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- Unfortunately, Gao Pu was an ambitious man, who saw the chance to make a fortune through the illegal sale of official jade. According to the confession of Gao Pu s associate, Shen Tai, Gao Pu had amassed a fortune at his post of more than
10,000 ounces of gold and numerous precious objects. As Gao Pu�s term at Yar�kand was rather short, he must have received bribes and smuggled jade to have accumulated such wealth.
One form of bribes received by him came from filling the vacancies of Beqs. The position of Beg was the highest political position a Moslim could hold, and since the residing court official was considerably influential in the appointments, he was often offered bribes for help in attaining a posting. It was later discovered that Gao Pu had received a large amount of kickbacks from Moslims for granting ranks For example, it came to light that Gao Pu gave the rank of 5th degree Beg to the son of Yishenhan, Abdullah Ajisi, in exchange for 15 pieces of jade-stone, which were in the family�s possession.
Prior to China�s control of the jade region, several prominent Moslims like Yi�shenhan Beg, E Dui and Dasantai, had benefited from the jade trade, but when the emperor claimed all the jade for himself, these men began to engage in illegal jade trafficking with local officials to maintain their living standard. With the arrival of the dishonest Gao Pu in 1777, they brought out the jade, which they had stolen over the years, to give to him as a bribe. Gao Pu collaborated with two experienced merchants named Zhang Luan and Zhao Junrui to illegally transport a total of
6,000 to 7,000 catties of jade to markets in eastern China, which was about 1 a times the yearly jade tribute to the emperor.
Since Gao Pu was in a powerful position, other local officials did not dare ask too many questions and often looked the other way. But certain changes occurred early in 1778 which proved to be important factors in the downfall of Gao Pu. First the counselling official in Huijang was replaced by an official named Yong Gui Yong Gui was originally the president of the Bureau of History, but fell into disfa�vour and was subsequently dismissed from his post. As a kind of punishment he was assigned a posting in far away Wuji in Xinjiang to atone for his wrongdoing Therefore, he worked very hard and when he learned of the Gao Pu case he saw a chance to vindicate himself.
The second factor in uncovering the case had to do with the Beg system in Xinjiang. Unlike the system for Chinese officials, which called for the officials to be continually rotated throughout the vast empire to prevent corruption, the Beg sys�tem in Xinjiang only had rotations on a local basis, which allowed the Begs to be�come extremely well informed about the activities of the region. Therefore a con�scientious Beg, who might want to better his position, could report a crime and be rewarded for it.
With a Moslim named Sitibaerdi, there was such a man, who helped to break the case. After Sitibaerdi assumed the post of Beg of Yarkand, he found out little by little about Gao Pu�s smuggling network, and began sending information to Yong Gui about it. On one occasion, Gao Pu sent someone to accompany Sitibaerdi to inspect the jade mining area. Gao Pu�s agent gave Sitibaerdi a huge bribe of gold At first he acted like he went along with it, but in reality he handed the bribe of 50 gold yuan bao (equal to 2,500 taels of silver) over to another official named Li Mu to keep as evidence of Gao Pu's bribe. When Sitibaerdi had carefully gathered to�gether all kinds of incriminating evidence about Gao Pu�s operations, he presented his accusations to Yong Gui. Yong Gui having examined the proof of Gao Pu�s guilt, immediately submitted a report to the emperor in Beijing. The emperor was furious and gave him supreme authority to investigate and deal with the case.
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