I Rely on Beauty to Stabilize the Country - Chap 45
When Xue Yuan stared at someone, he looked like a carnivorous beast staring at prey that was about to fall in its hands.
No matter how nice his words were, Gu Yuanbai didn’t feel touched. On the contrary, he felt that there was an underlying meaning to his words. Either Xue Yuan was putting up a façade, or he was secretly gloating.
First impressions were always important. The first, second and third impression Gu Yuanbai had gotten from Xue Yuan… weren’t great. Now when he said words that sounded caring, the effect wasn’t as good as when Tian Fusheng or even Captain Zhang Xu said them.
Therefore, the Emperor didn’t show the soft smile that Xue Yuan wanted to see. Instead, he nodded perfunctorily, and then closed the carriage window without hesitation.
The window was slammed shut, causing a breeze to hit the hair on Xue Yuan’s temples.
Xue Yuan stiffened for a moment before he straightened up slowly. He stopped smiling, raised his hand and touched a corner of his lips expressionlessly, wondering, am I that scary when I smile?
What does Gu Yuanbai mean?
It was at that moment that the guard captain approached the other side of the carriage and spoke warmly through the door, “Your Majesty, your officials will take care of this matter. Do not worry, taking care of your dragon body is important.”
The Emperor sighed inside the carriage and replied softly, “We are fine, no need to worry.”
Zhang Xu smiled and then he straightened up and said no more. Suddenly, he felt a gaze that was absolutely unkind. He looked back through his line of sight and saw Xue Yuan, who was staring at him expressionlessly on the opposite side of the carriage.
The Emperor had said that he should learn more from Xue Yuan, so the chief guard smiled very calmly and maintained the proper demeanor befitting of a guard captain.
Xue Yuan retracted his gaze, looked at his hand, and slowly clenched it, holding the reins.
The Imperial Court and the Supervision Office continued their investigations.
Before the anti-corruption campaign, Gu Yuanbai had allowed over a month for those that noticed the anti-corruption plans and had the ability to produce the money they embezzled to return it. Since these people still weren’t able to move, Gu Yuanbai would let them be as long as they coughed up all that they had embezzled.
The rest of those who were unable to receive the signals from Gu Yuanbai had no ability to resist his actions.
The Imperial Court, the visible side, would show no mercy and it’d leave without accepting any invitations or offerings after the investigation. On the other hand, secretly, the investigations would be more ruthless and, after half a month, they were often able to completely get rid of the corrupt officials behind the scenes.
The more they investigated, the bigger it got. The bigger it got, the more they had to investigate. Those in regional cities and prefectures who didn’t have a clean record began to feel uneasy. Some officials were still trying to fill the gap, while others planned to run away with their money.
Qingzhou, Shandong.
A county magistrate was hurriedly packing his bags and preparing to take his family and escape. Outside the window, the sky was dark, and it was a good time to leave the city. Two carriages were already waiting outside the gates, and half of the space in them was taken by piles of gold and silver and treasure. The official sat in one of the carriages with a panicked expression, sweating.
His wife sat next to him, feeling uneasy. “Are we just going to flee like this?”
The official said fiercely, “Can we afford to not flee?! Should we take out all the gold and silver in the family to fill in the gaps from the embezzling?! Even if you want to, we don’t have that much money!”
The lady stopped talking, looking at the gold and silver in the carriage with greed in her eyes.
The carriages arrived at the city gate, and the official lifted the curtains and said to the guards, “Open the door, let me out of the city!”
Seeing that it was a city official, the guards hurriedly retreated and opened the city gates.
In the dark, the carriages drove away at a leisurely pace. The official lifted his sleeves and wiped the cold sweat on his face. He couldn’t believe that he had gotten out so easily.
The wife was already laughing, and the official looked at her smile and had a bad premonition. But he was out of the city, and the carriages drove all night, and who would be able to know where he was the next day?
The official laughed as well, but his time of smiling after escaping catastrophe didn’t last long. The carriage stopped suddenly, and the inside of the carriage shook, making the official and his wife feel dizzy.
“What’s the matter?!” The official steadied himself, shouting angrily, “Can’t you drive a carriage?!”
It was quiet outside, and no one answered him. The official’s heart thumped, and his bad premonition returned to his mind.
He stretched out a trembling hand, lifted the curtain of the carriage to take a look, and suddenly had a heart attack.
On the road outside, he saw a group of constables holding torches and surrounding his two carriages. They were all dressed neatly and carrying big swords, and the faces illuminated by the torches looked majestic and terrifying.
The leader of the group walked over to the man wearing the official’s uniform. He looked at the official who had attempted to leave and laughed. “Zhao Ning, Zhao Ning, are you planning to escape?”
The county official exclaimed in dismay, “You—”
An official that had been silent before, Xian Cheng, laughed coldly, and his usually slouched back seemed to straighten suddenly. He stared directly at Zhao Ning with burning eyes and said, “With me here, don’t even try to run away! You’ve stolen this much, and now you want to escape like this?! Don’t even think about it! I’m going to arrest you now, and when His Majesty’s Supervision Office arrives at Huangpu City,1 I will hand you over for interrogation!”
The county official screamed, “I have no grievances with you!”
The torch lit up everyone’s face amidst the darkness, dissipating the chill, and the county official looked at every constable holding torches and spoke slowly. “Do you think we want to do evil for you? Do you think we want to be scorned by the people?! This is Huangpu City! Not your money bank! What do we dare to do? The Imperial court has come to investigate corruption, so what else do we not dare to do!”
At the end of his speech, his fists were already clenched, and blue veins were popping out from the excitement, his eyes full of hot tears.
Some of the constables behind them could not help but utter angry, pained curses, their voices rising one by one. Everyone who had their eyes closed to immoral behavior couldn’t help but think of the people in the city.
The corrupt official Zhao Ning looked at this group of people and lowered his head in dismay.
Scenes like that were happening everywhere.
A good official who cared about the common people would stand up, take the lead in gathering evidence of corruption from other officials, and would just wait for the court to send someone to look for it. In some places, where no officials had come forward, scholars and literate people that were informed about the capital would be encouraged after learning about the anti-corruption policy. They’d gather their courage and call on the people in order to stop corrupt officials from robbing Peter to pay Paul, so that these officials wouldn’t dare move or would return the embezzled amounts.
“Gentlemen!” The scholars sweated profusely, but they still did their best to inform everyone about the anti-corruption activities over and over again. They spoke loudly and firmly until their mouths went dry. “The court will definitely catch corrupt officials. His Majesty will surely punish these people that take advantage of their position!”
The Great Heng Dynasty had relatively free speech, but in a bureaucratic system it’d be difficult to know the potential consequences of offending an official by scholars that had yet to become officials themselves. If they did so and the Imperial court didn’t find out about the corrupt officials, they’d die.
But when they looked at the people who awaited eagerly and those chanting “It’s His Majesty’s will!” and “Corrupt officials should die!” they felt full of strength. It was that emotion that led them to face the corrupt officials, and do so more forcefully.
And these good officials, scholars and common people went to great lengths to create a perfect situation for the court to act. The court wasn’t going to waste it.
As of late, something called the “Great Heng Newspaper” appeared in the capital, sold by the Zhang family’s bookstore west of the capital. Only one hundred copies would be sold every day.
The newspaper would keep track of the recent anti-corruption proceedings. It recorded which officials were dismissed by the regional government, how much they had embezzled, and what other things were implicated in it. In addition, it’d record the touching deeds that happened all over the place, the citizens’ opinions and the benefits from anti-corruption measures, etc. The citizens of the capital would start queuing at the door of the Zhang family’s bookstore before dawn to be able to see the contents of the Great Heng Newspaper first.
Those in the capital, for some reason, also looked at it like it was a precious thing that they didn’t even dare look at too much for fear it’d disappear; they’d cry tears of joy as if it was rain when they saw officials fall and they’d secretly wipe them away. When seeing the gratitude and praise towards the Emperor from other prefectures and regions, it was impossible not to laugh at the sky with pride.
The contents of such a paper would easily rally the citizens, materialize their sense of belonging to the country and cluster them around the Emperor.
Of course, that newspaper was being written by Gu Yuanbai.
At a teahouse.
A storyteller slammed his mallet down with a copy of the Great Heng Newspaper in his hand. He said loudly, “…that Huangpu magistrate returned with all the constables to the city with the big official! The citizens that heard them couldn’t leave their houses because of the curfew, but they looked through the cracks of their windows and doors and rejoiced, wanting to celebrate, and had to cover their mouths in fear of disturbing their sleeping children.
“The people of Huangpu city consciously controlled the city gates every day before the Imperial Supervision officials arrived and didn’t allow any outsider to enter or leave, strictly preventing the magistrate from escaping. When the supervision officials arrived, they investigated the magistrate’s mansion and the local granary thoroughly. Sure enough, they detected a lot of corruption! It took three days for the supervision officials to count the amount of money embezzled by the county magistrate.” The storyteller sneered, and then yelled, “Three hundred thousand taels! The income of more than a thousand households in Huangpu City for a decade! This amount of corruption cannot even be described! The supervisory officials could not bear it, and the Emperor could not bear it either! On that same day, the supervisory officials sentenced the Huangpu magistrate to be executed. When the judgment was released, the entire city cheered, and the old farmers who had been robbed off their hard work had tears in their eyes.
“The children didn’t understand the grief felt by their parents and grandfathers, but they also jumped with joy. The parents and grandparents wiped their tears, getting the hems of their clothes wet. They were grateful for the current situation of the county magistrate, Zhao Ning. When Zhao Ning was beheaded, the empty alley was filled with thousands of people and the sound of cheers could be heard from hundreds of miles away. When the hour arrived, the blade fell quickly, and Zhao Ning was beheaded!”
“Great!”
Someone shouted in approval from the audience, and everyone cheered in excitement. “What happened then? What about the money found in the corrupt official’s house?!”
The storyteller laughed and said, “Before our Emperor sent officials to fight corruption, regulations were established. Some of the money found from those corrupt officials would be kept locally for construction purposes. Naturally, it’s from the people and it should be used by the people. Another part is sent to the Imperial Court to fill up the National Treasury.
“Regarding construction, as it was explained in the newspaper, it means to furnish facilities, and part of the money left by the Emperor locally will also be used to build roads!”
“Building a road huh,” the people underneath murmured, “So they’re actually starting to build roads.”
Sitting elegantly in the teahouse, Gu Yuanbai held up a glass and listened to the passionate words of the storyteller downstairs, distracted and forgetting to drink tea for a while.
He only smiled slightly and took a sip of tea after hearing the passionate discussion about road construction among the people below.
If the court can do what the people yearn for, that’d be the most effective way to conquer the hearts of the people.
