Ch. 146 - Wen Chengwu Cast his Foundation and Changed Fu into Governor to Divide the Real from the False
The Famous Detective of the Red MansionThis chapter is broken. Please report this on discord.
Notes
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Facts have proven that Sun Shaozong's two ”high-profile” entrances before and after were very effective.
After the Luming Banquet, more than ten people came to visit him one after another and established the status of ”master and apprentice” with him.
It seemed that this number was not very good. It was more like the difference between heaven and earth than the examiner's taking in 138 disciples at once.
However, considering that Jia Yucun, as a senior official of the government, could only attract disciples who were equal to him, this achievement was impressive.
Of course, most of the people who came to see Sun Shaozong were poor and helpless children, as well as other scholars who were interested in criminal investigation. Those officials' children did not take him seriously for the time being.
But on September 18, when Sun Shaozong was in the office of the Criminal Department as usual. He saw Zhou Da coming in hurriedly with a residence newspaper. Before he could get a firm foothold, he said, "Master, look at the latest local newspaper!"
With that, he spread the local newspaper on the table and turned over one page to show Sun Shaozong.
Sun Shaozong roughly scanned it, and it turned out that it was the agenda of the internal meeting held by the Emperor to convene the cabinet and the Governor of Hebei.
The first part mainly discusses the resettlement measures after the relocation of Hebei disaster victims. However, the second part suddenly turned to talk about the feasibility of upgrading Hebei to be directly under the Governor's Jurisdiction.
This was probably done to appease the discontent of Hebei's officialdom.
As early as when Sun Shaozong went to the south bank to inspect, he heard officials complaining that corrupt officials had come out of the Capital, but it was the people of Hebei who suffered.
There were more folk complaints, and various folk ballads emerged in an endless stream, angry, mocking, self-mocking…
Fortunately, the Imperial Court's relief was timely, otherwise, there might be a civil commotion.
Now that they need to relocate the victims, they must give them some benefits, even if it was only a name, to appease the resentment of Hebei officials and people.
"Your Excellency."
Zhou Da said nervously, "Do you think it is reliable to change Hebei to be directly under the Governor's Jurisdiction?"
"It should have been decided."
Sun Shaozong shook the local newspaper and said, "Otherwise, the contents of the cabinet discussion would not be published in the local newspaper."
"What should I do?!"
When Zhou Da heard this, he beat his chest and said, "If Hebei is changed to be directly under the Governor's Jurisdiction, our Central Judicial Office will also be under the jurisdiction of the Governor. When officials below the fifth grade are vacant, they will require the Governor's Office Selection and Approval!"
"Your Honor, when you were in Hebei, you forced the Governor that week to go to watch the sentence, and you greatly offended him. If he said something askew..."
It turned out that he was worried about this.
Sun Shaozong said with a smile, "Don't worry about it. Even if it is settled, the Governor of Jurisdiction will not interfere. We will follow the promotion and transfer the officials in the Central Judicial Office."
After all, the Central Judicial office was not better than other places. The Emperor has a mixture of good and bad people under his feet. His power might not be comparable to that of ordinary government offices, but there were more than ten times more troubles.
As long as the new Governor was not a fool, he would not take the initiative to interfere in the internal affairs of the Central Judicial Office. At most, when it comes to major policies, he would ask the Central Judicial Office to cooperate in the name of their supervisor.
Zhou Da's political mind was obviously insufficient. After hearing what Sun Shaozong said, he was still skeptical.
Sun Shaozong was too lazy to explain it to him. He waved his hand casually and asked him to go away.
After Zhou Da left, Sun Shaozong carefully reviewed the local newspaper and found that, in addition to the great event of changing Hebei to be under the jurisdiction of the Governor, some reforms seemed to be brewing in the army.
It's not a big deal. The main thing was that the Emperor wanted to take advantage of his ten-year reign to completely separate meritorious service from actual service. To put it simply, they would need to change the service titles.
For example, captains and cavalry captains, in addition to their actual duties in the military, the sons of the nobility also have similar false titles, such as captains of cavalry, cloud cavalry, and captains.
Without asking carefully, one couldn’t tell whether it was an actual service or a Lord at all.
Therefore, Emperor Guangde planned to change the actual services of Captains and Lieutenant to the citizens officially used in the previous dynasty.
In the future, the title of commander would only be used in practical work, and the title would be replaced by that of the captain, with the title conferred for meritorious services.
As for the higher rank of General, it would be gradually removed from the actual duty system and replaced by the names of Lieutenant and Colonel.
Tch!
This seemed useless, but it actually weakened the power of middle and low-level honors. At least, it was not so easy to scare people with their honors.
Of course, their influence was not that significant to those top aristocratic families. After all, those families were either supported by big men in the Court or by dignitaries in the Palace. Not to mention the false title on their heads, even if they were not holding any official government post, they could run amok.
But…
Was this the intention of Emperor Guangde to gradually weaken the influence of the nobility—or was it simply to eliminate the drawbacks of the honorable position and the actual position?
Sun Shaozong stared at the local newspaper for a long time and finally concluded that, no matter what, it was none of his business!
Although the Sun family was also from the noble class, both brothers now have real duties. No matter how the court reforms, they would not be affected.
Maybe it would have an impact on the next generation, but who could tell exactly what would happen decades later?
It was the situation hundreds of years later that Sun Shaozong was quite knowledgeable on.
Leaving aside the matter of system reform, Sun Shaozong again found some officialdom details in the local newspaper, ready to be used as conversation material for tomorrow's party.
It was getting late outside, especially since today was the first day for the female teacher Cheng Rixing had hired for Xiangling. Sun Shaozong wanted to go back and have a look.
So he left Lin Delu on duty and left the Central Judicial Office.
When he got back to his mansion, he heard the servant report with trepidation that two military Masters of the Dragon Guard had been waiting for him for half an hour before he entered the door.
The Dragon Guard?
Is it for the case of Qian Ning?
When Sun Shaozong entered the front hall, he was curious, but he immediately knew that he was thinking too much because it was Lu Jianxing and Shen Lian who had been waiting in the living room for a long time. And because they were involved in the "fake Jin Yichuan" incident, they did not participate in the investigation of the case of Qian Ning at all.
As expected, Lu Jianxing did not mention the matter of Qian Ning after the guests and hosts took their seats. He only said that Qin Kejian had lost his official position and had been exiled to the Yunnan Guizhou Mountains because he was suspected of shielding his superiors.
"Qin Kejian was exiled? Have you found evidence of his collusion with Qian Ning?"
Sun Shaozong was a little surprised. Qian Ning was dead. With Qin Kejian's cleverness, others should not be able to catch his flaws.
"Your Excellency."
Shen Lian smiled bitterly and said, "The Detective Department of the North Town is different from others. As long as the top leader is willing, the ”nonsense” words are enough to convict him."
This remark was full of bitterness, which seemed to be sympathetic.
Sun Shaozong, therefore, asked about their situation in the Dragon Guard.
Lu Jianxing and Shen Lian looked at each other and said, "To tell you the truth, because of the issue with our third brother, we also had some problems. They have now handed over our jobs to others. As for how it would be arranged in the future, we haven't heard anything yet."
They came here for help this time.
The two brothers could live with their talents and conduct, and they didn’t have many implications. If he were to give them favors, they would be able to help him in the future.
With this in mind, Sun Shaozong said, "Tomorrow I have an appointment with General Shenwu at his small office to have a drink. You both are also idle. How about going with me?"
This has the meaning of intending to lead them to the patrol camp.
Lu Jianxing was hesitant. After all, his ancestors were all part of the Dragon Guard, and among the four battalions and one guard, the Dragon Guard was the most respected position. Suddenly, he was asked to leave…
Shen Lian immediately grabbed him and stood up and said, "Thank you, Sir!"
Hearing the word "showing favor," Lu Jianxing came back to his senses.
Dragon Guard was good, but they were helpless and hopeless if one was expecting a promotion.
Although the position of the patrol camp was poor, the small government office of General Shenwu, with Sun Shaozu as the fourth-rank general, would they have to worry about not being promoted if they made some contributions in the future?
So he hurriedly replied and said, "If we ever have a good future, we will never forget your favor!"