Weihai Old Story "The Story of Sun Baotian (IV)"

Hi Weihai news client big friends, children, hello, welcome to watch "Weihai Old Story". Last time we said that in 1885, Sun Baotian was ordered to serve as a trial file officer in Jiangnan Township. Because he approved the scrolls of Li Jingshu, the son of Li Hongzhang, the minister of power at that time, he formed a fate with Li Hongzhang's father and son. In the same year, Sun Baotian was entrusted with a heavy responsibility and transferred to Hefei as Zhi County.

During the Qing Dynasty, this place in Hefei was the birthplace of the Huai Army, and there were many meritorious ministers of the imperial court, and Li Hongzhang was one of them, and it was precisely because Hefei had such a family and prestigious family as Li Hongzhang, and the clumsy disciples who were related to him were often lawless, relying on power, oppressing one side, obstructing normal justice, and they ran rampant in the townships and did whatever they wanted, so Hefei had the saying that it was "difficult to govern". We think about it with Bolingai and know that Hefei is not easy to do! Because of this, the people of Hefei did not have any high expectations for the county order like a marquee, but soon, everyone was surprised to find that the county order that went to the appointment this time was somewhat different, and where was the difference? It turned out that as soon as this Sun Baotian took office, he hung up a couplet in the county court. The couplet reads: "For the people, to save trouble and money, you must do your parents' kindness before you can protect the people as a pure son; may you be single-minded, rely on hardships, and learn to follow the good political achievements, and suspend the famous people from wrong life." "The couplet is sincere, giving the people appeasement and alerting themselves. Later, some people in the local area who would chew on the words inquired, saying that the couplet was written by the county order itself, and everyone felt that this county order was different from the previous one, and the atmosphere in Hefei was not good enough to really have a change.

Sun Baotian was not a fool, and before he took office, he had heard that Li Hongzhang's nephews often used their uncles as a patron to bully the people, and the local people gritted their teeth, but they dared not speak out. At the beginning of his term of office, some friends kindly warned him that Hefei was Li Hongzhang's hometown, and that the relatives and children in the city relied on power, ran amok, the people's resentment boiled over, and the county officials were difficult to deal with. And Sun Baotian immediately replied unequivocally: Do things impartially, regardless of others.

After Sun Baotian took office, he visited the poor and asked questions, observed the people's feelings, and promoted the advantages and disadvantages, especially taking the rules as the criterion and acting impartially, showing the character of being responsible and daring to act. When some officials and eunuchs saw this situation, their behavior slightly restrained. But doing things is ten thousand times more complicated than storytelling, you think, if a Seven-Pin Sesame Official who serves in Li Hongzhang's hometown enforces the law impartially, he will definitely exonerate the powerful Li Hongzhang, and if he is perfunctory, the people will complain. It was precisely because the previous officials were afraid of the power of the Li family, disregarded the interests of the people, enforced the law and handled the cases to accommodate the magnates, and the people's grievances could not be heard, that they repeatedly petitioned for the removal of the county order, and the dispute even caused trouble to the governor of Liangjiang and the governor of Anhui. It was precisely because of this that Zeng Guoquan, the governor of Liangjiang at the time, was also the younger brother of Zeng Guofan, and after investigation, he felt that Sun Baotian and Li Hongzhang's son Li Jingshu had a teacher-student friendship, so he was transferred to Hefei to properly handle the complicated local personnel relations. However, this kind of tricky work is not easy for anyone to do. No, not long after Sun Baotian took office, a major case that caused a sensation in the whole country gave him a big test, which determined the direction of Sun Baotian's life and also brought him the ups and downs of his career. It turned out that Li Hongzhang had a nephew named Li Jingleng, who used the power of his uncle to act recklessly in his daily life, blowing his beard at ordinary people and glaring at him, and even those who were officials did not dare to look at him squarely. He had many houses in Hefei, so he took out some houses for renting out for profit, which was not to blame, but one of the tenants was too poor to accumulate rent, and the servants of the Li family failed to collect debts, kicked the tenants, threatened and humiliated, and finally beat people to death. The tenant's wife and neighbors were upset and went to the Luzhou capital, but the luzhou prefect did not dare to accept it. So, how will Sun Baotian, a seven-pin sesame official, face this case after learning about it? Weihai old story, let's continue next time.