Qing Yao

Chapter 229 Capturing Emperor Qianlong Alive and Heshen Alive

To put it simply, if we were to describe the proportion of those "fish in the mud" who were caught and sent to the prefectural school, at least 80% of them had original sins.

The crimes referred to here are pornography, gambling, and drugs.

The Qing Dynasty allowed the brothel industry to be legal, but stipulated that officials could not go there, so those who were officials could use this to their advantage.

What ordinary people fear most when faced with this situation is losing face.

The issue of face is not only at the heart of many events, but also a means of resolving them.

Those who know what's good for them will pay up and leave, while those who don't will have to notify their workplace and family, which will definitely cause them a lot of trouble. If word gets out, their relatives, friends, and neighbors will also feel very embarrassed.

In other words, Zhao An did not really want to rectify officialdom; if investigated seriously, it is certain that a considerable number of these "fish in the mud" were officials receiving government salaries.

However, the fines imposed on those who are "caught in the crossfire" are quite humane; they are only a few taels of silver, not extortion, but mainly serve as a warning.

Director Tong tallied up the money and found that it totaled just over seven hundred taels of silver. For Zhao An, who was determined to dig deep into the pockets of the gang members, he was too lazy to put the money into his own pocket. Instead, he told Director Tong to use the money to buy wine and food at various restaurants and eateries in the city to reward the Green Standard Army officers and soldiers who participated in the arrest operation.

They really looked down on this little bit of silver, because Chen Gong's personal illegal gains alone amounted to at least 100,000 taels, and the cash of the several bosses plus the value of their properties were conservatively estimated to be over a million taels.

After deducting what was handed over to the old master and what was divided among others, Zhao An would at least pocket 100,000 taels.

This was only a targeted crackdown on a few notorious gang leaders. If all the criminal gangs in Yangzhou were to be dealt with, the actual profits would likely be several times greater.

Zhao An simply didn't have the time for indiscriminate attacks, nor did he have an excuse to strike at non-Cao Gang factions. He couldn't very well accuse them of rebellion.

After dealing with the "collateral damage," what remains are the members of the criminal gangs who could be labeled as traitors at any time; there are currently more than 600 of them in custody.

Aside from the more than thirty people killed in the incense hall and the more than twenty people killed during the arrest, Zhao An still needs at least forty key members of the rebellion, which means he needs forty more heads.

Ding Jiu and An Shun are currently working on a detailed list, mainly consisting of key figures under Chen Gong and Wei Hai. Once these people are eliminated, the remaining henchmen will scatter and won't be able to cause any trouble.

Zhao An's current trouble is how to turn this major treason case, which involves many members of the Grand Canal Gang, into an ironclad case.

Not only must it be solid enough, but it must also be reliable enough, so that if the relevant case files are submitted and the Ministry of Justice or the Censorate find something wrong, they will send an investigation team to thoroughly investigate.

In that case, Zhao An would either have to spend a lot of money to bribe the investigation team, or he would have to run away.

There's no way around it; this case was fabricated out of thin air and can't withstand scrutiny.

Just then, Old Ding came over.

Upon hearing his grandson-in-law's words, Old Ding laughed: "Have you heard of the Li Ziping case in Anhui?"

Zhao An asked, puzzled, "Who is Li Ziping?"

Old Ding chuckled and said that Li Ziping was just an ordinary villager who was delivering the funeral list for his neighbor's family when the neighbor died. As a result, he was detained by local soldiers on the way, and the list was falsely accused by the local military commander of being a list of rebels. As a result, more than 170 innocent people were beheaded without any verification.

"This case is so simple, you could find out the truth just by asking any two of the parties involved. Guess how it ended up? All the local officials involved in handling the case were promoted and given higher ranks. Those 170-plus innocent villagers died in vain. Not only did no one in the imperial court suspect anything, but even the provincial and prefectural governments insisted that it was an ironclad case!"

How did Lao Ding know about this case? The local magistrate was his classmate, and the two had been corresponding.

The county magistrate knew the case was a miscarriage of justice, but unable to change the outcome, he resigned and returned to his hometown in despair. He was a man of conscience. But these days, the more conscientious an official is, the more unfortunate they become!

"Back then, Yongchang, the governor of Huguang, wanted to curry favor, so he labeled Ma Chaozhu and his gang, who sold fake imperial edicts, as rebels who opposed the Qing and sought to restore the Ming. He forcibly sent troops to surround and kill more than 2,000 innocent villagers, and even slaughtered more than 200 members of Ma Chaozhu's family. Afterwards, the county magistrate who insisted that Ma Chaozhu and his gang were just swindling money was beheaded by imperial decree, and the governor of Jiangxi, Echang, who claimed that Ma Chaozhu and his gang were innocent, was also ordered to be executed by imperial decree."

What does Lao Ding mean by these two major treason cases?
In other words, the treason case that my grandson-in-law is currently involved in is nothing compared to these two cases!

If you can silence all the officials in Yangzhou, the evidence in this case will be irrefutable.

Even if some people in the capital have doubts, there is no need to worry, because the emperor's attitude is very clear: he wants to teach the disobedient grain transport gang a lesson.

As long as you're fighting the Grand Canal gangs, it doesn't matter who you're fighting.

Zhao An nodded. Old Ding had hit the nail on the head. No matter what he did, it would eventually get approved by the old man.

But he still decided to make the case more realistic.

A rebellion must have a program, an organization, and details.

As for the program, Zhao An had already prepared it, which involved taking a yellow document embroidered with the words "Under the rule of mountains and rivers, bringing peace to the world, receiving the mandate of heaven, and enjoying eternal fortune and prosperity" from the home of the murdered Chen Gong.

They also confiscated hundreds of pieces of military equipment, several hundred kilograms of sulfur (raw material for gunpowder), more than a dozen muskets and matchlock guns, one set of iron armor, and more than thirty sets of cotton armor from some people's homes.

These things are real; they weren't just made up by Zhao An. They were spoils of war seized by Xu Lin when he led his men to attack the canal garrison, which he then used to frame and conceal the truth.

"This Lord Chen calls himself the Heavenly King, and Wei Hai, Yu Qi and others call themselves the Kings of the East, West, South and North. There are also things like the Heavenly Official and the Earthly Official, etc. They have agreed to start an uprising on the fifteenth of August next year. What do you think, Grandfather?"

Good heavens, Zhao An directly transplanted the organizational system of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Why start the uprising on the fifteenth of August next year? Because there was a folk rumor that eating mooncakes on the fifteenth of August would lead to the killing of the Tartars.

Old Ding praised, "That's right. This ignorant child presumptuously calls himself king. With this title, what need is there for any heavenly or earthly officials? No one will doubt him."

As for the details, they naturally come from the testimonies of the relevant personnel.

To obtain confessions, Zhao An's method was to have someone read a pre-written confession to the "rebels."

Ye Zhigui personally selected a key member and brought him to the principal's office, where Ye Zhigui and Xu Lin acted as interrogation assistants.

According to Sun Rui, An Shun and others, these core members frequently used the pretext of debt repayment to forcibly take the wives and daughters of debtors to brothels, resulting in at least two debtors' wives and daughters committing suicide by hanging.

Zhao An naturally wouldn't hold back when dealing with this kind of person, using all his experience.

On the first day, the core members were quite tough. No matter how they were tortured or beaten, they refused to admit that they were traitors.

The next day, he was still tough, but he was exhausted and had lost his spirit.

On the third day, despite being hungry and in pain, the man still insisted that he had not rebelled.

On the fourth day, after a long seventy-two hours, the core members' defenses finally collapsed. They banged their heads against the stool and cried out, "Stop hitting me! Stop hitting me! I'll confess! I'll confess! Heavenly King Chen told me that next year on the fifteenth of August, we should take advantage of the opportunity of transporting grain to Beijing to launch a surprise attack on the Forbidden City, capture Emperor Qianlong alive, and capture Heshen alive!"

(End of this chapter)