In the officialdom of the Tang Empire, there are many corrupt officials, but everyone has a tacit understanding, that is, some money can be reached out appropriately, but some money must not be moved.

For example, disaster relief funds and military expenses, these two kinds of things can't reach out anyway, but the Zhou family has reached out.

Although Zhou Yibao found out that his clansmen were bold and dared to stretch out their hands behind his back, he quickly made remedial measures.

But it was still useless, it was not the Inspectorate who was in charge of the investigation, but Han Tong, who only took a few days to figure out the beginning and the end, and then submitted a report, and then Li Xuan personally ordered the Inspectorate to arrest people.

When the imperial history of the Inspectorate came to the door and directly threw him an account book, which listed the assets of the Zhou family, in addition to the legal income of more than one million taels of silver, including salaries, rewards, and commercial income, there were also three million taels of illegal income, he knew that it was over!

After being caught, he begged to see the Son of Heaven.

The Inspectorate did not dare to make a decision and reported to the Holy Son of Heaven, and the Holy Son Li Xuan approved it after hearing about it.

But after seeing him, he didn't say a word, and his expression was indifferent as if he didn't see him.

At this time, Zhou Yibao knelt on the ground, as if he was more than ten years old in an instant, and he pleaded: "Your Majesty, the loyalty of the ministers can be learned from heaven and earth!" ”

"It's not a pity for the criminal minister to die, but for the sake of the criminal minister's ten-year loyalty, I beg Your Majesty to allow my Chen family to leave a trace of blood!"

Li Xuan only opened his mouth at this time: "Yibao, if it weren't for your loyalty, you would have died a long time ago, but you have done too much in this matter!" ”

Zhou Yibao knew that if he died, the Zhou family would be completely finished, not in the ordinary sense, but the kind that was wiped out.

There is no way, this time the matter is too big, even if Li Xuan, the Son of Heaven, doesn't want to kill him, but the government and the opposition, especially the military, want him to die!

As a civilian official, he dares to attack the military's military spending, which is already a violation of the military's scales!

The military generals can embezzle the military expenses themselves, but they absolutely do not allow civilian officials to interfere, and this is not only a question of corruption or not, but involves the dispute between the military and the government.

Today, civilian officials can embezzle military spending, but tomorrow they can directly intervene in military spending?

The day after tomorrow, is it time to directly interfere in the military's personnel and even operations?

The military can't bear this matter!

The disaster relief money is just an introduction, which has moved the cake of the military and caused the big trouble of the military-political dispute, which is the fundamental reason why he Zhou Yibao must die.

Eight generals of the army and three generals of the navy, a total of 11 generals on active duty, jointly signed a letter demanding that Zhou Yibao's embezzlement of military funds be strictly investigated.

This matter is so big that even if Li Xuan takes action in person, it is impossible to suppress it.

Zhou Yibao knew very well the crisis he was facing, he couldn't escape, the entire Zhou family couldn't escape, but he still begged Li Xuan to let him leave a trace of blood for the Zhou family!

"Before the criminal minister from the dragon, he was just a broken child, alone and without worry, after the dragon, thanks to His Majesty's appreciation, this was a small success, and he was able to have a family and children, the criminal minister did not dare to ask for more, only begged His Majesty to leave a trace of the blood of the criminal minister!"

Zhou Yibao said that at this time, he was obviously a little out of control, as a high-ranking official of the empire, he had seen countless storms, and Zhou Yibao, who even dared to break into the enemy camp alone, was out of control at this time, and he began to cry!

"For the sake of the guilty minister for more than ten years, there is no merit and hard work, please be gracious to Your Majesty!"

Li Xuan also sighed at this time!

To be honest, Li Xuan personally doesn't have any negative feelings about Zhou Yibao, on the contrary, in fact, Li Xuan feels that this person is still a good subordinate, loyal, hard-working, even if he lacks ability, and is a little greedy for money, but this money-greedy official, even if there are many high-ranking officials, even if it is Liu Bagou, this kind of thing is indispensable.

So Li Xuan didn't care!

But everyone is a smart person, and they know that the money can reach out, and the money can't reach out.

Disaster relief funds and military expenses are not reachable, the former Li Xuan wants to kill, and the latter, the generals of the military want to kill.

And Zhou Yibao, unfortunately, both reached out, although he said that the rest of the Zhou family also admitted that this was done behind Zhou Yibao's back, but the ghost only believed it.

Without Zhou Yibao's acquiescence, the Zhou family's family members dare to be so bold? Let's not talk about the disaster relief money, even Liu Bagou doesn't dare to touch the military expenses.

He is good, the family secretly set up several factories, including a quilt factory, and a flour mill, and through Zhou Yibao's relationship, he won over several people within the military, and then sold the inferior quilts and inferior clothes to the military at a high price as high-quality products for free!

However, this year, a batch of inferior uniforms was sent to the Ninth Army in the north, but they were directly rejected by the Ninth Army, which was carrying out combat missions in the grasslands!

The Ninth Army refused to accept military supplies, this matter was a big deal, the military was shaken, and a large-scale investigation was immediately carried out!

The result was that Zhou Yibao was dug out.

As a result, eleven active generals of the Navy and Army, including Hao Bonian, Li Chunjing and other military bigwigs, jointly signed a letter, requesting that Zhou Yibao be severely punished!

This kind of joint lettering, in fact, is not only aimed at Zhou Yibao alone, but at the entire civil class, and even to a certain extent, they are also taking great political risks, because this kind of joint writing is easy to be suspicious of the Son of Heaven.

But even so, they are still co-branded!

It can be seen from this that this matter is very serious, so serious that the bigwigs of the military do not hesitate to make the Son of Heaven unhappy, and they also want to put Zhou Yibao to death!

The affairs of the military, even such as corruption, cannot tolerate civilian interference.

This violates the political principle of the separation of military and political affairs in the empire and infringes on the interests of the military, and the military can make Zhou Yibao better than that!

Looking at Zhou Yibao's crying appearance, Li Xuan also sighed, after all, this is an old minister who has followed him for more than ten years, to be honest, he doesn't want to see the old courtier who fought with him not have a good end in the end.

But now, it's no longer a question of endurance, it's a political one!

Finally, he said, "Go back, I will arrange it!" ”

Leaving a trace of blood for Zhou Yibao is not a big problem, Li Xuan will be approved, but he can only leave a trace of blood, as for the rest of the Zhou family, they must die, and there is no chance of exile!

They have followed Zhou Yibao to enjoy the glory and wealth for more than ten years, and now that Zhou Yibao has committed an accident, the Zhou family will not say anything innocent.

What's more, Li Xuan also learned from Hantong's investigation report that Zhou Yibao himself still doesn't like to engage in corruption and the like, but the few wives and concubines he married, the maiden family behind them, and his own cousins are all insatiable, making money in the name of Zhou Yibao.

Such a clansman, do you dare to say that they are innocent?

Joke!

No one is innocent!

After getting the permission of Li Xuan, the Son of Heaven, Zhou Yibao stopped his uncontrollable emotions, and then withdrew!

On the same day, Zhou's house was officially raided, and then the Inspectorate informed the hundred officials of Zhou Yibao's case, and used words such as serious corruption and perversion of the law, lawlessness, and blatantness.

It is worth noting that at the same time, in the military court, more than 10 officers were also prosecuted, a major general, more than 10 officers were involved in the case, all of them were sentenced to death, and several people were raided.

The military could not tolerate such behavior, so the military court ruled quickly and then executed on the spot.

And one night, the operatives arranged by Hantong quietly picked up Zhou Yibao's young son in prison.

Zhou Yibao personally handed over his nine-month-old son to the people who came to Hantong Action, at this time, his expression was indifferent, he didn't even cry bitterly, there was only reluctance in his eyes.

After this Zhou Yibao's young son was picked up, he was sent directly overseas under the arrangement of Han Tong, and after a series of transfers, this young son became an orphan whose parents died and entered an orphanage in Zhejiang.

And also directly erased all the files about him, this young son of Zhou Yibao will become an ordinary person in the future, and he will have nothing to do with Zhou Yibao.

This is Li Xuan's commitment to Zhou Yibao, and it is a reward for his loyalty for the past ten years!

That night, Zhou Yibao drank the wine brought by the secretary of the secretariat and given by His Majesty, and left a self-incriminating paper of more than 50,000 words.

Subsequently, the Tang Dynasty Newspaper officially published the case of Zhou Yibao, which was characterized from the beginning as a case of extremely bad nature of corruption and perversion of the law.

After Zhou Yibao's death, the Zhou family was completely wiped out overnight!

Hundreds of people, including all males of their relatives, were sentenced, all males of the immediate family were sentenced to death, and minor males of the collateral and relatives were sentenced to prison or exile.

Some of the women and children who were charged with more serious crimes, and some of the female dependents involved, were also sentenced to death, while those who were charged with less serious crimes were sentenced to prison, and some of the women and children involved were exiled overseas.

In short, not a single one was spared!

If the previous case only shocked the officials, then now, Zhou Yibao's case is panicking!

For a time, the officials of the Tang Dynasty were talking about corruption!

And I don't know who came out with the news, saying that Hantong's archives have files of officials all over the world, and all the criminal acts of officials are recorded in detail.

One by one, the officials were afraid that it would be their turn next.

However, at this time, Li Xuan was already planning to suspend the rectification of the officials.

Thousands of officials were arrested, one Shangshu died, and three Shilang died, which is enough for a rectification of officials, and if it continues, I am afraid it will really shake the foundation of the empire.