Save the Bachelor of Heaven

However, although the fight against corruption is extremely difficult, Xiang Nan still vigorously promotes it.

Because it is impossible not to fight corruption. No matter how powerful the Ming Dynasty was, it could not withstand a bunch of rats gnawing around it.

If these rats are not eradicated, the common people will never have a good life.

Although it is difficult for civil servants to fight corruption, corrupt officials are not invulnerable.

Xiang Nan had already found a lot of clues when he was investigating the military's anti-corruption campaign. Many generals' corruption was caused by collusion with local officials, gentry, and wealthy businessmen.

For example, when generals at the border smuggled arms, they naturally did not sell them themselves, but handed them over to middlemen. Therefore, many businessmen made a fortune by earning the price difference as middlemen.

In order to maximize profits, these businessmen naturally not only cooperate with the military, but also cooperate with local officials to sell many prohibited items outside the customs, such as tea, ironware, salt, grain, cloth, medicinal materials, etc.

Therefore, Xiang Nan already had a large amount of criminal material, but at that time he was fully presiding over the anti-corruption in the military and did not want to fight on two fronts.

Now that the goal of anti-corruption in the military has been initially completed, Xiang Nan can naturally open a second front.

He then followed the clues and began to investigate the affairs of these civil servants.

He ordered all Jin Yiwei to dispatch, and asked those officials to go to the specified place at the specified time to explain the problem. If the explanation was not clear for one day, they were not allowed to go out for one day.

And those who confess will be lenient and those who resist will be stern. Reporting is meritorious, covering up is guilty. If you can confess in time or reveal other criminals, you can reduce your crime.

What was originally a beheading can be reduced to exile; what was originally a house raid and sold as slaves can reduce the family's crime; what was originally meant to be exiled can be reduced to a slap in the face...

Of course, if you resist blindly and refuse to plead guilty, once it is verified, your crime will be increased. Originally, for demotion, exile, and house confiscation, the additional penalty was beheading.

In order to prevent Jin Yiwei from causing unjust, false and wrongful convictions, Xiang Nan also prohibited Jin Yiwei from using torture instruments and did not allow them to torture to extract confessions.

After all, under three trees, there is nothing wrong with it. The rabbit has to be beaten until he admits that he is a bear. If you continue to bite people in order to reduce your crime, there will be no good people left in the country.

During the Zhu Yuanzhang period, this method was used to investigate corruption cases. One case often involved a large number of officials, resulting in a large number of unjust, false, and wrongful convictions.

Teng Demao, the Minister of Household Affairs, was reported to be suspected of corruption. The angry Zhu Yuanzhang immediately killed him and refused to vent his anger. He even had his stomach cut open to see what "unconscionable food" he had eaten.

As a result, after Jin Yiwei cut open Teng Demao's stomach, he discovered that the former Minister of Household Affairs only had some whole grains and wild vegetables in his stomach...

Therefore, Xiang Nan didn't want to kill an honest official by mistake, but he also didn't want to let a corrupt official go, so he asked the Jin Yiwei to investigate in detail and not to torture or act recklessly.

Even so, there are countless corrupt officials discovered by Jin Yiwei. From the beginning of the ninth year of Tianshun to the twelfth year of Tianshun, more than 200,000 corrupt officials were discovered, which is shocking.

At that time, there were less than 50,000 official officials in the Ming Dynasty, but more than 200,000 corrupt officials were found. This shows that corruption is everywhere, and there are no good people in Hongdong County.

After discovering so many corrupt officials, Xiang Nan wished he could kill them all.

But in the end, he still did not dare to kill indiscriminately. If he really wanted to kill more than 200,000 people, there would not be enough officials to do the job.

After all, relying on the imperial examination, only a few hundred Jinshi can be selected every three years. Even if Xiang Nan opened Enke every year, it would still take hundreds of years to select more than 200,000 officials.

And Xiang Nan knows that many officials are corrupt because they have no choice but to do so.

First, the salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty were set too low, making it difficult for them to support themselves and their families. It seems that Teng Demaogui, who was the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, could only eat weeds and coarse grains; Hai Rui, who wanted to be an upright official, almost starved his whole family to death.

Xiang Nan knows that human nature is inherently greedy, and it is impossible to expect all officials to be saints. Even he himself cannot live in poverty, so how can he force others to do so?

Secondly, the general environment of corruption is like this. When the superiors are greedy, if you are not greedy, you will not be tolerated by your superiors and subordinates, and will not be tolerated in this world.

Just like in Hong Kong in the 1960s and 1970s, the police and gangsters were working together. It is common knowledge that the police charge fees. It would be wrong not to collect them.

In "The Legend of Detective Lei Luo", Lei Luo wanted to be a good police officer at first, but he was suppressed at all levels and could not stay in the police force at all. In the end, he had to choose corruption.

So Xiang Nan considered that they should be given a chance to repent.

Therefore, he only killed the most corrupt and harmful group of people. In particular, he will hit hard those officials who have resigned or retired. He has no need for them anyway.

As for serving officials who have committed less corruption and caused less harm, they will be lenient and allowed to remain on duty despite their crimes. If you perform well, you can be forgiven, if you perform poorly, you will be punished by one level.

This is a bit like the era of Zhu Yuanzhang. At that time, he also found so many corrupt officials that there was a shortage of officials everywhere. Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice but to let those corrupt officials stay in office.

However, those corrupt officials have to carry the instruments of torture and continue to work, which is called "carrying the death penalty and serving in exile", or "being beheaded, hanged, sentenced to imprisonment, and serving in exile".

Xiang Nan was not as ruthless as Zhu Yuanzhang. He did not bring torture tools to those corrupt officials, but he still stared at them. If you dare to commit another crime, it will not be suspended.

…

After this anti-corruption campaign, Xiang Nan's officialdom was completely cleaned up.

All corrupt, corrupt, mediocre, incompetent, and double-minded officials were all purged by him, which also changed the atmosphere of the Ming Dynasty's officialdom.

The people cheered even more. Those officials who had harmed the country and the people, were corrupt and violated the law were arrested and beheaded by Xiang Nan, which naturally made them feel happy.

After being frightened by this trend, those officials were able to be honest for a while. In the past, excessive taxes, corvées, expropriation, and bullying of men and women have all been curbed. The people are naturally happy when they get benefits.

This also brought Xiang Nan's reputation among the people to a new height.

Xiang Nan also took this opportunity to vigorously promote the three policies of "dividing the peasants into acres", "integrating the gentry as errands and paying grain", and "returning envy to the public".

These three policies actually touch the vital interests of officials and gentry. The mere fact that "gentry and gentry work as errands and pay for food as one body" made those officials and gentry feel the pain.

Because before this, officials and gentry did not need to pay taxes or perform corvee labor. These taxes and corvees were borne by ordinary people.

In the Ming Dynasty, the gap between rich and poor was very large. The poor have no roof to cover their heads, no place to stand on, they are penniless, and they have to bear the most corvees and taxes. Naturally, they are miserable.

However, those officials and gentry had endless fields and row upon row of houses, but they did not have to perform corvees or pay taxes, so they were naturally happy and free.

It is said that we are not worried about scarcity but about inequality. It is precisely because of this that peasant uprisings continued in the Ming Dynasty with such high frequency that it was quite rare in all dynasties. Even during the periods known as the "Ren-Xuan Heyday" and the "Hongzhi Zhongxing" period, more than ten peasant uprisings still broke out.

In comparison, there were few peasant uprisings during the much-criticized Kangxi, Yongzong and Qianlong dynasties.