Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 658 Extra Story ([-]) Five Major Cases

"Dang...dang...dang..."

On the fifth day of May in the 29th year of Tianqi, with the melodious morning bells ringing in various cities, after two months of fermentation, the cabinet finally announced to the world under the instruction of Zhu Ciran.

"Corruption Control" written by cabinet minister Jin Xuan was posted all over the country and published in "Da Ming Pao" at the same time.

Its content revealed the imperfection of the relevant systems of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and local yamen.

In the memorandum, Jin Xuan believes that in the court, capital, chief secretary, and local prefectures and county governments of the Ming Dynasty, there is a phenomenon of corruption and corruption, treating the people as domestic slaves and livestock, and using official power for personal gain.

This group of people not only caused heavy losses to Ming's economic construction, but also seriously damaged the image of the emperor and the court.

Therefore, Kim Hyun published "Corruption Control" as a cabinet minister, and the cabinet approved it on the first day of May.

The cabinet demanded that all yamen inside and outside Beijing immediately accept double investigations by the Metropolitan Procuratorate and Jinyiwei.

At the same time, the Emperor Zhu Youxiao in the "Da Ming Pao" also criticized the phenomenon of encouraging the people to expose corrupt officials and the local government's arbitrary fees.

All report letters can be secretly placed in every corner of the imperial store when shopping.

As for the people who report, they don't have to use the real-name system, but leave their names in the form of villages, towns, and counties.

Once the reported corrupt officials are sacked, all the proceeds from the ransacking of their homes will be rewarded to the people in the villages, towns, and counties who left their names.

Perhaps in this way, the whistleblower cannot gain more benefits, but the safety of the whistleblower is guaranteed anyway.

Maybe it was suppressed and exploited for too long since the 24th year of the Apocalypse, or maybe some people took risks for gold and silver. In short, with the encouragement of the emperor and the court, the local government quickly responded.

From the sixth day of May to the fifteenth day of May, in just ten days, Huangdian collected more than 400 letters of complaint.

From hundreds of letters per day at the beginning, to thousands of letters later, the local people became more courageous when they realized that the county government could not find them.

Therefore, when the time entered June, civil inspections and revelations began to reach a climax.

In "Treatment of Corruption", Jin Xuan set five levels of corrupt officials, and at the same time clarified the punishment:

The first type, if the embezzlement does not exceed ten taels of silver, it will be sentenced to three years of tree planting in Hexi Province.

The second type is that if the embezzlement exceeds ten taels of silver, but not more than 100 taels of silver, the whole family will be ordered to move to the river to plant trees and not leave the local area for ten years.

The third type, officials who embezzle more than 100 taels and less than 1000 taels under personal behavior, will be distributed to Dongshan Mansion by the three clans.

The fourth type, those who embezzle more than 1000 taels under personal behavior, will be sentenced to beheaded personally, and the three clans will be distributed to Dongshan Mansion.

The fifth type, collective corruption cases, the organizers and masterminds with a total of more than 1 taels were sentenced to be divided into five horses and divided into three tribes.

Finally, for officials who cooperated with the Metropolitan Procuratorate and Jinyiwei in the investigation process and dared to expose other corrupt officials, Jin Xuan also reduced their punishment by one layer as appropriate.

It has to be said that the punishments in "Treatment of Corruption" are indeed severe, but in the process of local people reporting and officials exposing each other, some extreme situations have appeared in different degrees in various places, such as forced confessions, induced confessions, and false confessions, thus hurting the public. killed some innocents.

After Zhu Ciran discovered the signs, he took measures to correct them, and this "corruption case", known as the fifth largest case of Tianqi, ended in May of the 30th year of Tianqi.

According to the statistics of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Ministry of Officials, no less than 300 million civilians and officials participated in the "corruption control" campaign nationwide, and more than 16 officials were found to have been corrupted for more than 8.9 taels, about [-]% of the number of civil and military officials in the Ming Dynasty. .

Nearly 92% of them are only "first level", and the Ministry of Criminal Justice sentenced these 14 people to go to Hexi for three years of labor reform.

Of the remaining 8%, 85% are in the "second level". The Ministry of Criminal Justice also sentenced them and their families. About [-] people moved to the river to plant trees for ten years.

The number of officials who have reached the "third level" has reached more than [-], and the number of them and the three ethnic groups involved has reached more than [-].

For their sentence, Zhu Ciran strictly followed the "Governance of Corruption", and the three clans were exiled to Dongshan Mansion.

As for the corrupt officials involved in the "fourth level", there were only more than [-] corrupt officials, all of whom were sentenced to beheaded, and the three clans were sent to Dongshan Mansion.

In the end, there were only 72 corrupt officials in the "fifth level".

Several people with high official positions who were executed were Zhao Yusen, the governor of Zhejiang Province, Zhang Qi, the head of the household department, and Wang Sunhui, the foreign minister of the official department.

In addition, the number of nobles who committed crimes is also quite large.

Seventeen nobles, including Xu Wenjue, Duke of Wei, Zhu Chunchen, Duke of Cheng, Xu Yunzhen, Duke of Ding, Xue Lian, Marquis of Yangwu, Liu Zuochang, Marquis of Anyuan, Zhu Guobi, Marquis of Funing, Li Hongji, Marquis of Linhuai, and Tang Guozuo, Marquis of Lingbi, were all stripped of their titles. The family property was confiscated, and Taixi was exiled for the people.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Households and the Ministry of Households, the number of people punished in this case reached 45, and the value of the gold and silver banknotes, antique calligraphy and paintings, and farmland houses obtained during the seizure reached more than 53 million taels, equivalent to [-]% of the entire Ming Dynasty. of financial revenue.

Zhu Ciran collected the antique calligraphy and paintings as domestic funds, distributed the land to the local people, hung the house in the imperial shop for sale, and deposited the gold and silver in the Finance Department.

At the same time, he distributed 500 million taels of banknotes to the people who participated in the prosecution in a collective way of villages, towns, and counties.

Although he didn't know how much of this money could be implemented, Zhu Ciran didn't believe that the officials would dare to embezzle all of it because of the big case ahead.

So far, the "corruption case" of the fifth largest case of Apocalypse is over.

However, many officials were dumbfounded that Hong Chengchou, the chief minister of the cabinet, had nothing to do as the person who had been reported the most, and he still sat firmly on the throne of chief minister afterwards.

On the contrary, the cabinet minister Li Changgeng died in office during this period, and was bestowed with many things by the emperor to his family, and he himself was given the posthumous title of "Wenzhuang".

After Li Changgeng's death, Shen Tingyang entered the cabinet as Minister of the Household Department, and Sun Kewang, Minister of the Household Department, succeeded him.

In September of the same year, the cabinet minister Wen Tiren also retired and returned to his hometown. Sun Yuanhua, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, entered the cabinet, and Li Banghua, Chief Secretary of Sichuan, took over.

However, it is worth noting that although the Ming Dynasty focused its energy on "corruption cases" in the past two years, it did not relax its attack on the Mughals.

The long-term blows turned the border between the Mughals and the Ming Dynasty into a blank land. The Mughals, which once had a population of 5000 million, could only continuously attack the internal states to integrate their forces.

At the same time, due to insufficient output, Mughal peasant uprisings also occurred from time to time, but they were often quickly suppressed by the Mongolian cavalry.

By the 30th year of Apocalypse, the cabinet minister Shen Tingyang estimated that in the past ten years, the Mughal population had dropped by at least 1000 million.

Not only the Mughals, but even the population of native Indians who served as vassals in India dropped from more than 400 million to more than [-] million.

In contrast, the number of Indians who served as vassals increased to 470 million.

This is only the situation in India. In comparison, the situation in Levia is much better.

According to Chen Zizhuang, the supervisory envoy of South Kunlun, the number of citizens of Levia reached 230 million.

Due to the lack of arable land, the local people were not absorbed. Therefore, in places with towns, the number of Han people can reach 90%.

In addition, in the 30 years of Apocalypse, Qi State exported 400 million shi of grain to Tang, Jihuai and San Francisco, which covered 20% of the food shortage of the three countries.

As for Qi State, since there is no supervisory envoy responsible for supervision, the cabinet can only learn about Qi State's situation from Qi State's annual visits.

In the 30th year of Apocalypse, the total number of Qi people is about 860 million, accounting for about 34% of the total number of people, and the total number of Qi people is 530 million.

At the same time, the amount of arable land in Qi State exceeded 30 million mu in the 780th year of Tianqi, reaching more than [-] million and [-] million mu.

In about seven years, the amount of arable land in Qi State tripled, the annual per capita rations reached 720 catties, and the annual average per capita of meat, eggs and milk reached 62 catties.

Daming imitated the statistical situation of Qi State, and took the North Zhili area as the statistical object, and finally concluded that the per capita ration of Da Ming next year was 810 nine catties, and the annual average per capita meat, egg and milk was 21 catties.

In terms of staple food, Daming still has an advantage over Qi, but in the family letter written by Qi Wang Zhu Youjian to Emperor Zhu Youxiao, Zhu Youjian clearly stated:

"Four hundred catties of staple food is the minimum to keep a person alive. If it is lower than this, people will starve to death."

“But officials can’t afford to be complacent about reaching that limit.”

"If you want the people to live and work in peace and contentment, the annual per capita grain should not be less than [-] catties. Qi and Daming are currently the only countries in the world that exceed this standard, but we can't slack off, because the people's requirements will continue to increase over time. "

"In addition, the annual per capita meat, egg and milk consumption of the people of Guochao is too low, and Guochao does not have a semi-primitive wild environment like Qi, so it is necessary to plan early."

"The Guochao Five-Year Plan has now reached the second stage, but the second five-year plan's annual per capita meat, eggs, and milk target of 25 catties is still far away."

"Guochao owns nearly [-]% of the grasslands and pastures in the world, but Guochao has not made good use of them."

"If you make good use of the high-quality pastures in Nanzhou, Modong, and Western Taixi provinces, even if you cannot achieve the goal of meat, eggs, and milk in the second five-year plan, you can achieve the second and third in the third five-year plan. The five-year plan will be completed together, and the annual per capita meat, egg and milk volume will reach [-] jin."

Looking at the letter in his hand, Zhu Ciran nodded slightly, while in front of him, the 46-year-old Zhu Youxiao was sitting on a dragon chair in the Qing Palace and looking down at him:
"Your uncle is right. We haven't used the pastures in Nanzhou, Modong, and Taixi provinces yet. I'll leave this matter to you."

"Ah?" Hearing Zhu Youxiao's sudden mission, the 27-year-old Zhu Ciran was stunned for a moment, and then he reacted, bowing and saying:
"Father, my son still has to supervise the country."

"Then you arrange someone to do it. I'm not in good health recently, and Li Yuan asked me to rest more." Zhu Youxiao said this with a weight of nearly 170 catties, so that Zhu Ciran had to admire him for telling nonsense Ability.

"Go down, I'm going to take a lunch break." Zhu Youxiao waved his hand, seeing this, Zhu Ciran had no choice but to leave Qianqing Palace.

But after he left, Zhu Youxiao, who was drowsy during the performance, suddenly looked out energetically. After seeing that Zhu Ciran had really gone far, Zhu Youxiao got up and took off his round collar robe, and turned to Go to the side hall.

Walking to the door, he rubbed his hands, then raised his hand and pushed the door open.

When the door was pushed open, a sophisticated tower appeared in front of Zhu Youxiao.

The tower is one foot high and is composed of various parts. It is Zhu Youxiao's proud work this year.

"It's almost done. After it's done, people can build this tower on Harawin Mountain."

Zhu Youxiao smiled cheerfully, and before Wang Tiqian could catch up, he turned around and closed the door, picked up tools and began to "study" by himself.

Hearing the chopping sound of axes and chisels coming from the hall, Wang Tiqian shook his head and sighed: "I need to spend money again..."

"The situation in the household department is much better this year..."

When Wang Tiqian sighed, Zhu Ciran met Shen Tingyang who came to look for him at the gate of Qianqing Palace.

Shen Tingyang is now in charge of the household department, so the reason why he came to see Zhu Ciran was for the affairs of the household department.

It is now the fifth day of the winter month, and he has already read the summary report of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and Shen Tingyang's visit this time brings the report of Daming's estimated expenditure for next year.

Since nearly 3000 million taels of silver were harvested from the fifth largest case, the budget for Tianqi's 31 years seems to be very sufficient.

"This year, the household department has more than [-] million taels of silver deposited in the bank."

Shen Tingyang and Zhu Ciran walked back to the East Palace on foot, and said as they walked:
"The capital expenditure of the Fifth Army Commander's Mansion this year is about 400 million taels, of which the navy needs to spend an additional 200 million taels to purchase cruisers."

"The basic salary expenditure of the six ministries is more than 300 million taels, the expenditure of the Department of Public Security is more than 500 million taels, the expenditure of the Imperial Hospital is about [-] million taels, and the expenditure of the railway department of the Ministry of Industry is [-] million taels."

"Therefore, the imperial government's expenditure this year is about 700 million and [-] million taels, and the balance after Zhengdan is more than [-] million taels."

By the 30th year of the Apocalypse, the national debt owed by the Ming Dynasty to the people had been redeemed and paid off, so Zhu Ciran said that the situation of the household department is much better this year.

However, Zhu Ciran also knew that this money cannot be kept, but should learn from Qi to stimulate the economy.

"The 600 million taels of silver are all spent, and the Ministry of Industry is asked to repair the railway, so that the state capital can be fully connected to the railway as soon as possible."

"As for the wages of the common people, they should be increased as appropriate. It is best to start the construction of the railways in the northern provinces after the spring plowing and before the autumn harvest."

Zhu Ciran explained his thoughts, and Shen Tingyang wrote them all down.

After Zhu Ciran finished speaking, Shen Tingyang also bowed and said:
"News came from thousands of households in Europe that Lin Dan Khan destroyed the Xilu in Crimea, [-] troops of the Lumi Kingdom (Ottoman) were annihilated, and more than [-] people were killed or injured in Mongolia."

"In addition, the army of King Elijah (British) attacked the city of Dover on the fifth day of February this year. General Cromwell of the parliamentary army broke through to the north, and at the same time attacked London, which was empty of troops."

"When Charles I knew that London had been attacked, he ordered [-] royal cavalry to follow and pursue Cromwell. Cromwell led less than [-] parliamentary troops to flee to northern Wales."

"In the support of the people of Anelia, Cromwell fled to the Welsh area, but the main force of the parliamentary army in the south was wiped out."

"From the perspective of the situation, although the civil war in Analia is not over yet, the royal army has gained an advantage. The imperial court should stop supporting Analia, and allow Cromwell in Wales to confront Charles I in the south. "

Shen Tingyang talked about the internal affairs of the United Kingdom. With the support of Da Ming and Qi, Charles I, the first British king who was supposed to be guillotined by the parliament, ended the parliamentary army with an ending that was contrary to history. He forced Cromwell, Lord Protector, to Wales in the north.

A divided Britain is obviously more beneficial to Ming Dynasty, so the support for Charles I should end here.

In response, Zhu Ciran nodded his head slightly to express his approval, and Shen Tingyang also followed up and said:
"The situation on the European battlefield is more difficult than that in Anelia. Countries have shown signs of decline. Prices in countries such as Franz (France) have skyrocketed, and people's anti-war sentiments are rising."

"Under such circumstances, it is estimated that Franz and other countries will soon sit on the negotiating table with Franz."

"If it can be implemented concretely, Franji will win a disastrous victory."

"However, both Hong Ge and Sun Gechen believe that, judging from the current situation, if the European countries cease fighting, they will have a great possibility to target us."

"If they abandon their religious views and form an alliance to fight against Guochao, then Guochao will face a more difficult opponent than the southern captives."

Shen Tingyang spoke cautiously, but Zhu Ciran shook his head firmly:
"Uncle Qi said that it is difficult to end the religious differences in Europe, unless Franz and other countries can win this time."

"Also, with Anelia overseas, European alliances are hard to come by."

"As long as the imperial court doesn't put pressure on them, their alliance will be nothing more than the Six Nations of the past, which is nothing more than a close relationship."

With that said, Zhu Ciran handed the memorial to Shen Tingyang, and praised:

"Sun Kewang has done a good job. The household department is managed by him in an orderly manner."

"However, there are still many places where Guochao needs to spend money, and now the Mining Department produces more and more gold and silver mines every year. If you are not careful, it will cause inflation, so you need to pay attention."

"In addition, the issue of population and arable land needs to be paid attention to. Now that the country reclaims more than [-] million mu every year, are there any corrupt officials in the Department of Agriculture? This needs to be investigated by the Department of Agriculture and the Metropolitan Procuratorate."

"I heard from the Prince of Zibo that although the people in the local area are not troubled by miscellaneous taxes for the time being, they are always bullied when dividing the land."

"Those land-distributing officials distribute good land to people close to them, and distribute bad land to the common people."

"It seems that the land is divided, but the difference in grain production per mu can reach two buckets to one stone."

"Some officials classify farmers' dry land as paddy fields, and their relatives' paddy fields as dry land."

"In this way, the dry land pays the tax of the paddy field, and the paddy field pays the tax of the dry land."

"If things go on like this, won't it repeat the mistakes of the collusion between officials and gentry during the Wanli period?"

"It took Uncle Qi several decades to put an end to this situation, and Gu will not allow this situation to reappear in the Tianqi Dynasty."

"The cabinet issued an order to the Department of Agriculture and the Metropolitan Procuratorate to find out how many people like this there are in the country, and whether the policy of ten taxes and one tax has been implemented!"

"The next official takes orders..." Hearing what Zhu Ciran said, Shen Tingyang knew that Zhu Cihong, who was studying in Shanxi recently, discovered many phenomena.

Seeing that Shen Tingyang responded, Zhu Ciran walked towards the East Palace by himself, while Shen Tingyang stopped in front of the Wenhua Palace.

Looking at Zhu Ciran's back, Shen Tingyang thought of Zhu Cihong again, and couldn't help sighing:

"The prince of Zibo is about to become the imperial envoy..."

(End of this chapter)