Emperor Ming's grandson

Chapter 22 Zhu Yuanzhang: Everyone is hiding it from us!
The so-called Kongyin Case refers to the fact that after the founding of Hongwu, in order to strengthen financial management, it was stipulated that every year, all ministries, temples, chief secretaries, prefectures, and counties must submit accounts of money, food, fiscal revenue and expenditure, and taxes to the Ministry of Household Affairs. Officials were brought to the capital to check with the accounts of the Ministry of Revenue.

The figures of the Ministry of Accounts, ministries, monasteries, and chief secretaries, prefectures, and counties must be completely consistent with each other to complete the financial accounts for this year. If there is a discrepancy, the entire account book will be rejected, and the account books need to be prepared again, and After stamping the big seal of the original local government office, report it again.

This is a very standardized process, and there is no problem in theory, but the actual problem is that the capital of the Ming Dynasty is Yingtianfu (later Nanjing).

In terms of the traffic situation in the Ming Dynasty, it would be okay if it was the central ministries and temples, or directly under the direct control of prefectures and counties, or the chief envoys of Shandong, Henan, Huguang, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, etc., but if Chief envoys such as Shaanxi, Sichuan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou will be in big trouble if they make one mistake, because if they strictly follow the regulations, then if they make a mistake, they may have to go back and forth for more than half a year. If something goes wrong again, the picture is too beautiful to think about.

Therefore, the actual situation is like this, but no one is willing to go back and forth, so officials usually prepare another set of blank account books that have been stamped, so that when they arrive in the capital, they can take them out if there is an error in the account books This blank account book with a large seal was quickly filled in with the correct figures and reported twice.

The matter of stamping blank seals on account books has been around since the Yuan Dynasty. It is a habitual practice of officials and has never been explicitly prohibited. Therefore, for the sake of convenience, officials always do it.

But the problem is that the Yuan Dynasty played a tax package system. Under the conditions of the tax package system, you can fool around as much as you like. After all, the central government of the Yuan Dynasty only requires that the money be collected in the end. This is not the case with the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty not only requires that the money be collected Money, and the numbers must match.

The core reason why the Kongyin incident became one of the four major Hongwu cases was that it touched Zhu Yuanzhang's inverse scale.

After experiencing the Hu Weiyong case, Zhu Yuanzhang was very sensitive to any officials who deceived him and caused information isolation. He believed that these were manifestations of disloyalty and would directly threaten the foundation of imperial power.

Therefore, after the empty seal case occurred, Zhu Yuanzhang's reaction was "furious" and he punished the chief seal official with death and his deputy with a staff of 100 soldiers. For a while, the entire Ming Dynasty officials were like leeks that had been cut. The ground was as bare as ever, and there was even a comical scene of deputies wearing shackles handling official duties in the lobby of the government office.

After listening to Da Sun's brief introduction, Zhu Yuanzhang said nothing. He slowly turned around and walked for more than ten steps, with his back to the mausoleum and looking at the capital city under Zhongshan Mountain.

At this time, the ministers who came together after receiving the order retreated around with some fear.

Looking at the capital, Zhu Yuanzhang's inner emotions were extremely complicated, as if he was sailing on the endless ocean just now and would face a monstrous tsunami the next moment.

Zhu Yuanzhang never thought that under the seemingly calm sea of ​​the Ming Dynasty, there was such a shocking crisis hidden in him!
Everybody knows!

Everyone is working together to deceive him!

And this kind of deception has been going on for more than ten years!

How many things in this world are as unknown to him as the "empty seal"?

Zhu Yuanzhang shuddered when he thought of this! !
Zhu Yuanzhang once thought that he had absolute control over the Ming Dynasty court, but after experiencing the Hu Weiyong case, Zhu Yuanzhang found that he had been completely deceived by the various appearances of fraud shrouded in the court. The empty seal incident made him even more confused. The "feeling of being blinded" has been greatly enhanced.

At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang was completely determined to continue to strengthen the imperial power!
Even a talented and strategic monarch like himself has been fooled by these civil servants. I am afraid that there is a high probability that the descendants of future generations will not be as good as him. By then, won't the civil servants be able to shake the world? "Empty seal?"

Zhu Yuanzhang finally spoke. He spat out these two words slowly, each word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth, causing everyone present to be silent.

"Such an act of deceiving the emperor happened right under our noses!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice was not high-pitched, but it carried an indescribable sense of oppression, as if thunder had gathered in the sky and might strike down at any time.

Mao Xiang lowered his head, not daring to look directly at the emperor's back. He knew that once the storm rolled up this time, it would probably be far more violent than any previous one, and would even exceed the scale of the Hu Weiyong case!

Zhu Yuanzhang turned around and his gaze swept across the faces of the ministers around him like a knife. The ministers all lowered their heads, and finally fell on Mao Xiang. At that moment, Mao Xiang felt as if he was being targeted by a fierce tiger. Unable to move.

"Tell me, is there such a thing as an empty seal in our Ming Dynasty?"

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice at this time was terrifyingly calm, like the calm before the storm.

Mao Xiang swallowed. He knew that his answer at this moment would determine the life or death of many people.

He took a deep breath and tried to make his voice sound steady: "Your Majesty, there is absolutely no Jin Yiwei."

This is nonsense. Although Jinyiwei has been established for a long time, it has not been long since it turned into a spy, and the allocation is very sufficient. The yamen is in the capital, so of course it is impossible to do such things as empty seals. A stick of incense on a quick horse can be used in Beizhen Fu It takes a lot more time to go back and forth between the Secretary and the Hubu Yamen to stamp the empty seal.

Zhu Yuanzhang stared at him and continued to ask aggressively: "If Jin Yiwei doesn't exist, are there other places? Does Jin Yiwei know?"

This is a question that no matter how you answer it, because if Mao Xiang answered that Jin Yiwei knew, then Jin Yiwei knew why he didn't report it to the emperor. Did Jin Yiwei also have different intentions? If Mao Xiang replies that Jin Yiwei doesn't know, then what does Jin Yiwei do for food? Is this a serious dereliction of duty?
In fact, Mao Xiang did know about this, but the problem was that no one took it seriously.

From the Yuan Dynasty to the present, this kind of thing has been done for decades or hundreds of years. It didn't happen overnight. It has long been an unspoken rule. It has become a rule that everyone has agreed upon. What does this mean?
Moreover, the Ming Law does not provide relevant provisions for such similar matters, which leads to the complete absence of any legal basis for judgment.

To put it bluntly, only Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know.

And the most terrible thing is this.

——Everyone else knows, only the emperor does not know. What do you think of the emperor who has just experienced the betrayal of the prime minister, which is the "Hu Weiyong case"?
(End of this chapter)