Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Layoffs in the palace are not something that can be accomplished in a short period of time.

Especially near the end of the year, the palace was busy with affairs, and the queen was pregnant, so she didn't have much energy to take care of things.

Zhu Youjian demanded that everything be stable and asked the eunuchs in the palace to form a staffing committee to determine the staffing of the various government offices in the inner court and the palaces in the imperial palace.

For a long time in the future, the palace will use this organization as the basis, the increase or decrease of personnel will be strictly controlled, and there will be no major changes.

Because of this, the debate in the inner court was very intense, and Zhu Youjian had to focus a lot of his energy on the inner court and make decisions on some issues.

However, he did not leave the outer court idle, and took out a sharp sword that had been sharpened a long time ago.

This sharp sword belongs to Han Yilian.

This person was from Chengcheng, Shaanxi Province. He was a Jinshi in the 47th year of Wanli. He had previously served as the magistrate of Chenliu County. He was promoted to the position of Jieshizhong of the Ministry of Revenue for being the most honest official.

After he took office, he wrote a letter in July entitled "Encouraging Honesty and Punishing Corruption", in which he elaborated on the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, using the example of more than 500 gifts that he had refused after taking office as an example.

It mentioned many things that Zhu Youjian didn't know, such as:
It would be impossible to get a governor or a provincial governor without five or six thousand taels of silver.

A prefectural governor cannot get anything without two or three thousand taels of silver.

The officials in the capital who were selected for the imperial examinations and even for the provincial and imperial students were also purchased with money.

It is suggested that the emperor punish corruption, so that the ministers would regard money as dirty and fear money as a disaster, thus creating an atmosphere of not loving money.

When Zhu Youjian saw it, he was very impressed and summoned Han Yiliang to ask him if he had any evidence. He planned to find someone to serve as an example to rectify the corrupt atmosphere.

Han Yilian said he had the social record book, but when Zhu Youjian asked him to take it out, he just said it was hearsay.

This made Zhu Youjian quite disappointed. He thought that although Han Yilian wanted to be an honest official, he had no intention of burning his bridges and offending most of the officials.

So he was not appointed and was asked to take back the memorial he had written previously.

But he was not removed from his position as a clerk in the Ministry of Revenue. When the court was cleaning up the officials who were originally county magistrates, this person was kept.

No matter what, Han Yilian is an honest official, and he would feel more at ease placing such a person in the Ministry of Revenue.

A few months later, many things happened in the court, especially the arrest of Ruan Dacheng for corruption and bribery, and the cleanup of the Guanglu Temple for white grain, which made the court officials realize the emperor's determination to fight corruption.

After Zhou Yanru was transferred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the property declaration of officials was promoted one by one in each government office. Although the progress was difficult and many people just went through the motions, it was a good start and curbed the trend of corruption.

All this encouraged Han Yiliang, who realized that the emperor was determined to fight corruption. His previously restless mood gradually became firmer.

Especially after the gift tax was forcibly implemented by the emperor, Han Yilian made up his mind to revise the "Memorial on Encouraging Honesty and Punishing Corruption" he had written before and resubmit it.

This time he left no way out for himself and asked the emperor to publish the memorial in the newspaper to strengthen his determination.

Zhu Youjian saw his determination to punish corruption from his statement, so he instructed Zhou Yanru to recommend Han Yiliang as the censor.

Because of this, Han Yiliang's position was changed from the Ministry of Revenue to the Supervisory Censor of the Metropolitan Censorate. In addition, his past achievements and probation period were reviewed, and he was awarded the title of the Fifth Rank Palace Attendant Censor.

This position can be said to be a middle or high-level official in the court, and is eligible to participate in the regular court sessions on the 3rd, 6th and 9th days of the lunar calendar.

Han Yiliang was very touched by the emperor's trust in him and knew the reason for his promotion. The first thing he did after becoming the censor was to set up an anti-corruption bureau under the ICAC according to the emperor's instructions.

Because of the independent power of the censors to report matters, this office is subordinate to the ICAC, but in fact it is very independent. Even Zhou Yanru, the chief censor who presided over the ICAC, found it difficult to interfere in the internal affairs of the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

Han Yilian requested the emperor to transfer like-minded officials such as Zhao Yanqing, and also transferred some officials who were good at investigation from the Investigation Bureau headed by Liu Zongzhou, and asked the Weiwei Temple to cooperate, and began a vigorous anti-corruption campaign.

The breakthrough he made was the gift tax forcibly imposed by the emperor.

According to the gift tax regulations, anyone who receives or gives gifts worth more than ten taels at a time or more than one hundred taels in a year must pay this tax.

Otherwise it would be tax evasion and your citizenship would be revoked.

Han Yilian has refused many gifts since he took office, and he knows very well how serious the gift-giving culture is in the capital.

During the months he had been silent, he had often thought about the evidence the emperor had asked him when he summoned him. He knew that the current emperor attached great importance to evidence and would not punish officials without evidence.

So he had already collected relevant evidence and planned to use it as an example.

Zhao Yanqing was the censor of Shaanxi Province, and like Han Yilian, he opposed corruption.

Because Han Yilian was born in Shaanxi and had a lot of communication with him, he was transferred over when the Anti-Corruption Bureau was established.

At this time, looking at the evidence collected by Han Yiliang, Zhao Yanqing said with some worry:
“Brother Han, do you really want to start with this?”

"Lord Han is your master. Even if this matter is confirmed, Brother Han will still be criticized."

"Why not let me submit the petition? Brother Han will be criticized less."

Han Yiliang had hesitated before, but when he thought about the past few months of tossing and turning, he became determined and said firmly:

"If civil officials do not love money and military officials do not fear death, the world will be peaceful."

"If even the cabinet ministers accept gifts, how can we say that civil officials don't love money?"

"Don't mention that Han Ge Lao is my master. Even if he is my relative or friend, I will still file a petition to punish him."

"The most important thing in fighting corruption is to break all ties and not have any reservations."

"I just want to let everyone know that accepting bribes is illegal and the Anti-Corruption Agency has the power to punish."

These words are justified and show his determination.

Zhao Yanqing was deeply encouraged and said:

"When Zhang Jiangling was in power, Lord Zou dared to oppose the seizure of love without fear of power."

"Don't we, the younger generation, have the backbone of Zou Jun?"

"Don't mention that Han Gelao is not the Prime Minister. Even if he accepted the gift money, we dare to impeach him."

Zou Jun is Zou Yuanbiao, one of the three leaders of the Donglin Party, along with Gu Xiancheng and Zhao Nanxing.

This man had a great reputation throughout the world, and he had served as the Left Censor-in-Chief, and was a role model for many censors.

Zhao Yanqing used him as an example, but he actually had expectations in his heart. He believed that Han Yu was the leader of the Donglin School today and should be someone similar to Zou Yuanbiao.

If he still has a conscience, he should take the initiative to apologize after seeing these evidences.

Han Yilian actually also holds the same idea and believes that his master, Han Yu, the current leader of Donglin, is an upright person.

He was just deceived by his relatives, who accepted the gifts without telling him.

So he quickly submitted a memorial to the court, reporting the information he had collected about Han Yu's relatives accepting gifts and concealing memorials from eunuchs praising Wei Zhongxian.

The evidence in the memorial is very detailed, down to the exact date, place and person of the meeting, and the amount of gifts given and received.

There are even confessions obtained by Anti-Corruption Bureau investigators after they detained the gift-givers.

Almost everyone who saw this memorial was convinced that its contents were true.

As long as Han Yu cannot produce evidence of his ignorance, he may be imprisoned.

The Minister of Public Administration, Lü Tunan, had a keen sense of smell. After reading this memorial, he knew that it might cause a big stir in the court. With the Prime Minister Huang Liji already determined to retire next year and not in charge of things now, the prestige of the Second Prime Minister Han Yu was getting higher and higher, and many people even thought that he would be the next Prime Minister.

After this memorial is submitted, there must be a lot of people writing articles about it.

Those who still have extravagant hopes for the position of Prime Minister will definitely not miss this opportunity.

Opponents of the Donglin Party would also try to bring Han Yu down.

What the final outcome will be is something no one can predict.

As a neutral party, Lu Tunan did not want to get involved in this matter. He did not dare to stop the memorial from being submitted, and instructed a secretary:

"Make a copy of this memorial and send it to the Secretariat and the Cabinet, and directly to Prime Minister Huang."

The memorial was not sent to Han Yu, who was in charge of legal affairs as usual, but was sent directly to Huang Liji for the Prime Minister Huang Liji to deal with.

The secretary hesitated and asked:

"Lord Han is in charge of legal affairs. Shouldn't we send him a copy?"

Lu Tunan glanced at him and said:

"This matter involves Lord Han, and according to the rules he has to recuse himself."

"Send the memorials to the cabinet directly to Prime Minister Huang, and don't tell anyone else."

"Remember to keep it a secret, otherwise you know the consequences."

After warning the Secretary of the Central Secretariat, Lu Tunan labeled him unusable.

This Zhongshu Sheren, who was selected from the new Jinshi, should be a member of the Donglin Party or someone inclined towards the Donglin Party.

Lu Tunan didn't care about this kind of thing before, but now he realized the dangers -

These faction-forming people really put party interests first in everything else and do not care about the court system at all.

In the future, such people must not be used in important matters.

Not to mention Lu Tunan's feelings, in the cabinet, the Prime Minister Huang Liji also did not dare to act on his own after seeing this memorial.

He had already decided to retire, and the emperor had arranged for him to serve as the head of the Lifanyuan.

Faced with a case that could affect the selection of the next prime minister, he did not intend to get involved.

No matter who initiated this case or what was behind it, he didn't intend to care. He just submitted the memorial to the emperor and made him worry.

He did this because the process of handling memorials had changed. In the past, after a memorial was delivered to the Tongzhengsi, it had to be sent to the palace's secretariat, which would present it to the emperor, then to the cabinet for drafting, and then to the emperor or the Silijian for approval.

The current emperor found it troublesome, so after the five-institution restructuring some time ago, the power of classifying memorials in the Secretariat was transferred to the Tongzhengsi. After the Tongzhengsi classified the memorials, they were sent directly to the Cabinet. The Grand Secretaries wrote cross-scripts, and the emperor finally approved and made the decision.

This reduced the status of the secretarial office, and the memorials were sent directly to the cabinet, which might hide them. Therefore, there has been a change recently, that is, the Tongzhengsi must copy all memorials and send them to the secretarial office and the cabinet at the same time. If the cabinet makes any omissions, the secretarial office will find them by comparison.

The personnel sent by the Jinyiwei Secret Affairs Department to the Tongzheng Department also had an additional task. That was to classify the secrets of the memorials and give them numbers, so that it would be easier to compare and search.

Therefore, when the cabinet faces a difficult memorial now, it can submit it without writing a draft.

After all, the emperor did not give any instructions, and they sometimes didn't know how to write.

Unlike in the past, after the emperor sent the memorial to the cabinet, the Grand Secretary had to write a draft.

This time, after reading the memorial, Zhu Youjian neither made any statement nor sent it back to the cabinet to ask the Grand Secretary to write a draft.

Instead, at a regular meeting, the copied memorial was sent to all the grand secretaries and nine ministers.

Bring this matter out into the open, rather than resolve it privately.

Although this approach did not express an attitude, it showed that the emperor had no intention of helping Han Yu suppress the matter.

The Grand Secretaries and Nine Ministers present each had their own plans for this.

Han Yu also realized this, took off his black hat, knelt on the ground and apologized:
"Your Majesty, I am incompetent in managing my household. I beg Your Majesty to punish me."

Zhu Youjian is quite interesting:
"So, Han Qing is helping them to plead guilty?"

"Could it be that Han Qing has known about this for a long time and has concealed it from the public before?"

Cold sweat broke out on Han Yu's forehead, and he realized the emperor's dissatisfaction.

Indeed, at a time when the emperor has been holding high the banner of anti-corruption, as the second prime minister, such a thing happened in his family.

No wonder after the Anti-Corruption Agency was established, the first target was himself.

If he cannot get himself out of this matter, not only will his hope of becoming the Prime Minister be lost, he may even be dismissed from his post.

After all, it was clearly stated in the memorial that some of his relatives accepted gifts after the gift tax was passed, and the amount exceeded the gift tax threshold, but they did not take the initiative to pay the tax.

According to the emperor, paying taxes according to the law is the obligation of all Ming citizens. Those who evade taxes will not be regarded as Ming citizens and will be deprived of their political rights.

If he was implicated in this matter, it would mean that he was also involved in tax evasion and would be expelled as a Ming citizen.

Now that the Congress is in full swing, if an official is not even a Ming citizen, everyone knows what the consequences will be.

The people will not recognize such an official, and even the officialdom may regard him as a joke.

In order to avoid this consequence, Han Yu insisted that he had no idea that his relatives were accepting gifts in his name:

"I was falsely accused by the rebels of harboring two thousand taels of stolen money. I had no choice but to sell my land and property and borrow money from relatives and friends in order to hand over the so-called stolen money."

"At that time, they had nowhere to live, so they had to live in the cemeteries of their ancestors."

"These relatives and friends have been very helpful to me in the past, so when I come to the capital, I will bring them with me."

"But I don't know what they did."

"I don't have any extra money at home. I beg Your Majesty to understand!"

These words made many officials in the court feel sympathetic.

Back then, Wei Ni persecuted countless people under the banner of recovering stolen goods.

So much so that retired Grand Secretary like Han Yu was forced to live in the cemetery of his ancestors.

Zhu Youjian chose to reinstate Han Yu over Liu Yirong and Han Yu for this reason, thinking that Han Yu would be grateful for having pulled him out of the grave.

Unexpectedly, Han Yu did not appreciate it and played it very hard for a while to maintain his popularity. After Zhu Youjian ran out of patience, he chose to elevate Yuan Keli's status and use him to preside over the court for a while.

Later, Han Yu took the initiative to surrender, and under the banner of "returning power and authority to the lord, returning government affairs to the various departments, and returning the use and removal of punishments and rewards to public opinion", he regained Zhu Youjian's recognition and entered the cabinet as a second assistant.

Now, Zhu Youjian looked at this minister who could not even take out two thousand taels of silver at the beginning, and he swore solemnly that he had no knowledge of his relatives and friends accepting gifts.

He didn't know whether he should continue to trust this person. (End of this chapter)