Chapter 93 Time is like a knife, cut Tianjiao, make people grow old
At this time, the imperial study room.
Li Qing walked into the main hall as promised, "Weak minister Li Qing, please see the Emperor, Your Highness the Crown Prince."
Zhu Yuanzhang put down the memorial in his hand and said, "Let me ask you, is the queen's condition temporarily stable?"
"Um."
"Okay, take this." Zhu Yuanzhang took out a piece of letterhead and said, "Arrest the person above, interrogate him, and behead him before midnight in the afternoon!"
Li Qing was stunned, never expecting that Zhu Yuanzhang actually wanted him to arrest people and kill people.
What is this?
Certificate of application?
Li Qing stepped forward to take it and said hesitantly, "Your Majesty, I am not familiar with the Imperial City yet..."
"We have made arrangements for Liu Baihu to assist you in handling the case." Zhu Yuanzhang lowered his head and continued to review the memorial. "If you don't understand anything, you can ask him."
Zhu Biao frowned slightly, "Father..."
"Um?"
"Alas..." Zhu Biao sighed and said no more.
When Li Qing came outside the palace, Liu Qiang from a wealthy family immediately came to greet him, "Master Li, please come with me."
"It's troublesome." Li Qing raised his hand, thinking that the other party's position was higher than his own, so he couldn't be trusted by others to help him.
"Master Li, you are very polite. You are an imperial envoy at the moment."
Liu Qiang was even more polite than when he ‘invited’ Li Qing.
As the saying goes, Li Qing is a seventh-rank official in front of the prime minister. He is the emperor's personal guard and the doctor who treats the empress. It can be said that he has a bright future.
Putting aside his status as an imperial envoy, he is not enough to be a member of a wealthy family.
Outside the palace gate, Guard No. 100 is already waiting for orders.
Liu Qiang said solemnly, "Li Qin has been ordered by the emperor to arrest criminals. You must do your best."
After that, he handed Li Qing's list to his subordinates and said, "Go and arrest everyone and send them to Zhao Prison."
"yes."
The man took a look at the list and led a group of guards in uniforms with murderous intent.
"Haha... Mr. Li, please." Liu Qiang smiled again, "They will handle the arrests. Let's go directly to Zhao Prison."
"Um."
Li Qing nodded lightly, feeling at ease.
On the way, Li Qing couldn't help but wonder, "Master Liu, what crimes did those people commit?"
"Indulging the local officials to stamp their seals on empty paper!" Liu Qiang explained in a low voice, "This phenomenon was discovered two months ago, and the emperor has been suppressing it for a long time. Now we, the Jin Yiwei, can finally show our faces, hehe..."
"Phenomenon?"
Li Qing was surprised, "Are there many people stamping on empty paper?"
"Not a lot, almost everything."
"ah?"
"Master Li, please lower your voice."
"Oh, okay." Li Qing smiled awkwardly and lowered his voice, "Are we going to arrest and kill all the officials from all over the Ming Dynasty?"
"That's not the case." Liu Qiang shook his head slightly, "But the palm print officer probably didn't run away."
"How many?"
"The Ming Dynasty has thirteen provinces, more than 150 prefectures, and more than 1,100 counties." Liu Qiang said, "There are only about 1,300 people!"
Only one thousand and three... Li Qing was speechless.
Suddenly thinking of what Liu Qiang said yesterday about officials colluding with Hu Weiyong, Li Qing asked again: "How many people died in the Hu Weiyong case?"
He belongs to the Imperial Guard and is the emperor's personal bodyguard. There is no need for Liu Qiang to hide it. "I haven't calculated the exact number, but I estimate it should be close to 20,000. This case is still under investigation. No one knows how many people will be killed in the end."
Li Qing secretly marveled. His knowledge of Ming history was limited. He only knew that Zhu Yuanzhang killed many people, Hu Weiyong, and Lan Yu's rebellion implicated many officials, but he did not expect that there would be so many.
How many officials did the Ming Dynasty have?
If we continue to kill like this, aren't we afraid that there will be no one left to deal with government affairs?
Zhao Prison.
The prison was dark and damp, with extremely poor lighting. There was only a one-foot-square window at the top of each cell, and sunlight shone in, with dust rising and falling in the beam.
The air was mixed with the smell of feces and urine, and the stench was overwhelming. It was much more pungent and unpleasant than the eunuch's duty room.
Li Qing walked in the corridor that seemed to have no end in sight, listening to the screams, begging for mercy, cries of injustice, and curses coming from the cells on both sides... His heart was palpitating and his scalp was numb.
Too dark!
Liu Qiang's expression remained unchanged, as if he had been used to it for a long time, and he introduced Zhao Yu to him while talking and laughing.
Li Qing felt cold in his heart when he heard it, and even his blood ran cold when he looked at the miserable prisoner.
This isn't Zhao Prison, it's clearly Purgatory!
"Let's... take a break?" Li Qing couldn't stand it anymore.
The two of them came to a relatively clean place, where the jailer poured tea diligently, and then left in a good mood.
Li Qing was in a place like this. He couldn't think of drinking tea. He couldn't help but said, "Master Liu, I just heard someone calling for injustice. Should this situation require a retrial?"
"No need." Liu Qiang chuckled, "They have all pleaded guilty and been remanded, so there is no need."
"Then...if there is an unjust case, wouldn't it mean that a good person was killed in vain?"
Liu Qiang looked up at Li Qing and said word by word, "The prison will not accept innocent people!"
Li Qing was startled, and then he understood the meaning of his words. The Jinyiwei was just a knife, and the person holding the knife had the final say as to where to cut.
Seeing his silence, Liu Qiang added, "Although the Jin Yiwei has great power and can arrest all relatives of the emperor, nobles, civil servants, and the Zhao Prison is not under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Punishments, but they are not arresting people randomly. Mr. Li will understand this in the future.
"
Li Qing nodded and said nothing more.
He can't protect himself, so how can he have the mood to pity others?
Lunch consisted of four dishes and one soup. It was not a rich meal, but it was much better than prison rice, which was the same as pig food. Li Qing had no appetite and just took a few bites, but Liu Qiang ate it very well.
After a while, a guard in brocade clothes came to report: "Master Imperial Envoy, Master Liu, the criminal has been arrested."
Liu Qiang wiped his mouth, stood up and made a gesture of invitation, "Master Li, please."
Li Qing sighed secretly and went with Liu Qiang to the place where the criminals were detained.
"I'm wronged!"
"Unjustly accused, unjustly accused..."
From a distance, I heard cries of injustice, followed by a crackling sound of a whip, and then the cries of injustice turned into screams.
When Li Qing arrived, more than a dozen people had been beaten to pieces. Their summer clothes were thin and mixed with flesh and blood, which was shocking.
Liu Qiang smiled and said: "Master Li, the emperor asked you to preside over the trial, how about you serve as a jury?"
"Yeah." Li Qing nodded, walked to the long desk in front of the cell door, sat down, and took a breath, "Why are you crying for injustice?"
Liu Qiang frowned slightly, he didn't expect Li Qing to say such a thing.
Sure enough, after Li Qing finished speaking, the cry of injustice started again.
Liu Qiang sighed secretly and winked at the Jin Yiwei on the side. Several burly men came in and slapped them. After a while, these officials stopped.
As a result, Li Qing didn't know how to interrogate them. He gave these people a chance to defend themselves, but Jin Yiwei didn't give them, so he had no choice.
Moreover, he vaguely felt that handling the case this time was Zhu Yuanzhang's test for him.
After thinking about it, I could only accuse them in a condemning tone, "You allow local officials to stamp empty papers and deceive the Holy One. How can you have the dignity to cry out for injustice?"
Although Li Qing asked questions in the form of a conviction, he also gave them a chance to defend themselves. Few idiots who could be officials in the capital immediately sensed the vitality in his words and hurriedly defended themselves.
"Sir, the mountains are high and the roads are long. It takes a long time for a local official to come to the capital. If an account is not correct, he has to go back and recheck it. But the food and money are all lost, so how can it be accurate?"
"Yes, sir. It takes at least a month and a half for northern officials to visit the capital. The account books cannot be altered, and the official seal cannot be taken out of the yamen. Otherwise, the local officials will not be able to reconcile the accounts at all even if they run out of time."
"Sir, the previous dynasty also did this. It was not me and other ministers who deceived the Holy One. This is... this is an unwritten rule!"
Hearing these defenses, Li Qing couldn't help but be startled. Thinking about the traffic of this era, he finally understood why they allowed the local officials to stamp empty papers.
This is a helpless move. Otherwise, this year's accounts may not be correct next year. Not only will they not be able to pay their bills, but the local officials will not have to deal with government affairs.
Liu Qiang on the side couldn't stand listening anymore. If the trial continues like this, these people will be wronged. Not only will the Jin Yiwei be passive, but the Emperor Long's power will also be damaged.
The decree clearly states that there will be no delay in conducting trials and killings before the afternoon application time.
But if Imperial Envoy Li did something like this, could he still be killed?