In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

In August of the fourth year of Song Jingyou, this corruption case that took nearly half a year finally came to an end.

At the end of August, more than 80 officials and businessmen involved in the case were killed, more than 500 were sentenced to exile, and more than 1,000 people with less serious crimes were held accountable and punished with other penalties such as imprisonment, flogging, caning, and dismissal.

In September of the same year, the Dali Temple, the Censorate, and the Court of Criminal Justice arrested the remaining officials who were involved in the case and transferred to other places afterwards, including the former Huainan Road Transport Envoy, Shipping Envoy, Judges, and other officials.

According to past experience, they were only dismissed from their official positions, and not even exiled.

However, the Political System Court quickly issued guidance, asking the three courts to sentence the main officials involved in the case to death, so that the remaining accomplices could be dealt with leniently.

Qian Zhengwei, the Minister of the Dali Temple, Zhang Kui, the Co-governor of the Court of Criminal Justice, and Fan Feng, the Chief Censor, were dissatisfied and asked the Political System Court to give an explanation.

After all, Zhao Jun killed people before, firstly, he killed officials of lower ranks, and secondly, Zhao Zhen gave the Imperial City Department the power to deal with them on its own.

Although all the officials wrote letters to oppose and impeached, the government was very determined that time, and they had no way to deal with Zhao Jun.

But now Zhao Jun is no longer in Bianliang, why should they be asked to do things according to Zhao Jun's wishes?

Unexpectedly, the Political System Institute only gave one explanation, which was "act according to the law!"

This made the three speechless for a while.

Because there is actually no "punishment for officials" in the "Song Criminal Code".

Even in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, because the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms had just been pacified, it was necessary to use severe punishments to restore social order. Therefore, when the criminal law was just formulated, Zhao Kuangyin still focused on strictness.

According to the "History of the Song Dynasty", during the 17 years of the reign of Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin, about 4,000 officials of all sizes were executed, and Zhao Guangyi also killed a lot.

It was just that during the reign of Song Renzong Zhao Zhen, after the constant deception of the literati, Zhao Zhen and his son were finally deceived.

So if they say "act according to the law", they really have no reason to refute.

It's just that leniency to scholars and officials is an unspoken rule.

Originally, Song Taizu and Song Taizong severely cracked down on corrupt officials, and even listed them as "ten unforgivable crimes" such as rebellion and other serious crimes that would never be pardoned. Therefore, the officialdom at that time had greatly improved compared to the greed and unbridled behavior since the Five Dynasties.

However, with the development of the economy and the relaxation of the law, corrupt officials revived.

For example, during the reign of Renzong, Bao Zheng once lamented: "Corruption and tyranny, six or seven out of ten." Although the court had capable officials like Bao Zheng, it was just a drop in the bucket.

By the time of Zhezong in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were about 260 death penalty officials tried in a year, but only 25 of them were executed - "nine out of ten were spared", which shows how lenient they were to officials.

Now the three yamen want to treat the offended officials leniently according to the previous practice. However, they did not expect that the Political System Council had a clear attitude and wanted to restore the situation to the period of Taizu and Taizong, which was really hard for them to accept.

So although the Political System Council gave the decree of "acting in accordance with the law", the Sansi Yamen still dragged on without making a judgment. The Political System Council did not sign the result of their judgment, and they did not accept the opinions given by the Political System Council. The two sides were deadlocked for a while.

If Zhao Jun was there, he would probably not pay attention to them, and directly let the people of the Imperial City Council take those who should be sentenced to death to the outside of the East City and behead them.

But Lu Yijian and his gang still had to follow some official rules and were not so arrogant.

So Yan Shu stepped in, moved them with emotion and reason, and told the Sansi Yamen that the reason for the death penalty for those people was that their corruption had caused serious consequences.

The Song Dynasty could not punish doctors, but the problem was that it could only be lenient for those officials who did not commit serious crimes.

For example, if they embezzled a little money, or used some privileges, engaged in private business, and attacked competitors, it was not impossible to reduce some penalties.

The only condition was that no one should be killed.

As the saying goes, human life is more important than heaven, this is the unchanging slogan of justice since ancient times!

If you kill tens of thousands of people and then give them leniency, where is the dignity and face of the court?

So for the sake of the court's face, these people must be sentenced to death.

Yan Shu's statement is tenable, but the three officials were crazy at the time and refused to let go.

Then the Political System Institute made a trick.

They asked some people to spread the rumor that the three officials were shielding major criminals.

When Ouyang Xiu found out, he was furious and immediately wrote an article in the newspaper to fiercely criticize the behavior of the three officials.

Under the guidance of double public opinion, a huge public opinion storm was triggered.

There was also discussion in the morning court.

They had a fierce debate on whether all literati and officials could be given a lighter sentence, or only those who did not cause serious consequences could be given a lighter sentence.

Finally, under the rhythm of Ouyang Xiu and others, it was concluded that "no punishment for officials" was indeed a preferential treatment for the literati and officials in the Song Dynasty, but this could not be a reason for the literati and officials to be lawless and wanton.

If the literati and officials harmed the people and killed innocent people everywhere, it would be a huge blow to the court, and the consequences would certainly be unbearable for the court.

Therefore, "no punishment for officials" must be limited. If it causes huge consequences, the punishment must be clear.

The scene was quite spectacular at the time. Most of the officials were just watching the excitement. Young righteous people such as Ouyang Xiu, Cai Xiang, and Yu Jing scolded the three officials.

Even Zhao Zhen came out to speak for Ouyang Xiu and the others.

When the officials saw this situation, they immediately changed their positions and began to criticize the three departments.

They said that those people who could do such unscrupulous things were no longer literati and officials, and they did not deserve preferential treatment at all.

And the real literati should be honest officials and benefit the people, instead of being a scourge to the country and the people, etc.

This directly expelled those people from the literati.

Qian Zhengwei, Zhang Kui, and Fan Feng could not withstand such great pressure, and finally had to compromise and sentenced the people to death according to the instructions of the Political System Institute.

In this way, the court gained face, Zhao Zhen and Lu Yijian could give Zhao Jun an explanation, and the people got justice.

At the same time, the officials also understood the bottom line of "no punishment for officials", and they would surely think carefully and restrain themselves in the future, and would not dare to be as unscrupulous as before.

For all parties, it was a win-win situation. The world where only the criminal officials who had their heads chopped off were injured was achieved.

As for Zhao Jun, he went south to Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

On the day he left, the people of Zhenzhou gathered at the ferry to see him off.

In fact, Zhao Jun did not do much for the people of Zhenzhou.

Because he visited many places, he spent less time in Zhenzhou. Apart from inspecting the situation of grain transport, he worked in the transport office and only went to the countryside occasionally.

But even so, many people came to see him off spontaneously. Even if they had not received his favor, they kept calling him the great master.

The world is like this. If you have stayed in the dark for too long, and suddenly someone gave you a ray of light, then this ray of light became your life-saving straw.

In his own opinion, Zhao Jun did not do anything, but just investigated some old cases and cracked down on some corrupt officials.

But for the people, he was a benefactor who moved the mountain that was pressing on their heads.

This is enough to make people remember.

Zhao Jun was sent off by the fleet, which sailed southward.

After crossing the Yangtze River, it was Jiangning Prefecture.

He stayed in Jiangning for a while, and then went to Runzhou, Changzhou, Suzhou and other places to inspect the local agriculture and commerce.

And every time Zhao Jun arrived at a place, he would open a government office and welcome all the people to report the illegal behavior of the government.

If there was a grievance, he would also send someone to deal with it impartially.

But unless he encountered a case like Guo Chengyou, or a major case like the Huainan corruption case, he would transfer the general cases to the local criminal justice department for handling.

Otherwise, if he was asked to handle everything, what would the local judicial office be for? It might as well be abolished.

During his time at the grassroots level, he encountered the illegal behavior of local officials and landlords the most.

This was Zhao Jun's favorite thing.

Because he could legitimately raid the homes of some illegal landlords, confiscate their land, and nationalize the land.

Although the problem is still the same, just like low-rent housing is not necessarily rented by the poor, the state-owned land in the county may not fall into the hands of the landless people in the end.

But even if it is distributed, the landlords will still use various means to take away the land in the future, so it is better to keep these lands in the county government.

As long as the state government and the four departments of the road station keep the original files and clearly know which lands are owned by the state, supervision will be able to be achieved in the future.

For example, Zhao Jun plans to support Fan Zhongyan in implementing the Qingli New Deal reform after the situation stabilizes. In the future, the Yushitai will station a department in each road and conduct inspections every month. And the Criminal and Prison Department will also visit and conduct multiple supervisions.

So once it is found that a landlord is trying to seize the land owned by the government, it depends on whether Zhao Jun's blade is sharp or not. Whether the land under their name will also be nationalized.

At the end of October in the fourth year of Jingyou, Zhao Jun inspected Liangzhe Road and Jiangnan East Road, and went south to Fujian Road.

He is now famous all over the world. Wherever he goes, the people welcome him wholeheartedly. The people all offer food and drink to welcome the governor. There are even many children's songs.

Such as "Welcome the governor, look forward to the governor, the governor has come with a clear sky", "The whole city is looking at the governor, the gluttonous officials are scared and pale. Kill them as food, eat their hearts and livers, and leave the lotus leaves." "If you want red flowers to bloom, you must wait for the governor to come" and so on.

Especially the second song, the corrupt officials are killed, eaten as food, and their hearts and livers are eaten. This shows how much the political darkness and official corruption at that time made the lower-class people hate them.

The appearance of Zhao Jun is like a beam of light in the darkness, giving countless people hope, allowing them to see that the mountains that once oppressed them were moved away one by one by Zhao Jun, and cut off one by one by Zhao Jun, making them full of gratitude and love.

People are like this, whoever treats them well, they will thank him.

On the other hand, many people in the officialdom were very dissatisfied with Zhao Jun and kept impeaching him to the court. Even if they fabricated facts or said some reasons such as excessive killing, they still hoped to impeach Zhao Jun.

The main reason was that Zhao Jun was not doing any reform. If he did reform, the government orders would be passed down, and the grassroots officials would have tens of thousands of ways to turn the original good orders into bad orders and harm the people.

But he did not change anything, nor did he issue any orders. He just investigated corruption and officials' violations of laws and disciplines.

These things were legitimate for the superiors and did not violate any rules.

And they were also the duties of the various criminal and prison officials.

Like Song Ci in "The Chief Justice of the Song Dynasty", he was an official of the Criminal Justice Bureau, at the same level as Li Jianzhi, responsible for the criminal justice litigation of the whole route.

It's just that in the past, due to official relationships, or simply because the Chief Justice was a corrupt official, everyone turned a blind eye and laughed it off.

Now Zhao Jun is serious and ruthless, equivalent to a Bao Zheng who is supreme in power. It would be strange if local officials don't suffer.

So they have no other way to attack Zhao Jun, so they can only impeach him and hope to stop him from continuing his tour.

However, even Zhao Zhen can't control it, let alone these people.

Anyway, the letters sent up have fallen into the sea, without any response.

Zhao Jun continues to do his own thing.

The key is that if he is alone, there may be corrupt officials who take risks.

The problem is that he is running around with an army.

The local wing troops are still under his control.

Now all the local wing troops in the world know that he is coming, not only are they not disgusted, but even the wing troops are looking forward to his coming.

Because the superiors sucked the blood of the soldiers and ate the soldiers' wages, the soldiers also hoped that Zhao Jun would come to make decisions for them.

Therefore, no matter which state or road, wherever Zhao Jun went, he would stir up a storm.

This can also be regarded as the road for Fan Zhongyan's reform and pacification in the future.

Zhao Jun did not stay in Fujian Road for long.

The former Fujian Road Transport Envoy Bian Su was impeached by the censor because his son-in-law Sun Mian was corrupt and committed all kinds of evil. Now he was demoted to the governor of Nankang Army, which was regarded as suffering from the disaster of the fish in the pond.

The newly appointed Fujian Road Transport Envoy Zheng Zai is the elder brother of Zheng Jian, the co-director of the Privy Council.

This person was a Jinshi in the third year of Xianping. In the ninth year of Tiansheng, he was the official of Fuzhou as the official of Zhifang. He was called Xunliang at the time and praised by the people. From the first year of Mingdao to this year, he successively served as the Transport Envoy of Guangnan East Road and the Transport Envoy of Jiangnan West Road, and his political achievements were outstanding.

Originally, this year happened to be his third year as the Transport Envoy of Jiangnan West Road. It should be time for the change of term. Considering that Zheng Jian was in a high position, it was not convenient for him to return to the central government, and he didn't know how to arrange it.

As a result, Bian Su was implicated by Sun Mian and dismissed. In addition, he had been the governor of Fuzhou before, so he was sent to Fujian Road.

Zheng Zai was quite prestigious in Fujian Road. After Zhao Jun went there, he found that the people of Fuzhou still loved him very much, and learned that he was indeed a talented and honest official, a talent he admired.

Accompanied by Zheng Zai, Zhao Jun inspected some places, listened to Zheng Zai's many stories about his previous life in Fuzhou, and talked about his ideas on local governance.

Zhao Jun thought Zheng Zai's governance method was not bad, so he talked to him a lot about Zhao Jun's own governance methods, and the two sides had a great conversation.

When Zhao Jun left Fujian Road, he gave Zheng Zai some political tasks.

Such as cracking down on corruption and landlords, especially those who violated laws and disciplines, so that the court would have an excuse to recover land and ease the problem of land annexation.

Zheng Zai accepted them one by one and expressed his understanding.

By November, Zhao Jun had been in Fujian Road for about 20 days, and then went to Jiangnan West Road.

He didn't stay here for long.

First, Zheng Zai was the transport commissioner of Jiangnan West Road before, and his local political achievements were quite good.

Secondly, his successor was Zhou Zhan, who was a first-class Jinshi in the Tianxi year. He served as an official in various places and had remarkable political achievements. His achievements were recorded in the "History of Song Dynasty", "Fuzhi" and "Xianzhi" of later generations.

Although Zhao Jun didn't know these things, he could find out what Zhou Zhan had done before, which was indeed very outstanding.

After inspecting Hongzhou, Junzhou and other places, and finding that the governance of Jiangnan West Road left by Zheng Zai was still up to standard, Zhao Jun tried his best and instructed Zhou Zhan to go west to Tanzhou in Jinghu South Road in mid-December!

He returned to his hometown of Hunan!