Top Scholar

Chapter 534 The New Chamberlain's Office
Zhang Yanling never expected Qian Ning to actually make a move, and his previous arrogance vanished instantly.

Qian Ning was a ruthless man. Since he had already drawn his whip, he wouldn't hold back. The whip rained down, leaving afterimages in its wake...

Moreover, he was a trained fighter, and his strikes were precise and steady, with every lash landing squarely on Zhang Yanling's buttocks!
Almost instantly, Zhang Yanling received seven lashes on his left buttock and eight lashes on his right, leaving it bruised and battered...

The pain made him too afraid to throw a tantrum. He cried out, "This humble subject takes his leave!"

He covered his bruised and battered buttocks and turned to run away, disappearing without a trace in no time.

"What a bunch of trash..." Zhu Shou spat fiercely. He thought the most disgusting people in the Zhang family were the wicked Madam Jin and this arrogant little brother-in-law.

"Alright, no need to chase anymore." He called out to Qian Ning, who was still trying to chase after him to fight.

Qian Ning then limped back, knelt on one knee, raised the dragon whip with both hands, and returned it to Zhu Shou.

"Well done, you're promoted one rank." Zhu Shou looked at Qian Ning with satisfaction and waved his hand, saying, "This riding whip is your reward."

"Thank you so much, young master!" Qian Ning kowtowed excitedly to express his gratitude. His only regret was that he still hadn't asked the young master's name.

But when he saw Zhu Shou jump off his horse and walk toward Su Zhuangyuan as usual, he immediately understood... The emperor had already regarded him as his godfather, so there was no need to ask his name.

Well, it's fine too...

~~
"You're too weak, Scholar Su! Even with the imperial gold medal, people won't listen to you," Zhu Shou mocked Su Lu.

“That’s the Empress Dowager’s brother and the Emperor’s uncle. I’m not as arrogant as you,” Su Lu said calmly. “Since we’re already here, let’s go in and take a look.”

"Of course," Zhu Shou said, rubbing his hands together as he walked through the mountain gate.

"Let's see how the harvest went this time?"

The Imperial Guards had been searching Guanghui Temple for most of the day.

Zhu Shou listened to the report and was both pleased and worried. He was worried because the gold and silver confiscated were less than 30% of what Baolian Temple had previously possessed. After all, the capital was still dominated by Buddhism from the Central Plains. It was already quite remarkable that a non-mainstream religion like Lamaism could amass 30% of the latter's wealth.

To their delight, during the process of checking the land deeds, they discovered land deeds for a total of 3,000 hectares, which was a huge windfall!

“A mu of land in the capital must cost at least ten taels of silver, right?” Zhu Shou, who had been listless and yawning, suddenly perked up.

“Not just.” Su Lu shook his head. The land in the capital was all held by princes and nobles, and the amount available for trade was very small, so naturally, scarcity made it valuable.

“Even if it’s ten taels,” Zhu Shou’s voice suddenly rose, “that’s still…three million taels?!”

“The land is too difficult to convert into cash, so it can’t be directly used as money,” Su Lu had to remind Zhu Shou. “Moreover, of these three thousand hectares, the true owner of two thousand five hundred hectares is the Marquis of Jianchang, which is why he is so furious.”

"Is that so?" Zhu Shou picked up a stack of land deeds and flipped through them haphazardly, then snorted coldly, "Doesn't it clearly say that these are the property of Guanghui Temple? Since Marquis Jianchang donated the land to the temple, then this land has nothing to do with him anymore. It all belongs to the Emperor now!"

By the end, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but turn up noticeably.

“It won’t be that simple…” Su Lu quickly added a word of caution: “The Marquis of Jianchang will definitely put pressure on the Emperor through the Empress Dowager. Who knows what the situation will be like then?”

"Don't worry, the Emperor won't see the Empress Dowager." Zhu Shou had already claimed this windfall as his own. "You should think carefully about how to best utilize this land. Should we sell it directly or turn it into a royal estate and collect rent?"

“Okay.” Su Lu nodded. With the land confiscated from Baolian Temple now in Zhu Shou’s hands, he really needs to make some good plans.

However, he couldn't care less about that now, and together with Zhu Shou, he followed Qian Ning to the back hall of the temple.

This place is filled with thangkas made of human skin and bones, as well as various ritual implements, which are chilling to look at at night...

What enraged Zhu Shou even more was that, according to the temple's records, the materials used in the rituals for his maternal grandfather were mostly taken from human bodies... which seemed to be like those of an evil god.

"As expected, this is the end times, and demons are in power!" Zhu Shou was furious and couldn't wait any longer. He said, "Quickly take the Emperor's maternal grandfather's memorial tablet back and send it to his maternal uncle's house for worship!"

His maternal uncle was Marquis Shouning, Zhang Heling, who was not as anthropomorphic as Zhang Yanling, but even more abstract...

Having witnessed a darkness even greater than that of Baolian Temple, Zhu Shou immediately left Guanghui Temple, not wanting to stay in this horrible place for even a moment longer.

Stepping out of the mountain gate, he looked up at the dark night sky, took a few deep breaths of the crisp night air, exhaled a bellyful of stale air, and then said to Su Lu in a low voice, "I hesitated a bit before raiding the temples, always afraid of angering Buddha and bringing disaster upon myself. Now it seems I was overthinking it—these places of evil are simply hell on earth. Demolishing them is the best way to protect the Dharma, and Buddha will surely be pleased!" "That's right," Su Lu agreed wholeheartedly, "That's what they call a good place for cultivation within the public sphere."

“Then go for it.” Zhu Shou said through gritted teeth, “With Baolian Temple and Guanghui Temple as examples, the resistance should be much less.”

“If you want to minimize resistance, you can only use your own people.” Su Lu saw things very clearly and said, “As long as there are uncontrollable people joining, there will definitely be all sorts of problems, exhausting everyone and ultimately leading to nothing.”

"Yes, that's spot on." Zhu Shou agreed, "You're absolutely right. You have to rely on your own people to get anything done. You can't get anything done without your own people."

This is based on my experience in fighting against civil officials...

"Then let's not let the civil officials get involved, and let the Eastern and Western Depots be responsible for the investigation and confiscation?" Zhu Shou himself didn't realize that he now habitually asked Su Lu for his opinion before making any decisions.

"It would be best if the civil officials and the Eastern and Western Depots worked together," Su Lu said softly. "They need to supervise each other and not let one person cover up the whole thing."

“Aren’t there factories that supervise each other? If all else fails, there’s always an expert factory…” Zhu Shou said.

"All three parties are eunuchs, eunuchs supervising eunuchs?" Su Lu chuckled.

“But you also said that this matter needs to be handled by our own people.” Zhu Shou frowned and said, “I would like to use civil officials, but how many of them are our own people?”

“Some friends do,” Su Lu reminded him with a smile. “The day after tomorrow—oh, I should say tomorrow now—a large number of the Emperor’s own people will graduate from the Dragon Tiger Academy.”

"Yes, that's true. But they'll be scattered to various government offices and provinces." Zhu Shou nodded, then smiled wryly, "Don't underestimate these three hundred-plus people; once they're scattered, they'll be nowhere to be seen."

“Then let’s keep a group of people for centralized use,” Su Lu suggested. “Under the guise of ‘reorganizing the Sangha Committee,’ leave fifty or sixty people to be responsible for land investigation, property registration, monk review, financial accounting, and other matters, to uncover as much hidden property as possible in each temple and reduce corruption during the search and seizure process.”

"Hmm, good idea, you've thought it through!" Zhu Shou laughed upon hearing this, "I think once the mission is finished, there's no need to dismantle this committee. Let's build a new office and put them all in it, with you leading it, specifically to handle our important matters, how about that?"

“That’s an idea,” Su Lu nodded. “But building a new government office is incredibly difficult, and it would be too conspicuous. Why not find an existing empty shell and put new wine in old bottles?”

"You mean..." Zhu Shoufu suddenly realized, "The Court of Imperial Sacrifices?"

"Actually, what I was thinking about was the Bureau of Classics of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices..." Su Lu said with a wry smile, he didn't have that much ambition.

"It's all the same. Do you think I'd let anyone ride roughshod over you and boss you around?" Zhu Shou patted his shoulder and said, "Only I can order you around in this world!"

"..." Su Lu couldn't help but smile wryly. What kind of domineering CEO declaration was this?

However, the Court of Imperial Sacrifices was indeed the most suitable "empty vessel," which is why the two of them thought of the same thing—it was originally a proper government office established by the Taizu Emperor, whose responsibilities included assisting the Crown Prince, educating the Crown Prince, and handling matters such as etiquette, regulations, and official correspondence. It also had subordinate officials such as the Left and Right Spring Palaces and the Bureau of Classics, with a well-organized structure and clearly defined powers and responsibilities.

At its peak, it even commanded the Crown Prince's Left and Right Guards, and in its early years it was indeed a powerful central government that assisted the Crown Prince. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a small court.

~~
However, times changed, and later emperors, in order to prevent the Crown Prince's Palace from forming an independent power, began to reduce the authority of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. Moreover, they did not fill vacancies, and over time, the Court of Imperial Sacrifices became nothing more than a nameplate.

Even when it was necessary to instruct the Crown Prince, the Emperor would only assign scholars from the Hanlin Academy to concurrently hold relevant positions in the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. In reality, however, they would still work in the Hanlin Academy, and no one would actually go to the Court of Imperial Sacrifices to perform official duties.

Today, the Court of Imperial Sacrifices has become nothing more than a stepping stone for Hanlin officials, and has little to do with the Crown Prince. In fact, regardless of whether there is a Crown Prince, Hanlin Compilers will be promoted to Left and Right Assistants of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices on schedule, known as Junior Assistants.

Further promotions to positions such as Left and Right Assistant Ministers, Left and Right Imperial Tutors, and even Junior Chamberlain were known as "Grand Openings." A Grand Opening meant that a Hanlin official had finally accumulated enough seniority to be promoted to a high-ranking official position in the imperial court.

But regardless of whether it was a large or small office, no one would ever work a single day at the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. Even the Chief and Junior Chief of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices might not know which way the offices of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices faced.

Therefore, the Court of Imperial Sacrifices was a mere "conceptual government office" that existed in name only, without any power or responsibilities, or any organizational structure; it was simply an empty shell.

Furthermore, the emperor currently has no crown prince, so it will be at least eight to ten years before the actual duties of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices need to be discussed. As for whether the crown prince will have too much power, that's even more uncertain; we can worry about that twenty years from now…

For this reason, the Court of Imperial Sacrifices became the perfect choice for Su Lu and Zhu Shou to "put new wine in old bottles"... It was in accordance with ancestral rules, discreet enough, and just right to house the team that would carry out the new policies in the future.

On their way back to the capital, the two roughly agreed on the construction plan for the new Court of Imperial Sacrifices—to keep the name and structure unchanged, and not even to require the Ministry of Personnel to increase staff or the Ministry of Revenue to allocate funds for the establishment of the office. They would simply find a place in the Leopard House and use the existing staff to work there, thus minimizing resistance.

Since they don't need to ask anyone for anything, naturally no one can hold them back...

P.S. Posted first, edited later. Please vote with monthly tickets!

(End of this chapter)