People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 443 discusses many issues and local development directions

In the evening after dinner, Zhao Jun summoned officials from Ji County.

The reason why we did not meet with them immediately before was because we needed to understand the situation of these officials.

If there are problems, they must be corrected. If there are no problems and they have done a good job in their position, they can be summoned and praised and given an encouraging speech.

Since the officials of Ji County had no bad record and although their governance methods were mediocre, they completed the tasks assigned to them on time and did nothing out of the ordinary, he did not blame them.

Give them a few words of encouragement and let them go.

The next day, the Ji County Lieutenant and the Imperial City Commander reported the situation.

They have arrested all the people from the two villages involved in the case, including the elderly, the weak, women and children, and are now all locked up in the county jail.

Zhao Jun gave instructions.

The criminals must be severely sentenced, those who deserve death should be sentenced to death, and those who deserve exile should be exiled. Only such severe punishment can serve as a deterrent.

As for the families of the bandits, although they did not participate directly, they also took part in keeping watch, resisting the government, or enjoyed the property looted by the bandits.

It cannot be said that they are guilty of the same crime, but a certain sentence must be imposed.

Basically, according to the verdict, most of the young and strong laborers in the two villages would be either killed or exiled.

In addition, many women had to go to jail, and innocent children and elderly people who did not participate in the crime were raised by orphanages and welfare homes built by the government, which was no different from a village massacre.

But there is nothing we can do about it.

If we don't do this, it won't serve as a deterrent. If other villages follow suit, no merchants will dare to pass through here.

How can the economy develop at that time? Goods from outside cannot be imported, and Jixian’s products cannot be exported. This is obviously very unfair to the rest of the law-abiding people in the county.

So faced with this phenomenon, Zhao Jun could only do this.

On the third day, after handing over the case of the water bandits to the local authorities, Zhao Jun set out again to inspect Wu'an.

The first stop of this trip was to go to Youyan to inspect the current integration situation. As for Hebei, it was just a visit while passing by, and it was impossible to stay for long.

Therefore, you only need to stay in each place for two or three days at most.

As for the nationwide bandit problem caused by the water bandits, Zhao Jun also noted it down in the issues to be resolved. After returning, he would have to think of a solution.

no way.

Bandits are different from criminal gangs.

The evil forces are entrenched in nature, often in densely populated towns, or the landlord class organizes thugs to control tenant farmers.

They have fixed places and incomes, and even own fields, casinos, restaurants, brothels and other entertainment venues. They plunder the people's property through violence, so it is relatively easy to clear them out.

But bandits are different.

They do not have a fixed territory. Many of them move to another place after each shot, and the crime locations are not fixed.

Many of them are found on major traffic routes in the wild. They are elusive and mobile in nature, making it very difficult to eradicate them. Sometimes we don’t even know who did it.

Therefore, compared to the evil forces, these bandits are the most difficult to deal with, and we can only take it one step at a time.

More than ten days later, Zhao Jun's caravan passed Weizhou, Anlijun, Xiangzhou, and entered the territory of Fuyang, Cizhou, only sixty or seventy miles away from Wuan.

After staying in Fuyang for a day and inspecting the local situation, Zhao Jun set out for Wu'an the next day. When passing by Zhaode Town, he stopped to rest temporarily, drank some tea and sat down at a nearby tea stall.

It was late March, the sun was shining, spring flowers were blooming, and Fushan Mountain in the northwest, which was later known as Nanxiangtang Mountain, had towering mountains and dense forests, and was as beautiful as a fairyland.

Although the town is not big, it has many merchants coming and going, and is quite prosperous. The town is not surprised to see large groups of merchants and travelers, and they all warmly welcome them.

After a short break, the three hundred people filled all the empty seats at the surrounding tea stalls. There were even many people who had no seats left, so they could only squat on the roadside with their herbal tea. Occasionally, a carriage passed by and raised a cloud of dust.

Zhao Jun sat in the middle. Wang Anshi saw him writing something on paper with a pencil these days, so he asked curiously, "What is the prefect recording?"

"Ah."

Zhao Jun stopped writing, raised his head and smiled, "Write down all the problems you encounter along the way, and list them one by one. A good memory is not as good as a bad pen."

Then he said to the crowd, "That's right, I've listed quite a few of them. Come and help me analyze them."

"For the first one, there are so many bandits in the country, what do you say we should do?"

He looked around at the crowd.

Yang Gao said: "We should kill one to warn the rest!"

"It's right to use heavy punishment."

Zhao Jun said, "But the problem is that it's very difficult to catch the person. If we hadn't encountered the Jixian incident, do you think ordinary merchants would be able to survive and file a complaint?"

"Forehead"

Yang Gao thought so too. They couldn’t even catch the person, let alone impose any severe punishment.

Su Huan said: "Perhaps we can ask the local government to conduct a secret investigation and take a suspicious attitude towards the villages around the crime. The court can also issue a document requiring all localities to solve such cases to show that the court attaches great importance to the frequent occurrence of banditry."

"This is an idea, but I'm afraid it will lead to wrongful convictions."

Zhao Jun sighed.

"Why?"

Everyone is puzzled.

Zhao Jun said, "Do you know what problem the magistrate of Ji County reported to me a few days ago?"

"what is the problem?"

"In the case in Ji County four years ago, the family of the silk merchant came to the local government and spent money hoping that the local government would solve the case. The local government took the money and arrested people everywhere, beat them up and punished them, causing public outrage. In the end, they couldn't find the person, and they almost found a scapegoat. If it weren't for the inspection by the Imperial Inspector, I'm afraid someone would have confessed under torture and been wrongly accused of being a robber."

"Is there such a thing?"

Everyone was shocked.

"Yes, I have already ordered that the previous officials be held accountable, but holding them accountable is secondary because this can highlight a problem!"

Zhao Jun spread his hands and said, "The government even finds scapegoats for those who are paid to do things. If the court orders them to solve this kind of case and find the criminal, then in order to complete the task, who knows how many innocent people will be implicated."

"Too."

Everyone nodded.

Don't overestimate the integrity of ancient officials.

If they really can't find the criminal, and their superiors force them to look for him, it is unlikely that they will confess under torture.

More likely, they would just find a scapegoat and lock him up, then forge confessions and fingerprints to prove the scapegoat's guilt.

Then the person suddenly "dies of a sudden illness" in prison, leaving no evidence. The "murderer" confesses and then dies of a sudden illness. In this way, both the deceased and the murderer are gone, and the case is closed directly.

"This is where the court is difficult, and it's another problem I listed."

Zhao Jun tapped on the paper and sighed, "With the current backward criminal investigation methods, if we require that murder cases must be solved, it will inevitably lead to countless false and wrongful convictions. If we don't make such a requirement, then the local government will have no motivation to investigate the case. In addition to these difficult-to-solve robbery cases, ordinary murders, roving robberies, and various petty thefts are all big problems, which will pose a great threat to national security."

A nationwide bandit incident or a problem of false charges and wrongful convictions are both difficult issues for the imperial court to deal with.

Wang Anshi pondered, "I think if there are two evils, it is better to choose the lesser one." Zhao Jun became interested and asked, "Oh? What do you mean?"

Wang Anshi said: "Compared to the local government which has no motivation to investigate cases and simply does not look for clues when they cannot find them, resulting in frequent murders, it is better to force them to do it."

Zhao Jun frowned and asked, "What about false and wrongful convictions?"

"Even if there are frequent false cases, it is better than the government not working hard to track down the murderers, which leads to the murderers going unpunished and committing crimes again and again, resulting in frequent murders."

Wang Anshi showed a wry smile on his face.

"Well, I'll decide after I go back to the Constitutional Council and discuss it with the many gentlemen."

Zhao Jun held his forehead, rubbed his temples, and circled a series of questions about wrongful convictions on the paper.

Mr. Luo later said that the more you study law, the more you will lose your humanity.

Isn't it the same for those in power?
In the past, when I saw cases of unjust, false, and wrongful convictions online, I would be outraged and angry at the officials for being so bad that innocent people were imprisoned or killed.

Now that I have reached this position, I realize where the difficulty lies.

In this era of backward criminal investigation technology, encountering a case with no clues is simply a torment for investigators.

If their superiors demand that they solve the murder case again, there will be only two outcomes.

First, the local county lieutenant and yamen runners worked hard on the case and eventually found clues and decisive evidence, bringing the murderer to justice.

What the second result is is self-evident.

However, if there are no mandatory requirements at the lower levels, local authorities will have little motivation to investigate cases, and it is likely that many cases that could have been solved will become unsolved cases.

So this dilemma is clear.

"I don't think you can solve the problem of banditry and false charges. This is a long-standing problem that countless talented people throughout the dynasties have been unable to solve. I don't expect you to solve it either."

Zhao Jun thought for a moment, then turned to another question and said, "Let's talk about the issue of local development. What have you discovered along the way?"

"Forehead"

Several people stared at each other.

Yang Cha asked cautiously, "What discovery did the dean refer to?"

"The Zhiyuan talks about how local development and changes are happening."

Wang Anshi was smart and answered, "Apart from Anlijun's Liyang, which is pretty good and has built many factories, the development of other places is probably not satisfactory. At most, they have built some brick factories."

"Ah."

Zhao Jun nodded and said, "Liyang has also benefited from the canal. Since the canal from Bianliang to Huazhou was opened, the economic and trade exchanges between Hebei and Bianliang have become increasingly frequent. Liyang is just north of the river in Huazhou, and the two counties are across the river from each other. The southernmost end of the Yongji Canal is in Liyang, which is connected to the Beijing-Huazhou Canal. Naturally, many merchants gather here. Local officials don't need to give any guidance. The people will gather here on their own. The rich will open factories, and the poor will become handicraft workers or workers. Business and economy will naturally develop."

"It seems that except for Liyang, other places are still the same as before, and local officials are not actively looking for a way out."

Yang Gao frowned and asked, "What's wrong with these local governments? The imperial court has issued many orders to adapt to local conditions and require all places to work hard to develop commerce. How come there is no official who can do things in the counties along this route?"

"Minister Yang is wrong. I want to say something fair on this point."

Su Huan said dissatisfiedly: "The assistant minister has been in a high position for a long time and has never served in the local area. How can he know the difficulties of local officials? The term of office is three years. One year is to familiarize oneself with the environment of the whole county, and the second year is to implement the policy. The policy is issued for only one year, and the third year is to prepare to leave. When the next official arrives, it is possible that he will overturn the previous policy and make new arrangements. How can the local area develop with this back and forth?"

"That's true, and to be honest, many local officials don't really understand how to develop."

Li Xiaoji also said: "Local officials in the past only needed to judge cases, encourage agriculture and sericulture, and collect taxes in summer and autumn. As for the issues of local development, they were completely clueless."

"I would also like to add that many officials often face resistance at the local level when they want to implement policies. For example, when I was working in Shezhou, I found that local agriculture was not well developed, there were many mountains and dense forests but little land, and it was difficult for the people to be self-sufficient."

Wang Anshi said: "But I noticed that the local tea is very good, and there are also abundant wood, tung oil, paint, minerals, and medicinal materials. I want to adapt to local conditions and convert the fields into tea. But the local people are very resistant, because they don't know what the result will be. What if the tea is grown but not sold, then the remaining food will be gone and they will starve to death."

He sighed and continued, "Moreover, the local transportation is very inconvenient. In the deep mountains and old forests, even if there are local specialties, it is difficult to transport them out. I wanted to encourage everyone to build roads and plant tea after the roads are built, but the people were still unwilling. They thought that building roads would delay farming, and that it was difficult to build roads. Even if the government offered money, few people would respond."

"Yes, these are common problems that local officials cannot lead local development. I don't think we can blame the local officials entirely for their incompetence."

"Indeed."

Zhao Yan and Chen Xiliang also expressed their agreement.

At the beginning, Yang Gao and Yang Cha were the shipping envoy of Huainan and the Tongpan of Suzhou respectively. It seemed that both of them were in the local areas, but that was in the first year of Du Bao.

Later, Zhao Jun discovered a talent and transferred him to the central government not long after. He rarely served in local positions.

On the contrary, Wang Anshi, Su Huan, Li Xiaoji and others were Jinshi in the Kangding and Qingli years. They are still serving as prefects in local areas. They have experienced various new policies and naturally understand the difficulties of local officials.

"Ah."

Zhao Jun nodded and said, "The suggestions you put forward are all very constructive. I will record them and synthesize everyone's considerations to formulate new policies."

He thought of the afterlife.

In later generations, many counties will develop local characteristic industries.

For example, the famous Cao County is the hometown of coffins, Shouguang is the hometown of vegetables, Dongming is the hometown of watermelons, Luochuan is the hometown of apples, Gaoyang is the hometown of textiles, and so on.

The problem with officials nowadays is that their term of office is too short. Even if they have policy directions and ideas, they can easily be delayed because of their term of office.

Secondly, there is a lack of high-quality talents who can adapt to local conditions, and it is not easy to find an economic and industrial chain that suits the local conditions.

Three is also a very important point.

People depend on the land for their livelihood. If many cash crops are grown in areas with developed transportation, it is fine. But if they are grown in deep mountains and forests, people worry about changing rice to mulberry trees or rice to tea. If the sales are not good, then food will be a problem.

The combination of many problems has naturally led to the fact that the development of states and counties in many places is not smooth, and industries are often only formed in some special areas.

For example, Wu'an in Hebei, Pingdingshan County in Henan, which was upgraded from the original Jiangdian Town to a county, and Yangcheng in Shanxi.

Most of these places are coal and iron producing areas. The transport envoys from various routes responded to the call of the imperial court and searched for areas rich in resources such as coal, iron, and lime in their own routes to build steel mills, cement plants, brick and stone factories, etc. They are resource-based industrial cities.

Once the resources are exhausted or mining is suspended due to strategic requirements, it will easily become a deserted city like Ordos in Inner Mongolia and Hegang in Northeast China in later generations.

The Song Dynasty is now in the early stages of industrial development. In the future, not only heavy industry will be developed, but light industry will also be a top priority.

Zhao Jun naturally wants to develop comprehensively and build a country with a full industrial chain.

But it is too unrealistic to ask him to inspect each place one by one and then give guidance to local officials. There are more than a thousand counties in the country, and Zhao Jun will not have to stay in the central government for the rest of his life and will have to run around everywhere.

Therefore, how to give full play to the subjective initiative of officials and let them find ways to solve local problems on their own is a reality that the court needs to consider.

"Okay, this trip is just a stopover in Hebei, and we've gained a lot. We found many problems, so it's worth the trip. We've almost had enough rest, so let's go."

Zhao Jun recorded everything, drank the cold tea in the bowl, stood up and said with a smile: "Now is the time to go to Wu'an to see how it is developing. If it is doing well, we can learn from their advanced experience and promote it to resource-based cities across the country. Let local officials with coal and iron industries go there to learn from them, so that they can develop better."

"Hahahahaha."

Everyone laughed. Wu'an is now the first heavy industrial city in the Song Dynasty to produce steel. It is said that it produces hundreds of thousands of tons of steel annually and its steel products are sold throughout the country. It has long been rich.

Moreover, the local area has not only developed a steel manufacturing industry, but also derived a steel industry chain, including various steel farm tools, kitchen utensils, pipes, building materials, etc.

It can be said that Guangwu'an County has quickly become the first county in Hebei Road, and its annual tax payments are among the highest, which is enough to show the importance of the industry.

Therefore, going to the local area to learn from them and understand the industrial development will also be very beneficial for these future prime ministers.

(End of this chapter)