But Fang Yun did not merely make an example of the Minggu County magistrate. The day after the magistrate was arrested, officials and clerks from various places began to be arrested and brought to Baling City.
People from the Governor-General's Office let it be known that, like the Minggu County magistrate, these were all people who had refused to stop after Fang Yun announced his campaign to reform official conduct.
At first, many officials thought Fang Yun was purging the Qing Officials or the Left Prime Minister's forces. Anyone with even a little experience in officialdom knew that, whether it was called reforming the administration or punishing corruption, it was fundamentally a political struggle. At its heart, every new sovereign brought a new set of ministers.
If one batch of people was not brought down, how could the newcomers eat their fill?
After a few days, everyone discovered that Fang Yun was completely unlike previous officials. There was no pattern to those arrested. They included not only people with ties to the Qing Kingdom or the Left Prime Minister, but even staunch, die-hard members of the Royalist Faction. One seventh-rank county magistrate had even secured his position through the imperial in-laws; he and the Empress Dowager's younger brother had grown up together wearing split-crotch trousers.
If these people had any one thing in common, it was that, even after Fang Yun's warning, they had refused to stop or rein themselves in.
In fewer than ten days, two Hanlin Academicians, eleven Metropolitan Graduates, ninety-four Provincial Graduates, and more than three hundred Academy Students had their arrests approved and fell from office, one after another.
Those facing serious charges would be escorted to the capital for sentencing and might ultimately be exiled to various regions.
Those with lesser offenses were fined ten