Tibet.

Chapter 1445 Kill one to serve as a warning to others
On the ninth day of the first lunar month, the Right Prime Minister Wei Jiansu was reviewing documents in his court room. Since the Empress did not participate in politics, Wei Jiansu was truly second only to the Emperor in the Tang Dynasty. According to the classification of memorials in the White Tiger Hall, all Class B memorials were reviewed by him. He was busy with state affairs and was actually much more tired than Emperor Li Ye, but Wei Jiansu also enjoyed the power to handle state affairs.

At this time, a staff member reported at the door of the official room, "Prime Minister, the Internal Guard General Liu sent someone to deliver a silver letter!"

Letters from the Internal Guard do not pass through the White Tiger Hall, but are sent directly to the required departments and are placed in different mailboxes according to their levels.

The silver tube letter is a special communication method of the Internal Security Bureau. It evolved from the pigeon letter and represents top secrets.

Wei Jiansu nodded, "Show it up!"

An internal security soldier came in, bowed, and presented a silver letter tube. The tea boy handed it to Wei Jiansu, and the messenger bowed and left.

The seal of the silver tube is clamped with a silver ring, which can be torn off, but it cannot be repaired once torn off. This is a safety measure to ensure that the letter will not be dismantled.

Wei Jiansu tore off the silver ring, opened the seal, and poured out a roll of letters. He slowly unfolded it and read it. He was really shocked. Zhang Hao actually hid fifty slaves in Longzhou Manor. He had been caught by the internal guards and the evidence was solid.

No wonder the inner guards used silver cylinders. This was the first major case of the abolition order.

Wei Jiansu pondered for a moment and stood up and said, "Pack up for me, I want to see the emperor!"

Soon, Wei Jiansu met the emperor Li Ye, who said slowly, "Liu Wutong has reported to me this morning. What does the prime minister think of this case?"

Wei Jiansu said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, I think there is something fishy going on here."

"What's weird?"

"Your Majesty, fifty slaves are not five hundred or five thousand. What benefits can fifty slaves bring? Can they compare with the decades of hard work that Minister Zhang has put into the officialdom? Can they compare with the face of several generations? Prime Minister Zhang has always been cautious. He would not fail to understand this most basic common sense. Moreover, the slaves in his mansion have been transferred to civilians, which means that he does not disagree with your Majesty's abolition of slavery."

"Do you suspect that Zhang Hao also doesn't know?"

"Exactly!"

Li Ye shook his head and said, "It doesn't matter whether Zhang Hao knew about this or not. What's important is that I need to kill one to warn the rest, and he just happened to run into it."

"His Majesty."

Wei Jiansu wanted to plead again, but Li Ye waved his hand to interrupt him.

"Prime Minister Wei, you don't see the crux of the matter. Why is it him, not someone else? This is the most important thing. Maybe he didn't teach his son well, maybe he indulged his servants, or maybe he was just hoping for the best. Prime Minister Wei, I will never wrongly accuse the innocent!"

Wei Jiansu said helplessly: "Your Majesty, can you let me talk to him so that he can be mentally prepared? Maybe he doesn't know yet."

"Okay, I'll give him one day. If he finds that he is wronged, he can appeal freely!"

Wei Jiansu bowed and left in a hurry.

Wei Jiansu then came to Danfeng Restaurant. If it was not meal time, he could also drink tea here.

After waiting for a while, Zhang Hao hurried to the Bie Xue Courtyard of Danfeng Restaurant. Entering the warm room, Zhang Hao took off his cotton robe and said with a smile, "Why did the Prime Minister think of inviting me to have tea?"

Wei Jiansu said calmly: "I'm afraid we won't have many opportunities to drink tea here in the future."

Zhang Hao was stunned. "Where did you get this from?"

Wei Jiansu waved his hand, "Sit down first!"

Zhang Hao felt a little uneasy. He sat down and asked, "What happened?"

Wei Jiansu handed him the silver letter tube and said, "This was sent to me by General Liu of the Internal Guards this morning. Take a look!"

Zhang Hao took the silver tube, took out the letter and read it carefully. He was shocked as if struck by a bolt from the blue. After a while, he shook his head and said, "No! Something must have gone wrong. I have asked my son to deal with all of them. All fifty slaves have recovered. How could they still be here? The inner guards must have made a mistake."

Wei Jiansu said calmly, "Since the inner guards sent me the silver tube letter, it means they have obtained the evidence. Minister Zhang, the problem may be with your son." Zhang Hao's body was a little shaky, and he quickly supported his head with his hands. After a long time, he whispered, "Does the emperor know?"

Wei Jiansu nodded, "The emperor knows. I explained to him that you can't sacrifice your reputation and eunuch career for a few dozen slaves, but he only said one sentence, leaving me speechless. Your Majesty, why not someone else?"

Zhang Hao sighed deeply: "The emperor is right. Why is it me and not others? Because others have handled it well, why didn't I? Because I have a stupid son, and I believed him. I have to pay a heavy price for my choice."

"Go back! Be prepared for the worst, but you must also believe that the emperor will make good arrangements for the rest of your life.

"Will my eldest son be implicated?"

Wei Jiansu shook his head. "The emperor has abolished collective punishment. The key is to see under whose name the slave is and who is the beneficiary. If it is under your name and your eldest son does not benefit from it, then your eldest son will be fine!"

All fifty slaves were under Zhang Hao's name. His eldest son Zhang Boyun had been an official in Bashu for a long time and had not benefited from the slaves, which made Zhang Hao feel a little relieved.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for abolishing the punishment by association!"

Zhang Hao got up and left the restaurant.

When Zhang Hao returned home, he saw his second son Zhang Zhongyun kneeling on the ground and apologizing. He had received news that the manor had been sealed by the inner guards, and this news terrified him.

Zhang Hao sighed, "What's the point of you apologizing now? The emperor is already planning to use me to establish his authority, to kill one as a warning to the rest, and you, a fool, have killed me!"

Zhang Zhongyun was filled with remorse and choked up with tears. "My son was so lucky that he thought it was just a passing wind and that he couldn't find us. He deserves to die! Damn it!"

Zhang Zhongyun knelt on the ground and kowtowed, his forehead bleeding. Zhang Hao couldn't bear it and shouted, "Alright, even if you kowtow to pieces, it won't change the result. Now that things have come to this, you go to Longzhou to deal with the matter and quickly release the slaves. At least your father can save his life. The inner guards have filed a case. If you don't deal with it within ten days, it will be a crime of deceiving the emperor. I will be exiled to Lingnan!"

"Child, go right now!"

Zhang Zhongyun hated the housekeeper in his heart, but the housekeeper had disappeared.

Zhang Zhongyun took several servants and rode to Longzhou to deal with the slave issue.

There are two types of slavery. One is those with government records. For this type of slavery, the indenture must be taken to the government to cancel the records. However, after the abolition order was issued, the first slaves to be rectified were those with government records, including official slaves and slaves of other wealthy families. Now, there were no slaves with government records two years ago.
We are now starting to rectify the second type, slaves who are not recorded by the government. This type is more difficult to investigate. For example, if someone is from Hebei and fled to Xiangyang during the Anshi Rebellion, he was taken in by a family in Xiangyang as a servant. The Xiangyang government certainly does not have a household registration record of this person because his household registration is in Hebei. In this case, how can we determine whether he is a slave?

The abolition order clearly targeted this situation. First, the owner had to register with the government, and it was strictly forbidden to hide the household registration. If an outsider was hired to work without registering with the local government, this situation was called hiding the household registration. Once discovered, the owner would be severely fined more than fifty strings of cash.

Even if you come to stay with relatives or friends, you must register, otherwise you will be severely punished if you are found out.

After registration, the government would come to investigate and determine whether the person was a slave. There were two criteria: did you pay the person and did you restrict his/her personal freedom?

Especially now that there is a huge reward for reporting, your neighbors will report you, and the government’s purpose is very clear, to make it more difficult for you to keep slaves.

That afternoon, the Internal Guards handed over the materials and evidence of Zhang Hao's slavery to the Censorate, which launched an impeachment the same day.

On the morning of the next day, Emperor Li Ye issued an edict that since Zhang Hao, the Imperial Court Minister, had violated the abolition order, he would be stripped of all his official positions and titles, demoted to a commoner, and his official residence and guard benefits would be taken back.

The news that Zhang Hao was dismissed from his post and became a commoner exploded like a bomb in the court. Before everyone could react, the Council of State announced at the same time that 17 minor officials of the sixth and seventh ranks were dismissed from their posts for violating the abolition order.

This series of news caused a shock in the officialdom, especially when Zhang Hao reported that it was actually a servant in his house who informed on the matter, and that the servant had already received a huge reward of 500 strings of cash. This made all the officials panic, and everyone felt insecure. They could hide the truth from outsiders, but not from their servants.

Officials in the court asked for leave to go home and deal with slaves, including retired officials and honorary officials. As long as you still want court treatment and an official title, you have to implement the abolition order to the letter. Long queues formed in front of the county government.

In just three days, all officials in Chang'an completed the abolition of slavery. No one would ruin his reputation for a few slaves.

Zhang Hao finally received special arrangements from Li Ye. He was invited to be a professor at the Imperial Academy, and at the same time participated in compiling history and moved into the house provided by the Imperial Academy.

After the inspection of the abolition order was completed in Chang'an, it continued to advance to local government offices. Every prefecture in the Tang Dynasty dispatched an internal security inspection team to continue to strictly investigate the abolition order in local government offices.

(End of this chapter)