Princess Qi died when the roof of Bailu Palace in Xiyuan collapsed, causing an uproar in the court. Zhu Heng knelt outside the gate of Bailu Palace that day, but was not summoned by the Queen Mother or the Emperor.
Zhang Ju asked Zhu Heng to return to his ministry and ask for punishment. Zhu Heng has a tough personality and often quarrels with Zhang Juzheng, who is not liked by Zhang Juzheng. In the first year of Wanli, Yang Boci was the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and Ge Shouli and Zhu Heng were the chief and deputy. They planned to win the position during the court election, but they were defeated by Zhang Juzheng and Wang Han.
This time, a corruption case occurred in Xiyuan Building, and Zhang Juzheng wanted to take this opportunity to drive Zhu Heng out of the court. Therefore, when meeting Zhu Yijun, there was no soothing word.
Zhu Heng was good at water conservancy, but his views had long been at odds with Pan Jixun, an expert on river management. In the forty-fifth year of Jiajing and the first year of Longqing, he and Pan Jixun were incompatible with each other on the management of the Yellow River.
Pan Jixun's philosophy of river management is to "reinforce water to attack sand" and "accumulate clear water and remove muddy water", focusing on clearing and consolidating river channels and eradicating water transportation congestion; Zhu Heng's philosophy is "changing the old into the new", opening new river channels, and striving to maintain Mainly water transport.
The two men's dirty opinions on river management gradually evolved into mutual criticism, and they separately reported their river management plans to the court. Zhu Heng defeated Pan Jixun twice in the court, and gained the initiative to control the river. He was promoted to Minister of the Ministry of Industry for his contribution to river control and canal protection. Pan Jixun, as Zhu Heng's deputy, was also promoted. Later, Ding You returned home.
In the fourth year of Longqing's reign, the Yellow River broke through Pizhou and Suining. Pan Ji and Ding Youqi returned to the river and blocked the gap. Before the imperial court could reward him, Luo Zun was impeached and dismissed from office due to an accident in which a transport ship drifted.
In the early years of Longqing, Zhang Juzheng once supported Zhu Heng's idea of river management. But the Yellow River burst in the fourth year of Longqing's reign greatly shaken Zhang Juzheng.
In the following years, because Zhu Heng opposed him many times in court, Zhang Juzheng extended a helping hand to Pan Jixun in the early first year of Wanli and planned to restore Pan Jixun's river channel, but Zhu Heng boycotted and failed.
After Zhu Yijun gradually came to power, Zhang Juzheng recommended Pan Jixun to Zhu Yijun. Are there any future generations of history buffs who don’t know Pan Jixun’s famous name? Zhu Yijun originally planned to use Pan Jixun immediately, but changed his mind.
He asked Zhang Juzheng to allocate Zhu Shitai to bribe five thousand silver, and ordered Pan Jixun to organize a team to conduct research in the entire basin of the Yellow River, Huaihe River and canal, comprehensively consider the five aspects of controlling the Yellow River, regulating the Huaihei River, protecting transportation, protecting ancestors' mausoleums, and protecting people's livelihood, and came up with Comprehensive governance program. When the Ningcuidian case occurred, Pan Jixun was still investigating near Hongze Lake in Sizhou.
When the Xiyuan corruption case broke out, a group of officials from the imperial court and Zhongke Dao attacked Zhu Heng. Zhang Juzheng had no intention of protecting the balance. He was uneasy about his position and wrote consecutive letters to resign in early April of the second year of Wanli. Zhu Yijun did not increase his position as usual, nor did he approve it. Chiyi immediately dismissed him from office.
Zhu Heng packed his bags and left the capital in despair. Guo Chaobin, the Minister of Household Affairs, picked up the Minister of Works.
The Xiyuan corruption case caused the death of the concubine and shocked the capital. In order to calm public opinion, the imperial court removed the minister and sentenced Yang Song, a member of the Ministry of Industry, to be hanged. After more than 40 officials and servants from the Ministry of Industry involved in the case were interrogated by the three divisions, one of them was sentenced to be beheaded and their homes confiscated, while the remaining 30 or so were sentenced to exile.
Because Wang Li, the young eunuch of Zhidian, took bribes and ignored his superior's safety. On the third day after Dongchang obtained the confession, Zhu Yijun directly sentenced him to beheaded without a joint trial by the three departments, and ordered the heads of departments and prisons above the juvenile prison to observe the execution.
Yin Xiang, the leader of the Zhidian Supervisor, failed to supervise him well and was involved in accepting bribes. He was sent to Xiaoling. The rest of the Zhidian supervisors related to the construction of Xiyuan Palace were either killed or expelled.
There was a lot of slashing and killing, and there was a shock inside and outside the palace. Zhu Yijun held a grand parade in the first month and killed several nobles. Some nobles thought it was the emperor who had harmed the Xun family.
After seeing the fate of Wang Li, Yang Song and others this time, not only the nobles, but also the court officials and the people knew that this emperor was a murderer.
Although there were no major cases like those of Taizu and Chengzu, the spring of the second year of Wanli had not passed yet, and the heads that had been killed were enough to build a small temple.
Suddenly, all the horses in the world were silent. The examination method that was still stumbling last year has been thoroughly implemented, and each department and department has raised its five-year plans and this year's tasks for the second year of Wanli.
On the first day of April in the second year of Wanli, Ge Shouli no longer fell ill. The first thing he did at work was to submit a memorial to the Xingge Metropolitan Procuratorate.
Zhang Juzheng posted a yellow "please ask the holy judge", Zhu Yijun said red "yes", and ordered Ge Shouli to elaborate and repeat the reform plan. Subsequently, an imperial edict came down that made it difficult for the censors and officials to understand, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate was overhauled.
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Taizu of the Ming Dynasty was born in poverty and was deeply aware of the corruption in the late Yuan Dynasty. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he governed the country with strict regulations and established the most rigorous inspection and supervision network in history. The Metropolitan Procuratorate is the core of this inspection and supervision network.
The functions of the Metropolitan Procuratorate are divided into internal duties, external duties and local inspection divisions.
The internal duties are in charge of brushing documents in the two capitals, inspecting the capital camp, inspecting the capital's warehouses, the imperial city, and the five-city military and horse department, etc.
The foreign official is the censor on patrol, divided into two categories: special messengers and patrol supervisors. They are mainly responsible for inspecting local areas and have the power to "report requests for major matters and make decisions on minor matters."
The Inspection Department is a fixed local supervisory organ. Except for Nanjing, there are thirteen Inspection Departments. The chief envoy, the chief envoy, and the governor are the three giants in the province, and they are in charge of the investigation of criminal names in a province.
Zhu Yuanzhang's original intention was to add local supervision to central inspections, build a national anti-corruption and supervision system with the Metropolitan Procuratorate as the core, and ensure that the Ming Dynasty would always be free from corruption. However, things backfired. After the mid-Ming Dynasty, the Metropolitan Procuratorate basically lost its ability to conduct anti-corruption supervision due to the corruption of its system and overall administration. An important reason was institutional shortcomings.
Under the Ming Dynasty, although the Zuo Du Censor was the head of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, he had no power to appoint or remove the Supervisory Censor, only the power to assign tasks.
After the Supervising Censor inspected, the Zuodu Censor was not allowed to hear his memorial. This method is to support Taijian's independent handling of cases and strengthen his character.
In the early days of this system, it was true that many Taiwanese admonishers were born who forgot their country and their family and were loyal to themselves. However, as time went by, the place of Taiwanese admonishers has become a shortcut to promotion. The officials who remonstrated in Taiwan each had their benefactors. The internal officials became thugs supported by the ministers and tools to fight for power; the external officials became corrupt officials who used the power of the emperor to disturb the local area; the local prosecutors, not to mention, became a concentration of unjust, false and wrong cases. Yuansou.
"History of the Ming Dynasty" commented on the admonishment of Ju Jingshi's platform: "Those who speak their own way have their own masters. Therefore, at that time, it is not that they do not speak, but that they speak verbosely and inappropriately, and that their hearts cannot be selfless. The more you speak, the better. If there are too many, the state affairs will become more confusing."
As for the special missions and inspection tours of foreign officials, it became a common practice for local officials to prepare their own "recommendation money" when accepting inspections after the mid-Ming Dynasty.
Yushi officials in charge of foreign affairs use the amount of "recommendation money" to write inspection and investigation reports - which not only catalyzes corruption, but also becomes the cause of chaos in the administration of officials.
In response to these shortcomings, in the reform of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, although there are still left and right censors, deputy left and right censors, Qiandu censors and thirteen Taoist officials. But responsibilities and rights have changed dramatically.
One is to expand the number of censors, changing the old rule of having one or two censors in each department, and setting up eight to ten people in each department, and one chief and one deputy censor in Qiandu. The censor's memorial must be signed by the official censor of Qiandu before it can be reported. The censor of Qiandu is responsible for the correction and inspection results of the censor.
Second, the old rule of "reporting on rumors" was changed, and the Jinyiwei department was divided into thirteen inspection departments, with thirty people in each department. It is located under the thirteen censors. The imperial censor must use the Jinyiwei Inspection Section to verify the evidence before reporting it.
Third, change the old rules where the responsibilities of the censors are unclear. Each censor is responsible for correction and inspection of his own department, and must not cross the line. If clues or reports are received from other channels, they must be sent to the Zuodu Yushi, who will be assigned to the channel in charge for verification and investigation.
Fourth, in addition to the left and right censors, a total of four deputy left and right censors are in charge of thirteen roads, and the content of their duties is decided by the left censor. The imperial censor's participation report can only become a memorial if it is signed by the deputy capital censor; these people are also responsible for the correctness and authenticity of the memorial.
Fifth, the right censor of the capital is in charge of the supervision of the Tao and oversees the internal affairs of the capital procuratorate. If the censor of each dao finds any violation of regulations by the censor of another dao or the censor of his own dao, he can report it to the censor of Youdu. The Right Capital Censor and Supervisor Dao have no right to participate in other affairs of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.
6. The censor of the left capital is in charge of the censorship of the capital. In addition to the censor of the right capital, he has the right to participate in the impeachment of those below the censor of the deputy capital. If the deputy capital imperial envoys or below are impeached by the Zuodu imperial censor, they will be dismissed immediately.
Seventh, change the old rule that the censor must be recommended by a senior official of third rank or above. Directly selected from Jinshi and officials waiting to be elected. The Metropolitan Procuratorate listed more than ten reference books such as "Da Ming Code", "General Provisions of the Constitution", "Provisions on Correcting Official Corruption", "Articles for Supervisors to Observe", etc. Candidates who passed the law examination and were approved by the Deputy Governor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate A person with a rank of Du Yushi or above can be appointed as a Yushi after a collective interview.
This reform of the Metropolitan Procuratorate has brought both joy and worry to the officials admonishing the people in Taiwan. On the one hand, they have mastered the direct power of the Jinyiwei Inspection Section, and their status in the court has surpassed other ministries in one fell swoop, and their power has greatly increased.
On the other hand, the expansion of the ranks of censors and the loss of their independent right to participate in impeachment has reduced the value of the "clear selection" of censors and blocked their way to seek personal advancement with their special status. To sum up, for the grassroots censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the addition of Jin Yiwei did not excite them. Instead, the loss of independence hit their weakness.
Therefore, although Zhu Yijun's massive killings shocked the officials and people all over the world, the censors, who were known as "hard-core", still set off the first countercurrent since Zhu Yijun came to power.
