The Ming Dynasty's Five Hundred Years

Chapter 38 Clerk Pan San
“Jinghe, His Majesty summoned the ministers this time probably because of the matter of the clerk Pan San. It is said that His Majesty was furious.”

On the palace road in the imperial city, Li Qi and Chen Ying walked together, hurrying towards the Fengtian Hall. Chen Ying's face showed obvious anxiety. In the Hongwu Dynasty, the pressure on the Minister of Justice was immense; the slightest mistake could lead to death.

Li Qi said in a low voice, "This matter is so bizarre and outrageous, it would be strange if His Majesty wasn't furious!"

Chen Ying's face was full of bitterness.

Li Qi feigned a serious expression, but inwardly he felt quite relaxed. This matter had finally occurred, and he was able to use it to achieve some of his goals.

The story of Pan San is now widely known throughout Yingtian Prefecture.

Pan San was originally a clerk in Liyang County, Yingtian Prefecture. The county magistrate of Liyang County colluded with these clerks to harm the people, creating various pretexts to plunder them. Eventually, the local people could no longer tolerate it and went to the capital to file a complaint with the emperor.

Zhu Yuanzhang personally received the people who came to the capital to appeal to the emperor, and then he was furious and ordered a thorough investigation. The county magistrate had already been imprisoned and only death awaited him. But a strange thing happened: the clerk Pan San could not be caught!

After the emperor's decree was issued, Pan San began his escape. A dozen or so local families in Liyang County secretly sent Pan San to Guangde County. Then Pan San fled to Jianping County. When the pursuing officials arrived in Jianping, a local resident named Wang Haisan sent Pan San back to Liyang.

Pan San led the pursuing constables in a game of hide-and-seek through the eight counties of Yingtian Prefecture. In each county, there were people protecting Pan San, including monks from temples.

Under the emperor's nose, in the most important place, the emperor personally issued an edict to arrest a mere clerk, yet he couldn't catch him. Can one blame the emperor for being angry and furious?

As they spoke, the two entered the Fengtian Hall. Such a discussion before the emperor was naturally only for high-ranking officials of the Grand Secretariat to participate in. Li Qi was a Grand Secretary, whose rank was not high enough. However, Grand Secretaries had the duty of "serving as advisors," so he was able to participate in this matter.

After all the officials had arrived, Zhu Yuanzhang sat on the throne expressionlessly. After the officials paid their respects, the chief eunuch first told them about Pan San's funeral arrangements.

Pan San could not possibly escape. Since the constables could not catch him, Zhu Yuanzhang directly dispatched the Embroidered Uniform Guard to arrest him.

But catching Pan San is already a minor matter.

Zhu Yuanzhang said coldly, “A lowly clerk is roaming around the eight counties of Yingtian Prefecture right under the emperor’s nose, with hundreds of households protecting him, even defying our decrees and killing the yamen runners who came to arrest him. I find this very puzzling. Can you gentlemen give me an answer?”

Zhu Yuanzhang truly couldn't understand why these common people would be willing to oppose him for the sake of a mere clerk, when he was the emperor.

Seeing that no one spoke, Zhu Yuanzhang began to call out names. But what was strange about this matter was that it did not make sense. These high-ranking officials in the imperial court were either deliberately not speaking or genuinely did not know.

The criticisms are nothing more than the same old clichés: "the people are ignorant," "they are arrogant and lawless," and "they are treacherous."

They couldn't give Zhu Yuanzhang a satisfactory answer at all.

"Li Qi, you speak."

Li Qi bowed respectfully, then said decisively, "Father, this is a problem inherited from the previous dynasty. If it falls into our hands, it is still a problem inherited from the Mongol Yuan dynasty, and it has not been completely eradicated!"

These words were different from what everyone had said before, and the emperor immediately perked up, "Continue."

Li Qi said with emotion: "During the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, the law was lax and taxes were levied without cause. The wealthy people in the Jiangnan region took extravagance as fashion, wearing cloud-shaped gold-threaded robes and gold-inlaid boots. The use of palaces was not regulated. The wealthy families dominated their villages, and the common people in the villages obeyed them. They were called 'wild emperors'. The tombs of these people are still called 'the tomb of so-and-so king'."

This is what you, Father Emperor, once said: 'Yuan lost the empire because of leniency!'

The "broadness" here does not refer to tolerance, but rather to indulgence.

For ordinary people, "leniency" meant less dependence on the imperial court, but power is never in a vacuum. Since the court was unwilling to intervene, civilian organizations would step in, which in ancient times was centered around powerful clans. Li Qi naturally abhorred this!

"Among those who helped Pan San escape this time, there were Confucian scholars and salt smugglers. I believe they cannot be called ordinary people. These people were all former emperors who had gone against the tide. Pan San, the clerk, was able to associate with these people and even receive their protection. He must also be one of them. That is why the magistrate of Liyang listened to the words of Pan San, a mere clerk."

This was a consequence of the Yuan Dynasty's leniency, which the Ming Dynasty failed to rectify in time!

No sooner had Li Qi finished speaking than Zhu Yuanzhang's thunderous roar, like a real thunderclap, rang out: "Arrogant!"

The entire Fengtian Hall seemed to tremble from the shock!
Li Qi's meaning was quite clear: under the "lenient policies" of the Yuan Dynasty, ordinary people were no longer just people who could only rely on the emperor for survival; they had another "emperor."

This naturally stung Zhu Yuanzhang's most sensitive nerve!
Each dynasty, after its establishment, would make amends for the lessons learned from the previous dynasty's downfall, which is why the Ming and Qing dynasties were able to achieve such centralized power and a complete system.

The biggest lesson Zhu Yuanzhang learned from his experience in the Yuan Dynasty was that the imperial court must never relax its control over the people.

To some extent, Zhu Yuanzhang's obsession with the "Yuan dynasty's excessive leniency" had reached the point of overcorrection, to the point that he was even willing to put the entire Ming dynasty into a completely static social state.

As a result, Li Qi now says that the Yuan Dynasty's leniency is still harming the Ming Dynasty.

He was both shocked and furious!
But then it dawned on me.

"His Majesty!"

In the Fengtian Hall, all the ministers knelt down in unison, each one trembling with fear, not daring to offer any advice in the face of the enraged emperor.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang was furious, he remained clear-headed. After Li Qi finished speaking, he realized that this was no longer a simple case of officials colluding to oppress the good people.

It was a political event that could shake the rule of the Ming Dynasty!
Zhu Yuanzhang took two deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down. "Li Qi, what you said is right. It makes us feel enlightened. Discovering problems is not terrible. It's never too late to mend the fence after the sheep are lost. What's most frightening is not knowing why."

These unruly emperors must not be allowed to live. All 132 households that harbored Pan San were beheaded and their property confiscated.

This is not enough; we must thoroughly eradicate these insidious pests born of the Mongol Yuan dynasty and now deeply rooted in our Great Ming!

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and paced back and forth in the hall. He couldn't find a good way to distinguish which were "wild emperors" and which were just normal wealthy families. He couldn't very well declare war on the world.

Li Qi pondered in his heart that, in any case, a large number of powerful families in Jiangnan would surely suffer again this time.

The power of the Jiangnan literati will be weakened once again.

It just wasn't enough.

The Yuan Dynasty indulged in a century of debauchery, and the common people lived in dire straits, but the power of the literati in Jiangnan reached its peak.

The Ming Dynasty used the North-South Examination System to suppress other regions for nearly three hundred years, but until the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the Jiangnan region was still far superior to other regions.

There is a long way to go.

Li Qi sighed inwardly.

(End of this chapter)