Guo Chengyou was executed the next day.
On the day of his execution, he was still shouting that Zhao Jun was a powerful official, a traitor, and asked the emperor to open his eyes.
But unfortunately, the officials could not hear his voice and he was soon beheaded.
Guo Chengyou's death is not a pity.
In fact, the officials of the Song Dynasty cannot be said to be all scum.
At least officials in the early and middle period of the Northern Song Dynasty still had some dignity and would not go too far.
In addition to the court's policy of high salaries to maintain integrity, there were not many corrupt officials with names recorded in history books during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song.
There are more people like Renzong Tiantuan, whose names are recorded in history and become a good story of civil officials in history.
But the corrupt officials whose names were recorded in history books were basically those who were extremely evil.
There are a lot of charges against Guo Chengyou in history books. Now, according to Zhao Jun's actual investigation, it can be said that the censors and imperial censors did not check all the evidence.
After all, the censors and imperial censors did not have as much power as Zhao Jun. They could only impeach based on public reaction. Unlike Zhao Jun, they did not directly raid Guo Chengyou's house and look for evidence of his crimes there.
Therefore, compared with the people who were harmed by this man, beheading him was considered a light punishment.
However, his death still caused a great stir in Bozhou and also caused a great stir on the ground.
After all, it was very rare for a prefect to lose his head like this in the past of the Song Dynasty.
In particular, Guo Chengyou was a man with a background. Everyone knew that his ancestors were founding generals, his wife was the princess of the Zhao family, and she was also an official in the emperor's Eastern Palace.
The result was that even such a person with such powerful background died at the hands of Zhao Jun. How powerful was this Dean?
As a result, officials from top to bottom in Bozhou were trembling with fear and took action quickly.
Those bureaucrats who were originally incompetent and redundant even though they were not greedy or possessive, seemed to have become diligent in their work, going to the mountains and the countryside to comfort the people.
It made Bozhou seem as if the country was peaceful and prosperous, with a scene of peace and prosperity for the people.
However, Zhao Jun knew that the situation would probably return to its old ways soon after he left Bozhou. In order to maintain the status quo, the court still needed to send a capable governor of Bozhou.
So he wrote to the court again, asking them to select people carefully and not to send those disorderly people to harm the people. He would kill as many of these people as there were.
By late February, Zhao Jun had arranged the affairs of Bozhou and then set out again, heading southeast into Suzhou.
Since his whereabouts had been exposed, he simply stopped his incognito tour and openly showed off his identity as a member of the Imperial Guard and headed east.
Almost as soon as he arrived in Linhuan, Suzhou Governor Wang Su and Suzhou Tongpan Yang Cha came to greet him.
Wang Su is 31 years old this year, and Yang Cha is only 25 years old, but these two people have already become the prefect and the assistant prefect of a state, the top two figures in the state government. It can be said that they are young and promising.
In fact, although Wang Su is young, he has been in officialdom for 11 years.
He was a Jinshi in the fifth year of Tiansheng, and was admitted on the same list as Bao Zheng, Han Qi, Wen Yanbo and others. He served as the magistrate of Yingzhou, Huaizhou, and Xuzhou, and was also the magistrate of Puzhou, Ezhou, and Suzhou as the Shangshu Tuntian Zhongwailang. He had quite a long career.
Yang Cha was a Jinshi in the first year of Jingyou, and he had been in officialdom for four years. Later, due to his outstanding political achievements, he was appointed as the governor of Ying and Shou prefectures. At the beginning of Qingli, he was the transport envoy of Jiangnan East Road.
In other words, from the first year of Jingyou when Yang Cha passed the imperial examination to the first year of Qingli, in just seven years, he rose from a Tongpan to the highest-ranking official.
This is equivalent to observing politics in the first year after passing the civil service exam, becoming a deputy mayor in the second year, and becoming a high-ranking official in the seventh year.
What outrageous experience?
Of course, Zhao Jun didn't know that these two were great people.
Wang Su and Yang Cha were both outstanding and honest officials in history, and they were highly praised in history books.
In particular, Wang Su was one of the four counselors along with Yu Jing, Ouyang Xiu and Cai Xiang. He had good political achievements when he was in local administration, but he was obviously not as famous as people like Fan Zhongyan and Su Shi.
Since Zhao Jun did not read "History of the Song Dynasty" much, he was only familiar with household names such as Ouyang Xiu, Fan Zhongyan, Su Shi, and Wang Anshi, but he did not know much about Wang Su.
However, since he entered Suzhou, the people along the way have lived and worked in peace and contentment. Although there are some people who have lived in poverty, it is at least much better than Yingtianfu and Bozhou. This also made him feel quite favorable towards the two of them and full of admiration.
Inside the Linhuan County government office in Suzhou, Zhao Jun looked at the Suzhou prefect, the Tongpan, and the Linhuan County Magistrate standing below and said with a smile, "Wang Su, I've read your resume. You did a great job in Ezhou last year. Not only did you open the granaries and release grain before the imperial court's disaster relief document arrived, preventing the people from starving to death, but you also abolished the system of selling salt based on the number of people, which made the people of Ezhou grateful for your kindness. That's great."
Wang Su was not pleased by the praise. His expression remained unchanged as he bowed gracefully and said, "You are too kind, sir. As the saying goes, one should govern according to one's position. Perform one's duties and fulfill one's responsibilities. This is what an official should do, and it is not something to be boasted about."
"Yeah, very good."
Zhao Jun nodded with satisfaction and said, "On the way here, I learned that you are the son of Wang Wenzheng. Lord Wang held power for eighteen years and served as prime minister for twelve. Even the emperor praised him as a virtuous elder. Now it seems that you have your father's demeanor."
"Thank you for the compliment, Master."
Wang Su bowed again and said.
After Zhao Jun finished praising him, he looked around at everyone and said, "Are you all curious? Why would someone like me, the head of the Political System Institute, second only to the emperor and above everyone else, leave the capital incognito and travel to various places in the Song Dynasty?"
Wang Su said, "The magistrate must have his own reasons for doing this."
"yes."
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