The next day, the twenty-first day of the first lunar month, morning.
Before the censor who was qualified to go to court spoke, Yunxi took out a memorial and said, "Is He Xuhua, the censor in charge of the river, here?"
"I'm here." A dark-faced man about forty years old came out and responded.
"I have read your memorial and impeached the servants in the house of Chen Huan, the Marquis of Puding, for being lawless. There was even a case of robbing a common woman and taking her as a concubine three years ago. Are these things true?" Yunxi asked.
"I have verified that everything is correct," He Xuhua said.
Yunxi smiled, but then narrowed his eyes and said: "As far as I know, you have been the censor of Henan since the 30th year of Hongwu. It has been three and a half years. Why didn't you tell me when you first learned about these things? The imperial court must wait until now to issue remonstrances and impeachments?"
"Do you think that Emperor Taizu will be partial to nobles who are committing lawlessness? Do you think that I will be partial to nobles who are committing lawlessness?"
"Your Majesty," He Xuhua was speechless and didn't know how to defend himself.
The reason why he did not impeach him at that time was mainly because his own family background was not clean. When he was a local magistrate, he had engaged in bribery and bribery. However, because his crime of corruption and bribery was very small, it did not attract Zhu Yuanzhang's attention. But if he was He filed a lawsuit against Chen Huan and asked Chen Huan to investigate his case record and launch a counter-impeachment. Most likely, he would either receive the death penalty or receive a reprieve, so he did not impeach him.
As for Yunxi after he came to the throne, although the emperor did not clearly express his preference for nobles, He Xuhua himself estimated that impeachment would be of no use; he impeached and remonstrated to attract the emperor's attention to promotion, rather than to eliminate harm for the country. At that time, the emperor obviously He didn't like the censor Yanguan very much, so he didn't impeach him.
It wasn't until the recent trend of criticizing Xungui that he felt that the time had come to impeach Xungui. He had already impeached several powerful people in the past few days. When he felt that there was nothing to impeach, he thought of Puding Hou Chen Huan's servant I hurriedly brought this matter up for impeachment. Unexpectedly, I was caught by the emperor today.
Of course, He Xuhua did not dare to speak out his thoughts. A censor who had a good relationship with him wanted to defend him, but when he looked up, he saw the eyes of Jian Yi, the boss of his yamen, and shrank back; so there was only one person in Fengtian Hall. I heard Yun Xi’s heart-wrenching words.
Yunxi finally said: "I think you are acting like this. Isn't it the way to be a minister? I demote you to serve as a guard and listen to the selection of officials by the Ministry of Civil Affairs!"
The experience of the Wei Suo and the Censor are both of the seventh rank, but the Censor is a capital official, while the experience of the Wei Suo is mostly a local official, which is not the same; what is more important to him is that he has just impeached several honorary officials. If you are expensive, you might fall into the hands of these powerful people.
He Xuhua opened his mouth to say something, but Yun Xi would not listen? He talked about the next thing. He Xuhua did not dare to interrupt. Interrupting when the emperor was speaking was a breach of etiquette before the emperor. The sin could be big or small. After all, Wei Suo's experience was still As an official, even if he falls into the hands of a powerful person, he doesn't dare to do anything to his person; but if he is removed from the official position because of his misconduct before the emperor, he will be completely finished. He Xuhua can only retreat to his position dejectedly.
Yunxi not only grabbed the pigtails of one of his remonstrators, but also the pigtails of several officials. All the officials he named this time were demoted to idle, powerless and unknown positions.
After Yunxi finished speaking, he paused and secretly glanced at a notebook in his sleeve. He opened his lips slightly and recited a few sentences in silence before putting the notebook away. He straightened up and took out a memorial and said: "I yesterday I also received a memorial from Yan Mingqian, the censor of Huguang Road, impeaching Bai Xuanguo, the left minister of the Ministry of Industry, for corruption and accepting bribes."
"The memorial says that Bai Xuanguo, the left minister of the Ministry of Industry, accepted bribes when laying asphalt roads in the capital last year. He successively accepted 300 bribes from seven unscrupulous businessmen. Bai Xuanguo, do you think you accepted these bribes?"
A man wearing a third-grade official uniform knelt down tremblingly, kowtowing and said: "I deserve death for my crime. Please punish me." Your Majesty has Jinyiwei and Zhensi in his hands, although these two yamen activities are not seen daily now.
, but the ministers who came from the Hongwu period will never forget the Jin Yiwei, and it is useless to quibble on their own. It is better to admit it readily and strive for leniency.
Zhu Yuanzhang set the standard for execution of ministers for corruption and bribery at 60 guan. After Yunxi became the emperor's grandson, he obtained 120 guan. After he succeeded to the throne, in actual execution, the penalty for corruption and bribery was more than 1,200 guan.
The ministers will impose punishments, of which only those with more than 3,000 guan must be punished by death. Those between 1,200 guan and 3,000 guan will be punished, depending on the situation, some will be exiled and some will be punished with death.
But this time, in order to cooperate with political actions, I had to relinquish power and pull out the minister who had accepted a bribe of 300 yuan.
Yunxi said: "Jian Yi. I order you to investigate the bribery case of Bai Xuanguo together with the Ministry of Punishment and Dali Temple. You must find out all the facts."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Jian Yi received the order together with Ru Yu, the Minister of Punishment, and the Minister of Dali Temple.
Yunxi paused again, secretly took a sip of water, and asked the ministers present to calm down, and then said: "I heard that recently, officials from many yamen in the imperial court have ignored political affairs and are dedicated to admonishment and impeachment?
"
"The Imperial Court has set up the Imperial Procuratorate, a full-time disciplinary officer, to enforce discipline. All other official positions have other responsibilities. Unlike the censor, you can remonstrate and impeach, but how can you ignore your own duties and focus on remonstrance and impeachment!"
Yunxi's voice gradually became stern: "If everyone is like this, how can the court function? If everyone can be like this, why did the late emperor set up so many yamen? Isn't it enough to just set up the Metropolitan Procuratorate?"
"Qi Guosheng, the doctor in the sub-district department of the Ministry of Industry, and Si Yintao, the chief officer..." Yunxi called the names of more than a dozen people in succession, and finally said: "The people I named above all have neglected political affairs. They were only remonstrated and impeached, and they were all demoted.
At the first level, the Ministry of Civil Affairs re-selects officials."
The people whose names Yunxi called did not have high official positions. None of them could go to court today. Among the people who could go to court today, there were no well-connected people, so no one spoke for them.
Decree, this matter is settled.
Yunxi paused again and said, "Fang Qing, the Minister of Rites."
"I'm here," Fang Xiaoru said as he stepped out of the queue.
"The deputy inspector general of Jianghuai Province, the governor of Xuedao, is vacant, and I would like to order you to take over. In order to ensure that your rank remains unchanged, I will give you the title of minister of minister."
"Your Majesty, I have never served as a local official before," Fang Xiaoru said.
"Why didn't you become a local official? Previously, you were a professor in Hanzhong Prefecture. Isn't it a local official?" Yunxi said.
"This," people like Fang Xiaoru felt that a ninth-level official like a professor of government studies was not considered a formal official position, so they omitted it for a while.
"I have made up my mind, no more words." Yunxi said again.
"Yes, Your Majesty, I accept the order." Fang Xiaoru could only say in the end.