The empty seal case, Zhu Yuanzhang's first anti-corruption case
According to the regulations of the Ming Emperor, local governments and counties had to go to the household department every year to check the local financial accounts. After the audit is completely consistent, the year's account can be closed.
The problem at that time was that the local prefect and county officials had to send someone to the capital with a sealed account book to check it. If you leave from the Liangguang area to the capital, it will take about two months. If a discrepancy is found in the accounts, the reconciled books need to be taken back to the same place and re-stamped. This period of coming and going is over for more than half a year, and nothing should be done at the end of the year.
Rules are dead, people are alive. After repeated research, the local governor found a problem, and the key place was to stamp it. Then ask the subordinates to take the blank book with the seal in advance to the capital, and if the accounts do not match, copy it again in the capital.
After this matter was known to Zhu Yuanzhang, he was very sad. The Ming Dynasty was all from their families, but these parent officials did these things behind his back. Uncle can not tolerate uncle can not tolerate, this is clearly the crime of deception, contempt for the law of Daming.
Then kill! Tigers don't threaten me when I'm a sick cat. In the thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty, more than 140 provinces, and more than 1,000 counties, all the subordinates in charge of the seal letter were killed. Other subordinates are also jointly and severally liable, such as the responsibility of the speaker for poor supervision, and the deputy of the chief Indian subordinate is responsible for complicity and failure to report the crime.
The Guo Heng case, Zhu Yuanzhang's important battle to purge officials
In 1385, several imperial historians reported that the envoys of Peiping and the officials of the envoys had colluded with Guo Heng, the servant of the household department, for corruption. The taxes near Taiping Zhenjiang were all embezzled by Guo Heng, and the money and grain in western Zhejiang were embezzled by Guo Heng for 4.5 million stones per year. These people also jointly set up a special name, levied a lot of taxes, and all of them were embezzled.
According to the results personally released by Zhu Yuanzhang, these corrupt officials and corrupt officials embezzled a total of more than 2,400 stones of grain. Most of the six ministries and local subordinates were involved in this major case, and there were more than 30,000 managers from top to bottom.
In Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, these people not only committed the crime of embezzlement, but also committed the crime of deceiving the king. Sharpening knives to cattle and sheep, these more than 30,000 people were all killed, and none of them were spared. Even the rich families and grain chiefs at the bottom are not spared, which shows the large area of the plant.
There are many doubts in this case, Zhu Yuanzhang is an energetic overtime maniac, he works almost 365 days a year, more than ten hours a day. All domestic military and political matters must pass through his hands. If the amount of grain embezzled was so huge, it would have been detected by him long ago, and it would not be enough to wait until today.
Severe punishment, thunder and thunder, anti-corruption spare no effort
Zhu Yuanzhang grew up in a poor family and was deeply harmed by corrupt officials. Later, he entered the Huangjue Temple as a monk, begged everywhere for a relationship, and witnessed the harm of corrupt officials. These experiences in his youth gave him a deep sense of distrust of officials.
Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that ordinary people also have the right to report corrupt officials and corrupt officials. As soon as they found corrupt officials and corrupt officials, they were directly tied up and escorted to the capital. If anyone dares to stop it, the nine tribes will be cut down all over the door.
Zhu Yuanzhang was anti-corruption, and he could not trust the local governor, at this time, the Jinyi Wei he created played a major role. These people often put on makeup and entered the government office to supervise the every move of local officials. The specific items and quantities that many people embezzled, Zhu Yuanzhang knew everything.
But on the road of corruption, there are still going forwards, wildfires are burning endlessly, and the spring breeze is blowing again. Enraged, Zhu Yuanzhang decreed that all those who embezzled more than sixty taels would be put to death.
Zhu Yuanzhang also stipulated that those who embezzled a super large number of people should be directly executed, and more than 3,000 knives should be cut to let them die. In addition, there is also the action of pulling out the large and small intestines of people, first scalding with boiling water and then scraping with an iron brush similar to killing pigs. Even more terrifying is to peel people and then fill them with grass for people to visit.
The two laws are contrary to the principle, and the dilemma of anti-corruption is the deep root cause
Zhu Yuanzhang took such a big anti-corruption action, but he could not achieve good results. Why is that? The first is that the official salary of the Ming Dynasty was too low, 1044 stone meters a year for a pin official, and only 90 stone meters for county officials. On the surface, there are many of them, but the number of officials recognized by the Ming Dynasty is very small, and there is only one county official in a county. The salaries and incomes of other county officials are settled by the county officials, and dozens of people who take 90 stone meters are far from enough.
Next, we will see how Zhu Yuanzhang treated his children and grandchildren. Zhu Yuanzhang was from a poor family, and in line with the principle that he could not suffer any more children, he crowned his sons and daughters as a pin official, especially his sons and the royal palace were established in various places, with their own fiefdoms and fields, and they were born to live a life of fine clothes and jade food.
The Ming Dynasty is the Zhu family's Jiangshan, and the emperor is the chairman. The chairman's family has been corrupt all day, so why let the subordinates at the bottom shrink their clothes and food? The upper beam is not right and the lower beam is crooked, the emperor eats meat, the subordinates drink soup, and loot a little money, what is it? This is the logic of corruption among the subordinates.
Zhu Yuanzhang hoped to use brainwashing methods to let the subordinates tighten their pants and belts to live their lives, and they were born his people and died as his ghosts. But these officials are not stupid, life is just a few decades, the head hanging beam cone thorn stock desperately read for the official, always let yourself enjoy decades.
The emperors only allowed themselves to set fires, and the people were not allowed to light lamps. They themselves have three palaces, six courtyards, and seventy-two concubines, spending all day drinking and extravagant. However, they let their subordinates serve as moral models and anti-corruption pioneers, and the poor could not even feed their families. This member has no fun at all, and everyone can only deceive and hide, and by the way, they are a little more corrupt.
On the road of corruption, there is no turning back. The amount of embezzlement can only grow larger and larger, and eventually send itself to a road of no return. This is the dead knot of the era of imperial despotism, and there is no cure. No matter how Zhu Yuanzhang tried to fight corruption, in the end it was a void.