Chapter 654: Jiangdu
Chapter 654 Return to Jiangdu
However, no one gave much thought to the issue of the contract. Their main focus was on studying the first topic, so everyone agreed with King Jin's plan. If any problems arose, they would just make modifications.
The contract system promoted by Xiao Xia is called the official contract system. What is an official contract? It is a contract using the government's standard contract and paying a deed tax to the government. The contract has the government's deed tax seal and can be found on record at the government based on the number. This is called an official contract.
Once a dispute arises between the two parties and a lawsuit is filed, the government will accept the case. If someone has been defrauded of money because of a contract, the government will file a case to arrest the defrauder, and bounty hunters will be sent to capture the criminals.
Of course, if you reach a verbal agreement privately or draft an agreement yourself, it is not illegal, but once something happens and you go to the government to file a complaint, the government will not accept it. Otherwise, you can only ask a respected person to mediate.
The deed tax is not high either. For a land or property transaction worth several hundred strings of coins, only a few strings of coins are required. If it is the sale of goods, the deed tax is even lower. A transaction of several hundred strings of coins only requires a few hundred coins in deed tax, and the deed tax for hiring maids may even only require a few dozen coins.
Xiao Xia's real intention in promoting the official contract was not to collect taxes, but mainly to promote the prosperity and development of the yamen. Don't underestimate the yamen, each yamen is an information exchange center, which is extremely important in the Sui and Tang dynasties when information was closed. Information will greatly promote commercial development, and commercial development will also promote the logistics and shipbuilding industries. The abundant materials in various places can be shipped out. This is a completely linked matter.
The last topic was to re-launch the Circuit Court of Justice, which was intended to solve the problem of people coming to Beijing to file complaints. It was first established but later cancelled due to issues of management authority.
The reason for the cancellation was that a large number of people were unwilling to go to the county government to file a complaint, and went directly to the circuit court to file a complaint, which led to widespread dissatisfaction in the county government, who believed that the circuit court was interfering with their power, and the officials who tried the case were also overwhelmed.
Now Xiao Xia proposed to set up a judicial inspection office at the county level, with officials sent by the Ministry of Justice to serve as judicial inspectors. They would be responsible for reviewing criminal cases in various counties on a regular basis, and would also be the final judge of civil cases.
Generally, the first instance of a civil case is handled by the county government. If you are dissatisfied with the county government's judgment, you can appeal to the county government. If you still feel that the county government's judgment is unfair after the trial, you can apply to the Supreme Court for a final instance.
Taking into account that most low-class people did not dare to go to the county government to file a complaint, Xiao Xia creatively established a system of ten gentry holding a trial together. If the ten gentry did not agree with the county magistrate's verdict in a secret ballot after the trial, the case would be transferred to the county government.
This system has, to a certain extent, weakened the danger of the county magistrate bending the law for personal gain after accepting bribes.
The Council of State only decides what to do, but the specific details of how to do it are formulated by the Executive Chancellor, who then issues a detailed plan in the form of a Jin Wang Order. The Executive Chancellor also issues a written document to provide detailed instructions on how to implement it.
This is not something that can be started in a day or two. It will take at least one or two months to draft a plan and complete it.
However, on the next day, Xiao Xia issued an order from King Jin to suspend the implementation of the previous refugee reclamation plan until the new system was implemented.
Two days later, it was finally time to move. They would move back to Jiangdu. The whole family had lived in Jingkou for five years and had developed feelings for the place. However, Xiao Xia wanted to develop in the north after all, so they would eventually return to the north.
Xiao Xia had considered before, setting up the Jiangnan Road General Administration Office in Jiangdu and the Prince of Jin's Palace in Jingkou, separated by the Yangtze River, but he soon found that this was unrealistic. Not to mention that senior officials would have to cross the Yangtze River many times a day to report to him, which would be very tiring and inconvenient. More importantly, there was a risk that the Prince of Jin's power would get out of control.
Xiao Xia finally decided that he would move back to Jiangdu, leaving only the school and research institute in Jiangnan.
In the morning, the 3,000-stone ship crossed the Yangtze River, entered the canal, and finally docked directly at the Jiangdu Palace Wharf. Jiangdu Palace was newly built and expanded on the original site. It originally covered an area of 300 acres, but now it has expanded to 500 acres, mainly to include a small hill in the southwest. In the middle is a small lake covering an area of 80 acres, called Hanbi Lake, and in the middle is Xianyun Island, where a Xianyun Tower was built.
Seven gardens were built around Hanbi Lake, and each garden had its own owner. Xiao Xia's wives, concubines, and children lived in these seven gardens. The entire style and height did not exceed that of the imperial palace, but were still of the standard of a prince's mansion. It was only renamed Jiangdu Palace to distinguish it from the Prince of Jin's Mansion.
There were a total of 300 people in Jiangdu Palace, including servants, palace maids and female guards. Most of them were guards, including a training team and dozens of secret sentries. There were also soldiers standing guard outside the high walls, with a guard post every three steps and a sentry every five steps. It would be extremely difficult for an assassin to get in.
In addition to the 400-acre rear residence, Jiangdu Palace also has a 100-acre front yard and courtyard. The courtyard is where officials are received and government affairs are handled in the palace. Xiao Xia's official residence is still in the Jinwang Mansion, just north of the city, about a mile away from Jiangdu City, with a special alleyway for access.
The official residence of Prince of Jin was also newly built, consisting of six buildings, including the Council of State Affairs, the Secretariat, the Privy Council, the Supervisory Council, the Internal Security Bureau, and four other courts and one department as well as the Prince's Office.
Although Gao Jiong, Su Wei and Xiao Cong were in a semi-retired state, each of them had his own official room in the Council of State, and each of them was assigned four aides. They would stay there for an hour or two every day to consider the content of the council meetings and arrange for their aides to look for information.
In the afternoon, Xiao Xia came to Wang's office and his new official chamber. The new official chamber had only changed a lot in appearance, but the contents inside remained unchanged. It was basically arranged as it was before, and the furniture was also arranged as it was before.
The first thing Xiao Xia did when he arrived at the new official residence was to meet Shi Xiaozhen, who had made great contributions in Jing County.
Shi Xiaozhen had been promoted to General of the Central Army. He knelt on one knee and saluted, "I pay my respects to Your Highness!"
Xiao Xia waved his hand, "General Shi, no need to be polite!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Xiao Xia smiled and asked, "Have the Chen family returned?"
Shi Xiaozhen bowed and said, "Your Highness, they have already gone back. The third son of the Chen family is called Chen Pingyuan. He will also join the inner guards and become my subordinate. Although he has no martial arts skills, he is very courageous. In order to save his wife, he killed twenty bandits guarding the village by himself. He is indeed a rare talent."
Xiao Xia nodded and said, "I read your original report. I saw at the end that it said there were still some small regrets. What did it mean?"
"Reporting to Your Majesty, we later found out that the Wuhu Town incident of killing the officials of the Ministry of Justice was indeed caused by river thieves. Not only the boat captain and two boatmen, but also more than 20 river thieves were involved. They rammed the big boat and later searched everywhere for the escaped Chief Ma. The regret I mentioned is that I did not eliminate this group of river thieves."
Xiao Xia asked with a smile: "How is General Shi's ability in swimming?"
"Not bad, I can swim across the Yangtze River."
Xiao Xia said happily: "In this case, we can set up a water internal guard battalion, and you will be the commander, leading a thousand soldiers, and be responsible for suppressing the river bandits."
Shi Xiaozhen was overjoyed, knelt on one knee, clasped his fists and said, "I obey your command!"
Shi Xiaozhen took his leave. At this time, Liu Wenjing hurried in, handed an urgent report from the capital to Xiao Xia, and said, "I just received an urgent report from the capital. The 400,000-strong Turkic army, led by Shibi Khan, entered Wuyuan County in Hetao and marched towards Shuofang."
(End of this chapter)