The Ming Dynasty started with saving the eldest grandson

Chapter 366 Law

Mai Rongchang visited Xu Chailao very solemnly. No one knew what they talked about specifically, but they only knew that they had a very pleasant conversation.

From then on, Xu Chailao became Mai Rongchang's guest of honor.

After that, Haijin City began to undergo a series of changes.

The Governor's Office was moved elsewhere, leaving only an office called the Comprehensive Management Office to provide service management for the market.

This made the businessmen feel as if a heavy burden had been lifted off their shoulders and they felt much more relaxed.

Being in the same place as the Governor's Office, they felt a huge amount of pressure and did not dare to shout too loudly.

Many special methods are not dared to be used.

For example, get a few flashy girls to stand at the door to solicit customers.

Who knows if this will make some big boss unhappy and bring them to justice.

Now that the Governor's Office has moved away, there are fewer worries.

Just because of this change, the market has become more prosperous by three points.

This also made Mai Rongchang completely convinced. Indeed, the experience of failure is also experience.

After that, he was more polite to Xu Chailao.

Soon, many trash cans appeared on both sides of the roads in Haijin City.

There are many more signposts at the intersections, and some even have traffic arrows painted on the ground.

Do not litter, spit, etc., and try to walk on the right side of the road.

Cars and horses walk in the middle, and pedestrians walk on both sides.

There are also many more police officers on the streets to supervise the enforcement of the new regulations.

Those who violated the rules were not given severe punishment, but were simply hit on the back with a bamboo ruler as a punishment.

Pay a fine to avoid the fight? Sorry, there is no such option.

The reason is simple: to prevent police officers from engaging in corruption or sting operations.

Especially in the market, police patrols were arranged to maintain order.

When a dispute is discovered, it should be dealt with immediately. If it cannot be handled on the spot, it should be handed over to the relevant government agency for handling.

At first, everyone felt annoyed and thought the government was too involved.

However, they soon discovered the benefits of doing so, and as the government authorities intentionally guided public opinion, the voices of complaints became less frequent.

Gradually, everyone got used to this new order.

Those who do not follow the rules will be regarded as outcasts and will be looked down upon by everyone.

Of course, the changes are not just superficial. The core is the transformation within the government.

People found that they were more efficient in going to the government office to get things done.

In the past, when I went to get things done, either no one was there or there were various delays.

Or you need to go to many departments, each department needs different materials, which need to be collected separately.

Highlight a cumbersome trouble.

Now many commonly used functional departments are placed in the same office.

During the shift, there must be someone on duty at each window.

The procedures that originally took ten days or half a month to complete now only take one or two days.

If someone familiar with the process goes there, it can be completed in half a day.

Not only the administrative offices, but also the judicial system has undergone tremendous changes.

There is an additional office for the judge to classify various cases.

Serious cases will be tried through legal procedures.

If the matter is not serious, it will be handed over to the mediator for mediation.

All mediators are respected people in the community, and some are people who understand the law, such as lawyers.

If mediation fails, you can insist on taking legal action.

In this way, judicial efficiency has been qualitatively improved, greatly facilitating the people.

However, the changes in judicial procedures in Canghai Province unexpectedly aroused opposition from the court.

Among them, the strongest opposition came from the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice.

Their reasons are very sufficient. Who can guarantee that those people can be fair and just when dividing the cases?
What if someone turns a serious case into an ordinary one and forces the victim to go through mediation?
When all the officials thought that Chen Jingke would argue, they did not expect that he would simply "surrender".

What you said is correct. Given the crudeness of the current laws, this kind of situation is bound to occur.

But you tell me, has the emergence of the mediation procedure improved efficiency and brought convenience to the people?

If that is the case, then as the legislative body and the highest judicial body, you should find ways to make adjustments to adapt to more advanced systems.

Rather than being conservative and denying innovation.

Then he took the opportunity to propose legal reforms and subdivide the existing Ming Dynasty laws.

Depending on their nature, they are divided into criminal cases and public security cases.

It also stipulates which cases are public prosecution cases and which are private prosecution cases.

The mediation procedure is not applicable to public prosecution cases and criminal cases.

Private prosecution cases and public security cases can be mediated depending on the circumstances.

At the same time, Chen Jingke also proposed the concept of civil law.

"The Ming Dynasty is about to enter a new era. It is foreseeable that as communication becomes more frequent, disputes between people will also increase."

"The law must also step forward and come up with a set of regulations in advance to set certain standards for interactions between people."

"For example, property law, inheritance law, how to regulate gifts, wills, etc."

"For example, contract law, how to formulate contracts in a standardized manner and ensure that the contracts are valid."

Seeing Zhu Biao and others looking puzzled, Chen Jingke thought for a moment and explained:
“For example, if my son gave an item from our home to someone else, is this gift valid?”

Li Shanchang said as a matter of course: "Of course it is invalid. It is not his turn to make the decision in this family."

If it's not valuable, just give it away. It's normal among friends and you shouldn't be too fussy about it.

If it is a valuable item, it must be recovered. Even if it is not recovered, the perpetrator must be severely punished.

Others have the same opinion.

Chen Jingke asked again: "So, what if he sells these items and spends all the money he gets?"

"And the thing he sells happens to be your favorite, what should I do?"

Everyone fell silent; the matter had indeed become complicated.

Moreover, the situation Chen Jingke described is widespread.

This situation is even more serious when there is a prodigal son in the family.

Chen Jingke paused for a moment and continued:

"Then let me ask another question. After a woman marries into her husband's family, before the two parties divorce, does she have the right to dispose of the property?"

Qiu Guangan said: "After marriage, one should obey the husband; after the husband dies, one should obey the son."

Chen Jingke asked casually: "What if there are no children?"

Everyone fell silent again. This situation is still very common and the law does not make clear provisions.

Li Shanchang thought for a moment and said, "If she remarries, the land will belong to the clan. If she does not remarry, the land will belong to the woman."

"If a woman adopts a child, the inheritance shall belong to the adopted child."

Others also nodded, this was indeed a solution that everyone could accept.

Chen Jingke did not comment, but just spread his hands and said:
"See, that's what the law is about. It provides a way to deal with it, whether it's good or bad."

"It's just a question about property rights and inheritance rights, and there are so many gaps."

"Everyone understands the importance of the contract even without me saying it."

"The Ming Dynasty laws hardly provide much regulation in this regard..."

"As commercial activities become more frequent, contract fraud will inevitably become a common occurrence."

"When the spirit of the contract is broken, you can imagine how serious the consequences will be."

That would inevitably lead to a major collapse of the entire moral system. When people thought of this consequence, they couldn't help but feel a chill in their hearts.

Chen Jingke finally added: "The current Ming Dynasty law is too crude. Many problems are not non-existent, but are ignored."

"It is imperative to improve the law, and it is best to formulate the law before problems break out."

"Rather than waiting until the problem breaks out and then trying to deal with it at the last minute."

"Moreover, perfecting the law can also suppress clans and gentry."

"These problems ignored by the law gave clans and local gentry room to thrive." "The more detailed the law, the smaller the space for clans and gentry to survive."

Everyone was completely convinced. Chen Bandu was indeed worthy of his name. His vision was always so long-term.

Then, the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice suddenly realized that something was wrong.

Aren't we against the mediation system?

How did it become that we are asked to re-enact the Ming Dynasty laws?
It is also necessary to split the unified Ming Dynasty Code into criminal law, public security law and civil law, and improve the three laws.

When they think about the difficulty of this job, they feel overwhelmed.

At this moment, they felt a little regretful in their hearts. Why did they do this?

Isn't it better to pretend you didn't see anything?

On the contrary, many people with great ambitions became excited.

Revising the Ming Dynasty Code will go down in history.

Good, good, this opportunity finally fell upon us.

When the news of the revision of the Ming Dynasty Law spread, everyone's reaction was unexpectedly calm.

There is even a feeling that "it is finally the turn of the Ming Dynasty Law."

It can only be said that people in the Ming Dynasty have become accustomed to change and have accepted the fact of change.

And everyone finally understood why Zhu Biao gave himself the reign title "Jianzhang".

This is to use the reign title to tell the world that his goal is to establish completely new rules and regulations.

In order to make this reign title worthy of its name, changes may occur throughout his emperorship.

But now, facing the changes, officials are not so panicked.

Why?

The cabinet.

In the past, when the emperor held absolute power, everyone was worried that the same situation as Zhu Yuanzhang would occur again.

All the country's policies were thought up by Zhu himself.

There is no room for negotiation at all, it must be implemented regardless of whether it is good or bad.

Later, Chen Jingke took over the reform. Although he did not make any major mistakes, people still did not dare to fully trust him.

This has nothing to do with anything else, it's purely based on rational considerations.

Everyone makes mistakes, and Chen Jingke is no exception.

Once he makes a mistake, the consequences will be very serious, and Temasek is the best proof of this.

Fortunately, Temasek only made a mistake in hiring, not an institutional problem.

Otherwise the ministers would be even more frightened.

Now that we have a cabinet, all reforms must be reviewed by at least seven senior ministers.

Being able to convince seven of them means that this change will at least not be too bad.

As I said, compared to individuals, people are more willing to believe in the system.

Upon learning that the imperial court was going to revise the Ming Code, all kinds of legal talents flocked to the court, almost breaking down the doors of the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple.

The purpose is to get involved.

Many local judicial officials have also filed petitions requesting that the laws be amended.

This is the result of the establishment of the Criminal Law Department several years ago, which has trained a large number of judicial talents for the Ming Dynasty.
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After the plan to revise the Ming Dynasty Law was passed, Chen Jingke no longer interfered with the matter.

He doesn't understand this stuff, and getting involved will only hinder us.

In comparison, he was more concerned about the situation in Canghai Province.

With the lessons learned from Temasek, he has never stopped paying attention to Canghai Province.

I also have a general understanding of the situation there.

Mai Rongchang was unwilling to employ Xu Chai Lao. He naturally understood the reason, but he had no better solution.

Forcing Mai Rongchang to use Xu Chai Lao will only have the opposite effect.

Seeing that he had thought it through and took the initiative to ask Xu Chai Lao to come out of retirement, Chen Jingke finally put his worries aside.

A special administrative region cannot be built by simply giving a few policies and some people; it requires a complete system.

In the previous life, this system was developed after dozens or even hundreds of years of exploration.

In the Ming Dynasty, special economic zones were a first and no one knew how to do them.

The experience of failure is also experience. Having a reference will give you more ideas when doing things.

And the facts have proved that letting Xu Chailao go was the right decision.

Seeing that everything was on track, Chen Jingke also breathed a sigh of relief.

He put more energy into the establishment of the newspaper.

Xie Jin was not a nerd, on the contrary he had strong administrative skills.

After taking office, he built the newspaper's framework at the fastest speed.

As for printing newspapers, there is no rush now. We have to wait until the typeface is ready.

However, Xie Jin had already roughly prepared the manuscript for the first issue, and even finished the typesetting.

Once the font is ready, you can start printing.

Then we need to build a transportation system.

In fact, the idea of ​​establishing a separate transportation system for the weekly newspaper was indeed opposed by the ministers.

At first, it couldn’t even get past the cabinet.

It was not until Chen Jingke took out the business of undertaking the shipping of private letters and small goods that he convinced the cabinet members.

Since the cabinet has approved it, the opinions of the officials can actually be ignored.

After receiving the imperial edict, Xie Jin made an ambitious plan:

"In the first phase, within one month, all the major water transport towns that the Grand Canal can connect to will have outlets established."

“In the second phase, within three months, we will open outlets in every provincial capital in provinces with convenient transportation.”

“The provincial governments in remote provinces ensure that outlets are opened.”

“In the third phase, within six months, outlets will be opened in all counties in provinces with convenient transportation.”

"Remote provinces will open outlets down to the prefecture level."

“In the fourth phase, one year later, outlets will be opened in every county across the country.”

"As for the township level... it's too difficult. We'll talk about it when the time comes."

Chen Jingke also supported this plan and agreed with it very much.

In this era, it is very difficult to establish a transportation system connecting all prefectures and counties.

If we do it at the township level, it would be too ambitious and may end up dragging down the entire transportation system.

Of course, the initial investment can only be provided by the court.

After consultation, the Ministry of Revenue gave a deadline.

Half a year later, Daming Weekly will be responsible for its own profits and losses, and the Ministry of Revenue will no longer pay a penny.

This time was given out of consideration for Chen Jingke's sake.

According to their original intention, they would stop caring after the first phase of construction was completed.

Just when Xie Jin was busy building the transportation system, King Zhu Zhen of Chu sent a huge gift to the emperor without any warning.

There are countless rare treasures of all kinds.

Also sent over was a letter from home.

He greeted the retired emperor, Empress Ma, Zhu Biao, Zhu Xiongying, and even greeted Chen Bandu.

It can be said that his attitude was extremely humble.

It was not until the end of the letter that it was stated that the State of Chu supported the court's reforms and was ready to directly adopt the new policies.

It just needs someone to take the helm.

Xu Chai Lao is originally from Luzon and has some experience. Could he come over and help?

Zhu Biao handed the letter to Chen Jingke.

Chen Jingke naturally would not stop him and said, "Since he wants to go, let him go after he finishes writing down his experience."

The matter was decided and Chen Jingke no longer asked any questions.

Just at this time, good news came from the academy that the research on clocks had made significant progress.

(End of this chapter)