Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 903 The Real Rival

The Three Law Departments of the Ming Dynasty consisted of three institutions: the Dali Temple, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Generally speaking, the Ministry of Punishment is mainly in charge of trials. Dali Temple has become a prudent institution, managing the refutation and redress of unjust and wrong cases. s right.

To a certain extent, the three judicial divisions have reflected the characteristics of separation of powers and mutual restraint.

Compared with later generations, the Ministry of Punishment of the Ming Dynasty obviously had greater power than the public security, while the authority of Dali Temple was less than that of the courts, and the Inspectorate was more powerful than the Supreme Procuratorate.

There was also a Jinyiwei in the Ming Dynasty, which can be regarded as equivalent to the National Security and Discipline Inspection Commission, but Jinyiwei has now abolished the power of arrest and review, and has basically been reduced to an intelligence organization.

From the point of view of the Ming Dynasty’s political system, the six ministries and the cabinet are responsible for maintaining the distance of the world, while the Dali Temple, the Inspectorate, and the Jinyiwei are bureaucratic groups that correct themselves to ensure the long-term healthy operation of the court.

To control the six ministries and the cabinet is to gain administrative power, while to control the Dali Temple and the Metropolitan Procuratorate is to monitor the bureaucratic group.

Obtaining administrative power can gain benefits in the administrative process, control the promotion of officials, and control the future of officials. Obtaining the right to monitor and judge officials can control officials and form a restraining relationship.

There are important officials from the Chu Party in each department of the Three Law Departments, and the Procuratorate is mainly responsible for the discipline of officials, mainly in the territory of Jiangnan scholars such as Qian Qianyi, but Wang Yan is not at ease with Qian Qianyi, so he arranged for Yuan Pengnian to enter Metropolitan Procuratorate.

After all, people who are officials will have some problems more or less. If there is no manpower in the Metropolitan Procuratorate, someone will deal with the Chu Party, which will be a big trouble for the Chu Party.

Generally speaking, the Metropolitan Procuratorate will only show up when it needs to be appointed. Qian Qianyi and others have served as inspectors and censors, but because they do not belong to any faction, they are remnants of Donglin, and their power in the court is weak, so they cannot afford to offend them. Any faction of the three kings, so the Inspectorate has a very low sense of existence in the Nanjing court, and basically has no contribution and say.

This led to insufficient supervision. Officials of the three factions were not afraid of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and corruption and power struggles followed.

Generally speaking, the Inspectorate would only come out when it was time to recruit people. When everyone heard the Inspectorate's proposal, they couldn't help but tremble in their hearts.

"The Procuratorate's proposal this time is aimed at the corruption of officials and local officials' violation of imperial orders." Yuan Pengnian's background is not very good, and he was a little embarrassed in front of several ministers. He saw that there was no abnormality on the faces of the officials, bowed and continued: "Next year, the Inspectorate will send three groups to inspect the censors to inspect the localities. First, we will start from Huguang and Liangguang to conduct an inventory of local officials!"

"Check Huguang and Guangdong first?"

This year, the Suzhou prefect of the Chu Party framed a large silk weaver in Suzhou on the charge of secretly communicating with the Qing court, robbed assets of more than [-] taels of silver, a thousand looms, and forced the businessman to death.

Fueled by the two factions, this incident caused a stir in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In the end, Wang Yan ordered a strict investigation, and sent a cousin of the Wang family to prison for interrogation before suppressing the matter.

When everyone heard that the censor was going to be sent to inspect the place, they thought that Wang Yan was going to trouble Tang Lu, thinking that he was going to take action against Tang and Lu factions, but they didn't want to actually check themselves.

As soon as Yuan Pengnian finished speaking, the Chu Party officials present exploded.Huguang and Liangguang are the strongholds of the Chu Party, so why did they investigate their own people first?

Wang Yanzuo was in the central hall, and seeing the reaction of the crowd, he coughed lightly to make everyone quiet, and then said: "This proposal by the Procuratorate is an isolated suggestion. If you have any objections, you can speak up."

"Your Highness, although Wang Fuji's corruption has brought us a bad influence, there are also many problems between the Zhejiang and Tang factions. The censor will inspect the southwest first, and I'm afraid the people below will be emotional!"

The Chu Party is now a vested interest group, and it is gradually breaking away from Wang Yan's control. He can no longer be arbitrary in many things.

Yan Qiheng arranged a large number of officials from the Chu Party in Lianghu and Guangdong. They huddled together, and there must be a lot of nasty things among them. Naturally, he didn't want Yushi to go to inspect the southwest.

Absolute power will inevitably lead to corruption. Wang Yan glanced at everyone, and then said in a deep voice: "You are all people who are determined to revive our imperial Han nation. This inspection by the censor will definitely damage the interests of some people. But if we don’t investigate, our ideals will come to naught. It’s only been a long time since Nanjing was conquered, and some people have been corrupted. If we let it go, Zhang and Li’s generation will rise again, and we will all suffer, and it will be too late to regret it by then!”

The Chu Party is getting bigger and bigger. Although there is no obvious corruption at the top, there are mixed fish and dragons at the bottom, and problems are inevitable. Many high-level people understand this, but sometimes they know it well, but they can only pretend not to see it. .

"I am also deeply worried about what His Highness is worried about, but it is too early to inspect at this time~~~"

Wang Yan waved his hand and interrupted Qu Congzhi's words, "Gu knows what you think, from Gu's point of view, neither Hauge nor Dorgon is my opponent, Daming, our enemy will always be our own. "

From everyone's point of view, in the period of conquering the world, one must be lenient to his subordinates so that people will follow him. But in Wang Yan's view, this period has passed slowly, and it is time for gradual changes. Besides, he is not depriving his subordinates of In terms of interests, his targets are those who have seriously crossed the line. To a certain extent, he is also safeguarding the interests of the entire gentry group.

Wang Yan glanced at the crowd, "It's not that they are not allowed to reap benefits. Official salaries have been increased this year, and the law that officials' family members are not allowed to do business has not been investigated. The people below have already reaped a lot of benefits, but some people are not satisfied. , If you want to be greedy again, then you should kill them. Also, what happened to the Qingzhang land in Huguang and Liangguang? What do they want to do if they still can’t get it done? batch of officials."

Everyone in the room understands why Wang Yan asked the censor to inspect it. Apart from corruption, the main problem is that the land in the southwest has not been cleared. The people below did not take him seriously and angered him.

Yan Qiheng and the others saw that Wang Yan's mind had been made up, they looked at each other, but they didn't make any further comments on the Yushi's inspection.

Wang Yan waited for a while, saw everyone nodded slightly, and added, "In the future, the Inspectorate's supervision of officials will be strengthened, and I'm going to add a proposal to open a channel among the people. Tens of thousands of letters can be directly handed over to the cabinet, and the cabinet must respond within a month, so that public opinion can have an outlet, and huge corruption will be avoided!"

(End of this chapter)