Once power was in hand, orders could be issued—this was Yun Ye’s interpretation of authority. This thing frequently passed from hand to hand among many people. Holding onto it forever was impossible. Since it had now fallen into his hands, how could he not exercise the authority of an Imperial Commissioner?
Gongshu Mu had been idle these past few days. As one of the Great Tang’s famous leisurely individuals, the old fellow was extremely interested in Yun Ye’s desire to build a massive workers’ village on the arid plateau. Since Yun Ye didn’t care about the expenses of building this new village, Gongshu Mu, as a great architect, cared even less.
The upper reaches of the Jing River, a full three li from the factory, was an excellent choice. The terrain was flat, and most importantly, it was upwind. Since the upstream area of the workers’ village was right next to mountain forests, no more factories could possibly be built there. Choosing this location took into consideration preventing these craftsmen from being harmed by the toxic gases discharged from their own factories.
When the proposal was shown to these factory supervisors, Yun Ye finally realized that the true tycoons were actually among these people. They sneered at Yun Ye’s cautious budget figures and scoffed at the simple two-story buildings. They even collectively expressed anger at Yun Ye’s action of underestimating the industrial zone’s financial capacity.
Serving as officials in the industrial zone meant they could only advance within this system. The highest position they could reach was Master Craftsman of the Directorate of Construction, and those were all figures who came from hereditary construction families. They held little discrimination toward artisan households. Several supervisors’ ancestors had also come from artisan household origins. They were quite skilled at building houses. The reason they hadn’t dared before was because of their humble status—they didn’t dare propose it. Even if they had money, they didn’t dare speak up.
Since now there was a big spender jumping out to say he would build houses for the artisan households, and only charge cost price, this made everyone happy. Anyway, Yun Ye’s memorial requesting to build houses for the artisan households was still on its way back to Chang’an, while all the supervisors in the industrial zone had already sat together to discuss whether using white marble when constructing the new village garden would violate regulations.
Cement—every workshop had inventory of that stuff. Stones—the mountains were full of them. As artisan households, could they not get stones from the mountains? The nearby mountain forests couldn’t be cut, but finding suitable trees in the deep mountains, cutting them down, and floating them out via the river was still no problem. This matter didn’t even need to ask His Majesty the Emperor. They didn’t lack money or manpower—they just lacked a document approving the construction.
Regarding Yun Ye’s overstepping of authority, officials from the Directorate of Construction and the Ministry of Works were extremely angry. Since ancient times, artisan households had been objects of enslavement. Their status was almost equivalent to commoners. Those who didn’t settle on the land bore the greatest original sin.
Yun Ye’s memorial had barely reached the Three Departments when it was refuted to pieces. Every official who could speak was criticizing Yun Ye’s foolish behavior of acting rashly. The artisan households needed to work everywhere, with no fixed residence, like drifting duckweed. Today they worked in Chang’an; tomorrow they might need to go to Luoyang. If war broke out with Goguryeo, they would still need to follow the army to battle. Giving them an impractical home was completely unnecessary.
Such suggestions simply wouldn’t work within the system. If this matter could be easily completed, those supervisors in the industrial zone who themselves wanted better living conditions would have started long ago.
It was just like this—having money didn’t work, having materials didn’t work either. The reasons for rejection were cold and ridiculous: “Absurd nonsense!”
Yun Ye flipped through his memorial. It had been reviewed so harshly it was unbearable to look at. Even grammatical errors had been picked out for ridicule. Finally, some brain-damaged fellow had actually written four large characters on it: “Absurd nonsense!” This immediately made Yun Ye so angry smoke came out of all seven orifices.
The various supervisors, large and small, of the industrial zone were grief-stricken as if at a funeral. They hung their heads in silence; some even covered their faces weeping. No matter how much merit they had established, in those officials’ eyes, they were still commoners. When the industrial zone was first established, Yun Ye had already planted the seeds of hatred. When he was assisting Li Tai in determining the management personnel for the industrial zone, those from the Directorate of Construction who didn’t work and those from the Ministry of Works who didn’t manage affairs had all been gleefully kicked out by the two of them.
So now, people not giving face was reasonable. Looking at the handwriting of those four characters, it didn’t look like Fang Xuanling’s. Du Ruhui always managed military affairs, so naturally it couldn’t be him either. The person who wrote these four characters was clearly filled with anger—iron hooks and silver strokes, force penetrating the paper. Besides that fellow Yan Lide, no one else could have written it.
Looking at these four characters, Yun Ye really wanted to cut them out and remount them. After hesitating for a long time, he finally dismissed this unambitious idea.
The four Military Commissioners of the Five Li surrounding Yun Ye were also indignant. These past days, following Yun Ye to inspect all seventeen workshops here, they had gained new understanding of these artisan households. It was these humble craftsmen, like wild grass, who with their own hands had forged the Great Tang’s invincible mighty army. That such people could not receive kind treatment was truly intolerable by heaven’s law.
Not to mention anything else, just watching those artisan households draw wire and manufacture golden silk armor and chain mail, one knew that the equipment on their bodies had not come easily. The artisan households’ hands were not only rough but had long since become deformed. Their thumbs and index fingers were extraordinarily thick. They held scorching hot iron wire in their hands yet didn’t seem to know it was burning. Taking advantage of the wire still having heat, they rapidly hammered out small rings on iron rods. If these things were done by an old craftsman, that would be one thing, but this was a youth of seventeen or eighteen. At such a young age to have such hands—who knew how much suffering he had endured?
“Why hang your heads? Why wail in mourning? Originally I planned to just casually build the artisan households a place to live and be done with it. Now, I won’t build casually anymore! Initially these factories all had shares belonging to the Yun family. All these years I’ve never used them or taken them. Now, give them back to me. I’m going to build a marquis’s mansion on the arid plateau—it needs to be big, needs to be luxurious. Just leave me one room inside. Keep building the rest. Surely building a marquis’s mansion doesn’t require informing those bastards, right?”
“After it’s built, I’ll sell you one copper coin per housing unit. So what if I like squandering my family fortune? I’m Chang’an City’s famous wastrel anyway.”
Yun Ye’s words immediately lifted the spirits of those supervisors. One by one, they immediately went to find the most original contracts. When initially established, it had been clearly stated that the Yun family had shares. But Yun Ye hadn’t dared agree. When Li Er drafted the contracts, he had added this clause. Even fools knew this was using the Yun family as a front to achieve his own goal of exclusively controlling these workshops. After all, the imperial family’s eating habits couldn’t be too unseemly, right?
Very quickly, Yun Ye signed the contract, selling all his shares to the imperial family. He wanted to take money to build houses—this was the result Yun Ye wanted. Gradually extricating himself from imperially controlled enterprises. Personal relationships were a strange thing—once tainted with interests, they became calculating. The Yun family’s presence in the workshops had been beneficial at the start, but now, all the workshops had been assigned by the imperial family to the Directorate of Construction. By what virtue or ability did the Yun family compete with the Great Tang for profit? So people at the Directorate of Construction clearly knew the Yun family had shares but all chose to ignore it, considering themselves virtuous for not using this matter to attack the Yun family.
Withdrawing for no reason would damage the Emperor’s credibility. Everyone would say that His Majesty had initially used the Yun family as a front to seek private gain for himself. Now it didn’t matter—Marquis Yun was extremely angry, extremely angry. His hot-headed temper flared up. He’d rather forgo his shares than build houses for the craftsmen. This had nothing to do with buying people’s hearts—it was feuding with the Directorate of Construction and the Ministry of Works.
A second memorial requesting to build houses on the arid plateau went up. This time it wasn’t for the Emperor but an official document to the Directorate of Construction. It didn’t mention craftsmen, only said that the scenery by the Jing River was beautiful, and he planned to build a villa. The land had already been purchased from Sanyuan County. As long as the Directorate of Construction returned the Yun family’s due share of money, he would start building.
Yan Lide angrily criticized Yun Ye’s official document extensively in the court and read it aloud before everyone as the shame of ministers. Yun Ye’s hooligan-like language and tone were all vividly portrayed by him.
Fang Xuanling smiled bitterly. After all these years, Yun Ye was still that fellow as cunning as a fox. Yan Lide, with his scholarly temperament, thought he was blocking Yun Ye’s illegal appropriation. Who would have thought he was seeking a way out for himself?
“I remember that initially these workshops indeed had the Yun family’s shares. This point is true. Since he’s unwilling to do business with the imperial family anymore, then part amicably. Exchanging the workshop shares for a residence is fine. Minister Yan need not haggle with him. I’ll have the Empress reprimand him.”
“Reprimand?” Yan Lide was truly furious. This was a state matter—how had it become child’s play? The Empress reprimand? The Empress issued countless edicts reprimanding wastrel young masters every year. Who didn’t know those were just going through the motions? The greatest punishment wastrels received was a family beating. How could this same approach now be used on Yun Ye?
Just as he prepared to continue memorializing, Fang Xuanling, holding his tablet, stepped forward to begin reporting another matter—that was the recent hotly discussed matter of real estate in Yuezhou’s new city. The wealthy households of Chang’an, which never had many investment channels, had begun competing for Yuezhou real estate. Currently, land prices there changed three times daily.
Yan Lide dispatched many people to supervise the craftsmen in building the marquis’s mansion. Thirty thousand craftsmen—he didn’t believe that a marquis’s mansion with a maximum area not exceeding thirty mu could accommodate them all. Thirty thousand people plus family members—even if everyone stood upright, they could fill this land. You’re not permitted to violate regulations, not one bit. The houses you build can at most satisfy a portion of people. The problem isn’t scarcity but inequality. Once the artisan households themselves started quarreling, then don’t blame the Directorate of Construction for razing the houses to the ground.
Yun Ye did nothing else but used wood to erect a large gate on the wasteland. No choice—there were regulations on how tall a marquis mansion’s gate must be and regulations on how many copper nails should be on the gate. The Directorate of Construction, being the department managing palace and temple construction, knew very well. When people from the Directorate of Construction saw Yun Ye nail several long-invalidated copper coins on the gate to serve as copper nails, they still felt very uncomfortable.
They allotted thirty mu of land for the marquis’s mansion, not more, not less, perfectly square. No one could find fault. This was the established system. Even His Majesty the Emperor wouldn’t easily violate it—this was the foundation of his rule.
Yan Lide hadn’t been pleased for long when next door, a prince’s mansion occupying three hundred mu began construction. Li Tai never needed to ask anyone’s opinion when building houses.