Time goes back to the autumn of the 13th year of Wanli after Zhu Yijun issued an order to reinstate Hai Rui to his original position. After this incident, the Queen Mother did not mention Prince Lu again.
Lu Shude was escorted to Beijing at this time, and was interrogated by the Three Laws Division. He was finally found guilty of rape, incest, and sentenced to death by hanging.
"Why!"
"Why are you so strict? Can you be completely clean yourself?!"
On the eve of being hanged, Lu Shude reluctantly asked Wang Zongmu Lai, the Minister of Punishment who was imprisoned.
Wang Zongmu said: "We are not as outrageous as you! You can even rape the daughter-in-law of your own tribe. Is this what humans do?"
Lu Shude sneered, and then shouted loudly: "It's not because of you reformists!"
"Benefiting the people must be set as one of the goals of governing the country. As a result, there are fewer and fewer people selling their children. I want to find a new baby to live a happy life, but it costs more silver dollars. I have to suppress this desire. In the end, I I can’t help but attack people in my own clan, but if I hadn’t done this, how could I have done such an immoral thing?!”
"You forced a man who wanted to be a saint to become a thief, aren't you afraid that you will become a thief yourself?!"
"According to what you say, implementing benevolent government on the common people is still wrong?"
"Besides, is it wrong to suppress human desires?"
"And, if this is true, does it mean that if there is a saint in this world, the common people need to be like grass?"
Wang Zongmu asked coldly.
Lu Shude didn't speak anymore, he just raised his head and pursed his lips.
But he had already acquiesced that Wang Zongmu's words were right.
Not long after, Lu Shude's throat was tightened by the rope that strangled him, and he couldn't say anything he wanted to say, so he was eventually hanged in the city.
Since the implementation of the system of allowing common people to inform the emperor at various post stations, the crimes of many officials and gentry have indeed been exposed in large numbers.
There are quite a few who need to be beheaded and sent to the army, not to mention many who are just immoral. In short, there are some that are written about in classical world affairs such as Jin Ping Mei, and some that are not written.
Zhu Yijun had no choice but to issue a lenient decree, allowing those who could be exiled to the army to be exiled to the army instead of being sentenced to death. Those who could only be dismissed from their official titles would not be sentenced.
Because although the Ming Dynasty needed to rectify the bureaucrats and gentry, it could not do without the bureaucrats and gentry. They were needed to maintain local stability and be responsible for coordinating conflicts and disputes between the government and the common people.
If all were strictly liquidated, many places would become completely dominated by petty officials and bandits.
These forces are more brutal and direct in exploiting the people than the gentry.
Unlike the rural gentry, many people still care about the long-term interests of the entire landlord class, and provide appropriate disaster relief, call on the villagers to cooperate with the government, or use more civilized methods.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun had to be lenient and mainly published the orders in newspapers and compilations.
But this still made many scholar-bureaucrats very intolerable, and they wrote to the governor Shen Shixing and others one after another, hoping that they could stop this and save the face of scholars, saying that if this continued, the foundation of Neo-Confucianism would be shaken and the people of the world would be more enlightened. I think Neo-Confucianism is very unrealistic.
But Shen Shixing and other officials are also like clay Bodhisattvas crossing the river, and they cannot protect themselves.
Yes, after the whistleblower system was implemented, their relatives and friends were also involved.
Shen Shixing's son-in-law Li Hong was reported to have cheated in the Shuntianfu Township Examination.
However, fortunately, this matter is not yet a matter of conclusive evidence.
Although Shen Shixing resigned because of this, Zhu Yijun did not agree to dismiss him because of this. He only issued an order that after the fourth grade and above, the children of senior officials would take a separate subject in the college and rural examinations, called Enxian Ke.
In order to benefit the children of wise men, allocating a few more places to Enxianke on the basis of the original quota is equivalent to allowing these children of powerful officials to be enrolled separately from the children of poor families, so as to avoid the suspicion of robbing the children of poor families of advanced resources.
But in fact, it was equivalent to the court showing extra favor to the children of powerful officials.
Because originally, the children of powerful officials had to compete with the children of poor families for the fixed quota of Jinshi candidates every year. Now, because there are separate quotas, the admission rate is lower, and the hope of passing the provincial examination and the joint examination is greater.
This is naturally a happy thing for the descendants of powerful officials.
The children from poor families are also very happy, because there are no shortage of places for them, and because the children of powerful officials do not compete with them, it makes it easier for them to win the first place.
In general.
Zhu Yijun's decree was beneficial to both the rich and the poor. The only price was that the court needed to arrange more Jinshi and raise more scholars.
If this continues, if the country does not expand, it will cause serious redundancy of officials and personnel, which will lead to huge financial problems.
You should know that the Song Dynasty had already implemented this system that took care of both poor scholars and the children of powerful officials. However, it was precisely because of this system that it caused a heavy financial burden. During the Song Renzong era, there was a serious problem of redundant officials and redundant personnel. The people were hungry and cold, and Fan Zhongyan and others had to think about reforms.
Therefore, if Zhu Yijun wanted to avoid this problem by doing this, he had to expand and improve productivity, that is, make the cake bigger, so that the additional Jinshi could just make up for the bureaucratic shortage that arose after the new territory was added.
Zhu Yijun is determined to continue to expand and improve productivity, so he is not afraid to do so.
As for whether future generations would rather cut redundant staff, streamline institutions, and increase internal taxes than stop expansion and reduce killings, he was not sure.
But Zhu Yijun believed in the general trend of the world. If we unite for a long time, we will divide, and if we divide for a long time, we will unite. After all, China is a civilization disguised as a country. His country's demise is not the extinction of civilization, but the internal change of civilization. Maybe the Ming Dynasty will inevitably fail because the descendants of the Zhu family will not When the emperor allowed his empire to perish, once the Han civilization took root in a new territory, it would be difficult to transform into another civilization, and it would always be unified when a strong man appeared.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun doesn't care what the people behind him do.
He now wants to govern the Ming Empire as a civilization. He wants to let the civilization expand, eliminate backward civilization, and also improve the advanced level of his own civilization. Perhaps in the future, he will completely leave other civilizations behind, and even be different from them.
Less gossip.
Among the ruling ministers, it was not just Shen Shixing who was sued due to the whistleblower system.
Pan Sheng and Xu Xuemo were also implicated, and their sons were found guilty of illegal activities with conclusive evidence. In addition, during the previous rectification of Jinyiwei, it was also found that their family members opened shops to make money and even prevented Jinyiwei and the Soldiers and Horses Division from inspecting. Therefore, they were Soon after the whistleblower system came into being, Shangshu resigned.
"It's time to make some room for the people behind, so as not to let the family be pampered and become more lawless. It's not advisable to be the Prime Minister of Taiping for too long, otherwise it will weaken your spirit!"
After Pan Shengshu resigned from office, he directly ordered his family to prepare to move out of the official residence, and expressed his determination to resign to Shen Shixing, Xu Xuemo and others.
"Yes, even though we are an imperial party, we should clean up from time to time to act as a police force."
Xu Xuemo also said something.
Shen Shixing nodded: "That's fine. Now everyone in the government and the gentry is in danger. If we don't let newcomers advance to the rank of minister, I'm afraid there will be more complaints and more informants!"
then.
Both Pan Sheng and Xu Xuemo were approved by Shen Shixing to resign.
Zhu Yijun also knew that running water does not corrupt household hinges and does not cause beetles, so he agreed to Shen Shixing's proposal and allowed the two men to return to their hometowns.
Then, Yang Wei, the Minister of Punishment, also resigned from Shangshu to avoid his excessive hatred for Shilin's title, and was approved.
(End of chapter)
