Chapter 1: Just after traveling through the Ming Dynasty, I’m about to be beheaded?
Ming Dynasty, the third year of Hongwu, Nanjing, Censorate.

Chu Nan felt that he must be the most miserable time traveler in history, because he was about to be beheaded as soon as he traveled to the Ming Dynasty.

At this moment, the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was sitting in the center of the Censorate, with the Crown Prince Zhu Biao and the Censorate's Censor Liu Bowen standing beside him.

In front of him, kneeling were a dozen officials from the Censorate, who were responsible for supervising officials in the Southern Zhili region. They were all trembling with fear on their faces.

"You are neglecting your duties!" Zhu Yuanzhang was furious at this moment and scolded the officials of the Censorate in front of him.

"The Censorate has the power to monitor all officials, and it also has the responsibility to impeach treacherous officials and investigate corrupt officials!"

"But it turns out that such a serious corruption case has occurred right here in Nanjing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, right under the feet of the emperor. You, the people in charge of monitoring the Nanzhili region, were completely unaware of it. It was only discovered by me personally!"

"You guys are just sitting there doing nothing. You always say you are busy with official duties, but what are you busy with now? What use do I have for you?"

It turned out that a few days ago, Zhu Yuanzhang was inspecting the governance of Chuzhou near Jinling, but unexpectedly, he met a group of poor people who stopped him in the street to file a complaint.

He sued the prefect of Chuzhou for corruption, bribery, and exploitation of the people.

But when he saw this scene, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that it should not be a big deal.

After all, he punished corrupt officials severely, and anyone who embezzled 60 taels of silver would be beheaded.

Chuzhou is right next to Jinling, and the prefect of Chuzhou is a fifth-rank official. What could he have embezzled?

What we eat every day are nothing more than cheese buns, milk tea, spring rolls and so on.

But when Zhu Yuanzhang issued an order to conduct a strict investigation of the prefect of Chuzhou, he was shocked.

Because what the prefect ate was actually boiled pearls in clear water and braised red shrimps in golden sauce!
The annual salary of a prefect was only a few hundred taels of silver, but within one year in office, he had embezzled a total of 100,000 taels by exploiting the people!

The people of Chuzhou were living in misery, with starving people and countless bones everywhere. It was like purgatory.

Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and issued an order to exterminate the prefect's entire clan!

Although Zhizhou died, the miserable plight of the people of Chuzhou could not be dispelled from his mind for a long time.

He knew very well that there was definitely more than one corrupt official in the Ming Dynasty.

He also understood more clearly that the Ming Dynasty had just been established, the treasury was empty, and the people were poor. If the problem of corruption was not solved, sooner or later the people would rebel and the Ming Dynasty would perish!
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got, so he went straight to the Censorate. Then he thought about how such a corrupt official had appeared near Nanjing, and the people in the Censorate didn't even know about it, and he immediately became furious.

"You bunch of useless people, I asked you to supervise all officials, but there is a corrupt official in Jinling who is bullying the people, and you are totally unaware of it! In those places far away from the emperor, the people don't know what has happened to them because of corrupt officials!"

"Hurry up and think of a way for me to govern the officials of this world and stop them from being corrupt! If you can't come up with one, you will be useless to me!"

"I will push you out and kill you all!"

"This..." After hearing this, all the officials in the Censorate were terrified.

Zhu Yuanzhang’s punishment for corrupt officials was so harsh that those who embezzled 60 taels of silver would be beheaded, and some would even be skinned and stuffed with straw, and their property would be confiscated and their entire family would be exterminated!
If such strict measures cannot stop corruption, what else can they do?

At this moment, Chu Nan has completely digested the original owner's memories.

The original owner was nineteen years old. His father died in the war against Yuan Dynasty, so he was blessed by his father and entered the Censorate.

The original owner had no real talent or knowledge and was just muddling through in the Censorate, but Chu Nan thought that this was fine. The Hongwu Dynasty was too dangerous and it was fine to just muddle through, so he planned to live this way.

But who would have known that the original owner was fine before, but would be beheaded as soon as he came through.

Zhu Yuanzhang's problem is a problem that every dynasty will encounter, but did anyone solve it during the Han, Tang, and Song dynasties? How is it possible for the world to be free of corruption?
Zhu Yuanzhang himself couldn't solve this problem, so he asked officials to solve it? Isn't this asking too much?
Asking these Ming officials to come up with a solution is like Hydra asking Benboba to get rid of Tang Seng and his disciples.

These officials have really encountered unexpected disasters, and they have also been implicated. Who can they turn to for justice?
"Your Majesty..." Liu Bowen was the head of the Censorate and a kind-hearted man. When he heard that Zhu Yuanzhang was going to kill so many of his men, he pleaded for mercy.

"The Censorate..."

"Shut up!" But before he could finish his words, Zhu Yuanzhang grabbed him.

“Father…” Zhu Biao also pleaded for mercy when he saw it.

"You too shut up!" Similarly, before he could even finish his words, he was stopped by Zhu Yuanzhang.

“This…” All the officials in the Censorate below turned pale.

It’s useless for the Crown Prince and Liu Bowen to plead for mercy, so they are really going to die.

"Is there no solution yet?" Zhu Yuanzhang's furious voice soon rang out again. Seeing that no one answered, he chose to call out names one by one.

He looked at a middle-aged official kneeling in front of him and said, "Tell me your method!"

“Your Majesty…” The middle-aged official didn’t expect that he would be the first person to ask the question, so he answered cautiously.

"I think that we should educate officials all over the country and tell them the severity of the punishment for corruption, so that they can cleanse their hearts, learn to love the people like their own children, and refuse bribes!"

What? Chu Nan was stunned when he heard the official’s answer.

Does this official have no real talent or is he just frightened silly?

Corrupt officials live a comfortable life with gold, silver, beauties, wine, meat and silk. Can you make them let go of that by just doing ideological work?

"You are probably stupid!" Sure enough, Zhu Yuanzhang became furious when he heard it.

"My harsh punishments are useless, but ideological work is useful?"

"How did you get into the Censorate without any real talent or knowledge? I will kill all five of your clans!"

“What!” The official was petrified. How did it change from beheading to exterminating the entire clan?

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't care and looked at another official in his thirties: "You say!"

"Your Majesty..." The official was terrified when he saw the official next to him who had turned into stone. He didn't want his entire clan to be exterminated, so he answered while suppressing his trembling.

"Your Majesty, I think we should send high-ranking officials from the imperial court to monitor local officials. With someone to supervise them, I believe these corrupt officials will not dare to embezzle, and the problem of corrupt officials can be solved."

Can not be done.

But after listening to what the official said, Chu Nan shook his head and said that someone had used your method before, but it was useless.

"Stupid!" Sure enough, after hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang's face became even uglier!

"Wouldn't those corrupt officials bribe the high-ranking officials who were sent to monitor the court and then join in the corruption?"

"You're useless, you six clans!"

"What!" The official was immediately devastated. He got six clans?

“This, this…” Seeing this situation, the other officials trembled in fear and were about to explode.

This is the consequence of answering the wrong question. Who dares to answer it? Moreover, they really can't think of a way to solve it.

But Zhu Yuanzhang obviously did not intend to let them go, and directly pointed out three more people.

"You, you, you, answer."

"This..." The three people were stunned. Why was it their turn?

Moreover, they had seen what happened to the two people before them, so at this moment their mentality had completely collapsed due to fear.

When he saw Zhu Yuanzhang asking questions, his mind went blank.

"Your Majesty, I don't know!"

"Your Majesty, it was my father who asked me to come here to work. My father never told me to answer these questions."

"This..." Chu Nan was shocked. These two big brothers had no intention of living.

Sure enough, Zhu Yuanzhang's face darkened: "You two, eight clans."

"Your Majesty!" But the last person seemed to have a stronger mentality and said a lot in one breath.

"I think the old saying is right: when you are well fed and warm, you will long for silver and jade. So, I think we should first improve the treatment of these corrupt officials so that they can have enough food and warm clothes."

"Then give every corrupt official in the world a woman. They will become addicted to women and unable to extricate themselves, thus forgetting about corruption and not exploiting the people."

"I think this method is really a good idea. Your Majesty, please implement it immediately. I am willing to take the responsibility of selecting fair-skinned and beautiful women for these corrupt officials and strictly control the quality and quantity."

(End of this chapter)