In August of the fourth year of Song Jingyou's reign, this major corruption case that took nearly half a year finally came to an end.
At the end of August, more than 80 officials and businessmen involved in the case were killed, more than 500 were sentenced to exile, and more than 1,000 related people with less serious crimes were held accountable and sentenced to other punishments such as imprisonment, beatings, and canes. Penalties such as buttocks and dismissal from office.
In September of the same year, Dali Temple, Yushitai and the Judgment Court arrested and brought to justice the remaining criminals who were involved in the case and later transferred to other places, including the former Huainan Road transfer envoy, shipping envoy, judge and so on.
According to past experience, they were only dismissed from their official positions, not even exiled.
However, the Constitutional Yuan quickly issued guidance, asking the three departments to sentence the main officials involved to death, and only the remaining accomplices could be treated leniently.
Qian Zhengwei, the Minister of Dali Temple, Zhang Kui, a colleague of the Criminal Court, and Fan Xi, the censor Zhongcheng, were not convinced and asked the Constitutional Yuan to give an explanation.
After all, in the past, Zhao Jun killed people. Firstly, he killed officials who were not that high-ranking. Secondly, Zhao Zhen gave the Imperial City Division the power to handle matters on his own.
Although hundreds of officials wrote letters of objection and continued to impeach him, the officials were very determined that time and there was nothing they could do against Zhao Jun.
But now that Zhao Jun's people are no longer in Bianliang, why should they still be asked to do things according to Zhao Jun's wishes?
Unexpectedly, the Constitutional Yuan only gave one explanation, which was "Act in accordance with the law!"
This left the three of them speechless for a moment.
Because there is actually no article in the "Song Xingtong" that "the punishment cannot be used to punish a doctor."
Even in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms had just been pacified, social order had to be restored with heavy codes. Therefore, when the criminal law was first formulated, Zhao Kuangyin still focused on strictness.
According to the "History of the Song Dynasty", during the seventeen years of Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin's reign, more than 4,000 officials, big and small, were executed, and Zhao Guangyi also killed many.
However, during the reign of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty and Zhao Zhen, after constant deception by the scholar-bureaucrats, Zhao Zhen and his son were finally deceived.
So if they say "act according to the law", they really have no reason to refute.
It's just an unspoken rule to treat scholar-bureaucrats leniently.
Originally, Song Taizu and Song Taizong severely cracked down on corrupt officials, and even included "unpardonable" crimes such as rebellion into the ranks of those that would never be pardoned. Therefore, the official administration at that time had been greatly improved compared to the greed and unscrupulousness that had been prevalent since the Five Dynasties.
But later, with the development of the economy and the loosening of laws, corrupt officials reappeared.
For example, during the reign of Renzong, Bao Zheng once lamented: "There are 60 to 70 cases of greed and tyranny in Guizhou." Although there are capable officials like Bao Zheng in the court, they are still a drop in the bucket.
By the Zhezong period in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were more than 260 cases of death penalty for officials in one year, but only 25 of them were executed - "the life was worth nine points", which shows how lenient the officials were. .
Now the Sansi Yamen wants to follow the previous practice and treat prisoners leniently. But I didn't expect that the Constitutional Yuan had a clear attitude and wanted to return to the period of Taizu Taizong. This was really difficult for them to accept.
Therefore, although the Constitutional Yuan issued an order to "act in accordance with the law," the Sansi Yamen still delayed in making a decision. As a result of their ruling, the Constitutional Yuan refused to sign, and they did not accept the opinions given by the Constitutional Yuan. The two sides ended up in a stalemate for a while.
If Zhao Jun were here, he probably wouldn't pay attention to them and just let the people from the Imperial City Division take those who deserved death to be beheaded outside the East City.
But Lu Yijian and his gang still had to follow some official rules and weren't so overbearing.
So Yan Shu took action, Xiaozhi moved with emotion and reason, and told the Sansi Yamen side that the reason why those people were sentenced to death was because their corruption had caused serious consequences.
In the Song Dynasty, officials could not be punished, but the problem was that they could only give lenient sentences to those officials who had committed less serious crimes.
For example, if you embezzle a little money, use some privileges, engage in private business, attack competitors, etc., it is not impossible to reduce the penalty.
The only condition is that no one is killed.
As the saying goes, human life is greater than heaven, this is the slogan of justice that has never changed since ancient times!
If you kill tens of thousands of people but are treated leniently in the end, where is the majesty and dignity of the court?
Therefore, for the sake of the court's face, these people must be put to death.
Yan Shu's statement was tenable, but at that time the three demons were stunned and would not let go.
Then the Constitutional Yuan came up with a trick.
They asked some people to spread rumors that the Third Division was shielding major criminals.
When Ouyang Xiu found out, he was furious and immediately wrote an article in the newspaper slamming Sansi's behavior.
Under the guidance of dual public opinions, a huge public opinion storm was triggered.
There was also a discussion in the morning.
They had a heated debate over whether all scholar-officials should be given a lighter sentence, or only those who had not caused serious consequences could be given a lighter sentence.
Finally, under the guidance of Ouyang Xiu and others, they came to the conclusion that "not punishing the officials" was indeed a preferential treatment of the scholar-officials in the Song Dynasty, but this could not be a reason for the scholar-officials to be lawless and do whatever they wanted.
If the scholar-bureaucrats harm the people and kill innocent people everywhere, it will have a huge impact on the court, and the consequences will definitely be unbearable for the court.
Therefore, "punishment is not worthy of the official" must be limited. If it causes huge consequences, the punishment must be canonical.
At that time, the scene was quite spectacular, and most of the officials were in the mood to watch the excitement. Young righteous men such as Ouyang Xiu, Cai Xiang, and Yu Jing scolded the Third Division bloody.
Even Zhao Zhen came out to speak for Ouyang Xiu and the others.
When the officials saw this situation, they immediately changed their stance and accused Sansi one after another.
To say that those people who can do such unscrupulous things are no longer considered scholar-bureaucrats and do not deserve preferential treatment at all.
Also, real scholar-bureaucrats should be honest and upright and benefit the people, instead of trying to corrupt the country and the people.
This will directly expel those people from scholar-official status.
Qian Zhengwei, Zhang Kui, and Fan Xi could not withstand such great pressure, so in the end they had no choice but to compromise and sentenced the person to death according to the Constitutional Yuan's instructions.
In this way, the court gained face, Zhao Zhen, Lu Yijian and others were able to give an explanation to Zhao Jun, and the people got justice.
At the same time, officials also understand the bottom line of "punishing a doctor without being punished". They will probably think carefully and restrain themselves when doing things in the future, and they will not dare to be as unscrupulous as before.
It is a win-win good thing for all parties. Only the world where the prisoners who had their heads cut off were injured can be considered accomplished.
On Zhao Jun's side, he headed south to Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
On the day he left, the people of Zhenzhou gathered at the ferry to bid him farewell.
In fact, Zhao Jun has not done much for the people of Zhenzhou.
Because he visited a lot of places, he spent less time in Zhenzhou. Apart from inspecting the water transportation situation, he worked in the transshipment office and only occasionally visited the countryside.
But even so, many people spontaneously came to see him off. Even if they had not received any favor from him, they kept calling Master Qingtian.
The world is like this. If you have been in darkness for too long, and suddenly someone gives you a ray of light, then this ray of light becomes your life-saving straw.
In his own opinion, Zhao Jun did nothing but investigate some old cases and crack down on some corrupt officials.
But to the people, he was the benefactor who removed the mountain that was weighing on them.
This is enough to be remembered.
Zhao Jun was in the midst of this farewell, and the fleet sailed southward in mighty force.
Across the Yangtze River is Jiangning Mansion.
He also stayed in Jiangning for a period of time, and then went to Runzhou, Changzhou, Suzhou and other places to inspect the local agricultural and commercial conditions.
Moreover, wherever Zhao Jun went, he would open a government office and welcome all people to report illegal activities committed by the government.
If there are grievances, he will send someone to deal with them impartially.
However, unless he encounters something like Guo Chengyou, or a major case like the Huainan corruption case, he usually transfers the case to the local Criminal and Prison Department for handling.
Otherwise, if he is left to do everything, what else will the local judicial office do? Just cancel it.
When I was working at the grassroots level, I encountered the most illegal acts by local officials and landlords.
This is Zhao Jun's favorite thing.
Because he can legitimately raid the homes of some unscrupulous landlords, confiscate their land, and nationalize the land.
Although the problem is still the same, just like low-rent housing is not necessarily rented by the poor, the state-owned land in the county may not necessarily fall into the hands of landless people in the end.
But even if it is divided, the landowners will still use various means to take away the land in the future, so it is better to keep the land in the county government.
As long as the state government and the Fourth Road Division maintain original files to clarify which land is owned by the state, they will be able to supervise it in the future.
For example, Zhao Jun planned to support Fan Zhongyan in implementing the Qingli New Deal reforms after the situation stabilized. In the future, departments will be stationed on every road in Yushitai, and inspections will be conducted every month. In addition, the Department of Prisons will also visit and conduct multiple supervisions.
Therefore, once it is discovered that a landowner is plotting to seize the land owned by the government, it depends on whether Zhao Jun's blade is not sharp and whether the land under their name will also be regarded as state property.
By the end of October in the fourth year of Jingyou's reign, Zhao Jun inspected Liangzhe Road and Jiangnan East Road, and then went south to Fujian Road.
Now he is famous all over the world. Wherever he goes, he is truly welcomed wholeheartedly by the people. The people all eat pots of syrup to welcome the magistrate, and even sing many children's songs.
Such as "Welcome to the Zhiyuan, look forward to the Zhiyuan, there will be blue sky when the Zhiyuan comes" "The whole city is watching the Zhiyuan come, the officials are so frightened that their faces turn pale. Kill them with wine and food, eat their heart and liver with lotus leaves." "If If you want the red flowers to bloom, you have to wait for the magistrate to come” and so on.
Especially in the second song, corrupt officials were killed, given food and drinks, and their hearts and minds were eaten. This shows how much the darkness of politics and official corruption at that time made the people at the bottom hate them.
But Zhao Jun's appearance was like a beam of light in the darkness, giving hope to countless people, allowing them to see that the mountains that once oppressed them had been moved away and cut off one by one by Zhao Jun. Fill them with gratitude and love.
The people are like this, they will be grateful to anyone who treats them well.
In contrast, many people in the officialdom were naturally very dissatisfied with Zhao Jun and continued to impeach the court. Even if they fabricated facts or cited reasons such as excessive killing, they still hoped to impeach Zhao Jun.
The main thing is that Zhao Jun is not engaged in any reforms. If he is engaged in reforms and the decrees are passed down, the officials at the grassroots level will have tens of thousands of ways to turn the original good decrees into bad ones and harm the people.
But he didn't change anything, and he didn't issue any decrees. He just investigated corruption and officials' violations of laws and disciplines.
These things are justifiable as a superior, and there is nothing against the rules.
And it is also the responsibility of the various prison departments.
For example, in "The Great Song Dynasty's Proposal of Criminal Officers", Song Ci was the Xiantai official of the Criminal and Prison Department, at the same level as Li Jianzhi, and was responsible for all criminal and prison proceedings.
It's just that in the past, due to official sentiments, or simply that the executioner was a corrupt official, everyone turned a blind eye and just laughed at each other and it was over.
Now Zhao Jun is serious and merciless, which is equivalent to Bao Zheng, the supreme power, coming over. It would be strange if local officials are not treated seriously.
So they had no other way to attack Zhao Jun, so they had no choice but to impeach him, hoping to stop him from continuing to patrol.
However, not even Zhao Zhen can control them, let alone these people.
Anyway, all the letters sent to him fell into the dust without any response.
Zhao Jun continued to go his own way.
The key point is that if he is alone, there may be corrupt officials who will take risks.
The problem is he's running around with an army.
The local armies were also under his control.
Now all the local Xiang armies in the world know that he is coming. Not only are they not disgusted, but even the Xiang armies are looking forward to his arrival.
Because the superiors were serious about drinking soldiers' blood and eating soldiers' pay, the Xiang soldiers also hoped that Zhao Jun would make the decision for them.
Therefore, wherever Zhao Jun went, no matter where he went, there was a storm.
This can also be regarded as paving the way for Fan Zhongyan's future reforms.
Zhao Jun didn't stay long on the other side of Fujian Road.
Bian Su, the former Fujian Road Transport Envoy, was impeached by the imperial censor because his son-in-law Sun Miao was corrupt, perverted the law, and committed all kinds of evil. Now he was demoted to the Nankang Army Jiedu Envoy, which is considered a disaster.
The newly appointed Fujian Road transfer envoy Zheng Zai is the brother of Zheng Jian, the Tongzhi Privy Councilor.
This man was a Jinshi in the third year of Xianping. In the ninth year of Tiansheng, he knew Fuzhou as a staff member and a foreign minister. He was called Xunliang at that time and was praised in folk songs as a virtuous person. From the first year of Ming Dynasty to this year, he successively served as the transshipment envoy of Guangnan East Road and the transshipment envoy of Jiangnan West Road, with outstanding political achievements.
Originally, this year happened to be his third year as the transfer envoy of Jiangnan West Road. It was time for a change of leadership. The court considered that Zheng Jian would take up a high position and it would be inconvenient for him to return to the central government. They didn't know how to arrange it.
As a result, Bian Su was implicated by Sun Miao and was dismissed. In addition, since he had served as a prefect in Fuzhou before, he was allowed to go to Fujian.
Zheng Zai was quite prestigious in Fujian Road. After Zhao Jun went there, he found that the people of Fuzhou still loved him very much, and learned that this man was indeed a talented and honest official, a talent he admired.
Accompanied by Zheng Zai, Zhao Jun visited some places and listened to Zheng Zai talk about many things he had done in Fuzhou before, and also talked about his philosophy on local governance.
Zhao Jun felt that Zheng Zai's governance methods were good, so he talked a lot with him about Zhao Jun's own governance methods, and the two parties had a great time.
When Zhao Jun left Fujian Road, he assigned some political tasks to Zheng Zai.
For example, crackdown on corruption and powerful landlords, especially those who violate laws and disciplines, will give the court an excuse to take back land and alleviate the problem of land annexation.
Zheng Zai accepted them one by one and expressed his understanding.
By November, Zhao Jun stayed on Fujian Road for about twenty days before heading to Jiangnan West Road.
He still didn't stay here long.
First of all, Zheng Zai was the transfer envoy of Jiangnan West Road before, and his local political achievements were quite good.
The second successor was named Zhou Zhan. He was a Jinshi in the first year of Tianxi. He served as officials in various places and had remarkable political achievements. His achievements were recorded in the "History of the Song Dynasty", "Fu Chronicles" and "County Chronicles" in later generations.
Although Zhao Jun didn't know these things, he could completely find out what Zhou Zhan had done before, and it was indeed outstanding.
After inspecting Hongzhou, Junzhou and other places, Zhao Jun found that the management of Jiangnan West Road left by Zheng Zai could still meet the standards. Zhao Jun tried his best and ordered Zhou Zhan to go west and enter Jinghu South Road in mid-December. Tanzhou!
He returned to his hometown of Hunan!
(End of chapter)
