Chapter 319 Chapter 318 Going South on Business

The court has been waiting for the report from Nanzhili these days, that is, to arrest the "evil young men" who fled to Taihu Lake.

Emperor Jiajing only kept the memorial for one day and then issued it. The people must be caught and brought to justice. As for the matter in Jiangnan, it can be discussed in the long run.

However, after seeing Gao Zhong's memorial today and reading Wei Guangde's memorial impeaching Weng Dali, Emperor Jiajing's eyes lit up.

As far as he knows now, Wei Guangde's relationship with the Yan family is only superficially harmonious. In fact, the Yan family no longer treats him as before.

And Wei Guangde has no relationship with Lu Bing. At least Emperor Jiajing does not know that Wei Guangde has had private contact with Lu Bing, and Lu Bing will naturally not be stupid enough to report this to Emperor Jiajing.

He is a suitable candidate, neither biased towards Hu Zongxian nor leaning towards Lu Bing.

As for the reason for arranging Wei Guangde to go south, Emperor Jiajing had already made up his mind about this matter, that is, to go south as the Censorate to participate in the trial of all criminals in Suzhou Prefecture.

Since they are all from the gentry and official families of Suzhou Prefecture, if the court cannot send ministers to supervise them, who knows what will happen.

Wei Guangde is from Jiujiang Wei, Jiangxi Province, and he is naturally not related to Suzhou Prefecture in Nanzhili. He is a suitable candidate.

Thinking of the previous time when Wei Guangde was ordered to tour the north, he also secretly ordered Wei Guangde to inquire about the affairs of Xuanfu. It seems that Wei Guangde is really an expert in this. It is just right for him to take a look at the situation of various prefectures and counties in Jiangnan and understand the voice of the people.

Thinking of this, Emperor Jiajing would naturally not issue such an order immediately, which would be too abrupt. He would have to wait until those criminals were caught and reported to the capital, and then arrange it at this time.

The imperial edict from the capital was sent to Nanzhili by express horse, and then handed over to Weng Dali, the governor of Yingtian.

The last time the governor's office was besieged by evil young men, Weng Dali fled with his wife. After losing the governor's guard of honor, Weng Dali knew that his career was over, at least this time he would definitely be dismissed.

Speaking of dismissal, this is still based on the premise of cleaning up the beginning and the end. If the evil young men cannot be arrested and brought to justice, he may be imprisoned and questioned.

Therefore, after the evil young men fled from Suzhou City to Taihu Lake, Weng Dali did not wait for the order from the capital, and directly used the power of the governor to mobilize the soldiers of the Suzhou Guard to conduct a dragnet search in Taihu Lake, and must catch those evil young men.

At the same time, he personally supervised and tortured the evil young men captured by Wang Daoxing, the prefect of Suzhou Prefecture, and vowed to capture the leader of this riot and deal with him severely.

It was this lawless guy who ended his official career ahead of time. If he was not killed, it would not be enough to vent his hatred.

Soon, the name of Zhou Junqin, the culprit, was found out.

Zhou Junqin was the second son of the Zhou family, nicknamed Zhou Er. The Zhou family was a traditional gentry family in Suzhou Prefecture. His elder brother was an official in other places as a juren, although his official position was not high.

It was precisely because of this that Zhou Er became accustomed to being domineering in Suzhou Prefecture.

Of course, they would never provoke those they could not afford to offend, that is, they would bully ordinary people and make some names.

As for the others, their identities were either children of the gentry families in Suzhou Prefecture, or children of Suzhou officials, or even children of the guards.

This group of evil young men used many nicknames such as "Daxing", "Zhahuo", and "Baila" to make trouble outside. There was also a division of identity levels inside, with three levels of upper, middle and lower. The upper ones were scholars and nobles, the middle ones were children of industry families, and the lower ones were idle and burdened with scoundrels in the alleys. All three types had leaders.

Zhou Er, for example, is a son of a gentry, so he can read and write. Although he did not pass the examination to become a scholar, he is also considered to be a knowledgeable and cultured person among the evil youngsters, and is considered to be of the upper class.

The middle class mainly knows martial arts, and relies on hard work and bravery to gain status in the guild. Most of them are the children of clerks in the Suzhou government office and the children of the Suzhou Guard.

The lowest class is naturally the small gangsters wandering in the streets and alleys. They rely on their bosses to make a living and follow them to do some illegal and disorderly things.

After the investigation of the chief of the riot, Weng Dali was actually prepared for the identities of these people. Without the protection of these people, this group of evil youngsters would have been dealt with long ago, and how could they do such shocking things.

However, they are rioting in Suzhou Prefecture, and their relatives still want to protect them, that is wishful thinking and daydreaming.

Weng Dali sneered in his heart at the things sent, but he accepted them all, just to calm himself down and compensate himself.

As for wanting to make a big deal out of it, haha.

Is it possible?

After the list was reviewed, Weng Dali immediately summoned Wang Daoxing, the governor of Suzhou, and the commander of Suzhou Guard, and threw the list of criminals in front of them.

"These people rely on the power of their families and are used to doing illegal things in Suzhou Prefecture, so they dare to commit such a heinous crime.

To tell you the truth, I am afraid it is a bit difficult to get over this hurdle, but these people can't get over it either. I have already reported the list. As for these derelict officers and local officials, they are all your subordinates. I don't need to teach you what to do."

For Weng Dali's words, both Wang Daoxing and the commander of Suzhou Guard had uncertain faces after hearing them.

Looking at the list in their hands, these people were still sending things to their homes two days ago. Is there any need to say what the purpose is?

Naturally, they accepted all the lists like Weng Dali, because Weng Dali accepted them, and they really had no reason not to accept them.

However, they never expected that Weng Dali would take the money but still come up with the list and punish these people.

Cruel enough.

At this time, the two people in the room were the military and political chiefs of Suzhou Prefecture. Facing the orders, or orders, of their immediate superiors, they could not refuse. If they dared to say "no", they would be reported for participating in the riot of the evil young men.

"Sir Weng, I will go back to the garrison to summon the generals and arrest all the officials involved in the case for interrogation."

The commander of Suzhou Garrison reacted quickly and immediately stood up and clasped his fists to Weng Dali.

Although Weng Dali was likely to lose power, there was no need to oppose him at this critical moment.

Governor, the impeachment memorial was enough for him to drink a pot. When the blame was put on him, there would be no place to complain.

After all, the matter was indeed a big deal, and he had the responsibility as the sergeant-in-chief of Suzhou Prefecture.

Although Wang Daoxing was fearless and courageous in dealing with the riots, he should not be so complacent at this time because of his meritorious service. He had a similar mentality to the commander of Suzhou Guard. There was no need to confront Weng Dali at this time. It was not worth it for someone who was about to leave his post.

"All the people in the government office will be dismissed and imprisoned today. No leniency."

Wang Daoxing also stood up and clasped his fists.

After saying that, Wang Daoxing felt a lot more relaxed.

Wang Daoxing had thought about rectifying this group of evil young men before. They were really too outrageous.

However, the involvement was too big, and sometimes it was really inconvenient for him as a vagrant official to rectify them.

Before, Weng Dali wanted to punish the evil young men, and of course he fully supported it, but he didn't expect that these people were so bold that they dared to do such evil things.

Well, take this opportunity to deal with all these people.

In the past, this group of people was also like this, acting domineeringly. Although they didn't dare to be presumptuous in front of him, they did do a lot of evil.

Weng Dali was quite satisfied with the attitude of the two. It was just dealing with some officials who had committed crimes. If they dared to refuse, he would not mind reporting them and making them the scapegoat.

"Sir Weng, most of the people to be arrested are officials from Suzhou Prefecture. I am also afraid that the news will leak out and they will do something harmful to the world. Please order the city gates to be closed for the next two days."

In the past, Wang Daoxing had the final say in Suzhou Prefecture, but now it was different. Weng Dali asked the people of Suzhou Guard to take over the four gates of Suzhou City and arrest the evil young man. Now he had to say hello to Weng Dali and the commander of Suzhou Guard before arresting people in the city.

"Of course."

Weng Dali nodded and agreed without hesitation, and ordered Suzhou Guard to provide assistance. If there were any arrests of rioters, the guards would decisively attack and suppress them.

"Is there any progress in Taihu Lake?"

After issuing the arrest mission in the city, Weng Dali turned his attention to Taihu Lake. The evil young man hiding in Taihu Lake was the main culprit of this incident, and he would never let him go.

"With your handwritten order, my men have entered the prefectures and counties along the lake in Changzhou Prefecture to arrest criminals. After receiving your handwritten order, the Zhejiang Huzhou Prefecture Guarding Thousand Households Office also began to take action to block the south of Taihu Lake to prevent them from escaping.

Now the government troops have set up a net along the lake, and I think there will be good news soon."

Most of the areas around Taihu Lake are under the jurisdiction of Nanzhili, and naturally they are all under the jurisdiction of Weng Dali, the governor of Yingtian. Only the south close to Huzhou Prefecture belongs to the Zhejiang Provincial Administration, so Weng Dali sent a handwritten order to Huzhou Prefecture, and at the same time he had to think about Nanjing and pass the official documents to the Zhejiang Provincial Administration.

However, Huzhou Prefecture took action immediately after receiving Weng Dali's letter. The news of Suzhou Prefecture had spread, and the governor's office was burned down by bandits. They didn't want to be involved in such a shocking case. They did whatever Suzhou said. It was just catching a few thieves, not fighting a bloody battle with the Tartars in the north or the Japanese pirates in the east.

However, the gang of evil young men headed by Zhou Er in Taihu Lake lived a miserable life.

In the first few days after entering Taihu Lake, they felt quite relaxed and leisurely. No one cared about them here, and they were all very comfortable.

But after all, they acted rashly and didn't think too much. After a few days, they were worried about food. They lived in the wilderness, where insects and snakes were infested, making a group of young men who were used to a pampered life miserable.

As they sent people out to buy food and inquire about information, what they waited for was not what they wanted, but the siege of a large group of officers and soldiers.

People who go out are used to bullying and bullying the market, so naturally they won't buy things properly. They still behave like they do in Suzhou City. Their whereabouts were soon discovered and arrested by the Suzhou guards who were chasing them.

The officers and soldiers were not the officials in Suzhou Prefecture that they were familiar with before. They could talk nicely. After a round of beatings and kicks, they confessed the whereabouts of Zhou Er and others.

When Zhou Er and others were surrounded by officers and soldiers, more than a dozen officials in the government office in Suzhou City were stripped of their caps and knelt on the ground, and the yamen runners behind them held sticks.

"All of them will be imprisoned and their homes will be searched according to the list."

Wang Daoxing's words came out without any emotion, and several people in the hall who were on the wrong side of the law collapsed on the spot.

In fact, they knew that something was wrong after the incident, so they went to the trouble of sending money and things to the temporary residence of the governor, and also sent money to their boss, just to save their own family.

Those evil obstacles, just don't want them, but they didn't expect that after they took the money, they would still implicate their own family. It's too late to say anything at this time.

After their master was arrested, a large number of government troops and yamen runners rushed into their mansion and began to arrest people and confiscate their homes. They were now charged with the crime of treason, so the people below them would naturally not be polite, not to mention that confiscation of homes was a first-class job.

When the imperial edict from the capital was passed to Suzhou Prefecture, the work of dismissing and arresting the derelict officers and local officials and supervising the arrest of the rebels was nearing completion. Only a small number of criminals were still hiding in Taihu Lake, and the rest were captured in one fell swoop.

The arrest of the main culprit and the main accomplice also indicated that the riot in Suzhou Prefecture had been quelled, and the next thing to do was to try the case and convict.

When the news reached the capital, although Emperor Jiajing was satisfied with Suzhou's quick handling of the riot, his previous thoughts had not been eliminated.

The draft given by the cabinet Yan Song was to let the Nanjing Dali Temple, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Judicial Inspection Commission take over, and the three judicial departments would try the case together, and the standards were similar to those of Wang Zhi's trial.

Wang Zhi, it's time to deal with him.

Emperor Jiajing was so calculative in his mind, but he made some changes in the instructions of the memorial in his hand. There was no problem for the Nanjing Dali Temple and the local criminal prosecution commissioners representing the Ministry of Justice to participate in it, but the Censorate was directly involved by Beijing, and the candidates were decided by the Censorate.

He would not directly name who would do this in the red letter, but the eunuchs below could convey his intentions for him. Zhou Yan knew the emperor's attitude and naturally knew how to choose and who to send.

Wei Guangde was called from the Hanlin Academy to the Censorate, which was the first time in history.

At this time, the capital was already in the season of transition from autumn to winter, and the weather began to get colder.

When Wei Guangde received the news, he was still very puzzled. What could the Censorate want to find him for?

Did they ask him to go to Fujian for inspection?

Because of the relationship with the Japanese pirates in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, the transfer to Fujian was mainly to suppress the Japanese pirates. Wei Guangde was actually really afraid of being sent there, especially at this time of year.

But after thinking about it, I know it's impossible. It's unlikely that Fujian will change people temporarily now. It's probably other things.

When Wei Guangde entered the Censorate and went to the duty room of Zhou Yan, the Left Censor-in-Chief, he realized that he was really assigned a job.

"Shan Dai, the court sent you this time to supervise the trial of the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice in Nanzhili. In fact, the case has been basically investigated. You just keep an eye on it to see if anyone is partial to the law and deliberately sentenced some people lightly. This is also the purpose of our Censorate's participation in the trial."

Zhou Yan was quite kind and explained to Wei Guangde the main items of this mission. After all, although Wei Guangde entered the Censorate, he had never been sent out. In fact, he was just a name, a temporary title, but it was not revoked afterwards.

Wei Guangde felt like he was screwed, but he had to make a surprised expression on his face, as if he was taught.

"In addition, after the matter in Suzhou Prefecture is settled, you have to go to Zhejiang. The case of Wang Zhi, the Japanese leader, has been approved and beheaded. You go to supervise the execution."