Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 769 Public Outrage

Xu Xiancheng and Zhang Xijun acted quickly. They already had some evidence, but it was not complete. But at the moment, the evidence was basically enough, and the Jinyiwei was also their own people. Not to mention the relationship between Zhou Anmin and Xu Xiancheng, Zhu Shenzhu even specially contacted Zhou Anmin and asked Jinyiwei to cooperate with the Supervisory Office. Zhou Anmin was naturally more concerned about this matter.

On the second day, the Supervisory Office notified the three people of an interview in the name of the Beijing Inspection. At first, the three people who received the notification did not take it seriously at all and went directly to the place of the interview to accept questioning by the Supervisory Office.

The entire interrogation process was very normal, and those being questioned included not only the three of them, but also nearly ten other officials of different ranks. The Supervisory Department did not make things difficult for these officials, and everything was just a formality.

After the questioning, the three men left safely. They thought that this time the inspection was just a lot of noise but little results, and they were complacent after returning, thinking that they had passed the test. However, no one expected that at the court meeting on the fourth day, before anyone came out to comment on the Liaodong war, a young official from the Supervisory Office stood up first, submitted evidence in front of everyone, pointed out the many crimes of the three men, impeached them directly in court, and demanded severe punishment.

In theory, the problems found in the imperial examination do not need to be reviewed by the court, but can be submitted directly according to the procedures. Then, based on the final assessment results, the Censorate and the Ministry of Personnel will make rewards and punishments according to the system. Those with good assessment results will be promoted, while those with problems will be dismissed. After all, the imperial examination only deals with officials below the fourth rank, not high-ranking officials of the court. The Ministry of Personnel can make direct decisions on officials of this level.

But this time it was different. In the court, people from the Supervisory Office directly impeached and demanded severe punishment. This had deviated from the normal procedures of the imperial examination and instantly caused an uproar.

Someone immediately raised objections, saying that what the Supervisory Office did was not in line with the procedures of the Beijing Inspection, and that they should not be directly impeached by name in the court. They even demanded severe punishment for such actions. Doing so was not part of the procedures of the Beijing Inspection at all, and it was suspected of retaliation and attacking in the name of the Beijing Inspection.

They expressed strong dissatisfaction with this and not only demanded the demotion of the person who proposed the impeachment, but also a thorough investigation into whether the Supervisory Office had committed any illegal acts. They even went so far as to ask whether the Beijing Inspection should be restored.

At one time, everyone was furious, and they directly pointed their spearheads at the Supervisory Office. Some people couldn't help but ask Xu Xiancheng and Zhang Xijun to come out and explain the situation. What exactly did the Supervisory Office want to do by doing this? Could it be that they wanted to eliminate dissidents and attack political enemies?

At this time, Zhu Shenzui directly stopped the quarrel, his face looked very ugly, and he scolded the impeaching official from the Supervisory Department and demanded an explanation from him.

The other party was not afraid at all. This young official was the backbone of the Fushe Society, and was personally selected and valued by Xu Xiancheng. He had not been in office for long and was full of enthusiasm. Moreover, he had taken the initiative to apply for impeachment this time. Xu Xiancheng and Zhang Xijun had originally planned to choose someone to do this. Seeing that this person recommended himself and was a suitable candidate, they agreed after discussion.

This young man spoke passionately in front of everyone in the court, including Zhu Shenzhu, saying that there was no problem with his impeachment. According to the Beijing inspection system, although the evaluation of the assessors was reported according to the procedures, the Ministry of Personnel would decide on the promotion or dismissal, and then it would be submitted to the Cabinet and the Imperial Household Department for filing, and finally the emperor would nod.

But this time it was different. During the Beijing inspection, it was discovered that these three people did not have ordinary problems at all. If it was just because they were incompetent, or had made mistakes in their work, or had been muddling through as officials, it would be fine and it would be normal to report it according to normal procedures.

However, according to the evidence we have so far, this is not the case at all. The problems of these three people are extremely serious, involving seven of the Four Grids and Eight Methods: guarding, politics, talent, greed, cruelty, inaction, and carelessness. If we dig deeper, we will have to add the item of weak talent.

Not only that, the corruption that has been verified is shocking. Among the three, one worked in the Ministry of War, one in the Ministry of Works, and the other in the Ministry of Rites. The first two had direct access to military funds and supplies. According to the investigation results, the two people in the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works had embezzled a huge amount of military funds and supplies over the years. Among them, the Liao salary and the military funds allocated to local areas for the encirclement and suppression of bandits totaled 120,000 taels. In addition, a large amount of supplies were missing. These supplies included not only military equipment and firearms, but also food and fodder, which was equivalent to 200,000 taels of silver, totaling 320,000 taels.

The salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty have never been high, and can even be said to be the lowest among all dynasties. According to the system established by Zhu Yuanzhang, the monthly salary of a first-rank official was 87 dan, and the monthly salary of a second-rank official was 72 dan; the monthly salary of a second-rank official was 61 dan, and the monthly salary of a second-rank official was 48 dan; the monthly salary of a third-rank official was 35 dan, and the monthly salary of a third-rank official was 26 dan...

This salary is really pitifully low. According to this ratio, the monthly salary of an official of the ninth rank is only 5 dan. It can be seen that the monthly salary of an official of the fifth and sixth ranks is only around dan.

Officials with such low salaries simply cannot live. They can only barely get by on their salaries. Don't forget that officials have a large family to support, as well as servants, etc. How can they survive on such a small salary per month? Therefore, since the time of Taizu, corruption among officials in the Ming Dynasty has always existed. Even though Zhu Yuanzhang implemented zero tolerance for corrupt officials, killed one as soon as he found one, and even used cruel means such as skinning and stuffing straw, it still couldn't stop it.

After Zhu Yuanzhang, the imperial court relaxed its crackdown on officials' corruption. After all, the emperor knew that officials' income was too low. If they followed Zhu Yuanzhang's style, no official in the world would survive. In addition, the emperors of subsequent generations also adjusted the salaries of officials appropriately, slightly increased the salaries of officials at all levels, and turned a blind eye to the officials' petty corruption. As long as it was not excessive, they would generally not make things difficult. However, due to this reason, coupled with the increasing power of the civil service group, corruption among officials at all levels became more serious. After Wanli, this phenomenon had become common, and even changed from secret corruption to open bribery.

Even so, the corruption problem is still not something that can be exposed. If it is really investigated, no one can escape. Moreover, these two officials are not of high rank, but they have embezzled so much in just a few years. The amount of embezzlement of 320,000 taels is enough to make even the Prime Minister Wen Tiren's eyelids twitch.

That’s not all. The other official in the Ministry of Rites was even more daring. The first two men only embezzled military funds and supplies for their own benefit, but this official in the Ministry of Rites actually embezzled the funds allocated by the court for the imperial examinations and the funds allocated by the Ministry of Rites for ceremonies.

The former directly affected the imperial examination system, including the official school institutions at all levels in the imperial examination system, such as the meal and accommodation fees of the students of the Imperial Academy in Beijing, and the funds allocated by the provincial education officials, etc. This move was extremely bad. You should know that the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty were all selected through the imperial examinations. Whether they went to school locally or to the Imperial Academy, it was closely related to this group.

This official actually reached out here, it would be strange if he didn't arouse public anger. If the embezzlement of military funds and food supplies was related to the military, the civil officials might not say anything, but directly embezzling the imperial examinations and tributes was equivalent to digging up the roots of the civil service group, how could this be tolerated.

And that's not all. Apart from the corruption in the imperial examinations, there was also the attitude towards rituals. One must know that the ceremonial funds allocated by the Ministry of Rites were used for national ceremonies and even royal sacrifices. To get hold of money in this regard was tantamount to treason and was almost the same as treason.

When the young official spoke out these charges, everyone was suddenly in an uproar, and everyone looked at the official from the Ministry of Rites with extreme hostility and anger.

"I am innocent! I am really innocent! This is clearly a false accusation against me. I have studied hard for ten years, how could I do such a thing!" How could the official from the Ministry of Rites stand still? He immediately came out of the team and knelt on the ground, kowtowed in front of Zhu Shenzhui and shouted loudly that he was innocent.

"Regent, please be wise. I have never done such a thing. This is a false accusation! This is clearly a rumor!" The official denied it with a look of indignation, and kept saying that the reason the young official impeached him was because he had offended the other party during the interrogation in Beijing, and the other party was deliberately retaliating against him.

"I'm retaliating against you? You think too highly of yourself!" The young official sneered and asked directly, "Since you say you're wronged, let me ask you, in the sixth year of Chongzhen, you were the head of the Ministry of Rites, responsible for the funding of the Imperial College. Of the funding for accommodation and meals for the students of the Imperial College, 1,327 taels were missing. Where did the money go? And your hometown had an extra 100 acres of good farmland. Where did the land come from? You come from an ordinary family, and your monthly salary after becoming an official is not much. In less than two years, where did you get so much money to buy land?"

"This... this is the land of the villagers who have pledged their loyalty to the government and are in name only. Who doesn't do this? How can you convince the people of the world by using this to convict me and accuse me of corruption? I refuse to accept this!"

"Don't worry, there's more. In the seventh year of Chongzhen, the rent paid by the Imperial College was nearly half less than in the sixth year. What's going on? That year, your family had two hundred more acres of land. Could it be that they also surrendered? How do you explain these? In addition, at the end of the seventh year of Chongzhen, the funding for the education administration of Henan, Huguang, and Guizhou provinces was also insufficient, with a total shortfall of more than 4,800 taels. These shortfalls are still on the books, but after checking the expenditures of the Ministry of Revenue, the money had already been paid to the Ministry of Rites, and you were the one who received the money. How do you explain this?"

"In addition, during the eight, nine, and tenth years of Chongzhen's reign, you were transferred to the Ministry of Rites and Ceremonials, and you used inferior materials to pass off as good ones in many ceremonies and sacrificial rituals, and embezzled a huge amount of 56,000 taels. There is witness and material evidence for all this. How can you quibble?"

As he spoke, the young official turned around and bowed to all the officials present. Finally, he said to Zhu Shenzhui, who was in the right position, "Regent, this person is obsessed with money and greed. He deceives his superiors and subordinates and is greedy. The evidence is solid and his crime is unforgivable! I ask the Regent to punish him severely, to uphold the law and to serve as a warning to others!"

Zhu Shenzui's face turned pale, and he stared at the official who was already unsteady and half-paralyzed on the ground, as if he was looking at a dead person.

At this time, no other officials in the court came out to speak for this official. If it was just another charge of corruption, it would be fine, but this official was really too bold to dare to take any money? How dare he be so corrupt?
He has embezzled so much money over the years. Although the total amount is not as much as the two people from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works, the impact and consequences are much more serious. No one will object to impeaching this idiot, even if he is killed directly.

(End of this chapter)