Fang Yuan sat on the chair of the petition office, leisurely sipping the famous tea from Taihu Lake - Biluochun, and his eyes swept over the government official Li Xiaokong, the official Li Xiang, and the whole family of the two of them from time to time.

These people were all tied up and sturdy, and one by one knelt on the wooden platform in frustration amid the discussion of the onlookers.

Sitting together may be a bit cruel, especially for the babies who are still swaddling in the two families.

However, the fight against corruption is tantamount to thunder but not rain.

If a corrupt official dies, the whole family can be happy for several lifetimes, and corrupt officials will definitely emerge in an endless stream.

Only by sitting together can we have the greatest deterrent to corrupt officials!

There were not only ordinary people who came to watch, but also many officials from the government.

When the officials saw Li Xiaokong and Li Xiang who were being detained on the wooden platform, as well as the whole family, they were so frightened that their faces were bloodless and trembling.

When it was nearly noon, the people who had delivered the complaint had arrived, and Fang Yuan glanced at Qin Zhan, "Let's start the public trial!" ”

Qin Zhan spread out the confession from Jinyiwei's investigation, and read aloud to everyone the crimes of Li Xiaokong and Li Xiang, as well as the money embezzled one by one, as well as the number of victims.

After reading out the guilt, Qin Zhan handed the confession into Fang Yuan's hands, Fang Yuan pinched a large volume of guilt, and slowly walked to Li Xiaokong and Li Xiang, "Li Xiaokong, you have only been a government official for less than two years, just by reporting it, you committed 23 crimes, and you were greedy for 100,000 taels, your appetite is really not small, and your eating appearance is too ugly!" ”

"And you, Li Xiang, a little magistrate in charge of the prison, can commit twenty-five crimes, and he is greedy for 30,000 taels, how many unjust souls are there in your pen?!"

Li Xiang kowtowed to him again and again, "Governor Fang, these are slanders, naked slanders!" ”

Several family members of the victims who had been harmed by Li Xiang's indiscriminate verdict couldn't hold back their anger and rushed up to spit on him again and again.

"Lord Governor, he killed my husband, and he wants him to pay for his life!"

"Lord Fang, he protected the adulterer who insulted my inside-in-law, this is absolutely true!"

The more everyone talked, the more angry they became, and they all rushed to the wooden platform to punch and kick Li Xiang, causing Li Xiang to scream again and again.

Fang Yuan ordered Jinyi Wei to isolate the family members of the victims who were emotional and wanted to step forward to kill Li Xiang, grabbed Li Xiang's collar and said, "Li Tuiguan, this is the anger of the public!" If it weren't for the government protecting you, you would have been broken into pieces by the people! Do you still want to deny it?! ”

Li Xiang was so frightened that his face was like death, and he kowtowed to Fang Yuan again and again, and he didn't dare to speak hard, "Lord Governor, I confess, I confess, I have recruited them all, and I am willing to accept the severe punishment of the law." ”

Rather than being beaten to death by the people, it is better to choose to accept the ruling of the law and die, at least not for now, and death can be more enjoyable, Li Xiang's calculation is still clear.

Fang Yuan ordered Jinyiwei to obtain Li Xiang's confession, and announced the verdict in public, "Push the official Li Xiang, fish and meat people, embezzle huge sums of money, deprive him of all official positions, sentence him to be beheaded and imprisoned, and execute after the autumn." The Li family confiscated the family property, compensated each victim with 100 taels, and confiscated the rest. Nian in his truthful confession, avoid a hundred killings. The Li family was exiled to Leizhou. ”

"Good!"

The onlookers erupted in loud cheers.

Several family members of the victims were in tears, and they all knelt down at Fang Yuan, shouting loudly, "Lord Fang is really Bao Qingtian, Hai Qingtian, thank you Lord Qingtian!" ”

Fang Yuan helped everyone who knelt down, and then looked at Li Xiaokong on the side, like a defeated rooster.

This Li Xiaokong, who is in charge of finance and taxation, is more deeply involved with the gentry and wealthy businessmen, and is a veritable big fish, and the so-called embezzlement of 100,000 taels of silver is just the tip of the iceberg.

As long as Fang Yuan can dig his mouth, he can catch a lot of big fish by touching the melons, and even dig up the names of many gentry and wealthy businessmen who owe taxes, "Li Tongzhi, what do you say?" ”

Li Xiaokong buried his head and said, "Governor Fang, I will recognize as much as you can judge." ”

He put on a posture that a dead pig was not afraid of boiling water, and Fang Yuan said coldly, "Li Tongzhi, when you enter the edict of Jinyiwei, what else do you not recruit?" ”

Li Xiaokong glanced up at him and said, "Okay, good, Governor Fang is ruthless enough, I have recruited everything, you loosen my bonds, and I will write a confession in person." ”

Fang Yuan nodded, and Qin Zhan went to untie him and handed him a pen.

Li Xiaokong didn't say a word, reached into his arms, took out a black pill, and swallowed it like this, Qin Zhan wanted to go up and stop it, but it was too late.

Less than a moment after Li Xiaokong took the poison, he was already bleeding from his seven orifices, and he was constantly rolling and struggling in pain on the ground.

Fang Yuan looked at Li Xiaokong, a fellow acquaintance who would rather die than confess, and said coldly, "Li Tongzhi, you are not even afraid of death, are you still afraid of confessing?" ”

Li Xiaokong gritted his teeth and endured the severe pain and said, "If you don't move, kill me, Governor Fang, you will sentence my whole family to exile at most; If you recruit it, the whole family will die. ”

Fang Yuan was silent, and at this moment he could understand the horror of the entanglement of officialdom's interests.

No wonder Chongzhen wants to suppress corruption, all the officials of the Manchu Dynasty are greedy, but no one dares to report it. Because once he confesses, not only himself will die, but even the whole family will not survive, so he will choose to die rather than confess.

Don't say it's ancient, even before crossing over, isn't it the same? Many corrupt officials would rather commit suicide than confess, and that's the reason.

He was thinking like a tide, and Li Xiaokong, who couldn't stand the severe pain, had jumped off the wooden platform, ran out wildly, jumped directly into the Suzhou Creek, and committed suicide by throwing himself into the river.

Li Xiaokong's suicide in public made Fang Yuan stunned and sat back in his chair, it seemed that he wanted to collect Tian Fu, but he still had to make an idea from the land information book of Jinyiwei.

Fang Yuan ordered Qin Zhan to read out the verdict of Li Xiaokong's case in public, confiscate his family property, and exile his family to Qiongzhou.

As soon as the two returned to the mansion, the prefect Chen Hongmi, with his fellow acquaintance Li Xiaokong, and the officials from the Suzhou mansion went to the mansion and asked to see Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan kept these officials cold for more than ten days, and these officials stayed at home every day, all of them were as anxious as ants on a hot pot.

They deliberately didn't come to greet them before, and they didn't cooperate with Fang Yuan's work, just to take advantage of the autumn harvest to collect grain, and to blackmail Fang Yuan.

Seeing that Fang Yuan's petition office was in full swing, their duties of adjudicating cases and inspecting people's livelihood on weekdays were actually competent; If it is really a stalemate with Fang Yuan and delays the collection of Suzhou Futianfu, all of them are guilty of losing their officials and killing their heads. Fang Yuan was holding Shang Fang's sword, and he didn't even need to report it to directly slash them.

Who is willing to give up the official position that has been exchanged for decades of hard study?

What's more, Fang Yuan's petition office is full of people at the moment, and they even witnessed Fang Yuan's disposal of Li Xiaokong and Li Xiang today.

Which of these officials in the government is clean, if they don't guard the government office, listen to the news at any time, beg Fang Yuan for mercy at any time, nip the incident in the bud, and wait for the Jinyi guard to come to the door and take it to the public trial, then it will be completely finished.

Fang Yuan met with the officials of the government in the lobby of the government, he ordered Jinyiwei to serve tea to everyone, and buried his head in reviewing the complaints related to these officials handed over by Qin Zhan.

The officials, including Chen Hongmi, saw that Fang Yuan, who was sitting in the prefect's seat in the lobby, was reviewing the complaint letter by himself, so they could only wait silently below, and they didn't dare to say a mouthful.

Fang Yuan glanced at this group of officials who stood honestly like elementary school students out of the corner of his eye, looked at the time, and hung them for almost half an hour, then said, "The princes are not waiting for news at home, what is the matter with coming to me?" ”

Chen Hongmi, the head of the officials, stood up first and said, "Governor Fang, these days my colleagues have figured it out at home, Governor Fang is here on the order of the Son of Heaven, and we should fully support Governor Fang's work." ”

The officials of the government all said yes, showing their willingness to support Fang Yuan.

The government officials headed by Chen Hongmi finally relented to Fang Yuan, Fang Yuan's main policy is stability, not to carry out a major purge, if they really want to investigate one by one to the end, these officials in the hall guarantee that none of them are innocent and can survive.

Since these officials are no longer engaged in non-violent non-cooperation, they must be forgiving, but the necessary beating is indispensable.

Fang Yuan threw out three complaints and said sharply, "Knowing Chen Qifan, these three letters are complaints that you colluded with the wealthy businessman Xi family to occupy land to build a workshop and demolish private houses, do you admit it?!" ”

Chen Qifan nodded hurriedly and picked up the confession, his eyes swept roughly, it was indeed not a false accusation. When Li Xiaokong and Li Xiang were tried before, he was also present, and he figured out Fang Yuan's temperament, and he didn't dare to deny it anymore, so he hurriedly said, "Governor Fang, I plead guilty and admit guilt, but I was only greedy for some money, and I didn't hurt anyone!" Please open the Governor's side. ”

Fang Yuan said in a deep voice, "Chen Tongzhi, I'll give you a chance, Jin Yiwei will accompany you to the homes of the people who complained, no matter how much money you spend, you can solve these three things immediately." ”

This is already Fang Yuan's open side, and Chen Qifan nodded again and again to admit punishment.

Fang Yuan threw out another two-page complaint, "General judgment Zhang Fan, these two letters are complaints about your indiscriminate apportionment of water foot fees when you were lucky, and in the name of Tuntian, you occupy ten acres of people's fertile land at a low price of one or two silver, do you admit it?" ”

Zhang Fan also held the idea that more things are better than less, and he hurriedly promised, "Recognize, recognize!" I immediately refunded this water foot fee, returned ten acres of fertile land to the people, and made some compensation. ”

Fang Yuan said in a deep voice, "Not only do you want to refund a water foot fee, but also the land foot fee, the bamboo basket fee, the god worship fee, and all the fees that are arbitrarily apportioned must be canceled!" ”

As soon as he said this, all the officials looked at each other, and the abolition of all apportionment fees was to cut off the financial route of the officials' black income.