Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 239 Unexpected results! Yao Guangxiao's suggestion!
Memorials impeaching the three judicial officials flew into the Ministry of Public Administration like snowflakes.

In addition to submitting petitions to the court requesting severe punishment for the three of them, many of the memorials also brought up a lot of old accounts.

When Zhu Yunhuan saw it, he was shocked.

Almost all of these court ministers have become experts in investigating cases.

The pasts of Yang Jing, Yuan Tai and Zhou Zhiqing were all thoroughly investigated.

What you said to someone in the past, who you complained about, or who you treated badly with, all show that you have bad character.

The fact that one has ever cursed at others and said bad words is enough to prove that he is uneducated and has no morals.

He was not on good terms with his brother and sister-in-law... When he was a child, he didn't listen to his teacher when he was studying, which shows that he had a bad character.

The list goes on and on.

Even the fact that he wet his pants at the age of three was dug up, and the stories were so convincing. It must have been intentional to torture his parents. It shows that he was born to be unfilial to his parents!
Soon, the ministers fabricated dozens of serious crimes for Yang Jing, Yuan Tai, Zhou Zhiqing and other three people.

Colluding with Huang Zicheng, colluding with Japanese pirates, and plotting rebellion is naturally the biggest crime.

Others include corruption and bribery, unfilial piety, forming cliques for personal gain, competing with the people for profits... and so on.

In short, all the charges imaginable were brought against him.

It's almost like saying that they cried when they were still in their cradles, which is also a serious sin for unfilial parents.

But it is well-written, well-organized, passionately written, highly persuasive, and highly credible!
"He is a scholar after all, and his skill in fabricating charges is really great!"

Zhu Yunhuan was sincerely moved.

However, this also made him more vigilant.

In the future, when we see these ministers impeaching others, or even the conclusions of their trials and inquiries, we must be extremely careful.

Otherwise, it is easy to be misled and believe their lies!
Compared with the ability of these court ministers to make up lies, later telecommunications fraud and the like are simply weak!
However, Zhu Yunhuan had his own information channels.

Huang Zicheng was imprisoned in the heavily guarded prison of the Ministry of Justice. How did Qi Tai secretly communicate with him?
He must make sure to check this clearly.

"So, bringing Qi Tai into the prison and conspiring with Huang Zicheng was not a collective crime, but only Yuan Tai?"

Looking at the investigation report submitted by Yao Guangxiao, Zhu Yunhuan felt a little unbelievable.

Qi Tai said before that the officials in the court collectively rebelled against him, so he could freely enter and leave the prison of the Ministry of Justice under his nose...

Zhu Yunhuan also had the same guess in his mind.

There must be many officials involved in this case.

Unexpectedly, after Yao Guangxiao conducted an in-depth investigation, the results he obtained were very different from his guess.

Since the trial of Huang Zicheng's case began, Zuodu Yushi Yuan Tai would bring someone into the Ministry of Justice's Tianlao almost every day to bring wine and food to Huang Zicheng.

And this person was played by Qi Tai.

The jailers guarding the Tianlao of the Ministry of Justice saw that the person coming was the dignified Zuodu Yushi, who was also the chief judge appointed by the court, Huang Zicheng, so they naturally would not stop him from bringing people into the prison.

As a result, Qi Tai was able to conspire with Huang Zicheng and write so many frame-up confessions!

From beginning to end, Yang Jing, the Minister of Justice, and Zhou Zhiqing, the Minister of the Supreme Court, were kept in the dark.

This was because Yuan Tai told the jailer that he was acting on a secret order and must not disclose it to outsiders, including the Minister of Justice and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Hearing Zhu Yunhuan's question, Yao Guangxiao nodded and said, "That's right."

He put a lot of effort into investigating.

"I interrogated all the prison guards and officials of the Ministry of Justice, and the conclusions I reached are the same." Yang Shiqi also said.

Everything is revealed!
Zhu Yunxun let out a long sigh.

The so-called layers of precautions were undone simply because a senior official claimed to have secret orders.

But when you think about it, it makes sense.

It is just like a policeman in later generations who caught a serious criminal and put him in jail.

He is strictly forbidden to meet with anyone.

At this time, the director of the Provincial Public Security Department came over in person to see the serious criminal. Who really dared to stop him?
The first level of officialdom crushes people to death.

What’s more, it’s many, many levels larger!
The so-called procedures are indeed very effective in blocking ordinary people.

But in the face of power, they are actually vulnerable.

What kind of existence is the Censorate?
It is no exaggeration to say that any of the censors who come out of there is an official three levels higher than you!
Among all the civil and military officials in the court, who is not afraid of the Censorate?

Not to mention that Yuan Tai was also the Left Censor-in-Chief, the boss of the Censorate!

How could the low-ranking officials and prison guards of the Ministry of Justice dare not obey the orders of the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate?

Moreover, he himself is the official who came to try the case!
As the chief judge, it was a reasonable request for Yuan Tai to meet Huang Zicheng.

The only procedural flaw is in bringing people in.

However, this kind of thing is definitely a strict requirement for ordinary people.

However, officials of his level would most likely turn a blind eye.

Not to mention, Qi Tai also claimed that he was following the orders of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

This makes it even more impossible to stop it.

In this era, doing things according to secret orders is really very common.

Moreover, these are often secret orders that can only be given verbally.

Who would really go to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to verify the authenticity of the secret order?
The officials working in the Ministry of Justice and the prison guards are of very low rank and are not qualified to see His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

"This kind of thing can never be avoided." Yang Shiqi said with a smile: "I will not go through any formalities now. I can go to any of the six ministries and claim that I am here to retrieve the documents under the verbal order of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. No department will refuse me, and no department dares to refuse me."

Zhu Yunhuan opened his mouth but said nothing in the end.

What Yang Shiqi said was true.

The so-called seals, signatures, documents, tokens, etc. are all for authenticating the identity of the person.

After all, people are the highest proof!
If Zhu Yunhuan sent an ordinary follower to do something, and the person was a stranger, the other party would definitely verify it carefully. A token alone would not be enough, and an order signed by Zhu Yunhuan himself would also be required.

Even after seeing the signed order, one may not necessarily believe it and still needs to verify it through other channels.

But if Yang Shiqi went in person, no one would doubt it, and no one would verify anything, because everyone knew that Yang Shiqi was the right-hand man of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

Even if Yang Shiqi did not directly say that it was the order of the Crown Prince, others would have assumed that he was coming to do things on the orders of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

This is like the secretary around the leader in later generations. When he greets the people below him, the people below will definitely assume that this is the leader’s instruction!

"As long as we can hold someone accountable afterwards, that's fine." Yao Guangxiao said, "There's no way to avoid it, but we can hold someone accountable afterwards."

"The officials below cannot refuse, but they can do a good job of registering. The court will send officials to inspect the relevant records at the appropriate time. Once discovered, they will immediately investigate the situation and find out the reason. This is one of the things."

“Second, for cases of great importance, special measures should be taken from the outset.”

"Huang Zicheng has served in the court for many years and is very familiar with many officials in the court."

"He was convicted of a serious crime and was sent to prison, so naturally those officials were afraid of implicating themselves."

"They will try every possible way to gain advantage."

"Forgive me for being blunt, but when His Royal Highness the Crown Prince imprisoned Huang Zicheng in the Ministry of Justice and ordered the three judicial officials to try Huang Zicheng, he should have expected something like this to happen."

"If His Royal Highness wants to avoid this, all he needs to do is move him to another place for custody."

"Whether he is handed over to the care of meritorious military generals, detained by the new army, or directly imprisoned in the East Palace, such a thing will not happen."

"But His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has locked him up in the Ministry of Justice and ordered the three judicial officials to preside over the case. He has not announced any special measures. Isn't that what he wants to see?"

Zhu Yunhuan couldn't help but smile.

When he did this, he was indeed thinking of "fishing".

See if anyone in the court will secretly rescue Huang Zicheng, and see who dares to go against him.

Otherwise, even if he was imprisoned in the Ministry of Justice, as long as an order was issued that even if the three judges wanted to see Huang Zicheng, they must be present together, and Huang Zicheng's detention was upgraded to a higher level of management, and special measures and procedures were announced at the beginning, prohibiting any official from meeting with him alone, then such a thing would not have happened.

But Zhu Yunhuan did not act in this way, and he naturally had his own reasons.

However, Zhu Yunhuan had anticipated many plans, such as the other party killing Huang Zicheng and letting Huang Zicheng commit suicide in prison... or using Huang Zicheng's confession to incriminate a few political enemies, etc.

None of this happened.

What happened next was a little beyond his expectations.

Fortunately, the final result was excellent.

"How should this matter be handled?" Zhu Yunhuan asked.

Yang Shiqi said: "Right now, all the ministers in the court say that the three men should be killed, and there are mountains of impeachment memorials against them. Your Highness the Crown Prince can now execute all three of them."

"It is also a good opportunity to control the three judicial departments."

"This time, His Royal Highness has gained a lot."

The three judicial departments are extremely important institutions.

The Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple are fine.

One of them is in charge of national criminal law and reviewing criminal names, while the other reviews cases.

To ordinary people, these are extremely powerful departments.

But from a political perspective, the most important one is obviously the Censorate.

The Censorate supervises the case throughout the entire process and participates in the trial. It also has the power to "report major cases for adjudication and make immediate decisions on minor cases."

Not only that, the Censorate also has the power to supervise all officials.

If he disliked an official, he would report him.

Any censor in the Censorate, no matter how low his rank is, will be a formidable presence outside.

If sent out of the capital for inspection, a censor of the seventh rank is sometimes more powerful than officials of the third or second rank.

Prior to this, the power of the Censorate had always been in the hands of upright civil officials.

Now, Yuan Tai is courting death, and Zhu Yunhuan can finally take control of the Censorate firmly in his own hands.

Making the Censorate his eyes and ears and sword will greatly consolidate his power.

"Amitabha!" Yao Guangxiao chanted a Buddhist name: "It's not difficult to kill the three of them, but has Your Highness thought about who to recruit after killing them?"

Zhu Yunhuan frowned slightly.

It's not that he doesn't have capable people under his command. There are many young people who are loyal to him in the scientific faction and the Ming Military Academy.

However, these people still lack experience and cannot take on such a heavy responsibility as the three judicial officials all of a sudden.

"Yuan Tai must be killed, but Yang Jing and Zhou Zhiqing can be spared." As soon as Yao Guangxiao opened his mouth, Zhu Yunhuan was deeply surprised.

In his heart, he had already sentenced these three people to death.

"First, Yang Jing and Zhou Zhiqing were not involved in the case, they were just negligent in their duties. This investigation proves that they have no hostility towards His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

Yao Guangxiao stated his reasons.

"Both of them have had very confusing pasts, but they haven't committed any serious crimes, so they can be considered clean."

"Almost all the ministers in the court have submitted memorials to request their execution."

"If His Royal Highness the Crown Prince can show mercy and pardon their death sentences, they will definitely be grateful to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and be loyal to him in the future."

"The most important thing is that everyone wants to kill them. Even if they are released, they will no longer have any friends in the court."

"Although it is said that 'human feelings are as thin as paper', it is one thing to ignore past friendships, not to lend a helping hand, and to turn a blind eye to the matter, but it is another thing to ask the court to execute him."

"The former can be made up for, can be forgotten, can be laughed off. The latter can never go back to the way it was before."

"Release Yang Jing and Zhou Zhiqing. From now on, they will be the 'lone ministers' of the court!"

"It is impossible for all the civil and military officials in the court to make friends with them anymore."

"They are also unlikely to associate with anyone who has tried to kill them."

"They will both have to be 'lone subjects'."

Yao Guangxiao and the others clasped their hands and said, "I personally think that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince needs such a 'lone minister'."

……

(End of this chapter)