Many memories flooded into his mind, and the emotions were so strong that even Su Che was infected.
These scenes left Su Che silent for a long time.
Although he knew that Empress Ma and Zhu Yuanzhang were rare emperors and empresses in ancient and modern times, the strong and indissoluble longing and the pain that could not be described in words still shocked Su Che.
Zhu Yuanzhang was an emperor who will be remembered throughout history. He fought in battles all his life, hated evil and was extremely hostile to corrupt officials. He was even willing to kill them in large numbers, and would punish them to the end even if it implicated countless people.
Such a cold-blooded and somewhat cruel murderer is actually so soft, or weak, deep down in his heart.
Even such a great man needs someone to rely on and talk to.
Since ancient times, kings have been mostly unfaithful, and the most ruthless are the imperial families.
Couples like Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma are truly rare.
On the day that Empress Ma died, the ministers cried harder than anyone else, as if they had lost their own parents. On the one hand, they were extremely sad .
On the other hand, it was because Zhu Yuanzhang's sword, the emperor's sword, would no longer have a scabbard from now on. As a subject, how could he not be sad?
In the eyes of these ministers, the death of Queen Ma meant that their future was worrying and that they might be more likely to be killed.
This is exactly the case.
After Empress Ma died, Zhu Yuanzhang's character became even more tyrannical. He often killed eunuchs and ministers for trivial matters. Quite a few ministers were killed, and because of many cases, he massacred officials on a large scale. The Emperor's Sword no longer had a scabbard, so no one could stop Zhu Yuanzhang's killing!
After the Hu Weiyong case, there were also the Empty Seal case, the Guo Huan case, and the Lan Yu case.
Calculating the time, the next case should be the empty seal case?
The so-called blank seal is a seal that is stamped on the document in advance and then filled in with specific content when needed.
According to Ming Dynasty regulations, each provincial government, prefecture, and county had to submit accounts of money, grain, financial revenue, expenditure, and taxes to the Ministry of Revenue every year.
The figures of the Ministry of Revenue and those of the provincial governments, prefectures and counties must be exactly the same, without any error, before the project can be finalized.
If there is any discrepancy, the entire account book will be rejected, filled out again, and re-stamped with the local government's seal.
Because of the payment of taxes, some losses are inevitable during transportation, and it is highly likely that the account books will not match the actual items.
Therefore, officials who went to the Ministry of Revenue for review had blank books with seals stamped on them for use.
This has been a customary practice since the Yuan Dynasty and has never been explicitly prohibited.
but.
The fact that it has not been explicitly banned does not mean that there are no problems. On the contrary, the problems are very serious.
A blank, sealed book allows for considerable wiggle room.
To put it bluntly, this is a bad habit left over from the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty. Using an empty seal will open the door to corruption.
Many people may think that this is just a matter of petty officials being cunning and cunning, and many people even think that it is a compromise due to limited transportation and communication conditions.
But the problem is that accounts are what they are. If there is any discrepancy, the reason for the discrepancy should be explained instead of changing it to make it "consistent".
More importantly, the Ministry of Revenue clearly knew that local governments were falsifying accounts in this way, but it acquiesced in it for a long time.
Isn't this a collusion between central and local bureaucrats to defraud the imperial court?
If the financial year settlement can be falsified in this way, then what accounts cannot be falsified in this way?
After the "empty seal" incident, historical records show that Zhu Yuanzhang's reaction was "extremely angry", believing that this was an act of deception. The court officials were so frightened that they trembled and dared not advise him.
Just at this moment.
A eunuch delivered a message that Jinyiwei commander Mao Xiang requested to see him.
Su Che said without even raising his head: "Let him in."
At this point, Zhu Yuanzhang disbanded and reorganized his personal guards into a special forces unit directly under his jurisdiction, namely the Jinyiwei.
And Mao Xiang was the leader of the Jinyiwei.
The duties of the Jinyiwei were to escort the emperor directly and to patrol and arrest people.
The Jinyiwei and those ministers were naturally on opposite sides of each other and were incompatible like water and fire.
As the commander of the Jinyiwei, Mao Xiang immediately investigated many illegal activities and paved the way for his own promotion. This was a matter of course. At this moment, he knelt down and said seriously, "Your Majesty, this is an account book I just seized from the Ministry of Revenue. Please have a look at it."
The eunuch immediately handed over Mao Xiang's account book.
Su Che glanced at Mao Xiang. The aura above his head was red, blood-red, with a hint of black and yellow entangled in it.
Then Su Che looked down at the account book.
There was nothing on it except a seal.
At this moment, Su Che understood what was going on. This should be the first scene of the empty seal case. Because the Jinyiwei was established, the Jinyiwei immediately used the empty seal to make a fuss, using the handle of these literati officials to promote themselves.
The Ming Empire had been in existence for more than a dozen years at this point, and the issue of the empty seal had always been an unspoken rule. All officials in the court knew about this, and they all kept the news tacitly. However, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor, still didn't know about this and had been kept in the dark.
It is no wonder that Zhu Yuanzhang was angry. All officials in the court knew about this matter tacitly. Even those officials who claimed to be loyal to the emperor kept silent about it!
This feeling is really chilling.
Old Zhu was cheated really badly.
These thoughts flashed through Su Che's mind. He stared at the account book and said softly:
"Empty seal?"
"Your Majesty, this is the money and grain account submitted by the Huguang Provincial Administration to the Ministry of Revenue . Perhaps due to the carelessness of the staff, an empty account book was submitted." Jinyiwei commander Mao Xiang said with a smile.
"What do you want to say?" Su Che narrowed his eyes and stared at Mao Xiang.
Mao Xiang felt a chill in his heart, cold sweat dripped down his cheeks, and goose bumps appeared all over his body. He actually tried to be clever in front of the emperor. He was really asking for death!
Mao Xiang said quickly, "Your Majesty, although this is an empty account book, it is stamped with the seal of the Huguang Provincial Administration Commissioner's Office, which means that they deliberately made this empty account book... I dare not say how many dirty things are there."
"We understand." Su Che said calmly.
Jinyiwei Commander Mao Xiang was stunned when he heard this. He never thought that the emperor would have such an attitude when facing this empty seal account book. Shouldn't he be extremely angry at this moment?
You know, this is a crime of deceiving the emperor. Such a serious crime, shouldn't he be investigated immediately?
"We already knew about this before. This is second-hand information. Please leave." Su Che shook his head and said.
Hearing this, Mao Xiang instantly realized that someone had taken the credit. Who was it? Who on earth had taken away his tremendous credit?
This is a big case and very easy to investigate.
First of all, it is easy to add strokes to the Chinese numbers "one", "two", "three", etc., but the added strokes are not difficult to recognize. Any added strokes are considered a change in the accounts.
Secondly, red ink is used for seals and black ink is used for accounts. If the writing is done first and then stamped, the red ink should be on top of the black ink. Otherwise, the ink will be written on top of the ink, which can be judged as "empty stamping".
also.
The Empty Seal Case also established two new rules for later generations:
First of all, accounts cannot use so-called lowercase numbers such as "one", "two", and "three", let alone Arabic numerals, but must use so-called uppercase numbers such as "one", "two", and "three".
Secondly, the seal must be stamped with "red on top of ink", that is, the red ink must be stamped on top of the black ink to prove that the seal is stamped after the words are written.
These two systems have been used until modern times and remain the most basic principles of financial and official document systems, which fully demonstrates that they are very correct rules.
Perhaps this "empty seal case" is the first test that Zhu Yuanzhang left for Su Che?
Let’s see if Su Che can handle it more perfectly?
When Mao Xiang heard this, he obediently took his leave and left the hall.
Su Che held his chin and stared at the empty account book with a dim look in his eyes. He couldn't help but think.
After the Empty Seal Case, Zheng Shili, a native of Ninghai, Zhejiang, wrote a letter to Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zheng Shili believed that Your Majesty wanted to punish these officials with empty seals because he was afraid that corrupt officials would get the empty seals and commit fraud to harm the people, but this was impossible, and he put forward four points of view:
First, the blank-stamped account books are stamped with a saddle stamp, so the imprint on each piece of paper is not complete. Unlike the one-paper-per-print account books, even if they are scattered, nothing can be done about it. Besides, the blank paper with the stamp is not easily obtainable.
Secondly, the figures of money and grain accounts must be compiled by the prefecture and the province, and the province must be compiled by the ministry. The Ministry of Revenue has the final say on the right and wrong of the accounts. The distance between the ministry and the provinces is thousands of miles, and the distance between the provinces is three or four thousand miles. Once there is a mistake, it will be difficult to transfer. Printing first and then writing is a stopgap measure, and it has a long history.
Third, the country must have clear laws to legislate, and then punish violators according to the law. However, when the country was founded, there was no law against empty printing, and everyone had been doing it this way, not knowing that it was a crime. Now once it is convicted, it is unconvincing.
Fourthly, it is difficult for the country to train a qualified official. Officials who can be promoted to the position of county magistrate have been trained for decades. These officials are not something that can be resurrected by being killed easily.
As soon as this article came out, the furious Zhu Yuanzhang immediately ordered that the beheading sentence that had been suspended should be executed as soon as possible. In addition, he ordered the Jinyiwei to quickly arrest Zheng Shili and put him in prison, and then conduct a thorough investigation to see if there was someone behind him directing him.
After this incident, Zheng Shili laughed and said, "I wonder if my book is useful enough. I am here to speak for the country, and I know I will die. Who will help me?"
An impassioned attitude.
However.
The reason why Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry was very simple.
Because Zheng Shili's words of plea seemed sincere and reasonable, but in fact they were short-sighted.
It is certainly not easy for the imperial court to train officials. Those who can become prefects and county magistrates can be considered capable officials, but does that mean capable officials can be corrupt?
Zheng Shili's first part was just a plea, but the second part contained a hint of blackmail, which is the most commonly used defense by corrupt officials:
We are the pillars of the administrative system. Even if there is a little corruption, it won't collapse. If you punish us now, won't you destroy the entire pillar system? So Emperor, you should tolerate our little corruption. This is also for the sake of your country!
For the sake of political support from the upper ruling group, for the integrity of the lower administrative system, in short, to maintain rule, corruption should be tolerated.
Many people thought this way, and many emperors did the same. Throughout the dynasties, almost every emperor turned a blind eye to these small stains.
How many officials rely on this money to get rich!
After all, we have to consider the overall situation!
Without officials, how can the emperor govern the world?
It’s okay to kill one official, but do we have to kill all the officials???
This directly angered Zhu Yuanzhang, and he said: Then kill all the financial officials!
kill!
Kill him until the blood flows like a river, kill him until the world is clear!
Old Zhu is so tough in doing things, he doesn’t care about “considering the overall situation”!
He is the key to the overall situation!
Many people in later generations called the Empty Seal Case a great injustice.
There are endless people who come to defend the empty seal case.
The problem is that corruption may not be a big deal during periods of prosperity.
But the gradual erosion of a huge empire is difficult to reverse.
After that, the seemingly minor corruption behaviors such as fire consumption, piao mo, and xian yu that were prevalent in the Ming Dynasty were completely tolerated by the higher authorities. Officials then made up various names for fire consumption, piao mo, etc., making this "loss" grow bigger and bigger.
By the end of the Ming Dynasty, eight out of ten taxes went into fire consumption, and the court could not collect taxes. In addition, eight out of ten salaries of the troops sent by the court were lost, leading to mutinies on the front lines.
The root of these chaos was planted early on in the Kongyin case.
If Zhu Yuanzhang had punished more harshly, these chaos would have occurred later, the country would have been stronger, and its prosperity would have lasted longer.
But many people cannot understand such behavior.
Including Zheng Shili, who is full of justice and claims to be loyal to the country!
How can it be reliable to play with empty seals and act entirely based on the conscience of officials?
You can “lose” as much as you want on the road!
Over time, the consequences became more and more serious. The short life span of the Yuan Dynasty was due to this empty seal.
Zhu Yuanzhang thought about this case for a long time and finally took drastic measures and made a major change.
From the Yuan Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, many things were already deeply rooted, and Zhu Yuanzhang had no better solution, so he could only use his own method - kill! Kill them all!
The so-called empty seal is more of an accumulated malpractice of the Yuan Dynasty than an "old custom".
The Yuan Dynasty was a country of extremely extensive management. The so-called "imperial power does not extend below the provincial levels" and the fundamental financial system implemented was the "tax farming system." As a result, the bureaucratic machine had long since taken advantage of the situation to reap excessive gray profits.
There were many major cases in the early Ming Dynasty, such as the "Empty Seal Case", the "Guo Heng Case" and the "North and South List Case".
In a sense, this can be seen as Zhu Yuanzhang's move to address the long-standing malpractices of this bureaucratic system.
In the case of the empty seal alone, Zhu Yuanzhang killed all the officials in charge of the seal in the country, implicated more than 40,000 people, and almost caused the Ming Dynasty's administrative system to collapse.
And at this moment Su Che appeared here.
In all likelihood, Zhu Yuanzhang considered this problem as a test for Su Che! !
This is... the first test!