White-robed Minister

Chapter 121 0119 [This year's Yingtian Prefecture Festival will be very lively]

Watching Xu Lai leave, Lü Jujian felt particularly displeased.

He was in the process of handing over his duties to Gong Dingchen and was about to leave when Xu Lai suddenly decided to report the magistrate.

Lü Jujian did not participate in this matter because there was really no need for it; he had too many ways to earn income in the gray areas.

These illicit gains are obviously illegal, but nobody bothers to investigate them. If a high-ranking official doesn't take them, it's considered a testament to their integrity, and history books will add a mention of it in their biographies.

"Was he like this when he was in the capital?" Lü Jujian asked.

Gong Dingchen said, "He doesn't hold an official position in the capital. The judge has the responsibility to investigate and review the affairs of the prefecture and county governments. If he discovers that the supervisor has embezzled and fails to report it, then that would be a real dereliction of duty."

"There was no loss of public funds," Lü Jujian said.

Gong Dingchen emphasized, "The supervisor himself stole the money."

The prefect made two transactions during the trading period: buying low and selling high, and buying high and selling low.

The first method, which involves exploiting and fraudulently targeting wealthy merchants, is not actually a major crime. At most, it will negatively impact public opinion and affect performance evaluations.

The truly serious issue is the second operation: putting the money from the return to Yiku into their own pockets!

Stealing from a prison is a serious crime. In the Han Dynasty, more than ten taels of gold would be punishable by death, and in the Song Dynasty, more than 30 strings of cash (or 30 bolts of silk) would be punishable by hanging.

Regardless of whether the final verdict is hanging, that's the law at least.

"I'm also thinking of him; the new transport commissioner is Wang Yirou," Lü Jujian reminded him.

Gong Dingchen sighed, "This is also what I'm worried about."

During this period, not only were the prefects and judges being replaced, but the transport commissioner of the Jingdong Road was also undergoing a handover.

Who is the newly arrived transport commissioner, Wang Yirou?

Do you remember during the Qingli era, when some idiot openly wrote a poem that read, "Drunk and lying in the North Pole, I was helped by the Emperor; the Duke of Zhou and Confucius were driven into slavery"? As a result, he was reported and caused the failure of the new policy.

Wang Yirou is such an idiot!

This idiot has quite a background; he's the son of the late Prime Minister Wang Shu and the grandson of the renowned minister Kou Zhun.

He was a staunch supporter of the Qingli Reforms and unconditionally supported prominent Qingli officials such as Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu.

Xu Lai, however, was going to accuse Ouyang Xiu's students, which could very likely implicate Ouyang Xiu. Furthermore, the official letter of accusation, according to procedure, had to be submitted to Wang Yirou.

Wang Yirou was determined to withhold the letter of denunciation and would hold a grudge against Xu Lai from then on.

Will Xu Lai let this go?

If his letter of complaint is intercepted by the transport commissioner, he will most likely report it to the judicial commissioner, or even report the transport commissioner as well.

If the Chief Justice doesn't do anything, things will get even more interesting, as Xu Lai will send the letter of complaint to the Censorate!

This is the real mess.

At this time, Jingdong Road had not yet been divided into east and west routes, and the Transport Commissioner's Office was located within Yingtian Prefecture City.

After much deliberation, Gong Dingchen decided to go directly to Wang Yirou.

Before Wang Yirou had even finished the handover procedures, she was furious upon hearing Gong Dingchen's account: "When Lord Ouyang learned that I was coming to Yingtian Prefecture, he specifically asked me to look after that Xu Lai. Is this how he repays kindness with enmity?"

"Young people are bound to be serious about things," Gong Dingchen said. "You and I were young once. What we did back then was far more outrageous than what Xu Lai did. Don't suppress the accusation letter. The more you suppress it, the bigger the trouble will get, and you might even end up taking it to the Censorate."

After careful consideration, Wang Yirou asked, "Is the evidence conclusive?"

Gong Dingchen said, "All exchange records must be filed in the signing hall. It is certain that someone embezzled them, and only the magistrate has that authority."

"So, the magistrate can also defend himself by claiming he was unaware?" Wang Yirou asked again.

Gong Dingchen said, "At the very least, they should be held responsible for negligence."

Wang Yirou said, "The crime of negligence is better than the prison warden stealing."

Wang Yirou's meaning was clear: find a few scapegoats, severely punish the businessmen who acted as fronts, and try to recover public funds from them to minimize the impact of the incident.

He didn't care about the life or death of Prefect Feng Zirong; he only cared about whether Ouyang Xiu would be implicated!

After the matter was settled, Gong Dingchen got up to take his leave.

Wang Yirou became angrier the more she thought about it.

A few days ago, when he left the capital, Ouyang Xiu asked him to take care of Xu Lai. However, before the two even met, Xu Lai was already planning to report Ouyang Xiu's student.

"Ungrateful wretch! Ungrateful wretch!" Wang Yirou gritted her teeth, and from then on regarded Xu Lai as a fickle villain.

Wang Yirou took out paper and pen and wrote a letter to Ouyang Xiu to complain about the matter.

After writing to Ouyang Xiu, he wrote to Han Qi, fiercely criticizing Xu Lai for being ungrateful.

He also planned to write to Sima Guang, but then he thought that Sima Guang was an official who remonstrated with the emperor, and it was inappropriate for him to know about such matters. So he wrote to Wang Anshi instead, since Wang Anshi was in mourning, it wouldn't matter if he told Wang Anshi.

He wanted more people to know that Xu Lai was an ungrateful and despicable person.

He's going to ruin Xu Lai's reputation!

Xu Lai was completely unaware of this and had already returned to his official residence to catch up on sleep, intending to continue reviewing the documents after he woke up.

There were not only account books, but also other official documents.

If there are any problems, just send them back and let the previous person fix them before taking over.

Xu Lai set a principle for himself in his official career.

He doesn't want to meddle in other people's business, but he must do his best to handle the matters within his own responsibilities.

Whether you're a superior or a subordinate, even if you're going to embezzle, you still have to keep proper accounts for me.

When I handle various official documents and account books, I can sign them if there are no problems, even if they are fake accounts.

As the judge, Xu Lai did not have the authority to inspect the warehouse.

Even if the treasury is emptied, as long as the false accounts are done perfectly, it will be considered acceptable by Xu Lai.

The problem is that the corrupt officials of the Song Dynasty don't even bother to put in the effort when it comes to falsifying accounts!

Xu Lai had no intention of offending anyone; he didn't even know that the prefectural magistrate had been recommended by Ouyang Xiu. But he could guess that all the officials in Yingtian Prefecture must have powerful backers.

Moreover, their backers were mostly veteran officials from the Qingli era, because it was that group of people who were in power at that time.

That's why he went to Gong Dingchen to remind him to make preparations early.

Xu Lai never expected to encounter someone as extraordinary as Wang Yirou, who actually wrote letters everywhere to publicize the matter.

Shangqiu is too close to Kaifeng. Before Xu Lai's handover was even finished, Han Qi had already received a private message from Wang Yirou.

Old Han immediately took the letter to Ouyang Xiu.

Ouyang Xiu was dumbfounded: "He actually wrote to you too?"

Han Qi shook his head and smiled bitterly: "It seems he wrote more than one letter; there are probably others who received it as well. Feng Zirong, the Vice Prefect of Yingtian Prefecture, is definitely not fit for important positions. Let's quickly demote him to another place for negligence."

"This Wang Shengzhi (Wang Yirou) is already 50 years old this year, and he still doesn't know how to correct his big mouth habit." Ouyang Xiu was extremely frustrated.

Han Qi said, "Among your students, there are many honest and upright officials."

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Ouyang Xiu said, "Xu Lai is not my student; he is a disciple of Yu Andao."

"It's all the same. Anyway, you taught him how to write and secretly mentored him. This boy is quite interesting; he's already caused trouble before the handover is even finished." Han Qi said with a smile, surprisingly still in the mood to joke.

For Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu, the little thing Xu Lai did was nothing.

Zhang Heng really messed things up last time.

When Zhang Heng served as the Salt and Iron Commissioner, he implemented an annual budget system and constructed a triple-ledger system, effectively plugging the financial loopholes in the three ministries. He also uncovered numerous instances of falsified staff records by auditing the three ministries' accounts, leading to the dismissal of redundant personnel and the recovery of illicit gains. Furthermore, his audit of the ledgers directly exposed the Huai Salt Corruption Case!

Zhang Heng was also a student of Ouyang Xiu, and was promoted by Ouyang Xiu and Han Qi together.

Zhang Heng's actions offended many veteran officials of the Qingli era, including Cai Xiang, as well as their protégés and former subordinates.

It's definitely a case of our own people fighting each other.

At that time, Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu were in a terrible predicament and had no choice but to clean up Zhang Heng's mess and demote Zhang Heng, who had made great contributions, to a local post.

But Zhang Heng's penchant for causing trouble only made Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu like him even more.

Even being demoted to a local post is considered a protective assignment, and they will definitely be promoted again in the future.

At this moment, in the eyes of Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu, Xu Lai, who had gone to Yingtian Prefecture to cause trouble, was exactly a "mini Zhang Heng".

Moreover, both Zhang Heng and Xu Lai were top scholars in the imperial examinations.

"I'll write a letter to Wang Shengzhi and tell him not to mention this matter again." What really bothers Han Qi is Wang Yirou.

That's Kou Zhun's grandson, and his biological father is the late prime minister. Wang Yirou's background is really too deep.

Even with Sima Guang's fastidious nature, he couldn't help but exchange poems with Wang Yirou. After the factional strife between the old and new factions began, Sima Guang went to great lengths to praise Wang Yirou.

Even with Wang Anshi's upright and principled nature, he had to maintain a superficial relationship with Wang Yirou over the years.

Unfortunately, Wang Yirou was one of their own and one of the representative figures of the Qingli New Deal.

Han Qi was thoroughly fed up with this terrible teammate.

This time, Xu Lai's accusation against the Tongpan of Yingtian can be handled discreetly. Demotion is inevitable, but the procedures must be followed.

What kind of ghost is Wang Yirou writing letters everywhere to spread rumors?

He was afraid others wouldn't know that Ouyang Xiu had recommended a corrupt official.

Ouyang Xiu was both amused and exasperated: "Xu Lai was already quite a handful in the capital, and now he's serving as an official in Yingtian Prefecture alongside Wang Shengzhi."

Those two are probably going to have a lot of trouble coming up. I can even predict that Xu Lai will impeach him within a year.

Han Qi said, "That can't be the case. Wang Shengzhi is the transport commissioner of Jingdong, and Xu Lai is just the judge of Yingtian Prefecture. They have no contact in official business."

"Just you wait and see," Ouyang Xiu said. "I know Xu Lai too well; he's not one to sit idle."

Wang Yirou was not actually a corrupt official; in fact, he considered himself to be honest and upright.

When he served as an official in the Three Departments, he directly rejected all the unreasonable demands from the palace and the sycophantic flattery from officials. He hated greed and sycophants, and was not afraid to offend people. He always liked to give his opinions and had high moral standards for others.

This guy's biggest flaws are his unrestrained speech and his intermittent bouts of madness.

Yes, and they also like to mock and ridicule others.

You can think of him as the ultimate version of Chen Yanhong!

He came from a family far more prestigious than Chen Yanhong, was arrogant and aloof, extremely unrestrained, and looked down on most people. Moreover, he was inherently mean-spirited, and would show no mercy to anyone for even the smallest mistake.

Just as Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu were discussing matters concerning Yingtian Prefecture, an official nearing fifty years old boarded an official boat and headed from Kaifeng to Yingtian Prefecture to assume his post.

His name was Shen Qi, a close friend of Wang Anshi and a capable minister recommended by Bao Zheng during his lifetime.

Shen Qi is about to go to Yingtian Prefecture to serve as the Judicial Commissioner of Jingdong Circuit.

If Xu Lai wants to report someone in the future, he doesn't have to go to Wang Yirou; he can go to Shen Qi instead.

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