People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 513: Strict Laws, Great Song Dynasty

The New Year's Eve has just passed, but Bianliang is still as prosperous and bustling as ever.

There are a few small episodes in between.

In addition to the envoys, the more than 60 countries that came this time also had a large number of entourages.

Small countries have fewer people. For example, the king and queen of Brunei have several sons, some officials, followers, and guards, totaling no more than a hundred or so people.

There were many big countries, with some having as many as one or two thousand people. For example, the Abbasid Caliph Kaim brought a large number of gifts to thank the Song Dynasty for helping him restore his country, and there were more than two thousand people of all kinds.

The combined presence of people from so many countries meant that tens of thousands of foreigners poured into Bianliang overnight, causing some public security chaos.

The accompanying personnel were of mixed quality, and there were even nobles in the delegation, who acted recklessly and committed various illegal acts under the pretext that they were outsiders who did not understand local rules.

For example, he beat up street vendors in the street, got drunk and caused trouble in a brothel, and got into a conflict with someone and failed to beat him up but was beaten up by the people of Bianliang instead. All kinds of problems emerged one after another.

However, these were originally trivial matters. The imperial court issued strict orders to inform envoys from various countries that when they arrived in the Song Dynasty, they had to abide by the laws and rules of the Song Dynasty.

Any illegal acts must be dealt with in accordance with the laws of the Song Dynasty.

All countries did not dare to disobey the orders of the Song Dynasty court, and basically chose to hand over the troublemakers and accept the judgment accordingly.

According to the laws of the Song Dynasty, fighting used to result in exile, but now it is not so serious.

It depends on the severity of the victim's injuries. If the injuries are minor, the victim will just have to pay compensation. If the injuries are serious, not only will the victim have to pay compensation, but he or she will also be detained, beaten with a stick, or even go to jail for a year or two.

Apart from beatings, the laws that have been revised by the Ministry of Justice are basically very close to the laws of our country in later generations.

The results of each year's revisions are reviewed personally by Zhao Jun. He has not memorized later laws, but he has read many sentencing standards on the Internet and watched some law lectures. He will adopt them if he thinks they are roughly the same.

Although it is Zhao Jun's own empirical legal revision.

But it is already relatively reasonable.

At least there is no such thing as judging the mood of the county magistrate, or giving excessive or lenient sentences. This is a relatively standard continental legal system.

However, this situation became controversial until a powerful deputy envoy of a certain country committed a serious crime.

The man might have been used to being rampant in his country. He met a beautiful woman he liked on the street and wanted to pursue her, but the girl was unwilling, so he followed her to the outside of her house.

At night, the man sneaked into the woman's home, killed her family, raped her, and brutally killed her after the incident.

However, he did not expect that the noise was so loud that it aroused the vigilance of the neighbors. Not only did they attract the neighbors, but they also called the on-duty yamen runners of Kaifeng Prefecture on the street. Hundreds of people came together to capture him.

Originally, there was no big controversy about this matter. For such a serious crime committed in the Song Dynasty, the death penalty was inevitable, so Kaifeng Prefecture directly prepared to open a trial.

Little did he know that the deputy envoy was not only a nobleman, but also the nephew of their country's king. His family was very powerful in the country. If he didn't find a way, the ambassador would be held accountable, so he had to find a way to rescue him.

However, the ambassador of that country was very smart. He did not protest directly to the Song Dynasty court.

Because he knew very well that now they were begging the Song Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty was powerful in military force, so any threats would be useless. If they angered the Song Dynasty, it would be their own country that would suffer the losses.

Even if the Song Dynasty sent troops or provided firearms to their enemy countries, their own country might be in danger of being destroyed.

So after thinking it over again and again, the ambassador decided to try another method.

He first found ways to meet with many high-ranking officials of the Song Dynasty, offering large sums of gold and silver. He also went around to apologize to the victims' families, offering money to seek forgiveness, and then went to newspapers to express his sincere apology.

Finally, he even asked to see the Emperor of the Song Dynasty, and not only offered gold and silver, but also stated that as long as he could save the deputy envoy's life and bring him back to the king to report, he would accept any punishment, even cutting off his hands and feet, as long as he could keep his life.

All in all, the envoy spent more than 200,000 strings of cash.

You should know that you should not think that more than 200,000 strings of coins are equivalent to more than 200,000 RMB in later generations. At that time, the purchasing power of one string of coins in the Song Dynasty was still very high.

A bicycle produced in the Bianliang Bicycle Factory only sold for 1-3 strings of coins, and the most expensive bicycle was only 8 strings of coins.

An ordinary family only spends 2-3 strings of coins a month, so you can see that these more than strings of coins, in terms of purchasing power, are equivalent to tens of millions in later generations.

With so much money invested, it will definitely have a significant effect.

As a result, some disagreements arose within the court. Many people believed that although the other party was indeed guilty of a heinous crime, cutting off his limbs could be considered a just punishment.

What's more, the other party promised that if the life was saved, they would pay 3 strings of cash as compensation to the other party's family, which is also a guarantee for the victim's family.

And there are more than just one or two voices expressing this view. Most officials in the court and the country, including most prime ministers, think that this plan can be accepted. There are also many such voices among the people.

The reason is that there are still two survivors in this family.

The family consists of five people. The 16-year-old eldest daughter is the main victim. In addition, she has a younger sister and a baby brother.

My younger sister and eldest daughter live in one room, and the host and hostess live in another room with their youngest son.

When the criminals broke into their house, the male owner went out to check the situation and was killed by the criminals. The female owner, seeing that the situation was not good, hid her baby son in the closet.

The eldest daughter went out to check when her parents were killed. She encountered the criminal in the living room of her home and was dragged to another room and raped and killed.

The second daughter, who was only ten years old, was terrified. She climbed out the window and ran to the neighbor's house crying and calling for help, and only then was the man caught.

So the family is left with a ten-year-old daughter and a one-year-old baby boy.

According to the laws of the Song Dynasty, the death penalty for murder is inevitable, and the criminal must pay compensation to the victim's family, but this money may not be enough to support the victim's family to adulthood.

If the criminals pay a huge amount of compensation, it is another matter if the court appeases them properly and ensures that the money is used for the smooth upbringing of the victims' families.

Therefore, after spending a large amount of money, the officials in the court felt that it was a good idea, and even Zhao Jun himself was a little shaken.

Don't blame him for wavering.

Because at first glance it seems reasonable.

In later Western countries, even if someone killed someone, they could pay a sky-high bail or settlement money to avoid going to court and being tried.

This is the case in the United States, where after breaking the law, one can avoid going to court by paying a fine or reaching a settlement with the US government, thereby obtaining a chance to receive a suspended sentence or be exempted from punishment.

If all else fails, you can hire a lawyer who is expensively paid to use various means to clear your name or reduce your sentence.

Therefore, this tactic was very effective in the West in later generations.

The rationale behind this is that such a large amount of money can not only provide funds to the government, but also provide certain compensation to the families of the victims.

This is the difference between the Western maritime law system and the continental law system.

Even in later generations in my country, there have been such controversial cases, such as the drunk female driver Tan who caused 2 deaths and 4 injuries while driving a Maserati.

If the death penalty is imposed, the criminal's family will not be responsible for compensation, but the four victims are still lying in hospital beds and require sky-high medical expenses.

If the death penalty is not imposed, the families of the other two victims will be very dissatisfied, and public opinion will also be very dissatisfied.

This made it very difficult for the court at that time to make a choice.

The final decision to sentence him to life imprisonment at least gives the four victims hope of treatment and can be considered a certain compromise with reality.

The incident in the Song Dynasty was almost the same, and the other party spent more money and paid a greater price. They didn't care even if their hands and feet were cut off, they just wanted to save their lives.

In addition, the ambassador spent a lot of money and deliberately guided public opinion, making officials in the court and the public believe that the other party apologized sincerely and spent money to deal with the aftermath. As a country with a strong sense of etiquette, the Song Dynasty could forgive him once.

But after three days of discussion between the government and the public, Zhao Jun still issued the highest instruction - to sentence according to the law.

It doesn’t matter even if the other party is a powerful person in a major Western country.

Kill if you have to.

This has nothing to do with the reputation of the Song Dynasty.

Instead, it is to give an explanation to the victims' families and to the rule of law.

Zhao Jun hated the fact that before the Song Dynasty, sentencing was often based on the will of county magistrates, prefects and other criminal justice officials.

Therefore, as early as the establishment of the Constitutional Yuan, the concept and slogan of governing the country according to law were put forward.

Not only did he deprive local officials of their power of trial, he also separated the three powers and put forward the concept of presumption of innocence, which reduced the occurrence of a large number of false and wrongful convictions in order to provide justice.

Even if only justice is given to the majority, there are still a few powerful people who take advantage of loopholes. That is much better than giving injustice to the majority in ancient society.

So this man must be killed.

This is the only way to maintain the fairness of the law and prevent a precedent from being set where anyone can buy their life with money.

As for the issue of compensation, it was also simple. Since the criminal had no property under his name that could be executed, the ambassador of the other country saw that nothing could be done and was unwilling to pay compensation.

Then the Song Dynasty court would detain the goods shipped by the other country to the Song Dynasty for trade, exchange the confiscated goods for equivalent property and register them under the name of the victim's siblings, and let the welfare home raise them. Kaifeng Prefecture would send people to check on them regularly until they reach adulthood.

When the news spread, most of the people in Bianliang cheered.

Of course, they will not consider so many deep-seated issues, and will simply think that killing someone should be punished with death.

For other countries, it was a great deterrent. For a time, envoys from various countries restrained the members of their diplomatic corps and no longer dared to commit any illegal or disorderly acts.

Time soon came to December 28th, and the grand celebration was held as scheduled. The scene was even grander than the New Year's Eve celebration on the 24th.

There are not only activities such as parading flower boats, parading floats, dragon and lion dances, and Nuo dances in the city, but also various musical performances. The royal court band's floats travel from the south to the north of the city, shuttling through every street.

Flower boats were cruising on the Bianhe River, Jinhe River, Huimin River, Wuzhang River and other rivers, and lanterns were fluttering in every household after being hung a few days ago. A ban on firecrackers was issued in densely populated areas such as streets and markets, but firecrackers and fireworks were allowed in open areas.

For a while, whether it was day or night, the sounds of firecrackers and fireworks continued to rang out, until the sleeping time after midnight and before noon, when there was a little quietness.

By evening, Zhao Zhen climbed the city gate again, but this time it was the Donghua Gate. He brought his family, young and old, and stood on the Donghua Gate tower to greet the people.

There were still huge crowds of people outside Donghua Gate. When Zhao Zhen and his family appeared, there was a constant sound of cheering.

Today, Zhao Zhen enjoys a very high reputation among the people, not only because of the benevolent rule of the Song Dynasty under his leadership, but also because he himself is a great scientist who has invented many things that benefit the country and the people.

And under his rule, the people of the Song Dynasty truly lived a good life, and many people naturally attributed this credit to him.

Therefore, it can be said that among the three people with the highest prestige in the Song Dynasty today, Zhao Zhen ranks first, Zhao Jun and Fan Zhongyan rank second and third. At least many people in the folk have built ancestral halls for Zhao Zhen for worship, which is called establishing a ancestral temple, and it is a great honor.

Zhao Zhen stood above the Donghua Gate, waving frequently and greeting the people of the city with a smile on his face. While people below were shouting "Long live the city", he shouted "Long live the people" and "Long live the people of the world" from above!
The prosperous atmosphere quickly reached its peak at this moment. The king and the people stood together and together outlined the prosperous chapter of the Song Dynasty.

The people below became even more enthusiastic and crazy.

The Song Dynasty at this time was not only truly prosperous, but also because the productivity of the people had increased, the land had been redistributed, and factories had sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, providing a large number of jobs.

The abundance of commodity economy and agricultural products reached the highest level in the world, which was more than enough to feed the 4 million people in the late Qing Dynasty, the peak period of the feudal period.

The population of the Song Dynasty was only 1.5 million.

Moreover, the commodity economy and agricultural output are not controlled by the capitalists and the landlord class. The production output can be well distributed to the common people, so that everyone in the Song Dynasty can live a prosperous life.

Even in times of famine, the imperial court had the ability to provide timely relief, and there would definitely be no shortage of food, ensuring that no disaster victims would starve to death.

It can be said that before the fifth year of the Qingli period, the Song Dynasty might not have reached a point where people all over the world would not starve to death.

But after the fifth year of Qingli.

Productivity has accumulated over time and has skyrocketed. The output value of agriculture and industry has increased year by year, and various agricultural products and industrial products are launched on the market every year.

Moreover, the previous loan relationship was bought out by the imperial court, and the landlords' land was almost half bought and half forced to be nationalized and redistributed to the private sector, with large amounts of land being leased out.

The days when people could lose everything or even starve to death if they encountered famine, or even in good years, due to oppression by the landlord class or borrowing money from landlords are gone forever.

In today's society, it is rare for people to starve to death, unless they are so lazy that they don't even want to go out and find a part-time job and just lie on the ground waiting to die.

The only problem is medical care.

After all, this is not the era of advanced medicine like in later generations.

The problem of not dying of hunger, not having money to treat illness, or suffering from terminal illnesses that cannot be cured still exists.

To this end, the imperial court has been studying the medical insurance system of ancient society in recent years and increasing its investment in medicine.

A medical university was established, the bodies of death row prisoners were collected to allow human dissections, microbial medicine was developed, and the future development of medicine was set as modern medicine.

There is a long way to go in this direction and it cannot be accomplished overnight, so this is the only way.

But no matter what, at least today's Song Dynasty has made leaps and bounds in economy, agriculture, law, military, education, science and technology, and medical care.

Except for medical care, which even developed countries in later generations cannot solve, most of the people's problems have been solved or are on the verge of being solved.

Preventing people from starving to death was something that was impossible to achieve in any dynasty in ancient times.

Today’s prosperous times are truly prosperous times!

(End of this chapter)