At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, bureaucracy was corrupt, so that after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Ming Taizu attached great importance to political style. On the one hand, he advocates honesty and requires officials at all levels to abide by the law, be honest and love the people. On the other hand, officials who break the law will be severely punished to prevent officials from corruption. If an official commits corruption, he will be punished by peeling. Before the case broke out, there were empty sound cases and Hu cases. In order to solve the problem of officials' corruption, Ming Taizu gradually adopted the method of extra-judicial punishment, which became more and more serious, and set up a Royal Guards to strengthen the monitoring of officials. He once lamented: "I only don't know morality, and the way to control the royal family is exhausted!" .
In the eighteenth year of Hongwu (1385), it was suspected that the then secretary of propaganda and deployment in Beiping had conspired with the sentenced secretary of provincial judges Zhao and assistant minister of the Ministry of Finance, and an investigation was ordered. In March of the same year, Yu Min and Ding Tingju reported that they used their powers to collude with corrupt officials such as Zhao, Zhao and Wang Daoheng. These matters are as follows:
Embezzlement of Taiping, Zhenjiang and other government taxes, reducing the annual income of the court.
Embezzled the autumn grain of Xixi. Autumn grain in western Zhejiang should have turned over 4.5 million stones, while Guo Huan only turned over more than 2 million stones.
When collecting taxes, various taxes include water money, grain money, treasury money, Buddha money, etc. Be levied under various excuses to enrich yourself.
Guo Huan and others embezzled more than 20 million mangokus of grain. To this end, Ming Taizu is determined to seize the opportunity to wipe out corrupt officials nationwide.
Wu Yong, the criminal department, was ordered to interrogate the case, involving 12 chief secretaries of the country, including Zhao Xie, the minister of justice, Wang, the minister of war, assistant minister of war and Mai Zhide. A total of 24 million tons of refined grains were lost. "Since about six assistant ministers, seven million people have been stolen, and the words are straight, and tens of thousands of officials in the province have died." In order to recover the grain, it turned into a national outcry, and the rich children lost everything, which is known as the "Guo Huan case". Finally, in order to calm people's grievances, Ming Taizu killed Wu Yong, the criminal justice department, and claimed that there were more than 20 million mangokus in the converted stolen grain. "I am afraid that the people will not believe me, so I will write seven million ears."
When Guo Huan's case was recorded in Criminal Law II of Ming Dynasty, it was said that Guo Huan was an assistant minister of the Ministry of Finance. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty suspected that Zhao and other officials of Beiping Second Division conspired with Huan for profit. Starting with six assistant ministers, they all died, stole seven million yuan, and even tens of thousands of provincial officials were killed. Ming Taizu sighed in "Dabao": "Throughout the ages, there have been many people who have taken bribes and perverted the law, but not many have gone so far!" Thousands of people were killed in the Guo Huan case and the previous air printing case. This is a manifestation of Ming Taizu's excessive emphasis on punishing corruption, which made the officials of the Ming Dynasty wary of fear. At that time, people said: "Although county officials live in poor mountains, they are all scared when they go to the capital, Vandory, as if the gods are above them." Because of the wide coverage of the Guo Huan case, many officials suffered injustice, which greatly reduced the goal of destroying the government.