In Taiyuan Prefecture, the investigation into the Cangcheng corruption case has been going on for half a month. Various serious incidents that were covered up have come to light one by one, which is shocking. Cao De, who once served as the prefect of Taiyuan, was so sad that he could not speak. He wrote
Resignation letter, strongly requesting to take the blame and resign and take responsibility for this case.
Chen Qing approved his resignation. Although he was not involved in the case, he did have dereliction of duty. However, Chen Qing immediately appointed him as the Yongnan Propaganda Envoy and sent him to distant Nanyang to preside over the establishment of Yongnan Port and Yongnan Army.
Avoid public opinion and protect him.
Cao De immediately accepted his new appointment, said goodbye to his wife and children, and led three hundred craftsmen to Quanzhou to go to sea.
Taiyuancang is one of the four major warehouse groups in the Yong Kingdom. Due to the conquest of the Jin Kingdom, a large amount of military and civilian materials were stored in the city. Because many materials are shared by the military and civilians, the management is also jointly managed by the military and civilians, so it is easy to have two sides of the management.
The possibility of ignoring both parties worried Chen Qing.
A month after the joint investigation team arrived in Taiyuan, the imperial court received more than a dozen urgent express mails in succession. The thing that worried Chen Qing the most happened. The shortage of sheepskins was just the tip of the iceberg. Other supplies included grain, cloth, tents, pig iron, etc.
However, all warehouses jointly managed by the military and civilians have experienced large shortages and inconsistent accounts. However, warehouses managed solely by the military, such as weapons depots, gunpowder depots, fuel oil depots, etc., have not experienced shortages.
The problem was very clear. The shortage of supplies was related to the government. All the clues pointed to one person, Sima Dou Huang of Taiyuan Prefecture.
Dou Huang has disappeared. He disappeared without a trace before the investigation team arrived in Taiyuan Prefecture. Not only was he missing, a large number of people involved in the case, mainly the warehouse managers, either disappeared or died mysteriously, and the original receipts and account books were also missing.
there is none left.
One of the reports worried Chen Qing. This Dou Huang had handled iron fire mines. Although it was five years ago, all military records showed that the twenty iron fire mines he handled were either recovered or exploded.
, nothing was left out, but Chen Qing was still worried. After all, Dou Huang reported these data to the military himself. He didn't know whether the military had verified it.
He doubted whether the iron fire thunder of Hu Shatu, a foreign monk from the Jin Kingdom, was related to Dou Huang. After all, Hu Shatu came from the Taiyuan Gunpowder Bureau, and Dou Huang also came from a wealthy local family in Taiyuan. Is there any relationship between the two?
Some kind of intersection.
There were several counselors sitting in the official room. Chen Qing was pacing back and forth with his hands behind his hands. He said angrily to everyone: "There are many big problems here, such as how to transport his supplies and why no one found out? And the money he sold.
How was it transferred? Hundreds of thousands or millions of coins are not a small amount. How could we know nothing about such a huge flow of copper coins?"
Everyone felt the overwhelming anger of King Yong, which rarely happened. Jiang Yanxian said cautiously: "The matter has come to this, and there is nothing we can do about getting angry. What we can do is to make up for it, and the second is to hunt down Dou Huang and reduce the losses as much as possible.
.”
Zhou Kuan also said: "Your Highness, judging from the current situation, this should be a hidden case. Dou Huang can't do it alone. There must be other officials involved in the case. I have two suggestions. First, don't do it."
Set a time limit and give the investigation team enough time. Secondly, implement a heavy reward system. Those who make great achievements in exposing the case can be given heavy rewards or even promotions."
Lu Qingshan also added: "With so many materials on sale, the market will inevitably react. Judging from the current market survey, only sheepskins have reacted, and the supply of other materials is relatively normal, especially tents. The missing 12,000 tents
If the tents flow into the market, we will have news immediately. These are military tents, so I suspect that these materials have not had time to be cashed in, and are either hidden somewhere or shipped to the Jin Kingdom."
"The guess that Lu participated in political affairs is very reasonable!"
Zhang Xiao added: "If we follow Lu Shen's political thinking, it is very likely that among the materials we seized in Yanshan Mansion or Hebei Road, there were stolen items from Taiyuan Warehouse."
Everyone said something to each other, and the anger in Chen Qing's heart gradually subsided and he finally calmed down.
He said to everyone: "What everyone said makes sense. First of all, we need to make up for it. I require warehouses in various places to conduct a thorough inspection. In addition, loopholes in the system must be filled. No more shared warehouses are allowed. Military warehouses are military warehouses, and official warehouses are
The official warehouses must be separated. Secondly, an exchange of warehouse chief officers must be established. No warehouse chief officer may serve in one place for a long time. After serving for three years, he must be transferred to another place. The inspection will be led by Chiang Kai-shek, and all ministries and temples must cooperate.
"
Jiang Yanxian bowed and said: "I humbly obey my orders!"
Chen Qing nodded and added: "The division of labor in Taiyuan's investigation must be clear. The investigation team should not worry about hunting down and finding supplies. They should only investigate the warehouse and the officials involved. The hunting and tracing should be left to the internal guards. They are more efficient.
More professionally, this case can be characterized as the first corruption case in the Yong Kingdom. It contains not only corruption, but also malfeasance. It must be thoroughly investigated and an iron plate must be engraved to record the case so that future generations will remember it!"
Chen Qing then said to Lu Qingshan: "Please ask Lu Shenzheng to go to Taiyuan Mansion to preside over the investigation. There are too many investigation teams and there is no one leader. I really don't feel at ease!"
"I'll leave today!"
Chen Qing questioned Zheyan again: "The Tiehuolei incident must be investigated separately. I asked the Privy Council, the Ordnance Supervision and the Firearms Bureau to form an investigation team. I am not an investigation team to find out the whereabouts of Tiehuolei. This matter is left to the internal security guards."
Yes, what I am concerned about is whether there are similar things in other places. Please sort out the incident of Dou Huangling using iron fire thunder. How did he apply for it, how to use it, how to confirm that it has been used, how to return it, how to destroy it, each
If you sort out all the links clearly, you will know where there are loopholes. In fact, I am most suspicious of the use link. He said he used three, so how do you know how many he actually used? This is the key."
Zhe Yanzhi nodded, "I understand, I understand!"
Chen Qing said to the crowd again: "Nowadays, iron fire mines are used more and more for civilian purposes. When we built the Danba Waterway, I approved five hundred large iron fire mines, as well as the dredging channel of Sanmenxia and the widening of Tianbao Channel.
A large number of iron fire mines have been used, and more will be used in the future, so we must improve the system, and the investigation of Dou Huang is a negative example, so that when we formulate the system, we will be more detailed and there will be no loopholes."
It has been almost half a month since Zhong Huan led hundreds of internal guards to Taiyuan City. They found Huang's tooth shop, but the big tooth man they were looking for, Huang Zhan, fell into the water and drowned this summer. All transaction records were burned, except
Except for Huang Zhan himself, no one knows who the client is, and no record of Huang Zhan's large-scale wealth transfer can even be found in any cabinet shop.
But Zhong Huan did not give up. He still conducted an extremely detailed investigation. Of course, Huang Zhan was murdered. There was no doubt that he believed that an old man like Huang Zhan would not spare a hand.
It's already mid-December, less than half a month before the New Year, and Taiyuan has experienced several heavy snowfalls, making it a world of ice and snow.
That morning, Lu Jin, the commander of the Internal Guard, rushed into the lobby of the Taiyuan Internal Guard Office like a gust of wind and said to Zhong Huan: "General, we have found a clue!"
Zhong Huan perked up and said quickly: "What clue?"
"That's the clue that the general found suspicious!"
"You mean, Huang Zhan's son-in-law Wu Kang?"
"Exactly this person!"
Wu Kang is Huang Zhan's son-in-law and a native of Taiwan. He divorced his wife Huang Huan two years ago, so he was missed during the investigation.
"What's wrong with him?"
"After Huang Zhan's death, his daughter Huang Huan disappeared, but someone once saw Huang Huan's mother and son in Qingyuan County, and Qingyuan County is Wu Kang's hometown, and after a humble investigation, Wu Kang and Huang Huan had a very good relationship.
, Huang Huan is very filial to his parents-in-law, and there is no reason at all for Wu Kang to be unfilial and divorce his wife."
Zhong Huan said slowly: "What you mean is that Wu Kang only announced that he had divorced his wife, but in fact he did not divorce his wife."
"Bizhi thinks it is most likely that Huang Zhan had serious problems and divorced his wife to protect his daughter and son-in-law, and then many secrets were hidden in Wu Kang!"
"Where is Wu Kang now?"
"He is not in Taiyuan, he may have returned to his hometown."
Zhong Huan immediately said: "Let's go to Qingyuan County!"