Hu Zongxian was dressed in sackcloth, very plain, but also clean, obviously not tortured too much. After all, he is a second-class member of the imperial court, and no one dares to embarrass him unless the emperor speaks. However, these days, he has lost a full circle of weight, and his head has become grayer.

Jinyiwei and Dengwenyuan both sent personnel to listen to the trial, and Jinyiwei sent 6 soldiers to command, and the person in Dengwenyuan was dressed in black, but he didn't know where it was sacred. Hu Zongxian came to the lobby and stood silent.

Feng Linggan was originally unpleasant to Hu Zongxian, and said sharply, bold Hu Zongxian, he was tried today, and he didn't kneel!

The presiding judge, Min Qiuye, glanced at him, why don't you come?

Feng Linggan snorted and stopped talking.

Min Qiuye said Hu Butang, let's call you a minister, it is for you to make a great contribution in the battle of Chongming. This official, Min Qiuye, was ordered to try your case.

Hu Zongxian said slowly, it turned out to be Min Qiuye Min Qingtian, your prestige in Shu back then was like the sky, and the official yearned for it, but he didn't expect that you and I met today on such an occasion.

In this kind of scene, Min Qiuye was not cold, and said awefully, where did the false name come from, but the official can enforce the law impartially, and act without a conscience and a law. Master Hu rest assured, the official will verify your testimony one by one, and if it is false, it will never wronged you, but if the crime is confirmed, the official will not tolerate it.

Hu Zongxian smiled indifferently, where is there anything black and white in this world, Master Min came to ask. If I can say it, I will say it.

Feng Ling said angrily, what is what should be said, what can be said, what do you mean by this?

Hu Zongxian asked rhetorically, this case has not yet been tried, why can't Gonggong Feng sit still like an old cat burning his beard

A smile appeared on the corner of the Jinyi Guard's mouth, and the black-clothed man in Dengwen Courtyard was expressionless, as if he had fallen asleep. Compared with Jinyiwei and Dengwenyuan, this Feng Linggan still can't hold his breath. However, after thinking about it, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau must also be involved in this case, so the internal supervisor sent this Feng Linggan to hear the trial, so as not to lose control for a while and mess up.

Min Qiuye opened the file and said: "Master Hu, I have received an impeachment here, reporting you that in the past 13 years as the governor and governor of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, you have been charged with the five major crimes of selling official positions, reselling salt and iron, offering and accepting bribes, extortion, and betraying the country, and provided relevant supporting evidence. Clerk, you come and read the dossier.

The scribe pulled out a stack of files and began to read. There are 181 charges against the five major crimes, and there are all kinds of accusations, so it is really difficult to impeach the person under investigation.

In the Ming Dynasty, speech officials could not be convicted for speech.

Those officials of the Imperial Historical Observatory, like mad dogs, saw that the situation was not right, and immediately opened their bites, and in order to gain fame, they even did not hesitate to fabricate facts and open their mouths to spray, so the Imperial Historical Observatory was called the Mad Dog Asylum again. These people are ranked by seniority, but by the rank of the person to whom they are impeached. It wasn't until the appearance of keyboard warriors later that they overwhelmed them in the limelight.

Among the 181 charges, the big cases include the collapse of the Qingyang Iron Mine, the murder of people to cover up the facts, and the small ones that make a son accept a bribe from a horse. These 181 charges were read for two hours, from early morning to noon.

During this period, Hu Zongxian's face was calm, until all the dossiers were read, Min Qiuye said in a deep voice, Lord Hu, do you have anything to say about these one hundred and eighty-one indications?

Hu Zongxian said slowly, I have been an official for 30 years, although I don't say that I am honest and honest, but I have a clear conscience. This 181 charges, except for selling 20,000 taels of Qingyang County orders and accepting bribes of 520,000 taels, the other charges are not pleaded guilty to by this official!

This statement is categorical and leaves no room for error. Although he has been demoted to a civilian, he has cultivated his official authority for many years, and when he said this, the temperature in the entire hall dropped by a few degrees. Everyone held their breath, didn't even dare to take a breath, and looked at Min Qiuye with their eyes.

Min Qiuye didn't realize that a person like him was supported by a heroic spirit in his heart, and he was definitely not afraid of this kind of means.

Min Qiuye said lightly, Okay, then the official will give you a fair trial.

Feng Linggan asked, what about lying about auspiciousness?

As for the accusation of lying about Xiangrui, even the Holy Lord has settled this matter, and you are questioning Your Majesty when you take it out to talk about it?

Hu Zongxian's words were a bit heart-wrenching, and none of the people present dared to take this sentence. It is said that in order to curry favor with Zhu Runze, Hu Zongxian reported to Xiangrui Bailu twice in succession, that is, the deer with albinism, and was rewarded by the emperor. This matter was despised by the mainstream civilian clique, and someone raised it at this time, but Hu Zongxian grabbed the handle.

Min Qiuye said, okay, let's start with these two things. How do you explain the matter of buying and selling officials?

Hu Zongxian said that in the summer of the sixteenth year of Jingyuan, Taizhou Qingyang Iron Mine was over-excavated and did not take protective measures, which led to a landslide, and 130 people died. The salt and iron of the imperial court are under the jurisdiction of the mining supervision, and I think Gonggong Feng, who is the young supervisor of the internal prison, should know more about this matter.

Feng Linggan said, Hu Zongxian, you don't want to pull everything on our family, lead the disaster to the internal prison, the Qingyang iron mine disaster, the court has already decided the case.

Hu Zongxian said coldly, Okay, I'll continue. After the mining disaster, Taizhou flooded again, 30,000 people were affected, the Japanese were rampant, the army supplies were no longer enough, where was the money and grain for disaster relief, it was that year, I sold the order of Qingyang County, Taizhou for 20,000 taels of silver, this money, used to buy rice from Jingxiang area for disaster relief. I confess this sin!

The clerk hurriedly wrote the book, lest he miss every word of Hu Zongxian.

Hu Zongxian continued, as for the corruption and recovery of two million taels mentioned in the accusation, you must know that the tax payment of the entire Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces is only one million taels a year. In the past 30 years, Hu has received a total of 523,723 taels of silver. Among them, there are 23,000 taels, which are the silver of the three festivals and two longevity, three respects and the apportionment of the donations. These silver are all bad rules, it is the practice of the imperial court, and the official took it.

Min Qiuye asked sharply, since you know that it is an ugly rule, why did you take it?

Hu Zongxian smiled, this is the Ming officialdom, if you want to mix in the officialdom system, then you have to abide by the rules of the game, who can be as honest as water?

Min Qiuye said proudly, this official has never received a single bribe!

I said in my heart that others said that I did not believe it, but after seeing his deeds yesterday, I had no doubt in the slightest about what he said.

Hu Zongxian shook his head and said, Master Min is an official, honest and honest, Hu is naturally admired, but if you have 200,000 troops to raise, and tens of thousands of Japanese robbers to fight outside, you will inevitably deal with people above the court.

Min Qiuye said: This kind of official, according to the law of the Ming Dynasty, should be arrested, peeled and flushed.

Hu Zongxian said: Lord Min, I am a feudal official, not a royal history of impeaching people every day when I have nothing to do. Since you want to be an official, you have to do things, instead of resisting the system and bad rules of the imperial court, so that nothing will help except for bumping your head and breaking your blood. If, in order to earn a good reputation, the people suffer, and the officers and soldiers suffer defeats, what is the use of such an official?

Hu Zongxian's words were extremely sharp and loud.

His words expressed the general sentiment of officials.

After all, the students who had been educated by Confucian orthodoxy, except for those who had come from donors and shade departments, did not want to be corrupt officials as soon as they came up.

It's just that this social system, and the soil that breeds this physique, gradually changed them and became drifting with the flow. Just like Hu Zongxian, he also began to pour sewage, began to offer auspiciousness, and began to accept bribes.

Officialdom is a very peculiar product, on the one hand, all officials are trying to maintain this kind of rules and systems, and on the other hand, officials are constantly drawing power from this system, this strange relationship of mutual dependence constitutes the unspoken rules of officialdom since ancient times.

The entire Ming officialdom, such as people like Min Qiuye and Haigangfeng, is almost an outlier. They have dreams, principles, insistence on duty, and stubbornness, and such people appear from time to time, like an Occam's razor, when the whole system is close to qualitative change, removing some of the spoiled carrion and pulling things back on track.

As long as the system exists, it will not be eradicated.

This is like a magnet, where there is a positive stage and a negative pole.

If it were an ordinary official, he might agree with Hu Zongxian's statement, but Min Qiuye is not an ordinary official, he will not be moved by Hu Zongxian's defense, in his world, right is right, wrong is wrong, black is black, white is white.

Min Qiuye snapped and was shocked, corruption is corruption, this is a fact, no matter what reason! He said to the scribe, write down this. Next, Hu Butang, let's talk about the 500,000 taels.

When Feng Linggan heard this, he suddenly became a little nervous. He said, Lord Min, let's talk about Hu Zongxian's communication.

Feng Linggan is a young eunuch of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, and if he is ranked according to the rank of the inner court, it should be from the fourth grade, which is higher than Min Qiuye's fifth grade, so he feels that he is qualified to say this. However, Feng Linggan is not a person in officialdom after all, he obviously has never heard of Min Qiuye's name.

Min Qiuye glanced at him and said, Gonggong Feng asks.

Feng Linggan said, Hu Zongxian, I heard that you and Wang Heng of the three major Kou Zhi are fellow villagers?

Hu Zongxian said, exactly.

Feng Ling said, no wonder the Japanese have been rampant in the East China Sea for so many years, it turns out that you are in it!

Min Qiuye frowned and said, Gonggong Feng, what about the evidence?

Feng Ling said angrily, Hu Zongxian colluded with Kou Wangheng, this is not evidence?

Min Qiuye asked: Gonggong Feng, I don't know where you are from?

Feng Linggan said: Our hometown is from Dezhou Mansion, Shandong.

Min Qiuye said lightly, so to speak, Gonggong Feng and the King of Qi back then were also fellow villagers, but I don't know if the father-in-law had anything to do with the rebellion of the King of Qi back then?

Feng Linggan's face suddenly flushed, this is not the same thing at all, you don't want to spew blood!

Min Qiuye said coldly, this official is the chief judge of Hu Zongxian's case, Gonggong Feng, as a person in the internal prison, you have repeatedly interfered with the official's duties, in view of this, this official has decided to expel you from the court!

Feng Ling said, you dare, I came to hear the trial on behalf of the emperor!

Can't get out?

Don't go out.

Min Qiuye said to the scribe, and recorded what he just said, saying that Gonggong Feng admitted that he was a fellow villager with the King of Qi who rebelled and was executed!

Feng Linggan jumped up and said, surnamed Min, don't deceive people too much!

Min Qiuye ignored him and turned his head away. At this moment, the momentum displayed by this five-grade Tongzhi Lord was not inferior to those superb court officials.

Feng Ling felt that there was no need to stay any longer, and walked away.