Look at how Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, fought corruption in the Ming Dynasty.

As a controversial emperor in the ancient history of China. One of Zhu Yuanzhang's great achievements, which is also particularly controversial, is to end the anti-corruption storm throughout his ruling career.

For the founding emperors of past dynasties, anti-corruption is not a rare thing. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), every feudal dynasty in China, which completed the unification, took the purge of bureaucracy as a top priority. There have been many achievements and beautiful talks passed down to this day.

For this matter, Zhu Yuanzhang's seriousness is unprecedented, and even set a record in the history of China: the most severe sentencing standard, embezzlement of 620 taels of silver is the death penalty. The cruelest and cruelest punishments, from execution in the middle of the year to scalping and stuffing grass, to labor reform with chop hands and chop feet, are sensational.

There is also the earliest "mass anti-corruption movement". Ordinary people can send corrupt officials to Beijing for punishment with great fanfare as long as they have a title of "doing a big job" on their heads.

It lasted the longest, and the investigation was the most thorough and strict: it was better to let go of the wrong killing, and found that one pursued the last one and arrested a large number of people first, which led to many major cases, tens of thousands of officials were dismissed, and a fierce anti-corruption purge lasted for nearly 30 years.

This is a large-scale action to punish corruption with the longest duration, the largest number of officials and the widest scope in the ancient history of China. It is also one of the deeds of Zhu Yuanzhang, a political strongman, which is quite controversial so far: the recommenders think that this movement has punished corruption and promoted justice, and even after reading it hundreds of years, many future generations are deeply proud.

However, there are also many detractors. Many people think that although it is true to punish greed, the means are too cruel, there are too many innocent people, and overcorrection is more positive.

Some people even argue that Rao was Zhu Yuanzhang's means exhausted, but in the late Ming Dynasty, corruption was still serious. Therefore, such violent anti-corruption actually ended in failure.

Whether it is a vigorous success or a futile failure, let's sort it out from the beginning.

First, corruption was very serious in the early Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang's hatred of corruption, to a great extent, comes from the bitter memories of his early years: the Yuan Dynasty, which gave him growing pains, was one of the most corrupt dynasties in the whole ancient history of China, as Zhu Yuanzhang said in many memories after he proclaimed himself emperor: At that time, officials only knew extortion, bullying and harming the people, but never knew how to relieve their worries.

Although his own parents and brothers died of famine, the relief food that should have been distributed was deducted by corrupt officials. So corruption is his gnashing enemy.

However, when Zhu Yuanzhang finally came to earth after struggling, he was surprised to find that this gnashing enemy, instead of dying with the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, spread rapidly in the new body of the Ming Dynasty like a toxin.

As we all know, the difficult situation after the founding of the Ming Dynasty was "poverty": the rule of the Yuan Dynasty failed, the economy collapsed and natural disasters occurred frequently. Plus more than ten years of war and destruction at the end of Yuan Dynasty. There are scorched earth and wasteland everywhere. In towns with tens of thousands of people before the war, only a few hundred people are left after the war.

Farmers fled in large numbers, and many villages were empty. The so-called Wan in the Ming Dynasty was actually built on ruins.

This kind of chaos wants to stabilize the regime and even create a prosperous time. Without a clean and efficient government, this is almost a pipe dream. But at this time, the Ming Dynasty faced a bigger problem than poverty, but it was greed.

Corruption in the Yuan Dynasty is like a stubborn virus, which can spread after a dormant period.

It happened that after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, not only did the system follow the early Yuan system, but many officials at all levels were also old ministers of the Yuan Dynasty and petty officials in the yamen, more of whom were corrupt and never familiar with them.

With the above convenience and the stability of the Ming regime, the "platform" of corruption was immediately set up.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang sympathized with the people wholeheartedly, he introduced various preferential policies after he ascended the throne. Land tax is set to a minimum, and newly reclaimed land is exempt from three years of corvee. The craftsmen under the craftsman registration system gave them a better life and subsidies. Even the status of tenant farmers has been upgraded, and they are no longer slaves of landlords. They emancipated the productive forces wholeheartedly.

However, with the rise of corruption, such a good book will be read askew. For example, the court collects taxes, local officials hook up with each other and raise prices in various ways. In Zhejiang, in addition to paying state taxes, ordinary people share as many as seven or eight kinds of additional taxes, which is more than the land tax stipulated by the court.

The state's public funds, taxes and grain are often skinned and deducted layer by layer. Even Min Mingming paid the tax, but it hasn't been sent to Beijing yet. The tax grain on the road was divided up by officials at all levels, such as commanding Chen Sheng and Wei to embezzle tax grain as much as 380,000 stones at a time.

Then the atmosphere became even worse. In collusion with the government, local predators are even more tyrannical, and all kinds of things that turn black and white are staged everywhere: for example, Zhao Shu, the landlord of Zhejiang, used an expired title deed to pay off the government in the Yuan Dynasty and easily occupied a large number of grain fields.

Many farmers who originally owned land and were able to live and work in peace and contentment were displaced again. In the third year of Hongwu in Suzhou (1370), the rich households in the world owed as much as 750,000 stone in tax grain. Later, it was forced by the court. Chen Ying, the magistrate of Suzhou, actually transferred the grain owed by the landlord to the poor to pay the bill. If anyone doesn't pay it, take a red-hot soldering iron, nicknamed "Chen soldering iron" ...

Local corruption breeds and Beijing is no better. Many officials of the Sixth Central Committee usually just muddle along, letting small officials in yamen fool them and learn to make money, but they compete with each other quickly. Competing to develop new tricks of corruption: for example, the Ministry of Housing issues precious paper money (paper money) and intercepts more than one million each time.

The minister of punishments opened the economy and collected the money, so he could replace the condemned prisoners. Those who committed capital crimes were forced to find them out. Wang Zhi, assistant minister of the Ministry of War, is more business-minded. From promotion to pursuer, everything can be clearly marked, and how many things are spent, and a bribe is 220,000.

Corruption is so rampant that the game of the Great Ming Dynasty, which was finally stabilized, is in turmoil again. In the first three years of the Ming Dynasty alone, more than 40,000 military households fled. The flight of farmers is even more astronomical. Then, thousands of peasant uprisings broke out in qi zhou, Luoxian, Hubei, Sichuan and Guangdong.

According to the statistics of Lu alone, there have been more than 100 peasant uprisings, large and small. Although the battle can't be compared with the end of Yuan Dynasty, it is only a matter of time before the peasant uprising repeats itself.

If the above situation is enough to make Zhu Yuanzhang angry, then another situation makes Zhu Yuanzhang even more angry: the old heroes who followed him in the south and fought in the north and made countless contributions to him not only failed to play a good role, but competed to degenerate and became the "hardest hit" of corruption.

When the Ming Dynasty was founded, in order to recognize the contributions of many heroes, a large number of awards were started. From the Duke to the Viscount, more than 100 people were blocked, including 25 Duke. These great heroes not only have rich titles and fertile fields, but also many people are in high positions, extremely prominent and arrogant.

In this way, as soon as the smell of corruption is smoked, many great heroes will be on cloud nine. Seeing the swords and guns in storage, I not only rushed to enjoy them, but also became more and more arrogant. For example, aquamarine, a famous soldier, Liang Guogong, always likes to occupy fertile land and often takes people as slaves. The public's anger has always been great.

Yongjia Hou Zhu Liangzu was stationed in Guangdong. When he was stationed in Guangdong, he not only was greedy for money and harmed the people, but also accused Luo Zhi of framing the county magistrate who stopped him from breaking the law to death. When Hou Gu was in Jining, except for drinking, he annexed land everywhere and never cared about proper military affairs. The rest of the heroes are even more so. They feel that they are robbing the men and dominating the women, and they have done a lot of crooked things.

If this group of people is ⑦ after "returning to the field with a glass of wine" in the early Song Dynasty, the harm may not be great. It happened that this group of people not only had money and titles, but also had soldiers in their hands, so it was common for them to collude with each other, form corrupt alliances and even smuggle illegally.

For example, Hu's prime minister and even his domestic slaves smuggle goods in public all day. Who dares to stop the officials along the way, and then get beaten.

The above grim facts have reached Zhu Yuanzhang's ears since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. I finally made up my mind. In his own words, that is, "if this malpractice is not cured, if you want to be a good government, you will never get it." To get rid of this "disadvantage", there is only one thing to do: fight corruption!

Second, anti-corruption must first grasp the system.

On February 29th, the second year of Hongwu (1367), Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly sent a strange letter to his ministers.

This imperial edict is strange because it is more like a confession.

"When I was still in the private sector, I often saw officials of the Yuan Dynasty oppressing the people and extorting money. Now that I think about it, I still hate it. I hope that the officials of the Ming dynasty will come to hell to ask for a salary if they encounter similar situations.

Every official can obey the law. You know, being honest is like walking on the smooth road. However, if you dare to corrupt, it is like walking into a thorn. Even if you can get out alive, you will be black and blue. "

This imperial edict first recalls childhood, then makes demands and finally gives a warning. The core is one thing: the court is to fight corruption.

Later generations talked about this anti-corruption storm, and the voices of criticism were endless: this anti-corruption movement arrested many people and killed many people, but the system construction was extremely lacking.

If we look at the historical facts carefully, we will find a different answer: Zhu Yuanzhang first rectified the system, not corrupt officials.

The first thing to bear the brunt here is the official examination system. Generally speaking, it is the job evaluation of officials.

In this matter, one of Zhu Yuanzhang's measures to suit the remedy to the case is to formulate the Letter of Appointment first, which means to attach importance to education first.

A major reason for corruption in the early Ming Dynasty was not that officials had no morals, but that they were incompetent. The petty officials of government agencies all over the country are corrupt veterans. These officials came from outside, but after they took office, they were completely blind. Even if they want to roll up their sleeves and fight corruption, they still don't have enough spare capacity.

And this question is the reason for the compilation of the "Notes for Employment": no ability? Then we should strengthen our study. This booklet lists in detail 3 1 tasks that local officials must complete, including local judicial administration, tax collection and even people's livelihood management.

What is particularly striking is that this is not an ordinary running account. On the contrary, in every important task, all kinds of problems that should be paid attention to are carefully listed. For example, to collect taxes, we should not only know where you work and how many acres of land you have, but also find out how many military fields, civil fields and official fields there are, and what means corrupt officials may use to make money and corruption in each tax collection. So detailed, it can be called an encyclopedia of official rules.

If you learn this thing and harm the people, it is not a question of ability.

Another important function of this "encyclopedia" is to put a spell on officials. Every job content is a hard standard for evaluating officials. When evaluating the work, every local official should refer to this booklet and evaluate it one by one. If it doesn't meet the requirements, it will be out of luck.

Then Zhu Yuanzhang compiled six regulations on responsibilities and responsibilities, and the superiors assessed their subordinates according to the rules inside. There are rules to follow, and those who break the law will be prosecuted.

With the deepening of the research, the assessment model of officials in Ming Dynasty gradually took shape. The first is the full examination system, that is, officials are assessed once every three years and are "full" three times. If they get good grades, they will be promoted.

In the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu (1394), this system was basically fixed: officials from six departments in Beijing passed, officials from this department were responsible for writing comments, then supervising the censor, and finally the household department re-examined. Civil servants in the army have been "admitted" and are responsible for supervising the imperial history. Military leaders are audited by the chief secretary and re-examined according to the inspection department.

As for the Imperial Chief Secretary, the emperor personally examined it. This mutual inspection and assessment, between departments, will also check and balance each other.

Complementing the "comprehensive test" system is the "inspection" system. "Examination finished" refers to the assessment after the expiration of an official's term of office, and "inspection" refers to the job evaluation of an official during his term of office.

In the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu (1394), the system and mode were basically fixed, and officials in Beiping were not regularly assessed. Local officials go to Beijing once every three years, accept the joint assessment of the official department and the DuchaYuan, and if they find that their achievements are unqualified, they can be dismissed immediately, and there is no hope of "having a look".

The perfection of the two assessment models also enabled Zhu Yuanzhang to gradually establish a complete supervision system, and the every move of state officials was firmly controlled. Another revision of the system in this period was to cancel the Yushitai of the Yuan Dynasty and set up the Daming Duchayuan.

Although they are all imperial censors, compared with imperial censors, Duchayuan has a much greater right to speak, and can inspect places, assess officials and impeach illegal acts.

This change comes down in one continuous line with the changes of "Examination Man" and "Inspection" in Ming Dynasty. The censors with small officials and big powers are like sharp weapons against corruption, which is very convenient and effective to cut off corruption.

After a series of painstaking efforts, Zhu Yuanzhang gradually established a set of supervision system with strict supervision and strong execution after correcting the loopholes in the Yuan Dynasty system. Officials all over the country are already fish on the chopping board, and once they are found to be illegal, they can be taken down immediately.

Third, the anti-corruption storm and the unfair case of raising the flag.

While perfecting the supervision system, from the fourth year of Hongwu (137 1), Zhu Yuanzhang accomplished another thing: streamlining the organization.

Since the beginning of this year, government officials at all levels in the Ming Dynasty have been greatly reduced. By the 13th year of Hongwu (1380), the number of former officials in China had decreased to 55 1 person, and the total number of government officials was five or six thousand.

Almost at the same time, the anti-corruption campaign, which has been heating up, officially broke out in the ninth year of Hongwu (1376): the empty seal case.

The air printing case is known as one of the "four major cases of Hongwu". It was also one of the first major cases in the era of Zhu Yuanzhang.

Ironically, however, the purge that started the anti-corruption storm was completely unfair. The officials involved are not so-called corrupt elements, on the contrary, there are many model figures known for their incorruptibility.

The occurrence of the "empty seal case" originated from a financial system after the founding of the Ming Dynasty: local officials of the Ming Dynasty went to Beijing every year to report the financial accounts of that year to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. The financial statements of local officials must be completely verified with the household department before they can pass the customs.

This seemingly simple thing was extremely chaotic at that time: the financial system of the Ming Dynasty was extremely strict, and even if the financial statements of the household department and local governments were wrong, they had to re-register and declare. It's easier to make a book than to seal it.

Local officials make atlases, stamp them locally, and then check them in Beijing. Once they find something wrong, they have to go back to their place, rebuild the atlas, re-stamp it, and then run to Beijing. In the era when there is no modern means of transportation, this is a desperate turn-back run.

After a long struggle, many clever officials have come up with solutions. Of course, the official seal can't be brought to Beijing, but you can take the official seal first, pre-select several blank photo albums and bring them to Beijing for later use. Once mistakes are found, they can be corrected on the spot, which is very convenient and easy.

Over time, this good experience was popularized and became a well-known hidden rule in the financial work of the Ming Dynasty. It was not until the end of the eighth year of Hongwu (1375) that Zhu Yuanzhang stumbled upon this rule.

For almost everyone, this is not a big deal, at best, it is just a loophole in the rules. One is not corrupt and the other is not corrupt. At best, it is a work mistake. Moreover, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, although the assessment system was strict, Zhu Yuanzhang was always tolerant of work mistakes.

In the past few years, there has been a problem of official dereliction of duty. As long as there is no corruption, the punishment is basically tolerant.

But this time is really different. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious after hearing the news and immediately ordered a strict investigation. I soon figured out the cause and effect. There was a brave civilian, Zheng Shili. He saw big things and had the courage to set up a monument. He made a detour to compensate and pleaded carefully, indicating that officials were also conscientious. Please show mercy.

Who knows that this letter was sent up, thinking about putting out the fire, but it was more like adding fuel to the fire. Zhu Yuanzhang rushed out at once: Zheng Shili, who spoke well, was sent to work as a coolie. The officials involved were even worse: Zhou Su, Minister of the Interior, and the officials who managed the seals of local government organs were both sentenced to death.

All the representatives were fired after being scolded by the staff. After the incident broke out, officials who pleaded in the forum and the heads of the inspection departments in the provinces involved also condemned the crime. Hundreds of officials were sentenced to death throughout the year, and thousands of officials at all levels were convicted for this matter.

What is particularly wrong is that the officials and corrupt officials involved in this incident are very few, and most of them are good officials who work hard.

Among them, there are several well-known anti-corruption pacesetters: a typical example is Fang Keqin, a famous official and magistrate of Jining in the early Ming Dynasty. He managed Jining for three years and turned the originally dilapidated city into a bustling paradise. He has always been praised by people. Just because he was in charge of seals, he was also killed by innocent people. When he died, Jining people were dressed in white clothes and mourned spontaneously.

Zhu Yuanzhang, who haggles over every ounce over this unjust case, is not ignorant of the truth. But in his own words: "It's really cheating to keep it from me. This official is too private, so the Chief Secretary dares to fill in a blank seal, and Shangshu and the Chief Secretary will definitely punish him."

What he is most angry about is not the way he works, but the pain of being cheated under his nose. Take this opportunity to have a big fight just to bully people.

When prestige was established, the next thing became a thunderstorm. Since the ninth year of Hongwu (1376), the crackdown on unhealthy practices in officialdom has become more and more severe day by day, and officials have fallen from the central government to the local government.

This year alone, according to Han Yike's report, more than 10,000 officials in Fengyang have been re-educated through labor for corruption.

And this is just the beginning. In the second year, the post roads connecting various places were crowded with exiled and exiled officials. Even Zhu Yuanzhang himself admitted that there was a shortage of officials in various places this year, and it was not easy to make up a batch, and it was not long before all of them were arrested.

The Ming dynasty is known as the strictest law in history, and its implementation is also very strong: 62 silver is the death penalty, and 120 bribes are banishment. There are many real corrupt officials caught. Only central officials, such as Zhao Yi, Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and Han Duo, Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Industry, were sentenced to death one after another, and a large number of corrupt officials were arrested in the local area, including many who committed the most heinous crimes: for example, Daming sentenced Liu Rulin to blackmail the people, was found guilty and executed, and Fujian Minister Chen Tai went to the countryside to disturb the people and was caught in the capital and beheaded.

Bobby Chen, the champion of the new department, and other three people went to the flood-stricken area in Kunshan, where they had a meal with the local gentry and received a gift of more than 1,000 yuan. Without saying anything, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately sent a rope from the Royal Guards and ordered them to commit suicide. In Linhuai and Songshan counties, local officials took bribes and forced others to work hard. After the incident, Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand and said: Officials from both counties will be executed!

In this way, a vigorous action to punish corruption was launched throughout the country. At that time, land temples everywhere were used to execute corrupt officials. The execution method is "peeling and filling grass". If a person is killed, he will peel the skin, stuffed the grass into a specimen and put it in the yamen to warn others.

During this period, the Hu case appeared, and a large number of heroes were rectified, and the dynasty was up and down, and the blood flowed into the river.

The continuous purge storm, after the nine-year case of Hongwu, gradually subsided for a time. By the time Hongwu was about 16 years old, the wind was getting loose. In the seventeenth year of Hongwu (1384), Zhu Yuanzhang set up a three-law department, and even formulated "eight things for state and county officials" as the administrative criterion for local officials.

Major crimes have been committed, corrupt officials have been killed, rules have been established, and the terrible storm of punishing corruption seems to have passed.

However, in the eighteenth year of Hongwu (1385), on the ninth day of January, the official department reported the results of the official assessment. Of the more than 4,000 officials in China, only 439 are competent, and more than 170 are corrupt. This low proportion once again aroused Zhu Yuanzhang's great anger.

Soon after, he once again announced his determination to fight corruption with a new proclamation: I have been in power for 18 years, and I am dedicated to appointing talents and creating a prosperous time. However, most local officials are incompetent, and many officials collude inside and outside to corrupt and harm the people. How can I not worry about such a situation?

So the ambitious Zhu Yuanzhang once again launched an unprecedented anti-corruption purge: the Guo Huan case.

Compared with the empty printing cases in which many innocent officials were lying with guns, the Guo Huan case was not too unjust: in March this year, Yu Min and others reported the corruption of Guo Huan, assistant minister of the Ministry of War, and Zhu Yuanzhang immediately pursued him again. Sure enough, he found a great harvest: others not only embezzled more than 40 million mangoku grain, but also colluded with each other, involving Wang Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment, Assistant Minister of the Ministry of War and Mai Zhide.

In addition, Guo Huan himself accepted local bribes to help local landlords evade state taxes and embezzle state money and food. After several days of investigation, the case became more and more serious.

But Zhu Yuanzhang is really not afraid of big things. Since he wants to investigate, he should dig deep into his roots. As a result, not only the big moths in the imperial court were dug up, but also the hidden rules of local corruption were dug up: these people colluded with each other and made excuses to extort taxes every year. There are more than ten kinds of tricks, not to mention.

It also helped powerful landlords to annex land, which led to the bankruptcy of a large number of farmers.

It was clear that Zhu Yuanzhang handled it quickly: all the principal criminals involved in the six central departments were executed. The principal criminals of these four departments, Mai Zhide and Wang, were all sentenced to death, not to mention that six officials involved in this matter were executed.

This was the most shocking earthquake in the official history of the Ming Dynasty: at this time, Hu had been brought to justice, the prime minister system had been abolished, and Liubu was the highest organ of the Ming government. As a result, almost all senior officials were killed.

Grassroots officials are naturally not immune. Starting from the six departments, all the prefectures, counties and townships searched all the way to find out who was doing who, and even the rich gentry and landlords who colluded with them at the local level were punished.

Such as the Xia family in Guixi and the Yao family in Suzhou, these famous local landlords were all beheaded. Before and after, the number of people sentenced to death in the whole case was as high as 30 thousand.

It is also because this case has caused a lot of noise. It happened in the economically rich south of the Yangtze River, which made the local people afraid, and many rich people complained to them. At first glance, they were almost killed.

Zhu Yuanzhang also used a special method to close the case: the case was tried from beginning to end, and Wu Yong, who was sentenced to tens of thousands of right trials, was also executed by Zhu Yuanzhang. The charge is too much involvement and disturbing the people.

Compared with the "empty seal case" of "Liwei", there are more Guo Huan cases, which have a deeper meaning: before the Guo Huan case, although the Ming Dynasty made great efforts to control corruption and punished many corrupt elements, they all caught one out. This time, Zhu Yuanzhang's purge pointed to an intricate corruption system: the threat of the powerful landlords in the south of the Yangtze River has always made Zhu Yuanzhang a big head.

After the landlord's prestige was destroyed, Wu Yong was used as a scapegoat to appease the people. But at the same time, another action of Zhu Yuanzhang was launched vigorously: mobilizing the masses.

In October of this year, Zhu Yuanzhang's preface "Imperial Decree" was issued nationwide. This legal classic explains various legal provisions with vivid cases, and includes all kinds of corruption cases that have occurred all over the country since Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne. Moreover, the writing is mainly in vernacular, which is easy to understand.

Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that all people, especially farmers, should have a gown. If they can't read, find the venerable old people in each village and call everyone together to give lectures, read books and study on the spot. Even prisoners in prison can get a reduced sentence if they read this well.

What is particularly severe is that as long as ordinary people find officials corrupt, they can tie them up and send them to Beijing for punishment. One of them really did it: a farmer named Chen tied corrupt elements to the capital and was praised by the whole country.

This incident also reflects Zhu Yuanzhang's ultimate goal: he not only hates corruption, but also devotes himself to building an ideal world.

So he has been moving all his life, and with the storm of corruption, the prestige of officials and landlords has been swept away. Then it is stipulated that officials should not go to the countryside easily, and the countryside is managed by respected elders. Moreover, every village has old people walking around the streets every day to convey Zhu Yuanzhang's instructions. This is exactly what he thinks of as "Daming New Countryside".

Corresponding to the upsurge of "big high" in schools all over the country, it is a more violent storm to punish corruption. After the Guo Huan case, in the last twelve years of his ruling career, the anti-corruption efforts have never been relaxed. From the eighteenth year of Hongwu to the twenty-eighth year of Hongwu, it was the climax of his anti-corruption storm, and a large number of officials were unfortunately dismissed every year.

At this time, his spearhead, taking the opportunity of the aquamarine case, was aimed at Yu Yingde, such as Fu Youde. His main crime was convicted and capital punishment could not be separated from the word "greed".

The continuous purge has also become a nightmare of officialdom. For example, none of the local officials in Jiangxi and other places can safely complete their term of office in this decade. According to many accounts of unofficial history, in his last ten years in power, he almost killed people every day.

What is even more fantastic is that at that time, as long as Zhu Yuanzhang wore a jade belt around his waist every day, more people were killed, and if he wore a jade belt around his waist, fewer people could be killed. Although the rumors are not credible. But the real record is that officials go to work every morning and come back safely at night, and the whole family is as happy as a holiday-happy to live one more day.

Under such a purgatory encirclement and suppression, although many corrupt officials were killed, they also accompanied many honest officials. In addition to many murders in the air-printed case, Teng Demao, a famous minister and honest official of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, was also involved in the corruption case because of the defendant's allegations, accused of "stealing the canteen" and was unjustly killed.

When things passed, Zhu Yuanzhang once went to Teng Demao's house and found that Teng Demao was extremely poor. Then he peeled off Teng Demao's body and found that there were only weeds and no grains in his stomach. Only then did he realize that he had made a mistake.

The reasons for similar unjust cases are not only too much involvement, but also the extreme character of Zhu Yuanzhang in his later years: his character became more and more violent in his later years, especially after the death of Prince Zhu Biao and his wife Ma Huanghou, and he handled similar cases quickly and ruthlessly.

As a result, many people regard being an official as a kind of fear, and many scholars who have handed down poems and books do not let their children study in order to avoid being an official. In order to retire safely, many officials left their official positions, pretending to be crazy and selling stupidity, and only asking Zhu Yuanzhang to let himself go home to support the elderly.

Typical, such as suggestion Yuan Kai, pretended to be crazy and sold stupidly for retirement, chewed dog shit in front of Zhu Yuanzhang's emissary, performed hard and finally returned to China. According to the Ming History, during the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty more than 20 years later, many officials who had experienced that era recalled the blood shed and were still dying.

Fourth, criticism cannot hide great achievements.

Zhu Yuanzhang's anti-corruption storm, despite all kinds of problems, has also attracted constant debate. But no matter how many stains there are, it is difficult to hide its impressive achievements.

After several massive anti-corruption storms, the pernicious influence of corruption at the end of Yuan Dynasty finally began to be scraped off in the land of Ming Dynasty.

The commendatory meaning in Notes on Twenty-four Histories is "correcting the merits of a generation". In the second half of Zhu Yuanzhang's rule, according to Ming history, even in the backcountry where the sky was high and the emperor was far away, officials did not dare to run amok. A group of honest officials appeared.

It is this clear official management that laid the foundation for the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty for a hundred years.

In particular, the most direct impact was the economic construction of the Ming Dynasty in the past 30 years, which spread at the same time as the anti-corruption storm: during Zhu Yuanzhang's 30 years in power, he built water conservancy projects, built post stations, and even used hundreds of thousands of Hongwu immigrants. Everything is an unprecedented project in the ancient history of China.

Such a huge human resource can be safely completed without all kinds of turmoil. An important reason is clean government. On the basis of the ruins of the founding of the People's Republic of China, it took the Ming Dynasty 30 years to achieve economic take-off and create a prosperous and peaceful Hongwu. This controversial storm of punishing corruption is really an important booster.