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Chapter 56 Idle life
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the Ministry of Rites notified all provinces, prefectures, counties and vassal states across the country that the name of the Ming Dynasty was changed from Wanli to Jingyang. The original 33rd year of Wanli has now become the first year of Jingyang.

There are still many things that need to be changed, such as calendars, utensils, flags, etc. Anyway, the Ministry of Rites cannot think about the Spring Festival, and it may not be possible to finish it until the summer.

In fact, even if there was no change of year name, the Ministry of Rites had no time to rest. Not only the Ministry of Rites, but also most of the officials in the Beijing Dynasty were busy criticizing each other.In order to find the material for the attack, the demon book case that happened the year before was brought out.

The first person to launch an attack was Qian Menggao, the official from the Criminal Division. He wrote that Guo Zhengyu, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, was under serious suspicion.The reason was that a fellow villager of Guo Zhengyu named Hu Hua reported and exposed Ruan Mingqing, a discipline instructor in Shouqu County, as the author of the demon book case. The accusation turned out to be a false accusation.Hu Hua also admitted that Guo Zhengyu ordered him to accuse Ruan Mingqing.

Why did Qian Menggao sue Guo Zhengyu? The motive seemed not very pure. Ruan Mingqing was his son-in-law, so it was a bit of a personal revenge, but his position also determined that he had the right to report and expose anyone's illegal activities.

Let's take a look at Qian Menggao's position first. He is assigned to Shi Zhong from the Criminal Division, starting from the seventh rank.Let's take a look at Guo Zhengyu's position. He is the right minister of the Ministry of Rites and is the third rank.One is a junior official from the seventh rank, equivalent to the inspector of the Commission for Discipline Inspection in later generations; the other is a high-ranking official from the third rank, equivalent to the deputy minister of foreign affairs and education in later generations.

The two people seemed to have nothing to do with each other. Even if Qian Menggao found out about Guo Zhengyu's problem, he should first report it to his superiors, and then the corresponding department officials would investigate and then interview him or something.How can a clerk directly and publicly accuse the deputy minister? Isn't this an overstep of authority?

In fact, it does not exceed the authority. Among the six ministries of the Ming Dynasty, there was a department called the Sixth Section. Although the administrative relations were under the six ministries, the work was not under the jurisdiction of the six ministries, but was directly responsible to the emperor.The chief officer of the six subjects is Zheng Qipin Du Gie Shizhong, followed by the left and right Gongshi Zhong from the seventh rank and the seventh rank Gie Shizhong.

Even though they are all minor officials, they have great power. They can return the emperor's imperial edicts, participate in political affairs, and impeach any official without evidence, which is called gossip.

The Liu Ke and the Censor of the Duchayuan were put together, and they were the most famous officials in the Ming Dynasty.The original intention of establishing it may be to serve as the emperor's eyes and ears like the eunuchs supervising the army, but after playing with it, it changed its nature and became a powerful weapon for cronies to attack each other.

Many people in later generations have been scolding officials for harming the country and saying that officials are hateful, but have you ever thought about it. Yanguan just completes his work within the framework of rules. What really harms the country and is hateful is not certain specific officials, but the formulation of this set of rules. rules man.

History has proven that a good set of rules can make bad people good, and a bad set of rules can make good people bad. Isn't this a living example?

Most of the officials who have passed the Jinshi examination and have just started working are full of enthusiasm and ideals, and plan to contribute to the country.But faced with a bad system, they all eventually became participants and victims of political struggles.

The most troublesome thing is that many people only see the superficial phenomena and describe them as sinners with eternal infamy, but turn a blind eye to the most fundamental issues, or pretend to be confused while pretending to understand.

Compared with the Qing Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty was actually not the worst.In the Qing Dynasty, the spokesperson was cancelled. Doesn't it sound very wise? Don't worry, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty came up with a more fucked up system to replace the spokesperson.

In the Qing Dynasty, all officials could and must often write secret messages to the emperor. There was only one content, which was to report every move of the officials around them to the emperor in secret.Anyone who writes less or less painfully is deliberately concealing it and is not loyal to the emperor. The consequences can be imagined.Whoever writes a lot and makes snitches every day to expose relatives and friends will be appreciated by the emperor and promoted to a noble rank.

What is this? This is forcing people to tear off the last fig leaf between people, treating everyone around them as mortal enemies, informing on each other, and framing each other, creating a situation where everyone is in danger.Then no one would think deeply about whether the emperor was right or wrong, and the emperor would be relieved.

As for whether letting so many people with corrupt morals and no ability other than playing tricks on others ascend to high positions will lower the moral bottom line of society and affect the development of the country, the rulers don't care.

All they want is power. The life and death of the people is nothing more than the number of livestock at home. It's not that they don't worry about it at all, but they don't treat it as human beings anyway.But with less power, it doesn't make any sense even if the country is extremely powerful. On the contrary, it makes him look more anxious.

In the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, they could not write secret letters to the emperor and report casually, but they could use their official duties as weapons.In any case, scolding is in vain. Officials can be impeached without evidence. Anyone who wants to deal with political opponents should first let the public officials stir up trouble. When the matter gets serious, the timing of entry will be decided based on the direction of the wind.

According to this logical analysis, Qian Menggao is a member of the Zhejiang Party, that is, Shen Yiguan, while Guo Zhengyu is a disciple of Shen Li, a proper member of the Donglin Party.Qian Menggao suddenly jumped out and said that Guo Zhengyu was suspicious. The target must be Shen Li, and Shen Yiguan must be standing behind him.

Then the whole story became clear. The Zhejiang Party and the Donglin Party started fighting again. This time, it was the Zhejiang Party who launched the attack first.The demon book case is just a weapon they use to unite the party and oppose dissidents. As long as they can prove that the demon book case is related to the other party, or muddy the water and take the opportunity to squeeze out a few officials of the other party, they will win a big victory.

Shen Li is not a weakling who can be easily kneaded, or the Donglin Party is not a good person and has very rich fighting experience.Seeing that Shen Li, the representative in the cabinet, was about to be dragged into the water, suddenly the author of the demon book was found, and was exposed by an anonymous letter from the people in Chaoyang.

What a coincidence!The timing was so perfect that I wouldn't even dare to write about it in a novel, but it happened in reality, and it happened in a court where elites gathered. The courtiers and the emperor were fooled as if they were fools. It's a pity that no one was able to do it. no way.

Who is the author of the demon book? His name is Jiao Shengguang. His surname is a bit unusual, but he is very vulgar.He is a down-and-out scholar and a polite scum who relies on his knowledge to make a living by writing things for others.

But obviously you can't make much money by writing, so in addition to regular writing, Gao Shengguang also works part-time as an extortionist.The specific method is to include some prohibited content that is not easy to be noticed in letters or poems, and then turn it around to blackmail the victim and ask him to take money to solve the problem.

Translated in later terms, Qiao Shengguang is a gunman who writes articles for some institutions and individuals, but often contains some prohibited content and vocabulary in his articles. After the article is published, he blackmails his employer. If you don't pay, I will expose it, so that The little crab will pinch you to death!
But why would a gentle scum who only cares about money write a demon book?This thing is obviously unprofitable and extremely risky, and it doesn't suit his character at all.When he was arrested by Jin Yiwei, Qiao Shengguang confessed, saying that it was because of personal grudges.

Once, he blackmailed a man named Zheng Guotai, but not only did he not get the money, he was also beaten.The person surnamed Zheng has a relatively strong background and a strong backing. He is the biological brother of Concubine Zheng.In order to take revenge on Zheng Guotai, he compiled the demon book, intending to disgust the Zheng family.

(End of this chapter)