People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 351 Something big happened
After coming out of Ruisi Palace, Zhao Jun was ready to return to the Political Academy.

It is not to deal with government affairs, but at this point in time it is time to go to Chongzheng Hall to sort out the topics to be discussed today and explain them at the meeting.

In fact, in these days, there is basically nothing much to say in the regular meetings of Chongzheng Hall.

After all, it has been said for almost eleven years, and almost everything that needs to be said has been said.

Including the strategic planning for future development, the popularization of mathematics, physics and chemistry, and even the cynicism towards Zhao Zhen, Lu Yijian and others, there is nothing to talk about.

As for the jokes about the Song Dynasty, at his position, no matter how much hatred he had for the Song Dynasty, it had already slowly dissipated.

I have been scolded and beaten, and it has long become a thing of the past. It's impossible for Zhao Zhen and others to make corrections in time and be willing to support him in promoting reforms, but they can still make sarcastic remarks and insults from time to time.

That's not very realistic.

So what everyone can talk about now when we get together is pretty much the current development of the Song Dynasty and the extended predictions of future policies.

Even these are considered secondary, the main thing is that everyone can have time to get together every day.

Because everyone knows that with the passing of Wang Sui and Sheng Du, Lu Yijian and Wang Zeng's health is getting worse and worse. I am afraid that it will only be in the past one or two years at most, or even shorter. Even if you don't die of illness, you should retire.

By this time, all the party disputes and grudges have almost disappeared. We spend less and less time together, but there is always a trace of nostalgia.

Stepping into the courtyard, there were only Lu Yijian, Fan Zhongyan, Yan Shu, Zhang Shixun and Li Di in the room.

Wang Zeng recently asked for sick leave again. It is an illness that cannot be cured by anti-inflammatory drugs. The doctor said that if he takes a good rest, he may be able to resist until next year, but if he works too hard again...

Lu Yijian was just holding on.

Jiang Tang, Jia Changchao, Cai Qi, and Song Shou each have other things to do, and they probably won't be back until later. Some went to various ministries for meetings, some went to get documents for today's meeting, and some simply went to the toilet.

Zhao Jun said hello to several people in the room, then returned to his desk, sorted out the official documents he was going to report to Zhao Zhen today, and prepared to go to the back garden when everyone arrived.

Song Shou came back first after going to the toilet and also returned to his desk to sort out the documents. Then came Cai Qi, who went to the Ministry of Rites to get official documents - it is already June, and autumn is coming in August. The Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Education are currently working on this year's imperial examination.

At this time, Fan Zhen, the minister of punishment, came to the Constitutional Yuan and handed over a batch of official documents to Li Di.

Li Di serves concurrently as the Minister of Justice, the Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for formulating laws, but is also nominally the highest department in legal affairs.

Therefore, Li Di must review all death sentences across the country. If any problems are found or the facts of the case are not clear or conclusive, Dali Temple and the Procuratorate must remand the case for retrial.

I think today's official document is probably about approving the latest batch of death penalty lists.

Li Di took the official document and glanced at it, smiled and said to Zhao Jun: "Hanlong, guess what this batch is?"

"What could it be, is there any result from Xia Song?"

Zhao Jun asked back.

Since it is an official document from the Ministry of Punishment, it is probably an official document verifying the death penalty.

As for Li Di's verification, there are basically no other cases besides this matter.

"I can't hide anything from you."

Li Di joked and handed him the official document and said: "After more than two months of investigation, Xia Ziqiao has drawn up the first batch of lists with conclusive evidence, totaling more than 500 people."

Zhao Jun took it and looked at it carefully for a while, nodded slightly and said: "Xia Ziqiao is still reliable and acts vigorously and resolutely."

There were more than 10,000 people who committed the rebellion, but Zhao Jun demanded that things be handled in accordance with the law, the big ones were caught, the small ones were released, the landlords who committed evil were punished, and the landowners who did not do much evil and were relatively conscientious were spared.

This workload is definitely not small, and we have to check it one by one.

Xia Song took charge of it personally and visited and investigated everywhere on Liangzhe Road. Based on the evidence collected and the suspicion that these people were inciting rebellion, he was punished for several crimes. About eighty landlords alone were about to be executed.

The other more than 400 people were accomplices who committed crimes. Some were involved in murder cases, some were using the power of landlords to commit crimes in Yurou Township, and some were involved in arson, robbery and wounding during the riots in Hangzhou, so they were severely punished.

These are the first batch of prisoners reported for death penalty review, and there will definitely be a second and third batch later.

In addition to other prison terms, exile, caning, confiscation of property, etc., the lightest one is a fine. The more than 10,000 people who caused the rebellion will be punished as they should.

In this way, it demonstrates the determination of the imperial court to spread the law, and secondly, it can also express to the world the attitude of the imperial court to act in accordance with the law and govern the country according to the law, so as not to execute them all according to their crimes and arouse criticism from the people.

Although it is difficult to change people's mental impression through one thing, because it often takes many years of hard work to establish a good image, but it only takes one wrong judgment to collapse a good image.

But no matter what, some things still have to be done. Otherwise, if the people do not believe that the court is fair, then who can they trust when something happens?

"It seems that the turmoil on the two Zhejiang Roads will subside before the end of this year. The landlords in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are the most thorny, followed by the wealthy families in Sichuan and Shu."

Zhao Jun said in a deep voice: "The effect of killing chickens to scare monkeys has come out. I think the landowners in the world should be more at ease. The determination of dividing people into acres and recruiting labor must still be carried out unswervingly. This is the national policy of a powerful country and must not be changed. ”

Then he said to the crowd: "I heard that the wealthy families in Sichuan and Sichuan still maintain the original slavery system? Not only do they beat and scold their tenants and local guests at will, but they even interfere in their family's weddings and funerals? Does this continue? , Where is the majesty of the imperial court, where is the law?”

I'm coming.

At first, they beheaded the landowners in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and then they started to attack the wealthy families in Sichuan and Sichuan.

Everyone looked at each other, but there were no people from Sichuan here, and they had nothing to do with the Sichuan and Sichuan wealthy families, so naturally it didn't matter.

Fan Zhongyan said: "I have also heard about this matter. The main reason is that there are many places in Brazil and Badong. Those places are surrounded by mountains, the roads are difficult to travel, and the court's laws are not in place, so there is no way."

"Well"

Zhao Jun thought about it, the road was indeed a big problem.

Brazil and Badong are the area from Dazhou to Wushan in Sichuan in later generations. They are located on the west and east sides of Bashan. They are typically more mountains and less land. Transportation was a big problem in later generations, let alone ancient times.

The local people were isolated from the rest of the world and controlled by local wealthy families. Their status was comparable to that of serfs. It was extremely difficult for the court to liberate them.

"Then let's put this matter aside for now and talk about it later."

Zhao Jun shook his head and said: "You can't make a decision at once and embarrass the local government."

No one said anything else.

After a while, Jia Changchao also came back from the Ministry of Industry. When he entered, he smiled at Zhao Jun and said, "Hanlong, I went to see the cement factory at noon. How was it?"

"It's okay. With the steam engine, the output and efficiency have increased."

Zhao Jun responded with a smile: "Director Liu is still worried that the output has increased so much and no one is interested in cement. Once the court stops giving them orders, the factory may also close down."

"Hehehehe."

Everyone laughed. As people who are aware of future generations, they naturally know that the current situation is only temporary. Once it is actually built, the demand for the cement plant will probably be a hundred times more than it is now. By then, I'm afraid the state-owned cement factory will have to be soft on orders, and the factory's vision is still a bit narrow.

At this time, Yan Shu suddenly thought of a question and said to him: "Hanlong, if you open up the steam engine trade and allow private merchants to buy it, will it be used by the Liao people?"

"Will not."

Zhao Jun shook his head: "Anyone who can afford a steam engine now is not the top richest man in the Song Dynasty. These steam engines are all available. If they dare to resell them to the Liao Kingdom, they may not be addicted to confiscating their homes and exterminating their families."

He said with a smile: "And you don't know what technical barriers are. Let's not talk about how difficult this thing is technically for people who don't know it. We are the only ones who have rubber. Even if they can find a way to do it, To get a steam engine and break through technical barriers, there are no raw materials.”

Zhao Jun is not worried about the introduction of steam engines into the people. In fact, he must promote the introduction of steam engines into the people.

Because only in this way can the subjective initiative of private business be brought into play, private businessmen can set up a large number of factories, and funds can flow into power scientific research.

Otherwise, the steam engine will be monopolized by the state simply because of the promotion of state-owned enterprises.

The shortcoming of state-owned enterprises is this. Once they have a monopoly, they will become rigid and unwilling to make progress. In the end, they will completely fall into the kind of conservative path dependence that is unwilling to develop.

Therefore, we need the catfish of private enterprises to promote the development of science and technology.

As for whether Liao will take the opportunity to find a way to obtain a steam engine for research and development, Zhao Jun has naturally considered this long ago.

The first is the problem of raw materials. The Liao Kingdom has no technology and raw materials.

The second is the steam engine itself.

There are countless machines being sold now, and only the top merchants of the Song Dynasty are eligible to purchase them.

What's more, steam-powered items weigh several tons. The only way is to ship them out to sea and send them to the Liao Kingdom. But let's not talk about whether they can be transported out to sea. Even if they go out to sea, it is basically impossible to reach the Liao Kingdom with the strength of the Song Dynasty at sea. .

So Zhao Jun is not worried about this at all.

"Hey, it's almost time. I'm going to Chongzheng Hall for a meeting soon. Why hasn't Jiang Tang come back yet?"

Fan Zhongyan couldn't help but wonder.

Jiang Tang is an upright man and is most punctual. This is not like his style.

But as soon as Fan Zhongyan finished speaking, Jiang Tang stepped in from outside the door and said very seriously: "Everyone, something big has happened."

"what's up?"

Everyone suddenly became alert.

Events that can be considered major in the Constitutional Yuan are either major cases like the riots between the landlords on the two Zhejiang Roads, or large-scale natural disasters across the country, or where there is a rebellion and uprising, and finally the Liao Kingdom and Xixia come to fight.

Jiang Tang solemnly said: "On my way here just now, I encountered an urgent official document from Jinzouyuan six hundred miles away. More than ten days ago, Li Yuanhao raided Qingtang. He was seriously injured and his life and death are uncertain."

"what?"

Everyone was shocked.

Yan Shu asked in surprise: "How did Li Yuanhao break through to Qingtang?"

Under normal circumstances, the best way to Qingtang is to take Zhuolu City, but if you take Zhuolu City southward with Lanzhou to the east and Huangzhou to the west, it is impossible to reach Qingtang directly.

"They crossed Qishan Mountain. They suddenly appeared in the north of Qingtang. They were caught off guard and were defeated."

Jiang Tang said in a deep voice.

In an instant, everyone's brows frowned.

Qingtang has always been the Song Dynasty's staunchest ally, although Zhao Jun has always wanted to annex Qingtang, take advantage of the situation and regain the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and complete the territory of our country in his lifetime.

Then in the next generation, the Chinese autumn leaves and crabapples will be unified.

But after all, it's not right now.

Because Qingtang stood firmly on the side of the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty had no reason to attack its allies. In addition, with today's productivity and technological level, it is still difficult to complete the containment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Therefore, this matter can be postponed for many years, perhaps until Zhao Jun is old and the Lord of Qingtang is no longer Ji Siluo, but Ali Gu, the adopted son of his son Dong Xiang.

Aligu was a rebellious boy. He assassinated the biological son of his adoptive father Dong Fei, seized power in Qingtang, and then completely turned against the Song Dynasty and united with Xixia to attack the Song Dynasty.

At that time, Da Song will have reasons and excuses to deal with him.

Of course, it is not certain whether Xixia still existed at that time. There is a high probability that Xixia is gone.

But as long as Aligu dared to assassinate Dong Felt's own son and usurp the throne, the Song Dynasty would have reason to send troops. At that time, he did not recognize his status as the lord of Qingtang, and took advantage of the situation to accept Qingtang. This would not be considered betraying an ally.

Unexpectedly, Qingtang was almost destroyed at this time, and even Xisiluo was seriously injured. He didn't know whether he was dead or alive.

"Hanlong, what do you think?"

Lu Yijian suddenly asked Zhao Jun.

Zhao Jun understood what he meant, shook his head and said: "Now is not a good time to capture Qingtang, but the situation is like this, we can only go with the trend."

"what do you mean?"

"Look at the situation of Zunsiluo. If he is dead, avenge him. If he is not dead, treat him immediately. Take one step at a time. And look at the current situation in Qingtang. If Li Yuanhao has been completely destroyed Qingtang.”

"Oh, I see."

Lu Yijian nodded.

In fact, everyone understands what they mean.

Fan Zhongyan narrowed his eyes and said, "Is Li Yuanhao crazy? He unexpectedly sent troops to Qingtang at this time. Aren't you afraid?"

"Don't forget what I told you. They will only use weapons sooner. Unless the leaders of Liao and Xixia are fools, they will not be able to see that the gap between the Song Dynasty and them will become wider as time goes by. The bigger it gets.”

Zhao Jun stood up from behind the table and ignored today's other documents and said, "Let's go to the official's house first. I suspect that Li Yuanhao's sudden action this time is not as simple as it seems."

Everyone also realized the seriousness of the matter, so they all stood up and headed towards Chongzheng Hall.

Compared with reporting daily government affairs to the officials, this matter is obviously much more important.

(End of this chapter)