"Taizhou Prefect Tan Lun is honored to meet you all." Upon hearing the news, Taizhou Prefect Tan Lun hurried over to pay his respects and was very respectful.
Although Tan Lun's official position is higher than Xu Hai and others, who can blame him for coming from the power center of Beijing? The saying that Beijing officials are three levels higher is not just a casual saying, and they are executing the emperor's orders.
"Prefect Tan, thank you for your courtesy. We are unworthy of it. We have come to your precious place from the capital in compliance with the imperial edict. We have two main tasks. One is to investigate the case of Zhu Ping'an, assistant to the Zhejiang Provincial Judicial Commissioner and acting magistrate of Jingnan, who colluded with grain merchants, raised grain prices and accepted huge bribes; the other is to investigate the flood situation in the south of the Yangtze River. The main purpose of coming to your precious place today is to investigate Zhu Ping'an's grain bribery case and to investigate the flood disaster situation in your prefecture along the way." Xu Hai, head of the Jingnan investigation team, said very politely to Tan Lun, prefect of Taizhou.
Investigating Zhu Ping'an's corruption case? !
When Taizhou prefect Tan Lun heard the news, he was stunned. Has the news of Zhu Ping'an colluding with grain merchants, driving up grain prices, and accepting bribes spread to the capital? It's only been more than half a month, how come the news spread so quickly
After receiving the report from the Taiping County Magistrate half a month ago, he put the matter aside for some reasons. Recently, he was thinking that half a month had passed and the situation in Jingnan should have gotten out of control. He was just about to close the net, but he didn't expect that the matter had been reported to the higher authorities, and the capital had already sent people to investigate.
This is a problem!
When problems arose among officials in his jurisdiction, he was unable to deal with them in a timely manner, and instead sent people from the capital to handle them.
If they really want to investigate, I can't escape responsibility. If there is a problem in my jurisdiction, no matter if I am guilty or not, I, as the prefect, will be held responsible. At the very least, it's inaction; at the most, isn't it shielding someone? !
Thinking of this, Taizhou prefect Tan Lun couldn't help but frown. On the one hand, he regretted his original decision, and on the other hand, he was dissatisfied with the Taiping County Magistrate for reporting the matter to the capital. Overstepping one's authority in reporting has been a taboo since ancient times!
Although Xu Hai and others did not say it, Tan Lun knew that it was the Taiping County Magistrate who reported Zhu Ping'an. He had heard people say before that the Taiping County Magistrate had come to him in a roundabout way to find out about his exposure of Zhu Ping'an! Later, he heard that Liu Wannian, the Right Censor of the Nanjing Li Ke, came to Taizhou Prefecture to visit the Taiping County Magistrate. Now that he thought about it, Liu Wannian must have been invited by the Taiping County Magistrate to impeach Zhu Ping'an with the help of Liu Wannian's status as a Censor.
This Taiping County Magistrate...
How could I protect corrupt officials? Taizhou prefect Tan Lun couldn't help but give Taiping County Magistrate a bad review in his heart.
"I will do my best to cooperate with you. Actually, I have received reports from Taiping County Magistrate and others half a month ago that Zhu Ping'an colluded with grain merchants, raised grain prices, and accepted bribes. However, considering that Zhu Ping'an was promoted to the position of Assistant Director of the Zhejiang Provincial Criminal Investigation Department for his contribution to the anti-Japanese war, he is in the limelight. It is difficult to convict him with only a document defining grain prices. I am afraid that he will make excuses and make excuses, which will alert the enemy. Therefore, I have set up a net but have not fired it, leaving time for the evidence to be fixed. I was about to close the net these days, but I didn't expect the officers to come. It's all my fault. I made the officers come all the way here."
Taizhou prefect Tan Lun bowed to Xu Hai and others, and said apologetically, making a subtle excuse for himself. I had received clues about the crime of the corrupt official Zhu Ping'an half a month ago, and had already spread the net. The reason why I didn't deal with Zhu Ping'an on the spot was to fix the evidence and to deal with him better.
Hearing this, Xu Hai frowned slightly. In his opinion, since they had already received the clues exposing and denouncing Zhu Ping'an, they should have dealt with it as soon as possible. Every day of delay would mean that the people of Jingnan would suffer more. In the past half month, he didn't know what kind of harm Zhu Ping'an had done to the people of Jingnan.
However, the actions of Taizhou prefect Tan Lun were understandable. Zhu Ping'an had just made great contributions in the fight against the Japanese pirates and had just issued an official document to define the grain price. If Zhu Ping'an was to be convicted of corruption based on this alone, the evidence would be insufficient, and Zhu Ping'an would certainly have many excuses and evasions, making it difficult to convict him.
However, Xu Haijue should be dealt with as soon as possible. Although Zhu Ping'an may not be convicted, the people of Jingnan will definitely suffer less.
"Plan before you act, and don't fight a battle without confidence. Prefect Tan did a good job. Zhu Ping'an is a treacherous and cunning man. I have seen a lot of him in the capital. If Prefect Tan had taken action at that time, Zhu Ping'an would definitely have argued away the crime." Zhang Wenbo, the head of the Ministry of Justice, was very satisfied with the approach of Taizhou Prefect Tan Lun and praised him highly.
From his point of view, he didn't care about the lives of the people in Jingnan, he only cared about Zhu Ping'an! In the past half month, the situation in Jingnan must have been devastated, and Zhu Ping'an's guilt was solid. This time, they would definitely make Zhu Ping'an's corruption case a solid case!
"That's right. If we don't move, there will be no movement. Once we move, we will surely win. Prefect Tan has a deep understanding of the mysteries of military strategy. Without Prefect Tan's early preparations, we would probably return empty-handed this time. After the case is concluded, we will report it truthfully and will not ignore Prefect Tan's early achievements." Peng Cheng, the censor of Zhejiang Province, nodded in agreement.
Wang Meng, the head of the Ministry of Revenue, also nodded.
Hearing that Zhang Wenbo and others had no intention of holding him accountable, Tan Lun finally put his heart at ease.
I didn't expect the superior to be so easy to talk to. Tan Lun couldn't help but be surprised for a while, but soon, Tan Lun also figured out the reason. Zhang Wenbo, Wang Meng and Peng Chengdu were all members of Yan's party. They wanted to kill Zhu Ping'an. Zhu Ping'an had offended Yan Song in the capital and participated in Yang Jisheng's impeachment of Yan Song. Before Yang Jisheng submitted a memorial, he proposed amendments to the fatal omissions in Yang Jisheng's memorial. However, Yang Jisheng did not adopt Zhu Ping'an's opinions. Otherwise, success or failure would be uncertain... ... Therefore, Zhang Wenbo and others wanted to take this opportunity to get rid of Zhu Ping'an. His original practice of not issuing an impeachment and confirming the evidence was exactly what they wanted, so they were so easy to talk to.
Xu Hai originally wanted to say something, but when he saw Zhang Wenbo and others say so, he kept silent.
This time I came to investigate the case of Zhu Ping'an colluding with grain merchants to engage in corruption, so forget about the other things.
"Prefect Tan, this memorial was also the first one jointly submitted by the magistrate of Taiping County, which is under your jurisdiction, and Liu Wannian, the Sixth Department Censor. Perhaps they have other clues about Zhu Ping'an's corruption case. When we go to Jingnan to investigate Zhu Ping'an, we will go to Taiping County first. Please ask the magistrate of Taiping to go with us."
Before setting off, Xu Hai told Tan Lun that he would invite the magistrate of Taiping to go with him. This was something they had finalized on the way.
“As it should be.”
Tan Lun bowed and nodded, silently making a note for the Taiping County Magistrate in his heart, it turned out to be you!