Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 226 Discussion at the Dinner Table
After giving his disciples some more encouragement, Zhang Chengdao left Xiangwu City.

When Murong Ruyan finally made it back to Xiangwu City after many hardships, Zhang Chengdao had already been gone for some time.

In any case, with the "Qin King Ghost" matter resolved, the problems of Xiangwu City were once again placed before everyone.

The following day, the disciples of the White Stone Immortal Sect, who habitually gathered together for breakfast, continued to discuss the unsolved cases in Xiangwu City while eating.

Solving cases is actually not difficult. Most of the time, you only need to look at it to see who the real victim is. With the help of investigation methods and some minor magic and supernatural abilities, it is easy to find out the truth.

The problem is that the cases reported from Xiangwu City are all trivial matters, some even involving a dispute over an egg, which is really making Ling Shuang and others suffer.

Niu Man, who was usually quiet, suddenly said, "How about... we set up a separate yamen and separate the case-handling from the county yamen?"

Setting up a separate government office would naturally require approval from the clan leader.

However, if it can actually solve the problem, it's not impossible.

Suddenly, He Shilie sat down on a low stool with one hand holding a bowl of hot porridge and the other hand propped up on his thigh. He swallowed the porridge in his mouth and asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"Second Senior Sister, Fourth Senior Sister, Senior Brother Heshilie, and all other senior brothers and sisters, what I mean is that we, as cultivators, should separate criminal matters and let them be managed, just like the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice in the imperial court."

Niu Man explained, "In this way, the benefits are obvious. Cultivators have their own magic and supernatural powers. If their cultivation level is higher, they can at least use a mind-demon illusion technique to solve some difficult cases. This not only saves time but also reduces wrongful convictions as much as possible, which is a great thing."

"Furthermore, separating criminal justice from local government affairs can prevent collusion between local officials. When Junior Brother followed Senior Brother He Shilie and Senior Sister Ling Shuang to these four counties, they discovered that most of the wrongful convictions were not actually 'wrongful convictions,' but rather the result of collusion between local officials and powerful families, each seeking personal gain, which led to numerous tragedies. If criminal justice matters were handled exclusively by disciples of our White Stone Immortal Sect, with regular rotations, these situations could be avoided, or at least... at least avoided to the greatest extent possible."

Niu Man truly lived up to his reputation for being skilled in mundane affairs; his attention to detail was astounding.

Although everyone understood his reasoning, no one ever thought about how to solve the problem.

This is the difference between those skilled in political governance and those skilled in following orders; it has nothing to do with rank, but simply a difference in ability.

While He Shilie was still pondering what Niu Man had said, Murong Ruyan's eyes lit up, and she praised, "That makes sense! If this matter were included in the sect's contribution points, just like the sect's trial missions, we wouldn't be short of manpower when we recruit more disciples in the future!"

"Second Senior Sister, although this method can recruit enough manpower in the short term, matters of criminal law are truly specialized and should not be interfered with or acted upon haphazardly by laymen. Therefore, I believe it is better to establish separate courses for disciples who are interested in this matter to learn the laws and regulations, and then assign them to other tasks once they have achieved some proficiency..."

At this point, Niu Man couldn't help but sigh, clasped his hands and said in a deep voice, "Fellow senior brothers and sisters, you should know that many things are nothing to the cultivators of our White Stone Immortal Sect, but to ordinary people, they are of paramount importance. These paramount matters should be handled with caution, just as seriously as when we undergo tribulation."

"What you said...does make some sense,"

Murong Ruyan found it hard to accept why such a ridiculous thing as "Zhang San stole Li Si's eggs but was wrongly judged to have stolen Wang Wu's eggs" was treated as a "major issue". However, it was not incomprehensible. Before she had ever stepped out of the palace gates, she always thought that "the sky was falling" because her princess rations were missing meat.

So she took the lead in vouching for him, saying, "Junior Brother He Shilie and I will write to Master to discuss this matter further. But until then, we can only ask Junior Sister Ling and the others for help."

Although He Shilie was forced to represent the sect, he dared not say a word against his second senior sister. He hurriedly followed up, saying, "This suggestion is indeed well-founded. If all the cities could act in this way, the local customs would surely be cleaned up. It should be reported to the sect leader as soon as possible."

Tang Xiaoyu, who was busy eating, didn't pay much attention to what others were saying.

Despite living for over three hundred years, she spent most of those years living in the Tang Clan or in seclusion in the countryside of Shu. Not only is she completely ignorant of politics, but even if she knew a little, it was all about the affairs of the Great Changhe Kingdom in Shu. She really couldn't understand much about the politics of the Central Plains!
It is important to know that the local governments of the Great Changhe Kingdom are called "Zhai" or "Bu". Moreover, in many cases, they maintain the autonomy of various villages and tribes with different cultures and customs. Even within villages and tribes, people often gather together to discuss matters. At most, the elders and clan chiefs can make decisions, but it is not acceptable to go against the wishes of the majority.

Tang Xiaoyu simply didn't understand why the people of the Central Plains made things so complicated—why didn't everyone just sit around the campfire and discuss it together?
Of course, although she didn't understand these complex political matters, it didn't mean she didn't understand that the methods here in the Central Plains were more "perfect".

At least in a village in Sichuan, if the chieftain's son accused someone of stealing his basket of eggs, no one could verify the accusation; they would simply follow the chieftain's son's lead and collectively conclude that the person was the thief.

Because the villagers would at most ask if they saw it or who saw it, they didn't know how to investigate cases like those in the Central Plains. So even if someone gave false testimony, they would take the false testimony as true. Such "wrongful convictions" often happened in some remote villages and tribes, and no one would take them seriously.

Those places still retain the tradition of keeping slaves! How can we ask for more?

However, while the methods used in the Central Plains were good, as Niu Man said, they were also very easy to collude with each other because these officials had too much power. Even if the people did not agree with them, they had no choice but to obey, and those who did not obey were beaten to death!

In villages in Sichuan, if the clan chief and elders do something that the people don't agree with, but they still insist on doing it, then it's possible that the clan chief will be replaced!

So Tang Xiaoyu simply didn't participate in these discussions. Anyway, her mission was to build a "passenger transport station." As for how to govern the area and how to quell the rebellion, that was the business of Heshilie Tudi and his people!
Nobody can stop her from cooking!
Tang Xiaoyu remained silent, but Ye Changqing, another disciple of the White Stone Immortal Sect sitting next to Niu Man, pondered, "If we follow what Junior Brother Niu said, wouldn't it be better to simply separate the local government offices?"

Ye Changqing also came from the Ye family in Jiangnan and was one of the Ye family members who successfully passed the three trials.

Unlike Ye Hanxing, who changed his surname to Ye, Ye Changqing is a pure Ye bloodline. He is Ye Shuyun and Ye Chengyu's cousin, the twenty-third in line. However, because he was physically weak from childhood, he never practiced martial arts and thus never had any fame in the martial arts world. The world has never known this twenty-third young master Ye.

Unexpectedly, when Grandpa Ye led the Ye family north to participate in the trials, he easily passed all three trials, especially the trial of self-examination. He passed it unscathed, only a moment later than Huang Wu, which was quite beyond the level of a blue card.

Although his two cousins ​​were an inner disciple and a sect leader, Ye Changqing had a very good attitude. Because he was not very familiar with Ye Shuyun and Ye Chengyu, he never took the initiative to approach them. Instead, he silently worked hard to cultivate and was one of the outer disciples who had entered the Qi realm relatively early.

He Shilie suddenly asked him to come and help because he valued Ye Changqing's seriousness in cultivation and his meticulousness in doing things. Moreover, during this period of time, he had never made a mistake while working with Ling Shuang.

However, no matter how good his mindset was, his older brothers were all outstanding individuals, and it would be a lie to say that he wasn't envious or jealous at all. Therefore, Ye Changqing always subconsciously imitated Ye Shuyun's behavior and manner of treating others, being gentle and meticulous. As a result, his fellow disciples would often say things like, "You and Senior Brother Ye Shuyun are truly brothers, so alike." Whenever he heard such comments, Ye Changqing would always smile shyly, secretly pleased with himself.

Ye Shuyun has always been the "other people's child," something I've heard about since I was a child in the Ye family!
Upon hearing Ye Changqing's words, He Shilie suddenly fell into deep thought again.

Indeed, compared to the well-organized arrangement of various departments in the Celestial Court after the sect leader's reforms, local government offices often have a single county government in charge of everything.

Although the county constable is nominally in charge of local security, he is only responsible for things like bandits. The real trivial matters in the city are handled by the yamen runners under the county magistrate.

Catching thieves was done by the yamen runners; collecting taxes was done by the yamen runners; and sweeping the streets after rain or snow was also done by the yamen runners. There was no clear division of labor, and this was one of the reasons why the common people were exploited at every level.

When orders from top to bottom are not communicated effectively, and all policies are decided by the same group of people, then whatever they say goes!

“Separate tax collection, criminal justice, and public security into separate entities, making them directly accountable to the next higher-level city, and ultimately directly to the sect leader. In this way, they will not be subject to the constraints of local city lords... Just like the sect leader separated the six ministries one by one, making them free from the control of the Grand Secretary, the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat, and the Attendant-in-Ordinary.”

"inappropriate."

Upon hearing Ye Changqing's words, Murong Ruyan was the first to shake her head.

She said, "Master abolished the provinces, prefectures, counties and unified them into cities, which has already weakened the power of the city lords. If these are also divided up, I'm afraid that war will break out in Qin and Jin immediately!"

Ye Changqing hadn't really thought of these things. Upon hearing this, he was immediately somewhat dejected and said with a bow, "Senior Sister Ruyan is so thoughtful. I was just being naive."

"I only said it was inappropriate, not that it was impossible!"

Unexpectedly, Murong Ruyan shook her head and said, "In my opinion, Master will do this sooner or later. However, it is not appropriate to change all the cities in this way now. It is better to do it in the Guanzhong region first, and then slowly annex other cities."

"Most of those conservative city lords will probably accept their fate. If they refuse to accept it, it's a good opportunity to have Junior Brother Heshi Lie fight his way through, kill some more, and clean up the area again. It will actually look much cleaner than before!"

(End of this chapter)