Mid-October.

Four or five days ago, the clouds and the sun had overshadowed the Manchu dynasty to great joy, but in the early morning of the previous two days, a red sun had risen into the sky again, spreading the sun to the earth without obstruction, completely shattering the illusions of the Son of Heaven and his courtiers. The next few days were cloudless again. The Gimsu River, which supplies Tokyo's water source, has fallen two feet, and the drought of the Gyeonggi generation is unknown.

So these days, Zhao Ji is in a bad mood, Wang Anshi is also very bored, and the right performance in the Chongzheng Hall is basically after finishing the official business. But today is a little special, after Wang Anshi, the prime minister, finished talking about business, Zhao Ji actually had the heart to gossip: "Wang Qing, your son-in-law is a blockbuster in Baima County!" Thirty years of backlogged cases, and he solved them within seven days of taking office. ”

Wang Anshi had already heard about the case. After Han Gang settled down in Baima County, he sent people back to his hometown to move his wife and children to live with him. The cronies who were sent back came back with a short letter as they passed through the city of Tokyo. It talked about the situation in Baima County, and by the way, it also talked about the 30-year-old grave dispute that had just been broken the day before yesterday.

Looking at what was said in the letter, Wang Anshi felt more and more regretful that Han Gang couldn't help him. There is nothing to say about ability, military and governance have long been proven, and the judgment of criminal names is just as good. Less than seven days after he took office, he resolved a 30-year-old backlog. It's a pity that his second son-in-law did everything possible to stuff his teacher into the Jingyi Bureau. Wang Anshi appreciates not forgetting his own approach, but if it interferes with his strategy, it will not be tolerated.

Wang Anshi arched his hand: "Han Gang wrote a letter yesterday and did mention this case. said that he asked the people of Baima County three times, and everyone answered according to loyalty and filial piety. A sentence in the world can have filial sons and grandsons who cry graves and do not mourn, which has attracted the unification of all people, and the case is decided! It can be seen that the way of loyalty and filial piety is the desire of the people, and it is also the work of His Majesty's education. ”

Zhao Ji liked to hear such words, and a smile suddenly appeared on his face. In the news he got, he did not mention the reaction of the people, but described in detail how Han Gang set up a bureau to let He Khotan jump in by himself, and from the text, Zhao Ji could see that the eyes and ears of the Imperial City Division in Baima County could be said to be happy and surrendered to Han Gang's means of judging the case.

"With the talent of Han Gang, put it in a hundred miles of land. In fact, it is overkill. The 30-year backlog of cases was solved casually, although it is amazing, but it is also reasonable. It was that He Khotan, because of his own selfishness, that he had been litigating for 30 years. This kind of Diao people, why didn't Han Gang deal with it strictly?! Zhao Ji asked puzzled. In his opinion, with the ten heinous sins of great unfilial piety, it is appropriate to directly put He Khotan to death. Even if the charge of unfilial piety is reluctant, Han Gang has a good heart, and he still wants to be assassinated!

"The criminal sentence committed by He Khotan is a 'false confession' under the 'fraudulent official to obtain private wealth', and those who are not satisfied with the stolen goods according to the law are exempt from assassination, and those who do not obtain it must be reduced by two degrees. Although two hectares of land are worth a thousand yuan, since it is an attempt, it is only thirty lashes. This punishment can be forgiven by the right of the county. ”

Wang Anshi is famous for his good memory, and he can memorize the whole book by pulling out a random book on the shelves of the study. He also memorized the laws and regulations in the Song Dynasty, and casually cited He Khotan's crimes and punishments.

Seeing that Zhao Ji still wanted to say something, Wang Anshi added: "He Tian is also a scholar. ”

After Zhao Ji heard this, he muttered and stopped speaking.

Yes, this is the advantage of scholars, even if they break the law, they can get a certain degree of accommodation.

There are champions in Shilin who deceived their colleagues of hundreds of taels of gold, and there are scholars who deceived prostitutes who funded their admission to Jinshi and drank poisoned wine.

Even if Khotan sacrificed two acres of land, betrayed his ancestors and abandoned his ancestors, and litigated for 30 years, so that Yousi was not very disturbed. It is lawful to give a lesson with a board. But the legal principle is nothing more than human affection, He Khotan is a scholar, spare him thirty boards, not to take care of him, but to take care of the face of the scholar, otherwise how can it reflect the importance of the imperial court to the scribes?

And more importantly, the people who supported He Khotan at the beginning were basically the scholars of Baima County. If he really stripped off He Khotan's pants and exposed his butt to hit the board, he would be slapped in the face of the soldiers who supported He Khotan before.

Why bother?

Han Gang was to continue to govern Baima County, and those scholars were nominally his students. Han Gang has already subdued them through this case, but if he gains an inch, it will cause them to backlash.

Han Gang also made this clear in his letter. After this case, He Khotan has lost his reputation, although he is still alive and dead. This is actually the biggest punishment for him. Maybe you'll die in a few days, and you won't need a board to help people on the road. The law is not dead, it can be flexibly chosen, and the fate of Khotan is enough to make people wake up, except for the officials who are affected, and there are no victims, there is no need to do more.

After saying a few more words, Wang Anshi said goodbye from the Chongzheng Palace.

Back in the political hall, his son Wang Yan was waiting for him in the hall.

Wang Yan came to Zhongshu to talk about the official affairs in the Jingyi Bureau. Although Wang Anshi raised the Jingyi Bureau, he basically did not go to the Jingyi Bureau, and could only bother Wang Yan to report it.

As the prime minister, Wang Anshi has a lot of errands, such as the compilation bureau of compiling court decrees and laws, the history museum of compiling national history, and the Jingyi Bureau of compiling textbooks for imperial examinations.

Whether it is a legal order, a national history, or a national textbook, it is the task of the prime minister - just like the "General Essentials of the Martial Arts", Zeng Gongliang, who signed it, was the prime minister at that time; Li Fang, the editor-in-chief of "Taiping Yulan", was also the prime minister at that time - this is the power of the prime minister, and the promotion will not be handed over to others. Just like the top leaders of the State Council in later generations, many times they will also have a certain leading group - a bureaucratic society, which is the same in ancient and modern times.

However, Wang Yan said that he was here to report the latest situation in the Economic and Righteous Bureau, but in fact, it was just an excuse, Wang Anshi asked a few words, and then put it aside. The father and son were talking about important matters concerning the world, and they couldn't finish discussing them when they returned home, so they had to continue in the political hall.

Now Wang Anshi's situation is very critical. This is not a matter of the government - in the New Party, the relationship between Lu Huiqing and Zeng Bu is still tense, but Wang Anshi can still control them. And the interpretation of the Three Classics of Poetry, Writing, and Rites is almost complete. The two parts of "Book of Songs" and "Book of Songs" are outlined by themselves, and they are compiled by Wang Yan and Lu Huiqing, and only one of "Zhou Guan" is written by Wang Anshi himself. The implementation of the new law has been fairly stable, and the political, military, and financial reforms have been fruitful.

At present, it will directly affect the issue of Wang Anshi's official position, or this year's drought, as well as the expected famine and locust plague next year.

"The emergence of seedlings in the Gyeonggi area has been reported below. In the letter written by Yukun, it was also very clear that the Yellow River beach was full of locust eggs, hundreds of millions of them, and the coming year would be full of locusts. And the wheat fields in Baima County are only sixty percent of the seedlings at present. The situation is indeed very bad. When my son was in the Jingyi Bureau, he could still hear news from outside, saying that someone in the market had begun to secretly hoard grain. Wang Yan's face was heavy, and his thin shoulders seemed to be unable to support the current pressure, "I don't know if I can let the southeast transport more grain into Beijing, even if it is only a dozen or two hundred thousand stones, take it out at a critical time, and let that profiteer refresh his old capital in one fell swoop." ”

Wang Anshi's expression was as heavy as his son's. If the disaster continues to be serious, he, as the prime minister, will definitely be fully responsible. Celestial sensing is the most effective weapon to attack his downfall. Although among the important ministers, there are not many people who believe in this theory, Han Qi, Fu Bi, Wen Yanbo, Lu Gongshu, and even Sima Guang will not believe it. But it does not prevent them from using this as a weapon to attack themselves.

"There is also less rain in Zhejiang since the beginning of autumn, and the autumn grain has decreased by two percent compared with previous years, and Runzhou has reported the disaster. To ensure the rating of 1.5 million stones, the two Zhejiang Transshipment Division has done its best. In the other roads, the situation is not good, and Huainan is also in trouble. In the drought in Runzhou, Fang Cai has already asked the official family to allocate 30,000 stone of grain from Changping, and Zhenzhou and Yangzhou on Huainan East Road, which had previously reported famine, have also allocated 30,000 stone each to raise hungry people to build farmland and water conservancy. Wang Anshi sighed, "And the temperature has plummeted recently, and the Bianhe River is about to be sealed in a blink of an eye." Even no amount of food can be transported. ”

"I wonder if I can keep my mouth shut this winter?" Wang Yan proposed.

"But what about the river ice?" Wang Anshi wanted to shake his head, but suddenly stopped. It's winter. Because the Bianhe River is frozen in the river, it is necessary to seal the Biankou and stop shipping, and only after the thaw in the spring of the next year will the mouth of the Bianhe River be opened, so that the boats can pass through the north and south. However, if we can take advantage of this winter, the situation in Beijing may be much better.

Seeing that his father was moved, Wang Yan immediately proposed: "It's better to urgently recruit Jingren [Hou Shuxian] to return to Beijing and ask." ”

Hou Shuxian is well-known in the New Party for being proficient in water conservancy, and is the backbone of the New Party, and is also an important assistant to Wang Anshi in handling the practice of the new law.

Hou Shuxian began to take over the irrigation of silted fields and other matters from the beginning of the implementation of the farmland water conservancy law and the equalization law in the second year of Xining, and the fertile land irrigated by his hands was as much as 10,000 hectares. The 20,000 hectares of abandoned saline-alkali land on both sides of the Bianhe River due to the flood burst have also been restored under his management. Now he is the water supervisor of the capital, managing the water conservancy of the world. However, because he is also the judge of Hebei water and land transfer, he is not in Beijing now.

Wang Anshi didn't hesitate, nodded in agreement, picked up the pen and ink, wrote a book, drew a book, stamped the letter, and asked the book office to send it out.

Looking at the brilliant sunset through the window, Wang Anshi sighed, "I hope Jingren can come back soon." ”