Chaos of the Three Kingdoms Summons

Chapter 2778 The First Case of the Early Jin Dynasty: The Yellow River Corruption Case

"Yuwentai!" Bao Zheng had already returned to Luoyang by this time. Li Xiang looked at one of the accompanying officials and called out his name.

"Your subject is here!" Although he was old, Yuwen Tai was still full of energy and strode forward.

Yuwentai had both military merits and political achievements. Over the course of nearly thirty years, he served as a local official in Liang, Bing, Yan and Yang, including the position of governor, and finally entered the central government.

Li Xiang then said to Yuwen Tai, "Minister Yuwen, you served as the governor of Yanzhou for seven years. Before Bao Zheng arrived, I entrusted you with investigating the affairs of Yanzhou. If Bao Zheng comes, you will also assist him. Do you have any objections?"

"Furthermore, the floating houses can also be used to assist you!"

"Yes! I will do my best!"

At this moment, Yuwen Tai could only sigh inwardly. Fortunately, he had been away from his post in Yanzhou for about ten years. If anyone were in office and encountered such bad luck, at best they would ruin their future, and at worst they would lose their lives.

Now, the governors of the surrounding prefectures can only accept their bad luck.

In particular, Wei Renpu has been serving in local positions for nearly 20 years. If nothing unexpected happens, Yanzhou will be his last local posting, and his next step should be to move to the central government.

But now that this has happened, there probably won't be another chance.

With such a major case occurring in Yanzhou, the emperor was not in a hurry to leave the Central Plains. Instead, he continued his tour of the Central Plains, visiting not only Yanzhou but also Xuzhou and Yuzhou, though at a much slower pace.

He would stay in each prefecture for a few days, sometimes even traveling incognito to check on the living conditions of the local people.

Li Xiang even personally led a team to inspect the canal project area.

Furthermore, he personally ordered a reward for the migrant workers on the construction site.

Li Xiang slowed down his journey in the Central Plains, which made the officials there secretly complain.

If similar things were discovered within their jurisdiction, who could withstand such a shock?

The more thorough the investigation, the better. And no matter what the matter, if you investigate carefully, you will find problems, just to varying degrees.

The Yellow River corruption case, as the first major corruption case in the Jian'an era, can even be said to be the first major corruption case after the establishment of the Jin Dynasty.

Everyone knew that the emperor was furious. Bao Zheng, who had just returned to Luoyang, was immediately dispatched by the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice to return to the Central Plains without stopping.

If I had known it would be such a hassle, why did I even come back after my trip to Mount Tai?
It would be better to stay by the emperor's side and avoid spending months traveling in vain.

With Bao Zheng as the representative of the Dali Temple, he personally took charge, and the Three Departments and even the Fushui Office were involved to cooperate. Even Yuwen Tai, the former governor of Yanzhou, was brought in.

Therefore, the case quickly began to make new progress, uncovering a large number of corrupt officials in the imperial court.

Many things are not a problem if you don't investigate, but once you do, you may find that everything that was hidden can no longer be hidden.

After receiving the information from Bao Zheng regarding the progress of the investigation and learning about the situation, Li Xiang was no longer as angry as he had been at the beginning.

Over the past 20 years, Dajin has invested a great deal of human, financial and material resources in water conservancy and river engineering projects.

It's easy to see that with such a large investment, it's impossible for every penny to be spent wisely. In this process, over such a long period of time, it's quite normal for someone to manipulate things.

Throughout history, in every dynasty, have there been few corrupt officials?

This kind of thing is something that can't be stopped no matter how hard you try! Even among all the famous officials throughout history, how many of them weren't tainted by greed to some extent?
Li Xiang was not unaware of such matters, and could even have imagined them, but in the past, unification and foreign wars were his top priorities and the primary contradiction of the Great Jin Dynasty.

Based on this, he can turn a blind eye to other things as long as they don't go too far.

For the sake of the unification war at the time and the subsequent foreign wars, Li Xiang did not mind making some concessions.

But that was then, and this is now.

The concessions were made for the sake of the war, but there is no need for them now.

Furthermore, river defense is crucial to the stability of the nation!
In Li Xiang's view, these people were tampering with the river defenses, which meant they were undermining the very foundation of their Great Jin Dynasty.

Therefore, he could no longer ignore it.

In this corruption case, in addition to the officials in charge of the river, dozens of local officials along the river, such as Cai Jing, the prefect of Dongjun, Yan Song, the prefect of Bohai, as well as Shi Miyuan, Xu Youzhen, and others, have been exposed one by one.

Even Jia Sidao, who held a central position, got involved in this matter.

Moreover, these are only those directly involved in this one case.

Behind this incident was Li Hongzhang, a member of the Jin imperial family.

And, although they were not deeply involved in this matter, Yang Rong and others, who had already retired, were also among the big tigers behind it.

In total, the number of officials involved, both large and small, reached over a hundred.

This answer even left Li Xiang speechless.

"The main culprits, Yan Song and Cai Jing, have been imprisoned by the Ministry of Justice. The Court of Judicial Review has begun to investigate the officials involved. Relevant officials from the central government and various localities have also been arrested. All members of the party will surely be caught!" The subordinates were still reporting.

"As for how to handle this, we await Your Majesty's decision!"

These matters, after all, have involved many officials in the central government, even members of the Jin imperial family and some retired senior officials.

Among these people, many were founding heroes or relatives of founding heroes, with outstanding achievements. Even Bao Zheng only gave suggestions in his memorial, without directly saying that he should deal with them on the spot.

Even if he wanted to deal with it on the spot, the other officials of the Three Departments and Yuwen Tai did not dare to let him handle it personally.

After all, although Bao Zheng was the presiding official, the others were also investigators in this matter.

If no reports are made and all these people are eliminated at once, everyone will be affected in the end.

No matter how upright Bao Zheng was, Yuwen Tai and his ilk were all capable men, and of course they had ways to stop him.

"Yan Song, Cai Jing, Jia Sidao, Xu Youzhen, and a host of other local officials who were directly impeached were ordered to have their homes confiscated and their entire families executed. Those who held titles were also stripped of them!"

"Li Hongzhang will be executed in the autumn, and his entire family will be stripped of their titles and reduced to commoners!"

"Yang Rong, that's enough. Give him poisoned wine, but don't implicate his family!"

Thinking of this old minister, since he hadn't been directly involved in the matter, Li Xiang decided to treat this retired minister with respect.