The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 541: If You Don’t Joke, I’ll Lie to You
You have no joke.

These four words carry a lot of weight.

Especially when the emperor said it himself.

That is much more reliable than the swearing and oath made by ordinary people.

Li Dai really believed what he said.

His originally limp body seemed to have regained some strength.

This guy actually knelt down, clasped his hands, and said, "Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty. I will confess honestly."

Are you really going to confess honestly?

Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "Is what Zhang Chao confessed true? Did you ask him to swap the gold and silver in the Ministry of Revenue's warehouse?"

This guy has confessed everything, how can I still lie to you?

Li Dai gritted his teeth and nodded, "Yes, the gold and silver in the Ministry of Revenue's warehouse were swapped by Zhang Chao under my orders."

It seems like you can't get away with this, you have to admit it whether you want to or not.

Wanli thought for a moment and then asked, "What about the grain in the Thirteen Warehouses of Jingtong? Did you order someone to swap it?"

I won’t die anyway, so what if I confess?

Li Dai gritted his teeth and nodded, "Yes, the grain in the Jingtong Thirteen Warehouses was swapped by my humble order."

Are you really telling the whole story?

Wanli continued to ask, "Also, is it your idea to buy up all the warehouses of the Ministry of Revenue to replenish the Yinshi?"

How should I put it? Should I take the blame for this?
Okay, I’m not afraid of being bitten by lice if there are too many of them. I’ll take the blame for this!
Li Dai hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and nodded, "Yes, this is indeed a corruption scheme I came up with."

You really confessed everything, right?

Wanli simply asked, "How much have you embezzled? Where did you hide the gold and silver you embezzled and the money you stole from selling supplies?"

Do you think I'm really that honest?

Li Dai said carefully, "Your Majesty, I haven't taken much. My family only has tens of thousands of taels of gold and silver. I sent the rest back to my hometown to buy land. My hometown only has a few hundred thousand acres of land."

Does this mean you embezzled two or three million taels?

Just kidding?
I guess you embezzle more than two or three million taels a year!

Upon hearing this, Wanli said coldly, "You are confessing honestly. Do you need me to punish you severely before you confess?"

Torture!

do not.

I don't want to suffer in vain.

Li Dai quickly explained, "Your Majesty, I really didn't take much.

I am just a hand in hand, I have to take care of the people above me and feed the people below me. If so many people share it, there is not much left for me. "

Do you have anyone above you?

Upon hearing this, Wanli immediately asked, "Who is your superior?"

Are we recruiting now?
Li Dai pretended to hesitate for a moment before gritting his teeth and saying, "Your Majesty, my superior is none other than the Minister of Revenue, Chen Sheng."

Minister of Revenue Chen Sheng is the mastermind?!

This guy is pretending too well, isn't he?

Upon hearing this, Wanli frowned and said, "Chen Sheng has long been imprisoned. I have personally questioned him, and he said he didn't embezzle a single penny from the national treasury. Are you saying he's deceiving the emperor?"

How do you say this?

Li Dai thought for a moment and then explained, "What Lord Chen said seems to make some sense. He certainly didn't embezzle a single penny from the national treasury. All the money in the national treasury was given to him as a gift after I embezzled it.

In addition, all warehouses of the Ministry of Revenue need to purchase and replenish supplies, including where to purchase the supplies from and how to hand over the depreciated supplies to the merchants to sell. All of these require the approval of Lord Chen.

I always bring money to honor Master Chen, and only then does Master Chen nod his head."

It turns out that this guy Chen Sheng is playing word games with me!
Upon hearing this, Wanli was quite annoyed and asked, "How much have you paid to Chen Sheng in these years?"

I guess no one will remember this?
Li Dai said carefully, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. I have presented so many gifts to you, but I didn't keep track of them. Therefore, I cannot remember how much I have presented to Master Chen.

I only vaguely remember that every year, at least two million taels were given as tribute to Lord Chen."

At least two million taels a year?
That’s more than 20 million taels in ten years!

This guy Chen Sheng actually said that he didn’t take a penny!

Upon hearing this, Wanli said coldly: "Is everything you said true?
Chen Shengke is still imprisoned in the imperial prison, and I can order someone to interrogate him at any time."

Just order someone to interrogate him.

Li Dai nodded repeatedly and said, "Everything I said is true. Lord Chen may not confess, but I did give them this much money every year as a tribute."

Does Chen Sheng dare not recruit?

Wanli thought for a moment, then decisively said, "Sigong, go and convey my oral order. Order Lu Yi to immediately interrogate Chen Sheng to find out how much this guy has embezzled and where the stolen money is."

Luo Sigong hurriedly bowed and took his leave, then turned around and walked away quickly.

Wanli turned around and asked, "Is there anyone above you?"

Are you recruiting now?
Li Dai hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said, "I can't remember clearly. The one I remember most clearly is Master Chen, because I went to pay my respects to Master Chen several times every month."

What does this mean?
Do you not remember clearly or are you afraid of retaliation if you confess?

Okay, since you don’t dare to confess now, I won’t ask about this for now. I’ll first find out more about the corrupt officials.

Wanli thought for a moment, then asked, "Where are your subordinates? Who have you fed?"

This is too much.

This guy Li Dai actually confessed everything like pouring beans out of a bamboo tube!

It was probably in vain for all the officials of the Ministry of Revenue to come and count the people, as he confessed to seventy or eighty people!

This guy stunned Wanli.

Could he arrest 70% to 80% of the officials in the Ministry of Revenue?

This way of catching him definitely won’t work.

The Ministry of Revenue has no idea how much money and grain it has to deal with every day.

If 70% to 80% of the officials were arrested, not only would tax revenue be affected, but all government offices, big and small, would be in trouble. Wanli thought for a moment and simply continued to ask, "Anything else?"

This guy Li Dai actually confessed all the local officials who were corrupt with him.

This guy revealed even more this time. He revealed hundreds of officials at all levels of local governments!
It took him a long time just to read out the names.

When little Zhu Changxun heard this, he couldn't help but be stunned.

When Wanli heard this, he couldn't help but be secretly shocked.

This is too much.

There are indeed many local officials, but the ones Li Dai revealed are at least at the county magistrate level.

How many prefectures, counties and districts were there in the Ming Dynasty?

Even if you count all the prefectures, cities and counties, there are only more than a thousand of them.

This guy shook out hundreds of them at once!

Moreover, judging by the guy's expression, the number is far more than that.

Because there are too many people, it is impossible for this guy to remember them all at once. It would be good if he can remember a few hundred at a time.

A shocking case.

An absolutely shocking case!
The number of corrupt officials in the Ming Dynasty was truly frightening.

These are just the officials in charge of the prefectures, counties and cities. Who knows how many corrupt officials are under these guys.

He was clearly unprepared. He didn't even have enough officials to replace the ones Dai Li had recruited so far, and who knew how many more there would be.

Corrupt officials usually pull out radishes with mud, and you can pull out a lot of them at a time.

What should I do now?

Wanli frowned and thought for a while, then continued to ask: "There are some things you can't remember, right?"

Of course, who can think of so many people at once?

Li Dai nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty. It's been so long and there are so many people involved that I really can't remember it all at once."

Okay, take your time to memorize it.

Wanli nodded slightly, then ordered someone to bring the confession up for Li Dai to sign and seal. Then he waved his hand and said, "Take it back. Give him pen, ink, paper, and a table. Let him write it down as he goes along."

This guy was taken away, but Wanli still sat there and didn't get up.

He thought for a moment, then raised his hand and asked someone to bring the confession over and read it. Then he asked, "Li Qing, do you think what this guy confessed is true?"

How do you say this?

Yuan Keli said solemnly, "Your Majesty, if he really didn't want to die, he wouldn't dare to make such a random confession. I think what he confessed must be true."

There are so many corrupt officials!
Moreover, this is just the mud that comes out of pulling out the radish Li Dai.

We don’t know how many corrupt officials are involved in this case.

The civil servants of the Ming Dynasty were rotten to the core.

This wave of corruption has been blowing since the Jiajing period and has become a hurricane sweeping across the court. If it is not stopped, all the interests of the Ming Dynasty court will be wiped out by this hurricane. Not only will there be not a penny left in the national treasury, but it will also be in debt!

How to curb this trend of corruption?
Now the only thing we can do is learn from Emperor Hongwu and kill!

Wanli thought about it carefully, then said decisively: "Please copy the list of officials confessed by Li Dai and give it to me.

You should arrest and interrogate the officials above one by one, from top to bottom, one by one.

There is one thing you need to pay attention to. Corrupt officials usually come in groups. This time, you not only have to investigate whether the officials on the list have been corrupt, but also make them confess all the corruption and abuse of power if they have been corrupt.

The same goes for the corrupt officials implicated by these officials. They will be apprehended and tried one by one. This time, we must take this opportunity to purge all corrupt officials in the court."

How long will this trial take?
Zhang Chao was interrogated for more than ten days but he still didn't confess.

There are hundreds of officials on this list. If all the officials on this list are like Zhang Chao, it would probably take more than ten or twenty years to finish the trial.

If the officials implicated are included, it will probably take decades to complete the trial!

Upon hearing this, Yuan Keli said cautiously, "Your Majesty, what if they refuse to confess?
If they all remain unconvinced after ten days or half a month of interrogation like Zhang Chao did, I am afraid it would take decades to finish the interrogation."

It is indeed possible that these officials will not be recruited.

After all, if you recruit them, it's all over; if you don't recruit them, there's still hope.

Most corrupt officials have a mentality of taking chances.

Wanli pondered, "If they refuse to confess, then torture them severely. If they still refuse to confess after being tortured, then lock them up and move on to the next one.

There are indeed too many officials here. Don't waste too much time on those who refuse to confess. Just interrogate each one for about half an hour. If they still don't confess after half an hour, then interrogate the next one.

You have to interrogate at least ten or eight people a day. If they refuse to confess, you should warn them. If they refuse to confess during interrogation and are later implicated by other corrupt officials and have evidence of their crimes verified, their crime will be even more severe."

A more serious crime?
How many levels of corruption and abuse of power are there in the Ming Dynasty laws?

Yuan Keli thought about it carefully, and then he warned carefully: "Your Majesty, I dare to say that this crime may be of no use."

It’s no use adding to the crime!

Wanli was slightly surprised and asked, "Why didn't it work?"

How do you say this?

Yuan Keli thought about it carefully, and then explained carefully: "Your Majesty, the law of the Ming Dynasty that punishes corrupt officials is called "perverting the law and committing corruption."

If the amount of money exceeds 10,000 guan, the offender shall be caned with 70 sticks; if the amount of money exceeds 10,000 guan, the offender shall be banished; if the amount of money exceeds 40, the offender shall be beheaded; if the amount of money exceeds 80, the offender shall be strangled.

This kind of punishment, which is even more severe than the previous one, really cannot scare away the corrupt officials.

Can corrupt officials only be so greedy?

Forty strings of cash?
Eighty strings of cash?
Just kidding!
Who would be so greedy?
There is no need to think about it. As long as they are corrupt officials, they will definitely embezzle more than 80 strings of cash.

How can they add another level of guilt to someone else's?
They are all of the highest grade!

This is a violation of the law and is dirty, which is problematic.

Upon hearing this, Wanli frowned and pondered for a while, then slowly nodded and said, "Okay, that's it for today.

You should prepare first and start interrogating the officials on the list tomorrow. I will also go back and think carefully about how to punish corrupt officials."

(End of this chapter)