In the officialdom of the Tang Empire, there were many corrupt officials, but everyone had a tacit understanding that some money could be appropriated, but some money should never be touched.
For example, disaster relief funds and military expenditures are both things that cannot be extended to others, but the Zhou family has.
Although Zhou Yibao discovered that his tribe was so audacious that he dared to reach out behind his back, he quickly took remedial measures.
But it was still useless. The person responsible for the investigation was not the Inspectorate, but Hantong. It only took Hantong a few days to figure out the whole story, and then submitted a report. Then Li Xuan personally ordered the Inspectorate to arrest people.
When the censor of the Inspectorate came to his door, he handed him a ledger, which listed the assets of the Zhou family. In addition to the legal income of more than one million taels of silver, including salaries, rewards, and business income, there were also When he illegally obtained three million taels of silver, he knew it was over!
After being captured, he begged to see the Holy Emperor.
The Procuratorate did not dare to make a decision and reported it to the Holy Emperor. After hearing this, the Holy Emperor Li Xuan agreed.
But after seeing him, she didn't say a word, her expression was as calm as if she hadn't seen him.
At this time, Zhou Yibao was kneeling on the ground, as if he had aged more than ten years in an instant. He begged: "Your Majesty, my loyalty can be learned from heaven and earth!"
"It would not be a pity for the guilty minister to die, but in view of the guilty minister's ten years of loyalty, I beg your majesty to allow me to leave a trace of blood in the Chen family!"
Li Xuan finally spoke at this time: "Yibao, if it weren't for your loyalty, you would have died long ago. But in this matter, you have gone too far!"
Zhou Yibao knew that if he died, the Zhou family would be completely finished, not in the ordinary sense, but in the kind of genocide.
There is no way, this time the matter is too big, even if the Holy Emperor Li Xuan does not want to kill him, the government and the public, especially the military, want him dead!
As a civil servant, he dared to take action on the military expenditures. This was already an offense against the military!
Military generals can embezzle military expenditures, but civilian officials are absolutely not allowed to get involved. This is not just a matter of corruption, but also involves the struggle between the military and the government.
Today, civilian officials can embezzle military expenditures, but tomorrow they can directly intervene in military expenditures?
The day after tomorrow, will we directly interfere with military personnel and even operations?
The military cannot tolerate this!
The disaster relief funds were just an inducement to tamper with the military's interests and cause a big trouble in the military-administrative dispute. This was the fundamental reason why Zhou Yibao had to die.
Eight active-duty generals from the Army and three active-duty generals from the Navy, a total of 11 active-duty generals, jointly submitted a letter demanding a strict investigation into Zhou Yibao's embezzlement of military expenditures.
This matter was so serious that even if Li Xuan took action himself, it would be impossible to suppress it.
Zhou Yibao knew very well the crisis he was facing. He could not escape, and neither could the entire Zhou family. However, he still begged Li Xuan to let him leave a trace of blood to the Zhou family!
"Before Conglong, the guilty minister was just a poor boy, alone and without care. After Conglong, thanks to His Majesty's appreciation, he achieved a little success and was able to get married and have children. The guilty minister did not dare to ask for more, and I only asked Your Majesty to stay. A trace of the sinner's blood!"
When Zhou Yibao said this, he obviously lost control of his emotions. As a senior official of the empire, he had seen countless storms. Zhou Yibao, who even dared to break into the enemy camp alone back then, lost control of his emotions at this time. He started crying!
"Seeing that the guilty minister has worked hard for more than ten years without any merit, please be merciful, Your Majesty!"
Li Xuan also sighed at this time!
To be honest, Li Xuan personally does not have any negative feelings towards Zhou Yibao. On the contrary, Li Xuan actually thinks that this person is a good subordinate, loyal and diligent in doing things. Even though he lacks ability and is a bit greedy for money, this money-grubbing official, even if
There are too many high-ranking officials, even Liu Bagou is indispensable for this kind of thing.
So Li Xuan didn’t take it seriously!
But we are all smart people, and we know what money we can hand out and what money we cannot.
Disaster relief funds and military expenditures are two things that cannot be extended. In the former, Li Xuan wants to kill people, and in the latter, a group of generals in the military want to kill people.
As for Zhou Yibao, unfortunately, he reached out to both. Although he said that the rest of the Zhou family also admitted that this was all done behind Zhou Yibao's back, only a ghost would believe it.
Without Zhou Yibao's acquiescence, how dare the Zhou family members be so bold? Let alone disaster relief funds, not even Liu Bagou dared to touch military expenses.
Fortunately for him, the family secretly set up several factories, including a quilt factory and a flour mill. Through Zhou Yibao's connections, he won over several people within the military, and then sold low-quality quilts and low-quality quilts for free to the military at high prices.
!
However, this year, a batch of low-quality uniforms were sent to the Ninth Army in the north. As a result, they were directly rejected by the Ninth Army, which was performing combat missions on the grasslands!
The Ninth Army refused to accept military supplies. This was a serious matter. The military was shocked and immediately launched a large-scale investigation!
The result was that Zhou Yibao was dug out.
As a result, eleven active generals of the navy and army, including Hao Bainian, Li Chunjing and other military leaders, jointly submitted a letter requesting severe punishment for Zhou Yibao!
This kind of joint petition actually targets not just Zhou Yibao, but the entire civil service class. To a certain extent, they are taking a huge political risk because of this kind of joint petition.
, it is easy for them to be jealous of the emperor. If one of them fails, Zhou Yibao will be destroyed, and they themselves will be in trouble.
But even so, they still signed a letter together!
It can be seen that this matter is very serious, so serious that the military bosses would not hesitate to make the emperor unhappy and put Zhou Yibao to death!
In military affairs, even matters such as corruption, civilian officials cannot be tolerated.
This goes against the political principle of separation of military and political affairs of the empire and infringes upon the interests of the military. The hell the military can do to make Zhou Yibao feel better!
Seeing Zhou Yibao crying, Li Xuan also sighed. After all, this was an old minister who had been with him for more than ten years. To be honest, he didn't want to see that the old minister who had followed him to conquer the country did not die well in the end.
But now, it is no longer a matter of intolerance, but a political issue!
Finally, he said: "Go back, I will make arrangements!"
Leaving a trace of blood for Zhou Yibao is not a big problem. Li Xuan is sure, but he can only leave a trace of blood. As for the rest of the Zhou family, they must die and there is no chance of being exiled!
They have enjoyed prosperity and wealth with Zhou Yibao for more than ten years. Now that Zhou Yibao has committed a crime, the Zhou family should not say anything about innocence.
What's more, Li Xuan also learned from Han Tong's investigation report that Zhou Yibao himself still didn't like to engage in corruption and the like. However, the several wives and concubines he married, the natal family behind them, and his own
All the cousins are greedy and use Zhou Yibao's name to make money.
How dare you call such a clansman innocent?
joke!
No one is innocent!
After getting permission from the Holy Emperor Li Xuan, Zhou Yibao stopped his out-of-control emotions and then withdrew!
On that day, the Zhou family was formally raided, and then the Supervisory Office reported Zhou Yibao's case to all officials, using terms such as serious corruption and perversion of the law, defiance of the emperor, and blatant defiance.
Subsequently, a public prosecution was launched against Zhou Yibao and related personnel involved in the case. It is worth noting that at the same time, more than a dozen officers were also prosecuted in the military court. A major general and more than a dozen school officers were involved in the case, and they were all sentenced.
He was executed and several people had their homes confiscated. These dozen people were basically military officers who were related to Zhou Yibao and played a certain role in the case.
The military would never tolerate this kind of bullying behavior, so the military court quickly made a ruling and then implemented it on the spot.
One night, the operatives arranged by Han Tong quietly picked up Zhou Yibao's youngest son from the prison.
Zhou Yibao personally handed over his nine-month-old son to the personnel who came to Hantong operations. At this time, he looked calm and did not even cry. There was only reluctance in his eyes.
After Zhou Yibao's youngest son was picked up, he was sent directly overseas under the arrangement of Hantong. After a series of transfers, the youngest son became an orphan whose parents both died and entered an orphanage in Zhejiang. As for his future
Han Tong does not intend to interfere in his life anymore.
Moreover, all files about him were directly erased. This Zhou Yibao's youngest son will become an ordinary person in the future and will have nothing to do with Zhou Yibao anymore.
This is Li Xuan's promise to Zhou Yibao and a reward for his loyalty over the past ten years!
That night, Zhou Yibao drank the wine brought by the secretary of the Secretariat and given by His Majesty, and left a self-incriminating letter of more than 50,000 words.
Subsequently, the Tang Dynasty Newspaper officially published the Zhou Yibao case, which was characterized from the beginning as an extremely egregious case of corruption and perversion of the law.
After Zhou Yibao died, the Zhou family was completely destroyed overnight!
Hundreds of clan members, including all the males of their relatives, were all sentenced. All the male members of the direct line were sentenced to death, and the minor males of the collateral clan and relatives were sentenced to prison or exile.
Some women and children with more serious crimes, including some of the female family members involved, were also sentenced to death. Women with relatively minor crimes were sentenced to prison, and some of the women and children implicated were exiled overseas.
In short, no one was missed!
If the previous cases only shocked the officials, then Zhou Yibao's case now makes them panic!
For a time, officials in the Tang Dynasty were talking about corruption!
And I don't know who spread the news, saying that Hantong's archives contained files on officials from all over the world, which recorded in detail all the criminal acts of officials.
Every official is afraid that it will be their turn next.
However, at this time, Li Xuan had already planned to suspend the official administration for rectification.
Thousands of officials were arrested, one of the ministers died, and three of the ministers died. It was enough for a rectification of officialdom. If it continued, I am afraid it would really shake the foundation of the empire.