Case of Vice Minister Yue Jun Falsely Accusing Zhang Guangsi

In 1748, during the Jinchuan campaign, Yue Jun, the Vice Minister of Works overseeing military supplies, bore a personal grudge against Zhang Guangsi, the Viceroy of Sichuan-Shaanxi. Yue submitted a memorial falsely accusing Zhang of deliberately delaying the war and neglecting military duties. The Qianlong Emperor dispatched Grand Secretaries Necin and Fuheng to investigate. While Zhang was found guilty of tactical errors, the inquiry revealed that Yue’s accusations were largely fabricated and motivated by private vengeance. Yue was convicted of false accusation under the Qing Code, sentenced to immediate execution (later commuted to exile at a military post), whereas Zhang was separately executed for his battlefield failures. The case highlighted the blurred line between legitimate oversight and malicious slander in wartime bureaucracy.

Yue Jun was stripped of office, sentenced to death by beheading with the punishment of false accusation (反坐), but the Emperor commuted his sentence to exile at a frontier military station. Zhang Guangsi was executed for dereliction of duty and military defeat.

Whether Yue Jun’s impeachment constituted legitimate supervision of a military commander or was a weapon of personal revenge; distinguishing false accusation from honest dissent when a campaign is failing; the intersection of command accountability and criminal slander.

The case served as a stern warning against factional feuds and false charges within the Qing bureaucracy, reinforcing the Qianlong Emperor’s commitment to rigorous military discipline. It exposed the infighting that hampered the Jinchuan campaigns and became a cited precedent for punishing libelous officials while separately holding commanders strictly accountable for battlefield results.