At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

You don't need to give it the fourth time to save face, right?

Emperor, what does this mean?

The whole Luoyang officialdom felt that this was very strange.

Of course Zaoyi was also confused, as was the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Zhuge Jin studied this matter for a day and a night but couldn't figure out why.

"According to the usual practice, after three times of persuasion, it is easy to agree. Why did the emperor refute the fourth time of begging for bones?"

Zaozhi frowned and sat in front of the case, thinking carefully, preparing to beg for bones for the fifth time, to test the emperor's thoughts.

"I'll go to the fifth table. I should know what the Son of Heaven means."

So Zaozhi personally wrote his fifth petition and handed it to the palace for the emperor.

Then it was dismissed again.

The emperor expressed sincerely that he could not do without the assistance of Yuan Cong's veteran minister, and there is no one who can succeed Zaoyi as the Minister of Civil Affairs at the moment, so he hopes that Zaozhi will continue to contribute.

Zhuge Jin felt something was wrong.

"Butang, this is wrong. The emperor asked Cheng Zhongde to review the Ministry of Civil Affairs and at the same time refused to let you resign. What does this mean?"

Zao just thought about it, and the more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt.

"The power of the sky is unpredictable. No matter what, I can only respond to all changes by remaining unchanged. I will continue to make a statement."

Zaoyi leaned over his desk and wrote the sixth statement—maybe he didn't even notice that the sixth statement no longer had the sincere feeling of the first five expressions, but instead carried a little begging meaning.

This time the emperor did not reject his petition, but he did not reply either, as if the memorial had not been delivered to the palace.

Three days later, Zaoyi was puzzled, so he sent someone to ask, and when he came back, he said that the memorial table had indeed been handed over to the palace and sent to the emperor. As for how the emperor would deal with it, they dared not speculate.

Anyway, they definitely handed over the playlist according to the procedure.

This is very problematic.

Zao Zhi panicked from bewilderment to panic, and even felt a little scared.

He didn't know that when Guo Jin received his sixth petition, she was very happy.

At that time, Guo Jin was checking the list with Cheng Yu.

"Finally, I'm afraid. Before, he was negotiating with me like a famous minister in the world. What? The Ministry of Civil Affairs is his private property? How can he use it to negotiate with me? I think he has been a minister for too long. I can't tell the difference between superior and inferior!"

Cheng Yu sighed as he watched Guo Jin's expression of joy of revenge.

"What your Majesty said is that he has been the secretary of the Ministry of Civil Affairs for too long, and he is used to being superior. He mistakenly believes that the Ministry of Civil Affairs is really up to him. For this kind of person, we must let him recognize the reality."

"That's right, Mr. Zhongde's words are most in line with my wishes, so how should Mr. Zhongde think this matter should be handled?"

Guo Jin casually threw Zaozhi's petition form on the ground for someone to burn, and asked Cheng Yu again with a nonchalant expression.

Chapter 1577 One thousand four hundred and ninety seven is both misfortune and great fortune

Facing the emperor's seemingly intentional or unintentional questioning, Cheng Yu sat upright without changing his expression.

He even survived the tests of Guo Peng. To be honest, he was not afraid of Guo Jin's questioning at all.

Although Guo Jin is similar to Guo Peng in various senses, Cheng Yu can most clearly feel that Guo Jin's behavior is imitating Guo Peng.

A kind of homage to parody.

His words and deeds can be seen to have a strong taste of Guo Peng. Many things he has done have been done by Guo Peng.

Of course, he is not Guo Peng, he is not as good as Guo Peng, and he is not as good as Guo Peng in every sense.

After ten years in Yande, Guo Peng has reached the pinnacle of power. He can do whatever he wants, and no one dares to disobey him. That is the moment when his prestige reaches the pinnacle. .

Guo Jin was only using Guo Peng's remaining prestige and his knife in Guo Peng's hand to do things.

If Guo Peng was dead, he would be dead too. In the first and second years of Xingyuan, Guo Jin's situation is definitely not just the current level.

The power taken away by the emperor, the ministers are thinking about taking it back all the time.

Throughout history, the time that this power has been held by a prince and monarch alone is far less than the time held by powerful officials.

For most of history, this power was divided and controlled by interest groups among the ruling class, rather than the emperor alone.

There are only a handful of emperors, or rulers, who can be called centralized.

After all that was horrible.

The imperial court, or the group of officials, is actually very opposed to the centralization of the monarchy in this system.

Even in a centralized emperor, there are different moments in his life.

Sometimes he has to share power with the dignitaries and officials, and sometimes he can be dictatorial alone.

In Guo Peng's 13 years as emperor, what he mastered at the beginning was military power and the ability to turn tables.

Then he took control of the political power step by step, then overthrew the gentry and took over the right to education, and finally completed the reform at the economic level, established his unique authority through the great rebellion, and wiped out all opponents.

At that time, Yande had been ten years old, and he had only been a dictatorial emperor for three years.

That is, in the past three years, the coercion and despair Guo Peng brought to everyone was unprecedented.

I don't know if there is no end, but in the past three years, every person in the ruling class can feel the terrifying coercion from the emperor.

That kind of coercion makes those courtiers who have experienced it unforgettable.

So when Guo Jin got angry, the officials immediately thought of Guo Peng's angry appearance, and they were instantly timid, and they knelt down and sang conquering.

It's hard to say that it's not because they were terrified by Guo Peng.

Then Guo Peng chose to abdicate and handed over the throne to Guo Jin. Guo Jin took advantage of Guo Peng's residual prestige to successfully ascend the throne, rectified the military power, regime and financial power, and gradually secured the throne.

Guo Peng's secret promotion and help was indispensable for this. Without Guo Peng's careful preparation, the handover of the throne would never have been so smooth.

Under such circumstances, if Guo Jin could not sit firmly on the throne, it would really be a waste of Guo Peng's training for so many years.

Fortunately, his actions are still qualified, he is a qualified emperor from Guo Peng's point of view, and he can be regarded as an excellent emperor in other dynasties.

However, as a person who followed Guo Peng all the way through the whole journey of the Guo Wei Empire from budding to prosperity, Cheng Yu felt from the bottom of his heart that Guo Jin was far inferior to Guo Peng.

After all, he has never experienced the things that Guo Peng experienced, and he is not as sharp as Guo Peng in terms of looking at things. In order to accomplish something, Guo Peng can prepare for it years or even ten years in advance, and he, probably It is impossible.

Of course, Guo Jin cannot be blamed for this kind of thing, as the environment in which he grew up was like this.

The general environment does not require him to charge into battle and fight bloody battles. The general environment requires him to live in peace and stability, to take over power in a stable manner, and to continue the Guowei Empire in a stable and stable manner.

Guo Peng has done enough. If he can continue to do all this well, it will be very good, and there is no other demand.

So in Cheng Yu's view, Guo Jin, as Guo Peng's successor, is already good enough.

The successors that Guo Peng has cultivated for the empire with all his heart and soul are good enough. If they are better, they cannot be cultivated, it depends on talent.

Just like Lu Zhi also had many students, why did only Guo Peng survive to become emperor in the end?

Cheng Yu never expected that Guo Jin could surpass Guo Peng. He only needed to exercise power in a stable manner to allow the Wei Empire to survive in a stable way, and not to do anything to shake the foundation of the country, that's enough.

Cheng Yu seemed very familiar with what he was doing now.

This is what Guo Peng has done.

Other courtiers might have a sense of fear for Guo Jin who was in a rage, but Cheng Yu would not.

It is both unfortunate and fortunate that Guo Jin is not the second Guo Peng.

The Wei Empire was just an empire, and it couldn't afford a second emperor who would say something like [If the Wei country can't feed its people, it should perish].

After calming down, Cheng Yu answered Guo Jin's question respectfully.

"Your Majesty should severely punish Zaoyi and tell the senior ministers in the court not to try to use their seniority to negotiate with His Majesty. They are ministers, ministers, and cannot blackmail the monarch. This is the duty of a minister.

Therefore, no matter how senior they are, no matter how old they are, they cannot do such a thing. "

Guo Jin nodded with great satisfaction, appreciating Cheng Yu even more.

This treasure knife is really easy to use!

Just a little old.

Will we be able to find an equally useful sword in the future?

He had such thoughts.

"Well, yes, the words of Mr. Zhongde won my heart. My magnanimity is not something they rely on to commit crimes below! Mr. Zhongde, strictly investigate the Ministry of Civil Affairs! After that, it can be appropriately expanded to the rest of the departments...except for the academic department."

"Sir, obey the order."

Cheng Yu nodded in agreement.

He knew what he had to do.

Soon, from the middle of June to the first ten days of July, Cheng Yu made a rapid attack and blossomed in more places.

After defeating the Ministry of Civil Affairs with one blow, he chased after him fiercely, went to the Ministry of Civil Affairs three times in a row to take people, and took away one-fifth of the central officials and officials of the Ministry of Civil Affairs in one go, which caused a huge shock to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

For seven or eight days in a row, every day, the pawns of Captain Sili entered the office of the Ministry of Civil Affairs armed with weapons, declared the charges very cleanly, and then took the person with Tiesuo, without giving anyone a chance to quibble.

Not only that, Cheng Yu also arrested more than [-] corrupt officials from the Ministry of War, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Officials, Ministry of Rites, Ministry of Industry and other court departments through the profit chain of corrupt officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Shi Tai.

The pawns of Sili Xiaowei's mansion attacked in an all-round way, showing their power and prestige, which made the entire Luoyang court tremble with fear, and all the high officials and low officials were silent.

All the officials who were arrested were sent to imperial prisons, tortured and interrogated, and their chain of interests was further interrogated.

The torture specialists in the prison used all the techniques they had studied for many years at one go. All eighteen torture styles were put on the table, and they were used one by one, so that these prisoners could not survive or die.

Basically, there are not many people who can handle the first six moves, and those who can handle the first six moves are regarded as heroes among criminals.

In all fairness, these punishments are unbearable even for the interrogators themselves, let alone these prisoners.

Ever since, the tendency of this group to expand the clean government storm in one breath scared the court officials. They instantly remembered what Guo Peng had done back then, and remembered their despair and helplessness at that time.

When the central officials were like this, the local officials around Luoyang City were also shocked and restless when they heard about it.

Among them, the most frightened one was of course the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which received the most people.

The affairs system of the Ministry of Civil Affairs was nearly paralyzed and unable to handle affairs. A large number of government affairs were piled up in the official office of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and could not be handled. The entire imperial court was in a certain degree of disorder.

Guo Jin dispatched the assistant ministers in the cabinet who were in charge of communicating with the Ministry of Civil Affairs and their subordinates to the Ministry of Civil Affairs for accountability.

He angrily reprimanded Zaoyi, and strictly ordered Zaoyi to restore the normal operation of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and to deal with daily government affairs with all his strength. If he could not, he would be severely punished.

This is quite embarrassing.

But it doesn't matter, Guo Jin just wants to make things difficult for others.

Zaozhi, with a pale face, led a group of trembling officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs to catch up with the progress of the work under the supervision of cabinet officials. They worked overtime for several days and couldn't go home.

The normal operation of the court was barely maintained.

During this process, people from various departments were constantly taken away by Cheng Yu for investigation. Few people could return to the government to do business safely. Those who could go back were simply the chosen ones.

In less than half a month, the third department worked overtime and interrogated the criminals around the clock, and upheld Guo Jin's will and sentenced 38 officials to death.

The ransacking operation was also in full swing, and all kinds of stolen goods such as gold, silver and jewelry were transported to the treasury in boxes. The huge amount of stolen goods made the crimes of these corrupt officials known to the world.

It is true that Guo Jin set off this clean government storm to attack Zaoyi and the opposition forces, but when he found out that the amount of corruption of these officials was so huge, he was also outraged.

[It has been less than two years since the Supreme Emperor abdicated, and official corruption has become a common practice!Do all the ministers think that my sword is not good? 】

Guo Jin personally wrote this warrant, and ordered the cabinet to distribute it to various departments of the imperial court to vent his anger.

In order to warn the ministers, Guo Jin ordered the public beheading of 38 death penalty officials as soon as possible.

The men in their families were assigned as coolies, and they were not pardoned when things happened, and all the female relatives were sold, or served as slaves in the teaching workshop.

The 38 bloody heads indicated that the emperor's anger was completely ignited, and this clean government storm, which itself was a political action, seemed to be developing in the direction of a real clean government storm.

This was beyond everyone's expectations, including Guo Jin.

Chapter 1578 One thousand four hundred and ninety-eight murders without killing one's heart is equivalent to doing nothing