In the winter of the thirteenth year of Jiaqing (1808), a strange case recorded in history occurred in the Qing Dynasty -- the Jiaqing Emperor Zhu Bi personally approved the inspection and relief official, who was actually the Minister of Qincha, Li Yuchang, who was killed in the local area during the handling of the case, and it was Wang Shenhan, the county commander in this place, who killed him. In order to cover up his corruption crimes, Wang Shenhan bribed servants to murder Li Yuchang. This story makes people cry, and it is extremely frightening to think about it, so let the author tell it slowly.
1. Li Yuchang, the inspector, was killed
It is said that in the early morning of November 7, 1808, li Yuchang, a chief of the cha relief officer, was hanging on the beam of the house and died of exhaustion. His three servants, Li Xiang, Gu Xiang, and Ma Liansheng, wept bitterly.
In the face of the crowd that had heard the noise, the three servants were wailing intermittently about the cause of their master's death. Li Xiang said that Li Yuchang was ill and often insane, and after returning to The Zenyuan Nunnery yesterday, he was sullen and unhappy, and his mind was in a trance. Gu Xiang said that last night Li Yuchang was in a very poor spirit, restless, and talked to himself, the three of them originally wanted to serve the old master at night, but he sent him away. Unexpectedly, he hanged himself at night.
Li Yuchang
According to the three servants, their master, Li Yuchang, was short-sighted due to illness.
However, it is said that Li Yuchang was a native of Jimo, Shandong, who was 38 years old when he was admitted to the jinshi, and was sent to Jiangsu as an alternate zhi county. In the thirteenth year of Jiaqing (1808), the Huai'an area suffered a serious flood, and hundreds of thousands of victims waited for relief from the imperial court. In order to ensure that the relief funds were not embezzled by local officials, Li Yuchang, who was in Jiangsu, was appointed by the imperial court as an inspection and relief official.
After receiving the order, Li Yuchang rushed to Shanyang County with three servants to review the accounts. Li Yuchang worked conscientiously and diligently, and keenly found that the amount of relief silver received by the victims of the disaster was very different from the amount reported by Wang Shenghan of Shanyang County. He found evidence that Wang Shenhan had embezzled huge amounts of disaster relief money in Shanyang County. Li Yuchang decided to report Wang Shenhan's embezzlement of disaster relief funds to the imperial court.
Before he could write his recital, suddenly the man hung on the beam and died of exhaustion. Under the operation of Wang Shenhan of Shanyang County, Li Yuchang was found to have committed suicide, and the case was reported to the Criminal Investigation Department through Huai'an Province and Jiangsu Province according to procedures.
The case seems to be coming to an end.
2. Li Yuchang was brutally murdered and died
Li Yuchang's coffin was transported back to his hometown of Jimo, Shandong. When his uncle Li Taiqing was sorting out Li Yuchang's relics, he found a note in a book that read: "Shanyang Zhixian took the risk of relief, in order to benefit Yuchang, Yuchang did not dare to bear it, afraid of losing the heavenly son." "The translation is: Wang Shenhan of Zhixian County, Shanyang County, embezzled and fraudulently received disaster relief funds, and wanted to bribe me with heavy money, but I did not dare to accept it, so I would lose the emperor and the people!
Li Taiqing felt a mouthful of blood rush into his heart, and this note showed that his nephew Li Yuchang was most likely killed. On behalf of the Li family, Li Taiqing went to Beijing to cry out for injustice. Li Yuchang's teacher, Shandong compatriot and Zuo Du Yushi Chu PengLing stabbed the case to the Jiaqing Emperor, who was horrified when he found out, and first ordered the Punishment Department to try the case. A special task force headed by Yongxuan, the Minister of Military Aircraft and Prince Yi, was also set up to investigate and supervise the case.
Jiaqing Emperor
Soon after, the case was revealed.
It turned out that Li Yuchang intended to report it after obtaining evidence of Wang Shenhan's corruption in Shanyang County. After Wang Shenhan got the news, he was very frightened, and he thought of two ways to save himself, one was to bribe Li Yuchang and pull him into the water; the other was to kill Li Yuchang if the bribe did not succeed.
Li Yuchang, a Hanzi in Shandong Province, sternly refused Wang Shenhan's bribe. But Wang Shenhan played with his heart, he pretended to sincerely tell Li Yuchang that he was wrong, invited him to eat at home, Li Yuchang could not grind, had to go to the banquet. Of course, there is no good feast. After drinking a few glasses of wine, Li Yuchang returned to the residence of Shanyuan'an, and because he was thirsty after drinking, he called the servants to serve tea. Who knew that these three servants were all bribed by Wang Shenhan for 500 taels of silver, the servants were poisoned in the tea, after the poison, Li Yuchang vomited blood continuously, but did not die immediately, the three servants could not wait, strangled the master with a belt, and then hung him on the beam, disguised as a suicide illusion.
When Wang Hub, the prefect of Huai'an, who was examining the autopsy, found blood on Li Yuchang's chest and expressed suspicion that he had hanged himself, Wang Shenhan bribed him 4,000 taels of silver to suppress the matter. So jiangsu gave a report on the conclusion of Li Yuchang's depression and suicide.
It was found that of the 90,000 taels of disaster relief money obtained by Shanyang County, Wang Shenhan swallowed 23,000 taels alone, and these silver could be exchanged for grain to save many people!
Finally, Wang Shenhan prostrated himself in front of Li Yuchang's tomb.
3. Where is the fear of contemplation?
Officials cheat and act evil, and it is so simple. A county official dared to murder the chafu officials sent by the imperial court. Li Yuchang was born as a jinshi, and he also had a life in his life, and the county commander Wang Shenhan brazenly bought a murderer. Think about it carefully, is this the first time Wang Shenhan has killed someone? Moreover, Wang Shenhan only spent 4,000 taels of silver to bribe the shangguan, Wang Hub, the prefect of Huai'an, who turned on the street lamps for him all the way, and in the report reported to the Jiangsu envoy, confirmed that Li Yuchang committed suicide. The Governor of Jiangsu and the Governor of Liangjiang had no doubts and reported it all the way to the Punishment Department. Later, the Governor of Liangjiang, the Inspector of Jiangsu and other relevant senior officials were sentenced to exile or dismissal respectively, without any wrongdoing. How many other unjust cases occur in such a pattern?
Xiao Xiaozhi County actually pocketed a quarter of the disaster relief funds into its own pockets, which is equivalent to more than forty years of Feng Lu, which shows the huge amount of corruption. Li Yuchang was reluctant to join the bandwagon, but was accused of breaking the "unspoken rules" of disaster relief. The Jiaqing Emperor said with hatred: "Big lawlessness is not cheap, officials are not clear, why should the people's livelihood depend?" "Shanyang County is like this, but what about other places?" Even the disaster relief funds that saved people's lives dared to be embezzled, and he would never be a clean official in peacetime! At that time, how many corrupt officials and corrupt officials were there?
After receiving 500 taels of silver, the 3 servants dared to murder the imperial court officials, which was really lawless.
The most chilling thing is that without the intervention of senior officials in charge of supervision, the case may not have been overturned at all. When Li Taiqing found out that his nephew had died a strange death, he ran to the Metropolitan Inspection Court to complain about the injustice; the Metropolitan Procuratorate had received more unjust cases, and this case had already been decided by jiangsu Province and the Liangjiang Governor's Office, and the involvement was too extensive, so it was so difficult to overturn the case! Coincidentally, Li Yuchang's teacher, Shandong compatriot, and Zuo Du Yuchu PengLing reported the case to the Jiaqing Emperor, and with the emperor's instructions, the case was finally revealed.
Tomb of Li Yuchang
Afterword:
A court official who said that he was killed was killed, and the governor did not care, the inspector did not ask, and the servants could be bribed. After half a year of death, he was known to the emperor, and it was up to the people in the court to be able to settle his grievances. If you think about it deeply, how many unjust souls have no relationship and no background? Think about it!