Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 241: Major adjustments in the imperial court! Sharp knife!

Yang Shiqi and Yao Guangxiao were both slightly stunned.

The Ming Dynasty was newly established in the early days, and various rules and regulations were still in the exploratory stage. Power adjustments among departments were also very common.

People who don't understand history can easily have preconceived ideas and think that the six ministries each had a fixed scope of authority, each performing its own duties and not interfering with each other.

The scope of this power can be seen from their names.

In fact, this idea is undoubtedly wrong.

Although both are the Ministry of Justice, their scope of authority varies greatly in different dynasties.

During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the Dali Temple tried criminals and the Ministry of Justice reviewed the cases.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the situation was completely opposite: the Ministry of Justice conducted trials and the Dali Temple conducted reviews.

Even within the same dynasty, the powers and responsibilities were vastly different in different eras and under the rule of different emperors.

It is normal for the imperial court to adjust the power scope of each department.

However, such a big change as splitting the Ministry of Justice into two and establishing a new Ministry of Law is extremely rare.

Zhu Yunhuan had already had a plan for this.

"The power of trial is transferred to the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Criminal Justice is only responsible for arresting criminals and has no power to judge."

Although there was a system of joint trials by the three judicial departments in this era, in actual practice, except for major cases that attracted much attention in the court, the Ministry of Justice basically made the final decision on ordinary cases.

The so-called death penalty must be reviewed by the Dali Temple and supervised by the Censorate throughout the process, which is basically in name only.

The Ministry of Justice plays the most core role in judging and trying cases.

But in Zhu Yunhuan's view, arresting people, trying cases, and convicting people, all in the hands of one department, is somewhat too much of a joke.

Under this system, if the wrong person is arrested at the beginning, most people will not admit their mistake later, but will continue to make the mistake.

As a result, there will definitely be many false and wrongful convictions.

Separating the power of trial from the institutions and individuals responsible for arrests is a crucial supervisory measure and the most effective and thorough supervision.

Other inspections and checks are far inferior to this.

This is not only necessary for the central government, but also for local areas.

"The Metropolitan Court was also divided into two parts, with the other being the Court of Justice, which was responsible for adjudication."

"The prefectural government has the Fa Department, and the county government has the Fa Office, which is responsible for judging questions."

"Law Department is like Criminal Department. It is under the jurisdiction of the county government and the judicial department, so it is under dual management."

"In principle, local officials will no longer be involved in the trial and judgment of future cases."

"Without special reasons, local officials will no longer go to court to hear and judge cases."

"If there is a reason for the incident, it should be recorded in detail, reported to the superior, stating the reason, and kept in the file for review."

"In addition, any local officials who interfere with the trial and judgment of cases without authorization will be severely investigated and punished once discovered."

"In order to prevent wrongful convictions, the Ministry of Justice can send additional judges to conduct on-site trials."

"Outbound judges are not restricted by region and can correct local unjust, false and wrong cases."

……

Zhu Yunhuan explained his plan in detail.

He also gave a detailed explanation of dual management, which is basically "combining strips and blocks, with blocks as the main focus."

Before this, the central government had never exercised vertical management over local departments, and local power was in the hands of local officials.

Vertical management is undoubtedly a huge change.

As for separating case handling and case trial, with Yang Shiqi and Yao Guangxiao's intelligence, they naturally understood it as soon as they heard it.

After listening to Zhu Yunhuan, Yang Shiqi exclaimed: "Your Highness the Crown Prince has considered it very carefully. This method is very good."

Yao Guangxiao said: "If the investigation and trial are separated, 70% of the cases of wrongful imprisonment in the world can be reduced. Your Highness the Crown Prince's move is a great good deed."

In fact, the ancients were not unaware that case handling and trial should be separated, otherwise, the court would not have had three judicial officials.

But at the local level, for convenience, they are still kept together.

The main reason is that all local affairs are under the control of the chief official, so there is no point in separating them.

Zhu Yunhuan used vertical management to relatively strengthen its independence and prohibited the chief officials from intervening at will, which completely changed the nature of the situation.

This can only be achieved through handling cases and trying and judging cases.

On the one hand, any intervention by local officials would have to be explained in documents and files submitted to their superiors, which also prevented them from intervening at will.

On the other hand, although the case is not tried by the local chief official, he still has the power of supervision. Once he finds any unjust, false or wrong case, he will take the initiative to correct it.

This is different from judging and overthrowing oneself.

Moreover, after vertical management, control from above will be greatly strengthened, and local corruption or favoritism and unjust judgments can be eliminated.

"Who is the candidate for the Ministry of Justice?" Yang Shiqi asked.

Zhu Yunhuan hesitated for a moment and said, "Let Zhou Zhiqing temporarily take over as the chief of the Ministry of Justice."

"As for the Dali Temple, its powers will also be adjusted."

"In the future, the Dali Temple will be mainly responsible for formulating laws and interpreting unclear, ambiguous and ambiguous legal provisions."

In fact, at the beginning, Zhu Yunhuan thought about turning the Dali Temple into the Ministry of Justice.

Historically, it was the Dali Temple institution that eventually became the Supreme Court.

However, considering the issue of vertical management, the Dali Temple was not familiar with the personnel of the institutions below it, while the Ministry of Law, which was separated from the Ministry of Justice, did not have this problem.

Moreover, the people in the Ministry of Justice know better what methods the investigators use to torture and handle cases, so it is easy for them to spot problems when trying and sentencing cases.

It would be better for the Dali Temple to simply become an institution for making and interpreting laws.

Although people in ancient times attached great importance to legislative work, they often believed that once a law was enacted, everything would be fine.

It will never change for thousands of generations to come.

This is because the long-term unchanged farming life in ancient times has given people this preconceived notion.

Zhu Yunhuan was very clear that as he continued to promote reforms in the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty was striding into a new era. Social changes were taking place at a rapid pace, and the law must adapt to the development needs of the times.

Legislative work becomes extremely important.

The existing "Ming Dynasty Law" is still very rough, and the trial of many cases is often based on the moral judgment of the chief official, which has brought countless problems.

The officials of the Dali Temple are the ones who are most familiar with the laws and regulations, so it is very appropriate for them to shoulder this responsibility.

Zhu Yunhuan elaborated on his views on legislative work.

"Legislation must be detailed so that there is a law to follow for everything."

"We must be cautious in using punishment and not impose excessive penalties."

"In addition, the practice of replacing criminal punishment with fines or paying money to avoid punishment will be completely stopped from now on."

"If someone commits a crime and needs to be fined, they can be fined directly, but the fine and the punishment cannot be offset against each other."

Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, successive feudal dynasties have had a very "excellent" tradition.

That is, if a person commits a crime, he can be exempted from punishment as long as he pays money.

For example, if someone stole property worth twenty taels of silver, according to the law he would be punished with fifty beatings, but if he was willing to pay two hundred taels of silver, he would avoid being beaten.

Only cases of particularly serious nature, such as murder and rebellion, with extremely bad consequences, cannot be exempted from punishment by paying money.

This system has been adopted by all dynasties, and the Ming Dynasty was no exception.

Of course, compared with the Han Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty was much better.

There were even many officials in the Han Dynasty who were sentenced to death, but they were pardoned after paying a sum of money.

The Ming Dynasty had already imposed many restrictions on the scope of paying money to avoid punishment, but there were still many crimes that could be avoided by paying money.

In Zhu Yunhuan's view, this was simply too ridiculous.

The law has really become a law for the rich. This one must be changed.

Yang Shiqi nodded slightly and said, "Your Highness, the Crown Prince has thought it through. This item should indeed be abolished."

At present, the Ming Dynasty’s treasury is not short of money, so there is no need to replace criminal punishment with fines.

But fines are necessary.

For some crimes, the only punishment is a fine, and a fine must be imposed.

Yao Guangxiao also nodded slightly and said, "This is a very good arrangement."

"There is also the Metropolitan Censorate." Zhu Yunhuan's eyes flashed with a sharp light, and he said, "The Metropolitan Censorate will also be greatly changed. Its original duties were mainly to serve as one of the three judicial departments, supervising the handling and trial of cases. In the future, it will only serve as a supervisory agency, mainly responsible for supervising all officials."

"Strengthen the supervisory power of the Metropolitan Censorate."

"We monitor officials who violate court laws and have low moral character, and we send censors to inspect the country."

In Zhu Yunhuan's view, the Censorate was a very useful supervisory agency.

On the one hand, all the officials in the Censorate were civil servants. From top to bottom, all the officials in the court had no resistance to the supervision of the Censorate. Officials all over the world had a high degree of acceptance, and it was legitimate for them to supervise the officials.

On the other hand, precisely because these people were only censors and did not have any actual duties other than supervision, even if they had the power of supervision, they could not threaten the imperial power.

To put it bluntly, the Censor of the Censorate may appear to be three levels higher in rank than an official in the outside world, but that is just an appearance.

For the emperor, killing them was as easy as killing a chicken.

This has a different logic from killing military generals or other court ministers who hold real power.

Why was it that during the Ming Dynasty, the emperors were still not particularly willing to make use of the Censorate and preferred to use the Imperial Household Department?
The root cause, of course, is the contradiction between imperial power and Confucian culture, which leads to the emperor's weak control over the censors in the Censorate, which is far less than that over the Imperial Households and Imperial Guards.

The censors often threatened the emperor with "death penalty".

Of course it was impossible for the emperor to like these people.

But even so, even though it often went against the emperor, the power of the Censorate to supervise officials was never abolished through many emperors.

Because the emperor knew very well that even though these censors often opposed him, they were still the most suitable candidates to supervise all officials.

The censors of the Censorate could kneel outside the court and say, "Emperor, you must do what I say today, or I will kneel and die here!"

Make the emperor lose face.

But the court officials were already accustomed to such things.

For the emperor, it was just an embarrassment in face.

If a military general, or even a powerful minister, did the same thing, it would really shock the world and the imperial power might be in jeopardy.

The benefit of having censors monitor all officials lies here.

After all, the awe-inspiring censors of the Censorate are actually a group of the least powerful people.

The emperor could just ignore what they said and treat it as bullshit.

When necessary, they can use their mouths that are particularly good at spraying and their pens that can kill as swords to hold officials hostage.

Therefore, simply strengthening the control over Confucian scholars and using the censors of the Censorate to control all officials is actually a better choice than relying heavily on the Censorate and the Imperial Guards.

Historically, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were all well aware of this.

But for various reasons, during the Ming Dynasty, no emperor was able to completely control the scholars who were educated under Confucian culture.

There was no emperor who did not have deep and sharp contradictions with the civil service group.

Therefore, even though they knew that the censors in the Censorate were very useful, they had no choice but to use the Imperial Household Guards.

Zhu Yunhuan wanted to fundamentally change this.

Instead of using the Censorate to fight against the scholars and encourage them to unite to deal with the Censorate who represent the imperial power, it is better to create divisions within the civil service group, so as to completely disintegrate their unity and control these people.

After saying this, Zhu Yunhuan looked at Yang Shiqi and said, "You will be appointed as the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate. You will eliminate all of Yuan Tai's accomplices and take on the important task of supervising all officials in the country."

Yang Shiqi's face showed shock.

Since he was promoted by Zhu Yunhuan, he was soon summoned by Zhu and was appointed as a lecturer in the Hanlin Academy.

Since then, he has been working beside His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and is very popular in the court.

But in the final analysis, the Imperial Academy Lecturer was only a fifth-rank official position. It was simply a special position, and it was because Yang Shiqi was close to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince that he had the power he had today.

He was just taking advantage of the situation.

His "power" comes from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, not from himself.

It is similar to the secretaries around leaders in later generations.

However, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, also known as the Chief Censor, was in charge of the Censorate and in charge of the affairs of the Censorate. He was a genuine important official of the court.

This is external reuse!

Although Zhu Yunhuan had assigned many tasks to Yang Shiqi before, he had always supervised them in the capacity of a lecturer.

I originally thought that I would be sent out to a distant place, and I would have to wait until Zhu Yunhuan inherited the throne. This has always been the case for old ministers in the palace.

However, he did not expect that Zhu Yunhuan would let him serve as the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate.

"This... this is probably not appropriate." Yang Shiqi was flattered and said, "I am still too inexperienced in the court. I am afraid that it will be difficult for me to convince the public if I suddenly take on the post of Left Censor-in-Chief."

"What's inappropriate?" Zhu Yunxun said, "Yuan Tai committed a capital crime, and the Censorate needs to purge and eliminate the remnants of Yuan Tai. You are the person I trust most, and it is most appropriate for you to do this."

"If there are people in the Censorate who are dissatisfied or who find excuses to oppose you, just purge them."

The Censorate is a sharp sword, but it must be absolutely controlled in one's own hands.

If it gets out of control, it will be used by the enemy and hurt yourself.

There are countless such lessons in history.

Yang Shiqi has now gained a lot of experience by his side and is relatively familiar with all the affairs in the court. It is time to let him go and show his talents.

"Thank you, Your Highness the Crown Prince." Yang Shiqi did not refuse and bowed to express his gratitude.

After the arrangement was completed, Zhu Yunhuan said, "Zhu Gaoxu has been transferred back to Beijing to take charge of the new Ministry of Justice, but I am still missing a sharp knife. This person does not need to have a very high moral character, but must be cruel, venomous, and capable enough. Do you have a suitable candidate?"

After experiencing the turmoil caused by Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai, he felt more and more that he needed someone to help do the "dirty work" by his side.

Yao Guangxiao and Yang Shiqi were obviously not suitable.

Because this person has to be able to be thrown out at any time to "take the blame" for you.

It’s just like how Zhu Yuanzhang used Mao Xiang, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, to investigate the case of Hu Weiyong.

First use Mao Xiang to deal with Hu Weiyong and his followers, and then execute Mao Xiang as well to calm the anger of the world.

It turned out that Zhu Yunhuan had also thought about letting Zhu Gaoxu take on this task.

But after thinking about it, I still felt that it was not appropriate.

After all, Zhu Gaoxu was the son of Prince of Yan Zhu Di, and his cousin.

The matter of the Commissioner of Taxation can be considered a great contribution.

There were enough court officials offended because of this.

But if you really ask him to do something that requires him to take the blame, he won't be as useful as a real "loyal dog".

A loyal dog can bite anyone he wants, but Zhu Gaoxu can only guide and provoke him...which is sometimes not very convenient.

Yang Shiqi and Yao Guangxiao were both very smart people. When they heard Zhu Yunhuan's words, they immediately understood his intention.

They all fell into deep thought.

It's really hard to find such a person.

Zhu Yunhuan said, "There is no need to rush. Let's wait until that bastard Zhu Gaoxu comes back."

As soon as he finished speaking, someone came to report: "Your Highness, the young prince has returned to the capital and is seeking an audience outside."

……

(End of this chapter)