Do you know: I am the crown prince

Chapter 90 Imperial City Division

On the surface, Fanlou is a complex consisting of five buildings in the front, back, left, right and center.

In fact, there is an inconspicuous courtyard next to the building on the left side of Fanlou.

The small courtyard seems to have nothing to do with Fanlou, and there is a wall separating them, but there is a secret passage connecting the small courtyard and Fanlou.

The Imperial City Division is actually divided into two parts: light and dark.

Judging from the name, the Imperial City Division is the guard in charge of the imperial city.

The Imperial City Department is in charge of the prohibitions on entry and exit, and all matters related to the guards around the palace and the opening and closing of the palace gates are under its jurisdiction.

What does this mean? It means that the Imperial City Division is the emperor's guard and is also in charge of the closing and opening of the palace gates. Like the Palace Front Division, it is an official guard.

Moreover, the Imperial City Division is different from the Palace Front Division. It is independent of the Three Yamen and is directly led by the emperor. The rest of the people have no right to be transferred.

Emperor Taizu separated a group of people from among them to monitor officials and inquire about the people's sentiments.

This part is the dark part. Later, due to too much resistance, the only thing left was to investigate the people's sentiments.

This is similar to the early Jinyiwei. The Jinyiwei of the Ming Dynasty were the emperor's personal soldiers at the beginning, and later the emperor gave them the right to supervise all officials.

Because of this, the Imperial City Bureau has a very low presence and the officials are not afraid of it at all. This is also the reason why many officials dare to go to Fanlou even though they know that Fanlou is the property of the Imperial City Bureau.

This is why many officials in Bian Jing knew that Fanlou was the property of the Imperial City Bureau, but still came to consume.

Because they are not afraid of the Imperial City Bureau at all.

If this happened to the Jinyiwei of the Ming Dynasty, they would choose to take a detour even if they passed by the Jinyiwei’s yamen, let alone visit their properties.

There were only a dozen people in the headquarters of the Imperial City Division's secret department. They gathered in groups of three or five, chatting idly.

Just then, a thin man with an unremarkable appearance walked into the yard.

The man looked to be in his thirties, and was so thin that he seemed like he could be blown away by a strong wind.

However, when the man pushed open the door and walked into the house, everyone who was chatting in the house suddenly became quiet, and there was a hint of fear in their eyes when they looked at the man.

"Greetings, Lord Ti Dian!" everyone saluted.

Yin Hanzhang glanced at everyone calmly and said, "Everyone, our chance has come. Just now, Eunuch Liu sent someone to inform us to investigate the Chief Censor Feng Deguang. I have only one request. No matter what means you use, you must find out as much information about Feng Deguang as possible within three days. The more detailed the better. If anyone dares to slack off, don't blame me for being rude!"

"Yes!" Everyone felt a chill on their backs when they heard that and responded quickly.

Although Yin Hanzhang looks very thin and has a sickly complexion, he is very fond of studying torture. He often uses living people to experiment with some lost tortures in history, which is quite creepy.

The entire Imperial City's secret department was terrified of him.

Yin Hanzhang nodded with satisfaction and began to arrange the work.

After everyone received their tasks and left, Yin Hanzhang raised a smile.

Although the officials tried to stop them, the emperors of all dynasties did not completely abandon the Imperial City Administration, but simply turned from open to covert.

When the emperor needed it, he would ask the Imperial City Bureau to secretly investigate officials.

However, the current emperor advocates governing by doing nothing, and has not used the Imperial City Administration since he ascended the throne.

In the past, Fanlou's income was all funded by the Imperial City Department, and it needed to be supplemented separately. However, after the current emperor ascended the throne, not only did he cut off the funding supply from the Imperial City Department, but even a portion of Fanlou's income had to be handed over to the palace.

This led to a repeated reduction in the number of staff in the Imperial City Bureau. Yin Hanzhang even felt that in a few years, the secret department of the Imperial City Bureau would be completely laid off.

I didn't expect that the emperor would actually let the Imperial City Bureau investigate an official in the court, and that was a third-rank Chief Censor.

As long as we do a good job this time and let the emperor see the role of the Imperial City Bureau, he will definitely pay more attention to it.

With Yin Hanzhang's urging, no one in the Imperial City Office dared to slack off, and in just three days, they collected a lot of evidence of Feng Deguang's crimes.

Of course, there is not much evidence among these crimes, after all, the time is too short and there is not enough time to collect evidence.

However, some of them are supported by evidence and are not just based on speculation and hearsay.

After Yin Hanzhang obtained the intelligence, he eliminated the unfounded information, sorted it out, and handed it over to Eunuch Liu.

When Eunuch Liu handed the information to the emperor, the emperor was also a little surprised and asked, "Is there a result so soon?"

"Your Majesty, this was sent by the City Emperor's Office. I haven't read it yet, so I don't know if it's useful." Eunuch Liu said.

"What can be found out in just three days? Either there is no evidence at all, or it is fabricated out of thin air." The official shook his head slightly.

He felt that he was right not to use the Imperial City Bureau. Although it was important for an emperor to have smart eyes and ears, he could not be deceived by others.

Censors can report matters based on hearsay because the imperial court will send people to investigate.

But the Imperial City Bureau cannot do so, because the existence of the Imperial City Bureau is equivalent to the emperor's eyes and ears, and can easily influence his judgment.

Although the official had no hope for the intelligence from the Imperial City Bureau, since it had been delivered, he still opened it and started reading it.

However, the more he looked at it, the uglier the official's face became. It recorded in detail how Feng Deguang used his position to help other officials get promoted and accepted bribes.

Which officials visited Feng Deguang, when, how many gifts they brought, and how long they stayed at Feng Deguang's home were all recorded in great detail.

Although there is only some supporting evidence, even when the officials gave gifts to Feng Deguang, they only described the size of the gifts, but did not say what was given or how much it was worth.

However, based on some of the things the official knew, he was able to infer that many of them were true.

Although the evaluation and promotion of officials were decided by the Ministry of Personnel, the Censorate had the ability to influence it.

Generally speaking, the Ministry of Personnel can directly decide on the promotion of officials below the seventh rank.

Officials above the seventh rank and below the third rank must be reported to the ministers for approval, while the appointment of officials above the third rank is decided directly by the emperor.

However, regardless of whether it is submitted to the ministers for approval or to the government for approval, two or three candidates will be selected, along with their evaluations and laws as officials in recent years, for the reference of the ministers and the government.

It seems that it is the ministers and the government who decide the promotion of officials above the seventh rank, and other people have no influence.

But the Censorate has the power to influence.

After the Censorate hears about something and impeaches someone, it needs to investigate the person. If someone is investigated during the promotion stage, he or she naturally cannot be promoted until the results of the investigation come out, and can only be chosen from other people.

If two of the three were impeached by the Censorate and only one was left, the official position would naturally fall to that person.

Although the emperor and the ministers do not have to choose from the candidates reported by the Ministry of Personnel, the people reported by the Ministry of Personnel are more qualified in all aspects of the assessment. In most cases, they will refer to the candidates recommended by the Ministry of Personnel for selection.

(End of this chapter)