Zhang Juzheng saw Zhu Yijun's instructions and praised Zhu Yijun in his heart. He knew that the emperor finally understood what he meant and had more confidence in the future reform.
His perspective was completely different from Zhu Yijun's. Deep in his heart, he wanted to kill Yu Maoxue, who had alienated the emperor and his ministers and corrupted state affairs, as a warning to those who disrupted the government.
However, as the head of the civil service and a disciple of Confucianism, Zhang Juzheng must adhere to the political correctness of the Ming Dynasty - freedom of speech on censorship and science.
On the other hand, as the emperor, Zhu Yijun did not want to catch Yu Mao and learn from him. Although his heart was punishable, the way of checks and balances lies in this "punishable heart". Otherwise, the integrity of Yan Guan would be regarded too high.
No matter what the emperor and the chief minister thought, the speechless reality was that those who wanted to kill Yu Maoxue had to protect him; those who wanted to let Yu Maoxue off lightly, but sent Jin Yiwei to capture him from Nanjing and throw him into Beizhen Fu Si's prison. This is the paradox of politics.
The first person to be punished was Wang Zhuoyu, who "accepted bribes and made false statements to disrupt the government." Within two hours of the Jinyiwei's torture, Wang Zhuoyu, like pouring beans through a bamboo tube, revealed the truth about the Lianghuai salt merchants' bribery with heavy sums of money to buy memorials and boycott the method of drying salt.
To be honest, Wang Zhuoyu never dreamed that Zhu Yijun knew that the salt-drying method would be the mainstream in the future. His idea was similar to that of all the courtiers. It was probably a middle-ranking official who wanted to be favored who told the emperor about the benefits of the salt-drying method. The emperor made a decision in the palace to make the salt-drying popular.
Since it can be moved by words, it can also be reversed by words. Wang Zhuoyu took great pains in his memorial, saying that he visited an old salt worker and "made him laugh". I thought that given the emperor's age, wouldn't he be upset if he was laughed at? As long as he is angry, he will send someone to check, and then it is time to take action - all the salt merchant wants is for the imperial court to send an imperial envoy.
It's a pity that this book worth three thousand taels caused me to fall into it. The Jinyiwei followed the clues and snuck out all the salt merchants who bribed the censor, and took them all to Beijing for trial.
Zhu Yijun didn't behave like Emperor Wu. He often acted recklessly and refused to reason with his courtiers. What he was best at was the essence of defeating the enemy for our army in later generations: breaking through a point with all his strength, then using the point to lead the area, and then encircling in a roundabout way - occasionally when conditions are ripe, there will be a feast in the center, etc. The salt policy and the revolution in Beijing best reflect his political characteristics.
This time I opened a gap in Wang Zhuoyu's body, and if I didn't dig too hard, how could I be worthy of the emperor's skin on my body?
The collusion between officials and businessmen in the salt administration, Zhu Yijun thought with his toes, knew that it would become a chronic disease early. When the salt administration reform is about to be launched, if the salt administration officials are not properly dealt with, there will be no reform.
How could the arrested salt merchants endure the Jinyiwei who had been personally trained and instructed by Zhu Yijun without leaving any external injuries. Beizhen Fusi had already made the salt merchants desperate for death.
Salt merchant Jin Mou confessed that the Lianghuai Salt Division secretly embezzled more than 10 million kilograms of surplus salt every year, which is more than two and a half times the normal salt output of dozens of salt farms in Lianghuai. It is all mixed with the normal salt sold by their salt merchants and sold together. , they have already cleared all the checkpoints and other joints along the way.
This thunderous explosion made Wang Tong, who had become a colleague of Jin Yiwei, overjoyed and immediately played Zhu Yijun secretly.
The profit of more than 100 million kilograms of surplus salt every year is divided up by officials, businessmen and local officials along the way. Central officials divide the profits in the way of "ice respect and charcoal respect". Although Zhu Yijun had already expected that the Ming Dynasty Salt Administration was corrupt, he did not expect them to be so unrestrained and ordered Wang Tong to continue digging in secret.
Later, the salt merchant Wang Gongyu bit out that Wailang, a member of the Salt Department of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and others knew clearly about the illegal sale of salt in Lianghuai and did not report it. They received an annual silver of 3,500 taels, and were entrusted to send extra salt to nobles. In this matter, Wang Gongyu was a private member of the new bachelor Wang Guoguang's pocket, and there is no need to say much about it.
After Wang Tong obtained the confession and checked the evidence chain to be basically complete, he received the secret order and nearly half of the Jinyi Guards were dispatched to transfer salt from the Huaihe River to Si Yamen and the salt-related people in South Zhili, Anhui, Jiangxi, Huguang, and Yingtianfu. Almost most of the officials, including the Salt Department of the Ministry of Revenue and other officials, were taken to the Nanyuan project camp to keep company with the salt merchants.
Although the operation could not be kept as confidential as later generations, under the strict family laws of Jinyiwei in recent years, only a dozen grassroots officials who should be arrested were escaped - and no high-ranking officials escaped, and the rest were all arrested.
This thunderous action by the emperor's command of the Jin Yiwei stunned all officials below the imperial cabinet. In order to achieve the suddenness of the action, except for a secret discussion between Zhu Yijun and Zhang Juzheng, no one inside or outside the palace knew about it.
Almost all salt officials under the jurisdiction of Lianghuai were wiped out - the number of people involved in the case soon exceeded 800. Although Zhang Juzheng knew about it in advance, the scale was still beyond his expectation.
He didn't care about rescuing Yu Maoxue to gain a good reputation. He held a small meeting with the officials and urgently dispatched the censors who patrolled the salt in the past as imperial envoys. Yun Si allocated manpower to fill the vacancy, and he was so busy wiping Zhu Yijun's butt that he was in a hurry.
When the big case first broke out, all the other Salt Transportation Department chiefs across the country were so frightened that they hurriedly poured money into their accounts. While making false accounts, they also burned files, including killing people, silencing them, and concealing property. What they were busy with was His face was haggard and nervous. Later, I saw that the emperor had no intention of expanding the attack area, so I kept my heart in my stomach for the time being.
When Zhang Juzheng and the Ministry of Civil Affairs urgently transferred manpower to Lianghuai, they all celebrated again - since the establishment of the Salt Transportation Department in various places, this was the first time that there were fewer officials than there were positions. It was like a dream.
In order to prevent turmoil in the Huaihe River, Zhu Yijun ordered He Kuan, the censor of Caojiang, and Yang Cheng, the censor of Yingtian Governor, to lead 2,500 cavalry troops and 3,000 Nanjing garrison troops respectively to camp in Hangzhou to facilitate suppression.
Later, Yu Dayou, who had been dismissed from office, was urgently promoted to the Lianghuai Salt Patrol and the Prime Minister Lianghuai Salt Affairs. Responsible for appeasing the morale of the troops, training the salt patrol soldiers, and exterminating the troublesome salt owl.
In fact, the imperial court made a big fanfare and struck with thunder. Unless the big and small salt lords wanted to rebel, who would dare to say anything? The so-called green forest hero is smarter than a monkey when it comes to his hair. How much water can be put into his brain to stand up for these corrupt officials? Everyone stopped, disbanded the gang, and hid themselves.
Jin Yiwei then mobilized its best personnel to continue digging into these officials. Zhu Yijun has always been in charge of the overall situation in the inner palace and has to listen to the "task force" report once a day.
He also ordered Jin Yiwei to test more interrogation methods on these silverfish, analyze and organize the data, and formulate torture teaching materials as soon as possible to train Jin Yiwei's torture experts in large quantities.
Later, the salt merchants and officials could not say anything new, but the testimonies they provided could be used as supporting evidence. Finally, Zhu Yijun was able to outline a complete corruption network with the Lianghuai Salt Division as the core, with a complete chain of evidence and various circumstantial evidence. Zhu Yijun pretended to be furious, sent the report to the court for discussion, and ordered the three legal divisions to review it.
While waiting for the judicial review, the souls tortured by the Jin Yiwei sublimated, and the salt merchants and officials who had changed their minds were all scrambling to be the first to bite each other, which shocked all the Dali Temple officials. Since Zhu Yijun came to power, a truly major case - the case of residual salt in the Huaihe River and Huaihe River - broke through in a memorial written by Wang Zhuoyu and shocked both the government and the public.
...
It can be said that one wave has not subsided, and another wave has arisen. However, this wave came due to the previous wave, and the incident of Wang Zhuoyu and Yu Maoxue being imprisoned was photographed without a trace. By the end of July, no one in the government or the public cared about their lives. .
All the officials focused on the "Two Huai River Surplus Salt Cases", including the imperial censors of the fourth rank and above. Each of them had a movable type printed "Liang Huai River Surplus Salt Case Officials and Business Warning Records" with shocking contents.
As the "Warning" was disseminated and copied, the various bribery methods contained in it opened the eyes and hearts of newcomers to the officialdom. However, think about so many elegant bribes, secular bribes, sexual bribes, real estate bribes, congratulatory bribes, personal servant bribes, pawn bribes, shareholding bribes, IOU bribes, retirement rebate bribes, etc., all of them have been plundered. Jing, everyone is worried about how to develop new seeds.
