Chapter 266: Personal Instructions

In the afternoon, on Chengtian Gate Street in the imperial city, a carriage sped toward the area. From afar, one could see the magnificent buildings and towering walls of the Ministry of State Affairs. The carriage turned a corner and came to a stop with a “clunk” in front of the main entrance of the Ministry of Personnel. The door opened, and a tall man jumped out—about thirty-five or thirty-six years old, with a broad forehead, clearly defined black and white eyes, and a rather heroic appearance. His name was Cui Guangyuan, a member of the ancient Cui family from Boling. He served as the magistrate of Chang’an County and was quite famous there.

Today, he had just received orders from Yang Guozhong and rushed to the Ministry of Personnel. He had an old friendship with Yang Guozhong and was also part of Yang’s faction. Although his official rank was not high, his special position made him someone highly valued by Yang Guozhong.

Cui Guangyuan adjusted his official hat and robe before quickly walking up the steps. After announcing his presence, a clerk led him inside the Ministry of Personnel.

The Ministry of Personnel was the largest of the six ministries in the Ministry of State Affairs and held a prestigious status, so its buildings were especially grand and imposing. A straight central axis ran through it, with various offices on both sides. These offices were filled with documents. It was responsible for the promotion and demotion of tens of thousands of officials in the Tang Dynasty, as well as their evaluations. With the annual evaluations approaching and the subsequent examinations soon to begin, the officials in the Ministry of Personnel were extremely busy, wishing they had more time to handle everything.

Yang Guozhong’s office was located at the end of the central axis, right in the center of the Ministry of Personnel, symbolizing his control over it. In addition, he also had offices in the Secretariat of Daming Palace and the Diligence Office Building in Xingqing Palace, which served as his workplace as prime minister.

Yet, Yang Guozhong spent most of his time in the Ministry of Personnel, valuing its power above everything else. He only went to attend meetings in the Political Affairs Hall when necessary. Normally, the minister in charge of the Ministry of Personnel should not interfere in its daily operations, which were handled by the deputy minister. But with Yang Guozhong in charge, all matters within the ministry fell under his control, effectively stripping power from the deputy minister, Wei Jiansu.

At that moment, in Yang Guozhong’s office, he was extremely frustrated. His cousin, Yang Huahua, sat beside him, complaining.

“Third brother, he destroyed my sign! It was written by you personally—this is like slapping you in the face. How can you just stand by? When has our Yang family ever suffered such humiliation in Chang’an? Word of this has already spread in the Eastern Market, and it won’t be long before it spreads throughout the whole city. If we tolerate this arrogance, will our Yang family still be able to survive in Chang’an?”

Since Yang Huahua was caught by Yang Yuhuan in the imperial study the year before last, Li Longji took away many of her powers to appease the concubine, such as the authority to arrange marriages within the royal family. Moreover, her requests to Li Longji were no longer always granted. This morning, for example, her Yang’s Shop had its sign smashed by Li Qingan; she went to Li Longji to cry for help, but he gave no response, clearly unwilling to get involved.

Yang Huahua was rebuffed by Li Longji, but her nature wouldn’t allow her to swallow this insult. Yet she didn’t want to confront Li Qingan head-on, as she was at fault in the first place. So she turned to Yang Guozhong, hoping he would step in to help her get revenge.

Unbeknownst to her, Yang Guozhong was busy with a crucial matter at a critical moment and couldn’t be distracted by her trivial issue.

Annoyed by her interruptions, Yang Guozhong flipped through a memorial just delivered by Zhang Yun. The memorial opposed the public circulation of gold, silver, and coins for two reasons: first, it hadn’t gone through the Ministry of Revenue’s approval and was issued directly by the Hanlin Academy, which was procedurally incorrect; second, Tang Dynasty’s inland areas produced very little gold and silver, so there wasn’t enough to mint coins, making such a move pointless.

Yang Guozhong understood Zhang Yun’s intention—to have him sign the memorial and jointly submit it. But as the head of the Treasury, he was in charge of all of Tang Dynasty’s gold and silver reserves. Although it seemed necessary for him to get involved, signing the memorial would mean he was leading the opposition to Li Longji’s recent decree, while Zhang Yun stayed hidden behind him. In that case, he would become Zhang Yun’s tool, offending the emperor, allowing Zhang Yun to achieve two goals at once—a truly cruel plan.

But Yang Guozhong was no longer the naive official he used to be. He saw through Zhang Yun’s scheme. The emperor’s decree had already been issued; trying to oppose it and revoke it was something even Li Linfu hadn’t done, and now they wanted him to do it!

He couldn’t sign this memorial; he couldn’t play such a villainous role. With that thought, he grunted heavily, closed the memorial, and threw it aside.

Seeing his distraction, Yang Huahua frowned angrily and snapped, “Third brother, are you even listening to me?”

Yang Guozhong had already heard about the incident in the East Market that morning from the Two Capitals Market Office. The deputy head of the East Market Office had reported it as quickly as possible. He already understood the whole situation. Though he was also upset by Li Qingan’s arrogance, he remembered Pei Xiao’s lesson—he couldn’t afford to create more problems and ruin his own important matters.

“Third sister, what do you want me to do? If Li Qing’an just destroys your shop sign without any reason, it’s fine for me to stand up for you, but the fact is you started it first. It’s their grand opening day, and you go there to cause trouble, trying to destroy their sign first. How can I speak up for you? I’m really stuck!”
In truth, Yang Huahua wasn’t entirely upset because of the destroyed sign. It was because as soon as Li Qing’an’s Ju Hai Xing opened, within just an hour, over a hundred merchants came to her bank to withdraw money, taking nearly 30,000 guan, all of which was transferred to Ju Hai Xing. The reason was that Ju Hai Xing didn’t charge any storage fees and even offered interest, completely breaking industry norms. If this continued, all banks in Chang’an would have to close down. Of course, her Yang’s Bank would be the first to fail. Yang Huahua suspected that Li Qing’an was deliberately trying to get revenge on her.
Now, Yang Guozhong was also shirking his responsibility, unwilling to deal with the matter. Yang Huahua grew anxious. “Third brother, I’ve never asked you for anything before. I’ve helped you so much in the past without ever asking for anything in return. Now that I’m asking you for the first time, will you just refuse?”
“Third sister, I can help you with anything else, but I can’t get involved in this.”
“Why?”
Yang Guozhong sighed and picked up Zhang Yun’s memorial from the table. “Don’t you see? Zhang Yun wants to oppose the circulation of gold, silver, and money. But he dares not go straight to the emperor, so he’s asking me to co-sign it. It’s obvious he’s using me as a scapegoat to offend the emperor.”
“Wait a moment!”
Yang Huahua interrupted him. “What does this have to do with my problem?”
“It does! The circulation of gold, silver, and money was ordered based on Li Qing’an’s proposal. Now he’s opened a bank, clearly intending to engage in gold and silver exchange business. I heard he even gave the emperor 200,000 jin of silver personally and promised to give another 100,000 jin per year. The emperor is very pleased and trusts Li Qing’an greatly. Moreover, he hasn’t been granted any official titles despite his great victories in Anxi—this is clearly the peak of his favor. If I were to accuse Li Qing’an of bullying the Yang family now, do you think the emperor would listen? He would surely say, ‘You’re the prime minister; you should focus on state affairs, not trivial matters.’ Third sister, there’s no need to think—this is the inevitable outcome. Haven’t you already suffered setbacks?”
Seeing that Yang Guozhong truly refused to help, Yang Huahua was extremely disappointed. But from his words, she heard a shortcut to wealth, so she temporarily set aside her plan to retaliate against Li Qing’an and quickly asked, “Third brother, are you saying the emperor also wants to mint his own currency?”
“Shh!”

Yang Guozhong waved his hand. He stepped forward quickly to close the door, then returned and whispered to Yang Huahua, “If I’m not mistaken, the reason the Emperor issued the decree allowing the circulation of gold, silver, and coins is because he wants to mint his own coins. Doesn’t Li Qing’an give him large amounts of silver every year? If the silver isn’t turned into coins, how can he use it?”
“But he’s the Emperor—everything belongs to him. Does he still lack money?”
“Third sister, you’re thinking too simply.”
Yang Guozhong sneered and said, “If everything belongs to him and he can spend it as he pleases, then where will the money come from to support the army? What about the salaries of the officials? And where will the funds come from for building water conservancy projects and repairing city walls? He’s extremely extravagant. Last year, just to hold a birthday celebration for the Empress, he spent nearly half of the treasury’s resources. As a result, when Gao Xianzhi achieved a great victory over Nanzhao, there was no money left to reward the troops. In the end, he had to cut the annual rations of the officials, which caused strong dissatisfaction among them. People kept coming to the Treasury to protest, accusing us of embezzling salaries. He’s well aware of these serious consequences, but telling him to be frugal is as difficult as climbing to the sky. Look at how extravagant his winter stay in Huaqing Palace was—was there any sign of frugality?”
“So Li Qing’an sending him silver suits his wishes exactly, right, third brother?”
Yang Guozhong nodded. “That’s exactly right. That’s Li Qing’an’s cunning—he knows how to please the Emperor. With this silver, he can mint his own coins and reduce the state treasury’s expenses. Two hundred thousand pounds of silver! If minted into coins, it’s worth 3.2 million copper coins, enough to support his extravagance.”
Yang Huahua wasn’t interested in court affairs. She was only concerned about whether she could, like Li Longji, mint coins privately. Over the years, she had amassed a large amount of gold and was worried about where to use it. Wouldn’t this decree allowing the circulation of gold, silver, and coins suit her interests perfectly? By now, she had forgotten about Li Qing’an breaking the plaque. Her mind was filled with gleaming gold coins, making her smile broadly. She quickly asked, “If he can mint private coins, can I do the same?”
Yang Guozhong laughed heartily. “Well, what do you think? Will the Emperor punish you severely?”
Just then, a messenger’s voice came from outside, “Minister Yang, County Magistrate Cui has arrived.”
Yang Guozhong immediately realized this was his real task, which had been delayed for so long by Yang Huahua. He said to her, “Alright, I have important matters to attend to. You can go ahead and mint private coins, but don’t make a fuss. Try to do it secretly in your estate. I also have some gold and silver—help me mint coins, and then exchange them through your money house.”

Although the issue of Li Qing’an breaking the shop sign wasn’t resolved, Yang Huahua gained even more. Her mind was already fixed on the coin-making furnace, so she stood up and said with a coy smile, “Thank you, Third Brother. I’ll be leaving now so as not to disturb your work.”

Yang Huahua quickly left through the side door. Yang Guozhong sat up straight and said, “Let him in!”

The door opened, and Cui Guangyuan entered. He was extremely tall, instantly blocking out the light in the room. He stepped forward, bowed, and said, “Your humble servant pays respects to Minister Yang!”

Yang Guozhong chuckled, stood up, and patted his shoulder. “Come! Come! My dear younger brother, please sit.”

The minister actually called him his dear younger brother. Cui Guangyuan was pleasantly surprised and quickly bowed again, saying, “Minister Yang, did you call me here to…”

“No rush! No rush! Sit down and we can talk slowly.”

Yang Guozhong asked him to sit and ordered someone to serve him a cup of tea. As the former governor of Jingzhao and once the magistrate of Chang’an County, Yang Guozhong was well-versed in the situations in both Chang’an and Wannian counties. He asked him about the recent developments of some old acquaintances before gradually getting to the point.

“How is the investigation into the assassination of Prince Di progressing?”

The investigation into Prince Di’s assassination was under the full responsibility of Wang Gong, the governor of Jingzhao. Since the assassination occurred on the outskirts of Chang’an, Wang Gong assigned the task to dozens of counties under Jingzhao Prefecture, ordering them to conduct a thorough investigation. Chang’an County was no exception. Cui Guangyuan had been extremely busy these past few days, not sleeping at all last night.

He sighed and said, “Reporting to Minister Yang, all the clerks in Chang’an County have been mobilized, but so far there’s no clue.”

“Is that so? But I don’t think this case is that difficult,” Yang Guozhong said calmly.

Cui Guangyuan was overjoyed. He quickly stood up, “Does Minister Yang have a clue?”

Suddenly realizing he had been rude, he hurriedly sat back down and said apologetically, “Your servant has been exhausted by this case. Please forgive me, Minister Yang.”

Yang Guozhong waved his hand and smiled. “This matter is under the responsibility of Governor Wang. It’s not appropriate for me to interfere. But I know the assassin clearly gave you a clue before dying. Why haven’t you paid attention to it?”

Cui Guangyuan thought for a moment and said, “Does Minister Yang mean that ‘Xing’ character?”

“Exactly! That’s the most important clue. Have you thought of it?”

“Reporting to the minister, we’ve already identified the assassin as the notorious thief Liu Yun. Our search efforts have focused on him. Moreover, that character was spoken by Liu Yun before he died. We can’t determine whether he meant a surname, the Ministry of Punishments, or a specific shape, so we haven’t considered that ‘Xing’ yet.”

Yang Guozhong’s expression darkened as he said unhappily, “Hmph! That’s because of your stupidity. Didn’t you discover that the notorious thief Liu Yun had close dealings with the criminal Xing Si the year before last? At that time, I was the governor of Jingzhao and even went to great lengths to investigate Xing Si’s background.”
Cui Guangyuan had not been the magistrate of Chang’an for long, so he knew nothing about this. He was stunned and after a while said, “Does Secretary Yang mean that the character ‘Xing’ mentioned by the criminal before his death refers to that famous hero, Xing Si?”
“What hero? He’s clearly the tyrant of Chang’an.”
Yang Guozhong was growing impatient. He took a letter from the table and threw it at Cui Guangyuan, shouting, “You lot are incompetent at your jobs. I’ve already found where the assassin’s accomplices are hiding. If it weren’t for concerns about overstepping my authority, I would have arrested them long ago. I’m leaving this matter to you.”
Cui Guangyuan picked up the letter and saw only three characters on it: ‘Chongsheng Temple’.