Spoiling History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

"What's wrong with severe punishment for corruption?"

In the Huagai Palace, Zhu Yuanzhang was peeling oranges while disapproving.

"All those corrupt officials just felt that they had no choice, and they all felt that they had their own difficulties."

"But don't you think about whether the people who died unjustly have their own difficulties? Do the common people who abide by the law but end up with their families broken up have their own difficulties?"

"When they all collude to harm the public and enrich themselves, causing the people of the world to be angry, will these corrupt officials listen to my difficulties?"

Although the words such as "warm face to cold butt" are a bit vulgar, he doesn't mind, because he thinks it is more appropriate to say it in later generations.

I vaguely remember that when the 24 generals went south to Dingyuan, they were as brothers inside and outside; and as they opened the government, expanded the army and recruited talents, it took a lot of thought to balance all parties; and when the Ming Dynasty was founded, some of his former subordinates had become enemies with him.

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help getting angry as he was talking, and the orange was crushed. Empress Ma, who was waiting to share the food, didn't care and took a handkerchief to wipe it carefully.

This made Zhu Yuanzhang feel a little embarrassed.

He wiped his hands and took another orange, and said after a pause:

"As for cruelty and bloodlust... I don't know where to start."

Let alone 70,000 or 80,000 people, even the Hu Lan case mentioned earlier involving more than 30,000 people was enough to surprise him now, after all, the number of officials in the Ming Dynasty was less than this number.

In this case, it is equivalent to the entire officialdom being plowed flat, and it is like a fool's dream to want to avoid chaos in this case.

Of course, there is also a problem of the number of people implicated by the nine clans being executed, but how many people have been executed since the founding of the Ming Dynasty?

As the younger generation said in the Hu Weiyong case, Tu Jie and Chen Ning were only sentenced to death according to the sentence, and no other crimes were pursued.

It is true that Zhu Chongba punished corruption severely, but he did not punish all corrupt officials with nine clans.

However, the descendants did not explain these things clearly, and Zhu Yuanzhang felt that it was meaningless to dwell on them, so he could only helplessly say:

"There are less than a thousand people convicted of the empty seal, so how can there be more than ten thousand people executed?"

"As for the later implicated people... let's take this as a reminder, learn from Zhuge Wuhou's strict laws, and follow Tang Taizong's example to rule future generations."

In a few words, Zhu Yuanzhang also sorted out this idea.

After him, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty did not rise from humble beginnings like him and see all kinds of people in the world, nor did he conquer the world with his own hands and make outstanding achievements like him, and he did not have a... ridiculous body like him that could do everything by himself without asking others for help.

In this case, instead of expecting future generations to be wise and brave, it is better to expect to improve the laws and set up ancestral precepts, so that the future generations of the Ming Dynasty can also be consistent as in the Hongwu period.

However, speaking of Emperor Taizong of Tang, Zhu Yuanzhang could not help but turn his eyes to the fourth son, even though he said that his descendants were wise and brave.

Now that he thought about it, when he talked about Zhu Biao with the emperor of China in the light curtain, Wu Hou first asked whether he was benevolent and filial and then asked whether he was married, which seemed to reveal a bit of strangeness.

Compared with this, Li Tang Erfeng was really misleading, and it was no wonder that these people later changed the topic and stopped talking about Emperor Yongle.

Now that he has become more calm, Zhu Yuanzhang does not have much to complain about. After all, his words at that time clearly showed his satisfaction and love for Zhu Biao. In this case, if he forced himself to say something like "your son seems to have a short life", it would seem like a provocation, and it would be like interfering in family affairs across hundreds of years. In any case, it is probably difficult to have a solution for both.

With a slight sigh in his heart, Zhu Yuanzhang was greeted by Zhu Di's attentive eyes:

"Son, come and peel oranges for Daddy."

This action also made Zhu Biao smile, and he also came forward:

"Son, peel oranges for Daddy too."

Two peeled oranges were placed in front of him.

Zhu Di immediately waved his hands:

"In that case, elder brother, peel it."

Fortunately, at this moment, Empress Ma leaned over and took the oranges from Zhu Di's hand without saying anything, and then stuffed the oranges from her eldest son's hand into Zhu Yuanzhang's hand:

"Eat fruits well."

Among the brothers, Zhu Yu took a break with an interested look.

…

In Guangzheng Hall, Zhao Kuangyin's expression was slightly relaxed, and he could even smile and say to Zhao Pu:

"I have you, which is the blessing of Song."

Seriously speaking, he and Emperor Hongwu were both from the military, and it would be a lie to say that there is no affection between brothers in the army.

However, the feudal system since the end of the Tang Dynasty also made him more aware that if he really wanted to establish a great cause, he must kill this trend, and there was only one way to achieve this goal, which was to rely on civil governance.

So in the end, Zhao Pu worked with him to carefully figure out how to measure the reform, and finally it became what it is today.

Red books and iron certificates are not enough to rely on, and eternal wealth is not enough to trust. The only way to praise the Song Dynasty for hundreds of years is to not neglect civil and military affairs, and to promote those who are capable.

Zhao Pu's face was full of smiles, and he bowed to Zhao Kuangyin.

Li Yu looked left and right, pondered for a while and said:

"But I remember that Lord Zhao seemed to have been exiled to Heyang two years ago. Could it be..."

Zhao Kuangyin stroked his beard and remained expressionless:

"I ordered Lord Zhao to investigate the capital of Luoyang to consider the matter of moving the capital."

Li Yu laughed and nodded:

"Since the emperor said so, I believe it."

This made Zhao Kuangyin, who didn't want to lose face, a little regretful:

The price of Lixian House sold to Li Yu was indeed too cheap!

【According to our previous three-stage Zhu Yuanzhang’s view, Zhu Yuanzhang’s first stage lasted for about twenty years.

What was Zhu Yuanzhang’s attitude towards officials during this period can be seen from specific examples.

In modern discussions on whether the case of the empty seal was a false case, one of the important arguments is Zheng Shili’s memorial on the empty seal. In this memorial, it is mentioned that “printing first and then writing, a temporary measure, has a long history”.

Zheng Shili did not have a specific official position, but he had a brother named Zheng Shiyuan, who was the assistant censor of Huguang and one of the officials involved in the empty seal case. The specific reasons for Zheng Shili’s memorial are also clearly recorded in history books.

In the same year of the empty seal case, there was a change in the stars, so Zhu Yuanzhang announced to the world that anyone with ideas could speak freely.

Zheng Shili was not polite and wrote a lot of words, but the memorial was not directly handed to Zhu Yuanzhang at that time, because the empty seal case had already happened. In order to avoid using public power to speak for personal gain, the family members did not hand the memorial to Zhu Yuanzhang until Zheng Shiyuan had finished serving his sentence for the empty seal case.

As expected, Zheng Shili briefly skipped the so-called astrology in the memorial, and most of the content was about the empty seal case. Overall, his opinions were summarized into four points, but all four points had a common appeal that the empty seal case should not be prosecuted. 】