The officials in the prefecture were a little confused when they heard what the governor said. Could it be that the governor was not here to hold them accountable for colluding with the bandits, but to raise donations for His Highness the King of Han?
Nowadays, almost all of them in Weizhou, from the governor to the petty officials, have had contact with the gangsters in Weizhou. The new governor has three things to do when he takes office. The newly appointed governor can kill the original governor to set an example and treat it as a threat.
their deterrence.
As the saying goes, the law does not punish everyone, if all of them are killed, who will govern Weizhou?
The governor's current actions should be to reduce big things to trivial matters.
As long as they donate some symbolically to the governor, the matter should be over.
Weizhou Sima tentatively stepped forward, looked at Su Jiyuan and cupped his hands and said: "The governor is worried about the people of Weizhou, and I admire him. I am willing to donate three thousand taels to build bridges and roads for the people of Weizhou."
When Su Jiyuan heard the words of Weizhou Sima, there was a look of sincerity in his eyes: "Three thousand taels? Can you add more? The people of Weizhou are suffering. As an official of the imperial court and the parents of the people, we should try our best to benefit the people.
yes."
When Weizhou Sima heard what Su Jiyuan said, he said: "When the governor spoke, the subordinates did not dare to disobey, so the subordinates added an additional five hundred taels to the people of Weizhou."
Weizhou Sima has been plundering the people's wealth in recent years, and he has also colluded with the bandits to collect the bandits' annual payment. His family is rich, and tens of thousands of liang can be used to extract 3,500 taels. Naturally, it is not a problem, but he still gives in.
Weizhou Sima felt a sudden pain in his body.
What’s not good to buy with three thousand five hundred taels?
What is the difference between donating to these untouchables and wasting money in vain?
Su Jiyuan looked at Weizhou Sima and asked, "Is it true that Master Sima won't add more?"
Weizhou Sima said: "I'd like to inform you, the Governor, that I spent all my property to get 3,500 taels. I'm afraid I won't be able to get any more."
Su Jiyuan nodded, sat behind the desk, and waved his hand.
Two of the shadow guards behind Su Jiyuan immediately came out. They immediately drew their swords and beheaded Weizhou Sima on the spot.
All the civil and military officials present could not help but shrink back in fear when they saw this scene. Weizhou Sima, the highest official second only to the governor Biejia, did not notify the imperial court to remove his title, nor inform the Yushitai to thoroughly investigate his crimes.
Being beheaded on the spot like this?
Where does this governor place the law?
Su Jiyuan unhurriedly found a few pieces of paper from a pile of papers on the desk, coughed and said: "Comrades, don't be nervous, you just like to forget things when you get older, this Lord Sima came out
Only then did I suddenly remember that this Lord Sima had colluded with bandits and bandits, and had also embezzled the money allocated by the imperial court to Weizhou to restore people's livelihood. It was His Majesty's wish to rectify the law on the spot, and I did not think that this person
Lord Sima’s donation is too small, so don’t think too much about it, I definitely don’t mean it, just do what you can according to your family’s conditions.”
After giving instructions to the officials, Su Jiyuan opened his mouth and said to the shadow guard behind him: "Your Majesty has an order to raid Sima's mansion in the state, confiscate his bank and property, and transfer the men to the army and the women to the Jiaofang Department. After accounting in the past few days,
This state Sima made a total of more than 76,000 taels of illegal profit during his term in office. This is the amount that I can find out, so the actual number of copies must be more. If you can't find 80,000 taels, let me ask you.
"
A shadow guard behind Su Jiyuan immediately took the order and walked out, starting to lead people to ransack the house.
At this time, Su Jiyuan was in a very comfortable mood. He had no good impression of the official position of Sima to begin with. Not only did he have no favorable impression, but he also disliked it extremely.
In the past, as a county magistrate, it was natural that he could not offend Sima, but now let alone one Sima, ten Sima will be killed for you.
Seeing this scene, all the officials in the state government finally understood what the governor wanted to do.
The governor did not want to let them have their way at all, and just let bygones be bygones with the mentality that the law should not be blamed.
The governor was clearly testing them!
On the surface it looks like donating money, but in fact I just want you to hand over all the money you have spent on corruption.
If you hand over the money, you may be able to forget the blame, but if you don't hand over the money, you will definitely die!
Weizhou Sima just now is a living example!
Now many officials in Weizhou finally started to be afraid and started to pay.
Officials in the prefectural government took out tens of thousands of taels of silver, and some of the remaining county magistrates even took out tens of thousands of taels of silver.
They didn't dare to give anything less. The thick stack of paper on the governor's desk showed that the governor must have evidence of their collusion with the bandits and the amount of money they had stolen.
If what comes out is different from what is on the governor's desk, they will definitely finish the game!
Fortunately, Weizhou is a relatively poor place and there are not many entertainment facilities. Even if they are greedy for money and live in a remote area, they have no place to spend it. They can only spend it after they retire.
Therefore, most of the money is still in his own hands. Otherwise, if he cannot hand over his money, he may have to hand over his own head just like Zhou Sima.
In fact, what they didn't expect was that they were right about one thing. At present, the new Jinshi has not yet come down. It is impossible for Su Jiyuan to replace all the officials in Weizhou at this time. Even if he wants to replace one state after he comes down,
That's a fantasy for officials.
It is true that the law does not punish the public.
Su Jiyuan couldn't pull them all out and kill them.
Therefore, under Xu Qing's suggestion, Su Jiyuan adopted this compromise method and asked them to consciously hand over the money.
This method was also used by the wise king, but he searched for them one by one to save some face for the officials.
Now Su Jiyuan didn't have the time to find them one by one, so he just served them all in one pot.
But who knew these officials were so dishonest.
You have to kill someone to understand what you mean.
Really, as expected, life in Weizhou was so comfortable that it made them forget what the cruel officialdom was.
This method is somewhat similar to the crime silver system. You pay the money to avoid your sin.
But there is still a fundamental difference.
The criminal silver system, where people are exempted from crime if they give money, can be said to have laid a huge hidden danger for the court. The privileges of the rich are getting bigger and bigger, and those who have no money have no human rights.
Su Jiyuan's method is different. If you hand over your money, you will not be exempted from the crime legally. Your charges and the evidence to prove your charges still exist.
I have put aside the pursuit for the time being, but I can dig out the file at any time and start settling the score with you again.
You just won a chance to survive temporarily.
These officials have to pay the money obediently, because if you don't pay, you will die now!
These officials in Weizhou, big and small, can all tell the difference between what is light and what is important!