—and even the people of Jiangnan—on winning their gamble.