Compared with Ding Gangyi who was able to resolutely give up all his family wealth, some people are not so courageous, or they fall into the eyes of money, and at the same time they are lucky.
Tian Guangyuan, the right minister of the Ministry of Industry, is a typical example... The Inspectorate has found a lot of detailed evidence and finally reported it to the emperor.
Luo Zhixue was not too moved by this, and gave instructions happily: "Punish severely to serve as a warning to others."
Tian Guangyuan is so courageous that he has only been the right minister for a year. Before that, he served as the director of the Steel Department under the Ministry of Industry for more than a year. In the past two years, he has held a high position and made a lot of money. At the same time, he even asked for bribes from his subordinates in order to be promoted. convenience.
When the news broke out last month, Luo Zhixue actually gave Tian Guangyuan a chance and hinted that as long as he handled it properly, I could turn a blind eye.
After all, Tian Guangyuan was also an old minister who had been Conglong when he was in Nanyang Mansion, and relatively speaking, he still had some abilities. Luo Zhixue still hoped that he could find his way back.
However, this man looked like an upright official at that time, crying and shouting that the minister was innocent and that someone had framed him.
Well, Luo Zhixue is too lazy to deal with such a person.
Everything will be done according to the rules, and it will be done as it should be done when the time comes.
Ever since, this was the formal investigation stage of the Inspectorate...
Even at this stage, Tian Guangyuan was still thinking about hiding things, transferring assets and other means to avoid investigation, but he didn't think about running to Luo Zhixue to admit his mistake and beg for mercy.
Then... then Tian Guangyuan was taken away by the censor of the Inspectorate and the patrol police.
Subsequently, after Luo Zhixue's approval, the Grand Inspectorate formally filed a public prosecution against Tian Guangyuan. The second-rank right deputy governor personally served as the prosecutor's censor, and prosecuted him for corruption, soliciting bribes, dereliction of duty, bullying and other crimes.
On December 14, the Grand Inquisition Court held its first semi-public hearing on this matter.
Three days later, the second trial was held and the verdict was pronounced: Tian Guangyuan himself was sentenced to death and was to be executed immediately. His son cooperated with Tian Guangyuan in transferring assets and resisting the investigation. In the past year, he raped three women and was also sentenced to death.
The remaining family members were exiled three thousand miles.
As for the family property, naturally all of it was confiscated.
More than 20 other corrupt officials involved in the case were also sentenced one by one, most of them to death, and a few had their homes confiscated and their families exiled.
Tian Guangyuan's case was also the first semi-public investigation and trial of a senior official from the second-grade level since the founding of the Chu Empire. The case was reported to the court, and then spread throughout all the controlled areas of the Chu Empire, even the Ming court The people over there knew about this through the Chu Empire's official newspaper.
This is actually rare in the Dachu Empire.
Although the Dachu Empire had successively dealt with some high-level criminals before.
Officials from the second rank and even the first rank to the ministerial level have been dealt with, but they are basically dealt with within the officialdom, and it is rare to say that they will be publicly tried and exterminated.
Most of them ended with demotion, begging for bones, etc. For more serious cases, they would not be tried in public, but would be given three feet of white silk or a glass of poisonous wine. Generally speaking, Luo Zhixue gave these old ministers as much as possible. A more decent ending.
However, Luo Zhixue now found that this was not possible, as it was not threatening enough, and it also gave an illusion to those ministers with ulterior motives.
That is, no matter how big the crime is, the most you can do is go home and take care of yourself. You might not be able to make a comeback in a few years...
No matter what happens, it is just suicide, but the family and property can be preserved.
And this is not good!
Except for a very small number of people who have no choice but to do things that violate laws and disciplines, most people do it because of greed and luck.
There is no way to deal with greed. After all, everyone has desires. There is no way to eradicate desire. If there is no desire, then we are not human.
But luck can be suppressed.
When the cost of breaking the law is high enough, people will consider the risks when trying to break the law.
Therefore, in the past two months, Luo Zhixue has also changed some of his attitudes towards his ministers. If he only relies on internal processing to give them a decent ending, he has given them an illusion, so he should change his approach and use deterrence to let them know that the cost of breaking the law is very high. It was... so high that he and even his entire family couldn't bear it.
Not to mention, the impact of Tian Guangyuan's incident is far-reaching and significant.
Many people have guessed Luo Zhixue's thoughts from this incident: Before committing corruption, you must consider the consequences, and you cannot afford the consequences.
At the same time, the censors at the Inspectorate also knew His Majesty's attitude and now supported anti-corruption, so they worked even harder, hoping to catch a few corrupt officials and then be promoted.
For a time, the atmosphere in the entire officialdom improved a lot.
Luo Zhixue was very pleased with this. It seemed that there were quite a lot of smart people.
Although he also knows that this situation cannot last long, and even after a year and a half, many people will forget the threat of this incident, and then continue to engage in corruption.
But it’s good if it lasts for a year and a half.
Besides, at worst, Luo Zhixue will cause another big incident in a year to reorganize the atmosphere.
Anti-corruption and rectification of officialdom is a normal task that needs to be carried out persistently.
Luo Zhixue is very aware that this work may accompany him throughout his ruling career. Luo Zhixue has been mentally prepared for this and has a rough idea.
Just kill a batch every once in a while.
Corrupt officials are like leeks. Once you cut one crop, another crop will pop up soon. They are endless and inexhaustible.
By the way, some assets could be confiscated to replenish the national treasury. In Tian Guangyuan's house, the Tian family and more than a dozen other official families whose homes were confiscated contributed a total of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to the national treasury.
Thinking of this, Luo Zhixue felt that it would be good to kill a group of corrupt officials every once in a while.
Some dynasties raised merchants and killed pigs, so Luo Zhixue should have no problem raising officials and killing pigs?
In December of the third year of Chengshun, the influence of the Chu Empire on the outside world and on internal civil servants was to fight corruption and rectify officialdom.
A large number of officials were arrested one after another, and then were sentenced to death and their homes were ransacked, or they were sentenced to prison or exile, etc.
For those who don’t know this, I am afraid that the main focus of the Chu Empire’s work in December and even the following months is the administration of officials.
In fact, it was not the case. The rectification of official affairs was only one of the things that the Chu Empire did in December, and it was not even ranked among the top five.
For the Chu Empire in this period, the most important thing was military affairs.
Especially in preparation for next year's Northern Expedition.
This matter is the most important thing for the Chu Empire in this autumn and winter, and even in the spring of next year.
Even the unfolding of many things was part of the preparations for the Northern Expedition.
For example, the two battles in Fujian and Zhejiang were originally part of the strategy of going south then north, and going south then north was part of the strategy of the Northern Expedition.
Therefore, regardless of the fact that the Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang that the Chu army attacked were far away from Northern Zhili, in fact they attacked Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang first to prepare for the subsequent attack on Northern Zhili.
After the battle between Fujian and Zhejiang, recruiting Zheng Zhilong was also based on this consideration.
Now we are rectifying the Dangtu Industrial Zone and working hard to increase the production capacity of flintlock guns.
There is also a flintlock musket replacement for the First Division, so that the ace unit of the First Division can be refitted with flintlock muskets and serve as the main force of the Northern Expedition.
The same goes for the reorganization of the garrison. In addition to placing a large number of surrendered troops, the reorganization of the garrison is also to save military expenses and at the same time create more main forces so that more main forces can be mobilized to participate in the Northern Expedition. Northern Expedition.
The Chu Empire can't just rely on two or three divisions to fight all the way to Shuntian Prefecture in Beizhili, right?
Many of the military affairs mentioned above are very important.
In addition to military affairs, some people's livelihood and public security affairs are also important.
For example, restoring the people's livelihood in Fujian, Zhejiang, and Guangdong and Guangxi is also the focus of the Chu Empire's work during this autumn and winter. To this end, the empire's central finance has allocated a total of four million taels of silver for post-war relief and relief in the above four provinces. Restoration of people's livelihood.
With the military expenditures spent on the previous battles, plus the post-war relief funds, the Chu Empire spent at least more than 10 million taels of silver in the battles between Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang.
Basically, many assets confiscated from the recalcitrant officials and gentry in the four provinces mentioned above were filled in.
But it’s okay to say it’s okay.
In this way, the empire was able to gather a batch of funds for the purge of bandits in all internal controlled areas.
Beginning this autumn, when the fighting in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang entered its final stage, the military and patrol departments cooperated. In addition to regular operations, they also gradually launched large-scale illegal armed suppression activities in the existing control areas.
The objects of the purge were all kinds of random bandits and thieves, as well as various illegal armed forces of landlords. In short, the attitude of the Chu Empire was very clear. Except for officers and soldiers, no other armed forces were allowed to exist.
Whether it is the large-scale guarding of the landowners, the bandits who dominate the mountains, or the bandits running around, they must all be surrounded and suppressed.
It is worth mentioning that the process of large-scale suppression of various illegal armed forces was also one of the reasons why Luo Zhixue made up his mind to completely eliminate the garrison.
The combat effectiveness of this garrison is so bad!
In the early stages of the campaign to encircle and suppress all types of illegal armed forces, the garrison troops actually participated in the battle. However, the actual combat performance of these garrison troops made the military very dissatisfied.
Many of the garrison troops couldn't even defeat the landlords' armed forces... let alone encounter some more mobile thieves and bandits.
When the Ninth Garrison Division was encircling and suppressing a group of armed bandits in western Hunan, one of its garrison regiments was ambushed by bandits and suffered heavy losses.
There are also many garrison troops who do not have high fighting will. When encountering slightly stronger illegal armed forces, they stop moving forward or even turn around and run away.
The poor performance of the garrison in the crackdown on illegal armed forces that began in the autumn finally made Luo Zhixue determined to completely eliminate the garrison.
It's disturbing to see so many garrison troops, wasting a lot of money and food and not being able to fight.
However, after a large number of garrison troops were eliminated, although some of the main forces were expanded, most of these main forces were used for external operations or to garrison important strategic cities.
This has also led to a problem. Many small and medium-sized cities have defensive forces.
Under this situation, the Army officially requested to organize a number of low-cost regular troops, which would be used to suppress local areas on weekdays and to cooperate with the main force in wartime operations.
The Army's proposal is very interesting. The force they proposed is not an ordinary second-line force like the previous garrison. Instead, it is a regular army like the existing main forces, but it requires low cost.
Luo Zhixue was very interested in this proposal.
