Chapter 39 Lin Che restores the truth about the empty seal case
the other side.
Zhu Fang disagreed with Lin Che's comments on Emperor Hongwu's national policy of punishing corruption, criticizing it as a bad government that angered people.
"Corrupt officials must be killed. Kill one to serve as a warning to others."
Seeing Zhu Xi's awe-inspiring expression, Lin Che said calmly: "Of course it is true that corrupt officials should be killed, but what about the subordinates and family members of corrupt officials? Do they also have to die?"
"I think you should die! Corruption means you should die, and the subordinates and family members of corrupt officials are not good things. Just kill them. I think there is no problem!"
Facing Zhu Ming who accepted death, Lin Che was not angry. She took a sip of wine and said calmly: "If some officials appear to be corrupt, but in fact they are not, and you fail to clarify the facts and use torture to extract confessions, and the officials can't stand the torture and are beaten into submission. Isn't this unfair?"
"I'll give you a real-life example. Listen to it and you'll understand what I mean."
"You understand what it means to be wronged."
After hearing this, Zhu Xi suddenly became interested and looked at Lin Che intently.
"Take the officials who were imprisoned in the imperial edict for the empty seal case!"
"Do you know how the empty seal case happened?"
Lin Che stared at Zhu Xi and asked.
Zhu Feng had some understanding of the recent empty seal case that shocked both the government and the public. He thought for a moment and then said:
"In the eighth year of Hongwu's reign, Emperor Hongwu accidentally discovered that the fiscal revenue and expenditure accounts reported to the Ministry of Household Affairs by various state governments contained blank books with seals.
"So Emperor Hongwu ordered a thorough investigation and found that the figures reported by many officials were inconsistent with those reported by the court, and there was fraud in the process."
"Emperor Hongwu was furious and ordered all relevant officials to be arrested and punished."
"This is the beginning and end of the empty seal case."
Lin Che nodded, "What you said are official reports of the case."
"You know, there is another reason for this."
"Another reason?"
Zhu Xi shook his head and said in disbelief: "Could it be that this case of empty seal with irrefutable evidence could be an unjust case?!"
“I can’t say it was an unjust case, but the vast majority of officials were indeed wronged!”
Lin Che organized her thoughts and gave Zhu Ping the complete story of the empty seal case that she had learned from history books in her previous life.
"... Starting from the Yuan Dynasty, the imperial court has to check and inventory local fiscal revenue and expenditure and tax accounts every year."
"During the review, it is required that the accounts provided by the local government must be completely consistent with the data from the Ministry of Accounts, and there will be no deviations, so that the project can be closed."
"If there is any discrepancy in any of them, the entire account book will be rejected, and the local government will refill it and stamp it until the verification is accurate."
Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang and the three people next door nodded frequently. All three of them were familiar with the process of the household department.
What surprised them was how could Lin Che, a tribute student who had never spent a day in the court, be so familiar with the court system?
Not only were they as precious as they were, it was as if he had personally handled them.
Incredible.
The three of them looked at each other with surprise in their eyes.
Lin Che, who was next door, continued to explain: "Because the taxes paid by various places are on grain, and grain inevitably suffers losses during transportation, this often leads to problems with local and household data."
"The result is that the officials who report the accounts often have to make several trips to complete the accounting review."
"These are fine for places like Jiangsu and Zhejiang that are relatively close to Yingtianfu, but Yunnan, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Sichuan and other places are thousands of miles away from Kyoto. It would take several months or even a year to re-create the book and add the seal of the original government office. time."
"Not only is it time-consuming on the road, but it is also extremely troublesome to recheck and fill in the account books. Recalculating, filling in, and revising the account books are time-consuming and labor-intensive."
When Lin Che said this, she stopped and took a look at the empty wine cup. Zhu Ping immediately understood and filled the wine cup.
next door.
Zhu Yuanzhang was thoughtful when he heard this.
At that time, when he discovered that the official was carrying a blank official document with a seal, he immediately became angry and ordered someone to investigate the matter. Although the investigation results showed that the reason was as Lin Che said.
But he was sure that officials at all levels were corrupting and committing illegal acts without telling the court and Long Yan was furious and executed all the ministers of the Ministry of Household Affairs and the officials in charge of the local government offices. All the officials below the deputy level were put into prison to await punishment.
Did I do something wrong?
Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at Liu Bowen beside him, and saw that his skinny face was filled with solemnity.
Lin Che took a sip of wine and continued: “Therefore, in order to ensure that the accounting verification is completed smoothly, officials sent to the Ministry of Accounts from various places often bring some blank books that have been covered in advance. After arriving at the Ministry of Accounts, if the accounts are inconsistent, they can be revised and filled in, which greatly saves time. .”
"Although this practice is against the rules, it is a practice left over from the previous dynasty. In addition, it is not explicitly prohibited by the imperial court, so officials from various places do not take it to heart."
Speaking of this, Lin Che sighed deeply:
"What is unexpected is that this approach will cause an unprecedented catastrophe."
“Tens of thousands of people were killed or implicated in one empty seal case, and how many innocent people became lonely ghosts!”
Hearing this, people on both sides fell silent.
After Lin Che detailed the story of the Kongyin case, even Zhu Yuanzhang felt that he had gone too far.
Because of his anger, thousands of officials fell to the ground and their blood flowed into rivers.
Now it seems that the empty seal case, which was previously regarded as a solid case, turns out that there are so many officials who were wrongly accused.
We must re-examine this case when we go back.
"Boss, go back and prepare a decree to hand over the empty seal case to the Three Justice Division for retrial. Those officials who were wrongly accused will be released immediately."
Zhu Yuanzhang looked ashamed and ordered Zhu Biao who was recording.
"Father Emperor Shengming!"
Zhu Biao put down his pen and said respectfully.
Liu Bowen, who was sitting on the chair, his originally cloudy eyes suddenly ejaculated.
He became more and more curious as to how this Gongsheng, who had never spent a day in court, could explain so thoroughly what happened, the whole story, and the misunderstandings involved in the Kongyin case.
It's as if he is the person involved. No, even the person involved wouldn't understand it so clearly.
You must know that this matter involves the previous dynasty and this dynasty, and involves tens of thousands of officials.
Being able to peel off the cocoons and figure out the clues in such a complicated case.
Even Liu Bowen, who claimed to have served in two dynasties and was known as a divine judge, thought he could not do it.
What's more, he is still a fledgling boy, how did this guy do it?
With doubts, Liu Bowen fell into deep thought.
the other side.
Zhu Xi was speechless by Lin Che's words.
He lowered his head silently and became completely silent.
a long time.
Only then did Zhu Fang regain his composure and hurriedly stood up and bowed:
"Thank you, Mr. Lin, for your advice. I'm too superficial and narrow-minded!"
Lin Che smiled, waved her hand, and said lightly: "It's not your fault, nor is it the current emperor's fault."
"The reason why the emperor went too far in punishing corruption was that he experienced the corruption of officials in the late Yuan Dynasty, saw all the suffering in the world, and hated those dog officials who took human lives lightly, broke bones and sucked marrow. He hated them deeply."
"Morally speaking, there is nothing wrong with punishing corruption. What is wrong is that going too far is not enough."
"Anything that goes wrong can turn a good thing into a bad thing."
"Good policies have turned into bad policies!"
“It will even lead to a situation where the law is not followed, the law is enforced too strictly, and people who know the law break the law.”
(End of this chapter)