Chapter 304: Reputation Change
Li Nuo spent last year's New Year's Eve at Prince Chun's Mansion.
At that time, there were only three people in the family, and there was no atmosphere even during the New Year.
Compared to last year's desertedness, the Li Mansion is much more lively this year.
With An Ning at home, Yiren stayed at the Li Mansion for the New Year. At the invitation of her wife and An Ning, Fenghuang did not return to Yuyin Pavilion. She also called Nightingale to come with her. Everyone put up couplets and hung lanterns together, making the Li Mansion finally look like the New Year...
At the beginning of the new year, there is a grand court meeting lasting three days.
Li Nuo, who holds a fifth-rank official position, is already qualified to participate in court meetings, and he cannot miss the annual court meetings.
At the grand court meeting, Li Nuo met Emperor Xia again.
He looked much younger than he had a few months ago.
It has to be said that the current emperor has the secret to maintaining his youthful appearance; just looking at his appearance, no one would think that he is already sixty years old.
Everyone knew that he was studying the way to immortality, but no one knew how he regained his youth.
Li Nuo is familiar with the teachings of various philosophers. Among all the schools of thought, only doctors at a high level have such ability.
The true qi of a doctor has the effect of prolonging life, which is also the biggest characteristic of a doctor.
People in other families who have reached the sixth level can only live for three decades, but those in the fifth level of medicine can live for two hundred years.
According to historical records, a doctor who reaches the sixth level can easily live to be 300 years old.
A high-level doctor, even if he is a hundred years old, is almost the same as a young man in his twenties in terms of appearance and physical functions.
However, in today's world, doctors have long since declined, and the fourth level is considered very impressive. Looking across the entire continent, the number of doctors at the fifth level can be counted on one hand, and there is not even a single one in Da Xia.
There were no important topics discussed at this grand court meeting.
Some old ministers wanted His Majesty to decide on a crown prince as soon as possible, but His Majesty did not respond positively.
The other officials wanted to agree, but when they saw that His Majesty was in high spirits and looked like he could stay in power for a few more decades, they all shut their mouths silently.
What is more important is that the imperial examination is about to be held. All major government offices are short of staff and are in urgent need of new blood.
It is worth mentioning that at this grand court meeting, an important decree was passed by His Majesty.
Several officials from the Dali Temple jointly submitted a memorial, hoping to complete a legal reform.
The main content of this legal reform was to abolish the silver redemption system and the privilege of the powerful to be demoted and exempted from punishment. From then on, if the powerful committed a crime, they would be dealt with according to the Daxia law.
Almost every year, officials make such claims.
But without exception, every time, it was met with collective opposition from the powerful.
But this time, there were few powerful people who opposed.
Because there are not many dignitaries attending the grand court meeting.
Some of them were killed for treason, while others moved away from Chang'an to avoid disaster. The number of dignitaries attending the grand court meeting this year was less than one-tenth of last year's.
After the Dali Temple submitted the memorial, the Censorate and the Ministry of Justice followed up immediately. Later, the left and right prime ministers also expressed their support. At one time, the three provinces, six ministries and nine temples stood up one after another, and countless court officials echoed them.
With so many officials supporting it, even Your Majesty cannot act on his own and has to agree.
Although the remaining powerful officials in the court strongly opposed this, their words were not influential enough and they were ultimately unable to change the overall situation.
This also means that in the future, if they break the law, they can only be exempted from punishment through the golden medal of immunity from death.
But there are not many people who have the golden medal of immunity from death.
For the powerful people in Daxia, the past six months have undoubtedly been their darkest moment.
As for the officials of Daxia, especially those of the Legalists, they were all very excited.
After so many years, someone finally accomplished what the predecessors of the Legalists of the Great Xia Dynasty had failed to accomplish.
And the person who accomplished this great feat was not a law practitioner.
The officials of the Dali Temple made a collective memorial, and it was obvious who was behind it.
Li Xuanjing had done many things that angered God and people.
Many loyal people died at his hands, directly or indirectly.
But his achievements are also something that cannot be avoided in history books. He used another method to accomplish what the powerful and wealthy who broke the law were guilty of, just like the common people. This was something that the Legalist predecessors of all generations had been unable to do.
Every reform aimed at the powerful and wealthy would be strongly opposed by them and end in failure.
In order to prevent the powerful from opposing him, he framed them with trumped-up charges of rebellion and massacred the entire circle of powerful people. Those who managed to survive also fled in all directions.
They even suspected that the many assassinations of powerful people in Chang'an in recent days were done by Li Xuanjing.
As long as all the powerful and wealthy are dead, naturally no one will be able to oppose.
This is indeed the case...
In the past, they believed that Li Xuanjing was killing people everywhere because of factional struggles and to help Prince Chun ascend to the throne.
But now, many people are wondering, could it be that party strife is his excuse?
He never openly changed the law again.
But the goals of his reforms were being achieved one by one.
Twenty years ago, he hoped that the court would open more official schools and admit more children from poor families, so as to reduce the control of the aristocratic families over the court.
That reform failed, but now, the control of the aristocratic families over the court is indeed much smaller than it was twenty years ago.
Although the reason was that he killed many people from aristocratic families, doesn't that mean the aristocratic families have a lot of control over the court?
Twenty years ago, he wanted to reduce the number of powerful people by abolishing the inheritance of titles, but also ended in failure.
Nowadays, although the inheritance of power and nobility still exists, the number of powerful and noble people has dropped drastically.
Although he did not practice Confucianism or Legalism, his achievements made all Confucian and Legalist officials ashamed...
For such a big event, the news had already spread among the people before the three provinces issued specific laws and decrees.
If the powerful and wealthy break the law, they shall be punished the same as the common people.
The atmosphere of the New Year festival cannot compare to the shock this incident brought to the people.
No one expected that the people of Daxia would receive such a great gift just at the beginning of the new year.
The whole Chang'an was in a state of excitement.
It was at this time that they realized very clearly how right they were to not join in the clamor when people outside were clamoring to purge the emperor's side.
"He is not a traitor at all, he is clearly an upright official!"
"If anyone dares to say that Lord Li is a treacherous villain again, I will tear his mouth to pieces..."
"Fortunately, someone gave me some advice that time, otherwise, I would have wronged Lord Li!"
"In my opinion, Lord Li is enduring humiliation and bearing heavy burdens. He was probably helpless when he betrayed his trust. If he hadn't done that, he would have been killed by the powerful and wouldn't be where he is today..."
"We have always misunderstood him..."
Before this decree was introduced, people had mixed opinions about Li Xuanjing.
As soon as this decree came out, the people praised him.
The Secretariat.
After the court meeting, officials from the Secretariat returned to the yamen to summarize.
They could clearly see that the Right Prime Minister was in a good mood. When the two officials made mistakes at the court meeting, he simply asked them to correct them lightly and did not reprimand them as harshly as he had in the past.
Everyone can guess the reason.
Canceling the privileges of the rich and powerful and treating them as guilty as common people when they break the law was once the proposition of the Right Prime Minister's Reform.
At that time, he was not yet the Right Prime Minister.
Although forty years have passed, the content of his reform was finally realized.
However, the one who implemented the Right Prime Minister's reform measures was his biggest political enemy. I wonder what the Right Prime Minister was thinking...
Li Mansion.
Today is the last day of the grand court meeting. In the afternoon, Li Nuo once again welcomed the two envoys from Zhao State.
The young female official looked at Li Nuo and asked, "What do you think about that matter, my Lord?"
It seems that they don't know yet that he is about to go on a diplomatic mission to Zhao State.
Li Nuo nodded and said, "I can go to Zhao State with you, but you have to tell me what you need me to do for you."
Upon hearing this, the young female official showed a look of joy on her face, then lowered her head and said, "Actually, I don't know either..."
Li Nuo looked at her in astonishment.
She asked for help, but she didn't know what she needed help with?
Why does he feel that these two people are a little unreliable...
(End of this chapter)
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