Chapter 192 Cunning Opponent

In April of the fourth year of Jingyou's reign, Zhao Jun stayed at Huainan West Road for more than a month.

According to Yang Gao's investigation, there were errors in Huoqiu and Anfeng in Shouzhou, Gushi and Dingcheng in Guangzhou, and Huangpi in Huangzhou.

In other words, corruption cases are mainly concentrated in the five counties of Shouzhou, Guangzhou and Huangzhou on Huainan Road.

There are nine county magistrates involved.

Except for the current Huoqiu County Magistrate who committed suicide out of fear of guilt, five former magistrates were transferred, and the other four all honestly confessed that they were bribed by the former magistrates.

As for the last county magistrate, he was only transferred last year and doesn't do much. Local tasks are all managed by the police officers and large households.

When the former magistrate handed over to him, he found that this man was stupid. After testing him, he couldn't understand his hint at all, so he simply didn't bribe him with money.

Later, as the former magistrate expected, this person did not realize that such a big case had occurred in the local area. He was kept in the dark by local wealthy households and police officers, and was fooled like a fool.

Although he was not involved, he obviously had serious dereliction of duty and was eventually suspended from his post by Yang. Currently, local government affairs are managed by the state government's Yamen who urgently transferred people there.

"There are only so many that have been found so far. Although only five counties are involved, the number of people involved can reach more than 100,000. The drought in Huainan killed tens of thousands of people, most of whom were from Dingkou in these five counties."

In the Huainan Road Transfer Envoy's Yamen, Yang Gao reported to Zhao Jun one by one the situation found during the recent period: "According to the amount of disaster relief grain found by the official in these five places, it amounted to about 500,000 dendrobium. The price of grain has generally skyrocketed to more than 3,000 yuan a bushel or even 4,000 to 5,000 yuan a bushel. A rough estimate is that even if they only corrupted 50% of it, the value would be more than one million yuan. "

"Fifty percent?"

Zhao Jun sneered: "If they were only greedy for 50%, why did so many people die?"

"yes."

Yang Gao said: "Xiaguan suspected that it was more than 50%. In addition, Xianguan passed through Mengcheng in Bozhou before and found that the people there were sallow and thin, with few penises. After asking, he learned that they were also affected by the drought in Huainan. Xiaguan felt that there might also be corruption there. The corruption case occurred, but Bozhou belongs to Huainan East Road."

Bozhou and Shouzhou are very close to each other. Mengcheng is actually the county next door to Xiacai where Shouzhou is governed. The two counties are less than 180 miles apart. Therefore, the situation in Mengcheng is still the same for Yang Gao, who is the shipping envoy of Huainan Road. Understand a little bit.

If we add in the Mengcheng, Bozhou, and Huainan East Road cases that may not have been discovered yet, then it is unimaginable how wide and deep the entire corruption case is.

It's just that although the two places are close to each other, Bozhou, like Haozhou, belongs to Huainan East Road and is not under the jurisdiction of Huainan West Road. Therefore, Yang Gao, the shipping envoy, cannot control Huainan East Road, even if he thinks there is a problem over there in Mengcheng. , there is nothing he can do.

"It doesn't matter. I will send someone to notify the Huainan East Road Transfer Envoy when the time comes and give you the power to investigate the case in another place."

"Yes, thank you, Zhiyuan."

"So far, only nine county magistrates have been found?"

Zhao Jun asked again.

This result made Zhao Jun a little dissatisfied.

The amount involved in the case amounted to more than one million guan, and the grain amounted to more than 500,000 dendrobium.

You must know that the imperial court only allocated 1.3 million hu of dendrobium for disaster relief. Including the local Changping warehouse, the total amount was more than 4 million hu of dendrobium, one-eighth of which was embezzled.

Such a large sum of food and amount was actually divided among the five local seven-level county magistrates?

Even if the bribes received by the next four successors are included, each of them can earn more than 100,000 yuan. How is this possible?

Who gave them the courage?

Even a small county magistrate in Zhao Jun's eyes is already a huge figure in the eyes of local people. But at least if there wasn't someone behind the scenes to organize them to make money together, Zhao Jun wouldn't believe it even to death.

"There are more than just local registrars, county captains, large and small officials, superintendents, and accountants. There are at least four to five hundred people involved in the case."

Yang Gao said in a deep voice: "That's all that can be found so far, because the current county magistrate is basically hinted and contacted by the former county magistrate. They only vaguely know that behind this may be the former Huainan Road transfer envoy Huang Wei, the magistrate of Shouzhou Sun Mian, Liu Deng, the magistrate of Guangzhou, had no contact with them."

"Well then you should know what to do."

Zhao Jun nodded slightly. What we know so far is that there are more than a few county magistrates involved behind this case. The main supporters are the two magistrates and the transfer envoys. There may also be deputy transfer envoys, Tidian divisions, and transfer judges. , remind the judge and other senior officials along the way.

After all, for such a big matter, it would be unreasonable to mention that the prison department was totally unaware of it. Haven't these people visited various counties in the past few years to try the Xing prison lawsuit?

So in fact, at least in ancient times, officials were familiar with various methods and methods of corruption. The existence of any corrupt official was actually due to the tacit approval of his superiors and colleagues. The possibility of committing a crime alone was almost non-existent. of.

Zhao Jun felt that there must be a huge network of connections here, but he only vaguely knew about a few of them so far.

But as the saying goes, investigation requires evidence, while anti-terrorism only requires lists.

Before Sun Miao and the others rebelled, conclusive physical and personal evidence was still needed to capture them.

For example, the four former county magistrates who knew about it were witnesses when they were caught. If we look for breakthroughs from them, we can always find out through letters, account books, etc. all the way to the end.

Therefore, Yang Gao obviously understood what Zhao Jun meant, and said with a smile: "After the official found out which counties on Huainan Road had problems, he immediately sent people to arrest them across the border with a warrant from the Zhiyuan. Results will be available soon.”

"Where have those people been transferred?"

Zhao Jun asked.

"One is on Jiangxi Road, one is on Hubei Road, one is on Guangnan West Road, and two are on Chengdufu Road. Two of them were promoted to prefecture-level judges last year and this year."

"It's true that he got promoted and made a fortune. The one on Jiangxi Road should be the quickest to arrest him."

"Yes."

Yang Gao said: "After the official found out, he sent people there as soon as possible. I think we should be able to catch him in the next two days."

He said with a proud look on his face. The reason why he came here to report today was naturally to report his results.

Counting the days, the people from Jiangxi Road who went to arrest him should be back soon.

When the time comes, he will take the person to the magistrate, accuse the officer in front of the magistrate, and confess truthfully, won't he show his face harshly?

"Well, you've done a great job. As long as this major case can be brought to light, I will definitely use you again."

Zhao Jun flipped through a series of official documents brought up by Yang Gao, which contained the documentary records of him imprisoning all the people involved in the case in the five counties and interrogating them one by one.

Zhao Jun arrived in Shouzhou in early March and asked Yang Gao to start investigating the case on the seventh day. Now it is more than 20 days later. Yang Gao was able to find out so many things in such a short period of time. It is actually very good. .

"Thank you, Zhiyuan, for your compliment."

Yang Gao felt happy. Sometimes it was so comfortable to cling to powerful people. Some people were obviously very capable, neither greedy nor possessive, and had outstanding political achievements. Why couldn't they be promoted?

After all, Chollima must have a Bole, and now Yang Gao feels that he has met his Bole, and it is just around the corner to find out where his classmates come from.

However, at this moment, an official hurriedly came in outside the door. Yang Gao turned around and saw that it was the shipping judge he sent to arrest people on Jiangxi Road. The other person's face was sweating profusely and looked melancholy. , Yang Gao's heart tightened.

Sure enough, after the man came in, he first saluted Zhao Jun, then saluted Yang Gao, and then said: "Zhiyuan, Dacao (Song Dynasty's shipping envoy), something happened."

"What's up?"

Yang Gao asked quickly: "Didn't I ask you to capture the prisoner? Where are the people?"

The judge smiled bitterly and said: "The day before the official arrived, the prisoner had already committed suicide and left a last letter saying that everything was his doing. All the county government documents were burned."

"boom!"

Zhao Jun snapped the case and said: "How unreasonable? He committed suicide as soon as he was investigated, and he committed suicide as soon as he was investigated. Since he did it, why did he burn the documents? And he just kept the final letters. Isn't this unnecessary?"

The judge said: "The lower official thought so too. He immediately asked the people from the neighboring county to conduct an inspection and concluded that the county official should have been strangled to death and hung from a beam to pretend to commit suicide."

"Yang Riyan must have informed the person behind it. The person behind it is ruthless and extremely crazed. I'm afraid it will take less than a few days to find out the criminal and silence him."

Yang Gao only felt that it was quite scary.

Magistrate Huoqiu was actually forced to death by threats, but there is no doubt that he committed suicide.

However, the county magistrate was killed directly. Obviously he didn't want to die, so the people behind the scenes simply killed him without stopping.

The other party's ruthlessness exceeded his imagination.

You must know that when Yang Gao started investigating, he only knew about the situation in Huoqiu County.

After that, through a thorough investigation of the entire Huainan Road, and sending people to the grassroots level to check on-site in person in every county, village, and town, and carefully recording the number of victims and the amount of relief funds they received, more than 30 people on the entire Huainan West Road were identified. The county investigated and then sent people to arrest the former prisoner.

This efficiency is already amazingly fast.

But the other party still took advantage of this time difference and killed the county magistrate on Jiangxi Road in just two days. The other party's decisiveness and character were definitely not something ordinary people could achieve.

"Are Huang Wei and Sun Miao so ruthless?"

Zhao Jun frowned.

"Xiaoguan doesn't know this. He doesn't know much about them. He's just worried about the others."

Yang Gao looked melancholy.

Zhao Jun pondered for a moment and said, "Where is the former Huoqiu County Magistrate?"

"Mianzhou Tongjuan!"

Yang Gao immediately understood what Zhao Jun meant and said, "He will definitely be fine."

"But what if something happens on the way here?"

Zhao Jun asked.

Huoqiu was the county where the problem was first discovered. The day Yang Gao took over, he immediately sent people to investigate the former Huoqiu County Magistrate, and then used Zhao Jun's warrant to send people to arrest him.

Even Yang Riyan sent someone to inform the people behind the scenes on the same day, but the time to go to the people behind the scenes first, who would make a decision before sending the killers, was definitely not enough time.

Therefore, unless Yang Riyan is the mastermind behind sending the killer, there is a high probability that the people who went to arrest the former Huoqiu County Magistrate will be safe.

The problem is that you might not be able to catch him in vain. What if someone sends a killer to ambush you on your way back?

Yang Gao obviously realized the seriousness of the matter and said: "Xiaguan personally led the Xiang army from Huainan Road to Jinghu North Road."

"Um."

Zhao Jun nodded: "You can only go back and forth from Huainan to Chengdu by taking the Yangtze River. Now you go to Jinghu North Road to guard and get my warrant. The officials along the way must cooperate fully. The local troops are also at your disposal. You must let your predecessor Huo Qiu The county magistrate arrived alive”

"yes."

Yang Gao quickly handed over his hand and immediately turned around and went out.

Zhao Jun looked at his leaving figure, never expecting that the Huainan Road disaster relief corruption case was deeply involved and shocking.

And the people behind the scenes are really scary. They dare to kill people and silence them. They are simply rampant.

Fortunately, Zhao Jun led the army and held military power. Unless the mastermind behind the scenes came with a large army to encircle and suppress him, he would be very safe.

Even if you bring a large army to encircle and suppress you, you are not afraid.

Because Zhao Jun did not visit privately like he did in Bozhou, but showed up in Shouzhou, so the entire Huainan Road, and even the entire Jiangzhe Road knew his location.

Moreover, it has long been known to the world that he has officials in his hands who can mobilize local military edicts.

Unless the local army has been trained as a dead soldier, they are not afraid of being ordered by the court to kill the nine tribes. Otherwise, if the soldiers knew they were coming to attack the Shouzhou Transfer Envoy Yamen, they would probably immediately turn their guns to deal with the rebels.

Therefore, Zhao Jun himself is not worried about his safety at all.

only.

The person behind the scenes was so arrogant, he really didn't take him seriously.

Zhao Jun thought for a moment and looked at the official document on the desk.

It was sent by Li Jianzhi, the newly-appointed Liang Zhejiang prisoner a few days ago. This Li Jianzhi is Li Di's eldest son.

Speaking of Li Jianzhi being sent to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, it was actually Lu Yijian's credit.

Because Li Di was a little old and his memory was not very good, he wanted to transfer his eldest son, who was serving as Tianzhang Pavilion waiting system and Hebei capital transfer envoy, back to the central government to help him as a staff officer.

Li Jianzhi was also a capable person with outstanding talents. When he was young, he even worshiped Kou Zhun as his teacher.

Lu Yijian was worried that Li Jianzhi would come back to serve as Li Di's adviser, giving his old rival even more power. In addition, he was clinging to Zhao Jun's lap. He was afraid that Li Di, with Li Jianzhi's help, would quickly be promoted to a candidate or even a fellow professor in the Constitutional Yuan, threatening him. status.

Therefore, in the face of Li Di's proposal, Lu Yijian firmly opposed it, and said that Li Di was nepotistic. Finally, Zhao Jun saw that Li Jianzhi's political achievements were indeed outstanding, and Lu Yijian strongly opposed it, so he did not transfer him back to the central government, but sent him to Jiangzhe Road , it can be regarded as helping Zhao Jun fight the outpost.

Unexpectedly, after Li Jianzhi arrived at Jiangzhe Road, Xu Ming cut off his arm to show his innocence on the day he was interrogated. Li Jianzhi realized that there was a big problem here, so he immediately began a thorough investigation.

As a result, that night, both the prefectural government office and the two nearby Hangzhou city and county government offices were robbed, and a large number of official documents were lost, including Xu Ming's case files.

Li Jianzhi was not stupid and naturally understood that Sun Mian might have done this, so he reported it to Zhao Jun.

no way.

When the case files are lost, those cases become unsolved, with no evidence to prove them.

Sun Miao was too dirty, and there was nothing he could do about the tricks on the surface, so he could only inform Zhao Jun of the situation. After all, his power was not powerful enough to depose a magistrate at any time.

‘This is a cunning, cruel and difficult opponent. It seems that I have to go to Hangzhou myself. ’

Zhao Jun thought for a moment, and then said to Huang Sanlang who was guarding outside: "Sanlang, go and call Lin Zhu."

"yes."

Huang Sanlang hurriedly went to the government office to call Lin Zhizhou.