A few days later, his subordinates reported that Jin Yiwei had taken Hong Chengchou to Qingjian, and Zhu Youzhen immediately ordered someone to pass on Hong Chengchou to see him.

"Hong Chengchou, are you guilty?" Zhu Youzhen said coldly.

Hong Chengchou leaned over and knelt on the ground: "The minister failed to suppress the thief, so that he let the thief cross the Yellow River and escape into Shanxi, there is a crime of dereliction of duty, please send it down." ”

Zhu Youzhen sneered: "Dereliction of duty, I think it is beggar-thy-neighbor, pretend to be defeated and deliberately drive thieves into Shanxi." ”

"The minister would never dare." Hong Chengchou was shocked, and the luck in his heart disappeared.

It is a common thing for soldiers to encounter small setbacks in battles with the enemy, not to mention that their losses are not much, Hong Chengchou was thinking about how the emperor could summon himself to Qingjian because of this little thing, and there was a faint guess in his heart, and now the guess has come true, the emperor is so clear about the process of his own battle, and even knows that he wants to release some of the exiles and thieves into Shanxi, which makes Hong Chengchou shudder.

Zhu Youzhen shook his hand and put a stack of confessions in front of Hong Chengchou: "Let's see for myself, whether I really wronged you!" ”

Hong Chengchou reached out and picked up the confession from the ground, looked at it quickly, and then saw the confession of the curtain bin Yuwei, and his eyes couldn't help but darken.

In his confession, Yu Weijiao sold Hong Chengchou to the bottom, saying that Hong Chengchou did not want the emperor to stay in northern Shaanxi for a long time, so he tried to drive the thieves to Shanxi, so as to force the emperor to leave his territory and go to Shanxi. You Weijiao also confessed that when Hong Chengchou was serving as the governor of grain and participating in politics, he received 3,000 taels of silver from the Qin Palace, and also secretly embezzled military rations, amounting to 10,000 taels of silver, and in the past few months as governor of Yansui, he has received bribes of as much as 20,000 taels of silver from local officials and generals in the army.

Cold sweat rolled down from Hong Chengchou's sideburns, not to mention the defeat of the army and beggar-thy-neighbor, after all, the defeat of the army will not lead to death, and driving the displaced people across the river can also be justified as a strategy to attack half-crossing.

But the key is to accept bribes amounting to tens of thousands of taels of silver, which is enough for him to die several times according to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, and the dozens of officials who were killed in Qingjian are still there!

However, how can there be an official who is not greedy, he has to support his staff, he has to raise the governor and pacesetter, hire cooks and servants, sedan chair men and grooms, and his subordinates have to raise a large group of people, how can they just rely on the little money of the court? Hong Chengchou was very aggrieved in his heart.

But grievances are grievances, but it really violates the law, if the emperor really disposes of himself in accordance with the law of the Ming Dynasty, no one can say anything. The key is because this kind of thing is disposed of, it is really too aggrieved, how many officials can find who are not greedy? was executed by the emperor for corruption, and he was notorious after his death, how could Hong Chengchou, who was dedicated to being a famous minister, accept it?

"I won't mention the matter of corruption and bribery for the time being, I only ask you, why are you in a hurry to drive me out of northern Shaanxi?" Zhu Youzhen asked leisurely.

Zhu Youzhen's tone was flat, but Hong Chengchou saw a glimmer of light.

"Your Majesty, the minister admitted that he wanted to release the thieves into Shanxi, but he did not beggar-thy-neighbor, but wanted to ask His Majesty to move to Shanxi. It was His Majesty's cruel behavior that frightened the ministers. As soon as His Majesty arrived in northern Shaanxi, he slaughtered the gentry of Qingjian County, and if he continued to kill, he was afraid that His Majesty would kill all the officials in northern Shaanxi and even Shaanxi.

It is true that those officials and gentry have a way to die, but without officials and gentry, how can the court govern the people?

Your Majesty, governing a big country is like cooking a small fresh, don't be too eager. Although Daming is now full of evils, like a long-dying patient, but as long as he is well nourished and taken care of, he will definitely have a day of recovery. If you use the medicine of the tiger and wolf directly, the disease cannot be eliminated, and there is a danger of life.

Your Majesty, the hearts of the ministers are all for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, and there is no trace of selfishness. As for the money and food that was misappropriated, the ministers did not keep it for themselves, but used it to recruit guests and recruit sharp soldiers, and used it in the matter of suppressing bandits. Although the minister is from the third grade, he can only support himself with the court's money, but after all, the minister is a feudal official, how can he lose face in the court when he lives and travels? Many things are also helpless, and the things that are done are also being done by the governors in various places, please Your Majesty to be aware of them. ”

After Hong Chengchou finished speaking, he leaned over to the ground and waited for Zhu You's hair to fall.

Seeing that this guy looked aggrieved, Zhu You shook his head again and again, damn, these civil officials are really good at arguing, obviously they have done something wrong, and they look like I have wronged you! Is it true that you are greedy for ink and bribery, that the defeat of the army is false, and that you beggar-thy-neighbor is false?

However, Zhu Youzhen did not want to continue arguing about these matters, but decided to go straight to the point.

"Hong Chengchou, I'm afraid this is not what you are talking about, right?" Zhu Youzhen said coldly, "As the governor of Yansui, when you know what I have done in Qingjian County in addition to killing the inferior gentry and evil officials, don't you have anything to say?" ”

Hong Chengchou's heart tightened, of course he knew what else the emperor had done. The establishment of township chiefs and village chiefs to replace the original gentry to control the countryside is that the emperor thinks that he is not powerful enough and wants to control the people of every village beyond the gentry.

The imperial power does not go to the countryside, this is a system implemented since the former Song Dynasty, and Zhu Youzhen's behavior is clearly to overthrow this system and directly control the countryside, and this is bound to greatly affect the interests of the gentry!

This is the fear in Hong Chengchou's heart, but this fear can't be said to anyone. If you say it, it is a crime of disrespect to slander the emperor, and I am afraid that not many officials and gentry are willing to believe it.

"Your Majesty, forgive the ministers for being stupid......" Hong Chengchou said with difficulty.

Zhu Youzhen sneered: "You are stupid? I'm afraid there aren't many people in the world who are smarter than you. Well, since you don't want to say it, then I say! ”

"I Ming Dynasty emulated the former Song Dynasty, the implementation of the imperial examination system, the imperial power does not go to the countryside has become a rule, my holy decree, the order of the imperial court, can only be transmitted to the state and county, many people in the countryside not only do not know who is the emperor, even which dynasty and which generation do not know, so that the evil officials fish the people, the inferior gentry are rampant in the countryside, and the people of Li have no way to ask for help but let others bully. Annexation of land, concealment of population, evasion of errand and passing on taxes, all kinds of phenomena are commonplace.

In the more than 200 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the population has not increased, the registered cultivated land has decreased year after year, the imperial court taxes have not increased at all, the treasury income is not even as good as the property of the rich families in the south of the Yangtze River, the border army is short of food and salary, and there is no relief food in the face of famine! So much so that there are hundreds of millions of millions of people, but they are poor and weak, and even the little Jiannu outside the gate can't deal with it!

I succeeded to the position of the emperor's brother, as the son of tomorrow, determined to prosper the Ming Dynasty and create a prosperous world. However, the Ming Dynasty has accumulated many evils, and if you want to prote, you must carry out fundamental changes. I want to emulate the old system of the Qin and Han dynasties, and set up two levels of village officials, with the head of the township and village as the grassroots officials, so that I can control the countryside, so that the court orders can reach the people directly, so that the people's grievances can be heard directly, so that no one can escape the transfer of errand taxes, so that ordinary people no longer have to bear obligations far beyond their should.

In this way, it will not take many years, my Ming Dynasty will definitely be able to recreate the prosperous world, and what is the way to expel Jiannu and recover the old land! ”