Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

In Ming Dynasty, His Majesty the Emperor's will cannot be violated.

A public discussion about Li Zhigang's case was quickly published in Ming Pao.

And two questions were raised very pointedly.

First, the "Da Ming Code" clearly stipulates that officials of the fourth rank, including dukes, marquises, uncles, and above, as well as their families and servants, are prohibited from doing business. However, it does not stipulate what to do if these people were merchants before they became fourth rank officials. And Li Zhigang's father-in-law Li Zhigang was already a wealthy businessman long before he became an official or even married his daughter. How to judge this situation?

Second, since the "Da Ming Code" does not stipulate the judgment method for this situation, and the "Da Gao" does not have supplementary judgments on relevant cases, should it be based on "whatever is not allowed by law" or "if it is prohibited by law"?

If the case is decided by the lower county, of course it will not be so troublesome. Who cares about this for you? The chief officer can decide whatever he wants. As long as it's not too outrageous, no one will hold him accountable.

But Li Zhigang is different. This is the dignified Minister of Rites, and it is certainly impossible to judge casually.

In terms of judicial procedures, the Ming Dynasty was relatively cautious in punishing officials for their crimes. Although there were two procedures for entering into litigation: private accusations and censorship inspections, the Ming Dynasty laws were very detailed in terms of trial forms. , stipulating different procedures according to different levels of officials, and also stipulating a petition system to avoid causing damage to the imperial official system.

And the treatment Li Zhigang enjoyed was the best, with the three judges and the emperor making the final decision.

And since there is no clear evidence that can convict him, it can only be determined that the antique store run by his father-in-law sells "a little" expensive items, is involved in some suspected transactions, and has several witnesses who are not so critical. .

But antiques are the same item. Some people think it is priceless, and naturally some people think it is worthless. This alone cannot be used to convict someone, and the testimony of witnesses has no real evidence.

According to the "Brief Record of Awakening Corruption" written by Lao Zhu himself, officials who embezzle more than sixty taels of silver will be decapitated and sentenced to skinning. The Tutu Temple on the side of the Yamen is regarded as the "Pichang Temple", and whenever an official succeeds , a terrifying handover ceremony is performed, which is to "invite" the human skins of former corrupt officials from the "Pichang Temple", stuff the skins with grass, make them into human figures and place them on the seats in the court as a warning. Successor officials.

If Li Zhigang is convicted of corruption and bribery, the price of this amount of antiques will be enough to rip off the skin of his family.

But this went against the emperor's wishes. The emperor did not intend to let Li Zhigang completely disappear from the temple. He was still useful.

Therefore, the idea of ​​convicting him has always been focused on the fact that the "Ming Dynasty Code" stipulates that family servants of officials of fourth grade and above are not allowed to engage in business.

However, such a conviction will also involve untenable issues. Of course, a hard sentence can be imposed. However, according to the tone given by Chen Ying of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, after the "unified opinion" of the three judicial divisions, they can only make the key points of the case public and hand them over. Let public opinion judge.

This can easily run counter to the views of the Three Law Divisions.

For a legislative and judicial institution like the Ministry of Punishment, it is natural to hope that "it will be prohibited if it is not allowed by law". This way it will not only have greater authority, but also have less trouble.

But for the general public, they definitely hope that "everything can be done if the law is not impossible". Needless to say, there is no need to elaborate on the reasons.

At noon, Zhu Di was reviewing memorials in the main hall. He has been busy every day these days.

Today is the first time that Zhu Di has dealt with so many memorials since he came to the throne a year ago. He has lost count of how many memorials there are, but they are all piled up on the table. Zhu Di leaned on the back of the dragon chair, stretched out his hand to rub his forehead, His brows were furrowed.

When Zhu Di was King of Yan, he privately fantasized more than once about what would happen if he became the emperor. He always thought that he would become a good emperor like his father, Lao Zhu, who was diligent, caring for the people, wise and mighty, but now, he Found out that was not the case.

Damn it, why are there so many memorials?

But he was still unwilling to rest and kept writing and reviewing memorials, hoping to alleviate the depression in his heart as much as possible.

"Your Majesty." The voice of Huang Yan, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony, came from the door.

"Come in." Zhu Di put down his pen.

Huang Yan pushed open the door and walked in. He bowed and reported, "Your Majesty, please see the Imperial Master."

"Xuan." Zhu Di said.

In February of this year, Huang Yan, as the eunuch who promulgated the decree, was ordered to go to North Korea with the capital commander Gao De, Zuo Tongzheng Zhao Juren and others to thank North Korean King Li Fangyuan for congratulating Zhu Di on his accession to the throne, and gave him a new imperial edict and seal, sealing him again. He became the king of Korea and asked him to repatriate the subordinates of Emperor Jianwen who had fled to Korea.

This matter has been mentioned before. The Ming Dynasty asked North Korea for buffaloes and war horses, and proposed border trade requirements.

Huang Yan handled the matter very well, and Li Fangyuan quickly gave in. Zhu Di was very satisfied. In addition, he had followed Zhu Di for many years and was one of the oldest eunuchs in the Yan Palace. Therefore, it was logical that he was promoted to the position of Supervisor of Ceremonies by Zhu Di. Palm print eunuch.

There is also a semi-open secret about Huang Yan, that is, when he was in the Yan Palace, he was not on good terms with the crown prince Zhu Gaochi, and he was very close to the second son Zhu Gaoxu and the youngest son Zhu Gaosui, especially Zhu Gaosui. Huang Yan was the His best friend.

Looking at Jiang Xinghuo, Huang Yan's expression remained unchanged and he shook the whisk in his hand three times.

Not long after, Jiang Xinghuo, wearing a unicorn suit, walked into the hall.

Jiang Xinghuo's brows were a little tired, but his spirit seemed to be in good spirits. He said, "I see your Majesty."

Zhu Di raised his hand and said, "Without courtesy, I will go down alone."

Jiang Xinghuo's waist was straight.

Zhu Di asked: "Can you see me if you have anything to do?"

"Yes, today I am here to return His Majesty's things."

"what?"

"The sword given by His Majesty."

"You don't have a knife on you either."

Jiang Xinghuo said seriously: "You are not allowed to bring a knife into the palace, so I left it with the palace gate guard."

"How can there be any reason to return the sword that was given to me?"

Zhu Di chuckled, pretending to be relaxed and said: "Why, do you think I want to hide everything? Even if I do, now is not the time, right?"

"Your Majesty is afraid of the current changes."

Jiang Xinghuo did not choose to follow the strategy given by Xu Huizu to incite public opinion and force the middle and high-level officials involved in Li Zhigang's case to go. Instead, he chose the simplest way and came directly to see Zhu Di.

"The attitude of the emperor is the most important thing in all the reforms in the past dynasties. Support is not absolute. In the eyes of outsiders, it often means absolute non-support. But now that the reforms have just deepened and encountered some resistance, His Majesty will act accordingly and will If the matter about Li Zhigang is made public, I will not be able to understand it." Jiang Xinghuo said frankly.

In fact, the best solution to this matter is to directly deal with Yu Qian, the young minister of Dali Temple who is currently acting in charge.

Yu Qian was born in Jintan, Zhenjiang, and was given the courtesy name Boyi. During the Hongwu period, due to the frequent occurrence of major crimes in the court, Lao Zhu directly promoted him to the Ministry of Punishment as a scholar, and later became the magistrate of Hangzhou. By mistake, he escaped the three years of Hongwu. During the great purge of temples in the fifteenth year (the fourth year of Jianwen), the Hangzhou government provided a lot of manpower and material resources when Jiangnan was calmed down and flooded last year. Therefore, he made a great contribution and was praised as a capable minister. This year he was recalled to the court by Zhu Di. , served as the Shaoqing of Dali Temple and partnered with his immediate boss, Qing Chen of Dali Temple.

Now Chen Qia goes to Guangxi with Huang Fu to supervise the food and salary management, and Yu Qian represents Dali Temple.

As long as Zhu Di nods here, although Jiang Xinghuo doesn't have much personal relationship with Yu Qian, they are still familiar and can take care of Dali Temple.

Dali Temple is responsible for the retrial. It doesn’t matter if Li Zhigang is guilty in the first trial of the Ministry of Punishment. Dali Temple retrials him and he is not guilty. Then the final procedure of the joint trial of the three divisions will be carried out. If Chen Ying, who represents the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and Yu Qian, who represents Dali Temple, have the same opinion, Even if the two ministers of the Ministry of Punishment disagreed, the final result was that Li Zhigang was still innocent.

After taking care of the urgent matter of Li Zhigang, the salt method can naturally continue to be polished slowly in the future.

However, Zhu Di suddenly summoned Chen Ying and Ma Zhong, and then gave Zheng Ci a break. The judgments of the three judicial divisions on the case were published in Ming Pao, which actually expanded the influence of the incident. This made Jiang Xinghuo very Caught off guard.

And it was precisely because of the amplification of the incident that Xu Huizu's strategy was not so effective.

Jiang Xinghuo could only enter the palace and meet Zhu Di in person.

Zhu Di organized his words and then said: "I'm not afraid of the current changes. What's so scary about changes? The world is always going to change, but look at this yin-yang fish."

Zhu Di had a small gadget presented by Zhang Yuchu, a Yin-Yang Pisces diagram. It was made on the same principle as a fidget spinner. As long as it was turned slightly, it would spread endlessly.

"No matter how it changes, the boundary in the middle is always clear."

“When the Jingshui River and the Weishui River merge, don’t they also have a clear distinction between Jingshui and Weishui?”

"The same is true for civil and military affairs."

And what Jin Zhong didn't dare to think about last night was actually somewhat off-topic.

Zhu Di was dissatisfied with his two sons, the eldest and the third, for their own reasons.

Zhu Di is dissatisfied with the boss because he has a good sense of proportion. Yes, the emperor is sometimes unreasonable. If you don't have a sense of proportion at certain times, for example, Zhu Di thinks that Jiang Xinghuo is now friends with military officials. If it is too expensive, the emperor will be dissatisfied; and sometimes if you are too measured, like Zhu Gaochi, who maintains the balance of power everywhere, the emperor will still be dissatisfied.

Zhu Di is dissatisfied with Lao San because recently Lao San prefers to make friends with internal servants. It's not like there is any Mission: Impossible plot to see through the information Lao San revealed to Jiang Xinghuo.

However, this kind of dissatisfaction is just a minor problem, and it is perfectly normal for it to happen to the emperor.

If the emperor does not have such suspicion and dissatisfaction, it can only mean that he is really not a qualified emperor.

There is no way, the emperor's social relationship is extremely unbalanced, and vigilance is the emperor's natural attribute.

Zhu Di felt that he had explained the problem to Jiang Xinghuo very patiently. From the emperor's standpoint, it would not be an exaggeration to say that he is the most benevolent and righteous.

Jiang Xinghuo took a deep breath. He wanted to say something, but didn't.

Angry? It seemed that there was nothing to be angry about. Whoever became emperor would be afraid that his powerful ministers would stay away from the military generals for too long. Zhu Di did not deal with him, or even beat him, he just took a sudden step and destroyed the chess piece of his plan.

In ancient times, the harmony between kings and ministers was considered to be extremely cautious and safeguarded.

If it were any other minister, then really, I would cry to death

But Jiang Xinghuo is not another courtier. He does not need the glory and wealth that Zhu Di bestowed upon him.

If it were a year ago, Jiang Xinghuo would have relied on his own idea of ​​not being afraid of death and would not be too restrained. But now the reform has a tendency to be a great success, and the historical line has been completely changed to another path. If he continues Belittling one's own life and death, and often saying "Kill me if you dare" is not only irresponsible to the many supporters around you, but also irresponsible to the cause of political reform. To go even further, it can even be said to be irresponsible to the mission given by history. irresponsible.

Therefore, there are some things that cannot be said no matter what.

But even though he was so rational and calm at this time, Jiang Xinghuo still felt a little instinctively unhappy.

Yes, he was unhappy. He didn't like the feeling that success or failure depended on imperial power.

If it had been a day ago, he would have expressed it and let Zhu Di know his attitude.

But last night, when Zhu Gaosui came to see him, he told him the eldest prince Zhu Gaochi's hidden worries about the changes of the times.

The accuracy of this hidden worry kept Jiang Xinghuo awake all night.

The wind starts at the end of Qingping. There is no shortage of wise people in this era. They can always see the trajectory of future changes and development from subtle things.

The more people understand Jiang Xinghuo's thoughts, the easier it is to guess what the future world is likely to look like if Jiang Xinghuo follows Jiang Xinghuo's reform path.

In particular, the old monk and Jiang Xinghuo have done analysis on future social classes.

Although in these analyses, they tried their best to cover up the possible impact on traditional feudal society and the imperial power system, there is no doubt that someone figured it out after a long period of study and observation, and this person was Zhu Gaochi.

If it were someone else, it would be easier to say, but he is Zhu Gaochi.

At this moment, Jiang Xinghuo was at a loss.

Jiang Xinghuo's attitude towards Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Zhanji has always been very complicated. He is not a child and will not have the naive idea of ​​"I am good with you, so I am not good with him." On the contrary, Jiang Xinghuo has always advocated gathering all support. The power of the reform has never regarded the father and son as enemies, and has always tried to transform them through ideological influence.

But at present, it seems that it is probably not very successful.

Zhu Gaochi is an adult, and he is a high-ranking adult. He has already had his own thoughts and system of doing things. It can be seen from his actions in Peking and the rapid expansion of civil servant power after coming to Nanjing that he is a A person who appears gentle and tolerant, but deep down has deep thoughts that are difficult to change.

This kind of person can learn and absorb other people's ideas, but it is very difficult for others to change their ideas.

Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaoxu, the Tiehanhan, are completely different. Tiehanhan has nothing in his mind, so it is easy to be quickly brainwashed.

The difficulty of drawing on a piece of white paper is completely different from that of drawing again on a piece of paper full of drawings.

Zhu Zhanji is smart and very talented. Although he also has the problem of playful children, in general, he is still a good and sensible child.

But after a period of teaching in the main hall, Jiang Xinghuo discovered that compared with Yu Qian, Zhu Zhanji had an obvious shortcoming, that is, Zhu Zhanji's character had an extremely competitive and selfish character, that is to say Even when Zhu Zhanji is playing games with others, he never wants to be second place. He will definitely be the strongest one. He wants to win, and he wants everything to be his own.

A child's character, of course, cannot be entirely attributed to innate temperament, but more to the environment and education since birth.

Zhu Zhanji lives in an unsafe and competitive environment. His father and uncles are at odds. He has always had a sense of insecurity. This insecurity makes him eager to seize all resources. In your own hands.

The same is true for his mother Zhang's teachings.

Now that King Yan has become the emperor, Zhu Zhanji is Zhu Gaochi's biggest card leading to the throne.

Zhu Zhanji is usually forced to restrain some of his characteristics and dress himself up in Zhu Di's favorite look, but these characteristics are clearly visible to the children when they play games.

In his heart, Zhu Zhanji wanted to be the emperor's grandson like Zhu Yunwen. Of course he also loved the people, but his love was different from Yu Qian's. He regarded the people as his own private property. , of course, we must take good care of it.

This can be seen from Jiang Xinghuo's questions to him many times in class.

And this trait is undoubtedly in line with what Emperor Ren and Xuan did in history.

Zhu Zhanji is desperately learning Jiang Xinghuo's knowledge, while Zhu Gaochi is studying and figuring out Jiang Xinghuo's every move. The father and son are so independent-minded that it is difficult for Jiang Xinghuo to influence the core of their thoughts.

The feeling of being seen through the layout was not good. Jiang Xinghuo had more worries and no longer wanted to argue with the emperor. Instead, he said: "Then how does Your Majesty plan to end it? What if it is the public opinion and the Three Laws Division, or His Majesty's If we don’t have the same ideas, what should we do?”

Of course Zhu Di couldn't say that he wanted to make it difficult for Li Zhigang to pass the test.

However, another factor can explain it. Zhu Di told Jiang Xinghuo that the suspected violent party was still active.

Seeing that Jiang Xinghuo never expressed anything, Zhu Di said softly:

"Don't worry, if anything happens, I can issue a decree to pardon him."

The so-called imperial edicts refer to imperial edicts issued by the emperor from the palace since the Tang and Song dynasties, or directly handed over to relevant agencies for execution without going through normal procedures.

"Suizhou Chronicles: Biography of Yuan Keli" records: "Yuan Keli said: 'Those who kill people will die, as is the law of the court, that is, the jester Gu Keli can escape.' However, as a result, he was pardoned by the decree, but Keli did not move."

Well, the final power of judicial interpretation belongs to the emperor.

At this point, Jiang Xinghuo couldn't say much about the big vampire, so he could only take advantage of the situation.

But deep down in his heart, he had a deeper understanding of imperial power.

"It looks a little uglier after all."

Zhu Di also knew that this would not look good, but to be honest, when he made the decision yesterday, he did not deduce the possible results in detail. He just felt that everything was under control, and he could use the imperial power to cover up the situation no matter what, so Might as well make a fuss.

Now that Jiang Xinghuo was lit, he also knew that what he did was not very appropriate, so he humbly asked for advice: "Then according to the opinion of the national master, how should I deal with it?"

Jiang Xinghuo pondered for a moment and said what he had thought of last night: "How about doing two things at the same time and using Li Zhigang's case to promote the creation of the Case Supplementary Law and the system of regularly amending the Tianxian."

A strong person never complains about the environment. A strong person will only seize the opportunity to achieve his goal.

Without waiting for Zhu Di to ask, Jiang Xinghuo continued: "The so-called case supplementary method is like the "Da Gao", which uses actual judicial judgment cases to set benchmarks for future judgments. Similar cases can naturally be traced back, so First of all, year after year, although it is not exhaustive, there are always times when we encounter difficult cases where the "Da Ming Law" does not provide specific judgments. There is always a reference basis and use this law to make decisions. , rules and regulations go hand in hand, if there is a law, choose the law, if there is no law, choose the example."

To be honest, Lao Zhu's ancestral teachings were basically scrapped by the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and the same was true for the legal system.

Laws are constantly changing with the needs of the times, and Lao Zhu stipulated that the laws of the Ming Dynasty should be based on the "Da Ming Law" and "Da Gao" he decreed, and they must remain unchanged forever, neither increasing nor decreasing. How is this possible?

Even if Jiang Xinghuo didn't intervene, the birth of the case supplement method was inevitable.

In fact, it is now the first year of Yongle (1403). If the historical line does not change, then in the 13th year of Hongzhi (1500), the central government of the Ming Dynasty will formulate 279 Articles of the "Regulations on Punishment", and Yu Jiajing It was revised in the 29th year (1550) with 376 new articles. It was revised again in the 13th year of Wanli (1585) with 382 new articles. From then on, the laws and regulations were in parallel.

Things like case law basically need to be revised every three to fifty years to supplement the results of judicial judgment practices encountered in these years.

"Laws and regulations go hand in hand? This is a good idea." Zhu Di nodded slightly.

In fact, most people have a stereotype about the legal system of punishing officials in the Ming Dynasty. That is, Lao Zhu often killed officials and stripped them of their skins at every turn, so he was "regulating officials with heavy punishments." In fact, in the Ming Dynasty, officials committed crimes , especially the sentences for corruption are not consistent with severe punishments, but have different changes in different periods. During the founding period of Hongwu, the attitude towards official crimes was to use heavy codes in troubled times, because the laws of the Yuan Dynasty were too broad , the administration of officials was too bad, so during Lao Zhu's reign, he not only formulated the "Da Ming Code" to punish officials severely, but also made a set of "Da Gao".

Well, others are showing mercy outside the law, but Lao Zhu is imposing punishment outside the law.

In the last years of Hongwu, Lao Zhu stipulated many of the contents of the imperial edicts into law in order for future Ming emperors to continue to implement the policy of emphasizing regulations and governing officials. In the thirtieth year of Hongwu, when the revised version of the "Da Ming Law" was officially promulgated to the world At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang selected thirty-six important items in the "Da Gao" and compiled them into the "Qin Law Gao", which was appended to the "Da Ming Law" and was collectively called the "Da Ming Law Gao".

It's extra-judicial and additional punishment.

However, in the history of Jiang Xinghuo's previous life, with the advent and several revisions of the "Regulations on Punishment" in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, legally speaking, although the judgments of the "Da Ming Code" are still the highest standard, in practical terms, for officials Punishments for crimes have gradually been reduced from extrajudicial punishments.

"As for the regular revision of the Tianxian, it means elevating the status of the "Da Ming Code" to the Tianxian. If the "Da Gao" and other cases supplement the rules, if you have concerns, you may as well add some restrictions. For example, every day of the Tianxian It needs to be revised every few years, and no more than a few items can be revised at a time, etc.”

Tian Xian originally refers to the highest decree of the imperial court. The so-called "Tian Xian with mouth" refers to the fact that the emperor's words are the law.

In this way, the "Da Ming Code" is superior and has the highest priority legal status, but it can be revised regularly according to the progress of the times; the "Da Gao" and other case supplementary laws, as case law, are secondary legal interpretations. At the same time, judicial practice can be continuously supplemented.

Of course, in the feudal era, any system design, even if it was a system designed by the founding emperor himself, was questionable as to whether it could be maintained well in the future.

But no matter what, a better system design is always better than nothing.

Zhu Di was entangled.

If you want to make money, it will definitely not work without using the salt method and tea method. These are the main sources of making money.

But as long as it is moved, it will inevitably involve issues in the "Da Ming Law". These are all things written in black and white on the "Da Ming Law".

However, it was not only Zhu Di who wanted to amend the "Da Ming Code", but officials also wanted to amend it. For example, the "Da Ming Code" gave the people the right to supervise officials, stipulating that if local officials relied on their power to oppress the people, the people could tie up the officials and go to Beijing to report them. , although this kind of thing only happened in the era of Zhu Yuanzhang, and there was indeed no other Zhu Yuanzhang to make decisions for the people. This legal provision became a piece of paper, but after all, it was a provision that made officials very unhappy.

Who in this hall dares to sue me? You still want to escort me to Beijing, but you have the heart of a bear and the courage of a leopard?

Of course, I am afraid that both Jiang Xinghuo and Zhu Di would like to keep this one.

But in any case, after the promulgation of the "Da Ming Code", Zhu Yuanzhang once issued an edict to "order the descendants to observe it. If the officials have a slight change, they will be charged with the crime of disturbing the ancestral system."

After all, it was Lao Zhu's ancestral precepts. If Zhu Di violated it through actual actions, he would not care. However, he still had some concerns about issuing an imperial edict to amend the "Da Ming Law".

At this point, Jiang Xinghuo said nothing, he just quietly admired the portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang in Fengtian Hall.

It is worth mentioning that he found that it was indeed completely different from the shoehorn face that was widely circulated on the Internet in later generations.

Well, come to think of it, Lao Zhu's family all look similar. As long as the emperor reaches middle age, he is a fat black man or a fat white man. If he has a beard, he looks majestic, and if he doesn't have a beard, he looks pampered.

A ruthless person like Zhu Di certainly doesn't hesitate in doing things. He just doesn't need to make quick decisions, so he starts to think more. If it's on the battlefield, between life and death, he can't care so much.

Looking at Lao Zhu’s portrait.

"Done!" Zhu Di was heartbroken and muttered to himself.

Anyway, if he really goes to the underworld, Lao Zhu will not forgive him. If he has too many lice, he will not be itchy, if he has too many debts, he will not worry. He and Lao Zhu can do this.

"Let's do it according to the idea of ​​​​the Imperial Master. However, we still have to wait for public opinion discussion in the past few days. By the way, let Ji Gang find an opportunity to capture the remaining members of the violent Zhao party. These people are still jumping up and down, connecting with each other in the court, intending to provoke confrontation. , it really upsets me."

Zhu Di continued: "When the three law divisions hold a joint trial, the Imperial Master should also be present as my imperial envoy."

Jiang Xinghuo raised his eyebrows and responded:

"Your Majesty is holy."

Damn, the big blood-sucking bug really uses it to death if it catches someone easy.