Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 806 Speak freely
"What's wrong with severe punishment for corruption?"

In the Huagai Hall, Zhu Yuanzhang was peeling an orange and looking very disapproving.

"All those corrupt officials just felt that they had no choice, and they all felt that they had their own reasons."

"But you never think about whether the people who died unjustly had their own reasons? Do the common people who lived a law-abiding life but ended up with their families torn apart have their own reasons?"

"When they all collude to harm the public and enrich themselves, causing the people of the world to be angry, will these corrupt officials listen to my difficulties?"

Although the phrase "sticking a warm shoulder to a cold butt" is a bit vulgar, he doesn't mind it because he thinks it is very appropriate for later generations to say it.

I vaguely remember that when the twenty-four generals went south to Dingyuan, they were like brothers both inside and outside the country; and as he established a government, expanded the army, and recruited talented people, it took him a lot of thought to balance all aspects; and when the Ming Dynasty was founded, some of his former subordinates had become enemies with him.

As Zhu Yuanzhang was talking, he couldn't help getting a little angry, and as a result, the orange was crushed into pieces. Empress Ma, who was waiting to share the orange, didn't care and took a handkerchief to wipe it carefully.

This made Zhu Yuanzhang feel a little embarrassed.

After wiping his hands, he took another orange and said after a moment of hesitation:

"As for cruelty and bloodlust...I don't even know where to begin."

Not to mention the 70,000 or 80,000 people, even the more than 30,000 people involved in the Hu-Lan case mentioned earlier was enough to surprise him now. After all, the number of officials in the Ming Dynasty was less than this number.

In this situation, it is equivalent to the entire officialdom being plowed flat, and it is like a foolish dream to expect there to be no chaos under such circumstances.

Of course, there is also the problem of the number of people implicated due to the extermination of nine clans, but how many people have been exterminated since the founding of the Ming Dynasty?
As the younger generations mentioned, in the case of Hu Weiyong, Tu Jie and Chen Ning were only sentenced to death, and no other charges were charged.

It is true that Zhu Yuanzhang used severe punishments to punish corruption, but it does not mean that he would execute all the nine clans of any corrupt official he caught.

However, the younger generation did not explain these things clearly, and Zhu Yuanzhang felt that it was meaningless to dwell on it, so he could only helplessly say:
"There are less than a thousand people convicted of the crime of the empty seal, so how come there are more than ten thousand people executed?"

"As for the subsequent implicated people... let's take this as a lesson, learn from Zhuge Liang's strict laws, and follow the example of Emperor Taizong of Tang who set an example for future generations."

In just a few words, Zhu Yuanzhang sorted out the general idea.

The emperors of the Ming Dynasty after him neither rose from humble beginnings and saw all kinds of worldly affairs like him, nor conquered the world with their own hands and made outstanding achievements like him, nor did they have a... ridiculous body like him that allowed them to do everything themselves without asking for help from others.

In this situation, instead of hoping that future generations will be wise and brave, it is better to hope to improve the laws and revise the ancestral teachings, so that the will of future generations of the Ming Dynasty can be as consistent as it was during the Hongwu period.

However, speaking of Emperor Taizong of Tang, and thinking about the wise and powerful descendants, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but turn his gaze to the fourth brother.

Now that I think about it, when Wu Hou first asked whether Zhu Biao was benevolent and filial and then asked whether he was married, it seemed that there was something a bit strange about it.

Compared with this, the two phoenixes of Li Tang were truly misleading. No wonder those who followed changed the subject and stopped talking about Emperor Yongle.

Now that he had calmed down, Zhu Yuanzhang did not have much to complain about. After all, his words at that time made it quite clear that he was satisfied with and loved Zhu Biao. In this situation, if he continued to forcefully say something like "your son doesn't seem to have much time left", it would seem like he was trying to sow discord, and it would be like interfering in family affairs across hundreds of years. No matter what, it would be difficult to find a solution that would have the best of both worlds.

With a slight sigh in his heart, Zhu Yuanzhang was met with Zhu Di's attentive gaze:
"Son, come and peel oranges for Daddy."

However, this action also made Zhu Biao smile, and he also came forward:

"Son, peel oranges for Daddy, too."

Two peeled oranges were placed in front of him. Zhu Di immediately waved his hands:

"In that case, big brother, peel it off, big brother, peel it off."

Fortunately, at this moment, Empress Ma leaned over and took the orange from Zhu Di without saying anything, and then stuffed the orange from her eldest son's hand into Zhu Yuanzhang's hand:
"If you want to eat fruit, eat the fruit well."

Among the brothers, Zhu Gang took a break with an interested look on his face.

……

In the Guangzheng Hall, Zhao Kuangyin looked a little more relaxed, and even smiled and said to Zhao Pu:

"It's Song's good fortune that I have a father-in-law."

If you think about it seriously, he, like Emperor Hongwu, came from the military. It would be a lie to say that there is no affection between brothers in the army.

However, the trend of feudal lords since the end of the Tang Dynasty also made him more aware that if he really wanted to establish a great cause, he had to kill this trend, and there was only one way to achieve this goal, which was to rely on civil governance.

So in the end, Zhao Pu worked with him to carefully figure out how to measure the reform, and it eventually became what it is today.

Red-lettered iron certificates are not reliable enough, and eternal wealth and honor are not trustworthy. The reason why the Song Dynasty lasted for hundreds of years was that the civil and military officials were not neglected, and the capable ones were promoted.

Zhao Pu also had a smile on his face and bowed to Zhao Kuangyin.

Li Yu looked left and right, pondered for a while and said:

"But I remember that Lord Zhao was just exiled to Heyang two years ago. Could it be..."

Zhao Kuangyin stroked his beard and remained expressionless:
"I ordered Lord Zhao to investigate the capital of Luoyang to consider moving the capital."

Li Yu laughed and nodded:
"Since the government says so, I believe it."

This immediately made Zhao Kuangyin, who didn't want to lose face, feel a little regretful:

The price that Lixian House was sold to Li Yu was indeed too cheap!
[According to our previous three-stage Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Yuanzhang's first stage lasted for nearly twenty years.

The attitude towards officials during this period can be seen from specific examples.

In modern discussions about whether the Empty Seal Case was a false case or a wrongful conviction, one of the important arguments is Zheng Shili's memorial on the Empty Seal. In this memorial, it was mentioned that "printing first and writing later is a temporary measure that has a long history."

Zheng Shili did not hold any specific official position, but he had an elder brother named Zheng Shiyuan, who was the assistant provincial governor of Huguang and one of the officials involved in the empty seal case. The specific reasons why Zheng Shili submitted the memorial are also clearly recorded in history books.

In the same year that the Empty Seal Case occurred, astrological changes occurred, so Zhu Yuanzhang issued an imperial decree to the world saying that anyone with ideas could speak freely.

This man named Zheng Shili was also very polite and spoke eloquently, but the memorial was not handed directly to Zhu Yuanzhang at that time, because the empty seal case had already happened by then. In order to avoid using public power for personal gain as a family member, the memorial was not finally handed over to Zhu Yuanzhang until Zheng Shiyuan had finished serving his sentence for the empty seal case.

As expected, Zheng Shili briefly mentioned the so-called astrology in his memorial, and the vast majority of the content was about the case of the empty seal. Overall, his opinions were summarized into four points, but all four points had one common appeal: the case of the empty seal should not be prosecuted. 】

(End of this chapter)