In 1037 AD, in March of the fourth year of Jingyou's reign in the Song Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty appointed Qin King Xiao Xiaomu as the Privy Envoy of the North Courtyard and moved to Wu King.
During the Liao, Song, and Xia kingdoms, there were spies within each country at that time.
For example, Xixia bought spies, and Li Yuanhao knew Zhao Zhen's daily habits and what he did every day.
In addition, the Song Dynasty once sent a spy Nei Ying to assassinate the Xixia general Ye Li Yu Qi. After the failure, they used counterintuitive tactics to let the Nei Ying steal the sword given to Ye Li Yu Qi by Li Yuanhao and threatened that he wanted to rebel against Xia and return to Song Dynasty. Li Yuanhao was eventually executed. The wild family.
Needless to say, between the Liao and Song dynasties, both sides had espionage agencies targeting each other, such as the Yanjing Remaining Mansion of the Liao State, the Organic Yi Division of the Song Dynasty, the pacification division of the army along the border, the Imperial City Division of Bianliang, and the border division in the border mutual market. shop.
After the signing of the Chanyuan Alliance, both sides sent a large number of spies into the enemy's territory to spy on the military situation, the enemy's situation, and the deployment of food and troops. These spies achieved many results.
For example, the Liao Kingdom used spies to capture the Song Dynasty general He Lingtu alive. Liao Xingzong wanted to go south and found the best route south through spies. He planned a sneak attack in the Guannan area.
The Song Dynasty also learned of the Liao Kingdom's southward plan through spies and made preparations in advance, which eventually forced Liao Xingzong to withdraw. In addition to Chongxi's increase in coins, the Song Dynasty also obtained the bottom line of Liao Xingzong's negotiations through spies and made sufficient countermeasures for the negotiations.
Judging from these examples, internal spies from all three parties have been extremely active for hundreds of years. The importance of intelligence work was clearly demonstrated as early as a thousand years ago during the Liao, Song, and Xia dynasties.
Therefore, the appearance of Zhao Jun was naturally placed on Liao Xingzong's desk. From last year to this year, he had a panoramic view of the changes in the Song Dynasty court.
It's just that Liao Xingzong's recent situation has not been very good. He imprisoned his biological mother, Queen Mother Xiao, and dealt with a group of ministers of Xiao Yujin's group the year before last, causing serious political turmoil.
Coupled with the unstable border of the Liao Kingdom, the Jurchens, Ugu people, and Mongol Shiwei (later the Mongols) could not bear the heavy oppression of the Liao people and often rebelled.
Therefore, Liao Xingzong did not focus all on the Song Dynasty, but mainly focused on appeasing the Liao Kingdom.
For example, although he imprisoned his biological mother, he appointed his uncle Xiao Xiaomu as the Privy Envoy of the Beiyuan, named Xiao Xiaocheng the Prince of Lanling County, Xiao Xiaozhong as the King of Chu, and Xiao Xiaoyou as the Prime Minister of the Beifu, which was regarded as reconciliation with the Xiao family.
Then they reduced taxes, appeased the various ethnic minority tribes, and eased internal conflicts, and finally the unstable Liao Kingdom was temporarily stabilized.
It took several years, until the second year of Qingli, when the Liao Kingdom became stable, and several years of war between Song and Xia made both Xixia and the Song Dynasty very exhausted, before he decided to send troops.
Moreover, they did not dare to send troops against the Song Dynasty and chose to send troops against Xixia. They were embarrassed even before they won the battle.
Therefore, in the fourth year of Jingyou, when the Liao Kingdom was still suffering from internal and external troubles, it was actually difficult for Liao Xingzong to immediately visit the south. He only sent spies internally to keep an eye on the news in the Song Kingdom.
So when Li Yuanhao was actively preparing to proclaim himself emperor, Yelu Zong was really incapable of making trouble, and Zhao Zhen was addicted to games, what was Zhao Jun doing?
He is 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 places hardest hit.
The Huainan Road Transfer Envoy and Jiangnan East Road Transfer Envoy and Jianghuai Shipment Commissioner ordered Changping warehouses to be opened to provide relief to the victims.
At the same time, the imperial court also raised a wave of disaster relief grain funds and transported them to Huainan West Road.
In August of that year, the Huainan government "made rice porridge to feed the hungry people" and temporarily alleviated the hunger of the people.
In September, the imperial court "lent money to the poor people in Huainan's disaster-stricken prefectures to grow grain" to help them resume production.
However, the famine continued, so the imperial court stepped up relief efforts and directly ordered the "Setting and Shipping Department to transfer 300,000 dendrobium rice to provide relief."
In the first month of the following year, he "gave one million dendrobiums of rice to the local area to help the hungry people, and sent envoys to supervise".
But even so, tens of thousands died of starvation in Huainan, the plague was rampant, and corpses littered the fields. Until now, the fourth year of Jingyou's reign, there has been no relief.
After Zhao Jun arrived in Huainan, he immediately started investigating the aftermath of the disaster. As a result, on the sixth day, the Huoqiu County Magistrate committed suicide out of fear of guilt.
Because the imperial city inspector sent by Zhao Jun went to the Huoqiu area to investigate, the conclusion was that during the drought in Huoqiu, the local government provided very little rice for disaster relief, and it was also mixed with a lot of sand and bran.
A little sand can be tolerated in disaster relief rice. The worst-affected people are the poor. Many rich farmers, middle class and wealthy people have strong ability to withstand disasters. In order to prevent some rich households from taking the opportunity to harvest the wool of the imperial court, it is understandable to add some sand appropriately. .
Even adding bran is fine. After all, for the disaster victims, as long as it can fill their stomachs and not starve to death. A bowl of porridge is not unacceptable if it is more than 80% rice, 15% bran and 5% sand.
But a bowl of porridge contains less than 20% rice, and most of the rest is bran and sand, which is too much.
After Zhao Jun learned of the situation, he was furious and immediately launched an investigation.
Since Shouzhou was Lu Yijian's hometown, Zhao Jun sent someone to deliver Lu Yijian's letter to Lu Yijian's brother Lu Zongjian, and then asked him to help check it.
With the help of a local snake, the whole story was quickly discovered.
It turns out that the former Huoqiu County Magistrate, together with local grain merchants, secretly paid for the disaster relief grain from the court. Changpingcang plus the tens of thousands of dendrobium grains distributed by the court later, totaled more than 100,000 dendrobium grains.
Fan Zhongyan once said in the eighth year of Tiansheng's reign, "If you steal an acre of Zhongtian, you can only get one dendrobium of millet. In the autumn of Zhongmin, one dendrobium can be sold for only three hundred yuan."
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 was relatively short, with a maximum of three years. Therefore, most county magistrates did 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 he came to 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 transfer envoy of Huainan West Road. , 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 also such corruption happening under the nose of the boss, 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? Have you never 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 the hell!"
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 lower 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 transferred here last year. He has not even 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 anything, just leave your job and stay home. If I find 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?
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.
It is obvious that 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 states and other places as well, and the gains are more than a million dollars! It really has nothing to do with the official!"
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 duties 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 Huainan West Road Transfer Envoy with just one word?" ?”
"Are you out of your mind?"
Zhao Jun frowned and said: "Now under the new system, the Political Yuan controls all 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 you will give up your post. If I kill you, you will die. Such a big case happened on Huainan West Road, and you didn't even notice it. Are you unjust if you are 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 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.
(End of chapter)
