The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 491 Begins to Take Effect

The third year of Zhengyuan.

It is the time of autumn harvest again, and the heads accumulated last year will fall to the ground this year.

According to Cao Mao's own ideas, he wanted to execute Wang Rong to let everyone in the world see what the consequences of corruption and lawlessness would be.

However, the newly appointed Minister of Justice Wei Shu wrote a letter to refute Cao Mao's proposal.

This is something no one has ever thought about.

After all, Wei Shu, like Zhang Hua, was one of the earliest confidants to follow the emperor. Later, he was sent to local areas many times to work and supervise the administration of officials, but his position was still with the emperor. The emperor had just promoted him to be the Minister of Justice. What was going on?

Cao Mao also couldn't understand it, but he was not angry.

Wei Shu is not the kind of person who would gain fame by refuting himself.

Therefore, Cao Mao went to the Ministry of Justice to listen to Wei Shu's ideas.

The original Secretariat was an integrated one, where many secretaries worked. But starting this year, Cao Mao separated them. It was not because he did not trust everyone, but with the complete decline of the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers, the number of subordinates in each department gradually increased. Cao Mao expanded the Secretariat and created separate mansions for each department, surrounding the former Secretariat.

When Cao Mao rushed to the Ministry of Justice, Wei Shu was leading his subordinates to deal with the accumulated beheading cases.

Upon learning that the emperor was coming, Wei Shu hurried to greet him.

Cao Mao waved his hand and asked Wei Shu to follow him into the mansion and went straight into the study.

Then, Cao Mao sat in Wei Shu's seat, raised his head and looked at his confidant in front of him.

"Mr. Guo, what's the matter with your memorial? Why are you trying to save Wang Rong's life?!"

Wei Shu's expression remained as dull as ever, unmoved by the somewhat disgruntled emperor. He said seriously, "According to the laws of the Wei Dynasty, the amount of money he embezzled does not warrant public beheading. His sentence can be commuted to dismissal and exile."

Cao Mao laughed. "Is this why you object?"

Wei Shu said again: "If Your Majesty must kill him, you can change the law and lower the standards required for the death penalty, but you cannot execute him under the current law."

Cao Mao asked Zhang Hua to watch the door, and then asked Wei Shu to sit next to him.

"Wang Rong's reputation is known to everyone in the world. I want to use him to intimidate everyone in the world so that officials will not dare to do such things again."

"I know you are a good ruler, but I wonder when you became Zhang Shizhi?"

Zhang Shizhi was a court judge in the Western Han Dynasty. Someone stole Liu Bang's burial objects, and Emperor Wen of Han was furious and wanted to kill the entire clan. Zhang Shizhi believed that the crime of theft stipulated in the law did not have such a severe penalty, and everything should be handled according to the law. He refused to comply, and finally Emperor Wen of Han had to agree to his request.

But Cao Mao knew that Wei Shu was not a strong legalist like Zhang Shizhi. Although he looked dull, what he did must have its meaning.

Wei Shu explained, "Your Majesty, if you show too much favor, your subjects will become arrogant, but if you show too much power, it will frighten the ruler and his subjects. Both are detrimental to governing the empire. Only a balance of favor and power can be the way of kings."

"Your Majesty has previously executed many ministers, including many renowned figures. Your Majesty's power is now felt by everyone in the world."

"Nowadays, if Your Majesty shows some kindness, you will be highly praised."

"If someone who often shows grace suddenly shows off, people will be angry. But if someone who often shows off suddenly shows grace, people will love him."

"The Wang School is on the rise now. If Your Majesty could slightly reduce the punishment to demonstrate your benevolence and righteousness, it would have a greater impact on the spread of the school. Moreover, in the past, the Secretariat has often sentenced the entire family to death in order to please Your Majesty. Your Majesty, excessive corporal punishment is not a good thing. Sparing their lives will allow them to return to the mines and continue their work. Manpower was already insufficient during the previous war, and indiscriminate killing is useless."

"Besides, what Your Majesty wants is influence, and you want everyone in the world to know."

"This minister has submitted a letter to refute Your Majesty, and Your Majesty has reluctantly agreed to handle it according to the law. This matter will be more easily known to the world than Wang Rong's death."

"Also, Your Majesty wants to enforce strict laws and regulations to govern the world. Those laws must be trusted by the people. In the past, the laws were often trampled upon. Sima Shi and his ilk killed people indiscriminately. Local officials also ignored the laws, arbitrarily treating their subordinates and servants, and plundering merchants. The power of the law cannot be ignored."

Wei Shu still looked silly, but he spoke without any hesitation or pause, saying everything he wanted to say at a very fast pace.

Cao Mao was stunned for a long time.

"I didn't know Duke Wei was so talkative."

But at this moment, Wei Shu returned to his original state, sitting in front of Cao Mao in a daze, like a machine that had completed its work.

Cao Mao hesitated for a moment, then said, "What you said does make some sense."

"Well, let's do it according to your opinion."

Cao Mao said nothing more and left with Zhang Hua.

Looking at Wei Shu who stayed where he was, Zhang Hua said with emotion: "Duke Wei's talent is enough for him to be the Minister of Chancellery."

Just as the two carriages were about to leave, suddenly another carriage came rushing towards them, with no intention of giving way.

There were armored soldiers following the carriage on both sides. When they saw Cao Mao's carriage, they were about to reprimand him. At this moment, dozens of people suddenly rushed out from the surrounding area. They seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and surrounded the carriage. Many of them were holding powerful crossbows and pointed them directly at the carriage.

The coachman, who had been angry before, was now stunned. He hurriedly reined in his horse and was so scared that he almost fell off the carriage.

A man walked out of the carriage angrily.

"Who dares to stop my horse?"

The man got off the carriage and saw the scene around him. He immediately fell silent. Then he saw the carriage in the distance and was a little surprised and confused. Until he saw the two people getting off the carriage, his legs went weak.

"His Majesty!!"

The person who came was Cao Yan.

The moment he saw Cao Mao, he rushed up to him hurriedly and bowed to greet him.

Cao Mao looked at him angrily, "Zong Zheng is truly impressive. He even dares to ride his carriage like this in front of the Ministry of Justice."

Cao Yan hurriedly explained, "Your Majesty, I came to see the Duke of Wei on important matters, so I was a little anxious, but I didn't offend anyone."

The three dukes and nine ministers are all being weakened nowadays, but the Zongzheng has not been weakened too much. After all, Cao Mao needs him to appease the royal families in various places.

But what is this person who manages the royal family doing in the Ministry of Justice?
He looked at Cao Yan suspiciously and asked, "What's your urgent matter?"

Cao Yan sighed deeply, "Your Majesty, Jibei King Cao Zhi has been arguing with a local clan. Both sides are fighting, and they are threatening to accuse the Jibei King of treason. I've heard that the current Minister of Justice is a stern person, so I've come to him specifically to ask him not to rush into the case."

Cao Mao thought for a moment. Cao Zhi, King of Jibei. Oh, Cao Zhi's son? His own cousin?
While Cao Yan was speaking, he was still observing Cao Mao's expression.

It has been a long time since Cao Pi's descendants liked to persecute Cao Zhi's descendants.

And the most terrible thing is that Cao Zhi is extremely remarkable.

He was intelligent when he was young, well-versed in classics, had great ambitions, and was also good at riding and shooting. When he was still young, Cao Zhi liked him very much and felt that he was someone who could turn the tide.

He was Cao Zhi's son and very capable. If Cao Mao showed any dissatisfaction with him now, Cao Yan would immediately change his tone.

Cao Yan's thoughts completely changed in line with Cao Mao's attitude.

Cao Mao was not surprised at this moment.

This was something he had anticipated a long time ago.

When the shackles on the princes are removed, they will inevitably fight with the local powerful families.

The reason is very simple. When the princes turned over and were ready to exercise their power, acquire some property, and bully the people, they suddenly discovered that in their own territory, their words did not count, their property was in the hands of others, and the people had long been bullied.

How could the princes tolerate this?

How bad were the monopolies and mergers of the big families in the Wei and Jin dynasties?

Don't think that Cao Mao can make the common people live a good life just by rectifying the administration and cleaning up the powerful families in the court. This is impossible.

Land annexation was very intense. Except for the public fields, private fields were basically stamped with the seals of the big families. The people were forced to become tenants and followers of the big families. The Cao Wei emperor himself was the largest slave owner, owning the most land and the most tenants.

In such a situation, Cao Mao had no way to deal with him using the law. Only the powerful and wealthy needed to rob the land, but the big families did not need to. They could obtain a large amount of arable land with just a few simple operations, and you couldn't even find any problems. Everything was legal and compliant.

The land of the Wei Dynasty was allowed to be sold. The lords of the wealthy families were kind-hearted. Seeing that the common people could not survive, they showed mercy and bought out their property. They also gave them a way to live and let them farm for themselves. What law did they violate?
The big families would use very simple methods to defeat the self-cultivating farmers. Just hoarding and distributing food would be enough to make the self-cultivating farmers suffer. The fluctuation of food prices was the most devastating for the farmers.

Cao Mao only suppressed the voice of the big families in the court, preventing them from achieving their goals through the court, but he was unable to solve the serious problem of local annexation.

This is the foundation of a great clan.

The princes who were released would definitely come into conflict with the big families. After all, the big families in the Wei and Jin dynasties were all a group of Pi Xiu. They only took in and never gave out. Even when facing the princes, they would not easily give up any of their interests.

However, this problem is still difficult to solve at present. We can only try to solve it after the world is unified.

But judging from what Cao Yan said, the princes began to play a role.

A smile appeared on Cao Mao's face. "I know the King of Jibei. He has always been kind. How could he have quarreled with others? Could it be that the local powerful families looked down on the royal family and humiliated him?"

Cao Yan nodded immediately, "That's right, Your Majesty, that's exactly it!! How can we, the royal family of the Great Wei, be humiliated by these villains?!"

"Lord Cao, you must handle this matter properly. Don't let the royal family suffer any injustice. As for those powerful families, they probably have their own difficulties as well. Don't let them suffer any less."

"only!!!"

(End of this chapter)