Zhu Youzhen silently watched the noisy admonitions of these courtiers, and only after their voices gradually subsided did he speak: "Since you think that the laws of the Ming Dynasty cannot be modified, then I am also willing to make concessions.

However, there are too many laws on the death penalty in the Ming law, and they are too harsh, which is really contrary to the road of the Ming Dynasty's benevolence and righteousness. I believe that this part of the punishment should be revised to reduce the types of death penalty and the manner in which it is executed.

I thought that there was only one human life, and depriving him of the right to live was already the greatest punishment. It is meaningless to inflict torture such as Ling Chi, beheading, splitting the car, and skinning, except to make the prisoner suffer more before he dies, what can the court get? ”

Xue Zhen, the secretary of the Criminal Department, had to defend these punishments: "These punishments were set up by the ancestors to deter lawbreakers, and Your Majesty changed them, I am afraid that in the future, the treacherous people in the world will lose their fear, and they will be traitors and lawless." ”

With the exception of Xue Zhen, only a handful of officials opposed the change in the death penalty.

On the one hand, it is because these death sentences are so cruel that they themselves cannot bear it. On the other hand, many of the death sentences are closely related to the behavior of these officials, although now because of the lax legal system, everyone deliberately forgets these legal provisions and chooses lighter laws to govern prisons.

But this is just an unspoken rule in officialdom, and if the emperor or political enemies have to use these tortures as punishment, then they can't stop them either.

"Since the founding of the country, Taizu has not seen much less criminals who are committed to adultery, but on the contrary, there are many more prisoners on death row today than there were a hundred years ago, which shows that torture cannot prevent people from committing crimes.

I believe that what can prevent the people from committing crimes is to let the people have enough to eat, and second, to look at the power of the magistrate's education, not to punish the law. ”

Zhu Youzhen's statement was greatly praised by Liu Zongzhou. He believed that the emperor's statement was in line with the sage's wishes.

With Liu Zongzhou's support, Zhu Youzhen's proposal to revise the provisions of the law on the death penalty was finally passed at the court meeting.

The Donglin Party unanimously recommended that Yuan Keli, the former Nanjing Hubu Shangshu, who was proficient in scriptures and criminal names. Presided over the revision of the death penalty law. In order to repay the support of the Donglin Party, Zhu Youzhen agreed.

Later, the court meeting was also dissolved because it was almost noon, and when the court meeting dispersed, he was worried for a morning, and Yao Shiheng, the superintendent of Zhejiang Province, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

After he woke up, he vaguely remembered the resignation he had written when he was drunk, and immediately regretted going to his colleague Mao Yujian.

But he was told that Shangshu had already been handed over to the General Administration. Yao Shiheng could only go back in despair, and he didn't dare to tell her the truth for fear of being scolded by his wife.

finally became the imperial history known as Qingliu, but resigned because of a drunkenness, Yao Shiheng didn't mention how sad he was.

What bothered him the most was that his words of resigning from his official position and impeaching Xungui undoubtedly offended Marquis Yangwu.

If he is still the imperial history, he naturally doesn't have to be afraid of these nobles who are strong and powerful, but if he leaves his job and returns to his hometown to live idlely, he still has to offend the nobles, which is not a good thing.

Therefore, these few days have made him feel like a year, and today's court meeting is even more uneasy in the morning. I am afraid that the next moment, Chongzhen will take out his resignation and make it public.

I waited all morning, but there was no movement. It put him at ease. also added some luck to his heart, thinking that the emperor didn't see his superiority at all.

When Yao Shiheng walked towards the outside of the palace with mixed joy, a Dutch plywood ship was sailing towards Tianjin. According to the European way of calling, this is a small Galen ship with a displacement of 150 tons.

In the captain's room of the ship, Peter Natz was looking worriedly at the East Asian charts fixed on the table in front of him.

As the third governor of the Dutch East India Company to colonize Taiwan, in order to make up for the deficit of the Taiwanese merchant house and improve the status of the Taiwanese merchant house in the heart of the governor of Batavia.

After he took office, he issued a tax on the export of goods to Japanese merchants with an increase of 10%. But he did not anticipate the fierce resistance of the Japanese merchants.

Compared with the barren Taiwan, the Dutch colonial authorities in Batavia obviously attached more importance to the Dutch-Japanese trade routes, which brought a lot of trade profits to the East India Company.

After a conflict broke out with him, Hamada Yabei returned to Japan to try to incite the shogunate to cut off the trade between Japan and the Netherlands, which immediately alarmed Peternatz.

Peter Natz was well aware that if the company suffered great losses due to his actions that had undermined the trade between Japan and the Netherlands, the board of directors would order the governor of Batavia to punish him.

For this reason, he had to rush to Japan in July, hoping to clear up the misunderstanding with the shogunate. However, under the obstruction of Hamada Yabei, his peace talks with the shogunate failed.

After spending more than four months in Japan, Peter Nats was still unable to restore relations with the shogunate, and although he hated Hamada Yabei, he had no choice but to board a ship and return to Taiwan.

But in the waters near Taiwan, he received news from a Dutch merchant ship that was going to trade with Japan that the Ming Kingdom had sent an envoy to visit the Dacheng, and his deputy Bill actually concealed the news and went to the Ming capital to negotiate a trade treaty, which made him both happy and angry.

He was glad that he would be able to sign a trade agreement with the Ming Kingdom on behalf of the Dutch East India Company.

The bad impression of the Governor of Batavia and the board of directors of the company, which he provoked because of his mishandling, will disappear in the face of this trade deal.

Compared with the rich and vast land of the Ming Kingdom, the profits brought by the Japanese-Dutch trade were obviously only a small amount.

What's more, most of the goods needed by Japan were produced in the Ming Kingdom. And because of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's conquest of the dynasty, tomorrow's trade was cut off, and the Ming kingdom is still blockading trade with Japan to this day.

Therefore, as long as he could control the goods of the Ming overseas trade through trade agreements, the Japanese merchants would inevitably submit to the Dutch East India Company in order to obtain the goods of the Ming Kingdom.

In other words, he no longer had to submit to the shogunate, and it was possible to settle the dispute between Japan and the Netherlands, which could not make Peter Natz happy.

Joining the Dutch East India Company and coming to the Far East, Peter Natz came in search of Marco Polo's Oriental wealth. But the island of Taiwan, except for a group of wild people, did not find the gold and silver he was looking for at all.

After the East India Company came to East Asia, there were several conflicts with the Ming Kingdom, which also led to the Ming Kingdom's refusal to trade with the East India Company. This makes Peternatz can only watch dryly, and the rich continent across the sea cannot be rich.

Peter Natz didn't know how many times in his dreams he cursed, and the Ming officials, who refused to trade with him, threw him into the top of the company in this barren place.

But now, God had finally begun to have mercy on him, and the Emperor of the Ming Kingdom had sent an emissary in the hope of trading with the Dutch East India Company. This is great news, and it means that he will soon become a wealthy man, and Amsterdam will have another great businessman, and it is not even known that he will become one of the company's 17 directors in the future.

But the hateful, vile, and rude Bill dared to steal the glory that belonged to him and opened up the trade routes of China. It is simply intolerable to go to the emperor of the Ming Kingdom to discuss trade matters in the name of the representative of the Dutch East India Company, without the knowledge of him, the governor of Taiwan.

Peter Natz immediately ordered his ship to turn around and head to the capital of the northern Ming Kingdom, trying to stop Bill before he could meet the Ming Emperor.

Bill, who wandered around the capital, has long since forgotten about Taiwan, and he once thought that Amsterdam was the richest and most prosperous city in the world.

Although when he first arrived in Taiwan, he also heard those Fujian businessmen from the mainland talk about the prosperous scene of Suzhou and Hangzhou, but he thought that these were just exaggerated bragging.

With a population of less than 100,000, Amsterdam is one of Europe's most prosperous cities. A city of Suzhou is home to nearly a million people, do these Ming people know what the concept of 1 million is?

But Bill's self-confidence, from the moment he got off the ship in Tianjin, was gradually undermined. The city of Tianjin alone has already surpassed the population of Amsterdam, and this is not the most prosperous city in the Ming Kingdom.

When the magnificent Beijing city wall appeared in front of him, he understood why these Ming people called Beijing the city where the gods lived.

Bill once saw the city of Paris built by Henry IV, known to the French as "Henry the Wise".

The founder of the Bourbon dynasty won the hearts and minds of the French people with his famous phrase "Let every French peasant have a chicken in his pot".

There is no European who has seen the city of Paris that he built without praising its grandeur. But compared with the capital of the Ming Kingdom, the city of Paris of Henry IV was just a shabby castle of a country lord.

And another thing that makes Paris incomparable to Beijing is that the streets of this city do not have the spectacle of and urine that is often seen in Paris.

Compared to the city of Beijing, Paris resembles a huge, foul-smelling toilet. Of course, in Bill's view, although Beijing is cleaner than Paris, there is still a certain gap compared with Amsterdam. But he selectively forgets that Amsterdam is a coastal city.

However, in addition to these, what impressed him the most was the exquisite tableware and exquisite food of the Ming people. He thought it was a feast in Europe that even kings could not enjoy.

In Europe, a dinner party of the King of France, who is considered to be the most knowledgeable about eating, consists of a crowd sitting around a napkin at a walnut table, on a splendid Venetian brocade tablecloth, filled with silver cutlery and crystal wine glasses.

Dishes to eat: Four plates of first courses, four bowls of soup, a variety of boiled meats, and a variety of roasts. The ingredients used to make these dishes are: a piece of tender beef, a piece of lamb tenderloin, a steer, a slice of veal, three boy chickens, a lamb's elbow, two game, a slice of veal loin, and three wild pigeons.

And at an informal banquet in the Ming Kingdom, on brocades, more splendid than Venetian brocades, various fine porcelain objects were placed with the names of dishes that Bill did not recognize. He felt like a country boy who had just walked into Amsterdam.