The impartial and ruthless governor of Jeju would certainly not tolerate this when he learned about it. Of course, he would not dwell on the authenticity of such a simple anonymous letter. He would only feel that anything that was a little bit concerning was definitely not groundless.
Moreover, the letter clearly mentioned that the Jeju prefect had accepted bribes, disregarded human lives for many years, and encouraged unhealthy tendencies. All the bribes he received were hidden in a secret room in his home. It was so obvious that he could only suspect that there was a traitor around the Jeju prefect.
So, just after Su Yanli met with the prefect of Jezhou, and when the prefect of Jezhou was feeling complacent with the 10,000 taels of silver notes and many gems and jades, Governor Xue suddenly came and scared him.
He quickly hid the things and went out to greet them in person.
The prefect was an official of the fifth rank, while the governor was an official of the third rank. The higher the rank, the more powerful the person. As long as the governor had evidence of his guilt and submitted it to the court, he could directly convict him.
Of course, there is still a big difference between a third-rank official transferred to other places and a third-rank official in Kyoto. For a Beijing official to reach the third rank is a great achievement, and his power is greater than that of a third-rank official transferred to other places.
If the prefect is the mayor of the city, then the governor is the provincial governor.
The prefect of Jeju was named Wei. When he learned that the governor was coming to his house in person, he went to greet him respectfully with his entire family. However, he never expected that the governor would come with a large number of troops and directly issue a search warrant.
Prefect Wei was a little confused. He certainly couldn't allow Governor Xue to search his house like that. If they found something, it would be a disaster.
So, before he ordered the search, Prefect Wei tried his best to stop it:
"Sir Governor, I am an official appointed by the court after all. Although my official rank is only fifth grade, you need a search warrant with a seal from the court to search my house. If you don't have a search warrant, I'm sorry that I can't obey your order!"
However, Governor Xue was notoriously stubborn. He did not have a search warrant. Moreover, the request for a search warrant from Jeju to the imperial court would be stuck at the end of the year. If he really wanted to investigate something by then, it would be too late.
After Governor Xue received the anonymous letter, he felt that this matter must be not groundless. Moreover, ever since he took office as Governor of Jizhou, he had not had a good impression of Prefect Wei, who liked to flatter and fawn on others. He felt that he was not a good person.
Therefore, today he is focusing on the strategy of acting first and asking for permission later:
"I don't have a search warrant, but I have decided to search today. If Prefect Wei is innocent, then there is nothing to be afraid of. Moreover, if Prefect Wei is indeed innocent in this search, you can write to the court to impeach me. I will not stop you. At that time, I will voluntarily bear all the faults and allow the emperor to punish me!"
After saying that, Governor Xue simply raised his hand, and the men he brought began to disperse, and began the search despite the obstruction of Prefect Wei.
The prefect is in charge of the county government, and the yamen runners can only be mobilized for case handling and official business. Although there are servants to guard the house, the governor can directly mobilize his own sword-bearing guards. After all, he is a third-rank official, and it is normal for him to have a hundred or so guards under his command.
The guards with swords went to that station, quickly controlled the people in Wei Zhifu's residence, and then began a large-scale search.
The anonymous letter was written very clearly, even marking the location of his secret room, which was behind the bookshelf in Prefect Wei's study.
While Prefect Wei was praying silently in his heart that Governor Xue's men could not find anything, the secret room in his study had already been opened.
There were seven or eight boxes of gold, silver, jewelry, jade and antiques, as well as nearly 100,000 taels of silver and silver notes, and six deeds to private residences. The evidence was irrefutable.
Just think of a fifth-rank official who is transferred to another place. His monthly salary is not that much. Even if he has been an official for more than ten years, he cannot save up such a fortune without eating or drinking. If that is not corruption and bribery, then why?
When Governor Xue went to the secret room and took a look, he was so angry that he was puffing his beard and glaring.
At that moment, Prefect Wei was so frightened that he fainted.
He knew that his life was over. Not only could he not save his life, but he might also bring trouble to his family.
Once Prefect Wei falls, the Jeju government office will need someone to temporarily manage all the pending cases. At this critical moment, no matter who is in charge of the Jeju government office, he will never dare to play any tricks and commit crimes against the wind.
After Prefect Wei was executed, he needed to provide a clear list of all the people who had bribed him and explain what they wanted in exchange for the bribes.
After so many years, there are countless cases where Prefect Wei accepted bribes and hastily closed cases. Many lives have been lost without redress at his hands. If he pleads guilty to all the charges, what awaits him and his family may not be as simple as having their property confiscated and exiled.
If he keeps silent, at most he will be the only one to die. If he confesses everything, I'm afraid his entire family will not be able to survive, and his entire clan will be implicated.
Under severe torture, Prefect Wei gritted his teeth and said not a single word, but he could not hold out for long without confessing anything. He did not dare to offend some powerful families, for he was afraid that after his death, they would take revenge on his family, so he picked a few relatively easy targets and confessed.
He did not tell anyone about Su Yanli, because the Su family had great reputation and power in Jeju and he did not dare to offend them.
But even so, as soon as something happened to Prefect Wei, Su Yanli panicked. He had just left the prefect's residence when it was investigated and Prefect Wei was imprisoned.
Not only did he lose 12,000 taels of silver in vain, he also had to worry about Prefect Wei turning him in, and then Wu Da's case could not be hastily resolved.
Putting these things together was so unbelievable and coincidental that Su Yanli had to suspect that someone was behind the scenes trying to get him.
The person behind the scenes must be related to Su Yanqing, but he knows that Su Yanqing is definitely not the one who masterminded the plan, because he knows his brother well. He is soft-hearted, a modest gentleman, and as gentle as jade. He definitely does not have such tough and decisive means.
Moreover, he could not have thought of the matter at this level of Wei Zhifu, so who could be the person who gave him the advice? He began to feel terrified when he thought about it carefully.
So, the person that came to his mind was Xiao Hechuan.
That day, he easily broke the chess game he had worked so hard to set up with just one move. From then on, he felt the oppression from this young man named Xiao Hechuan, who had not yet reached adulthood.
He knew that if he was by Su Yanqing's side to give him advice, he would be a formidable rival to him.
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