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Chapter 264 Four Major Cases in the Early Ming Dynasty

Ming Dynasty, Nanjing.

Imperial Palace, Fengtian Hall.

In the main hall, civil and military officials were discussing state affairs. Zhu Yuanzhang was sitting solemnly on the dragon chair and looking around.

Due to the busy state affairs recently, there are too many political affairs to deal with.

This led to the fact that it was almost getting high outside from morning to now.

But although the ministers present were discussing extremely actively, the anxiety on each minister's face was visible to the naked eye.

Not to mention these ministers, even the aloof Zhu Yuanzhang himself looked outside from time to time, with the same anxious look on his face.

The reason why everyone is like this is because everyone's thoughts are not here, and they have all drifted to the Daming Library outside the palace.

After a whole night of tidying up, the Daming Library was officially opened to the public this morning.

This way, you can have an idea in mind and be able to calmly deal with any changes that may occur in the future.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang had no time to pay attention to the people present, and walked directly towards the library gate with Biao'er and others.

But considering that Biao'er's death has been bothering him, he asked the anchor about the specific reason for Biao'er's death.

At this time, the Ming Library must be full, and people from all over the city rushed to it.

The ministers below are offering advice, and Prince Zhu Biao, who is at the forefront of the ministers, participates in discussions from time to time so that he can come up with a more perfect strategy.

There, there was the knowledge he dreamed of and the answers he wanted to find.

As far as Zhu Yuanzhang is concerned, what he is most concerned about is his own historical records, and he is eager to know what happened after he ascended the throne and became emperor.

Zhu Yuanzhang: Biao'er, come here and follow your father and queen. Let's rush to the Daming Library now.

At that time, he originally wanted to ask the anchor about his historical direction.

It is precisely because of this that a large number of people were waiting outside.

Zhu Biao quickly followed Zhu Yuanzhang's pace and looked in the direction of the Ming Dynasty Library with excitement on his face.

Zhu Yuanzhang: Where is the queen? Take us there.

Zhu Yuanzhang: Sister, what are you reading? You are reading so seriously that we didn’t even notice you were here.

After half an hour passed, today's important political matters were finally dealt with.

Now after some experience, Biao'er has become more and more skillful in controlling these ministers, which also makes him feel more confident about leaving the country in Biao'er's hands in the future.

Soon, Zhu Yuanzhang and his party arrived at the Daming Library. They saw the square filled with people, and the buzzing noise resounded throughout the place.

For these scholars, the Ming Dynasty Library is a holy place, a place that must be visited.

Under the leadership of the guards, Zhu Yuanzhang and others came to a certain area on the third floor.

When the Ming Dynasty Library opened, Queen Ma came over first. She should be reading and studying in a corner of the library now!
The guards led the way, while Zhu Yuanzhang and his party followed behind, looking around at the environment inside the library.

When everyone saw the current emperor coming, they immediately calmed down so as not to disturb the emperor.

Along the way, there were almost no people in the once bustling street. Apparently, the whole city went to the library to watch the excitement.

Zhu Yuanzhang naturally knew what everyone was thinking, so he stopped wasting time and immediately got up and led everyone to the Daming Library.

If it weren't for urgent state affairs, everyone in Fengtian Palace would have rushed to the Daming Library long ago.

With everyone working so hard, the development and growth of Ming Dynasty is just around the corner.

Biao'er was his most valued son and the appointed successor of the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, not only him, but also the ministers present and even Zhu Yuanzhang himself had doubts and wanted to go to the Ming Dynasty Library to seek answers.

All the bookshelves in the originally empty library were now filled with books, and it looked extremely spectacular.

But he deeply understood that the Daming Library was open and he could go there anytime.

Zhu Yuanzhang came to the gate and asked the guard at the gate to take him to Queen Ma.

The whole library was very quiet, no one spoke, and the seats were full of people reading books.

When Zhu Yuanzhang saw the people studying hard, he nodded with great pleasure.

After all, the Ming Dynasty Library has extraordinary significance to the Ming Dynasty. It can be said to be the most important place in the Ming Dynasty. To a certain extent, it is more important than the imperial palace. It is natural that everyone rushes to the library so crazily and enthusiastically.

As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang led a large group of people to the Daming Library in a hurry.

There are countless people in the entire city of Nanjing, and the capacity of the Ming Dynasty Library is limited.

So we need to go in in batches and wait until the people in the library come out before letting people in.

He was lucky enough to get a red envelope from the anchor and was able to ask a question to the anchor.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang had the same idea, he wished he could rush to see the wonders of the Ming Dynasty Library as soon as it opened.

However, the political affairs at hand must be dealt with urgently, without any delay, otherwise it will easily affect the development plans of Ming Dynasty.

Nowadays, there are 80 million books in the Ming Dynasty Library, and there will definitely be books about the history of the Ming Dynasty.

When Zhu Yuanzhang saw this scene, he nodded happily and looked at the prince with a very gentle look.

At this time, all the civil and military ministers present looked at the emperor at the top with great expectations.

Zhu Yuanzhang passed through the rows of bookshelves and saw a girl sitting by the window reading seriously.

The area where Queen Ma is located has been sealed off and is closely guarded by guards. Queen Ma is the only one in the area who is concentrating on reading.

Queen Ma: Chongba, come and read this book. It is an introduction to the history of the early Ming Dynasty.

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, his face lit up and he strode forward.

His sister wanted to go with him, and he also wanted to see the history related to the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, so as to know what happened later.

Although the entire historical trajectory has changed since the emergence of Tianmu, it can still be used as a reference.

Zhu Yuanzhang: The four major Hongwu cases?
He immediately saw the name of the book in the girl's hand, and immediately took it curiously to check.

The civil and military ministers who were originally following Zhu Yuanzhang were curious about what kind of book Queen Ma was holding, but when they heard the emperor's words about the four major cases of Hongwu, they were all so frightened that their legs could not stand. Trembling.

The four major cases of Hongwu seemed to have some kind of magic power, which made the civil servants and generals present look at each other with horror in each other's eyes.

The Hu Weiyong case had just occurred the year before last, and the emperor ordered the execution of more than 30,000 people, which still frightens the ministers present.

One Hu Weiyong case made them fearful, and the current four major Hongwu cases mean that three more major cases will occur in the future.

Based on the level of murder in the Hu Weiyong case, it means that nearly 100,000 people will die in the next three major cases.

When thinking of this horrific death figure, all the ministers present were heartbroken.

Even a few timid ministers were so frightened that they collapsed to the ground, with a stream of warm liquid flowing out of their crotches.

They knew very well that based on the death toll of 100,000, more than half of the ministers present were estimated to be doomed.

It’s not that everyone is unfounded, but the shadow of the Hu Weiyong case still hangs over them.

Zhu Biao seemed to have thought of something, and walked quickly behind his father, intending to take a closer look.

There are many people implicated in the Hu Weiyong case, and he does not hope that there will be greater tragedies in the future.

In order to abolish the prime minister system and strengthen the imperial power, his father specifically targeted Hu Weiyong, but he had stopped him.

After all, no matter what, he didn't want his father to go on a killing spree and kill innocent people indiscriminately.

But in the end, he still failed to stop his father, resulting in 30,000 people being implicated in the Hu Weiyong case and executed.

If we calculate based on the death toll of 30,000 in the Hu Weiyong case, the death toll in the three major cases that will occur in the future is probably unimaginable.

Therefore, he must prevent his father from committing another killing spree no matter what.

Zhu Yuanzhang was completely immersed in the four major Hongwu cases, and did not pay any attention to the situations of other people around him.

The first of the four major Hongwu cases is the Hu Weiyong case that occurred in the thirteenth year of Hongwu. The situation introduced in the book is exactly the same as that directed by him.

The reason why he launched the Hu Weiyong case was to strengthen centralization of power. After the Hu Weiyong case, he reformed the central court's ruling institutions.

The Zhongshu Sheng and the Prime Minister system were abolished, and the powers of the Zhongshu Sheng and the Prime Minister were divided into six ministries.

The six ministers were directly responsible to him to strengthen the centralization of power.

After reading the detailed introduction of the Hu Weiyong case, he continued to look at the three major cases that had not happened yet. This was what he needed to focus on.

After the Hu Weiyong case, there was the blank seal case. The so-called blank seal refers to stamping the official seal on a blank document book, that is, a blank document with a seal.

In an era when transportation was underdeveloped, it was obviously extremely unrealistic to travel back and forth between the central and local governments just to get an official seal.

Provinces close to Nanjing such as Zhejiang and Jiangsu are fine. In provinces such as Yunnan and Sichuan, it often takes several months to send someone to Nanjing. Once the data is filled in again, the official seal is re-applied to the province and it often takes less than half a year.

Therefore, it has become a common practice across the country to carry multiple blank documents with official seals.

The book records that in the fifteenth year of Hongwu's reign, the Ministry of Household Affairs was conducting an examination of the school's money and grain books.

He discovered the practice of printing blank documents and suspected widespread corruption and criminality behind it.

So in anger, all officials involved were arrested.

In total, hundreds of people died unjustly under his knife in the Kongyin case, and more than 10,000 people were implicated.

After the blank seal case, in order to avoid the recurrence of blank documents, he implemented a half-seal collation system.

It is stipulated that all documents must be stamped with a half-seal for verification.

This move strengthened the court's control over local writing and effectively supplemented the Ming Dynasty's document sealing system.

Seeing this, he couldn't help but frown. Until now, he had never noticed that the officials below had no time to print.

But according to the introduction in the book, blank sealing is common and is a tacit practice of officials below.

If local officials deceive superiors and subordinates in this way, he would naturally not be able to bear it and must take corresponding punitive measures.

Just when he was about to order the arrest of people according to the list recorded in the book, Zhu Biao, who had been paying attention to the movement behind him, asked for mercy.

Zhu Biao: Father, blank statements are stamped with seals and will not be scattered or used for other purposes. From the perspective of government operations, it is impossible for officials to use blank documents to cheat and profit and exploit the people.

Zhu Biao: Secondly, the imperial court requires that the data from the government, province and Ministry of Household Affairs must be consistent. Stamping blank documents can improve work efficiency.

Zhu Biao: Furthermore, there is no law in the national laws that says that Kong Yin is guilty. If Kong Yin kills people, it will be difficult to convince the public. I ask my father, for the sake of talents being hard to find, to spare some useful talents.

Just when Zhu Yuanzhang was hesitating, Queen Ma on the side also began to persuade him that it was not appropriate to involve tens of thousands of people for the empty seal case.

Seeing that Biao'er and the girl were trying to persuade him, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't say anything else.

Zhu Yuanzhang: We won’t pursue the issue of the empty seal, but we don’t want it to happen again.

Many ministers present breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that they had escaped, and immediately expressed that they would never do it again in the future.

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted coldly, stopped pursuing it, and immediately turned to the next big case.

After the Kongyin case, there was the Guo Huan case that occurred in the 18th year of Hongwu, which referred to the case of Guo Huan, the Minister of Household Affairs, and others stealing and selling official grain.

After Guo Huan and others were exposed, he executed all relevant personnel from about six ministries to the rank of minister, numbering tens of thousands.

According to records in the book, in the 18th year of Hongwu's reign, he suspected that Li Yu, the envoy of the Beiping Proclamation, and Zhao Quande, the envoy of punishment and inspection, together with Guo Huan, the Minister of Household Affairs, and others had committed fraud, and ordered an investigation.

Immediately afterwards, the censor reported that Guo Huan, the Minister of Household Affairs, had used his power to collude with other officials to embezzle taxes from Taiping Prefecture, Zhenjiang Prefecture and other prefectures.

As a result, Guo Huan only paid more than 2 million shi of the 4.5 million shi of grain that should have been handed over.

At the same time, when collecting taxes, Guo Huan cleverly created a name to collect a variety of food money, god and Buddha money and other taxes to line his own pockets and reduce the court's income tax.

After he ordered the interrogation, tens of thousands of officials and gentry were involved in the case, and a total of 24 million shi were embezzled.

After the Guo Huan case, he began to rectify the accumulated tax abuses and rectify the phenomena of false reporting of natural disasters, false harvests, selling of grain, cleverly establishing reputations, and cheating on crops.

A taxation system based on the yellow tax collection and fish scale atlas was established, and the grain chief was used to urge and supervise taxation, thus establishing a stable taxation system.

Seeing this, he looked expressionlessly at Guo Huan, the Minister of Household Affairs who was present.

You know, what he hated most in his life was corrupt officials, and he had to peel off people's skin and replace them with grass to relieve his hatred.

Guo Huan felt the emperor's cold gaze, and his legs were trembling with fear, with a look of fear on his face.

He knows best what he has done, and he knows that this time a disaster is coming.

Zhu Yuanzhang: Come here, take Guo Huan, the Minister of Household Affairs, into prison. He must be interrogated strictly.

As soon as he finished speaking, two strong guards came forward and took Guo Huan away. The ministers who were left here looked ashen.

Zhu Biao sighed, but didn't say much.

After all, the Guo Huan case involves corruption, and even he, let alone his father, cannot tolerate it.

Even if he knew that tens of thousands of people had died because of the Guo Huan case, it was difficult for him to plead for mercy when it came to the bottom line.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked around, glanced at the faces of every minister, and smiled coldly.

There are tens of thousands of corrupt and bribed officials recorded in the book, and it is far from enough to arrest just one Guo Huan.

But there is no rush now, just capture Guo Huan and interrogate him slowly.

He will not let go of any officials involved in corruption.

Ignoring the uneasiness of the ministers present, he continued to look at the last major case.

The Lan Yu case occurred in the 26th year of Hongwu and referred to the rebellion of General Lan Yu.

After the incident, he killed the general Lan Yu and his three clans on charges of rebellion.

Many generals, military officials, and court officials who had a close relationship with Lan Yu were also accused of rebelling against the party and suffered the consequences of having their homes confiscated and exterminated. The Lan Yu case implicated the death of more than 15,000 people.

According to the records in the book, Lan Yu led the army to quell rebellions in various places many times, made great achievements, and was named the Duke of Liang.

However, Lan Yu was arrogant in taking credit, and became increasingly arrogant. She allowed her adopted son to act arrogantly, ignored the law and discipline, occupied people's fields, and sent troops to destroy customs.

The commander of the Jin Yiwei sent Lan Yu to rebel. Hearing this, he immediately ordered Lan Yu to be taken down and handed over to the Jin Yiwei for interrogation.

On the third day after Lan Yu was arrested, he ordered Lan Yu to be detained in the market and his three clans to be exterminated.

Subsequently, the heroes, civil and military officials of the DPRK, especially the generals under Lan Yu, were arrested one after another and sent to the Jinyiwei Prison.

Under severe torture, someone finally confessed that Lan Yu and his accomplices had planned to kill the emperor when he went out to hunt in the city and rebelled.

Then various officials inside and outside the imperial court were arrested one by one and sent to prison, and people they knew well were recruited to be Lan Yu's accomplices.

The main officials who were implicated and killed include Zhan Hui, the Minister of Civil Affairs, Fu Youwen, the Minister of Hubu, Fu Youde, the Duke of Ying, Feng Sheng, the Duke of Song, Chang Sheng, the founding Duke, Cao Zhen, the Marquis of Jingchuan, Zhang Yi, the Marquis of Heqing, Zhu Shou, the Marquis of Bolu, and Bohe of Dongguan. Rong, Puding Marquis Chen Huan, Xuanning Marquis Cao Tai, Huining Marquis Zhang Wen, Huaiyuan Marquis Cao Xing, Xiliang Marquis Pujun, Dongping Marquis Han Xun, Quanning Marquis Sun Ke, Shenyang Marquis Chahan, Huixian Bo Sangjing, and Governor Yingren , Tangquan, Xiao Yong, etc. are among them.

Lan Yu's nephew, the founding Duke Chang Sheng, gathered troops in Sanshan to rebel after Lan Yu was killed, and was also executed.

After the Lan Yu case, he sent the vassal king to lead elite troops to be stationed in fortresses across the country. He also monitored civil and military officials in various places and established a military center directly controlled by the imperial power.

Zhu Biao was shocked beyond measure when he saw the list of the princes and nobles who were implicated and executed.

A major case involving the murder of nearly twenty nobles was simply appalling.

He would never believe that General Lan Yu would conspire to rebel. His father must have deliberately found an excuse to execute so many founding heroes.

Zhu Biao: Father...

Before Zhu Biao could finish speaking, Zhu Yuanzhang interrupted directly.

Zhu Yuanzhang: Don't worry, Biao'er, we won't do this. We will leave these people to you as your team so that they can help you rise to the top in the future.

When he saw the time when the Lan Yu case occurred, combined with the time of Biao'er's death in the original history, he immediately understood what was going on.

I think the reason why he went on a killing spree was just because he was worried that his descendants would not be able to control the heroes and generals.

But now history has changed, and Biao'er will not die young, so there is no need for him to massacre the heroes.

Seeing this, Zhu Biao finally breathed a sigh of relief.

After Zhu Yuanzhang read "The Four Major Cases of Hongwu", he went to the bookshelf to look for other books about the history of the Ming Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)