"Mr. Kuan, why did you stop me just now?"
After coming out of the Chuigong Hall, Tang Jie excitedly said to Wen Yanbo.
Wen Yanbo sighed, "If I could have stopped you, I wouldn't have stopped you. Your Majesty didn't declare Zhang San the winner of the case, which was already a great favor to us."
Tang Jie's old face was full of annoyance and embarrassment, "It's also our fault that we are useless. We can't even compete with a person who knows the secrets."
Wen Yanbo consoled him, "It's settled, it doesn't matter. We can still use this decree to persuade the emperor."
"Be prepared for things to happen and control the curves" is, after all, just a pocket method. It all depends on how you argue.
Tang Jie sighed, "Wang Anshi will definitely make a big fuss about this."
The ancestral laws were originally a powerful weapon to curb Wang Anshi's reforms, but now they may provide support for Wang Anshi.
That’s what hurts most about that lawsuit.
Everyone can use the pocket method.
Wen Yanbo smiled bitterly and said, "There is nothing we can do about it."
The lawsuit went as it did, and there was no way that there would not be a price to pay for it.
The people standing opposite you are not good men and women!
This is actually not surprising to them.
Although they expected that Zhao Xu would not directly rule in Zhang Fei's favor, they also knew that Zhang Fei's discussion of ancestral laws was very beneficial to the emperor.
The emperor will most likely still set the tone for the ancestral laws.
Putting aside the emperor’s personal interests, the previous ancestral laws are a roadblock to the new laws!
Therefore, before starting the reform, this roadblock must be removed.
Otherwise, every word in the new law may violate ancestral laws.
... ...
"If you lose, you have to admit your mistakes. How old are you? You still want to act like a scoundrel."
Wang Anshi, who came out later, started to tease Sima Guang.
"I don't want to argue with you today."
Sima Guang quickened his pace as he spoke.
Wang Anshi immediately chased after him, "Wait a minute, I have something else to talk to you about."
Sima Guang snorted, "I have nothing to discuss with you."
"Yes! Yes!"
Wang Anshi directly pulled Sima Guang's sleeve.
Sima Guang was terrified. "You are pulling and tugging like this, how can you be so disrespectful? Let go quickly."
Wang Anshi just held on and refused to let go. "I really have something serious to discuss with you."
"Let go first."
"Let go and don't leave."
"Wang Jiefu...!"
"Okay, okay, I'll let go first."
Wang Anshi loosened his grip and asked, "Regarding the Yan family case, how do you plan to judge it?"
Sima Guang was slightly stunned, and replied cautiously: "I have already said that I am breaking the law by citing an example, why are you still asking?"
Wang Anshi said: "If you break the law by making an exception, all the bookstores in the capital will be sued immediately. You can't just fine all the stores by those authors."
Sima Guang said: "I have considered this myself."
Wang Anshi said, "Wait a little longer."
"What are you waiting for?"
"I will immediately ask Your Majesty to legislate on this matter."
"This is a judicial matter, and you want to interfere?" Sima Guang said angrily.
Wang Anshi hurriedly said, "Don't worry, I am establishing a tax law. Didn't I just say that in the future, if you want to print books, you must obtain the author's consent. Bookstores can pay remuneration in exchange for the author's consent. I will suggest that Your Majesty collect this deed tax to protect the rights and interests of authors.
If you wait for me to enact this tax law, you can then impose penalties according to the law, either forcing the booksellers to pay the authors or forbidding them to print."
He wants to draw a clear line with me. He has nothing to do with judicial affairs, but I cannot interfere with his financial reforms. Sima Guang looked at Wang Anshi suspiciously, "Is this your idea?"
Wang Anshi asked, "How do you know it wasn't my idea?"
Sima Guang snorted, "If it were up to you, I'm afraid the court would just print it themselves."
Wang Anshi was a little embarrassed and coughed: "I won't hide it from you. This was Zhang San's idea."
“I knew it.”
Sima Guang looked at him with contempt.
Wang Anshi asked, "Do you agree?"
Sima Guang asked, "How much tax do you plan to collect?"
"One tenth." Wang Anshi said, "We can collect the money from the author. This way, the price of the book won't go up too much."
This is not much. Sima Guang suddenly asked: "It seems that you are ready."
Wang Anshi chuckled.
Sima Guang nodded helplessly: "Okay! I'll wait for you."
Wang Anshi was obviously testing him and also on guard against him. You can carry out judicial reform, but tax law must not be counted as part of the judiciary. He was very worried that Sima Guang would use this case to enact tax law, and tax law played a large role in his reform.
If Sima Guang did not agree, he would definitely interfere with the judiciary.
Sima Guang knew very well that he had no power to carry out tax reform. After all, the emperor did not support him, so he could only agree to Wang Anshi's request.
Let's keep our distance.
I was feeling very nervous, but it was finally coming.
Yes.
coming soon.
Not to mention that Zhao Xu and Wang Anshi had no patience to wait, even the opposition had no patience to wait.
They were already kneeling on the execution ground, but the guillotine didn't fall for a long time. It was very uncomfortable for the onlookers!
Zhao Xu first formally promulgated the laws of his ancestors.
And this time he played it very smartly. He directly engraved Taizong's edict on a stone tablet and then placed it in front of the gate of the imperial city.
The imperial decree was just issued yesterday, and the stone tablet is here today.
It was obviously prepared long ago.
How could the ministers not understand what was going on
can only say.
You little emperor are so cruel!
But it was their fault that they lost the lawsuit, so they could only swallow the bitter fruit with tears.
But everyone knows that the best is yet to come.
As expected, on the second day after the stone tablet was erected, Zhao Xu formally announced that he would carry out reforms to address the country's bad policies and set up the Regulations Office of the Three Departments, which would be jointly headed by Chen Shengzhi and Wang Anshi to preside over the reforms.
This is a bombshell from the start.
The court officials were all confused.
Especially the officials of the Three Departments headed by Minister of Planning Tang Jie.
Set up the Regulations Department of the Three Departments
Then what are our three divisions
Who is real
Wang Anshi quickly told them who the real Three Officials were.
On the day this decree was issued, Wang Anshi promulgated the Copyright Law in the name of the Regulations Office of the Three Departments.
The law will be included in the deed law, which means collecting taxes based on deeds.
On the same day, Youxianggong under Kaifeng Prefecture also gave his own judgment on the lawsuit against Yan Jidao.
Sanluzhai was judged to be illegal.
The interpretation is to make a judgment according to precedent.
This is the ruling made by Kaifeng Prefecture, and this is the only ruling my small court can make.
But the verdict was returned to Kaifeng Prefecture for review.
Kaifeng Prefecture also revised the rules and gave explanations in response to Youxiang Gong's verdict, which mainly focused on three points. First, printing other people's works for profit without the author's permission would be considered illegal.
There are still many manuscripts in modern times.
However, the regulations only state "printing". In other words, hand copying is allowed, even if you copy and sell it.
It can be seen that this method is specifically aimed at printing.
Secondly, the protection period is fifty years after the author's death. If you want to print the poems of Li Bai and Du Fu, it does not violate this regulation.
The third issue is the specific compensation, which is set at a fine of fifty strings of cash. After all, this business is not currently a highly profitable one, so the fine cannot be set too high.
However, it was not fully implemented in Bianliang until seven days later.
This gives the printing workshop some buffer time.
Of course, Sanluzhai was not awarded to Yan Jidao.
Sanluzhai was ordered to immediately stop printing and selling any collection of poems related to Yan Shu. If it wanted to continue selling them, it had to obtain authorization from the Yan family.
With this decree and this case being implemented at the same time, copyright law was naturally formed.
Sima Guang certainly would not come forward to cooperate with Wang Anshi.
Lu Gongzhu was a mutual friend of him and Wang Anshi, and also supported Wang Anshi's reform, so Sima Guang asked Lu Gongzhu to cooperate with Wang Anshi.
Many literati and scholars were very excited about this.
But the officials of the three departments were all dumbfounded.
You make tax laws and we don't even know anything about them.
It can be seen that the regulations for establishing the three departments are above those of the three departments!
The roof of the imperial city was immediately overturned by the curse.
This is so shameless.
Many people did not expect Wang Anshi to do this.
Of course, some people thought of it.
at dusk.
"Duke Wen is truly a man of foresight, and he actually did just that," Sima Guang sighed.
When Wen Yanbo saw that the reform was imminent, Wang Anshi was slow to rectify the administration of officials, which was not in line with common sense. The only explanation was that Wang Anshi intended to bypass the entire system.
Wen Yanbo smiled bitterly and said, "But I didn't expect him to be so cruel. He directly promulgated the tax law without discussing it with the two governments and three departments. Although this tax law is insignificant, it shows how powerful this department is! No wonder the government has to promulgate the ancestral laws in advance. It can be said that every stroke of the three-department regulations department is trampling on the ancestral laws."
The ancestral system is to divide the powers, but you are doing the exact opposite by monopolizing all the power.
Sima Guang was also worried, but he still persuaded: "This is only a temporary measure after all. The key is the new law. The details are not yet known. Duke Wen needs to be patient and don't be impulsive!"
Wen Yanbo glanced at him and sighed, "Of course I know that, but even if I don't submit a memorial, I can't stop the censors and censors below from submitting memorials. Someone must have already submitted a memorial to impeach Wang Anshi."
The Censorate was a very strange department. The Chief Censor could not stop the censors below from submitting reports, and the Chief Censor himself was often impeached.
Wen Yanbo glanced at Sima Guang and said, "Didn't you say before that you wanted to fight with Wang Anshi in court to avoid factional disputes?"
Sima Guang glanced at him and frowned in thought.
... ...
On the other side, after arguing with Tang Jie for a whole day, Wang Anshi left the battlefield to Lu Huiqing and went home.
As soon as I got home, I heard my wife's laughter. It turned out that there were guests at home.
It was none other than Zhang Fei.
"Why are you here, kid?"
Wang Anshi looked at Zhang Fei with suspicion.
He knew Zhang Fei's character too well. He would never come to visit someone for no reason.
"I'm here to congratulate Grand Secretary Wang."
Zhang Fei quickly stood up to congratulate him.
Wang Anshi waved his hands and said, "It's not done yet, why celebrate?"
Mrs. Wang said, "After all, Zhang San has good intentions."
Wang Anshi glanced at his wife and was forced to say to Zhang Fei: "Alright, alright, I know what you mean."
Mrs. Wang said again, "My husband, I will go and get you a pot of hot tea."
Wang Anshi hurriedly said, "Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am. I have been arguing with that old man Tang all day and my lips are dry."
Madam Wang advised, "We are all ministers in the same palace, so if you have something to say, please talk it out."
Wang Anshi sighed: "Madam, you don't know, I didn't want to quarrel with him, he just blocked me in the room and scolded me, there was nothing I could do!"
Mrs. Wang shook her head helplessly, "I'll go and pour you some tea."
After that, she said to Zhang Fei, "Zhang San, you stay here for dinner. I'll ask the servants to prepare some more dishes."
Zhang Fei hurriedly said, "Thank you for your kindness, Madam. However, I still have some things to take care of later, so I won't bother you."
Mrs. Wang did not force her and left the house.
As soon as Mrs. Wang left, Wang Anshi asked Zhang Fei, "Tell me, what's the matter?"
Zhang Fei chuckled: "Grand Scholar Wang should know the tax calculation of my shop's business."
Wang Anshi nodded.
Zhang Fei said, "Isn't this the enactment of the royalty law? But those booksellers and literati may not know how to pay the tax, and the Three Departments Regulations Department may not have enough staff. Why doesn't Grand Secretary Wang calculate the tax on the royalties and give it to the small shop?"
Wang Anshi's eyes lit up, and he looked at Zhang Fei again, "Speak more directly."
Zhang Fei said directly: "Before, the Three Departments used their power to threaten those merchants not to ask me to calculate taxes. If Wang Daxueshi can give this tax calculation to small shops, then the merchants will know who is the real Three Departments and who they should listen to in the future."
Wang Anshi pointed at Zhang Fei and laughed, "You kid."
Zhang Fei just laughed.
Wang Anshi didn't think too much about it and nodded, "Okay! I promise you."
"Thank you, Grand Secretary Wang."
For Wang Anshi, this was truly a stroke of genius. After establishing the Regulations Office of the Three Departments, he had to immediately establish his authority and credibility. Zhang Fei took the initiative to turn himself into the model of Shang Yang, so how could Wang Anshi refuse
Coincidentally, the Three Courts had previously targeted the Bian Jing Law Firm for tax calculation. If he could help Zhang Fei turn the situation around, then everyone would know who to listen to in the future.
... ...
When Mrs. Wang came into the room with tea and snacks, she found that Zhang Fei had left. "Has Zhang San left?"
Wang Anshi said: "He just talked to me about something trivial and then left."
After putting down her snacks, Mrs. Wang glanced at Wang Anshi and said with a smile, "This Zhang San is really noisy, and he has many ways to make money. I heard that he has opened a bookstore again."
"Haha, what my cousin said makes sense. This kid has a lot of tricks up his sleeve, one after another, sometimes surprising, sometimes shocking."
As he was talking, Wang Anshi suddenly felt something was wrong. He looked at his wife nervously and said, "Cousin, you didn't sign any contract with him, did you?"
Mrs. Wang quickly praised: "Cousin is really as good as a god!"
This brat, no wonder he walked so fast, it turns out... Wang Anshi said depressedly: "Cousin, our family doesn't need this little money, why did you agree to him?"
Mrs. Wang said, "I just think that the royalty law was promulgated by you, my cousin, and our family should also set an example."
As Wang Anshi's wife, she is also very eloquent.
Wang Anshi said awkwardly, "But this is my work after all, you should at least ask me first."
Madam Wang said, "I saw that the booksellers who pirated your poems and articles didn't ask you, but my cousin didn't seem to care, so I decided on my own."
Wang Anshi awkwardly picked up a cup of tea and wanted to ask his cousin how much she sold it for. If it was too much, he would be suspected of accepting bribes, but he was too embarrassed to ask.
Mrs. Wang didn't know what her cousin was thinking, so she took the initiative to tell him, "One hundred strings of cash a year for five years. He will also give the Yan family this price."