The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 470

The Six Ministries were an extremely special entity in the entire imperial court and even the entire Ming Dynasty.

Since Emperor Hongwu Zhu Yuanzhang allowed the practice of reporting rumors upon hearing rumors, the officials of the Six Ministries became the ones who supervised all officials. The so-called "reporting rumors upon hearing rumors" means that as long as they heard some news or rumors, without any evidence, the officials of the Six Ministries could impeach any official in the court.

As for collecting evidence and investigating these officials, that was the responsibility of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Was the existence of the Six Ministries necessary? Of course it was. Zhu Yuanzhang established the Six Ministries in the sixth year of the Hongwu reign. At that time, the basic body of officials in the entire Ming Dynasty was a legacy of the former Yuan Dynasty.

The officials left over from the former Yuan dynasty were the ones who exploited the people at every level. Zhu Yuanzhang's family was exploited by these officials to the point that they could no longer survive.

Zhu Yuanzhang knew all too well what kind of people the officials of the entire Ming Dynasty were.

If we kill them all, there might be some innocent people, but not too many.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang granted the Six Ministries the authority to report matters upon hearing rumors. Zhu Yuanzhang was well aware that these officials of the Six Ministries could impeach at will, and there was basically no wrongdoing. There might be wrong charges against them, but the person being impeached was not necessarily innocent.

Of course, since its establishment, the officials who entered the Six Departments were all truly upright officials, not those who were only nominally upright. Although all the officials in the Six Departments had low ranks, their salaries were three ranks higher.

In addition, the officials of the Six Departments basically did not need to engage in personal relationships or have many extra expenses, and their salaries were enough to support their families.

Even if the officials of the Six Ministries wanted to accept bribes, they wouldn't dare, because each of them had offended a large number of court officials. In the eyes of those powerful figures in the court, these officials of the Six Ministries were like mad dogs, who could only be guided and used, and should never be considered for personal use.

If any official in the Six Ministries were to collude with any official in the court, he would first be impeached by his colleagues, and then impeached to death by the officials who had committed the crimes against him.

In this situation, officials in the Sixth Section rarely collude with other officials. They simply do their jobs well. Even if they impeach other officials harshly, as long as they are upright and have no dirt on them, no one can do anything to them.

At every court assembly, officials from the Six Ministries would impeach Zhou Chu, as Zhou Chu was a prominent figure who attracted attention. However, among the Six Ministries, only a minority impeached Zhou Chu, since he made his fortunes on the side, mostly by taking what he could when he was in Jiangnan and ransacking houses.

The main purpose was to put Jiajing's mind at ease.

The Sixth Division was largely unaware of this part, since Zhou Chu had taken most of the money secretly under the guise of robbing Japanese pirates. He hadn't taken a single penny of the money from the blatant confiscations.

Therefore, on the surface, Zhou Chu was basically flawless in his official conduct, and he did not engage in factionalism or corruption. Countless officials wanted to curry favor with Zhou Chu, but could not find a way to do so.

These officials from the six departments all knew about it.

The officials promoted by Zhou Chu, whether it was Yan Song or Zhang Cong, one in Jiangnan and the other in Southern Zhili, performed their duties exceptionally well.

Although Yan Song was corrupt and many officials in Jiangnan Province tried to curry favor with him, these were all Yan Song's problems and did not apply to Zhou Chu.

To say that Zhou Chu persecuted loyal officials, regardless of what happened in Jiangnan, just look at the officials investigated in the capital. Each case was supported by ample evidence, so it's impossible to say that he persecuted loyal officials.

The real persecution of loyal officials was like that of Liu Jin in the previous dynasty, whose adopted sons were all incompetent and targeted whomever offended them, not entirely out of the emperor's interest.

There's nothing that can be done about it. Once a forest gets big, you'll find all sorts of birds. It's often unavoidable. Or perhaps people like Liu Jin, once they reach that position, enjoy that state and don't really want to avoid it.