In June of the ninth year of Hongwu, the atmosphere of today's court meeting seems to be a little delicate.

Emperor Hongwu was already sitting on the high dragon chair, his face was calm, his body was sitting straight, and his gaze swept over the ministers below, with a slightly different meaning.

Compared with the solemn atmosphere of Rusu, the court at this time was a little more cold and solemn. The number of Han generals standing on both sides was three times greater than usual, and they even clenched their weapons in their palms, staring at them with solemn eyes.

As the order for the opening of the dynasty sounded, some officials walked out of the crowd and wanted to start today's recital.

However, what he got was a faint sentence: "This matter, postpone and discuss it later." ”

All the officials felt a little different from it.

The hall fell silent, and no one came out without a long eye to make a statement.

At this time, the emperor spoke again, and his voice echoed throughout the hall, and all the ministers could hear it clearly.

"I heard that when the household department reviewed the account books of the world, due to omissions in the local area, some officials printed blank paper with the county government seal in advance, and filled it in at that time, called 'empty seal', but is there such a thing?"

？？？

Below, the officials looked at each other.

Someone has heard of this, and even he is the direct handler; There are also people who don't even know about it. But whoever it is, they are all baffled by His Majesty's sudden mention of this.

In their eyes, this is a small thing, and the subordinates are trying to come up with a trick, that's all.

Only Yan Shiqin's heart trembled.

What the prince said came true.

Fortunately, Kohiroji has never allowed empty seals, and no matter how this matter is, it has nothing to do with him.

Thinking of this, he breathed a sigh of relief, so he began to continue to watch things develop with peace of mind.

Below, no one answered the emperor's question, but it seemed to make sense. His Majesty is obviously dissatisfied with this matter, but this matter is complicated, if you want to find the root cause, of course, you have to say Thirteen Shirozhong; But if you really want to talk about responsibility, none of the secretaries and waiters under the Lang Zhong can escape; If you take the blame, you have to ask the boss to come.

But whoever jumps out at this time will touch His Majesty's mold, and he is not a fool.

So everyone turned their attention to the real boss.

the head of the hundred officials, Hu Weiyong, the prime minister of the left; Zhongshu Zuo Cheng, Yan Ling; Yu Shi Tai Zuo Yu Shi Dafu, Wang Guangyang.

But the question that the petty officials can understand, can these old fritters know it? This matter has nothing to do with their half-dime, so why should they come out.

For a moment, the court was silent.

"Zhou Bin, you can explain to me." Emperor Hongwu nodded in a calm voice.

Zhou Bin, the head of the household, secretly complained in his heart. But he had already been called, pretending to be deaf and dumb, and he could only go out of the ranks, and the words of answer were quickly conceived in his mind.

"Your Majesty, the minister has also heard about this matter."

"The reason is that there are sometimes omissions in the finances of the counties, and there are inevitably losses in the process of transporting taxes (taxes in kind, i.e., grain), and the local payments do not match the measurements of the household department, so the account books are not accurate, which leads to the passage of several months, and only then can the ministers make this decision. Although his subordinates are good at dictatorship, he still thinks that officials have the pain of traveling thousands of miles, and I hope that His Majesty will understand. ”

He also felt that it was not a big deal.

After all, this matter has been started since the Yuan Dynasty, and everyone has been doing this for more than a hundred years, and no one thinks there is a problem and is used to it.

However, before he finished speaking, an inkstone fell from above and fell heavily on his head, directly smashing him to the point of bleeding!

The ministers were all dumbfounded, they didn't expect the emperor to do it directly! When I looked up, I saw that Zhu Yuanzhang had already stood up, and his eyes were wide open, and then I realized that Zhu Yuanzhang did not want to punish a small punishment with this, but was really angry!

Zhou Bin was even more frightened and kowtowed, the blood on his head was dripping, and he fell down the skin on the bright red carpet, and he didn't dare to wipe it.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang finally put aside his disguise, he stood up, and the sound of roar echoed throughout the hall.

"You can use the Great Seal today, and tomorrow you can use it for personal use, and what will happen after that?"

"The account book is the important weapon of the country, and it should be checked by the person in charge of the prefecture and county before it can be submitted.

"How do I know if the numbers you filled in are correct? If it is filled in randomly, it will not allow you to be corrupted! I still dare to talk about hard work, I see that I am clearly bullying the king, and I have no respect for the law! ”

"In your eyes, there is no emperor like me!"

As soon as these words came out, the audience was shocked, this sentence can be said to be quite heavy, and Zhou Bin's arms were weak and he almost collapsed to the ground.

Zhu Yuanzhang's anger didn't seem to be vented cleanly, and he ordered:

"Drag it down, put it in jail!"

"Take all the officials of the household department to me!"

The Han general immediately stood up, rushed into the crowd of officials, and began to lock up the key culprits. They were obviously prepared, and the officials of the household department caught one by one.

The rest of the officials watched in disbelief as one official after another was pulled out of the crowd.

The law does not blame the public, this is the truth since ancient times, it is a great crime of rebellion, and I have never heard of following the rebellious army to kill you cleanly, originally everyone thought that this matter would be unlucky to Zhou Bin, at most plus those few Langzhong, it was enough, but I didn't expect that there was no one left in the entire household.

"Your Majesty, wronged, Your Majesty! The minister has never done such a thing! In the crowd, a voice suddenly came out, but it was shouting grievances.

"What are you guilty of?" Zhu Yuanzhang stopped the soldiers, "What's the matter, in this mud of the household department, is there a lotus flower?" What is your name? ”

Yan Shiqin was disheveled at this time, but his face was full of doubts, and he was not half afraid, but full of surprise.

"Your Majesty, the minister is Huguang Shishizhong, Yan Shiqin."

Yan Shiqin?

Suddenly, most of the court's eyes converged on Yan Ling's body, and Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes swept over him as if he were nothing.

Yan Ling still looked like an old god.

"The minister has served for more than a year, and he has never allowed the matter of empty seals, please let Your Majesty know about it." Over there, Yan Shiqin was still arguing loudly.

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PS: Because it is rumored on the Internet that three of the four major cases of Hongwu were sponsored by Zhu Biao, I spent more than an hour today looking through the history and records of the Ming Dynasty, and looking for various materials.

Zhu Biao had indeed begun to assist Zhu Yuanzhang in handling government affairs at this time, but he said that he had hosted the three major cases, but no evidence was found. However, in the "History of the Ming Dynasty: The Biography of Emperor Xingzong Xiaokang", I found a record of his "friendship" and "his benevolent nature", and "Ming Shilu" also said that he was too benevolent, and I feel that the three major cases may not have been sponsored by him.

Do you have any relevant historical materials? It's possible that I didn't find it.