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

Chapter 242 Chang'an City Passenger Transport Station
In fact, besides the sect rules used to govern its disciples, the entire White Stone Immortal Sect, since its acquisition of the Qin and Jin regions, had also, under Xu Ying's leadership and at his behest, jointly formulated a new set of "White Stone Laws" with the assistance of the Court of Judicial Review and the Ministry of Justice.

This is a comprehensive law, somewhat like a constitution in the modern sense, and it was also the first "law" to be compiled and promulgated in various places.

Although Zhang Chengdao knew very little about legal knowledge before he traveled back in time, there are professionals who can handle professional matters. Ancient times were just different from modern times in terms of social development, but there were still people who were good at law!
All he needs to do is make the requests and then oversee the final approval. If he really has to do everything himself, he'll be exhausted!

Therefore, under Zhang Chengdao's instruction, in addition to the "Baishi Law", it was planned to formulate "Criminal Law", "Commercial Law", "Household Registration Law", "Civil Law", and so on.

The Criminal Law was the second to be compiled, followed by the Household Registration Law. It is said that the Civil Law is still being compiled. It seems that some content related to "patents" will be added to the Commercial Law to protect and encourage inventions and creations.

Considering that tomorrow was the regular court assembly, Zhang Chengdao took Chang Ping'an to Chang'an City early in the morning.

Originally, Zhang Chengdao was too lazy to commute and wanted the ministers to use a teleportation array to come to Baishi Mountain for a court meeting.

However, after trying it once, he found that discussions often had to be halfway through, and documents and various materials needed to be retrieved from government offices or the capital. This involved having officials temporarily sent back and forth by the stationmaster, which was very inconvenient. It was better to hold court meetings in Chang'an as before, so Zhang Chengdao gave up.

However, considering the special nature of Baishi Mountain, Zhang Chengdao still stipulated that future grand court assemblies should be held at Baishi Mountain, and all necessary documents and materials that he felt would be useful should be brought over.

The so-called grand court assembly, in the context of ancient times, actually had little to do with a "court assembly" but was more of a ceremonial event.

For example, many officials from other places would come to the capital to participate in the court assemblies held on major festivals such as New Year's Day (referring to the Lunar New Year in ancient times), the Winter Solstice, and the Emperor's Birthday.

During the Tang Dynasty, these ceremonial grand court assemblies were strictly regulated with all sorts of cumbersome rituals, including "Nine Palaces Dance" and "Musical Banquet," which were extremely troublesome. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which were the most inhumane, grand court assemblies even involved the cracking of whips and the playing of music, forcing officials to perform the ritual of three kneelings and nine kowtows, which was utterly disgusting.

However, the grand court assembly stipulated by Zhang Chengdao was completely different from these grand court assemblies.

The grand court assembly stipulated by Zhang Chengdao was to be held on one day each quarter. City lords from various regions were required to use teleportation arrays to come to the Lingxiao Palace on Baishi Mountain to participate. There were no formalities or kowtows. It was simply a gathering of all officials who could leave to conduct a periodic report, which would last for at least three days, and could be extended depending on the amount of business handled.

You can take the teleportation array back during this time and come back the next day. Alternatively, you can stay for free in the guest house on White Stone Mountain. The accommodation standard is the same as that of the disciples' residence, and the meals are free "working meals," which are also the famous "immortal food."

Given these conditions, only someone who's crazy would want to go back to live there!

Therefore, during the last grand court assembly, all officials stayed on Baishi Mountain without exception, totaling over a thousand people!
To be fair, it was fortunate that Zhang Chengdao had specially crafted a lot of [Stone Tile Houses] in advance for the Immortal Fate Assembly on the first day of the first month. If it weren't for the fact that the mines in the construction system of the cheat code would regenerate their mineral resources every once in a while, such a large demand for materials would probably have emptied out White Stone Mountain!
There are more than 800 of these stone-tiled houses in total. One house per person is definitely not enough, so Zhang Chengdao specially stipulated that each city lord would be provided with a free house. However, there are three rooms in the house, which means three beds. If you squeeze in, it can accommodate six people living together.

Therefore, the subordinates or advisors brought by each city lord lived with their city lord.

In addition, some lower-ranking but important minor officials, such as those in the Six Ministries, the Imperial Academy, and the Court of Judicial Review, were also assigned rooms in groups of two or three. In this way, eight hundred rooms were more than enough.

The Grand Court Assembly is held only once a quarter. The last one was held in early September last month, and the next one will be held in December. It's still a long way off. So this time, Zhang Chengdao only took Chang Ping'an to Chang'an City through the teleportation array. He planned to wait until after the Small Court Assembly (the regular court assembly) to discuss matters related to the law with the Minister of Justice and the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review.

The teleportation arrays are now managed by designated personnel. The teleportation array at White Stone Mountain is managed by Tang Xiaoyu. However, because she is always busy building teleportation arrays in various places, she often sees requests for temporary station managers for the White Stone Mountain teleportation array on the sect's bulletin board. Although the salary is not high, many disciples still flock to it because the job is easy and they can slack off and cultivate anytime and anywhere, and then come out to work when someone needs them.

Pei Zhao was temporarily in charge of the teleportation array in Chang'an City. He was so busy that he couldn't even do his job as a Hanlin Academician properly. Zhang Chengdao had to give the Hanlin Academy an order to temporarily "suspend his post without pay" so that he could be "transferred" to the teleportation station to take over.

Of course, Tang Xiaoyu also gave Pei Zhao special training on how to use the teleportation array safely.

There's no way around it, we're just too short-handed. The students at Shiroishi Immortal University have only just enrolled, and there aren't even many who can guide Qi into their bodies, so we can't use them at all!

Because of the shortage of manpower to manage the teleportation station, Zhang Chengdao had to design another set of "Teleportation Array Usage Management Regulations" so that cultivators who could use the teleportation array skillfully and safely could pass an exam and obtain a certification, namely the "Teleportation Array Usage Certificate".

With this certificate, the teleportation array no longer requires the station master to activate it. Certified cultivators can use it themselves or bring others along, simply by registering.

The registration work no longer needs to be done by cultivators; ordinary people can also handle it. Except for the teleportation stations in a few first-level main cities that are open daily, the teleportation stations in second-level main cities are only open every two days. Disciples of the White Stone Immortal Sect take turns accepting commissions to serve as temporary station chiefs. Sometimes, there isn't enough qualified cultivators to fill the positions, so the stations have to be closed once, opening only every four days. It's incredibly arduous.

Like the last grand court assembly, Zhang Chengdao had to urgently suspend all classes in the sect and send out all the outer disciples to take turns on duty for half a day each, just to barely get all the city lords from various places to come. Even so, some city lords from smaller places had to travel for a day or two to the neighboring large city where the teleportation array had been repaired in order to successfully reach White Stone Mountain because the teleportation array had not yet been repaired.

This situation will certainly improve as the number of cultivators increases, but right now, it's truly so tragic that it breaks one's heart and brings tears to the eyes of anyone who hears it.

Which country operates its high-speed trains on a rotating basis, and whose train conductors are temporary students from schools who only know how to drive trains?
That's just too tragic!
After Zhang Chengdao brought Chang Ping'an to Chang'an, Chang Ping'an immediately felt that the scene in front of him was somewhat unfamiliar.

He returned a month ago, and he flew back without using a teleportation array. After all, Taiyue Sword Sect is not too far from Baishi Mountain, while a teleportation array would require finding a nearby teleportation station that has already been built and waiting for it to open.

Even after returning to Baishi Mountain and taking over the teaching duties, Chang Ping'an was busy every day either cultivating, preparing lessons, or privately tutoring his junior brothers and sisters. He was so busy that he didn't even leave the mountain gate, and he didn't have time to do any of the sect's commissions!

So he never actually entered the teleportation station!
This is the first time!
The teleportation array on Baishi Mountain was alright; it was just a bare, giant teleportation array complex consisting of nine arrays, located outside the plaza. They had only managed to pave the ground with the leftover gold sand and jade bricks from the plaza, without building any roofs, seats, or anything like that, so it was still within Chang Ping'an's comprehension.

However, the teleportation station in Chang'an City took him by surprise.

The entire teleportation station was supported by towering, lacquered red pillars. Although the roof was made of simple blue tiles, they were spiritual blue tiles provided by Zhang Chengdao, which naturally insulated against water and fire.

The four sides of the painted red pillars had no walls, only some plain linen curtains.

Chang Ping'an immediately recognized that the linen was ramie cloth produced by the sect. Although it was worthless within the sect, it would be worth a fortune outside!

Most importantly, this teleportation station is really huge!
It's several times bigger than the Lingxiao Palace!

There are eight red-painted pillars on one side! There are a total of thirty-two red-painted pillars with all four sides being exactly the same!

This "main hall" without walls is just one of the buildings in the "Chang'an City Passenger Transport Station"!
Next door, you can glimpse eight other buildings that look similar to this "main hall" and are being constructed under the supervision of a team of craftsmen!

This……

This scale is probably comparable to a royal palace!

Wouldn't this be considered a waste of public resources?

For a moment, Chang Ping'an even had some doubts in his heart.

But when he turned to look at the laborers who were working but didn't seem to be in any pain, he became curious.

Although those people looked tired, they were not as emaciated and pained as the slaves or servants he had seen before, and there were no stewards with whips or disciplinary sticks around them as he had always seen.

They don't look like conscripted laborers.

Driven by curiosity, Chang Ping'an simply asked, "Master, these don't look like conscripted laborers?"

Zhang Chengdao replied with a smile, "Oh, of course not. These are all craftsmen we paid for, and the money we used was saved from the emperor's private treasury back in the Zhou Dynasty!"

(End of this chapter)