The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 854

In August of the second year of Rende, the "Dagan Law Code" was published.

The Dagan Code was studied by dozens of Chinese and foreign scholars from the Dagan Ministry of Justice. It was formed after dozens of revisions based on the combination of the original Ming Law and the British Magna Carta.

Among them, Ding Yi carefully read every chapter and every section. It took more than half a year just to read the Dagan Codex.

There are several major changes in the Dagan Code, all of which have caused huge controversy in the court.

His basic core is the four words "the king is under the law".

Open the prototype of the legal code, and the home page is the four words "the king is under the law".

The preface of the Dagan Code is even more moving.

"No one can be arrested and imprisoned, deprived of rights and property, banished and exiled, deprived of reputation and status without legal judgment or legal provisions. Private property is sacred and inviolable. We cannot use Power, nor can it command others to use power to harm anyone. Justice cannot be bought and sold, and everyone must be treated fairly and granted rights."

Compared with the laws of previous dynasties, the Dagan Code has several major changes.

In the first place, the death penalty was changed from beheading to hanging, that is, keeping the whole body and giving respect to the dead.

The second place is that the crime of murder is officially written into the code, but not for all cases, all the cases that are suitable for murder are specified in the code, and those that are not clear in the code cannot be punished.

In the past, in the past, as long as the emperor gave an order, the nine clans could be punished, and even Zhu Di even executed the ten clans.

Now Zhulian is not the emperor who has the final say, but the law.

If there is something in the code, you can punish it, if it doesn't, you can't punish it.

Among them, the case of official corruption ranks first.

The Dagan Code stipulates that all officials who are corrupt, regardless of whether their family members know about it or not, will be punished.

Corruption (or acceptance) of more than 100 taels of silver or equivalent items - less than [-] taels, the official will be dismissed from office, and the close relatives of the official have public positions, all of them will be dismissed, and the next three generations will not be able to participate in the imperial examination.

Close family members include wives, children, and parents, and all family properties will be confiscated (including all property of wives, children, and parents).

Corruption (or acceptance) of more than 100 taels of silver or equivalent items--less than 1000 taels, the official will be hanged, and the close relatives of the official have public positions, all of them will be dismissed, and all family properties will not be checked.

Corruption (or acceptance) of more than 1000 taels of silver or equivalent items will be hanged by officials, and close relatives of officials who have public positions will be dismissed and sentenced to life imprisonment without commutation for life.

Anyone who corrupts (or accepts) more than 1 taels of silver or equivalent items will be hanged by the whole family of the official. Except for close relatives, all family members such as brothers and sisters and the whole family will be confiscated and exiled overseas.

The Dagan Code is extremely harsh on officials, and they cannot even accept anything more than ten taels. Except for gifts from parents to children, and children to parents, any other gifts between relatives must be reported to the court, and the maximum gift cannot exceed ten taels. Cumulative gifts cannot exceed 100 taels.

In order to prevent officials from being bribed in the name of gifts in private, Dagan Law still adopts the method of "whoever reports first, who benefits" to support phishing law enforcement.

Suppose you give a county magistrate 50 taels of silver or equivalent, and the county magistrate accepts it, and you immediately report back, the imperial court will dismiss the county magistrate and confiscate all the county magistrate’s property, one hundred times of which, up to half of the county magistrate’s property, and return it to the report By.

At the same time, the whistleblower or a close relative of the whistleblower can serve as the county magistrate.

For example, the whistleblower is too old, 70 to [-] years old, and cannot be the county magistrate, but his son can take over the post of county magistrate.

The bigger the official who reported, the bigger the official who replaced him.

You have to report the cabinet minister, and once verified, you can directly serve as the cabinet minister.

Conversely, the officials must first report that you have bribed him, and will confiscate all the property of the briber, half of which will be given to the officials.

There is also Zhulian here, whether it is private businessmen who bribe officials or ordinary people, the whole family will confiscate their property, not to mention three generations of close relatives, and they cannot participate in the imperial examination. (If you are a businessman, you cannot do business for three generations, and the imperial court will not issue a business license).

(If you are a farmer, you cannot farm for three generations, you can only be a miner.)
As soon as the anti-corruption chapter, the first chapter of the Dagan Code, came out, officials all over the world were in an uproar.

The regulations formulated by Ding Yi are definitely the strictest and cruelest anti-corruption articles in history.

It can be described as insane.

Even Lu Daqi stared at Ding Yi the first time he saw such a strict punishment.

In his opinion, Ding Yi has experienced something to hate corrupt officials so much.

Under such a double reporting system, no one in the world dares to corrupt officials, and no one in the world dares to send them away.

Because you dare not test at all, whether the other party will report you first.

Before formulating the code, an official from the Ministry of Justice once told Ding Yi that since ancient times, emperors for thousands of years have imposed heavy codes on corruption, and it has never been curable.

When Lao Zhu was here, he tried all kinds of killing methods, such as skinning, lighting lamps, and beheading all over the house, but it still didn't work.

Greed is nature, so official corruption cannot be controlled.

But Ding Yi proved with facts that as long as you really want to control it, there are plenty of ways.

Let the whistleblower replace the official and take half of his property. Do you think there are any officials who dare to accept it?
Severe punishments are imposed on those who bribe, do you think anyone else dares to bribe?
At the end of the anti-corrosion chapter, the imperial court will announce the property of officials all over the world at the end of December.

In the future, new officials will be announced, and at the end of each year, they will be announced again.

The release of the Dagan Law Code is definitely a sensation in the world.

It is the first dynastic law in history that focuses on the restraint of power, focusing on officials and the royal family.

The imperial court not only let officials all over the world study, but also sent scholars from the capital to give lectures all over the country.

The government-run "World Affairs" newspaper is serialized throughout the year, with detailed explanations of each article and case.

It used to be said that the law is the weapon used by the ruling class to rule the world, but now, everyone can feel Ding Yi's strong and unquestionable determination to reform.

After entering the second year of Rende (1647), Ding Yi's eldest son, Ding Ye, was 14 years old.

But Ding Yi still did not establish a prince.

And after conferring queens and concubines, even princes and princesses were not conferred.

Now Ding Ye and his children are all ordinary people. They don't have the title of prince or princess, they don't have their own mansion, they don't have their own teachers and courtiers, they are all the same as ordinary people.

They go to school also at Royal University, with regular students.

Except for the principal and several senior leaders in the school, no one knew that they were Ding Yi's son and daughter.

Except for the former ministers of Lushun, many people in the court did not know Ding Yi's son and daughter, let alone met them.

Ding Yi continues to use facts to prove how determined he is to keep power in a cage.

The changes in the second chapter of the Dagan Code, the chapter on the clan of the dynasty, shocked the officials all over the world. The emperor's family is like this. What else can we officials say?

The second chapter of the code stipulates that the annual cost of the Forbidden City is now 100 million taels of silver.

Including the salaries and expenses of all eunuchs, court ladies, and all expenses of the royal family. After Ding Yi, any emperor will be killed, and no increase in expenses shall be made for any reason. Any emperor who dares to raise it is disrespectful to his ancestor Ding Yi. The cabinet can immediately Depose the emperor.

The cabinet is not dismissed, the military can dismiss the cabinet, and then re-elect a new emperor from the royal family.

This first one shocked the whole world.

Someone once suggested that in this case, in the future, the powerful ministers can use this to remove the emperor?So as to achieve the purpose of controlling the court.

But Ding Yi said that as long as the system can be implemented smoothly in the future, it is impossible for powerful ministers to appear.

The imperial court doesn't even have any nobles, so where are the powerful ministers?

The Forbidden City will also reduce the number of eunuchs and court ladies to 500 after five years and 200 after ten years.

After 15 years, there will be no more eunuchs in the palace, and only 100 maids (maids) will be kept.

Fifteen years later, the cost of the Forbidden City was reduced to 15 taels of silver. The future emperors could only reduce expenses, not increase them.

In case of important matters such as the expansion of the palace house, the court and the emperor will each pay half of the cost after the cabinet discusses and approves it.

The second chapter of the code stipulates that Dagan has no clan.

The children and descendants of the emperor's family are raised by the emperor himself.

Ding Yi is now setting up companies everywhere, including private banks in the next step, various factories, and even the stock market in the future, etc., to build a business empire for his descendants.

None of the taxes collected by the imperial court can be spent on the royal family.

If Ding Yi's descendants can't hold on to their business empire and are annexed by others, that's their own problem.

At least in the palace, there are still 20 taels of silver available every year.

Of course, taking into account inflation, the code also stipulates that food prices should be used for calculation.

For example, in the second year of Rende, the price of grain has dropped to about one shi, one liang, or three renminbi.

20 silver is equal to 10,000+stone grain.

If the price of grain rises to three taels and one stone, it is equal to 60 taels of silver.

The second chapter of the code also stipulates that members of the royal family have the obligation and responsibility to participate in military service and work.

That is to say, members of the royal family can be officials, but the highest level cannot exceed the fourth rank (also the highest level is the magistrate), and they can also serve as soldiers, the highest level cannot exceed the defense level.

This is to leave a way for the survival of the royal family members in the future. If it doesn’t work, you can support yourself and your whole family by serving as a soldier or an official.

The chapter on the royal family and relatives of the Dagan Code can be described as shocking the world.

Ding Yi almost used a cage to keep the power of the royal family firmly in captivity.

He told the world with his own actions and set an example that no one can shake my determination to reform, Ding Yi.

No theory can shake it.

The Dagan Law Code also stipulates that in the future, officials and common people do not need to kneel down when they see the emperor and members of the royal family, but just bow and nod.

If the emperor and members of the royal family extend their hands, a handshake is acceptable.

Officials from all over the country are the same. When the subordinates see their superiors, they no longer kneel down and bow, but shake hands instead.

In the army, it is changed to gesture salute.

All the provisions of the Dagan Code will officially start on the first day of the first month of the third year of Rende. At the same time, officials and people all over the world are welcome to point out shortcomings and check for omissions. Ding Yi plans to spend two years perfecting them. After that, he will formally decree that they will never be changed. .

Guarantee the supreme authority of the Code.

(End of this chapter)