In April of the fourth year of Jingyou, Zhao Jun stayed in Huainan West Road for more than a month.
According to Yang Gao's investigation, there were loopholes in Huoqiu and Anfeng in Shouzhou, and in Gushi, Dingcheng in Guangzhou, and Huangpi in Huangzhou.
In other words, the corruption cases were mainly concentrated in the three cities and five counties of Shouzhou, Guangzhou and Huangzhou in Huainan Road.
There are nine county magistrates involved in the case.
Except for the current Huoqiu County Magistrate who committed suicide out of fear of punishment, five former county magistrates were transferred, and the other four confessed honestly that they had accepted bribes from the former county magistrates.
As for the last county magistrate, he was transferred here only last year and didn't have much to do. All local tasks were left to the officials and wealthy families to manage.
When the former magistrate took over from him, he found that this man was stupid. After a lot of probing, he found that this man did not understand his hints at all, so he simply did not give him any money to bribe him.
Later, just as the previous county magistrate had expected, this man had no idea that such a big case had happened in the local area. He was kept in the dark by the local wealthy families and police officers and was fooled like a fool.
Although he did not participate in it, he obviously committed serious dereliction of duty and was eventually suspended by Yang. Currently, local government affairs are being managed by people urgently transferred from the state government.
"That's all we've found so far. Although only five counties are involved, over 100,000 people were affected. The drought in Huainan killed tens of thousands of people, most of whom were from these five counties."
Inside the Huainan Road Transport Commissioner's office, Yang Gao reported his recent findings to Zhao Jun. "According to what I've discovered, the amount of relief grain provided in these five areas is approximately 500,000 hu. Considering that grain prices were skyrocketing to over 3,000 coins per hu, or even 4,000 or 5,000 coins per hu, a rough estimate is that even if they only embezzled 50% of that, the value would still exceed one million guan."
"Fifty percent?"
Zhao Jun sneered, "If they had only taken 50%, why would so many people have died?"
"yes."
Yang Gao said, "I suspect it's more than 50%. I've also been through Mengcheng in Bozhou before and noticed the people there were emaciated and pale, with very few people. I've also learned that they were also affected by the drought in Huainan. I think there might be corruption cases there too, but Bozhou belongs to the Huainan East Road."
Bozhou and Shouzhou are very close to each other. Mengcheng is actually the next county to Xiacai, the seat of Shouzhou. The two county towns are less than 180 miles apart. Therefore, Yang Gao, as the shipping envoy of Huainan Road, has some understanding of the situation in Mengcheng.
If we add Mengcheng in Bozhou and the situations in Huainan East Road that may not have been investigated yet, then the breadth and depth of the entire corruption case is unimaginable.
However, although the two places are close to each other, Bozhou, like Haozhou, belongs to Huainan East Road and is not under the jurisdiction of Huainan West Road. Therefore, Yang Gao, the shipping envoy, has no control over Huainan East Road. Even if he feels that there is a problem in Mengcheng, he has no way to deal with it.
"That's fine. I'll send someone to notify the Huainan East Road Transport Commissioner and grant you the authority to investigate cases in other places."
"Yes, thank you, Master Zhi."
"So far, only nine county magistrates have been found?"
Zhao Jun asked again.
This result made Zhao Jun a little dissatisfied.
The amount involved in the case reached more than one million strings of cash, and the amount of grain reached more than 500,000 hu.
You should know that the imperial court only allocated 1.3 million hu for disaster relief, and together with the local granaries, the total amount was more than 4 million hu, of which one-eighth was embezzled.
Such a huge amount of food and money was actually divided up by five local small-time seventh-rank county magistrates?
Even if the bribes received by the four successors were added, each of them could earn more than 100,000 strings of cash. How is this possible?
Who gave them the courage?
Even though the county magistrate was a minor figure in Zhao Jun's eyes, he was already a very important figure in the eyes of the local people. But at least Zhao Jun would never believe that they could organize and make money together without the support of others.
"Of course, there are more than just that. There are also local clerks, county lieutenants, clerks of all ranks, bailiffs, and accountants. There are at least four or five hundred people involved in the case."
Yang Gao said in a deep voice, "That's all we can find out right now, because the current county magistrate was basically hinted at and contacted by the previous county magistrate. They only vaguely know that the person behind this might be Huang Wei, the former Huainan Road Transport Commissioner, Sun Mian, the Shouzhou Governor, or Liu Deng, the Guangzhou Governor, but they haven't had any contact with them."
"Well, you should know what to do then."
Zhao Jun nodded slightly. What he knew now was that there were definitely more than just a few county magistrates involved in this case. The main people behind it were the two prefects and the transport envoy, and there might also be high-ranking officials such as the transport deputy envoy, the inspector, the transport judge, the inspector judge, and so on.
After all, it is such a big thing, and it is unbelievable that the Criminal Court was completely unaware of it. Haven't these people visited various counties and reviewed criminal and prison lawsuits in the past few years?
So in fact, at least in ancient times, officials were quite familiar with various ways and means of corruption. The existence of any corrupt official actually stemmed from the tacit approval of their superiors and colleagues, and the possibility of them committing crimes alone was almost non-existent.
Zhao Jun felt that there must be a huge network of relationships here, but at the moment he only vaguely knew about a few of them.
But as the saying goes, investigating a case requires evidence, while counter-terrorism only requires a list.
Before Sun Mian and his men rebelled, we had to have solid evidence to capture them.
For example, the four former county magistrates who knew about the incident, if they were arrested, they would serve as witnesses. We could then look for clues from them, such as letters, account books, etc., and eventually we could trace the case all the way back to the bottom.
Yang Gao clearly understood Zhao Jun's intention and said with a smile, "After I found out which counties in Huainan Road had problems, I immediately sent people across the border with the Magistrate's warrant to apprehend them. I'm sure there will be results soon."
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