Optimus One Pillar of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 163 Four hundred and fifty million taels of silver

The Ming Dynasty vassal kings used their power to plunder farmers and small and medium-sized landowners within their own sphere of influence, annexed large quantities of private land, and turned the peasants and tenants on these private lands into their own domestic slaves.

And by bribing or threatening the personal safety of local officials, these acres and people were removed from the government's tax collection yellow book, thus embezzling a large amount of the country's land tax and head tax. This was an open matter in the Ming Dynasty.

So now these Jinan officials say that the royal family of King De who was sealed in Jinan, together with the 59 local wealthy families, together account for less than [-]% of the cultivated land in Jinan. This is almost like a ghost.

Therefore, Wang Daoqiu made things a little bit clearer, and the supervisory censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate directly took the case, pointing at these Jinan officials and scolding them.

But this group of Jinan officials saw that the matter had been exposed, and they were single. They knelt down and confessed without making any excuses, begging for mercy and begging to be let go.

Seeing the Jinan officials confessing in court, several supervisory censors were excited. This was a shocking case!If this case is solved, their performance this year will be complete.Therefore, these censors who were eager to achieve success for themselves, after the Jinan officials confessed their crimes, they quickly geared up and rearranged the tables, chairs, and benches, turning the banquet scene into a courtroom and starting the trial directly.

While the censors were busy, Wang Daoqiu saw Li Qianshi from Jinyiwei and Eunuch Chen from the Supervisor of Ceremonies, winking at him anxiously.

The two agents gave me such anxious looks, there must be something going on here!So Wang Daoqiu, who felt that something was going on here, hurriedly interrupted the busy work of these censors, and said: "Dear censors, the amount of money involved in this case is huge, and we can't handle it in private. I think it's better Let’s ask the imperial court for an order! Does the imperial court want to escort these people back to Beijing for trial, or does the imperial court want to keep them here and hand them over to us for trial?”

Well, to be honest, these censors are very reluctant to give up such a great contribution.However, what Wang Daoqiu said is also true. For such a case involving a huge amount of money, without the authorization of the court, it is indeed not the seventh-grade censors like them who are qualified to investigate and try it.

They were extremely unwilling to give up, but the imperial system was such that these censors did not dare to break the law, so for a while they were full of embarrassment.Wang Daoqiu understood that these censors wanted to make great achievements, so Wang Daoqiu first asked the Jinan guards to escort these Jinan officials away.

Then he looked at these censors and said slowly: "Fellow censors, we are all in the officialdom, and our purpose is to serve the court and make contributions, so I understand your current mood. To be honest, looking at Not to mention you, even I am not willing to let such a big case slip away from my hands. Let me see it this way. I, Eunuch Chen, Li Qianshi, and these colleagues from the Ministry of Revenue, and you, the Censor, We jointly submitted a letter to the court, telling the court that this case is complex and involves a wide range of areas. It is more appropriate to investigate and try it locally. We request the court to hand over the case to us and investigate and try it on the spot. Thanks to everyone's credit, [-]% of the dirty money will be deposited into the home. Ministry of Finance, Taicang, [-]% will be given to the inner treasury and Jinyiwei, and [-]% will be left to me to quell the chaos and rebuild Shandong. Do you think this is okay?"

Benefit!Wang Daoqiu clearly divided the interests, and once the people in the household department heard about it, they could get [-]% of the dirty money for their own department.They immediately thought that if they really earned this money back to the Ministry of Revenue, then when they returned to the Ministry of Revenue, they would be praised by the leader with a big red flower and change their official uniforms!
A bright future beckoned ahead, so as soon as Wang Daoqiu finished speaking, the officials from the Ministry of Revenue immediately stood up and expressed their willingness to sign.They also said that in addition to signing their names, they would also report the matter to Wang Shangshu of the Ministry of Revenue and let Wang Shangshu fight for it in the court.

Officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs agreed. Although several censors from the Metropolitan Procuratorate felt that Wang Daoqiu had already divided the dirty money before the case was even tried, which sounded like a treacherous official.However, they now also strongly hope that they can have the opportunity to handle such a big case, make achievements, and be promoted and paid.

Therefore, after the people from the Ministry of Household Affairs agreed, Yushi Yin, who was the first among these censors, came out and said: "Master Wang, what I have to say is that there are some things that don't hurt Wang Fagangchang. We censors can just turn a blind eye." Close one eye. But there are some things that, as censors, we must stand upright and will not be selfish."

"Understand, understand, let's do this, colleagues, I, Wang Daoqiu, hereby promise. If the court really hands this case to our local trial in Shandong, and let me, Wang Daoqiu, be the presiding judge. Then I promise you, I will hand this case over to the capital prosecutor. Several censors of the court are actually presiding over the case, and several colleagues from the Ministry of Revenue are responsible for counting the dirty money and items. Li Qianshi, Eunuch Chen, and I only assist from the side and will never interfere with the specific trial of this case."

"Does Mr. Wang really mean what he said?"

"Hahahaha, Yushi Yin, I, Wang Daoqiu, attained the rank of Liuyuan, and am now an official of the first rank. I can be considered a respectable person after all! How could I say something in public and then regret it afterwards."

For such a big case with clear facts and such a great contribution, Wang Daoqiu actually promised in public that he would only assist in this case and hand over the leading power of handling the case to the Procuratorate and the Ministry of Household Affairs, which made Yin Yushi a little displeased. dare to believe.So as soon as Wang Daoqiu finished speaking, Yin Yushi questioned the authenticity of Wang Daoqiu's promise.But when Wang Daoqiu pointed out his identity, Yin Yushi thought that with Wang Daoqiu's identity, he would not be so disrespectful to his feathers.So after Wang Daoqiu finished speaking, Yin Yushi apologized to Wang Daoqiu: "This matter is for Meng Lang, and I apologize to you."

"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. Okay, let's all quickly write down the translations we want to submit to each other. We'll send a [-]-mile rush immediately to report to the imperial court!"

"Yes"

After solving the problem of mutual trust, everyone wrote reports to their superiors. Finally, they jointly submitted a petition to Emperor Jiajing, requesting that the case be heard on the spot.

After sending the notes written by each of them to Beijing quickly, everyone said well and went about their own business.

After the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs left, Wang Daoqiu rushed to Li Qianshi and Eunuch Chen and asked in a low voice: "You two, what happened just now? Is there something hidden here?"

As soon as the censor and the people from the household department left, Wang Daoqiu asked this. Eunuch Chen and Li Qianshi looked at each other. After reaching an agreement with their eyes, Li Qianshi replied: "Yes, sir. To be honest, in Yanzhou At that time, Eunuch Chen and I were secretly investigating the property of King Lu. Those vassal kings of our Ming Dynasty will not be satisfied after taking advantage of all the advantages in the fiefdom. "

"They usually eat up their fiefdoms and then send their confidants to the two provinces of Nanzhili and Zhejiang, which are rich and talented, to buy land and merchants to assist in business. Because these two provinces are the places where the country pays taxes. It is under the direct jurisdiction of the imperial court, and vassals are established without arranging vassal kings. This means that these two provinces do not have local vassal kings, and there will be no conflicts with other vassals there. Therefore, the vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty usually take money to go there. Buy land and buy real estate in these two provinces.”

"Since we became the ancestors of our dynasty, we have strictly restricted the expansion of vassal kings outside their fiefdoms. Without an imperial edict, vassal kings cannot leave their fiefdoms. Precisely because of these strict restrictions from the imperial court, the vassal kings have been in southern Zhili, The industries in these two provinces of Zhejiang are managed by their own confidants and are not disclosed to the public. Therefore, as long as we find out the confidants of these feudal kings in Nanzhili and Zhejiang, those properties will be our credit and our pocket money. "

I see!Li Qianshi said this, and Wang Daoqiu understood.So Wang Daoqiu said: "I see, you two just asked me to stop the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate from trying the prisoners in Jinan Prefecture. You two are afraid of the prisoners in Jinan Prefecture. Do you know something?"

Wang Daoqiu said this, indicating that he had understood their intentions, which made Li Qianshi and Eunuch Chen very happy.So Li Qianshi followed Wang Daoqiu's words and said: "Yes, sir, these criminals in Jinan Prefecture are all local officials from the states and counties under Jinan Prefecture. They are local snakes. It is impossible for them to do nothing about King De." You know, they even took action before we arrived."

"To be honest, sir, the bandits have occupied Yanzhou for more than a month. They slaughtered all the captured local officials and servants in Yanzhou, as well as all the servants of Prince Lu's palace. This made Eunuch Chen and I investigate Prince Lu. When working outside, it was very troublesome to send spies to one village after another to find out if anyone in their village had ever worked for Prince Lu's Mansion. This was very troublesome, so it has had little effect so far. "

"And these magistrates, magistrates, prefects, and county magistrates in Jinan Prefecture can help us avoid the trouble of investigating King Lu. As local snakes, I believe they have no idea who they cannot mess with within their jurisdiction. They must be It’s very clear. And the servants of Prince De’s Mansion must be the kind of people that local officials cannot touch without permission. After all, it depends on the owner to beat a dog. Therefore, I believe that these local officials of Jinan Mansion must know the areas under their jurisdiction. , who worked for Prince De’s Mansion. So Sir, as long as we catch those who have worked for Prince De’s Mansion, or their family members, we won’t be afraid that we won’t be able to find clues, so we can pull out the carrots and bring out the mud.”

Master, very professional!Knowing the case-handling styles of Li Qianshi and Eunuch Chen, Wang Daoqiu admired them very much.So he added: "First give these prisoners some bloodless punishments and let them suffer some pain. In the middle of the night, you will send people to keep an eye on those censors, and then go to interrogate those prisoners yourself. You can let the two Three criminal officers committed suicide out of fear of crime, killing chickens to scare monkeys."

"It's my lord, thank you my lord."

What does "suicide out of fear of crime" mean? To put it bluntly, Wang Daoqiu allowed Li Qianshi and Chen Eunuch to make two or three of them, in order to put pressure on the remaining criminals.Li Qianshi naturally understood what Wang Daoqiu said.So as soon as Wang Daoqiu finished speaking, Li Qianshi hurriedly held his fists to express his gratitude to Wang Daoqiu.

(End of this chapter)