Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 807: Famous Officials Write Biographies
[Zheng Shili spoke eloquently on the empty seal case, but unfortunately, every one of his opinions hit Zhu's sore spot at that time.

First, he believed that the blank-stamped account books were all stamped with interline seals, not with individual seals on each paper, so it was difficult for ordinary people to get them, and even if they were dispersed, they would not be able to do anything big.

Second, the distance between ministries and provinces is as far as six or seven thousand miles, or as close as three or four thousand miles. A round trip takes nearly a year. Printing first and then publishing is a stopgap measure, and it has a long history.

Third, there is no law against empty seals in the Ming Dynasty Code, and it may be difficult to convince the public to punish them accordingly.

Fourth, it is difficult for the country to train a qualified official. An official who can serve as a county governor must have spent at least ten years of hard work. These capable officials are not something that can be resurrected simply by cutting off grass.

However, contrary to his expectations, Zheng Shili's memorial did not achieve the effect he had expected.

The official involved in the empty seal case was not pardoned. Not only that, the furious Zhu Yuanzhang pursued him for his crime. Zheng Shili was convicted and exiled, and even his brother who had just been released from prison was implicated and exiled as well.

Although this memorial is mostly used in modern times to question whether the Empty Seal Case was a false case, even in ancient times, this memorial could be said to be dancing in a minefield.

In this memorial, the second and third articles are often mentioned nowadays, namely, "it has a long history" and "there has never been a law that is left in vain".

First of all, saying "there has never been a law regarding empty seals" sounds a bit sophistry. Although there is no crime of empty seals in the Ming Dynasty laws, there are clear regulations on how to make books and how to use seals. An empty seal itself is a violation of these regulations on seal use. Saying that there is no law regarding empty seals is obviously just an excuse.

As for saying "it has a long history", that is even more of a minefield. We have previously briefly stated that the "leniency" in the early Ming Dynasty's assertion that "the Yuan Dynasty lost the world because of its leniency" refers to the relaxation of laws and regulations.

Using the lax laws of the Yuan Dynasty to excuse the present is really a way of saying you are dying, and you are also afraid that Zhu Yuanzhang will think: Are you still missing "my Great Yuan"?
But even so, Zheng Shili was only sentenced to exile in the end. The fact that his brother, an official involved in the Empty Seal Case, was able to serve his sentence and be released after serving his sentence was enough to show that the Empty Seal Case was not such a taboo at the time.

This conclusion would make another person, Fang Xiaoru, a famous official of Yongle period, quite embarrassed. After all, as mentioned earlier, Fang Xiaoru's father Fang Keqin was executed because of the empty seal case.

In fact, most of the information we know today about the Empty Seal Case also comes from Fang Xiaoru.

After Fang Keqin was executed, Fang Xiaoru at the time begged his mentor Song Lian to write an epitaph for his father, and provided him with "The Biography of the Late Lord". Song Lian used this as the basis to write "Epitaph for the Late Mr. Fang of Yu'an".

In the epitaph, Fang Keqin was described as honest and upright. When he was the prefect of Jining, he wore a cloth robe for more than ten years and only had one plate of vegetarian dishes with his three meals a day. When he finally left his post, the people spontaneously sang a song "Don't leave, sir, you are the parent of our people" to keep him. The final cause of his death was that he was falsely accused of corruption by an official named Cheng Gong.

As we all know, Zhu Yuanzhang, in the early Ming Dynasty, once said, "Whenever there is a major case, the interrogation should be done in person to prevent the malpractice of framing and training." At that time, major cases were basically interrogated in person.

Therefore, in the case of Fang Keqin's empty seal, either a good official died unjustly in front of Zhu Yuanzhang, or a good son made too many twists and turns for his father.

I won't elaborate on who is right and who is wrong here, but another interesting thing is that Fang Xiaoru had two fellow townsmen who wrote a petition to the emperor regarding the empty seal case. Both of them later had bad endings, so Fang Xiaoru recorded the biographies of the two fellow townsmen in a book called "Biography of Ye and Zheng".

For this reason, when the Qing Dynasty compiled the Ming History, Zheng Shili and Fang Keqin were given separate biographies.

However, in comparison, the UP host admires the Ye in "Biography of Ye Zheng" more, that is, Ye Bogu who died in the ninth year of Hongwu because of a book about astrology.

The meaning that Ye Boju wanted to express in his memorial in the ninth year of Hongwu was quite clear. His main criticisms were three things:

The enfeoffment is too extravagant, the punishments are too severe, and order is sought too hastily!

Unlike Zheng Shili's rambling, Ye Boju's writing is at least well-documented. Unfortunately, Zhu Yuanzhang's answer is only one sentence:
If you try to sow discord among my relatives, catch them quickly and I will shoot them with my own hands!
To use modern criticism, this matter is to regard the world as private property, and the small peasant mentality is fully exposed.

In the end, when Ye Boju was arrested, Zhu Yuanzhang was in a good mood and he was not a target. But even so, he was still imprisoned by the Ministry of Justice and eventually died in prison. It must be said that it is a pity.

If I could live a dozen more years and see with my own eyes the bad things that the princes did in the "Imperial Records of Misconduct", I might be able to write a more colorful article to criticize the parasites of the Zhu family. 】

Everyone could sense that Ming Tianzi's mood was becoming increasingly bad.

Dad didn't say anything, but the princes of the Ming Dynasty didn't mind talking about it in a low voice.

"Zheng Shili is still alive in exile, otherwise he should be recalled..."

Zhu Gang was the most straightforward. He looked up at the light screen, then lowered his head and made this suggestion, making a cutting gesture with his hand.

This immediately made Zhu Su frown, but before he could carefully choose his words, he saw that his fourth brother had already shaken his head and scolded:
"Ridiculous! It is clear that Zheng Shili was offended by talking nonsense and making irresponsible remarks about state affairs. Now, neither the recovery nor the accusation is a good thing, not to mention... Moreover, Daddy has already made a final decision on the matter of the empty seal, so why bother to say anything else?"

The logic of his words was very clear. Zhu Biao nodded frequently, feeling that what his fourth brother said was exactly the same as what he thought.

Then I heard Zhu Di continue:

"Daddy is worried about Fang Xiaoru, who, in order to conceal his father's crime, secretly made unfair arrangements for state affairs, thus preserving his son's loyalty but losing his loyalty as a minister."

"Instead of calling back Zheng Shili, it is better to call back Fang Xiaoru to investigate the whole matter and order him not to confuse right and wrong."

Zhu Gang looked at the screen and then at his fourth brother, and said indifferently, "Haha":

"Emperor Yongle is so majestic."

This sentence immediately made Zhu Di's face turn from red to white and then back to red. He was about to burst into anger, but Zhu Gang continued before he finished speaking:

"Who knows whether Fang Xiaoru was summoned to investigate the whole story or to have a look with this famous official of Yongle who has the ability to confuse right and wrong?"

Zhu Di almost choked and immediately wanted to stand up and have a good talk with his third brother in the most familiar way of communication.

Zhu Gang also regretted his verbal attack for a moment, but fortunately he thought that this was not a martial arts arena, so he quickly turned to the other side:
"Brother has heard it too. I just said it casually. It's not true."

Zhu Biao nodded, but then he knocked on the armrest of the chair and said:
"But there is also suspicion that we are brothers."

These words immediately made everyone else frown. After all, even Zhu Gang just didn't get along well with his younger brother, and he actually couldn't really think carefully about such long-term things.

The eldest brother's words also forced the princes to face the final criticism, that the fiefdoms were too extravagant and...

"Dad, if Ji Feilu has really been written, why don't you show it to us so that we can revise it diligently?" Zhu Biao suggested cautiously.

(End of this chapter)