Optimus One Pillar of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 117 The Stubbornness of Civil Officials in Ming Dynasty
Just when Wang Daoqiu and a group of well-dressed beasts were conspiring there.With the emperor's approval, the Sanfa Division also transferred the more than 100 officials who beat Wang Daoqiu at the palace gate from the imperial prison of Jinyiwei to the prison of the Ministry of Punishment.

As soon as the handover of personnel was completed with the Jinyiwei, the current three giants of the Three Law Divisions of the Ming Dynasty, Yu Maojian, the censor of Zuodu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Tu Qiao, the minister of the Ministry of Justice, and Li Xiang, the minister of Dali Temple, were in trouble there.

These three people are all upright and honest people. Yu Maojian is a famous jurist in the entire history of China. Tu Qiao has been an official for 40 years and is known for his integrity. After his death at the age of 76, the imperial court posthumously named Shaobao and gave him the posthumous title of Jiansu.A civil servant was awarded a posthumous title, and this posthumous title can still withstand the test of history and has been passed down. This is evident from Tu Qiao's excellent character.

Compared to Yu Maojian and Tu Qiao, the current minister of Dali Temple, Li Xiang, is even more of a legend.Li Xiang, whose courtesy name was Rulan, and Yan Song, the current chief minister of the Ming Dynasty, were fellow villagers of Fenyi County, Jiangxi Province.But although he and Yan Song were fellow villagers in the same county and were officials in the same dynasty, no historian in the history of China said that Yan Song and Li Xiang were related.After all, these two Fenyi fellows are two extremes in the writings of historians. Yan Song is the extreme of corruption and sycophancy, and is known as the most treacherous official in the Ming Dynasty.And Li Xiang is an upright, honest and good official.

Li Xiang was very smart when he was young. His parents had high expectations for him and spared no expense to support his education.But Li Xiang was smart when he was a child, but he was a troubled boy. He was very playful, and it was common for him to skip classes when he was tired of studying. He was often caught and punished by his tutors.

One day, Li Xiang was caught by her husband for playing truant again. The husband hit him on the palms of his hands with a ruler, and on both hands.After returning home from school, Li Xiang's father discovered that his hands were bruised and swollen after being beaten by his teacher.So after asking the reason, his father got angry and beat him again.

At that time, Li Xiang was at the rebellious age of a middle school boy. He was beaten continuously by his husband and his father within one day, and he was furious.As soon as he became stronger, he threw the inkstone he used for studying into the pond in front of his house.And he arrogantly swore to the sky in front of his parents, like a dead pig that is not afraid of boiling water: From now on, if I want to study, unless the inkstone floats.

Seeing his son's dead look, Li Xiang's father was so angry that he wanted to beat him again, but Li Xiang's mother felt sorry for her son.So at that time, Li Xiang's mother dragged her husband to the back room and persuaded him: "The child's father, it is not the right way for you to continue fighting like this. You have to make him understand and be convinced. That is the right way!"

Li Xiang's father listened to his wife's persuasion and felt that it made sense, so the couple used their wisdom to find a solution.One night, Li Xiang's father dreamed that Guanyin Bodhisattva descended from the sky and stood on a cloud over the pond in front of his house. At this time, an inkstone was shining brightly on the water in the pond.

After Li Xiang's father woke up from the dream, he was inspired by it.So the next night, Li Xiang's father took advantage of Li Xiang's sound sleep, went down to the pond in front of his door, picked up the inkstone that Li Xiang had discarded that day, inserted a stake in the pond, and placed the inkstone On the pile, the inkstone is only an inch away from the water.

After Li Xiang's father arranged the scene, Li Xiang's mother used three bowls to hold pork, eggs, and fish respectively, and pretended to burn incense and pray.When the sun rose, Li Xiang's mother hurriedly rushed into Li Xiang's room where he was still sleeping. She deceived Li Xiang in a panic and said: "Xiang'er, go and see. The Bodhisattva has appeared. The square inkstone you lost has floated up." ”

After saying this, Li Xiang's mother pulled Li Xiang, who had just woken up and was still in a daze, to the pond.Pulled to the pond by her mother, the sleepy Li Xiang looked into the pond. In her pond, she saw layers of ripples on the water surface caused by the morning breeze. An inkstone was vaguely shaking, and the pond was also visible. There are sacrifices nearby.

The middle school boy didn't expect that his mother, who always loved him, would also lie to him.So I was fooled, and from then on I put away my fun, studied hard and studied hard.Later, when he was 27 years old, he won the second-level Jinshi, which started his career of nearly 40 years.

Li Xiang is fair and honest in life and official, very responsible, and has the country and the people at heart.Wherever he served throughout his life, no one was dissatisfied with his integrity, whether it was local or central ministries.Even when he later became an official due to illness due to old age, and returned to his hometown, he remained calm, dignified, filial to his friends, donated money to support his family, and repaired his school, and was praised by the people of his hometown.After he died of illness in the 40th year of Jiajing, the county worshiped him as a township sage.The pond where he lost his inkstone when he was young is now the location of his Li family's ancestral hall, which is called Luoyan Terrace and is a place of pilgrimage for local scholars.

Yu Maojian, Tu Qiao, and Li Xiang are all upright and upright people. It can be said that these three people are not only models for law enforcement in the Ming Dynasty now, but also looking at the entire 5000 years of China, they are monuments.It is precisely because of the three people's integrity that goes deep into their bones that although they do not agree with the actions of more than 100 officials, the three of them admire the courage of those officials and want to do their part to do so without violating the law. Try to reduce the culpability of those officials as much as possible.

So after all the guilty officials were sent to prison from Jinyiwei and transferred to the prison of the Ministry of Punishment, the three heads of the Three Laws Division, who were full of worries, entered the duty room of Tu Qiao, the Minister of Punishment, in a tacit understanding.

The guests and the host were seated, the clerk served fragrant tea and went out, closing the door outside.When only Yu Maojian, Tu Qiao and Li Xiang were left in the room, Tu Qiao, the landlord, spoke first: "Brothers, the three of us have been in charge of the Sanfa Division for many years, and we have always been on the same page and are close friends. What do you say, little brother? Just say it straight.”

"Dongzhou doesn't need to say more. The three of you and I are all thinking the same thing right now. Now everyone has mentioned your Ministry of Punishment, and the emperor also promised to issue an amnesty afterwards. The main problem now is how to persuade Li Mo and others, let them plead guilty in court. Otherwise, if they do not confess in court, they will be unrepentant and determined to fight the emperor to the end. If things really come to that, with the temper of the current man, he will not only It is absolutely impossible to pardon Li Mo and the others, and the punishment will be increased, or even directly sentenced to death. Hey, things are not easy to handle! With the temper of Li Mo and his gang, I really have no confidence that I can convince them!"

As soon as Tu Qiao spoke, Yu Maojian, the oldest among the three, spoke up.

Yu Maojian's words pointed out the difficulty of this matter now. Although Emperor Jiajing promised to grant a pardon after the Three Laws Division convicted and sentenced him.But there is a premise, and this premise is that those officials have a good attitude towards pleading guilty and can sincerely repent. To put it bluntly, they can fully satisfy the emperor's face.Therefore, if those officials do not admit their mistakes and still insist that they are right, what awaits them will not be an amnesty, but the emperor's wrath.

If the more than 100 officials who beat Wang Daoqiu at the palace gate did not admit their mistakes, the consequences would be serious.But it's too difficult to make them admit their mistake, given the arrogance of those people!So thinking about this, Yu Maojian felt sad!
After listening to Yu Maojian's words, Tu Qiao and Li Xiang also felt the same way. They really admired those people and really wanted to save those people, but what about those people's tempers?Thinking about this, the three of them were worried to death.

The atmosphere of the meeting was depressing, and none of the three had any confidence. After a while, Li Xiang suggested: "No matter how difficult it is, you have to give it a try? You can't just watch these more than a hundred loyal officials have their futures ruined like this." , even heads falling to the ground, right?”

"What Rulan said is absolutely true. Dongzhou will lead the way. Let's go to your Penal Department Prison together!" "Shan"

The three of them decided to work hard.So Tu Qiao, the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, led the way, and the three of them went to the prison of the Ministry of Punishment together.

Entering the prison of the Ministry of Punishment, this place is much more decent than Jinyiwei's prison. It can be said to be clean and tidy, and it can be called a model prison in China for 5000 years.It's right to think about it. The problems of people in prisons of the Ministry of Punishment and people in imperial prisons are not of the same nature.Moreover, the people who are eligible to be imprisoned in the prison of the Ming Dynasty's Ministry of Punishment are either key criminals in major criminal cases, or officials with status.So the level of supervision here is naturally high.

Along the road of the prison, the three of them came to the two rows of opposite cells where more than 100 officials were detained. The supervision environment here was better, very clean, and there was no smell at all.The sheets and bedding in the prison cell were also the bedding that Tu Qiao sent to notify the families of these officials beforehand and asked them to send them over.

The family members of these criminal officials received a notice at noon that they would be transferred from the Jinyiwei Prison, known as hell, to the Penal Department Prison, and they were given bedding.They were all very happy. They immediately packed up the bedding and daily necessities at home and waited at the entrance of the criminal department early.

After the officers were transferred from the imperial prison to the prison of the Ministry of Punishment, the family members and servants of these criminal officials followed them in with bedding and daily necessities.

Tu Qiao admired these offending officials and did not believe that these offending officials would escape from prison.Therefore, he gave these officials full respect within the scope of his authority. The prison doors were not locked, and he also allowed the family members and servants of these officials to enter and exit the prison buildings.

So now when Tu Qiao led Yu Maojian and Li Xiang here, it was as lively as a vegetable market.There were groups of people chatting there, and there were wives crying and scolding their husbands.

The prison of the Ministry of Justice of the Ming Dynasty actually had such a desolate scene. Yu Maojian and Li Xiang both looked at Tu Qiao with smiles. The smiles were meaningful and made Tu Qiao feel a little embarrassed for a while.

So in order to cover up the embarrassment, Tu Qiao stood at the entrance of two rows of cells and coughed twice to attract the attention of the people in the cells.

Tu Qiao's two coughs were very sudden, and he quickly succeeded in attracting everyone in the prison cell.

The officials who committed the crime were all officials from the Yanguan Yushi and the Ministry of Personnel in the capital. They naturally knew the big bosses of the Three Laws Department such as Yu Maojian, Tu Qiao, and Li Xiang.Especially Yu Maojian, the censor of Zuodu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, was the leader of the censors of the Ming Dynasty, and he was naturally familiar with these prisoners.

Upon seeing the arrival of Yu Maojian, Tu Qiao and Li Xiang, the officials who had committed the crime quickly asked their family members and servants to stay in the prison cell and not come out.Then they came out and stood in several rows, waiting to listen to the lectures of the three elders.

There are three people: Yu Maojian, Tu Qiao, and Li Xiang. Yu Maojian is the first-rank imperial censor of Zuodu, Duchayuan, Tu Qiao is the second-rank minister of the Ministry of Justice, and Li Xiang is the third-rank minister of Dali Temple.Among the three, Yu Maojian has the highest rank. Yu Maojian is nearly seventy years old, while Tu Qiao and Li Xiang are both in their 50s this year.Therefore, no matter in terms of rank or age, the three of them all respected Yu Maojian.

So after the officials lined up, Yu Maojian came out from the C position to speak, while Tu Qiao and Li Xiang lined up on the left and right to support them.

Facing a group of prisoners, Yu Maojian said directly without clearing his throat: "No more nonsense, you are all imperial officials, and most of them are censors who supervise hundreds of officials. Among them, I have colleagues in the Imperial Palace. Ten or so people. You are the law enforcers yourself. I don’t need to explain what crime you committed this time. You know it yourself..."

"Sir Yu, it is our duty to clean up the imperial court and eliminate treachery for the country. What crime do we have?"

Faced with Yu Maojian's reprimand, Li Mo, the leader of Qingliu, quit his job and took the lead in refuting Yu Maojian.But Yu Maojian usually has a good official reputation and is the idol of the Qingliu people, so at this time Li Mo came out to criticize Yu Maojian. The more than 100 officials who committed the crime all kept their heads down, and no one went to agree with Li Mo.

He came out so impassionedly to rectify Qingliu's name, but none of the hundreds of Qingliu people behind him came out to support him, which made Li Mo very angry.But in this situation, unity should be the first priority, so although Li Mo was angry now, he did not dare to explode. He just looked directly at Yu Maojian without confidence.

(End of this chapter)