"Xue Bi, the prefect of Xihe Prefecture in Shaanxi Province..."
"Wan Qixi has already confessed him, and a bunch of his subordinate officials have also been investigated by the Shaanxi Criminal Division. Your Majesty showed extra mercy and allowed them to perform meritorious service in disaster relief. And because of his active withdrawal of stolen goods, Xue Bi was sentenced to exile in Shazhou. He
Although those who were officials were exempted from exile, some were imprisoned, some were dismissed from their posts, and some were demoted several levels."
"Huainan Province Councilor Zhao Kai..."
"Has been confessed by Wang Zuo, he will definitely die, another one will be replaced."
"I'll think about it again, I'll think about it again..."
Qin Hui racked his brains and racked his brains, but it was difficult for him to accuse anyone of corruption and perversion of the law.
We have almost caught everything that should be caught!
Xue Bi and Zhao Kai, who were just confessed, are both people with good abilities but poor conduct.
Take Xue Bi, for example. Historically, he first assisted Li Gang in guarding Kaifeng, then offered Yue Fei a plan to destroy Yang Yao, and officially served as Yue Fei's staff officer. He also came forward to appease Wang Yan's Eight-Character Army. Even after leaving Yue Fei, Xue Bi remained a civilian official.
, many times quelled or subdued thieves.
But when Qin Hui framed Yue Fei, Xue Bi not only did not help to speak up, but actively joined Qin Hui. He even credited Wan Qixi with all his achievements in suppressing bandits in order to please Wan Qixi.
In this way, all Yue Fei's former staff officers were dismissed by Qin Hui, but Xue Bi was promoted by Qin Hui.
That Zhao Kai was the "pioneer of reform" in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty. He reformed the Liquor Law, the Tea Horse Law, the Salt Law, the Banknote Law... He made a huge contribution to easing the finances of the Southern Song Dynasty and made the people of the Southern Song Dynasty miserable.
His most outrageous operation was when the Xuanfu Division caught a gang making counterfeit banknotes, and Zhang Jun planned to execute them all in order to correct the banknotes.
But Zhao Kai suggested that the counterfeit banknotes should be stamped with the seal of the Xuanfu Department, so that the counterfeit money would become real money. Then all the criminal gangs of 50 people would be tattooed and specially made to make money, giving full play to their expertise in making counterfeit banknotes.
, and then stamped with the official seal to directly turn it into real banknotes! This bypassed the banknote issuance limit stipulated by the court, and Zhang Jun could use this to print money like crazy.
Zhao Kai's suggestions were already outrageous, but Zhang Jun actually adopted them all in order to raise military funds.
In this time and space of the Ming Dynasty, every time Zhao Kai became an official in a place, he could greatly increase the commercial tax there. And by wandering on the edge of the "Ming Dynasty Law", he could always fool the inspection censor.
The amount of money this person embezzled is not even inferior to that of Qin Hui!
When they heard that Zhao Kai had been arrested, businessmen in the place where he used to work set off firecrackers to celebrate.
"Think again."
"I really can't think of it."
Qin Hui became depressed and frightened, waiting for the final trial.
Late autumn.
The trial of Qin Hui ended with a long list of charges. His personal embezzled property could be traced to 1.52 million yuan. This does not include the stolen money of his family, relatives and party members.
More than ten years after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, prices have dropped.
Only grain prices and wine prices have risen due to successive years of drought in the northwest. Wine prices are rising across the country, but grain prices are higher in the north, while in the south they are rising steadily.
Take the average grain price in Hangzhou as an example. Even though a lot of it was shipped to the north for disaster relief this year, each kilogram of rice can only be purchased for 5 cents (converted to market kilograms hundreds of years later). Moreover, around Hangzhou,
In rural areas, rice is cheaper than in cities.
If calculated at 5 cents per catty, and based on this year's floating silver price, 1.52 million guan can buy 353 million catties of rice (modern market catty).
How much is the specific value in RMB? You can simply convert it yourself.
But the real purchasing power of this money is definitely higher than the converted RMB. This is because food under the background of modern agriculture is far less valuable than in ancient times.
By the way, the Ming Dynasty's consistent currency is not fixed at 1,000 wen per currency, but is constant at one tael of silver. According to the floating exchange ratio of silver and copper coins, how many currency is equivalent to a consistent currency can be understood as silver
standard.
Of course, the imperial court would determine the amount of copper coins minted in the second year based on the amount of silver in circulation (market silver price), and use this to adjust the currency value of copper coins.
The current official basic exchange ratio is 1 tael of silver = 1 silver dollar = 1 string of money = 1,000 Wen.
Occasionally, I can redeem 900 and 1,100 fen, but in the past five years, it has never been lower than 800 fen, nor higher than 1,200 fen.
This gave rise to a group of gold and silver speculators. When gold and silver prices were low, they used Ming Dynasty copper coins to exchange for overseas gold and silver. When gold and silver prices were high, they took out their stored gold and silver and exchanged them for copper coins.
More and more wealthy businessmen and tycoons no longer hoard a single currency, strengthening the circulation of various currencies.
But the overall trend is still toward deflation because currency outflows are too serious.
In the surrounding countries, only Annan, Dali and Xiliao minted their own currency, while the other countries and regions all used Ming coins.
The gold, silver and copper coins of the Ming Dynasty are all hard currency in Korea, Japan, Nanyang, Southeast Asia, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Monan and Mobei... all of them are hard currencies. Even in Heianjing, Japan, traces of the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes have appeared.
Every year, a large amount of currency flows out and is shipped back in exchange for various in-demand commodities, including gold, silver and copper ingots.
Without the continued inflow of gold, silver, and copper from overseas, the Ming Dynasty would be on the verge of collapse.
Fortunately, there are also Western Liao and India areas to supplement. These two places use gold and silver coins, and they mainly use silver coins. They can earn their gold and silver through trade. They then take the Ming Dynasty goods and run to the west to earn money.
Take gold and silver.
The Ming Dynasty had almost recovered all the ancient copper coins from past dynasties, and re-melted them and cast them into Ming Tong Bao.
The recycling speed of Sichuan and Shaanxi iron money is faster. The valuable ones are destroyed and cast into iron ingots, while the worthless ones are destroyed and turned into iron slag (too many impurities). This caused heavy financial losses to the Ming Dynasty. Sichuan added a Hanzhong, although it provided a lot for the court.
goods, but the monetary taxes have always been paid by the court.
The imperial court subsidized Sichuan's finances for more than ten years just to recover and destroy the iron money there. Dozens of gangs who secretly cast iron money were arrested and many people were killed!
Nowadays, currency unification has basically been achieved.
At the same time, the bad habits of Zumo and Short Mo were also abolished, and the government was not allowed to use this to exploit the people.
The common people at the bottom of the country prefer to use "mo" as a unit, that is, to string together one hundred copper coins.
…
On the day Qin Hui was executed, Ju Ming asked several adult princes to go to the execution ground to see the consequences of corruption and bending the law.
Qin Hui's several children were all underage, so they were separated and sent to be raised in Salesian homes in various provinces. They would be taught how to make a living there, and they would work and earn money when they became adults.
Qin Hui's concubines were placed in southern Sichuan, Guangxi, Xiangxi and Guizhou. There were many young and unmarried immigrants there, and they must have been willing to marry them, and they rushed to propose marriage.
At this moment, Qin Hui, Qin Bin, Qin Zi, Qin Di, Wang Shi, Wang, Wang Huo, Wang Bing... the two families of Qin and Wang were kneeling neatly.
Of course, there is no real one-size-fits-all approach.
For example, Qin Hui's eldest brother's son is working as a landlord in Jiangning and is responsible for managing the properties that Qin Hui bought in his hometown.
Although his father and uncles committed crimes, he himself was quite honest, so he was not sentenced to any crime. He was just implicated by his own father and was exiled.
Qin Hui knelt in the middle, surrounded by family members and relatives on his left and right. He couldn't help but burst into tears from the sadness.
Wang was paralyzed on the spot. She didn't even have the energy to blame her husband. She just looked ahead blankly.
I think back then, she was the granddaughter of the prime minister. She was pampered and well-dressed since she was a child. By the Ming Dynasty, she was even more prosperous and wealthy. How could she have imagined that she would end up like this?
A prison officer came over, strictly inspected each person, and began to read out the crimes.
The first person to be beheaded was Qin Hui's nephew Qin Changshi.
This guy was only in his twenties. He initially planned to take the imperial examination route, but he failed to pass the imperial examination after six years. So he went to work as an official, and was transferred to another official by Qin Hui. He tampered with his resume and was promoted in violation of regulations.
Taste.
Compared with Qin Hui, the amount of corruption committed by Qin Chang was not large.
But he was extremely greedy and used his power to the extreme, even dragging down many of his colleagues. He was also extremely arrogant, bullying men and dominating women a lot, and also took advantage of people's property.
In comparison, Qin Hui's other nephew Qin Changling is much more honest than Qin Changshi.
Therefore, Qin Changling was not sentenced to death, but was exiled to Guangxi to reclaim wasteland.
"Qin Changshi, can you plead guilty?" the prison officer asked.
Qin Changshi was so frightened that he shouted quickly: "I don't accept it, I don't accept it. I only coveted a few thousand guan, and my crime will not lead to death!"
The prison officer sneered: "It's useless not to accept it. The Three Justices Division has closed the case, and His Majesty has also settled the case. From being a clerk to becoming an official, you have only been promoted to the ninth rank in just four years. You falsified your resume and achievements, and you are indiscriminate.
It is already a serious crime to be transferred to an official position and promoted! It is difficult for you to work while you are an official. You collude with your colleagues to embezzle money and bend the law. You even trick good family members into gambling and borrowing, and seek to seize other people's property. You will be punished for several crimes, and you will die more than you deserve!"
The executioner stepped forward with a knife in hand and pulled open the collar on the back of Qin Changshi's neck.
Qin Changshi was so frightened that he shouted: "Spare your life, spare your life!"
The prison officer said to the executioner: "Don't delay deliberately, there will be a second batch in the afternoon."
The executioner smiled and said: "My knife is quick."
Executioners have their own ways to make extra money, but no one from Qin Hui's family will come to make extra money.
Forget it, time is tight and the task is heavy, let’s cut it more quickly.
The executioner forced Qin Changshi to kneel down and scolded: "If you keep shouting and moving, I'm afraid you will suffer more. Think about it yourself!"
Qin Changshi did not dare to move.
brush!
With one stab, the head fell to the ground.
"good!"
The onlookers cheered in unison, not only because they were happy to see the corrupt officials punished, but also because they admired the executioner's sword skills.
One head after another fell to the ground, and finally it was Wang's turn.
Mrs. Wang suddenly shouted: "I want to be a damn ghost. I have no appetite for yesterday's decapitation meal!"
The executioner pressed down several times, but Wang was still struggling. He was so angry that he yelled: "You thief woman, do you want to take more stabs? It's almost noon, and grandpa is going to chop people in the afternoon."
Qin Hui sighed: "It's already this time, why are you delaying?"
Mrs. Wang turned around and cursed angrily: "It's because of marrying you that I ended up like this. You are heartless and ungrateful, and you have made me miserable!"
Qin Hui asked: "Whose relative dragged me into trouble first? My brothers, except for those who were admitted to Jinshi, did not become officials at first. It was your brothers who begged me to become an official every day. Especially Wang Huo That guy had an official position in the Song Dynasty and was appointed an official in the Ming Dynasty. He was greedy and wanted to climb higher. The first time I helped someone seek an official position was for that bastard Wang Zuo!"
"My brother is going to break the law, why don't you stop him?" Mrs. Wang began to beat him.
Qin Hui said angrily: "I stopped him? Because I rejected him twice, you cried and screamed, and even scratched my face until it bled! I was so cautious as an official at that time, and it was because of your brother that I illegal."
The executioner shouted: "Don't make trouble anymore, just kneel down!"
But Wang was still struggling, and the executioner was so angry that he slashed at her randomly.
The knife struck down on the shoulder, causing Wang to cry loudly in pain.
On the contrary, Qin Hui was so frightened that he did not dare to speak. He trembled and knelt on the spot silently. He even closed his eyes and did not dare to look at anything.
The executioner dragged Ms. Wang to her knees and asked, "How many times do you want to die?"
Mrs. Wang finally stopped making trouble, endured the severe pain, trembled and cried, and knelt there obediently and accepted the killing.
Qin Hui heard the sound of the head falling to the ground and knew that his wife was dead. He immediately closed his eyes tighter: "I plead guilty, I plead guilty. Please give me a happy life."
brush.
The sword flashed and the head flew up.
Qin Hui is finally dead, and this major case has come to an end.