Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 76 Mr. Qingtian
At the end of December in the twelfth year of Hongwu, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince wiped out Hu Weiyong's followers in the court with lightning speed.

Within a few days, he ordered the execution of several senior officials headed by Hu Weiyong.

These officials either embezzled or accepted bribes of huge amounts, or abused their power to harm the people, or embezzled national interests, such as disaster relief grain funds. Their crimes are unforgivable.

Their families were also exiled.

But this is just the appetizer, because they have to continue digging deeper and wipe out Hu Weiyong's followers, so there are still a large number of officials who have not yet been dealt with.

In fact, according to Zhu Biao's estimation, there would be hundreds of officials to be executed this time.

The remaining hundreds of officials would at least face dismissal, exile, or imprisonment, and many local officials who were not qualified to attend court or were from other places were also involved.

However, it would not be so quick to continue digging deeper, so Hu Weiyong was executed first to shock the world, and then the people involved were arrested.

"It's time to go back."

As the New Year approaches, there seems to be a more solemn and murderous atmosphere in the government and the country.

Inside the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Di was still lying on the bench in the study. He was a little anxious now. Although he had a mobile phone and tablet without internet connection to play with, it was no fun anymore.

"It's time to move the stele back and contact them."

Zhu Yunfeng also wanted to leave.

The New Year is coming soon and he has to go back to Shangfeng Mountain.

"Ah."

Zhu Biao said, "Let's go and take a look first."

The three of them then came to the square outside the Qianqing Palace. After sending the guards away, they went down into the underground palace.

Zhu Di was the first to walk over excitedly and moved the stone tablet slightly back into place.

"Zizzizi!"

Suddenly he felt a numbness and pain in his hand. He took several steps back and looked at the stone tablet in horror.

Zhu Yunfeng asked in surprise: "What's wrong?"

"This stone tablet seems to have thorns."

Zhu Di said in shock.

"There's electricity, right?"

Zhu Yunfeng touched it with his index finger and felt a tingling sensation. He shook his head and said, "It's probably charging over there, and the energy may have been transmitted over here. I didn't feel this way before. It's probably industrial electricity. If we go over there now, we'll be electrocuted to death."

"What should I do?"

"Just wait. Anyway, the stone tablet has been returned to its place. They will come over soon."

"Oh, how long do we have to wait? I wonder if my parents will be spending the New Year there."

Zhu Di was feeling a little anxious and was almost depressed.

Life without internet is miserable.

"Let's go back and deal with state affairs first."

Zhu Biao shook his head.

The three of them had no choice but to return to the study in the Qianqing Palace. After all, it was not far away, just a few steps away.

In fact, the modern times are not far from the Ming Dynasty. Just touching a stone tablet is closer than going from the Qianqing Palace to the Jiaotai Hall.

But once there is no energy, we are far away from each other and can only wait for the battery to be charged over there.

Zhu Di's original enthusiasm to return to the modern era suddenly waned, and he slumped on the bench like an old smoker who couldn't get a cigarette.

Zhu Yunfeng is actually in the same boat. After all, few modern people can accept a world without the Internet and modern convenient life.

However, one thing that made him better than Zhu Di was that he was still very interested in the unknowns of the Ming Dynasty, so he could barely sit still.

After returning to the study, Zhu Yunfeng looked at the memorials submitted recently and shook his head, saying, "It's a lot of crap. It's really exhausting to do so many things every day. When the ancestor comes back, let's build a cabinet as soon as possible."

“In fact, I enjoy it.”

Zhu Biao smiled and said, "After looking at the evidence, there are only about a hundred people who deserve to be executed. Their families were exiled. Together with the other convicted officials and their families, there are only a few thousand people involved in the case. Moreover, very few people were executed. The rest were mostly exiled, imprisoned, or dismissed from office. The impact was much smaller than that caused by my father later. Moreover, most of the memorials submitted now are reports on the Hu Weiyong case or praises my wisdom. Even Li Wenzhong wrote a letter saying that Hu Weiyong deserved the punishment. This is also a sense of accomplishment for me."

"That's right. It's definitely different when you have power in your hands. Now you are the real emperor of the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Yunfeng smiled and said.

"By the way, this is my arrangement for the six ministries and the other major departments of the Censorate. What do you think?"

Zhu Biao gave him the prepared list.

Although he has prepared some officials to replace them, there are a lot of officials involved in the case this time. In addition to the nearly 300 central officials who need to be dealt with, there will likely be fluctuations at the local level as well.

Because Hu Weiyong not only placed his cronies in the central court, he also had his followers in many local provincial governments and prefecture governments.

So there will have to be major changes by then.

After all, Zhu Biao didn't know who would be found out, so for now he could only fill the vacancies in the central government first, and then find ways to replace them when there are vacancies at the local level.

Zhu Yunfeng took the list and was too lazy to read it because it was too long, so he asked, "How do you balance the officials from Huaixi, Zhejiang and the old Yuan officials?"

Zhu Biao pondered for a moment and said, "Two from each of the six ministries of the Secretariat, and slightly more from the other officials of Eastern Zhejiang."

"No."

Zhu Yunfeng shook his head: "Among the six ministries of the Central Secretariat, there can be more officials from Huaixi and Zhejiang, so that their numbers are about the same and they can check and balance each other, but most of the officials below should be former Yuan officials with outstanding political achievements."

"Why?"

"Because our ancestors wanted to see a balanced court situation, the Yuan officials did not form a group and had no leader. In fact, they were just a pile of loose sand. Most of them were practical people who pursued political achievements. More capable people should be arranged. As for the Huaixi and Zhejiang officials, their officialdom ecology can be high, fighting each other so as not to threaten the imperial power. In this way, there will be a struggle above, and there will be people doing things below. In addition, a small group of former Yuan officials can be supported to stand on equal footing with them, and the court situation can basically be balanced."

"I see."

Only then did Zhu Biao understand Zhu Yunfeng's intention.

"Report!"

At this time, Mao Xiang came in, knelt on one knee and said, "Your Highness, we have already searched Hu Weiyong's house."

"I've never seen a house search before. Would you like to go and take a look?"

Zhu Yunfeng smiled and said.

"Go ahead."

Zhu Biao waved his hand: "I have to take care of the rest."

He looked a little haggard.

Not everyone is as cruel as Zhu Yuanzhang, who, after dealing with Hu Weiyong, could handle more than 200 memorials and 400 state affairs every day.

In the past few days, Zhu Biao has been very busy, and he has to deal with all the things. For this reason, he has to summon court officials from morning to night, deal with memorials, and review state affairs, which can be said to be extremely stressful.

Although Zhu Yunfeng would occasionally give him some advice and help look at memorials, he would just watch from the sidelines. The real decisions still had to be made by him, so he really had no mood to visit Hu Weiyong's mansion.

"Old Four, are you going?"

Seeing that Zhu Biao was not going, Zhu Yunfeng asked Zhu Di.

Zhu Di said listlessly: "No, I will wait in the palace."

"alright."

Zhu Yunfeng knew what he was waiting for, so he nodded and said, "I'll go take a look."

He immediately left the palace. Hu Weiyong's residence was in the southwest corner of the palace, not far south of Xihua Gate.

Surrounded by many ceremonial guards, Zhu Yunfeng swaggered across Datong Street and arrived outside the gate of this row of luxurious mansions.

At this moment, the gate was open and guarded by guards inside and outside. He stepped in and saw a huge courtyard at the entrance. The courtyard was very spacious, with a screen wall, lawns, dense trees, and very nice greenery.

From the front yard, follow the bluestone paved road through the flower beds, woodlands and an arched courtyard wall on both sides, and walk nearly a hundred meters to reach the magnificent front hall.

The front hall is filled with famous paintings and calligraphy and is filled with valuable furniture.

Then from the front hall to the courtyard, and then through the courtyard to the backyard, I realized how luxurious it was, with rockery, pools, arch bridges, bamboo forests, countless side halls, side rooms, pavilions, and towers, and even a stable for raising horses.

The open space beside the lotus pond in the backyard was filled with boxes of stolen goods, including piles of gold, silver and jewelry, a large number of calligraphy and paintings by celebrities, and various rare antiques.

Zhu Yunfeng actually has a pair of the blue and white porcelain that he had been dreaming of. This is a great thing that even old Zhu doesn't have.

"Wow, there's actually such a tall golden Buddha here?"

Zhu Yunfeng looked over and saw a golden Buddha statue about 20 centimeters high placed on the ground. Even if it was melted into gold, it would probably be worth several million.

"Your Highness."

Mao Xiang took the account book, flipped open a page and said, "After a preliminary calculation, Hu Weiyong has embezzled and accepted bribes amounting to 238 taels of gold, 4,695 taels of silver, and 38,621 strings of copper coins over the years."

"This old guy actually made so much money. I hate corruption the most in my life. I will definitely report to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and have his body torn into pieces and chopped up to feed to the dogs."

Zhu Yunfeng squatted down, picked up a gold ingot, weighed it in his hand, and said indignantly.

TM's.

I work so hard and act as a middleman for Mr. Zhu, but how much money do I make?
Moreover, the agricultural company's expenses were far beyond his imagination. He was so busy that he was afraid that the little savings in the first quarter would be used up and he would get nothing.

This old guy Hu Weiyong makes money just by sitting at home. It's really infuriating.

"Forehead"

When Mao Xiang heard him say "five horses torn apart", he felt a chill all over his body. He turned to the next page, which contained more detailed data. He hurriedly said, "Your Highness, I have read it wrong. Hu Weiyong's property should be 1,238 taels of gold, 14,695 taels of silver, and 138,621 strings of copper coins."

"what?"

Zhu Yunfeng was shocked, and then became even more angry and said, "I must report to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to skin his body and stuff it with straw. Do you know what skinning and stuffing with straw means?"

"do not know."

He really didn't know that the Ming Dynasty history books, unofficial histories, and miscellaneous notes of the same period did not record that Zhu Yuanzhang was skinned and stuffed with straw. Even the "History of Ming" compiled in the Qing Dynasty did not exist. It was only recorded in some folk unofficial histories of the Qing Dynasty.

According to official history, the most severe punishment Zhu Yuanzhang used for corrupt officials was Lingchi, which usually meant beheading in public. So Mao Xiang didn't really know about this torture.

After all, killing people is not as good as doing it, and skinning them and stuffing them with grass is a bit tiring.

Zhu Yunfeng turned his head and looked him up and down and said, "It means peeling off his skin and putting straw inside. And the skin must be peeled while the person is still alive. When peeling, the person will feel itchy. Do you feel itchy now?"

"Itchy, not only do I feel itchy, but I also feel hair all over my body."

Mao Xiang shuddered, and quickly turned to the next page, his voice trembling as he said, "Your Highness, I have seen clearly this time. Hu Weiyong's property is 11,238 taels of gold, 114,695 taels of silver, and 338,621 strings of coins including banknotes! If you add the land under his name, the total value should be around 1 million strings of coins."

"Are you sure you saw it clearly? Are you kidding me?"

"I really didn't. The data on each page is different. The first page is preliminary, the second page has more, and the third page is the final statistics. I am a rough man, so I didn't know that the total count was placed at the end."

"I see. This damn corrupt official probably doesn't even have that much money in the national treasury."

Zhu Yunfeng was so angry that his teeth were itching.

During the early Ming Dynasty, the official exchange rate of the court was one tael of gold for four taels of silver, and one string of Hongwu Tongbao was equal to one tael of silver.

In this way, the cash alone is worth about 50 taels of silver.

To be honest, he was considered relatively honest among the corrupt officials of the Ming Dynasty. When it came to Yan's party, they were greedy for millions of Jiajing's money. Yan Shifan's family property amounted to more than 30,000 taels of gold and more than 2 million taels of silver.

Xu Jie, the leader of the Qingliu clan, had land holdings of more than 400,000 mu. At that time in Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, an mu of land could cost seven or eight taels of silver at the cheapest, or dozens of taels at the most expensive.

According to this calculation, Xu Jie's property was at least over four million taels of silver.

Not to mention that Heshen's fortune in the Qing Dynasty was about 10 billion taels of silver.

But we have to take into account that this was the early Ming Dynasty.

In the early Ming Dynasty, gold and silver from Japan had not yet flowed in in large quantities, and social productivity was insufficient. Due to the low output of copper mines, only more than 200,000 Hongwu Tongbao coins were minted each year, so the only option was to issue Baochao as currency.

In this case, excluding real estate such as farmland and shops, the 50 taels of silver should be worth at least several million taels of silver considering inflation.

Therefore, during the seven years that Hu Weiyong served as prime minister, the scale of his corruption and bribery was definitely no less than that of Yan Song and his son and Xu Jie.

Zhu Yunfeng was so angry when he thought about how much the old guy had embezzled.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu”

Just at this moment, crying was heard nearby.

Zhu Yunfeng looked and saw hundreds of men, women, young and old being tied up in the distance.

"what is that?"

"They are Hu Weiyong's family and servants."

"Are there any innocent people?"

"We have already checked, and there has been a lot of oppression of the people."

Mao Xiang whispered in his ear, "After Hu Weiyong became prime minister, he was tyrannical and domineering. Even the servants in his mansion were more arrogant than the seventh-rank county officials when they walked outside. Many officials who wanted to get promoted had to bribe his servants. His wives, concubines and relatives were all promoted to high positions. His family members were domineering and evil in the countryside. Hu Weiyong had so many fields in his name, and many of them were obtained by his servants who plundered the people by trickery. I'm afraid there are few innocent people among them."

When Zhu Yunfeng walked over, he saw that those people were all crying, with haggard faces and wailing.

"Please be kind and let us go."

"These are all orders from the Prime Minister. We are just servants and we know nothing."

"God has mercy on me, someone please save me."

The wailing continued.

The sound seemed to penetrate the sky, full of sorrow.

Zhu Yunfeng's heart was broken when he heard this. He turned his head and waved his hands repeatedly, saying, "Hurry, hurry, hurry."

"Your Highness, what is this?"

Mao Xiang wondered.

What's the hurry?
"Hurry up and get rid of them all. Put them in jail. When the time comes, execute them if necessary or exile them if necessary."

Zhu Yunfeng sighed and said, "I am a kind-hearted person. I cannot bear to see others being pitiful. I can only let them die quickly. Alas, who made me a judge?"

Mr. Qingtian?

Mao Xiang's tiger body trembled, and Master Qingtang was almost there.

"Yes."

Mao Xiang received the order and immediately shouted to the guards, "Take him to prison and wait for the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice to decide his fate!"

Suddenly, the crying on the field became louder.

Looking at this tragic scene, Zhu Yunfeng turned his back and sighed deeply.

He is a genuinely kind person and can't stand seeing this.

Although they knew that they were bad people, they didn't know they were wrong, they just knew they were going to die.

But who can blame him for being a kind-hearted judge?
(End of this chapter)