The draft bill to abolish slavery caused considerable controversy in the cabinet, and some officials even leaked it to create momentum on forums and among the public to oppose Fang Yun.
However, Fang Yun immediately forced the officials who leaked the information to resign on the grounds that they had disclosed state secrets.
Afterwards, Fang appealed to the government with both emotion and reason, and presented various evidences to prove the importance of abolishing slavery. He even invited the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Works for help, and finally obtained the consent of all cabinet officials. He first abolished the relevant laws, then formulated new laws, and began to abolish slavery.
If the previous crackdowns were guaranteed by the original laws and had a moral high ground, the abolition of slavery this time was completely different.
As a result, many families once again joined forces to oppose, but they all became smarter. Instead of blocking the government offices like last time, they kept lobbying officials from all over the country.
This time the opposition from the families was not as intense, but it still posed a considerable obstacle to the abolition of slavery.
Even though the five major families expressed their support and took the lead in dismissing domestic slaves or changing employment contracts, it did not have a very good effect.
Fang Yun used the same trick again and asked the Council of State to issue a decree, announcing that from that day on, six state councils would be established in the capital, Xiangzhou, Jiangzhou, Mizhou, Yanzhou and Dongyunzhou, and that they would begin recruiting state councillors.
Fang Yun didn't even need to say that the state council scholars must support the abolition of slavery, and some families that originally opposed it suddenly turned around and strongly supported the abolition of slavery. It was on the second day after these families supported Fang Yun that they received a letter from the National Council of the Capital, inviting them to join the state council.
The families were well aware of Fang Yun's intentions, but they were helpless against him because the Councillor of State was too tempting.
As a result, the major families that had been quite united suddenly became a mess. Many families gave up the fight and turned to negotiate with local officials, hoping to get a state councilor.
In the past few days, the status of those who served as scholars in the National Council of State in various places has changed significantly, both in the official and private sectors. Moreover, the National Council of State now recruits not only officials, celebrities and family heads, but also elites from all walks of life.
There were a few lucky scholars who did not have a high academic rank and were not officials. Because they represented their respective industries to make a large number of suggestions and opinions to the Council of State, they were personally received by Cai He, the president of the Council of State, and were awarded the title of National Academicians.
The status of those people became unique because of this, and there were even rumors that when local officials met these people, it was almost equivalent to meeting an official of the fifth rank.
So, after just three days, the resistance to the abolition of slavery disappeared.
Cao De'an even joked with his subordinates about this matter, saying that Fang Xusheng still had two chances to implement reforms without scruples, one was to establish a provincial council, and the other was to establish a county council.
Seeing that Fang Yun's reforms were going so smoothly, the pressure on everyone in the Temporary Peace Negotiation Department increased.
Because Fang Yun and Zuo Xiangge were unwilling to join, the formation of the Temporary Peace Negotiation Office was very slow and inefficient.
Five days before the first group of people from various families arrived in Xiangzhou, the Temporary Peace Negotiation Office completed its preparations and began to discuss the details.
Sheng Boyuan originally did not want to join this temporary peace negotiation department, but because he was the one who forced Fang Yun to leave, under pressure from all sides, he became the deputy director, and the director was taken by Assistant Prime Minister Yang Xuwen.
This negotiation was very important, so the staff of the Peace Negotiation Department often consulted the cabinet and various ministries, and constantly asked the Left Prime Minister, especially Fang Yun, for help.
Every time people from the Peace Negotiation Department came to the Left Prime Minister's Pavilion, they were extremely humble, almost kneeling on the ground and kowtowing. Every official in the Left Prime Minister's Pavilion sympathized with them very much and wished they could leave the Left Prime Minister's Pavilion and go to the Peace Negotiation Department to serve the country.
However, Fang Yun remained unmoved and did not participate in the peace talks at all.
The day before the first group of miscellaneous people were about to arrive in Xiangzhou, the Peace Negotiation Department finally came up with the first draft of peace talks, listing Jingguo's bottom line, and handed it over to the three cabinet ministers and cabinet councilors.
As a result, Fang Yun didn't even look at it and asked Xu Changgeng to return it.
Many senators were dissatisfied with the terms of the draft talks, so the Queen Mother had to convene a meeting overnight. Except for Fang Yun who was ill, the other two prime ministers and senators all attended the meeting to discuss the details of the peace talks.
The discussions lasted until dawn, when everyone reluctantly reached an agreement. Yang Xuwen sent a letter to the Academy of Literature and Information, hoping to hold peace talks today.
It took a full hour before Wenxinyuan responded, agreeing to hold peace talks with Jingguo at Wenxinyuan in Shengyuan tomorrow.
Therefore, the Peace Negotiation Department hurriedly made final preparations and then headed to the Holy Temple.
When they arrived at the Holy Court, the people from the Peace Negotiation Department thought that the Court of Culture and Information would obstruct them at every turn. However, they were surprised that the people from the Court of Culture and Information were very polite, without any hostility at all. They handled everything in a completely impartial manner and conducted normal negotiations with the Peace Negotiation Department.
When the news reached Jing State, the officials were relieved. This was a very good start.
The peace talks involved a wide range of issues and were difficult to reach an agreement on immediately, so members of the Peace Negotiations Department temporarily stayed at the Wenxinyuan and began negotiations day after day.
While the two sides were negotiating, other officials from the Academy of Literature and Information did not withdraw, but instead moved into various parts of Jing State one after another and began to investigate whether Jing State officials had violated the holy way of the Miscellaneous School.
The Wenxinyuan is far less powerful than the Lidian and has no right to directly order Jingguo officials to do things, so they have been investigating in secret, making it difficult for Jingguo officials to guard against them.
At the beginning, the Negotiation Department was negotiating normally, but after ten days of talks with many details still not being worked out, even Jing Guofei, an official from the Negotiation Department, discovered the problem.
Soon, Jingguo held a court meeting and concluded that Wenxinyuan had no sincerity in the negotiations and they were obviously delaying time.
Sure enough, after the Peace Negotiation Bureau solemnly proposed negotiations, Zajia also put aside his disguise, took out the results of his investigation in the past few days, began to put pressure on the Peace Negotiation Bureau, and put forward new conditions.
For example, Jingguo should share all its new industrial technologies with Qingguo and Guguo for free; for example, Jingguo must persuade the various halls of the Holy Academy to build the same number of new-style colleges in Qingguo as they have built in Jingguo; for example, completely cancel the Dingfu Treaty and return the compensation that Qingguo has already paid...
The conditions proposed by the Zajia were extremely harsh. Several officials from the Peace Negotiation Department could no longer tolerate it. They slammed the table and loudly denounced the Zajia. As a result, they were directly expelled from the Holy Court by the Zajia and were banned from entering the Holy Court again on the grounds of offending the Holy Court.
It was not until this time that the officials of Jing State realized how naive they had been before.
The officials of Jing State were originally in despair, especially the officials of the Miscellaneous School, who were ready to resign or even betray Jing State. Suddenly, the Ministry of Culture and Information sent a letter to the Peace Negotiation Office, stating that as long as Fang Yun publicly admitted his mistakes, promised that he would never be hostile to the Miscellaneous School and would never obstruct the Miscellaneous School's holy path, the Miscellaneous School would make huge concessions.
For the miscellaneous officials of Jing State, this was great news, which meant that they would not have to take the risk of their literary talents being shattered or even dying. However, they could not be sure whether Fang Yun was wrong.
Therefore, at the request of many miscellaneous officials, Jing State once again convened a grand court meeting. All officials of the seventh rank and above entered the Fengtian Hall either in person or as projections to begin discussing the matter.