Chapter 146: The Earth-Shattering Corruption Case (Conclusion)

In the feudal era, regardless of the dynasty, the laws on paper were relatively complete.

But in actual practice, they were typically mere formalities, riddled with loopholes.

This was not strange, because the lawmakers and the enforcers were usually not the same group of people, and there was often an enormous gap in status between the two.

Legislating was relatively easy—a few literati could gather together and produce a statute. Of course, whether it was usable or effective was another matter!

Law enforcement, however, was an activity that required enormous expenditure. What was even more frightening was that it could not be accomplished in one stroke, but ran through every single day of the relevant agency's routine work.

These costs included but were not limited to time, money, manpower, and so forth.

Given the limited resources of law enforcement agencies, they could only try to minimize enforcement costs—otherwise, let alone getting anything done, the enforcers themselves might be worked to death within days by the high-intensity labor.

Specifically, one could understand it as follows:

As long as no major incident occurred, the relevant law enforcement departments would just muddle through.

For example, during the Sui and Tang dynasties, the Ministry of Justice had a very narrow scope of authority, limited only to exercising punitive power over commoners and officials of the seventh rank and below, but generally lacking the power to impose penalties. The power to impose penalties essentially belonged to the Court of Judicature and Revision, and oversight of mid-to-high-ranking officials fell under the "Chancellery" among the Three Departments.

Why was this so? Because the Ministry of Justice simply could not finish all its work, so it had to pass matters on to other departments!

In other words, when officials broke the law, they did not give a damn about the Ministry of Justice. Even when seeking connections to smooth things over, they had to go through the Court of Judicature and Revision.

Well, to sum up, the Ministry of Justice basically did not handle criminal law—it was merely a name without substance.

So what presentable responsibilities did the Ministry of Justice still have?

As a department within the Three Departments and Six Ministries whose status was even higher than that of the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Rites, what did the officials of the Ministry of Justice actually do? What powers did they have to uphold this department's standing?

The answer was simple: all manner of audits within the Great Tang.

Including but not limited to: internal and external tax levies, expenditures, salaries, public office funds, merit awards, confiscated goods and redemption payments, labor service assessments, outstanding debts, as well as military supplies, weaponry, grain procurement, and the income from military agricultural colonies.

The auditing and verification of all these items were the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice.

The Ministry of Justice was more like the "Audit Office" of Fang Chongyong's previous life, rather than a "Ministry of Justice" in the modern sense.

Never mind that on paper the Ministry of Justice appeared to oversee a great deal, with a whole host of specific regulations—it seemed very impressive, seemingly even more meticulous and comprehensive than the relevant departments of Fang Chongyong's previous life.

But in reality, these were nothing more than window dressing.

The "Audit Bureau" within the Ministry of Justice was specifically responsible for this auditing work, but how many people did this department have?

Only four Audit Bureau Directors, fourteen Audit Bureau Clerks, twenty-seven Record Clerks, one Accounting Clerk, and four Support Staff—fifty people in total.

The Great Tang was so vast, its territory spanning far more than ten thousand li. With just these fifty people, they were supposed to audit every relevant administrative report from across the entire Tang domain. Let alone humans, even if you replaced them with robots working day and night, they could only finish a drop in the ocean.

Moreover, these central government officials did not work long hours.

According to the explicit rules of the Tang officialdom (the unspoken rules would only be lazier), central officials had at least one-third of the year off. The Tang economy was at its feudal-era peak, and the myriad affairs requiring audit were as numerous as hairs on an ox. Even if these few people did nothing but count the page numbers of audit documents, they probably still could not finish.

No computers, no calculators, no overtime at night, combined with the work efficiency of the feudal era.

You could figure out with your toes just how massive the skulduggery was!

It was a classic case of a system that "looked beautiful" but was in fact completely useless.

So the real daily business of the Audit Bureau was simply to glance over the summary ledgers sent up from the various prefectures or military governorates. If there were no problems, they would tick it off and be done. After work, they would go drinking with colleagues, visit the brothels of Pingkong Ward, and vent the frustrations of the workday on the pale, luscious bodies of the Hu girls.

That was about it. The work could never be finished, so one's health was more important.

Yet at this very moment, in the Ministry of Justice yamen, on the desk of the Minister of Justice, sat a report from Liu Yan, a Director of the Audit Bureau. The sky had already grown dim, and Zhang Jun, the Minister of Justice, was reading through this document written by Liu Yan by candlelight.

Zhang Jun was the son of the famous Tang chancellor Zhang Shuo, skilled at writing, but utterly ignorant of mathematics and auditing! Zhang Jun had once belonged to Zhang Jiuling's faction; Zhang Jiuling was Zhang Shuo's student; Yuwen Rong was Zhang Shuo's political rival; and Li Linfu had received enormous favors from Yuwen Rong in the past.

So naturally, this line of inherited relationships had survived the great factional purge of a few years ago, and now Zhang Jun and Li Linfu were at daggers drawn in the court. He had, unsurprisingly, sought the protection of Left Chancellor Zhang Shougui!

They were effectively allies!

Liu Yan was considered an official of outstanding professional ability within the Ministry of Justice, and was moreover the "child prodigy" personally handpicked by Li Longji back in the day. Zhang Jun did not dare take Liu Yan's audit report lightly, yet he could not quite understand what the other man had written, so he had been agonizing over it.

Fortunately, although he had not understood the process, Zhang Jun had at least grasped the conclusion.

The final sentence in Liu Yan's report stated bluntly: the economic data reported to the court over the past four years by the five prefectures under the Hexi Military Governorate was, in all likelihood, largely fabricated—it was just that the accounts had been made to look presentable, with very few flaws.

He was certain that four of the prefectures had absolutely submitted false data. Only Shazhou had no detectable flaws for the time being, but since all the other prefectures under the same military governorate had problems, Shazhou's figures must necessarily be false as well.

A nest of corruption—those who understand, understand. Even if there were white sand mixed in among the black sand, it was very hard to keep oneself clean.

Liu Yan believed: the person who had prepared these accounts in Shazhou was absolutely a local official of exceptional professional ability. He recommended this person to Minister of Justice Zhang Jun, saying it was a pity for someone of his talent to be stuck in the provinces as a non-rotating official fabricating accounts. He should come to the Ministry of Justice for an interview, and if he passed, he could be promoted with an exception to the rules.

As for the criminal matters on this person's record, that was not Liu Yan's concern. He only offered "professional advice."

As for the court having sent people to verify and finding no problems with the Hexi treasury, with no false reporting—that was perhaps because... the prosperity of the Hexi region had far exceeded the court's expectations and even the false figures they had submitted!

The local authorities had deliberately underreported, not overreported. Past audits had been so sloppy that they had overlooked this point.

Liu Yan's report was "technical" in nature; it did not say anything about what the officials in Hexi were actually like. He merely stated that the data submitted from Hexi over the past four years was false. Everything else was for Minister of Justice Zhang Jun to decide.

However, as a veteran bureaucrat, Zhang Jun naturally guessed at some of the underlying truth.

If the granaries had no grain but were reported as full, that would of course be easy to detect—just send professionals to pry open the granary cellars one by one and take a look. As long as the granaries were empty, no matter how the local officials tried to cover it up, it would not work; the only option would be to bribe the inspecting officials.

But if the granaries were clearly piled full of grain, yet they reported having no grain for famine relief, that would not be so easy to uncover.

Because that grain could easily be transferred elsewhere!

The officials sent from Chang'an to inspect Hexi could not possibly search house by house, and it was all too easy for the local authorities to pull off some sleight of hand. Nor could one rule out the possibility that they had bribed the officials dispatched from Chang'an to conduct the inspection.

This kind of "reverse operation" was highly deceptive.

Of course, if the local area was clearly prosperous yet cried poverty to the court, there was only one reason:

The local officials did not want to pay more taxes to the court, and instead pocketed the surplus for themselves. They had no desire whatsoever to report the real figures and use them as political achievements for their own promotion.

They felt that stuffing real silver and gold into their own pockets was far more satisfying.

Drawing conclusions like this was not something that Liu Yan, as a Director of the Audit Bureau, should be handling. Liu Yan was very mindful of his place as an official. He said what he ought to say, and what he should not say, he left to his immediate superior, Minister of Justice Zhang Jun.

If Zhang Jun said the local authorities in Hexi had no problems, then there were no problems. If something went wrong and the emperor asked about it later, Liu Yan could simply produce this report and be absolved of responsibility. The one in trouble would be Zhang Jun.

If Zhang Jun said there were problems, then this would be a major case! So major that even Zhang Jun himself might not be able to contain it!

Because over the past three years, the data from Hexi had been submitted and the Ministry of Justice had long since approved it through audit.

Liu Yan was a newly promoted official who had only been elevated this year from the post of Magistrate of Xia County to serve in the Ministry of Justice. The problems of the Hexi Military Governorate had not been detected by the Ministry of Justice before, but this year Liu Yan had found them—what did that imply?

The past audit reports had all been personally signed off by Zhang Jun himself! As the head of the Ministry of Justice, his responsibility was enormous!

A major case had blown open; losing face was a small matter, but it was very likely to hand his political rival Li Linfu a handle against him. His position as Minister of Justice would naturally be untenable, and then things would be truly dire.

Zhang Jun rested his fingers on Liu Yan's report, tapping it, his heart filled with indecision—should he sign his name to it and write down his recommendation or not?

He summoned a trusted minor official from the Ministry of Justice and sent him hurrying to the Zhengshi Hall of the Menxia Province to find Left Chancellor Zhang Shougui, telling him to rent a room in some brothel in Pingkan Ward tonight so the two of them could properly discuss this matter.

Zhang Jun smelled the scent of an approaching storm.

……

In the dispensary of a certain medical hall within Liangzhou City, Medical Official Li saw his adopted daughter Anaye, from whom he had heard no word for years and had only scattered rumors. Finding that her attitude toward him seemed unchanged, Medical Official Li's anxious heart slowly settled.

He knew that Fang Chongyong had not told Anaye's origins to this naive girl who had now grown into a young woman.

Looking at the irrepressible flush of spring on Anaye's fair little face, the scattered red kiss marks on her neck, and her figure that had grown bewitchingly alluring, Medical Official Li sighed helplessly and asked, "When did it start?"

"When did what start?"

Anaye asked in confusion, startled for a moment.

Then it dawned on her. Her eyes darted, and she lowered her head somewhat embarrassedly, saying nothing more.

If they were talking about when the two of them started hugging, cuddling, and kissing, that had begun long ago—nearly two years now by reckoning. But as for the intimate relations between a man and a woman, she was still a maiden and had not yet begun.

So Anaye did not know how to answer her father Medical Official Li's question—she couldn't exactly say that nothing at all had happened between her and Fang Chongyong, could she?

Nowadays, whenever the two of them were together, what day went by without cuddling and kissing?

"Has he been treating you well? How did you have time to come see me this time?"

Medical Official Li asked with mild displeasure.

In Shazhou, Anaye essentially enjoyed the treatment of an "Inspector's wife." With Fang Chongyong's local prestige, where one call brought a hundred responses, she ordinarily had whatever she wanted. Being so content she forgot about home, she of course had no desire to return to Liangzhou to visit her old father.

Besides, Fang Chongyong had a great many matters to attend to every day and needed a careful woman by his side to look after his daily life. Anaye felt she could not leave him even for a moment.

Thinking back on it now, the two of them were a pair of ingrates who had indeed treated Medical Official Li, who had raised Anaye since childhood, quite unfairly.

"Alang has been very good to me. Mm, very good. Father, you needn't worry."

Anaye said softly, like a child who had done something wrong.

"You two are so busy every day—how did you find time to come see this old man? I hear your medical skills are quite renowned in Shazhou, and you've seen many patients. You must have very little free time."

Medical Official Li asked in puzzlement.

In truth, Fang Chongyong's reputation in Hexi over these years had become thunderous. As Anaye's adoptive father, Medical Official Li had basked in the reflected glory, receiving the Hexi Jiedushi Office's all-around care and living quite comfortably.

Medical Official Li knew full well the enormity of Fang Chongyong's influence in Hexi—it could almost be described as reaching the heavens with his hands and eyes—so he was deeply worried about Anaye falling out of favor.

A woman finding a man who is too timid is certainly no good, but finding one who is too formidable is no good either—without some skill, she truly cannot hold on to him.

"Uh, this time, Alang ran into some matters. The Hexi Jiedushi had urgent business and sent him to Liangzhou on official duties. To look after his daily needs, I came along to Liangzhou, and took the opportunity to visit Father."

Anaye answered honestly, nearly angering Medical Official Li half to death.

This child Anaye had been honest enough since she was little, and she was still the same grown up—she didn't even know how to lie!

Would it kill her to say she came specifically to visit!

"In the battle four years ago, I was in Liangzhou providing wound medicine for the border army. When I learned that Shazhou was besieged, Suzhou and Guazhou were occupied by the Tibetans, and communications with Shazhou were cut off, I was constantly worried about your safety."

"Only later did I learn that Fang Chongyong led troops to independently lift the siege of Shazhou, and sent soldiers to intercept and kill the retreating Tibetans, yet in the end received no commendation at all."

"He is truly too much like your father!"

Medical Official Li couldn't help but let it slip.

Anaye covered her mouth and laughed loudly, "Father, go ahead and boast all you like. I won't laugh at you. How could you possibly compare to my Alang?"

"Hmph, your father, back in the day when I went into battle to kill Tibetans, was also quite brave, you know! How could I not compare to Fang Chongyong, who in those days couldn't even hold a blade steady—a mere whelp!"

Medical Official Li argued forcefully, his face flushed red!

The conversation between Anaye and her adoptive father Medical Official Li was casual and warm; the dispensary was filled with a relaxed atmosphere.

But in the Hexi Jiedushi's study, the atmosphere was so tense it was about to explode. Everyone could only hear the sound of their own heartbeat.

Including the Hexi Jiedushi Wang Chui, all the officials of the Hexi Jiedushi Office were watching Fang Chongyong, who was reviewing the office's ledgers at the desk. Everyone wanted to open their mouths to ask, yet feared interrupting his train of thought.

"These years, the audit ledgers submitted to the court do indeed have serious problems. They were done too sloppily and must be redone."

"As for the specifics of how to proceed, let Jiedushi Wang handle it."

"But one thing must be certain: this matter requires pushing out a scapegoat to bear all the blame. Moreover, this person must know the ins and outs of these figures, so that when interrogated by Ministry of Justice officials, they can answer fluently."

"That way, this matter can be glossed over. After all, the Sage will not concern himself with right and wrong."

Setting down the ledgers, Fang Chongyong sighed and spoke.

These feudal bureaucrats were not soft-handed when it came to taking money, but damn it, their forgery was far too sloppy—they lacked any professional competence whatsoever!

Once a professional conducted a careful and thorough review, they would certainly be able to spot the clues.

As the Inspector of Shazhou, all the local data falsification was personally handled by Fang Chongyong himself—writing the reports, carefully calculating, extrapolating the false as if it were real, never delegating to anyone else's hands.

This is what you call: the most falsely reported, yet the most authentically done!

"Yang Yan, you step forward and take the blame. Your family will be well taken care of by the Hexi Jiedushi Office."

Wang Chui pointed at a local official in his early twenties and said. This man wore a green official robe without even a pattern on it—he was not even a regular appointed official!

Of course, for a matter this enormous, the result of taking the blame was basically to set off on the road to the afterlife happily and directly, without even needing to go to prison.

"Jiedushi Wang, why me? I said before that there were problems with the Jiedushi Office's documents this year. It was because you all were lazy and didn't listen that things went wrong now. But this isn't my responsibility—why should I step forward and bear the blame..."

This minor official named Yang Yan was about to force a defense, but heard Wang Chui brutally interrupt:

"Is this something you can refuse! What status do you have? Do you think you're Lord Fang? Do you even qualify to refuse?"

"Lord Fang is willing to find solutions for us without even taking money. When everyone was splitting the money back then, how come we didn't see you refuse?"

Hearing these words, Yang Yan said no more—this was his fatal weakness. Hot money was not so easy to take, and this demonstrated Fang Chongyong's foresight. Yang Yan had always regarded Fang Chongyong as his number one idol, believing that given time, he too could achieve what Fang Chongyong had.

Without money, even a hero is brought to his knees.

Who these days isn't dragging along a family? Without the extra "salary" provided by the Shazhou merchant caravans, he would have found it hard even to feed his family.

"Yang Yan, resign your post first. The Hexi Jiedushi Office will say you were only temporarily hired by the office and had long since stopped working there. Then follow me to Chang'an and work by my side. I'll cover this matter up for you."

Fang Chongyong looked at Yang Yan, smiling and nodding as he spoke.

Seeing Yang Yan dazed, Wang Yin kicked him in the back of the knee, and he knelt down following the force.

"What kind of conduct! Envoy Fang is saving your life, yet you don't give thanks!"

"You don't want to live, but we still want to live! Do you know how serious this is, you idiot!"

West River Military Commissioner Wang Yin pointed at the kneeling Yang Yan and shouted a tirade.

"Thank you, Envoy Fang, thank you, Envoy Fang."

Yang Yan hurriedly knelt and kowtowed, so angry his teeth were about to break.

In his view, everyone in the room except him and Fang Chongyong is a bunch of idiots!

Asking for votes, today is the last day of the month.

(End of chapter)