Chapter 139 The case of the subordinate officers of the army (2)
The Tang Dynasty valued literary talents as well as martial arts. Most of its scholars were capable of both civil and military skills, and there was no trace of the effeminate ethos of other dynasties.
Therefore, since the establishment of the Tang Dynasty's martial arts exams in the Wu Dynasty, thousands of people have taken the exams every year, and there are also scholars who abandoned literature and followed martial arts.
Why do so many people participate in martial arts?
On the one hand, it was due to the customs of the Tang Dynasty, but on the other hand, it was also related to the speed of appointing officials and promotion channels.
Let's talk about the awarding of officials first. Unlike the civil and scientific examinations, once you pass the martial arts examination and become a Jinshi, the Ministry of War will immediately issue an official certificate to you.
If the elders of the family who are promoted to Jinshi in the martial arts are of the fifth rank or above, or are held by the three guards, then as Jinshi's rank, they can directly select and confer service officers.
As for promotion, the Tang Dynasty had a strong military and had many conflicts with neighboring countries. There were many wars won and few defeated. It was much easier to be promoted based on military merit than to be promoted in the civil service examination in the imperial court.
Therefore, many high-ranking officials in the court or aristocratic families prefer to let their children become generals through military examinations rather than becoming officials through the imperial examination.
While thinking about this, Zhou Jun looked at the results of the seventh test of the martial arts examination.
The so-called seven tests of martial arts are shooting, riding, carbine, rifle, talent, appearance, speech and weightlifting.
After briefly looking through the results of the seventh martial arts examination in the past two years, Zhou Jun found no problems.
Yuan Zai also said on the side: "I held up the book, cited it, checked the body, and marked it, and there were no mistakes or omissions."
Zhou Jun nodded. No wonder Jingzhao Mansion and Yushitai couldn't find any fraud after so many days of investigation.
Just looking at the documents and files, there is really nothing suspicious about it.
Yuan Zai breathed a sigh of relief at this time: "Since there are no mistakes or omissions, why not draft the closing legal documents now?"
Zhou Jun repeatedly looked through the examination results of each martial arts scholar, and always felt something was strange.
Pulling out a grade sheet, he first held it in his hand and weighed it, then raised it in the air to examine it carefully, and finally examined it against the sunlight.
Yuan Zai didn't know why and asked curiously: "What is Hengcai doing?"
Zhou Jun greeted: "Come and take a look."
Yuan Zai walked to Zhou Jun and took advantage of the sunshine to look at the performance papers. After a quick glance, he found no problems.
Zhou Jun asked him to take a closer look at the blank space between the Ming Kan and the Test Kan.
The martial arts examination achievement roll is divided into two panels, the left and right panels. The right panel is called the name panel, which contains the name, place of birth, origin, crime record, guarantee, fingerprints and other information of the martial arts examiner.
The left Kan is the test Kan, which contains test results and examiner's comments for shooting, riding shooting, carbine shooting, infantry shooting, talent and appearance, speech and weightlifting respectively.
And just between the left and right corners of the scroll in Zhou Jun's hand, Yuan Zai saw a faint gray line through the sunlight.
After looking at it for a long time, Yuan Zai guessed: "Is this... a wrinkle or a paper pattern?"
Zhou Jun: "How can the wrinkled paper pattern be so straight? And it runs throughout the entire score sheet?"
Yuan Zai: "Then what is this?"
Zhou Jun: “Have you ever heard of ‘cutting rolls and joining paper’?”
Yuan Zai looked confused.
Zhou Jun explained: "The ruler serves as a guide, and then a sharp edge is used to cut the scroll."
"A person who cheats will cut off his own name, then cut off the test screen of another successful candidate, and stick the two together."
"The old thing was replaced by another, but it became a new martial arts performance record."
"The result is that the person who cheated will get the status of the Jinshi of the red winner, and the red winner will fail the exam."
After hearing this, Yuan Zai opened his eyes wide and murmured: "There are still such methods of fraud in the world."
Zhou Jun didn't feel surprised when he saw Yuan Zai's stunned expression.
During the Tang Dynasty, few people knew about "cutting rolls and joining paper".
Because this method of cheating, according to historical records, should have originated in the Song Dynasty.
The imperial examination of the Song Dynasty first created the marking method of "blind names and transcripts", so "cutting the rolls and joining the paper" came into being.
This method of cheating truly reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty.
According to historical records, during the Kangxi period, there were so-called "paper collectors" who were engaged in imperial examination fraud, and they specialized in cutting rolls and paper for people, and charged a fee ranging from fifty taels to one thousand taels at a time.
The best paper-joining craftsman can even make the finished test paper look "flawless and natural."
Zhou Jun lowered his head and looked at the cut scroll again, sighing in his heart, he didn't expect to see this kind of cheating in the Tang Dynasty.
Moreover, although this man's craftsmanship cannot be called a master, it is still rare.
Yuan Zai came back to his senses, quickly took out the performance papers, faced the sun, and compared them one by one.
After some comparison, what the two of them didn't expect was that the number of cut papers for Tianbao's three-year martial arts examination alone was as high as twenty-four.
Yuan Zai spread out the twenty-four cut scrolls and carefully looked at the origins of each martial arts scholar. The more he looked at them, the more frightened he became. At the end, his body was shaking.
Among them, there are young men with meritorious deeds and noble families, as well as nephews and nephews from aristocratic families of the previous dynasty.
Without exception, they are all disciples of powerful families.
Yuan Zai looked at the familiar names, his hands and feet became cold, and he grabbed Zhou Jun's sleeve: "Erlang, I heard that this case...cannot be tried again!"
Seeing that Zhou Jun was still deep in thought, Yuan Zai quickly said: "If word of this gets out and the court is shaken, let alone your and my official career, I am afraid that both our heads will be in danger!"
Zhou Jun raised his head and said to Yuan Zai: "Gong Fu, please be considerate. Jun is not a reckless person. This matter is of great concern and it is not for you and me to decide. It is better to discuss it with Ji Luo."
Yuan Zai was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized: "Yes, yes, I will look for those two people right now!"
Soon after, Ji Wen and Luo Xishi came to the room and looked at the cut papers of the Quan test with mixed expressions.
Ji Wen was greedy for merit, but he was not stupid. He knew that the development trend of the case of officials under the Ministry of War was beyond his control, so he hesitated.
Luo Xishi looked at the cutting scroll and then looked at Zhou Jun, with a look of surprise on his face.
When Zhou Jun saw everyone gathered, he suggested: "Although we have seen through the method of cutting the scrolls, we still need to find the confessions of the offending officials."
Ji Wen touched his beard and said: "With this physical evidence, it will not be difficult to find confessions from the officials of the Ministry of War, but later..."
Several people in the room all looked troubled.
What to do next?
Zhou Jun pondered for a moment and then said: "The fraud in the military examination was originally exposed by the right prime minister. If you get a confession, you must be informed."
After Zhou Jun finished speaking, the other three people in the room all nodded in agreement.
Zhou Jun also made it clear in what he said. We are all low-ranking officials, insignificant people, and we don't have the ability to wade into such troubled waters.
Since it was Li Linfu who exposed the Ministry of War's crimes to the sage in the first place, it would be better to kick the ball back to him.
In this way, one is selling Li Linfu a favor, and the other is minimizing one's own risks.
Seeing that no one had any objections, the four men began to interrogate more than 60 subordinate officials in the Ministry of War.
No matter who you ask or you don’t know, among the more than sixty subordinate officials, eleven were actually involved in the case of cutting records.
Among these eleven people, there are those who are responsible for the records of the imperial examination, those who are responsible for holding the warehouse, and those who are responsible for verifying the identities of the candidates.
Zhou Jun used pulse detection and lie detection, coupled with the method of observing people's emotions, to extract from these people their superior officer, who was also the person behind this election fraud case - Xiao Chen, the head of the Ministry of War's Department of War.
Upon hearing this name, Zhou Jun was stunned for a moment.
Then he couldn't help but sigh in his heart, the world is really too small.
After getting the name of the main criminal and the confessions of the criminals, Ji Wen and Luo Xishi couldn't wait to leave Jingzhao Prison and go to Li Linfu's house.
Yuan Zai originally wanted to go with him, but after thinking for a moment, he decided to stay and wait for the news with Zhou Jun.
About half a day later, Ji Wen and Luo Xishi returned to Jingzhao Mansion Prison.
Seeing the difference in their expressions, Zhou Jun asked, "What did Prime Minister Li say?"
Ji Wen: "After Prime Minister Li saw the confession, he immediately issued a warrant and ordered us to go to Xiao Mansion to pick up the person."
Zhou Jun: “Where are the people?”
Luo Xishi said coldly: "Dead."
Zhou Jun was shocked and asked quickly: "Dead? Why did he die?"
Ji Wen: "Suicide by hanging from the beam."
Zhou Jun was stunned on the spot, unable to recover for a long time.
Ji Wen said bitterly: "Then Xiao Chen left a suicide note, saying that he was greedy for money and took bribes, so he ordered his men to do illegal things."
Yuan Zai and Zhou Jun looked at each other, disbelief written on their faces.
Ji Wen added: "When Prime Minister Li heard about this, he hurriedly entered the palace."
Yuan Zai rolled his eyes and said, "The main criminal committed suicide and the case can be closed."
Zhou Jun glanced at him and sighed.
Ten days later, the sage issued an edict.
Xiao Chen, the officer in charge of Quancao of the Ministry of War, was corrupt, perverted the law, committed fraud, and confiscated his family property. There were only a small number of people in the family. The male was an official slave and traveled two thousand miles, while the female was an official maid and worked as a farmer in a religious workshop.
The Ministry of War Quan Cao's criminal officials, a total of eleven people, were executed.
The Minister of War was responsible for inspection and was fined half a year's salary.