The emperor took a step towards the steps, and as usual, Eunuch Liu was about to shout: "Quit the court!" Unexpectedly, Zhao Tuo turned around again, and the words in everyone's throats: "I respectfully see you off, Your Majesty!" were all vividly heard. Choked back.
"Oh, I remembered something." Zhao Tuo faced Yang Zhen: "During the national mourning period, the case of several students from Nanjing Yingtian Mansion soliciting prostitutes, does the chief minister still remember it?"
"I remember this matter. All personnel have been dealt with, and the family members have been sentenced to exile in Jiuquan, Gansu Province. They are now on their way to the place of exile."
"Well, I later heard that the government and the opposition had some objections to this matter?"
"This..." Yang Zhen was a little hesitant to mention this in front of all the officials, because it was obvious that the emperor had a problem with excessive sentences. Not only the Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple, and even the Procuratorate complained about this, not to mention the people. said.
"Your Majesty, can I say a few words?" Everyone turned around and saw that it was the person at the bottom of the cabinet - Zhu Zhanzhen. It was hot in the palace, and there were beads of sweat dripping down the little fat man's round face, which shone brightly in the morning light coming through the partition window.
The corners of Zhao Tuo's mouth turned upward: "Scholar Zhu, what do you want to say?"
Since Zhu Zhanzhen's presence has been very low since he entered the cabinet, no one took him seriously. Today, when they saw him taking the initiative to speak, they all looked at him curiously. Zhu Zhanzhen swallowed nervously and quickly lowered his head and saluted:
"In ancient times, the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors used law to govern. During the Warring States Period, rituals and music collapsed, so people governed. In the Qin Dynasty, Shang Yang changed the law to strengthen the country and the army and unified the world, and returned to law until the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty...
Well, what I want to say is that in the prosperous times, laws were used, but in troubled times, people ruled. Today, Dading and Yunei are unified, so our dynasty has advocated the rule of law since Taizu and Taizong.
The law, the criterion for governance, must not be lightly discarded, let alone changed at the whim of your majesty. This is a taboo! "
At this time, the emperor had sat back in his chair. Hearing him drop his book bag, Zhao Tuo found it funny and interrupted him, interrupting him and asking: "Your words are very kind. However, I was talking about the case with the chief minister just now. Is what you said related to this case?" "
"Your Majesty, I, I, I, are talking about this case."
"oh?"
“According to the law, if a minister commits disorderly conduct or violates the law, his superiors or recommenders may be held accountable, fined with salary, reprimanded, or demoted, but there is no such thing as exile.
Taking into account the grief of the Empress Dowager and His Majesty, the Nanjing Criminal Department sentenced Chen to three years of exile in Guangdong and Guangxi. This was already a severe extrajudicial sentence. At that time, His Majesty ordered him to be exiled to Gansu, and his family property was confiscated and he was exiled together with his family members.
Although the cabinet was later persuaded not to confiscate the family property, the family was still exiled. This completely exceeded the law, which led to divergent discussions between the government and the opposition.
I believe that those few students have no emperor or father, so it is appropriate to sentence them to death by hanging, exile, or deprivation of their honors, etc. However, the sentence imposed on Chen was not only inappropriate, but also too harsh. Therefore, I boldly ask Your Majesty to think twice and change the sentence again. "
"Huh?" Zhao Tuo frowned: "You said the sentence was too harsh, and I think it is true. I was angry at the time and did not calmly accept the cabinet's advice. Now that I have calmed down and thought about it, I really shouldn't have!
But how should we use the word 'inappropriate'? Shouldn't Chen Shi'an be held responsible for the whole thing? ” He raised his voice to sound harsh.
"Your Majesty, as far as I know, the criminal scholar made an appointment with a friend and took a prostitute on a trip on the second day of the first lunar month. He was reported on the 16th of the first lunar month. On the 19th of the first lunar month, Chen Shi'an reported to the Nanjing Ministry of Civil Affairs and officially took office the next day. On the second day of the first lunar month, On the 17th, His Majesty sent the censor to Nanjing to investigate the matter...
Therefore, Chen Shi'an had not yet taken office at the time of the incident, but in the end, the Nanjing Criminal Department listed Chen Shi'an as the person responsible in the case file despite the objections and reminders of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. "
"Oh?" Zhao Tuo looked towards the Metropolitan Procuratorate: "Chang Qing, is it like what you said?"
Chang Xuan said: "Your Majesty, this is indeed the case. I remember that I went to Nanjing to write a letter to the Nanjing Remaining Department and He Jiannan, the censor of the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate. The document should be recorded and can be checked."
"In this case, it is Chen's predecessor who should bear the responsibility. The Nanjing Punishment Department made a wrong verdict! Where is the Punishment Department?"
Hearing that the emperor was unhappy, Yi Zhongsheng, the Minister of the Ministry of Justice, quickly came out and said: "Your Majesty, I took over the Ministry of Justice in May. The previous Minister of the Ministry of Justice has retired due to old age and frailty."
"Oh, yes!" the emperor remembered. He tapped the table with his fingers habitually: "Let's do this, the Ministry of Punishments will re-examine this matter and impose a sentence in accordance with the law.
Chang Qing, the Metropolitan Procuratorate immediately investigated the whole process of this matter. I want to know why the Ministry of Punishment insisted on letting Chen Shi'an take this responsibility! "
"I obey the order!"
The emperor stood up and was about to go to the audience with His Majesty Dan, but he turned his face and frightened Eunuch Liu back by saying:
"Zhongshu, please immediately notify the Pingren Division and hurry up for 800 miles to recover Chen Shi'an and his family! They will be placed in Xijing first and find a temple to live in. We will wait for the matter to be clarified before making any new orders."
He Gongshu, Zuocheng of Zhongshu, stepped forward and said: "I, my Lord, accept the decree."
At this time, Eunuch Liu shouted: "Retreat from the court!" and then he breathed a sigh of relief.
A furnace is filled with green leaves and produces purple smoke, and a warm couch with a railing is annoying;
The last thing is the maid's urging, how can the young master take the trouble of leisure?
Beixi burst out laughing after hearing this: "My little lord, it's almost time already. If you can't afford it any longer, my aunt will wonder what happened to you!"
"What can happen to a living person like me? Tens of thousands of troops have been killed, and why are you afraid that something will happen to you on your couch?" After speaking, Li Dan suddenly stretched his head and looked outside, and asked in a low voice: "Are you two awake?" Are you done yet?"
"I woke up early. After saying hello to my aunt, one went to help in the kitchen, and the other helped Sister Zhen'er with work. Now in the whole family, you are the laziest one!" Bei Xi said, stretched out her finger and tapped Li Dan's forehead fiercely.
Li Dan chuckled and said, "You are getting more and more fierce. Be careful, Brother Niu won't dare to ask you for help!" Before he could finish his words, he received a crisp slap on the back.
"You are such a high-ranking official and you are not serious. I think Sanlang, you should be careful! Although Sister Aying didn't say anything, after all, she brought two of them back at once, and they haven't even passed the door yet!" Bei Xi whispered. Nagging.
Li Dan smiled bitterly. As soon as he returned to Yugan, the first thing he did after bathing and changing clothes was to run to Xu's house to see Aying and tell her frankly about the situation of sisters Wu Ning'er and Huang'er.
Aying didn't cry as much as he feared, she just asked them about their situation and left, but this made Li Dan even more uneasy. "Beixi, do you think I should explain to her again?" Li Dan asked softly.
"You men always fall in love with each other!" Beixi sighed and shook his head in an old-fashioned way: "You told me about the second sister of the Chen family earlier, but sister Aying didn't say anything. That was from before. , the more generous she is, the more tolerant she will be.
But this time you brought two back at once! It's still the same prince who gave it to you, and it's still two sisters. If it were me, I would be extremely angry!
Let me see, you don’t have to explain anymore, you should quickly ask your aunt to organize the wedding for you, and get someone to marry you as soon as possible, so that Sister Aying can feel at ease! "
"That's right!" Li Dan nodded and added, "I wonder where Meng'er and the others are? Now that I have become an official, I think it is not far away from meeting the emperor. I really want them to come back as soon as possible!"
"Look, look, just as I was talking, I remembered that again. Alas!" Beixi sighed heavily, picked up the clothes to be washed and went out.
Li Dan was also helpless. This era allows that as long as you have the ability and financial resources, there is no restriction on private concubines, but it is very strict on the clan.
A princess who is over twenty-five years old and has not given birth to a legitimate son is only allowed to have two concubines, and when and which one she takes depends on the princess's mood and vision.
So when the princess of Fengning County refuses to live or die, why should you ask for it if you have a legitimate son? The prince had no choice but to "entrust" the two daughters of the Wu family to Li Dan.
However, because they were the adopted daughters of the county prince, Li Dan became the "son-in-law" of the Fengning county prince, which was a huge surprise.
Fortunately, the two girls are pretty and cute. If they were ugly, wouldn't these two be like rice cakes on a cat's paw? That's trouble!
Li Dan also thought about it later, could he have the courage to reject the prince at that time? The answer is: of course.
But in that case, I'm afraid that the relationship with the county prince's palace is just official. If you want to make arrangements for Shangrao in the future, you won't be able to borrow the power of the county prince at all.
And he spent so much effort to help Shangrao and sacrificed so many brothers. Wasn't his purpose actually to lay out this land in the future, obtain a steady stream of mineral resources there, and be able to sell goods to southern Zhejiang and western Fujian?
So he had no choice but to accept it. A small amount of intolerance will mess up a big plan, not to mention that if you can't bear it, you won't feel aggrieved.
This time he returned to Yugan to do two major things: move, and then marry Xu Ying. This house in the city is obviously too small to accommodate so many women in my family.
The White Horse Temple was nice and the place was very spacious, so he asked Han An to come forward and purchase more than 500 acres of land, and together with the previous land, they were gathered in the Phoenix Mountain area. The Baima Inspection Department's fort was originally built here, which could be relied upon for safety.
Han An planned the new residence of Li Mansion on the west side, next to which is the future location of the general staff: the Baima Public Security Joint Defense Office.
There are large bamboo forests on the south and northwest slopes. Li Dan plans to ask the county for permission to open them up and build orderly courtyard groups one after another, which will be rewarded to cadres above the level of the Qingshirt team.
Yugan's city wall is nearly completed, so some experienced people are being sent here. There are now about 200 people on the construction site, which is the main strength of the future construction engineering company in his vision.
On the way back to the city, he had already visited the new house to see it, which was composed of four parts. The first entrance consists of the main entrance, living room and flower hall, then the second entrance centered on the study and the third entrance mainly for bedrooms. The last floor is the fourth entrance where the servants live.
This area is much larger than the small courtyard in Xianrenli! Li Dan went to visit Aunt Song and maid Yueying of the Chen family once, and wanted to take them away this time, but Su Siniang's opinion was that her aunt was about to give birth, so it would be better to wait until she was out of confinement before moving.
He planned to go to Chen Gang's house today to discuss with their father and son the opening of Baima Technical School and affiliated factories. He also wanted to talk to Chen Sanwen about several of his new ideas.
Since he led the team south to Anren, this was the first time he returned to Yugan. Chen Gang and his son were very enthusiastic when they met. "I heard that the adults are back, but I thought you might need to rest, so I didn't bother you."
"More than just rest?" Li Dan roughly explained the situation of going to Xu's house and explaining to Xu Ying, and the father and son laughed.
"Congratulations, sir. With the support of the county king, it will be easier for us to go south in the future." Chen Sanwen understood the key to this matter and congratulated him.
"That's why I came today." As soon as Li Dan said this, the Chen family and his son immediately became serious and listened to him:
"Now that we have entered winter, the weather is cold, the mountains are covered with snow, and the roads are inconvenient. Generally speaking, whether in the south or the north, it is rare to mobilize troops during this season, and even the bandits are not willing to shrink back and attack the city.
The war in Fuzhou was basically over. After the troops from Jinghu South and North Road entered Ji'an, Yuanzhou, and Ruizhou, and the Fujian Minnan Army entered Jianchang, Yang He's life became increasingly difficult.
Now that Shi Shuai surrounded him between Luo and Huai Mountains, it was already difficult to bring him back to life. At present, the focus of suppressing bandits and quelling chaos has shifted to Guangxin Mansion.
Before I came back, I went to see Mr. Zhao. He said that the army was preparing to move part of the main force southward to recapture Luxi, which was still occupied by Yang He's remaining troops, and to assemble towards Yingtan in the winter.
Two thousand officers and soldiers from Poyang also went to Dexing and Wannian respectively to strengthen the defense there. The officers and soldiers from western Zhejiang have now surrounded Yushan.
In addition, the troops in northern Fujian have already occupied Fenshui Pass and Cenyang Pass respectively. After the snow in the mountains clears up in spring, they can advance to Qianshan and Yongfeng.
Therefore, our Raozhou regiment training team is likely to start cooperating with the government and army in conducting exploratory attacks after the Lantern Festival. Prior to this, we had two months to make adequate preparations. "
The "adequate preparations" Li Dan refers to include: expanding steel production and improving quality, modifying and building new carriages, and improving weapons production and processing capabilities.
When he went to the Xu family, he proposed a wedding to the Xu brothers and also proposed the concept of a "third union."
The first consortium is a joint-stock commercial group, the second consortium is an association agricultural group, and the third consortium is a capital partnership industrial group.
Why not establish a joint-stock system? Because the concept of shares is still a bit advanced, it would be better to say that everyone in partnership can understand it faster.
This third consortium will be composed of three parts: mining, smelting, and manufacturing. Sun She will be the general manager of mining, Tie Xiaoan will be the general manager of smelting, and Li Dan will hand over manufacturing to Chen Gang.
When Chen Gang heard that such a big lump was going to be handed over to him, he was so excited that he almost knelt down.
But Li Dan told him that this task was actually very heavy. At this stage, it included vehicles, glass, agricultural tools, and military industry. Chen Shuangji was in charge of the vehicles, and he would temporarily withdraw Song Qian to take charge of the military industry;
The glass was handed over to Zhou Guisheng, a man who came from Xing'an. He is now addicted to tinkering with this thing, and even started to use blow molding to make small batches of vessels;
As for the farm tools, Li Dan looked at Chen Dayong with a smile: "Brother, are you interested in taking on the responsibility first?"
Chen Dayong blushed. He usually didn't talk much. Hearing that he might have to lead one or two hundred workers to work, he hurriedly said: "I'm not good at taking care of people. If Sanlang can't find other people, it's okay to take care of it for a while. Time It won’t work if it grows too long.”
"Okay, I promise you!" Li Dan was very happy. He just needed to find more suitable people.
Then everyone talked about the new carriage factory in Yangbu, and Li Dan hoped that Chen Gang would take over as soon as possible. "Yugan is the number one vehicle factory." Li Dan said:
"There is obviously not enough space here. I am going to talk to the county magistrate about building an outer city in the southwest corner and moving the garrison station, the school field and the metropolitan inspection department there. There is a large open space there, and enough space can be reserved for the carriage factory. Big place.
Then the finished products produced by the first factory are mainly supplied to princes, officials and big businessmen, while the finished products produced by the second factory are mainly cars and freight vehicles needed by moderately wealthy and well-off families. "
"Will our car still be sold to the prince?" Chen Gang and his son were surprised.
Chen Sanwen, who knew the inside story, smiled and said to his father and brother: "Do you still remember the two cars you asked your brothers to modify last time?"
"Remember." Chen Shuangji nodded: "There are iron plates embedded in it. Didn't you say it was for a noble person? The other one is Mr. Zhao's car?"
"The one that my brother finished the day before yesterday is Master Zhao's car. Of the two cars before, one was given to the Crown Prince of Fengning County, and the other one is already serving the Queen Mother in the palace!"
After Chen Sanwen finished speaking, two breaths later, Chen Gang's body softened and he collapsed to the ground. The brothers hurriedly held him up, pinched him, and patted him on the back, finally allowing Chen Gang to recover.
"Oh my God, the carriage made by my Chen family is actually used as tribute to serve the Queen Mother! Oh my God, my ancestors have accumulated good deeds!" He burst into tears. Chen Dayong hurriedly called two guys in, and together with Chen Shuangji, he carried his father back to his room to rest.
"If the first factory is so important, then my father will definitely keep an eye on it personally." Chen Dayong said.
"The construction of the first phase of Huanghuangbu smelting plant and iron factory is coming to an end, and the construction of the second vehicle factory is about to begin. The person in charge there needs to be determined quickly. Otherwise, how about letting the second brother take charge there?" Chen Sanwen proposal.
Li Dan looked at Chen Dayong and saw that he had no objection and said, "That's it! Please tell the eldest brother to tell the second brother and help him prepare to go to Yangbu to receive the factory land."
"Okay, I'll go talk to him!"
After Dayong left, Chen Sanwen said with a smile: "You have arranged the whole family, so what should I do?"
“You are responsible for two things,” Li Dan said: “The first is to build an industrial technical school and an industrial design institute, recruit some apprentices to learn drafting, drawing and making models, and then let them enter the design institute to help you do things.
Otherwise, you will be too busy and exhausted to do so much work by yourself! Another step is to build a precision and standard parts production factory in Whitehorse to produce glass-related precision instruments such as telescopes, microscopes, magnifying glasses, and reading glasses, as well as meters. "
"What is an instrument?" Chen Sanwen didn't understand.
“It’s something like a compass, ruler, and scale that can be used to check, calculate, weigh, and measure height, depth, temperature, humidity, weight, orientation, etc.
Oh, there are also glass measuring cups, test tubes, heating cups, alcohol lamps, glass tubes and other experimental tools.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand it now. Remember, these things are tools that we must use when investigating objects. With them, we can make things accurately. "
Chen Sanwen heard that some people understood and some didn't understand. But once he understood it, he admired Li Dan for thinking of such details, such as rulers and scales, which were often used in design and manufacturing. He could probably understand Li Dan's intention.
"Don't worry, sir, leave it to me, and I will do my best. In short, I will do my best to make your ideas come true as you wish!"
Li Dan chuckled, punched him and said, "You guys, you also imitate what they call 'adult'. How much older can I be than you? In terms of age, you are the elder brother!"
"The etiquette cannot be discarded. Besides, this is the rule of the court. Now that you have an official position and a honorary title, how can I continue to call you 'Sanlang'?" After hearing this, Li Dan shook his head helplessly and let him go!
