Corrupt officials, whether in China or abroad, are like flies, disgusting, but they cannot be exterminated. It's just a matter of time and place, more or less. In the various dynasties of our country, although corrupt officials do not directly threaten the stability of the imperial regime, they are like maggots that slowly corrode the healthy body of the imperial court, and the harm is also huge. Today we are going to talk about a relatively special corrupt official, not because people are special, but because what they covet is special. He is the Yuan Zai of the Tang Dynasty.
Yuan Zai was a relatively modest old minister during the Tang Suzong period, and when he helped Tang Dynasty Emperor get rid of the two powerful eunuchs Li Fuguo and Yu Chao'en, he was promoted by Li Yu to the position of prime minister, and became the prime minister after Yuan Zai, and it did not take long to expose his greedy side and embezzle money. After Li Yu learned of Yuan Zai's scandal, he remembered that he was a meritorious minister, and could not bear to surrender to him, but only took the form of a separate summons to persuade Yuan Zai to restrain him appropriately. And once a person goes crazy, he forgets everything, and at this time, Yuan Zai is like this, and he can't listen to any advice.
Li Yu saw that Yuan Zai was still going his own way, which completely angered Emperor Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty, so he ordered the general Wu Zhuo of Zuo Jinwu to arrest the traitor Yuan Zai and raid his home. In Li Yu's view, corrupt officials all like this kind of money and wealth, and Li Yu, who originally wanted to fall from light hair, later received a report that Yuan Zai had a huge amount of pepper in his home, about 800 stones, which was converted into about 60 tons now weighing about 60 tons. This made Li Yu make up his mind to kill Yuan Zai.
Because in ancient times, pepper was not only limited by the place of origin, the output was not high, the transportation was quite difficult, and I did not want to have a car now, so this led to the price of pepper being extremely high, even exceeding the price of gold. Li Yu then ordered that he immediately ask Yuan Zai.
On the execution ground, when the handmaiden asked Yuan Zai, "Do you have any last words?" Yuan Zai replied, "Don't ask for anything but to die quickly!" The handmaiden nodded and said, "That's easy, come, take off your socks." So the executioner shoved Yuanzai's socks into his mouth, and then his hand rose and the knife fell.
In ancient times, executioners generally liked to peel off the socks of death row prisoners and stuff them into their mouths before killing people, for the purpose of which is unknown, perhaps to prevent him from talking gibberish, or perhaps out of a humiliation of the huge greed that has embezzled pepper that cannot be eaten for a lifetime.