Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen Opening Up the Wilderness

"Your Majesty, do you care, or don't you?" Xiao Yu asked Li Shimin decisively with an aggrieved expression. "Some of these things have to be managed, but you have to find out before you ask the crime." "Your Majesty, you are trying to excuse the villains! Your Majesty, I am angry, and I am dissatisfied!" "Whether you are satisfied or not, you have to go home and rest first, and see how I will deal with it tomorrow." So Xiao Yu left, full of dissatisfaction. He kept imagining how Li Shimin would punish Wei Zheng during the several doors on his way home from the palace.

The next day, at the meeting, Xiao Yu seemed very happy for the first time. However, he waited for a long time, and when the matter was finished, he still did not wait for Li Shimin to issue any punishment decision.Alas, to be honest, Li Shimin didn't want to ask about such nonsense. Facing the resolute Xiao Yu, he decided to ignore it. Li Shimin kept a rare silence. Xiao Yu was upset, he showed an unhappy expression, as if telling others: Am I wrong? Seeing that Li Shimin didn't intend to say punishment, student Xiao Yu couldn't help but speak: "Wei Zheng, Fang Xuanling, Wen Yanbo, did they do anything wrong?"

"Wrong." "Should there be any mistakes?" "Should." "Then why does the emperor still protect them?" "Scatter!" When everyone was laughing and scattered, Xiao Yu stood there aggrieved, refusing to move.He was really sad, so sad, he calculated carefully, since he took part in the government, most of his opinions and suggestions were ignored by Li Shimin, this life is really uncomfortable.Today is not as good as in the past, thinking back when the late emperor was in power, even if Xiao Yu's words were wrong, no one would treat him like this.

The world has changed. Unable to bear the feeling of being left out in the cold, Xiao Yu thought it over and felt that there was no need to hang on to the court.He wrote a letter, voluntarily resigning from the ranks of imperial historians, and only served as the prince's Shao Fu, no longer interfering with government affairs.After all, classmate Xiao Yu knew that although Li Shimin was suspected of abusing him, he still cherished talents. He wrote a letter to express his heart, and the emperor hesitated for a while, but he would definitely keep him as a talent in the end. So he wrote the book like this.

But what Xiao Yu didn't expect was that Li Shimin breathed a sigh of relief and agreed directly! directly agreed... It seems that the morals of the world have really changed. The vigorous Xiao Yu decided to use this kind of tribulation to sharpen his character, so he obediently went to work in the East Palace. After dismissing this annoying spirit, Li Shimin planned to do a big thing. He looked at the civil and military officials under the court, and there was a ripple in his heart.Since ancient times, the clothes of all officials have been of the same color, which has been a rule for thousands of years.Since Li Yuan issued the clothing edict in the fourth year of Wude, the clothes of emperors and officials have been fixed.Wu De's clothing edict, in addition to stipulating the emperor's attire, also listed the precautions for the officials to dress.Generally speaking, there are ten styles of dresses for the officials, but there is no difference in the color of the official uniforms.

In this way, all the officials are crowded together. If the emperor's brain is not good enough, he really doesn't know what the job of the person who is on the show is, and which department he belongs to. Therefore, one day in August, Li Shimin suddenly issued an edict announcing: Starting today, officials of the third rank and above wear purple; officials of the fourth and fifth ranks wear dark red; sixth and seventh ranks wear green; eighth ranks wear blue; as for the women's clothes when they visit the assembly, they all follow their husbands. Li Shimin's move was once accused by people of insight as "creating a strict social hierarchy".

After Li Yuan promulgated the imperial edict, it became very easy to distinguish the functions and powers of hundreds of officials. On the basis of his father, Li Shimin perfected the matching of authority and clothing color. If some people were upset by Li Shimin's actions in this matter, then his next actions would make them unbearable. Considering that people will migrate for various reasons, for example, people from the Central Plains want to develop in the Western Regions, and Hu people yearn for Chang'an, so they have to go through the border.After the disaster year, he demanded that all border officials refrain from obstructing the movement of refugees.A country that cannot retain its people is not a good country. Li Shimin is very confident in himself.After the refugee incident, Li Shimin ordered to open up wasteland in some places.

This land reclamation is of great significance, because these two locations, one is Feizhou and the other is Yizhou. Feizhou was originally a barren land, where the exiled prisoners usually arrived in Lingnan, which is equivalent to today's Guizhou. Yizhou is a place farther south than Lingnan, separated by a sea. Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty once sent people to fight. This place has another name, it is called "Ryukyu". During the Daye years, Comrade Yang Guang played Ryukyu three times. The first time, because of the language barrier, the army crossed the sea and took only one person abducted; the second time, after the army finished fighting, in order to express comfort, only the spears and sticks of the Ryukyu natives were confiscated; the third time, Huben Lang The general led a large army to conquer, and thousands of men and women were captured and retreated.For the third time, in order to solve the language barrier between the Ryukyu natives, Huben Lang deliberately found a South China Sea Kunlun (similar to Babuyan, Filipino, and Malaysian) in the army. It is said that he can speak the Ryukyu native dialect. communicate.

During the Zhenguan period, Ryukyu had become the Yizhou of the Tang Dynasty. Later, we called Yizhou Taiwan. At the beginning, Li Shimin complained to Wei Zheng, "It's really difficult to teach after the chaos. Now that the world has just stabilized, I'm afraid it will be very difficult." Wei Zheng didn't seem to like to give Li Shimin face. I don’t understand, Wei Zheng went on to explain, “The people who have lived in peace are arrogant and extravagant, and it is difficult to teach them; the people who have been in trouble are sad, and the sorrow is easy to change. It’s like eating delicious things for hungry people. The current situation can’t be better. !"

Wei Zheng's insight was so sharp, which made Li Shimin very satisfied. However, at that time there was a man named Feng Deyi who strongly opposed this. He said in an unquestionable and knowledgeable tone: "After the war, people's hearts are cunning. Therefore, the Qin Dynasty strictly enforced the law, and the Han Dynasty adopted domineering. Why? It was forced to do so because of failure to educate. We are like this now. That's how it should be done!" He glanced at Wei Zheng, and said in an old man's tone: "Wei Zheng is a scholar who doesn't know current affairs. If you listen to his false words, the country will be defeated, Your Majesty!"

Wei Zheng accepted the move and took advantage of the situation to retort, "Did the Three Emperors and Five Emperors educate their people, did they all come here in peace? According to Deyi, the ancients were simple, but today's people are cunning. Thousands of years have passed, and today's people have not yet become goblins." How can the ruler rule, how can the world be peaceful!" Feng Deyi could not refute. The imperial court began to educate according to Wei Zheng's suggestion and set up schools widely. In addition to education, for a country to function normally, there must be penalties. At first, in order to experience the cruelty of the punishment, Mr. Li Shimin went to the place where the punishment was carried out to watch it.It was also a coincidence that the prisoner did something shameful that day and was to be punished by the toe.Toe punishment, as the name suggests, is to cut off the prisoner's toes.If that's all, it's really not too much. After all, in ancient times when corporal punishment was legalized, this was already very benevolent. However, Chinese characters are extensive and profound, and there is a situation in which the scope of word meanings expands. Toe punishment, in ancient times, was actually the torture of breaking the foot. Take a machete to cut off the prisoner's feet directly, and the prisoner will never be able to walk normally again in this life.Li Shimin came to the scene in person, and after watching it, he was depressed for a long time. He ran to the Ministry of Criminal Justice and asked the officials of the Ministry of Criminal Justice: "Who invented this torture of cutting off feet?" "Return to Your Majesty, Yin Shang will have it, it is not a specialty of our dynasty." "I... I think it's better to abolish it and change it to another form. This is really cruel." After returning to the palace, Li Shimin thought about it, but he still couldn't sit still, so he found someone who was familiar with the law and read a lot of codes.He did this in order to find a crueler punishment than breaking his feet.For this reason, he personally waived dozens of death penalty convictions and changed the death penalty to life imprisonment.In the case of strict laws, it is necessary to subtract those extremely cruel physical injuries.Disclaimer: The era of lax laws is another story. On the way back from his inspection tour in Longxi, Li Shimin picked up a copy of "Mingtang Acupuncture Book" that he carried with him in the car. This is a medical book about acupuncture and moxibustion. It involves the eight extraordinary meridians, twelve meridians, and the internal structure of the human body. It is a world-recognized treasure book of acupuncture and moxibustion.Li Shimin read it with great enthusiasm, until there was a sentence in the book that said "the five internal organs of a person are attached to the back", and he felt a chill in his heart. He rubbed his back. "The system of the five internal organs of the human body is attached to the back", which means that the meridians of the five internal organs of the human body are all gathered on the back.However, how much does this have to do with the penalty? Anyone who knows something about meridians (or someone who has read Jin Yong's martial arts) should know that the two most important arteries in the human body are Ren and Du.The Ren vessel is in front, and the Du vessel is in the rear. There are a huge number of incomparable acupuncture points on the back, which are consistent, from top to bottom.Anyone who has studied the basics of neurology knows that the spine is where the nerves of the human body gather.Once a person's spine is abnormal, many visceral diseases that seem to have nothing to do with the spine can appear.These diseases involve internal medicine, surgery, neurology, endocrinology, gynecology, pediatrics, ENT, ophthalmology, stomatology and dermatology, etc. In the turbulence of the carriage, Li Shimin thought of the rod punishment, the rod punishment for hitting the spine. The ancient cane punishment is not as pleasant as that shown in TV dramas. A big slippery wooden stick is used to make the prisoner be beaten with his clothes on. The ancient torture stick is not so beautiful. It is made of raw thorns through a simple process. It is two meters (six feet) long and as thick as the mouth of a cup. The prisoner needs to take off his trousers to reveal his evil back.Since the era of Yao, Shun and Yu, stick punishment has become one of the main means of punishing criminals.The word "da ji" often appears in "three words and two beats".In ancient times, when a woman did something wrong, she was scolded like this when others scolded her: The thief who hit the spine! This is a harsh word. Those in charge of beating people are all young men selected by the government. They are very strong and professional. (Women are beaten by female officials or nanny, for example, Ziwei is beaten by Nanny Rong.) At the end of the draw, the back was dripping with blood, and the flesh was mutilated. The scene was very tragic. After reading acupuncture and moxibustion books, Li Shimin believes that the back is the source of health and should not be beaten indiscriminately. From now on, the buttocks will be used as the back. From now on, the back cannot be beaten with whips.This is where the sticking and spanking started. Dear students, if you get spanked instead of face or back, you should thank Li Shimin. If it wasn’t for him, the mischievous child would be miserable. Is reducing the penalty good or bad for the legal system? According to historical data, the situation is very good. Li Shimin's move not only did not increase the crime rate, but a miracle appeared instead.In this year, there were only 29 death row prisoners in the entire Tang Dynasty (29 people were sentenced to death at the age of 29).There were hundreds of prisoners who were sent home by Li Shimin to farm during the busy farming season. After farming, none of them returned to the prison.This is unique in Chinese history, and the emergence of this situation is not without reason. In the last month of the fourth year of Zhenguan (630), it was a cold winter. Qu Wentai, king of Gaochang, with his wife and children, as well as civil and military officials, came to Chang'an in a mighty way from Gaochang. They went to pay homage to Li Shimin. Gaochang is now Turpan. The kings of the Western Regions also wanted to lead a delegation of envoys to the court when they saw that the king of Gaochang, who usually governed the country well, had entered the court.So everyone put up a table and said that after discussion, everyone wanted to go to Chang'an to pay their respects, how about it?Li Shimin approved.In order to welcome the guests from all over the world, Qu Wentai's vassal, Dun'er, was sent by the court to make contact before his butt was hot. First, they are familiar with the road conditions; Second, they speak the language well. Great Tang Dynasty, mighty and majestic. I have guests and Wei Zheng. On this joyous day, Comrade Wei Zheng, who always likes to sing the anti-tune, once again sang the anti-tune: "Wen Tai's coming to the pilgrimage is a waste of people's power. Now that so many countries come to the pilgrimage, it is not a good thing for the countries of the Western Regions or the Tang Dynasty. The pilgrimage costs a lot, and the people on the border cannot bear the disadvantages..." "You mean, just don't communicate anymore?" "My minister thinks that exchanges are inevitable, but it is absolutely impossible to waste people's money. It is a long-term way to let the border people trade with each other and exchange what they have. If receiving leaders from these countries every day is to reflect the strength of a big country, then don't do it at all. Other things, arranging a floating banquet in the imperial court, eating and drinking all day long, can only show the demeanor of a great country. I think that this kind of practice is harmful to the people of both sides and not beneficial." Feeling lost, Li Shimin immediately ordered people to chase after Wentai's subordinates. It was Qu Wentai's subordinates who were powerful, and the court had just sent them out, and they had already gone halfway. When Kuai Ma chased them, they were stunned, and finally realized that the dignified Khan was afraid of that minister named Wei Zheng. What's the matter! ... Li Shimin once said to Changsun Wuji: "At the beginning of Zhenguan, the ministers all wrote a letter saying, 'The lord should exercise authority alone, and must not give up power to his subordinates.' Others said, 'In order to promote our country, we must Conquer the four barbarians.' Only Wei Zheng advised me to suppress martial arts and cultivate literature. He said, 'China is strong, and the Quartet will naturally be convinced.' I adopted Wei Zheng's opinion, and I can have today. Now Jieli has been captured, and the chiefs of all ethnic groups have brought their swords to live Wei, all the clans in the four directions are as close as one family, and this is all thanks to Wei Zheng." Sighing, Li Shimin felt wronged for Wei Zheng, "It's a pity that Feng Deyi died so early that he didn't see it!"