I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 472 Daxing Literary Prison

Under the emperor's pressure, the Knock Que case was successfully solved in less than three days.

"Is there no mastermind behind the scenes?"

Looking at the case memorial submitted by the Third Judiciary Division, Zhu Yijiong couldn't help but frown.

Liu Shao, the presiding judge of the Knock Que case, the Minister of Punishment, quickly replied: "Reporting to Your Majesty, there is indeed no mastermind. The ministers in this case have repeatedly checked the confessions of the three hundred Knock Que scholars, and there is no evidence of collusion."

Zhu Yijiong was still flipping through the case memorial of the Third Law Division, recording the whole process in detail: "In other words, this is a group of scholars who moan for no reason and are hot-headed, and they just want to force me to submit?"

Liu Shao was actually speechless. He really thought that there could be some secret here, or even involve a struggle in the court. Fortunately, when the three law divisions jointly tried the case, they wanted to cut the knot quickly, for fear of being noticed by the people behind the scenes.

As a result, this is it?
A bunch of hot-headed angry youths?

Zhu Yijiong said: "So, the 32 civil servants involved are not completely innocent?"

Liu Shao said: "These 32 scholars, like the three hundred Kouque scholars, are too old to take the national examination, and they are unwilling to serve as local officials as candidates. At first, these scholars only gathered in private, but in the past two years they have gathered together. He became more and more unbridled. Not only did he set up a Sun Shan Literary Society, he also held public literary gatherings on the Qinhuai River from time to time, wrote poems to satirize officials, criticized state affairs, and even...he was so bold as to ridicule His Majesty!"

Zhu Yijiong smiled: "Has the name of Sun Shan Literary Society been lost to Sun Shan? It's really courageous."

Liu Shao said: "The person who led the call to join forces with the failed scholars this time is from the Sunshan Literary Society."

Zhu Yijiong asked: "The scholars in Kengque are taking the imperial examination, so what state affairs did Sun Shan Literary Society criticize?"

Liu Shao replied: "There are many, including those in our dynasty such as the abolition of humble status, the abolition of slaves, and the splitting up of large households. Others include new policies such as the Salt Law and new regulations for the imperial examination. On the contrary, Guangnan, The expansion of territories such as Luzon and Ryukyu was basically not covered by Sun Shan Literary Society.”

The smile on Zhu Yijiong's face instantly faded: "Is that really true?"

Liu Shao was a little surprised when he noticed that the emperor's face was not good-looking. He had laughed off the previous insults to the emperor.

Why is it that when it comes to sharing one's share of land, that's it?
No, dividing small households into acres, splitting up large households...these are all new policies of the imperial court, and even the Salt Law is included in this list. Could it be that His Majesty is angry because of this?
As the Minister of the Ministry of Justice of the Ming Dynasty, it is naturally impossible to really come here to fill in the numbers. Even if you are filling in the numbers, you should learn to observe people's words and figure out your intentions after being in the position of Minister for so many years.

Zhu Yijiong said: "I just thought about it. There are still too few people exiled in Liaodong. Since the evidence of these 32 people is conclusive, they will follow the three hundred Kouque scholars and their three tribes and be exiled in Liaodong. And the original ones The three hundred scholars from Kouque will also be redistributed. Sixty percent of them, including those from the north, must be exiled to Liaodong Town, and they will be exiled directly to Sarhu for me."

Liu Shao was shocked. How come the evidence of the crime was conclusive, but it was only partially involved.

Moreover, exile is no longer even pretense. It was originally called migration, but now it is directly exiled.

Now, Liaodong Town may have to exile at least tens of thousands of people.

But Zhu Yijiong was not going to let it go, and continued: "There is also the Sunshan Literary Society. All members who were still in the society before the Kouque incident will follow this example, merge their three tribes, and be exiled to Sarhu, Liaodong. Order the Ministry of Punishment The leader, together with the officials of the Three Law Departments, will immediately conduct a thorough investigation across the country. If there is any criticism of the new tax laws of the imperial court, once it is verified to be true, all the three tribes will be exiled to Sarhu, Liaodong."

"...The minister obeys the order."

Liu Shao was greatly shocked. He was silent for a moment and then accepted the order.

As the Minister of Justice of the imperial court, since the emperor had issued the decree, Liu Shao could only accept it.

On the side, Meng Yan, the living commentator, was holding a writing brush in his hand, already doubting life.

How the hell do you want him to write this?
Write about the emperor's great literary inquisition, or write about the emperor's cruelty, issuing decrees directly without the cabinet, ignoring the court's laws.

After pondering for a moment, Meng Yan decided to write down the daily notes first, but he couldn't remember them all, let alone write inscriptions, and try to make them as vague as possible.

After finishing writing my daily notes, I went to the street to buy paper to write a diary, writing down the details and every sentence.

A serious historian, who doesn’t keep a diary?
Soon, the cabinet received the imperial edict from the emperor, but no one refuted it, and no one dared to refute it.

When Chief Assistant Wang Li signed it, he couldn't help but sigh: "Sure enough, this day will come sooner or later!"

Second Assistant Liang Wenxuan also nodded and said: "Yes! It is really not easy for Your Majesty to endure until today before taking action."

Wu Sidao sneered: "It's just a group of scholars who can't even pass the Jinshi examination, but they dare to publicly criticize the Dukes of the Manchu Dynasty. If it weren't for the kindness of the emperor and not wanting to pay attention to them, they would all have been exiled for three thousand miles."

Zhu Chengxun said: "Now, more than just being exiled for three thousand miles, Your Majesty is using the topic to enrich the population of Liaodong Town."

Wang Yuan sneered and said: "So what if I use the topic as a pretext? Who can let these scholars complain without any reason? They can appoint officials after clearly appointing people. If they had honestly appointed officials in the first place, even if the performance evaluation is not excellent, but just average, then at least they will be It's time to become a seventh-grade official." Lu Youlong said: "Although His Majesty did not take action for no reason, this imperial edict must have wide implications, and I am afraid that the disaster of the Literary Prison will be repeated!"

Wang Li directly made a decision and said: "It is the literary prison that these scholars brought upon themselves. Moreover, Your Majesty has been very merciful. He only exiled himself to Liaodong and did not kill anyone. He did not arbitrarily get convicted for his words. He was only arrested for criticizing the new policies of the country. Man, these insinuations about today’s superiors are not included in this list.”

Indeed, the emperor didn't say anything about how he calculated the innuendo, which meant he didn't care.

This is already very kind, and all the scholars in the world should be grateful!
The emperor has tolerated the world's scholars for too long, and has made the world's scholars forget that since this emperor is the founding king, he can also kill people.

……

The cabinet decree was issued and the "Daming Yue News" followed up simultaneously.

For a time, officials were arresting people everywhere across the country.

"My lords, I was just invited to drink some wine. That article was written by someone else who encouraged me to write it while drunk. It's all drunken nonsense! It's nonsense!"

"Master, please spare me! I just said hello, and that anti-poem was written by someone else."

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..."

"..."

Restaurants such as Chuguan (after the New Deal), folk academies, and even some local official school teachers were also involved, and people were arrested every day.

Moreover, they were arrested first and tried later, which often involved a large number of people. The entire Ming Dynasty and the whole country were shrouded in the terror of the New Deal and the Literary Prison.

A mere literary club composed of ordinary scholars, its members could mobilize three hundred failed scholars to rush to surround the Zhengyang Gate of the imperial city and knock on the palace to force them to do so.

Is this okay if we look at the whole world?

Rather than just letting the world's scholars criticize and resent the imperial court, it would be better to cut it across the board.

The great man said it well, the so-called overcorrection is overcorrection.

A teahouse in Nanjing city.

That is to say, the teahouse. Restaurants and Qinhuai River have been arresting people every day these days. The teahouse is a little more peaceful, and the very famous teahouse is also arresting people.

Two scholars were drinking tea on the second floor, watching official officials passing by from time to time downstairs.

"This is indeed the founding hero of the country. He is so similar to Taizu."

"Your Majesty is setting up literary prisons all over the country. Isn't it possible that there is no one in the entire dynasty to give advice to the Dukes?"

"Admonish? How to admonish? His Majesty is obviously angry when he is acting like this. Who dares to admonish?"

"How is this different from a tyrant?"

"Brother Zijing, be careful! Today is different from the past, and you and I should have found a way out."

"Brother Boxu, are you just going to give in?"

"Well, the situation has been decided, and His Majesty is already angry. What can we do? After a few days, I will go to the Ministry of Civil Affairs to report. If I become an official now, I can still get a person from the ninth grade. Sir. If I had gone a few years later, I would have lost everything."

"..."

"Brother Zijing, take care of it!"

There are still many people who think like these two scholars. The imperial court has established a large-scale literary prison. Although it has been widely implicated and has aroused deep resentment among the scholars, more scholars have completely recognized the reality and are ready to imprison the grassroots officials honestly. .

If you go now, you can still get a rank officer, but if you can't pass it again, you may not even be able to get a rank officer.

　The person who knows Yuan is Sun Shan, and the virtuous man is outside Sun Shan.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)