Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 240: Changes in people’s hearts and major judicial reforms!

Zhu Yunhuan couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

Politics is the art of compromise.

Today's enemy may be tomorrow's friend.

Likewise, today's friend may be tomorrow's enemy.

It's nothing more than different interests and different positions.

If possible, he certainly hopes that all the officials in the court are his confidants.

Be absolutely obedient to your orders and be loyal to them.

But in fact, this is obviously impossible.

Even if he carried out a major purge of all officials in the court and promoted his own people, it would not take long for these people to split and change their minds.

Weren’t Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong once Zhu Yuanzhang’s confidants whom he could completely trust?

But later, everything changed.

The nobles and generals in the court were all trained by Zhu Yuanzhang, and they had a life-and-death relationship with him.

But now, are they really loyal to Lao Zhu?
not necessarily!

People are always in a state of constant change.

The same goes for the enemy, conversely.

An example of a former enemy who became a confidant after surrendering.

Everywhere.

For example, Yuchi Jingde surrendered to Li Shimin after his defeat, but became Li Shimin's most trusted general.

For example, after Li Jing learned that Li Yuan was planning a rebellion, he wanted to go to the court to report Li Yuan. When he was caught and about to be beheaded, he was rescued by Li Shimin at the last moment.

After that, he also became a famous general of the Tang Dynasty with great achievements.

As for the factional struggles and power struggles in the court.

Not to mention that people fall in the direction the wind blows.

Wei Zheng was once a man of Crown Prince Li Jiancheng, but later became one of the most important ministers during Li Shimin's Zhenguan reign.

There are too many to mention.

Zhu Yunhuan did not have much good feelings towards Yang Jing and Zhou Zhiqing.

But it can definitely not be said that they are regarded as enemies.

The only conflict with them was probably on the night of Lan Yu's arrest, when Yang Jing and Zhou Zhiqing came to demand his release.

At that time, he was not yet the crown prince, and he did not get the imperial edict before arresting Lan Yu.

It's not surprising that the two made such a choice.

Later, when Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict to bestow a precious sword upon them, the two men quickly withdrew.

The conflict between the two sides did not escalate.

Later, Huang Zicheng went to the Ministry of Justice to try a case. He wanted to use his position as the chief judge to execute Wang Bi and other meritorious generals without reporting to the emperor later. However, Yang Jing stopped Huang Zicheng.

Come to think of it, Yang Jing took the initiative to help him that time.

This time the matter has been clarified, and both Yang Jing and Zhou Zhiqing were kept in the dark.

Everything was done by Yuan Tai.

The court officials had a preconceived notion that the Three Judicial Officials, as the chief judges in the Huang Zicheng case, must have been involved in framing them.

Especially since Yang Jing was the Minister of Justice, and Huang Zicheng was imprisoned in the prison of the Ministry of Justice, those people naturally hated Yang Jing as well.

But even so, officials in the court investigated the two people from their birth to the present, but in the end they did not find any major problems with them.

They are all just nitpicking, just to accuse them of a crime.

This is the true example of "figuring a crime with false accusations".

If Zhu Yunhuan wanted to take the opportunity to establish his authority, he would replace all three judicial officials with his own people.

Then just kill him.

Politics has always been bloody, cruel and ruthless.

Anyone who stands in the way of his power can be killed.

There is no right or wrong here, only different stances.

Nor will he be merciful.

However, in order to take control of the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple, is it necessary to kill people and then promote new people to achieve it?
Does he have anyone available?
As Yao Guangxiao said, after this incident, Yang Jing and Zhou Zhiqing were completely isolated in the court.

The world is full of fickleness. After they were imprisoned, it was normal that their former friends, old acquaintances, and even relatives all kept their distance from them and did not lend a helping hand.

If they are released from prison and reinstated, everyone will become "friends" again, and relatives will continue to come to curry favor with them...

This kind of thing is not uncommon in the Ming Dynasty officialdom.

In this era, there are many cases of people being demoted, reinstated, or even promoted several levels.

As a result, you can witness the chameleon-like faces of many people.

Officials have long been accustomed to it.

However, Yang Jing and Zhou Zhiqing's situation this time is different.

Those officials, former friends and classmates... did not ignore them or refuse to help save people. Instead, they fabricated charges against them and reported them to the court, wanting to put them to death and their entire families to death.

In the officialdom, once it comes to this point, the grudge has been formed and the hatred cannot be completely resolved.

If Yang Jing and Zhou Zhiqing were released from prison and re-employed by the court, they would have to become "lone ministers".

Even if the two are willing to reconcile, no one will believe that they really don't hate themselves in their hearts.

Yang Jing and Zhou Zhiqing could only cling tightly to Zhu Yunhuan.

In this case, he is indeed a good candidate.

"Okay, then release the two of them." Zhu Yunhuan made the decision quickly.

Yang Shiqi cupped his hands and said, "This matter has caused a lot of uproar. The court still needs to give the two of them an appropriate punishment."

"I suggest that they be stripped of their official positions and have them take over their original positions temporarily."

"It can not only make them feel awed, but also make them useful to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

Zhu Yunhuan nodded and said, "This is a good idea, let's do it."

"However, Yang Jing does not need to temporarily take over as the Minister of Justice. Let him take charge of the Censorate."

He took a deep breath and said, "I will make major changes to the Ministry of Justice, adjust its powers, and give it the power to arrest thieves and criminals."

The Ministry of Justice accepts criminal cases across the country, is in charge of criminal law, and is in charge of government orders such as penalties and prisons.

The Ministry of Justice will also supervise the execution of local officials to prevent corruption and abuse of power.

However, generally speaking, the Ministry of Justice does not arrest criminals directly.

This responsibility is fulfilled by government offices at the local prefecture, state, and county levels.

After they have completed the arrests, the important criminals will be transferred to the Ministry of Justice for detention and trial, or by the three judicial departments jointly trying them.

of course there are exceptions.

For example, if the emperor wants to arrest a certain official, he may directly order the Ministry of Justice to arrest that person.

But this is actually just a simple detention, which is not the same as arresting thieves and capturing fugitives.

Yao Guangxiao and Yang Shiqi looked at each other, both seemed a little surprised.

Yang Shiqi said, "Prince Xiao's tax commissioner has been doing a good job in clearing out bandits all over the country. The number of bandits and robbers has been greatly reduced. Your Highness suddenly summoned Prince Xiao back to Beijing. Could it be that he wants him to be in charge of the Ministry of Justice and be responsible for clearing out bandits?"

Zhu Yunhuan nodded gently: "I do mean that."

Although the Commissioner of Taxation did a good job in clearing out bandits.

But this is not the main job of the Tax Commissioner after all, and it seems a bit inappropriate to let the Tax Commissioner do these things all the time.

He assigned a certain number of troops to the Commissioner of Taxation, mainly to deal with those wealthy households who resisted paying taxes.

In this way, the tax commissioner can arrest the criminals directly without having to trouble other government offices for help and avoid delays.

But the Commissioner of Taxation was not asked to specifically suppress bandits.

Industry specializing in surgery.

If they are thugs, gangsters, etc. in the city, it is legitimate for the tax commissioner to deal with them.

Because they didn't pay taxes legally.

But bandits and robbers...if the tax commissioner really has to deal with them all day long, then he would be not doing his job properly.

Speaking of which, the problem of bandits and robbers has been a chronic problem for thousands of years.

It was not until after the founding of New China, from 1949 to 1953, that it took a full four years to suppress bandits, and nearly three million bandits were wiped out, which completely eliminated bandits from the stage of history.

To later generations, it seems a bit incredible that three million bandits were eliminated. Of course, many of them were actually remnants of the enemy army who had gone into hiding and became bandits, but it also shows how many bandits there were.

The bandit suppression campaign in western Hunan continued until 1965.

Of course, it was impossible for the Ming Dynasty under Zhu Yuanzhang's rule to have millions of bandits.

But if we say that all the bandits and robbers have been cleared out, that is obviously not the case.

There are still many small gangs of bandits within the Ming Dynasty.

The martial arts world in martial arts novels is of course fictional.

But in reality, bandits have always existed and are endless.

It’s just that there will be relatively fewer times of peace and order.

In times of chaos, they emerge like mushrooms after a rain.

For example, the White Lotus Sect, which Zhu Yuanzhang strictly prohibited, is still active in various places.

Even launched rebellions from time to time.

But each time it was quickly suppressed and never became a trend.

Historically, during the Ming Dynasty, these forces were never completely eliminated.

They remained active until the Yongle and Tianqi periods.

Judging from the memorials from the Commissioner of Taxation on suppressing bandits and the attitudes of local governments, Zhu Yunhuan felt that in order to completely eradicate bandits from the Ming Dynasty, one could not rely on local government offices.

Because they all have some local protectionism to a greater or lesser extent.

Many bandits have very complicated relationships with local government offices, and any single move could have an impact on the entire system.

Even if the imperial court dismissed the local chief official and transferred new officials, they would still be restricted and powerless.

In this case, the best approach is for the central government to set up a special agency to directly strike back.

Yang Shiqi asked in a deep voice: "The territory of the Ming Dynasty is vast. If the Ministry of Justice wants to handle the case directly, I am afraid that there will not be much that can be handled and it will be inconvenient. What plans does Your Highness have for this?"

For the newly established departments, it was always Zhu Yunhuan who made the plans, and Yang Shiqi only needed to be responsible for the specific implementation.

In this regard, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince often had good ideas that Yang Shiqi had never thought of, which always amazed Yang Shiqi.

Every state, prefecture, and county government in the Ming Dynasty had constables and yamen runners, but their duties were not much different.

"The Ministry of Justice doesn't handle ordinary cases, only major cases."

"For major cases reported by local authorities, the Ministry of Justice can, as needed, conduct higher-level management and directly inquire into them. This is one of the options."

"For robbers, bandits, or White Lotus leaders who are roaming around and committing crimes, the Ministry of Justice will directly send people to hunt them down, so as to avoid being restricted by the geographical scope of local governments."

"The Ministry of Justice will send its own troops to monitor public security throughout the country and investigate and prosecute the famous bandits in the underworld."

"Fourth, we will allocate troops and set up a special anti-bandit department to eliminate the relatively large gangster forces. From now on, unless necessary, the anti-bandit affairs will be managed by the Ministry of Justice, with the cooperation of local government offices. The military will not be allowed to intervene unless they obtain approval."

"Fifth, whenever a criminal escapes from a province, the local government could only issue a warrant to arrest him and request assistance, but the effect was not good. From now on, these matters will be handled by the Ministry of Justice."

"Sixth, reform the prisons. Set up dozens of prisons across the country, directly under the Ministry of Justice. From now on, prisoners who are sent to farm, do hard labor, exile, or military service will all serve their sentences in these prisons."

"Seventh, the officials in the local government offices have been reformed and are now all paid by the imperial court. In the future, all counties in the Ming Dynasty will have county lieutenants, and the constables will be incorporated into the county lieutenants' command and will be under the unified jurisdiction of the county lieutenants."

"The county lieutenant is responsible to the county magistrate, and is also under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Surveillance Commissioner, which is a dual management system. The Metropolitan Surveillance Commissioner is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice to strengthen the Ministry of Justice's authority and facilitate its work."

"Eighth..."

"Ninth..."

……

Zhu Yunhuan revealed all his thoughts, one by one.

The main task is to investigate major cases and cases across provinces and states, followed by suppressing bandits, as well as managing the lower-level Censors and even county lieutenants.

In addition, the army is not allowed to arbitrarily intervene in local public security cases, including arresting thieves and suppressing bandits.

Yes, the army’s ability to suppress bandits is certainly strong and intimidating, but it also has great drawbacks.

"Bandits pass by like combs, soldiers pass by like rakes." This sentence is not said casually, but a summary of the long-term life experience of the common people.

Although the local yamen runners acted ferociously, they were still somewhat cautious.

The soldiers don't care about that.

Not to mention issues like robbery, their accuracy in catching people is very questionable.

The army can directly behead bandits without trial.

But whether those killed were real bandits or even kind and innocent people, only God knows.

Anyway, every time the imperial court sent people to inspect the heads, they would always find a lot of heads of children, elderly people, and women.

But they argued that these were the bandits' families.

Although we know that those bandits cannot have so many family members...how can we find out the truth?

In the end, it often ends up in nothing.

On the other hand, if the bandits know the military generals, or even have a special relationship with them, and the generals intentionally shelter the bandits, or they collude with each other and commit crimes together, things will become even more difficult to deal with.

There are similar examples.

Therefore, Zhu Yunhuan simply withdrew his army completely and no longer interfered in any bandit suppression affairs.

Of course, if you really encounter a large group of bandits and the Ministry of Justice and local government offices are unable to deal with them, you can still request the army to take action.

In that case, it doesn't matter whether the killing is wrong or not.

But in daily life, there is no need for the army to suppress bandits.

Allowing the military to arbitrarily intervene in local daily management will inevitably cause chaos.

Before this, local garrisons could take the initiative to arrest or even kill people in the name of suppressing bandits.

Just imagine, the army can send out soldiers at will, arrest a person, say that the person is a bandit, and execute him on the spot without any interrogation!

How can the common people not be afraid?
With such power in hand, how can it not be abused?

From now on, this power will be directly taken away, and the army can only stay in the garrison honestly. Without the official request from the Ministry of Justice or local government offices, they are not allowed to go out to suppress bandits on their own.

To put it bluntly, even if there are bandits outside the military camp, it is not the army's responsibility and the army has no power to intervene.

This is normal.

After all, that's not what the military is for.

But in this era, this aspect is often unclear.

Due to the limitations of communication and transportation conditions, the imperial court needed to intervene in local areas at the right time in order to maintain stable rule, which caused such problems.

Zhu Yunhuan had long wanted to sort all of this out.

There was no order from the imperial court, or official request from the Ministry of Justice, or local government offices.

Even if there is chaos outside the military camp, the army cannot intervene at will.

The establishment of large prisons is another major measure.

Before this, the punishment measures for criminals in the Ming Dynasty laws included conscription, exile, etc.

As Zhu Yunhuan's military reform continues to advance, the new army will completely replace the original army in the future.

Soldiers are no longer like slaves, but a good profession with high pay and a strong sense of honor.

Naturally, criminal exile will no longer exist.

As for exile and the like, the biggest problem is that the cost is too high!
Sending two yamen runners to escort a prisoner and have them travel thousands of miles... given the transportation conditions of that era, the cost was actually terribly high.

Prison is different.

It is profitable to let prisoners undergo labor reform.

After Zhu Yunhuan finished talking about the reform measures, he also explained again the reasons and effects of doing so.

Yang Shiqi and Yao Guangxiao both nodded continuously.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is indeed a man of foresight.

These measures are not something that ordinary people can think of.

However, Yang Shiqi was still confused.

"In this case, isn't the power of the Ministry of Justice too great?"

When departments have too much power and lack constraints, new problems will arise.

Zhu Yunhuan smiled slightly: "So, there is another crucial reform, which is to split the Ministry of Justice into two."

"In addition to the Ministry of Justice, there is also the Ministry of Law."

……