Since the case was personally ordered by the emperor and it was a relatively large case, Guo Kang, the censor of the left capital, and Cen Chang, the censor of the right capital, both of whom were members of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, naturally did not dare to neglect it.
After checking a series of steps from the Ministry of Household Affairs to the Prime Minister's Mansion, nothing unusual was found. Guo Kang, the censor of the left capital, who was always serious and cautious in doing things, decided to go to Kaihuai Mansion; while Cen Chang, the censor of the right capital, decided to check with Yu Si first.
After several days of travel, Guo Kang, the censor of Zuodu, hurriedly got off the carriage when he arrived at the gate of Kaihuai Mansion and began to investigate.
There were dozens of small people, big and small, following Guo Kang, the imperial censor of Zuodu. They were all people who performed miscellaneous tasks in the Imperial Court. They were all standing on both sides with empty hands, waiting for orders at any time.
Unexpectedly, when Guo Kang, the censor of Zuodu, dismounted from his horse, no one greeted him in front of the mansion, and from time to time, knocking sounds were heard from inside the mansion.
Guo Kang crossed the threshold and walked in carrying a scarlet official uniform.
The government officials in the mansion were coming and going, some were holding tiles, some were holding wood, and some were holding tools, all busy with work.
Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, Guo Kang felt a little angry. He looked at the government servant passing by and shouted: "Where is your prefect?"
Seeing Zuodu Yushi coming in person, the Yamen servant was startled, and then he replied politely: "Back to Yushi, the prefect has not yet been established here, so I will take care of it for the time being."
"Ignorant Mansion?" Guo Kang felt a little unbelievable.
"On the day of the earthquake, the prefect...he died here." As he spoke, the government servant wiped his tears of disappointment with his sleeves.
"Oh. That's right. Then where is the Tongzhi now?" Guo Kang asked.
Now, the yamen servant pointed to a house that had just been built not far away: "He is busy in that house."
"good."
After hearing this, Guo Kang, the censor of Zuodu, walked towards the house, followed by several officials from the Imperial Procuratorate behind him.
Walking to the door, Guo Kang knocked on the door with his finger and said, "Tongzhi, can you be here?"
"Here!" Upon hearing this, colleague Xia Jinhuai hurriedly put down her chores, walked to the door, and opened it.
I saw that the few people in front of me were wearing scarlet official uniforms with Pixiu embroidered on their chests. They must be officials from the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Only officials from the Metropolitan Procuratorate used Pixiu's patch.
Seeing this, Xia Tongzhi panicked, thinking that the court knew what he had committed.
Unexpectedly, I actually guessed it.
"You must be a colleague here. I am the Zuodu Censor of the Ducha Yuan. I have been ordered by the Holy Lord to come here to thoroughly investigate the corruption of disaster relief grains. Please cooperate with me." Guo Kang, the Zuodu Censor, smiled. said.
"That's that." Xia Tongzhi was so panicked that his feet almost trembled.
"I wonder what your last name is?" Guo Kang said.
"My surname is Xia." Xia Tongzhi replied with a smile. Seeing several officials from the Metropolitan Procuratorate still standing at the door, he hurriedly greeted them: "Several of you, please come in."
After sitting down in the room, Guo Kang, the censor of Zuodu, began to ask questions, and an official on the side recorded it.
"When I heard about this disaster relief, I allocated food from the national warehouse three times in total before the disaster relief was completed. When I came here, I confirmed that the total amount was more than 6,000 shi of food. And the imperial envoy Su Yunqi returned When we were in Beijing, we discussed with Cen Wenxing, the Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, that only Kaihuai, Tongzhou, and Xing'an were seriously affected by this disaster. The prefectures and counties under their jurisdiction can all handle it themselves, so there is no need for so many."
"Xia Tongzhi, I want to ask you, how many carriages were there when the food was distributed here?" Guo Kang asked.
Regarding money, Xia Jinhuai remembered everything clearly, but it was almost half a month ago now, and Xia Jinhuai had forgotten the specific number of grain carriages.
"Back to the Censor, I forgot about it. This matter has been happening for so many days. In addition, since the earthquake, there have been many things in the mansion, and the prefect has not yet been established. I am really busy... very busy."
The more he listened to Xia Jinhuai's words, the more Guo Kang couldn't stand it anymore. Xia Tongzhi's words seemed to be complaining to Guo Kang.
"Okay, okay. Don't say anything anymore. It doesn't matter if you can't remember. The purpose of my visit this time is to conduct a thorough investigation in these three places and find clues."
"Then do you still remember that the people who transported the grain were officials sent by the imperial court?" Guo Kangji asked.
Xia Jinhuai sat on a chair and pretended to think. After a moment, she replied: "Hui Yushi, it is true."
As he continued to ask questions, it became dark before he knew it. Out of dozens of questions, only a few were useful to the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.
Seeing that it was getting late and the Metropolitan Procuratorate could not find any clues, Xia Jinhuai felt more at ease.
"Okay. It's getting late. Let's spend the night here happily." Then, Guo Kang looked at the officials aside: "Early the next morning, go to Tongzhou."
"good."
"My lord, it's getting late. Why don't you send someone to arrange for some rooms to be booked in the inn so that all my lords can have a good rest?" Xia Tongzhi said with a smile on his face.
Looking at Xia Tongzhi's appearance, Guo Kang smiled and his rough beard started to move: "Now that I have just settled down for a few days, there are many chores in the house, so I won't bother Xia Tongzhi."
After saying that, Guo Kang got up and walked out the door.
After seeing several officials from the Metropolitan Procuratorate leaving, Xia Tongzhi came to the door and looked at the officials walking away, shouting: "Slow down!"
The next day, before dawn, several officials from the Metropolitan Procuratorate rode towards Tongzhou.
It was already evening when we arrived in Tongzhou. In order to find the corrupt people earlier, several officials from the Metropolitan Procuratorate had to trouble the magistrate.
However, after questioning like this, no one found anything wrong. It seemed that Tongzhou was a good official with clean sleeves and righteousness, and this was indeed the case.
After questioning the magistrate of Tongzhou, several officials from the Metropolitan Procuratorate rushed to Xing'an Mansion overnight.
After several interviews, Zuodu Yushi discovered a problem: officials from Tongzhou and Xing'an Prefecture knew how many carriages arrived that day, but only Kaihuai Prefecture, where the earthquake was the most serious, did not know.
Of course, speculation is just speculation and cannot be decided at once, but in Guo Kang's mind, as long as the matter has not been exposed, everyone is suspected.
"Remember carefully, are there any problems with the grain bags that day, such as weight or skin changes?" Guo Kang said.
"Going back to the censor, I didn't see it with my own eyes, but the grain was unloaded by the yamen servants of the lower officials. You can ask him." After saying that, the prefect of Xing'an Prefecture looked at the yamen servants and ordered: "Go and unload the grain that day." Call those people."
"yes."
While waiting, Guo Kang sorted out the clues he had collected so far.
"Prefect Xu, are you looking for the young men?" Several government officials asked unclearly.
"Several officials have something to ask, and you must answer truthfully." Magistrate Xu said.
At this time, Guo Kang looked at the sallow and skinny government officials in front of him and asked: "When you unloaded the grain for the first time, was the grain as heavy as the grain in ordinary bags?"
"Hui Guan people, indeed."
"How many cars? How many bags?"
"Two cars. One hundred bags." said a yamen servant.
At this time, Guo Kang seemed to have a clue in his mind: one hundred bags equaled more than one hundred shi of grain. Excluding the 100 shi of grain from Xing'an Prefecture, 5,900 grains were distributed to Kaihuai and Tongzhou. The difference in the distribution of disaster relief food is indeed huge.
