Daming: The most ruthless tyrant in history

Chapter 757 Public Trial (4)

Facing countless gazes, Bi Ziyan walked up to the platform with a lot of thoughts in his mind. The moment he lifted his robe and sat on the official chair, he glanced at the huge crowd in front of him, and seemed a little absent-minded.

Even though he had been in officialdom for a long time and had experienced countless storms, he was still shocked when he saw so many people gathered outside the Daming Gate, especially the Ming Heroes Monument standing among the crowd!
The visual impact is really too strong.

"Your Majesty, this is your ultimate goal."

When Bi Ziyan saw the monument to the heroes, his expression was a little complicated. He thought to himself, "The purpose of establishing a public trial at the central level is to let the people of the world know that even if one is successful in the imperial examination and becomes an official, as long as he violates the laws of the Ming Dynasty, he will be severely punished!"

"In the past, all kinds of official malpractices, such as mutual protection among officials, favoritism and corruption, and trivializing major and minor matters, will be completely abandoned as the Ministry of Revenue holds its first public trial in Beijing!"

At that time, apart from some breathing sounds, no other sounds could be heard outside the Daming Gate, and the people of the capital gathered there were all watching with different thoughts in mind.

"Bring the criminals!"

In this special atmosphere, as shouts resounded through the sky, the public trial outside the Daming Gate officially began.

"here we go."

On the Daming Gate Tower, Zhu Shugui spoke excitedly. He looked up and wanted to say something to the emperor, but when he saw the emperor looking down at the city with a serious expression, Zhu Shugui tactfully shut his mouth.

it has started.

Zhu Youxiao stood with his hands behind his back, overlooking the prisoners who were being escorted for trial, and felt a bit complicated. With the convening of this public trial in Beijing, the so-called privileges of the civil service group would be dismantled bit by bit.

He wanted to restore the trend of strict governance of officials that was initiated during the Hongwu Dynasty!

Anyone who dares to violate the law, commits malpractice for personal gain, or embezzles money and abuses the power, no matter what position they hold or what position they are in, will be severely punished according to the law as long as they are discovered by the central supervisory system!
The only ones who can deal with civil officials are civil officials, not the factory guards! !

If we want to rectify the administration of officials and keep it running smoothly in the future, we must rely mainly on the supervisory system controlled by the central government, rather than appointing someone or relying solely on the eunuchs and guards who are attached to the imperial power. This would easily lead to falling into the quagmire of factional strife.

Zhu Youxiao wanted to dismantle the civil service group.

The powers of internal affairs, supervision, justice, etc. must be separated. From now on, the group of civil servants will no longer refer to a general term, but to civil servants who are engaged in a certain field.

All permanent power institutions at the central government are corresponding links in governing the world, and are not meant to be ladders for certain people to climb up in order to achieve so-called goals!
"Zhou Zhengxiong! During your tenure as Tongzhou Tongzhi, you knew that the commercial tax set by the imperial court was a mandatory tax imposed on all merchants in the world. How dare you use your power to shield unscrupulous merchants who wanted to evade taxes, evade taxes, and evade taxes!?"

While Zhu Youxiao was thinking about it, the words of Bi Ziyan's interrogation of the corrupt officials were heard by more people through the soldiers standing outside the Daming Gate.

"In Tongzhou alone, the commercial tax set by the imperial court has been examined by the Commercial Tax Police Corps, and there has been a shortfall of nearly 60 taels in the past two years!" "This is only the account of the past two years. Tongzhou is close to the capital and is an important thoroughfare on the North Grand Canal. I'm afraid there are even more bad debts before you!!"

Since this public trial was the first of its kind at the central government level and was initiated by the Ministry of Revenue, Bi Ziyan, as the Minister of Finance of the Ming Dynasty, had to conduct it well and set a good example for future public trials.

In fact, many details of this public trial had been clarified during the interrogation in Tongzhou. Bi Ziyan already knew how to execute these treacherous villains.

But the necessary procedures must be followed. After all, too many people from the capital city flocked to this public trial, and these words must be heard by more people.

"My God, in Tongzhou alone, there has been a shortfall of nearly 60 taels in commercial taxes over the past two years. How can this be tolerated!"

"In addition to commercial taxes, there are also land taxes, capitation taxes, customs duties, market taxes and many other tax items. Since the commercial taxes have been found to have such a big hole, what about other taxes?"

“I’m afraid it’s not clean either!”

"It's more than dirty, that's for sure. Have you ever thought about it? Tongzhou has been investigated, what about other prefectures, counties and cities in Northern Zhili? Don't forget that my Ming Dynasty has two capitals and thirteen provinces!"

As the public trial began, the crowd gathered outside the Daming Gate began to discuss in low voices after hearing the words sung by the soldiers from various places, and the crowd inevitably became agitated.

Because of these disturbances, the armored warriors at various substations became extremely nervous and shouted from time to time in order to maintain order outside the Daming Gate.

When these situations occurred, the person who was most nervous was none other than Chen Ce, the governor of the Beijing police. If any disturbance dared to occur during the public trial, it would be his responsibility!

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Therefore, after the public trial was held, people would run back and forth from time to time where Chen Ce was, in order to convey the military orders issued by Chen Ce.

"...The guilty official has failed the emperor's grace. He failed to keep his original intention during his tenure as Tongzhou Tongzhi." As the public trial proceeded tensely, Zhou Zhengxiong, who was kneeling on the ground, had already begun to tremble and was shaking uncontrollably.

"The guilty official regretted his decision. After receiving the first bribe of 2000 taels of silver, many things were no longer under his control. Although the bribes paid by those who bribed him were much more than the direct commercial taxes, what they wanted was not just to evade the commercial taxes."

"Since the first year of the Tianqi reign, Your Majesty has issued benevolent policies, gathering refugees from northern Zhili and other places, launching large-scale projects, and implementing the policy of using work for relief. The demand for grain, cloth, oil and other goods in Tongzhou alone has increased day by day, which has also led to an increase in prices. In order to swallow these huge profits, those who bribed the criminal officials have successively committed various crimes such as smuggling, framing, and human trafficking in Tongzhou..."

On the Daming Gate Tower, when he heard Zhou Zhengxiong's confessions that had been sung everywhere, anger rose in his heart. Although he knew that the implementation of the new policy, even if it benefited the lowest class, ultimately it had to rely on people to push it forward during the specific promulgation and implementation stage.

Then there is one situation that cannot be avoided.

That is, during the implementation of the new policy, some people had thoughts that they shouldn't have, thus turning beneficial policies into bad policies. This is why the starting point of the new policy was good, but most of them failed to gain a foothold.

In order to ensure the consistency of the new policy, in addition to strict defense, the more important point is to continuously rectify the administration of officials. This is not only to deter those who oppose it, but also to deter those who promote it. If this is not done, then who knows when the new policy will quietly change its nature, and the initiators at the center may not even know about these changes! !
(End of this chapter)