The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Chapter 58: Out-maneuvering the crowd

The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty《成化十四年》Chengnian Shisi Nian
The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Chapter 58: Out-maneuvering the crowd

When everyone's complexion changed more or less because of Tang Fan's words, only Minister of Justice Zhang smiled, and even somewhat the question was genially asked, "In that case, do you have any statutes that you may wish to put forward for everyone's perusal?”


Tang Fan said: "As a magistrate, I should have learned the law, but when I looked up the old files, I found that the officers of the Ministry of Justice’s Henan Province did not say that they knew the law. The law, I'm afraid, didn't even look up the laws of the Ming Dynasty, and decided cases based on personal likes and dislikes. Hence the reason why old cases are mixed up.”

"Take a case submitted to the Kaifeng Prefecture last year, for example, two brothers had a dispute over their inheritance, and in order to win the case, both sides had a right and it was hard to tell what was right and what was wrong and there was a murder case involved. The Kaifeng Prefecture found it difficult and submitted the case to the Ministry of Justice for decision. The case was being presented to Minister Yin.”

Hearing this, Yin Yuanhua's heart thudded, vaguely guessing what Tang Fan wanted to say, but it was already too late for him to stop, he could only let him go on and on.

Sure enough, Tang Fan added: "As a result, the magistrate sentenced the two brothers to a beating and convinced them that they were brothers by reason, it is said that the Kaifeng Prefecture, after receiving the verdict from the Ministry of Justice, did as it was told, and the matter settled down quickly.”

Minister of Justice Zhang nudged his head: "You specifically brought it out to say, is there something wrong which happened later?”

Tang Fan arched his hands, "That's right, Minister. When I looked into the case, I found that the two brothers' secretively included a murder lawsuit. Instead of instructing the Kaifeng Prefecture to investigate thoroughly, the official said he would ignore it, for one thing.”

"The law has long been in force and can be followed, but if there is no law to follow, then it will be judged by reasoning. The officials have not read the law, and they do not care what it said, so they have made a hasty decision. He who treats the law as if it were nothing, does as he pleases, just as Magistrate Yin did in this case.”

Yin Yuanhua couldn't hold back any longer, he stood up, "You're spitting bloody lies, how can I do what I want! The two brothers' lawsuit has been going on for more than a decade, and there is no way to find out what they have said, so how can we determine whether it is true or not! I start from reason and human nature, persuade them to adhere to brotherhood, mutual love, let them negotiate to resolve this matter, not everything! Why should everyone file a case complaint with the government?”

Tang Fan indifferently said: "The problem is that they are exposing each other, I read the file, when they were exposing each other, to testify for them. It is said in the law of Great Ming that a brother does not testify for or against his brother, a wife does not testify for or against her husband, and a slave does not testify for or against her master. Therefore, the testimonies of all these people are invalid. However, Magistrate Yin Yuanhua did not explicitly state and condemn such actions when he wrote the following. Furthermore, if the property is not settled, the law should be used as a criterion for the decision, rather than allowing them to negotiate. I sent an inquiry and found that, after the decision of the Ministry of Justice, the quarrel between the two brothers, instead of subsiding, had intensified and now the whole town knows about it. May I ask you, where is the education of brotherhood adherence you are talking about, in accordance with the customs of the people?”

Yin Yuanhua was speechless, suddenly remembered another question, busy cross-examined Tang Fan: "You have only been in the Ministry of Criminal Affairs for four or five days, how can you find out about the case, are you not just talking nonsense if you can find out the progress of the case in a short period of time?”

Tang Fan shook his head: "Have you forgotten that Jinyiwei has guard posts all over the world?”

Yin Yuanhua's jaw dropped, this guy actually let the Jinyiwei investigate the case? The question is, why would the Jinyiwei listen to him?

He secretly discovered that Tang Fan was not as easy to deal with as he thought.

He didn't wait for his reaction, Tang Fan preempted him: "Taizu Emperor said long ago that all political facilities must be beneficial to the world and can be used for the benefit of the people. In the future, we must not be careless and keep things in perspective. Good order is a blessing to the world, while an inappropriate order will lead to infinite disasters. These words are thought-provoking enough, although it has been more than a hundred years, we still need to bear in mind, not forget!”

He also said, "I know that Mr. Yin is doing this out of the goodness of his heart, and I hope that the two brothers can put aside their prejudices and remember their compatriots. But since our ancestors gave us the law, he wants us to have a law to follow, just like that... Since both parties have been fighting for more than 10 years, they must not care about the love between brothers and sisters, so they should follow the law strictly. If you don't, you can't go back to your home and you have to do what you were told. If you do what you want to do, you can't just do whatever you want to do. As Taizu Emperor said, if you don't do what you were asked, you'll be in trouble. Magistrate Yin, you are doing bad things out of good intentions!”

Yin Yuanhua is already dizzy from all of his sneaking around, his mouth agape, and his face green.

He wanted to be angry, but it's not polite, mainly because we're sitting here with our superiors, so we can't do anything bad. He wanted to refute, he couldn't think of a cogent retort.

Especially when they brought up Taizu Emperor's words, even though they knew that Tang Fan was exaggerating a small matter, something about a bad order, it's just an ordinary dispute over property. Since when did it rise to the level of "one order is bad"! But he really can't refute Tang Fan's words. Can he say what Taizu Emperor's words were wrong? Or is it that this case is not that serious?

If he had said that, Tang Fan would have quoted the Taizu Emperor again to contradict himself.

But just because a student loses a fight doesn't mean the teacher will just sit back and do nothing.

Just at this time, Assistant Minister Liang slowly spoke up: "Director Tang's words are a bit alarming, the existence of the Great Ming Law is originally meant to educate the people, if we can first educate them with reason, there is no need to use the law, it is his duty to educate the people. He should first use his emotions to move them, and then use his reasoning. Therefore, I think there is nothing wrong with Magistrate Yin's decision.”

When a master speaks, he knows.

Seeing this scene, although the people still have a solemn and strict expression, their hearts have long been boiling with blood, one by one, each excited.

The student can't stand the bullying and asked for help from the teacher, how will Tang Fan deal with it?

Did he have a fight with the Third Rank official?

It's his boss, and whatever Tang Fan says will be seen as undignified and frivolous.

Director Magistrate Tang is new to the city, but he doesn't want to be isolated, so he takes the initiative to start a confrontation with Yin Yuanhua’s backer, Assistant Minister Liang, personally interceding for the students.

Now director Magistrate Tang will finally go soft?

But by giving in, it means that he's afraid of Yin Yuanhua, and his voice in his own division will be useless from now on.

They thought to themselves, everyone was sitting upright, but my eyes were already shifting between people, although a generous man like Lu Tongguang... It was inevitable that Tang Fan would be worried, but more people were still in the mood to gloat and watch the show.

But just then, an unexpected person spoke up.

"That's not true, but I've long felt that there are always people who don't want to improve and are just hanging around here to pass the day, as a magistrate if you're not familiar with the law it means you have been lenient on cases that should have been punished heavily, but you've made a big fuss over cases that could have been punished lightly. The magistrate would be a laughing stock, and it would make people think that we are all like that magistrate.”

The person is Zhang Ying, he rarely interfered in the affairs of the Ministry of Justice and followed Wan An in politics. In line with the principle of "if you don't do good, you will do more than wrong", the task of going to work every day is to drink tea to get by, the people underneath have long been used to it. His style is such that the specifics of the ministry is actually run by Assistant Minister Liang.

At a meeting like todays, Minister of Justice Zhang's biggest role is to act as a mascot and calm down the scene.

And now, for the first time ever, a Top Magistrate, who has seldom given an opinion, is speaking for a little Director!

Is this the sun running naked out of the west?

Everyone looked at Zhang Ying in surprise, the latter polished his beard, a change of words: "But, I believe that the Deputy Director is also sincere at his work. It's just that from now on, you have to be more careful with cases like this. The Ministry of Justice is in charge of the world's prisons. Everything you say and do has a great impact on them. Think twice before you act!”

Although it sounds like a muddle, his intention to speak on behalf of Tang Fan is already very obvious. He said, his face twitched a little, and smiled strongly: "The minister said politely, in the future, before we do anything, it would be best to be still, it's important for the law to be evidence-based and reasonable, so as not to be picked out by another one.”

Yin Yuanhua even more tremblingly rose to be taught: "I respectfully follow the teachings of the ministry.”

Zhang Ying has a reason for saying this, it's not just to give Tang Fan a chance.

He's only rarely in charge, not completely indifferent, but because of that, the people below thought he was really as good as a paper tiger with no claws, especially since When the news of his replacement came out, Liang Wenhua jumped up and down even more, which made Zhang Ying feel uncomfortable. This is still the minister of the whole dynasty ministry, and you don't give a damn about him?

Plus he is the head of Wan An's party and Wan An is dependent on The Noble Consort Wan, so Zhang Ying has heard that Tang Fan and Wang Zhi seem to have a good personal relationship. The thing is, he also knows that Tang Fan was transferred to the Ministry of Justice this time as if it was because the emperor personally gave the word to have him be transferred there and not the Ministry of Appointments.

That's remarkable.

The reason for this is that it's not a good idea to have a good idea of what's going on in the city.

Everyone else at the Ministry of Justice thinks it's not wise for Tang Fan to offend Assistant Minister Liang when he's just arrived, but Zhang Angel doesn't think so. He's got nothing to fear, and since he doesn't like Assistant Minister Liang, he's going to help Tang Fan out today.

Of course, the others didn't know about the many twists and turns, they would only think that even Secretary Zhang was defending Tang Fan, no wonder! Tang Fan dares to confront Assistant Minister Liang directly, so he has a big backer.

Suddenly, everyone looks at Tang Fan differently.

Assistant Minister Liang doesn't understand what other people are thinking, he also doesn't know what kind of madness Zhang Ying is having today, because as far as he knows, Tang Fan and Zhang Ying didn't have any previous friendships.

He didn't expect that it was his own strength that caused Zhang Ying's displeasure for so long.

A meeting that ended with everyone's minds divided.

When the minister and the assistants walked out of the house, the others had no worries and were so enthusiastic about Tang Fan that they were like new people.

Tang Fan didn't take advantage of the opportunity to make friends, he still had the same easy-going smile as before, and could talk to anyone who came over.

Before, when he was like this, people thought he was weak and bullying, but now that he's still like this, they think he's stable. It's a good thing to have a good friend.

Not only women are fickle, but also men's hearts.

Watching this scene, Yin Yuanhua was indignant, but he had no choice but to leave, so as not to humiliate himself.

Dai Hongming was wandering outside the house, thinking that Director Tang would be bullied. Tang Fan's figure appeared in the doorway after a while.

However, he was surrounded by a number of Directors and staff members of other divisions, all of whom were laughing and chatting like long-lost best friends.

Dai Hongming couldn't help but roll his eyes, what the hell is he seeing?

"If it's not a ghost, then it's all smiles and chats?

We all work under the same roof, where there can be any secrets, soon, Tang Fan in the meeting facing Yin Yuanhua dead on, and the rumor of his rivalry with Assistant Minister Liang spread.

The more people heard about it, the more outrageous the version became, and in the end, something like, "Tang Fan pounded the table in anger at Master Liang face, and Master Liang was furious, then the rumors of Minister of Justice Zhang Ying's slap on the face to Assistant Minister Liang have come out, but there are still people saying that Tang Fan is the illegitimate son of Minister of Justice Zhang Ying! It was said that such a ridiculous rumor was quite popular, and for a long time, it became a widespread rumor within the Ministry of Justice. The story that everyone loves to hear after tea and dinner.

It's true that Tang Fan doesn't have any personal relationship with Minister of Justice Zhang, and his dealings with Wang Zhi are incidental and necessary for the case. The rest of the Noble Consort Wan party also had dealings.

But Zhang Ying's reaction was completely within his expectation.

Exactly. He'd planned it.

Let’s go back in time to his first day on the job at the Ministry of Justice.

Tang Fan already knew why Yin Yuanhua wanted to fight with him, and also knew that he did not only pissed off Yin Yuanhua and greatly offended Assistant Minister Liang.

So when Sui Zhou advised him not to be too high-strung, Tang Fan already had a complete plan.

"Always plan before you move." smiled Tang Fan and added, "Don't worry, I had already anticipated that I would be isolated from the very beginning when I delivered the medicine to Yin Yuanhua.”

Sui Zhou knew that Tang Fan was not the kind of person who would cause trouble just for the sake of a momentary grievance, and never did anything useless, so he asked, “What’s the plan?”

Tang Fan tapped Zhang Liang's resume on the table, although he is not the Minister of Revenue and he has no right to check the resume of hundreds of officials. He's a good friend of Jinyiwei. The Jinyiwei are responsible for monitoring the officials. They must have all the information they need. There is some information they have that even the Ministry of Appointments does not have.

No need to use it. If he wants to be in the Ministry, he'll have to do it by surprise.

"Establishing Prestige! I've discovered a lot of problems in just one day at the Ministry of Justice, but if I want to do something, I cannot do it alone, to them, I'm an outsider with no roots in the department. I'm a bully. No one will listen to me. So if you want to stand firm, I have to make a name for myself.”

How clever of Sui Zhou to immediately understand what he was trying to do: "So Yin Yuanhua is just the right person to jump out at this time?”

"Exactly," Tang Fan had a sly smile on his lips, "Even if it wasn't him, it would have been someone else, but since he offered himself, why would I have to work had, what if he doesn't live up to his good intentions? Zhang Ying has been dissatisfied with Liang Wenhua's power rise for a long time, so even if he doesn't get involved, he won't side with him. When we argued in public, he would have defended me because, in his opinion, I was already covered with Vanquisher with auspicious signs.”

Sui Zhou said: "You are not.”

Tang Fan shook his head: "Of course not, it's not a gentleman club.”

Sui Zhou in the meantime: "But will that make people misunderstand you?”

Tang Fan laughed, "No, don't worry, I've never shown any loyalty to the Consort Wan. It's just that the investigation crossed paths, and I didn't just help clear her name in the East Palace case, it also cleared the Prince of suspicion.”

He sighed and said, "Actually, if I could, I wouldn't want to do it this way, but let's just focus on what we're doing, one has to make so much trouble! Like in the Shuntian Prefecture, with my senior brother at the top, I was just a little pusher, just minding my own business, there's no need to worry about so much else at all!”

Sui Zhou: "Officialdom can never be as calm as water, now that you are a director, you naturally need to clean up the top and bottom first. Start doing what you need to do.”

Tang Fan smiled in relief: "The one who gave birth to me is my parent, and the one who knows me is Guangchuan ah!”

The above is the whole story of the meeting. Tang Fan didn't go to provoke Assistant Minister Liang on impulse or out of his mind. If he was, he would have been out of the business long ago. He is a man who thinks carefully about the plan.

Although there are only a few members in the small Henan division, it's divided because of the lack of unity in the people. He may have built up his credibility so quickly, but he made a way out by surprise!

After Zhang Ying spoke up, Assistant Minister Liang laid down his arms, for the time being, Yin Yuanhua lost his teacher's backing and didn't dare to confront Tang Fan anymore.

With this wind, Tang Fan smoothly reorganized the internal and external aspects of the Ministry of Justice for Henan Province.

He explicitly forbade the style of procrastination and urged them to expedite the cases that had been pending for the first half of the year, when a major case is sent to the Dali Temple, the Ministry of Justice will return the verdict to the district if it can decide on its own.

Tang Fan also pointed out the files that he had read and found problematic and asked everyone to review them again. The Secretary will seek out those cases over the years that could not be decided on the basis of the law of the Great Ming Dynasty.

With such a stern boss, everyone naturally did not dare to be lazy anymore, and for a time the culture in the Ministry of Justice for Henan Province changed, Dai Hongming and the others thought that Tang Fan had Minister of Justice Zhang Ying as his backing, so they all obeyed him from time to time, without knowing that Tang Fan was also pulling the tiger's skin out and using it to scare the masses.

The response to Tang Fan's invitation was naturally very different from the previous one, from a very limited response to the invitation to an enthusiastic response, especially when they found out that Tang Fan's invitation was at the Xianyun Restaurant, they were all shocked.

The others didn't know that Xianyun Restaurant was part of the Western Depot, and Tang Fan was only in Wang Zhi's good graces. Anyone who invites guests to Xianyun Restaurant has a background or connections.

Since the new Officer Tang is so tough, who would not know how to get along with him?

Anyway, Yin Yuanhua is the only one who's being tortured. It's got nothing to do with them.

At the banquet, Tang Fan didn't follow the usual rule of bringing along his deputy only, but let Dai Hongming and the others attend the banquet, which showed everyone that he was a good man.

I'm not afraid of offending Assistant Minister Liang even if I don't take Yin Yuanhua seriously.

Dai Hongming and the others are my own people. If you follow me, you'll have meat to eat and no one will walk over you.

After a month, Tang Fan put all the knowledge from the Art of War to good use in his official position, and with Yin Yuanhua's precedent, no one will dare to take his words at face value.

However, Tang Fan is not just using his authority to oppress people, with Sui Zhou's help, he knows the history of everyone in the department by heart. One of the secretaries had a 70-year-old mother in the capital, and when he bought the pear ointment for A-Dong from the pharmacy, he would also buy mugwort so that if the officer has a relative who is sick, he will let the other officer go to the home early, so that he can go home to care for loved ones.

However, Tang Fan didn't show any mercy to those who cheated on him, like the one who sucked up to Yin Yuanhua before. After the meeting, he still couldn't see the situation, the task of Tang Fan's explanation. The result is that Tang Fan just kicked him out of his job and kicked him out to do chores that don't bother him.

So one after another, grace and mercy, Dai Hongming and a few others were really grateful to Tang Fan, worked extra hard, the entire Ministry of Justice Henan Province has completely changed.

In this case, Yin Yuanhua instead becomes the one who is isolated.

Of course, if he knows what's good for him, Tang Fan won't have a problem with him. After all, Tang Fan is here to do something, not to screw people over. The things on that day have always been nagging at him, although temporarily afraid to mess up, also he will not take the initiative to do things, to put it bluntly, he is being passive-aggressive.

But with Yin Yuanhua like this, Tang Fan can't do anything about it.

Although he was in charge of the Henan Province Ministry of Justice, it wasn't up to him to make decisions about an official of the rank, and he didn't want to run away to impeach him because the man can't hold himself to the standard of the entire court. That is asking for trouble where there aren’t any, and the fact that he was able to beat Yin Yuanhua last time is a coincidence, so he had achieved your goal, Tang Fan can't give his boss the impression that he is a "militant".

So if Yin Yuanhua can't stop Tang Fan, Tang Fan can't stop Yin Yuanhua, and if nothing else, this will go on for a long time.

The half-year in the Ministry of Justice passed very quickly, except for a small show at the beginning. It's pragmatic and low-key.

Internally, he's getting better and better at the job, and externally, he's making good connections with other divisions, and he's never been special. Tang Fan soon became a good friend of his colleagues and no one would say that his Officer Tang is an "outsider" now.

He was finally able to catch his breath and relax.

In the past six months, he's been working early in the morning and late at night, almost even on holidays, in order to reorganize all the old cases and find out which ones which are no longer in line with the world's circumstances or is not provided for in the Great Ming Law, then he will rewrite an article on punishment based on these precedents, as a supplement to the Great Ming Law, for the reference of future officials.

This is a very large and tedious project, which has been completed in half a year, but only a small work.

Of course, even if it's finished now, it won't be useful for a long time, but Tang Fan believes that someday it will be useful.

In a blink of an eye, it was the beginning of spring in the 16th year of Chenghua, and A-Dong was already ten years old, during which time she was learning martial arts from Sui Zhou. While martial arts progressed, her body also grew like a bar, no longer chubby, pouring some handsome shadow of a semi-big girl, but patience comes in unchanged, still a little careless appearance of mind, actually because learning martial sake, is a little more valiant.

In order to prevent her from becoming a complete martial artist, Tang Fan forces her to study whenever he has time. She couldn't even memorize the Analects. Fortunately, she knew how to write. The Tang family finally didn't have an illiterate child. It's all Tang Fan can do to comfort himself.

In the meantime, Sui Zhou was still busy, and under his tutelage, the Northern Administrative Court Division had become less dilatory and inefficient than before, however, after the incident with the South City Gang, the White Lotus Sect seems to have completely disappeared.

Sui Zhou and Tang Fan had worked together on this matter, and they speculated that the White Lotus Sect had probably learned a lesson from the South City Gang and would not surface again easily. They won't be in the capital for some time. Otherwise, with the Jinyiwei and the Eastern and Western Depots at the foot of the sky, it would be hard for the White Lotus Sect to stay hidden.

It's more difficult to track their lead down, the Jinyiwei has many other things to do and can't spend all their energy on this all day, they can only send the Jinyiwei down to various places and order them to pay close attention.

On this day, Tang Fan had half a day off, and waited for Sui Zhou to return with A-Dong, drooling over a plate of crystal meat.

Sui Zhou seems to have gone out on a business trip today and has not returned.

The crystal pork was newly prepared three days ago, a dish that is difficult and cumbersome to prepare due to its special technique. No, she learned it from Grandmother Mrs. Zhou.

This dish stresses the color of the pomegranate, without revealing, crystal clear, like glazed crystal, but also the melt in the mouth, fat but not greasy, of course. Tang Fan and A-Dong haven't tried it yet, but judging from the color alone, it's at least quite tempting.

Seeing A-Dong's gluttonous face, Tang Da-ren discarded: "Those who don't know will think you've been starved by me for how long, when you go out! Don't tell people your surname is Tang, it's embarrassing!”

A-Dong smirked at her big mouth: "Big brother, I'm only ten years old, you still have the nerve to talk about me drooling, you're drooling yourself!”

Tang Fan retorted: "So not! " while resisting the urge to touch the corner of his mouth.

They're so used to being pitifully arguing, they can't stand a day without arguing.

Laughing and joking for a while, A-Dong asked, "Brother, where is Brother Sui? He is busy, aren't you at the Northern Administrative Court?”

Tang Fan shook his head, saying that he didn't know about it either, but after A-Dong said that, he realized that Sui Zhou has been seeing a lot of people lately. Unlike the Ministry of Justice, they were often tasked with many secret missions, even if they were related to the Close, and Tang Fan is very deliberate about not asking too many questions.

Speaking of the devil and the devil arrives, before A-Dong could finish her sentence, the figure of Sui Zhou appeared outside.

"Big brother, you're back!" A-Dong got up, jumped up and went to greet him.

Tang Fan saw that he wasn't wearing his Jinyiwei uniform, so he wondered, "Is this the time to go back and pay respects to those two?"

Sui Zhou's personal life was actually very monotonous, except for trips to the North Administrative Court Division or home, and occasionally, when he was on his way to the North Administrative Court Division he would go back to see his family, there's basically no change, which is why Tang Fan asked.

Who knows what happened because Sui Zhou shook his head and said: "Something has happened over there in Henan!”

[Next, Volume 5: The Case of the Ancient Coffin in Luo River]






- The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty -




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