The only breakthrough was when Zhou Lang found that Chinese officials were not very happy to meddle with foreigners' affairs.

Zhou Lang has read about this phenomenon in history books, but it can be generally understood that the Manchu Qing officials were afraid of the enemy like tigers, and regarded them as the fierce inwardness of the feudal rulers, who only dared to be arrogant to the common people of their own country and subservient to foreigners.

In this era, Zhou Lang also discovered this situation, at first he didn't understand it, if the Manchu officials after the Opium War were afraid of the foreign like tigers, then there should be no such situation in the Qianlong period, but the officials were still not very happy to deal with foreigners.

Later, Zhou Lang understood, it was annoying!

This was mainly the officials of Guangzhou, because earlier it was a one-port trade, and only the officials of Guangzhou had access to foreigners.

There are many people, and this is the general mentality of the magistrates in Guangzhou.

They think that this is a barbarian who does not know how to tolerate and fights for everything.

In the eyes of Westerners, this is a strong sense of rights. However, the traditional Chinese ruling theory pays attention to the settlement of lawsuits, that is, the common people are not encouraged to fight lawsuits, believing that lawsuits are a manifestation of bad customs and that everyone is not harmonious enough. Therefore, the more lawsuits in that place, it means that the local people are not good.

This concept is not the concept of ordinary lazy officials, but a very common mentality among civil officials, and people like Wang Yangming, the great sage of the Ming Dynasty, hold this concept.

There is a story that has been widely circulated, Wang Yangming was a local official, and a friend of his wanted to say goodbye, Wang Shouren said: "You wait a few days until you are calm and come back to me." A few days later the man came again and said that he had calmed down. So when he came to complain, Wang Yangming said: "What are you doing when you are calm."

This story reflects the traditional political thinking of the Chinese, which encourages tolerance and tolerance, because Confucianism emphasizes benevolence.

Wang Yangming's later creation of the "Ten Brands Law" also clearly stipulates that "if there is a dispute and other matter within the ten families, the same person shall immediately persuade and reconcile, and only if the persuasion is invalid, he will be allowed to see the official." "Let the heart be forgiven, and not be easily angry; Things should be patient, and there should be no lawsuits. ”

Figures like Wang Yangming do not encourage lawsuits, let alone ordinary civil officials. Even Confucius said, "If you hear lawsuits, you Jews will also make them free from lawsuits", encouraging the idea of "making the people free from disputes".

It would be too shallow to laugh at Confucian sages like Confucius and Wang Yangming for being pedantic. Their philosophy is based on a set of Confucian moral logic. The traditional social ruling system they created is the theory of the family, the country is expanded by the family, and each family is the foundation of the country.

It adheres to the idea of rule by virtue based on family affection, expanding from the family to the society, and then to the country, and even to the whole world. Using this kind of governance idea based on the family and then expanding outward, the emotional community is used to self-maintain and self-manage the social order.

This set of theories has been continuously promoted by Confucianism for thousands of years, and has gradually formed a solid tradition. At least in rural society, when disputes arise between neighbors, they often do not resort to law, but find elders and respected people to judge them.

Even in the 21st century, the Chinese are still the least likely to litigate. Even instinctively produces a feeling that it is very embarrassing to go to court, once the idea of using the law to solve the problem arises, relatives and friends will often persuade them, "If you have something to talk about, it is better not to go to court." At this time, relatives and friends play the role of elders and respected people.

It was the establishment of a set of culture based on the Confucian patriarchal system that the ancient Chinese dynasty was able to rule at the lowest cost, and to ensure that the imperial power did not go to the countryside but was able to manage the entire society and the country.

A county often has 100,000 or even hundreds of thousands of people, and large counties like Panyu and Nanhai in Guangdong have a population of nearly one million, but there are only a few public officials. The county magistrate has to deal with all kinds of issues, he has to manage the construction of water conservancy, the collection of taxes, and the maintenance of law and order, how much time and energy can he use to hear cases?

But the county officials in China still have time to drink wine and recite poems.

The biggest reason is that they have made the common people develop the habit of not liking to find the government, and they will never go to the government to fight a lawsuit unless they have to do so.

Westerners, on the other hand, have a culture that encourages a sense of competition, and daring to fight is seen as brave and deserved.

Therefore, when Westerners frequently ask Chinese officials to deal with business disputes with businessmen, Chinese officials find foreigners annoying and not very willing to deal with them.

This mentality of not caring about foreigners made Zhou Lang find a simple entry point, and he decided to establish a judicial system specifically for foreigners.

It's not that he cares about foreigners, and he is reluctant to let foreigners play a board to deter. From the perspective of nationalists, Chinese county officials are very relieved of their hatred for beating foreigners.

But the existence of the law, it is first and foremost used to protect people, and punishment is only a means, not an end. Moreover, the board on the ass of foreigners can never be more than the buttocks of the Chinese people.

The purpose of Zhou Lang's decision to set up a separate system is mainly to explore experience for future judicial reform.

Zhou Lang now has a very suitable candidate in his hands, the Russian jurist Speransky, who has finally gone into self-imposed exile.

He made all the agreements with the Tsar, who promised to keep his reformed government institutions, but when the Chinese army retreated, the Tsar took over the occupied territories, and immediately turned his face. It's not that he is bad at reforming, it's not that he's stupid and brutal. Rather, it was because the tsar needed to use the noble landlords to restore his rule as soon as possible, and these Speransky could not give to the tsar, but those noble landowners could.

So Speransky was either exiled by the Tsar or simply self-exiled.

Zhou Lang instructed him to establish a legal system, temporarily responsible for adjudicating disputes between foreigners on Chinese soil, and managing legal disputes between foreigners and Chinese.

Of course, this legal system was not built immediately, and Speransky needed to collect a large number of Chinese customary laws and use them to compile a code.

This is not something that can be built in a day or two, so for the time being, it is necessary to follow the traditional "Great Qing Statutes", and some of the anachronistic things need to be removed, such as punishment and torture methods to extract confessions.

The judicial process also needs to be changed, people who can't sue come and kneel before the judge, and everyone in the courtroom should be equal.

After communicating with Speransky, Zhou Lang felt that the British trial process was very good, that is, the jury system.