The long river of history is running endlessly, there are calm waves, there are also waves, let Xiaobian take you into history and understand history.
The thief volume of the Qing Dynasty's miscellaneous history "Qing Barnyard Bills" records this strange case, and in 1664, three years after kangxi, Guo Shichun, who was waiting for vacancies in Beijing, finally waited for an opportunity to be released as an official. It is also the prefect of Chizhou, Anhui. As the saying goes, in the three years of the Qing prefect's 100,000 snowflake silver, Guo Shichun, who got the fat difference, immediately packed up his belongings in the capital, and more than sixty family members and servants, and more than a dozen horse-drawn carriages went to their posts in a mighty way.
Along the way, Guo Shichun's team was brightly dressed and full of people, and the convoy soon attracted thieves. In a remote place halfway through, Governor Guo's motorcade was intercepted and killed by a gang of thieves. Mrs. Guo, who was holding the child, was not killed because of her outstanding appearance. The gang of robbers pushed the convoy back to the old nest, and when they shared the booty, they knew the purpose of Guo Shichun's group. Look at the official credentials and brand new prefect uniforms needed for office. The leader of the thieves made a bold decision. Let's go to the Chizhou capital to grab the official silver of the Zhengda Guangming.
This gang of thieves, under the guidance of the leader, went to Chizhou to take up their posts. After arriving in Chizhou, he first met with his superior, Lord Daotai, and handed over his official credentials. Officially becoming a good official who judges cases for the people, perhaps he is addicted to being an official, and he has managed Chizhou in an orderly manner in a very short period of time, and the people have lived and worked in peace and contentment. He has been repeatedly praised by The Daotai Lord. However, the only thing that was not done well was that the money and grain collected by Chizhou were not handed over to the superiors for a long time, and the Daotai lord held the fake prefect accountable, so why didn't he hand it in on time? The counterfeit prefect immediately explained that money and grain were the most important thing, and that the subordinates who escorted the goods and handed over must have personally experienced it. But there is no time to escort the transport many times, and when the lowly post collects all the money and grain that should be handed over this year, he must personally send it to you. He also specially asked the officials sent down from above to inspect it, and found that in the grain depot and the money house of the prefect's yamen, there were stacks of grain and two boxes of silver, which were neatly arranged, and the Daotai was relieved this time.
So the leader of the thieves was relieved to become his own prefect, and he was increasingly supported by the people, and there were people watching and praising him on the streets. Not long after, the trouble of the fake prefect came, and the fellow villagers of the Guo prefect knew that "he" was mixing well in Chizhou, so they began to have people come to visit and surrender. The robbers' way to solve their troubles is usually to kill people, and in this way, the villagers who came to visit the Guo Prefect were warmly welcomed into the house, but no one came out. These people were tricked into the backyard by the robbers and killed and buried. The family members of these fellow villagers saw that the people who had visited them had not returned, and they began to become suspicious, so they entrusted Mrs. Guo's brother to see what was going on.
Mrs. Guo's brother readily agreed, and he had not seen his sister for a long time. When I arrived in Chizhou, the streets were crowded with people, a bustling scene, and my wife's brother said that this brother-in-law had some skills. Suddenly, I heard someone shouting on the street, and Guo Zhifu came over, so he retreated to the roadside to wait for the prefect's team. As a result, when the palanquin passed, it was found that the Governor Guo who waved to the people was not his brother-in-law. Thinking of the disappearance of several compatriots some time ago, Mrs. Guo's brother felt that there must be something strange in this matter, and felt that he had to find his sister to ask the reason.
The next day, Mrs. Guo's brother soiled his clothes, picked up two loads of water, and pretended to be a poor man living here. When I arrived at the mansion, I said to the steward of the mansion: I have been living here for thousands of miles, and I have no livelihood, thinking that I need a lot of water every day in the mansion, and I can send water to the mansion for some money to make a living. The steward of the mansion immediately agreed, and Mrs. Guo's brother carried water into the inner courtyard and saw his sister, but the sister waved her hand to stop him from speaking. Just said one word, continue to send water tomorrow.
The next day, after Mrs. Guo's brother saw her sister again, her sister stuffed herself with a secret letter, and when she left the mansion to open it, she knew the reason, it turned out that Guo Zhifu had been killed, and now more than thirty people in the mansion were thieves. Mrs. Guo's brother immediately took the letter and went to the Daotai to report the case. Lord Daotai read the letter and seriously considered it, saying that there were too many thieves and it was difficult to arrest them hastily. And the thief is often unusually alert, and if we dispatch troops, he will immediately run away when he hears the wind. So he thought of a way, with the money and grain of other county towns not yet being ascertained, let the fake prefect here send a few people to the following county town to supervise it. The fake prefect readily agreed, and each county town sent two people by appointment, and as a result, every time they went to the county, the men of the fake prefect were imprisoned. Seeing that most of the thieves had been arrested, he summoned the fake prefect to the Daotai Mansion for discussion, and as soon as he entered the Daotai Yamen, the counterfeit prefect was tied up, and after interrogation, it was soon revealed. It turned out that these thieves were pretending to be the prefect for the silver in this treasury, and they had already saved up eighty thousand taels, and they had already planned to go far away in the near future, but they did not expect that the matter was still exposed.
Why in ancient times did a robber dare to pretend to be a prefect? This was related to the official credentials at that time, because there were no photographs at that time, and the official vouchers were only outlined in a few strokes, and the thieves, after obtaining the official credentials, the leader compared the description of the official credentials and generally dared to take risks. Nowadays, with ID cards and photos, it is difficult to impersonate others, let alone pretend to be a prefect.
Well, today's sharing ends here, and we'll see you next time