Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 107 You Used the Wrong Dictionary
"I have met the Marshal."

"No need to be polite, just give me a seat."

"Thank you, Marshal."

In the lobby of the Marshal's Mansion, Lu Jin said this as he looked at Yan Shiguo who was led in.

“Your article is well written. It is wise to recognize the functions of the state and the failure of Bao Yuan.

"You said in your article that I established the principles and rules and saved the people, which means I took over the power of the Yuan court. But this power is in my hands. If I want to exert my strength, I still need like-minded helpers like you.

"Today I personally select you as the top of the list and grant you the title of governor of Luzhou Prefecture. I hope you can govern the area and comfort the people on my behalf so that peace can be restored to the world as soon as possible."

Yan Shiguo was very excited when he heard this and quickly stood up to express his gratitude.

"Thank you for your appreciation, my lord. I will live up to your trust and work hard until my death!"

Lu Jin also stood up at this time, helped him up personally, and then said, "Okay, there is no need for these empty formalities. I have also read your document. Nowadays, bandits are everywhere and wars are frequent. There are indeed many displaced people. You suggested to register all the people and set up a relief house. Then this matter will be handed over to you.

"As the prefect of Luzhou, you can inquire about the household registration and resettlement of refugees in all cities and urge them to implement it as soon as possible.

"We can give refugees without household registration a place to stay, give them land, or allow them to rent and cultivate the land of soldiers in the army.

"If there are really no young and strong refugees, we can arrange for them to work in Luzhou City and make uniforms, hats and armor for the soldiers in the army. This will at least prevent them from starving to death."

Yan Shiguo bowed and accepted the order, saying, "I will do my best."

"Go, find Bao Heng and ask him to arrange accommodation and an office for you."

"Yes."

After Yan Shiguo left, Lu Jin summoned Li Yinbing again and said to him.

“Among hundreds of candidates, your criminal law question is the only one that suggests determining sentencing standards first. This matter will be handed over to you. Today, you will be appointed as the head of the Criminal Law Department of the Academy of Literature.

"You can choose another assistant from the list, first compile the laws and regulations submitted by the candidates, and compile a temporary law, called the Luzhou Provisional Criminal Law. You will determine the sentencing standards, and submit the draft to me for review after it is compiled."

"Thank you for your appreciation, Marshal!" Li Yinbing immediately bowed and said.

"Stand up, no need to be polite. Remember this first. When compiling this law, I only made two requests. The most harmful things in Yuan law are slave trade and usury. From now on, they will be abolished.

"No family is allowed to keep slaves, and all indentures will not be recognized. If a slave wants to leave, the master cannot stop him. Anyone who forcibly stops him and abuses him will be punished as a private prisoner.

"Those who have nowhere to go and are willing to stay and work need to change their employment contracts, which specify their monthly salary. The maximum period cannot exceed five years, and a renewal is required after five years.

"All those who buy and sell human beings will be punished by law. Those who sell and buy human beings will be killed if caught. Buyers and sellers are equally guilty!"

When Li Yinbing had almost remembered everything, Lu Jin continued.

"There is also usury, loan sharking, and any annual interest rate of more than 2% is considered usury and is not recognized by the government. Compound interest, that is, interest on interest, is also not recognized.

“In the future, when you write a loan agreement, you must specify the monthly interest, the annual interest, and the percentage of interest, as well as the time and the percentage of interest, so that the lender will not deliberately quibble with words and defraud others.

"Anyone who intentionally uses fraudulent means to deceive others into borrowing money shall be punished for the crime of fraud."

"Fraud?" Li Yinbing repeated it in confusion. It was the first time he heard this term.

Lu Jin explained, "If someone uses fraudulent means to defraud others of their property, you will classify the sentencing into three levels, light, medium and severe, based on the amount of the defrauded property. The defrauded property must be returned. The most serious punishment is exile, which will be temporarily changed to imprisonment, allowing them to mine, cut wood and make bricks."

"Yes."

"Go ahead, that's all for now. If there's anything else you need to add later, I'll tell you."

"Yes."

After Li Yinbing left, Lu Jin summoned Xu Jichuan, the guy who said in the topic of persuading farmers that water conservancy projects should be built and farm tools should be manufactured first.

Lu Jin looked at him and asked directly, "Do you know about water conservancy and iron smelting?"

Xu Jichuan quickly replied, "I know a little bit about it. I have read Mr. Wang Zhen's "Book of Agriculture"."

Lu Jin nodded. Wang Zhen's Agricultural Book is definitely not just an 'agricultural book'. This book is equivalent to The Exploitation of the Works of Nature in the late Ming Dynasty. It not only records a large number of agricultural technologies, but also records many technologies in textile smelting, water conservancy machinery, agricultural machinery and other fields. Don't be fooled by the name of "agricultural book".

Lu Jin then said.

"In that case, I will first appoint you as the head of the Wenyuan Construction Department, responsible for mining and iron smelting. If you do a good job, I will promote you to the position of director."

Xu Jichuan was stunned when he heard this, and immediately said, "Marshal, to open an iron smelter, you need a mine."

Lu Jin immediately said, "Chao County has coal mines, that is, coal, and Lujiang County on the south bank of Chao Lake has a large iron mine, which we will soon conquer.

"You can first inspect the coal mines in Chao County and formulate a mining method. Let the Chao County Magistrate prepare the required manpower and material resources for you. Then, find a place on the bank of the Fei River between Luzhou and Chaohu to set up an ironworks.

"When we dig up the ore in the future, we can directly use the Chao Lake water transport to the iron factory for smelting. I heard that the Song Dynasty already had the technique of water-driven blast iron smelting. You'd better use it as well."

Xu Jichuan's brain stopped working and he didn't react for a moment. Lu Jin's words contained too much information. "The Marshal wants to use coal to smelt iron? But iron smelted from coal is brittle and easy to break. Such iron is unusable."

Lu Jin said, "Don't you know that coal can be used to make coke? Using coke to make iron is not only more efficient, but also uses less carbon. The quality of the pig iron is no worse than that of charcoal. Don't you know how to make coke?"

"I have heard of coking, but I have never seen it myself. I heard that coke is often used to smelt iron in Jiangzuo, but I have never seen it myself."

"Then go find him. No matter what method you use, dig, cheat, or kidnap, bring him to me."

"Yes, but the terrain near Luzhou is flat and not suitable for building large water wheels. If we build a large water wheel, we need to build a dam to store water, which may be difficult to build and may also flood countless fertile fields." Xu Jichuan raised the difficulty again.

Lu Jin was speechless for a moment. It seemed that this guy only had a little knowledge. He was not modest.
"If a vertical water wheel is not useful, build a horizontal water wheel. Find a place where the river turns and the water is turbulent, dig a diversion channel, and place the water wheel horizontally in the channel to divert water. In this way, there is no need to build a dam, and you only need to dig a channel."

Xu Jichuan's eyes lit up, "Great, Marshal, this method is feasible."

"If it's feasible, then do it. The craftsmen in the Hundred Crafts Institute are at your disposal. Quickly build the ironworks for me."

"Yes."

After waiting for this guy to leave, Lu Jin rubbed his temples. There is still a lack of technical talents. Not all scholars in ancient times liked to study this stuff. Most of the craftsmen had low cultural level and were not good at management affairs.

Lu Jin thought about it and thought that the most educated and skilled person in mechanical technology at the end of the Yuan Dynasty might be the Yuan Shundi Xiao Tieguo in Dadu.
Many people only know that Emperor Tianqi of the late Ming Dynasty was a carpenter emperor. In fact, Emperor Shun of Yuan Dynasty was much better at carpentry than Tianqi!

Emperor Shundi of Yuan Dynasty designed the blueprints himself and instructed the craftsmen to build a yacht, a dragon boat, the kind with a movable dragon head and tail. As for the technology? Anyway, he led a group of beauties to play on the yacht, and never fell into the water.
Emperor Shun of Yuan Dynasty also designed and built a clepsydra, which is an ancient hydraulic clock with a bridge and fairy dolls on it. When the time comes, the dolls will move across the bridge, which is a masterpiece of ingenuity.

At that time, people in most cities even gave the small iron pot a nickname "Emperor Lu Ban".

But the small iron pot should not be so idle now.

He probably had to wait until the first battle of Xuzhou was over, when this guy started to lie down and play the "Sixteen Heavenly Demon Dance" with those Tantric monks in the Xuanzhengyuan, and held parties every day. When he got tired of playing with women, he switched to playing with carpenters.
Of course, it is impossible for Lu Jin to capture Emperor Shun of Yuan and make him work for him. For now, he can only rely on these scholars.

He sighed and started to summon the next person, but the person who came in was Hu Weiyong.

Lu Jin looked at the name, then looked at the person in front of him, and immediately compared the person with the name. Sure enough, it was the guy who flattered him on the day of the exam.

Lu Jin looked at him and said, "Are you Hu Weiyong?"

Hu Weiyong was immediately uneasy when he heard this. He didn't know what Lu Jin meant by this. Why did it sound like Lu Jin had been paying attention to him for a long time? If it was a good thing, it would be fine. But if Lu Jin was thinking about something bad, he shouldn't have offended the Marshal, right?
"It's me, Marshal. Do you remember me?"

"Oh, your article is actually quite well written, except for the incorrect use of a allusion. You should have been ranked in the top ten, but I put you in the 30s. Do you know what's wrong?" Lu Jin looked at him playfully and tested him.

Hu Weiyong was stunned. He didn't expect that Lu Jin remembered his article and said that his article was okay, but there were some mistakes. He immediately tried to recall it. It seemed that he didn't use any classics. He just quoted the Spring and Autumn Annals once and the Analects of Confucius once. What was wrong?

"I am stupid, please teach me, Marshal."

Lu Jin then said, "Your sentence 'If the princes use the barbarian etiquette, they are barbarians; if they advance towards China, they are Chinese', this sentence is not meant to be used in that way.

“If a barbarian enters China and uses Chinese etiquette and laws, can he possess Chinese legitimacy?

"If the Japanese pirates conquer China, can they be the orthodox Chinese? If Annan conquers China, can they also promote themselves as the orthodox Chinese?

"You use this sentence to discuss the debate between Chinese and barbarians, which is easy for others to find fault with!"

Hu Weiyong felt as if he had suddenly realized something, but he still didn't understand.

According to Lu Jin, this argument of "Hua Yi" is indeed easy for people to take advantage of, but that would require them to be able to attack China, so how could such a thing happen?
Well, it is really possible that it will happen. Isn’t it the case with the Jin, Liao and Yuan dynasties? Especially the dispute over the legitimacy among the Liao, Jin and Song dynasties, which has not been resolved yet.

Hu Weiyong hurriedly said humbly, "So that's how it is. It's all my fault for being so ignorant and not as thoughtful as you. I didn't realize I made a mistake. Thank you for pointing out my mistake and teaching me personally. I will reflect on it when I go back and be very careful with pawns in the future."

Wow, this is filmed again.

Lu Jin interrupted immediately, "You should be more careful when writing, but you don't have to feel so guilty. It's a great help to know your mistakes and improve them. Your article is good overall, especially your views on China's etiquette and the relationship between the ruler and his subjects. You have a lot of insights.

"Although you are ranked only over 30 this time, you are still a rare talent. Are you willing to go to Hanshan County to be the chief clerk first?"

Hu Weiyong was stunned when he heard this, and was about to say something, but Lu Jin spoke first.

"Hanshan County is called a county, but it is actually just a larger town. It doesn't even have a city wall. However, this county is strategically located between Heyang and Chao County. It is surrounded by mountains and can provide support for the two counties. Its location is extremely important."

This time, before Lu Jin could finish, Hu Weiyong rushed to speak, "General, I am willing to go to Hanshan to build a city and guarantee that it will be turned into an impregnable fortress."

"Hahahaha, you are quite clever. It is settled then. You will go to Hanshan County as the chief clerk and be in charge of building the city there first. But you are not allowed to force the laborers to rush the work, and you are not allowed to cut corners.

"Hanshan is not big, so the city does not need to be too big. It will just need to be able to serve as a fortress. Once you get this done, I will promote you to be the chief officer of another county." Lu Jin immediately made a big promise.

"Thank you, Marshal, for your cultivation!" Hu Weiyong was overjoyed.

I originally thought that I would have to work as the chief clerk for a long time, but I didn't expect that I would have a chance to be promoted for my meritorious service now!

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(End of this chapter)