The Ministry of Punishment's Suppression, the Cold Shoulder, the Heir of Yongping's Mediation, and Three Letters!

The Ministry of Punishment.

Inside the section chief's office.

Xu Qingxiao sat at his desk, quietly reading the case file.

[On the ninth day of the fifth month, Year 43 of Wu Yuan, famine struck Pingqiu Prefecture. Drought had persisted for seven years, the sky was crimson, and the earth lay cracked for ten thousand li. The Great Wei Heaven-Watching Bureau used eighty-one rain-summoning talismans, yet failed to bring down a single drop of rain. This was a natural disaster.]

[On the seventh day of the ninth month, Year 43 of Wu Yuan, the Great Wei Heaven-Watching Bureau invited an elder of the Great Luo Religion to summon rain for Pingqiu Prefecture. However, abnormal celestial conditions ultimately prevented any rain from falling. Under the prolonged drought, the common people fled. To alleviate the disaster, the Secretariat approved thirty million taels of silver in relief funds.]

On the first day of the third month, Year 44 of Wu Yuan, Inspector Zhou Zheng traveled to Pingqiu Prefecture to investigate the aftermath of the disaster. He discovered that the common people remained in unbearable misery. Across ten thousand li of Mountains and Rivers, neither grass roots nor any living creatures remained. There were even horrifying incidents of people exchanging their children to eat.

[On the twentieth day of the third month, Year 44 of Wu Yuan, the Ministry of Punishment, the Censorate, and the Court of Judicial Review jointly investigated the matter. Various clues ultimately revealed that Zhang Nantian, Prefectural Lord of Pingqiu Prefecture, had accepted bribes and perverted the law, embezzling twenty million taels of relief silver. His subordinates divided the funds among themselves, substituting bran for rice and providing only one meal a day. They also prohibited the common people from leaving the prefecture, preferring to let them starve within its