A revival member named Xu Li served as the county magistrate of Huang County in Daming Prefecture.
Because this was the hardest-hit area with raging rivers and frequent war disasters, Su Yonglin ordered the Fuxing Association Organization Department to select Xu Li, a capable and responsible Fuxing member, to serve as the county magistrate.
In November of the first year of Hongwu, the order was issued. In December of the first year of Hongwu, Xu Li took office.
Soon, Xu Li organized the people of Neihuang to establish seven township-level farmers' associations and 46 village-level farmers' associations. He settled the entire population in Neihuang County, established a complete grassroots organization, and completed land distribution. , ideological and cultural education and a series of things.
In addition, he personally led the people of Neihuang to build seven water canals, 17 country roads, and two county roads. He worked hard and diligently at night.
Therefore, he was evaluated as the best in the year-end assessment of the second year of Hongwu, and it was planned to be promoted to the Yin of Daming Prefecture.
However, in the first month of the third year of Hongwu, all the personnel of the local Justice Bureau were finally in place and began to review the local old accounts. At this time, Xingye, a member of the Renaissance who served as an auxiliary officer under Xu Li, asked to see the newly appointed director of the Justice Bureau and submitted Two secret account books.
These two account books revealed the crimes Xu Li committed during his more than one year in office as Huang County magistrate, in addition to his excellent political achievements.
The head of the Justice Bureau was shocked and immediately arrested him that night and conducted a surprise interrogation. Xu Li, who was unprepared, quickly collapsed and confessed his crime honestly.
In the end, twenty-three county officials, including Xu Li, and several members of the local Renaissance branch were arrested, and a false case was solved.
This was also the first case in which revival members participated, and it shocked the revival meeting center in Zhongdu.
After Su Yonglin learned about this, he was deeply indignant and ordered Xu Li to be escorted back to Zhongdu, interrogated him personally, and learned the whole process of his fall from his mouth.
Not weird at all, not out of the ordinary at all, just a very old-fashioned way of handling too much money, unable to contain the greed that was gradually brewing in my heart, and gradually fell in love with exquisite food and wine, and gorgeous clothes.
The greed in his heart defeated his reason. In the end, starting from him, Neihuang County gradually collapsed. In the end, only a few people insisted on their beliefs without compromising, and were pushed to the edge of the county and were not taken seriously.
They tried to respond to the county government's situation many times, but were strictly monitored by Xu Li. If it were not for the successful deployment of the Justice Bureau, there is no telling how much damage Xu Li would have caused to Neihuang County.
In this process, the Neihuang County Renaissance branch did not play its due role. The branch director knew nothing about the matter. One of the two deputy directors was Xu Li's accomplice and secretly assisted. Xu Li embezzled project funds and project materials.
The unsurprising crime process made Su Yonglin deeply frustrated.
It's the most ordinary depravity that makes people sad the most.
If there were any external force to promote beauty and temptation, he would be able to comfort himself, but this kind of depravity without external intervention is the most frustrating.
The confrontation between idealism and realism is not always smooth sailing, because the carriers of both sides are humans.
When Su Yonglin interrogated similar cases, he also noticed that some old officials explained their mental processes when committing crimes. Except for the lack of Xu Li's struggle and hesitation, they were generally the same.
Most of them did not want to be corrupt officials from the beginning, they just entered that environment and went with the flow.
Not everyone has the courage to swim against the current.
Although he had been mentally prepared for this, Su Yonglin was still quite depressed when it actually happened in front of him.
Because of this incident, Kong Maojie petitioned for punishment, criticized himself at an internal meeting of the Renaissance Association, and petitioned for demotion.
Su Yonglin comforted Kong Maojie without punishing him, and then ordered that Xu Li's case be spread throughout the Ming Dynasty's Renaissance organizations, so that they could all take a look, understand it, and alert themselves.
The meeting then unanimously passed a resolution to expel Xu Li from membership.
Then, under the joint trial of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Dali Temple and the Ministry of Law, it was decided to sentence Xu Li to death.
Seven revival members who co-committed the crime with him were also sentenced to death, and the rest were imprisoned and sentenced to terms ranging from seven to 13 years. They will not be released in case of amnesty.
The families behind a total of twenty-six criminals will not be able to take the imperial examination for three generations, and the three generations will not be able to contact matters related to government affairs.
In addition, Su Yonglin also added a penalty regulation for this case.
Xu Li’s family must be held responsible for Xu Li’s corruption.
The loss of public funds caused by Xu Li's behavior will be borne by them. From now on, a considerable part of their entire family's income will be used to repay debts, regardless of generations.
In short, as long as there are descendants, public funds and debts must be repaid until they are repaid, or there are no more relatives in the family alive.
Realists always have many practical reasons to make their behavior seem normal. In this case, idealists sometimes have to use the stick of realism if they want to confront them.
This is what Su Yonglin thought about.
After the Xu Li case, Su Yonglin believed that in the past few years, he had paid too much attention to the increase in the number of people in the organization, the expansion of the scale, and the control of authority, while not paying enough attention to some issues within the organization.
He did set up a considerable number of preventive measures, but these measures did not have the desired effect.
It’s not that the preventive measures are ineffective, but rather that there is a shortage of manpower trained at the Renaissance Training School.
Because of the shortage of manpower and the urgent need to fight against the old bureaucrats, landlords and gentry, to expand their power, etc., Su Yonglin gave priority to the staffing of local administration and postponed the staffing of the judiciary.
In terms of the configuration of judicial personnel, the central government has the most complete configuration, followed by the administrative offices of the provinces, and then the administrative offices of the various states.
In the vast grassroots areas below the state capital, the corresponding configuration is slightly behind. In many places, there is only an empty shelf, and the administration still dominates everything. The judicial configuration lags behind, the Renaissance Society branch has not been established, and there is a serious shortage of manpower.
This resulted in excessive local administrative power, while the Renaissance branch and judicial branch, which acted as a clamp, were quite lacking in power and could not act as checks and balances.
This is not a healthy situation.
In other words, this is the biggest hidden danger of Ming Dynasty at present.
Before Xu Li's case, Su Yonglin even ignored this issue, blindly promoting economic recovery and military strikes, ignoring the construction of the legal system, and even being slightly passive in the affairs of the Renaissance Society without much investment.
He recalled all the considerations he had made before becoming emperor, and suddenly felt that a large part of the reason why these things happened was due to his own negligence.
In this matter, Su Yonglin believed that he had no choice but to shoulder the responsibility.
So he decided to take vigorous and resolute action.
