Sun Tzu Yi, who led the Privy Council, and Xin Qiji, who led the General Staff Council, had old friends during the war and had fought side by side. They had always had a good relationship, so they walked together when they left the palace.
Out of trust in Xin Qiji, Sun Tzu Yi told Xin Qiji his feelings.
"The Kong family is such a long-established family. Looking back five years, I couldn't even imagine that I could be an official in the same dynasty as them, or even have an official position equivalent to them, let alone imagine that it would be shattered one day.
Even I had heard about the huge power of the Kong family in Shandong. My family's business even cooperated with the branch of the Kong family, and the cooperation was quite pleasant... Now it seems that it is the so-called impermanence of the world. . "
As one of the officials who knew the inside story, Xin Qiji just smiled at Sun Ziyi's feelings.
"When they did those illegal things, they should have thought about this day. According to the law, Your Majesty has no problem with the Kong family. Rather, it is in line with what Your Majesty said: "The law is like a mountain." , I thought it was appropriate.”
"It's not inappropriate, but I think what Cao Kai said before he was dragged down is also reasonable."
Sun Tzu Yi looked at Xin Qiji: "You'an, you have also read Confucian classics. Seeing the collapse of the Kong family, don't you have any other feelings about this matter?"
"What else can there be but pleasure?"
Xin Qiji smiled and said: "I am dedicated to Your Majesty and the Ming Dynasty. I have no other worldly desires. For this matter, I will only applaud and hope that such corrupt officials will never appear again."
"You...you can't think that you are the only scholar in the world, right?"
Sun Tzu Yi smiled helplessly and asked: "Aren't you worried about what he said about scholars being shocked and making a collective petition to forgive Kong? I don't think such a thing will happen.
Considering Kong's importance among scholars all over the world, I think it is very possible. Once the matter gets serious, it will be difficult for His Majesty to deal with it, and it will not end well. "
"So what? Don't criminals deserve to be punished? Just because they have a special status, can they be let go lightly?"
Xin Qiji thought that Sun Ziyi didn't know that Shandong had been taken over by Su Yonglin. The power base of Shandong officials, including the Kong family, had been destroyed. Shandong's original upper-class social network had been torn to pieces by Su Yonglin.
It can be said that this was not a top-down political action, but a bottom-up revolutionary action initiated by Su Yonglin himself.
Before the Zhongdu Shandong Clique could mobilize the power of scholars to resist, Su Yonglin had already eradicated the foundation for their resistance, making it almost impossible to cause any turmoil even if the resistance could be launched.
Because their base camp is finished, the social resources they can mobilize no longer exist, and the materials necessary for the rebellion such as money, food, iron tools, and population are no longer under their control.
All they have left now is their own bodies and a eloquent mouth. The most they can do is talk, and they have no other abilities.
They were just lambs waiting to be slaughtered. Su Yonglin was worried that he didn't have enough reasons to catch them all. Now, wouldn't it be good if they jumped out on their own initiative?
Sun Ziyi obviously hasn't realized this yet, so his worries are not unreasonable.
Xin Qiji was just persuading.
"Prime Minister, please don't think too much. I thought His Majesty would handle this matter strictly in accordance with the clear rules. There will never be any malpractice for personal gain. We will just sit back and watch the outcome."
Sun Ziyi looked at Xin Qiji, shook his head and smiled bitterly.
"You are so calm. I'm afraid there are not many people in the court who are as calm as you."
"I have not done anything illegal or disciplinary. There is nothing in my hometown in Jinan except the ancestral house and the old servants who guard the ancestral house. All the family property has been handed over to the public and dedicated to the court. I only live on my salary. I am not greedy or stealing. Grab, walk right, sit upright, what’s there to worry about?”
Xin Qiji held his head high and his chest high, upright and awe-inspiring.
Sun Tzu Yi was immediately speechless.
He saw what Xin Qiji did, so he admired Xin Qiji very much.
When Su Yonglin captured Jinan, Xin Qiji spent all his wealth to organize an army to join Su Yonglin. After Su Yonglin conquered Zhongdu, he proposed to buy back Xin Qiji's hometown property to him as a reward for his contribution.
Xin Qiji accepted.
But after taking back the property, he backhandedly dedicated it to the court, saying that he no longer needed the property in his hometown, and only the ancestral home and the old servants who guarded the ancestral home were left, and there was no need to keep the rest.
He has dedicated his life to the Ming Dynasty. He has no other desires. He only hopes to make achievements. He can already live a good life with the salary given by the court and does not need more things.
Before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, many officials from Zhongdu purchased land in Yanyun and brought their families over to settle down and start a business.
At that time, Su Yonglin had not explicitly prohibited officials and businessmen from buying land, so many people did so. Sun Tzu Yi also followed suit and bought some land and settled in Zhongdu.
But Xin Qiji never bought anything from beginning to end. As a high-ranking official in the empire, he did not have any private property. He only had the residence of the chief of staff given to him by Su Yonglin. The whole family only lived on his salary and the benefits provided by the court.
In addition to Xin Qiji, there were also a group of senior officials and generals who did not purchase land at that time. Sun Tzu Yi did not care about them and only regarded them as high-minded and upright.
After the Ming Law was promulgated, Sun Tzu Yi realized that they were prescient and what they did was right.
"I admire You'an's ethics. I can't be so pure. I like drinking, eating meat, and fun things. This is indispensable. The only thing I feel lucky about is that I don't let my children use my kindness to become an official. .”
There has been a system of Yin officials in all dynasties. Officials who have reached a certain status in the official position can be favored by one or two of Yin's immediate family members to serve as officials directly without passing an examination.
Su Yonglin did not reject this system at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, so there were many secret officials from Shandong and Yanyun families in the imperial court.
This was also a helpless move due to the lack of officials at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
But Sun Tzu Yi did not. His son was sixteen years old at the time. He rejected Enyin and chose to let his son study and prepare to take the imperial examination so that he could have a decent background.
As a result, Sun Ziyi's son failed in the first imperial examination in the second year of Hongwu and lost his name in Sunshan. Although Sunzi Yi was frustrated, he still did not agree to Su Yonglin's Yinguan suggestion and insisted on asking his son to continue studying, since he was still young anyway.
Now it seems that his choice is extremely correct.
Now that the court is in such chaos, it is indeed not a good time for his son to serve as an official. If he becomes an official without a clue, who knows whether he will be implicated in this wave of political storms?
Xin Qiji also felt that Sun Ziyi was really a lucky person. Su Yonglin commented on Sun Ziyi's education level at the meeting of the Renaissance. He was not very enlightened, but he had the rare characteristics of knowing how to advance and retreat, and knowing good and bad. This made Su Yonglin very fond of Sun Ziyi.
Now it seems that Sun Tzu Yi's various actions have allowed him to accurately avoid some political storms as a non-Fuxing member. It has to be said that this is his ability.
Unfortunately, not everyone is Sun Tzu Yi, not everyone can restrain their desires, know how to advance and retreat, and know what is good and what is bad.
So they couldn't escape Su Yonglin's purge after all.
A purge that is legitimate and in accordance with the law.
There is no need to fabricate evidence or reasons, you can deal with them directly and make them look good.
What else can I say?
On the second day of June in the third year of Hongwu, Emperor Su Yonglin of the Ming Dynasty officially announced in Zhongdu that he would conduct a thorough investigation of the entire bureaucracy in Zhongdu, and clean up all corrupt officials and lawbreakers. No one would be left behind, and a thorough purge would be carried out. .
Then he immediately issued the order to the Ministry of Justice, Dali Temple, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and strictly ordered the three judicial departments to form a joint processing team to deal with the matter seriously.
The punishment must be severe and not lenient, otherwise it will not be enough to reflect the majesty of the law and make these insects feel the seriousness of the law.
Kong Maojie, the censor of the Right Capital, Shen Ge, the minister of the Ministry of Law, and Jiang Chengyue, the minister of Dali Temple, led their respective teams to form the United Three Legal Division, and tried with the highest legal authority several senior officials of the Ming Dynasty who were accused by Su Yonglin.
