In the fifth year of Qianlong, there was a corruption case, fujian inspector Wang Shiren, was accused of embezzling taxes and silver, the Qianlong Emperor ordered the dismissal and exile, and sent people to raid Wang Shiren's home, but when the list of raiders was presented to the imperial court, it made the Qianlong Emperor very embarrassed, it turned out that this corrupt official who had been a feudal official for many years had only 5,000 taels of silver.
That's roughly how it went. One day in the first year of Qianlong, Wang Shiren, who was still a Daoist in Fujian Yanyi, got together with Wang Dechun, then the prefect of Zhangzhou, and Lu Zhuo, who was then the governor of Fujian, to discuss the handling of a case of impersonation of Wu Tongsheng.
This martial arts student's name was He Chengyu, and he had already spent money earlier to buy a name for the invigilator, and according to the Great Qing Law, he was not allowed to participate in martial arts. However, he tried to change his name twice in the spring of the first year of Qianlong and November, but he was unsuccessful, and he was captured by Wang Dechun the second time when he was impersonating.
Those who forged their identities were severely punished, and according to the law, He Chengyu was transferred to the status of a prisoner and was in charge of the staff. However, Wang Dechun came forward to defend him, suggesting that he should not be disqualified from being a prisoner and should not be reprimanded, which is tantamount to not punishing. However, Wang Shiren suggested that it should be done according to the great Qing law and should not be tolerated. In the end, Inspector Lu Zhuo slapped the board and advocated that the impersonation of "irrelevant acts" be exempted from punishment.
Originally, the matter would have turned over here, and I did not want to think that after four years, Wang Shiren was promoted to the inspector of Fujian and retried the case. After trial, Wang Shiren found out that the reason why Wang Dechun suggested that he be exempted from punishment was to take He Chengyu's money. Wang Shiren's move is not in line with the rules of the official game, after all, impersonation is not a big deal, and if you have to make a big fuss, it is bound to make your colleagues feel cold, and it will also hurt the former inspector Lu Zhuo.
Wang Shiren has been in the official arena for a long time, and naturally he will not be unaware of the stakes in this, the reason is that he and Wang Dechun have a gap and want to take revenge by taking this action. It turned out that Wang Shiren had once been a subordinate of Wang Dechun, during which he was blackmailed by him. Now that the role has been reversed, Wang Shiren naturally wants to turn back to retaliate against Doubling down on blackmailing Wang Dechun.
Wang Shiren reported the case to the Qianlong Emperor, and Qianlong felt that something was wrong, so he ordered the governor of Fujian, DePei, to find out in detail. After receiving the edict, De Pei immediately launched an investigation and interrogated Wang Dechun, and soon discovered the implications between them, and found out that Wang Shiren had embezzled 1,000 taels of tax and silver in his position at Yanyi Road.
On May 12, 1955, the Qianlong Emperor publicly issued an edict on the disposition of Wang Shiren, believing that Wang Shiren had "cheated on stolen goods" and "did not expect his unworthiness to be so gracious"
"Heartbroken, little man's mood"
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Qianlong not only scolded Wang Shiren, but also openly criticized the officials in Fujian Province for not being able to govern, and also raised the matter to the political level, Qianlong said that if the above behavior was placed in the Yongzheng Dynasty, it would be a capital crime, and he would certainly not dare to be so greedy and bribery. By doing so, you are bullying the young.
Qianlong's charge is too big to press, and it is the crime of deceiving the king. Therefore, even if Wang Shiren has great ability, it is impossible to overturn the case. The only thing left to do was to make a fuss about sentencing, but he himself had no say, and his fate was still in the hands of Governor Depei.
Wang Dechun's case does not need to be tried much, he has already admitted to accepting bribes, asking for bribes, and was sentenced to beheaded and imprisoned. DePei then focused on Wang Shiren, who also confessed to his actions, admitting that he had embezzled more than 1,000 yuan of taxes and silver that should have been paid to the household department.
According to the Great Qing Law, officials who guard themselves and commit theft are sentenced to beheading and waiting, and if they can repay the stolen money in full during the period of waiting for the beheading, they can be exonerated or reduced. More than a thousand taels of silver, the amount is not large, Wang Shiren quickly paid back the stolen money. However, the Punishment Department considered that Wang Shiren was a feudal official and could not be handled according to the general prison self-theft case, and finally gave a punishment of exile to the military station of Saiwai.
Wang Shiren's embezzlement of taxes and silver should be said to be not particularly serious, and the amount of bribes accepted by Qianlong in the Qianlong dynasty was very huge, with more than 100,000 or even millions. If it were placed in Qianlong's later years, Wang Shiren would at best be demoted, and he would still be able to retain his official position by handing over some guilt. During this period, it was the early years of Qianlong, and after the rectification of the Yongzheng Dynasty, the officialdom was acceptable, so Wang Shiren was an example for Qianlong to punish corruption.
However, Qianlong did not spare Wang Shiren, and he ordered the Governor of Shandong to raid the assets of Wang Shiren's hometown in Weihai. The Inspector of Shandong quickly found out the shangqu and made a list of family properties, and the valuation of all the belongings was only more than 5,000 taels.
Wang Shiren has been an official for more than ten years, serving as a Taoist, envoy, and inspector, and the last family property is only more than 5,000 taels, which is really not a corrupt official, after all, when he was an inspector, there were more than 10,000 taels of silver a year.
When he got this list of raiders, Qianlong also felt very embarrassed and faceless, which is a corrupt official who is obviously a clean official. Perhaps Qianlong was moved by compassion, and the magistrate who was preparing to seal Wang Shiren's family property soon received an edict ordering the original amount of family property to be returned to the family. At this point, the dust of Wang Shi's case was settled.