Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 571: Wonderful Writing
Recently, the "Lin'an Tabloid" has been selling well, and the demand for ink has increased sharply, so it is normal for "Li Qiaoer Bookstore" to purchase more ink.

But "Li Qiaoer Bookstore" shipped out another six barrels of ink. What does this mean?
Are there any special inks that can be used to print Huizi and Jiaozi?
Or in other words, the six barrels of ink taken away were all special inks for printing banknotes?

The spies that Uncle Lao Gou arranged near "Li Qiaoer Bookstore" immediately followed.

In the bookstore, Chief Editor Su Qiaosu handed the manuscript he had just written today to Li Qiaoer, who immediately distributed it and asked the engraving masters to start engraving and printing immediately.

Tabloids do not have high requirements for printing quality and paper quality, and since they are published once a day, they do not care much about the fragility of the woodblock material.

The engraving masters chose wooden boards with a softer texture that were easier to carve, and each different engraving master was responsible for carving a piece of the board.

After they carved the different articles, they put several carved plates together like the puzzle pieces of "Huarong Road Game" and tightened them to form a complete printing plate. When it was printed, it became the content of a page of the tabloid.

After the carving tasks were distributed, the carving masters immediately became busy.

Li Qiaoer and Su Qiao left the engraving room filled with the strong smell of ink.

Li Qiaoer smiled at Su Qiao and said, "Recently, the sales of our tabloid have increased several times compared to before. Business is booming. This is all thanks to your wonderful writing, Master Su."

Su Qiao smiled and said, "The court has been in a state of turmoil recently, and this kind of major case that goes against human ethics is something that the people are keen to talk about. The tabloids published it in a timely manner, so naturally many people will be eager to get the news from the tabloids."

Li Qiaoer asked: "How long can this case last?"

Su Qiao smiled brightly: "The three judges each hold their own opinions and refuse to give in to each other. In my opinion, there will be no conclusion in a short time."

Li Qiaoer was delighted and said, "That's great. The murderer has been arrested, but there is a dispute over the verdict. It would be best if the case could be delayed for two to three years. Then our Lin'an tabloid will have huge sales."

Su Qiao laughed loudly and said, "Unless this case is full of twists and turns, people will get tired of it after a while, and it won't attract anyone's attention no matter how long it drags on. I still have to collect some things that the people like to hear and see."

Li Qiaoer stopped and asked with a seductive look: "For example?"

Su Qiao was still thinking, and asked in surprise: "For example, what?"

Li Qiao'er came close to Su Qiao tenderly and said softly, "For example, if a beautiful widowed bookshop owner were to have an affair with a certain senior official named Su, would the people be happy to see it?"

Editor-in-Chief Su immediately laughed obscenely: "I'm afraid it's not enough."

Li Qiaoer then flirted with Editor-in-Chief Su, resting her hand softly on his chest, and said in a friendly voice, "Then it all depends on how you, Master Su, write."

Su Qiao quickly glanced to the side and whispered, "Yang Leifeng won't come today, right?"

Li Qiaoer chuckled and said, "Don't worry, he comes three or five times a month at most. If he comes more than that, the fierce woman at home might get suspicious. He won't come today."

As she spoke, Li Qiaoer took Editor-in-Chief Su's hand and said softly, "Tonight, let me comfort Master Su, who has a brilliant pen."

A moment later, the door of Li Qiaoer's boudoir was closed, but the light on the window came on.

Editor-in-Chief Su was half-dressed, holding a brush in his hand, and smiled at Li Qiao'er, who was lying on the couch with her legs apart, "Look at my wonderful writing today."

A brush gently brushed down, and immediately a soft and charming panting sound was heard in the room...

……

The cart carrying the ink barrels left "Li Qiaoer Bookstore" and headed for the lakeside pier.

There was a small black-sailed boat commonly seen in Lin'an parked at the dock. The ink barrel was moved onto the boat and the boat sailed away from the shore.

The spies of the "Tongzhouhui" had learned from the last lesson and had prepared a boat on the shore, and the small boat immediately followed.

At this time, the lights are just coming on.

The lights on both sides of the inner river in the city are dim, various cruise ships and cargo ships shuttle back and forth, and the sounds of stringed instruments, singing and music are endless.

The boatman was very alert, and he and a man wearing a bamboo hat who was escorting the boat at the bow were paying attention to the front, back, left and right respectively.

The ships following behind did not dare to get too close.

The boat sailed along the way, passing through the dense spider-web-like water network of the south of the Yangtze River, and gradually left the city of Lin'an.

When the boat entered a fork in the Xiaoshan waterway, several small boats came from different directions and were temporarily congested there, blocking the way of the boat of the "Tongzhouhui" following behind.

The boatmen on the two small boats quarreled and cursed at each other because of the collision. The spy had no choice but to talk to the passengers on the other boat to mediate.

After much persuasion, they were able to separate and pass, but they had lost sight of the ship that was following them.

They did not give up and chased for a while. However, they saw that there was more than one branch in the river ahead and they could not tell which branch the boat had headed for. They were afraid that their exploration would be discovered, so they had to give up the pursuit.

To be on the safe side, they did not return immediately, but first found a brightly lit place to go ashore, found a tavern, ordered a few side dishes, patiently had a meal and a drink, and then boarded the ship and left.

The news was reported to Uncle Gou, who concluded that the fake meeting notes were printed in Xiaoshan, but he did not immediately send anyone to Xiaoshan to investigate.

Given the characteristics of this era, even in a relatively prosperous place like Xiaoshan, if outsiders come and go to investigate, even if they don't ask anything to the locals, it will inevitably arouse the vigilance of those who are interested.

Uncle Gou vaguely remembered that the Yang family's business seemed to have some connection with Xiaoshan, so he came back to ask Luxi.

Uncle Gou learned from Luxi that the Yang family did have some upstream industries related to silk, and that they had cooperated with Nan Fengchi, the richest man in Xiaoshan.

Therefore, Uncle Gou arranged some spies to disguise themselves as waiters and follow the two managers sent by Luxi to Xiaoshan.

The steward went there on the pretext of ordering goods from the Nanfeng Chi family. He only needed to find a reason to stay there for a few more days. The spies among the entourage would have the opportunity to spread out in the town and secretly investigate suspicious households.

……

When Uncle Gou started to track the whereabouts of the printing ink, the three judicial departments in the court were arguing more and more fiercely over the Zhang Mi case.

Zhao Shiping, Shaoqing of the Dali Temple, raised the banner of filial piety: Zhang Mi committed murder and was guilty.

But the people he killed were his daughter-in-law and his son. As a father killing his son, he should not be put to death.

If you oppose it, you are opposing filial piety.

Temple Chief Teng Teng cited classics and found evidence for his position as Shaoqing.

He used two cases that had occurred in the history of the Song Dynasty as evidence.

The several examples cited by Fujitera Masa were later selected into the "Collection of Clear and Bright Judgments by Famous Officials" compiled by people in the Song Dynasty.

In other words, this is a case that is recognized as an excellent example of a positive example.

One is the Zhang case.

A girl named Zhang married a man named Jiang Jiu, but after only one year, the couple separated and lived separately.

Father-in-law Jiang Ba accused his son and daughter-in-law of being unfilial, so the local authorities arrested Jiang Jiu and his wife.

During interrogation, the young couple gave the reason that their father-in-law Jiang Ba had been unfaithful to his daughter-in-law, and the young couple had to separate and live separately.

The government's final verdict was that it was difficult to determine whether the father-in-law had ever committed misconduct against his daughter-in-law.

A daughter-in-law should treat her father-in-law as her own father and be filial to him, and should conceal the mistakes of her parents.

You told this matter in court, which ruined your father-in-law's reputation. This is unfilial.

Even if your father-in-law really has bad intentions towards you, just refuse.

Besides, as a father, how could he have such thoughts?

This must be because you don't want to support your father and are deliberately slandering him.

So, the verdict is as follows: A wife's attitude towards her uncle and aunt is like a son's attitude towards his parents. A filial son praises the good qualities of his parents and does not publicize their faults.

If Jiang Ba really wanted to take over the river, Zhang could refuse him, but telling everyone about it openly would not be a sign of respecting elders.

Besides, Jiang Ba's tomb is already broken, and his vitality is already weak. How can he still have unfilial thoughts?

Finally, Zhang and her husband were forced to divorce. Zhang was beaten with 15 sticks and sent to the military camp as a conscript.

Jiang Jiu was given 60 strokes of the cane and sent home to continue serving his father. If he behaved unfilially again, he would be strangled.

Teng Si Zheng used this case as an example because the affair between Zhang Mi and Gao involved in the Zhang Mi case is now a confusing account.

It is unclear whether Zhang Mi forced himself on her or the two of them committed adultery together.

After all, Gao did not file a complaint at the time, which was the same reason why Zhang endured it and just moved with her husband.

If you bring this matter up again later, how can you prove that you made a false accusation?
As for the use of force and adultery, the different origins of the crimes will affect the severity of subsequent punishment.

Another case is used to justify why Zhang Mi was not sentenced to death.

The second case cited by Teng Sizheng was basically this: a widow committed adultery with a Taoist priest, and disliked her son for being a nuisance, so she wanted to team up with the Taoist priest to kill her son, but the Taoist priest refused.

Because in all dynasties, although the punishments for parents killing their children varied in severity, there was no case of the death penalty, and many dynasties did not even punish them.

But that Taoist priest does not have the privileges of a parent. If he helps, wouldn’t it be a capital crime if something goes wrong?

So he gave the widow an idea and asked her to sue her son for being unfilial.

Being unfilial is a capital crime, even if you just curse your mother. In this way, you can use the knife of the law to kill her son.

After hearing this, the widow went to the government to report her son for being unfilial. However, the problem was that her son was too filial and had a very good reputation among his neighbors.

Moreover, many neighbors knew about the scandal between the widow and the Taoist priest. They felt sorry for the son and reported it to the government.

The government did not kill the filial son in vain. After investigating the matter thoroughly, they beat to death the Taoist priest who came up with the idea. As for the mother who wanted to kill the filial son, she was severely reprimanded and told her son to take the mother home and take good care of her as a filial duty.

Please note that during this entire process, the son knew that his mother was unfaithful and had an affair.

However, limited by the filial piety principle of protecting one's relatives, he never spoke out and was unable to step forward to stop it.

When his mother falsely accused him of being unfilial and wanted to kill him through the law, he still refused to tell anyone about his mother's scandals and only confessed his guilt in tears.

If his fellow villagers had not been unable to bear this and stepped forward to seek justice, he would have been dead.

As a result, he was commended by the government, who considered him a truly filial son who had fulfilled his filial duties perfectly, and his deeds were written into the county annals.

Now let's go back to the Zhang Mi case. In the Zhang Mi case, Gao was Zhang Mi's daughter-in-law, so they were father and son. The young boy was Zhang Mi's illegitimate son, so they were also father and son. So Zhang Mi killed them, and although he was guilty and should be punished, he could not be sentenced to death because it was "father killing son", otherwise it would be a violation of filial piety.

Zhao Shaoqing and Teng Sizheng were also very smart and did not publicly state the reason for "not killing the literati".

Because "not killing scholars and officials" was just an unwritten rule formed in the court through the unremitting efforts of generations of scholars and officials.

Even if you look through all the laws of the Song Dynasty, you will never find a legal clause such as "do not kill scholars and officials" officially included in the law.

This is clearly a privilege!

Now the news of this case has spread throughout the government and the public, and no one knows who is leaking the news.

The content of the debate in class today will appear in the Lin'an tabloids tomorrow, putting them in a passive position.

In the past, when investigating cases behind closed doors, everyone was an official dealing with each other, and they could openly use the excuse of "not killing scholars and officials" to justify their actions.

Now that public resentment is boiling and the government and the public are paying attention, this reason cannot be spoken openly, so the more powerful banner of filial piety has been raised.

But once the banner of filial piety was raised, the Censorate was angered. Aren't you being a rogue?

We agreed to fight with bayonets, but you used nuclear weapons.

The Censorate has three of the strongest writers in this imperial examination.

The top three in the imperial examination are now all serving in the Censorate. Are you the only one in the Dali Temple who has a brilliant pen?

Xiao Yiran officially joined the debate team of the Censorate.

He and Lu Chengze worked day and night to prepare, and the next day they both came up with their own rebuttal articles.

It would be quite irrational to directly question filial piety.

Although to modern people, it is unreasonable to raise filial piety to such an unreasonable position.

But in that era, even if you were an emperor, you did not dare to publicly deny filial piety or question its authority.

But, it’s just “debate”, who can’t do it?

In one of his articles, Xiao Yiran directly brought up Dong Zhongshu.

He cited a case decided by the great Confucian scholar Dong Zhongshu: A gave birth to a son but did not raise him, and gave him to B. When the son grew up, A saw his son and claimed to be his father, but was beaten by his son. A went to the government to sue his son for being unfilial, but the son refused to acknowledge the father relationship with him and only recognized the adoptive father B.

The verdict of this case concerned filial piety, so local officials did not dare to be careless and reported it to higher authorities.

In the end, Dong Zhongshu ruled: Although A gave birth to a child but failed to raise him, he was no longer related to his parents in terms of morality, and the father of the child should be B.

So this is just an ordinary fight case and it should be handled normally.

Xiao Yiran elaborated on this, meaning that blood ties are not the only basis for parent-child relationships.

When a father is unkind, the parent-child relationship no longer exists.

Therefore, the moment Zhang Mi, as a father-in-law, began to possess his daughter-in-law's body, the relationship between the two parties was no longer that of father-in-law and daughter-in-law.

If Zhang Mi kills someone later, filial piety cannot be used as a reason to forgive him.

Lu Chengze is even more ruthless.

Xiao Yiran and Lu Chengze are a bit like Zhao Yuan and Zhao Yu.

Zhao Yuan was upright in his actions and would basically follow formal means to achieve his goals.

Zhao Qu and Yang Yuan had the same idea, as long as the goal was achieved, it would be fine.

The same goes for Lu Chengze.

He checked Gao Yuheng's confession and found out that Gao was pregnant, but the Gao family was unaware of it at the time. During the period when Zhang's wife had not yet been settled by Zhang Mi, Gao was placed in a small Taoist temple.

Because Zhang Mi was a local official and attracted a lot of attention, the small Taoist temple they chose had only one old nun.

And this old Taoist nun has passed away now.

So, Lu Chengze started to make a fuss about this matter.

There are several ways to sever the "father-son relationship", and the simplest and most effective one is to become a monk.

Once you become a monk, you have transcended the Three Realms and are no longer within the Five Elements.

Therefore, Lu Chengze concluded that Gao became a nun out of anger and humiliation at that time. Now that she was a nun, she no longer needed to fulfill the obligations of a "father-son relationship" to Zhang Mi.

Teng Temple is raising the banner of filial piety and roaring, do you want to overthrow filial piety?

Xiao Bangyan held up the tablet of Dong Zhongshu. Are you questioning "Dongzi"'s understanding of filial piety?
Lu Tanhua smiled as if he was blessed by the gods, and said, "Why don't you let this monk go?"
Ask the Buddhists and Taoists in the world which one agrees?

At this point, representatives of both sides had launched their "nuclear bombs", and for a moment they were all wary. They immediately went back to call on all writers in the institute to brainstorm and find new breakthroughs.

Editor-in-Chief Su was very disappointed. If you all keep quiet, what should I write in my Lin'an tabloid?
Everyone is paying attention to this, right?
At this time, the Ministry of Justice, unwilling to be lonely, jumped out.

The Ministry of Justice is of course also targeting the Censorate, but now it is the Dali Temple that is standing head-on and confronting the Censorate, and the Ministry of Justice has simply become a troublemaker.

This stirrer raises three questions:

One question is, since Zhang Mi changed his confession and denied the murder, should the case be sent back to the Censorate for retrial?

The second question is whether Zhang Mi committed incest or rape.

The third question is, what should be done with Zhang Mi’s son Zhang You, who has been ignored by everyone in this whole case and is still working in Chengdu Road?
There is nothing wrong with covering up for his father, but after the incident, shouldn't he divorce his wife? Why let his father and wife continue this ugly behavior?

Did he really conceal the truth for his father out of filial piety? Or did he choose to acquiesce and condone for the sake of his own reputation and future?

The original intention of the Ministry of Justice to do this was to strike a blow against the arrogance of the Censorate, but the Dali Temple was not willing to do the first thing.

Zhang Mi changed his confession, but what could he do? The Dali Temple is not stupid and they cannot overturn this case.

If we send him back to the Censorate, who knows what he will confess. Wouldn't the Dali Temple be in an even more difficult position then?
Therefore, the writers of the Dali Temple had to divert their attention and resist the questioning of the Ministry of Justice.

As for the second and third articles, the Censorate also had its own interpretation, and the three parties started to argue with each other.

At this time, the Ministry of Rites was unwilling to be left out and also intervened.

The Ministry of Rites is under the Censorate, but it is not the Ministry of Rites’ turn to intervene in judicial matters.

But since you are all talking about filial piety, can you put my Ministry of Rites aside?
Therefore, the Ministry of Rites joined the battle openly.

The "Lin'an Tabloid" was so popular that the original space was no longer enough, so they actually started a supplement.

At this time, the ones who rushed to the forefront of the Censorate were the second place winner Xiao Yiran and the third place winner Lu Chengze, while the first place winner Yang Yuan suddenly disappeared again.

But because the three-way debate was so intense, all parties ignored him.

Even if someone occasionally remembered him, they believed that it was because of his well-known feud with Zhang Mi that he stayed away from it to avoid suspicion.

This made the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice feel relieved, because they all believed that Yang Zhuangyuan's writing was sharper than Xiao Bangyan and Lu Tanhua combined.

If Yang Yuan also shows up, it will be even more difficult to cope with.

Yang Yuan was actually planning another thing during this period. How could he only have one thing on hand now and not start another one after finishing one?

Zhao Yuan planned to go on a tour to the Bashu area, which was a very rare behavior in the history of the Song Dynasty.

Once the emperor sets out, it will inevitably lead to some interpretations by the Jin Kingdom and the Western Xia.

In order to make the other party make a misjudgment, it is necessary to make clever designs on what to do during the patrol.

The second is that the emperor avoided Lin'an out of caution and left behind someone who could clean up the mess.

Therefore, during Zhao Yuan's absence from Lin'an, what the Vice Emperor can do, to what extent he can do it, and what buttons to reserve for the emperor so that he can come back in time to clean up the mess if things get out of hand, all these need to be designed in advance.

All of these must take into account the relationship and power balance among the Song Dynasty, Jin Dynasty and Western Xia.

We also need to consider the various forces involved in the Song Dynasty, the positions and strengths of these factions, the possible reactions caused by the personalities of their leaders, etc.

Therefore, the problem cannot be solved simply by being good at crisis public relations.

During this process, Yang Yuan at most used what he was good at to design techniques from angles that ordinary people would not easily consider.

As for the disputes among the three judicial officials in the court and the heated debates among more and more officials who came out shirtless, Yang Yuan didn't care at all.

He was waiting, waiting for the students of the Imperial College and the Imperial Academy to break the jar of sauce and lift the fig leaf of "not killing the literati".

The Imperial College and the Imperial Academy together have more than 2,000 students, not including the several hundred martial arts candidates in the martial arts school under the Imperial College.

Although they are military candidates, they also need to study literature. Naturally, they have now joined the discussion on the national policy of "not killing scholars and officials", which is not included in the law but is actually implemented.

Moreover, they will become military attachés in the future and will not be protected by this unspoken rule, so their reaction is particularly intense.

These more than 2,000 students are only those who are still in school and have not yet graduated.
They also have seniors and old classmates who have not been admitted to the Imperial College and the Imperial Academy. The scope has expanded too much.

Yang Yuan is waiting for them to fully ferment; currently their discussions are limited to academic ones within the campus.

When they walked out of the school, wrote letters to express their opinions and intervened in injustice, the topics that were currently being debated in the court were no longer worth mentioning.

That was the critical moment for Yang Yuan to concentrate all his efforts and launch a general attack.

And now, he is assisting the Emperor and the Prince of Jin, as well as the Ministry of War and the Privy Council, to plan the following things:
1. Shorten the term of office of prime ministers to prevent those who have been in the position for a long time from forming a complex power.

2. Cut down on redundancy, starting with a pilot project in Lin'an Prefecture, dismissing young officials (county officials), cutting down on redundant officials, and limiting the number of officials given imperial favors.

3. Reform the military system, implement the volunteer army system, adjust the selection criteria for military officers, and assess existing military officers.

4. When the emperor returns from Bashu, hold a grand military parade in Lin'an.

(End of this chapter)