All Heavens and Worlds Modified History System

Chapter 193 Beijing Inspection
Early spring of the eighteenth year of Hongwu, Peking.

Zhu Di, dressed in military uniform, held Zhu Gaochi in his arms and pinched his chubby face.

"Gao Chi, Daddy is going to fight the Yuan people. You should be obedient at home, study hard, and take care of your brothers. Do you hear me?"

"I heard you. Study hard and take care of your brother~~~"

"Okay." Zhu Di laughed with satisfaction. He put Zhu Gaochi down and reported to Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Gaosui one after another.

Zhu Di was not very interested in beauty, and he had a good relationship with Princess Xu.

The three consecutive sons were all born to Princess Xu.

"Your Majesty."

Xu, who was in her early thirties, was the daughter of Xu Da and a typical girl from a military family.

When Zhu Di was about to go to war, she would not cry like those so-called ladies from wealthy families and beg the prince not to go to such a dangerous battlefield.

She stepped forward to help Zhu Di adjust his armor, and said concisely and efficiently, "Your Highness, when you go, you must defeat the enemy army, capture the enemy chief, and build a lasting foundation for the Ming Dynasty!"

"it is good!"

Zhu Di shouted, "I will do as the princess said and defeat the enemy!"

After making preparations and bidding farewell to his family, Zhu Di mounted his horse and marched out of the city of Beiping with his royal soldiers.

The reason why the princes during the Hongwu period were called real princes was because Zhu Yuanzhang equipped his sons who were enfeoffed with troops!

A vassal king who has military power is naturally a real vassal king.

Depending on the location, the number of troops ranged from several thousand to fifteen thousand.

A vassal king like Zhu Di, who was in charge of guarding the border, had as many as 15,000 soldiers directly under his command.

In addition, these princes can also mobilize local troops within their fiefdoms.

It was precisely because of these that Zhu Di in history had the confidence to rebel.

A few months ago, Zhu Yuanzhang appointed Feng Sheng as the general and Lan Yu as the deputy general, and led the army north to attack the Yuan court.

In this historical battle, Zhu Di did not participate, but stayed behind to guard the border.

But this time it was different. He took the initiative to write a memorial requesting to go to war, and also stated that all his dividends from the Sihai Trading Company would be used as military expenses.

At Chen Ran's instigation, Zhu Biao expressed his support, and Zhu Biao readily agreed.

The high-priced sale of more than one million kilograms of spices not only cheated a large number of merchants, but also raised a huge amount of money and grain for the Ming Dynasty.

As an emperor on horseback, Zhu Yuanzhang did not give the civil officials a chance to ask for money, and used all the funds as military expenses for this expedition.

But even so, the civil servants' love of money still makes them find ways to make money.

After the Jinyiwei reported the matter, Zhu Yuanzhang became furious and raised his sword to continue killing.

At this time, Queen Ma was still alive. She tried to persuade the emperor, saying that those who were guilty should be killed, but evidence was needed to make the people convinced.

If we start killing people simply because they might have been involved in corruption, I'm afraid people all over the world will gossip about it.

Old Zhu still listened to what Empress Ma said.

Naturally, he was too lazy to do such things and simply pushed it to Zhu Biao.

Zhu Biao was also decisive. He immediately found Chen Ran and asked him for advice and advice.

"Speak clearly first."

After listening to Zhu Biao's story, Chen Ran immediately laughed and said, "Is it because the Jinyiwei couldn't find any evidence against him?"

"Ah."

Zhu Biao nodded and said, "The Jinyiwei has checked very carefully, but we only know that money and grain are missing, but we can't find out how much they are missing and where they went."

"We did catch some people, but they couldn't explain themselves clearly under torture."

"The Jinyiwei couldn't even explain the torture they used. That only proves that the people they arrested were scapegoats or cannon fodder."

Chen Ran looked solemn. "It seems that the civil officials have also evolved. Their methods are more secretive. Even the Jinyiwei can't find out."

He overestimated the Jinyiwei.

After all, the Jinyiwei had only been established for a few years at that time, and the secret agents deployed in various households and mansions had not yet been able to play a role. They were far from knowing everything as they would two hundred years later.

At this time, the most common job of the Jinyiwei was to suspect someone of a problem and arrest and torture them.

The civil servants who were frightened by Zhu Yuanzhang's killing are now more cautious in their actions, and it is difficult to catch them with ordinary means.

"This is about the army's expedition." Zhu Biao, who was worried, took the initiative to ask, "Zihou, do you have a way to catch these pests?"

"How difficult is this?"

Chen Ran proudly responded, "Since there is no evidence, then don't look for it."

"If you kill someone without evidence, I'm afraid the whole world will criticize you." Zhu Biao smiled bitterly, "Father has been criticized by many people for often killing ministers."

"What I mean is," Chen Ran waved his hand and said, "It doesn't matter if we can't find it. The civil servants must know it themselves."

Zhu Biao was increasingly puzzled. "Even if someone knew, why would they take the initiative to tell me?"

The civil servants have their own system, with various networks of relationships such as classmates, fellow exam participants, fellow townsmen, fellow students, and fellow bedmates. It is really difficult to ask them to betray their colleagues voluntarily, especially in an environment where Zhu Yuanzhang was accustomed to killing civil servants.

"The only ones who can do this are the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue."

Chen Ran said slowly, "The people who know the most about embezzlement are naturally the people from these two departments."

"It's easy to get them to talk. Just start the inspection."

The so-called Jingcha is a system used by the Ministry of Personnel to evaluate Beijing officials.

The four elements of defense, politics, talent, and age are good. The eight elements of greed, cruelty, inaction, carelessness, old age, illness, impetuousness, and weak talent are bad.

"Defense" refers to moral character and integrity, "Political" refers to the ability to handle government affairs, "Talent" is a natural quality of a person, and "Nian" refers to age.

Those with good character, outstanding ability and youth will be given priority.

Those who are old, sick, have bad character and lack ability will naturally be unlucky, and the worst-case scenario is that they will be directly fired.

"The imperial inspection is being conducted in the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue." Chen Ran raised his eyebrows. "Don't worry about the ministers and the assistant ministers. Just inspect the chief officials, the deputy ministers, and even the doctors!"

Zhu Biao had a vague epiphany and asked hurriedly, "Zihou, tell me in detail."

"All the doctors and assistants of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue will be dismissed." Chen Ran spread his hands. "Then give them another chance to confess how their superiors embezzled military funds. If they can, they will pass the imperial examination. If they can't, then they can go home and eat rice."

Hearing this, Zhu Biao fell into deep thought.

The rooms fell silent, leaving only the sound of wind blowing against the windows.

"That's a good idea." After a pause, Zhu Biao couldn't help but say, "If someone really doesn't know, wouldn't that be wrongly accusing a good person?"

"Prince, you are too kind."

Chen Ran sighed, "How could these people not know? Maybe they were not involved, but they handle countless amounts of money and food every day. If there is a problem, how could they not see it?"

"It's nothing more than not wanting to get involved, or simply not getting involved in person."

He said with emotion, "Civil servants are like this. It's better to do less than more. It's best to make a fortune quietly. They must know everything that Jinyiwei can't find out."

"In order to keep my position, this case will be solved immediately."

Zhu Biao was speechless.

After a long silence, there was a response: "This matter should be reported to His Majesty for a decision."

Imperial Palace, Imperial Study Room.

"The Beijing inspection must be held!"

After listening to Zhu Biao's story, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately slammed the table and said, "Not only should we investigate the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue, but all the ministries, courts, and temples should also be investigated!"

"Not only should the capital be inspected, but also all prefectures, cities and counties should be inspected comprehensively!"

Zhu Biao's heart tightened. He didn't expect his father to make such a big deal.

"Dad, there's a war going on in the north right now. If there's chaos everywhere..."

"You know nothing!" Zhu Yuanzhang glared. "Keeping these parasites here will only cause chaos! They even dare to embezzle the army's food and wages. Who knows, they might want to be like those big turbans in the former Song Dynasty and share the world with our Zhu family!"

The more he talked, the angrier he got. He pointed at Zhu Biao and shouted, "Have you become stupid from studying all day? Instead of cleaning up the bureaucracy, you're actually begging for mercy for these parasites?"

"I didn't ask for mercy!"

Faced with unwarranted accusations, Zhu Biao immediately retorted, "It was clearly my mother who pleaded for mercy. I just think that the war should be the most important thing now. These matters can be dealt with after the war is over."

"Hey."

Old Zhu was so angry that he laughed, "Boss, I will teach you one thing today. Once such a thing occurs, it must be dealt with swiftly and vigorously. The only result of dragging it out is that it will make them bolder and do whatever they want!"

"Only by dealing with it as quickly as possible and cutting the Gordian knot can we deter the villains and make them hesitate when they try to take action, fearing that I will chop them down!"

Zhu Biao sighed, put his hands on his hips, and shook his head, performing a series of three movements.

He studied Confucianism with the great Confucian scholar Song Lian and others since he was young, and was trained to be a kind-hearted crown prince.

I really don't agree with the old father's mentality of chopping off people's heads at any time.

"You."

Old Zhu's eyes were full of disappointment. "Back then, I only wanted you to have a famous teacher to teach you. I didn't think too much about it. Now it seems... Alas!"

He truly started from scratch and has no family inheritance to speak of.

When I was young, I thought that famous scholars would naturally be good teachers for my son.

But now it seems that he became stupid because of reading too much, or it can be said that the teachers at that time wanted to educate Zhu Biao to be this so-called kind-hearted person, intentionally or unintentionally!

Feeling tired, Old Zhu sat back on the dragon throne.

"Boss, remember this. When you see bedbugs in the house, the whole house is already full of bedbugs."

"If you see bedbugs, you should crush them to death as quickly as possible. You should also clean the house thoroughly to not give them a chance to survive."

"Otherwise, they will continue to devour the house until it collapses!"

The father and son fell into an unspeakable silence, both with heavy hearts.

After a long time, Lao Zhu waved his hand and said, "Go ahead. Think about it carefully when you go back."

"Yes."

Zhu Biao responded, bowed, and turned away.

"When you have nothing to do, spend more time with Chen Ran." Old Zhu's voice came from behind, "He is a sensible and capable man, and he is also ruthless enough. Learn more from him."

Zhu Biao did not respond and left with his head down.

A few months later, news came that the North had won a great victory over the Yuan court.

At the same time, the national assessment results were also released.

Throughout the Ming Dynasty, there were thousands of provincial governors, censors, prefecture and county officials who were corrupt, corrupt, and incompetent.

Lao Zhu's imperial edict came out immediately.

The incompetent will be dismissed, the corrupt will be exiled, and the corrupt will be beheaded!

(End of this chapter)