Imperial Palace, Chongzheng Hall.

The official Zhao Ji sat upright on the imperial throne, with a solemn appearance and a look of a wise monarch.

In the main hall, the prime minister, Privy Councillor, Censor, Hanlin scholar, Zhongshu Sheren and other important officials were either sitting upright above the throne, standing respectfully and solemnly, or standing up to speak.

The speaker was Jiang Zhiqi, a Hanlin Bachelor and Tongzhi Privy Council member.

The content of Mr. Jiang's speech was related to "North Grain Transportation South". During the Yuanfeng period, he served as deputy six-way transportation envoy and six-way transportation envoy for many years, and he also had great achievements. During his tenure, he presided over the digging of a new river from the left of Guishan Mountain to Hongze Lake, which not only increased the transportation capacity of the canal, but also diverted the Huaihe River and reduced the flood. Therefore, he was a recognized expert in grain transportation. He saw the suggestion of "North Grain Transportation South" in the newspaper and thought it was very insightful, so he submitted a memorial to request trial.

However, he did not agree with the Jiehe Maritime Shipping Department to preside over the transportation of grain in the north and south, but advocated the management of the Sixth Route Shipping Department. The reason is also very simple. The amount of grain transported by the Sixth Route Shipping Department depends not only on the carrying capacity of the canal, but also on the amount of rice grain purchased by the Sixth Route Shipping Department. Of the sixth or seventh stones of rice grain supplied on the Sixth Route, the purchase amount is about one or two million stones, and the rest are taxes collected. If the transportation volume of millions of stones a year is to be increased, the Sixth Route Shipping Department must buy more rice grains, build more ships, and also consider the grain production situation of the Southeast Sixth Route. In short, it is a very troublesome thing...

Of course, Old Man Jiang, who talked endlessly, wouldn't know that Wu Haogu, a treacherous minister, did not consider buying a lot of grain from the Southeast Sixth Route, at all, traveling from the sea route north. The suggestions for transporting rice and grain from Haizhou north in Wenquxing Xunbao are all deceptive. The grain prices in Haizhou are not low, and the sea route to bypass the Shandong Peninsula is too long. Although it doesn't take much time under the wind, it is easy to go to sea accidents when the route is long. Adding up various factors, the cost of transporting grain is not low. So where can the Jiehe Maritime Shipping Office make huge profits?

Wu Haogu’s real plan was to ask the court for the price of grain from Haizhou in the name of transporting grain from Haizhou in the north, and then buy small amounts of grain from Haizhou in the sea to north, and buy a large amount of grain from Tokyo Road in the Liao Kingdom.

Tokyo Road, Liao Kingdom, was later the Northeast granary. The land was fertile and sparsely populated. Large areas of black soil have not been developed, and there is a lot of room for increased production. Moreover, there are Liaohe water transportation and Bohai Bay shipping, so the transportation cost is not high.

If the Jiehe Shibushi purchased wheat from the Liao Dynasty in Jiehe Market to replace rice from the southeast of the Song Dynasty, and then the price was set by referring to the cost of buying rice from the Southeast Sixth Road. Then, just 700,000 shi per year (200,000 shi from Haizhou) of Tokyo Road wheat can be purchased at 200,000 shi per year, so that the Jiehe Shibushi can eat the price difference of hundreds of thousands of yuan!

Song Huizong didn't know Wu Haogu's plan now, so he felt that what Jiang Zhiqi said was still reasonable. However, he did not make a decision immediately. Instead, after Jiang Zhiqi finished speaking, he thought without complaint and led the topic to a strange case.

"I wonder if you know that a strange case of a dead man marrying two wives in Kaifeng Mansion recently?"

Hearing Zhao Ji's words, the old party members present felt a little shocked.

Recently, more than one strange case of a dead man marrying two wives has been found in Kaifeng Prefecture! If this strange case outside the palace finally determines that the reunion between Yu and the dead Chen Dalang is invalid, then what should Queen Meng in the palace do?

If it is determined that Yu and his dead husband are effective, it is equivalent to admitting that one husband can have two wives and the dead can marry a living person... Then, is there any more Confucian human ethics? If human ethics is not allowed to become a beast? For the sake of Empress Meng, it is not okay to let everyone be a beast!

This is really difficult to deal with!

"Your Majesty," said the second prime minister Zeng Bu. "I know about this case. I think that although the separation between Yu and Chen Dalang is inappropriate, it is even more absurd to get back together after Chen Dalang's death. How can a dead person marry a living person? How can a husband marry two wives? Such practices are contrary to human ethics, and it is the ignorant old woman who is doing the love of a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Kaifeng Mansion cannot destroy the human ethics.

"Since Heli is inappropriate, it should be invalid." Han Zhongyan gritted his teeth and spoke, "So Yu has always been Chen Dalang's wife, and the Wang family he married later should not be regarded as the wife!"

Zhao Tingzhi, the chief censor, interjected: "It's not appropriate to separate the family. How can it be invalid with the documents of Kaifeng Prefecture as evidence? And Wang's entry has three media and six entries, and all etiquette and laws are complete. How can he not be a good wife? If the wife married by the three media and six entries is not counted, then the human relationship is not bad?"

Fan Chunli from the old party also stood up and spoke: "The way of marriage should follow his parents. Chen Dalang disobeyed his mother's order and abandoned his family, which is unfilial. When our filial piety ruled the world, we should be sentenced to divorce ineffective, so Yu is Chen Dalang's official wife."

"There are three kinds of unfilial piety, and no descendants are the greatest!" Li Qingchen, a new party, took over the topic and said, "The Yu family was abandoned because they had no son, and Chen Dalang's actions were in line with filial piety. At that time, Chen's mother did not raise any objections in Kaifeng Prefecture, so Chen Dalang could not be judged as unfilial. Later, Chen's mother advocated that Chen Yu and the two reunited because Chen Dalang had no descendants until his death. It can be seen that the root of the lack of descendants was not in the Yu family, and Chen's mother and Yu family were in love with mother and daughter, so they took Yu back. Although the divorce was unfair to the Yu family, it did not violate the filial piety. Moreover, Chen Dalang also took out funds to properly resettle the Yu family's life, so it did not violate the three things that did not leave. Therefore, the separation between Chen Dalang and Yu family is completely legal and valid."

Of course, the reason for this matter is on the side of Wang! He Tianran and He Dasheng's salary of 3,000 yuan a year is not for nothing! So the gentlemen of the old party can't say that they are treacherous officials of the new party. Moreover... the gentlemen of the old party are not gold medal lawyers! This is good for them to be the officials who were admitted to the imperial examination, but the imperial examinations in the Song Dynasty did not take the law. Although they would conduct legal training and assessments after high school, this kind of training and assessment is often a formality and cannot make officials become experts in law.

Moreover, Confucian officials' legal awareness is usually weak, which is related to the way of confucianism that neglects law and emphasizes education.

At the same time, the lawyers of the Song Dynasty had undergone special "litigation" training, specialized textbooks, special guilds, and masters and apprentices. They were already more sophisticated than monkeys.

How could officials have played with litigation sticks? So, under the forced urgency, the Song Dynasty court had to issue the provisions of "reporting things without doing their own law" to suppress litigation sticks. However, this law can only compress the space for litigation sticks in the hall, write paper, serial confession, find loopholes, find evidence and other legal activities, and still require litigation sticks.

Wu Haogu has reached a new level of play and has hired "permanent legal counsel". Any contract signed by the Republican Bank and subordinate business banks, Wu's accountants and Wu Haogu himself must be reviewed or drafted by the litigation team.

He even hired a full-time litigation team for Jiehe Chamber of Commerce, Jiehe Shang City Senate and Jiehe Shang Municipal Office, including not only litigants who were proficient in the laws of the Song Dynasty, but also litigants from Liao Kingdom invited from Xijin Prefecture.

The "internal regulations" of Jiehe Commercial City are also formulated by the litigation team first, and then discussed and voted by the Senate.

...

The result of the right question in Chongzheng Hall will definitely be very unfavorable to the old party and Empress Meng. Even if Han Zhongyan and Fan Chunren have tried their best to talk, they will ultimately be unreasonable.

Zuo Zhengyan, Ren Boyu, who was listening to the question, frowned and left the Chongzheng Hall. When he returned to the General Office of the Menxia Province speechlessly, he had not yet thought about how to fight back against the treacherous minister of the new party and the villain Wu Haogu, a clerk came to report that his second son Ren Shenxian had arrived and was waiting outside the Youye Gate.

"What's the matter?" Ren Boyu frowned. His son was studying in the Imperial Academy. It's almost noon now. If he doesn't work hard, why did he come to find his father?

"Just say that there is something important." The clerk replied.

"It's important?"

Ren Boyu thought for a while and said, "Tell him to wait, I will go to see him soon."

After saying that, Ren Boyu took care of some important official duties, then went out to the door and went straight to the right gate. He saw his son standing under the shade of the tree and hiding from the sun outside the palace gate.

"Erlang, what happened?" Ren Boyu walked over quickly and asked the first question without waiting for his son to bow.

Ren Shen looked around first, and it seemed very mysterious. Seeing that there were no idle people waiting, he whispered: "Dad, Ji Yi is going to surrender to the old party..."

"What are you saying?" Ren Boyu glared at his son fiercely, "How can there be an old party? There is only one fickle party in the court now!"

"My son has lost his words," Ren Shenxian was scolded by me and quickly changed his words, "It's Ji Yi who wants to expose Zhang Dun's crime!"

"What a secret?" Ren Boyu was stunned, "Isn't he Zhang Dun's grandson-in-law? Why do you want to expose Yue Zuzhang? Could it be a trap?"

"this……"

"What crime is it?"

Ren Shenxian gritted his teeth and said, "Rebellion!"

"Planning...rebellion?" Ren Boyu widened his eyes, "How is this possible?"

Zhang Dun is a treacherous minister, but he is loyal to Song Zhezong, a foolish monarch! How could he be rebelled? When Song Zhezong was alive, he was the "second emperor". He said that Song Zhezong would do whatever he said, and he would still be able to rebel? Besides, he did not have the strength to rebel... This crime was a false accusation, how could the current officials believe it?

"I don't know," Ren Shenxian shook his head, "but that guy Ji Yi said there is ironclad evidence!"

Is there any ironclad evidence?

Ren Boyu took a breath and thought in his mind. Rebellion is a huge case! If Zhang Dun really rebelled, then there must be a party. How can one fight against one person? He has no military power, how many elite soldiers can a bad old man beat up?

If you want to arrest Zhang Dun's accomplices... you must be arrested in the camp of the traitors of Xining! Zeng Bu, Cai Jing, An Tao, Jiang Zhiqi, Zhang Shangying, they are all suspects of rebellion. Even if they don't catch them, they have to stand aside.

Then the old party, oh, without the old party, wouldn’t the non-party gentleman in the court have won a great victory?
Chapter completed!