The Famous Detective of the Red Mansion

Chapter 403: The Beggar Neighbourhood Administrative System

After more than a month of hot weather, it finally rained again!

The farmers who relied on nature for their livelihood were overjoyed. Even the officials in the Central Judicial Office were looking a bit happier than before.

Sun Shaozong was feeling a bit disheartened when he arrived at the Yamen after struggling with Ruan Rong late at night.

Fortunately, he had already finished handling his official duties around 80 percent yesterday, and now there was nothing urgent. Therefore, Sun Shaozong simply set up a leisure chair under the corridor, listening to the rain and closing his eyes to recuperate.

He was wandering between taking a nap or not, but he heard someone hurriedly stepping on the rainwater into the corridor, hovering around for a while, and then entering the hall to talk to Sun Chengye.

Not long after, the person hurriedly stepped on the rainwater again.

“What’s wrong?”

After seeing off the person, Sun Chengye also went to the corridor. Just as he was about to call out, he heard Sun Shaozong lazily asked, "Minister Han has sent someone here. Is there any urgent business or is there another meeting?”

It turned out that just now, he had already squinted his eyes to see who the person was; he was just too lazy to pay attention to them.

Sun Chengye hurriedly said, "It's still a matter of ”verifying of slaves.” Nowadays, the merchants in the city have been roughly screened, and it will be the turn of officials and families. Therefore, the Minister hopes first to summarize the experience and lessons, discuss the merits and demerits, and see if there are any areas for improvement.”

After all, he was still afraid that the subordinates might not know the severity of the situation below and they might offend any prominent figures who shouldn’t be offended.

However, this was also just right. After this round of investigation, Sun Shaozong summarized some experiences and lessons and was prepared to discuss them internally before presenting them to the court.

So he stood up, stretched, and instructed Sun Chengye to take out his coir raincoat and headed towards the inner hall on his own.

Who knew that when he reached the inner hall, he saw that it was empty, with only a petty official and a scribe standing behind the door?

Seeing Sun Shaozong come in from outside, the young official quickly bowed and said, "Reporting to Lord Sun. Because Magistrate Jia disliked the stuffy heat in this room and would waste the good rainy weather, he decided to discuss the matter in the backyard pavilion instead.”

Tch!

This was really casual.

Sun Shaozong had no choice but to turn back.

Halfway, he collided with Wei Ruolan and led him to the backyard.

On the way, the two of them had nothing to say. As they saw the pavilion approaching, Wei Ruolan suddenly asked, "Lord Sun, what progress has been made in the ”pottery, pearls, gold, and shells” incident you mentioned the day before yesterday?”

This was not a rare question, but it was really difficult for Sun Shaozong.

Even if Prince Zhongshun didn’t explain, Sun Shaozong wouldn’t be foolish enough to reveal the news to Wei Ruolan.

However, Wei Ruolan was also the second in command of the Criminal Department. If he was perfunctory about this matter, he only needed to compare it slightly when he returned, and it was not difficult to see the flaws.

After a moment of hesitation, Sun Shaozong changed his composure as a difficult person and said, "I have found some clues, but…”

As he spoke, he deliberately peeked at Wei Ruolan and hesitated. "It's just that I haven't figured it out yet. Maybe it's just that I'm worried.”

“Is that right?”

Upon hearing Sun Shaozong's reply, Wei Ruolan's mouth slightly turned up, revealing a smile of amusement or disdain, and he said, "What a pity.”

What a pity?!

Was this guy hoping to face up to Prince Beijing and to find a good deal, or did they have other ideas?

Sun Shaozong pondered in his heart, but after all, he had doubts in his heart, so it was not easy to inquire. He and Wei Ruolan each had their ulterior motives and went to the pavilion.

Seeing the two of them arrive, Jia Yucun chuckled and said, "It's better to come early than to come by chance. Coincidentally, this green plum wine has just been cooked, and you both have arrived in time.”

Using green plum to cook wine?

This cultural person indeed liked to engage in petty-bourgeois sentiment.

After Sun Shaozong and Wei Ruolan took off their coir raincoats and saluted, they also took their seats. As it was a hexagonal pavilion, the three court officials and three judges each had one corner, which was quite harmonious.

Only Chen Zhichuang's treatment was worse, and he couldn't keep up with all his superiors. He had to move in and sit near the copper stove, pretending to cook wine for everyone. In fact, he was feeling super hot.

When they each shared a cup of steaming green plum wine and pretended to drink it for another round, Han Anbang finally got to the point.

“Ladies and gentlemen.”

“After the joint efforts of the whole government over these days, the situation of the merchants in the city holding slaves has been roughly investigated," he said in a loud voice.

“However, the next step is the real highlight, so our Government has specially convened everyone to discuss the gains and losses before, and see if there are any other areas that can be learned and need improvement.”

Sun Shaozong held a glass of green plum wine and leaned against the fence with a comfortable appearance. After Han Anbang finished speaking, he immediately replied, "Actually, this time we were able to complete the investigation of the merchants ahead of schedule, thanks to Assistant Magistrate Wei’s diligent work.”

Wei Ruolan listened to him praising him and was waiting for a few words of humility. Unexpectedly, Sun Shaozong suddenly changed his tone and said, "First there was the ”Immortal Powder” case, and then there was the investigation of slaves. Assistant Magistrate Wei was working extremely hard, and it’s not suitable to continue working hard without rest.”

Wei Ruolan's face suddenly darkened as he was about to refute the words of ”slaughter the donkey after it has done its job at the mill.” Unexpectedly, Han Anbang, Jia Yucun, Fu Shi, Zhao Liben, and others all nodded and said yes, indicating that Wei Ruolan should rest well.

In this way, Wei Ruolan's retreat from behind the scenes became a foregone conclusion, and any further discrimination was useless. It only made his forehead and veins jump with anger, but he couldn't understand why he suddenly became the target of criticism!

In fact, these days, the efficiency of Assistant Magistrate Wei and Inspector Qiu was impressive, but their reckless behavior style has made everyone's hearts tremble.

Now that they were about to find out about officials at all levels, it was time for stability. How would they dare let the big guy still do anything they like?

Sun Shaozong also recognized this point and took the initiative to mention it, causing Wei Ruolan to suffer a considerable loss.

However, after Sun Shaozong's first proposal was almost unanimously approved, he took out a few pages of thin paper from his sleeve pocket and shook it open, saying, "Besides, after these days of investigation, I found that 30% of the kidnapped slaves and maidservants were kidnapped by beggars or those dressed as beggars.”

“In view of this, I have made a brief statistical analysis. Over the years, beggars in the city have committed various crimes, and it has been found that the proportion has been increasing year by year. Moreover, the probability of gang crimes is far higher than that of ordinary people.”

“Therefore, I am preparing to report to the court and try out the Beggar Neighbourhood Administrative System in our Central Judicial Office.”

“Beggar Neighbourhood Administrative System?”

Upon hearing this, Han Anbang furrowed his brow and questioned, "Let's not say that this matter has nothing to do with the slave verification. Just relying on the fact that beggars have no fixed residence, I'm afraid it won't be convenient to implement the Neighbourhood Administrative System, right?”

The so-called Neighbourhood Administrative System was a system of sitting together where the government took the initiative to organize the people into various groups. Once one of them was convicted, the entire group would be implicated.

Therefore, to avoid being implicated by the same group of people, the public would spontaneously supervise each other.

However, those were all things that needed to be done between neighbors, and a highly mobile group like beggars didn’t seem to be suitable for such operations.

“You seem somewhat unaware, Minister.”

Sun Shaozong shook his head and said, "Although many beggars are wandering around the city nowadays, more of them are fixed in a certain area to beg, and even there have been beggars who exploited other beggars.”

“This generation was originally fond of leisure and disliked work, but now they have formed a gang. If they are not brought under the jurisdiction of the government as soon as possible, it will inevitably lead to disaster over time.”

“Therefore, I hope that the beggars who beg on fixed streets will be organized into the Neighbourhood Administrative System, and the government will come forward to designate a group and then be designated to their respective areas. If there are beggars in the area who cause trouble, regardless of whether they should be punished or not, they will be punished together.”

This was equivalent to sharing a portion of the responsibility of the government with the beggars. If it were replaced with ordinary, good people, this would be too strict.

But these days, beggars were already discriminated against by the government and the public. Since they could reduce the responsibility of the government and didn’t need to spend any expenses, who cared if beggars were unjust?

Therefore, everyone inquired about some details separately, such as whether the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled should receive certain amnesty and preferential treatment, or how to distinguish between criminals impersonating beggars as a disaster.

Seeing Sun Shaozong answer fluently, it was obvious that he had been deliberating for a long time, and everyone expressed their support.

Jia Yucun took the opportunity to propose, "Since that's the case, why don't we jointly sign our names on Lord Sun's memorial to attract the attention of the court?”

As he spoke, he bowed and saluted Sun Shaozong, half true and half false, and said with a mischievous smile, "If those beggars can't bear this idea because of your wise idea, and they are all starting to rely on themselves to work hard, this edification skill, as a brother would be disrespectful to decline.”

The sound of ”wise idea” made Han Anbang's face turn a bit black, and Sun Shaozong couldn't help but secretly wonder. Was it because Han Anbang still didn't know that he was about to be demoted to another place?

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