At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 387, Cleansing and Killing the Chicken to Warn the Monkey

Zhou Bo wanted to give it a try, so Xu Fan naturally couldn't refuse. So he found Wu Guang and asked Wu Guang to cooperate with Zhou Bo's actions.

Wu Guang knew that the Han Dynasty would once again launch an anti-corruption campaign, and he said excitedly: "Your Majesty, you should have done so long ago. Many of our old brothers in the Han Dynasty have forgotten how they were oppressed by the Qin officials in the past. Now they are in high positions and enjoy wealth and glory, but they are still not satisfied and have begun to learn from the Qin officials to oppress the people of the Han Dynasty."

After saying that, Wu Guang took out a pile of documents for Xu Fan to see. The documents recorded that when the prefect Zhuang Jia was the prefect of Julu, he misappropriated grain from the granary and withheld the salaries of the people for repairing canals. He also bought fish from fishermen at low prices and sold it to the court at high prices.

Handan governor Wu Pan teamed up with profiteers to sell defective cloth to the Northern Expedition Army at high prices in exchange for kickbacks. He received millions of yuan in kickbacks for this alone. Wu Pan also restricted the sale of Handan Iron and Steel Plant in his capacity as governor. Any merchant who wanted to buy ironware from Handan Iron and Steel Plant had to pay his approval fee before he could be released. Wu Pan's approval fee was as high as tens of millions of yuan every year.

Wu Guang said excitedly: "In order to destroy the evidence, Zhuang Jia directly burned all the grain in the Julu official warehouse. A total of 3 dan of grain was burned."

Zhou Bo sneered and said, "I'm afraid the granary doesn't even have 3,000 dan of grain."

Xu Fan sighed after reading these documents. Fire dragons burning warehouses were too common. Since he started working in the Changping warehouses in various counties, he knew that such things were inevitable. Wu Pan's comments almost made Xu Fan laugh. This was similar to the salt permits of the Ming Dynasty. Wu Pan was really born in the wrong era.

Wu Guang's evidences let Xu Fan realize that there were already a lot of parasites in the Han Dynasty and it was time to clean them up.

Xu Fan said coldly: "First, clean up the tax collectors, and then start a general cleanup of the entire Han Dynasty to create a good environment for the next development of the Han Dynasty. It is impossible that the prosperity of the Han Dynasty can only be enjoyed by those Han officials."

On March 34, the th year of the Han Dynasty, the Chief Justice Wu Guang led the judicial officers of the Chief Justice's Office to raid the tax collector's office, sealed all the accounts, and arrested tax collectors.

When the Han officials in Chang'an City learned about this, they applauded. During this period of time, the tax collectors had become the enemies of all of them. There were better things than seeing their enemies in disgrace.

At the same time, they analyzed that this meant that His Majesty had given up on Zhou Bo and the tax reform would fail.

What happened next was just as they had expected. The Supreme Court dispatched many law enforcement officers to local areas to arrest tax collectors. In less than a month, more than 300 tax collectors under the jurisdiction of the tax inspector were arrested, and the stolen money seized exceeded 3 million yuan.

The Han Monthly was about to publish the story, and then other monthly newspapers in the Han Dynasty also published the anti-corruption campaign by the court officials. The corruption of the tax inspector shocked the entire Han Dynasty.

Even Zhou Bo was shocked by this number. He knew that his tax collectors could not be clean, but he also thought that he managed the tax well. He did not expect to catch so many corrupt officials. Now he felt a sense of urgency to make the fake play real.

When the Han officials learned of this number, they became excited. After all this time, the biggest borer in the Han Dynasty turned out to be Zhou Bo. The tax collection office had become a place of corruption. No wonder the tax revenue of the court was always insufficient. It turned out that it was all embezzled by Zhou Bo and other tax collectors.

They once again wrote to the court, impeaching the tax collectors for embezzlement and demanding the arrest of the tax collector Zhou Bo to set the record straight. For a time, Zhou Bo became the biggest traitor in the entire Han Dynasty.

On April 7, the ninth year of the Han Dynasty, Zhou Bo, the tax inspector, wrote to the court, saying that tax inspectors were related to the court's finances and had a heavy responsibility. If the tax inspectors were honest, the court would prosper or perish, but if the tax inspectors were corrupt, the court would face many difficulties. Finally, he said that he was willing to implement the property disclosure law in the tax inspector's office to promote the good and eliminate the turbid.

As soon as Zhou Bo's memorial came out, the entire Han officialdom fell silent. They never expected that Zhou Bo would want to drag everyone down with him. This strategy of killing one thousand enemies and injuring eight hundred of his own people made everyone confused. Zhou Bo was desperate, but they never dared to learn from him.

On April 600th, the ninth year of the Han Dynasty, the emperor agreed with Zhou Bo's opinion and began to implement the property disclosure law in the tax supervision office. The Office of the Chief Censor sent 50 censors to the counties of the Han Dynasty to count the property of tax collectors.

The court agreed so quickly that no one could react.

Then the Han officials discovered that things were beginning to develop in a direction they did not want to see.

On April 6000, the 12th year of the Han Dynasty, the Imperial Court Judge Wu Guang, who was investigating the tax collectors in Julu, uncovered the most corrupt official in the founding of the Han Dynasty, Zhuang Jia. According to the Imperial Court Judge's investigation, during the Mobei War, Zhuang Jia sold inferior goods as good ones, resold military equipment and granaries, bullied the market, bought low and sold high. The amount of money he embezzled while serving in Julu County alone exceeded 3 million yuan. Imperial Court Judge Wu Guang confiscated more than million yuan of Zhuang Jia's property, shops, fishing boats, and acres of fertile land.

When this incident happened, the whole Han Dynasty was in an uproar. Even the "Han Monthly" serialized it in two issues, introducing how Zhuang Jia went from being a meritorious official of the Han Dynasty to the most corrupt person in the Han Dynasty today.

A confession letter from Zhuang Jia was also published, in which he said that he was greedy for fame and fortune, and was seduced by unscrupulous businessmen into his current appearance. He felt sorry for the emperor and the court.

But even so, the Chief Justice Wu Guang sentenced Zhuang Jia to death by hanging and exiled his entire family to Southeast Asia.

After reporting to the emperor, the emperor only wrote one word: "Yes"

This incident caused a sensation throughout the Han Dynasty. Zhuang Jia was a veteran of Chen County. He had followed the emperor since he started the rebellion in Yang County. It can be said that he made great contributions to the construction of the Han Dynasty. He also had the title of viscount when the country was founded. Such a founding veteran was killed just like that.

This was the first time that the emperor killed a senior official.

All the Han officials were terrified by such an outcome. The butcher's knife had been drawn, and such incidents would probably not be rare in the future. The status of a veteran was no longer a golden ticket to immunity from death.

On April 17th, the Chief Justice arrested the prefect Wu Pan in Handan. Chief Justice Wu Guang found out that the prefect of Handan, Wu Pan, had passed off inferior goods as high-quality ones, accepted kickbacks, and passed off low-quality weapons as high-quality ones during the Mobei Campaign of the imperial court, which resulted in the frontline soldiers getting low-quality weapons and causing casualties, while he himself made hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from the Mobei Campaign.

At the same time, when he was the prefect of Handan, he used approval notes to control the sales of workshops in Handan County. Without Wu Pan's approval notes, Handan workshops could not sell goods, resulting in Handan merchants being able to conduct normal business only with his approval notes. Wu Pan used this method to illegally make a profit of 1.5 million yuan.

After Wu Pan embezzled money, he squandered the money, built his own fortress in Handan, and seized up 4 acres of land from the people of Handan, leading an extremely corrupt life.

The Chief Justice Wu Guang reported to the court, which sentenced Wu Pan to death by hanging and exiled his entire family to Southeast Asia.

The emperor said: "Yes."

Even so, Wu Guang did not stop. The tax collectors, who were supposed to investigate the tax collectors, ended up investigating the local counties. Guangyang County, Yuyang County, Hengshan County, Yanmen County and other counties in Hebei Province were hit by corruption. Thousands of Han officials were arrested by the court, and the corruption funds involved exceeded 30 billion yuan. Most of the corruption funds were related to the Mobei War. The Mobei War, which cost the Han court nearly 300 billion yuan, really fattened up a group of rats.

It was only at this time that the Han officials realized that the court's purge of tax supervisors was just an excuse, and that what the court really wanted to deal with was them.

So these Han officials pleaded with Wu Pan one after another, and many even found Xu Fan, asking him to spare Zhuang Jia's life in consideration of Wu Pan and his great contributions to the Han Dynasty.

But Xu Fan looked at these big men and sighed, "Do you remember why we rebelled in the first place?"

The elders of Chen County all remained silent.

Xu Fan continued, "I was arrested for teaching children to read and write, and violated the Book Burning Order. Chen Lin was arrested for not planting crops according to the season. Many people were arrested because they couldn't pay taxes. Many of them didn't even know why they wanted to be arrested. It could be because they chatted with others, or they could be arrested for the Lianzhu."

"The Qin officials back then exploited us recklessly and didn't care whether we lived or died. Even when we were arrested and imprisoned, they would not let us go and would take us to Guanzhong to build the mausoleum for the First Emperor. We rebelled because we could not stand such oppression."

Xu Fan said angrily, "The Han Dynasty was established only a short time ago, not even ten years ago. The victims who were exploited by Qin officials can now exploit the people of the Han Dynasty without restraint. The First Emperor is not far from Chang'an City. Do you want the First Emperor to see the people of the world invade Guanzhong and hang us all?"

Xu Fan said firmly: "If you want to enjoy wealth and glory, you don't have to be a Han official. It doesn't matter if you want to be a fiefdom or a kingdom. But as long as you are a Han official, you must honestly seek benefits for the people of the world. If you dare to be corrupt and become a parasite that harms the people, the court will clear them out if they are found. Only by clearing them out can the Han court have prestige and the people of the world will trust us.

If the imperial court does not kill Zhuang Jia and Wu Pan, it cannot appease the public anger! If it does not kill them, it cannot rectify the country's laws, and if it does not kill them, it cannot save more Han officials who are about to fall.

After saying this, Xu Fan looked at the Han officials at the scene with a cold face. However, few people dared to look directly at Xu Fan.

They could only flee from the Yan Palace like defeated generals.

"What should we do?" After leaving the Yan Palace, some of these people became depressed. Although the emperor was benevolent and righteous, it was difficult to change what had been decided. No one expected Wu Guang to do this and attack his own brothers.

An elder of Chen County said viciously: "If we had known this would happen, we should not have rescued Wu Guang." "What's the point of saying this now? Judging from Wu Guang's appearance, he has no intention of stopping. The entire Julu and Handan officialdom have been almost wiped out by him. The officialdom in Hebei has also been severely damaged. If he continues like this, my Han Dynasty will have no one to use."

A Chenjun elder said: "We can only ask the Prime Minister to persuade the emperor."

Hearing this, everyone's eyes lit up and they all rushed to the Prime Minister's Mansion.

The Prime Minister's Mansion of the Han Dynasty.

Zhou Zhang took the stolen money Wu Guang had reported and said helplessly, "The Han officials in the two places contributed 30 gold, and the Han officials in Hebei Province contributed gold. There are rich people everywhere, but the court is a pauper."

Zhang Cang, the commander of the plan, sneered and said, "With another fifteen counties like this, all the debts owed by the Han Dynasty can be repaid. Prime Minister, let's just have a major purge of the Han Dynasty's officialdom."

Zhang Cang saw how the Qin Dynasty collapsed, and he hated the corrupt officials of the Han Dynasty very much.

Zhou Zhang said slowly, "Nonsense. If they really do this, will there still be people doing government affairs? We can just crack down on them with anti-corruption measures. Going too far will not be good for the court."

Although Zhou Zhang was dissatisfied with the corruption of Han officials, he was used to it. In the Chu State, it was not called corruption. It was directly using the power of Chu to do things for themselves, because Chu belonged to them. Nepotism, corruption and abuse of power were not a big deal. Compared with the nobles of Chu State, Han officials were already top students.

The purpose of this targeted anti-corruption campaign was to kill a few fat pigs to improve the finances of the Han Dynasty. The evidence of Wu Pan and his gang's corruption had been found long ago, but it was during the Mobei War, and Zhou Zhang was also afraid to use the right weapon. After the war, Wu Pan and his gang could be used as an example to scare the monkeys.

Zhang Liang said: "The Han Dynasty was founded by these heroes after all. They are willing to protect the Han Dynasty in their hearts. We really need to replace a group of people~~~."

Zhang Liang did not say the rest, but he was obviously not optimistic about the new Han officials. Corruption was impossible to eradicate. Judging from the experience in Korea, Han officials were still capable of getting things done. This was enough for the Han court.

"Prime Minister, you have to help these old brothers of mine." A group of people swarmed in.

Zhang Liang stood up and said with a smile: "The Prime Minister has something to do, so I will take my leave first."

After saying this, Zhang Liang took Zhang Cang and left.

When there is only Zhou Zhang left here.

An elder of Chen County said, "Prime Minister, go and persuade His Majesty. Although Wu Pan and his men were wrong, they did not deserve death. They have fought hundreds of battles and did not die at the hands of the enemy, but at the hands of Your Majesty. This is not good for Your Majesty's reputation."

Another Chenjun elder also said: "Zhuang Jia also wrote a letter of repentance. He has regretted it. It was all the instigation of that unscrupulous businessman, otherwise Zhuang Jia would not have done such a thing."

Zhou Zhang asked seriously, "What does the emperor think?"

A group of people looked at each other and said helplessly: "Kill!"

Zhou Zhang sighed and said, "It seems that the emperor is really angry this time. You are just adding fuel to the fire if you go to plead for mercy now."

After that, Zhou Zhang showed them the letter in which Wu Guang reported the confiscated stolen money, and then said, "Look, Zhuang Jia and his gang not only embezzled money themselves, but also corrupted the officialdom of Julu and Handan counties. They implicated more than 200 Han officials, and the stolen money amounted to 13 gold. If we don't kill them, how can we govern the world and warn other Han officials?"

"Now everyone should not think about how to save them, but to appease the emperor's anger. If the emperor thinks that the entire Han officialdom is like this, then a large-scale purge of Han officials is inevitable."

Zhou Zhang's words made the elders of Chen County present sweat coldly. They were the executors of the purge of Qin officials and the executors of the purge of the nobles and powerful people of the six kingdoms. They knew very well how miserable the end of those who were purged was. If such treatment fell on them, they simply couldn't imagine the consequences.

"The emperor would not do this, would he?" the elders replied without confidence.

But Zhou Zhang broke their fantasy and said, "You all know that your majesty likes to distinguish between enemies and friends when doing things. As long as your majesty identifies someone as an enemy, your majesty will be merciless when he strikes. The millions of powerful nobles from the six countries waiting in Liaodong and Qianzhong are not all enemies identified by your majesty."

"The court is now in debt of a million gold, and the two counties of Julu and Handan have 13 gold in stolen money. Do you think His Majesty will purge the corrupt Han officials, first clean up the bureaucracy, and second repay the debts?"

Zhou Zhang's words were so clear that they understood that the emperor had given them two choices: either accept the tax reform plan and allow the court's finances to repay the debt, or the emperor would repay the court's debt by slaughtering pigs.

Obviously, neither of these two options is a good one, but the lesser of two evils is the better choice. Compared to being targeted and slaughtered by the imperial court, asking the imperial court to collect more taxes is nothing.

"We are all loyal subjects of your majesty. Whatever your majesty wants to do is what we want to do."

"Yes, Your Majesty, if you want to complete the tax reform, we will definitely do our best. Anyone who dares to stop us will be our enemy." One by one, they expressed their support for the court passionately.

After the elders of Chen County left the Prime Minister's Mansion, they looked at each other.

"Have we been tricked by the Prime Minister and the Emperor? His Majesty has given us a more unacceptable path just to get us to agree to the tax reform."

This is not a choice for them at all. One is clearly a dead end and the other is a single-plank bridge. They have no choice at all.

An elder of Chen County sighed and said, "Now that things have come to this, what choice do we have? If we obey the emperor, we will still be meritorious officials. Otherwise, we will become criminal officials."

"We didn't think clearly at the beginning. This tax reform was proposed by the prime minister and approved by the emperor. Zhou Bo was just the executor. If we want to teach Zhou Bo a lesson, we will be slapping the emperor and the prime minister in the face. Wu Pan and his men are chickens. If we continue to hinder them, I'm afraid we will become chickens too.

These meritorious officials of Chen County dared not say anything more and could only leave the Prime Minister's Mansion with a sigh.

From then on, Zhou Bo's tax reform went extremely smoothly. With the cooperation of local Han officials, the number of wealthy households in each county with an output of more than 2000 mu per mu was counted one by one.

The tax collector came to the houses of these families, took out a tax bill with the tax collector's seal and said, "This is your tax bill for this year. Paying taxes is honorable, and evading taxes is shameful. Those who dare to evade taxes will be fined ten times as much. I didn't warn you!"

These small and medium-sized landowners were also trembling with fear when they saw the tax bills and did not dare to say anything more.

The conflict caused by the new tax system in the Han Dynasty not only affected the Han officials, but also attracted the attention of the entire Han vassal states and other merchant forces.

Liu Bang, who was accompanying the leader of the Hu tribe, watched the entire internal conflict of the Han Dynasty.

He found Zhou Bo, patted him on the chest and said, "I didn't realize you were so fierce. Nai Gong said Fan Kuai was a reckless man, but your behavior this time is even more reckless than Fan Kuai."

During this period, the tax reform went extremely smoothly, and Zhou Bo was in a much better mood. He laughed and said, "You really think I am acting recklessly, but don't you see who is standing behind me? The emperor, Prime Minister Zhou, and Prime Minister Chen are all my backers."

Liu Bang shook his head and said, "But you have gone too far in making your property public. I am afraid that few Han officials will stand behind you in the future."

Zhou Bo said: "If you want to ascend to the position of one of the Three Dukes, how can you do it without taking risks?"

(End of this chapter)