A century-old family that runs through the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 51 The big empty seal case
In June of the ninth year of Hongwu, the atmosphere of today's court meeting seemed a little subtle.

Emperor Hongwu was already sitting on the high dragon chair. His face was calm, his body was sitting upright, and his eyes were scanning the ministers below, with a slightly different meaning than before.

Compared with the usual solemn atmosphere, the court hall at this time was a bit colder and more solemn.The number of Han generals standing on both sides was three times more than usual. They clenched their weapons in their palms and stared at them with stern eyes.

As the order to start the court sounded, some officials walked out of the crowd and wanted to start today's report.

However, what he got was a calm word: "This matter will be postponed until later."

All the officials felt something different from it.

The main hall fell into silence, and no one came out to report the matter.

At this time, the emperor spoke again. His voice was slow and slow, echoing throughout the hall, and all the ministers could hear it clearly.

"I heard that when the Ministry of Accounts reviewed the account books of the whole country, due to local omissions, some officials used the county government's big seal to print blank paper in advance and fill it in when the time came. It was called a 'blank seal'. Is this possible? "

???

Below, the officials looked at each other in disbelief.

Some people here have heard of it, and some are even the direct handlers; some people don’t know about it at all.But no matter who it was, everyone felt baffled by His Majesty's sudden mention of this.

In their eyes, this is a trivial matter, a trick thought up by subordinates for convenience, nothing more.

Only Yan Shiqin's heart trembled.

What the Duke said came true.

Fortunately, Huguangsi has never allowed empty printing. No matter what happens, it has nothing to do with him.

Thinking of this, he breathed a sigh of relief, and began to continue to watch the development of things with peace of mind.

Below, no one answered the emperor's question, but this seemed reasonable.Your Majesty is obviously dissatisfied with this matter, but the situation is complicated. If you want to find the root cause, of course you have to point to the Thirteen Doctors; but if you really want to take responsibility, none of the ministers and ministers subordinate to the doctors can escape; If you want to take the blame, the boss, Shangshu, will come again.

But whoever jumps out at this time will bring trouble to His Majesty, and no one is a fool.

So everyone turned their attention to the real boss.

The head of the hundred officials is Hu Weiyong, the Prime Minister of the Zuo; Yan Ling, the Prime Minister of the Zhongshu; and Wang Guangyang, the Yushi Taifu of the Zuo.

But can these old fritters understand the issues that petty officials can understand?This matter has nothing to do with them, so why bother.

For a moment, the court was silent.

"Zhou Bin, please explain to me." Emperor Hongwu named him in a calm voice.

Zhou Bin, the Minister of Household Affairs, secretly complained in his heart.But he had already been called, so he could only pretend to be deaf and dumb. He could only step out of the queue and quickly formulate the words to answer in his mind.

"Your Majesty, I have heard about this."

"The reason is that there are occasional omissions in the finances of each county, and taxes (in kind taxes, that is, grain) are inevitably lost during the transportation process. If the local payment does not match the amount weighed by the Ministry of Household Affairs, the account books will not be accurate, resulting in a large amount of transactions. It took several months for someone to come up with this plan. Although I am good at specializing, I still hope that your majesty will understand that officials have to travel thousands of miles." He also felt that this was not a big deal.

After all, this matter has started since the Yuan Dynasty. Everyone has been doing this for more than 100 years. No one thinks there is a problem and they are used to it.

However, before he could finish his words, an inkstone fell from above and landed heavily on his head, causing his head to break and bleed!
All the ministers were stunned. They didn't expect that the emperor would take action directly!Looking up, he saw that Zhu Yuanzhang had stood up, his eyes wide with anger. Only then did he realize that Zhu Yuanzhang was not just trying to punish him, but he was really angry!
Zhou Bin was so frightened that he kowtowed as if he were pounding garlic. The blood on his head dripped down and fell on the bright red carpet along his skin, but he did not dare to wipe it.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang finally put aside his disguise. He stood up and his roar echoed throughout the hall.

"Today you can use the seal without permission, but tomorrow you can use the seal for personal use. What will happen after that?"

"The account book is an important weapon of the country. It should be checked by the person in charge of the prefecture and county before it can be submitted. You are filling it out privately. You are going through the trouble of running around. You are clearly treating the law of the country as nothing!"

"How do I know whether the numbers you fill in are correct? If you fill them in randomly, wouldn't you be allowing corruption! You dare to talk about hard work. I think you are clearly deceiving you and disrespecting the law!"

"In your eyes, I am not the emperor!"

As soon as these words came out, the whole audience was shocked. These words were quite serious. Zhou Bin's arms softened and he almost collapsed to the ground.

Zhu Yuanzhang's anger seemed not to be fully vented, and he ordered:
"Drag him down and put him in jail!"

"Take all the officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs to me!"

The Han general immediately stood up, rushed into the group of officials, and began to lock up key criminals.They were obviously well prepared, and the officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs caught them right away.

The rest of the officials watched with disbelief as one official after another was pulled out of the crowd.

The law does not punish the public. This has been the truth since ancient times. It is a serious crime to treason. I have never heard of following the rebel army to kill you. At first, everyone thought that this matter would bring bad luck to Zhou Bin. At most, the few One doctor was enough. Unexpectedly, there was no one left in the entire household department.

"Your Majesty, you are wronged, Your Majesty! I have never done this!" Suddenly a voice came out from the crowd, but it was calling for injustice.

"What's your grievance?" Zhu Yuanzhang stopped the soldiers, "Why, could a lotus flower grow out of the mud in Hubu? What's your name?"

Yan Shiqin was disheveled at this time, but his face was full of doubts. He was not afraid at all, but full of surprise.

"Your Majesty, I am Yan Shiqin, a doctor in the Huguang Division of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Affairs."

Yan Shiqin?
Suddenly, most of the court's eyes were focused on Yan Ling, and Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes swept over him vaguely.

Yan Ling still looked like the old god was there.

"I have been in office for more than a year and have never allowed the seal to be empty. Please check it carefully." Over there, Yan Shiqin was still arguing loudly.
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PS: Because there are rumors on the Internet that three of the four major Hongwu cases were sponsored by Zhu Biao, so I spent more than an hour today translating Ming history and Ming records, and looking for various information.

Zhu Biao had indeed begun to assist Zhu Yuanzhang in handling government affairs at this time, but no evidence was found that he was responsible for three major cases.On the contrary, I found records of his "friendliness" and "his kind nature" in "History of the Ming Dynasty: Biography of Emperor Xingzong Xiaokang". "Records of the Ming Dynasty" also said that he was too kind. I feel that the three major cases may be true. He didn't host it.

Do you have any relevant historical materials?Maybe I didn't find it.

(End of this chapter)