Therefore, Li Longji's mood at the moment was quite complicated. He was quite angry at such a blatant act of greed, but at the same time, he was quite excited about the real profits of the railway department. As long as he dealt a heavy hand this time, he would definitely be able to dig out a lot of the embezzled money at once, and confiscate some of the officials' homes. And with this money, it would be enough to build several new railway lines. At that time, business would definitely be more prosperous.
Seeing the Emperor's attitude towards corruption, Yang Guozhong hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty is wise. If the Luoyang Railway Branch can embezzle three million strings of cash a year, the other railway branches must also be very suspicious. As an Imperial Censor, I have committed a crime of negligence. I beg Your Majesty to give me a chance to redeem myself. Let me thoroughly investigate the Railway Bureau and its subordinate departments, take back all the embezzled money into the national treasury, and bring all the embezzled officials to justice."
This self-recommendation was very effective. Li Longji nodded with satisfaction and said, "In that case, the task of thoroughly investigating the railway branches will be handed over to you. However, investigating the case is just investigating the case. You must not interfere with the normal operation of the railway. Otherwise, those merchants will make trouble again."
Li Longji wanted to tell Yang Guozhong that the stability of the railway system should be the primary condition. The railway system should not be paralyzed because of investigating the case. If that happened, the merchants of the Tang Dynasty would suffer heavy losses, and all aspects of the Tang Dynasty would be greatly affected.
In this way, investigating the case would become somewhat difficult. After all, those who could embezzle huge amounts of money were the main leaders of each department, and these leaders were also responsible for the dispatch of the railway. If they did not say anything and arrested all the important leaders, then the local railway system would inevitably fall into chaos, resulting in very bad consequences.
"Your Majesty, don't worry. I will start the investigation in the capital. It will definitely not affect the daily operation of the Tang Dynasty's railway."
Yang Guozhong replied confidently. He had so many confidants, so he would definitely find a way to solve this problem. This was not a difficult thing to do.
"Yu Chaoen, the position of the Railway Bureau's Assistant Censor is no longer suitable for you. Go behind closed doors and reflect on yourself for three months! I will accept this account book. "
Li Longji looked at Yu Chaoen and stated his decision. This was considered a light sentence. Even if he did not spend a single cent, he did not tell the Emperor before, so the crime of accepting bribes could not be cleared. However, the Emperor trusted Yu Chaoen and felt that he did not lie, so he gave him a light sentence and confiscated the money. In addition, he also dismissed the head of the Railway Bureau, which was a punishment.
"Thank you, Your Majesty.
"Yu Chaoen was finally relieved. Although he lost a lot of money, it was not all his property. Even if he lost this money, it would not affect his standard of living. The most important thing now was to save his life, so he did not care about worldly possessions.
This time, it was most appropriate to let Yang Guozhong, as the Censor, thoroughly investigate the corruption case of the Railway Bureau, because the Censor was in charge of this matter. In addition, the position of the Right Prime Minister was still empty. If Yang Guozhong could make a great contribution this time, it was reasonable to promote him.
The Emperor had made up his mind, so the ministers naturally had nothing to say. In this way, Yang Guozhong began to mobilize people, starting from the Railway Bureau's Headquarters, Chang 'an City Railway Branch, and Luoyang City Railway Branch where the incident happened.
These units were the most important. The Railway Bureau's Headquarters was the core of the country, so its position was naturally the most important. If there was a problem with the headquarters, the country's railway department would be in chaos. In addition to the headquarters, the most developed and busiest one was Luoyang City Railway Branch, while Chang 'an City Railway Branch could only be ranked behind Luoyang. After all, Luoyang was located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, and in terms of transportation, it was more convenient than Chang' an City, so the development of the railway was naturally better than Chang 'an City.
In addition, the Ezhou City Railway Branch, Zhengzhou City Railway Branch, and Xuzhou City Railway Branch in the southeast were developing quite well, and were also the main targets of this investigation.
After Yang Guozhong received the imperial edict, he immediately began to take action. First, he took control of the Railway Bureau's Headquarters and Chang 'an City Railway Branch, and then transferred a few deputies from Chang' an City Railway Branch to Luoyang City Railway Branch, because the Jin Wu Guards had already set off to Luoyang City to arrest people. If Wang Gui and the others were really all arrested, Luoyang City Railway Station would probably fall into chaos. After all, all the dispatching of vehicles was the responsibility of these leaders. Once these leaders did not appear at their posts in time, the people below them would not know what to do. In this way, it was not difficult to understand that the station fell into chaos. Once the chaos dragged on for a long time, it would cause extremely heavy losses to the Tang dynasty. First of all, the loss of merchants was not a small number.
Yang Guozhong's worries were not unfounded, because just before he gave the order, the railway transportation in the direction of Luoyang City had already fallen into chaos.
After Wang Hu took the freight train back to Luoyang City, he immediately reported the terrible situation to Wang Gui. Then, the two brothers took the things that had already been packed and prepared to run away.
Before leaving, in order to stop the pursuers, Wang Gui randomly sent out all the waiting vehicles at Luoyang City Railway Station. He himself disguised himself and went to Yingzhou City, ready to escape to the bitter cold of the north.
Not long after these vehicles left, the Jinwu Guards arrived at Luoyang City. However, they only caught Zheng Quan and the other blackmailer. The main culprits, Wang Hu, and Wang Gui had already escaped, and because Wang Gui had sent out a large number of trains before leaving, the Jinwu Guards were unable to determine where the two brothers had escaped to. They could only settle for the next best thing, which was to capture Zheng Quan and the other blackmailer and confiscate the homes of all the people involved in the case, obtaining an astonishing amount of money.
Because Chen Xiao 'er was the deputy stationmaster of Luoyang Railway Station, he was very clear about the daily dispatches and various personnel relationships of the station. Therefore, even though Yang Guozhong was unwilling, he still transferred Chen Xiao' er over and let him serve as the stationmaster of Luoyang Railway Station. At the same time, he also served as the Minister Counsellor of Luoyang Railway Branch, directly participating in the highest decision-making of Luoyang Railway Branch. The candidate for the Minister Counsellor was an old doctor selected by Yang Guozhong from the Railway Headquarters in order to suppress Chen Xiao 'er's arrogance and let him know that it was not so easy to be promoted. In addition, Chen Xiao' er was a daring person. Letting him be the chief official was really not reassuring.
The ins and outs of the case that developed in the capital were finally clear. The Tang dynasty newspaper recounted the ins and outs of the matter in the headlines. Of course, some details were omitted, such as Chen Xiao 'er raping the little maid, how many people were killed and injured in Yang Guozhong's mansion, what their names were, and so on. These were not clear, and the assassin only wrote the names of the several masterminds.
Such a major news naturally became a hot topic in the streets and alleys. Almost all the people of all walks of life liked to talk about this topic and could express their own opinions.
However, there was a group of people who were quite afraid of this topic, and that was the leadership of the Railway Administration in the capital. Because the corruption case of the Luoyang Railway Branch was so serious that the entire railway department of the Tang dynasty would be greatly implicated. The Chang 'an Railway Branch and the higher headquarters of the Railway Administration were naturally within the scope of the investigation. Therefore, how could these people not be worried and afraid?
If they had received the news earlier, they might have had a chance to escape. But now, Yang Guozhong had launched an investigation. All the senior officials of the Railway Administration in the capital and their families were under surveillance. No one could escape, and there was no chance for them to escape. In addition, it was fine if they took the initiative to plead guilty. If they escaped and were caught, the consequences would be quite serious.
After being busy all morning, in the afternoon, Ang Lee had time to read the Tang dynasty newspaper and learned what had happened last night. In addition, he learned some gossip from the mouth of the craftsmen, so that Ang Lee could understand the matter more clearly.
Ang Lee had long been clear about the corruption of the Railway Administration, but he really did not expect that the corruption would be so serious. A small Luoyang Railway Branch could embezzle such a huge amount of money in just one year. It was conceivable how much corruption there was in the remaining part of the railway.
However, Li An was also quite optimistic. The more they embezzled, the more it showed the wealth of the Tang Empire. If they did not have wealth, they would not be able to embezzle even if they wanted to. Thus, to be able to confiscate so much wealth at once was a great thing for the national treasury. In this way, the imperial court would be able to start a few more big projects.
The research and development center had always been short on money, and it had never been rich. This time, Li An had decided to personally write a report and apply for more funds from the Imperial Court. His reason was to increase the research and development progress of the Ten Thousand Mile Sound Transmission Plan, so that they could obtain preliminary results in just a few months. Li An was confident in this. After all, the basic core technologies had already been developed, and with a few more months of practice, they should be able to produce a success. As long as they could develop this invention, it would definitely bring a new round of leaps and bounds to the Great Tang Empire's prosperity.
The report was quickly written. This time, Ang Lee was really ruthless. He asked for one million strings of cash as soon as he opened his mouth. Half of the funds would be used to develop the Ten Thousand Mile Sound Transmission Plan. After all, it was not so easy to manufacture telegraphs and telephones. It required constant experimentation, and every attempt cost money. The manufacturing of spare parts also cost money. Once the parts were not suitable, they had to be remade.
Therefore, the reason why the Hua Xia businessmen of later generations liked to buy the technology of foreigners directly was because it was not easy to develop technology. It required a lot of money. Moreover, there was no guarantee that there would be results. If there were no results in the end, a lot of money would be wasted.
Ang Lee's situation was slightly different. This was because Ang Lee had developed the technology backwards. He already knew what these things looked like and what spare parts they needed. However, because the machines of this era were too lousy, some very simple materials were difficult to manufacture. It required constant improvement of the machines and materials, little by little, before the telephone could be made.
After all, there were many technologies for telegraphs and telephones, and the requirements of each technology were different. It required constant experimentation to understand which technology was easier to manufacture and which could be achieved at this time. As for those that could not be achieved, they could only temporarily give up and leave it for later when the technology was better.
Although Ang Lee had a lot of assets, the research and development of things that were useful to the imperial court still required the imperial court's funds. If it was all his own money, it would be too much of a loss. Even if he did not corrupt, he could not destroy his family to relieve the difficulties. Ang Lee did not have such a high awareness, and there was no need for this at all.
Because the imperial court had begun to thoroughly investigate the corruption of the Railway Administration, many officials who had committed corruption became uneasy. Among them, the officials of the Railway Administration were naturally the most nervous, and the other departments were also very uneasy. Many of the other imperial departments were actively filling in the loopholes. There were even officials who sold their own properties. As long as they quietly filled in the deficit accounts, then when the higher-ups sent people to inspect them, they would not find any problems. These officials could escape the disaster.
However, for those who had embezzled a large amount of money and were good at squandering, it was difficult to make up for it. This was because the embezzled money had been spent, and there was no money to make up for it. If one day they were caught, they could only plead guilty and be executed.
Of course, there were also some officials who had a fluke mentality. They began to think of ways to mess up the accounts so that it would be difficult for the people who checked the accounts to see the tricks. Or, they deliberately added trouble to the people who checked the accounts to make the accounts a mess that was difficult to calculate.
The most daring officials chose to directly burn the account books. Moreover, they also faked the scene of an accidental fire. All the items and account books were burned to the ground. In this way, they were at most guilty of negligence. Naturally, the crime was lighter than the huge amount of corruption. However, this kind of trick was easily seen through. Once this kind of behavior was confirmed, the crime would be even more serious. However, some people did not want to sit still and wait for death. They wanted to fight with all their might.
Of course, not everyone would be investigated. Some of the high-ranking officials favored by the Emperor would not be investigated unless the Emperor disliked them. But given the current situation of the Great Tang, almost no official could withstand an investigation. As long as the investigation was done carefully, the investigation would reveal that they were corrupt to a certain extent. As for receiving gifts, that was even more so. Even Li An often received gifts. Moreover, the higher the rank and the more power the official had, the more gifts they would receive. And after receiving gifts, it was inevitable that they would have to work for others. This was also a form of corruption, but it was so minor that no one would care about it. After all, when the water was too clear, there would be no fish. It was unrealistic to completely prevent officials from being corrupt.
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