New Year's Day was still a very happy day for the Great Song Dynasty, and the Zhao Guan's family in 323 was not so happy. First of all, the Empress Dowager Chen, who was in her seventies, fell ill by accident with a cold, and the minor illness developed into pneumonia not long after, and the Queen Mother returned to heaven without carrying it. The almost eighty-year-old Emperor Taishang was quite tired when he took care of the Queen Mother, and when the Queen Mother died, he was too sad and fell ill.

Emperor Taishang and Empress Dowager Chen died one after another, but they frightened the local officials in Quanzhou. Although the Zhao family was not worried that the Zhao official family would really anger them, they also felt the pressure.

Zhao Jiaren really didn't want to think about these guys, and the death of a couple in their seventies in the 21st century is not considered an untimely death, let alone in the Song Dynasty, where 'life is rare for seventy years'. Zhao Jiaren wanted to go back to his hometown of Quanzhou to transport his parents' coffins back to Hangzhou for burial, but he received urgent news that Quanzhou had symptoms of plague.

The current Great Song Dynasty officials already know that the plague is not a 'plague god', but that there are plague bacilli introduced from other places to spread among the population. At this time, the entire city of Quanzhou is closed, and all personnel are not allowed to enter or leave. Zhao Jiaren's plan to go south to receive the coffin had to be terminated.

Without waiting for the progress of epidemic prevention in Quanzhou, plague suddenly appeared in Ningbo. After investigation, it turned out that the sick people had come into contact with people who had come down from a ship on the other side of the Red Sea. The Maritime Safety Administration learned by telegram that the ship was heading for Hangzhou. However, the officials were frightened, and they hurriedly dispatched personnel to intercept them urgently. The ship was finally stopped before it could enter the port.

In recent years, the Great Song Dynasty has been in various vaccinations, patriotic health month propaganda, school education, and large-scale infectious diseases in big cities have become less and less, let alone virulent infectious diseases. Such a problem occurred this time, and the Maritime Safety Bureau was very nervous. They also knew that this incident had alarmed the Zhao official family, and they didn't dare to slack off.

It was already evening when the results of the investigation were urgently sent to the person in charge of the school in the Maritime Safety Bureau, and as soon as the person in charge lay down, he got up and read the documents. After reading it, the person in charge couldn't sleep. After thinking about it, he picked up the pen and wrote a letter to Sima Kao.

Sima Kao has already given his respects, and Lao Shangshu has already bought a villa in Gusu at this time and began to enjoy the joy of family. Although the news of the plague caused a lot of shock in the market, the patriotic health month in Gusu has only been carried out for seven or eight years, and the people's tolerance for the epidemic of infectious diseases is very high, so the market only requires everyone to drink boiled water and exterminate rats. If you see someone with unusual symptoms, you should notify the government as soon as possible. Other than that, you can live your life however you want.

Before the letter was delivered to Sima Kao, the long-established old scholar was having fun with a courtesan with a few old men who were also rich and free. Seeing his relatives appear outside the door, Sima Kaoxing got up and went out as if nothing happened. If it weren't for the urgency, the personal entourage would not be disappointed at this time anyway, Sima Kao asked with a straight face, "What's wrong?" ”

"The third aunt wrote a letter and sent it." He said nervously.

Sima Kao didn't say anything, but just took out his reading glasses and brought them on. The letter was handed to Sima Kao, who opened it and looked at it a few times, and his face became angry. But Sima Kao didn't scold, he read the letter first, and then read it again. After being silent for a while in anger, Sima Kao gritted his teeth and said to his relatives: "You tell the shopkeeper that I have to go home beforehand." ”

Less than two days after Sima Kao, Ding Fei, the top procurator general of the procuratorate, received a report from the Supervision Department that the inspection department of the Maritime Safety Bureau believed that the officials in charge of inspecting drinking water storage equipment had accepted bribes and connived at criminal gangs to steal sterilization silver flakes from water storage equipment, which directly led to the plague problem.

Ding Fei didn't understand what the relationship was at first, and he didn't figure it out until the technicians came to explain. Seagoing vessels need to store fresh water when they are at sea, and when freshwater is stored for a long time, bacteria can grow. Zhao Guanjia's solution was very simple, install silver sheets inside the storage device. This sterilization effect is very good, and the sea ship will not have an accident even if it goes to Fusang Island. However, the currency minted by silver was one of the legal tenders in the Great Song Dynasty.

Because of oxidation and other problems, the silver sheet needs to be polished every other section, and the water storage equipment also needs to be cleaned and trimmed. Some people started to think about it, and the silver in the sink was stolen by some people, and the thieves colluded with the person in charge of the inspection to get the inspector to issue a fake certificate. The stolen pieces of silver were divided among the gangs.

"In order to make it easier to hide from people's eyes, these people kept the silver flakes of the water storage equipment close to the mouth when they stole it. This part of the silver will be seen when it is inspected. They steal the silver pieces underneath and at the bottom. This plague is the plague that caused this problem when the water fell to the part where there were no silver flakes, and the plague bacteria fell into the water, and the silver dissolved in the water was not sterilized. The technician spoke calmly.

Looking at the technician's expression of 'I already knew something was going to happen', Ding Fei asked: "What you say next is not counted in the record, I think you seem to have heard such rumors a long time ago." ”

The technician was stunned, he couldn't see his own expression, so he didn't know that he had revealed the situation. Most polytechnic men are not the kind of people who have unlimited demands on the morality of others, and they may not be willing to stand up and fight against evil officials. But at least these people admit good and evil. Although they knew that Ding Fei had hit the point, the technicians did not dare to admit that there was such a thing immediately.

Ding Fei is from the Anti-Rape Committee, and he knows the general idea when he looks at this expression, and it seems that this matter is not a problem that has only appeared recently. He didn't bother to ask, so he let the technician go down first.

The cadre of the Supervision Department sitting next to him had a nervous expression, if such a case had not been stabbed to such a high level, I thought that maybe the Maritime Safety Bureau would handle it by itself. Now that someone has stabbed the Supreme Procuratorate of the Great Song Dynasty, the impact will naturally not be simple. Zhao Guanjia is an emperor immediately, and he is never soft when he kills people. Ding Fei had killed many, many traitors before he was transferred to the procuratorate.

Ding Fei didn't speak immediately, and his gaze skimmed over the report again. The name Sima Bin, who is the grandson of Sima Kao, is the official in charge of inspecting the water storage equipment. If this matter has really become an industrial chain, and there is such a group of rats who specialize in eating this way, Sima Bin will never know about it. Sima Bin knew that such a thing could still happen, and Sima Bin was at least in league with these people.

In the evening, Ding flew to a cadre community. Entering the left household on the second floor of a house, when I knocked on them, the woman who opened the door shouted in surprise: "Brother, why are you here?" ”

"Second sister, is your Sun Hongke at home?" Ding Fei asked.

As soon as the words fell, a man came out of the back room, and he greeted him warmly, "Brother, you are here." Have you eaten? ”

Ding Feiyang raised the large paper bag and a bottle of wine in his hand, "Let my sister make a soup, let's drink it." ”

The two men ate and drank for a while, and this got to the point. Ding Fei asked bluntly: "You have been in the Maritime Safety Bureau for so long, you should have heard about someone stealing silver pieces from the sink." ”

Sun Hong's chopsticks stopped above the braised beef, and although he wanted to pick up a piece and eat it in his mouth, Sun Hong still couldn't do it. In the end, Sun Hong withdrew his chopsticks and said in embarrassment: "Brother, I really don't know who did this. ”

"I'm not here to ask you this. I just wanted to ask, you know something like this. ”

"Yes. I know. ”

"I don't ask for names, I don't ask for places. I just want you to tell me the truth, when was the first time you heard such rumors. ”

Such a question made Sun Hong very embarrassed, scratching his ears and scratching his cheeks and being silent for a while, but Ding Fei's sister Ding Ning urged: "If you say it, you can say it, what is there to hide." If this is just to let them reap some benefits in their positions, but this kind of thing is harmful to the big guys. If the plague really spreads, do the bacteria still divide your identity? What if our children are infected! ”

After being counted down by his wife, Sun Hong finally spoke, "I heard about this kind of thing, about five years ago. ”

"...... five years ago, weren't you in Songjiang Mansion at that time?"

"Yes. At that time, I was working at the port in Matsue Prefecture. I just heard about such a thing. In other departments, no one has talked about this either. ”

After eating and drinking, Ding Fei said goodbye. With the insider's statement, although I am not sure that it is true, at least it means that this matter is not in the near future. Ding Fei is not a reckless person, he knows very well that such a thing must be handled. Even officials and cadres like his sister who can be lazy feel that this matter is harmful to her interests, and the officials and cadres who are disgusted by this should be the majority.

What Qianfu refers to is that he died without a disease. This matter can be poked to such a high level, probably not because Sima Kao has sinned so many people before, so some people want to do something to the people of the Sima family. There must also be some people out of righteous indignation against Sima Kao personally.

Ding Fei couldn't help it, and some people couldn't help it. At the end of the morning meeting two days later, Xiong Shang, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, found Ding Fei and asked about it in a low voice. Ding Fei said indifferently, "There is such a thing. ”

"Do you know that the ship has documents for the officials?" Xiong Shang said nervously.

"A document for the official?" Ding Fei was really surprised. As the news grows, the situation becomes more and more interesting. If it's just a few silverfish, that's a little bit of a thing. No matter how big the trouble is, it is just corruption and perverting the law. But the matter involves the official family, and some people may ask whether the documents that will be seen by the official family are deliberately contaminated with plague.

"Inspector Ding. These documents are to be presented to our Ministry of Rites for review. After we read it, we handed it over to the official family to see, but fortunately, it was found out halfway. Otherwise, our Ministry of Rites will not be able to argue. And it's an infection, and it's the Ministry of Rites that reads the documents first to be infected. Xiong Xiang's expression was painful, and his tone was even more painful.

"Oh." Ding Fei responded, as the former chairman of the Anti-Rape Committee, Ding Fei was not worried about Xiong Xiang's problem. Xiong Shangshu has actually been secretly checked a long time ago. So Ding Fei sorted out his thoughts and asked, "Xiong Shangshu, has the report been sent to the official family?" ”

Xiong Sheng was stunned, he never expected Ding Fei to ask like this. After listening for a while, Xiong Sheng replied: "After those documents were carefully disinfected, we have copied them again and sent them to the official family. ”

"How did you copy it?" Ding Fei continued to ask.

“…… We asked the personnel to sit in the sterile room, put the sterilized documents in front of the glass window of the sterile room, and let the personnel in the sterile room copy them. Xiong Shang reluctantly explained.

"So it can still be like this!" Ding Fei couldn't help but admire, he didn't figure out how to ensure that the sterilized documents were foolproof. I didn't expect the people from the Ministry of Rites to really come up with a way. After sighing, Ding Fei lowered his voice and asked, "Xiong Shangshu, will anyone in your Ministry of Rites tell the official family about this?" ”

Xiong Sheng was even more helpless, he sighed: "Of course we won't talk about it, but I'm afraid we won't be able to hide this kind of thing for too long." God knows who will chew their tongue behind their backs. ”

Ding Fei said that he agreed with Xiong Shang's opinion, in the face of such a big thing, God knows who will say anything inside. Even if this matter is limited to the smallest part, Sima Kao's grandson Sima Bin probably can't save it.

Back at the procuratorate, Ding Fei ordered, "The Supervision Department will start investigating the matter." And ask the public security to cooperate. ”

From the perspective of the general process, the police are responsible for receiving the report, and after the investigation process, the police transfer the report to the inspection department. It is the procuratorate that is responsible for deciding whether to file a case for prosecution. The court is responsible for deciding whether to take the case. Once a case has been accepted, a court is convened and the prosecutor's office prosecutes the case, and the defendant has his own defence lawyer. In court, the prosecution and the defendant will do a judicial offensive and defensive judicial attack and defense.

This is mostly for civil and criminal cases. Now Ding Fei is facing cases of violations of the law within the government. In the past, this kind of thing relied on Lantai, that is, the imperial envoy's platform, to 'hear about the incident', or the officials reported it through the song. The decision on whether to handle the case or not is up to the official family or the prime minister.

Now Zhao Jiaren and Zhao Guanjia did not appoint the prime minister, put the prime minister's power into the hands of the official, and established and improved a new public procuratorate and law system through the trial of Song traitors. Although the officials still have the power to initiate prison edicts, the power to conduct judicial investigations and trials of corrupt officials is nominally in the hands of the Ministry of Justice, which is composed of public prosecutors. Ding Fei didn't expect that he would face such a case, and he was really excited in his heart. The only question left in Ding Fei's heart was 'Will the Zhao Guanjia openly launch the edict'.

Ding Fei was not mistaken, the intelligence agency is still running. As long as the word spy becomes the National Security Agency, Zhao Jiaren fully agrees with the existence of intelligence agencies. The integrity of the privileged literati is inferior to that of a prostitute. Unless it is a fraud gang from the beginning, a normal prostitute will provide services after receiving money. The money given is enough, and the service provided by those high-level call girls and those American female students of Sweet Daddy.com is still very satisfactory.

History has proven countless times that the more money the privileged literati take from the imperial court and the more they exploit the working people, the more they are disloyal to their duties and to the state. So from the very beginning, there was news about this matter to Zhao Jiaren. Because of the death of his close relative, Zhao Jiaren was furious and almost ordered the implementation of the edict.

But then Zhao Jiaren held back. After his heart was filled with malicious thoughts, Zhao Jiaren wanted to taste more blood. If the edict had been issued from the beginning, the matter would probably have ended with Sima Bin and his accomplices. How much blood can be shed then? It is very likely that no one will even lose their head because of this. So Zhao Jiaren held back, he was ready to see how many people would be involved in this, and how many people would get to the point of losing their heads.

Zhao Jiaren was quite satisfied with the work of the Ministry of Rites, and the thick report from Eastern Rome gave Zhao Jiaren a rough idea of what was going on there. Based on the concept that Zhao Jiaren already had, he felt that the world had changed to the extent that it had been turned upside down. At this stage, the Mongols had more power than Europe, and hundreds of thousands of Mongol troops were enough to establish a new dynasty in the valley of the two rivers. The power of this dynasty will only be stronger than that of the Ottoman Turks, who have not yet appeared.

With the Mongol attitude towards the true god religion, this new dynasty will not become a true god state in the short term. Zhao Jiaren had no interest in competing with the future Mongol Empire in Central Asia in the Mediterranean, which was a very unproductive thing. Zhao Jiaren only wanted the Great Song Dynasty's fleet to crisscross the Tianzhu Ocean, and he was not even interested in turning the Tianzhu Plain into the territory of the Great Song Dynasty. The third brother would be a second-class slave in the future Tianzhu colony. There is no need to make them Chinese.

Further afield, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, all Zhao wants is the Suez Canal. So that the Great Song fleet did not need to go around the Cape of Good Hope to reach Europa. But to achieve such a goal, we need to rely on war. While there were various fluctuations in the imperial court, Zhao Jiaren focused his attention on the expedition.

If the Great Song Dynasty carried out this expedition, it would definitely be a very dangerous expedition. The Mongol cowardice led more than 10,000 Mongol cavalry to defeat Mamluk, and the Great Song Dynasty was likely to be defeated in a distant place full of enemies. So Zhao Jiaren thought about it, so he brought the Ministry of Rites Shangshu Xiong Shang.

It can be seen that Xiong Shang is very nervous. But Xiong Sheng didn't dare to say anything, so he waited nervously for Zhao Jiaren to ask.

"Xiong Shangshu, have you read all those reports?" Zhao Jiaren asked.

"Back to the official's house, I've seen it all."

"Now the Mamluks are afraid of the Mongol attack. What if we bought the isthmus between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea from the Mamluks? ”

"Buy the Isthmus?" Xiong Sheng was confused by this.

Zhao Jiaren took out a map that marked the isthmus, that is, the location of the 'Suez Canal'.

After reading this, Xiong Sheng was even more puzzled, and he asked tentatively: "Official, after we buy this place, we will stand between the Mongols and Mamluk?" ”

Zhao Jiaren smiled and shook his head, "Of course we won't send troops to help Mamluk. I want to be famous in everything. We have the land on this isthmus, and when the Mongols have killed Mamluk, we will propose to the Mongols that these lands belong to us, and the Mongols will have to leave. ”

"How could the Mongols listen to us?"

"Yes. When they said they wouldn't listen, we used that as a reason to beat the Mongols. ”