The Ming Dynasty's Five Hundred Years

Chapter 284 Anti-Corruption Chief
The western market of the capital was filled with a scene of utter desolation and bloodshed.

The corruption case involving the imperial tombs involved more than just dozens of officials. Almost no one in Changping, from the highest to the lowest ranks, was clean. Forty-seven of the most serious offenders were sentenced to immediate execution, while the others who committed lesser crimes were either exiled or imprisoned. None of them were pardoned. The West Market was filled with heads, and the yellow earth was soaked with bright red blood.

However, throughout the capital, everyone was saying that Li Xianmu was benevolent, because this time the sentencing was unusual. It did not involve the families of the convicted officials on a large scale. Apart from a very few families who also ran rampant, the sentence was basically just the stripping of the privileges granted by the court.

Was Li Xianmu really showing mercy for no reason?

Of course not!

Corruption is a serious crime, but it is a very subtle one, one that even the emperor himself sometimes does not want to investigate thoroughly.

Even during the Hongwu era, many cases of embezzlement did not implicate relatives; only those relatives who helped with the embezzlement were prosecuted according to the law.

Li Xianmu has now exempted this part of the investigation from further investigation.

However, if the family members want to be completely exonerated, they must first return the embezzled funds, and the amount must exceed the amount embezzled.

If you don't have enough money, you can borrow it; if you can't borrow it, your descendants can pay it back.

"A large part of the reason why officials embezzle is for the sake of their descendants, so we must investigate their descendants, trace them to the end of the road, and make their descendants poor in order to deter them."

"From this point forward, the pursuit of stolen assets will continue indefinitely!"

When Li Xianmu made this suggestion, many people did not understand it.

"Isn't this too lenient, and might encourage corruption? After all, if their families aren't implicated, wouldn't that just embolden them to embezzle even more?"

Li Xianmu raised a question that many people had never considered: "The court has such strict laws, yet these officials still continue to embezzle funds one after another. Are they not afraid of death?"

No one is not afraid of death.

“Every corrupt official is extravagant and greedy, wishing he could possess all the treasures in the world, and have countless beautiful wives and concubines at home. Why do you think this is?”

"Naturally, their desires are insatiable, making them unworthy of being alive."

"Of course, that's one reason, but don't you all think they're trying to spend all the money they've embezzled? They know deep down that they'll be caught sooner or later, so they generally don't keep any."

This is actually a psychological issue. If you knew you only had three days to live, would you spend all your money?
The saddest thing in a person's life is dying before they've spent all their money.

In ancient times, ordinary people lived hand to mouth, and officials were no different. They never thought about the future. Li Xianmu wanted to use this system of restitution to tell all corrupt officials that even if they died, the matter was not over. Their descendants would have to pay back the debt and suffer.

This is of no use to those who don't care about their descendants, but there aren't many such people; most people still care about their families.

Anti-Corruption Chief Executive.

Li Xianmu sat at the head of the table, looking down at the group of officials he had personally selected.

Most of them are Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations) from the last two sessions. These young people are passionate and have not yet been marked by too many factions, making them the most suitable for this task.

Yu Qian was among them. From the very beginning of the preparations to establish the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Li Xianmu had intended to send him there. Given Yu Qian's personality, he was a natural-born censor. Listening to Li Xianmu's theories, the young officials below were either incredibly excited, scratching their heads, or deep in thought, each seemingly lost in thought.

Previously, when faced with corruption, people simply assumed that the person was morally flawed. No one had ever analyzed the behavior and motives of these corrupt officials as deeply as Li Xianmu.

"When the Ministry of Justice investigates a case, it often pays special attention to the criminal's motives and then tries to guess who committed the crime. The same applies to investigating corruption. If we cannot have a deep understanding of this, we cannot stop this from the source."

The Anti-Corruption Bureau has limited manpower, while corrupt officials are emerging in endless streams. It is necessary to both arrest and prevent them. The anti-corruption allowance is for this purpose, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau was also established for this purpose.

Our ultimate goal is to eliminate greed from the world!

The last four words drew cheers and applause from the officials below, who applauded Li Xianmu.

"You are all people I have personally selected. This is the biggest talent selection since I became Minister of Personnel. Some of you will stay in the capital to oversee the main office, while others will go to the provinces to establish anti-corruption branches. Most of you will likely follow this path, rising through the ranks and fighting against corrupt officials for the rest of your lives. I hope you will remember the oath you take today."

Everyone looked solemn. The Anti-Corruption Bureau was a very special government office, quite different from other departments. It was an office with a very complete system of official ranks and titles.

Starting from the eighth rank, one can be promoted internally all the way to the third rank of Anti-Corruption Commissioner. Theoretically, one can also be promoted within the Censorate, becoming the Left and Right Vice Censors-in-Chief, and the second rank Left and Right Censors-in-Chief.

Apart from a few individuals, most people, once they enter this system, may spend their entire lives within it.

This extremely closed bureaucratic system was unprecedented; previously, only clerks and lower-level officials operated in this way, while officials moved between different departments.

This was also a harbinger of Li Xianmu's reforms, as he had long been dissatisfied with the current situation of officials being transferred back and forth.

The officials elected today are all very intelligent, but they are not applying what they have learned.

Logically, after entering the imperial court, officials should be deeply involved in learning specific tasks. However, due to frequent transfers within the court, officials became unfamiliar with specific work and could only rely on clerks and servants below them.

These clerks, having long occupied their positions in the government offices and being familiar with the rules and regulations, took advantage of the ignorance and fear of difficulties of their superiors to engage in corrupt practices and malfeasance. Officials willing to cooperate with them colluded with each other, while those unwilling to cooperate were given opportunities to be humiliated. They were a major force behind the chaos and darkness in the officialdom.

Promoting the professionalization of officials is an urgent matter that cannot be delayed. As the Minister of Personnel, he bears a heavy burden.

……

The Anti-Corruption Bureau was thus established, stepping over the countless blood and bones of corruption cases involving the imperial tombs.

Those criminals who were lucky enough to escape death in the corruption case at the imperial tombs were also exiled. They were mostly sent to places like Jiaozhi, Guizhou, Gansu, and Liaoning, all of which were inhabited by barbarians and had harsh natural environments.

The emperor's father-in-law, Hu Rong, and the emperor's brother-in-law, Sun Guangzong, also embarked on the road to exile in Nanjing.

Although neither of them was in mortal danger, they weren't really going on vacation, especially since they were both wearing shackles and looked quite haggard, especially since they had left from the capital.

Both of them were eager to go to Nanjing, a place far from the reach of the emperor, where they could resume their carefree lives.

(End of this chapter)