Chapter 567: Really good at bragging
In front of the tent, the traitor's staff reported to Hubli: Based on the latest intelligence, Meng Gong and Cao Heizi should be in Chang'an. The secret report said that Cao Heizi was so angry that he vomited blood after being insulted by their queen mother. It was really unexpected.
In the battle of Nailong Mountain, so many of our men died but we still failed to kill Cao Heizi to the point of vomiting blood. Now, an old woman who was barely able to even tie a chicken was able to seriously injure Cao Heizi with just a few words. Haha, it's true that there's always someone to defeat. If there were more women and children like this, the New Song Dynasty would be in trouble.
Tachaer laughed loudly upon hearing this and told Hubili: Zhao Qier was probably worried about the instability in Chengdu and didn't dare to come out. He is now vigorously promoting the construction of railways and trains in Chengdu and all the merchants are donating money.
It is said that the bull can carry 500,000 to 800,000 kilograms of coal in one trip.
Where in the world can one find such a brute force?
Zhao Qi'er was really good at bragging, and the people from all over the New Song Dynasty believed him. They rushed to donate money and materials to support Zhao Qi'er in building railways. But how much refined iron would be needed to cast rails and lay them on the road for traffic?
The traitor's staff immediately cursed: Damn it.
The New Song Kingdom has banned maritime trade and is not allowed to sell refined iron to our empire. I heard that some families on our grassland don’t even have iron pots and can only use clay jars to boil water and cook.
It's so abominable.
Tacaer spread his hands and said: There is no way. The empire lacks fine iron. All the iron tools in every household have been collected to make arrows, swords and guns, but they are still not enough for consumption on the battlefield.
Hubili said calmly: "How Zhao Yulin wants to do it is that guy's business. We need to add more manpower to our iron ore mining, and we also need to overhaul the blast furnace to smelt iron and cast weapons. The Shenwei Army may launch an attack soon, so we must hurry up."
Everyone responded with a “yes”.
At this time, Zhao Yulin had already returned to Chengdu. When Li Zhongmian knew that he had returned home, he accompanied Ding Gong to his house overnight to talk to him. The two old men blamed themselves for not managing Taijiantang well and causing trouble for the court.
Zhao Yulin was very satisfied with the two elders' awareness and told them not to worry about it. Taijiantang had gathered a large number of officials from the previous dynasty, and they had to strengthen their studies and make great efforts to reform them so that their thoughts could keep up with the development of the new Song society.
He said as he poked his head with his finger.
Mr. Ding understood immediately, and said with a smile that it would not be possible for the two of them to accomplish this task alone, and that their brother needed to step up.
Zhao Yulin smiled. This old man was a person who didn't take responsibility.
He asked Ding Gong to go back to hold a meeting to discuss and determine the level of the investigators, dividing them into first, second, third, and fourth level investigators. Shi Gong allowed his eldest son to incite students to take to the streets to cause trouble, create chaos and plot restoration, and must be punished. He proposed to demote him to a third-level investigator to see the effect.
Yangjin and Zhao Feiyan on the side both nodded, thinking that Zhao Yulin's idea was very good. It did not handle the case openly in the Censorate and gave enough face to Shi's son.
Li Zhongmian also nodded continuously, thinking that Shi's son was the mastermind behind the chaos in the court. The court showed special mercy and demoted him instead of executing him, which was absolutely magnanimous.
Zhao Yulin told them: This is not the previous dynasty, we will not commit serious crimes that will lead to death. However, there must be punishment for mistakes, and rewards and punishments must be clear.
Mr. Shi did make contributions to the peaceful unification of Jiangdong. Considering his contributions to the court, we will give him a lenient sentence. This will also let the people of the world see that our new Song court loves peace and is inclusive.
The next day, the Central Council held a meeting.
Yang Jin explained the Ministry of Personnel's strategy on optimizing the rank setting of research officials. All the officials nodded in agreement, believing that there were hundreds of research officials in Taijiantang with varying abilities and qualifications, and that they should indeed be subject to detailed and graded management.
Zhao Yulin then introduced the investigation of the case of students taking to the streets to cause trouble and put forward suggestions on how to deal with Shi’s son.
Hua Yue was the first to disagree. He believed that since Shi's son was plotting to bring disaster to the court, not executing him was already a leniency. Moreover, he was allowed to retain his official position. Such a punishment was too light and difficult to convince others.
The gentlemen all looked at each other and around in confusion.
Yu Jie also thought that the demotion punishment for Shi's son was too light, and not making it public in the newspapers and criticizing him was indeed too lenient. At the very least, he should be removed from his post and expelled back to Jiangdong.
He coughed twice and said: Indeed, if he was in the hands of the previous officials, even if he was not beheaded, he would be imprisoned for ten or twenty years. But our New Song Dynasty court handles cases according to the law. This time, the students in Chengdu were misled to go to the streets cause trouble. The court acted in time, and there were no casualties or major property losses, and it did not cause much harm.
If we dismiss this person and expel him back to Jiangdong, it will be inconvenient to control his movements, so it is better for him to stay in the capital. We also need to raise the banner of Mr. Shi, so that people all over the world can see the tolerance of the New Song Dynasty and let more people with lofty ideals join our big family of the New Song Dynasty.
Zhao Feiyan immediately smiled and said: At present, there are still many people in Hedong and Hebei who are loyal to our new Song Dynasty. We must let them see the magnanimity and tolerance of the new Song Dynasty. Reduce the killing and speed up the recovery of lost territory.
Fan Zhong and Du Fan followed suit and expressed their support for the Ministry of Personnel's refinement of the research ranks and agreed with the demotion of Shi's son.
Zhao Feiyan laughed and said that the matter was barely passed, and let's discuss the next topic.
She looked up at Mr. Qiu from the Ministry of Works, and the old man immediately started talking incessantly about the Ministry of Works' plans for the construction of the railway from Jiayangzhai and Xinshi to Jianwei.
In Taijian Hall, Mr. Ding was also holding a meeting.
Shi's son knew that he had planned the riot among the students in Chengdu, and his plan to restore the monarchy had been exposed, so he had been locking himself up in his mansion, trembling with fear and not daring to go out. When he heard the message from the office of Taijiantang about a meeting, he became nervous, fearing that Zhao Yulin would arrest him in public and put him in jail.
After much deliberation, he decided that hiding at home would be a disaster, so he reluctantly walked to Taijian Hall, where he was surprised to find that his nameplate was still there and no one from the Central Court had come to preside over the meeting.
This guy calmed himself down and sat down, picking up the tea bowl and drinking tea as if nothing had happened, while flipping through the topic document in front of him. He found it very interesting that Taijiantang was going to set up four levels of research officials to refine the research management.
After Ding Gong and Li Zhongmian explained the purpose and significance, they asked for his opinion. He kept saying it was a good idea and strongly supported it.
Then, Mr. Ding began to introduce his opinions on how to deal with Shi's son, telling everyone: the case of the students causing trouble and plotting a restoration had been completely solved, and Commander Zhao of the Central Council believed that Mr. Shi had made contributions to the unification of Jiangdong, and he would give a light punishment for a serious crime, and demoted Mr. Shi to a third-level research official and continue to retain him in Kyoto.
Moreover, the Central Council took into account the reputation of Taijiantang and Mr. Shi and did not make public criticism in the newspapers.
Everyone then suddenly realized that the position of fourth-level research official was specially set up to deal with Shi's son.
At this moment, the guy had collapsed on the armchair.
Mr. Ding asked him if he had any other opinions and asked him to share them.
That guy's mind is dizzy and wandering.
Seeing that he was stunned, Li Zhongmian became displeased and said heavily: The court is so tolerant, why doesn't Mr. Shi show some gesture?
Shi's son suddenly woke up and trembled and said: "Shi thanks all the adults for their concern and the court for not killing me. He has been staying at home in anxiety these days. Today, the court has decided the punishment, and he fully accepts it. He will definitely change his ways and be a good research official."
Mr. Ding was very dissatisfied and thought that Shi's son should have confessed his guilt long ago.
He said to Shi's son: "Every household is supporting the government to build trains and railways, but Shi has not taken any action yet. As the saying goes, if there is gold and silver at home, there is a steelyard next door. It is said that Shi brought a lot of gold and silver from Jiangdong to Chengdu. Why not set an example for others and donate some to help the government build railways?"
Shi's son was heartbroken when he heard this. Not only was he demoted, but his son was also imprisoned, and now he was asked to donate gold and silver. This was like asking for his life.
However, seeing that everyone was looking at him, nodding, and whispering, it seemed that they all knew that he had made a lot of gold, silver and treasures in Lin'an, so he had to admit it.
However, we have to admit that this is called buying life with money.
Shi's son immediately stated that his donation to build railways and trains would benefit the present and future generations, and he would clean up the mess when he got back and donate the gold and silver in his home to help the court's major transportation reform.
Mr. Ding said happily: That's right, Mr. Shi is very wise, and Commander Zhao really did not make a mistake in choosing the right person.
Haha, this old man kicked the ball back to Zhao Yulin again. It was obvious that he and Li Zhongmian had planned to extort money from Shi's son, but wanted Zhao Yulin to take the blame.
After the meeting, the Taijian Hall became lively. Everyone was discussing the rank assessment of the research officials. Who would be the first-level research, who would be the third-level, and who would be the fourth-level research? Even if it was just a small change, the different levels and different salaries would definitely create a big gap.
Zhao Yulin probably didn't expect that the little game he came up with to help the Ministry of Personnel in order to deal with Shi's son would actually focus everyone's attention in Taijian Hall. Everyone stopped staring at the empress dowager and the official's group in Huaxi Villa and started to care about their own positions and titles.
Old Mrs. Xie from Huaxi Village dismissed all the staff in the villa. Although the yard was quiet, she couldn't find anyone to work. She even didn't know that bath water could be poured directly into the toilet, so she asked the old maid to take out buckets of water to dump it. It was a waste of effort and a huge joke.
These days, the attendants, maids and imperial concubines have all been exhausted like dogs.
There is no shortage of things to do, including washing clothes, cooking, sweeping, scrubbing the floor, and flushing the toilet. Everything requires people to do it, and it is a bit difficult with only a few people in such a big yard.
The Empress Dowager and the Emperor had extremely high requirements for environmental hygiene, and the basic requirement was that it was spotless. Especially in the toilets with ceramic squat toilets, the Emperor could not stand the slightest stain, and would only go in to admire and relax after it was scrubbed clean.
The imperial concubine was so busy that she went back with a sore back and complained to the empress dowager that she was treated like a servant. Feiyan had clearly arranged maids for her, so why should we do it ourselves?
The emperor was too lazy to listen to her nagging, he just wanted to feel comfortable.
