Since the cases of Hu Weiyong and Guo Heng, the ministers of the Ming Dynasty were all frightened, fearing that if they did not do well in any aspect, they would offend their superiors, causing their heads to be dislocated, and their families to be destroyed.
Especially after the death of Prince Yiwen Zhu Biao, all ministers acted with extreme caution. They knew that without Prince Yiwen stopping them, the superiors might have turned into ruthless killing machines.
When King Yan Zhu Di was appointed as the crown prince, many ministers felt sad in their hearts. They originally thought that by supporting the kind and lenient Zhu Yunwen as the crown prince, they would be able to live a better life after being a saint for a hundred years.
Unexpectedly, His Majesty did not follow the routine, and no longer cared about the establishment of the direct line, and forcefully promoted King Yan to the position of crown prince.
Those who wanted to argue did not dare to come forward, for fear that the nine clans would not be protected, so Liu Sanwu dared to speak bluntly, but considering his colleagues in the court, he still did not give in to the advice.
In the eyes of many people, King Zhu Di of Yan is no different from his superiors. He is fierce in his actions and has an iron-blooded wrist. He is simply carved from the same mold. As the prince, the ministers have no sense of security in their hearts.
Now that Zhan Hui jumped out, he was still the censor of Zuodu. All the ministers were frightened, fearing that it would be themselves who were written on the memorial today.
If that's the case, it's better to go back and hang yourself with a piece of white silk, so as not to be too involved.
In the past, the Hu Weiyong case was so widely implicated that it was scary. Even if you met a servant of Hu Weiyong's family buying vegetables on the roadside and said hello, you would probably be arrested and beheaded.
Officials who can allow Zhan Hui to come out to impeach him in person will never have a low official position, but even so, those ministers with low official positions are still trembling with fear at this moment.
They will not be impeached directly, but if the person being impeached happens to be their superior, they will be in trouble. They will be beaten one after another, and the entire department will be wiped out.
The political ecology of the early Ming Dynasty was like this. From the princes and nobles to the minor officials in the countryside, everyone was terrified, lest one day a relative who was beyond their reach would be killed for some reason, and they would be implicated.
Zhu Di saw everything in his eyes and then looked at Zhan Hui. He was also a little curious. He could let Zhan Hui come out in person. This official had great energy.
Could it be that Zhan Hui is going to have a fight with Liang Guogong Lan Yu? Zhu Di glanced at Lan Yu who was wandering away from the sky, and quickly dismissed this idea. Zhan Hui was not a reckless person, and it was not the time to touch Lan Yu yet.
To be more precise, unless Dad wants to touch Lan Yu, no one else can touch him.
All the civil and military officials were waiting for Zhan Hui to speak, but he just held up the memorial and said: "I didn't dare to know what was going on. It was secret. It should have been sent directly to the emperor, but it was only delivered after the secret. Therefore, the opportunity was delayed. I Please punish me, Your Majesty."
As soon as Zhan Hui opened his mouth, many ministers felt like the earth was shaking.
Secrets are a very special type of document among memorials, and their most important feature is confidentiality.
Ordinary memorials often have two shortcomings. First, they are cumbersome in format, slow in approval, delayed in time, and easy to delay the government.
In terms of format, after Zhu Yuanzhang's drastic reforms, it has now become simpler.
The turning point in this situation naturally has something to do with Ru Taisu.
In December of the eighth year of Hongwu's reign, Zhu Yuanzhang was reviewing memorials and got a memorial from Ru Taisu, then head of the Ministry of Punishment, which gave him a big headache.
Every time this old guy writes a memorial, it often contains seven or eight thousand words, and the semantics are difficult and arrogant, and it is very boring to read.
It was the same this time. Zhu Yuanzhang simply didn't bother to read it and asked Zhongshu Lang Wang Min to read it to him. As a result, Wang Min read this memorial of tens of thousands of words for a full hour and a half, but he still could not finish reading it.
Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and said to himself that even though we had listened carefully for an hour and a half, we had not yet finished handling this piece of government affairs. If all the ministers were like this, then we would not die of exhaustion in front of the emperor.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. Zhu Yuanzhang immediately summoned Ru Taisu into the palace, beat him severely, and then reprimanded the ministers. He told the emperor to tell the story directly in the future, instead of spouting tens of thousands of words of useless nonsense.
Interestingly, although Ru Taisu was beaten severely, Zhu Yuanzhang thought that the last few hundred words of the memorial were very reasonable, so he adopted them.
Secondly, there is another flaw in ordinary memorials, that is, it is easy to leak secrets.
Because ordinary memorials need to change hands many times before they reach the central government, it is very easy for things to be hidden during this process.
In order to deal with this situation, in the 16th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict: Anyone who speaks out should be sealed directly in front of the emperor. The real seal mentioned in it is this density.
The secrets reach directly to the emperor and can only be opened by the emperor, which greatly improves the confidentiality. Because of this, "treacherous ministers are exposed as soon as possible, and no one is spared."
However, generally speaking, secret documents are submitted through the General Affairs Department. Zhan Hui is the censor of Zuodu, the Supervisory Council. There is an extra secret document in his hand, which is unpredictable.
Eunuch Huang Gou'er took small steps to bring up the secret. Just when he was about to hand it over to Zhu Yuanzhang, he saw his finger pointing at Zhu Di. He immediately understood and forwarded it to the prince Zhu Di.
Zhu Di, who got the secret book, immediately understood that his father wanted to leave this matter to him, and said: "Master Zhan has been working hard for a long time, what's the crime?"
"I would like to thank His Highness for his generosity and His Majesty's grace."
There was a stabbing sound, and Zhu Di broke the seal on the secret book, then opened the secret book and browsed carefully.
After reading it, Zhu Di's expression remained unchanged, but he turned to face Zhu Yuanzhang and said: "This matter is of great concern. I dare not deal with it. Please ask His Majesty the Father to judge it."
As soon as these words came out, the officials' hearts suddenly jumped up, almost falling out of their chests.
Even His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has stated that it is closely related, so how terrifying is the thing in this secret?
Recalling the previous cases of Hu Weiyong and Guo Heng, the ministers felt their hearts tremble and felt as if half of their bodies had been buried in the ground.
Almost all the ministers had their throats rolling, their scalps were numb, and their whole bodies were tingling, as if there were tens of millions of ants biting them, and large drops of sweat continued to form on their foreheads.
There is no way, they know the superiors too well. Once the matter is really involved, the superiors will not care about the law and not blame everyone.
When the butcher's knife is raised, it will end with a lot of heads. At that time, half of the civil and military officials in the dynasty may have to die.
Even those ministers who have always been honest and upright and made absolutely no mistakes feel nervous at this moment. Killing by superiors has always been ruthless. In the Hu Weiyong case and the Guo Heng case, weren't there still a few unjust and wrongful deaths?
The court was depressed for a while, and those who were not determined were frightened and fell to the ground with a muffled "bang" sound.
It seemed that there was a chain reaction, and many people fainted for a while. When Zhu Di saw this, he frowned slightly and said: "Come here, take the unwell ministers to the other hall to rest."
At this moment, he was also a little nervous, and even smelled the smell of blood. If what was said in this secret was true, it would really be a disaster.
Following the Hu Weiyong case, the Kongyin case, and the Guo Heng case, it is very likely that a fourth major case with wide implications is about to occur.
Because of this, he did not dare to jump to conclusions and had to leave the matter to his father for preview. Only his father could handle this matter.
…
