"That's what you've been thinking about over and over again?" Hui Shiyang threw a stack of documents directly in front of the officials of the hospital, and his expression could be described as extremely angry.

Kang Xinmin glanced at a few colleagues, and then replied to Hui Shiyang: "Back to Shangshu, the Taihu bandit case, 389 people were executed at one time and more than 1,000 households were exiled, if this is spread, I am afraid it will be too sensational."

Zhang Shenyan said that Master Zhang was extremely disapproving of the case when he tried the case in Jiangnan, but he was weak and could not compete with the other two trial officers, so he wrote to us, hoping that when the case was submitted to the Criminal Department for review, he would be able to deal with it leniently, save some vitality for the Jiangnan locality, and preserve some talents for the future of the country. ”

Hui Shiyang did not ease up because of Kang Xinmin's reply, but instead widened his eyes and scolded: "Fart, Zhang Shenyan is also an old minister of the Four Dynasties, how can he say such bastard words." After the Criminal Department, Dali Temple, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate are integrated, how can they be independent of the cabinet? ”

Kang Xinmin, Shi Gongsheng and the others immediately lowered their heads again, they didn't know how to answer Hui Shiyang's question, they could only look at the ground with their eyes and continue to be silent.

Seeing this, Hui Shiyang asked himself and said: "The reason why my criminal department has such an independent status today is only because of one point, that is, to act according to the law. If my criminal department itself can distort the law at will, what is the difference between the documents of the criminal department and the blank paper? Your Majesty and the Cabinet themselves issued an edict, isn't it better than waiting for you?

His Majesty's power comes from heaven, the power of the cabinet comes from His Majesty, and the power of the Criminal Department is rooted in the laws of the Ming Dynasty. It's only been a few days since Yuan Gong passed away, don't you already remember Yuan Gong's teachings? ”

Xu Yuanyan listened and said quite unconvinced: "Lord Shangshu's remarks are a bit excessive, everything is in accordance with the law, that is the proposition of the Legalists. The Master once said that strict punishment and strict laws cannot educate the people, and only by using etiquette to regulate the daily behavior of the people, so that they are bound by morality from the beginning, can the country have long-term peace and stability. ”

After listening to Xu Yuan's pedantic remarks, Hui Shiyang glanced at him and mocked: "Since you know what etiquette is, don't you know: grace comes from above." Does it make sense? How to forgive these sinners, that is the power of His Majesty, what do you want to do with these Jiangnan gentry? ”

Everyone finally stopped talking, looking at these subordinates who were obedient on the surface but didn't know what they were thinking in their hearts, Hui Shiyang couldn't help but feel happy in his heart. He finally turned around and walked back to his seat, and ordered them: "Reorganize the file of the Taihu bandit case, everything is subject to the law." This official advises you not to make mistakes about yourself, don't fall into yourself for a few words from others, you should also know what kind of temper you have today..."

At the end of Wangfujing Street, where the Ten Wangfu is located, there is a mansion covering an area of nearly 10 acres, which is the daily office of the ASEAN. As the representative of the Dutch East India Company in Beijing, William. Kirk is no stranger to the area. It should be said that this is one of the places he admires the most in Beijing.

Although the mansion is still a Chinese-style building, the members of the ASEAN Association are able to have a lounge and arrange it in their own way, so the lounge decoration style of the members of the various associations in this mansion is simply a small international exposition. Every time I come here, William. Kick always thought he had traveled all these countries in one day.

It is also the place with the highest concentration of foreigners in Beijing. Kirk could easily get a lot of information from these people, at the cost of his own, so that he could understand what the country was doing and what his fellow Europeans were doing.

Unlike his colleagues in Batavia, William. Kicker has always believed that only maintaining a good relationship with Daming is the most beneficial to the company. The longer he stayed in the capital, the longer he stayed, the longer he stayed. The more Kirk felt the enormous potential of the country beneath his feet.

In this era, the Dutch are already the most hard-working people in Europe, but compared to these Chinese, the Dutch still seem too delicate. What frightened him even more was that in addition to the advantages of hardship and hard work, these Chinese were also very ingenious, and everything that the Dutch could make, the Chinese could make, and they made it more exquisitely.

Thankfully, China is far enough away from Europe that the Dutch would have nothing to do but fish, because the Chinese can monopolize all capable manufacturing industries. William. Kick acknowledges that many members of the Batavia company are wary of the Chinese.

But he does not believe that this is the reason why Batavia has taken the initiative to provoke confrontation with China. The new Governor and his men were always looking to compete with China before it grew up, in order to secure the company's interests in Asia. But these people have probably forgotten that the thinking of the Chinese is not the same as that of the Europeans.

In Europe, because of the constant war for many years, the defeated obeyed the victor, and it was not humiliating to cede some rights to the victor. And under the control of various countries, it is difficult to annul the treaties signed by the vanquished. But in the East, the Chinese are unique, and East Asian countries even need to submit to China to gain legitimacy for their own ruling power. Even the Tatars who rebelled against the empire in the north recognized the Chinese emperor as the master of the world in the declaration of war.

In such a situation, even if Batavia won a temporary victory, it would be difficult to force the Chinese to sign a treaty that was unfavorable to them. Instead, it would make the company erect a formidable enemy in the East, which is an extremely stupid choice.

But William. Kick was only a small representative, and he could only obey Batavia's orders, complain to the ASEAN about the rude behavior of Chinese merchants who crossed the border, and try to get the British and Spanish Europeans to side with the company against the overly powerful eastern powers.

However, it is clear that in the past the company had offended these European compatriots too deeply, and the Spaniards were already enemies of the Netherlands, and the British and Portuguese merchants were violently excluded from the islands of Java and the Spice Islands by the company, and they still resented the company. In addition, after the conquest of Japan, the company monopolized Sado Island, which made it even more difficult for these European compatriots to stand with the company.

William. Kick understood that only by ceding the interests of Sado Island could these fellow Europeans avoid targeting the company. But as a small deputy, this commitment was beyond his power. And just speaking plain with empty hands can only make others ignore him.

Sure enough, at today's ASEAN meeting, the Portuguese who presided over the meeting simply rejected the appeal he had submitted against the Chinese businessman. “… According to the discussions at the joint meeting, the permanent delegates agreed that Chinese merchants had been doing business in Southeast Asia earlier, and that places such as Surabaya and Semarang on the island of Java were taken by the Chinese in those years, so Batavia had no right to prevent Chinese merchants from entering the region.

In addition, regarding the confirmation of ownership of the southern Taiwan region submitted by Batavia. The Joint Conference considered that this was beyond the competence of ASEAN, and that ASEAN was responsible for mediating only trade disputes in the region and not interfering in territorial disputes between its members, and therefore decided to reject the application..."

William. Quirk patiently listened to the conclusions of the Portuguese presidency on the rostrum above before he got up from the hearing seat and asked to speak. The Portuguese on the rostrum looked at the delegates seated on either side, and then looked at William. nodded, allowing him to speak.

"After listening to Mr. Simão Fernández's speech, I am deeply sorry for myself and for the Dutch East India Company, which I represent. As a representative of a company, it is necessary for me to remind delegates that it would be inconsistent with the practice of the civilized world to judge the legitimacy of commerce on a first-come, first-served basis.

In that case, the Spaniards and Portuguese should have evacuated their colonies from all over the world and returned them to the natives. We should now sit around our homes in Europe and endure the high prices of our wealth supplied by Ottoman merchants, rather than using the sea lanes explored by the Age of Discovery, to bring back cheap Oriental goods for the nations of Europe...

Gentlemen, everything in the civilized world is based on the present rules of commerce, and when you begin to attack the present rules of commerce itself, then you are destroying everything in the civilized world. Of course, the company will be damaged by this, but how can you protect your interests overseas? ”

William. Kik's question made the delegates sitting on both sides of the rostrum look at each other, and they didn't know how to answer for a while. Sitting William. Seeing the situation, Li Hanwen, the Chinese representative to Kikke's left, also raised his hand to speak, and Simão Fernández quickly agreed to Li Hanwen's request, hoping that the Chinese representative would relieve the embarrassment of the delegates at the joint meeting.

After getting up, Li Hanwen pressed his hands on the fence in front of him and immediately said loudly: "Freedom, the basis of all commercial trade should be freedom." The use of force or other means of monopolizing trade is contrary to the values of the civilized world.

If monopoly trade had been the foundation of the civilized world, there would have been no great seafaring discoveries in Europe. It was precisely in order to break the Ottoman Empire's monopoly on the trade routes between the East and the West that European merchants with the spirit of free trade built ships in an attempt to find new trade routes between the East and the West at sea.

That is why we have always believed that the primary value of the civilized world is freedom, and that any law or regulation that hinders the spirit of free trade should be spurned..."

Looking at the delegates in front of him when they all began to nod, William. Kick immediately interrupted the Chinese next to him and retorted to him: "Since Daming pursues the spirit of free trade, why should you levy high taxes on the cotton cloth purchased by the company from mainland India?" What kind of free trade spirit is this? ”

Li Hanwen was dumbfounded for a while, and then he defended himself: "Because the cotton cloth in the Indian continent is not made by free people, the lords of the princely states of India oppressed those textile workers by force, thus greatly reducing the price of Indian cotton cloth, thus causing unfair competition to the textile workers of the Ming Dynasty.

By buying cotton cloth from Indian merchants, you are helping the princely lords to oppress the Indian textile workers who are not free, which is contrary to the civilized and ignorant peoples of the civilized world. Before the lords of the princely states of India gave freedom to the people under their rule, the Ming Dynasty would never allow the blood and tears of the Indian people to enter the areas controlled by the Ming Dynasty and sell them..."

Except for the British delegates, who greatly sympathized with Li Hanwen's words, the other delegates' eyes when they looked at Li Hanwen were extremely complicated.