In history, Liu Bei ordered Zhuge Liang to preside over the revision of the "Shu Ke" after entering Shu. Other people who participated in the formulation of the "Shu Ke" included Fazheng, Yi Ji, Liu Ba, Li Yan and others.
And this time, there is another Zhang Xi.
Although Zhang Xi is not a Legalist, he has some understanding of some modern laws. Although he can't explain why, Zhang Xi is really good at bragging and arguing.
That’s right. Well, the laws these days really don’t put people first.
To give a simple example - the "Han Code" stipulates that if someone is causing trouble and hurting others, and you see it but do not step forward to stop it, then you are also guilty, and you will be punished at the least, and exiled at the worst.
According to Zhuge Liang's wishes, in the newly formulated "Shu Ke", there was no option for taking responsibility and all were exiled.
Now Zhang Xi is really on the same front as Fazheng - is the formulation a bit too heavy-handed? !
However, Zhuge Liang's theory of "strong principles first, weak principles later" and his repeated emphasis on the concepts of "exercising laws and clarifying laws" and "encouraging good and deposing evil" meant that Zhang Xi felt that he could not defeat Zhuge Liang, and Fazheng also felt that he was no match.
The two main opponents stopped talking, and the tone of "Shu Ke" was completely set - strict and serious.
In fact, Zhuge Liang's purpose in doing this was really not for the people.
These days, those who dare to be women and commit crimes are still mainly powerful people from aristocratic families, and whether the people abide by the law also depends on whether the powerful people from aristocratic families can abide by the law.
If powerful families abide by the law, then ordinary people will never have the courage to break the law.
When Liu Zhang and his son governed Bashu, they were too laissez-faire. Both the Yizhou faction and the Dongzhou faction were unscrupulous, so the people of Shu gradually began to disobey the law.
Zhuge Liang was strict with the law, and the first target to be punished was the powerful families. When the powerful families abide by the law, the people will naturally abide by the law.
And if you don't use strict laws against powerful families, will they really take it seriously? !
The above example is still the same. According to the "Han Code", as long as you pay enough fines, you can be exempted from punishment for light punishments such as beating a board. Does a wealthy family lack this money? !
They will all be exiled to see if these wealthy families dare to break the law.
After determining the tone of these legislation, Zhuge Liang and others began to revise the "Shu Ke". In fact, they slightly modified the "Han Code", increased the punishment, and then promoted it.
This process takes time, and Liu Bei currently does not have the time to wait for the revision of "Shu Ke" to be completed.
The rewards for the soldiers must be cashed out quickly. If they are late, it will easily cause dissatisfaction in the army. Therefore, Liu Bei has handed over the gold and silver in the treasury to the generals and asked them to distribute it to the soldiers.
Then Liu Bei summoned some representatives of aristocratic families in Chengdu and returned them to these aristocratic families one by one according to the amount of grain and silk collected by Liu Zhang.
After that, it is a matter of establishing an official market and getting a haircut that costs hundreds of dollars.
Yes, Liu Bei couldn't wait until the "Shu Ke" was formulated before implementing the direct money policy, because there were rats running around in the treasury, and he couldn't afford to wait.
Therefore, we can only promote Zhibai Qian first, and then use "Shu Ke" to ensure the circulation of Zhibai Qian.
As for some losses that may be caused in the early stage, and the aristocratic family that may pass the losses on to the people, Liu Bei really has no choice but to make a choice.
Either he has no money to govern Shu, causing the government's credit to go bankrupt, or he can let the people down for a while and buy himself time.
Liu Bei is not a saint, so he chose the latter.
Liu Ba also knew Liu Bei's current situation. Since he was the one who initiated this unlucky job that would be scolded by others, he should stand up and take charge of it, which would be considered as taking the blame for his current lord.
As soon as Zhang Xi heard about this, he immediately took a different look at Liu Ba. This man, although he pretended to be a little aloof, was quite responsible.
For nearly a month after that, Zhang Xi was very busy discussing with Zhuge Liang and others the formulation of "Shu Ke", and at the same time discussing with Liu Ba the promotion and popularity of Zhibaician.
In the first month of the 19th year of Jian'an, Liu Bei officially established the official market in Chengdu, stipulating that bulk goods transactions must be carried out in the official market. At the same time, the first batch of straight hundred coins replaced the five baht coins and appeared in the official market.
The reaction from the aristocratic families was quite strong.
These days, those who need to trade large quantities of goods are from aristocratic families, and those who have a large amount of five baht coins are also from aristocratic families.
Even if Liu Bei cast the straight hundred coins very beautifully, the weight of one straight hundred coins is even four to five times that of five baht coins. But one straight hundred coins can be exchanged for one hundred five baht coins.
A rough algorithm is equivalent to directly increasing purchasing power by twenty to twenty-five times.
Even if it is a bulk goods transaction, the entry of such a large denomination currency will cause prices to soar significantly.
Liu Bei spent hundreds of dollars to buy goods that were originally priced at five baht, which could enrich his treasury in a short period of time, but the price of food in the entire official market also began to soar significantly.
Fortunately, this is an official market, not a private market. If the private market becomes like this, then people will be "boiling with resentment."
After Zhang Xi's reminder, Liu Bei also set up official warehouses among the people, took the grain collected for a hundred yuan, and released part of it to sell at a fair price to the outside world, suppressing private prices and preventing aristocratic families from manipulating private prices and passing on their own losses to the people. loss.
However, this method is effective within the city of Chengdu. The further away from the city of Chengdu, the effect will gradually weaken. But now Liu Bei really has no way to take full account of it. He must get enough money and food to maintain the operation of the government.
Fortunately, Liu Bei has entered Yizhou, and his deterrence is still there in the short term. The aristocratic families in various places are only testing Liu Bei's bottom line and have not launched an immediate counterattack. Therefore, for the time being, food prices in various places are still within control.
Of course, as time went by, it wasn't like there weren't all those who were blind, and there were also a lot of people who jumped out and cursed Liu Bei. After all, in such a big place, there would always be a few people dancing happily.
I don’t know if these people are really stupid or if they were thrown out by aristocratic families to explore the way. In short, these people don’t care about cursing Liu Ba in public, but they actually dare to curse Liu Bei directly.
Then Fazheng used the excuse that these people had scolded him in the past, and now he wanted revenge. He would kill them directly without going through legal procedures.
Then, someone used this matter to ask Zhang Xi, saying that you guys are making laws, but now the law is upright but you know the law is illegal. What do you think about this? !
No matter how you look at it, I’ll just keep my eyes open.
Now Zhang Xi finally understands why Zhuge Liang in history turned a blind eye to Fazheng's murder. Fazheng was doing Liu Bei's dirty work. Can Fazheng be blamed for such a thing? !
So, Zhang Xi and Zhuge Liang's external answers were surprisingly consistent - Fa Xiaozhi, the leader of the gang, has made such a big contribution, why not kill some people? !
The subtext is - if you throw these unscrupulous people out to test them again, we have an internal consensus and we will kill as many as they come, you can decide what to do.
Immediately, the issue of confronting hundreds of dollars in Chengdu stopped for a while.
But this would definitely not work for a long time, so Zhang Xi, Zhuge Liang and others discussed it and felt that it was better to formulate the "Shu Ke" as soon as possible and then promulgate it throughout the territory.
Once the law is used as a criterion, Liu Bei can launch a crackdown on those aristocratic families with evil intentions and hoarding in accordance with the law. After all, they have a reputation, and there is no need for Fa Zheng to take the blame for killing people because of his reputation.
In this way, after another month of intensive revision, at the end of February in the 19th year of Jian'an, the "Shu Ke" was formulated and promulgated to be implemented throughout Yizhou.
The promotion of Zhibaiqian finally has a legal basis and can be gradually implemented in Shu.
Of course, having a legal basis is not the end. The real difficulty is to truly implement the law.
And this involves another important matter - personnel appointments in various counties.
After Liu Bei pacified Yizhou, he temporarily did not touch the chief officials of counties and counties appointed by Liu Zhang during the period, in order to maintain stability.
But now, the issuance of Zhibaiqian has filled the treasury, and the "Shu Ke"
The legal basis for the formulation, coupled with the military power in Liu Bei's hands, was enough to ensure that Liu Bei made a large-scale adjustment to the chief officials of each county.
Of course, Liu Bei was only judged by his talent and not by his background. At least at the local level, that was the case.
Some people have always said that the Shu family was not reused in the early Jihan period, but this cannot be said to be wrong.
In the early days of Ji Han, until Zhuge Liang was in power, there were almost no people in the upper echelons of Ji Han who could speak to the local aristocratic families in Yizhou.
But in the middle and lower-class counties, there are actually not many people from Yizhou's native families.
It is said that someone has calculated that people from Yizhou native families account for more than 45% of grassroots officials, and nearly half of the grassroots officials are Yizhou natives.
The combined total of Jingzhou people and Dongzhou people is only 36%, and the remaining part is Liu Bei's Yuancong sect and the talents who entered Yizhou from other places in the later period.
So, when they heard that Liu Bei was going to replace the chief officials of various counties on a large scale, especially when it came to someone like the prefect of a county, everyone in the Yizhou family couldn't sit still.
Although the issue of hundreds of dollars caused heavy losses to the aristocratic families, as for the local officials, the Yizhou faction would not just watch Liu Bei hand it over to the Dongzhou people or the Jingzhou faction brought by Liu Bei.
On a larger scale, this is an issue related to the voice of Yizhou's powerful locals. On a smaller scale, if one of us occupies the position of chief official of a county, are we still worried that we will not be able to make up for this loss? !
These days, the vision of powerful people from aristocratic families is not limited to the past and present.
If there really is such a short-sighted family, even if it is extinct, it would not be a pity at all.
