Zhu Yuanzhang Returns from Modern Times

Chapter 61 The traitor jumps out
As soon as Zhu Yuanzhang said these words with murderous intent, Zhu Biao was shocked instantly!
He thought that after this series of events, his father was no longer as angry.

At least the hatred towards Li Shanchang is not as strong as before.

Even when he hated Li Shanchang the most, he just beat him up severely in public, but did not really take Li Shanchang's life.

Then now, there would be no killing of Li Shanchang.

Why now, all of a sudden, they want to kill Li Shanchang again?

Li Shanchang is indeed guilty of a crime worthy of death, but he really cannot be killed at this moment!

After being stunned, Zhu Biao immediately became anxious and wanted to persuade his father to calm down.

Don't be impulsive in this matter.

"Make a line on his death exemption certificate, changing it from two death exemptions to one, and use the death exemption certificate to pay for his life!"

These nobles who founded the Ming Dynasty all had iron certificates of immunity from death, which was suggested to Zhu Yuanzhang by Li Shanchang.

The Duke-level iron certificate of immunity from death can exempt the person from two deaths and his son from one death.

Those at the marquis level will be spared one death penalty and their sons will be spared one death penalty.

For those at the earl level, the death penalty cannot be truly avoided, but it can be used to offset certain sins and punishments.

Hearing what his father said again, Zhu Biao breathed a sigh of relief.

The tension in my heart disappeared in an instant.

Fortunately, fortunately, the emperor did not really get completely angry.

I still have a very clear understanding of things.

The move of first sentencing Li Shanchang to death and then using an iron certificate of immunity from death to atone for his crime was simply a stroke of genius!

It's much better than what I had in mind.

Ginger is still spicy!

At this time, Zhu Biao suddenly realized that he had misunderstood his father.

My father often seems to be irritable about many things, but in reality he is not.

When dealing with important things and important people, I am actually very calm.

Be able to suppress the murderous intent in your heart and make decisions that are in line with the overall situation.

"Biao'er, do you think your father really wants to kill Li Shanchang?"

When talking to Zhu Biao, the murderous look on Zhu Yuanzhang's face turned into a smile, even faster than the face-changing in Sichuan Opera.

Zhu Biao smiled a little embarrassedly: "I misunderstood my father."

"You got it right, we really want to kill this bastard right now!"

Zhu Yuanzhang still protected his eldest son very much.

"However, this bastard can't die yet. We have great use for him."

Zhu Biao naturally knew what the great use his father was talking about.

Li Shanchang really didn't do a good job this time. He still used the same tactics as during the turbulent times.

But this guy's prestige is really high.

Even though his father severely humiliated him this time, many Huaixi nobles still recognized him as the leader.

Although the Huaixi nobles have many faults, if you really think about it, they are still the most solid force that my father can rely on.

For them, you can give them a good beating to make them behave themselves.

But we cannot really dig out the roots of the Huaixi nobles.

If this is really done, it will be a tragedy for loved ones and a joy for enemies.

Although the Ming Dynasty appears stable now, it actually still has many serious problems.

If there were no large army to suppress it, there would inevitably be a lot of great turmoil.

If we don’t handle it properly, war will break out again and the people will suffer!

"This old dog Li Shanchang was a scholar, although he didn't study very well back then. During the Yuan Dynasty, he didn't even pass the imperial examination to become a juren, and was only a scholar.

However, among the nobles in Huaixi, he was already the most learned person.

The more books people read, the more they understand, and they tend to weigh the gains and losses when encountering things.

Don't do things without thinking.

With him around, even if there is a dispute with us, many of the Huaixi nobles will not dare to fight us to the death, and will only fight without breaking up.

If he were not there, many of those rough guys would not consider so much or think so far.

Many of them are good at fighting, but they are really not good at thinking.

If you encounter something and someone fan the flames from behind, you will quickly lose your temper.

Judging from this alone, Li Shanchang cannot be killed now."

After saying this, Zhu Yuanzhang paused and suddenly forced a smile on his face.

A very cold and strange smile.

"In addition to these, Li Shanchang has a greater role.

We are also planning to ask him to help us clean up the parasites in the world!
Without Li Shanchang, this would be difficult to accomplish!"

After hearing what Zhu Yuanzhang said, Zhu Biao was unable to understand what his father meant for a moment.

He understood the need to cleanse the world of corrupt officials, but when it came to linking the matter with Li Shanchang, he didn't understand.

Li Shanchang was severely punished by his father this time, and he was probably hating his father to death.

In this situation, how could he possibly cooperate with his father?

What's more, it's an offensive job to clean up the parasites in the world.

"Don't worry, Biao'er, he will! The treacherous minister will jump out on his own!"

Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to see Zhu Biao's doubts, and began to explain, his words very confident.

Zhu Yuanzhang was certainly confident, because in his previous life, after he announced the cessation of construction of Zhongdu and the relocation of the capital, Li Shanchang was unwilling to accept defeat.

He began to lead officials from many places to compete with himself.

Using various reasonable excuses, they slowed down the speed of transporting money and food to the border front, causing food shortages on the front lines.

It also slows down the operation of many local government affairs.

He wanted to use this method to force himself to submit and then continue to build the Zhongdu City.

At that time, I was really stumped. I felt like a tiger trying to eat a hedgehog and didn't know where to start.

After all, there are so many people involved this time, and they come from all over the country.

Moreover, all the reasons given are quite reasonable.

Let you know clearly that there is a big problem here, and know that they are following Li Shanchang to fight against you as the emperor.

But there is no way to do anything to them.

The situation had been at a stalemate for several months. When the pressure on me was increasing and I was about to throw the table, I finally found an opportunity.

Someone from the Imperial Guard Commandery secretly found blank account books with official seals on them from the officials who came to Beijing to file taxes!
He seized the opportunity, counterattacked immediately, and directly executed more than a thousand local chief seal officials who had falsified accounts!

The offensive launched by Li Shanchang was smashed to pieces!
It was also from the Empty Seal Case, which was later called one of the Four Major Cases of Hongwu, that Li Shanchang's prestige was completely destroyed.

This allowed the local areas to be more controlled by the imperial court rather than Li Shanchang.

Now, he has once again stopped the construction of Zhongdu City, and he is more decisive than in his previous life. Although it is eight or nine months earlier, according to Li Shanchang's character, he will definitely use this method to deal with him again!

People who have come out of troubled times, especially those who have always held power like Li Shanchang, are very resilient and will never give up so easily.

This is the biggest card in Li Shanchang's hand now, and he can't help but play it.

With the experience of his previous life, he knew how to deal with it. Wasn't Li Shanchang just delivering food to him and helping him get rid of the local pests in the Ming Dynasty?
The local bureaucracy of the Ming Dynasty needs a good overhaul.

The Yuan Dynasty collapsed too quickly in its late period. During the Northern Expedition, the Yuan capital was captured in just one year.

Many places surrendered at the sight of the enemy.

This also led to the fact that a large number of local officials were still the same people from the Yuan Dynasty.

The Yuan Dynasty had a very corrupt bureaucracy and implemented a tax-farming system.

As long as the local governments paid the taxes required by the imperial court, the imperial court would not be responsible for anything else.

Under such circumstances, one can imagine what the situation of these local officials is like.

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, these people changed their allegiance, even though he made various regulations and repeatedly emphasized that officials must be honest and clerks must not disturb the people.

But in reality, the effect is not great.

Many people only comply on the surface, but are still corrupt and abuse their power inwardly, which is extremely excessive.

Without a treatment like scraping the bone to remove the poison, it is difficult to achieve any good results.

He had long wanted to take action to rectify the problem of local administration.

But there is no good reason to involve so many places.

Secondly, the Ming Dynasty was just established and there were many important tasks to be done, and things had different priorities.

So it was postponed.

But now, after eight years of governance, many problems have been addressed.

Now we can finally take action against those local officials who still cling to the Yuan Dynasty thinking, abide by the Yuan Dynasty rules, and delusionally think of their Ming Dynasty as the Yuan Dynasty!

Kill him and your head will roll like a river of blood!
Zhu Yuanzhang thought about this and couldn't wait any longer. He wanted Li Shanchang to quickly mobilize many local officials to oppose him! "Your Majesty, the Minister of Rites has been brought here."

Eunuch Wang’s voice rang out.

Zhu Yuanzhang withdrew his thoughts and his face instantly became long: "Bring him in to see me!"

"We are honoring the innocent people who died unjustly. Why don't you worship instead of standing alone?"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the Minister of Rites Niu Liang who was brought in with scrutiny.

Many people could not bear Zhu Yuanzhang's dark face, rude questioning, and undisguised dissatisfaction.

Niu Liang was not flustered.

He saluted Zhu Yuanzhang in a formal manner, and then began to answer the emperor's questions.

"Your Majesty, it is not that I do not want to perform the ceremony, but I will follow Your Majesty in worshipping.

This kind of memorial service is really not in accordance with etiquette.

How can it be justified to offer sacrifices to the souls of the people when offering sacrifices to heaven or issuing a confession of guilt?
Throughout history, there has never been a precedent for a king of a country to kneel down and kowtow to the souls of the people who have died..."

Niu Liang's etiquette was very standard and he seemed very humble, but his words were not polite.

This was equivalent to confronting Zhu Yuanzhang directly in person, saying that it was not his fault, but that it was Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor, who acted wrongly.

He was right to do so.

Zhu Yuanzhang's face became even darker.

"No precedent? We are the precedent!
We are the emperor, and our every word and action is courtesy!

So many people died unjustly while building Zhongdu City. What's wrong with holding a memorial service for them when we issue the edict of repentance?
The edict of confession of sins is not only spoken to God, but also to the people!

In everything, people are the foundation of a country.

Why can't we bow down to their unjustly dead souls and pay tribute to them?

This is the greatest gift!"

After hearing what Zhu Yuanzhang said, the Minister of Rites Niu Liang trembled slightly for a moment.

This is because of anger.

So unorthodox!

What did the emperor say?

He's full of fallacies and heresies!

Not only did he fail to realize how big a mistake he had made, but he also acted with confidence and made plausible excuses.

Excessive!

unacceptable!

The current emperor was born a cowherd and later became a beggar and a monk. He is definitely not one of those people who read books of sages.

For this reason, they had very low expectations of the emperor and did not require him to behave in accordance with etiquette in all aspects.

But at least there should be no deviation in major matters.

Fortunately, although the emperor came from a humble background, he admired the teachings of sages very much.

They also attach great importance to etiquette.

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, many great scholars and people well versed in etiquette were appointed to formulate etiquette in various aspects.

He himself also strictly abided by many of the established rituals.

This made everyone else very happy.

I think the emperor can still be saved.

But who could have thought that when the emperor was offering a confession of guilt to the world, he would suddenly behave like this!
That would be fine, but afterwards I had someone bring me here and pointed out his mistakes to his face, and he still said such things!
He didn't realize at all that he was wrong!
Doesn’t the emperor know that this ritual system is mostly about protecting the emperor and maintaining imperial power?
Am I doing this for his own good?

It's really like a dog biting Lu Dongbin, not knowing how to appreciate a good person's kindness!

If it were about other matters, Niu Liang would definitely not say anything more after the emperor had said so much.

Not only that, he would also admit his mistakes to the emperor and pray for his forgiveness.

But now it’s different. In his opinion, it involves the fundamentals.

There can be no compromise on this matter.

He had to make the emperor realize how dangerous his ideas were and how big a mistake he had made this time.

Let the emperor wake up.

Not to mention asking the emperor to publicly admit his mistake to the world, but at least he should not do anything that seriously violates etiquette and undermines his dignity in the future.

“Your Majesty, it is naturally good that you care about the people, and it is also okay to pay tribute to the people.

However, it depends on the occasion and method.

There are occasions and rituals for offering sacrifices to heaven, and there are occasions and rituals for offering sacrifices to earth.

There are also occasions and rituals for offering sacrifices to the deceased people.

The people are the people, and the sky is the sky.

The people are not heaven, so we cannot offer sacrifices to the people in the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven.

Your Majesty, as an emperor, you cannot kowtow to the souls of the dead.

This is wrong.

Your Majesty, you are the king, and the people are not even your subjects, and their status is low.

Although there is a saying that the dead are greater, there is a limit to this.

Your Majesty, personally offering sacrifices to them is the greatest favor you can do for them.

Being able to pour them a glass of wine is the blessing they have earned in ten lifetimes.

They couldn't even afford to bow.

What's more, Your Majesty is kneeling down to pay homage?"

Niu Liang maintained his posture of greeting and spoke slowly and calmly.

However, the implicit meaning of these words made Zhu Yuanzhang furious.

This guy has been playing the opposite of himself, saying that the people are lowly people, both when they are alive and after they die.

A lowly person should act like a lowly person, and should not be allowed to become noble.

Even I, the emperor, cannot do this!

"Fuck your motherfucker!"

Zhu Yuanzhang pointed at Niu Liang's nose and started scolding him.

The man then stood up, took three or two steps to Niu Liang, and kicked him in the stomach!

Kick Niu Liang to the ground!

Niu Liang held his stomach, his body arched like a shrimp, his mouth wide open, and he could hardly breathe for a moment.

I can’t say a single word of those unfinished words!
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the fallen Minister of Rites with uncontrollable murderous intent in his eyes.

Niu Liang, this bastard, is really stubborn and shameless!
When he was offering sacrifices to the people, this bastard openly went against him. He didn't kill him, but had someone bring him to him first.

This is giving him a chance.

But he still doesn't repent and keeps on talking and saying such ugly things.

How despise the people!

"Your Majesty, even if you beat me, I will still hold this view!
The gift cannot be discarded!

The common people are lowly people! What you did is wrong!
If this continues, the country will no longer be a country!
This minister is doing this for Your Majesty and for the sake of the Ming Dynasty!"

It took Niu Liang a while to catch his breath. He endured the pain and knelt on the ground, kowtowed and saluted, repeating the same words over and over again.

Zhu Yuanzhang was filled with murderous intent and could no longer suppress it.

"Come here, throw this bastard to the ground and kill him in front of the corpses of the laborers outside the city!
Then cut off his head and offer it to the souls of the lowly people he mentioned!"

At the command, the Jinwu Guards immediately stepped forward, one on the left and one on the right, carrying Niu Liang from the ground and walking out.

"Father, this..."

Zhu Biao hurried out to smooth things over and wanted to save Niu Liang.

"Your Majesty, even if you want me to be killed, I will still say this!
The gift cannot be discarded!

The common people are lowly people!

Lowly people cannot perform ceremonies with noble etiquette!"

"Biao'er, did you see that? We didn't want to kill him, he was the one who wanted to die! Don't blame us!"

Zhu Biao could not utter the words to plead for Niu Liang and to save his life.

After a moment, he heaved a long sigh, listening to the increasingly distant but still faint cries of "Rites cannot be abolished, the people are lowly people"...

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Biao and some words came to his mind, which he wanted to say to Zhu Biao.

But when the words were on the tip of his tongue, he felt that he could not only tell Biaoer, but also his other sons.

So he asked someone to call the second, third and fourth brothers over.

After everyone arrived, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at his four sons and said, "..."

(End of this chapter)