Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 341 On the Law
Li Heng's answer seemed very gentle to Emperor Chenghui and did not exceed his expectations.

"Jia Lian took over the case. Looking at the files in the Dali Temple, there is nothing wrong with it. How did you know that there was something wrong with this case?"

Li Heng hesitated for a moment before saying seriously, "When the great uncle of the emperor was suing a group of common people, the truth was already obvious. This is the case of the lawsuit, and there may be more cases that did not go to court."

Emperor Chenghui looked up at the roof and said in a vague tone: "How do you plan to deal with this case?"

"Start with Dali Temple Junior Official Wang Ru, and find out the details of the entire case. Dali Temple Master Mao and Junior Official Ge are no longer fit to stay in their positions."

Emperor Chenghui suddenly opened his eyes and sat up straight, staring at Li Heng and asked, "What's the matter with them?"

Li Heng said: "Inaction! I heard Jia Lian say that the purpose of national laws is to protect the fundamental interests of vulnerable groups. As a law enforcer, you ignore the damage to the interests of the grassroots people and do not speak out! Dereliction of duty!"

"Did Jia Lian say that? It seems that you have a good relationship." Emperor Chenghui keenly grasped the loophole in Li Heng's words.

"When I was in the Honglu Temple, I discussed related topics with Jia Lian." Li Heng reacted quickly and did not tacitly acknowledge the so-called good relationship.

"Well, Jia Lian does have some unique ideas. If you think about it carefully, I always feel that what he says is right."

Li Heng did not make any statement and waited quietly. Emperor Chenghui looked at him and waved his hand weakly: "Go see your mother. This matter must be done quickly! Keep it secret!"

Li Heng did not leave in a hurry, but asked in a low voice: "How should Wang Jin be dealt with? The Dali Temple Shaoqing is not an insignificant official. If he is dealt with with a random excuse, the cabinet will probably explode."

"Let me think about it carefully. You go see my mother first." Emperor Chenghui couldn't think of a win-win solution for a while. He couldn't expose the royal scandal, nor could he let those people from the Dali Temple go.

Back at the temporary office, the layout has been completed. It still looks very simple, and the new subordinates are in good spirits.

Qin Benzhong immediately invited everyone to come and greet Jia Lian upon learning that he had returned. Following this boss meant a bright future, and age and other things were not important.

Jia Lian greeted everyone with a friendly face and then gave instructions: "The cabinet has set up three working groups for related matters. You will work in pairs and follow the groups during work. Remember, write down what you see and submit a report every five days. No one is allowed to express their opinions. During the work period, no invitations will be accepted. Internal staff dinners can be reimbursed. If you cannot meet the above requirements, you can request to withdraw in advance and I can make other arrangements."

The officials cherish this opportunity very much. If nothing goes wrong and the three major policies are implemented smoothly, they can be promoted as supervisory personnel.

Those who can pass the imperial examination have sufficient IQ, and they also know that they are able to have such an opportunity simply by sheer luck.

Many fellow Jinshi scholars have been stuck at the seventh rank for their entire lives, and can only be promoted to the next level when they retire.

"We have no objection." Led by Qin Benzhong, everyone, who had already discussed it, answered in unison.

"That's good. Now everyone pack up and report to the respective working groups." Jia Lian gave the order and everyone left in unison.

Jia Lian, who stayed in the office, suddenly felt exhausted and leaned back in his chair in a daze.

He was not angry about someone dropping a landmine on him, but he was angry because he did not have the courage to demand in front of the emperor that the case concerning the emperor's uncle be handled according to the law.

Not only that, at the beginning Prime Minister Jia Lian was thinking about covering up the scandal of the royal family.

The case was not complicated. During the confiscation of Li's property, a large amount of land was seized. In theory, the land belonged to the government, and Emperor Chenghui directly awarded 500 hectares of land to his father-in-law.

The reality is that after receiving the rewarded land, the king's uncle and his family were not satisfied. After taking a fancy to some surrounding lands, they directly accused the owner of the land of having dealings with rebels.

Isn't this nonsense? The land on both sides are adjacent to each other. How could there be no contact after so many years?
Intimidation tactics don't work. These days, land is lifeline and no one will give it up easily.

When the king's uncle saw that it was not working, he asked Shuntian Prefecture to send officials to arrest people. After dozens of landlords were arrested, they forced their families to sign a contract to sell their land.

Dozens of families were dissatisfied and went to the Shuntian Prefecture to file a lawsuit. The Shuntian Prefecture drove them away, and these families then went to the Dali Temple.

The Dali Temple directly confiscated the land according to the connection with the traitor and closed the case. The 200 hectares of land that were confiscated were given to the emperor's uncle's family at a free price.

Let's put it this way, the case was handled extremely crudely, which completely subverted Jia Lian's latent legal consciousness that belongs to modern people.

The case was closed three days ago. Shuntian Prefecture released the arrested person and threatened him not to continue to appeal.

Perhaps Ge Shaoqing still had some conscience. He was too timid to speak out. Looking at the aggressive Jia Lian, he threw the mine directly at him.

Jia Lian is the kind of person who can ignore what he didn't see, but can't ignore what he saw. How should I put it? This is the bottom line of being a human being.

When a person loses the bottom line of being a human being, he can no longer be called a human being.

Jia Lian usually mocks himself in private for not being a human being, but that is just self-mockery. If you don't behave like a human being in this world, then you have to be a beast?

Jia Lian decided to work hard to forget the most cowardly moment in his life since he traveled through time, and not to mention any nonsense like he was doing it for the good of those victims, so that they would not be silenced by the king's uncle's family.

I am a wimp, I am a wimp! To put it bluntly, my progress meter of being assimilated into this society is almost full.

Jia Lian was very worried that one day he would evolve to a stage where he would not treat people as human beings. On this day, Jia Lian handled a lot of official business, and finally returned to the temporary office. He also met with a group of subordinates and asked them about their first day of work.

In the past, Jia Lian would never have been so diligent.

The special inspectors who followed the group reported on the day's work, strictly following Jia Lian's requirements, only bringing their eyes but not their mouths, and writing down some important matters with pens.

Jia Lian expressed his satisfaction with everyone's first day of work and hoped that they would continue to work hard and live up to the great opportunity. Then, he announced the end of get off work.

Jia Lian, who had some free time, felt irritated and couldn't help but think of the case of the emperor's uncle.

Just when Jia Lian decided to get off work and walked out the door, he saw Emperor Chenghui, who was dressed in casual clothes, standing at the door looking around with an unexpectedly relaxed expression.

Seeing this, Jia Lian hurried forward to greet him. Emperor Chenghui raised his hand to interrupt his politeness: "No need to be polite. I... I just came to take a look. This place is a bit simple."

"The Inspectorate has no vacant space, so we have to rent a place. We are a temporary inspection team, so it doesn't need to be too good, as long as it works. Besides, the budget is limited."

After Jia Lian explained carefully, Emperor Chenghui didn't seem to listen seriously and walked in. Jia Lian hurried to catch up, and Emperor Chenghui ran around everywhere after entering, even the toilet was not spared.

Jia Lian didn't understand, so he quickly looked at Qiu Shian who was following behind him, pretending to be an old servant.

The old eunuch had no expression on his face and followed Emperor Chenghui closely.

"A lot of real estate was confiscated in the Li treason case. Have they not had time to dispose of it yet?" Emperor Chenghui asked suddenly. Qiu Shian answered instantly like a computer: "Xia Shouzhong is in charge. I don't know."

The courtyard was empty after get off work, and there were no outsiders. Emperor Chenghui showed a relaxed expression, walked to the middle of the courtyard with his hands behind his back, and looked up at the sky: "White clouds and gray dogs!"

Jia Lian really didn't understand what Emperor Chenghui meant. Was it the literal meaning of "Lamentable"? Or was it the emotion caused by Liu Shi of Hedong? Or was it both?

(Let me tell you about the allusion of white clouds and gray dogs, which comes from Du Fu's poem "Lamentable" written to express his dissatisfaction with his friend.)
Emperor Chenghui seemed to be in a strange state, and continued to talk to himself: "I have been thinking about a question, what is the meaning of the existence of national laws?"

Jia Lian heard it clearly, but he had no intention of taking over the conversation. Emperor Chenghui looked back at Jia Lian and asked again: "Why, you don't want to answer?"

It is "don't want to" rather than "don't know". This shows that Emperor Chenghui believes that Jia Lian has the answer in his heart.

"Yes, I don't want to answer." Jia Lian was very direct and did not hide his attitude at all.

Emperor Chenghui nodded, approving Jia Lian's decision not to answer, and changed the question: "If the law is not enforced, it is violated from above. Where does it come from?"

This time Jia Lian had no choice but to answer, and answered honestly: "The Biography of Shang Yang!"

"Oh, Qin strengthened the country by carrying out reforms and then unified the country. Why did the kings later abandon it?" Emperor Chenghui had another new question, or rather a connected question.

"The Warring States period was a chaotic time, so it was natural to use Legalism to strengthen the country. Later kings did not stop using Legalism, but improved it, keeping what was beneficial to the king and changing what was not. I dare not deceive you, but I think that what later kings did was Confucianism in appearance, Legalism in bones, and morality in flesh and blood. The law is a person's moral bottom line, and the current Confucianism is taking the path of fooling the people. Whether it is Confucianism or Legalism, the purpose is essentially the same, both are for stability, one is strict legal constraints, the other is gentle deception, the means are different."

After hearing this, Emperor Chenghui suddenly took two steps back. After looking Jia Lian up and down, he couldn't help laughing and said, "Oh, do you think Confucianism is fooling the world?"

Jia Lian shook his head: "Yes, and no. The world is full of contradictions, with yin and yang, and the two sides of the contradiction are constantly changing. At this stage, agriculture is the foundation of the country, so the people must be restricted to the land, otherwise no one will farm and everyone will starve to death. In some parts of the southeast, huge profits have been made from foreign trade through the development of industry and commerce, and there will definitely be places that switch to planting cotton and mulberry. The local people either make a living from silkworms and mulberry trees, or go to the city to work as weavers. Industry and commerce have actually become the dominant force in local finances and livelihoods. The contradiction between tenants and landlords has become a contradiction between workers and workshop owners. The change in contradictions is essentially due to changes in production relations. In my opinion, this change is a reflection of the progress of productivity. Productivity can be understood as how much wealth is created by labor."

Emperor Chenghui was a little confused. Wasn't this the issue we were discussing? What was going on? He seemed to think that what he said made some sense.

Fortunately, Jia Lian continued, "No matter how things change, from a country's perspective, stability is the most important thing. Only when things are stable can there be opportunities for development. In troubled times, everyone is in danger and has no intention of developing. They only think about how to save their lives. Therefore, it is not important whether Confucianism is fooling the people. What is important is how to ensure stability and how to ensure stability at the lowest cost. Since the Qin Dynasty, the way of governing the country in all dynasties for two thousand years has essentially been rule by man. The way of governing the country in all countries in the world today is essentially rule by man. The difference lies in the different roles played by law in the process of governing the country."

Emperor Chenghui felt that he understood, but also seemed not to understand.

Forget it, let’s get the topic back on track.

"I have been thinking about the case of the prince's uncle, but I can't figure it out. Tell me the truth, what do you really think?"

Jia Lian blinked his eyes, looked straight at Emperor Chenghui, and said in a steady tone: "Your Majesty, don't you have an answer?"

Emperor Chenghui nodded and said to himself: "When the law is not enforced, it is the upper class that violates it. Later generations extended it to mean that the prince who breaks the law is guilty of the same crime as the common people. I will tell you the truth. Taizu of this dynasty left a book called "Notes". It says that the most ideal state of governing a country is the rule of law, but the rule of law is contrary to human nature, which is very painful."

Qiu Shian got a coffee table and chairs from somewhere and placed them in the yard, and also put tea on the table. Emperor Chenghui sat down and picked up the teacup to take a sip: "In the case of the emperor's uncle, Li Heng suggested that he be confined to his home for three years. I always feel uncomfortable about this." As he spoke, Emperor Chenghui motioned to Jia Lian to sit opposite him and pushed a cup of tea over to him.

"Your Majesty, don't worry. Taizu said that this is an ideal state. This country is made up of people, and every person has seven emotions and six desires. The enforcement of the law relies on people, not machines without emotions. The law itself is not absolutely fair, so there is the Spring and Autumn Jue Yu. The law can be ruthless, but the people who enforce the law cannot be ruthless. I think that the crime in the case of the state uncle lies with the law enforcers. If Shuntian Prefecture refused to send officials to arrest people at the beginning and reported it immediately, there would be no trouble later. Secondly, if the Dali Temple can enforce the law impartially instead of knowingly breaking the law, Your Majesty will not fall into a dilemma. In my opinion, the handling of the third prince is slightly insufficient. It would be more appropriate to make a slight adjustment and give the victim more compensation."

After Jia Lian finished speaking, Emperor Chenghui was unable to calm down. Although the reading comprehension was not difficult this time, he still couldn't help but ask: "Why should we pay more compensation instead of punishing according to the law?"

"The victim has a family. This case affects not only the victim, but the whole family. In this case, why don't you consider the interests of the victim's family? I believe that the law is to protect the interests of the weak, because the weak account for the vast majority of the country. Only by protecting the interests of the weak can the country operate stably and efficiently. Then, Your Majesty, are the victim's family members weak? Compared with the king's uncle, they are weak, but compared with those landless tenants, they are not weak. You see, nothing is immutable. This is true for people and for the country."

Emperor Chenghui suddenly felt a chill down his spine!
(End of this chapter)