Chapter 15 Corrupt officials in Gansu investigate corrupt officials

He Shen himself is a big corrupt official, but he punished other corrupt officials unambiguously and quite skillfully. In the forty-sixth year of Qianlong (1781), the imperial envoys Agui and Heshen were ordered to supervise the army in Gansu. For a long time, the salaries of the officers and soldiers were difficult to sustain. Moreover, food and grass were almost exhausted, so it was difficult to collect for a while.Wang Tingzan, the chief envoy of Gansu Province, had long been suspected of delaying the war opportunity. This time, he was afraid of the emperor's blame, so he thought it wise to ask for the 40,000 taels of silver he had accumulated over the years to be used as military pay to relieve the urgent need.

Wang Tingzan thought he would be rewarded by Qianlong, but he was self-defeating.Qianlong had always hated corruption. This time, Wang Tingzan was so eager to claim credit, and Gansu was not a rich place, how could there be so many silver taels; besides, he once reported Gansu's continuous severe drought and asked the court to allocate funds for disaster relief, but He Shen was at the same time. Played Gansu continuous heavy rain.Qianlong knew that there must be suspicion of favoritism and fraud, so he secretly ordered Heshen to find out the truth. Although He Shen is not good at military affairs, he is still good at investigating corrupt officials.He Shen has been immersed in officialdom for many years, and he knows that such things that cannot be brought to the table can only be investigated from the bottom up.He first ordered his slave Liu Quan and others to disguise themselves as businessmen from other places to inquire whether Gansu has been suffering from continuous drought recently.The survey found that the weather in Gansu has been smooth and rainy in recent years, and there has never been a drought.At the same time, I found out that Gansu stipulates that the supervisors should convert the donated grains into silver.Forty-three stones should have been donated, but when converted into silver, it would be forty-seven taels.In addition, eight taels of office silver and miscellaneous expenses were charged, so each person had to pay fifty-five taels of silver. The money was nominally used for disaster relief. Since there was no disaster, the whereabouts of it was self-evident.

He Shen was very shocked. It is unbelievable that the officials in Gansu could cover up such a major event so impenetrably.If this case is handled beautifully, it will be a major case that will cause a sensation in the whole country, and I will have more capital to claim credit and gain favor in front of the emperor.Thinking of this, He Shen became energetic. He seized the clues, conducted in-depth investigations, and discovered a huge official shady scene. It turned out that Gansu began to report to the court seven years ago saying: Gansu has been suffering from severe drought year after year, asking for prison donations.Emperor Qianlong immediately ordered Wang Danwang, then the governor of Gansu Province, to be responsible for the donation and collection of grain.Gansu officials Wang Danwang, Le Erjin, Wang Tingzan and others have already secretly colluded, and all the money and food handed over by the supervisors have been embezzled by them.Since then, officials in Gansu have lied about the drought every year and embezzled countless taels of silver.Moreover, not only did these people not receive the punishment they deserved, but all of them were promoted.Today, Wang Danwang has been promoted to governor of Zhejiang, and Wang Tingzan has become the new chief envoy of Gansu.They guarded each other with officials and officials, and even kept the matter tightly sealed.

God wanted to treat Heshen kindly, and gave Heshen a chance to make meritorious deeds.However, due to the number of people involved in this matter, caution must be exercised. He Shen made his own plan while writing a memorial to report to the emperor urgently.First of all, it is necessary to check the accounts of the prisons in various parts of Gansu. Gansu has donated prisons for many years, and the national treasury should naturally store the supervision grains;Just check whether the stored grain matches the accounts. Easier said than done, checking stockpiles is no easy task.Prior to this, Qianlong also sent Yuan Shoutong, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment, to Gansu to check the official grain.In the officialdom, everyone laughs and laughs at each other, and pretends to be nothing to do with themselves. Most of the so-called inspections are just a formality.Gansu officials tampered with the granary in order to pass the customs. The bottom was empty, and the upper floor was covered with a layer of wood, which was then filled with grain.Officials in Gansu also hypocritically stated that the granaries are not enough and that twenty-six warehouses need to be built, which is really incredible.

Heshen knew that the inventory of granaries required the cooperation of the chief envoy. Since Wang Tingzan, the chief envoy of Gansu Province, went to Rehe to meet Emperor Qianlong, Heshen summoned Jiang Quandi, the prefect of Lanzhou, and asked him to cooperate in the inventory inventory of the country. Of course Jiang Quandi knew that Heshen's inspection was no small matter, and deliberately delayed the time. Unexpectedly, Heshen had already prepared for it. He asked to go to the inspection the next day on the grounds that he would return to Beijing immediately under the emperor's order.Jiang Quandi didn't know what it was, so he agreed.

At night, He Shen quietly came to Agui's barracks.In the name of handling the case, he borrowed a hundred soldiers from him for use.The next day, He Shen took his soldiers to the granary to meet Jiang Quandi.When Jiang Quandi saw a group of soldiers behind He Shen, he panicked and didn't know what to do, but at this point he had to order the barn door to be opened, and a hundred soldiers immediately poured into the barn.He Shen ordered the soldiers following him to check carefully one by one.The soldiers quickly reported what He Shen had known for a long time, and the granary was empty.Jiang Quandi was caught off guard and collapsed to the ground on the spot.

Without saying anything, He Shen took him back to the camp for interrogation overnight.Where did Jiang Quandi suffer from such torture?The whole process of the matter was quickly revealed, and so far, the case has made a breakthrough. It turned out that Gansu's donation of prisons and fraudulent collection of disaster relief funds were all thought out by Wang Danwang, the former chief envoy of Gansu, out of greed for money.Wang Danwang was from Linfen, Shanxi. His father, Wang Shi, the governor of Jiangsu, was a clean and honest official, but unexpectedly he gave birth to a son who was greedy for money.Wang Danwang entered the officialdom by donating money. He was good at taking advantage of business opportunities, and was soon promoted to the prefect of Ningxia, Gansu, and later became the chief envoy of Gansu.Wang Dan regards money as his life, and Gansu does not have so much money, so what should we do?Only disaster relief can get the opportunity to earn money.He colluded with Le Erjin, governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, to lie about the disaster in Gansu, and pretended to let his confidant Jiang Quandi be the magistrate of Lanzhou, and instructed Jiang Quandi to handle all the donated food received by the prefectures and counties.Jiang Quandi intensified, requiring officials at all levels to directly convert grain into silver and hand it over.Then they all made false accounts in the name of disaster relief. By the 42nd year of Qianlong (1777), more than 6 million shi of supervising food had been spent for disaster relief.Qianlong didn't know the truth, but only saw the reports again and again, and thought that Wang Danwang had really contributed to the disaster relief, so he was promoted to governor of Zhejiang.

It is not in compliance with the regulations to donate grain and silver to supervisors. The new Gansu chief envoy Wang Tingzan immediately reported it to Governor Le Erjin. Le Erjin was originally a participant, so how could he handle it?He also persuaded Wang Tingzan to get involved, and just like that, the snowball got bigger and bigger, and it was finally difficult to deal with it.He Shen originally thought that his activities were greedy enough, but he didn't expect the behavior of Gansu officials to open his eyes and surprise him.He was even more determined to investigate the case to the bottom.

Donating prisons is a major event in a province, and if you want to hide it, it must involve a wide range of people.Jiang Quandi confessed that more than 100 officials from Gansu Province were involved in the case, which is really a shocking case.After several days of interrogation, He Shen finally found out the account details of Gansu's prison donation and collected the necessary evidence. He immediately bid farewell to Agui and escorted Jiang Quandi to Rehe Miansheng.On the way, he gave a general explanation of the case and presented a copy to Emperor Qianlong. Emperor Qianlong was shocked when he received Heshen's memorial, and could hardly believe it.As soon as He Shen arrived in Rehe, Qianlong hurriedly summoned him and asked him if he had any real evidence?He Shen was confident and told the truth that there had been no drought in Gansu for many years. Not only did Gansu's treasury not store supervised grain, but even the normal grain that should be stored in the treasury was in short supply. Not only that, but they also privately divided the funds allocated by the court; and the so-called supervising food is in name only!

Emperor Qianlong was surprisingly angry, feeling that he had been deceived, so furious, he stood up and said: Le Erjin is so bold!How could Le Erjin hide such an important matter from others? Are all the officials in Gansu province corrupt?He Shen said: Your Majesty, don't touch Longyan, the case of Gansu's false relief is very involved, and I'm afraid that officials of all sizes will be involved.The slaves have already arrested Jiang Quandi, and these are all confessed by him.In addition, Wang Tingzan, the chief envoy of Gansu Province, is in Jehol for an audience. If he can be taken down for interrogation, the matter will naturally be revealed to the world.

Qianlong couldn't recover for a while, and he said to himself unconsciously: I can still believe in other people's corruption, but this Wang Tingzan, I have always known that he is a clean official, how could he do such a thing!Wang Tingzan once served as the magistrate of Anding County, and he did a lot of good things for the local area, with outstanding achievements and a good reputation.How can he embezzle? He Shen knew that Qianlong couldn't believe it after saying so much, because of the lack of evidence.So he said to Emperor Qianlong: Your Majesty, according to the confession of the prefect of Lanzhou, Wang Tingzan directly handled more than 5 million shi of supervising grain.During the Lanzhou War, Wang Tingzan voluntarily donated 40,000 taels of silver as military pay. With his salary, it is difficult to accumulate such a large amount without eating or drinking. Qianlong felt that Heshen already knew something about the case, so he ordered Heshen to take full responsibility for the trial of the case, and Heshen vowed to accept it.Due to Heshen's well-prepared investigation of the Gansu fraud case, the trial went smoothly, and Wang Tingzan confessed quickly.Agui, who was far away in Lanzhou, also wrote the results of the further investigation into a memorial and urgently reported it to Emperor Qianlong. From the thirty-ninth year of Qianlong (1774) to the present, a total of more than 270,000 people in Gansu have donated to prison students, and Gansu Province has collected more than 15 million taels of silver. Gansu officials embezzled disaster relief money and food in the name of disaster relief. It is equivalent to nearly three million taels of silver.A total of 112 Gansu officials were implicated, 63 county magistrates who embezzled more than 1,000 taels of silver, five magistrates, three magistrates, five general judges, and two county magistrates.According to the laws of the Qing Dynasty, officials who embezzled more than one thousand taels of silver were capital crimes. Emperor Qianlong was trembling with anger, he had always flaunted incorruptibility, and now such a mass corruption case occurred, it can be said that it has never been seen in ancient times.Emperor Qianlong immediately issued a decree: Wang Danwang and Jiang Quandi, the chief offenders, were in charge of the matter. They committed a heinous crime and were to be executed immediately; Impeachment, on the contrary, emulates corruption, and the sentence is hanged!For other officials involved in the case, the Criminal Ministry drafted a verdict in accordance with the laws of the Qing Dynasty.With such a harsh tone, everyone could tell that Emperor Qianlong had made up his mind to kill this time. Defu, Minister of the Ministry of punishment, was very embarrassed.He said in the memorial: According to the laws of the Qing Dynasty, the death penalty for embezzlement of more than a thousand taels, we can't kill all these more than 60 officials, right?Although the law does not blame the public, Emperor Qianlong was determined to punish: the 112 officials who were implicated confiscated their property.Among them, those who embezzle more than 20,000 taels of silver, the circumstances are serious, and will be executed; In the end, among the officials involved in the case: 22 people were executed for embezzling more than 20,000 taels; 15 people were sentenced to imprisonment for embezzling more than 10,000 taels;A total of 67 provincial, provincial, prefectural, prefectural, and county officials were sent to the guillotine or imprisoned, and the property of more than 100 corrupt officials was confiscated. He Shen finally did not return empty-handed when he went to Gansu this time, and he also made great contributions to the investigation of the fraudulent relief case.In November of the forty-sixth year of Qianlong (1781), Emperor Qianlong appointed Heshen concurrently as Minister of the Ministry of War; The official career is even smoother.