Ming Shi Criminal Law II: Guo Huan, Hubu Shilang also. Emperor Suspected that the officials of the Second Division of Beiping, Li Yu and Zhao Quande, had committed adultery with Huan, and had died under the six or so attendants, with seven million stolen goods, and the words even the officials of the province were tens of thousands of deaths.
The above is one of the four major cases of the early Ming Dynasty, a manifestation of Ming Taizu's heavy punishment of corruption, and a nightmare for corrupt officials in the Ming Dynasty, which made them sit still. Guo Huan was just a small household attendant, and he embezzled millions of stones, typical of "petty official greed". After Zhu Yuanzhang received the report from Yu Shimin and Ding Ting, Thunder thundered furious and ordered a thorough investigation. The final result was that all six or so attendants were executed, and even the interrogator Wu Yong and others were also executed.
China's dynasties and dynasties have been very strict in dealing with corrupt officials and corrupt officials, but because of the protection of officials and officials, many major cases have not been resolved. And Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang is an example, he deeply resented corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and once issued an edict to the world:
"For the sake of the people's lives, all officials who commit adultery and embezzlement will be put to death, and they will never forgive loans!" From local counties and prefectures to the six ministries of the Central Committee and Zhongshu Province, as long as it is corruption, no matter who is involved, it will never be merciful and soft-hearted, and it will be investigated to the end"
If Zhu Yuanzhang claims to be the second in suppressing greed, then no one dares to claim the second. Regardless of whether the officials of the six central departments or the local officials, as long as they embezzle more than sixty taels, they will all be executed. What a severe punishment this is, it's hard to imagine. Then, why did Zhu Yuanzhang hate corrupt officials so deeply? It's related to his early experience, slowly.
On October 29, 1328, Zhu Yuanzhang was born in Fengyang, Anhui Province, to a poor peasant family, and his father was Zhu Wusi. When he was a child, he often moved, had no fixed place, wandered around, and "drifted to wherever he went". In this year, Zhu Wusi's family fled to the Huai River, and his wife gave birth to Zhu Yuanzhang near the village of Burning Lamp in Fengyang. ("Shi Jia Pei, Migrating Jurong, And Then Migrating to Sizhou" Ming Shi Taizu Benji)
In the third year of Zhengzheng (1343), a drought occurred in Haozhou, Anhui, and in the spring of the following year, a severe plague of locusts and plagues occurred. Originally, the brutal rule of the Yuan Dynasty, the rampant corruption of officials and corrupt officials, the people were no longer able to live, coupled with natural disasters, the livelihood of the poor people was even more difficult. Zhu Yuanzhang's father, mother and eldest brother died one after another, and Zhu Yuanzhang and his second brother could not even afford to buy a coffin. If it were not for the neighbor Liu Jizu who gave them a cemetery, Zhu Yuanzhang's parents might have died in the field. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang
Therefore, after zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he recalled the brutal rule of the Yuan Dynasty, which was "harsh and fierce than the tiger", and his own poor and destitute life, and only then did he make up his mind to eliminate corrupt officials and return the people of the world to a clean and clean job. Zhu Yuanzhang was the founding emperor of the People's Republic of China, who led soldiers to fight and climbed out of the pile of dead people, and the military discipline in the army was strict, and if anyone violated the military orders, most of them were dealt with by military law and beheaded and paraded to the public. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang borrowed the military's practices from the governance of corrupt officials. He felt that as long as the most severe punishment was imposed, corruption could be eliminated and the people of the world could be rescued from the people of the world who were in dire straits.
In the 30 years that Zhu Yuanzhang was emperor, he fought with corrupt officials with wits and courage, and has been high-pressure and anti-corruption, and his wrists are tough, which is simply unheard of. According to incomplete statistics, in the six large-scale anti-corruption campaigns, including the Guo Huan case, more than 150,000 corrupt officials were killed by the imperial court.
Like the Jinyi Wei that supervised the hundred officials, it was set up by Zhu Yuanzhang. As Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes and ears, they lurked around officials at all levels and monitored hundreds of officials, and if there were illegal actions, especially corruption, Zhu Yuanzhang would know about it at the first time.
If this corrupt official embezzled more than sixty taels of silver, then his life would be in danger. The question that friends are concerned about comes, Zhu Yuanzhang's provision of sixty-two pieces of silver, converted into yuan, is probably equivalent to how much money?
Watching costume dramas, we often see the emperor casually rewarding gold and silver, and sixty-two silver seems to be too little. In fact, that is now the TV series exaggerated, in the low productivity of the ancient times, the common people can rarely use silver, as for gold, that is the legend. They used the most widely copper coins, 1 two silver can be exchanged for about 1000 to 1500 copper coins, which is already a "huge amount". Taking the ancient staple rice as an example, the following calculates how much 60 taels of silver is equivalent to today.
According to the Ming Shi Food Commodity II: "Therefore, the household department determined: one ingot of banknotes, one stone of folded rice; one or two stones of gold, ten stones; one or two stones of silver. ”
From the above, it can be seen that one or two silver in the Ming Dynasty can buy rice and two stones. According to the "Study of Grain Yield per Mu in Chinese Dynasties", a stone of rice in the Ming Dynasty weighed about 153.5 catties. This pound is not the current 500 grams of pounds, but a pound of 594.6 grams in the Ming Dynasty. If it is converted according to 500 grams per kilogram, then a stone of rice is 182.5 kilograms, that is, 91.3 kilograms. The current price of rice is about 4 yuan to 6 yuan per kilogram, which we calculate at 5 yuan.
Therefore, it is concluded that the Ming Dynasty bought two stones of rice for one or two pieces of silver, and one stone of rice was equivalent to the current 91.3 kilograms (182.5 kilograms), and 5 yuan per kilogram of rice. Therefore, one or two pieces of silver is 2 * 91.3 * 5 = 913 yuan, then 60 two silver is equivalent to the current 54780 yuan. More than 50,000 yuan, which is about the salary of an ordinary office worker for more than a year. It doesn't seem like much, but in ancient times, it was equivalent to a life, or the life of an official.
"People die for money, birds die for eating", Zhu Yuanzhang, in order to suppress corruption, stipulated that all officials who embezzled more than 60 taels (equivalent to more than 50,000 yuan) could be sentenced to death. This is unimaginable in modern times. Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born in a humble place, knew that 60 taels was a huge amount of money for ordinary people, so he severely punished corrupt officials.