Call of Heroes: A History Only I Know

Chapter 183 Empty seal case!Zhu Yuanzhang's first test! (seeking subscription)
Many memories came to my mind, and the emotions were so strong that they even infected Su Che.

These pictures made Su Che silent for a long time.

Although he knew that Empress Ma and Zhu Yuanzhang were rare emperors and empresses in ancient and modern times, Su Che was still shocked by the indescribable longing and the indescribable pain.

Zhu Yuanzhang was an emperor through the ages, he fought all his life, he was jealous of evil, he hated corrupt officials to the core, he even did not hesitate to kill, even if he was involved countless times, he must be punished to the end.

Such a cruel murderer is actually so soft, or rather weak, in his heart.

Even such a stalwart person has someone to rely on and talk to.

Since ancient times, the king has been so lucky, the most ruthless emperor's family.

Couples like Zhu Yuanzhang and Queen Ma are really very rare.

On the day of Empress Ma's death, the ministers were mourning and crying more than anyone else. On the one hand, they were very sad for the death of a good queen like Empress Ma.

On the other hand, it is because Zhu Yuanzhang's sword of the Son of Heaven will no longer have a scabbard from now on. As a courtier, how can he not be sad?

In the eyes of these ministers, the death of Empress Ma means that their future is bleak, and it means that they may be killed more easily.

That's exactly what happened.

After the death of Empress Ma, Zhu Yuanzhang's character became more tyrannical. Because of trivial matters, he often killed eunuchs and ministers. There were not a few ministers who were killed. Because of many cases, officials were massacred—the emperor's sword no longer has a scabbard Then no one can stop Zhu Yuanzhang from killing!
After the Hu Weiyong case, there were the Kongyin case, the Guo Huan case, and the Lanyu case.

Calculating the time, the next one should be an empty printing case?
The so-called empty seal is to stamp the seal on the document in advance, and then fill in the specific content when it is needed.

According to the regulations of the Ming Dynasty, each chief secretary, government, and county must submit money and food, financial revenue and expenditure, and tax accounts to the Ministry of Households every year.

The figures of the Ministry of Households and the chief secretaries, prefectures, and counties must be exactly the same before they can be closed.

If there is a discrepancy, the entire account book will be rejected, filled in again, and the seal of the local government will be affixed again.

Due to the payment of taxes, it is inevitable that there will be losses during the transportation process, and there is a high probability that the account books and the physical objects will not match.

Therefore, officials who go to the Ministry of Households for auditing have blank booklets stamped in advance for use.

This has been a customary practice since the Yuan Dynasty, and it has never been explicitly prohibited.

but.

Just because it has not been banned does not mean that there is no problem, on the contrary, the problem is very big.

A stamped blank volume allows for quite a bit of leeway.

To put it bluntly, this is a bad habit left over from the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, and the use of empty seals will open the door to corruption.

Many people may think that this matter is just a trick of petty officials, and many people even think it is a compromise method due to limited transportation and communication conditions.

But the problem is that the account is as much as it is. If there is any discrepancy, the reason for the discrepancy should be explained instead of changing it to "conform".

More importantly, the Ministry of Household Affairs clearly knew that various places were doing false accounts, but gave long-term acquiescence.

Isn't this a partnership between the central and local bureaucrats to cheat the Mongolian court?
Fiscal year settlements can be falsified in this way, so what accounts can't be falsified like this?

After the "Kongyin" incident, according to historical records, Zhu Yuanzhang's reaction was "furious", thinking that this was an act of deception, and the courtiers were so frightened that they trembled and did not dare to speak out.

at this time.

A eunuch sent a message that Mao Xiang, the commander of Jinyiwei, asked to see him.

Su Che said without raising his head, "Let him in."

At this point in time, Zhu Yuanzhang dismantled and reorganized his guards and formed a special service force directly under his jurisdiction, namely Jinyiwei.

And Mao Xiang is the leader of Jinyiwei.

The duty of Jin Yiwei is to directly drive the guards, patrol and arrest.

Jin Yiwei and those ministers were born on opposite sides, so it can be said that fire and water are incompatible.

As the commander of Jinyiwei, Mao Xiang had picked up many illegal acts as soon as he took office. It was a matter of course for him to lay a stepping stone on his way to promotion. Please read a book of accounts confiscated from the Ministry of Households, Your Majesty Longmu."

The eunuch immediately handed over Mao Xiang's account book.

Su Che glanced at Mao Xiang, the luck above his head was red, red like blood, and there was a touch of black and yellow intertwined inside.

Then Su Che looked down at the ledger.

It was empty, except for a seal.

At this moment, Su Che understood what was going on. This should be the first scene of the Kongyin case. Because the Jinyiwei was created, Jinyiwei immediately used the Kongyin as an article, using these literati officials as a handle, Come to add an official title to yourself.

At this moment, the Ming Empire has been in existence for more than ten years, and the matter of empty seals has been carried out as an unspoken rule. All the officials in the court know about it. Zhu Yuanzhang, who has never heard of this matter until now, has been kept in the dark.

It's no wonder that Zhu Yuanzhang was angry. All the officials in the court were tacit about this matter. Even those officials who said they were loyal to the emperor kept silent about this matter!

This feeling is really chilling.

Lao Zhu was deceived too badly.

These thoughts flashed through Su Che's mind. He stared at the ledger and said softly:

"Empty seal?"

"Your Majesty, this is the money and grain account that Hu Guangcheng announced to the Ministry of Household Affairs. Perhaps because of the carelessness of the staff, an empty account was handed in." Mao Xiang, the commander of Jinyiwei, said with a smile.

"What do you want to say?" Su Che narrowed his eyes and stared at Mao Xiang.

Mao Xiang felt a chill in his heart, cold sweat dripped down his cheeks, and goose bumps all over his body, he actually played tricks in front of the emperor, this is really courting death!
Mao Xiang hurriedly said: "Your Majesty Qizuo, although this is an empty account book, it is stamped with the seal of Hu Guangcheng's announcement of the political envoy, which shows that this empty account book is their deliberate act... How many nasty things, I dare not speak nonsense."

"We know." Su Che said lightly.

Hearing this, Mao Xiang, the Commander of Jin Yiwei, was stunned for a moment. He never expected that His Majesty the Emperor would have such an attitude in front of this blank account book?Shouldn't it be outrage at this moment?

You know, this is the crime of deceiving the emperor. Shouldn't he investigate such a serious crime immediately?

"We already knew about this before, you have second-hand information, step back." Su Che shook his head and said.

Hearing this, Mao Xiang instantly realized that someone had taken the credit, who was it?Who is it that took the credit for his amazing achievements?
It was a big case, and a very easy one at the same time.

First of all, it is easy to add strokes to numbers such as "one", "two" and "three" in Chinese characters, but the added strokes are not difficult to recognize, but any addition of strokes is to change the account.

Secondly, red ink pad is used for seals, and black ink is used for accounts.If it is written first and then stamped, the red mud should be on top of the black ink, otherwise there will be ink written on the top of the ink pad, which can be judged to be an "empty seal" behavior.

Also.

The empty printing case also established two new regulations for future generations:
First of all, the so-called lowercase numbers such as "one", "two" and "three" cannot be used in the accounts, let alone Arabic numerals, but the so-called uppercase numbers such as "one", "two" and "three".

Secondly, the stamp must be "vermilion on the ink", that is, the red ink pad must be stamped on top of the black ink to prove that the stamp is stamped after the word is written.

These two systems have been used until modern times, and they are still the most basic principles of the financial and official document systems, fully explaining that they are very correct rules.

Perhaps this "empty seal case" was the first test Zhu Yuanzhang left for Su Che?

Let's see if Su Che can handle it more perfectly?
When Mao Xiang heard this, he resigned obediently and left the hall.

And Su Che rested his chin, stared at the empty account book, his eyes were dim, and he couldn't help thinking.

After the empty printing case, Zheng Shili, a native of Ninghai, Zhejiang, wrote to Zhu Yuanzhang.

Zheng Shili believed that His Majesty wanted to punish these officials with blank seals because he was afraid that the treacherous officials would get blank prints and harm the common people by falsification, but this was impossible, and he put forward four points of view:

First, the empty-printed account book is stamped with a seam seal, and the imprint is not complete on each sheet of paper. Can't get it.

Second, the accounts of money and food must be combined by the government and the province, and the province must be combined with the department.The distance between ministries and provinces ranges from thousands of miles to tens of thousands of miles, and to short distances of three or four thousand miles. Once there is a mistake, the turnaround will be troublesome.It is an expedient measure to print first and then book, and it has a long history.

Third, national legislation must have clear laws, and then punish violators according to the laws.However, Liguo does not have a law against Kongyin. Everyone has been doing this all the time, and they don't know that they are guilty.Now once a crime is punished, it cannot be subdued.

Fourth, it is very difficult for the country to train a qualified official. The officials who can reach the county guard have been cultivated for decades.

As soon as this article came out, Zhu Yuanzhang, in a rage, immediately ordered that the beheading sentence, which had been suspended, be executed as soon as possible. In addition, Jin Yiwei was asked to go out quickly, first arrest Zheng Shili and put him in prison, and then conduct a thorough investigation to see what happened behind him. Is it someone who instructed.

After this incident happened, Zheng Shili said with a smile: "Gu my book is not enough to listen to. My business is to speak for the country, and I will die if I divide myself. Who will plan for me?"

An impassioned gesture.

however.

The reason why Zhu Yuanzhang is so angry is also very simple.

Because Zheng Shili's words of intercession seem sincere and reasonable, but in fact they are short-sighted.

Of course, it is not easy for the court to train officials. Those who can become prefects and prefects can also be called capable officials, but can corrupt officials be corrupt?
Zheng Shili's previous paragraph was just intercession, while the latter paragraph was a bit threatening. This is the most commonly used defense by corrupt officials——

We are the pillars of the administrative system. Even if there is slight corruption, we will not collapse. If you punish everyone now, won’t you tear down the entire pillar system?Therefore, the emperor, you should tolerate our little bit of corruption, this is also for the sake of your country!

For the political support of the upper-level ruling group, for the integrity of the lower-level administrative system, in short, to maintain the rule, corruption should be tolerated.

Many people think this way, and many emperors do the same. In all dynasties, basically every emperor has turned a blind eye to these small stains.

How many officials point to this money to get rich!
After all, it is important to consider the overall situation!
Without officials, how would the emperor govern the world?
It's okay to kill one official, but should all the officials be killed? ? ?
This directly angered Zhu Yuanzhang. He said: Then kill all the financial officials!
kill!

Kill him so blood flows into rivers, kill him so brightly!

Lao Zhu is so tough in doing things, he doesn't talk about "considering the overall situation"!
He is where the overall situation lies!
Many people in later generations called the Kongyin case a great injustice.

There are many people who justify the empty printing case.

The problem is that corruption, in times of prosperity, may not be advisable.

But for the slow erosion of a huge empire, it is hard to return.

Since then, the seemingly minor corruption behaviors popular in the Ming Dynasty, such as fire loss, drifting, and envy, have been completely tolerated by the higher authorities. bigger and bigger.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, almost nine out of ten of the tax money went to Huowu, the court could not collect the tax, and nine out of ten of the military pay sent by the court went to the drift, which led to mutiny on the front line.

The root of these chaos was buried early in the Kongyin case.

If Zhu Yuanzhang punishes more harshly, these chaos will appear later, the country will be stronger and the country will last longer.

But such behavior is also incomprehensible to many people.

Including Zheng Shili, who is full of justice and claims to be loyal to the country!
How can it be reliable to play with empty seals like this and act entirely on the conscience of officials?

You can "loss" as much as you want on the road!
Over time, the consequences became more and more serious. The Yuan Dynasty Guozuo was so short-lived, and this empty seal is the credit.

Dealing with this case, Zhu Yuanzhang thought about it for a long time, and finally resorted to thunderous means, and there was a big change of blood.

From Yuan to Ming, many things have been deeply rooted, and Zhu Yuanzhang has no better solution, so he can only use his own method-kill!kill them all!
The so-called empty seal is not so much the "old practice" of the Yuan Dynasty, but the accumulated abuses of the Yuan Dynasty.

The Yuan Dynasty was originally extremely extensively managed. The so-called "imperial power does not go to provinces", and the fiscal implementation is basically a "tax system". In this way, the bureaucratic machinery has already seized excessive gray interests in it.

There were many major cases in the early Ming Dynasty, such as the "Kongyin Case", "Guo Heng Case", and "North and South List Case".

In a sense, it can be seen as Zhu Yuanzhang's attack on the long-standing abuses of this bureaucratic system.

In the empty seal case alone, Zhu Yuanzhang killed all palm seal officials in the country, implicated more than 4 people, and caused the administrative system of the Ming Dynasty to almost collapse.

And at this moment Su Che appeared here.

In all likelihood, Zhu Yuanzhang took this problem as a test for Su Che! !

This is... the first test!

(End of this chapter)