Thief Emperor

Chapter 890 Dealing with the Wu Family
Implicate others has always been a powerful weapon in the hands of the imperial court.

If one person makes a mistake, the entire clan will be punished.

This is actually quite unreasonable.

One day, when you were drinking leisurely at home, imperial soldiers suddenly broke in and said that someone in your wife's family was plotting treason, and then your entire family was dragged out and beheaded.

Is this reasonable?

It's obviously unreasonable.

Why is there such a method? It’s obvious, it’s just two words: deterrence.

Under this kind of deterrence, no one will dare to do anything out of line, no one will go against the existing system, and no one will dare to commit treason.

Because even if this person is willing to risk his life and is not afraid of death, he is still worried that his entire clan will be implicated because of himself.

Fei Xuan's expression was moved.

He looked at Li Yun and bowed his head and said, "The law of punishing relatives by association has existed since ancient times."

"This method will be of great benefit to you and your future descendants."

"I know."

Li Yun looked at Fei Xuan with a calm expression: "It is precisely because I know that I want to change it, at least in my dynasty."

"I don't want to cause any harm to others."

Fei Xuan whispered, "I know that the superior is benevolent and righteous, but if this loophole is loosened, the world may be plagued by rebellions. The superior has experienced the rebellion of Qiu Dian in Yuezhou and the rebellion of Wang Junping in Zhongyuan."

"If a place breaks out into chaos and rebellion, it is very likely that tens of thousands of innocent people will be implicated if this loophole is opened."

Fei Xuan whispered: "More people may be implicated."

After hearing this, Li Yun was silent for a long time.

Fei Xuan looked at him and continued, "If the ruler wants to be benevolent, he can issue an edict to show mercy. There is no need to write it in the new law. Otherwise... it will restrict future generations."

Seeing that Li Yun was still thinking, Fei Xuan continued, "When you are in power, people's desires are insatiable. If the court is not benevolent, there will be no rebellion below."

"It is not that the officials of the prefectures and counties below will also be benevolent if the superiors are benevolent. Chaos will still happen if it is supposed to happen. The superiors should not create the source of chaos."

After hearing this, Li Yun felt that what he said made sense. After thinking for a while, he said, "Well, except for treason, the rest of the crimes will be punished with caution. The crimes of implicating others will not be punishable by death."

At this point, Li Yun continued, "As for the crime of treason, how should it be dealt with?"

He sighed and said, "I'll think about it."

As a soul from another world, Li Yun wants to change many practices of this world, but after in-depth experience, he finds that many seemingly unreasonable practices have their deep logic.

For example, the three words "Yi Sanzu".

It can make the world at least 10% stable.

Now that the new dynasty is about to be established, Li Yun must indeed begin reforms, but he doesn't know how to reform and what it will become after the reforms.

All of this must be done with extreme caution.

For example, when it comes to changing the new law, Li Yun did not implement it directly. He still had to discuss it with experts like Fei Xuan before making a decision.

Fei Xuan breathed a sigh of relief and bowed his head, saying, "Then, after I return, I will gather a group of people and start compiling new laws."

"Once we have the first draft, we'll send it to the higher-ups for review."

Li Yun hummed, and said, "It's hard work."

"Don't dare."

Fei Xuan bowed his head and said, "This is my responsibility."

At this point, he smiled and said, "If I can complete this Tang Code in my lifetime, I can go down in history."

Revising the laws is not a matter of one or two months, or even one or two years, especially when making changes based on Zhou laws. Perhaps every sentence must be carefully considered.

Li Yun smiled dumbly: "You are the Minister of Justice, but you can't go down in history?"

"That's different."

Fei Xuan smiled and said, "There will be many ministers of the Ministry of Justice in the new dynasty, but I am the only one who has formulated the new law."

As he said this, he bowed his head, saluted, and stood up to say goodbye.

Li Yun stood up, walked him two steps, then returned to his seat and rubbed his eyebrows.

Before today's conversation, he really didn't think there was anything wrong with his idea, but after Fei Xuan's analysis, he really felt that something was not right.

After thinking for a long time, he called his servants and asked them to invite the Minister of Rites Tao Wenyuan over.

It was already afternoon when Minister Tao came over. He bowed to Li Yun very respectfully.

"Your Majesty has summoned me down. What is your command?"

"I want to discuss the school with you."

Li Yun looked at him and asked, "I plan to have the Ministry of Rites take the lead in establishing local schools, and have the Ministry of Rites send people to supervise local schools. What do you think, Mr. Tao?"

"Of course there's no problem."

Tao Wenyuan looked at Li Yun, coughed, and continued, "But it costs money, a lot of money."

Li Yun frowned and said, "Well, let's spend a few months to estimate the cost of opening ten schools in each county, hiring fifty teachers, and having about 2,000 students."

"Then report to me."

Tao Wenyuan bowed his head and said yes, then said, "Sir, I'm afraid the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Rites will have to handle this matter together."

"Row."

Li Yun nodded happily and said, "Just go and do it."

Minister Tao thought for a moment and continued, "Besides, this matter will definitely not be accomplished within a few years. The Ministry of Revenue is very short of money, and the army has to be deployed in the next few years since I took office." "We need to figure out whether it can be accomplished first."

Li Yun rubbed his eyebrows, feeling a little distressed.

He also knew that it was not easy, but things had to have a beginning.

If it really doesn't work, try again after five or ten years.

Anyway, he still has plenty of time.

Tao Wenyuan then bowed and said, "I understand. I will definitely do a good job of this mission."

Li Yun gave him a few more instructions regarding the first imperial examination of the new dynasty next year, and urged him to make sure it was done well. At the same time, he asked him to get started and contact the Agricultural Affairs Institute.

The Agricultural Affairs Institute is now under the name of the Ministry of Revenue, and it is estimated that it will be jointly led by the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Rites in the future.

Tao Wenyuan nodded in agreement.

The two chatted until dark, and Tao Wenyuan said goodbye and left.

After dark, Li Yun returned to his study. Looking at the documents piled on his desk, his mind was filled with a myriad of thoughts.

He is now the founder of a new dynasty.

Theoretically speaking, all his policies can be implemented unimpeded. This new era will become whatever he wants it to be.

But only when you really start to do it, you can feel the difficulty.

And now, the biggest practical problem facing him is the material problem.

The poor material conditions made it impossible to realize the ideas in his mind.

"That's all."

Mr. Li shook his head and said slowly: "Do the things at hand well and take it one step at a time."

…………

The twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.

The weather finally cleared up.

There were only two days left before the end of the year and the change of the reign title. On this day, the Li Mansion welcomed two special guests.

There are two brothers, Wu Yuancheng and Wu Yuanyou.

After Emperor Wu Yuancheng entered Luoyang, Li Yun did not pay much attention to him. He only met him once at the last court meeting.

However, at the court meeting, Li Yun only forced him to bow his head, and many things were not discussed.

Seeing that the Great Zhou's Zhaoding was about to become a thing of the past, Li Yun still had the magnanimity to invite the two brothers to a meal.

The two brothers arrived at Li's house around noon. After entering, they were quickly taken to a side hall. At this time, Li Yun was already waiting there.

After seeing Li Yun, King Wu Yuanyou of Chu immediately bowed and called him "Your Majesty".

Wu Yuancheng took a deep breath and said, "King Wu."

Li Yun was not angry. He asked them to sit down and then said, "How have you two been these days?"

Wu Yuanyou smiled and said, "Everything is fine."

Li Yun looked at Wu Yuancheng and asked, "I heard that several princes in your majesty's family were sick. Are they better now?"

"It's almost done."

Wu Yuanyou rushed to answer: "Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty."

Seeing this, Li Yun smiled silently.

The Emperor, who had been silent all this time, suddenly looked up at Li Yun and said in a hoarse voice, "King Wu, why are you still living here?"

Li Yun smiled and said, "I am a very disciplined person. Since I have not yet ascended the throne, I will not live in that palace. I have visited that palace."

"Nothing good either."

As he spoke, Mr. Li looked around and smiled, "It's still more comfortable to live here. When I really ascend the throne in the future, maybe I will move back occasionally."

His Majesty the Emperor wanted to accuse him of hypocrisy, but he held back and asked, "Why did the King of Wu invite me here?"

"Let's discuss how to deal with you."

He looked at the two brothers and continued, "After your majesty abdicates and the new dynasty is established, your majesty's title will no longer exist."

He looked at Wu Yuanyou again and said, "The title of King of Chu will also disappear into thin air."

"I have thought about it over the past two days. I am not stingy. I can give you two titles."

"One is a prince, and the other is a marquis."

"The lineage that becomes a guest of the new dynasty will inherit the title of prince, and the other one will inherit the title of marquis."

Wu Yuanyou was about to speak when the emperor stopped him. The emperor looked up at Li Yun and asked, "Will the King of Wu... spare my family's lives?"

"can."

Li Yun looked at him calmly, "But there are conditions."

"Your family will probably be under house arrest for quite a long time, and at the same time..."

"Your Majesty, the princes."

Li Yun looked at him and said silently.

"Just try not to have any children."

(End of this chapter)