Li Yuanzheng, the censor of Zuodu, took a train from Jining Prefecture to Jinan City to mobilize the censors of the Shandong Metropolitan Procuratorate to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the Yellow River Project.
The Yellow River Project is no longer just a project in Jining Prefecture, it is a large project spread across all prefectures in Shandong.
He glanced at Zhao Fangliang, the censor of the Shandong Metropolitan Procuratorate.
"Yushi Zhao, have all the criminals and relevant evidence from each government been brought here?"
His assistant, Zhang Qinian, the censor of Qiandu, has been transferred back to the capital.
This is also Li Yuanzheng's intention to protect Zhang Qinian. After all, his uncle may be related to this case and he needs to avoid it.
Zhao Fangliang replied respectfully: "Master Li, the main officials and relevant evidence of the various governments where the shoddy projects occurred have been brought here to await your investigation."
Li Yuanzheng nodded and ordered: "Follow the process I explained before and arrange it as soon as possible.
We need to get decisive evidence as soon as possible. His Majesty is waiting for our news in the capital.
Only by opening the mouth of Magistrate Mei You can we connect all these evidences together.
Our opponent is very cunning, and without conclusive evidence, we cannot move him."
Zhao Fangdian nodded and immediately went out to arrange relevant matters.
The censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate quickly walked through a room with a prefect.
At this moment, the door of the room, whose windows were covered with black cloth, opened.
Two censors escorted Magistrate Meiyou to the toilet.
At this moment, the censor walking in front said: "Prefect Du, you have confessed everything and are willing to be a tainted witness.
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Mr. Li, the censor of Zuodu, has told us that he will ensure that your family will not be affected by this incident and can participate in the imperial examination normally.
You will be demoted to Nanyang as a county magistrate. Whether you can return to the Central Plains again depends on your ability."
When Magistrate Mei You heard the news, he immediately collapsed and shouted: "Du Qingyuan, you old man, you traitor.
How dare you betray us, have you thought clearly about the consequences of betrayal?"
After he finished speaking, he immediately chased after Du Qingyuan.
Before Mei You could run a few steps, he was pushed into the house by the censor who was guarding him.
Li Yuanzheng was hiding in the room, and he saw this process clearly.
This was a show he deliberately arranged.
Mei You is a person close to the core and knows many secrets. He served as the master of Zhang Youfeng, the former governor of Shandong.
Magistrate Li Qingyuan is only a middle-level member of this group. He only knows a brief summary of the situation and has no key evidence in his hands.
He had fully explained everything, and Li Yuanzheng was unable to connect the relevant clues together to form key evidence.
Mei You was Zhang Youfeng's early master, and he had a close relationship with Zhang Youfeng.
However, he had been away from Zhang Youfeng and served as an official for a long time, and did not understand Li Qingyuan's specific status in the group.
During this period, Mei You and Li Qingyuan enjoyed equal treatment.
Li Yuanzheng's purpose was to make Mei You mistakenly think that Li Qingyuan was of similar status to him.
Li Yuanzheng walked to the room where Mei You was detained.
It was a very dark room, lit only by two candles.
Mei You sat on a wooden chair, with two censors watching him to prevent him from committing suicide.
Mei You can only eat one bowl of porridge every day and is given some cold water to drink.
Sitting on a chair, he was constantly being questioned by the censor. He was not allowed to do anything and could only sleep three or four hours a day.
Even if the body is itchy and needs to be scratched, a report must be made.
The Metropolitan Procuratorate mainly uses psychological torture to interrogate officials.
This kind of interrogation room, which is derived from the military's solitary confinement room, is intolerable to many officials.
The military specializes in rectifying the thorny solitary cells in the army. Even the big-hearted warriors can't stand it, let alone the pampered officials.
Li Yuanzheng chose this interrogation method to avoid corporal punishment.
The evidence obtained is untrue and affects the handling of the case.
The Metropolitan Procuratorate also needs to take precautions if a certain official suddenly regains his power.
To impose corporal punishment is to completely offend an official.
Most officials believed that corporal punishment was an insult to his character.
The current method used by the Metropolitan Procuratorate leaves no trace of scars on the body, and the effect is very good.
By doing this, you won't leave a bad reputation as a result of giving in to a fight.
Li Yuanzheng, the censor of the left governor, was sitting on the main seat. He stared at Mei You and said: "Prefect Mei, are you still going to stand firm and refuse to explain your crimes?
Magistrate Du is very aware of current affairs, and he explains everything clearly.
Magistrate Mei, you are carrying it hard, it is no longer necessary.
I can get married now, and you will be the main culprit then.
If you don't think about yourself, you should also think about your family.
This case has reached Tianting. It is not something that you, a small prefect, can handle.
The fate of the principal criminal and the accomplice are very different.
According to the information I have learned, two people from your family will pass the examination this year.
Magistrate Mei, if you carry it to the end, you will become the main culprit in this massacre.
That will definitely ruin the careers of other people in the family, and you will become the sinner of the family."
Mei You was torn internally, on the one hand because of the benefactor who promoted him, and on the other hand about the future of his family.
He was caught in a dilemma and banged his head against the table in front of him.
Before he hit the table, he was immediately grabbed by the censor beside him.
Li Yuanzheng smiled when he saw Mei You's performance.
In the past, Mei You looked like he was ready to die.
Even if he tried to persuade him with the hope of his family's future, Mei You still seemed to be in a state of indifference.
After the drama just now, he thought that his companions had already confessed, and there was no point in persisting, so he was extremely confused.
Li Yuanzheng continued to strengthen his language offensive and continued to persuade Mei You.
Mei You sat on the chair, he sighed deeply and said: "I am not the main culprit, I just followed orders.
I will confess everything I know, and I just hope to get leniency."
Li Yuanzheng's eyes lit up as he listened to Mei You's confession.
From Mei You's confession, he learned many clues that he had not discovered before.
Magistrate Mei You told many things, who are his accomplices?
Where did they transfer the embezzled project funds?
The most critical evidence is the letters exchanged between Mei You and the main envoy.
Perhaps out of the habit of an official, Mei You kept all the letters and kept them in a secret place.
Li Yuanzheng and the censor set out immediately to find the letter that had not been hidden.
The emergence of these key pieces of evidence directly allowed Li Yuanzheng to connect all the evidence together.
He also basically pieced together the hidden story behind this Yellow River project.
After Li Yuanzheng, the censor of Zuodu, investigated clearly, he immediately sent a report to Emperor Su He.
…………………………
Emperor Su He has been staring at the telegram these days, waiting for reports from Wei Shiming and Li Yuanzheng on the latest news about the Yellow River Project.
In the Qianqing Palace, he repeatedly read the telegram sent by Wei Shiming some time ago.
Su He put down the telegram, patted the table and said: "I must punish these corrupt officials severely.
Rebuilding the Yellow River embankment requires millions of taels of silver coins, recruits more than 300,000 migrant workers, and takes an extra year.
If the Yellow River floods again this year, it will cause even more severe losses."
Su He was very disappointed with the officials in Shandong, and he was even more disappointed with the Metropolitan Procuratorate and Xuanwu Guards in Shandong.
Corrupt officials were able to embezzle funds from the Yellow River Project because of the negligence of these two supervisory agencies.
Su He has issued an imperial edict, asking Li Yuanzheng and Su Changsheng to start rectifying the yamen of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and Xuanwu Guard in various places.
Local officials need to be replaced frequently to prevent them from being corrupted by local officialdom.
Ding Degui, director of the General Bureau of Telegraph, knocked on the door of Qianqing Palace.
After he was allowed to enter the Qianqing Palace, he took the translated telegram and handed it to His Majesty the Emperor through Zhou Fangzhi.
He reported to the side: "Your Majesty, this is the investigation result of the Yellow River Project reported by Mr. Li Yuanzheng."
Emperor Su He had been waiting for this news. He received the telegram and said: "Li Yuanzheng investigated very quickly. It only took more than a month to find the key evidence."
He carefully read the contents of Li Yuanzheng's report.
The telegraph is so convenient. Li Yuanzheng has just finished his investigation.
Su He was in the capital and could immediately understand the whole story of the incident.
After Emperor Su He read the contents of the telegram, he said angrily: "Party fighting harms the country, and party fighting harms the country!"
Li Yuanzheng has clearly investigated the causes and consequences of the Yellow River Project.
The leader of the Yellow River Project was Zhang Youfeng, the former governor of Shandong.
He is the leader of the Qingliu Party in the Dahua Dynasty.
Zhang Youfeng had previously shown that he was very curious about psychology, but now it seems that he is just speculating.
After Emperor Su He promoted the contention of a hundred schools of thought and Zhang Youfeng observed the situation, he immediately raised the banner of traditional Confucianism.
Around him gathered a large number of officials who had surrendered in the previous Ming Dynasty.
In the early days of the Great China Dynasty, there were not enough officials trained through the imperial examinations. Many of these officials who surrendered got the coveted official positions.
People with outstanding performance can also be promoted together with the scholars who passed the imperial examination.
A certain amount of power formed around Zhang Youfeng, and his ambitions began to expand. He was no longer satisfied with just serving as a local governor.
He initiated a party struggle and asked his confidant Mei You to tamper with the Yellow River embankment.
The main purpose is not to embezzle project funds, but to cause the Yellow River embankment to collapse.
He did not hesitate to flood large areas of Shandong in order to bring down Qian Mingyi, the cabinet minister in charge of the Yellow River Project.
At the same time, we will take this opportunity to attack the current cabinet and make it collapse because of the scumbag project of the Yellow River Embankment.
Prime Minister Wang Zhongce is a great Confucian in the study of mind. After his fall, traditional Confucianism will have another chance to come to the forefront.
Qingliu is good at empty talk, but not good at governing the country.
Zhang Youfeng thought very well. If only one Yellow River embankment was moved, the matter would be very hidden.
But those old-timers in the officialdom saw that they could make a fortune by embezzling funds from the Yellow River project.
How could they hold back and take advantage of the opportunity created by Zhang Youfeng to secretly make money from the Yellow River Project?
This has resulted in the entire Yellow River embankment in Shandong being filled with shoddy projects.
Zhang Youfeng made a lot of preparations in order for his plan to succeed.
He must destroy the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Xuanwu Guards, the two major eyes and ears of the imperial court, to prevent his conspiracy from being exposed.
Zhang Youfeng knew that officials at the same level could not corrupt these people with greater benefits.
He set his sights on the middle and low-level officials stationed in each government of these two yamen.
These officials who go to work below are easy to win over.
The people who handle these specific tasks directly blind their superior agencies.
Su He had been guarding against the emergence of party strife before. He did not expect that the Dahua Dynasty had only been stable for a few years before party strife would occur.
He did not forget that one of the core factors of the Ming Dynasty was party struggle.
If the Great China Dynasty cannot handle party disputes well, the court will soon come to an end.
Emperor Su He summoned the commander of the Xuanwu Guards, Su Changsheng.
He put the evidence from Li Yuanzheng's investigation in front of Su Changsheng.
"Ergou, I leave this matter to you.
Xuanwuwei is now too comfortable doing things, and the local leaders can be corrupted by civil servants.
You are my eyes and ears, if you make a mistake, I will become blind and deaf."
Su Changsheng immediately knelt down and said in a panic: "Your Majesty, please give me a chance, and I will completely clean up the Xuanwu Guards."
Su He asked Su Changsheng to clean up the Xuanwu Guards and at the same time investigate Zhang Youfeng's accomplices.
He has decided that Xuanwuwei, the official yamen on the surface, is not enough.
Su He wanted to learn from the Dongchang of the Ming Dynasty and establish another yamen with the same function as the Xuanwu Guard, but hidden in the dark.
He previously wanted to standardize the Xuanwu Guards and abandon many of the dark sides of the former Ming Dynasty Jinyi Guards.
Now it seems that many of Jin Yiwei's things have merit.
…………………………
Su He summoned Su Yan, the Minister of Punishment, in the Qianqing Palace.
It took Su Changsheng a very short time to investigate Zhang Youfeng's accomplices.
The Xuanwu Guards are operating at full strength, and the Dahua Dynasty has not been able to hide their power.
Su He spoke sternly and immediately ordered Su Yan to arrest Zhang Youfeng's gang members.
Zhang Youfeng was promoted from governor of Shandong to right minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
He also has many partisans in the capital.
Su Yan left the palace with a gloomy face, and immediately summoned people from the Criminal Department to go to various places to arrest Zhang Youfeng and his party.
…………………………
During the Great Court Meeting in mid-September, after the officials went to court, they felt that the Huangji Palace was a little deserted. There were many fewer officials attending the Great Court Meeting this time than before.
Many officials are also in panic these days, fearing that people from the Ministry of Punishments will break into their mansions directly.
In the past, when officials violated the law, most cases were dealt with by the Metropolitan Procuratorate.
This time, the Criminal Department bypassed the Metropolitan Procuratorate and went directly to various places to search homes.
The cruelty of the methods and the large number of arrests broke the record since the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Emperor Su He did not sit on the dragon chair. He stood up and faced the ministers and said loudly: "You should have heard about what happened during this period.
Some officials are willing to do anything to fight for the party.
They dared to bring down his political opponents at the expense of tens of millions of people in Shandong.
The Ming Dynasty fell due to party strife, and the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian hanged himself on Meishan Mountain. It was only a few years ago.
Have you all forgotten?
You have forgotten, but I have not forgotten.
When I stood in the Huangji Hall, I felt that Emperor Chongzhen was watching me. How long can my Great China Dynasty last?
I know it's not just the gang of people in prison who form a clique for personal gain.
Right in the capital, right in the Huangji Palace, there are still people who form cliques and pursue selfish interests.
Who would form a clique for personal gain? Only those who want to be powerful and rebellious would form a clique for personal gain.
I trust you, and you repay me in this way.
No matter who it is, if the Dahua Dynasty engages in party strife, it will definitely not end well.
I will set up several mailboxes for all people at various gates in the capital.
Anyone who finds an official doing something illegal, especially forming a clique for personal gain, can report it directly.
Any officials found to be forming cliques for personal gain will be immediately dismissed from office and held accountable."
Su He held the greatest power in his hands, so he chose to overturn the table and clean the court thoroughly.
