What happened to the Guo Huan case in the Ming Dynasty?

What happened to the Guo Huan case in the Ming Dynasty? Why are so many people involved?

In the history of China, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty is a legend. From the grassroots to the emperor, it can be said that he can feel the sufferings of the people the most and hates corruption the most. This can also be seen from the case of Guo Huan, one of the four major cases of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty, who killed 890,000 people. What's going on here?

It happened in March of the 18th year of Hongwu (1385). Yu Min and Ding Tingju wrote to the emperor that Guo Huan, assistant minister of the Ministry of Finance, used his power to steal the state grain depot and embezzled state taxes with other local officials, which was a very serious corruption. Zhu Yuanzhang heard the news and immediately asked Wu Yong, the criminal officer, to investigate the case. After some investigation, Wu Yong reported the results of the investigation to the emperor, and Zhu Yuanzhang was surprised.

This case is called "Guo Huan case", which is one of the four major cases of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty and the largest corruption case in the history of the Ming Dynasty! Generally speaking, the "Guo Huan case" has two characteristics: First, the amount involved is extremely huge; Second, the officials involved are extremely extensive. Say the amount first. The official figure released by the Ming Dynasty is "seven million mangokus were stolen from official grain", but Zhu Yuanzhang clearly wrote in "Grand View" that "* * * is more than 24 million flour and rice".

What is the concept of more than 24 million flour and rice? According to the standards formulated in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, "a banknote is an ingot, and a stone is broken; One or two gold, ten stones; One or two silvers, two stones ",which is equivalent to120,000 more than two silvers. So what is the salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty? In the thirteenth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang formulated the salary standard for officials, saying that "from 1234 officials to 1000 to 300 stones, each step decreases 100 stones". In other words, the highest genuine annual salary is only 1000 stone.

Guo Huan is only an official of the highest standard, with an annual salary of only 600 stone. There are also two kinds of views, one is equivalent to the autumn grain income of the Ming Dynasty, and the other is equivalent to the financial income of the Ming Dynasty. In either case, it shows that the amount involved in the Guo Huan case is extremely huge.

Let's talk about the second point first. The officials involved are extremely extensive. The main officials involved in the "Guo Huan case" are Zhao Xie, the minister of justice, Wang, the minister of war, Mai Zhide, the assistant minister of war, and all officials below the assistant minister. In addition, there are officials of the chief secretaries of China 12 provinces, as well as officials of local prefectures and counties. Zhu Yuanzhang was very angry at the result. He said: "Alas, there is greed in ancient and modern times!"

In the face of so many officials involved, Zhu Yuanzhang did not have the idea of "the law does not blame the public". The punishment result for these people is only one word-kill! So how many officials were killed? According to historical records, "since the death of about six ministers, seven million have been stolen, and even tens of thousands of provincial officials have died."

So how many officials were there in the early Ming Dynasty? There is a saying that it is around twenty-eight thousand. In addition to officials, many small officials were killed in the Guo Huan case. After this case, all ministerial levels have become "one-man army", which is probably unprecedented in world history.

Zhu Yuanzhang's thunderous suppression of officialdom did have a very good effect. At that time, he was called "the official of the county guard. Although he lived in a poor place, he went to the capital more than 10,000 miles away, and he was completely frightened, as if the gods were above him, and he dared not be less." "He was afraid of the law for a while." Lead an honest and clean life and love the people. In order to be a finger, the official management has changed. Different people have different opinions, and the wise have different opinions. The people are happy and the officials have clarified it for more than a hundred years. "

In this case, many officials were killed unjustly. In order to quell public anger, Zhu Yuanzhang had to find a "scapegoat" to take the blame for him. Looking for this "Lei", he had to hand it over to Wu Yong, the chief procurator of the state procuratorate who reviewed the case. Later, Wu Yong could not escape the death penalty. I can't help it. There has been a saying since ancient times: "You want me to die, I have to die."