Father can be an enemy to the country

Nanjing.

On the first day of the new year, Boss Zhu made a long face and pushed down his belt with both hands, which frightened the congratulatory ministers and almost peed their pants.

After the court meeting, Zhu Yuanzhang went back to the palace angrily without giving him a banquet as usual.

The ministers looked at each other, wondering who had caused trouble to the emperor again.

The prince knew it well and comforted the officials, letting them go home for the New Year in peace, and then hurriedly chased him to Wuying Palace.

As soon as he entered the palace, he saw Mao Xiang, the commander of the Jinyi Guards, and Wu Yong, the judge's chief judge, were already reporting something to the emperor.

"Come here and listen together." When Zhu Yuanzhang saw the prince coming in, he called him forward and said: "How heartless and crazy our Ming officials are!"

"Just tell the prince briefly." Zhu Yuanzhang said coldly to Zuo Xingxing Wu Yong.

The Judiciary Department was a newly established judicial office in the 14th year of Hongwu after Boss Zhu withdrew the Central Secretary. His duty is to discuss in detail the punishments administered by Dali Temple. Despite its low rank, only the sixth rank, it has great power. It can intervene in all cases in the Ming Dynasty, and it is deeply trusted by Zhu Yuanzhang. It is already superior to the Dali Temple of the Ministry of Punishment.

"Yes." Wu Yong was in his early thirties, with wolf-like eyebrows and hawk-like eyes, which made people feel intimidated.

Zhu Biao then heard him say in a deep voice: "Reporting to the Crown Prince, after receiving a report years ago that the Chief Secretary of Peking had colluded to steal military supplies, the Emperor ordered his ministers and Commander Mao to instruct Zhenjiang and Taiping Prefectures to inspect the official warehouses. The result was just like the Emperor's As expected, there was serious theft—"

"Among them, the official warehouse in Zhenjiang should have stored 2.1 million shi of grain, while the Panku only had 1.5 million shi, and 600,000 shi were missing!"

"The Taiping Mansion that I went to should have 1.4 million shi of grain stored in it, but the warehouse only has 900,000 shi, and 500,000 shi are missing!" Mao Xiang continued: "I have sealed the grain depot. Bring all the accounts and persons involved to the capital to wait for the emperor to deal with it!"

"Did you hear that?!" Zhu Yuanzhang said angrily: "Beiping is not an isolated case, it is a rat plague in grain depots all over the world! All the taxes and grains paid by the people who live frugally have been embezzled by them!"

Boss Zhu first hates corruption, and secondly hates being deceived, and he is also a miser. This case suddenly stepped on all three of his red flags, and it was strange that he could not become furious.

If it weren't for today's special day, Boss Zhu would go into a rage and arrest people at the court meeting. It's not easy to endure until now.

The prince's face was solemn after hearing this. He knew that after the thunderstorm in Peiping, two granaries were randomly checked and found problems, indicating that there must be a big problem with the national grain storage system.

"At the end of last year, when we looked at the accounts reported by the Ministry of Household Affairs, we were still so happy - there were 20 million shi in grain reserves across the country, and our lives were finally rich!" Zhu Yuanzhang gritted his teeth in hatred and said:

"It turns out that only the amount in the account belongs to us, and the food in the warehouse has long been emptied by those moths!"

"It's really shocking." Zhu Biao nodded.

"Boss, tell me, if there is such a big problem, every year the Ministry of Revenue, together with the Metropolitan Procuratorate, send people to various places to take inventory, but why are they never found?!" Zhu Yuanzhang asked again coldly.

"Either he is derelict in his duties, or there is collusion between internal and external parties..." the prince sighed.

"What kind of dereliction of duty?!" Zhu Yuanzhang said flatly: "Every year they inspect dozens of grain depots. If one or two dereliction of duty is fine, will it make the collective blind?!"

"Tell me," Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Mao Xiang and Wu Yong coldly: "Is this possible?"

Mao Xiang knew the importance and carefully considered his words, but Wu Yong rushed to shout: "It is absolutely impossible to return to the emperor! If this happens, there must be collusion between internal and external, top and bottom! All links are suspected of participating in the theft of official rations!"

"That's what happened!" Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Mao Xiang and Wu Yong!"

"I'm here!" the two of them shouted loudly.

"Immediately bring people to arrest the people from the Household Department, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Household Branch!" Zhu Yuanzhang shouted: "Seize all the accounts of the Household Department!"

"Yes!" The two of them loudly accepted the order again. Mao Xiang hesitated and asked, "Your Majesty, who are you arresting by the Ministry of Household Procuratorate?"

"Arrest them all! Try them one by one!" Zhu Yuanzhang patted the imperial case and shouted: "I will torture them all!"

"Father, calm down." Seeing this, the prince had no choice but to advise: "The Household Inspectorate is the two largest yamen. With such wide responsibilities and so many personnel, it is impossible for everyone to participate."

"Even if they didn't participate, a person from the yamen who doesn't look up or down all day must have heard about it!" Zhu Yuanzhang roared: "Why don't they ever report it?! If they know something and don't report it, they are complicit!"

"We can't use torture as soon as we get started." The prince insisted: "Let's not talk about how these two yamen still operate. If you just submit to torture, it will definitely lead to unjust, false and wrong cases!"

"Don't get involved in this case!" Zhu Yuanzhang said stubbornly: "Didn't Lao Liu ask you to batch him two million shi of grain and transport it to Huai'an within seven days? Isn't it enough for you? Go ahead and do your work. !”

"Father..." The prince couldn't help but frown. He knew that a son is better than a father. He knew that this was the prelude for Boss Zhu to go on a killing spree. Normally at times like this, my father would keep himself far away to avoid being covered in blood.

Zhu Yuanzhang turned his head and ignored him, and only said to Mao Xiang and Wu Yong: "You go."

"Yes." Wu Yong responded loudly.

"Yes..." Mao Xiang glanced at the prince with a grimace and had no choice but to withdraw.

~~

After coming out of Wuying Palace, Wu Yong walked with his head held high, and his steps were windy.

Mao Xiang was dejected, sighing three times with every step, which was in sharp contrast to him.

The young Wu Yong was still excited about having the power, but the old Jianghu Mao Xiang knew that he was going to be used as a gun again...

"Commander Mao," Wu Yong turned around and asked Mao Xiang in a deep voice, "Who should we arrest first?"

"Oh..." Mao Xiang came back to his senses, looked at him and said, "Listen to me."

"Okay, then I will make bold arrangements." Wu Yong suppressed his excitement and said: "The Ministry of Revenue is in charge of the world's money, grain, warehousing and expenditure. If something like this happens, they will definitely take the main responsibility. Of course we must Let’s grab the Minister of Hubu first, oh yes, the Minister of Hubu is vacant.”

In fact, not only the Ministry of Hubu, but also the Ministry of Rites and War are all vacant. Only two of the six Shangshu remain.

The direct cause was of course the imperial examination fraud case half a year ago, in which several ministers were implicated and arrested one after another.

In the Hongwu Dynasty, the average tenure of a minister was less than one year, so it was not unusual for a minister to be dismissed, but every time before, someone would immediately replace him. Like this time, it is unprecedented for four ministers to be vacant for half a year at the same time.

I don’t know what Boss Zhu is thinking about.

Of course, this is not what Wu Yong cares about. He just wants to catch people happily now.

Just listen to Wu Yong say one word at a time: "Then let's arrest Guo Huan, the Minister of Household Affairs who is acting in charge of the ministry!"