Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 423 Guidance Work
The improvement of women's status was a natural result of the rise of workshops and the expansion of the female worker group.
It's just that now that the "supernatural" phenomenon has appeared, Bai Tu is in a dilemma...
When workshops emerge in the future and more and more professional workers appear, they will need to move away from the countryside and live in cities. The court will then push for the establishment of a social system based on the "family" and marginalize the "clan". This kind of problem will be much easier to solve.
By then, firstly, away from the clan soil, labor will definitely be carried out by couples, or their own "small families"; secondly, women are also important workers and an important source of family income. Even if the government does not promote it, corresponding thoughts will naturally emerge. At this time, if the court promotes it, even the liberation movement can be saved.
Ten years later, change is a natural thing, but thirty years later, the court will face pressure if it does not want to change!
It hasn't developed to that stage yet, but the Chu court must first trace back to the source - this is also Bai Tu's advantage, it can compress the process of each step of development and there is no need to wait until it is forced to change. For Bai Tu... there is nothing easier than maintaining "advancedness".
Bai Tu waited in Wancheng for half a month. The county magistrate of Jiyanggu was dismissed, the chief clerk was imprisoned, and the county magistrate voluntarily retired under the strict investigation of the Ministry of Personnel. After the public opinion in Nanyang was shocked, Bai Tu set out south and came to Jiyanggu.
This move really caught many people off guard and made some people's previous plans go awry.
If Bai Tu had focused on fundamentally denying the legitimacy of the clan system, it would have been a big step and would have caused some trouble. If he had let it go lightly, or if Bai Tu had personally come to handle the matter, it would have weakened the confidence of the Ministry of Justice, and the local conservative forces would have been more aggressive, and they might even dare to resume lynching...
However, Bai Tu directly avoided the conflicting points, put the Deng family's affairs on hold, and instead followed the clues to uncover the whole Jiyang County's secrets and make a warning!
All the county officials involved, including the county magistrate, must account for every grain of rice in their homes, otherwise... they will all be treated as having accepted bribes.
Otherwise, how could Deng's little tricks be sentenced so severely?
When the Jiyang County Magistrate saw this situation, he was so frightened that he immediately resigned from his post, fearing that he would be implicated.
The core conflict, "whether the elders in the clan have official notarial power", was not dealt with in depth, effectively preventing the situation from escalating. The clan member who had contacted the county official has now been thrown in jail and there is no hope of getting him out...
In fact, Deng has already regretted it now.
Dozens of hectares of land are not a small number, but compared with the consequences now, what are dozens of hectares of land?
And shelving it does not mean letting them go completely. Now Wang and her youngest son Deng Ai are still special protected victims of the Ministry of Justice.
When Bai Tu arrived at Jiyang, he pretended to be surprised and asked the new acting county magistrate, "Huh? It's not the time for the Ministry of Personnel to transfer, why did Jiyang replace the county magistrate with Chen?"
"Reporting to the king, Magistrate Lu suddenly fell ill last month. Thanks to the trust of the officials of the Ministry of Personnel and the prefect Chen, Zhen is temporarily taking over as the magistrate of Ji Yang. I am stupid and dull, but I can use my strong strength. I hope to live up to the people, the State of Chu, and the king." Chen Zhen said.
Chen Zhen is a native of Nanyang, and like Li Yan, he is from Yuyang, Nanyang. They are also about the same age, about 27 or 28 years old.
He had some fame in the local area, but had not been recruited by Liu Biao before. When the Recruitment Hall of the General's Mansion had just opened and the country had not yet been established, Chen Zhen responded actively.
As for "Chen Taishou", he refers to Chen Gong, who was nominally the Taishou of Nanyang.
This was because it was necessary to reduce as much as possible the number of military officers serving as local chief officials in preparation for the six ministries going down to the counties in the future, and... Zhang Xiu was indeed not fit to be a prefect, so the prefect of Nanyang had to be replaced long ago.
Originally, Bai Tu proposed Jia Xu, but Jia Xu himself stayed away from such things, so he changed it to Chen Gong.
Of course, Chen Gong still mainly stayed in the Privy Council of Nanjing, and was just a figurehead in Nanyang.
The powers of ordinary prefects are divided, let alone Nanyang... The population of Nanyang County is as large as half a state. It is the second center of the Eastern Han Dynasty. If a prefect with real power is established, what is the difference between that and appointing a governor as a governor?
Considering that Chen Zhen was born in Nanyang, it would be easier for him to gain recognition from the people of Jiyang, and he had a clean background - the Chen family of Nanyang was not a big aristocratic family, and Chen Zhen had a high degree of recognition of the State of Chu... The Ministry of Personnel ordered him to temporarily serve as the magistrate of Jiyang.
In history, Chen Zhen was also an important official of Shu Han, rising to the rank of Shangshu Ling. He did not have a good relationship with his fellow countryman Li Yan, and was somewhat sharp-tongued. The idiom "having scales on the belly" was coined by Chen Zhen to describe Li Yan, a person who was difficult to get along with.
"Okay, I heard that you, Xiaoqi, are the first batch of talents recruited by the Naxian Hall in Nanyang? Yes, Nanyang is a place with good feng shui. If the talents in Nanyang treat the affairs of the Chu State as their own affairs like Xiaoqi, then there is no need to worry about the prosperity of the Chu State!" Bai Tu pretended to have just heard about it and praised Chen Zhen.
"By the way, there seems to be a lot of personnel changes in Ji Yang recently. Is it because of a certain case? Xiaoqi, can you tell me in detail?" Bai Tu asked with concern.
Upon hearing this, Chen Zhen naturally told the story of the Deng family.
At this time, Chen Zhen was not playing alone. He was surrounded by other local officials and village elders who came to welcome the King of Chu, as well as officials from the six ministries who had been busy accompanying him to Ji Yang during this period.
The previous warning was loud enough to scare the tiger. Now Bai Tu is just guiding the work, not handling special matters.
When Bai Tu mentioned this matter, everyone became secretly concerned.
From Chen Zhen's words alone, one could not tell any tendency. He just explained the reasons of both sides very clearly and impartially.
There is nothing anyone can find wrong or even anything to add.
After hearing this, Bai Tu specifically asked: "When was this oral will made, when did the person die, and when was the property divided?"
"According to the contract, he made his will on February 15, passed away on February 16, and the land deed was changed " Chen Zhen answered fluently.
"Well, I remember the last time I came to Ji Yang was in July. At that time, the Ministry of Personnel had just completed the training of county officials for less than a month, and the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Rites were still going from village to village to promote the new laws and rural schools... So, it was not unforgivable that Deng did not find the county official to notarize in February." Bai Tu said after thinking for a while.
But before anyone else could say anything, Bai Tu spoke first: "However, the requirements for county officials were repeatedly announced before the founding of the country. Before the training, I can accept the chaos, but I cannot accept false testimony! In addition... Died on February 17, and made a will on February 15?"
"Your Majesty, please allow me to report that the elders of the Deng family are all highly respected people in the village and will never give evidence rashly." The newly appointed county magistrate stepped forward and said.
Chen Zhen had already been appointed by the Ministry of Personnel, so naturally the county magistrate was recommended by the local prominent families. This was also a kind of balance.
Moreover, Bai Tu also knew the name of this county magistrate - Guo Youzhi.
There is no separate biography of him in history books, but he appeared as a minor character in the biographies of Zhuge Liang, Liao Li and Dong Yun. Generally speaking... he was considered a person that Zhuge Liang took a fancy to.
Guo Youzhi was not opposed to the national policy of the State of Chu, nor did he have any major opinions about the King of Chu. It was just that from his point of view, he did not think that the elders of the Deng family would give false testimony.
“Let’s not talk about the matter of morality for now. I dare not say that my own morality can be more reliable than the Chu Law.
What's more... I heard that when Wei Wuzi was seriously ill, he instructed his son Wei Ke not to bury his beautiful concubine with him. But later when he was terminally ill, he changed his mind and ordered Wei Ke to bury the concubine with him... But in the end, Wei Ke remarried his father's concubine because he believed that the latter will was given by his father when he was unconscious.
Since the deceased's widow has objections, the criminal department should continue to investigate in detail!" Bai Tu said directly.
