Chapter 101 Section 101: The Case of Running for Officials and Selling Officials

Li Bao quickly brought in a dozen or so men of different sizes, fat and thin, and all of them knelt down as soon as they entered the lobby. Totally disorganized. Zeng Guofan said with a smile: "Get up, everyone! This time, the main hall is leaving the capital by decree. What are the ranks of everyone? Have you brought any official certificates?" A dozen or so people got up and touched their cuffs together, all held up the official certificates and said: "Please examine it, sir." After speaking, they put the official certificates on Zeng Guofan's desk one by one. Zeng Guofan took an official certificate and concluded that it was a fake official certificate just by looking at it.

The first is rigid and vague, and the second is that the paper used is different from that of officials.Turning over the text, Zeng Guofan was even dumbfounded: the official credentials issued by the Qing Dynasty to officials had the word "Official Department" printed quite clearly, but the imprint on this book actually engraved the word "Official Department" into "Department of History". Zeng Guofan scanned the names above and suddenly asked, "Zhao Dequn!" A fat man took a step forward and said loudly, "The next official is here!" Zeng Guofan raised his official certificate and asked, "Zhao Dequn, where did you buy the official certificate?"

Zhao Dequn replied: "My lord, I bought it from the Disaster Relief Bureau of my family, Mr. Zhao." Zeng Guofan asked again: "You bought a fifth-rank candidate to know the prefecture, but have you ever come to the province as a candidate?" Zhao Dequn replied: "Responding to my lord's words, my lord Zhao said that the candidate magistrate of the lower official does not need to be a candidate for the province, but can still do business at home. Therefore, although it has been two months since I got the official certificate, the lower official has not yet arrived. Province."

Zeng Guofan suddenly changed the subject and asked: "Zhao Dequn, there is something unclear about the headquarters, and I need you to answer it truthfully. You said that Zhao Er is your clan. When did you know each other? How is your friendship?" Zhao Dequn replied: "Master Zhao is a brother of the lower official's family who has not been out of the fifth service. He is the real family. We have known each other since we were children!" Zeng Guofan thought for a while and asked, "Since you are a businessman, how did you think of being an official?" Zhao Dequn replied: "In answer to my lord's words, the lower officials only feel that they are good officials, let alone only two hundred taels of silver."

Zeng Guofan raised his head and asked several other people: "How did you buy officials?" A few of them answered confidently together: "The official was bought through Zhao Dequn." Zeng Guofan asked Zhao Dequn again: "Zhao Dequn, since you are Zhao Er's family, do you know that Zhao Er joined the sect?" Zhao Dequn replied: "Answering my lord's words, I know. It was my brother who spent a hundred thousand taels of silver to join the religion. The day I saw the priest, I was accompanied by him. The priest is a Dutchman who once preached in Taiwan. What is his name?" Aguli. I have sold tea in Hong Kong before, and I have met the Dutch and the English. The one hundred thousand taels of silver from Zhao’s family was given to the priest by the hand of the official!”

Zeng Guofan was confused by Zhao Dequn's words.He was stunned for a long time before he asked: "Foreigners are barbarians. Why are there Dutch and English people? What's going on? Zhao Dequn, you have to answer truthfully." Zhao Dequn became more complacent, and he talked more eloquently: "Back to adults, there are many kinds of foreigners: Americans, Dutch, English, and Italian. It was the English who took my Hong Kong away, and the Dutch are more friendly." Only then did Zeng Guofan realize that foreigners are not just one type of Yingyi, there are also many kinds of foreigners.Maybe the Dutch are easier to deal with than the English.

He said to Li Bao: "Let Zhao Er from the Disaster Relief Bureau come in." Li Baoying walked out, and after a while, Zhao Er walked in ostentatiously. After meeting with Zeng Guofan, he was slightly taken aback when he saw that there were more than a dozen official certificates on the desk. Zeng Guofan saw it, but pretended not to see it. After a pause, Zeng Guofan suddenly asked: "Zhao Guan, these people bought official certificates from you with money, but is it true?" Zhao Er coughed dryly and said: "My lord, the certificates issued by the lower officials were all sold to the lower officials by Father Aguli. In order to persuade more donations and save more people, the lower officials only need to do good things. It must be done."

Zeng Guofan sneered and said, "Father Aguli specializes in preaching. He is neither an official of our Qing Dynasty, nor is he the palm seal of our Ministry of Officials. How could he have an official certificate to sell to you?" Zhao Er also sneered in a decent way: "My lord, why are you so confused? Aguli is a foreigner! Foreigners in my Qing Dynasty, say that one is one, do you dare to say two?" This is obviously to scare foreigners. Zeng Guofan, the meaning couldn't be clearer, I, Zhao Er, know foreigners! Zeng Guofan pondered for a while, then got up and left his seat, went to the outer compartment, and said to Liu Heng: "You hurry to the governor's office and invite Chang Zhongcheng here."

Liu Heng walked out quickly.Zeng Guofan walked back to the hall to sit down again, and then ordered Li Baodao: "Lead Zhao Dequn and others to the small official hall to record statements. The hall should have a chat with Zhao Guan alone." Li Bao took the copy and led Zhao Dequn and a dozen others out.Under the lobby, only Zhao Er was sitting alone. Zeng Guofan said quietly: "Zhao Guan, the church heard that the priest is Dutch. Do the Dutch also preach?" Zhao Er blinked, paused and said, "Responding to my lord's words, Father Aguli is a foreigner, a standard foreigner with yellow hair and blue eyes. As for whether it is English or Dutch, just like Shandong and Shanxi in the Qing Dynasty. I can't afford to offend you. My lord is in the Ministry of Rites and has never handled a barbarian case, so I don't know how powerful foreigners are. Aguli doesn't have to kneel when he sees the Qing emperor! He doesn't even look straight at the princes and ministers! His ability is greater than that of Gong and Hou!"

Zeng Guofan didn't say a word, and cursed in his heart: "When you meet a foreigner, you become so crazy that even the imperial court doesn't pay attention to it! If such a national scum is not killed, there will be no way for the poor people to survive!" Once he was ready to kill, Zeng Guofan began to think about how to do it, so that the foreigners would not make trouble, but also let him spit out the money he had swallowed, and even kill people.All three aspects must be taken care of, and no loopholes can be found.The reason for killing Zhao Er couldn't be more sufficient, no matter where the source of the false official credential is, it was released from his hands.Based on this alone, ten Zhao Ers are not enough to kill.The crux of the problem is that the court must not be allowed to know about Zhao Er's joining the religion, otherwise many side issues will arise.As long as this aspect is well concealed, other things will be easy to handle.

Seeing that Zeng Guofan didn't speak, Zhao Er, who was very talkative, had no choice but to keep his mouth shut.But there is one thing he firmly believes, with Zeng Guofan's ability, he absolutely dare not go against foreigners!The example of Lin Zexu couldn't be more vivid.It is more appropriate to say that the Qing Dynasty was dominated by foreigners rather than Manchus. The two of them didn't speak, each was thinking about his own thoughts, and after a full two moments, they were broken by Liu Heng who walked in. Liu Heng put his mouth next to Zeng Guofan's ear and whispered, "Chang Zhongcheng is sick, so I don't see any guests." Zeng Guofan was taken aback, and asked in a low voice, "Have you seen Zhong Cheng?" Liu Heng said quietly: "I didn't see it, the master blocked the drive." Zeng Guofan cursed secretly: "This old fox! Wusha is bigger than the sky!" But he said loudly: "Liu Heng, take Mr. Zhao to rest. Let Li Bao come in, I have something to say." He bowed his head and pondered. After Li Bao came in, he called out "My lord" twice, and Zeng Guofan woke up suddenly. Looking at the lobby, Zhao Er and Liu Heng are no longer there, and the noise outside seems to be much weaker. "My lord, Zhao Dequn and twelve others have already recorded their confessions. We just need to be instructed. Should they be sent to prison or sent back?" Li Bao reported the situation without waiting for Zeng Guofan's order. Zeng Guofan smiled wryly and said: "I am waiting for Shanxi to make a nuclear donation, and everything can only be done with the support and cooperation of the Fuyuan. Zhao Dequn and others are witnesses, so they should be sent to custody. Now it seems that it can only be written by the magistrate of Datong. They have been taken back to custody. The department’s hall repaired a letter and sent it to the magistrate’s yamen, and you bring all the witnesses back to Datong, and the magistrate’s yamen will take care of them for you.” After finishing speaking, he asked Li Bao to wait on the Four Treasures of the Upper Study, and quickly wrote an express letter. Zeng Guofan sealed the envelope and handed it to Li Baodao: "The details are in the letter, and you must act according to Zhang Taishou's instructions. Remember to keep it secret. The hall will wait for you when you come back." What did Zeng Guofan write to Zhang Tonglin in the letter? After he told Zhang Tonglin to read the letter, he immediately sent someone to cooperate with Li Bao to search all of Zhao Er's properties, register them one by one, and made them fast and secret, trying not to let the church get any wind of them, let alone the priest.Zeng Guofan finally emphasized in the letter that if there is any mistake, only the magistrate's office is asking. The Standing Office's nursing care did not cooperate with Zeng Guofan in handling the case. He was afraid that his future would be ruined for a foreigner, so Zeng Guofan could only rely on Zhang Tonglin to handle the case.Probably Chang Dachun himself knew that as a governor and with some divine grace, no matter what he did, Zeng Guofan would do nothing to him.What's more, Chang Dachun was originally going to be promoted to Zhe Fu, so it seemed really uneconomical to ruin his future because of a foreigner.Chang Dachun could only excuse his illness. Zhang Tonglin is different. One is that Zhao Er is from Datong, and Zhang Tonglin has jurisdiction over it; the other is that the Disaster Relief Bureau is adjacent to the magistrate's yamen, and Zhang Tonglin has supervision over it.If he dares to act like Chang Shufu, Zeng Guofan can be accused of negligence.Zhang Tonglin had no choice but to cooperate with the Minister of Nuclear Donation to clarify the matter.It's not too much to ask him to do. But what if Zhang Tonglin also adopts the attitude of standing in charge?You can't just accuse him of not cooperating with the emperor's mission without clarifying the matter, right? After Li Bao and the others left, Zeng Guofan was on the hall, and asked someone to make a pot of tea, drinking alone while dazed.Thinking over and over again, the more I think about it, the bigger my head becomes. He has lived in Beijing for more than ten years, and has handled dozens of cases, big and small. He wants to investigate and handle every case clearly, from the beginning to the end, worthy of the court at the top, and the people at the bottom; but he doesn't handle any case beautifully!It's either that the work is in vain, or that the head is broken; either the king is dissatisfied, or the people have grievances.But thinking about it further, it seems that every case he handles is beautiful, and every case is settled, otherwise, how could his crest turn from blue to red so quickly!On this point, can you say that he has lived in Beijing for more than ten years and has done nothing?But what exactly did he do?The trial of Qishan was considered the most brilliant case, and finally brought a hereditary Lord Hou to Heilongjiang.But Qishan will come back sooner or later, and he knows better than anyone else.Qi Shan is a Manchu, and Manchu was convicted, not endangering the royal family, how many of them will not come back!What about the Baoding Li Chungang case?Thinking of this case, even Zeng Guofan himself laughed.Because in Li Chungang's case, Changshun and Huang's fourth son Yi played the decisive role, and he was just a small role at his disposal, how could he handle the case by himself! Can rebuilding the Confucian Temple count as a case?At best, it's just a mission done wholeheartedly for the country!Participating in the Xiangxiang County Zhengyin Zhang can be regarded as a case with a beginning and an end, but it cost Liu Xiangdong's life for this!Thinking about it, it always makes people feel a little bit outweighed. Thinking of Liu Xiangdong, Zeng Guofan's heart was heavy, his expression was gloomy, and his eyes filled with tears. Suddenly, Zeng Guofan's eyes lit up, and he remembered the county school case of Shuntian Prefecture that he handled.Although there were many obstacles in handling this case, he finally managed to handle it under pressure, and it was the first case in which Han people intervened in the customs since the Qing Dynasty entered the customs! No matter what he gained or lost, he finally established his status as a Qing minister, so that the Manchus did not dare to underestimate him. It was even more logical for Jia Cundao, a member of the revolution, not only to reverse the evil trend in the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty, but also to be further recognized by the court. Recalling scenes one after another, he felt more and more that in the Qing Dynasty, it was really too difficult to do something for the common people in an upright manner!The key point is that you must first look down on Wusha, and then ignore your personal life and death!And you can't have the idea of ​​getting rich, otherwise, you will either be dismissed and questioned, or you will lose your reputation forever! It should be admitted that from the entry of the Qing Dynasty, looking at all the emperors above Emperor Xianfeng, Emperor Daoguang is still quite a good one.Although he is not as capable as Emperor Kangxi, he is more pragmatic than Emperor Qianlong.His thrift, diligence, and meritocracy all eased the conflict between Manchu and Han to a certain extent.However, he used Mu Zhang'a too much, which caused the wind of forming cliques for personal gain; the corruption of the imperial court began at that time.