No matter where that beheading line is drawn.
From the chief envoy on down, such outrageous news broke out in Zhejiang. It is difficult for this matter to end quietly.
It's an ending that almost no one can change.
In fact, in Zhu Houzhao's plan, the action against Zhejiang would not be so early, but Mei Kejia was doing business in Zhejiang, and the scale was getting bigger and bigger. The local businessmen and wealthy people in Zhejiang could not hold back at first, and then reacted upward, triggering such a situation in the court. movement.
Businessmen messed up the government. These four words had been murmuring in his mind these days.
Punishing these corrupt criminals has its political role. But the underlying logic of Zhejiang will not change, and the people sent to Zhejiang will always be corrupt.
Sometimes they even turn good officials into bad ones.
You are like Li Yancai. You just arrived in Zhejiang and quickly integrated into this rank.
This kind of situation where officials share profits and take advantage of each other is difficult to solve with just one official. Everyone is eating this money, who has the ability to stop it?
This is a bit like the largest corruption case in the Qing Dynasty during the Qianlong period - Gansu relief work.
The problem is that Gansu is not a wealthy place, so Emperor Qianlong opened his mouth and reinstated the banned prison donation. That is to say, donating some food to become an official would provide food relief for the government.
But he sent someone from Wang Danwang and discussed with the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, saying that he should donate money instead? So for the next three years, Wang Danwang kept reporting disasters to Emperor Qianlong, saying that there was another drought here and the people could not survive, so I would like to report to you that Gansu donated 500 more people to prison.
After Wang Danwang took the money, he didn't just keep it to himself. He divided it among the money, so the officials and students of Gansu Province swallowed up the money! And no one reported it to Qianlong!
Although this is outrageous, the thing that makes people feel like they can taste it the most is actually at the back.
Three years later, Wang Danwang was promoted to governor of Zhejiang and left.
The successor was a man named Wang Tingzan.
Wang Tingzan is a good official. He was born as an official. He started out as a clerk in charge of cashiers and clerks, and played an inconspicuous role following the magistrate.
But he was very capable, so much so that there was a saying in Lanzhou at that time that "finding the king's experience in litigation".
After that, he successively served as magistrate, Daotai, chief envoy... and was interviewed by Qianlong. With such a background, and to such a degree, he has no talent, and it is impossible to rely solely on connections. Moreover, he is a small official, where does he have any connections? Can reach the sky.
In fact, he revitalized education in Zhangye, dredged channels and developed production in Ningxia, and he was very hands-on and responsible. The Ningxia plain is so fertile that a certain amount of credit must be recorded on his head.
But everything changed when he was transferred to Gansu Province as chief envoy. As soon as he took office, he once wanted to change the situation in which provincial officials reported disasters and shared the money they received from prison donations.
But he couldn't even change his donation of money into a donation of food.
So he continued to be greedy for another four years, and he also started to be greedy. It was not until the forty-sixth year of Qianlong's reign that he became corrupt.
Finally, he was executed by Qianlong.
So, if the political ecology of a place is like this, and there is a source of hunting for court officials, who can be sent there to be effective? ….
Now the treatment method for these officials in Zhejiang has been decided, and all those with more than 30,000 taels will be beheaded.
For those with less than 30,000 taels, 20,000 taels will be exiled, and those with 10,000 taels will have their titles removed and be demoted to the people. None of this matters.
But it doesn't end here.
Because of the maritime ban, they smuggled, and because of smuggling, they had to collude with the government. So over the years, a situation has been formed where big officials are corrupt and small officials are corrupt. If you are not corrupt, you cannot become an official.
Now it's just because Mei Kejia has affected their interests a little, so it's not a big challenge.
In fact, during the Jiajing period, the emperor sent an official to crack down on smuggling, and soon officials from all over Zhejiang began complaining about how this person was breaking the law.
The roots of Zhejiang are still in this place.
In the Qianqing Palace,
The prince made some heart-breaking words and assigned Zhang Cheng such an errand.
Originally, what the emperor and prince said and the tasks given were easily shirked, so where is the strength of the imperial edict?
And after that,
Zhu Houzhao then said: "Father, how to deal with the officials in Zhejiang Province this time has been decided. What about the businessmen involved?"
merchant?
The word businessman was not mentioned much in the Qianqing Palace.
Even less came out of the prince's mouth.
"Prince, can you be more careful?"
"My Lord, if it turns out that the officials involved in the scandal have a close relationship with the businessmen, then these businessmen will not be able to escape the crime of disrupting the government, right?"
Zhang Cheng's heart trembled after hearing this.
If so, he will definitely die if he goes to Zhejiang!
"Your Highness! I think the situation in Zhejiang is already of great importance. If we continue to be implicated, there will be a river of blood. The southeast is a major financial and taxation center. You must not allow any mistakes, Your Highness!"
Zhu Houzhao screamed at him until his head hurt.
"Uncle Zong, why are you so anxious all of a sudden? The court is dealing with a few corrupt officials, and you say it is not good for the government. Well, I have considered the overall situation you mentioned and redrawn the line for beheading. What? Now that we are dealing with a few unscrupulous businessmen, is it right? Can you let Southeast suffer a loss?!"
Emperor Hongzhi also felt strange, "Zhang Aiqing, what's the reason? If there is, please tell me and let the prince know."
How could Zhang Cheng tell it?
Or maybe those words should not be said.
So he could only go around in circles and said: "Your Majesty, I just feel that it is not appropriate to start a big attack. If the killing is too great, it will easily lead to radical changes!"
"What do the three pavilion elders think?"
Liu Jian understood as soon as he heard that the prince came to seek support.
And the prince knew that the cabinet would support him.
Because businessmen are not important.
"Your Highness." Liu Jian thought thoroughly and immediately replied: "We think that since the imperial officials have been punished according to the law if they have done something illegal, then the businessmen naturally have no reason to tolerate the crime outside the law. If it is found that there is a businessman among them. Given the true nature of the government, it is natural that they should be punished together.”
Zhu Houzhao suddenly remembered the person who had been silent all this time.
"Da Sima, what do you think? If there are businessmen in Zhejiang who bribe court officials and collude with government officials and businessmen to make huge profits, if there are these people, should they be arrested or not?"
Liu Daxia didn't expect the prince to suddenly mention him, but fortunately he didn't get distracted.
Moreover, this simple question cannot have a second answer. ….
"If there is really collusion between government and businessmen, there is no reason to arrest only one party."
The merchant section is really not substantial enough.
Emperor Hongzhi didn't think much about it. When he saw the attitude of his ministers, he finally said: "The prince doesn't need to ask anymore. If there is such a businessman, just take it."
When the emperor said this.
Zhu Houzhao's eyes kept falling on Zhang Cheng,
He had an intuition that maybe they were the only two people in this room who could understand that killing a few businessmen would actually have some impact.
But no matter what, Zhejiang Eucalyptus has determined the disposal method at the top.
I believe that this method of disposal will soon set off a huge political storm in the capital and even the whole country.
Everyone left Qianqing Palace.
And the one who had the most difficult journey back was Zhang Cheng.
Even Liu Daxia didn't understand him.
Because Zhang Cheng was a bit exaggerated, it was as if his soul had been sucked out of him.
Liu Daxia said in confusion: "Defu, although the eucalyptus in Zhejiang is dangerous, you are not so discouraged, right?"
Zhang Cheng saluted Liu Daxia and cried, "Brother Shi Yong, I'm afraid I'll never come back if I go!"
"What?" Liu Daxia looked strange when he saw his reaction, "Is there something hidden?"
well.
It's also a headache to talk about, how did you plan it until the end, and end up in such a thing for no reason?
And on the cabinet side. Mr. Ge was also thinking about the last thing.
"...Donggong never does things for no reason." Li Dongyang was still puzzled, "Why do you mention businessmen at the end? If it's a lack of money, that's it, but in the past few years, hasn't Liu Shiyong always said that Donggong has saved a lot of money? ?"
Liu Jian sat back on the chair of the chief of the Department of Internal Medicine. He had not expected this today, but he was not as entangled as Li Dongyang. "Most of what Liu Shiyong knew was revealed to him by officials from various places. He is considered smart. Instead, he was misled by his cleverness. Also, Liu Shiyong shouldn't have asked about Xu Ruoqin's memorial. Fortunately, His Highness is not a suspicious character, otherwise, I'm afraid he wouldn't have thought it was you or me who revealed it."
Li and Xie frowned and nodded.
That's true.
The Minister of War is sometimes not as modest and prudent as he appears on the surface.
Liu Jian straightened his sleeves and said thoughtfully: "After Liu Shiyong's attack, he can't get in Zhejiang. Zhang Cheng is in a quagmire. It's unclear whether he can get out of Zhejiang. Before going to Qianqing Palace today, the two of them Who would have thought that it would end like this? If this happens, there will be no trouble in Zhejiang, and His Highness may have to use troops against the north."
There are many things that seem to be unstoppable.
Like them, Zhu Houzhao always had Zhejiang in his heart after he returned.
After reading Wang Hua's letter, he went to Qianqing Palace, but he still hadn't thought about what to do.
The night is quiet,
It seems that the excitement of the day has faded away.
But in the early morning of the second day, when it was still dark, I seemed to hear someone calling me in a hazy state.
Zhu Houzhao turned over without opening his eyes, and mumbled a confused question, "Liu Jin?"
Listen to the sound.
"It's my slave." Liu Jin lowered her voice and said, "I deserve death for disturbing His Highness's dream. But very important news came from outside the palace, and I didn't dare to delay any longer. I came here to report it."...
Zhu Houzhao was very sleepy.
But in the past few years, these slaves in the East Palace have been treated very obediently by him.
It's late at night, so there must be something important.
So his sour eyes suddenly opened, and he became much more awake. He immediately sat up from the bed and said, "Get in!"
There was a squeak,
Liu Jinma sneaked to the prince's bedside and knelt down, "Your Highness, Mao Yuwen came in with news. It said that there was news from Zhang Cheng's house that Zhang Cheng had hanged himself! It's still dark, and the official news hasn't come in yet. In the palace, the Zhang family is crying loudly, this matter must be true!"
"Suicide?!"
Upon hearing this word, Zhu Houzhao froze, and there seemed to be a burst of cicadas chirping through his mind.
Zhang Cheng committed suicide?
Did he commit suicide out of fear of crime?
Or homicide?
Zhu Houzhao thought it was unlikely that he committed suicide. Once Zhang Chenggang took the mission to Zhejiang, he knew that there were only a few people there, and there would be no enemies coming to the door unless it was an old grudge, but it was still unlikely.
After all, the Minister of Rites is a high official.
Then there is a high probability that he will commit suicide. Maybe he just knows that he is outside the 30,000 tael line. At that time, his family will still be unlucky with him.
Zhu Houzhao clenched his fists unconsciously. He had just planned everything during the day, and he hadn't had enough sleep yet, so there was such a sudden change.
Okay, let's see what this piece of Cheng brought into the coffin. .
royal hired cat
