Chapter 145: Concern Leads to Chaos (I)
In the second month of the lunar calendar, even the middle-class families had already put down their braziers. In the bright rooms of the mansions in the capital, the copper braziers were still generating heat.
"Even Huo Chong knew about... the poisoning."
"Alas... As the saying goes... Justice lies in the hearts of the people."
"Huo Chong's master and his family have been escorted to the capital and thrown into the prison. I have sent people to question him, and this is his confession."
There was the sound of papers rustling, and then it became quiet again. After a while, there was the sound of pages being turned. After reading the confessions of Mr. Huo Chong, Uncle Liu and others, there was silence in the room for a moment.
"There's no need to keep this person."
"Except all?"
"Get rid of this person."
"Yes, sir."
Uncle Liu didn't know that he had the honor of living in the single room where General Nian Gengyao lived. At this moment, he had nothing but regret.
Previously, he was captured by the leader of the Dui Clan, and Huo Chong helped him escape. Liu Shu once again chose to flee, rather than bow to his apprentice Huo Chong and ask for shelter. Huo Chong's rebellion alarmed the entire Shandong Province. The Tai'an government suddenly moved out and arrested Liu Shu's entire family.
If I didn't leave, at least I would still be under Huo Chong's protection.
I felt regretful and empty-bellied. I hadn't had a full meal since I was arrested, and I didn't give Uncle Liu anything to eat during the trip. Uncle Liu felt extremely weak. It was freezing cold in the prison, and he didn't even have the strength to shiver as he huddled on the straw mat.
"It's time for dinner!" the jailer shouted at the cell door.
Uncle Liu struggled to get up, and saw the jailer put down several large bowls of rice. Uncle Liu rushed over to pick up the rice, but then he remembered his sons. He put down the bowl and asked carefully: "Sir, do my sons have food to eat? Is it enough? If not, give them some of mine."
The jailer shouted, "Why waste your words! You are the imperial prisoners. The emperor has specifically asked for your trial. Eat quickly! If you are full, you will have the strength to stand trial."
Uncle Liu knew that being tried was not a good thing. But he was so hungry that he picked up the bowl and ate. He thought he would rather die of gluttony!
After eating, Uncle Liu just felt comfortable. As he got older, he felt full after eating a few bowls of rice. But after being hungry for so long, he just couldn't control himself.
Lying on the straw mat, Uncle Liu fell asleep quickly. In his dream, his hands and feet suddenly became unable to move, and he woke up after struggling for a few times. Looking at himself again, he was lying on his back with his hands and feet tied. Under the dim light, the ropes that bound his hands and feet extended to the fence.
Several masked men had brought a large hemp bag over and placed it firmly on Uncle Liu's chest and abdomen. The bag was filled with sand or something else, but it was so heavy that Uncle Liu could not move.
I wanted to ask, but the heavy pressure on my chest made it hard to breathe, and I couldn't utter a single word.
Those people walked out of the cell quietly, making some noise only when they closed the cell door. After that, the prison fell into silence again.
The next day, when Tianlao submitted documents to the Ministry of Justice, it was reported that Huo Chong's master was old and weak, and had suffered a lot of torture along the way. He died in Tianlao last night.
The Ministry of Justice took this very seriously and sent a coroner to examine the case. They found that Uncle Liu's limbs were stiff, his body was uninjured, and he was dead.
Of course, he was not completely uninjured. For example, there were some wounds on his hands and feet. However, when Uncle Liu was escorted, he was shackled and fettered, so it was normal to have some flesh wounds.
The next day, Yongzheng thought of this matter and asked the Ministry of Justice, who reported that Liu Shu was dead. However, Liu Shu's sons were still alive and well and were being interrogated.
Yongzheng felt that Uncle Liu's death was too untimely, but he didn't think much about it. After reading the confession sent by the Ministry of Justice, Yongzheng frowned at the contents.
Yongzheng originally thought that Huo Chong was an apprentice taught by Uncle Liu, but he did not expect that Huo Chong was actually a latecomer to Uncle Liu. According to the confession of Uncle Liu's sons, Uncle Liu found Huo Chong fainted on the mountain and rescued him.
At this time, Liu Shu wanted to buy a reputation for his son, so he wanted to follow the path of the then Magistrate Xu. He was recommended by the Magistrate Xu to someone else, and Liu Shu borrowed some money from Xu Youlin, the nephew of the Magistrate Xu. However, he was deceived by that person.
Liu Shu's eldest disciple at the time, Li Xiunian, went to reason with Xu Youlin, and the two sides fought. Xu Youlin injured Li Xiunian, and Li Xiunian died halfway through the journey.
After losing a large sum of money and a reliable eldest disciple, Uncle Liu felt sorry for his second disciple and didn't want him to take the blame. So he promoted Huo Chong to the eldest disciple, and deliberately sided with Huo Chong when the second disciple and Huo Chong had a conflict, and drove the second disciple away. He passed his position to Huo Chong and pretended to be sick and fled. A big gap of three hundred taels of silver, as well as the crisis of Xu Youlin's revenge, were all thrown to Huo Chong.
Because they had experienced this incident, the confessions of Uncle Liu's sons were quite detailed. The subsequent description was much simpler. They ran to Tai'an and hid. Later, they heard that Huo Chongbujin did not fall, but instead accidentally started a family and became a wealthy man.
Uncle Liu's sons wanted to return to Zhangdian, but Uncle Liu said the time was not right...
After taking off his glasses and drinking tea to calm down, Yongzheng felt a little surprised. In Yongzheng's mind, Huo Chong was a traitor and a big liar. However, apart from the rebellion, Yongzheng had never heard of any bad deeds of Huo Chong. Just like when Yongzheng sent his guard Zhang Wei to Zhangdian Liujia Village in person, the news he brought back also proved that Huo Chong was telling the truth.
Soon, Prince Yi arrived, "Your Majesty, Li Shude has returned to the capital. I have confirmed that Li Shude has repaid all the debts."
"Yes. Let Li Shude come to see me."
"Your Majesty, I have already asked Li Shude, and he also admitted that he secretly sent someone to meet Nian Gengyao..."
"No need to say more. Let Li Shude come to see me."
The next day, after the morning court session, the former Shandong Governor Li Shude was brought before Yongzheng. Li Shude immediately knelt on the ground and said, "Master, I admit my guilt."
"Oh? What's your crime?" Yongzheng's tone was even a little teasing. Hearing Li Shude fluently call him master, Yongzheng recalled Nian Gengyao. Nian Gengyao always called himself "minister" and never called himself a slave.
Li Shude was from the Zhenghuang Banner, a true banner slave of the emperor. He kowtowed again, "Master, when I was in Shandong, I never thought that the traitor Huo Chong would have the intention of rebellion. I let him go several times. When I learned that Huo Chong had rebelled, I knew I was sorry for you. I thought that if you would spare my life, I would be willing to serve in the army. You would definitely chop off Huo Chong's head. But I am not very useful in fighting, so I can only ask Nian Gengyao to see what he thinks of Huo Chong. Master, I really don't want to collude with Nian Gengyao."
Yongzheng completely understood Li Shude's explanation and believed it. Since Li Shude had paid back the money he owed, Yongzheng did not want to pursue him any further. Among those corrupt officials, there were many who were more hateful than Li Shude. Li Shude was not even on the first few pages of the list.
"Since you almost got rid of Huo Chong several times, you don't need to say bad things about him. Just answer truthfully and tell me what you know Huo Chong has done."
Li Shude no longer dared to resist Yongzheng's orders, so he told Yongzheng what he had experienced. After listening, Yongzheng sighed and said, "It seems that we didn't realize that Huo Chong had been planning to rebel for a long time. Li Shude, do you know anything about Huo Chong before he was in Zhangdian?"
"This..." Li Shude wanted to say that if it wasn't for Old Fourteen's recommendation, he would have wanted to check it out. But Old Fourteen was in the limelight at that time, and Huo Chong paid for it out of his own pocket, so Li Shude didn't want to cause trouble.
In the end, Li Shude still didn't dare to say anything bad about Old Fourteen, and could only answer, "I don't know."
Yongzheng did not pursue the matter, but used Li Shude's previous words to say: "You were originally going to be the general of Fuzhou. Although your successor Xie Cili is new to the office, he cannot be unaware of such a huge deficit. Li Yuanlong is originally your relative, and I have already severely punished him. Xie Cili was originally the general of Dengzhou. If you want to make a contribution, go to Shandong and wipe out Huo Chong."
Li Shude was overjoyed when he heard this. In fact, deep down in his heart, he had hoped that Nian Gengyao could redeem himself and make meritorious contributions. As long as Huo Chong was eliminated, Li Shude would be able to get rid of the trouble through Nian Gengyao's relationship. He could also deepen his friendship with Nian Gengyao.
Nian Gengyao was still killed by Yongzheng, which made Li Shude give up the idea. But Yongzheng gave Li Shude another chance to personally eliminate Huo Chong, and Li Shude's expectation was rekindled. He kowtowed and said, "Master, please rest assured. I will fight for your honor even if I risk my life."
Yongzheng couldn't help but sigh as he let Li Shude go first. Li Shude's description of Huo Chong didn't reveal any real evil deeds of Huo Chong. At most, he mentioned some of Huo Chong's actions that seemed daring and reckless.
But these actions can also be called chivalrous. In other words, Huo Chong began to test the tolerance of the court a long time ago, and then tried his best to expand his influence and accumulate reputation within this tolerance.
Yongzheng had seen the manifesto sent by Huo Chong. The court officials of course denounced the manifesto as nonsense and Huo Chong was a traitor. But Yongzheng felt that the manifesto had a Huo Chong-like weirdness.
If Huo Chong had not issued this manifesto, his rebellion would have been called becoming a bandit. Only with a manifesto could it be considered an uprising. Therefore, issuing a manifesto was very important. Those who decided to challenge the court were either panicking or getting carried away, as can be seen from the manifestos of past dynasties.
Although Huo Chong's manifesto did not have the literary grace of Luo Binwang, it revealed a sense of indifference and lazy coping.
A manifesto could express such a feeling. Yongzheng felt that he really couldn't understand what kind of person Huo Chong was.
But Huo Chong was just a minor problem, so Yongzheng returned to the task at hand. The difficulty of checking the silver arrears was too great, and the initial three-year investigation did not achieve the expected goal. Yongzheng did not want to give up, so he simply established the "Examination Office", an independent auditing agency directly under the emperor.
At the same time, all the officials in charge of clearing up the deficits in various provinces were replaced by capable and capable officials known for their "wind power". In this process, most of the provinces that were more effective in clearing up the deficits were places with strict deficit recovery, and almost all of the deficits were compensated by sharing compensation and converting family property.
In February of the fourth year of Yongzheng's reign, Yongzheng determined that only by taking ruthless measures, or even killing them, could the problem of official corruption be completely solved.
