amaotonovel Chapter 305 Emperor Zhu: He actually handed us a knife to stab?
Chapter 305 Emperor Zhu: He actually handed us a knife to stab?
As is widely known, the Ming Dynasty had a notorious secret service called the Embroidered Uniform Guard. It was rumored that the Embroidered Uniform Guard under Emperor Zhu could tell him which concubine's room the officials slept in that night, and what the officials ate that day.
There are also rumors circulating in the martial arts world that the Imperial Guard's prison is a den of iniquity where one can enter but not leave, filled with countless bizarre and outrageous tortures, which even the toughest man cannot withstand after just one round.
However, few people know that the predecessor of the Embroidered Uniform Guard was called the Inspector. Although its style of doing things was not as brutal and domineering as that of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, its ability in investigation was even more impressive.
As a large number of inspectors were dispatched to the eastern Zhejiang area, clues to the Plowshare case began to slowly emerge.
Emperor Zhu casually placed the memorial submitted by Yang Xian on the table. He first gestured to Chen Zhong to give the memorial to Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen, then frowned and said, "Brother Shanchang and Mr. Qingtian may wish to take a look at this memorial first."
Li Shanchang suspiciously took the memorial from Chen Zhong, and after reading it, he frowned just like Emperor Zhu. He then handed the memorial to Liu Bowen.
Liu Bowen glanced at the document a few times, gritted his teeth, and bowed to Emperor Zhu, saying, "Your Majesty, I request that you send men to arrest Zhang Weiyi, Xu Taiyuan, and their entire family and bring them to the capital for strict interrogation by the Three Judicial Offices."
Although he had long suspected that his fellow townsmen from eastern Zhejiang were behind it, Liu Bowen never imagined that they would be so foolish as to be so blatant.
Zhang Weiyi was the magistrate of Lanxi County, Ningyue Prefecture.
Zhang Weiyi has a brother-in-law named Liu Qingyuan.
Liu Qingyuan used Zhang Weiyi's name to befriend various gentry in eastern Zhejiang, buying low and selling high based on information obtained from Zhang Weiyi.
These practices are commonplace in officialdom and nothing to be surprised about.
But no one expected that perhaps the money Liu Qingyuan had made in Lanxi County was no longer enough to satisfy his appetite. After reselling the plowshares in Lanxi County, he set his sights on the plowshares that the Zhu Emperor and the Ming Dynasty had allocated to Shandong.
Moreover, it must be admitted that Liu Qingyuan is very proactive and has a lot of bragging skills.
Liu Qingyuan first went to Jimo County to find the county magistrate Qu Mingjie. After revealing his identity, he began to boast that his brother-in-law was a lackey of Liu Bowen and promised that even if there were any problems, he could get his brother-in-law to ask Liu Bowen for help to get him out of trouble.
Then, Qu Mingjie, the magistrate of Jimo who was already very bold, boarded Liu Qingyuan's pirate ship. On the one hand, he was selling plows allocated to Jimo by Emperor Zhu and the Ming Dynasty, and on the other hand, he was helping him contact officials in the prefectures and counties near Jimo.
Immediately afterwards, Liu Qingyuan rushed back to Ningyue Prefecture and began contacting the gentry there, indicating that he could obtain enough refined iron.
The gentry of Ningyue Prefecture were also very bold, so much so that they promised to buy the iron without even asking Liu Qingyuan where he got it.
Of course, if that were all, Liu Bowen would only hate those two idiots, Liu Qingyuan and Zhang Weiyi, and wouldn't hate his fellow townsmen from Zhejiang.
What truly infuriated Liu Bowen was that this fool Liu Qingyuan had actually allied himself with Hu Yuan, acting as a middleman between Hu Yuan and the gentry of eastern Zhejiang.
Of the 30,000 jin of refined iron that was smuggled out of the Plowshare case, more than 10,000 jin ended up with Hu Yuan.
Don't you know how heinous this crime is?
Let alone a county magistrate and a few gentry, even if there were a hundred or a thousand more county magistrates, they would still be doomed, you bastard!
Sometimes even Liu Bowen couldn't understand how crazy his fellow villagers from eastern Zhejiang must be to dare to flirt with Hu Yuan's side.
How incredibly stupid must they be to so blatantly resell plowshares?
Or do these people from eastern Zhejiang think they can exonerate them?
Emperor Zhu glanced at Liu Bowen and instructed Yang Xian: "Send men to arrest Zhang Weiyi, Liu Qingyuan and his entire family and bring them to the capital. Also, seal up all the account books related to them and bring them to the capital for the Censorate to check and verify."
It's so frustrating, so incredibly frustrating.
I was originally thinking about how to deal with the Zhejiang East Gentry Group, but who would have thought that they would actually hand over the knife to me?
No, they didn't just hand over the knife; they even laid bare their hearts, just waiting for me to strike!
Just as Emperor Zhu was feeling increasingly helpless, Liu Bowen bowed to him and said, "Your Majesty, plows are a matter of livelihood for the people. Zhang Weiyi and Liu Qingyuan dared to resell plows. They must be executed to appease public anger and uphold justice! For the sake of the people and for the long-term stability of the Ming Dynasty, I beg Your Majesty to send people to thoroughly investigate Zhang Weiyi and Liu Qingyuan and restore a clear and just sky for the people!"
……
Just as Liu Bowen was earnestly requesting Emperor Zhu to unleash a massacre, the prefectural government office in Penglai County had already been transformed into a courtroom for a joint trial by the three judicial departments.
After the Ministry of Justice, the Court of Judicial Review, and the Censorate held a joint trial, Yang Shaofeng took on the role of a temporary judge, beginning to convict the officials under trial.
“Xu Zheng, the magistrate of Zhaoyuan County, is a criminal who is greedy, cruel, and harmful to the people. He should be hanged, and his family should be exiled to Dengzhou.”
"Qu Mingjie, the magistrate of Jimo County, is a criminal who is greedy, cruel, and harmful to the people. He should be hanged and his family should be exiled to Dengzhou."
"..."
Officials from four of the six prefectures in Shandong Province—Dengzhou, Laizhou, Qingzhou, and Jinan—were brought to the Dengzhou prefectural government office for trial. The lightest offender was hanged and his entire family exiled, while the most serious offenders from the provincial administration were executed along with their entire families.
In other words, in Shandong, there are now about eighty counties. The magistrates, assistant magistrates, clerks, and yamen runners of more than sixty of these counties have to go to the execution ground, and most of the officials' families have to be exiled to Dengzhou to do hard labor.
Of course, this judgment was only a preliminary one after Yang Shaofeng and the three judicial departments had discussed it. The final judgment would depend on how Emperor Zhu decided.
If Emperor Zhu is in a good mood, these people's sentences might be lighter.
If the Zhu Emperor was in a bad mood, these people might be punished even more severely.
According to Yang Shaofeng's calculations, Emperor Zhu's mood is probably not very good lately.
The best outcome for these officials would probably be beheading and public display of their heads; a slightly worse outcome would be being made into scarecrow figurines, and even their entire extended family would have to report to Dengzhou.
Just as Yang Shaofeng was pondering this in his mind, Lan Yu looked at him and asked, "Kid, we've dealt with these officials, but what about the more than 30,000 catties of refined iron that were lost?"
Yang Shaofeng paused for a moment, then sighed and said, "This matter still depends on Mr. Qingtian. If Mr. Qingtian can recover all 30,000 jin of refined iron, the rest will be easy to handle. It's just a matter of melting it down again to recast plows and then distributing them to the people."
"If we can't get it back... then we can only wait and see where all this refined iron has gone."
At this point, Yang Shaofeng's expression turned somewhat ferocious, and his gaze towards Xu Zheng and Qu Mingjie and other officials was full of murderous intent: "It's all because of these bastards that the spring plowing plans of the people in Dengzhou, Laizhou, Qinghai and Jizhou have been completely delayed."