Ming Dynasty: A mere unruly commoner is rebelling against the heaven?

Chapter 99: "Imperial Edict" written by Emperor Taizu Gao himself!
After Zhao Yun searched the cloth bag and found that there was indeed no imperial gift in it, he returned the bag to Yicui.

"My lord, please follow me."

Zhao Yun brought Zhang Wan'er to the west side hall of Xianfu Palace, pointed to a small room and said, "My lady, this is Xianyun Pavilion."

"My lord, please go in."

Zhang Wan'er walked into Xianyun Pavilion and saw a desolate place with only a bed, a couch, a table and a few benches.

Bare, without any decoration.

There wasn't even a lantern in the room, just a few candlesticks with bare wax candles on them.

There is a world of difference between here and the Crimson Cloud Palace.

"boom!"

Zhao Yun closed the door of Xianyun Pavilion and ordered the eunuch behind him: "You guys, guard the door!"

"Without your majesty's order, no one is allowed to see Zhang Da Ying."

"promise."

"And you."

Zhao Yun looked at Weihong Yicui beside him and said, "From now on, the two of you can only go in to deliver food and clean the house during mealtime."

"You are not allowed to enter Xianyun Pavilion at other times."

Weihong and Yicui felt aggrieved. When Zhang Wan'er was in favor, Zhao Yun had to bend halfway when he saw them in Xianfu Palace.

But now that their master has fallen out of favor, their status in the palace has also plummeted.

The two had no choice but to answer: "Yes."

Zhao Yun looked at the two of them with disdain, then left with a sneer.

……

Ciqing Palace.

When Queen Dowager Wang learned that Zhang Wan'er had been stripped of her title and demoted to a concubine by Zhu Youtang.

Queen Mother Wang, who was lying on the bed, opened her eyes wide, and almost fainted again because she couldn't catch her breath.

She opened her eyes wide, tears welling up in her eyes, and murmured to herself: "My brother, you will not live long..."

Queen Mother Wang did everything she could, but she still couldn't save her brother's life.

When Queen Mother Wang was worried about the lives of her two younger brothers, her two younger brothers were also calling her name.

“Ahhhhhh!!! Stop it! Stop it!”

"My sister is the current Empress Dowager. You can't do this to me! You can't do this to me!"

“Stop it now!!!”

"..."

In the Xichang Prison, Wang Qing foamed at the mouth, rolled on the ground in pain, and cried out his sister's name loudly.

The Western Factory's Chief of Punishments doesn't care what you shout. As long as you don't give them what they want, you will be tortured.

"Tell me! Besides occupying the people's land, what else have you done wrong?"

"I don't know! I really don't know!"

Wang Qing had his hands tied behind his back, his body was covered with a thin layer of honey, and countless tiny ants were crawling all over his body.

At the same time, his body was covered with tiny wounds, none of which were deep and not even a few drops of blood were shed.

But this kind of torture made Wang Qing live a life worse than death. He tried to bang his head against the wall several times, but was stopped by the guards from the Western Factory.

"Still not recruiting?"

The Western Factory guard took a brush, dipped it in some honey, and smeared it on Wang Qing's body.

"Stop! Stop it!"

"I am the younger brother of the current Queen Mother. You can't do this to me!"

"You can't do this to me!"

"..."

Wang Qing had been tortured to the point of being unconscious, and he could only utter these two sentences over and over again.

On the other hand, Wang Yuan's condition is slightly better.

Because he has already confessed.

Wang Yuan's robe was now stained with dirty water stains and he exuded a foul smell.

There was blood on his body, but no wounds could be seen from the surface.

At this moment, he was kneeling on the ground, trembling as he held the pen and wrote down his crimes on the paper.

Wang Yuan's face was pale, his eyes were dull, and his expression was numb.

He knew that if he wrote this letter of recruitment, he would be doomed.

But if he doesn't write, his life will be worse than death and he will be more miserable.

Wang Qing's wailing could be heard from the cell next door, frightening Wang Yuan so much that he trembled all over.

This time, the Western Factory really wronged Wang Qing.

Wang Qing was stupid, and was only granted the title of earl by the late emperor because of his relationship with Empress Dowager Wang.

In fact, all the affairs that Wang did privately were handled by Wang Yuan and Wang Jun.

Wang Qing only had a general understanding and didn't know much.

So no matter how much Wang Qing was tortured, he couldn't confess anything.

Wang Jun, who knew the whole story, committed suicide by taking poison out of fear of punishment before the truth was revealed.

In this way, they were spared physical pain, which is really a pity.

……

Hongde Hall.

The four cabinet elders had already left. Zhu Youtang flipped through the thin book in front of him, frowning slightly.

This thin booklet is a draft of the transitional bill submitted by the cabinet, entitled "The Regulations on the Questioning of Criminals". Just now, four cabinet elders came to Hongde Hall with two copies of the "Regulations on the Questioning of Criminals" to discuss the revision of the temporary transitional bill with Zhu Youtang.

This "Regulations on Criminal Interrogation" was based on the "Great Ming Code" and revised some of the laws that were obviously out of touch with reality.

At the same time, the "Great Ming Code" was supplemented and many anti-corruption clauses were added.

Because it was still in its infancy, there were not many changes, but the two reforms that Zhu Youtang valued most were included.

One is the currency reform, which strictly binds one tael of silver and one string of Hongzhi Baochao and gives them the same legal status.

One is to survey all the land in the country and gradually carry out tax reforms.

It can be said that the "Sentencing Ordinance" proposed by the cabinet is full of sincerity.

But Zhu Youtang was very dissatisfied with the punishment of officials.

Although the "Regulations on Criminal Interrogation" have added many detailed anti-corruption clauses, the severity of punishment for officials has been significantly reduced.

Thirty-two death penalty articles were abolished, and other penalties were also significantly reduced.

The most important one was that the penalty for embezzlement of more than 80 strings of cash was changed to 800 taels of cash.

The reason given by the cabinet was that silver today is not as valuable as silver during the Hongwu period.

Inflation has even reached the point of corruption and bribery, right?

And they also added a clause that returning the stolen money can reduce the penalty.

The reason given by the cabinet this time was that it would make it easier to recover the embezzled silver.

Because some officials did not keep the embezzled money at home, but hid it secretly.

If the corrupt officials were executed directly, this money would never be recovered.

Zhu Youtang immediately slammed the table and said, "Forget it if I can't get him back! I must kill him!"

At that time, the four ministers were so frightened that they dared not say a word and could only bow their heads and nod in agreement.

Afterwards, after reading the part about changes in officials' penalties in the "Regulations on Criminal Interrogation", Zhu Youtang angrily rebuked all the cabinet ministers.

Then he asked these ministers to go back and revise the part about the punishment of officials.

The four ministers did not dare to refute and immediately returned to the cabinet with a draft copy of the "Regulations on Criminal Interrogation".

The remaining copy of "Regulations on Criminal Interrogation" remained in Zhu Youtang's hands.

Zhu Youtang looked at the "Regulations on Criminal Interrogation" in his hand, and always felt that the cabinet would definitely pretend to obey the regulations in this regard.

But he doesn't quite understand the standards for formulating laws and how to grasp them.

Because if he were asked to write the laws, they would just be killed.

"Killing people is easy, but using people is difficult."

Zhu Youtang knocked on the dragon table, suddenly stood up and walked to the door: "Go to the imperial study."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Zhu Youtang sat on the dragon chariot and came to the imperial study, which he had not entered for a long time.

Because the study was full of books and it was difficult to light a fire dragon for heating, Zhu Youtang ran to Hongde Hall as soon as the temperature dropped.

Zhu Youtang looked at the imperial books covering the wall and said to himself, "Let me see if the previous emperors have any good legal provisions that I can use."

Yes, the books in the imperial study are basically those written, hand-copied, or annotated by previous emperors.

Priceless and extremely precious!

Zhu Youtang searched among the bookcases that lined the walls, and saw the notes of Emperor Yingzong from the manuscripts of the previous emperor.

From Emperor Xuanzong’s annotated version, we can see Emperor Renzong’s handwritten version.

Finally, there are books written by Emperor Taizong Wen himself.

Emperor Taizong Wen had very few books, only one bookcase, and the most conspicuous one was the first volume of the Yongle Encyclopedia.

The preface inside was written by Emperor Taizong Wen himself.

As for the complete book, it followed Emperor Taizong Wen into the Yongling Mausoleum.

This copy of the Yongle Encyclopedia looks very ancient. After all, it is almost more than a hundred years old. If it had not been maintained by the eunuchs in the Imperial Study, it would have been eaten by insects and weathered long ago.

Zhu Youtang took out the book and was about to flip through it when he suddenly saw an even more ancient thin volume next to it.

Zhu Youtang took it out and saw four big characters written on it: "Imperial Edict", but there were five characters at the signature.

Emperor Tianchengyun.

Who dares to sign his name as Emperor Tian Chengyun?
Only the Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang!

Zhu Youtang's heart skipped a beat and he turned it over carefully and looked at it thoroughly.

The content inside made Zhu Youtang overjoyed.

I found the right book for you!
"The Great Imperial Edict" is a book of severe criminal laws written in the 18th year of Hongwu, compiled by Zhu Yuanzhang himself to severely punish crimes committed by his subjects and to make up for the deficiencies of the legal text.

At that time, three of the four major cases in Hongwu had already occurred.

In the 13th year of Hongwu, the Hu Weiyong case broke out, and Zhu Yuanzhang killed more than 30,000 members of Hu's party!
In the 15th year of Hongwu, the Empty Seal Case broke out, and Zhu Yuanzhang killed more than 10,000 local officials.

In the 18th year of Hongwu, the Guo Huan case broke out, and Zhu Yuanzhang executed all the officials below the left and right vice ministers of the six ministries.

At the same time, in order to recover the stolen money, landlords from all over the country were implicated.

A total of more than 70,000 landlords and officials were killed after their properties were confiscated and beheaded.

These three major cases lasted for several years, and over 100,000 officials were executed.

Zhu Yuanzhang felt deeply that the Ming officials were despicable in character, and that corruption, bribery, abuse of power, and other forms of favoritism and lawlessness could not be stopped despite repeated bans.

However, the Ming Code, which has been written into common usage, is far from enough in its punishments for officials' corruption, bribery, and abuse of power.

So Zhu Yuanzhang started over again and personally presided over the compilation of a new law.

The criminal cases during the Hongwu period, especially the cases in which Zhu Yuanzhang used extrajudicial punishments on his subjects from the 13th to the 19th year of Hongwu, were recorded and compiled into a book.

The specific sentencing cases and penalty clauses of the three major cases in Hongwu are all included.

After compilation, Zhu Yuanzhang personally nominated "The Imperial Edict".

Used to announce to the world and punish subjects!
　Please give me some data feedback, please vote! Please subscribe!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)