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 locally in the process of handling the case, and it was only the local county order- Shanyang County Lingwang Shenhan.
Known as one of the four major unjust cases of the Qing Dynasty, this case led to an earthquake in the Liangjiang official field, and was also talked about by later generations, becoming the material for repeated adaptations in modern film and television works.
Li Yuchang, a native of Jimo, Shandong, was a scholar in the 59th year of Qianlong and a scholar in the 13th year of Jiaqing.
Li Yuchang, a high school soldier, had no real vacancies to fill for a while, and was first arranged to wait for the vacancy as the governor of Liangjiang, Tie Bao, as an alternate Zhi County.
Coincidentally, this year, Huai'an Province suffered floods, and Shanyang County was the most severely affected. When the people suffered a disaster, the government had an unshirkable responsibility to come forward to provide disaster relief, and Jiaqing was not ambiguous, and Zhu Pen waved and approved the decree:
"To help the hungry, each ministry raised 200,000 taels of silver, and six ministries agreed to quickly put down the relief silver and admire this."
After the disaster relief silver was implemented, it was quickly sent to the hands of Ling Wang Shenhan in Shanyang County.
Officials of the Qing Dynasty were seriously corrupted from the middle of the period, and The heyan that Jiaqing overthrew shortly after he ascended the throne was an example, and Jiaqing naturally understood this truth. In order to prevent officials from embezzling disaster relief money, he ordered the governor of Liangjiang, Tie Bao, to send officials to strictly check the accounts and prevent corruption.
Li Yuchang, who was waiting for a vacancy, was appointed as an inspection official and went to Shanyang County to check the accounts.
In early September, Li Yuchang arrived in Shanyang and began to investigate the relief, and more than two months later, in his prime, Li Yuchang, a strong Shandong Hanzi, was found hanging himself suddenly in his apartment.
If something is wrong, the Li family will believe it and be suspicious. However, Wang Shenhan of Shanyang Zhixian and Wang Hub of Huai'an Prefecture had already come to the conclusion that there was no doubt about suicide, and Tie Bao, the governor of Liangjiang, was also unmistakable, and judging from the results, it had become an iron case.
Li Yuchang's brother Li Taiqing went to Shanyang County to welcome back the bones, Li Taiqing carefully inspected the brother's apartment, and found a half-page fragment, which read, "Shanyang Zhixian is in danger, in order to bite Wanchang, Chang does not dare to bear it, afraid of losing the heavenly son" and other few words, Li Taiqing did not move.
After the coffin was transported back to his hometown, the Li family found more clues. For example, on the clothes worn by Li Yuchang, the placket and cuffs are stained with a lot of blood, if it is hanged, it will not bleed, and the blood stains are even more unlikely to stain the sleeves.
The Li family immediately arranged for an autopsy to open the coffin, and preliminarily confirmed that Li Yuchang was poisoned and died. Since the case had been declared closed at the Governor of Liangjiang, Li Taiqing went straight to the capital and went to the Inspectorate to seek redress, vowing to let his brother sink his grievances.
Li Yuchang was the minister of Chincha, an inspection and relief official, equivalent to the official of the inspection group sent by the government to the locality, the stakes were very important, and the case quickly spread to Jiaqing, who was furious and immediately issued a decree: "There are many doubts about Dou, and there will be resentment, and it is urgent to show snow to comfort the lonely soul." "Designated Shandong Inspector Ji Lun, Shandong Inspector Zhu Xijue, etc. to "add detailed inspection instruments".
Ji Lun and others did not dare to be sloppy, and quickly raised Li Yuchang's coffin to the provincial capital, opened a museum for autopsy, and the results were even worse than the li family's examination, Li Yuchang was first poisoned but not dead, and then hanged:
"But the bones in the chest are the same, and the rest is black." Guy was poisoned not to death, but to hang himself. ”
There was a major turning point in the case, and the government followed the vine to find a melon and netted all the people involved in the murder.
It turned out that Li Yuchang went to Shanyang to investigate the case, and found a clue that Wang Shenhan of Shanyang Zhi County had embezzled disaster relief silver, and Wang Shenhan wanted to bribe Li Yuchang to cover up the crime, but the upright Li Yuchang sternly refused. Wang Shenhan, seeing that the crime was about to be exposed, had the audacity to bribe three of Li Yuchang's servants and poison him in the tea.
After Li Yuchang was poisoned, he did not die for a while, and Wang Shenhan's servants and Li Yuchang's servants worked together to hang him on the beam of the house, falsifying the scene of his death by hanging himself.
After ascertaining the facts of the case, Jiaqing personally gave instructions:
Wang Shenhan of Shanyang Zhixian county made a decision, and Wang Yi, the prefect of Huai'an, who conspired to conceal the case, made a decision.
Wang Shenhan's servant Bao Wei was first tortured and then beheaded.
Li Yuchang's three servants committed particularly serious crimes, and all were sentenced to Ling Chi's execution, and Li Xiang, the leader of them, was taken to Li Yuchang's tomb, first with a stick, then executed, and paid tribute to Li Yuchang.
The more influential were the Liangjiang officialdom, with the governor of Liangjiang, Tie Bao, being dismissed from his post and exiled to Yili; Wang Rizhang, the governor of Jiangsu, ordering him to retire from his post; Yang Hu and Hu Ke's family, the envoys of Jiangning Province, were dismissed from their posts; other officials involved in the case were also dismissed for questioning; and Li Yuchang's unjust case was finally revealed.
The murder of Li Yuchang was a strange case of the Qing Dynasty and an unjust case, which became one of the four major unjust cases of the Qing Dynasty.
This Huai'anqi case has also become the script material of modern film and television, and many film and television works such as Detective Di Renjie have been adapted from it.
However, in addition to the hilarity of film and television works, it can also bring us a lot of reflection.
It is indeed inconceivable that the minister and inspector of Chincha were murdered by the county order; Li Yuchang's honest and upright death at an untimely age is even more lamentable.
Combing through from the bottom up can sort out many contexts.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Why would Wang Shenhan, a seven-pin Zhi County, have the courage to murder minister Chincha. </h1>
First of all, if it were not for the complicity of his superior, Wang Hub, the prefect of Huai'an, relying on his own strength, presumably he would not have the courage or the ability to do such an unscrupulous thing, because Li Yuchang's death was not a trivial matter, and his ability could not cover up the matter.
After Li Yuchang verified the evidence of Wang Shenhan's corruption, Wang Hub came forward to clarify for Wang Shenhan, and he said to Li Yuchang: "All my generations are the same official, who has no friendship?" The ancients had a saying: Good officials do not get too much money. Otherwise, it is to destroy the king's (county) order house, and to kill his life. How can he be content with the king? ”
These words have been said very clearly, soft and hard, coercion and inducement, all in it.
Wang Hub said very bluntly, "Good officials do not get too much money", which is a naked solicitation of Li Yuchang, if he insists on investigating the case, "How can he be willing to be a monarch?" "Wang Shenhan will not be willing to obey."
Li Yuchang refused, Wang Shenhan did murder Chincha, falsified the scene, and Wang Hub's warning became a reality.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > incident, Wang Shenhan bought Wang Hub with 2,000 silver, but this 2,000 silver is only the tip of the iceberg. </h1>
2,000 taels of silver, can a prefect bear the guilt of conspiring to kill Chincha, once such a felony is exposed, the execution of the family has no way to run, and only 2,000 taels of silver must be exchanged for the future and life of a prefect, think about it and know that it is impossible.
Behind this, Wang Shenhan and Wang Hub obviously have more interest exchanges and entanglements. Li Yuchang's investigation of the case is only the tip of the iceberg that has exposed many problems in Huai'an Province, and if Li Yuchang insists on investigating, the entire iceberg may be uprooted, and Wang Hub will inevitably be implicated.
Therefore, let Li Yuchang investigate, not Zha Wang Shenhan, but Zha Wang Hub himself, even if Wang Shenhan does not give silver, Wang Yi will collude with him and try his best to stop Li Yuchang.
Then again, although Wang Yi was a few grades higher than Wang Shenhan, he was only a prefect from Sipin, and the scope he could control was only Huai'an Province, even if he and Wang Shenhan and others joined forces, could he cover the sky with one hand?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > then we have to see what kind of officials there are above Wang Hub. </h1>
Tie Bao, the governor of Liangjiang, and Wang Rizhang, the governor of Jiangsu, were the direct leaders of Wang Hub.
Officials at this level, either local officials or feudal officials, hold real power and do not need to risk their own future in order to embezzle that little relief money.
But it is one thing to be a man, and it is another thing to be an official.
From Tie Bao to Wang Rizhang, what they have in common is that they are tired and confused.
Taking Tie Bao, the governor of Liangjiang, as an example, two years before li Yuchang's case, there was a poisoning and murder case in Shouzhou, Anhui Province. Originally, the case was closed according to the evidence that Eyunbu had been verified, and the defendant Zhang Dayou hired a lawyer to appeal, and Jiaqing specially ordered the case to be handed over to Tie Bao for review.
Tie bao calligraphy
Tie Bao was a great calligrapher, perhaps because he was too drunk to get out of his own calligraphy world, he did not personally examine it, but only sent the suzhou prefect Zhou Yi and the envoy Yu Chang to review it. Zhou Yi accepted bribes to overturn the case, but Tie Bao did not know anything about it, and also reported the case as a successful rehabilitation case, and asked for credit for the case-handling personnel.
Soon after the plaintiff appealed again, Jiaqing again handed the case over to Anhui Inspector Chu Pengling for review, overturned the overturning of the case by Zhou Yi and others, and insisted on the first-instance judgment.
In this case, Jiaqing was greatly disappointed by Tie Bao, and severely criticized it, "The case submitted for trial with a special purpose, that is, it is no different from Qin," but did not personally mention strict interrogation, and led the subordinates to draft the case according to the case, and repeated the shortcomings of Zhou Yi and other mixed feelings, and turned it to ordinary and real, which is really wrong," and dismissed Tie Bao from his post.
Tie Bao, who had already been punished, did not wake up because of this, and still had a vegetarian meal in his corpse, Li Yuchang was killed, and he did not strictly retry him, so he listened to the one-sided words of Wang Hub and others, and if it were not for Li Taiqing who dared to go to Beijing to seek justice and change into an ordinary family, an unjust case would be doomed.
A feudal official like Tie Bao is not attentive to handling cases and is incapable of handling the cases. The Liangjiang officialdom below him is also roughly similar, either cowardly and dimwitted, or bending the law for personal gain.
In the official field, Wang Yi and Wang Shenhan were of course very clear about these things, and the corruption of the officials in the official field and the incompetence of officials at all levels gave them the conditions to deceive and deceive and cross the sea.
The tired play of middle and high-level officials has shifted the actual operation of power from the top to the bottom. From the governor, the inspector to the prefect, these officials did not want to do things, did not have the ability to do things, or could only do bad things, so the actual operators of many things were transferred to the low-level officials, such as Wang Shenhan's county orders, and more scriveners below him, resulting in the expansion of the power of the low-level officials, wretchedness, and lawlessness.
Under the lust for profit, the low-level officials became more and more bold, and the repeated aggravation of crimes made them desperate and reckless, which eventually led to the murder of Li Yuchang, who refused to go along with the flow.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the crisis of the Qing Dynasty</h1>
Officials are like this, so what about the emperor, the situation in the Qing officialdom, and Jiaqing as an emperor, does not know anything? That's certainly not possible.
In the case of embezzlement of disaster relief funds, shanyang county is by no means the only one. In the same year, Baoli County, a province directly under the province, was also affected, and the imperial court allocated more than 40,000 yuan for disaster relief, which resulted in more than half of the corruption of Shan Zhangchang in Zhi County. Jiaqing had long been aware of this problem, and he issued an edict saying: "The victims of Baoli are close to being assisted, and they cannot yet ask for pensions, and the rest of the prefectures and counties are not credible." "That's why he sent someone to check the relief."
After the facts of the case came out, Jiaqing's handling was fierce and unrelenting.
This thunderous means did not exchange for the stability of the official field.
The emperor tried very hard, but Jiaqing's measures did not work, and the Qing dynasty's official rule continued to deteriorate as always.
Li Yuchang's case came to light in the spring of the fourteenth year of Jiaqing, and relevant officials at all levels were punished in the summer. At the end of the fourteenth year of Jiaqing, less than half a year ago, a "fake printing case" of officials of the Ministry of Works taking money and property by impersonating money broke out. The time of the fake printing case lasted from the end of Jiaqing eleven to the end of Jiaqing fourteen, and if it was not kicked by chance, it would continue. Its cause is also the slackness and laxity of officials in charge at all levels, which is the same as that of Tie Bao and others in the Li Yuchang case.
Jiaqing is not a dimwitted monarch, but in the face of institutional defects, he also does not have the ability and courage to reform, has the heart to rectify, but runs into a wall left and right, he said:
Today's great evils, in the practice of playing with the four words, although they have repeatedly admonished, their tongues are scorched, and the ministers have failed to understand them, and they have neglected to govern.
It can also be regarded as a true portrayal of his own heart.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > view of the courtyard</h1>
In fact, since the middle of the Qing Dynasty, official corruption and bribery have become a common practice, and it has almost become an open secret in the official field. The reason for this is that during the Jiaqing Daoguang dynasty, the national fortunes began to decline, the despotism and decay of the imperial power were magnified, and most of the officials who achieved success in this period were mediocre or greedy, and there was a crisis of official governance. This is the result of the lack of institutional selection and ability to select the best and the best of the fittest, and it is also the result of the lack of effective restraint and supervision of power.
If you want to go back further, you can trace it back to the late Qianlong period, plus the Jiaqing and Daoguang dynasties for more than half a century, in these sixty or seventy years, the Qing Dynasty not only missed the external technological revolution, but also because of the defects of the system, the crisis of the bureaucracy became more and more serious.
During this critical period of succession, the Qing Dynasty went all the way down, and the conservative ideas and corrupt systems accumulated deeply, but they could not make up their minds to carry out thorough reforms, and the chronic diseases could no longer be cured, as can be seen from the rule of officials in the Jia dao and the two dynasties.