Chapter 188 Huainan Corruption Case

In 1037 AD, in March of the fourth year of Jingyou in the Song Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty appointed Qin Wang Xiao Xiaomu as the Northern Court Privy Envoy and moved him to Wu Wang.

There were spies in the Liao, Song and Xia countries at that time.

For example, Xixia bought spies, and Li Yuanhao knew everything about Zhao Zhen's daily life habits and what he did every day.

There was also a spy in the Song Dynasty who once sent a spy to assassinate Xixia general Yeli Yuqi. After the failure, the Song Dynasty used a counter-espionage strategy to let the spy steal the sword given to Yeli Yuqi by Li Yuanhao, threatening that he wanted to rebel against Xia and return to Song, and finally let Li Yuanhao execute Yeli's family.

Needless to say, the Liao and Song dynasties had spy agencies targeting each other, such as the Liao Kingdom's Yanjing Resident Mansion, the Song Dynasty's Jiyisi, the Border State Army's Anfusi, the Bianliang Imperial City Division, and the Border Market.

After the signing of the Chanyuan Alliance, both sides sent a large number of spies into the enemy's territory to spy on military intelligence, enemy information, and the deployment of food and fodder and troop forces. These spies have achieved a lot of results.

For example, the Liao Kingdom captured the Song Dynasty general He Lingtu alive through spies. Liao Xingzong wanted to go south, and found the best route to the south through spies, the Guannan area, intending to launch a surprise attack.

The Song Dynasty also learned about the Liao Kingdom's plan to go south through spies, and made preparations in advance, which eventually forced Liao Xingzong to withdraw. There was also the Chongxi increase in currency. The Song Dynasty also got Liao Xingzong's negotiation bottom line through spies and prepared sufficient countermeasures for the negotiations.

From these examples, over the past hundred years, the internal spies of the three parties have been in an extremely active state. The importance of intelligence work was fully demonstrated as early as a thousand years ago in the Liao, Song, and Xia dynasties.

So the appearance of Zhao Jun was naturally placed on Liao Xingzong's desk. From last year to this year, the changes in the Song Dynasty court were also seen by him.

However, the situation of Emperor Xingzong of Liao was not very good recently. He imprisoned his biological mother, Empress Dowager Xiao, the year before last, and dealt with a group of ministers of the Xiao Noujin Group, causing serious political turmoil.

In addition, the border of Liao was unstable. The Jurchens, Wugu people, and Mengwu Shiwei (later the Mongols) could not bear the oppression of the Liao people and often rebelled.

Therefore, Emperor Xingzong of Liao did not focus all his attention on the Song Dynasty, but focused on pacifying the internal affairs of Liao.

For example, although he imprisoned his biological mother, he appointed his uncle Xiao Xiaomu as the Privy Envoy of the Northern Courtyard, and conferred Xiao Xiaocheng as the Prince of Lanling, Xiao Xiaozhong as the Prince of Chu, and Xiao Xiaoyou as the Prime Minister of the Northern Courtyard, which was considered a reconciliation with the Xiao family.

Then he reduced taxes, appeased various ethnic minority tribes, and eased internal conflicts, which temporarily stabilized the unstable Liao Kingdom.

It took several years until the second year of the Qingli period for the Liao Kingdom to stabilize. In addition, the years of war between Song and Xia made Xixia and the Song Dynasty very tired, so he decided to send troops.

Moreover, they did not dare to send troops to the Song Dynasty, but chose to send troops to the Western Xia. It was embarrassing even before they won.

Therefore, in the fourth year of Jingyou, when the Liao Kingdom was still in the situation of internal and external troubles, it was difficult for Liao Xingzong to look south immediately. He just sent spies to keep an eye on the news in the Song Kingdom.

So when Li Yuanhao was actively preparing to become emperor, Yelu Zongzhen was not capable of making trouble, and Zhao Zhen was addicted to games, what was Zhao Jun doing?

He was investigating a corruption case in Huainan.

In early March, Zhao Jun arrived in Shouzhou.

There was a severe drought in Huainan the year before last, and Shouzhou was one of the worst-hit places.

The Huainan Road Transport Envoy and the Jiangnan East Road Transport Envoy and Jianghuai Shipping Affairs ordered the opening of Changping Warehouse to provide relief to the victims.

At the same time, the court also raised a wave of relief grain and transported it to Huainan West Road.

In August of that year, the Huainan government "made porridge to help the hungry people" to temporarily relieve the hunger of the people.

In September, the court "lent the poor people in the disaster-stricken states in Huainan to grow grain" to help them resume production.

But the famine continued, so the court increased its relief efforts and directly ordered "the Administration of Shipping to transfer 300,000 hu of rice for relief."

In the first month of the following year, the court "granted 1 million hu of rice to the local people for relief and sent envoys to supervise."

But even so, there were tens of thousands of people who starved to death in Huainan, plague was rampant, and corpses were everywhere. Until now, in the fourth year of Jingyou, there has been no recovery.

After Zhao Jun arrived in Huainan, he immediately started to investigate the post-disaster situation. As a result, on the sixth day, the magistrate of Huoqiu County committed suicide out of fear of crime.

Because the imperial city inspector sent by Zhao Jun went to the Huoqiu area to investigate, the conclusion was that when Huoqiu was hit by drought, the local government provided very little rice for disaster relief, and it was mixed with a lot of sand and bran.

A little sand in the disaster relief rice is tolerable. The poor people suffered the most. Many rich farmers, middle class and wealthy people have strong ability to resist the disaster. In order to prevent some rich households from taking advantage of the court, it is understandable to add some sand.

Even adding bran is fine. After all, for the victims, as long as they can fill their stomachs and not starve to death. A bowl of porridge with more than 80% rice, 15% bran and 5% sand is not unacceptable.

But a bowl of porridge has less than 20% rice, and most of the rest is bran and sand, which is too much.

When Zhao Jun learned about the situation, he was furious and immediately launched an investigation.

Since Shouzhou was Lu Yijian's hometown, Zhao Jun sent someone to give Lu Yijian's letter to Lu Yijian's younger brother Lu Zongjian, and then asked him to help check.

With the help of the local snake, the whole story was quickly found out.

It turned out that the former Huoqiu County Magistrate had colluded with local grain merchants to embezzle the relief grain money from the imperial court. The Changping Warehouse plus the tens of thousands of bushels of grain distributed by the imperial court later, all together, must have amounted to more than 100,000 bushels.

Fan Zhongyan once said in the eighth year of Tiansheng, "I think that one mu of land can only produce one bushel of millet. In the autumn of a good harvest, one bushel can only be sold for three hundred coins."

However, the price of food in the disaster area has skyrocketed. At its most expensive, the price of food in Huainan was as high as two to three thousand cents per hu, and the profits therein suddenly increased to nearly ten times. This batch of food, which could save tens of thousands of people in a county, would be worth less if resold. Millions of strings.

In the face of profit, the former Huoqiu County Magistrate was obviously moved, so he sold most of the relief rice to grain merchants and only used a small part for disaster relief.

In fact, this kind of situation should be more or less common in all parts of the Song Dynasty. However, due to the nature of floating officials in the Song Dynasty, the term of a county magistrate is relatively short, only three years at most. Therefore, most county magistrates do not dare to go too far for fear of being discovered by their successors. Clues, report to the court, basically only do a very small amount, just make a few thousand guan, don't dare to do too much.

But I didn't expect that this successor was also a corrupt official. After taking power, he received heavy bribes from the previous county magistrate and local grain merchants, so he suppressed the matter and did not report it to Zhoulu.

As a result, the people of Huoqiu suffered heavy casualties, and the population was directly reduced by one-third.

"boom!"

In Xiacai County, Shouzhou, Zhao Jun threw the tea cup in his hand on the ground and glared at Yang Riyan, the Huainan West Road transfer envoy. , Zhou Ling, the judge who made money and transferred it, Lin Zhu, the magistrate of Shouzhou, and others.

Many Huainan Road officials remained silent and did not dare to respond.

"His Majesty said the year before last that due to the disaster in the southeast, the people were in short supply. He ordered the Jianghuai Shipping Department to reduce the supply of one million hu of dendrobium and exempt Huainan from taxes, in order to allow you to protect your people's livelihood and restore your people's strength."

Zhao Jun looked at them and said: "It turns out that you have been here for a year or two on errands. Yang Riyan, you came here in the second year of Jingyou's reign. Huainan suffered a drought in the first year of Jingyou's reign. Not only has it not recovered, but it has even There is such corruption happening right under your nose, what can you say?”

Yang Riyan shirked his responsibility and said: "Zhiyuan, it is true that the lower official came in the second year of Jingyou. At that time, due to the disaster, Huang Wei, the former transfer envoy of Huainan West Road, was transferred to Huainan West Road. The lower official was transferred to Huainan West Road as a doctor in the Ministry of War and the Zhishi Guan. After taking office, he immediately went to various places to comfort the victims and never slackened off."

"Then how do you explain what happened in Huoqiu County?"

Zhao Jun shouted and asked: "Huoqiu is in Shouzhou, or on the side of your Huainan West Road administration office. Such a big thing happened. Are you deaf or blind? Can't you see the tragic situation of the Huoqiu victims?"

Yang Riyan added: "Although the disaster in Shouzhou was serious, Shuzhou, Luzhou, Qizhou and other places were even more worrying. Therefore, Xiaguan just ordered the county magistrates from various places in Shouzhou to resettle the victims themselves, and then went to Shuzhou It’s the official’s dereliction of duty.”

"hehe."

Zhao Jun sneered, and the responsibility was completely pushed away.

The current Huoqiu County Magistrate committed suicide, and the former Huoqiu County Magistrate was transferred to Hubei Road. The co-authorship is purely the fault of the County Magistrate and has nothing to do with them?

However, Yang Riyan is indeed the successor after the drought, and it seems reasonable for him to shift the responsibility to his predecessor.

At that moment, Zhao Jun looked at Lin Zhu and said: "Yang Riyan said that he was paying attention to the disaster in other places. As the magistrate of Shouzhou, the local people's livelihood is your responsibility. Could it be that you have never been to Huoqiu? Haven’t you learned the truth from the people of Huoqiu?”

Lin Zhu was sweating profusely at this moment. He glanced at Yang Riyan, gritted his teeth after a moment and said: "Report to the magistrate, this, this, this"

"What is this!"

Zhao Jun shouted: "If you are involved in it, just tell the truth, and maybe this Court will give you a lighter sentence. If you are not involved in it and know the inside story, just tell it. No matter who is behind the other party, there is no need to have any concern!"

"The official didn't know anything about it."

Lin Zhu noticed Yang Ri's stern eyes and his whole body was trembling. He cupped his hands and said: "This official was only transferred here last year and has not been in office for a year. How could he possibly know the situation?"

Zhao Jun snorted coldly: "The situation in Huoqiu County can be clearly understood by just going to the local people and asking the local people. But you don't know anything. You are too derelict in your duties as the governor. I think you are also the governor. There’s no need to do it, just leave your job and stay at home. If I find out the evidence that you were involved, it will be more than just jail time.”

"ah."

Lin Zhu was dumbfounded, would he be dismissed from his job now?

Originally I wanted to refute that without the imperial court's will, why should Zhao Jun dismiss the post of magistrate?

But then I think about it, Guo Chengyou has a big background, right?

Zhao's son-in-law.

Be the official of the East Palace today.

The ancestor's founding general.

Then what?

The grass on the graves has probably started to grow now.

Obviously, arguing with the master of the academy in front of you is asking for your own death.

The problem is that Lin Zhu was wronged.

He was not involved, so he was dismissed from office in vain. Wouldn't that make him a scapegoat for others?

Thinking of this, Lin Zhu was helpless, and finally gritted his teeth, closed his eyes and said: "This was all planned by the former Huainan West Road transfer envoy Huang Wei, Shouzhou magistrate Sun Miao and Huoqiu County magistrate Xiong Tao. It is said that not only Shouzhou There are also other places in the state, and the gains are more than a million dollars! It really has nothing to do with Xianguan!"

After he finished speaking, both Yang Riyan and Zhou Ling felt tight in their hearts.

I originally thought that I had forced Magistrate Huoqiu to death, so I could just put all the blame on him.

They are even preparing to send people to Hubei to kill the former Huoqiu County Magistrate. When the time comes, there will be no evidence, and Zhao Jun will have nothing to do.

Unexpectedly, Lin Zhu actually exposed it.

Now we're in big trouble.

The main reason is that as successors, they were not actually involved in embezzlement of disaster relief food funds.

The problem was that the profits were too high. Huang Wei and Sun Miao were afraid that their successors would discover the clues, so they bribed Yang Riyan and Zhou Ling heavily.

In history, these two people were impeached by Ouyang Xiu for corruption, which shows that they were greedy people to begin with.

Lin Zhu did not accept the bribe.

Because the disaster occurred in the first year of Jingyou, Huang Wei and Sun Miao engaged in corruption around the second year of Jingyou.

In the second half of the second year of Jingyou, Huang Wei and Sun Miao were transferred away one after another, and then Yang Riyan and another Shouzhou magistrate were transferred.

The man was pulled into the water by them.

Later, the magistrate was impeached by the censor. Before taking office in Shouzhou, he had committed illegal activities in other places and was demoted. Last year, he was replaced by Lin Zhu.

So in other words, Lin Zhu was the third magistrate after the corruption case and had no knowledge of what the previous two magistrates had done.

But after all, he is the governor of the same place, so he will naturally hear about anything that goes wrong in the place.

Perhaps they had conducted a secret investigation in private and learned the truth. They might even have vaguely guessed that Yang Riyan and Zhou Ling were also involved in the case.

It's just that he himself is not a person who has the courage to expose it. He is afraid of offending others and dare not take action.

Zhao Jun was forced to do nothing today. If he didn't expose it, he would lose his official position, so he had no choice but to tell what he knew.

Yang Riyan and Zhou Ling were dragged into the situation by their predecessors. They were also bribed by Huang Wei and Sun Miao, and they did not directly participate in reselling disaster relief food.

Therefore, Lin Zhu did not surrender them.

The problem is that although Lin Zhu doesn't know that the two of them are also involved, once Huang Wei and Sun Miao are caught, they will definitely be finished.

For a while, Yang Riyan and Zhou Ling were calm on the outside, but panicked inside.

"What a great Huang Wei, what a great Sun Miao."

Zhao Jun glanced at Yang Riyan and Zhou Ling, and said coldly: "You two are a transfer envoy and a transfer judge. You have no idea about what your predecessor did. Even if you are not involved, you are still two confused officials. Just quit your job and wait at home.”

Yang Riyan panicked at that time and immediately said: "Zhiyuan, this is not in compliance with the imperial regulations. If you want to remove me from my post, you must obtain an edict from His Majesty. How can you confirm my position as the transfer envoy of Huainan West Road with just one word?" ?”

"Are you out of your mind?"

Zhao Jun frowned and said: "Now under the new system, the Political Yuan controls hundreds of officials. All officials in the world can be dismissed by the Political Yuan. I am the magistrate of the Political Yuan. As long as I sign, don't say that you will give up your post. If I kill you, you will die. You are not aware of such a big case on Huainan West Road. Is it unfair for you to be dismissed from your position? "

Yang Riyan suddenly turned pale and became trembling with fear.

The corrupt officials that the protagonist punishes along the way are actually mentioned in the previous article. He wanders around the country along the way and just follow this outline. The problem is that I got mycoplasma some time ago, and then I caught a cold continuously. My condition has been very bad these two days, and occasionally I can only update once a day, which is also uncomfortable.

But even so, I have updated 110,000 words this month, an average of 7,000 words per day, which is not too few. I hope my health will get better as soon as possible.

Some friends said that the recent chapters are all supported by character dialogues, and there are relatively few descriptions of the environment, which makes them seem thin. Anyone who has read the previous article knows that I write a lot about the environment, but I have been really sick recently, with dizziness, coughing, and a runny nose. Writing such detailed descriptions of the environment takes a lot of time, and my mind goes blank, so I really can’t write it. It’s uncomfortable.