"Old Minister, you might as well ask yourself, has Dong'a Zhang family received too many benefits because of you?"
Zhu Gaoxu turned the topic back to Zhang Ben.
Zhang was originally an upright official and was known as "Poor Zhang". This was known to everyone in the government and the public.
Therefore, the old minister in front of me can be said to be an example of an upright official in the Ming Dynasty!
However, Zhang Ben is an upright official, but what about the clan behind him?
Zhang Ben chose silence.
Because he himself is also a member of the Jin gentry.
To put it bluntly, there is not a single civil servant in the entire dynasty who is not such a gentry!
Zhang Ben is from Dong'a, Liaocheng, Shandong. Dong'a's Zhang family is considered a well-known scholarly family in the local area.
But as Zhang Ben became a bigger official, things gradually changed.
During the Hongwu period, Zhang Ben was awarded the title of Jiangdu magistrate as a Imperial College student. The officialdom of the Ming Dynasty followed the principle of serving officials in different places, so at that time, the Zhang family behind Zhang Ben was not in a good state.
After all, he is just a county magistrate, and he is still in the south. Even if the Dong'a Zhang family wants to find a relationship with him, Zhang Ben, it will be even more difficult.
After that, Zhang Ben successively served as the magistrate of Yangzhou and the right to participate in politics as the chief secretary of Jiangxi Province. His official position became bigger and bigger, and the clan behind him also relied on Zhang Ben's reputation and began to show signs of bullying the people.
Why did Dong'a Zhang dare to do this?
Because there is the support of Zhang Ben, a big shot!
Does the Dong'a County Magistrate dare to control them?
The county magistrate dare not take care of it!
Instead, they had to rely on local gentry like Zhang to cooperate with him as the county magistrate to complete the tasks assigned by the court and his own duties as the county magistrate.
For example, if the Dong'a County Magistrate wants to collect taxes, and the Dong'a Zhang family doesn't cooperate, then they have many ways to prevent the county magistrate from collecting even a single grain!
You must know that in local counties, all aspects of business such as firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, and cloth are the property of the local gentry, not the government yamen!
In addition, the clerks and subordinates in the county magistrate's office and even the arresting officials are all local personnel. You can imagine who their stance will be towards!
If the local gentry is really ruthless and determined to confront the county magistrate, unless the county magistrate has a strong backing and a very strong backer, even if he is a county magistrate, he will only be ignored by the local gentry. For my own sake, be a clay sculpture of the county magistrate!
Zhang Ben can be said to be a living fossil of the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty. He started as a county magistrate during the Hongwu period, then became a prefect, participated in politics, etc. He was promoted step by step, so he knew better than anyone the scandals and scandals behind this!
That's why the Zhang family in Dong'a gradually became a prominent family that dominates the entire Dong'a with the promotion of Zhang Ben's official position!
When Zhang Ben officially entered the court as the left minister of the Ministry of Industry and entered the center of the court, the Zhang family behind him became dissatisfied with the small place of Dong'a and began to reach out to Yanzhou Mansion.
By the same token, does the prefect of Yanzhou dare to take care of these scandalous matters involving the Zhang family in Dong'a?
He also didn't dare to care, or rather he wouldn't care.
If you teach Dong'a Zhang a lesson, you will offend Zhang Ben, the minister who is above the court, and create a political enemy for yourself.
Furthermore, it’s not like the Dong’a Zhang family did this. Doesn’t the Yanzhou prefect have a clan behind him? Wouldn’t the clan behind him do this?
Everyone is the same, and the clan behind them is all the same.
So if you turn a blind eye, it will pass.
Anyway, the term of the magistrate and county magistrate is only three years. As long as Dong'a Zhang does not go too far and does not do anything that clearly violates the laws of the Ming Dynasty during these three years, hello, me, everyone, let's live in harmony together. , this matter naturally passed like this.
When Zhang Ben was promoted again and was appointed as the Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing and in charge of the affairs of the Procuratorate, the Dong'a Zhang family had already expanded from a Dong'a Zhang family to a behemoth that occupied the entire Yanzhou Prefecture, with land assets of tens of thousands to his name. acres, and the industries in the government are spread across all walks of life in Yanzhou Prefecture. The annual income from these industrial fields alone is enough to feed the Dong'a Zhang family for several lifetimes!
But this is not enough.
Once you have a family business, you need to consider the issue of inheritance.
Therefore, over the years, the Dong'a Zhang family has often contacted Zhang Ben to contact him and recommend outstanding children in the clan. He hopes that Zhang Ben can use his connections as the Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing to help these Dong'a Zhang families. The younger brother-in-law will enter the official career, or reveal the direction of the imperial examination, so as to ensure that the Dong'a Zhang family has someone to inherit and the succession will continue!
This is the process of the rise of a clan, which relies on the imperial examination system.
It is very sad and funny to say that the reason why the Li and Tang Dynasties implemented the imperial examination system was to break the blockade of intellectual and officialdom by the aristocratic families.
The imperial examination began to take shape from Li and Tang Dynasty, and was known as the talent promotion ceremony of all dynasties.
However, by the Ming Dynasty and the development of the imperial examination system, it has already changed its flavor. Instead, it has become a tool for cultivating gentry families, which makes people feel sad and ridiculous!
Zhang Ben, the old minister, naturally understands the truth behind this.
He can be clean and self-sufficient, and he can avoid colluding with corrupt officials.
But the Dong'a Zhang family, the clan behind him, couldn't do it, and even went further than the corrupt officials in the court.
After all, those corrupt officials were only corrupt by one person, but the Zhang family of Dong'a was the whole family, occupying the fields and oppressing the local people!
From the looks of it, the harm caused by these clans is even far greater than those of corrupt officials!
Because the process of a clan's rise is a process of sucking blood. It sucks the blood of the local people. It can be said that it is knocking on the bones and sucking out the marrow!
"Your Majesty, this old minister...is guilty!"
Zhang Ben stood up tremblingly and wanted to kneel down to plead guilty, but Zhu Gaoxu held him back.
"Old Minister, please don't do this."
Zhu Gaoxu sighed: "This matter has nothing to do with you."
"The name of Lao Shangshu "Qiong Zhang" is known all over the world."
"There are too few officials like you in the country who have always adhered to principles and kept themselves clean."
"As for the Dong'a Zhang family, they are nothing more than a group of blood-sucking worms. But in this world, there is not only such a Dong'a Zhang family. Behind almost every important minister in the court, there is a "Dong'a Zhang family"! "
"This is also the real reason why I must implement the new policy of dividing the land between households and households, expand the scale of the imperial court, and break the local blockade imposed by the gentry clan!"
Zhang Ben's face changed slightly when he heard this, and he sighed deeply.
"But has your Majesty ever thought about it? If this happens, the country will lose its heart as a scholar!"
Hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu chuckled and said, "So what?"
"Do they still dare to rebel?"
"Old Minister, you must know that the emperor who holds military power will always be invincible!"
"Whoever dares to show up at this time, I will kill them all and raise their ashes!"
Hearing His Majesty the Emperor's murderous words, Zhang Ben was stunned for a moment.
"But Your Majesty, if this happens, your reputation..."
"Hahaha..." Zhu Gaoxu laughed, "What kind of reputation do I need?"
"I am guilty of all sorts of crimes!"
"Everyone is guilty, but I am the one to blame!"
"The pen of history is like iron, so what?"
"What is right or wrong will be judged by future generations!"
