Chapter 3 'The Law of the Great Ming' let me play with it
Chen Shuren calmed down and knew that there was no need to rush into making plans, so he went back to the house that night and rested first.
I had just recovered from a serious illness and my body was really tired. I fell asleep as soon as I hit the bed and didn't wake up until the next morning.
After getting up, he would do some exercise and sweat a little, then wash up and eat.
When Qingzhi was preparing the dishes, Shen Shuren saw a bowl of food in the shape of turtle paste, but the color was light and transparent. He pointed at it and asked, "What is this?"
Qingzhi: "This is a cold cake made by the kitchen using Japanese agar and konjac, and also added mint leaves from Da'an. It is said to relieve the heat and smooth the air. These medicinal materials were all given by the guests who came to visit yesterday."
Chen Shuren was unconvinced.
The agar agar and konjac of Japan are indeed unique in their craftsmanship. They are made from kombu and konjac using secret methods.
But in a year of great calamity, it would be too much to import even a little food from Japan.
In order to stabilize the situation, the Zheng family really spent a lot of money.
Chen Shuren ate it quickly with a critical and non-waste mentality. It tasted very good.
…
After breakfast, Shen Shuren stayed in his study and began to think about what happened last night.
He is still quite optimistic at heart.
Aren't you just looking for an excuse to go to Nanjing? As a playboy like me and a wealthy young master, if you want to get into trouble and run away, there are definitely many options.
His first reaction was to think that Xue Pan could easily run away after killing someone and let Jia Yucun deal with the aftermath, and he did not abscond in fear of crime.
After all, this joke in "Dream of Red Mansions" is so well-known that it has been taught in Chinese language classes. Of course, he is very familiar with this kind of academic master. But his current personality is too similar to that of Xue Pan, a rich and evil young man, and I am also going to Nanjing.
Once your thoughts are attracted by this crooked path, the subsequent bad water will flow out uncontrollably.
"Is it feasible if I follow Xue Pan's example and beat someone to death in Suzhou and then 'flee' to Nanjing in fear of crime?"
As soon as this idea came up, Shen Shuren himself was shocked.
Fortunately, he calmed down quickly, sorted it out carefully, and abandoned this ridiculous idea.
Xue Pan went to Beijing for another purpose, which was to send Xue Baochai to the draft. And if he, Shen Shuren, had committed a crime and wanted to avoid it, why did he go to Nanjing? Zheng Zhilong would definitely suspect that it was intentional.
Secondly, for a crime like this, if you are really going to be put on the record, how can you go to the Imperial College? Xue Pan was impulsive and thoughtless. He made a decision and then acted. Of course he must do better.
Chen Shuren continued brainstorming along the lines of thought, and soon came up with an improved version.
"Although actual crimes are not feasible, what will be the effect if we study the "Da Ming Law", carefully design the case, and find some illegal reasons to prevent it, similar to 'acting for justice/justifiable defense'?
As long as it can be done, when you cut out the words to formulate the clauses, it will look like a crime. But if you look at "Spring and Autumn Judgment, take its original meaning", it is not a crime, can't you appeal to the police? By the way, you need to confirm it first Should I go to Nanjing to appeal?"
Only after investigation can you have the right to speak, and you cannot be reckless.
When Shen Shuren was thinking about a problem, he had a small problem with turning his pen. At this moment, he waved his hand, and the pen in his hand hit the jade chime on the desk, making a crisp sound. After a few seconds, his follower Shen Fu appeared at the door, waiting for instructions. .
"Go find a set of "Da Ming Law", I need it right away."
Shen Fu was also unambiguous: "Master, please wait a moment. Do you have any other instructions?"
Chen Shuren leaned on the mahogany Taishi chair and rubbed his temples with the pen: "Then let's get another set...the kind of document that stipulates the scope of responsibilities of each yamen in the imperial court."
Shen Fu thought for a while and said uneasily: "I have never heard of such a book, but the 'Laws for Officials' in the "Da Ming Code" seems to contain these contents. How about I first read the "Da Ming Code" "Law" is here and can you confirm it with Master?"
Chen Shuren suddenly felt a little embarrassed, and quickly changed his words: "Okay, let's get the "Da Ming Law" first, and wait until I read the rest."
Shen Fu turned around and left, while Shen Shuren secretly reflected: his understanding of the laws of the Ming Dynasty was actually worse than that of a follower, and he mistakenly thought that the "Da Ming Code" was only criminal law.
It seems that the new followers his father has chosen for him have all been carefully trained by his family, and they have at least read books.
After a while, Shen Fu found the "Da Ming Law" one after another. There were hundreds of volumes, which made Shen Shuren feel dizzy, but he could only force himself to do it.
He first reviewed the articles in outline and roughly confirmed that the "Da Ming Law" is actually a comprehensive law that includes the equivalent of criminal law, procedural law and administrative law in later generations. The content of civil law is also a little bit more, mainly in terms of personal obligations and land identification. of.
As for why there are so many pages, the main reason is that the books Shen Fu found not only include the original laws of the Hongwu period, but also the regulations that were added later——
Zhu Yuanzhang was particularly disgusted with his successor's "making chaos into law", so the provisions of the "Da Ming Law" were not allowed to be revised for more than two hundred years. However, the early laws were too simple, and many new things were not regulated at all, so his successor had to add exceptions to the law. .
The original code of Hongwu was only thirty volumes, and the "Regulations on Penalty" during the Hongzhi period added more than twenty volumes, and the Jiajing and Wanli dynasties added more than thirty volumes each, making the total volume a total of one hundred and twenty volumes.
Fortunately, Shen Shuren deliberately studied with specific questions in mind. When he was reading, he went straight to the key points as if he were using a search engine, flipping over the useless parts.
This efficiency is obviously many times higher than that of those scholars who are flooded with water.
In just half an hour, he sorted through the outline and clarified several useful key issues.
For example, he first confirmed that the Ming Dynasty no longer had a form of "judicial interpretation" such as the "Da Gao", which was relatively common in the early Ming Dynasty and was especially used by Zhu Yuanzhang.
However, when difficult cases are encountered and tried at the local level and deemed to be representative, theoretically they should still be reported. After review by the provincial sentencing inspectors and even the central Ministry of Punishment, if they think they have promotion value, they will issue other reports. Local "study model cases" to improve understanding of legal provisions.
Some grassroots organizations have done a good job and even posted cases in the Shenming Pavilion to explain to the people.
It's just that the Ming Dynasty has become so corrupt now. For this kind of "selective discretion", in local areas, it is generally better to do less than to do more. If you can repay or not, try not to repay.
But it doesn't matter, anyway, the Shen family is rich and powerful. Shen Shuren will naturally find a way to ask the Suzhou government to "voluntarily work overtime and report it and request review."
After determining the system, the next question is to determine the unit that implements the system.
And Chen Shuren is in Suzhou, which is very advantageous - in other provinces, depending on the severity of the difficult cases reported, some are managed by the inspectorate and some are managed by the Ministry of Punishment, which cannot be absolutely controllable.
But Suzhou belongs to Southern Zhili.
In the Southern Zhili area of the Ming Dynasty, there were no chief envoys, administrative envoys or other envoys. Related work was directly assigned to the corresponding yamen of the Six Ministries in Nanjing.
Therefore, no matter how complicated the case is, it will ultimately be under the jurisdiction of the Nanjing Criminal Department.
That's it.
Chen Shuren let out a long breath.
Although the final solution has not yet been found, the idea has taken another step forward:
He needs to design a case that looks like breaking the law but is not actually breaking the law, but is sure to bring trouble to the Nanjing Criminal Department. At that time, the Nanjing Criminal Department will take him away for face-to-face interrogation and review.
And once it is finally determined that he is innocent, for example, it is a "legitimate defense/brave act of justice", then there will be no stain left, and it can be discovered that "it turns out that you have recovered from the illness, then go to the Imperial College", and it will be cooked immediately. Mature rice.
Even if the task assigned by Mr. Yang Ge is completed with a minimum guarantee, the Zheng family cannot stop it.
The remaining question is how to design the specific case.
…
Chen Shuren was sitting in the study room holding "Da Ming Law" and holding back water. When it was time for lunch, he had no intention of taking a break.
He is still recovering from illness, and his father does not want him to greet him in the morning or evening, but he will still ask the maid to come and visit him during meals, and call him if he has not eaten yet.
Chen Shuren had no choice but to put a bookmark in the book, get up and follow the maid through the Sanjin courtyard, around a pond garden with Taihu stones, and to the dining area.
Chen Shu's mother was dead, and his father only had his stepmother and a group of aunts.
In line with the rule of "don't speak when you eat", no one said a word during the meal.
After finishing the meal, the maid brought tea, and Shen Tingyang waved his wife and concubines to leave. Then he asked about his son's physical condition and what he had done today.
Shen Shuren also reported his thoughts by the way.
Hearing that his son wanted to exploit the loopholes of the "Da Ming Law" and set up a trap, Shen Tingyang's first reaction was to dislike it.
But there seemed to be no better way at the moment, so he told his son to make a decision before taking action and not to be reckless first.
Then, Shen Tingyang assigned another task:
"Although Zheng Hongkui came here to spy on me a while ago, he gave him so many gifts after all. We didn't show any displeasure with him, and he still wanted to return the gift. When you feel more comfortable, go to the place where he stays and pay your respects."
These words reminded Chen Shuren, and he immediately had a thought in his mind: "Father, since I have planned to find another way to Nanjing, I should also make some preparations for the Zheng family to reassure them.
In addition, we should find out the details of how the Zheng family plans to operate Zheng Sen's Ci Studies in advance, so that we can have a clear target at that time - is it possible that after we agreed to take the lead in pretending to be sick, they dared to openly refuse the invitation from the Imperial College?"
After hearing this question, Shen Tingyang was not worried at all. Instead, he rarely showed a bit of pride:
"It's rare that you have thought about this problem. My father has actually inquired about it a long time ago - when the Zheng family first came to the door, I used the trick and asked to test: 'If everyone chooses to pretend to be sick, it will inevitably be too coincidental, and it will not help the matter.'
In order for me to cooperate, Zheng Hongkui had to reveal the details of their plan. He said that Zheng Jiaming would write back to the Imperial College and promised to let Zheng Sen go to Nanjing, so I didn't have to worry about coincidence.
However, after they sent Zheng Sen to Suzhou, they would let Zheng Sen rest and recuperate in Suzhou, show up a few times, and then pretend to be ill in Suzhou on the grounds that "southern people have never gone north and are not accustomed to the climate."
The Zheng family's power is all at sea, and Suzhou is still at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Here they still have the ability to ensure that Zheng Sen is safe. If there is any trouble, they can immediately escape to the sea. But if they go deep inland to Nanjing, they will not be so sure. "
Chen Shuren nodded: "In this case, we should make the Zheng family feel that we are of one mind with them as soon as possible, and help them get Zheng Sen to Suzhou as soon as possible, so that we can have the opportunity to cut through the mess quickly."
Chen Shuren knew in his heart that even if he finally managed to hide the truth and arrive in Nanjing without irritating the Zheng family, he would only be able to complete Yang Sichang's mission and work hard.
If he really wants to overfulfill the task, he must make Yang Sichang realize that "even if the Shen family members are gone, the Zheng family may still shirk the blame." Then through the Shen family's operation, Zheng Sen can also be deceived into Nanjing. This will be considered a complete success. , giving Yang Sichang an unexpected surprise.
Now that everything has been done, we must do it beautifully.
After hearing what his son said, Shen Tingyang felt a little concerned.
Isn't it too rash to start other preparations in parallel before the previous step is completed?
But Shen Shuren analyzed with trembling tongue: "Father, time is very tight, we can't come here slowly. You think, Mr. Yang Ge asked Nanjing Imperial College to invite me to wait, even though it was just a temporary idea.
But this year is the year of the provincial examination, which is held every three years. Scholars from Nanzhi will go to Nanjing in August to prepare for the autumn examination. I just checked the official regulations. The first few categories of Imperial College students can be treated as if they were candidates and participate in the examination. You can try it out, but the registration deadline is one month before autumn.
In other words, only by completing the Imperial College naturalization in July this year can he participate in next year's joint examination with the same treatment as the current imperial examination candidates. The imperial court wanted to encourage Zheng Sen to go to Nanjing as soon as possible. An important bait was to ask him to complete the registration in July.
Although it is impossible for Zheng Sen's knowledge to participate in the examination, once he misses this window period, the Zheng family can always complain about illness and say to the outside world, "Anyway, we have missed the opportunity that comes every three years, so there is no need to rush."
It's already the end of May, and we have to complete the matter completely in July, and we have to make time for the road, so we don't have much time left."
This key point was what Shen Shuren just figured out when he read the Ming Dynasty Rules in the morning:
Historically, Zheng Sen was able to delay going to Nanjing until the 15th year of Chongzhen's reign. Perhaps an important reason was that "anyway, he missed the opportunity to "compare the treatment of passing the provincial examination" in the 12th year of Chongzhen's reign, so he might as well wait three more years."
Of course, this is just speculation without evidence.
When Shen Tingyang heard this, his eyes lit up again, and he muttered approvingly:
"Indeed... time waits for no one. Alas, if I had known that you were so good at reasoning about people's feelings, I should have trained you to deal with these official welcomes and greetings earlier. Let's do this first according to your instructions."
Chen Shuren was relieved after receiving support. He quickly summarized the specific operations with his father, and then immediately started making arrangements.
As long as Zheng Sen can be promoted to come to Suzhou as soon as possible, this matter will be one step closer to final success.
After all, Zheng Sen and Zheng Zhilong, father and son, had completely different attitudes towards the Ming Dynasty in history. Zheng Zhilong only wanted his own family interests, while Zheng Sen was sincerely resisting the Qing Dynasty.
Maybe even Zheng Sen himself doesn't know about the Zheng family's current little trick of plotting against the imperial court, and it's just his father who is doing it.
The potential conflicts that may exist within the Zheng family and his son are also part of Shen Shuren's operating space in the future. It is always easier to trick a rebellious teenager into rebelling against his father than to directly deal with an old and cunning warlord.