Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 97 The emperor today is so vindictive and cruel!

"Minister of Revenue Yang Tan,"

"Minister of Revenue and Governor of the Warehouse Zheng Zongren,"

"Tao Yan, the Minister of Finance of Nanjing,"

"Li Chongsi, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue and the Governor of Grain Storage in Nanjing,"

"You concealed the truth about grain, stole and sold government grain, and accepted bribes to disrupt government. According to the rules, you should be skinned and stuffed with straw according to the ancestral system. However, I consider that you are old ministers of the previous dynasty and are among the eight deliberations, so I will reduce your punishment by one level."

"Immediate execution, and confiscation of all property!"

"Li Sui, the Minister of Works,"

"Yu Lin, the Minister of the Dali Temple,"

"Each of you stole government grain while in office, obstructed the Imperial Censor and Secretary of the Imperial Secretariat from inspecting grain, and sold grain to the enemy. According to the law, your entire family should be executed, but considering that you are also a senior official, your crime will be reduced by one level."

My family members will be exiled to Penghu, and I will be executed immediately!"

"Left Censor-in-Chief Jin Xianmin,"

"Liao Ji, the Minister of War in Nanjing,"

"You deliberately prevented the censors and military officials from checking the grain, intending to obstruct the salt administration. According to the law, you should be executed. However, considering that you are also among the eight candidates, I will reduce your sentence by one level and exile you to Penghu to guard the border. You may not return even if you are pardoned!"

……

Zhu Houcong announced his decision on how to deal with these important ministers.

Yang Tan, Zheng Zongren and others all collapsed to the ground.

Some began to cry and beg the emperor to spare their lives.

It can be said.

How arrogant they were behind the scenes before, how embarrassed they are now in front of the emperor.

But Zhu Houcong would not be merciful just because they shed tears at this time.

Since these people have long intended to make him lose face on the road to reform, he will not be too polite at this time and will not be decent to them.

Zhu Houcong not only ridiculed them in front of the court officials, but also ordered: "Order the Ministry of Works to carve a stone tablet in each government office to record what these people have done!"

"The ancients once said: Your salary is the blood and sweat of the people. It is easy to abuse the people, but it is hard to deceive God."

"I send this sentence to all of you today, I hope you will keep it in mind."

"In addition, for those of you who have no regard for the country and the people and have committed such heinous and evil deeds, I will let you starve for two days before you are executed, so that you can also experience the hunger of the people!"

Zhu Houcong looked at Yang Tan and his men at this time and said, "After two days of starvation, report your feelings to me. If you reflect on your actions correctly, the execution can be changed to hanging, and the exile can be changed to remote demotion."

Zhu Houcong said this and looked at the other court officials: "If you don't know what it feels like for the people to go hungry, you can go back and starve yourself, and then you will know. You can also write down your feelings and present them to me."

"Retreat from the court."

"Congratulations to Your Majesty!"

The court officials were all in a heavy mood after attending this court meeting.

For the Prime Minister Liang Chu, he did not expect the emperor to do such a thing and to be so emotional in warning all officials.

He was very pleased about this.

Because he knew that this showed that the emperor had not completely given up trusting them, the civil servants. Although he had raised doubts, he did not completely distrust them like the previous emperor Zhengde did. Otherwise, he would not have asked them to reflect.

This made Liang Chu realize that his choice was not wrong. The emperor was indeed wise and ambitious. If he showed any contempt or disrespect for the emperor just because he was the chief minister of the cabinet and a senior official, his end would be miserable. Death would be the least of his worries. He would only lose face and be ridiculed by all eternity.

That's right.

In Liang Chu's opinion, the current emperor really holds a grudge!

If anyone offends him, he will really find ways to deal with them.

Liang Chu, who has served four dynasties, has to admit that when it comes to playing tricks on people, the current emperor is the most ruthless and mean. Although he often says that he wants to show leniency and save face, what he does is much more cruel than the previous emperors. The key is that you can't slander him because he is so cruel.

For example, the previous emperor Zhengde. In Liang Chu's opinion, although Zhengde did not trust civil servants and would beat them with a stick, he would not embarrass the civil servants or let them lose face.

But the emperor today is different. Every time he kills someone, he must destroy the person’s heart. Not only that, he must also make the person reflect on himself, and make all the people in the world reflect on themselves.

Fortunately, although the current emperor is harsh, he is not ungrateful. He allows Liang Chu to ride in a sedan chair and receive the salary of an earl.

Although these are not great favors, what is rare is the willingness to consider the situation of his ministers.

Therefore, Liang Chu still believes that the current emperor is qualified to be an outstanding ruler!
The reason why the Minister of Personnel Shi Yan was in a heavy mood was that he was really hurt by Zhu Houcong's question whether the civil servants were still worthy of the trust of him, the emperor!

He really felt that he and his officials were indeed ashamed of His Majesty. Knowing that the new emperor was working hard to govern the country and showed a lot of trust in his officials, and had withdrawn a large number of eunuchs for this purpose, he actually did such a thing to deceive the emperor and harm the people. Of course.

Shi Yan had been an official in the court for many years, and it was not the first time that he knew what the civil officials in the court were like.

He naturally knew that it was precisely because the emperor showed his love for the people and diligence that many civil officials truly believed that the current emperor was easy to bully, and thus they became more and more determined to do things that were unfair to the country and the people.

The clearer Shi Yan understood, the more he felt that he and his ministers had indeed let down His Majesty, and when he thought of this, his eyes became sore.

But for people like the Minister of Rites Mao Cheng and the Minister of War Wang Xian, they felt heavy-hearted and also somewhat fearful.

After all, Zhu Houcong's dealing with so many important officials at once was already a huge earthquake in the officialdom.

After all, since Yongle, except for coup d'état events such as the Battle of the Gate, there has been no such large-scale fall of important officials, or even death sentence.

The intensity is quite high.

So this caused panic among many important officials.

Is the Xin Dynasty going to start benevolent governance?
Should the new emperor rule the country with kindness and benevolence?
in the case of.

Then why are there always senior officials being killed and major cases being uncovered recently?

When I thought about it again, the great ceremony turned into a failure to let the emperor recognize Xiaozong as his father.

Many officials felt uneasy about this and began to consider whether to resign or to speak out their opinions to the emperor. The court officials were now very frightened and needed to be appeased.

Minister of Rites Mao Cheng and Minister of War Wang Xian even took the initiative to find Liang Chu for this purpose.

"Prince, the arrest of all the criminals this time was not ordered by the emperor, but was done by you."

"So, I would like to ask, this is such a big thing happened this time, does the Prime Minister really want to see it happen?"

Mao Cheng asked about Liang Chu first.

Liang Chu smiled and said, "I don't want to see this happen, and neither does Your Majesty."

"Although this incident was all caused by the guilty officials themselves, such a severe crackdown is bound to make all officials panic."

"The court's salary is already insufficient, and the government is also short of manpower. Expenditure can no longer be as low as it was at the beginning of the country. Everyone is worried that if it is so strict, sooner or later they will end up in an undignified situation."

"So, can you please show some leniency to Your Majesty and not use the death penalty on the Nine Ministers? Or even better, follow the Song Dynasty example and not kill the civil officials. Even if you demote them, you should use them with caution. Otherwise, we can only resign to avoid disaster!"

Minister of War Wang Xian followed up.

Mao Cheng followed up and said, "Yes, we dare not force the emperor to change the ancestral system for us scholars and officials, so we can only resign to avoid any rift between the emperor and his subjects in the future."

"If you really want to resign."

"Then we can only reinstate the fearless Wang Qiong."

"Whoever resigns, he will take his place."

Liang Chu replied.

Mao Cheng and Wang Xian were immediately dismayed.

They naturally knew who Wang Qiong was.

That person gives Yang Tinghe a headache.

If Wang Qiong were really allowed to return to the court, they would not be able to live in peace in their hometown even if they resigned from their posts.

What's more.

Now the imperial court has begun to use Wang Yangming.

If Wang Qiong is reinstated.

There were these two kings in the court.

No one knows how terrible the world will become.

Therefore, Mao Cheng hurriedly said: "It's not that I really want to resign. Your Majesty has just ascended the throne. Anyone who has a heart of loyalty to the emperor and the country will not abandon the emperor and father at this time. I just want to ask for advice from the prime minister on how to stabilize the officials."

"Yes."

"We are just asking and expressing our own concerns."

"I didn't say that I really want to resign at this time and leave you at this time."

Wang Xian followed up.

Sorry, I'm a bit stuck today, so the update is late

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(End of this chapter)