The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 546: No Matter How Much, Thoroughly Investigate
At this moment, the number of corrupt officials in the Ming Dynasty court can be said to be the largest in all dynasties.

There is no way. No emperor in history has ever openly promoted corrupt officials.

Emperor Jiajing clearly promoted the corrupt official Yan Song and also clearly condoned Yan Song's rampant corruption, which really caused great harm.

Wanli was almost unable to continue his career because of the corrupt officials in the Ministry of Revenue.

This group of corrupt officials completely pissed him off.

He was determined to purge all corrupt officials in the court.

The Minister of Justice Yuan Keli conducted interrogations day and night, with twenty to thirty cases every day, and the results were shocking.

It would be fine if these corrupt officials did not confess, but once they confessed, at least dozens or even hundreds of people would be implicated.

Although most of the corrupt officials implicated are duplicates, there are too many of them.

There were seventy or eighty corrupt officials in the Ministry of Revenue. Even if only half of them confessed, there would still be three or four thousand people implicated. Even if most of these three or four thousand were duplicates, there would still be at least one or two thousand that were not duplicates.

How many more corrupt officials will be implicated among the one or two thousand?

This is not the end yet. Li Dai also confessed to hundreds of local officials.

Yuan Keli spent four days interrogating the corrupt officials in the Ministry of Revenue, and he felt a little scared.

If the trial continues like this, the number of corrupt officials implicated may reach five to six thousand or even seven to eight thousand!

How many officials are there in the Ming Dynasty now?
If we do this, most of the court will be cleared out!
He was a little bit at a loss as to what to do.

Early in the morning of the fifth day, around noon, he ran to the imperial study to ask for an audience.

Wanli was holding little Zhu Changxun and reading the confession that Yuan Keli had sent in advance.

He didn't expect this guy to come over at this moment.

After the king and his ministers exchanged greetings, he couldn't help but ask, "Li Qing, what's wrong? Are you exhausted and want to take a rest?

No problem, it will take a while to catch all the corrupt officials, so you have to take care of your health. If you feel too tired, go back and rest. I will grant you a day off.

Yuan Keli looked extremely tired at this moment.

This guy has very deep dark circles under his eyes, and his face is so thin that you can see the bones.

Because the corrupt officials were so shocking, his expression was very gloomy, giving people the feeling that he was about to run out of energy.

However, he didn't want to rest.

He thought for a moment, then said carefully: "Your Majesty, I am not very tired and do not need to rest.

At this moment, all the officials from the Ministry of Revenue who were confessed by Li Dai have been interrogated, and only a few local officials have been brought in. I have some free time, so I have come to ask for instructions from Your Majesty.

Your Majesty, there are more than a thousand corrupt officials implicated by the officials of the Ministry of Revenue alone, and there are still hundreds at the local level who have not been tried.

There are also more than one thousand or nearly two thousand officials implicated by this Ministry of Revenue official, and we don’t know how many corrupt officials will be implicated.

If this continues, I'm afraid most of the court will be emptied out. What will we do when there's a shortage of people everywhere?"

Are you thinking about this issue?
I've actually been thinking about this issue as well.

Wanli nodded slightly after hearing this, and then couldn't help but sighed: "There are really too many corrupt officials in the court now.

However, it is precisely because there are so many corrupt officials that we must deal with them quickly.

This trend must not be allowed to continue. If we allow these corrupt officials to continue to be so greedy, the Ming Dynasty will perish sooner or later.

I have made up my mind. This time we must investigate thoroughly. No matter how many corrupt officials there are, we will clean them all out.

As for the problem you mentioned, we really need to think about it carefully.

Fortunately, we have recruited thousands of candidates this time, and we have also trained many officials over the years. It is no problem even if we clean up the entire court in the capital.

The key point is that there are too many local officials, and we really cannot find thousands of Jinshi to fill the gaps at the moment.

Li Qing, how about this? Let's first conduct a thorough investigation of the imperial court in the capital, and then we can put the matter on hold for a while. Once the investigation in the capital is almost complete, we can see what happens next. How about this?"

It is indeed impossible to find thousands of Jinshi in such a short period of time.

There were less than ten thousand living Jinshi in the Ming Dynasty, and many local officials were Juren.

However, it seems that it is not possible to just ignore it at the local level.

Yuan Keli thought about it carefully, and then said cautiously: "Your Majesty, I dare to do this.

The influence of corrupt officials at the local level is actually worse than that at the imperial court.

Because the capital city only had about a million people, and at least half of them were nobles, court officials, soldiers of the Beijing garrison, Jinyiwei, imperial guards, and their families. Corrupt officials generally did not dare to bully these people.

Moreover, the capital is under the rule of His Majesty, and corrupt officials dare not go too far.

It’s different in local areas. The population there is in the hundreds of millions, and the emperor is far away, so corrupt officials are mostly unscrupulous.

If we leave it to the local level and ignore it, the majority of the people will still suffer.”

This is indeed a problem.

There are many corrupt officials in the capital, but there are very few who dare to oppress the people unscrupulously under the feet of the emperor.

It’s different at the local level. There are many corrupt officials who are like local tyrants and oppress the people unscrupulously.

Wanli nodded slowly after hearing this, and after thinking about it carefully, he said decisively: "Then let's start from top to bottom.

In the imperial court of the capital, you should first arrest and try officials of the fifth rank and above. In the local areas, you should first arrest and try the chief officials such as the prefects, governors, provincial governors, and judicial commissioners.

We will first clean out the people at the top and replace them with a group of trustworthy officials so that they can at least keep their subordinates in check.

Although they may not be able to control the corruption of their subordinates, they should be able to properly control them and prevent them from wantonly oppressing the people. "

This is not a bad idea.

Upon hearing this, Yuan Keli bowed repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise."

Now that the method for dealing with corrupt officials has been decided, it's time to talk about your problem.

Wanli thought for a moment, then said earnestly, "Li Qing, don't try too hard. It will take time to clean up corrupt officials.

This is a long process. It would be considered good if it can be almost complete after a few years or even more than ten years.

You've only been interrogated for a few days and you've already made yourself look like this. If you continue like this, you'll probably fall ill within a month.

This definitely won't work. Think about it, even if you can review thirty cases a day, you can only review nine hundred cases a month.

You can't fall ill before you can interrogate 900 people, so you have to get enough rest and can't continue to interrogate day and night.

Let's put it this way. From now on, unless there are special circumstances, you will not be allowed to interrogate me at night. Even if there are special circumstances, you must come to me and ask for my permission. I will consider your physical condition and then decide whether to interrogate you or not."

Your Majesty really cares about me.

Upon hearing this, Yuan Keli was deeply moved and said, "I understand. Thank you, Your Majesty."

You really need to take a good rest.

Wanli nodded slightly, then waved his hand and said, "You can go back and rest now. I still have to order the cabinet to revise the official documents and let the local authorities arrest the chief officials above the fifth rank first.

This will take several days to go back and forth. You can take a day off and we'll resume the trial tomorrow. It's okay."

Upon hearing this, Yuan Keli hurriedly bowed and took his leave.

Little Zhu Changxun watched his back disappear through the doorway and couldn't help but ask, "Father, why did you let him be tried alone?

Don't you have many officials in the Ministry of Justice? Why don't you just have them take turns to interrogate the suspects for twelve hours?"

You don't understand.

Wanli shook his head slightly, then patiently taught: "Xun'er, he is not interrogating ordinary people, but corrupt officials.

Nowadays, corrupt officials are everywhere in the court. If someone else were to try them, they might be partial to others and commit fraud because they cannot cover up various relationships. Do you know that?

If any official in the Ministry of Justice commits malpractice for personal gain, not only will a large number of corrupt officials be missed, but I will also have to ask him to try the officials in the Ministry of Justice. Wouldn't that be even more troublesome?

Your Majesty trusts him now, and you believe that he will not abuse his power for personal gain or commit corruption in the entire Ministry of Justice. Therefore, even if it takes a while, Your Majesty will let him investigate thoroughly on his own."

Do you trust him so much?

Upon hearing this, little Zhu Changxun couldn't help but ask curiously, "Father, there are so many officials in the Ministry of Justice. Why do you think he wouldn't be partial to someone for personal gain or commit corruption?"

This is naturally proven by history.

The other officials of the Ministry of Justice have no reputation in history. Can I trust them?

Wanli thought for a moment and then pretended to be serious, "It's a matter of vision. Your vision isn't as good as your father's, so you can't see it. You need to practice more."

Vision problem?

Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun couldn't help but frown and fall into deep thought.

(End of this chapter)