Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 330 The Emperor of Ming Dynasty's Anti-Addiction System
Chen Toutie certainly understood the role he played, so he expressed his position to Pei Yuan very firmly.

No matter what happens in the future, he will always be Qianhu's headstrong.

Pei Yuan saw that there was still time, so he said to Chen Tou Tie, "Come on, I'll take you to see someone."

Chen Toutie immediately stood up and asked for a few personal soldiers to follow him.

Pei Yuan shook his head, "Just follow me."

Chen Toutie didn't ask any more questions. He took his weapon and hid it on his body, then followed Pei Yuan out of Zhihua Temple.

After walking a few streets, Chen Toutie roughly identified the place. He asked in confusion, "Are we going to Tian Fu's house?"

Pei Yuan glanced at Chen Toutie and said, "Don't talk for a while."

Chen Toutie immediately shut up, and Pei Yuan reminded him, "You will be the leader of Luo Sect from now on. Every word you say may cause great trouble to many people. Remember this."

Chen Toutie was stunned for a moment, then he began to realize something.

The two walked for a while and arrived at Tian Fu's house.

When Tian Fu heard that Pei Yuan had arrived, he stood up and went to the door to greet him.

In the past, when Pei Yuan came, he often missed meal times, but he always asked someone to bring him food and wine.

This time I came just in time for dinner, but I forgot to ask Chen Toutie to buy some.

Tian Fu immediately understood something and asked with a smile, "Does the captain want to see me for something?"

Pei Yuan understood a little when he saw the food in the hall, and said with a smile, "Yes, I do have something on my mind that I need your help with."

Tian Fu asked Pei Yuan to sit down, and signaled the old servant to leave. Then he asked, "What can I do for you, Captain?"

Pei Yuan did not hide anything and said directly, "I have something to write to the court. However, I am a rough man and cannot write this. Can I ask Brother Tian to write for me?"

Tian Fu remained calm upon hearing this, and smiled gently, "The commander is a valiant warrior, how could the court embarrass him with his writing skills?"

Pei Yuan said casually, "I, a thousand households, also want to save face."

Tian Fu couldn't refuse directly, so he asked, "What memorial does the captain plan to write? I am only a scholar, and I have never seen anything like a memorial. I am afraid that I can't help, and I will cause trouble for the captain."

Pei Yuan patted his head, "By the way, have I ever told you in detail what I do?"

Tian Fu thought for a moment and replied, "I heard from the captain that it is in charge of monks and Taoists."

Pei Yuan laughed, "That's true, but it's not comprehensive."

Then he explained, "In order to prevent evil cults from becoming bigger and harming the people and the country, the imperial court specially set up a thousand-household unit in the Jinyiwei to track down those evil people who deceived the people."

"So, I usually focus on arresting those monks who deceive the villagers and those Taoists who sell talisman water. I not only do not harm the people, but also do not care much about the disputes in the court."

Tian Fu laughed when he heard this.

I don’t care much about it. Why did you come here twice in the middle of the night just because of Liang Ci’s matter?

Last time, Tian Fu felt that Captain Pei seemed to behave rudely, but whether he was talking about himself or Huo Tao, he always had a sense of playfulness as a bystander.

Especially since he came over and repeated Huo Tao's words to him, it seemed that he was testing him more than asking for advice.

Moreover, the information about the Enke that Pei Yuan inadvertently leaked later seemed more like a reward for himself for passing the test.

How could Tian Fu dare to believe that such a character was a rude person?
Pei Yuan was still talking to himself, "This time, I accidentally solved a big case and found a cult in Shandong called Luojiao. This cult believes in Luozu and has been entrenched in Shandong for a long time, spreading all over the countryside. Even in various prefectures and counties, there are officials who have been bribed by them to help them conceal the truth."

"In addition, this Luo sect has also spread secretly along the canal and has a great influence among the canal workers and transport troops."

"According to my preliminary estimate, there are no less than 100,000 followers of this Luo sect, and there are thousands of obsessed believers. This Luo sect is secretive and hides among ordinary people. If it continues to develop in this way, I am afraid that Shandong will no longer belong to the court, and it may even spread along the canal to the south."

"In view of the seriousness of the situation, in order to prevent another rebellion from harming the world, I intend to write a letter to the court, requesting that all prefectures and counties in Shandong, as well as the garrisons, canal workers, and transport troops along the canal seriously search for Luojiao members in the territory to maintain peace."

Tian Fu was completely confused after hearing this. He asked in surprise, "Captain, please forgive me for being so rude. What is the origin of this Luo Sect? How come I have never heard of this name?"

"If what Qian Hu said is true, the influence of the Luo Sect is probably higher than that of the White Lotus Sect and the Maitreya Sect. Why haven't I heard anyone mention it before?"

Pei Yuan looked at Tian Fu with a meaningful smile and said, "Luo Jiao's whereabouts are secretive, and he has bribed many officials in the prefectures, counties and the court. He has been able to hide until today, so someone must have helped cover it up."

"It's normal that Brother Tian has never heard of it. How could a scholar like Brother Tian have any contact with such evil spirits?"

"Those who have heard of it, haha, are exactly the people the court wants to arrest."

Tian Fu felt a chill in his heart when he heard this, fortunately he didn't say anything else just now.

But he felt weird again.

According to this logic, the reason why people have not heard of Luo Sect is because their whereabouts are secretive. If they have heard of Luo Sect, they may have had contact with Luo Sect. Doesn't that mean that everyone denies knowing Luo Sect?
This proves that their whereabouts are secretive and they have bribed many officials.

I always feel like something is wrong.

Tian Fu thought about this and declined politely, "I'm afraid I can't write this well."

Pei Yuan added, "Don't worry, I have already reported this matter to the emperor alone, and the emperor also intends for me to rush to Shandong as soon as possible. It's just that without this thing, I can't ask the court for support."

Pei Yuan said sincerely, "Brother Tian may not know the situation in Shandong. When the Bazhou bandits rebelled before, Shandong was attacked several times, and even important towns such as Linqing and Jining fell."

"Later, the Bazhou army was defeated in Huaibei, and another group of bandits sneaked into Shandong and wreaked havoc on Shandong again."

"That's fine, but Brother Tian, ​​have you heard about the imperial court's plan to repair the Grand Canal?"

As a senior official who often frequented the Da Ci'en Temple, Tian Fu replied, "I have heard a little about it."

Pei Yuan said, "The person appointed as the governor of the river is Zhang Feng, the former governor of Suzhou and Songjiang. He is a greedy man and will certainly use the corvée labor of repairing the Grand Canal to plunder the people again. Shandong is now like a boiling oil pan. If any drop of water hits it, it will explode everywhere."

"If we can't dig out the hidden Luo Cult in time, I'm afraid the incident of the Bazhou thieves surrounding the capital will happen again."

Tian Fu's heart tightened when he heard this. He hesitated again and again, but then he thought that what Pei Yuan said and did were ultimately beneficial to the country and the people, so there was nothing to be shy about.

Moreover, as an intellectual among the powerful landlords, Tian Fu was naturally indifferent to those evil cults. Since Pei Yuan's memorial was not directed at officials or ordinary people, there was nothing wrong with writing it.

Tian Fu met Pei Yuan's expectant gaze, hesitated for a while, and finally nodded, "Okay."

Pei Yuan was overjoyed. He glanced at the food on the table, then at the small table in front of the window, and gestured, "Please ask Brother Tian to write it early so that I can go back and copy it, so as not to miss tomorrow's court meeting." Tian Fu had no choice but to go to the window, take a piece of paper, and write roughly according to Pei Yuan's intention. After Pei Yuan made some additions, he polished it again and wrote the memorial again.

Pei Yuan took the final draft, blew it dry, and handed it to Chen Toutie who was standing beside him.

Chen Toutie took it and put it away carefully.

Pei Yuan then returned to the table with Tian Fu and began to eat, drink and chat.

After having a good meal and a few drinks, Pei Yuan left Tian Fu and stretched out his hand to signal Chen Toutie.

Chen Toutie quickly took out the memorial that reported the situation of the Luo Sect and requested the court to conduct a thorough search. Pei Yuan took a quick look at it, a smile appeared on his face, and he turned around to look at the Tian family.

On the way back, Chen Toutie still suggested whether to meet General Song.

Pei Yuan said unhappily, "This is simply nonsense. I don't know what kind of disturbance this will cause after I submit my memorial tomorrow. How can I have the time to think about this?"

Chen Toutie stopped talking immediately.

The next morning, Pei Yuan submitted the memorial to the Ministry of Public Security.

The people from the Tongzhengsi were shocked when they saw that it was a captain of the Jinyiwei who made the report.

Because the Jinyiwei are the emperor's personal army, if there is something, even if it cannot be reported directly to the emperor, it can be reported to the commander of the Jinyiwei in turn.

The commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard is the emperor's long-time attendant. It is easy for him to report to the emperor if anything happens.

Pei Yuan then explained, "This is a matter of state and country. I have already reported the specific situation to the emperor in secret. Now it is time for the court to discuss it publicly."

When the Ministry of Public Administration heard that everything had been agreed upon with the Emperor, there was nothing to be fussy about.

He then collected the memorial separately and sent it directly to the cabinet.

Pei Yuan was of low status and had no qualifications to attend court. Remembering that the court would discuss Gu Dayong's merits and demerits over the past year today, he wanted to wait in the Ministry of Public Administration to hear the news.

The Tongzhengsi Yamen was originally a high-ranking office, and its responsibilities included "receiving and rejecting memorials from both inside and outside the country, and writing down the reasons for petitions, appeals, or complaints of illegalities in the register. When subjects from all over the country submit sealed memorials, they will be opened in the public hall, and a copy will be made before the emperor. They must participate in all discussions on major policies, major cases, and meetings with ministers of culture and military affairs."

The reason for the establishment of this department was that the power of Prime Minister Hu Weiyong was too concentrated, and all memorials had to pass through his hands before being shown to the emperor.

In this case, one can imagine what the emperor could see.

After Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister and distributed power among the six ministries and the Censorate, he discovered a very annoying thing.

The memorials that were originally reviewed by the prime minister now have to be reviewed by the corresponding six ministries and the Censorate.

This makes me even more unhappy!

Zhu Yuanzhang made a decisive decision to read them all himself and then distribute them.

However, many of the memorials submitted to the emperor by officials from all over the country contained more words than substance, which made the aging Zhu Yuanzhang a little overwhelmed.

So, Zhu Yuanzhang improved the Tongzhengsi system.

The core idea of ​​this system is that after all memorials are opened and announced by the Ministry of Public Security, the main ideas will be summarized, and then the original files will be kept and the simplified versions will be distributed to various departments.

The memorials were opened and briefly summarized in the Ministry of Public Administration, which meant that the contents of the memorials were no longer a secret that could be concealed by the various ministries.

During regular court sessions, officials from the Ministry of Public Administration had to brief the emperor on the contents of memorials submitted to the emperor. When the court made important decisions, officials from the Ministry of Public Administration had to be present to play a supervisory and monitoring role to prevent anyone from the six ministries or the Censorate from taking risks and concealing key information.

At this time, the status of the Tongzhengshi was very high, and his official ranking was after the Censorate and before the Dali Temple.

Later, when the nine-year-old Yingzong succeeded to the throne, the "Three Yangs" who held power suddenly discovered...

Hey, there is something interesting about Lao Zhu’s setting.

This is not easy to do.

So the "Three Yangs" thought about it and said that the emperor was too young and his body was still developing, so he should sleep more.

In addition, the emperor is still a minor and is still in an important stage of learning knowledge and maintaining a healthy body and mind, so the anti-addiction system must be activated.

The main measure was that during the morning court session every day, the Minister of Public Administration was only allowed to say eight things.

Moreover, in order to prevent the Tongzhengshi from making mistakes when reporting, the content reported to the emperor had to be shown to the "Three Yangs" in the form of a copy the day before.

After Yingzong grew up and successfully seized power, because no one dared to mention it, Yingzong did not know that he could listen to the affairs of state as much as he wanted. He thought it was natural to listen to eight matters every day.

So this guy became an emperor who lived in an anti-addiction system until his death.

The emperors of later generations were even more ignorant. During the Tianqi period, they were so powerful that they only reported two things every day, and the cabinet even prepared suggestions for how to deal with them in advance.

So what's the point of getting up at four o'clock?

So angry!

Forget it, let's find something to do. Carpentry work is pretty good.

——"Yingzong ascended the throne at a young age. The three ministers Yang Rong and others were worried that the emperor would get tired easily, so they created a new system. Every morning, only eight items were allowed to be discussed. The day before, a copy was submitted to the Lord, and the disposal of each item was reported in advance. When the report was submitted, it was just according to the received order. When Yingzong grew up, the three ministers died one after another, and no one dared to repeat the old rules of their ancestors. Until the time of Tianqi, only two items were reported."

After the Tongzhengsi was drastically destroyed by the Three Yangs, the status of the Tongzhengsi began to decline sharply.

What influence can a government office have that is not liked by powerful departments such as the Cabinet, the Six Ministries, and the Censorate?

The decline of the Tongzhengsi Yamen can be regarded as cutting off one hand of imperial power and was the most powerful achievement of the "Three Yang Cabinet".

So did no emperor realize this problem? Could it be that all emperors in later generations were as foolish as Tianqi?

some.

That is Emperor Zhengde, who was evaluated as "this kid, only knows how to play since he was young".

Just last year, Zhu Houzhao stipulated that "all prefectural and provincial governors should immediately seal their reports to the Ministry without delay. The copies should also be sealed with the originals. The documents such as consultations and other documents are exempt from seals. They can only be opened and attached after the matter has been implemented. All the government offices responsible for handling the matter should be careful to guard against leaks. If there is any leakage, the whole party will be punished."

Although the diligent Zhu Houzhao sounds a bit like a character destroyer, however, facing the powerful cabinet that just killed Liu Jin, Zhu Houzhao's struggle is completely useless.

(End of this chapter)