Chapter 32 6. Taking advantage of the opportunity of the imperial court to punish corrupt officials, Zhang Zhidong made a large-scale investigation of treasury funds to rectify the administration of officials

These days, Zhang Peilun and Chen Baochen's participation in the impeachment of Baogeng, the governor of Shanxi Province, and Ding'an, the king of Ji Ning Dao, has become a hot topic of discussion in the court.Local officials neglecting government affairs, smoking opium, forming cliques for personal gain, and getting rich through corruption have become commonplace for decades.However, it is extremely rare to embezzle disaster relief funds, and the amount is so large, and the embezzlers have such high official positions.It goes without saying that clean and honest officials were outraged by this, and even those officials who were careless and unclean were also angry: it can be forgiven for moving some other money, but this is life-saving money. , so nonsense?For a while, Bao Geng and Wang Ding'an became the targets of public criticism from officials.Cixi and Prince Gong were also very angry, and even the 12-year-old Emperor Guangxu was so angry that he said, "If you don't kill people, you won't be angry enough."

Cixi and Prince Gong made two decisions after discussion: one was to order Shanxi governor Zhang Zhidong to find out the truth about Baogeng and others as soon as possible, and the other was to inquire nearby Yan Jingming, the Minister of Household Affairs who had lived in Shanxi for more than ten years in Beijing. Yan Jingming already knew it well, and when he summoned him, he not only confirmed the evidence of Zhang Peilun and Chen Baochen's impeachment, but also reported to the Empress Dowager what he saw and heard during his stay in Jin Dynasty, which provided a lot of new information for the corrupt officials in Shanxi a few years ago. evidence.

After receiving the order to investigate Baogeng's case, Zhang Zhidong immediately ordered Ma Piyao, Yang Rui and others to write down everything accumulated in the past six months of open and unannounced investigations in detail, and write a document of more than a hundred pages thick. As evidence, send someone to escort him to Beijing. As soon as this evidence came to the court room of the Military Aircraft Department, Bao Geng, Wang Ding'an and others' crimes of collusion, corruption and perversion of the law became solid evidence. The incumbent King Gong ordered Bao Geng and Wang Ding'an to be dismissed from their positions, locked up in Beijing, and handed over to the Ministry of Criminal Justice. The interrogation is strict.

At this time, there was another censor named Li Zhaoxi, who was not used to Zeng Guoquan's style of relying on the old and selling the old, so he took this opportunity to participate in a discount, saying that Zeng Guoquan should be severely punished for his excessive protection of bandits, harming the country and harming the people. I think it is a ring for ministers to recommend people.Among the officials of the Ministry of Officials, there were also those who hated Zeng Guoquan's arrogance and arrogance, so he was punished by "downgrading to a second level" and petitioned Cixi for adjudication.At this time, due to the conflict between Vietnam and France, the border affairs in Guangxi were urgent, and the post of Guangdong Governor suddenly became more important.Although Cixi has always been dissatisfied with Zeng Guoquan's arrogance and laziness, and wanted to take the opportunity to kill his prestige, but considering that once the flames of war ignited, he would have to rely on Zeng Laojiu, who was able to fight tough battles, so Jia En changed his post and stayed on. He did not move in the position of Governor of Guangdong.

Even Zeng Guoquan, who has made great achievements, was punished, which shows Cixi's anger at the Shanxi embezzlement of disaster relief funds and her determination to punish.Baogeng's plan to save himself by attacking Zhang Zhidong has obviously become a dead end.The censors who were bribed by Wang Ding'an to impeach Zhang Zhidong for malfeasance also quietly burned the prepared and unpublished memorials. After interrogation by the Ministry of Criminal Justice, the case was finalized: Bao Geng was dismissed, exiled to Xinjiang, and never returned to Beijing; Wang Ding'an was dismissed and imprisoned for ten years.It stands to reason that the punishment given by the Ministry of Punishment is too light, but such a treatment is already a great support for Zhang Zhidong Fujin.Zhang Zhidong took advantage of the spring breeze of the court to do two major things with great fanfare: one was to thoroughly investigate the accounts of the treasury, and expand it to the treasury accounts of the eighteen prefectures and more than sixty counties in the whole province, and severely punish all those who committed the crime of embezzlement and misappropriation. Love officials.Sang Zhiping reminded him that since ancient times, the law does not blame the public.More than half of the officials in Shanxi Province have committed corruption and misappropriation to varying degrees. If this order is issued, these people will be punished, and the entire Shanxi officialdom will be paralyzed; It's a perfunctory gesture.Both are bad for the big picture.It is not as wide and small as the general outline.Anyone involved in the embezzlement of disaster relief funds by Bao Geng and Wang Ding'an must confess within three months, return the embezzled money in full, and add a 30% fine. Those who do so will be exempted from punishment.During the inspection period of the warehouses in all prefectures and counties within half a year, all the public funds owed are returned in full, which is not considered embezzlement.The biggest shortage in Shanxi right now is silver. With such an opening up, two to three million taels of silver will be put into the treasury within a few months, and it will be much easier to carry out various operations in the province.

Although Sang Zhiping's idea is suspected of substituting punishment for law, it is actually helpful.Weighing the pros and cons, Zhang Zhidong still adopted it. The second major event is to use this to rectify the administration of officials.As for the few officials like Xu Shilin who had a close relationship with Bao Geng and Wang Dingan, who embezzled a large amount of disaster relief funds and caused great public anger, Zhang Zhidong summoned them, suspended them for review, and reported to the court without waiting for them to take the initiative to explain.He also advised a group of old, weak, confused and fatuous state and county officials to submit their resignations voluntarily to preserve their dignity.Then, a group of officials at all levels who are honest and self-sufficient are presented to the queen mother and emperor, and please reward and promote them.

Such a strike and promotion really shook the official circles of Shanxi Province greatly. The old habits of corruption and laziness formed over the past few decades were swept away immediately. . After coming to Shanxi for less than two years, Zhang Zhidong believed that he possessed great talents in governing the country that no one else could match.He is not satisfied with a corner of Shanxi, and his eyes have always been paying attention to the political situation in the whole of China.He remembered that Yan Jingming once said that the success of Hu Linyi's career is due to the chance meeting and the help of others.The time of the wind and cloud will be based on the timing, and the timing cannot be created by oneself. The key is to be good at grasping it. As for how to get help from others, it is entirely one's own knowledge.

Over the past year, Zhang Zhidong carefully read through the two million-word "Hu Wenzhong's Legacy Collection" presented by Yan Jingming, and figured out that the knowledge of winning people is mainly in the links of knowing people, recommending people, and employing people.Zeng Guofan once summed up Hu Linyi's strengths in this way: he knows talents at a young age, recommends talents all over the world, and employs people with sincerity.After handling the government affairs of a province with his own hands, Zhang Zhidong admired Zeng and Hu from the bottom of his heart for such outstanding sages.Now that he is a great official in the frontier and has the qualifications to recommend talents, Zhang Zhidong decided to recommend talents to the empress dowager and the emperor, first to recommend talents for the imperial court and to fulfill his responsibilities for the country, and second, to make extensive contacts for himself. Jun, with a clear voice and kindness first, once he takes on a larger position in the future, he can get their sincere support.

He listed those whom he has known for many years and those who have not met but have heard about his character, knowledge and ability. These people include Zhang Peilun, Chen Baochen, Yu Yinlin, Ma Piyao, etc., a total of fifty-nine people.Zhang Zhidong believes that this list of talents has included all the talents in the world who have not been fully utilized.If the Empress Dowager can promote these people one by one and place them in positions where they can best display their talents, the Qing Dynasty will be in full swing. After sending out this recommendation, Zhang Zhidong felt a sense of dedication and charity, and felt very comfortable emotionally.These days, due to the effective administration of officials and the lack of time for official duties, the elegance of poetry and composition cultivated by lyricists and scholars has gradually come to my heart.

It is mid-autumn, when the sky is high and crisp, and just as the night falls, a round of clear and clean silver basins are hung in the sky early, sprinkling the radiance to the world selflessly. The ancient city of Bingzhou is shrouded in a gentle and elegant atmosphere, which looks Dignified and serene. Under the lamp, Zhang Zhidong was drawing ink and meditating.Suddenly, he felt that there were a few lights beating in his heart, like the light of electricity and the fire of stone.In the past, when the night was getting darker, whenever he felt this kind of inspiration, he would often imitate Lu Ji and write it down in a play style.His Lianzhu poems are either parallel or prose, and may rhyme or not. He does not deliberately pursue words, but focuses on expressing ideas.This kind of Lianzhu poems has accumulated more than 30 poems.The inspiration tonight was caused by the lack of recommended talents. I suddenly had a new understanding of people's talents and insights, so I rolled out the paper and recorded this fleeting spiritual spark: