My eunuch godfather

Chapter 52 Entering the Inner Circle

These past few days, Li Cheng, who has been under house arrest in his room, has been indulging in excessive eating and drinking, drowning his sorrows in alcohol.

Tonight, perhaps sensing something, Li Cheng hummed an off-key tune as he downed one glass after another.

Until they drank themselves into a stupor, completely drunk.

Zhang Kun and Zheng Anshi, the 19th brother, entered the room. Zheng Anshi was holding a stack of mulberry paper.

Walking over to Li Cheng, Zheng Anshi patted Li Cheng's shoulder, but Li Cheng only groaned a few times and did not wake up.

Zheng Anshi looked at Zhang Kun, who brought over the copper basin for washing hands and placed it on the table next to him.

After wetting sheets of mulberry bark paper, they were placed over Li Cheng's face to "add official titles":

The fibers of the soaked mulberry paper swell, and the gaps are filled with water, making it difficult for air to pass through, which can lead to suffocation and death!

Feeling uncomfortable, Li Cheng subconsciously raised his hand to scratch the mulberry paper covering his face.

However, the muscles became weak due to drunkenness, making it impossible to tear the extremely tough mulberry paper.

After a while, Li Cheng went into shock due to lack of oxygen and his body went limp.

Zheng Anshi picked up the wine pot and wine cup on the table, filled the wine cup, and poured it at Li Cheng's feet.

......

The next day at noon, at the dinner table.

Zhang Ye sat at the head of the table, followed by his eight adopted sons ranked seventh, eleventh, nineteenth, and so on.

Among them, Zhang Kun, ranked sixty-sixth, sat at the end of the table, yet he was the star of today's drinking party:

Jin Yunhao had become the main merchant of Danbagu, thus monopolizing the markets in Zhili, Shandong, and Xuanda Liaodong.

Zhang Kun was more accustomed to the Manchu terminology, which was "general merchant".

Under the head merchant, there will be three types of merchants:

The first type is the "nest merchants," which are essentially branches of the main merchants in various regions, monopolizing the local market.

In addition to the main branch, Jin Yun will establish twelve branch offices.

Liaoyang, Jizhou, Tongzhou, Xuanfu, Datong, Baoding, Zhengding, Yongnian, Linqing, Jinan, Qingzhou, and Hejian.

These branch offices would grant local powerful figures and local bullies a certain percentage of the profits in exchange for their cooperation.

The second category is transport merchants, who are subordinate to brothel merchants and sell goods to various prefectures and counties.

Jin Yun will release 48 slots, allowing only these 48 businesses to produce and sell Tambaku products.

These forty-eight businesses must purchase raw materials and products through Jin Yun Hao; if they purchase them privately, they will be immediately disqualified!

The third category is market vendors, who are responsible for planting and purchasing Tampagu (a type of wild rice), and can also produce Tampagu products, but cannot sell them.

There are no restrictions in this regard, but market participants can only sell raw materials and products to carriers via the Jin Yun ship.

Jin Yunhao monopolized this link to obtain excessive profits, and also collected various taxes and fees on behalf of the dealers, transporters and dealers.

They paid 50,000 taels of silver to the palace every month and 90,000 taels to the court every quarter, and did not bear any other taxes or fees.

The former is exempted for three months, and the latter for one year, giving Jin Yun time to develop and grow.

After all, the Jin Yun will only truly be able to operate when the 3,000 mu of tobacco fields in Xishan begin to produce tobacco.

Otherwise, with the current cost of one tael of silver per pound of dried leaves, Jin Yunhao would not be able to bear the burden of 80,000 taels per month.

Zhang Ye was given the additional post of "supervising the Jin Yun ship in Zhili, Shandong, Xuanda, Liaodong and other places," making him the nominal head of the Jin Yun ship.

Zhang Kun was also given the additional role of "co-organizer," effectively taking control of the Jin Yun.

Since the two men were not strong enough, Zhang Kun's seven adopted brothers also joined in.

"Father, son, and brothers all joined forces," using both force and persuasion to deal with all sorts of shady characters, ensuring that Jin Yun Hao could grow and expand as quickly as possible.

Pei Sheng, who ranked seventh, was one of the stewards of the Qianqing Palace.

In fact, the offices and residences of the Directorate of Ceremonial were all outside the palace city, even farther from the emperor than those of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.

In order to get closer to the emperor, the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs used its power to forcibly move the imperial guards to the riverside outside the Donghua Gate.

The chief eunuch even moved his personal room into the palace, specifically to the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Even so, they still couldn't compare to the stewards and managers of the Qianqing Palace and the Warm Palace who were by the emperor's side all day.

Therefore, many of the officials in charge of the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs had experience in the Qianqing Palace.

Moreover, Pei Sheng also served as the chief supervisor of the Imperial Pharmacy, which is why Zhang Kun's tribute tobacco was able to reach the Wanli Emperor.

Dane, ranked eleventh, was one of the eunuchs in charge of the Imperial Horse Administration and the garrison of the capital.

Before the Tumu Crisis during the Zhengtong era, the Beijing garrison only had eunuchs in charge of supervising firearms.

After the Tumu Crisis, Emperor Jingtai began to send civil officials and eunuchs to jointly manage the Beijing Garrison with military officials.

In the early period, the civil officials and eunuchs who served as supervisors wielded considerable power, especially the first one, Yu Qian, whose position was even above that of the eunuchs and military officials who served as supervisors.

The problem is that the high position and power of the civil official commander-in-chief came from his primary duty of overseeing the Ministry of War or the Censorate, while the position of commander-in-chief of the Beijing Garrison was a "concurrent" one.

Their primary duties were already heavy, and they simply couldn't handle the numerous and complex affairs of the Beijing Garrison, which also had intricate internal relationships.

So many dukes, marquises, earls, and other high-ranking officials served as officials for generations, constantly intermarrying and forming a very complex and intertwined network.

Yu Qian was caught off guard during the Coup of the Gate because he did not have the time or energy to manage the Beijing garrison.

If a civil official commander does not have the primary responsibility of managing ministries and departments, and is merely a so-called "specialized" official, the big shots in the Beijing garrison will completely ignore him.

As it has evolved, the position of civil official admiral has become a sinecure, usually filled by retired veterans of the Ministry of War or the Censorate.

The position of eunuch commander was better than that of a civil official, since they had the emperor's backing, but their actual power was not that great.

Unless the emperor wanted to reorganize the Beijing Garrison, such as when the Chongzhen Emperor later sent Cao Huachun and others to oversee the Beijing Garrison.

As the commander of the Beijing garrison, Dane was at most involved in some financial and logistical matters and received some benefits.

Zheng Anshi, ranked nineteenth, was a commander of the Western Division of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, stationed in Zhangjiawan, Tongzhou.

I am already a third-rank official, serving as the Deputy Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and I have also married a marquis's concubine.

With his qualifications, he is qualified to serve as a vice-chairman before retiring!

The other four, though not as successful as these three, have all achieved some degree of accomplishment.

As for the adopted sons ranked between them, they were either mediocre and incompetent, and were sent to be wealthy men.

They either died of illness or violent death, or were removed from the list due to incorrigible behavior or other reasons.

Some, like Li Cheng, were even killed for reasons such as betraying their master.

The fact that Zhang Kun was able to sit at the same table with his seven sworn brothers shows that he had completely entered the inner circle of his eunuch godfather.

Speaking of which, Zhang Ye was the first tax supervisor appointed by the Wanli Emperor and was highly trusted.

However, Zhang Ye was merely an attendant in the Directorate of Ceremonial, and he was far removed from the central government for a long time.

He cannot be called an inner minister if he has not exercised the power of approving imperial edicts much.

The fact that so many of his adopted sons have achieved what they have today shows that Zhang Ye has indeed treated them very well and was willing to provide them with help and resources.

They truly treated promising adopted sons as their own, rather than as servants to be driven around.

However, once the adopted sons achieved success and established their own businesses, it was inevitable that they would become estranged from Zhang Ye.

Li Cheng, a scoundrel, disregarded Zhang Ye's advice and repeatedly attacked his own brothers.

Now, thanks to Jin Yun, founded by Zhang Kun, Pei Sheng, Dai En, Zheng Anshi, and other adopted sons are once again closely united around their godfather.

Before Jin Yunhao grows to a certain size, the adopted sons will work together sincerely to make the pie bigger.

There will inevitably be friction or even conflict in the future, but that's a matter for the future.