I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 284 Zhu Houzhao's Decision
In the 20th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang, in view of the fact that "most of the military officials at home and abroad came from the army and did not know the constitution", wrote the book "The Great Edict to Military Officials" himself. The book is divided into 32 chapters. It uses unique vernacular spoken language to target the common mistakes made by military generals, present facts and reason, and earnestly admonish the military generals in order to achieve the purpose of "making them know the discipline, comfort the soldiers, establish meritorious deeds, and protect the title".

The fifth chapter of "The Great Edict to Military Officials" records an unconventional martial arts competition arranged by Zhu Yuanzhang.

Among the garrisons in Pingyang, Shanxi, there was a captain named Peng Youwen, who was greedy and violent. In order to make personal gains, he often embezzled and withheld the soldiers' rations, and sold them privately to put the money into his own pocket. The Ming army's rations were all distributed by the court according to certain standards, and there was not enough of them. Peng Youwen withheld and sold the rations, so naturally many soldiers would go hungry.

Peng Youwen once led 500 soldiers to build a city for several months. Peng Youwen was greedy and sold out all the food rations for two months without caring about the lives of the soldiers.

On the one hand, the soldiers had to bear heavy labor, and on the other hand, they could not even guarantee three meals a day. Some soldiers had meager savings and had to buy some food out of their own pockets to barely survive. Many soldiers had been out of food for several days, but the military law in the early Ming Dynasty was strict, and the soldiers did not dare to rob, so they could only "endure hunger and work."

The soldiers had no choice but to find Peng Youwen and "cried to him and complained that they had no food." However, Peng Youwen made all kinds of excuses and refused to issue rations. As a result, the tragedy of "a hundred soldiers starved to death" occurred. These more than a hundred soldiers were killed purely because of Peng Youwen's greed.

Zhu Yuanzhang was very angry when he learned about this. Although Peng Youwen had made many military achievements, Zhu Yuanzhang still decided to execute him. Zhu Yuanzhang hated him so much that he was unwilling to let him die with a single blow, thinking that it was too easy for him. So he used his imagination to arrange a unique duel. He ordered Peng Youwen to hold a long spear and "let him fight with a hundred soldiers".

One can imagine what ended up happening to Peng Youwen in the end.

Zhu Houxuan didn't expect that Zhu Houzhao also knew this story, but it was a good thing, because it saved him the trouble of explaining it.
Zhu Houzhao understood Zhu Houxun's intention, but he was still a little hesitant. Although he had the experience of Zhu Yuanzhang before him, and according to Ming Dynasty law, he should be put to death if he embezzled such an amount, but today, Ming Dynasty's tolerance for corruption has increased a lot, and it is unlikely that he would be put to death for embezzling dozens of taels of silver as in Zhu Yuanzhang's time.
Although the amount of embezzlement in this case was as high as 1500 taels of silver, according to the Ming Dynasty law, the punishment should be death, but the actual execution still depends on the will of the judge.
This is still a society ruled by one person.
As the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Houzhao was actually quite aware of the corruption among the Ming generals. He also wanted to solve all kinds of corruption, but solving the problem of corruption is not a simple matter.

It requires a lot of people to make various efforts at the execution level, and this will affect the interests of all military generals. Rash anti-corruption efforts will lead to unpredictable consequences, so the best option now is to maintain the status quo.

Just when Zhu Houzhao was hesitating, Jiang Jiangong hurried in and handed Zhu Houzhao a piece of paper. After reading it, Zhu Houzhao silently handed it to Zhu Houxuan.

Zhu Houxuan took it and looked at it. It said that the accountants of the Royal Group checked the account books of the two thousand households. The accounting of military generals was always so rough that it could not escape the eyes of the accountants. They quickly found various clues in the account books, and also visited the soldiers of the thousand households, so they quickly determined the matter.
The two captains had been withholding the soldiers' rations for a long time. The withheld rations were stolen and sold. They also withheld the cloth used by the soldiers to make their uniforms.
Zhu Houxuan knew that there were definitely more corrupt officers in the new army than just these two. These two were the most extreme and could be used as examples to eliminate the unhealthy trends in the new army.
"This is really wrong." Zhu Houxuan shook his head and said, "In addition to their salaries, officers in the new army have an additional subsidy. This subsidy is to prevent officers from being greedy!"

Zhu Houzhao's face darkened after hearing this. With Zhu Houxuan's reminder, he also remembered the subsidy. It was he who approved the subsidy in the first place.
In fact, Zhu Houzhao had already made up his mind after seeing the paper. It was mainly because Zhao Zhikun and Xin Baoyi claimed that they were the main culprits, but the results of the account check proved that they were lying. They had started stealing a long time ago.
This made Zhu Houzhao even angrier.
He looked coldly at Zhao Zhikun and Xin Baoyi who were kneeling on the ground, and said: "Then I will allow you two to die on the battlefield."

Zhao Zhikun and Xin Baoyi were delighted, thinking they had escaped a disaster. They kept saying, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace! Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace! We will definitely make amends for our crimes."

Zhu Houzhao was stunned when he heard this, then he understood what was going on. He was almost amused by it, and he snorted coldly and walked out of the house.
There is no way. Although "Wu Chen Da Gao" was written by Zhu Yuanzhang himself, it was a book written more than 100 years ago and was not widely circulated. In addition, the political environment at that time was completely different from the current political environment, so there were only a handful of people present who had read this book.
In fact, even Jiang Bin didn't understand what Zhu Houzhao meant. He thought his plea worked. Although Zhu Houzhao's attitude made him feel something was wrong, he thought Zhu Houzhao was just too angry.
Those who could understand Zhu Houzhao's meaning did not dare to speak out. After all, who would dare to offend Zhu Houzhao at this time? They could only look at Zhao Zhikun and Xin Baoyi with pity.
Zhu Houxuan also smiled and followed Zhu Houzhao's footsteps.
"Come here! Gather the soldiers under Zhao Zhikun and Xin Baoyi!" Zhu Houzhao gave orders while standing at the edge of the parade ground.

Someone took the order and went to gather the soldiers.

Soon, more and more soldiers appeared on the parade ground. They formed two square formations according to their usual training.
Zhu Houzhao estimated in his mind the speed at which the soldiers would gather, and he was quite satisfied.
Zhao Zhikun and Xin Baoyi were also brought up and knelt in front of the two square formations.

The 2000 soldiers looked at the two officers who were tied up with various eyes, most of which were filled with resentment.
"Soldiers! We have called you here today just for these two criminals!" Zhu Houzhao shouted while standing on a high place holding a metal microphone.

The soldiers turned their eyes to Zhu Houzhao, and their eyes were immediately filled with reverence.
(End of this chapter)