Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 350
Ever since he crossed over, Zhu Youjian's focus has been on major matters such as suppressing thieves and reassuring the people, doing business to make money, and raiding his family to make a fortune. He didn't pay much attention to the two departments of the Ministry of Criminal Justice and Dali Temple. It was only at that time that Zhu Youjian realized the existence of these two departments. It was not until today what Feng Ying said just now that Zhu Youjian realized that he had made the mistake of unbalanced governance again.

"Qi Zou Shengshang, the first thing the old minister said was to gradually send punishments to the prefectures and counties, so as to better maintain and strengthen the authority of the Holy Majesty and the court. At the beginning of the founding of the country, it was convenient for the provinces to set up inspectors. , which means to observe the good and evil of local officials and people, to correct the wrong by prosecuting the law, to abolish the bad and promote the good, to punish the evil and to promote the good. Since the establishment of the procuratorate in each province, its role has been obvious to all, and the old minister will not say much about it today. Taizu even issued a decree in the 15th year of Hongwu to set up a special punishment division in the prefectures and counties of the world. Although it was abolished half a year later due to various incidents, Taizu's great talent and strategy are still rare in the world!"

In order to achieve the purpose of comprehensive supervision of local officials, Zhu Yuanzhang set up procuratorate divisions in various prefectures and counties of Daming, with more than [-] scholars serving as procuratorate divisions, and endowed them with the right to impeach local officials whether they are honest or not.

Needless to say, Taizu's original intention and vision were good, but he overestimated the integrity of these so-called scholars.

After these hundreds of people came to the prefectures and counties according to the inspection, some of them relied on their privileges to try to override the local officials. Interfering with the executive's administrative behavior has turned many counties into a mess in a short period of time, and the gentry and common people are full of complaints.

After learning of this situation, Zhu Yuanzhang decisively ordered the abolition of the local procuratorate, and beheaded all the scholars and Confucian scholars who committed crimes. The New Deal, which lasted only half a year, came to a hasty end.

Zhu Youjian didn't do much research on this very short-lived New Deal. After the current Yushi and Jinyiwei already had the strength to monitor the local area, he didn't pay much attention to the procuratorate under the dual leadership of the Ministry of Punishments and the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Unexpectedly, Feng Ying brought up the old matter again today, and once again proposed to reopen the procuratorate branch in the local prefectures and counties.

"Since Feng Qing knew about Taizu's reinstatement, why does he think so again today?"

"My lord, the reason why the old minister brings up the old matter today is because the world has changed and time has changed. Today's Ming Dynasty has changed drastically from what it was more than two hundred years ago. The conditions for re-establishing the inspection division are far superior. At the beginning of the country, it was more in line with what Taizu wanted at the beginning!"

"Oh? Let me tell you, what's the difference, and what are the benefits of re-establishing the Division of Procuratorate!"

"My lord, the biggest difference between today and the beginning of the country is that today's world is no longer in chaos, and the prosperity of literature has caused countless scholars to have their talents and leave them idle. ;The various laws and regulations of the imperial court are becoming more and more complete, and Fumin officials and Zuo Er should be more clear about their priorities, each responsible for their own duties, and govern their jurisdiction with their own responsibilities, so that relevant matters can be undertaken by skilled people It is more convenient to prevent the occurrence of grievances in prisons! According to the establishment of the procuratorate, there is another benefit, that is, together with the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the pro-military hundred households, they can also supervise each other when impeaching local lawbreakers , in order to prevent the evil from happening in it!"

The last point is Feng Ying's ultimate goal: to share power with the Metropolitan Procuratorate and Jin Yiwei, and expand the influence and power of the Ministry of Punishment.

Although the procuratorates of each province are under the joint jurisdiction of the Ministry of Punishment and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, their main responsibility is still to judge cases, so the appointment and dismissal of their chief officials is also based on the opinions of the officials of the Ministry of Punishment as an important reference.

With the emergence of local inspectors and censors, their original functions of impeaching and recommending local officials have gradually disappeared. Accepting appeals from prisons, correcting wrong cases, reviewing state and county documents and reviewing their judgments, etc. have become procuratorates. serious business.

The Ministry of Punishment has always been very dissatisfied with the loss of an extremely important right. Now that the emperor has the intention to extend the imperial power to the grassroots, several court officials secretly discussed and decided to take this opportunity to reduce the occurrence of unjust cases. In order to prevent the history of defense, Jinyiwei regained the lost rights in the name of power and chaos.

Zhu Youjian did not delve into the original intention of the Ministry of Criminal Justice to seize power, but was interested in the feasibility and effect of what Feng Ying played.

Decentralization of power was originally one of the executive strategies he planned to implement in the future. He planned to introduce a decision to decentralize the duties and powers of local officials in the second half of next year after careful consideration. He did not expect that someone would rush ahead of him today to propose this matter.

"The matter Feng Qing played is quite important. I will make a decision after reading the title book! The Ministry of Punishment should also come up with corresponding detailed rules. Feng Qing can now discuss the following two matters one by one. If it is in compliance with regulations and reasonable , I will accept it and do it myself!"

This matter is generally feasible, but the specific details need to be carefully considered.After the rules are fully formulated, select several prefectures and counties in Gyeonggi Province for trial implementation. After one year, you will know how effective it is, and then improve it according to the advantages and disadvantages, and gradually promote it in Daming territory.

The last two things mentioned by Feng Ying are very specific, and they are also the basic situation at the bottom level that has been reported back through layers of reports.

He proposed to change the existing method of escorting prisoners in prison, from the overall responsibility of a certain local government to segmented escorting.

Among the criminal laws of the Ming Dynasty, apart from the death row prisoners who were sentenced to beheaded, the prison sentence was the most executed.

In the Daming law, according to the crimes committed by the criminals, the prison sentences of hundreds of miles to thousands of miles according to the law accounted for a large proportion of the number of criminals.

For example, those honorable civil servants who have had their homes ransacked in recent years, except for the chief culprit, their family members were all exiled to remote places thousands of miles away, and there are many other similar situations.

These criminals or the family members of the prisoners were exiled to other places. From the beginning to the end, they needed someone to escort them with weapons to prevent the prisoners from running away halfway, and the officials in the local government were the main personnel responsible for the long-distance escort.

In an era when the transportation conditions were extremely backward, it was hard work to escort prisoners over long distances, because no matter how far the distance was, they had to walk all the way.

Lack of corresponding medical care, board and lodging, safety measures, etc., and it is common to encounter extremely bad weather during long-distance trekking, not to mention unexpected situations such as insects, snakes, beasts, miasma and vicious diseases, even if it is a small disease of wind, cold, damp and heat. It is very likely that the escort will die.

During the journey of thousands of miles, it is impossible to walk around the densely populated towns and villages all the time. The places where prisoners are exiled are also remote places. Although the government will not stipulate how long it will take for the escort to be in place, the journey is extremely hard, and many officials of the Yamen also lost their lives on the way.

But this errand is also a good job with a lot of oil and water. Because they are afraid that the officials will abuse the prisoners on the road, many relatives of the prisoners will give some benefits to the officials who are escorted in advance, and the yamen will also give fixed allowances and fees according to the distance of the journey. , so many yamen servants are also rushing to take over the only errands.

However, some merciful local officials could not bear to see their subordinates die due to business affairs, so they reflected some opinions to the Ministry of Punishments. Hall officials.

After discussing with the court officials, they felt that it was inhumane for the prisoner to be transferred from the place where the incident happened to the place where the sentence occurred, so Feng Ying wrote today's request.

According to Feng Ying's suggestion, in the future, the escort of prisoners will be changed to the relay method of the states and counties along the way, which saves the hard work of the long-distance travel of the government servants in the place where the incident occurred, and reduces the accidental death of officials on the road due to injury or illness.

"Feng Qing's memorandum is in line with the facts. I agree. The cabinet can draw up provisions based on Feng Qing's memorandum and issue them to the inspectors and envoys of all provinces, and then follow the implementation! The question about improving the prison situation should also be submitted to the cabinet for discussion! Sir Is there anyone else to play?"

"Invitation to play the holy majesty, the minister has a book to play!"

　Thanks to book friends whose account is no longer used, book friend Lin Lingsu 2018, and writer Chang Le Shepherd Boy for their rewards.Back to book friends, there are questions about me, guarding the normal heart, not rushing quickly, Liu Yaoming and others. I think the purpose of the reform is to strengthen the country and enrich the people at the same time, so that the vast majority of people can get the most fundamental benefits and form an upward trend. As long as it does not violate the rules, I will cover all the issues you mentioned one by one. Thank you for the reminder.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)