What is reading for?
The average person will say: it is for the future!
People with lofty ambitions will say: Be a good official and clean official, let the country be rich and strong, and let the people live and work in peace and contentment.
Born in 1771, Li Yuchang was gifted and of good character from an early age.
In 1794, at the age of 23, he was hit. In 1808, at the age of 37, he became a junior scholar.
He wanted to be a good official of integrity, and who knows, soon came to the end of his life.
In this regard, the major corruption case was introduced, and the emperor personally intervened.
His death was a reflection of social deformity.
His death, the role of "unspoken rules" cannot be ignored.
1. Li Yuchang wants to do something big
Kang Qianshi prospered, in vain name.
"Sheng" was only before the middle of the Qianlong period, and after the middle of the Qianlong period, everything began to taste.
The Qianlong Emperor was so happy that he relaxed his internal rule. Closed to the outside world, disdainful of learning "barbarian" Western technology, and thus perfectly missed the first industrial revolution.
As everyone knows, the country has lagged behind European countries in an all-round way.
What is even more frightening is that the rulers are gradually corrupted, and the armed forces are in ruins.
In the late Qianlong period, from the central to the local, from the local to the prefecture and county, a large number of corrupt bureaucrats represented by Helong appeared, and these people were corrupt, cleverly taking advantage of things, forming parties for personal gain, and excluding dissidents.
In this way, the discipline of the imperial court was corrupted, and the people were miserable.
Finally, in 1796, the White Lotus Rebellion broke out.
At the moment of Qianlong's death, he did not solve the White Lotus Sect uprising, which led to a regret in life.
After the Jiaqing Emperor came to power in 1799, he did two major things, one was to vigorously fight corruption and overthrow Helong, and there was a saying that "Helong fell, Jiaqing was full"; The second is to raise the strength of all parties and finally quell the White Lotus Sect uprising.
However, the corruption of officials has become deep-rooted, and Jiaqing has ruled Hejun, but he has not been able to get rid of the roots.
The protagonist Li Yuchang should appear, he witnessed the Jiaqing Emperor's iron fist rule and Juan, and also saw the iron fist to pacify the White Lotus Sect, and he had great confidence in this imperial court.
In 1808, Li Yuchang successfully passed the Jin Shi examination and became an alternate Zhi County.
When he first entered the career, Li Yuchang must have wanted to be a good official who was honest and honest.
That's right.
However, if there are many corrupt people around you, how can you integrate into the career circle? I think this question must have bothered countless aspiring young officials.
At the turn of the summer and autumn of 1808, Jiangsu Huai and Yangdashui, the imperial court allocated 200,000 yuan of silver for disaster relief.
In order to supervise and verify the use of this relief fund, Tie Bao, the governor of Liangjiang, sent ten officials to supervise the disaster relief situation, one of whom was Li Yuchang.
Listening to the leader's teachings and imagining his bright future, Li Yuchang went with everyone to Shanyang County (now Huai'an District, Huai'an City), which was on the front line of the disaster.
Ling Wang Shenhan of Shanyang County, seeing the members of the inspection team, greeted them with a smile on their faces, arranged good food and drink, and sent red envelopes by the way.
This was one of the ugly "unspoken rules" at that time: to get things done, stuff money first, stuff money, no longer difficult.
If all ten people had collected the money, Wang Shenhan's matter would have passed.
Li Yuchang, a "newcomer in the workplace", is not allowed to pay bribes, not only does not want money, but also investigates in detail.
In the case of corruption in the Great Qing Dynasty, how many people can withstand investigation?
Wang Shenhan panicked, and Li Yuchang's crisis came.
2. Li Yuchang was poisoned and killed, leading to a major corruption case
Li Yuchang, who was stunned and worked extremely seriously, carefully verified the people who received the disaster relief funds, and personally went to the front line to investigate.
Sometimes walking through the streets and alleys, sometimes going deep into the countryside, this is a good official who does practical things, and the people call him "Li Qingtian".
After several investigations, Li Yuchang found major problems: for the imperial court, Wang Shenhan exaggerated the number of victims of the disaster; For the affected people, Wang Shenhanke withheld the disaster funds.
This time comes and goes, Wang County makes the scale of corruption amazing. Wang Shenhan received a total of more than 90,000 taels of silver, and 25,000 taels were embezzled.
If these data are reported, Wang Shenhan is estimated to lose his head, after all, this corruption is "disaster relief money"!
All kinds of corruption, the most hated is the "disaster relief money", because this is life-saving money.
Wang Shenhan is anxious, what should I do?
Only to do it first.
Wang Shenhan paid off three of Li Yuchang's servants, and in November 1808, he first made him drink poisoned tea and then strangled him directly. And faked the scene of the hanging.
Wang Shenhan had already opened up the relationship with the prefect and reported it according to "hanging himself". And Li Yuchang's body was also brought back to Shandong by the Li family.
The matter seemed to be over, but soon after, Li Yuchang's wife discovered the problem.
He found her husband's bloody coat, which was vomited from bleeding from his abdomen after eating poison. In addition, when the clan uncle Li Taiqing sorted out the books, he also found a fragment of the manuscript, which read: Shanyang risked relief, to benefit Yuchang, Yuchang did not dare to bear it, afraid of the Son of Heaven!
This bloody coat and fragment of the manuscript became the strongest evidence.
Then open the coffin and perform an autopsy.
It turned out that the silver needle entered the body and immediately turned black.
How to fight this lawsuit? If you go directly to the prefect or the governor to report, it may trigger "officials to protect each other", after all, this is "the people sue the officials".
Under the auspices of an old talent Li Taiqing, the Li family made a major decision: to file a complaint in the capital.
Who goes?
Li Taiqing, after all, this person is a show talent and has seen more of the world.
It is not easy for the capital to sue the imperial court, but once the case goes up, the probability of being solved is relatively large.
The Beijing Inspectorate received the case, and the Inspectorate presented it to the Jiaqing Emperor. When Jiaqing saw the content, he was angry, he was so greedy, he couldn't imagine that there was such a thing, these people were simply unforgivable, and they were even greedy for disaster relief money. Strict investigation!
At first, Tie Bao, the governor of Liangjiang, and Wang Rizhang, the governor of Jiangsu, tried the case, but because there were too many concerns, there was no result.
In a fit of anger, Jiaqing handed over the case to Shandong Governor Jilun, and he told him that it must be strictly investigated.
Since it is not in the same region, nepotism is not serious, and soon, the case will come to light.
In the seventh lunar month of 1809, Wang Shenhan was beheaded, his sons were assigned to the frontier, and his widow was orphaned and fined.
Exactly: do too much evil, too much to end.
In addition to Wang Shenhan's beheading, the prefect who sheltered him was also hanged. The three evil servants who poisoned their masters were executed.
It's not over yet.
Tie Bao, the governor of Liangjiang, was dismissed from his post and assigned to the frontier. Jiangsu Governor Wang Rizhang was also dismissed and assigned. And the nine investigators were also punished one after another.
Li Taiqing was directly named a martial artist, in addition, Jiaqing was the master, let Li Yuchang's nephew pass to the dead Li Yuchang, and was directly sealed as a person, and can directly participate in the examination in the future, Li Yuchang's wife received a subsidy of 1,000 taels of silver.
And that's the end of everything.
3. Unspoken rules are the "chronic poison" of society
Li Yuchang seems to have died at the hands of Wang Shenhan, but in fact, it was also the "unspoken rules" of society that affected him.
What are "unspoken rules"? It can't be put on the table, can't be written into the system, but a rule that many people enforce.
At that time, the Qing Dynasty officialdom was corrupt and protected by officials.
Officials wield the "right to legal harm" and amassed a lot of money.
When the ugly affairs of officials need to be concealed and suppressed, silver opens the way, and most things can almost be settled.
Li Yuchang and his ilk were a clear stream, but they were incompatible with the unspoken rules of the time, and of the 10 officials who investigated and rescued them, only Li Yuchang did not follow the crowd and did not accept bribes.
This broke the unspoken rules that Wang Shenhan and others followed, so Li Yuchang brought himself the scourge of killing.
Assuming that Li Yuchang was not killed, can he be prosperous? It is difficult, unless he is a Beijing official under the emperor's nose, otherwise, how can a person who does not abide by the unspoken rules and cannot integrate into the circle of Shitu be promoted?
In fact, in modern society, unspoken rules also exist in large proportions.
Go to some hospitals to see a doctor, if there is no red envelope to open the way, some experts will not do their best; Going to some institutions to do things, if there is no benefit, some clerks will drag on, and the efficiency is extremely low; If you want to bid, it is difficult for some of the people involved to win the bid without benefits.....
In the long run, a deformed social phenomenon has formed.
As a result, there are corrupt officials who are corrupt tens of millions at every turn, and even hundreds of millions of corrupt officials...
The "unspoken rules" of society are the "chronic poison" of society, the less the better, too much, it will cause great harm to the country and the people.
Looking back, we are not so much saying that Li Yuchang died at the hands of Wang Shenhan, but that Li Yuchang died from "unspoken rules" that he did not want to fit into.