Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 992 0987 [I can report many people]

Western Xia's Yinzhou, Hongzhou and Longzhou, which is the dangerous Hengshan area, have all been separated and assigned to Shaanxi.

Fu Yuanheng came all the way from there on his inspection and left the military supervisors he brought with him in the local area.

Further west is Yanzhou (Dingbian).

The mountainous area in the south of Yanzhou was also assigned to Shaanxi, and one of the important dividing points was Tutuokou.

Tuotuokou, also known as Luotuokou and Tuotuohui.

If the blue and white salt produced in Xixia Yanzhou was smuggled to the Northern Song Dynasty or the Ming Dynasty, at least 70% of it was transported through Tuotuokou and the mountain road to Xiamazhai for entry.

Now, Tutukou belongs to Ningxia, and Xiamazhai belongs to Shaanxi, each of which blocks the trafficking route of Qingbai salt.

It is convenient for collecting taxes and combating smuggling!

There was no trouble in Yanzhou this time. This place is extremely poor and people do not rely on agriculture and animal husbandry for survival.

In order to stabilize the salt industry, the imperial court did not allow unrest here. After the fall of Western Xia, the powerful people in Yanzhou were directly killed without even bothering to find a basic excuse, let alone luring them out to wait for rebellion.

All the major salt ponds were confiscated and converted into government-run operations.

The remaining scattered small salt ponds were auctioned off to Shaanxi merchants who heard the news. Each salt pond operating license has a time limit, and renewal is given priority when the time is up.

Merchants, their employees, and their families quickly moved here to settle down.

As for the Xixia survivors in Yanzhou, all those who knew how to make salt stayed. Those who did not know how to make salt moved elsewhere to make room for the Han army and civilians.

The imperial court has issued a death order that the proportion of Han people in Yanzhou must reach 70%!

"Greetings to the Grand Army!"

The officials went out of the city to welcome Fu Yuanheng.

Ningxia's Inspector General Zou Qing was also here. He believed that with Zhao Ding in charge of Yinchuan Prefecture, he did not need to focus on investigating there, and he was too lazy to get into conflict with the civil and military officials there.

Yanzhou was a top priority, so Zou Qing simply moved to Yanzhou and settled there, focusing on supervising the civil and military officials there.

After greeting local officials, Fu Yuanheng followed everyone into the city.

That night, he called Zou Qing and asked, "Have all the places in Ningxia been carefully inspected?"

Zou Qing replied: "This year, the focus will be on inspecting Yanzhou and the surrounding counties, and next year, the focus will be on inspecting the Hexi Corridor."

"Have you inspected Xuanzhou?" Fu Yuanheng asked.

Zou Qing answered stiffly, "There are only a limited number of censors inspecting Ningxia, and it is difficult to take care of everything at once. As for Xuanzhou, we will investigate after the rebellion is quelled."

Fu Yuanheng asked, "What are the results of the inspection?"

Zou Qing said: "Only the fertile land on both sides of the Yellow River has been carefully dredged and the irrigation canals have been repaired. The water conservancy of the rebellious tribes has not been repaired at all. The officials of Xuanzhou and Mingsha County all said that they were short of manpower and time, and they had not had time to repair the irrigation canals there."

"What do you think?" Fu Yuanheng asked.

Zou Qing said: "It seems like an excuse to shirk responsibility, but it is also a reasonable excuse. The censor will not punish you with this excuse. However..."

Fu Yuanheng asked, "But what?"

Zou Qing whispered:
"Some of the remnants of the rebellion fled to Ling County (Lingzhou) but were caught and taken to the Governor's Office for trial and conviction. Those rebellious bandits all claimed that they were forced to rebel. They said that they did not receive enough disaster relief grain, and that their tribesmen did not receive enough food when they built water conservancy projects on both sides of the Yellow River."

"Moreover, some of the livestock seized in Lingzhou last year must be returned to the various tribes for interest. Less than half of the livestock that should have been returned to them were distributed, and the rest were intercepted by the Xuanzhou civil and military officials. It seems that seeds and farm tools were not distributed to them either."

Fu Yuanheng muttered: "If this is true, those tribes were really forced to rebel."

The Western Xia armies fortified their defenses and cleared the fields, and naturally took their livestock and food with them. Most of these supplies were seized by the Ming army.

Some of it must be returned to the people, otherwise they will be forced to die!
However, Xuanzhou officials deliberately messed around. In the rich areas on both sides of the Yellow River, they honestly followed the court's policies. In the remaining remote areas, they gave half of the money and cut half of the money, not caring about the lives of farmers and herdsmen at all.

Fu Yuanheng asked again: "After such a big incident, why are you still staying in Yanzhou?"

Zou Qing said, "Governor Zhao (Zhao Ding) is very powerful, and the Ningxia Censorate is also competing for power with the censors. They took over the case and investigated it themselves, which is also in line with the court rules. I went to Yinchuan Prefecture last month, and when I was tired of being annoyed, I came to Yanzhou and left two censors to accompany the trial. It won't be too late for me to check the files after the trial is over."

Fu Yuanheng blamed him, "How foolish! If you don't fight now, when will you fight?"

The power of the Inspectorate grew stronger and stronger, and the Censors were very unpopular.

Especially at the local level, if it is possible to prevent the censors from interfering, they must be excluded!
Moreover, local officials also have territorial thinking: This is my territory, why are you, a censor, talking nonsense?
The number of censors is limited, and it is impossible for them to personally investigate cases everywhere in the country.

Therefore, the main bodies for handling cases at the local level are still the prefectural-level law officials and the provincial-level censors. The censors can only request supervision during the handling of cases or raise questions after the handling of cases.

It is possible to force a joint investigation, but this will inevitably lead to unpleasantness with local officials.

Zou Qing sighed and said, "Zhao Ding is the governor appointed by His Majesty. His power is much greater than that of an ordinary governor. If he insists on taking the case, it's really hard for us to fight him. Anyway, the case is there. If he dares to show favoritism, it will be like asking for trouble."

Fu Yuanheng curled his lips and said nothing more.

Although all the censors in the Inspectorate have different ranks, they are not subordinate to each other.

Even the head of the Inspectorate, the Left Censor-in-Chief, had the same powers as an ordinary censor in principle.

Although Fu Yuanheng has seniority and high rank, if Zou Qing is determined to do so, he doesn't have to care what he says.

Only when handling a specific case, a temporary investigation team is set up, and there is a strict division of duties among the team members. Subordinates must be honest and obedient to the tasks assigned by their superiors.

What's more, Fu Yuanheng is now the boss of the Military Supervision Bureau of the Inspectorate, and he and Zou Qing are no longer in the same sub-system.

The next day, Fu Yuanheng changed his itinerary and went straight to Yinchuan Prefecture.

A few miles away from Yanzhou City, Zou Qing caught up on horseback: "Fu Junzheng, I decided to go and take a look."

……

Yinchuan Prefecture, Ningxia Censorate Yamen.

Xuanzhou Governor Yang Yuan was very scared, but he still refused to give in: "Those are rebels, just making random accusations. Could it be that the Censor does not believe the officials of the court, but believes the false accusations of the rebels? The livestock, grain, seeds, and farm tools have all been distributed according to the official documents. The officials of Xuanzhou have been extremely benevolent."

"But what about these rebels? They didn't appreciate the emperor's grace and plotted to rebel and restore the Xia Dynasty. When we heard the news, we immediately sent troops to suppress them. The rebels were frustrated and naturally felt resentful, so they falsely accused the civil and military officials of Xuanzhou. I hope the Censor will investigate!"

Ningxia Provincial Surveillance Commissioner Zhai Dingfang asked expressionlessly: "We caught more than 20 bandits who escaped from Xuanzhou, and their confessions were all the same. Do you still dare to quibble?"

Yang Yuan cried out, "It's unfair. Those traitors must have colluded with our testimony long ago."

"Nonsense," Zhai Dingfang roared, "They were arrested at different times and in different places, how could they collude in their testimony?"

Yang Yuan said: "They had made this agreement before they rebelled." In the next few rooms, the prefect of Xuanzhou, the various Caos, the magistrates of the two counties, and the officials of the prefecture and counties were also being interrogated.

Everyone says the same thing: they are the ones who colluded with each other in advance!

As for the military, they were personally interrogated by Governor Zhao Ding. He had great power and could directly interrogate the military commanders, but he could only examine the cases and not make judgments. He had to report the results to the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of War.

Commander Pu Quan looked like a victim:
"I joined the army in Bazhou and have been fighting with Li Shumi. How could I not know the severity of military law? I would never dare to do such things as corruption and embezzlement. I was stationed in Shaanxi before and never engaged in corruption. How could I suddenly engage in corruption when I arrived in Ningxia?"

"My soldiers and I did not treat those Xixia remnants well. Why should we treat foreign barbarians well? Maybe they were offended by me, or maybe their land and pastures were confiscated by the county governors, so those bastards incited their people to rebel."

"I learned the news and rushed dozens of miles to kill the rebels that day. I attacked the camp at night and defeated them. I also hunted down the remnants for half a month, and I not only sweated but also shed blood. Even if I didn't have any merit, I still worked hard, right? Why did the governor bring me in for questioning right after the victory report was sent out? Just because those rebels made false accusations?"

Zhao Ding listened silently, but was thinking about other issues.

Yang Yuan claimed that he was a student of Qin Hui, and Pu Quan claimed that he was a personal soldier of Li Bao. Should these two guys be thoroughly investigated?
If anything were to be discovered, Qin Hui and Li Bao would surely try to distance themselves from the matter, but they would most likely remember Zhao Ding afterwards.

The disturbance in Xuanzhou was not serious and could be covered up completely.

However, it involves large-scale corruption, and the inspectors also know about it. Anyone who dares to cover it up is likely to get into trouble.

A thorough investigation must be conducted, the difficulty lies in finding the right balance!

Just as Zhao Ding was weighing the pros and cons, there was a sudden knock on the door.

"Come in."

An official walked quickly to Zhao Ding and whispered in his ear: "The chief clerk of Mingsha County could not bear the shock and has confessed everything. He insisted that he was dragged into the water and that he did not get much money or grain. The magistrate of Mingsha County was greedy and embezzled half of the stolen money and goods promised to the chief clerk."

Zhao Ding sneered: "You dare to take possession of your accomplice's stolen money? You are so greedy that you have no brains!"

The official said: "The supplies in the warehouse in Mingsha County were all fake. They were burned down and all blamed on the rebels."

The crime of burning a warehouse!

Zhao Ding stopped thinking about the pros and cons for a moment. Those guys dared to burn down the government warehouse. There was no way back for the whole case.

Even if the warehouse was empty, the main culprits would still be sentenced to death.

Zhao Ding said loudly: "Commander Pu, the chief clerk Mingsha has confessed and wants to make up for his crime by telling the truth. You embezzled money and grain, burned the fake warehouse and blamed it on the rebels. Do you have anything else to argue?"

Pu Quan was stunned when he heard this.

He really couldn't understand how Mingsha could dare to confess. It was such a serious crime. If he didn't tell anyone, he might be able to get away with it. But if he confessed, everyone would be finished.

Zhao Ding asked, "You won't burn the military warehouse as well, will you?"

Xuanzhou's geographical location is very important, as it connects Yinchuan Prefecture with the Hexi Corridor. Therefore, the court set up a military warehouse there so that supplies could be quickly dispatched in the event of a major turmoil.

If it were just Xuanzhou's local supplies, with so many civil and military officials coming to share the profits, Pu Quan would not risk losing his head.

"It's unfair, it was the traitors who burned it!" Pu Quan still insisted.

Zhao Ding sneered, "You embezzled so much supplies, you must have found merchants to sell them, right? Do you think the court can't find out? I have already sent people to check the customs along the way. All the tax returns of the caravans when they passed the customs are recorded. So many supplies left no clues? You idiot!"

After hearing this, Pu Quan looked ashen.

It is really possible to find out the whereabouts of the materials through the currency exchange.

It is estimated that a group of Shaanxi merchants will also be killed.

Zhao Ding shouted, "Confess quickly. You will definitely die. If you can make a contribution, I can let you die gracefully!"

Pu Quan had a dry mouth and tongue. After sitting for a long time, he found that his throat was full of phlegm.

He cleared his throat and said, "I didn't intend to do this business that could get me killed. It was the ambassador of the Xuanzhou Military Warehouse who said that the wealth in the warehouse was piled up like a mountain, so why not find a way to get some of it out for profit. He couldn't do it alone, and I couldn't do it alone, so we worked together and got it out."

"I didn't think of burning the warehouse at first. I hadn't lived long enough, so I just wanted to get rid of a few people. When I was moving military supplies out, the news leaked out accidentally, and more and more officers knew about it. Later, the military judge also heard about it, and he gave me a chance to surrender. I begged him to spare me for the sake of our many years of friendship."

"I gave him a lot of wealth and even the Xixia noblewoman given to me by the court. He... didn't keep it, so he agreed."

"But too many officers knew about it, so we had to use money to silence them. We originally wanted to get a little out of the military warehouse, but later we had to share it with many people. When I came to my senses, the military warehouse had been emptied by half. We were all scared, and later we sat together to discuss it. We could only force the Xixia remnants to rebel and burn the military warehouse to blame the rebels."

"The army alone can't do this. We must win over the Xuanzhou civil officials. Those civil officials are also corrupt and embezzling. I can find evidence to scare them and they will agree to cooperate..."

After hearing this, Zhao Ding felt angry but also found it funny.

Because he thought of a joke, a child stole candy from home. At first, he just wanted to take a sip, and then he took one sip after another. When the child found out that he had done something wrong, he had already eaten most of the candy in the jar, so he threw the jar into the pit to destroy the evidence. But he still felt that he couldn't hide it, so he burned down the house.

The next day.

Zhao Ding, the provincial inspector and the censor, together interrogated Yang Yuan.

"Yang Zhizhou, Pu Quan has confessed. He conspired with the military warehouse ambassador to embezzle military warehouse supplies, and conspired with civil officials to embezzle other money and grain." Zhao Ding knocked on the table with a wooden stick. "You can close the case even if you don't confess. But I'll give you a chance to make amends for your crime. What else do you want to confess? Show him Pu Quan's confession."

The clerk of the Censorate handed over the confession, which had Pu Quan's handprint and signature, as well as the seals and signatures of the Governor and the Censor.

After Yang Yuan read it carefully, his whole body became limp like boiled noodles.

This guy was frightened to death in history, and he was so suspicious that he frightened himself. His brain suddenly shut down and he completely lost the ability to think.

who am I?
Where am i?

What am I going to do?
"Ah!"

Zhao Ding slammed the gavel: "Don't delay, confess quickly!"

Yang Yuan was frightened and woke up, trembling all over, saying: "I...if I make up for my crime and make meritorious contributions, can I avoid the death penalty?"

Zhao Ding narrowed his eyes and suddenly smiled: "It depends on how great your achievements are."

"Qin Hui, I want to report the Minister of Revenue Qin Hui!"

Yang Yuan shouted like crazy: "Qin Hui is a corrupt official. In the past ten years, I have given him tens of thousands of strings of money! Also, before I was in mourning, I was an official in Jinan Prefecture, and the prefect and the magistrate of Jinan were also corrupt officials. And... and, when I was an official in Wanzhou, the household official there was also a corrupt official. And Chaozhou..."

This guy is just talking nonsense. He just says whatever he thinks.

He directly reported a large number of officials, which stunned the officials in charge of the interrogation.

Do you want to drag all the officials you have worked with into this?
Yang Yuan was afraid that his report would not be enough to save his life, so he racked his brains and thought hard, and said, "I have an old classmate who is not from a wealthy family. But when I went home in mourning, I found that his family had built a mansion and built a grand ancestral tomb. He must be a corrupt official too!"

Zhao Ding was speechless. It was fine for you to report your colleagues, but why did you report your old schoolmate? Just because his house and ancestral tomb were so luxurious?
(End of this chapter)