Chapter 297: The Art of Case Files

"Governor, those hillbillies are acting recklessly in the city; you can't just ignore it!"

"That's right, Governor.

Look at how we are being bullied now.

To come and see you, we could only disguise ourselves as servants.

If this spreads, we will be laughed at by the whole world!"

A group of gentry in coarse clothes kept chanting in his ear, but Jia Xiaochen remained unmoved.

At first, he was truly ill; as the safety of Jinan City was guaranteed, the subsequent situation became pretending to be ill.

Pretending to be ill couldn't solve the problem, but selling misery could get sympathy points.

This Northern Barbarian invasion implicated many officials; the imperial court couldn't kill them all.

Mixing in officialdom, the most important thing is to assess the situation and know how to advance and retreat.

He had long ago submitted his resignation.

A bedridden Governor who took the initiative to resign didn't block anyone's way.

Everyone was mixing in the same circle; at a time like this, people usually wouldn't do things to the extreme.

As long as the situation in Shandong didn't further deteriorate and he found someone to operate in the court, there was still a chance to land safely.

"Cough, cough, cough...

You say you want to reward the Marquis of Wuyang?

That's no problem; let the Provincial Administration Commissioner and the Surveillance Commissioner handle it.

This old man's body is not good, so I won't get involved!

Cough, cough, cough..."

Jia Xiaochen's answer made everyone furious.

Outside, the investigation was strict; to complete this meeting, they had to walk from their mansions.

Everyone spent so much effort to barely complete the connection.

They had thought the Governor would come out of the mountains and lead everyone to confront the Marquis of Wuyang together.

Never did they expect that upon arriving, Jia Xiaochen not only didn't take the lead but also played a "read and reply randomly" game with them.

"Governor, it's not about rewarding!

The Surveillance Commissioner has been arrested by the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Those hillbillies..."

Before the old man could finish, Jia Xiaochen interrupted.

"You want to invite me to drink?"

"Forget it, this old man's body can't take the tossing.

Wait until next spring, we will find ten or eight girls, and we will gather again together.

Cough, cough, cough..."

Facing the random-replying Jia Xiaochen, everyone was helpless.

The Governor was unwilling to get involved, and they couldn't help the "bedridden" Jia Xiaochen come out to confront the Marquis of Wuyang.

With the Surveillance Commissioner arrested, the officials of the Shandong local government were all scared out of their wits.

Scholars meet soldiers; reason is unclear.

In normal times, they fought heaven and earth and fought their superiors, and could be fearless; that was because everyone followed the rules.

Now the Marquis of Wuyang was playing a new game that wasn't traditional civil official politics, but one with the army as the core.

As long as you didn't cooperate, it was "colluding with the Northern Barbarians," and you were arrested first.

There were few people in the Great Dayu officialdom who could withstand an investigation.

Once inside, they could always find some problems.

Lightly, they would lose their official position; heavily, their nine generations would be wiped out.

As the third-in-command, the Surveillance Commissioner was directly killed as a chicken.

Without the Governor taking the lead, other officials didn't dare to show their heads.

With local government offices not coming out, they could only take the field themselves to confront the Marquis of Wuyang.

Looking at each other, everyone's faces didn't look good.

In the past, when encountering such a thing of confronting an imperial envoy, they either incited the Kong family to come out or dragged the feudal princes into the water.

Now the situation was special.

The Kong family had just lost their head and also paid the price of the direct heir. For the sake of the Duke Yansheng title, the Kong family was fighting each other to the death internally.

At this critical moment, no one dared to show their head to offend the imperial court.

Even if the actions of the army to rescue the throne caused losses to the Kong family's interests, they could only endure it temporarily.

At the very least, before the imperial court enfeoffed the Duke Yansheng, they would be peaceful for a few days.

Don't even think about the feudal princes; the head of the imperial clans in the city, the Prince of De, was still a milk-drinking baby.

No matter how much they incited, it had no meaning.

The imperial court wouldn't believe a milk-drinking baby could stir up trouble; shifting the blame would only make people laugh.

Ending the unhappy meeting, as soon as they left the Governor's Office for less than 300 steps, they were caught by patrolling soldiers.

"What are you doing?"

Cao Guangyuan questioned sternly.

After a "pop" sound, blood flowed from the corner of his mouth.

The sudden change made the group of gentry representatives, who originally wanted to get angry, instantly regain rationality.

This group of soldiers in front of them were not local Shandong people and wouldn't give them any face at all.

"Take down this group of rebels!"

Following the order of the young general, the group of gentry representatives immediately became prisoners.

"General, it's a misunderstanding!

We are gentry in the city, not any rebels!

..."

The explanations of the crowd were met with a disdainful laugh from the soldiers.

"Don't try to bully me for being ignorant.

In the capital, I have seen many high-ranking officials and gentry.

Which one of them wasn't wearing silk and satin; when have they ever worn coarse clothes?

Now everyone is obeying the Governor's orders, staying at home to enjoy wealth; how could they be dressed like this?

I think you are clearly Northern Barbarian spies, deliberately mixing into the city, wanting to buy traitors.

While I'm in a good mood, hurry and confess honestly, otherwise, if you lose an arm or a leg later, don't blame me!"

Ye Hongchang mocked.

He naturally knew the identity and background of these people.

It was precisely because he knew that he came to arrest people.

Having confiscated their industries, both sides were destined to stand on opposite sides.

If he ignored it and let these guys continue to collude, God knows how much trouble they would stir up.

Now that these guys showed flaws, naturally he had to take advantage of the situation and strike first to make the case real.

Not acknowledging the identity of these people allowed them to be interrogated as Northern Barbarian spies.

Torture and forced confession were basic operations.

Even if someone died during the interrogation, it wasn't a big problem.

Once the identity of these people was acknowledged, the situation changed.

Not only was the procedure cumbersome, but there was also the unwritten rule in officialdom that punishment didn't reach the scholar-officials.

These people were local snakes; without using some means, it would be very difficult to produce evidence in a short time.

"You... insulting the literati!"

Cao Guangyuan endured the pain and cursed.

Among the group of arrested gentry, he was the unluckiest.

Now his belly was full of fire; many dirty words reached his lips, but he forcibly swallowed them back.

A gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall.

After reporting his family name was ineffective, in his view, this was a group of ignorant soldiers.

Encountering these people, no matter how you theorized, it was asking for trouble.

The best choice was to communicate with their superiors; those high-level generals absolutely wouldn't dare to treat them like this.

Deep in his heart, he had already thought of revenge methods.

Even if the confiscated money and goods weren't taken back, he would tear these ignorant soldiers into pieces.

The Capital.

The political aftermath brought by Nanjing's fall continued to impact this ancient empire.

"The battle report sent by Liaodong Town has been read by everyone.

My lords, what are your thoughts?"

The Yongning Emperor asked coldly.

If it hadn't happened, he would never have imagined that the people below would dare to fool him like this.

Just two days ago, Liaodong Town concocted a great victory.

The battle report claimed to have beheaded over a thousand Northern Barbarians, but the Ministry of War sent people to verify the heads, and not a single real barbarian was found.

Nakedly killing the innocent to claim credit, without even a little cover-up, was undoubtedly challenging imperial power.

"Your Majesty, this matter needs to be discussed at length.

Although the Northern Barbarian army has signs of withdrawing, they haven't left the empire's territory after all.

Liaodong Town has a thousand faults, but they still guarded the Liaodong defense line.

This grassland coalition invasion was mainly because of a problem with the Xuan-Da defense line.

The next main work of the imperial court in military affairs is to rebuild the Xuan-Da defense line as soon as possible.

As for the Liaodong line, maintain the status quo for now!

Wait until the imperial court handles the trouble in other areas before turning back to consider this problem."

Senior Grand Secretary Wan Junhui spoke first.

Deep in his heart, he also didn't like Liaodong Town.

If possible, he wished he could tear the Liaodong Commander Zhong Jingming into pieces.

This guy's messing around had forcibly created a major feudal town for the imperial court.

Being thorny to handle didn't mean it couldn't be handled.

Liaodong Town was thorny because the Liaodong military families were united.

As long as this group was disintegrated, the current predicament could be solved soon.

He might not be good at other things, but he was good at provoking internal contradictions.

Once the world was peaceful, in less than three years, he could dismember Liaodong Town.

"Letting them go so easily, where is the dignity of the imperial court?

If we don't kill the chicken to warn the monkey, more troops will follow suit in the future.

Perhaps other military towns don't have the strength of Liaodong Town, but it doesn't mean they can't handle the imperial court.

Once someone follows suit, the situation will soon get out of control.

Especially after the imperial court delegated power to local governors, we must be even more vigilant against feudal towns growing strong!"

Jing Guoliang opposed immediately.

There were many military groups in the Great Dayu, but generally, they could be divided into two factions.

One was the nobility faction, mainly based on traditional nobility, including hereditary military generals in local areas.

The other was the Nine Borders military families, mainly based on border military families, covering almost the entire border army system.

With the decline of the Guard system, the main military strength of the nobility faction was concentrated in the Capital Camp.

Facing the Nine Borders military families, they didn't have enough backbone to speak.

Nominally, both sides checked and balanced each other, but in reality, they had always been at a disadvantage.

Relying entirely on the ancestors' legacy, they could press them a notch in the court.

However, the Nine Borders military families were closely linked with civil officials, so the nobility faction could only occupy the advantage of name, and had always been at a disadvantage in the distribution of military expenditure resources.

Now the situation changed; the rise of the Liangguang faction allowed the nobility faction to have elites in local areas again.

Plus the strength of the Capital Camp, the military strength they possessed was not inferior to the Nine Borders military families.

But the military expenditure allocated to the nobility faction was not even a quarter of that of the Nine Borders military families.

The bulk of it was also taken by the Capital Camp.

The military expenditure of the nobility armed forces in local areas was mainly raised by local government offices, and the central fiscal allocation was negligible.

Contradictions had long been buried; now the system of the Nine Borders military families checking and balancing each other had collapsed, and the strength of Liaodong Town was almost equal to the sum of the other eight.

Being the only one strong was fine, but Liaodong Town's political performance was also failing.

From the emperor to the hundred officials, few had a good impression of them.

Including officials who participated in smuggling trade together, they also didn't like the out-of-control Liaodong Town.

Making money was making money, but it didn't affect them being "loyal officials" of the Great Dayu.

Nurturing bandits to bolster one's own power was fine, but one couldn't let the bandits truly grow strong, and even more so, couldn't collude with the bandits.

From the outbreak of the great war until now, the Northern Barbarian heads beheaded by Liaodong Town had just passed a hundred.

Such a battle record couldn't even rank in the army to rescue the throne.

If they couldn't directly take action against Liaodong Town, then cutting their military expenditure budget was always possible!

The imperial court's money and grain were only so much; if Liaodong Town took less, the nobility faction could take more.

Not expecting to be fifty-fifty with the border army, but increasing the allocation ratio was still something to fight for.

"The Duke of Cheng means that there are troops starting to follow suit.

May I ask which army is so lawless?"

Minister of War Wan Yuxuan bit the bullet and opened his mouth.

Supporting Liaodong Town was absolutely not his wish.

But reality forced him to take the lead.

For the Ministry of War, Liaodong Town was arrogant and unruly, and they could still handle it in logistics.

The military generals of the nobility faction truly didn't give the Ministry of War face.

With the rise of the nobility faction, many powers that the Ministry of War had snatched from the Chief Military Commission had now returned to the Chief Military Commission.

Looking at Jing Guoliang's active degree, one knew that now people had hard backbones.

Many topics that were originally discussed exclusively by civil officials were now also participated in by the nobility.

Tracing the source, it was all trouble caused by the late emperor appointing assistant ministers.

Other assistant ministers were all brought down by the Yongning Emperor, leaving only two nobles active in the court.

The late emperor's authorization allowed them to have the power to intervene in various affairs in the court.

So much so that many times, he, this Minister of War, lived very aggrieved.

The most typical was personnel appointment; local government offices submitted lists, and the Chief Military Commission quickly reviewed and reported to the emperor.

Many times, the Yongning Emperor signed the appointment, and he, this Minister of War, only then knew.

Without their obstruction, a large number of noble descendants were able to serve in the army and quickly reach high positions.

Breaking the rules for promotion became a routine operation.

"Isn't this obvious?

Ji Town has recently been very close to Liaodong Town; the two major military families are almost one family.

After being in contact for a long time, who can guarantee they won't be affected!

Especially some people in the court are still advocating merging Ji Town and Liaodong Town and setting up a unified Ji-Liao Commander.

Fortunately, the emperor is wise and didn't listen to these people's bewitchment, otherwise, the ones out of control now would be two towns!"

Jing Guoliang said with a smile.

True or false didn't matter; anyway, having signs was enough.

With the lesson from Liaodong Town, the imperial court certainly had to learn a lesson.

The argument started, and soon evolved into a factional strife mode.

With more and more officials joining, many hidden problems were exposed in mutual uncovering of old bottom lines.

"Enough!"

"I don't want to listen to you arguing!

Issue the decree, put Liaodong Commander Zhong Jingming in prison, and wait for disposal."

After speaking, the Yongning Emperor turned and left directly, leaving everyone looking at each other.

No one expected that the power struggle between the Chief Military Commission and the Ministry of War would cause this Liaodong Commander to fall.

Jinan City.

"Marquis, these are the messages confessed by the Northern Barbarian spies under torture.

I have already sent people to verify them; most of them are true!"

Li Mu applied eye drops with a straight face.

People were in prison; wanting to get a confession was truly too simple.

No matter what identity these people had before, the moment they were arrested and imprisoned, they became Northern Barbarian spies.

However, these people weren't wronged; they had indeed been in contact with Northern Barbarian spies.

It wasn't that they wanted to betray the Great Dayu, they were just doing business.

Some dirty goods looted by the Northern Barbarians, after being tossed by Jin merchants, arrived in their hands.

In the process of trading, many Northern Barbarian spies were mixed into the city.

Although they insisted they didn't know, the suspicion of colluding with the barbarians still existed.

As an official who judged by actions rather than intentions, Li Mu naturally added the content of covering up Northern Barbarian spies entering the city to the case file.

"These guys are truly lawless!

Just with their status, why would they collude with the Northern Barbarians?"

Glancing at the case file, the Marquis of Wuyang's face changed greatly.

Heaven knows, he really didn't want to play so big.

According to the content of the case file, there were few clean families among the gentry in Jinan City.

Taking action against so many people at once, even if he was the emperor's brother-in-law, his heart was drumming.

Yet the content of the case file was true.

Whether it was fencing for the Northern Barbarians or covering up Northern Barbarian spies entering the city, these were evidence of colluding with the barbarians.

Things had already happened; it wasn't just a sentence of not knowing that could wash away the charge.

"Marquis, benefits move people's hearts!"

"Although the Great Dayu has been established for more than two hundred years, there are still quite a few people who miss the Mongol Yuan.

No matter how well our dynasty treats the gentry, it can't compare to the degree of freedom the Mongol Yuan gave them.

If the Northern Barbarians made promises, some people who want to be Confucian households will naturally be moved."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 298 =====