Chapter 163: Court meeting
Ma Quan hurriedly looked through the memorials and title books sent from various places one by one.
The General Affairs Department controls general affairs and "accepts internal and external regulations and sealed cases of appeals from subjects"! This position is too important: memorials submitted to the capital from various places for submission to the Holy Emperor, except for a limited number of memorials such as the feudal officials with Shang Fangjian, the patrol censors, and imperial envoys, can have the privilege of going directly to the emperor. It must be submitted to the Secretary of General Affairs for filtering first - how could the Holy Emperor have the energy to read through all the trivial matters in all provinces, capitals and states when he has so many things to do? Since it is "filtration", the tricks are huge! Except for military and state affairs, no one dares to interfere, what about the rest... Let's put it this way, if two provinces or two prefectures have a dispute over something, they both report to the Holy Emperor and ask for a Holy Judgment. If the Holy Emperor only looks at it from beginning to end When one of the parties comes to terms, what do you think the Holy Inquisition will do? On the other hand, haha, because of trivial matters that were judged to be "futile holy concerns", they were directly detained by the General Administration Department, and the Holy Father had never seen it from beginning to end!
Do you dare to disobey the Holy Spirit's golden words, other than kneeling down to express gratitude and saying "I am guilty of death"? Don’t say whether you dare or not, you don’t even know if the Holy Emperor has seen it before - don’t you have the Holy Emperor’s email address? Another letter? Hey, you still have to send it to the General Affairs Department first! Will he continue to be detained? you guess!
Later, the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty started to form cliques and became even bolder: even the various military reports from the border troops asking for merit, pay, and food were often not seen by the Holy Emperor!
Therefore, don't forget that Zuo Tongzheng's official rank is only the fourth rank, and the second-rank ministers of the six departments have to be polite - who doesn't have many disciples and nephews in the local area?
Ma Quantai understood the importance of the position assigned to him by his adoptive father: by arranging someone of his own in the General Affairs Department, it would mean that no matter in the Ming Dynasty could be concealed from the Holy Emperor! This is a great trust and a great responsibility.
Ma Quan finally found the letter that his adoptive father had asked to pay special attention to among the snow-like official documents. He adjusted his sitting posture, took a deep breath, opened the side newspaper of Shaanxi Xingdusi, and read it carefully. As he watched, Master Ma smiled, but there were two balls of fire burning in his eyes.
"Snapped"! The Holy Emperor got angry and threw a delicate tea cup to the ground, smashing it into pieces, "This Xi Junyu is so brave!"
"Your Majesty, please calm down. Take care of your dragon body." Li Shizhong and the inner prison gate quickly knelt down to persuade him.
"Hehehe..." The Holy Emperor burst out with a sneer, "Thanks to your reminder, I noticed this guy. And thanks to your Dongchang, I found out such a big traitor! Otherwise, I would have been This guy has been kept in the dark!"
"The old slave belongs to your Majesty, and the East Factory is His Majesty's East Factory." Li Shizhong responded respectfully. After Chu Jingwu and his party returned to Beijing, Li Shizhong immediately reported the investigation results to the Emperor Sheng, who also specially sent Chu Jingwu to ask him face to face for a while. After the General Affairs Department received the military report jointly signed by the Shaanxi Xingdu Division and Gansu Town, Li Shizhong directly presented it to the emperor. When he saw the report, it was indeed a "great victory" asking for credit. No wonder the Holy Emperor was furious.
"Sit back and watch the thieves burn, kill, and kidnap. How dare you claim any great victory? How dare you openly deceive the emperor because you are so greedy for the people's anointment! Capture them all and send them to the capital!" The Holy Emperor became more and more angry as he spoke. There were waves of flushing on his face.
"Your Majesty, calm down. Of course, Xi Junyu will never be able to atone for his sins. However, I think this matter should be handled with caution..." As Li Shizhong spoke, he secretly glanced at the face of the Holy Emperor.
"Be cautious? How to be cautious? The facts are all there, so why should I worry about face? He Xi Junyu is shameless, what should I worry about?"
"Your Majesty." Li Shizhong did not dare to reply directly, but just bowed in response.
"Hmph." Sheng Tianzi calmed down a little and exhaled, "If you have any ideas, tell me."
"Your Majesty. The old slave was angry at first and wanted to arrest all these guys... However, after Ma Quan handed over this memorial yesterday, he specially reminded the old slave." Li Shizhong responded, "He He said that this matter needs to be handled with caution. The old slave thought about it carefully and found that what he said does make some sense." Li Shizhong answered cautiously.
"Oh? What did he say?" Sheng Tianzi was deeply impressed by Ma Quan.
"Your Majesty. He said that this is a den case. Judging from the situation, it can be said that the Shaanxi Dusi Mansion is almost in ruins. These look terrible, but after all, they are ringworm and scabies. A word from the Holy Spirit can root them out. Get rid of him. Even the Zhang thief is not a worry. When the court is free, whether it is Sun Jie or Yan Minwang, the court will not be short of people who can defeat Zhang thief. The first thing to worry about now is outside the border wall. The Tatars. There are so many fortresses that even the thieves cannot stop them. If the court is not fully prepared and takes action, it will be a big trouble if the Tatars take advantage of it. The second thing to worry about is the atmosphere of the outer court. . No matter who has merit, a large group of public officials swarmed to find faults in the eggs, and Shaanxi Province was so bad, but there was no news at all. If this trend is not corrected, it will be the inner trouble of my Ming Dynasty. "
"Well said!" The Holy Emperor patted the armrest of the chair excitedly, "This is the real talent of the country! You have done a good job in this matter. Find such talents for me and arrange them into such appropriate positions. Okay, Good, good!" The Holy Emperor said the word "good" three times in a row, "I will reward him heavily, well, of course I will reward you too."
"Your Majesty." Li Shizhong knelt down, "Your Majesty, there is no need for reward. The late emperor and Your Majesty have already rewarded this old slave too much. The old slave is your Majesty's person, and it is what the old slave should do. Ma Quan does not need to be rewarded. . He jumped so many levels from Hanlin Academy review to Zuotongzheng. It is difficult to repay such a favor. At such a young age, it may not be very good for him to be rewarded too much at once. I dare not deceive His Majesty, he already……"
"I have recognized you as my adoptive father, so I count you as one of my own, right?" Shengtianzi said with a smile.
"Your Majesty, forgive me! I will never dare to deceive Your Majesty. I don't know much about reading, and I will never dare to bully scholars by relying on my status in the imperial court..." Of course Li Shizhong knew that the little eunuchs serving him would also have the eyes and ears of the Holy Emperor. The Son of Heaven must have known that Ma Quan worshiped him as his adoptive father, but he still felt a little uneasy after he made it clear like this, and he kowtowed deeply.
"It's okay, it's okay. Do I blame you? I told you that you did a good job in this matter. You helped him wash away his unfair grievances, and he wants to repay his kindness. This is in line with the teachings of the sages and is also human nature." The Holy Emperor said, "Let's do this. Let him do it later. I want to hear his thoughts in person."
"Yes. Your Majesty."
Court meeting.
After all the officials had finished their work, Li Shizhong raised his eyelids and glanced down the steps. Xin Xin (zi Zhilian), the Minister of Punishment, who had been paying attention to Eunuch Li's eyes, coughed in advance and went out to play: "Long live, I have my ability." Play."
The Holy Emperor waved his hands and said, "I know that what Xin Aiqing wants to say is about asking for the revision of the Ming Dynasty Code, right? The cabinet has already voted on it. Xin Aiqing will briefly talk about it again, and everyone will discuss it. I think it's okay. If you, my beloved, have no objections, please leave it to the Director of Ceremonies to wear the red dress."
Some of the ministers knew a little bit about it in advance, but most of them didn't understand it yet. Only Xin Xin responded: "I obey the decree. The Ming Dynasty's "Da Ming Code" has been promulgated for more than two hundred years, and some regulations seem to be slightly outdated, such as the article about corruption. Taizu made a rule that if the amount reaches 80 guan, the skin will be peeled off and the grass will be eaten. . It is appropriate to use heavy codes in troubled times, which is indeed a necessary method at that time. However, the world has been peaceful for a long time, and the prices are far from what they were in Taizu's time. Take the price of land as an example. During the Hongwu period, wars were frequent and the land was vast and sparsely populated, and a normal amount of money could buy two or three acres of fertile land. Or even four or five acres; now that silver is expensive and copper is cheap, two copper coins may not be exchanged for one tael of silver, and one acre of land costs forty or fifty taels. If Hongwu law is followed, the difference between one acre of land will be beheaded. , I’m afraid if you don’t mean to be greedy, anyone may be killed if you are not careful. Therefore, the Japanese Ministry of Punishment asked to revise the "Da Ming Code" and revised the standard to be beheading a prisoner from one thousand taels to five thousand taels of silver, and beheading a prisoner from five thousand taels to ten thousand taels. If you ask for two questions, you will be hanged, and for more than 10,000 taels, you will be executed."
As soon as these words came out, there was a "buzz" in the court.
The vast majority of the court officials came from a decent background. They read the sage articles about "restraining oneself, restoring etiquette, and being cautious about being alone." From the scientific examination to the official position, they should theoretically be clean and self-sufficient. They all regarded themselves as moral gentlemen and could not be greedy for a penny. In fact, everyone knows what is going on behind the scenes. Xin Xin's proposal to relax sentencing standards must be a good thing for him, but he suddenly raised the issue openly without warning... If he opposed it, he would indeed be in the limelight, but he would definitely become the public enemy immediately. If he agreed, it would also appear to be a guilty conscience, so All the ministers were stunned for a moment.
This situation was expected by several people who had colluded in advance. The General Affairs Envoy application was kicked slightly by Ma Quan, and he came out and said: "Your Majesty, I heard that there are specialties in the art, and the Ministry of Punishment should naturally draft the Ministry of Punishments. Now that the cabinet has voted, Long live the Holy Judgment yes."
"Okay." This is what the Holy Emperor was waiting for.
This is what Li Shizhong was waiting for. With a look, several cracks of the whip, and the music of the bells and drums, the Holy Emperor retreated back to the palace, leaving behind all the ministers who had not yet woken up.
So, under the seemingly calm appearance, the brewing storm is about to come.
[I’m a little rushed today. If you have anything to do, I’ll talk about it on Monday. ^_^The second part is almost finished, and the third part "Tianwen" is being conceived. Readers, if you have any ideas, feel free to share them. Share more - where can I find such a hard-core novel? hey-hey……】
