Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 991 0986 [Take off one boot]

(Fu Yuanheng's resume has been revised. Thanks to the book friends for correcting it.)
Linzhou.

Civil and military officials gathered together.

Yao Pingzhong was in the main position.

Because Yao Pingzhong's official rank was much higher than that of the prefect Hu Xiang. He was not the commander of Linzhou, but the general of Linfu!
Due to the destruction of Western Xia last year, the Linfu area was divided.

Part of it was left in Shaanxi, and a large area of ​​the former Western Xia territory was demarcated and incorporated into Linzhou to become a new administrative region.

Part of it was assigned to Shanxi and became the northwesternmost territory of Shanxi.

A very small part was assigned to Xihe Prefecture and became under the jurisdiction of the Ningxia Governor's Office.

Along with this, there are also changes in the garrison.

The core troops were transferred to Linzhou for garrison, and the remaining troops were moved to various prefectures in Ningxia, leaving only a small number of troops in Fugu - because Fugu had changed from the front line to the rear.

Last year, many of Yao Pingzhong's troops were rewarded for their meritorious services.

General Wang De was even directly granted the title of marquis and his military rank was promoted twice, but his military position did not change much and he was transferred to Yinchuan Prefecture with his troops.

Yao Pingzhong himself was promoted to a higher rank, with an additional fief and fiefdom. His military rank was promoted by two levels, and he received a large amount of material rewards. He was posthumously conferred titles on three generations, and his wife was given a title. His military position remained unchanged for the time being, but the court promised that once the local governance was stable, Yao Pingzhong would be transferred to be the general commander of Shanxi.

His troops were split up, and his defense area suddenly became smaller. This was only a temporary arrangement to deter the Tangut tribe in the west of Linzhou. The military document made it very clear that he would be transferred to a high-ranking official in two years at most, and he was not the only one who was arranged in this way.

But Yao Pingzhong still felt resentful and believed that this was Zhang Guangdao's revenge.

Now he dared not complain anymore because he had already messed up!
The prefect Hu Xiang said: "The relief grain has been distributed, and the farmland and pastures have been distributed to farmers and herdsmen. However, due to the rebellion, there are only a few Xixia immigrants left, so we have to move the Han people there to farm and graze."

"Are the Han people willing to migrate?" Yao Pingzhong is now trying his best to make amends in order to reduce the punishment imposed on him by the court.

Hu Xiang was also trying to make amends: "Hearing that they could share land and grassland, the Han people of Linzhou were willing to move there. They were originally next to each other, so the migration could be completed in ten days or half a month. Moreover, many of the so-called Han people in Linzhou were actually Xixia serfs and mountain barbarians who had fled here in the past ten years. Most of the Dangxiang people over there had died, and all the land had been vacated, so the people of Linzhou were naturally willing to move there."

Yao Pingzhong sighed and said, "Thank you, Governor. Please make sure there are no more mistakes when relocating the people."

"I would never dare to do that." Hu Xiang said.

The civil and military officials of Linzhou all sighed at this moment.

While he was afraid of punishment from the imperial court, he also resented the cunning of the remnants of Western Xia.

The Tangut tribes in Linzhou rebelled, but they did not attack the city, nor did they attack the various forts, and they were even too lazy to plunder the Han countryside. They simply fled across the province with their families, catching Yao Pingzhong, who had already prepared to quell the rebellion, off guard and unable to respond.

In comparison, the rebels in Xuanzhou were so obedient. They foolishly went to attack the county town, but were defeated in one battle by the 500 garrison troops. It only took half a month to wipe out the remnants.

If the rebel tribes in Linzhou were a little stupider or moved a little slower, Yao Pingzhong would be able to stabilize the situation quickly.

……

In the torment of living day by day, the people of Linzhou completed their westward migration and received enough oxen, livestock, seeds, bedding and farm tools.

The population of the former Xixia territories that were incorporated into Linzhou was completely replaced. More than 90% of them were Han people who migrated there, and less than 10% were Xixia natives.

The land is vast and the people are sparse.

The population is even smaller than during the Western Xia rule!
Finally, the imperial envoy sent by the court arrived, accompanied by some civil and military officials.

The civil and military officials of Linzhou welcomed him ten miles outside the city, but the emperor's messenger who was responsible for conveying the emperor's order had a blank expression on his face.

The emperor's messenger announced the contents of the imperial edict on the spot: "Linzhou Magistrate Hu Xiang, Prefecture Judge Du Wenyuan, and Household Department Clerk Li Jun are detained and awaiting trial. If they have not committed corruption or abuse of power, they will be demoted three levels and put to use. If they are found to have committed corruption or abuse of power, they will be punished according to the law! The rest of the civil servants will not be investigated for the time being, but those who are found to be involved will be punished by law."

The three civil servants who were named collapsed to the ground instantly.

How could they not be greedy when handling so much disaster relief money and grain?

Because they are afraid of the law, they don't take much. If the matter hadn't gotten out of hand, it would definitely not have been investigated, but now it's being taken too far!
The other civil servants had mixed emotions. On the one hand, they were glad that they were not named, as the court obviously did not want to make the case more serious. On the other hand, they were afraid that they would be implicated in the corruption case and be prosecuted.

The group of generals had similar thoughts at this time.

The imperial court only named three civil officials, and it doesn't look like they want to massacre the Linzhou officialdom. They probably won't be too harsh on the military generals either.

The emperor turned to the other side: "Yao Pingzhong!"

"exist!"

Yao Pingzhong knelt down hurriedly and even kowtowed several times out of fear.

The emperor's messenger said, "Yao Pingzhong is demoted to a baron. His military position and rank are each reduced by five levels. He is to return to the capital immediately to be used."

Yao Pingzhong collapsed there immediately.

It's over, it's over.

His title was stripped, his military position and rank were both downgraded, and he was back to the days before the founding of the Ming Dynasty. Even if he could still be a military officer, it would definitely be a sinecure, and he would no longer be able to lead troops to fight and make meritorious deeds.

At the same time, Yao Pingzhong felt fortunate to have survived the disaster.

At least he was given a baronial title, and at least he was allowed to return to the capital to serve as an idle official, without his property being confiscated or exiled. Fu Yuanheng walked up to Yao Pingzhong, patted his shoulder and whispered, "Hand over all your property here honestly, and don't force me to investigate. His Majesty has left some room, you have to think it through."

"Yes!" Yao Pingzhong's body trembled.

Yao Pingzhong did not have a backer, but Wu Jie, Wu Lin, Wang De and others were all former generals under Yao Pingzhong. Even the Liu Qi brothers served as generals under Yao Pingzhong for a year.

Moreover, Yao Pingzhong and his son led their troops to surrender and voluntarily handed over tens of thousands of troops and the Hehuang area.

All of these impacts must be considered.

As I said, the emperor has a lot to consider and cannot simply condemn Yao Pingzhong.

Yao Pingzhong's second half of life had already been arranged. He was sent to Luoyang Military Academy as a teacher, teaching some basic military subjects.

Fu Yuanheng no longer paid attention to those civil servants and let the relevant personnel handle it.

The person who temporarily replaced Yao Pingzhong was Yang Yun, a Qiang general transferred from Hebei.

Yang Yun had already been a marquis, and his original position was the commander-in-chief of Hebei. It was more than enough for him to come and intimidate Yao Pingzhong's former subordinates.

Summoning all the generals to the general's residence, Yang Yun said, "The court has set up a military supervisor, which is under the supervision of the Inspectorate. This Fu Xianggong is the military supervisor. In Linzhou, a military supervisor has also been set up. From now on, the military laws will still be managed by the military judges, but other military-related cases will be handed over to the military supervisor for handling."

The generals were horrified.

Fu Yuanheng said, "When the imperial court investigated the corruption and abuse of power among civil servants, it said that except for murder, crimes committed before a certain date would be forgiven. Now the Military Supervisory Commissioner is investigating all the armies, and I'm giving you a chance. From the day your unit established the Military Supervisory Commissioner, crimes committed before that date will be forgiven, with the exception of murder."

"Also, voluntarily hand over the money and grain you embezzled after destroying Xia! Those were either military funds or disaster relief funds. If you voluntarily hand them over, the court will pretend nothing happened. If you are found out about this in the future, the Military Supervisor will handle it according to the law!"

If Zhu Ming acted according to his personal feelings and just wanted to have his mind free, he would severely punish the soldiers.

But the results of the thorough investigation of civil servants in the past few years have proved that too harsh an investigation can cause big problems. At that time, officials across the country were terrified and worried, and they could not even do their jobs. Many provincial, state and county offices were shut down, and even tax collection work was delayed.

As a last resort, Zhu Guoxiang and Zhu Ming could only order a halt and announced that they would not investigate after the New Year's Day of the following year. At the same time, they drew a timeline, indicating that previous crimes would be forgiven, but future crimes would be tried together with the old crimes, and they also revised the Ming Dynasty Law after major cases.

Only such a decision could restore peace to the officialdom across the country and allow government offices at all levels to resume work.

The emperor's goal was not to punish corrupt officials and make all corrupt officials get what they deserved, but to curb the evil tendencies and rectify the administration of officials throughout the country. It was enough to achieve this goal.

Achieved.

Although there are still countless corrupt officials at large, the atmosphere of corruption has improved since the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty.

Even the concept has been changed. In the past, people were unscrupulous in their greed and believed that officials should just take money. Now everyone knows that they should not be greedy and cannot be greedy. It is a crime and must be severely punished.

Even if they can't help but embezzle, they only dare to do it in small amounts or secretly.

No one dares to be so blatant anymore!
This is the most important thing. Corruption has changed from being what it should be to being what it shouldn’t be, and a new consensus has been formed in the officialdom.

If the concept does not change, what is the point of punishing more corrupt officials?
They kept coming one after another and the killing was endless.

Rectifying the army is more difficult than rectifying the officialdom. If the civil officials are killed too harshly, at most they will just give up. But if the military generals are killed too harshly, there may be a big chaos!
Now that the Military Supervision Commission has been newly established, it has directly learned the lessons of the rectification of the officialdom and drawn a timeline from the beginning.

Fu Yuanheng glanced at the generals, and they hurriedly lowered their heads.

Seeing that these guys were still hesitating, Fu Yuanheng sneered: "Yao Pingzhong must hand over all his property in Linzhou. Can you still hide it? Hand over the money and grain you embezzled after destroying Xia. Every penny will be recorded in the Military Supervisor. His Majesty will come forward to guarantee that you will not be punished for this. Of course, whoever dares to commit a crime in the future will be held accountable for all previous crimes!"

Those two sentences moved all the generals.

One sentence is "Yao Pingzhong hand over the property of Linzhou" and the other sentence is "Your Majesty will act as a guarantor."

The former is a threat, meaning that the Military Supervisor can investigate Yao Pingzhong further down.

The latter is a promise, and the emperor's guarantee is not something that can be said casually. At least from the time Zhu Ming started his rebellion to now, he has not broken any promise.

With one threat and one appeasement, the generals knew how to choose.

The next day, the generals under Yao Pingzhong took the initiative to go to the temporary military supervision office, handed over the money and grain they had embezzled after defeating Xia, and made records.

As expected, Fu Yuanheng did not punish them.

But the effect of not punishing is better than direct punishment.

This means that all the military commanders in Linzhou have a handle in the hands of the Military Supervisor. If you want to take bribes and pervert the law in the future, you must think twice, otherwise the Military Supervisor will bring up the past.

The most uncomfortable thing is that one boot lands on the ground with a clang, and the other boot is put down at some point without you knowing.

Fu Yuanheng soon left Linzhou and left the specific matters to the Linzhou Military Supervisor.

Then he went straight to Xuanzhou, where the main task assigned by the emperor was to be carried out.

Rectify the bureaucracy and the military, and change policies based on the end results.

But punishing Qin Hui was purely out of Zhu Ming's own will. It would be unreasonable for him not to kill this man!

Yang Yuan had been targeted for a long time. Whenever he came to Beijing, he would claim to be Qin Hui's student, fearing that others would not know how he got promoted.

(End of this chapter)