Qing Yao

Chapter 180 I took the beating for He Zhongtang!
Hitting a school official in public?!

Commander-in-Chief Kui dared to do what others wouldn't, because although he was a womanizer and had his general's office located in a brothel in Fuzhou, he was an extremely upright and honest official, one could say he was the most incorruptible official.

There wasn't another official in the entire Fujian bureaucracy who was more incorruptible than Commander-in-Chief Kui!

Lust and greed are not always compatible.

The former is merely a personal hobby, while the latter is illegal and disorderly.

As an honest official, Commander-in-Chief Kui hated two types of people most in his life.

First, there are corrupt officials; second, there are petty people.

In Commander-in-Chief Kui's eyes, Zhao Youlu was a villain, a typical villain!
He couldn't vent his anger without giving her a good beating.

Zhao An was startled and cried out: "No, I'm kowtowing to you, why are you hitting me for no reason?!"

"Whoo!"

Several Manchu soldiers rushed forward and pinned Zhao An to the ground before he could react, giving him no chance to resist.

"."

The officials present were all stunned by this scene, truly wondering what had gotten into the Fuzhou general who was passing through the area, that made him want to beat up the local school officials.

The salt inspector Zheng Bowen and Wu Desong, the head of the salt administration office, stared wide-eyed, but their expressions were clearly different.

The former was excited, truly excited, his eyes practically sparkling, just like a tabloid reporter in later generations who had uncovered a major news story.

The latter seemed completely clueless, and instinctively took two steps back, as if to say, "Don't splash me in the face!"

The first to react was Akdang'a, the salt commissioner of Lianghuai. He hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward and whispered to Kuilun, "General, Zhao Youlu is an academic official and a supervisor appointed by the court. Publicly punishing him with a cane would damage the court's reputation."

This is to repay the kindness of Committee Member Zhao for tipping him off.

"I intend to beat him in public; it would be a disgrace to the court not to do so!"

Commander-in-Chief Kui's view was completely different from that of Lord A. In the Commander-in-Chief's opinion, if the court did not punish such a villain, it would be a complete loss of face for the imperial court.

A mere seventh-rank school official, others dare not fight him, so how could a dignified first-rank Manchu general not dare to fight him?

"General, what exactly did Zhao Youlu do to make you so angry?"

Although not Zhao Youlu's direct superior, Prefect Fang, who initially hated Zhao Youlu, was unaware of what had happened, he instinctively wanted to plead for Zhao Youlu.

Although this young man was admitted to the Imperial Academy through donation, his actions at the prefectural school still played a positive role in local education.

Not long ago, he also gave 5,000 taels of silver from the tuition fees collected by the prefectural school to the prefectural government in the name of supporting local development. For both public and private reasons, he, as the prefect, had to plead for him.

Zhao Dehan, the commander-in-chief of the Yangzhou Green Standard Army and the guerrilla general of the military headquarters, had also eaten and drunk with Professor Zhao. At that time, he felt that Professor Zhao was a very good official, so he felt that this passing Fuzhou general was bullying people and not giving Yangzhou any face.

But the man was a Manchu general, and he, a third-rank Green Standard Army guerrilla general, was nothing in front of him. How could he dare to say anything?
Back when the Han army banners hadn't been introduced, he wasn't worth mentioning.

Standing there awkwardly, he was caught between pleading and not pleading.

Commander-in-Chief Kui gave a slight hum and asked Prefect Fang Weidian, "Is this the same Zhao Youlu who voluntarily paid one thousand taels of silver as a penalty?"

Lord Fang hesitated for a moment: "It is indeed this person."

"Then you made the right choice!"

Commander-in-Chief Kui was furious. He knew that the matter of paying a fine was a money-making scheme devised by Heshen, but he would have let it go as long as it wasn't excessive and was just a symbolic payment of a few dozen or a few hundred taels. Who would have thought that a lowly ninth-rank official would pay a thousand taels and be promoted five ranks by the Emperor?

As a result, Heshen and others made a big fuss about this matter, subtly implying to officials that the emperor would only be happy if they paid more "punishment money." They claimed that if the emperor was happy, the officials would be able to get away with any real crimes in the future. This forced officials in various provinces to pay more "punishment money."

In the Fujian officialdom where he was, that dog Governor Wu Lana paid 130,000 taels, while Naval Commander Huang Shijian paid 200,000 taels!
Where did the money come from?

It's all just the people's hard-earned money that's been plundered. That scoundrel Wulana, as governor, not only paid a huge sum of money himself, but he also openly threatened the officials in the lower counties to pay even more, and that anyone who refused to pay would be locked up by soldiers.

As a result, in order to raise the huge sum of money demanded by the governor-general, Fujian officials had no choice but to exploit the people in various ways, causing great harm to the people of Fujian.

Of all the officials in Fujian, only Commander-in-Chief Kui, the Fuzhou General, symbolically paid one hundred taels. When Wu Lana found out, he was naturally resentful, thinking that Kui Lun was not giving him face. So he wrote to the emperor saying that Commander-in-Chief Kui was spending his days visiting brothels and neglecting his duties.

Enraged, Commander-in-Chief Kui submitted a memorial exposing Wu Lana and his gang's corruption in Fujian.

The case went all the way to the emperor.

Then, for some reason, Quelen was ordered to return to the capital for questioning.

Quelen returned to the capital, and not Woolana; Quelen had a good reason for it.

It was Heshen who did it.

Because Heshen and Wulana were relatives.

While others feared Heshen, Kuilun was not; he was determined to fight to the bitter end.

I refuse to believe that the Emperor is truly senile and has handed over the Qing Dynasty to Heshen, the second emperor, to rule!

What he shouldn't have done was mention Zhao, the committee member who had done him a favor, in order to protect him. What Lord A said was: "This person should have some relationship with Grand Secretary He."

The result only fueled the commander-in-chief's rage: "We're beating up Heshen's dog!"

Many officials present heard these words, and they all turned pale and dared not speak.

Committee Member Zhao was indeed beaten.

Two Manchu soldiers held him down and publicly beat him twenty times with a rod.

After finishing the fight, Commander-in-Chief Kui didn't even glance at Zhao An, whose face was contorted in pain, and strode away.

With the general gone, Prefect Fang and the others had no choice but to follow, and no one dared to step forward and help Commissioner Zhao up.

After most of the people had left, someone kindly came over and helped Zhao An, who was lying on the ground in so much pain that he couldn't get up, to his feet.

It was Zheng Bowen, the Salt Commissioner.

"Master Zhao?"

Looking at Committee Member Zhao's face, which was covered in sweat from the pain, Imperial Censor Zheng felt quite sorry for him.

Zhao An leaned halfway against Imperial Censor Zheng, his cheek twitching as he gritted his teeth and asked, "What's Kuilun's surname?"

"Uh,"

Imperial Censor Zheng coughed lightly, "Lord Kui's surname is Wanyan."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Committee Member Zhao pointed at the city gate and shouted, "Wanyan Kuilun, I curse your ancestors!"

"."

Censor Zheng was embarrassed and didn't know how to respond, so he pretended not to hear it.

Zhao An was unwilling to accept this. He tightly gripped the hand of the Imperial Censor Zheng, who was supporting him, and said bitterly, "You saw what happened today, Lord Zheng. Wanyan Kuilun didn't hit me, Zhao Youlu. He hit Minister He! Minister He! Lord Zheng, you must speak to Minister He for me. We can't just let people bully us like this! Waaah!"

Feeling wronged, she burst into tears.

It's so heartbreaking.

(End of this chapter)