Chapter 30 Chapter 30: Charity and Justice

In the early morning of this day, the Empress Dowager gathered Yi's officials in a certain hall as usual, and held the early court ceremony; after the officials paid homage, Prince Qing, who was in charge of the military aircraft, was the first to play over shift: "About the investigation and handling of the case of Futai Chen in Guangdong, a very detailed report has been received by the servant yesterday! The fourteen articles against him in the public report submitted by the people of Guangdong Province have been verified to be completely true. Everyone who the Empress Dowager sent out to investigate this case has a report to prove his guilt. The slave dare not hide it, so he should submit the whole case file to the imperial court and wait for the holy will to rule..."

Really a very serious and alarming report!Although I was standing behind a curtain behind the Empress Dowager's throne and couldn't see Yi's front, I had clearly seen Yi's back suddenly jerk, and from this I could guess that the old man had heard the report. Afterwards, I must have felt quite aroused; but I myself paid special attention to this, because the accused XX in Futai, Guangdong was an old friend of my father.Although I have never carefully read the accusations against him, I know a few of them very well. Thinking about what this man did in Guangdong, he must have been too authoritarian, and he had neglected the people in the province he was ordered to care for. The sufferings and public will of the people were so severe that the common people felt bitter, so they organized privately and came to Beijing to sue the imperial court one after another. Including this last time, there have been more than fourteen or five times.The crimes they charged him are very detailed, and I still remember a few of them.

Article 1 Embezzlement of public funds; Article 2 Robbery of merchants in Guangzhou and extortion of money; Article 3 Openly having banquets in restaurants and restaurants on the market is detrimental to the government; Article 4 Use violence to force women from good families in the province to be used as concubines; Article 5 During a patrol out of the city, because an elderly beggar didn't know how to dodge, he suddenly jumped through the book, and because of the connivance of the Fujun, he beat him with a whip and died on the way; Article 6: Privately hide gifts from all parties presented to the Empress Dowager.

Of course, they have accused him of more serious things than these, but I can't remember many; but they are generally of the same nature as these six items. After reading these six items, it is not difficult to understand what the Futai master committed. What crimes!The first, second and two of the above six items are nothing more than accusations that he is good at collecting people's fat and anointing for his own benefit, which is of course not very special; then the third item cannot be explained by the author!Because in the eyes of today's people, no matter who is the chairman, dean, or minister, anyone can openly feast in the city's restaurant, which is nothing to defile the official; but in the former Qing Dynasty, the situation was different .Normally, high-ranking high-ranking officials are not allowed to casually drink and eat in teahouses outside, let alone go shopping in brothels!People at that time regarded restaurants as dirty places for ordinary people to set foot in, and high-ranking officials were especially likely to attract attention to these details; Go to them to eat and drink, no matter how much business he has done for them, they will always be the first to talk about him and criticize him.What is the reason for this?There is only one sentence to say.It's because this kind of thing doesn't happen often.Especially because those high officials who lead one side are actually the representatives of the imperial court, they should not casually rush around in restaurants and be despised by others, not only will they lose their dignity, but it will also affect the prestige of the imperial court. So this crime is obviously a very serious one!

As for the fourth, the situation now is different from before!Nowadays, no matter officials or civilians, it is possible to marry concubines casually; Extra courage to marry concubines, but there is a limit, if all you marry are selected from slaves, or bought from small households and prostitutes, then no matter how many you marry, no one can blame you, All that is forbidden is to force a woman from a good family to be a concubine. When the Empress Dowager was reviewing the files of the whole case brought by Prince Qing one by one, I thought back silently behind my back: I remember when the Empress Dowager appointed several officials to go to Guangdong to investigate and handle the case, my father Because he happened to be one of the investigators who dared to be sent as an old man, and what's more unfortunate is that he and the accused Futai master were very friendly and could be regarded as close friends.Of course, my father had nothing to do with the crimes he was accused of, neither cooperating with him in cheating, nor deliberately covering up for him; I can't help feeling very sad in my heart.Fortunately, the matter was not too embarrassing. Although my father could not openly resist the Queen Mother's order and hid at home instead of going to investigate, he still liked that the Queen Mother never appointed him as the leader's investigator, and only taught him to be an ordinary attendant. , so things are much easier to handle!Unexpectedly, after returning from a trip to Guangdong, he was even more troubled; because the facts have been clearly established, and according to what he told us privately at home, all the clauses against Nafutai have been completely proved to be false. It was fake, and there were even many misdeeds that were not included in the crime, and they were also discovered together.So my father was really worried about him.

"Where did it start! I really can't believe it, I really can't believe it." My father always sighed like this, saying it again, saying it again, I don't know how many times he said it. Even the Empress Dowager generally finds this very unbelievable.After Yi hastily read the documents, he began to comment on Prince Qing as if chatting; at that time, I was listening with my ears sideways, and unexpectedly I understood every word. "We can't understand anyway," Yi said: "A person like xx, since he was born in a very noble family, and relying on the shadow of his ancestors, all the people he associates with are princes and nobles, and his status cannot be higher. In addition, the imperial court trusted him so much and entrusted the army and civilians of the whole province to him alone, yet he would commit so many scandals? It's really unbelievable! I don't trust a man like him If he has a clear mind and puts his conscience in the middle, what kind of dishonorable things will he do? Obviously his mind is too muddled and his conscience is not in the middle, which will lead to this result! "

The empress dowager said that conscience should be placed in the middle. To explain it in the tone of modern people, it means that the first is to be loyal, the second is to be upright, the third is to be trustworthy, and the fourth is to treat everyone with a kind and benevolent attitude. . Then, the Empress Dowager specifically brought up his crime of conniving with servants and beating beggars to death for discussion. "Since he has become the Futai of a province," said the Queen Mother, "his official rank is already very high, and everyone will respect him, and there is absolutely no need for him to put on any prestige. Especially It is because he has become a representative of the imperial court, and he should be more considerate of the imperial court. If he sees these two points, he will in fact deal with his people leniently! If the old beggar is in front of his guard of honor When rushing past, the most appropriate way is to teach his servants to beat the old beggar with a whip, and not stop his guard of honor. Then the old beggar will be trampled to death by the horse team, which is not the best policy. Such a small He doesn't know how to adapt to small matters, how can he go out and become a big official?"

Article 6, the crime of secretly concealing tributes from all parties, can be said to be the biggest one.In fact, the people who made the report were not the people of Guangdong, but officials from the provincial government.Because in the era of despotism, there is a habit, no matter where it is, after discovering some rare things of great value and quality;—or how pure and clear emeralds, jade, or just a pair of special A more beautiful golden pheasant. ——The local government will try their best to search for it, and use it as a tribute to honor the emperor or empress dowager.However, their rank is too small, and they absolutely cannot directly send tributes to Da Nei. Therefore, all tributes have to be passed on by the governors of the provinces.In relatively remote provinces, such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, etc., most of the tributes donated by all parties have to be collected in numbers before they are shipped to Beijing in batches to avoid delivery. First put them in the governor's place for ten and a half months, but since these things have been designated as tribute to the imperial court, the governor must not move or steal them, even if they are deliberately left for a longer period of time, it is against the law.However, the Futai master in Guangdong dared to use all kinds of tricks, disregarding the imperial law, and concealed many valuable tributes on his own; to prove the amount of the tribute embezzled to him.The people sent by the Queen Mother to investigate have also confirmed this.So it comes down to one sentence, the charges against Futai in Guangdong have been fully established.

Now that the charges have been established, it is inevitable to discuss how to punish him. In the past, the Futai master was indeed a minister who was favored by the Queen Mother. Now he suddenly proved his crimes to others. Of course, it made the Queen Mother I am very heartbroken, and no one can guess how Yi will punish this traitor; logically speaking, the punishment here must be very severe, but I know that the Queen Mother is not a strict person blindly, Yi is also very kind sometimes, This can be illustrated by the Yellow River flood that happened more than ten days ago. Everyone knows that the Yellow River is an extremely unsafe river, and it always causes several serious floods every year; this year, it happened again as usual, and the people along the coast naturally had to discuss famine and disease again. .The number of drowned people is always more than a few thousand, and there are tens of thousands of people who have all become homeless victims.Originally, the imperial court had made preparations for this kind of famine that must occur every year, but this year's disaster was particularly serious, and some of the relief funds and food that had been prepared were definitely not enough to distribute. I was in a hurry and at a loss, so I had no choice but to report from the facts.According to the old rules of the imperial court, no matter what the matter is, there will always be a lot of delays. First, it must be sent to the Military Aircraft Office for review, and then the Military Aircraft Office will forward it to the responsible Yamen for review. After a long time of review, the manuscript will be issued. Ask for a decree to decide; this kind of back and forth delivery often delays until January or two months.On that day, the queen mother received the report that the disaster was serious and the relief funds were insufficient, but she went against her usual bad habits and resolutely raised her pen, approved a few words, and immediately handed them over to the Ministry of Household Affairs, asking them to raise funds quickly. Hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were allocated for the purpose of helping the Yellow River disaster.Yi was also afraid that they would not understand Yi's painstaking efforts, and might not try their best, so she sent another message:

"As long as it is really used for disaster relief, we should not save even a single penny; if there is not enough cash in the treasury, if there is no way to appropriate it for a while, I am very willing to give away my own private property. We must Make this matter a more satisfactory result!" Although this kind of benevolent behavior is not uncommon in our Chinese history, and among the monarchs of all dynasties, there are many people who love the people like a son; If you still want to imitate the ancients, you will be admirable. Because I have known such a thing, I believe that Yiyi is also a caring old lady. In fact, Yiyi will miss the past achievements of the traitor and his family, and must not kneel down dryly. determine his punishment.

When it comes to punishment, the most serious thing is to be beheaded or hanged!The second is to give him an edict from the imperial court, teaching him to take medicine to commit suicide, or kill himself, or hang himself.Judging from the crimes committed by the current governor of Guangdong, beheading and hanging are of course too vicious; if it is more proportionate, it would be regarded as ordering self-judgment.But the Empress Dowager still couldn't bear it, so let him pass casually?No, no, although the Empress Dowager is full of benevolence, she is unwilling to deliberately favor him, losing the meaning of justice; so the following edict was published by the Military Aircraft Department the next day.In a few days, the whole of China knew about it. "I am hereby ordered: Governor xx of Guangdong is corrupt and perverts the law, and is notorious. He sent Minister of the Household Department xx and Criminal Law Minister xx to investigate and deal with it. According to the report and investigation, it is true. He should be dismissed immediately and sent to Heilongjiang for never to be used; his family property will not be released The governor of Jiangsu Province (because the hometown of the governor who committed Ningning is in Suzhou) was seized by the local officials and confiscated. This is it.” This punishment seems to be very light, and this kind of punishment happened more than thirty years ago, but its influence has not been eliminated until now, because the Futai master has given the imperial edict since then. After the army went to Heilongjiang, he died there not long after. Although his family members stayed in his hometown safely, but all his property was confiscated by the queen mother, and the rest can only support the family at most. Daily use, and those who use it know that they are the family members of sinners, so they will inevitably despise them, not only will they not be able to get rich again, but they will lose face everywhere. I remember two or three years ago, more than twenty years after the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, I was in Shanghai. One day, I accidentally walked into a silk company to choose some pieces of clothing. I wrote down my name and address and asked them to send it to me.In the evening, they sent a very low-ranking guy to deliver the things, but this guy was very weird, he left after I received the things, and asked me with a blushing face: "Has Madam lived in the palace before?" Of course this question surprised me, but I really didn't need to hide it, so I immediately nodded in agreement.Then he continued to tell me that he himself was a son of an official family and was a family friend with my family, but he was in a very difficult situation every day for more than 20 years, and everyone was by his side. Laughing, so that they can no longer have an early life, so that he himself was reduced to a boy in a silk shop because of his helplessness. When I heard him say his surname, I suddenly realized that he was the youngest son of the evil governor who was sent to Heilongjiang by the Queen Mother. Unexpectedly, more than 20 years had passed since the incident, and the fair punishment given to Ina's traitor by the Queen Mother But Wu has never failed, it is still the same as what happened yesterday!