The smaller the matter, the deeper the water

In the fourteenth year of Jiaqing (1809), one day in early summer, the Jiaqing Emperor received a news that shocked him:

Six months ago, Li Yuchang, a scholar of the new science and technology, was "afraid of crime" in his residence, and his uncle Li Taiqing, a martial arts student, went to Beijing a few days ago to complain about his grievances and ask the imperial court to uphold justice.

New Branch Advance Man Fears Suicide? This is "groundbreaking" news since the founding of the Great Qing Dynasty.

According to the practice of the Qing Dynasty, the seniority of the new branch is low, and they are generally not able to be awarded actual positions, and if they want to be assigned to local county officials, they must wait until there are local officials vacant. While waiting for a vacancy, the new recruit is generally an alternate officer. Li Yuchang is precisely "using Zhixian to distribute the vacancy of Jiangsu Fu Office", a candidate for Zhixian County.

How can a person who has not entered the officialdom have so many sins that he has to seek his own death? The Jiaqing Emperor repeatedly flipped through Li Yuchang's uncle Li Taiqing's love letters, and felt strange.

▲ Emperor Jiaqing of Qingren Emperor (1760-1820). Source: Screenshots of film and television dramas

A year ago, in the autumn of the thirteenth year of Jiaqing (1808), the Huai River basin was severely affected by torrential rains that washed away the embankment, causing flooding and serious damage to the people. To this end, the Jiaqing Emperor once gave instructions: "To help the hungry, each ministry raised 200,000 taels of silver, and with six ministries agreeing, quickly put down the silver relief, and admire this." ”

Since the area around Jianghuai was under the jurisdiction of the Liangjiang Governor, the silver and two allocated by the imperial court were uniformly dispatched by the Liangjiang Governor Tie Bao. Tie Bao was proud of the officials, scrupulously fulfilled his duties, and immediately distributed the money to the disaster areas in various places to help the victims.

However, there have been cases of fraudulent relief since ancient times, and at the same time as the money was distributed, Tiebao also sent a full-time investigation and relief team to the disaster area to supervise the disaster relief work on the spot.

Li Yuchang was one of the investigation and relief commissioners appointed by Tiebao. However, he went here and never came back.

1

Li Yuchang, Zi Gaoyan, Shandong Jimo people, since childhood, filial piety and respect for the elders, excellent in character and learning. At the age of 23, in the fifty-ninth year of Qianlong (1794), he was admitted to the exam. However, it was not until the thirteenth year of Jiaqing (1808) that Li Yuchang was able to enter high school.

On the orders of Tie Bao, Li Yuchang, a new scholar, arrived at the front line of relief with three servants, including Li Xiang, Gu Xiang, and Ma Liansheng, in Shanyang County, Huai'an Prefecture (present-day Huai'an, Jiangsu Province).

Hearing that the official was visiting, Wang Shenhan, who was in Shanyangzhi County at the time, did not dare to snub. According to the business trip treatment of civil servants at that time, Lord Wang prepared a sumptuous wine banquet and a high-class guest room for Li Yuchang and his party in the Shanyang County Hall.

However, Li Yuchang is a newcomer to officialdom, and Wang Shenhan arranged it so painstakingly, but in his opinion, it is a little out of place.

So, when he arrived in Shanyang County, Li Yuchang gave Wang Shenhan a "dismounted horse wei" - bypassing the solicitation of the officials of Shanyang County and borrowing to live in a temple called "Shanyuanan" on the outskirts of Shanyang County.

At that time, Shanyang County was the seat of Huai'an Prefecture, and there was not only Wang Shenhan, the prefect of Huai'an, but also Wang Hu, the prefect of Huai'an. Li Yuchang's unconventional card really made these two Wang masters flustered.

You know, Huai'an Prefecture was an important transportation town on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and at that time there was a saying that "Huai'an is safe in the world". "Three years of Qingzhi Mansion, 100,000 snowflakes of silver", Huai'an Prefecture and its subordinate counties are naturally also the fat shortage in the eyes of corrupt officials.

Unfortunately, Wang Shenhan and his boss Wang Hu are representatives of such typical corrupt officials.

In order to enrich their own pockets, Tie Bao, the governor of Liangjiang, had just distributed the disaster relief funds, and they embezzled part of the funds to enrich their own interests. According to Wang Zhixian's thinking, even if the top sends someone down to investigate, it is a big deal to give some benefits, turn a blind eye, and the matter will pass. This has always been the practice. As the saying goes, why should it be difficult for workers to beat workers?

However, Li Yuchang is serious.

After settling in his residence, he immediately verified the names, addresses, identities and other information of the relief recipients listed on the disaster relief fund distribution list, and visited the disaster area to investigate public opinion to see what lessons the Sanyang County government had learned in the disaster relief work.

This investigation really shocked Li Yuchang: the tiny Shanyang County actually fraudulently received 25,000 taels of disaster relief money by falsifying lists and falsely reporting disaster information!

The matter was very important, and Li Yuchang's first reaction was to quickly sort out the materials and report them to Tie Bao, the governor of Liangjiang, and request legal punishment.

▲ Li Yuchang's boss, Tie Bao (1752-1824), who was the governor of Liangjiang at the time.

2

Wang Shenhan of Shanyang Zhixian County was not idle during this time, and he knew that the matter was revealed, and he was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot.

Bao Xiang, a servant in Wang Zhi County, rarely saw his master fidgeting like this, and he was deeply afraid that if the master's rash incident was exposed, he would inevitably be implicated.

To help the master is to help himself, Bao Xiang immediately offered advice to Wang Zhixian: heavily bribe Li Yuchang's entourage!

Wang Shenhan's master and servant believe that ordinary officials will put on a clean appearance when they first take office, and they will not be soft in doing things, and Li Yuchang is probably this type of person. He is still a hot new official in office, and we must not "pour cold water" on the head at this time, but his entourage is an entry point - usually a new official who disguises himself as a clean official will also deliberately leave such an entry point.

So, under Wang Shenhan's arrangement, Bao Xiang took advantage of Li Yuchang's outing, took two thousand taels of bribe silver, went straight to Shanyuanan, and met Li Yuchang's servant Li Xiang.

Two thousand taels was not a small amount at that time, and Li Xiang's intentions were very clear to Li Xiang.

However, after staying under Li Yuchang for a long time, Li Xiang was also very aware of his master's preferences. After exchanging pleasantries with Bao Xiang, Li Xiang was in a hurry to send off the guests.

Where Bao Xiang was willing to miss this opportunity, he hurriedly took out another piece of silver from his arms, so that he could persuade Li Xiang to accept it, and promised the other party that after the matter was completed, Li Xiang could hold a half-post in a certain official in Shanyang County.

With a future and silver, Li Xiang promised with a full mouth: "I am willing to serve Wang Zhi County for the work of dogs and horses!" ”

Soon, Li Yuchang knew Wang Shenhan's intention to send silver. But he never dared to forget the teachings of Confucius: "Respect the things and eat them." "Eat the king's lu, bear the king's worries, this is the way of a courtier. If you put not thinking about dedication and only seeking fame and fortune in the first place in life's pursuit, what is the difference from the "contemptible husband" mentioned by Confucius?

Li Yuchang, who adhered to his principles, categorically refused to join Wang Shenhan and his gang.

Seeing that the day of the return of the investigation and relief team was approaching, Wang Shenhan had to make two preparations. On the one hand, he sent someone to send silver to the prefect Wang Hu, trying to win over the other party; On the other hand, Bao Xiang was sent to send more silver, and bribed the other entourage who followed Li Yuchang to Huai'an to check the relief.

The reason why a subordinate had an accident involving Shangguan, Wang Hu knew better than anyone. As soon as the silver arrived, he immediately "fell".

On Li Yuchang's side, no matter how the people accompanying him persuaded, he did not change his original intention, and even threatened to pull Wang Shenhan and his gang down.

Wang Shenhan's inner panic became stronger and stronger.

So, after conspiring with Wang Hu and others, a "special operation" against Li Yuchang began.

▲ Huai'an Prefecture has tried famous ancient cases such as Dou'e's case and Li Yuchang's case. Source: Figureworm Creative

3

Taking advantage of the opportunity to send off the investigation and relief team to return to hand over the errands, Wang Hui of Huai'an Prefectural Government personally hosted and invited officials large and small from all over Huai'an Prefecture to open a grand feast for Li Yuchang.

Although Li Yuchang was disgusted by the ugly faces of Wang Shenhan and his gang, he still attended the farewell banquet in Huai'an Mansion according to the rules.

Seizing the last opportunity, Wang Hu, Wang Shenhan and others managed to get Li Yuchang drunk.

On the other side, Wang Shenhan's entourage, Bao Xiang, together with several evil servants around Li Yuchang, quietly sneaked into Li Yuchang's bedroom, preparing to poison Li Yuchang and fake the illusion of suicide.

That night, Li Yuchang, who was drunk, returned to his residence and slept with his head down, unaware of the danger around him.

At night, half-dreaming and half-awake, he was thirsty and called Li Xiang, a retinue who had been waiting on the side for a long time.

Li Xiang hurriedly handed over the tea that had been poured with a large amount of arsenic in advance, and Li Yuchang didn't think much about it and drank it all. Not long after, the poison attacked, and he suddenly felt a fierce pain in his abdomen, suspected that he had eaten unclean food at the banquet, and got up and shouted.

Bao Xiang, Li Xiang and others heard the sound. Afraid that his shouting was too loud and the conspiracy would be revealed, Bao Xiang hurriedly strangled Li Yuchang's neck from behind. The brain was briefly deprived of oxygen, which made him suddenly wake up drunk and angrily scolded several people for their evil deeds.

Li Yuchang's servant Ma Liansheng quickly unfastened his belt and assisted Bao Xiang in strangling his master.

With the joint efforts of everyone, Li Yuchang, a great Han of Shandong, was killed alive in bed.

Later, several people hung the broken body on the beam of the room, forging the scene of Li Yuchang hanging himself.

Immediately afterwards, Bao Xiang and others rummaged through boxes and cabinets in their room, hurriedly searched for Li Yuchang's detailed records of disaster relief that Li Yuchang was about to report to the governor of Liangjiang, and hastily fled the scene of the crime.

The next day, Li Xiang and other evil servants pretended to wake up their masters and bluffed near Shanyuanan.

For a time, the news that Li Yuchang had committed suicide in fear of crime spread all over the city.

After receiving the report, Wang Hu, who had been prepared in advance, immediately took the government official to investigate the scene of the crime. After some investigation, I don't know the intention of this and reported it truthfully: Lord Li has blood in his mouth, it seems that it is not suicide!

▲ Ancient post-mortem scene. Source: Screenshots of film and television dramas

When Wang Hu heard this, he was furious, and without waiting for further analysis, he first reprimanded the other party's twenty big boards.

He was inexplicably beaten, and at this time he knew very well that Li Yuchang's death was probably inseparable from the officials in Huai'an. But in the end, he could only write on the cutting book: Li Yuchang really hanged himself!

According to the laws of the Great Qing Dynasty, the "four-level four-instance system" is generally adopted for the trial and review of cases at the local level, that is, the first trial in the prefecture and county, the second instance in the prefecture and county, the third instance in the inspection department, and the final trial by the governor. In other words, in order to write that Li Yuchang hanged himself and entered the file to cover the coffin, it was necessary to obtain the final verification of the Jiangsu Inspection Department and the Yamen, the governor of Liangjiang.

If a court official suddenly died, it would definitely be particularly strictly investigated. But Wang Hu and Wang Shenhan were not worried, and firstly, Li Yuchang's death had been investigated and re-examined by administrative units at the county and prefectural levels. Second, Li Yuchang was a person sent by the governor of Liangjiang to investigate the relief, and if the fact that Li Yuchang was murdered during the investigation and relief was really discovered, then the imperial court would inevitably know about this and cause a shock in the local officialdom. Bribery has always been associated with corruption in local officialdom, and there are few clean officials in the province, so Wang Hu and Wang Shenhan firmly believe that the officials above are well versed in the way of being an official, and naturally do not want to make a difference.

Sure enough, after receiving the conclusion of the case from Huai'an Prefecture, neither the Jiangsu Inspectorate nor the Liangjiang Governor Yamen investigated it deeply.

Out of pity, Tie Bao, the governor of Liangjiang, informed Li Yuchang's family to go to Huai'an to deal with the aftermath.

4

Li Yuchang is the glory of the entire family, and he committed suicide within a few months of being admitted to the Jingshi, and this logic the Li family could not accept in any way.

Under the recommendation of the clansmen, Li Yuchang's uncle and martial arts student Li Taiqing was responsible for taking care of his nephew's affairs.

At this time, after the re-examination process, Jiangsu officials have determined that Li Yuchang committed suicide in fear of crime. However, Wang Hu and Wang Shenhan were still worried that the matter would be revealed, and as a precaution, they sent Li Yuchang's three servants to other provinces early, buried their bodies, and waited for the Li family to send someone to receive them.

After more than ten days of trekking, Li Taiqing rushed to Huai'an Mansion, and Wang Shenhan personally accompanied him throughout the process.

As a representative of the family, Li Taiqing asked Wang Shenhan to see his nephew's remains and asked him about the incident.

Li Taiqing's request is not excessive, but Wang Shenhan has a ghost in his heart. He told Li Taiqing with a handful of snot and tears that he had met Li Yuchang the day before the incident, and the other party was talking and laughing at that time, and he couldn't see anything wrong. The next day, I heard that he had committed suicide. The deceased was big, and he didn't want Yu Changxian's brother to expose his body, so he decorated him in advance, hoping that the family would not think too much and go home to handle the aftermath.

Wang Shenhan's remarks, Li Taiqing heard it correctly. But when he thought about it, Li Yuchang and Wang Shenhan had only met for the first time, and even if they stayed together every day to handle cases, they had known each other for only a few months. In the political environment of self-deception, how can Wang Shenhan, who has been in the officialdom for a long time, be a brother and brother to a newcomer?

Wang Shenhan's excessive courtesy deepened Li Taiqing's suspicions. It seems that since arriving in Huai'an, he has been working under Wang Shenhan's nose all the time. And the death of his nephew did not even have a single witness, and the three servants he brought with him were missing.

Perhaps it was on the night of the dark wind that month, Bao Xiang and others were too nervous and missed important physical evidence. While sorting out the relics, Li Taiqing stumbled upon a piece of paper sandwiched in the clothes his nephew had worn, which read: "Shanyang Zhixian risked to give relief, to benefit Yuchang, Yuchang did not dare to bear it, for fear of the Son of Heaven." ”

In order not to startle the snakes, after Li Taiqing saw the note, he proposed to carry the spirit back to his hometown the next day.

When Wang Shenhan heard this, he immediately took out 150 taels of silver tickets from his arms and handed them to Li Taiqing, and instructed the other party to be buried as soon as possible after returning to his hometown, and not to investigate the cause and consequences of the incident.

After Li Taiqing returned to his hometown in Shandong, he immediately told Li Yuchang's widow Lin Shi about the strange things in Huai'an Mansion.

Combined with Li Taiqing's suspicions, when Lin sorted out her husband's relics, she found another suspicious point of Li Yuchang's death: there were blood stains on the clothes left by Li Yuchang.

How can there be blood when he hanged himself, so Lin concluded that her husband did not commit suicide.

Braving everyone's criticism, she made a major decision: open the coffin for an autopsy!

With the assistance of Li Taiqing's friend and Shen, the Li clan saw Li Yuchang's tragic situation: "Qiqi looked at it, and his face was like life." Pricked with silver needles, the needles are black. ”

No need to ask, Li Yuchang must have been poisoned before he died.

However, how easy is it to talk about a deliberately created unjust case that has gone through a four-level trial?

Just when the Li clan was worried, Li Yuchang's teacher Chu Peng Ling spoke.

5

Chu Peng Ling, known as "Chu Tiger", was the governor of Anhui at the time, and was known for being jealous and greedy and outspoken in the official circles of the Qing Dynasty.

Originally, he heard that Li Yuchang committed suicide in fear of crime, and Chu Peng Ling was suspicious. This time, when Li's family confirmed that the student had died, he was even more indignant.

▲ Li Yuchang's mentor and famous minister of the Qing Dynasty, Chu Peng Ling (1749-1825).

In order to obtain justice for Li Yuchang, he wrote a complaint for the Li clan, and wrote in Li Taiqing's tone at the end: "Where is the heavenly reason for weeping and thinking of his nephew, who first received the grace of the state, tried his best to investigate and provide relief, and was murdered by a rebel servant?" ”

Li Taiqing took this petition all the way to the Jingshi Metropolitan Prosecutor's Office, and soon received a reply from the Metropolitan Prosecutor's Office, and the case was also transferred to the Jiaqing Emperor's case.

Compared with his father, the Qianlong Emperor, the Jiaqing Emperor was not a decisive man, but he was a rare monarch in the Qing Dynasty who vigorously purged corruption. At the beginning of his accession to the throne, he sent heavy ministers to raid the homes of Qianlong Yuanfu and Juan to show his determination to fight against corrupt officials.

Now, Li Yuchang was ordered to investigate the relief and died locally, which greatly angered the Jiaqing Emperor.

Grabbing the death of this new scholar, the Jiaqing Emperor immediately raised his own doubts.

For example, in the petition paper submitted by Li Taiqing, Jiangsu officials identified Li Yuchang's cause of death as "privately releasing disaster relief tickets, and hanged himself with extreme remorse." Jiaqing Emperor bluntly said, isn't this an international joke? Where did the money come from for an official who was tasked with auditing the issuance of disaster relief funds?

What's more serious is that this kind of mistake, as long as it is a normal person, can understand it with a little thought. Shanyang County and Huai'an Prefecture have made mistakes one after another, could it be that their superiors have also made mistakes? Or are they already corrupted, complicit with their subordinates, and are on the wrong side?

The answer is terrifying.

The Jiaqing Emperor immediately made a decision and asked the imperial court to retry the case.

As the main responsible officials of Jiangsu, Tie Bao, the governor of Liangjiang, and Wang Rizhang, the governor of Jiangsu, could not be blamed, but both were old ministers of the Qianlong era, and Jiaqing intended to open the net. But in the face of the emperor's questioning, the two who were not sure of the direction of the wind still categorically said that there was no problem with Li Yuchang's suicide!

Hearing that the two old ministers "opened their eyes and said nonsense", Jiaqing immediately pointed at their noses and cursed, faint and confused, and rushed people's lives!

Since Li Yuchang's body was still in Shandong, the stunned Jiaqing could only ask Shandong Governor Ji Lun to retry on his behalf.

Soon, after a joint trial between the Shandong Governor Yamen and the Inspectorate, Li Yuchang's death came to a conclusion similar to that of the Li clan's coffin and post-mortem: "But the bones on the chest are the same, and the rest is black." Gai was poisoned and did not die, but hanged. ”

In his closing statement submitted to the imperial court, Shandong Inspector Zhu Xijue also specifically mentioned: "There is blood in the two sleeves of the corpse, if it is tied to death by hanging, why is it bleeding from the mouth and nose?" Even if there is, how can a person who hangs himself with his hands hanging down, raise his sleeves and wipe his blood? It is proof that it can be poisoned first and then suspended. ”

The evidence was overwhelming, and Wang Shenhan of Shanyang Zhi County and Wang Hui of Huai'an Prefecture, who were simultaneously questioned by the Criminal Department, also confessed their motives.

It turned out that Wang Hu and Wang Shenhan were both from "donated officials" and had no great future in themselves. When they become officials, they just want to make more money.

Taking Zhixian as an example, the Qing Dynasty donor officials had to pay 4600 taels. It can be seen that the county is a thankless work, and if you work for a year, you will pay 45 taels of money. Since the Yongzheng era, local officials in the Qing Dynasty have enjoyed the treatment of supporting cheap silver outside of Lilu, and according to regulations, people like Wang Shenhan have an average annual subsidy of about 1200 taels. However, since the late Qianlong period, the imperial court has always liked to punish foreign officials for their maintenance and silver, which is used to repair the river embankment and ensure the transportation of water. After Jiaqing came to power, the maintenance of cheap silver continued to decline, and in order to repair the Yellow River, the emperor also asked local officials to donate cheap silver to help the river workers.

Therefore, seeing that the business was losing money, the two who were obsessed with ghosts immediately looked at the disaster relief money, but they did not expect that they would kill Li Yuchang halfway.

Blocking people's wealth is like killing parents. In their view, Li Yuchang's persistence is to seek his own death.

At this point, the truth of Li Yuchang's case has finally been revealed.

6

On the 10th day of the first month of July in the 14th year of Jiaqing (1809), the Jiaqing Emperor personally decreed that in the name of "Qingzheng", Li Yuchang was rewarded with the title of prefect, and Youjia was buried, and a "Poem of Sorrow and Loyalty" was produced, and a stele was inscribed in front of the tomb.

For Li Taiqing and others who vindicated Li Yuchang, the Jiaqing Emperor did not hesitate to reward Li Taiqing, specially granting Li Taiqing the status of a person, so that he could glorify his ancestors.

Knowing that Li Yuchang had no descendants, the Jiaqing Emperor specially ordered Li Yuchang's nephew Li Xizuo to be his heir, inherit the incense, and add grace to the reward, allowing him to test as one and succeed the incense to show his loyalty.

At the same time, the Jiaqing Emperor asked the local government of Jimo to contribute 1,000 taels to Li Yuchang's widow Lin Shi as a dowry for his heirs and their women.

In response to the key criminals in this case, when Li Yuchang entered the soil for safety, the Jiaqing Emperor's "post-autumn settlement" was also launched simultaneously.

Jiaqing said, "There is such a strange case in Jiangnan, which shows that the rule of officials has been extremely corrupted." For these evil people, whom he called "unpopular," he demanded severe punishment.

Wang Shenhan, who was originally appointed as Wang Shenhan of Shanyangzhi County, was sentenced to a decision, confiscated his family property, and the whole family was exiled to the army. His superior, Wang Hu, a former prefect of Huai'an, was also sentenced to death by hanging for "knowingly accepting bribes and helping evil."

As the culprit who directly killed Li Yuchang, his servants were all sentenced to death, and Li Xiang was taken to Li Yuchang's grave to peel skin and dig his heart to pay homage to the soul of the dead.

Tie Bao, the governor of Liangjiang, was dismissed from his post and assigned to Xinjiang; Jiangsu Governor Wang Rizhang was also dismissed from his post and sent back to his hometown.

After doing this, Li Yuchang's case finally came to an end.

But the Jiaqing Emperor could not breathe a sigh of relief, because in the same year that Li Yuchang's case occurred, another case of embezzlement and silver relief occurred in Baodi County (today's Baodi District, Jinshi City) in Zhizhi Province. The "appetite" of Shan Chengchang in Baodi Zhi County is much greater than that of Wang Shenhan, and historical sources say that it "eroded more than half".

The empire is greedy and greedy, and it is repeatedly forbidden, which gives Jiaqing a headache.

▲ In the face of the corruption of the empire, although the emperor was heartbroken, he was helpless. Source: Screenshots of film and television dramas

After these two major cases occurred, Yushi Chen Zhongfu immediately proposed to the imperial court that it was necessary to focus on examining the qualifications of those who donated to become officials, to ensure that those who donated officials had real talents and practical learning, and that those who did not learn and had no skills should not be allowed to become officials.

In this regard, Emperor Jiaqing had a different opinion. He believes that although there are lawless people like Wang Shenhan and Shan Bianchang, there are also many corrupt and bad officials who are selected for the imperial examination. Therefore, the problem is not the donation system, but the hearts of the people.

Unfortunately, Li Yuchang's tragic death was quickly forgotten by the entire empire.

No one reflects on anything from it, no one wants to change anything from it, and everyone goes blindfolded in the great inertia of history. It doesn't matter what lies ahead, whether it's a mountain or an abyss.

Bibliography:

[Qing] Zhao Ersun: Manuscripts of the History of the Qing Dynasty, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1977

Li Yangying: "On the Transmutation of the Qing Dynasty's Cheap and Honest Bank System", Journal of Social Sciences, Jiamusi University, No. 5, 2007

Zhang Guoji: "On Institutional Corruption in the Daoguang Period of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty", Journal of Social Sciences, Hunan Normal University, No. 3, 2009

Xi Hua: "Anti-corruption is a contest between you and me: The Huai'anqi case in the Qing Dynasty and its enlightenment", Clean Government Outlook, No. 24, 2016

Wang Kaixi: "The Rulers of the Jiaqing Dynasty from the Case of Li Yuchang", Historical Archives, No. 2, 2004