Chapter 2157 The Flower War (Sixty-five)

The person who reported Cathay was the Governor of Zhili, so who was the Governor of Zhili at that time?

Yuan Shoudong was from Shandong. He was born in the first year of Yongzheng. He was the grandson of Yuan Zilan, the richest man in Shandong. Not only was his family extremely wealthy, but he also came from a family of officials. In order to make it easier for his family to come to Beijing, it also benefited the whole party, from Jiaoqiao to the capital to Ludu.

It was built by the Yuan family.

Yuan Zilan had five sons. His fourth son was named Yuan Chengfu. Yuan Chengfu's eldest son was Yuan Shoutong. He passed the imperial examination in the ninth year of Qianlong's reign. The following year, when he went to Beijing to study for Jinshi, he was named Luosuishan. The family members followed the rules of Zhongshu.

Like Chen Yunting, he donated a cabinet secretary to him and then served as Zhang Jing of the Military Aircraft Department to build up his resume.

Later, he was promoted to be a doctor in the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and after passing the examination, he was selected as the supervisory censor of Jiangxi Province, and then he was promoted to be a Taoist priest of Zhejiang Yanyi Road.

Post roads refer to land routes. When governors and governors of populous provinces are racking their brains on how to ensure food supply during their term of office, places such as Guizhou are struggling with the transportation of salt. There is no doubt that water transport transports food, salt, etc.

It is much easier to carry heavy goods. However, because the sea routes in Guangzhou and other places are used to transport grain, salt transportation has to be done by land.

Even if Sichuan salt is transported by water, it has to pass through the turbulent Wujiang River. This river has always been regarded as a natural hazard. During the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms, the story of the golden war and iron horses was performed here. Therefore, the land trade routes in the Sichuan and Yunnan regions have been prosperous since ancient times.

An important channel for Sichuan salt to enter Yunnan.

Zhejiang's salt policy has the problem of private salt and official salt. Lu Jian once served as the salt transport envoy to the Huaihe River. The salt quotation is not only a certificate for merchants to pay taxes, but also a certificate for transporting and selling salt. If there is no salt quotation, it will be trafficked.

Table salt means selling illicit salt, and selling illicit salt is a very serious crime.

The salt transported by land is called "land guide", and the salt transported by waterway is called "water guide". The Qing Dynasty strengthened the management of salt transportation and sales, and implemented the "oral feeding" system. According to the population of each county, the price was calculated per person per day.

The price of salt was calculated as five cents, and the total amount of salt sold in various places was determined, and then distributed to salt merchants who could engage in salt transportation.

After the pacification of San Francisco, a large number of immigrants from Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, and Shaanxi poured into Yunnan and Guizhou. The increase in population also meant an increase in salt imports. However, correspondingly, the number of salt imports in provinces with population loss will decrease. Lianghuai Salt

The key point of the case is here. Those provinces with population outflows have not reduced the number of salt diversions. These salt diversions have been opened but no taxes have been paid. They are just a pass. There are staff at the land stations. They not only arrange

Officials were provided with food and accommodation, and were also responsible for checking these passes. From the eleventh year to the thirty-third year of Qianlong, a total of more than twenty years, the unpaid taxes totaled 10.9 million taels.

Due to the increase in population in Guizhou and other places, the original land transportation of salt is no longer enough. Originally, Sichuan salt was sold along the waterway to Hunan, Jiangxi and other places. With the uprising of the Hunan Miao people, the salt road transporting salt became a battlefield, and the garrison officers and soldiers

For military operations, "camp roads" were laid between camps, and these camp roads borrowed ancient salt roads. So the Qing court changed the main sales place of Sichuan salt to Guizhou, and renovated Chishui to facilitate the entry of salt ships.

Guizhou. The market originally supplied by Sichuan Salt was replaced by Henan, Zhejiang and other places.

There are many opportunities for success in the Salt Administration, but after Yuan Shoudong's governance, Zhejiang's Salt Administration improved greatly. Later he was promoted to Guangxi Inspector. Later, his father died, and he still worked as a military officer in the Military Aircraft Department during his filial piety.

In Beijing, after the funeral, he entered the Ministry of Rites, walked beside the minister of military aircraft, and worked part-time as the Yin of Shuntian Prefecture. In the 41st year, he moved to the Ministry of Household Affairs, and in the 42nd year, he was transferred to the Ministry of Punishments. In the 44th year, he worked with Gao Jin to build dams and control river diversions.

In the fifteenth year, he was promoted to the governor of Zhili, but his mother passed away in November of the forty-sixth year, and he had to go back to observe mourning. During this period, his duties were taken over by Dongge University Scholar, until the Gansu Grain Supervision Fraud Case broke out.

In such a situation, no one can stay at home with peace of mind, especially when the Cathay incident occurred, he was the governor of Shandong, and the Yuan family happened to be from Shandong.

You might become the Xue family in Dream of Red Mansions.

However, in April of the 47th year of Qianlong's reign, the person who served as the governor of Zhili was Zheng Dajin. This man was also famous for eliminating abuses. With him in the post of governor of Zhili, no matter how anxious he was, Yuan Shoudong, who was still in the Ding You period,

You can't drive him away by yourself and replace him with the position of governor.

When Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River, he went to the Shengyin Temple in Hangzhou to worship. Guan Xiu's "Sixteen True Images" was enshrined in the Arhat Hall in the temple. He adjusted the translation and position of the Arhat according to the Sanskrit scriptures.

The earliest term "Sixteen Arhats" comes from "The Book of Dharma" translated by Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty: When the Buddha was about to enter Nirvana, he instructed the Sixteen Arhats to prolong their lifespan, live in the world forever, travel and preach, and become a field of blessing for all living beings.

Therefore, statues of Arhats are often carved in Buddhist temples and have many supporters. Influenced by this, in the 10th century, painters in the Central Plains, Sichuan and other places became popular in creating the theme of "Sixteen Arhats". The Sixteen Arhats enshrined in Shengyin Temple were the resting places of eminent monks during the Five Dynasties period.

The painting not only has a transcendent posture, but also has a unique shape and bones. Emperor Qianlong liked this work very much and ordered the accompanying inner court painter Xu Yang to copy it.

Yuan Shoudong made a set of jade albums based on Xu Yang's paintings. Each jade plate was carved with high-quality Khotan white jade, with images of Arhats lightly engraved on both sides and filled with gold. On the side of the images were inscribed four lines of official script poems by Emperor Qianlong.

, use the finest sandalwood as a wooden board, with the pattern of two dragons playing with pearls on the seawater and river cliffs engraved on it, the "Imperial Sixteen Arhats Praise" inscribed with blue material in the middle, and the cloud and dragon pattern carved on the back. The jade is delicate and gentle, and the fragrance is pleasant, very

He was loved by Qianlong.

Cathay and others could come up with the idea of ​​using miscellaneous silver instead of official silver to fool the imperial envoy. It was obvious that they had received the news.

When Li Shiyao was handling the Gansu prison donation case, he also encountered household officials who wanted to destroy evidence. When the official arrived in Gaolan County, half of the account book that could be used as key evidence had been burned in the fire. Fortunately, the key parts were not destroyed.

burn.

It is true that Wang Tingzan did not participate in Wang Danwang's "fertilization", but Wang Danwang later transferred him and he became the chief envoy of Gansu Province. Instead of stopping donating prison money and pretending to be charity, he intensified his efforts, charging each prisoner three taels more.

Wang Tingzan actually had quite a lot of political achievements. When he was the magistrate of Zhangye, he established the Gongyuan Academy and the Ganquan Academy on the basis of the abandoned academy. For a time, culture and education became popular.

When Junggar was pacified, he accompanied the army to assist in military supplies. When bandits were raging in Pingliang, he led his men to attack at night. The silt carried by the Yellow River was alluvial into the Ningxia Plain. The terrain is flat and suitable for agriculture. At the same time, due to the serious siltation, it must be cleared.

, Wang Tingzan has tried his best since he was appointed.

If he hadn't been confused, he might have had a great future.

If the merits and demerits balance out, he can also retain his official position after paying the "criminal silver" and continue to "pay for his crimes and perform meritorious services."

But he had to pay "criminal silver" again and again, hoping that doing so would appease Qianlong, but it was self-defeating. The more he paid, the angrier Qianlong became.

And when it came time for him to confess his crime, he also quibbled and secretly transferred assets, including one to a hat shop on Qianmen Street in Beijing. The owner of this shop had business dealings with the hat shop opened by Wang Tingzan.

One day a guest came and handed a mantle to the boss. After taking it, the boss found that it was very heavy. However, he did not suspect it at the time and kept it for him. Not long after, he heard about the Gansu prison donation case, and he became suspicious.

He opened the robe and found that it was full of gold bars.

The boss was afraid of being implicated, so he quickly reported it to the government with the gold bars. Now the evidence of Wang Tingzan's transfer of property was conclusive, but he did not admit that the money was obtained from the prison donation case, but from his business.

When dealing with the soul-calling case, Zhang Bao, the governor of Jiangsu at that time, had two Huai salt cases and a soul-calling case in his hands. He thought that using salt to lead the case would divert attention and avoid catching the evil gang who didn't know where they were hiding.

However, Qianlong was not interested at all. What he wanted was "results." Zhangbao simply wrote a note and begged Qianlong to punish him. His dereliction of duty led to the dereliction of duty by his subordinates, and he himself was somewhat infected with the old habits of officialdom. He asked to be punished.

The officials impeached and dealt with themselves.

If Wang Tingzan had "admitted his mistake" like Zhang Bao and added He Shen's kind words, he might have escaped. But he didn't dare to gamble. Another "outsider", Gansu Inspector Funing, said that he was worried that he had reported the incident truthfully.

It would be difficult for him to survive in Gansu officialdom in the future, so even if he knew something, he did not dare to report it, and was willing to be charged with negligence and dereliction of duty. Moreover, he confessed that Wang Danwang was the initiator, not that Wang Danwang said that it was his subordinates who did it.

Funing was an inspector and was responsible for the specific business of donating to prisons for disaster relief. Secondly, other officials were on guard against him, so his knowledge was limited. If he wanted to know more, he could only check the original account books during Wang Danwang's tenure.

The "clear accounts" that people can see are all carefully disguised, and Yuan Shoudong, an expert in investigating the case, could not see the flaws. After returning to Beijing, he reported to Qianlong that there was no problem with all the accounts.

Later, Li Shiyao went to check, and after reading the account books, he discovered a coincidence. In places where there were many prison donations, there must be droughts, and disaster relief expenses were high. However, in places where there were few prison donations, there was little disaster relief, and the number of donated children coincided with the disaster situation in each county.

The person doing the accounting ignored it. Of course, this alone was not enough. Li Shiyao sent people to investigate on the spot. Whether there was a disaster in any place could not rely on disaster reports. The common people would not point to the dark clouds in the sky and say that they needed Hou Yi to shoot the sun.

sunny day.

After investigation, it was found that the disaster was ninety-nine times false. All the money went into the pockets of officials, but how much did each person get?

Anyone who pays more than 1,000 taels will be sentenced to death, which is related to sentencing. However, it is extremely difficult to find out this issue clearly, not only because Gansu officials have formed an offensive and defensive alliance, but also because disaster relief over the years has been light and heavy, and the household registration has been underreported.

In many cases, the food intake of a child and an adult is different. Adult males are called "big mouths". The more they eat, the more disaster relief will be distributed. The more these people mean, the more they eat.

Make up a lot of reasons.

For example, the people who returned home after the Jungar War built dams, cleaned the Yellow River, and built roads. Otherwise, why would they go to Gansu?

The person who broke the deadlock was a clerk from Hufang in Gaolan County. Gaolan County is the most populous county in Gansu and is the seat of the chief envoy. It is also the area with the most severe prison donations and disaster relief.

The scribe has a "hidden account" in his hand, which records the actual amount of relief. Just compare the light and dark accounts to know how much relief was given.

It was supposed to be burned, but it was intercepted by the officials who were investigating the case when it was half-burned. The scribe kept this evidence so that one day, if his superiors put all the blame on him, he could use this account book to save his own life.

In the summer of the 43rd year of Qianlong's reign, the Yellow River breached in Yifen, Henan. Yuan Shoudong and Gao Jin, the governor of Liangjiang, were sent to Henan to deal with the breach project. He was worried that Qianlong did not understand his intentions, so he drew an overview of the project on a map.

, according to "Shuida", the emperor was very satisfied with the drawing at that time.

If nothing unexpected happened, Yuan Shoudong could become a capable minister. Unfortunately, he died in the forty-eighth year of Qianlong's reign, while serving as the governor of Zhili.

Later, his position was temporarily replaced by Liu Yong until the Shandong corruption case was closed and no other officials secretly bought manor properties like Cathay.

So he invited Xu Yangnei to the little prince to be his teacher, and also asked him to copy Buddhist scriptures when he had nothing to do. In the future, when he saw the living Buddha, he could also discuss scriptures and Taoism with him.

As for Zhijun Wang Yongrong, he has been adopted, which means that he has lost the right to inherit the throne. The heir in the imperial edict behind the "upright and bright plaque" should not be him.

Although many people in Beijing are speculating that it is him.
Chapter completed!