My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 264 Two Items, One Purple and One Orange

As soon as Su Ze came out of the cabinet, he couldn't wait to open the system and check the rewards.

【Do you want to start the lucky draw? 】

"start!"

[Congratulations, host! You have obtained the item "Lie Detector Leaf (Purple)".]

Su Ze looked at the introduction of the props.

[Lie Detector Leaf] (purple): A leaf with magical powers. When held in the mouth, it can detect lies, and the person will taste bitter after lying.

A leaf can be used for 1 hour.

Remaining (20/20).

what is this?
Su Ze took out a prop from his spatial storage; it was an exquisite silk purse.

Untie the purse, and inside are twenty lush green leaves.

Is this what they call the "lie detector leaf"?
It's a disposable prop.

And this thing only works if you hold it in your mouth, right? How can I talk while holding a leaf in my mouth at the same time?

However, the duration is one hour, which means that as long as you hold the leaf in your mouth, you can act as a human lie detector for one hour.
So it seems like it's still a useful prop.

Su Ze put away the [Lie Detector Leaf], but his biggest gain was that the main quest had progressed.

New main quest: Promotion to the fourth rank.

Mission Reward: Orange item lottery chance*1]

Seeing this task made Su Ze much happier. He was already a fifth-rank official, and only one step away from becoming a fourth-rank official.

This task can be completed naturally by simply gaining experience.

Moreover, a chance to draw an orange item should be a very useful item.

Su Ze looked at the system again, as if he had a side quest to exonerate Hu Zongxian.

This task also needs to be done; it can be considered Xu Wei's wish.

However, Hu Zongxian was exonerated during the Longqing and Wanli reigns. Su Ze remembers that it was probably at the end of the Longqing reign that court officials began to exonerate Hu Zongxian. The Wanli reign officially exonerated Hu Zongxian and posthumously awarded him the title of Xiangmao.

Su Ze began to think again.

It is now much easier to exonerate Hu Zongxian.

Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou, former subordinates of Hu Zongxian during the anti-Japanese war, have both returned to high-ranking positions in the army.

Hu Zongxian was originally brought down because he was involved in the struggle against Yan Song's faction. Now that Yan Song has long been purged, and even Xu Jie, who purged Yan Song, has been purged, there is little resistance in the court to exonerating Hu Zongxian.

Exonerating Hu Zongxian is not simply a matter of rehabilitating a historical figure.

Any political event is primarily for the living.

Rehabilitating Hu Zongxian would clarify his contributions in the war against Japanese pirates, and would also affirm the contributions of the generals who followed Hu Zongxian in the war.

Su Ze remembered that in the original timeline, it was Zhang Juzheng who pushed for Hu Zongxian's rehabilitation, with the aim of winning back the hearts of Hu Zongxian's former subordinates.

Is now the right time to push this forward?
Of course, there will be resistance to exonerating Hu Zongxian, but as long as the opposition is not too strong, even if the emperor hesitates, it will not take much prestige to push this matter forward.

Thinking of this, Su Ze hurriedly returned home, took out three blank copies of the memorial, and began to write it.

After finishing the last memorial, he stuffed it into the "Portable Ming Dynasty Imperial Court" device.

——[Simulation Start]——

Your memorial, "Requesting the Rehabilitation of Hu Zongxian's Meritorious Service in the Fight Against Japanese Pirates," was sent to the Grand Secretariat, and the Grand Secretaries all voted in favor of it.

However, your memorial was opposed by the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review, and the emperor had no motivation to exonerate Hu Zongxian, so he kept your memorial.

——[Simulation End]——

[Remaining Prestige: 2130.]

[To fully approve your memorial, you need to pay 200 prestige points. Do you wish to pay?]

As expected, there was little resistance; only 200 points of prestige were needed. Su Ze decisively chose "Yes".

[Prestige points have been deducted. Remaining prestige points: 1930. Please complete the petition in real life.]
-
June 27th.

Yang Sizhong, the Commissioner of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, entered the Office of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and Post

"Da Yintai".

Huang Wenbin, a newly hired senior officer, bowed respectfully to Yang Sizhong.

Yang Sizhong nodded in return. This Huang Wenbin was far less clever than his predecessors, but Yang Sizhong had no one else to rely on, so he could only teach him how to do things slowly.

Huang Wenbin said nervously, "This is the memorial that was sent to the Ministry of Justice this morning."

Yang Sizhong missed Hu Zhen somewhat. If it were Hu Zhen, he would have already started introducing the important memorials, instead of letting him read them one by one.

Unfortunately, Hu Zhen had already been sent to Penghu by him.

"There are three copies of Su Zilin's memorials?"

Yang Sizhong was speechless. The three memorials from Su Ze had been placed in three stacks by Huang Wenbin.

Huang Wenbin quickly said:
“Da Yintai, this memorial concerns finance, titled ‘Memorial on Raising Funds from the Five Treasurys to Promote Water Conservancy in Taihu Lake,’ so I’ve placed it in this stack.”

"This memorial by Hanlin Su concerns matters concerning vassal states, specifically the memorial entitled 'Discussion on the Crimes of Japanese Pirates to Secure the Supremacy of Ryukyu,' which is why I've placed it in this stack."

"This is the last memorial."

"What is it?"

Huang Wenbin said:
"It was a memorial submitted by Hanlin Su to exonerate Hu Zongxian."

Yang Sizhong frowned. Was he trying to exonerate Hu Zongxian?
That's right. I heard that Su Ze's advisor, Xu Wei, once served as an advisor to Hu Zongxian.

Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou, whom Su Ze recommended, were both former subordinates of Hu Zongxian.

It was only natural that he wrote a letter to exonerate Hu Zongxian.

only?

Yang Sizhong frowned. To exonerate Hu Zongxian, the old cases of the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review had to be overturned.

Hu Zongxian's case was only settled a few years ago, and many of the people who handled these cases back then are still in office. Su Ze's sudden petition to overturn the verdict is likely to provoke resistance from these people.

Yang Sizhong sighed and said:
"Make a copy of Su Zilin's memorial and send it to the Ministry of Justice to give to Vice Minister Li."
-
Ministry of Punishment.

Li Yiyuan took the copy of Su Ze's memorial from Huang Wenbin, quickly read it, and then asked:

"Did your Grand Silver Pavilion send you to deliver this?"

"Reporting to Vice Minister Li, the Grand Secretary only sent me with a memorial; he said nothing else."

Li Yiyuan glanced at Huang Wenbin and sighed inwardly that the Office of Transmission was getting worse with each generation.

Yang Sizhong told him to bring the copy over, the meaning of which was self-evident, and there was no need to convey any further message.

If someone can't even grasp this, how can they be appointed as an official? It's truly a sign that the Ministry of Justice is lacking in talent.

Li Yiyuan sent Huang Wenbin back and then went to the Ministry of Justice's storeroom.

Among the six ministries, the Ministry of Works undoubtedly ranks first in terms of the area occupied by its government offices.

However, in terms of the size of the cabinet storehouse, it is the largest in the Ministry of Justice.

The Ministry of Justice's archives housed all the files of the Ministry of Justice during the Ming Dynasty, which encompassed almost all of the important judicial archives of the Ming Dynasty.

The entrance to the shelving room is the index room, where the indexes of the files alone fill the entire room. All the files are divided into sixty small storage rooms according to the sexagenary cycle, and are stored in categories according to the year of the file.

Li Yiyuan first located the file on Hu Zongxian in the index room, and then went to the warehouse of the year Yichou, where he found Hu Zongxian's file according to the index.

Opening the case file, Li Yiyuan wrote down the names of the personnel involved in the case.

Fortunately, the Hu Zongxian case was merely an aftermath of the Yan Party case, and no high-ranking officials were involved in the trial of Hu Zongxian.

This situation indicates that the higher authorities did not have a firm determination to prosecute Hu Zongxian's case. Instead, lower-level officials, in order to curry favor with their superiors, spontaneously expanded the scope of the crackdown and implicated Hu Zongxian through imprisonment.

Of course, exonerating someone is also a very technically demanding process.

The biggest obstacle to rehabilitation is the inertia of the bureaucracy.

No one wants their case to be overturned. If Hu Zongxian's case is overturned, what will happen to the person who created the wrong case?
The inertia of bureaucratic institutions is to maintain their power, so any case they handle must be an ironclad case.

As for the truth of the case, that's not something they're concerned with.

Hu Zongxian's case was jointly tried by the Zhenfu Division, the Ministry of Justice, and the Dali Temple. The presiding judge of the case was Cai Gen, a senior official of the Zhejiang Division of the Ministry of Justice.

Li Yiyuan remembered this person. He had remained in the position of Zhejiang Provincial Department Director since the 44th year of the Jiajing reign. Cai Gen was a shrewd official in the Ministry of Justice, but it was clear that the Hu Zongxian case had not brought Cai Gen any political capital.

This further confirmed Li Yiyuan's judgment that the Hu Zongxian case was merely an extension of the Yan Xishan case and did not involve the high-ranking officials of the court.

That makes things easier.

The Zhenfu Division of the previous emperor's reign had already been cleaned up when the Longqing Emperor ascended the throne. The high-ranking officials of the Zhenfu Division who handled the cases back then had all been removed from the Zhenfu Division.

The Court of Judicial Review has never had much say; the main authority rests with the Zhejiang Provincial Department Director.

Li Yiyuan copied down the names of all the Ministry of Justice officials related to the case, and then returned to his private residence.

Li Yiyuan summoned his deputy and gave him instructions:
"His Majesty has decreed that the Ministry of Justice should compile the 'Case Studies of the Patrol and Arrest' as soon as possible. Isn't the progress too slow?"

The deputy looked at Li Yiyuan with a puzzled expression. "Why are you complaining about being too slow again?"
When the emperor first issued the decree, you didn't take this task seriously. You just assembled a few young officials into a book-editing group and made do with it.

Now you're complaining it's too slow?
However, the deputy dared not be negligent and followed up on Li Yiyuan's topic:

"Recently, there have been many departmental tasks, so the progress of book revision has been a bit slow."

Li Yiyuan said, "That won't do. The 'Case Studies of the Patrol and Police' was compiled at His Majesty's personal request. The Patrol and Police Camp has already recruited students. If these students graduate and the book is still not compiled, wouldn't that make our Ministry of Justice look incompetent?!"

"so?"

Li Yiyuan pulled out the note and said:

"Everyone on this list, stuff them into the compilation team, and make room in a few public rooms. No one is allowed to go home until the outline is completed within five days!"

The deputy wasn't surprised; the fact that the "Civil Law of the Ming Dynasty" could be completed so quickly was because Li Yiyuan had worked so hard.

Moreover, Li Yiyuan, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, always took the lead in working overtime and was the most hardworking one. No one in the Ministry of Justice could outdo him and could only obediently follow his orders.

The deputy took the list and went to notify the people on the list to work overtime. The first name on the list was Cai Gen, a clerk in Zhejiang.
-
On July 2, the emperor officially issued an edict to exonerate Hu Zongxian.

In his imperial edict, the emperor acknowledged Hu Zongxian's contributions in resisting the Japanese pirates and ordered the Ministry of Rites to discuss a posthumous title for him.

The Longqing Emperor restored the hereditary titles of Hu Zongxian's sons, and the eldest son, Hu Guiqi, was appointed as the Left Office Director.

Hu Zongxian's second son, Hu Songqi, was also appointed as the deputy commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

The emperor also gave the Hu family 500 silver dollars to help Hu Zongxian rebuild his tomb.

"Dongweng, please accept my bow."

Xu Wei bowed deeply to Su Ze, his eyes filled with tears, and said to Su Ze:

"I never imagined that Xu would actually live to see the day when Minister Hu would be exonerated!"

Su Ze thought of Xu Wei's fate in the original timeline, who was impoverished and destitute due to the Hu Zongxian case, attempted suicide several times, and finally died in poverty.

He changed the fate of Xu Wei in this time and space, and he even passed the imperial examination. However, exonerating Hu Zongxian was still Xu Wei's long-cherished wish.

Su Ze was also curious about what was so charming about this Minister Hu that made Xu Wei, Qi Jiguang, and Yu Dayou so unforgettable.

It is likely that Hu Zongxian did a lot of things while presiding over the war against Japanese pirates.

"Mr. Qing Teng, please rise. Minister Hu's case is a miscarriage of justice, a consensus that has long been reached throughout the court. This time, I, Su, am simply acting in accordance with the prevailing trend to exonerate Minister Hu."

Su Ze is right; none of the five cabinet members currently oppose rehabilitating Hu Zongxian.

The only obstacle was the few officials in the Ministry of Justice who had handled Hu Zongxian's case.

However, Su Ze heard that Li Yiyuan used the excuse of revising the "Police Cases" to keep all these officials trapped in the Ministry of Justice to revise the book, so none of them were able to raise any objections.

Emperor Longqing did not object to the memorial and readily approved the rehabilitation of Hu Zongxian.

This was certainly no coincidence; he had incurred the favor of Vice Minister Li.

Su Ze secretly remembered this favor, but he was also wondering where Li Yiyuan had heard the news from.

After seeing Xu Wei off, Su Ze quickly checked the system.

The petition requesting the exoneration of Hu Zongxian for his meritorious service in resisting Japanese pirates was passed, Hu Zongxian was exonerated, and posthumously awarded the title of Xiangmao.

With Hu Zongxian's rehabilitation, the history of the resistance against Japanese pirates in Southeast China was definitively concluded.

After Hu Zongxian was exonerated, the generals who fought alongside him against the Japanese pirates held you in high esteem.

The dynasty's fate remains unchanged.

[Prestige +300.]

[Remaining Prestige: 2540.]

[Ding! Side quest complete! Rehabilitate Hu Zongxian]

[Task Reward: Item Lottery Chance*1]

【Do you want to start the lucky draw? 】

"start!"

[Congratulations, host! You have obtained the item "Cure for All Diseases (Orange)".]

Oranges are out!
Su Ze didn't expect that he would get an orange item in a side quest instead of an orange item in the main quest!
People really should do good deeds!

Su Ze looked at the introduction with a smug smile:

[Cure for All Diseases] (Orange): A medicine that can cure all diseases. After using one pill, one disease in the target can be cured.

Note 1: If the target has multiple diseases, one pill will only treat the most fatal disease first. To treat all diseases, the corresponding number of pills need to be taken.

Note 2: When the time is up, even the best medicines are ineffective. If the target has reached the limit of lifespan, then all medicines will be ineffective.

Note 3: Panaceas only work when the disease occurs; they have no preventative effect.

Remaining (20/20).

Su Ze was even more surprised!

Since his transmigration, Su Ze has always been terrified of various diseases.

There's no other way; sometimes, seeking medical treatment in the Ming Dynasty is just a placebo effect.

Even emperors can be killed by imperial physicians; for ordinary people, getting sick is simply a matter of how strong their constitution is.

It's fine now that I'm young, but what if I get old?
Moreover, Su Ze has family and friends.

Now that we have the "cure for all diseases," we no longer need to fear illness!

It's a pity there are only 20, so we have to use them sparingly.

(End of this chapter)