Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 159 Zhu Qi arrested a corrupt official for deceiving the emperor and should be sentenced to death!
It was August of the first year of the Jiajing reign.

The leaves are turning yellow and the rain is becoming less frequent.

The south of the Yangtze River is all ink-colored.

Zhu Qi and others who came in plain clothes wore conical hats, black cloaks, and straw sandals. In order to facilitate wading across the stream, they rolled up their trouser legs, revealing a section of their strong and powerful mantis legs.

And on his waist, a badge was half exposed.

The words "Bei Zhenfusi" are written on it.

Hua Bangrui felt as if his shoulders were about to be crushed, and he had to look back in pain.

After watching this scene, his previous smug look naturally disappeared, and his face was filled with horror.

He didn't know why the Jinyiwei suddenly came to arrest him.

To know.

He felt that he was not a big shot of high status or fame.

and so……

He has always believed that a person like him who can stir up the world can hide very well.

but now……

The Jinyiwei were indeed here to arrest him, not a high-ranking official like Zhu Xizhou or a local official like the prefect of Yingtian Prefecture.

This also shocked Hua Bangrui.

Simultaneously.

Frightened dead soul!

Zhu Xizhou and the officials present were also quite surprised.

Especially Zhu Xizhou.

He couldn't help but look at Hua Bangrui and asked, "What is going on?"

Hua Bangrui was shivering and his teeth were chattering against each other, so he could no longer speak. He was put in shackles and handcuffs by the Jinyiwei who came with Zhu Qi.

Zhu Qi then bowed to Zhu Xizhou who was looking over and took the initiative to answer: "Du Tang didn't know that this person was suspected of helping others to deceive the princess, which was a serious offense, so the order was issued to put him in prison!"

After hearing this, Zhu Xizhou looked at Hua Bangrui with a complicated expression: "I took you to be my official because of your father's recommendation. How could you do such a treasonous thing?"

Hua Bangrui still did not answer, but gradually recovered his composure.

Zhu Xizhou took the initiative to ask him: "Is the burning of the Jiage storehouse in Yingtian Prefecture also related to you?"

Hua Bangrui, who had calmed down a bit, knew that he was doomed, so he simply revealed his true face. At this moment, he suddenly laughed again:

"It is true if you say so, and it is not true if you say so."

Zhu Xizhou's pupils couldn't help but dilate after hearing this.

then.

Snapped!
He suddenly gritted his teeth and slapped Hua Bangrui in the face.

"madness!"

Zhu Xizhou also spat at Hua Bangrui.

In his view, by doing so, people like Hua Bangrui would not only prevent the emperor who was determined to reform from giving up the reform, but would also make the emperor who was determined to govern the country simply use this opportunity to conduct a land survey first and deepen the reform.

For this reason, he also reminded Hua Bangrui and others not to think of going against the Emperor's will, but to learn to obey the Emperor's will and wait for the Emperor's will to change itself.

But Hua Bangrui and other clerks don't think so.

In Hua Bangrui's view, losing financial benefits is secondary. The key point is that if the court is allowed to make such changes, they, the clerks whose position is almost hereditary, will completely lose the opportunity to monopolize power at the grassroots level.

This is something Huabangrui cannot tolerate.

Therefore, when Hua Bangrui was dragged away by the Jinyiwei, he took the initiative to shout at Zhu Xizhou: "Zhu Xizhou, you are so stupid! Do you know that from now on, not only the Jiage warehouse in Yingtian Prefecture, but also the Jiage warehouses in various prefectures, states and counties will have problems!"

"Even if the court wants to re-survey and compile a new register, there will still be other problems, because as long as the court wants to use our children, no matter what he does, his register will continue to have problems!"

"Just wait!"

"You people, after you have studied and become officials, you become more and more timid."

"What did Taizu do back then? Didn't he still let the people of the world be trampled upon by us?!"

Hua Bangrui's words.

Zhu Xizhou was struck by lightning.

He immediately instructed the people around him: "Immediately send a letter to the governors and inspectors of various places, asking them to strictly prevent any mishaps in the Jiage Treasury, especially the tax and labor service registers stored in the Jiage Treasury."

"Yes!"

"Report!"

But just as his people agreed, a soldier from the Yingtian governor brought a letter saying, "The Yingtian governor's office urgently reported to the capital that the Jiage storehouse in She County, Huizhou, was robbed and most of the county's tax and labor records were lost! It is no longer possible to collect silk from the population."

Zhu Xizhou was stunned after hearing this.

Zhu Qi, who had not walked far, was surprised after hearing the report from the soldiers.

He was ordered to come to Nanjing from Zhejiang to arrest Hua Bangrui.

Because his sister was a loyal maidservant beside the emperor, and he himself was an orphan raised in Prince Xing's Mansion, he was sent from Zhejiang to Nanzhi to develop the power of the Jinyiwei and keep an eye on Nanzhi for the emperor.

Arresting Hua Bangrui was just a side job for him.

Zhu Wu continued to stay in Yuyao, Zhejiang, and developed the power of the Jinyiwei in Zhejiang, preparing to keep a close eye on the maritime trade in the Dinghai area and Japan across the sea in the future.

"Report!"

"The Jiaxing Prefecture in Zhejiang Province urgently reported to the capital, who ordered a check on the treasury and found that due to the lax supervision of the petty officials, the tax and labor records had been eaten by insects and rats."

then.

More troops brought news from Zhejiang.

After hearing this, Zhu Xizhou couldn't help but curse: "Damn it!"

Hua Bangrui sneered more and more complacently.

Even many clerks here were laughing secretly.

Zhu Xizhou seemed to sense the smug looks of these people, and glanced at them with an unfriendly look.

But when Zhu Xizhou glanced over, the clerks all lowered their heads. Zhu Xizhou didn't say much.

He then sent an urgent letter to the court to report the matter and apologize to Zhu Houcong.

It stands to reason.

In many places in the southeastern provinces, there were problems with the tax and labor service lists in the warehouses being lost, infested by rats, and stolen.

As the governor, he naturally needs to be held responsible for this.

Zhu Xizhou also had to admit that he was unable to prevent clerks and local tycoons from sabotaging the reform, causing the tax and labor service lists to disappear in large numbers in various ways within a short period of time.

although……

Yang Yiqing had already reminded him.

He has also sent letters to bureaucrats at all levels of government offices, asking them to take a close look at the tax and labor service lists.

But the avoidance system means that all officials in the world are outsiders.

Although this prevented local officials from colluding with local tyrants, it also made it more difficult for local officials to control and be familiar with the specific conditions in their jurisdiction, and they were more easily manipulated by local clerks.

You know, it takes a long time for many officials to become familiar with the dialect of the area they govern.

Some were so lazy that they simply gave up and retreated to the city government, even calling it following Taizu's established laws, resting with the people and not disturbing the local people.

Unfortunately, many officials’ term of office in a region is not long, at most three years.

Therefore, although Zhu Xizhou warned bureaucrats at all levels of government to pay attention to this matter, it was still difficult to avoid the loss of tax and labor service lists in the warehouses of many prefectures, states, and counties.

The problem of clerks and local tycoons controlling the grassroots cannot be solved overnight, and it is even more impossible to completely stop them from causing trouble with just an administrative order.

All Zhu Xizhou could do was to do his best and report their difficulties and problems to the emperor to let him know the difficulty of the reform.

In this way, whether the emperor continues to use him or dismisses him, it will be a good result for him.

Because he himself does not support such a laborious reform in his heart. He is more in favor of following the general trend and making appropriate adjustments, and not doing anything that affects the basic principles of power distribution.

and so……

For him, it would be better if the emperor was also afraid of difficulties! It didn't matter if he was not afraid of difficulties, he would try his best anyway, so that the emperor would not blame him for not being active.
"Your Majesty will probably be furious or discouraged, right?"

Zhu Xizhou couldn't help but ask himself this question after sending an urgent report on the problems with warehouses in many places.

After receiving Zhu Xizhou's urgent letter, Zhu Houcong was neither furious nor discouraged.

He encountered many obstacles in his previous life.

Therefore, he just told Liang Chu: "I will allow him to continue to default on the two taxes this year and next year, and let Zhu Xizhou work hard and be sincere for the country!"

Liang Chu agreed, and at the same time secretly admired the emperor's calmness, which was truly as steady as a mountain and unmoved by any storm.

of course.

Liang Chu also knew that this was because the court had long anticipated such a change.

But as a sixteen-year-old emperor, after learning that so many local clerks and wealthy families were provoking the court, he was so calm. In his opinion, it was still rare.

The Ming Dynasty Practical School has begun training its first batch of students.

This first batch of students were the students of the Imperial Academy who had participated in the review of the Yellow Book.

Most of these students are young and energetic.

But they were also the first people to begin to doubt whether the Ming Dynasty was doomed.

Because after seeing the yellow book that records the land and population situation of the Ming Dynasty, they will truly understand how weak the imperial court's control in this regard is today.

even if……

Most of them did not dare to reflect the real situation directly like Shen Xueli did.

However, they at least understood that the Yellow Book of the Ming Dynasty was basically in name only, and it was no longer clear how much land and population were secretly occupied by wealthy families in various places. They also understood that the court seemed indifferent to all this, and for the first time they began to feel disappointed with the rulers of the empire.

And when the imperial edict asked them to go to the Ming Dynasty Practical Politics School to study practical politics in preparation for the upcoming land survey and land reclamation.

Naturally, they realized that this was the emperor's intention to reorganize the Yellow Book system, and that he was ultimately going to give special treatment to those of them who were willing to review the Yellow Book.

Many of these students burst into tears because of this.

The student Shen Xueli couldn't help but shed tears and sighed, "Since Emperor Taizu, no emperor has been willing to rectify the problems here. Now that the emperor is willing to do so, it can be said that he is working hard to govern the country!"

Shen Xueli entered the school because he was only running for the position of imperial son-in-law. He planned that if he was not selected, he would obtain the title of Juren in this way in the future, and then directly become an official to realize his ambition.

The first chief academic officer of the Ming Dynasty Practical School was Xi Shu, the left vice minister of the Ministry of Revenue, who also served as the minister of the Ministry of Rites.

Xi Shu had served as Governor of Huguang and Governor-General of the Grain Transport Administration. He was experienced in land clearing, water conservancy, equal labor service, disaster relief, and military affairs, so he listed these five courses for the first batch of students.

When Xi Shu was giving practical political training to the first batch of students at the Daming Practical Politics School, the wealthy aristocratic families in Nanzhi were secretly delighted by the problems that were arising from the storage of warehouses in various places, which had caused many local officials to be overwhelmed.

"If you ask me, why not take this opportunity to propose that the court implement a tax farming system!"

"We still pay three million dan of grain and one million taels of gold and silver every year."

"But the government doesn't need to collect taxes. We can directly contract it to our local big households, and we can collect the taxes and pay them."

On this day, Xu Lin, a local official from Songjiang Prefecture, expressed his thoughts when he gathered with Jin Wei, a local official from Suzhou, to celebrate.

Jin Wei smiled and said, "Unfortunately, this is not the previous Yuan Dynasty. The emperor will not implement the tax farming system no matter what he says, unless the Xu Tanhua, the new candidate in your palace, can really use his eloquence to persuade His Majesty in the future."

"Then he will just wait for more natural disasters to occur! The flooding of warehouses and storehouses in various places is secondary. The main event will be the flooding of offices, granaries, and palaces in various places, even the six ministries and the Censorate."

Xu Lin sneered and said, "How about the review by the Imperial Censor Ma Fengxian on the matter of the Emperor's personal army, the Yongwei Battalion, plundering the people's property and harming the people? It's always uncomfortable that this army is still staying in Nanzhi!"

“It’s almost the end of the case.”

"On the third day of October, he will invite me and other local officials to the lobby to watch the trial together."

"Don't worry, Ma Gong is a proponent of etiquette and will stand on our side."

Jin Wei said.

Xu Lin said: "That's good."

And wait until the golden autumn of October.

Xu Lin, Jin Wei and other local celebrities who came from the Nanzhi gentry went to the temporary prosecution office set up in Kunshan County Government.

On this day, the Imperial Inspector Ma Lu also began to investigate the case of the Yongwei Camp plundering people's property and harming the people.

Ma Lu first closed the case of stealing ducks, and said: "After this official's investigation, the theft of ducks did not happen. Student Jin Kun slandered the imperial army. He is guilty of deceiving the emperor and should be sentenced to death!"

(End of this chapter)