In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

After dinner, in the evening, Zhao Jun summoned the officials of Ji County.

He did not meet them immediately because he needed to understand the situation of these officials.

If there are any problems, they must be corrected. If there are no problems and they have done a good job in office, they can be summoned and praised and encouraged.

Since the officials of Ji County have no bad records, although their governance methods are mediocre, they have completed the tasks on time and there is nothing out of the ordinary, so he did not blame them.

He encouraged them a few words and let them go.

The next day, the county lieutenant of Ji County and the commander of the Imperial City Division reported the situation.

They have arrested all the people involved in the two villages, including the elderly, the weak, women and children, and now they are all locked up in the county jail.

Zhao Jun gave instructions.

The bandits should be severely sentenced, the death penalty should be the death penalty, and the exile should be the exile, so that the heavy punishment can deter.

As for the families of the bandits, although they did not directly participate, they also participated in the lookout, resisted the government, or enjoyed the property looted by the bandits.

It cannot be said that they are guilty of the same crime, but a certain sentence must be imposed.

Basically, after the verdict, most of the young and strong laborers in the two villages will be killed or exiled.

And many women will also be imprisoned, and innocent children and elderly people who did not participate in the crime will be raised by the Ciyouyuan and Futianyuan built by the government, which is no different from the massacre of the village.

But there is nothing we can do about it.

If we don't do this, we can't deter others. If other villages follow suit, no merchants will dare to pass through here.

How can the economy develop at that time? Goods from outside can't come in, and products from Ji County can't go out. This is obviously very unfair to the rest of the law-abiding people in the county.

So facing this phenomenon, Zhao Jun can only do this.

On the third day, after handing the case of the water bandits to the local government, Zhao Jun set off again and went to Wu'an for inspection.

The first stop of this trip is to go to Youyan to inspect the current integration situation. As for Hebei, it is a visit when passing by, and it is impossible to stay for more.

Therefore, you can only stay in each place for two or three days at most.

As for the nationwide bandit problem caused by the water bandits, Zhao Jun also wrote it down in the matters to be solved. After returning, he had to think of a solution.

No way.

Bandits are different from evil forces.

Evil forces are entrenched in nature, often in towns with dense populations, or the landlord class organizes thugs to control tenants.

They have fixed places and incomes, and even have fields, casinos, restaurants, brothels and other entertainment venues. They plunder the property of the people through violent means, and it is easier to clear them out.

But bandits are different.

They don't have a fixed territory. Many of them move to another place after shooting, and the crime location is not fixed.

Many of them are in the main roads of traffic in the wild, appearing and disappearing, and have a mobile nature. It is very difficult to eradicate them, and sometimes even don't know who did it.

So compared with evil forces, these bandits are the most difficult to deal with, and they can only take one step at a time.

More than ten days later, Zhao Jun's convoy passed Weizhou, Anlijun, Xiangzhou, and entered the territory of Cizhou Fuyang, only sixty or seventy miles away from Wu'an.

After staying in Fuyang for a day and inspecting the local situation, Zhao Jun set out for Wu'an the next day. When passing by Zhaode Town, he stopped to rest for a while, drank tea and sat for a while at a nearby tea stall.

It was late March, the sun was shining, and the flowers were blooming. Fushan Mountain in the northwest, which is the Nanxiangtang Mountain in the future, is towering and densely forested, as beautiful as a fairyland.

Although the town is not big, there are many merchants coming and going, and it is quite prosperous. It is not surprising to see a large group of merchants in the town, and they all warmly entertained them.

After a short rest, the three hundred people filled all the empty seats in the surrounding tea stalls. There were even many people who had no seats, so they could only squat on the roadside with herbal tea. Occasionally, a carriage passed by and raised a face full of dust.

Zhao Jun sat in the middle. Wang Anshi saw him writing something on paper with a pencil these days, and asked curiously, "What are you recording?"

"Yes."

Zhao Jun stopped writing, raised his head and smiled, "Write down all the problems encountered along the way, list them one by one, a good memory is not as good as a bad pen."

He said to everyone, "It just so happens that I have listed a lot of them. Come and help me analyze them."

"For the first one, there are so many bandits in the country, what do you think we should do?"

He looked around at everyone.

Yang Gao said, "We should kill one to warn the rest!"

"It's right to use severe punishment."

Zhao Jun said, "But the problem is that it's hard to catch people. If we hadn't encountered the Jixian incident, do you think ordinary merchants could live to file a complaint?"

"Uh"

Yang Gao thought about it and it was true. People couldn't be caught, let alone severe punishment.

Su Huan said: "Perhaps we can ask the local government to investigate secretly and take a suspicious attitude towards the villages around the crime. The court can also issue a document requiring all places to solve such cases to show that the court attaches great importance to the frequent occurrence of banditry."

"This is an idea, but I am afraid that it is easy to cause false cases."

Zhao Jun sighed.

"Why?"

Everyone was puzzled.

Zhao Jun said: "Do you know what problem the magistrate of Ji County reported to me a few days ago?"

"What problem?"

"In the case in Ji County four years ago, the family of the silk merchant came to find them and spent money in the hope that the local government could solve the case. The local government collected money to handle the case, but ended up arresting people everywhere and punishing them randomly, which made people angry and resentful. In the end, it was really They couldn't find anyone, and they even almost found a scapegoat to fool them. If the censor hadn't happened to come to inspect the area, I'm afraid someone would have been beaten and wrongly accused of being a bandit. "

"Is there such a thing?"

Everyone was shocked.

"Yes, I have ordered the previous officials to be held accountable, but holding them accountable is secondary because it highlights a problem!"

Zhao Jun spread his hands and said: "The government even looks for scapegoats for people who spend money to do things. If the court orders them to solve this kind of case and find the criminals, then in order to complete the task, I don't know how many innocent people will be implicated." ”

"Too."

Everyone nodded.

Don't overestimate the integrity of ancient officials.

If they really can't find the prisoner and the superiors force them to look for it, then the result will be very low.

It is more likely that they would simply find a random scapegoat and imprison him, and then forge various confessions and fingerprints to prove the scapegoat's crime.

Then the person suddenly "died of a sudden illness" in prison, and there was no evidence to prove the death. The "murderer" suddenly became ill and died after confessing his guilt. In this way, the deceased's murderer is gone and the case is closed directly.

"This is what is difficult for the court to do, and it is also another problem I listed."

Zhao Jun clicked on the paper and sighed: "With the current backward criminal investigation methods, if the murder case is required to be solved, it will inevitably lead to countless unjust, false and wrong cases. If no requirement is made, then the local government will have no motivation to investigate the case. And in addition to such hard-to-find banditry cases, ordinary homicides, robberies and various petty thefts are also major problems, which pose a great threat to public security across the country. "

A nationwide banditry incident and an unjust, false and wrongly convicted case were all difficult for the court to deal with.

Wang Anshi thought deeply: "I think that if there are two evils, it is better to choose the lesser."

Zhao Jun became interested and asked, "Oh? What do you mean?"

Wang Anshi said: "Compared with the fact that the local government has no motivation to investigate the case and simply doesn't look for clues if they can't find them, resulting in frequent murders, it's better to force them to do it."

Zhao Jun frowned and asked, "What about the unjust, false and wrongly decided cases?"

"Even if unjust, false, and wrongly convicted cases occur frequently, it is better than the fact that the government does not work hard to track down the murderers, causing those murderers to go free and commit crimes repeatedly out of complacency, resulting in frequent murders."

Wang Anshi had a wry smile on his face.

"Well, let me decide whether to do it or not after I go back to the Constitutional Yuan to discuss it with many of my ministers."

Zhao Jun held his forehead, rubbed his temples, and first drew a circle on the paper regarding the series of unjust, false and wrongful convictions.

Teacher Luo of later generations said that the more you study law, the more you will gradually lose your humanity.

As a person in power, why not?

I used to feel indignant when I saw unjust, false, and wrongly convicted cases on the Internet. I was angry that those officials were so bad that innocent people were imprisoned or killed.

Only now that I have reached this position do I realize what the difficulty is.

In this era of backward criminal investigation technology, encountering cases with no clues is simply a torture for investigators.

If their superiors require them to solve the murder case, there are only two results.

First, the local county lieutenant and government officials worked hard to handle the case, and finally found clues and decisive evidence, and brought the murderer to justice.

What the second result is is self-evident.

However, if there are no compulsory requirements below, the local government will have little incentive to investigate the case, and it is likely that many cases that could have been solved will become unsolved.

So the two dilemmas are evident.

"I guess there is nothing you can do about the problem of banditry and unjust, false and wrongful convictions. This is a big problem that countless capable people in the past dynasties have not been able to solve, and I don't expect you either."

Zhao Jun thought for a while, then looked at another question and said, "Let's talk about local development. What have you discovered along the way?"

"Forehead"

Several people stared at each other.

Yang Cha said cautiously: "What discovery does Zhiyuan refer to?"

"The prefecture is talking about local development and changes."

Wang Anshi was still smart and replied: "Except for Anli Army's Liyang, which is pretty good and has built many factories, the development of other places along the way is probably unsatisfactory. At most, some brick factories have been built."

"Um."

Zhao Jun nodded and said: "Liyang has also reaped the benefits of the canal. Since the canal from Bianliang to Huazhou was opened, the economic and trade exchanges between Hebei and Bianliang have become increasingly frequent. Liyang is just north of the river in Huazhou, and the two counties Across the river, the southernmost end of the Yongji Canal is in Liyang, connected to the Jinghua Canal, which naturally attracts many vendors. The local officials do not need to give any guidance. The people will gather here themselves. Those with money will open factories, and those without money will gather here. If you become a handicraft practitioner or a worker, business and economy will naturally develop."

"It seems that, except for Liyang, what happened in other places before and what it is still like now, local officials are not actively looking for a way out."

Yang Gao frowned and said, "What are these local governments doing? The imperial court has repeatedly issued orders to adapt to local conditions, requiring all regions to work hard to develop commerce. Why are there no officials in the counties along the way who can do anything?"

"Shilang Yang's words are wrong. Regarding this point, I have to say something fair."

Su Huan said dissatisfied: "The minister has been in a high position for a long time and does not serve in the local area. How can he know the difficulties of local officials? This term is only three years, one year to familiarize yourself with the county's environment, and the second year to implement policies. This policy can only be issued in one year, and the third year We have to be prepared to leave in 2018. When the next official arrives, he may overthrow the previous administration and rearrange the arrangements. How can the place develop after all this time?”

"That's true, and to be honest, many local officials don't know much about how to develop."

Li Xiaoji also said: "Like the previous local officials, they only needed to solve three major tasks, encourage mulberry farming, and collect taxes in summer and autumn. As for the issue of local development, they also turned a blind eye."

"In addition, I would like to add that many officials want to govern, but there is often resistance at the local level. For example, when I worked in Shezhou before, I found that the local agriculture is not developed, with many mountains and forests and few dense land, making it difficult for the people to be self-sufficient."

Wang Anshi said: "However, I noticed that the local tea leaves are very good, and other wood, tung oil, paint, minerals, and medicinal materials are abundant. I wanted to adapt to local conditions and convert the fields into tea. But the local people were very resistant because they didn't know what it would be. As a result, if the tea leaves are planted but not sold, the remaining food will be gone and they will starve to death.”

He sighed and continued: "Moreover, local transportation is very inconvenient. In the deep mountains and old forests, even local specialties are difficult to transport. I want to encourage everyone to build roads and plant tea after the roads are built, but the people are still unwilling. Ah. They think that road construction delays farming and it is difficult to build roads. Even if the government provides money, few people will respond. "

"Yes, these are common problems caused by local officials' inability to lead local development. I don't think we can entirely blame local officials for their incompetence."

"Indeed."

Zhao Pian and Chen Xiliang also agreed.

Yang Gao and Yang Cha were originally the shipping envoy to Huainan and the other was the general magistrate of Suzhou. It seemed that they were both in the same place, but they both passed away during the Baoyuan period.

Later, Zhao Jun discovered talents and was transferred to the central government not long after, rarely holding any local posts.

On the contrary, Wang Anshi, Su Huan, Li Xiaoji and others were Jinshi scholars in Kangdingqing for many years. They are still serving as local magistrates. They have experienced various new policies, so they can naturally understand the difficulties of local officials.

"Um."

Zhao Jun nodded and said: "The suggestions you made are very constructive. I will record them and combine everyone's considerations to formulate new policies."

He thought of the hereafter.

In later generations, many counties will develop local specialty industries.

For example, the famous Caoxian County is the hometown of coffins, Shouguang vegetables, Dongming watermelons, Luochuan apples, Gaoyang textiles and so on.

The problem for current officials is that their term is too short. Even if they have policy direction and ideas, they are easily delayed because of their term.

Second, there is a lack of high-quality talents who can adapt to local conditions, and it is not easy to find an economic and industrial chain suitable for the local area.

Three is also very important.

People depend on the land for food. Many cash crops are fine if they are in areas with developed transportation. But if they are in deep mountains and old forests, people are worried about converting rice into mulberry or rice into tea. If the sales are not good, then food will be a problem.

Therefore, the accumulation of multiple problems has naturally resulted in the unsmooth development of many prefectures and counties in many places, and often only some special areas have industries formed.

For example, Wu'an in Hebei, Pingdingshan County in Henan and Yangcheng in Shanxi were upgraded from the original Jiangdian town to a county.

Most of these places are coal and iron-producing areas. In response to the call of the imperial court, various transportation envoys searched for coal, iron, lime and other resource-rich producing areas on this road, and established steel plants, cement plants, masonry plants, etc., which were resource-based industrial cities. .

Once resources are exhausted or mining is suspended due to strategic requirements, it is easy for places like Ordos in Inner Mongolia and Hegang in Northeast China to quickly turn into empty cities.

The Song Dynasty is now in the early stage of industrial development. In the future, not only heavy industry will be developed, but light industry will also be a top priority.

Zhao Jun naturally wants to develop in an all-round way and build a country with a full industrial chain.

But it would be too unrealistic for him to inspect place after place and then give guidance to local officials. There are more than a thousand counties across the country. Zhao Jun will not have to stay in the central government for the rest of his life and run around everywhere.

Therefore, how to give full play to the subjective initiative of officials and let them find their own solutions to local problems is a reality that the court must consider.

"Okay, this trip is just passing through Hebei. I have gained a lot and found many problems. This trip is worthwhile. I have almost had enough rest. Let's go."

Zhao Jun recorded everything, then drank all the herbal tea in the bowl, stood up and said with a smile: "Now is also the time to go to Wu'an to see how the development is there. If it is done well, we can also learn from it." Their advanced experience can be promoted to resource-based cities across the country, so that local officials with coal and iron industries can learn from it so that they can develop better."

"Hahahahaha."

Everyone laughed. Now Wu'an is the first heavy industrial city in the Song Dynasty to produce steel. It is said that it produces hundreds of thousands of tons of steel annually and sells steel products nationwide. It has long been extremely rich.

Moreover, the local area has not only developed the steel manufacturing industry, but also developed a steel industry chain, including various steel farm tools, kitchen utensils, pipes, building materials, etc.

It can be said that Guangwu'an County has quickly jumped to the number one county in Hebei Road. It ranks among the top in tax payment every year, which is enough to show the importance of the industry.

Therefore, going to the local area to learn from the experience and learn about industrial development is also very beneficial to future prime ministers like them.