Chapter Five Hundred and Ninety Nine: Codes and Routines
In the Wuying Palace, the elders looked at each other.
How does it feel that the emperor wants to watch a good show?
Well, they admitted that they really wanted to see what it would be like if the Ministry of Justice, which had been very low-key in the court during this period, bumped into the powerful Metropolitan Procuratorate.
Mr. Jin, who once again enjoyed the gift of attention, smiled bitterly, but soon became serious.
In the court, the most feared thing is not having a chance. If you have a chance but fail to grasp it, then you deserve to be suppressed and unable to hold your head up.
The Ministry of Punishment is just low-key, not cowardly.
How can those who are in charge of prisons not have fortitude in their hearts?
Facing the gazes of the ministers and the emperor, Jin Lian took a step forward, standing side by side with Chen Yi, and said.
"Your Majesty clearly knows that just now Mr. Chen said that the military camp incident involves ministers of civil and military affairs and noble clans, so it is not appropriate for the Ministry of Punishment to participate. It is difficult for this minister to agree with it."
It can be said that anyone who can get to this point will never lag behind others in citing scriptures and arguing with each other, and the same is naturally true for Jin Lian.
His views were clear from the beginning, and he directly refuted Chen Yi's statement.
"According to the regulations, for all soldiers and civilians, officials and clan members who have served the law with honor and respect, the Ministry of Punishment can interrogate their words, check their true nature, and compare the seriousness of their crimes according to the laws and regulations."
"The Ministry of Punishment is in charge of all the punishments and prisons in the world. All matters regarding crime and punishment should go through the Ministry of Punishment. This is the system of Taizu."
Isn’t it just glorious history? As if no one has it!
As soon as Mr. Jin came up, he unleashed a powerful weapon and directly moved out Taizu's old system.
At the beginning, Emperor Taizu abolished Zhongshu, dismissed the Prime Minister, and assigned the power to the Six Ministries, which were all under the control of the Emperor. As one of the Six Ministries, the Punishment Ministry was naturally extremely powerful.
From this point of view, Jin Lian is right, the Ministry of Punishment is in charge of prison matters.
Therefore, no matter what your status is, as long as it is under the control of the Ming Dynasty, it will be under the control of the Ministry of Punishment. There are no rules that cannot be controlled by the Xunchen, clan, and the Ministry of Punishment.
Of course, the same thing applies to officials, clans, relatives, and the Ministry of Punishment's authority is limited to summons for trial. If arrests or other measures need to be taken, separate orders must be requested.
But if you say that because you have an official position, the Ministry of Punishment cannot take care of it, it is naturally unjustifiable.
As he spoke, Jin Lian turned slightly to the side, facing Chen Yi beside him, and said with a smile on his face.
"I would like to thank General Xian for his sympathy to the officials of the Ministry of Punishment. The Ministry of Punishment governs the world's prisons. The affairs of the Ministry are indeed numerous, but it is precisely because of this that the Ministry of Punishment is the largest among the six ministries."
Because the six ministries of the imperial court are in charge of different affairs, their organizational structures are also slightly different.
Among them, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Industry are all under the four purification officials. However, only the Ministry of Husbandry and the Ministry of Punishment are responsible for the country's tax revenue and the other is responsible for the country's criminal matters. Therefore, Hedu
Like the Procuratorate, there are thirteen Purification Departments according to the Thirteen Paths.
From this perspective, the Ministry of Punishment is indeed one of the largest and largest yamen among all the yamen in the imperial court.
"Thanks to His Majesty's holy virtue and the hard work of officials, the Ministry of Punishment is now running smoothly. Many criminal cases that were delayed due to the Emperor's Northern Expedition, civil wars and other matters were all handled and completed a month ago."
"Therefore, Mr. Zong Xian, you don't have to worry about the heavy criminal cases that the Ministry of Punishment will be unable to bear. It is said that it is the duty of the Ministry of Punishment to pursue its own affairs, and the overall situation of the imperial court will not be delayed due to the fault of the Ministry of Punishment."
Therefore, many times, it is actually beneficial to immerse yourself in work.
During this year, while all the ministers were fixated on the various changes in the imperial court, the Ministry of Punishment was peaceful and quiet, working overtime to deal with its backlog of cases.
Because of this, when Chen Yi said that the Ministry of Punishment was busy with things and could not handle them in time, Jin Lian could confidently say that although the Ministry of Punishment was busy with things, it would never hold it back.
You must know that in the past two years, the center of the imperial court has changed so much, and the one with the greatest impact is the Ministry of Punishment. There are more than 600 state capitals and more than 2,000 counties in the entire Ming Dynasty. All kinds of things are happening every moment.
case.
All these cases, no matter how big or small, will be summarized to the Ministry of Punishment. However, for many criminal cases, the Ministry of Punishment can clearly hear them but cannot implement them.
The fundamental reason is that prisoners who have been exiled or above need Zhu's approval before it can take effect.
First, the Supreme Emperor wanted to go on a personal expedition, and all the criminal cases were suppressed. Then all the energy in the court was put on fighting against Wala. Later, there were mutual trades, clans, the Supreme Emperor returned to the south, and all kinds of things happened one after another.
For two years, criminal cases from all over the country could not be processed normally. You can imagine how terrifying the backlog is.
However, even when faced with such a large number of ministry tasks, Jin Lian was still able to handle them all in just over half a year without any rush.
Based on this political achievement alone, whoever says that the Ministry of Punishment’s ability to handle government affairs is not good enough, Mr. Jin can confidently fight back!
However, Chen Yi was naturally not easy to deal with. Faced with Jin Lian's rebuttal, he was not angry at all. He just twirled his beard and said.
"What Jin Shangshu said is naturally the imperial code, but as you and I both know, the government affairs of the imperial court are complicated and complicated, and many times we have to make adjustments."
"In the past, whenever an official committed a crime, unless the case was extremely complicated and difficult to discern or the crime was difficult to pardon and one should be extremely careful, it was all impeached by scientific means and approved by the emperor. Although it was slightly contrary to the legal system, it was quick and easy.
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"The matter of the military camp is related to the national economy and people's livelihood. Every move should be carefully considered. Considering the overall situation, I naturally trust the ability of the Criminal Department to handle criminal cases. However, after all, there is no precedent for this. If you do it rashly, you need to slowly explore it.
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"But now, what is lacking is precisely time. We need to organize the military settlements as quickly as possible. Otherwise, there will be many twists and turns. Therefore, I think that everything should be focused on the military settlements. If the Ministry of Punishment is willing, the Thirteen Censors will
While inspecting various places, we also found a number of criminal cases, which can be handed over to the Criminal Department, how about that?"
After hearing these words, Jin Lian's face turned dark.
I, the Ministry of Punishment, are we missing a few cases from your Thirteenth Censor?
Under the current situation, what the Ministry of Punishment really wants is not to change the past practice and directly intervene in the interrogation of the Minister of Civil and Military Affairs.
If you cannot achieve this, what are you doing with those few cases? Do you really have a lot of leisure in the Ministry of Punishment?
Opening his mouth, Mr. Jin wanted to refute, but for a moment he couldn't think of what to say.
This is often the case in the court, everyone has his own reasons.
Jin Lian talked about Taizu's code, Chen Yi talked about the past practices, Jin Lian said that the Ministry of Punishment was very capable and would not hold back, but Chen Yi said that the matter was of great importance and he did not dare to take risks.
Anyway, everyone stood on their own side, and the reasons they gave were very sufficient.
As Chen Yi said, everyone trusts the ability of the Criminal Department, but in the current situation, there is no need for such setbacks.
This is not only Chen Yi’s opinion, but in fact it is also the opinion of many other ministers present.
Jin Lian knew this, so he felt a little embarrassed.
However, it only took a short moment for him to realize what he was doing here with these people. He, Jin Lian, was not the one to ask the Ministry of Justice to participate in the military camp.
This matter is the emperor's intention. In this case, it is not appropriate for him, Jin Lian, to fight with the Confucian scholars by himself, right?
So, Mr. Jin thought for a moment, then pitifully turned his gaze to the emperor...