At midnight on May 14th, Zhao Jun visited Bi Sheng.
Zhao Jun is still very interested in this man who lives in junior high school history textbooks.
At this time, Bi Sheng was already sixty-five years old, but he was in very good health and was neither deaf nor blind, which was very rare in ancient times.
When he learned that Zhao Jun was coming, he quickly brought his whole family to greet him.
Zhao Jun expressed his condolences to the great inventor, and then expressed his views on invention and creation surrounded by many officials and neighbors at the scene.
He pointed out that scientific and technological inventions and creations are the key to making life more convenient. Hoes, bows and arrows, and knife blades are all inventions.
Some schools of Confucianism denounce craftsmen's manufacturing as "strange skills" and "little tricks". This is definitely wrong. As long as it is an invention that is beneficial to people's lives, it is not a bad thing.
However, the world often misunderstands Confucian criticism, and Confucianism itself also has internal differences. In fact, Confucianism does not mean that inventions and creations are bad, but that you cannot please the emperor with useless but novel things.
Therefore, when dealing with inventions and creations, we must have a good sense of innovation and correct ideas.
Zhao Jun emphasized that inventions and creations should not be done to please others, but to make life better. Just like inventions such as the hoe, the plow, and the waterwheel, they changed people's lives and made the world a better place.
Therefore, the imperial court encourages everyone to give full play to the wisdom of the working people, and specially established the Creation Bureau for this purpose. It is hoped that people all over the world will participate in invention and creation and actively promote new trends in construction.
This time Zhao Jun came here to award Bi Sheng a medal for his invention of movable type printing on behalf of the Bureau of Creation. The imperial court not only issued an invention certificate to Bi Sheng, but also gave him a cash reward.
Witnessed by many officials and neighbors, Zhao Jun personally handed Bi Sheng the certificate he had temporarily written last night, the certificate with the temporary seal of the Constitutional Yuan Governor and 20 pounds of cash into Bi Sheng's hands, which made the old man burst into tears. , sighing that his invention finally has value.
This series of processes was naturally planned by Zhao Jun.
In fact, Bi Sheng's movable type printing was of little significance at least at that time, or in feudal society. It was not until the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China that people knew its true use as Europe used movable type printing to expand the publishing industry.
So even if Bi Sheng invented this thing, in the Song Dynasty, apart from looking at strange people, people still preferred to use woodblock printing instead of the movable type printing he invented.
However, Zhao Jun knows its value. Clay movable type does have serious disadvantages, but it can be improved to lead movable type in the future, which will have better effects.
With movable type printing, the publishing industry will flourish, which will bring huge publicity effects in the future.
In addition, Zhao Jun himself attaches great importance to invention and creation and puts forward the concept of rejuvenating the country through science and technology. Therefore, when he came to see Bi Sheng this time, in addition to seeing the characters in the history textbooks, the most important thing was to bear a certain political significance and play a role in buying horses with a lot of money. Uses of Bones.
In the afternoon, at the Penal and Prison Department Office, after more than 20 days of investigation and evidence collection, the evidence of Sun Miao's crime was complete and conclusive. The Penal and Prison Secretary Xiantai Li Jianzhi, on the order of Zhao Jun, the Constitutional Yuan Magistrate, approved the prison sentence. The death sentence was ordered.
Sun Mian was shackled and remained silent throughout the sentencing process, because he knew that Guo Chengyou had learned from the past and that he would definitely die if he fell into the hands of Zhao Jun, so he simply treated him silently.
After several rounds of trials, Li Jianzhi read out his charges and decided to execute the death penalty immediately.
He panicked when he heard this.
Sun Miao shouted in the hall that the local prison department did not have the power to try him. According to normal procedures, he had to report to the court.
This reason is actually quite sufficient.
Because in the past, although investigations by local officials were under the jurisdiction of the Criminal and Prison Department, trials often had to go through Yushitai and Dali Temple. Therefore, the trials of local prefectural and county magistrates had to wait for a reply from the court before they could be executed.
However, doing so would lead to a very long litigation time and leave a lot of room for maneuver, so Zhao Jun ignored it and directly issued an execution order.
The rules are set by people, and Zhao Jun already has the power to break them.
So under this ineffective protest, it didn't take long before Sun Miao and his accomplices, Bian Xun, Hangzhou Prefecture's second officials, assistant officials, and officials, totaling more than 100 people, beheaded some and distributed others.
Sun Mian never revealed the person behind the scenes until his death.
Later, some other not-so-good news came back, that is, five county magistrates involved in corruption on Huainan West Road, four of whom died violently.
Moreover, serious corruption incidents also occurred in Bozhou Mengcheng and Sizhou Zhaoxin on Huainan East Road.
After investigation by Lin Zhu and people sent by Jiang Tang, it was found that Mengcheng was exactly the same as Shouzhou. It was the former magistrate Guo Chengyou and the two Mengcheng County Magistrates. However, Guo Chengyou was dead, and the former Mengcheng County Magistrate was not killed. , but died of illness.
As for Sizhou Zhaoxin, it was another situation. Zhaoxin was not only affected by the drought, but also by the plague. Many people died under the plague, but there was still a surplus of disaster relief grain distributed by the court.
The Zhaoxin County Magistrate and other officials in the county did not deposit the extra disaster relief grain back to Chang Pingcang. Instead, they embezzled it themselves. It was a bit like taking empty pay, but it had nothing to do with that.
Precisely because of the free wages, the former Zhaoxin County Magistrate did distribute disaster relief grains, instead of not distributing the grains and letting the people starve to death, he actually concealed the truth.
This time Zhao Jun investigated the corruption case on Huainan West Road and finally brought this matter out.
The former Zhaoxin County Magistrate was naturally ordered to be arrested by Zhao Jun.
However, as the relevant personnel were silenced, Sun Miao remained silent until death, and Huang Wei was too far away to know what was going on over there. As a result, everyone involved behind the scenes was still a mystery.
What has surfaced so far are just a few county magistrates, Sun Mian, a prefect, and Huang Wei, the former Huainan West Road transfer envoy.
On May 17, Yang Gao immediately sent an official document and he captured Huoqiu's former county magistrate from Sichuan.
Moreover, he was attacked by "water bandits" on the way. If Yang Gao had not responded quickly and led the army himself, he would have been killed and silenced again.
In this case, the former Huoqiu County Magistrate was scared to death. Finally, Yang sued for interrogation, and he asked to meet Zhao Jun before he was willing to let go.
Zhao Jun then took a boat northward to Zhenzhou.
In fact, he did not do anything during this period. When Li Jianzhi was trying Sun Mian's case, Zhao Jun was visiting people to understand their sentiments.
In addition to the agricultural situation in the Jiangnan region, the most important thing is the southern economy.
In later generations, the southern coastal zone was the economic center, and it was similar during the Song Dynasty. Frequent foreign trade exchanges made the commercial atmosphere in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangzhou extremely developed.
According to historical records, the number of large-scale shipping ships in Guangzhou Shipping Department each year can reach more than 2,000, and trade spread to more than 50 or 60 countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, and West Asia at that time, including Japan and North Korea.
Hangzhou is an important hub for maritime trade. As early as the Zhao Guangyi period, the Song Dynasty established municipal shipping departments in Hangzhou and Mingzhou (Ningbo) to specifically manage foreign merchants from Guangzhou.
In addition, many Japanese and Korean merchants came to Hangzhou and other places, which was the main gathering place for Japanese merchants, while Korean merchants mainly concentrated in Mizhou (Qingdao).
For example, Japan's famous breeding program took place in Taizhou, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. This shows how much radiation and influence the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions had on Southeast Asia and East Asia at that time.
During this period, Zhao Jun inspected the Hangzhou Shipping Department and also visited the business guilds in Hangzhou. He chatted with some of the more famous businessmen in Hangzhou and asked them for their opinions and views on the current business of the Song Dynasty.
He even met with some Japanese businessmen, which made the Japanese very excited. He casually asked them about the situation in the country, which was like pouring beans through a bamboo tube, and he told them without any notice.
In addition to business, agriculture is also his focus. Zhao Jun traveled around outside Hangzhou and inspected several villages and towns around Hangzhou such as Anxi, Chi'an, Linping, Chang'an, etc.
Understand the land annexation situation here, understand the difficulties farmers are encountering now, and go to the fields to see how productive southern agriculture is.
As a child who grew up in the southern countryside, Zhao Jun did not feel that the agricultural development in Jiangsu and Zhejiang was very developed. The planting intervals in the rice fields were far less than those of later generations, and the ears of rice produced by early rice were also fewer than those of later generations. many.
Not full, less mature rice, and short rice seedlings are all problems.
You must know that one acre in the Song Dynasty was almost the same as one acre in later generations, which was approximately equal to 0.91 acre in later generations.
According to Fan Zhongyan's report to Zhao Zhen, "Ten Matters in Reply to the Imperial Edict", it can be seen that at that time, the amount of rice per mu was two to three stones.
One stone in the Song Dynasty was about 50.2 kilograms. Even if calculated as three stones, the output of one mu per quarter in the Song Dynasty was actually equivalent to about 150 kilograms in later generations.
Later generations have basically been able to achieve a general yield of more than 500 kilograms of rice per acre, and super hybrid rice can achieve a yield of 1,000 kilograms per acre.
Therefore, the grain production per acre in later generations was at least three times that of the Song Dynasty. It is obvious how big the productivity gap between the two sides was.
This is still the south where grain production is relatively high.
If you go to the north, one acre of grain production is basically about two stones, and there are about 600 million acres of arable land. To feed the country's population of nearly 100 million, and to prepare for war, the survival pressure of the people at the bottom is very difficult.
Moreover, many people do not have their own fields, and they are all tenants and long-term workers of landlords. In times of famine, hunger is rampant, which is the most realistic portrayal.
What Zhao Jun has seen along the way is the suffering of the people. Dealing with those corrupt officials can be regarded as paving the way to change everything in the future.
On May 26, Zhao Jun arrived in Zhenzhou.
Yang Gao took the water route. The former Huoqiu County Magistrate was serving in Sichuan. The people sent by Huainan took Zhao Jun's warrant and captured him on Chengdu Fulu Road. They then took a boat along the Yangtze River to Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Originally, we were supposed to just go to Shuzhou, and then take the overland route through Huaining and enter Shouzhou. However, Zhao Jun has already arrived in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, so he can only move on and wait for him in Zhenzhou.
At Zhenzhou Wharf on Huainan East Road, when Zhao Jun's ship arrived, transshipment envoy Jiang Tang led many officials to greet him.
Zhao Jun was quite tired from running around during this period. He should have had a good rest, but he still declined Jiang Tang’s banquet. Under the leadership of Yang Gao, he went all the way to the Zhenzhou Transfer Envoy Yamen to meet the man. Former magistrate of Huoqiu County.
From the time in March when Zhao Jun became aware of the existence of the Huainan corruption case to late May, more than two months later, this major case finally came to light and a key figure was caught.
Although Huang Wei was probably arrested, he was in the north and too far away, so the news could not be delivered immediately.
Therefore, Zhao Jun is eager to know all the prisoners from the mouth of the former Huoqiu County Magistrate.
In the cell, in the interrogation room, Zhao Jun sat behind the desk, flanked by Yang Gao, the shipping envoy of Huainan West Road, and Jiang Tang, the shipping envoy of Huainan East Road.
The rest of the guards, such as Jiang Dalang and Huang Sanlang, were guarding him on both sides. Many forbidden troops stood in the middle with great momentum.
The room was relatively dark, with only a small window high on the wall behind Zhao Jun.
The sun shone in through the window. When the former County Magistrate King Huoqiu was brought in, his eyes were first stung by the sun and he couldn't open his eyes.
After waiting for a while to adjust, he saw a young face sitting behind the desk in front of him, looking at him seriously.
I have long heard that Zhiyuan is young, only in his early twenties, but now I finally see him in person.
County Magistrate Wang was shackled and led in front of Zhao Jun. After glancing around, he bowed his hands to Zhao Jun with a slightly frightened expression and said, "The guilty officer Wang Yingshi has seen the magistrate."
"Um."
Zhao Jun looked at him and said in a deep voice: "Wang Yingshi, you know why I arrested you."
"well."
Wang Yingshi sighed and said: "The guilty officer has known for a long time that such a day would come. When I dream at night, I can hear the wails of the people in Huoqiu dying of hunger."
"It sounds like you have some conscience, but in Shouzhou, Huoqiu County has the most deaths. How can you still feel a little bit ashamed?"
Zhao Jun looked at him sternly.
A severe drought in Huainan has affected both Huainan West Road and Huainan East Road.
Historical data records that tens of thousands of people died.
There is no statistics on the specific number of people, but nearly 20,000 people died in Huoqiu County alone, and every household was hung with silk. For such a crime, if Wang Yingshi really had a conscience, the disaster would not have been so serious.
Wang Yingshi smiled bitterly and said: "The magistrate is so high up, how can he understand the difficulties of lower-level officials like me. If Huang Wei and Sun Miao had not agreed at that time, the guilty officer would have been relegated to a remote area and become an idle official."
"So in order to keep your official position and flatter your superiors, you ignored the lives of so many people?"
Zhao Jun shouted and asked: "Those are thousands of human lives, not weeds on the roadside. Compared with your official position, are so many human lives incomparable?"
When the king responded, he hid his face in shame and was unable to answer.
Zhao Jun stared at him and said in a deep voice after a moment: "Okay, it's time to take action. Tell them all who are involved. Tell them all. If you confess frankly, your family can be exempted from the blame. Otherwise, Sun Miao's The end result will be your footsteps."
He did not say that the king would pardon the death penalty if he answered the question in time, but he could pardon his family's exile. Unlike Sun Miao, he was beheaded without telling anyone, his home was ransacked, and his entire family was sent to the army to serve as a warning to others.
"yes."
Wang Yingshi trembled and said: "In addition to Huang Wei and Sun Miao, there were also Li Yu, the shipping envoy of Huainan Road at that time, Guo Chengyou, the magistrate of Bozhou, Yang Chongxun, the magistrate of Chenzhou, and the transport judge of Huainan Road."
He told the names of more than a dozen people in one go. The lowest official position among them was the general magistrate of the state capital, and except for these senior officials of Huainan West Road at that time.
If we include local county magistrates, chief registrars, county captains and lower-level officials, the number of people involved in the case may reach hundreds or even thousands.
Such a huge amount, embezzling national assets and harming the people is really an unforgivable crime.
Hearing these names, Zhao Jun's eyes gradually became filled with murderous intent.
Among them, Yang Chongxun, the magistrate of Chenzhou, recalled in his mind that this man was born in the military. During the Tiansheng years, he served as a privy envoy. He had a high position and was decisive in killing!
There is still a chapter after 12 o'clock. I went to bed too late last night and didn't wake up until this afternoon. Then my nose has not healed and my stomach is bad again. I feel like I am almost sick and uncomfortable.
(End of chapter)
