In the thirteenth year of Jiaqing (1808), there was a serious flood in Huai'an, Jiangsu, which made the Jiaqing Emperor of Qingrenzong at that time attach great importance to it, Jiaqing not only personally inquired about the flood situation, but also immediately ordered the household department to allocate 200,000 taels of silver for Huai'an disaster relief, and also issued an order to reduce Huai'an's taxes.
As far as Jiaqing's performance is concerned, he is definitely a good emperor who loves the people like a son, and the household department at that time was also very well-behaved, and the allocation for disaster relief was very fast, and there was no layer of deductions, and the disaster relief funds of 200,000 taels of silver were distributed to Huai'an Mansion.
It can be said that the high-level court of the Qing Dynasty at that time responded quickly to the disaster relief and was commendable, but the bad was bad for the local grassroots officials.
At that time, the Qing Dynasty had just experienced the "prosperous era of Kangqian", and the officialdom had been decayed, even if Jiaqing immediately executed the big corrupt officials and Shen after the pro-government to deter the corrupt officials in the world, but at that time it had been more than ten years since He Shen was killed, and the deterrent effect of killing He Shen to the officialdom had long expired.
It was in this kind of officialdom environment at that time that corrupt officials became more and more corrupt, not only greedy but also ruthless, and Li Yuchang, a 27-year-old Xinke Jinshi from Jimo, Shandong, finally sacrificed his young life in order to fight against corrupt officials.
Xinke Jinshi Cheng Qincha was killed for handling cases impartially
Li Yuchang was a Wuchen Kejinshi in this year, and after being admitted to the Jinshi, he was released by the Ministry of Officials as an alternate magistrate of Jiangsu, so he went to Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province, to report for duty.
According to the rules of the Qing Dynasty officialdom, the candidate magistrate must first go to the governor's yamen to report to the governor of a province, the highest chief executive, and then the governor's yamen arranges for them to follow the apprentices every day to handle official business, and then release them to become real magistrates when there is a real vacancy.
Just when Li Yuchang was a trainee in Nanjing, he encountered something that changed his life, that is, a serious flood in Huai'an Province. According to the rules of the Qing Dynasty, when the imperial court allocated special funds for disaster relief, the imperial court would send commissioners to inspect the affected areas, mainly to observe whether the local officials had used the money for the victims and to audit the use of the disaster relief funds.
Normally, this kind of inspector is the provincial governor yamen selects some probationary alternate officials to become inspectors, and then reports the list of these commissioners to the imperial court, as long as the imperial court approves, these commissioners can obtain the status of ministers of the imperial court, and replace the imperial court to inspect the disaster area.
Therefore, Wang Rizhang, the governor of Jiangsu at that time, dispatched ten alternate officials, including Li Yuchang, to become inspectors and report to the imperial court, and Jiaqing quickly approved Li Yuchang and others to become ministers of the imperial mission to inspect the disaster area instead of the imperial court.
After the 200,000 yuan of disaster relief funds were truthfully distributed to Huai'an Mansion, Wang Hub, the prefect of Huai'an at that time, did not deduct the disaster relief funds, but distributed 200,000 taels of silver to all counties in the jurisdiction.
Shanyang County (now Huai'an District, Huai'an City) is the location of Huai'an Prefecture and the place most affected by the disaster, so it received the most disaster relief funds, distributing more than 90,000 taels of disaster relief funds.
It's just that Wang Shenhan, the magistrate of Shanyang County, is a big corrupt official, and as soon as the disaster relief money arrived, he started the idea of embezzling the disaster relief funds, and he embezzled more than 25,000 taels of disaster relief funds by lying about the number of people who had received disaster relief funds and fraudulently receiving disaster relief funds.
After Wang Shenhan embezzled the disaster relief funds, he was afraid of being investigated by his boss Wang Hub, the prefect of Huai'an, so he secretly gave Wang Hub 1,000 taels of silver and asked Wang Hub to help him deal with the ministers sent by the imperial court, and Wang Hub suggested that he use money to buy these ministers.
Therefore, after Li Yuchang and other ten ministers came to Huai'an, they first went to Shanyang County, which was the most severely affected, to investigate, and Wang Shenhan warmly received them. After that, Wang Shenhan secretly took out 10,000 taels of silver, sent 1,000 taels of silver to each of Li Yuchang and other ten people, and begged them not to seriously investigate and audit, and just go through the motions and finish the matter.
Wang Shenhan's behavior was actually an unspoken rule in the Qing Dynasty officialdom at that time, and the Qing Dynasty since Qianlong reused Heshen, Heshen and his henchmen would use the disaster to embezzle the imperial court's disaster relief funds every time, and Heshen also set an unwritten rule, the money can't be made by one person, corrupt officials must learn to share, and the superiors and subordinates must learn to share the stolen money, so that the officials related to it can make a profit, and everyone can go through the motions to deal with the court on face.
Therefore, Wang Shenhan was only acting according to the unspoken rules of the Qing Dynasty officialdom at that time, and only Li Yuchang did not take Wang Shenhan's money from the ten ministers, and the other nine people all took money to deal with errands, and only Li Yuchang seriously inspected the disaster area every day.
Li Yuchang went to the disaster-stricken villages and towns every day to conduct investigations, carefully recording the names and addresses of the victims and the information on the receipt of disaster relief funds, and he also carefully audited and checked the accounts of disaster relief funds to check whether there were any problems of fraudulent claims and omissions in Shanyang County.
Because Li Yuchang was concerned about the victims, the people affected by the disaster in Shanyang County at that time were very supportive and loved him, and called him "Li Qingtian". With Li Yuchang's in-depth investigation, Wang Shenhan's embezzlement of disaster relief funds was soon investigated by him.
At first, Li Yuchang was worried that Wang Shenhan had wronged Wang Shenhan by making a mistake in the investigation, so he revisited the affected villages and towns three times in a row, checked the disaster relief accounts three times, and finally determined that Wang Shenhan had indeed embezzled a large amount of disaster relief funds.
Therefore, Li Yuchang decided to report the impeachment of Wang Shenhan to the provincial governor Yamen, and Li Yuchang also specially informed Wang Shenhan's immediate boss Wang Hub, the prefect of Huai'an, of the results of the investigation, and he asked Wang Hub to report and expose Wang Shenhan with himself to Wang Rizhang, the governor of Jiangsu, and Tie Bao, the governor of Liangjiang.
It's just that Li Yuchang didn't know that Wang Shenhan had already bought Wang Hub, so when Wang Hub learned that Li Yuchang wanted to report and expose Wang Shenhan to the governor and governor, he immediately stabilized Li Yuchang quietly, and then Wang Hub told Wang Shenhan the results of Li Yuchang's investigation and asked Wang Shenhan to settle Li Yuchang and not affect himself.
Wang Shenhan was also frightened when he saw Li Yuchang's investigation results, and hurriedly invited Li Yuchang to the county government office for a drink and hospitality the day before Li Yuchang was about to leave Shanyang County and return to the provincial capital Nanjing.
At the wine table, Wang Shenhan said to Li Yuchang: "At the beginning of the public as an official, I don't know the trick of being an official, I go to the hut every day, visit the poor and ask about the hardships, the weather is cold, and I am too tired. ”
Wang Shenhan's meaning is that Li Yuchang has just entered the officialdom, and he doesn't know the trick of being an official, and he suffers all day long to inspect the disaster area, but he has no name and no benefit, this is not the way to be an official, and the voiceover is that if you are an official, you should take advantage of the power in your hand to make money as soon as possible.
Li Yuchang was immediately furious when he heard Wang Shenhan's words, and he reprimanded Wang Shenhan and said: "The way of being an official is to be honest, and it is not the parents' actions to grab the food of the hungry people." I will come to power to save the people from fire and water, and the laws of the court will be ordered! ”
This means that the most important thing in the way of being an official is to be honest, to snatch food from the mouths of the victims that are not the actions of parents and officials, and to embezzle disaster relief funds, you Wang Shenhan can do, but I, Li Yuchang, do not dare to do such a thing that ignores my conscience, I must report the results of the investigation, rescue the people in the midst of fire and water, so that the laws of the imperial court can be just.
After saying this, Li Yuchang didn't touch a drop of wine or a bite of food, and immediately left the table with his sleeves brushed up. As soon as Wang Shenhan saw that Li Yuchang was so tough, in order to cover up the crime of embezzling stolen money, he had murderous intentions against Li Yuchang.
In order to get rid of Li Yuchang, Wang Shenhan began to think of a way, and he finally decided to buy the entourage brought by Li Yuchang. Li Yuchang brought three entourages on this business trip, namely Li Xiang, Gu Xiang, and Ma Liansheng, all three of whom were very greedy for money, and Wang Shenhan had dealt with them and knew that they were greedy for money. So Wang Shenhan gave each of the three of them five hundred taels of silver and a bag of poison, and asked them to find an opportunity to poison Li Yuchang.
Li Yuchang has a habit of drinking tea after dinner, so his three entourages poisoned the tea after dinner, but the three of them will not control the amount of medicine, Li Yuchang did not poison after drinking the poisonous tea, but kept shouting that his stomach hurts.
Li Xiang, Gu Xiang, and Ma Liansheng panicked when they saw that Li Yuchang was not dead, and they hurriedly called Wang Shenhan, and after Wang Shenhan personally arrived at the scene, Wang Shenhan instructed the three to strangle Li Yuchang to death, and faked the crime scene as the illusion that Li Yuchang hanged himself.
Li Yuchang, who wanted to justify the victims, was brutally killed by Wang Shenhan and his three entourages, and the year when he was named a high school jinshi on the gold list also became the year of his death.
The uncle went to Beijing to sue the emperor, and Jiaqing was angry and punished the corrupt officials
When Li Yuchang inspected the disaster area as a minister sent by the imperial court, he actually died during the inspection, which must be regarded as a major event, and Wang Shenhan of course couldn't suppress this matter, so Li Yuchang's death was reported to Wang Hub, the prefect of Huai'an.
As the news of Li Yuchang's death came up, Wang Shenhan also sent Wang Hub four thousand taels of silver, and Wang Hub immediately understood that Wang Shenhan actually handled this matter in this way.
Wang Hub took Wang Shenhan's money and naturally wanted to shelter him, so when Li Yuchang's body was transported to Huai'an Mansion for autopsy, Wang Hub greeted Lin Yongsheng, the Tongzhi of Huai'an Mansion (equivalent to the deputy mayor in charge of justice), who was in charge of judicial affairs, and asked Lin Yongsheng to close the case as soon as possible according to his self-hanging.
Lin Yongsheng saw that the prefect Wang Hub had spoken, so he did not dare to continue the investigation, so he could only hastily report the death of Li Yuchang to Li Yuchang's death by hanging.
Lin Yongsheng first reported the file of Li Yuchang's death to the provincial inspection department, and then reported it to the governor's yamen, and then reported it to the governor yamen, and then reported it to the governor of Jiangsu, Wang Rizhang, who was a lazy and unconscious official, and after receiving the file, he didn't even look at it and reported it directly to the governor of Liangjiang, Tiebao.
Tie Bao was one of the four masters of calligraphy in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, and he wrote very well, was also very eloquent, and was good at debate. But he is a faint official who is less reliable than Wang Rizhang, and he was dismissed by Jiaqing because of his carelessness during his tenure as governor of the river, which was unfavorable to the management of the river, causing a lot of losses to the people and the country's finances. However, because of his eloquence and beautiful handwriting, he was later re-appointed as the governor of Liangjiang by Jiaqing.
Therefore, Wang Rizhang reported the file of Li Yuchang's death to the Governor's Palace, and Tie Bao was busy studying calligraphy and had no time to read this, so Tie Bao reported it to the imperial court without reading it, and in this way, Li Yuchang's death was hastily closed with hanging beams.
After the case was closed, the Ministry sent someone to inform Li Yuchang's family to go to Huai'an Mansion to collect the body and return to his hometown for burial, because Li Yuchang was only 27 years old when he died, and had no son, only his wife and young daughter, so his uncle Li Taiqing could only come to collect the body.
When Li Taiqing transported Li Yuchang's body back to his hometown in Jimo, Shandong, when Li Taiqing helped Li Yuchang's wife sort out Li Yuchang's body and relics, the two found that Li Yuchang's underwear had blood stains spit out after being poisoned.
In this way, Li Taiqing and Li Yuchang's wife became suspicious of Li Yuchang's death, and Li Taiqing immediately hired Jimo County to conduct Li Yuchang's autopsy, and as a result, Jimo County told Li Taiqing that Li Yuchang was poisoned first and then strangled to death, not hanged himself as stated in the closing report.
So Li Taiqing and Li Yuchang's wife understood that Li Yuchang was likely to have the evidence of the corruption official's crime and was killed, so Li Taiqing decided to seek justice for his nephew, but he did not dare to go to Jiangsu Province to file a complaint, nor did he dare to file a complaint in Shandong Province, he was afraid that the officials of the two provinces would protect each other, so he finally decided to go to Beijing to sue the imperial court.
In this way, Li Taiqing directly sued the case to the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the highest supervisory body in ancient times, and soon the Metropolitan Procuratorate reported the matter to Jiaqing, when Jiaqing saw Li Taiqing's situation, he was furious, Jiaqing was very dissatisfied with the Qing Dynasty officialdom at that time, so he decided to take advantage of Li Yuchang's case to raise up the wind of rectifying the rule of officials.
Therefore, Jiaqing ordered Shandong Governor Ji Lun and Zhu Xijue to investigate the case in detail, Ji Lun and Zhu Xijue naturally did not dare to be careless, and invited the best servant in Shandong to give Li Yuchang a detailed autopsy, and finally confirmed that Li Yuchang was poisoned first and then strangled to death.
In this way, coupled with the fragments in Li Yuchang's manuscript, and related to his inspection of Shanyang County as a messenger during his lifetime, Ji Lun and Zhu Xijue understood that it must have something to do with the disaster relief funds, so they sent Shandong officials to Jiangsu to arrest Wang Shenhan across the province, and escorted Wang Shenhan to Shandong for interrogation and confrontation.
After Wang Shenhan was arrested, he knew that this incident had made Jiaqing angry, and he understood that no one dared to protect him anymore, so when he arrived in Shandong, he confessed everything, and so far Li Yuchang's case was solved.
Li Yuchang was killed by corrupt officials because of his concern for the victims, which made the affected people in Shanyang County all sad and regretful, and called it a strange case in the world at that time, and later Li Yuchang's case was also known as the Huai'an Qi case, and the stabbing horse case, Yang Naiwu and the little cabbage case, and Yang Sanjie case were called the four strange cases of the Qing Dynasty.
Jiaqing was very angry after learning the truth of the case, and even trembled so much that he threw the case file to the ground, and finally Jiaqing personally sentenced all the officials involved in the case:
Li Xiang, Gu Xiang, and Ma Liansheng, the three entourages who directly killed Li Yuchang, were sentenced to Ling Chi's death in front of Li Yuchang's tomb;
Wang Shenhan, the magistrate of Shanyang County, who embezzled disaster relief funds and plotted to kill Li Yuchang, was sentenced to be executed, and his wife and children were sent to Xinjiang Ili as slaves, and if they were pardoned, their descendants would never be allowed to enter the court as officials, and his wife and children would compensate Li Yuchang's wife and daughter on his behalf until they died of illness;
Wang Hub, the prefect of Huai'an, accepted bribes, shielded Wang Shenhan, and sentenced him to be hanged;
Tie Bao, the governor of Liangjiang, Wang Rizhang, the governor of Jiangsu, and Lin Yongsheng, the governor of Huai'an Prefecture, were seriously derelict in their duties, and all three were dismissed from their posts, Tie Bao and Lin Yongsheng were exiled to Ili, and Wang Rizhang was punished as a river worker to serve the people in the disaster area for water control;
The remaining nine Qincha who went to Shanyang County with Li Yuchang, because they all accepted bribes from Wang Shenhan in the end, all nine of them were dismissed from their posts and exiled to Yili, never to be hired;
Officials at all levels of Jiangsu's political envoy and the yamen of the Jiangsu Provincial Envoy were involved in dereliction of duty and were punished with demotion.
It can be said that the Li Yuchang case directly triggered a major earthquake in the officialdom of Jiangsu Province, in which all the chief corrupt officials were killed, and all the governors and counties were severely punished.
Jiaqing issued an order to posthumously crown Li Yuchang as the prefect of Huai'an Prefecture, hold a funeral for Li Yuchang according to the treatment of the prefect of Sipin, and compensate Li Yuchang's wife and daughter according to the treatment level of the prefect's martyrdom.
Li Yuchang's uncle Li Taiqing had the courage to avenge his nephew, and Jiaqing issued an order to directly give Li Taiqing the status of a martial artist, and because Li Yuchang had no heirs during his lifetime, Jiaqing specially ordered someone to succeed Li Yuchang's nephew Li Xizuo as an heir, and directly granted Li Xizuo the status of a person.
In the end, Jiaqing asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to allocate 1,000 taels of silver from his own private treasury to build a tomb for Li Yuchang, and specially asked people to build a stele tower in front of the tomb.
Although Wang Shenhan was killed, his family was killed by him, he was 53 years old when he was killed, his children were all adults, and they were all sent to Yili by Jiaqing as slaves, and his wife and children's income in Yili had to continue to compensate Li Yuchang's wife and daughter.
Therefore, Wang Shenhan's wife died of exhaustion soon after arriving in Yili, and his two sons later died of exhaustion and depression in Yili, and the Wang family was almost ruined, and Wang Shenhan was implicated, and his descendants could no longer take the imperial examination, and it can be said that his descendants have been unable to turn over in the Qing Dynasty.
Write at the end
Jiaqing is the emperor with the greatest anti-corruption efforts in the history of the Qing Dynasty, and at the beginning of his pro-government, he executed the big corrupt official He Shen and rectified the rule of officials, which gradually improved the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty.
However, with the death of He Shen for a long time, the Qing Dynasty officialdom fell into decay again, and Jiaqing soon took advantage of the murder of Li Yuchang to rise up again a serious rectification of the rule of officials, which made the Qing Dynasty officialdom clean again, after the Li Yuchang case was solved, there were even many local officials to imitate Li Yuchang's uprightness, so the Li Yuchang case gave Jiaqing an opportunity to rectify the rule of officials.
It's just that with the death of Jiaqing later, the successors Daoguang Emperor and Xianfeng Emperor were far less anti-corruption than Jiaqing, and the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty degenerated more corrupt and dark than before, which also caused the decadent wind of officialdom in the late Qing Dynasty.
Li Yuchang's life was only exchanged for maintaining the atmosphere of Qing Dynasty officialdom for more than ten years, and I don't know if his death was worth it or not.