Chapter 1306: The Marquis's Mansion is Like the Sea

Chapter 1306: The Marquis's Mansion is Like the Sea

As the capital of the Tang Dynasty, Chang'an City has a population of hundreds of thousands of officials and civilians, far exceeding the population carrying capacity of the major cities in Guanzhong in the past.

With so many people living in a city, daily public security management is a very serious issue. In addition, there are a large number of powerful residents in the city, and the difference in levels is far greater than in other places, so the phenomenon of powerful people oppressing the weak is also more frequent.

Although the city is clearly divided into market towns, and in most cases the living areas between dignitaries and ordinary people are strictly divided, since they live in this area, there will always be overlaps. Especially in public transportation areas such as streets and alleys, whether they are powerful or ordinary people, as long as they need to travel, they will inevitably come into contact.

Therefore, the management of streets and alleys in Chang'an City has also become a very important part of the entire public security system. In addition to the two cases that shocked the capital before, there are also frequent incidents of trampling and collisions caused by daily travel, and such situations especially affect the travel safety of civilians in the capital.

Therefore, the decree drafted by the court to rectify the public security in the capital was directly named "Street Cleaning Style", which mainly achieved the overall improvement of public security through the standardized management of streets and lanes in the capital.

"Street Cleaning Style" mainly established regulations for matters such as street maintenance and travel of people and horses. As a supplement to the criminal order outside the "Kaihuang Code", one of the major features of this decree is that all persons involved in the violation shall not be subject to the legal exemption clauses of discussion, reduction, redemption, and due.

In other words, as long as the regulations of "Street Cleaning Style" are violated in public areas, even if the prince breaks the law, he will be punished with the same crime as the common people. The spirit of this rule is not to break the class barriers, but to try to eliminate the cost difference between dignitaries and ordinary people in the public areas of the city, so as to achieve the effect of warning against sin.

The powerful and the rich are not born arrogant and domineering. The root of their temperament is that the punishment they suffer after breaking the rules is much less than that of ordinary people, so their courage naturally grows stronger.

As a national law, the Kaihuang Code cannot directly erase class differences and pursue universal equality. After all, the Tang Dynasty was still a feudal regime. Without revolutionary productivity improvement, it could not achieve cross-era social changes. Class differences were still a basic element in its construction of rule. What Li Tai could do was to try to maintain a situation where rewards and punishments were close in some public areas.

Along with the promulgation of the Street Cleansing Style, some related institutions were also established. The most important of these was the establishment of the Left and Right Jinwu Guards, the Left and Right Street Envoys under the Jinwu Guards, and the Wuhou Shops spread across the city.

Jinwu Guard was one of the various guards in the Southern Yamen of the Sui and Tang Dynasties. In history, Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Yuwen Yong, changed the soldiers of various armies into attendants, and established the guard system on the basis of the Fubing system, thus combining the Fubing and the Imperial Guards into one. In the Sui Dynasty, it was further improved on the basis of the Northern Zhou Weifu system, and the Twelve Guards of the Southern Yamen were established to command the Imperial Guards, and later it was increased to Sixteen Guards.

In the current Tang Dynasty, the Fubing and the Imperial Guards have not been fully integrated, and the relevant guarding system has not been regularized. The Imperial Guards in the capital are still mainly composed of the original two camps and three guards of the Bafu, but the relevant regulations are also on the agenda.

The reason why Li Tai did not directly set up the Nan Ya Guards to reform the Fubing to the Weifu system is that the Fubing system is still developing. In the newly conquered territories such as Hebei and Henan, the military government is gradually adding more, and the main task of the Fubing is to guard the local area.

Under such circumstances, it is a very rigid thinking to force the institutional reforms and order these Fubing to go to the capital to participate in the guarding. The form is greater than the effect, and it does not consider the actual situation. The Fubing and the guards have not yet formed a system, so it is useless to set up the Nan Ya Guards, but it will cause the bloated court institutions.

Therefore, for the Nan Ya Guards, they are now left alone. In the near future, Li Tai only intends to expand the second battalion guards into the left and right guards, and the newly added left and right Jinwu guards will serve as city guards. The military offices in Guanzhong and Shannan will temporarily select soldiers to serve in the guard offices. The original three guards were changed to the left and right Qianniu guards.

At present, the left and right Jinwu guards are still being formed, and the soldiers in Shannan have not yet been in place. Therefore, the various Wuhou shops established along with the "Street Cleaning Style" will be selected by the Jingzhao Prefecture and the two county offices of Chang'an and Wannian to serve as high-ranking and good families under their jurisdiction, and cooperate with the street cleaning style to rectify the security in the capital.

Because the functions of different areas in the city are not the same, some areas have become places that need special attention. For example, the east and west cities and the surrounding streets and alleys are busy areas with frequent personnel exchanges. The people have the need for business and trade, and the personnel disputes arising on the road are naturally very frequent. Therefore, after the promulgation of the "Street Cleaning Style", these areas have become the focus of prevention and control.

Chang'an Pingkangfang was originally one of the noble wards in the capital, where the rich and powerful gathered. The eastern neighbor of the ward was the East Market, so the East Chang Street of Pingkangfang became one of the most crowded and lively streets in the capital. Especially after the market opened in the middle of the day, the whole street was crowded with travelers, merchants, and people.

In response to this situation, Jingzhao Prefecture and Wannian County not only opened several additional roads to and from the East Market, but also issued a series of regulations in the newly promulgated "Street Cleaning Style" to separate people and vehicles, drive on the right, and limit the speed of vehicles and horses, in order to improve the traffic conditions.

Among them, the separation of people and vehicles and the speed limit of vehicles and horses are particularly important. After all, once cattle and horses are frightened or run too fast, they will collide with pedestrians, often causing injuries to bones and muscles, and even life-threatening injuries.

Fences were set up on Pingkangfang East Street to separate people and vehicles, and a sand path was also laid on the carriageway to slow down the speed of carriages and horses. Although it added some obstacles and troubles to the traffic of carriages and horses, it made the street more accessible. Safety is greatly improved.

Usually, various collisions, road jockeying and other disputes occur every day. If they cannot be dealt with quickly, they will cause serious congestion. Therefore, it is often the powerful who run rampant and have no scruples, while the poor and weak swallow their anger and are on tenterhooks. After adding these settings, the overall traffic efficiency of the street has been improved, and people passing by feel at ease.

However, those who have been restricted will be somewhat unhappy, and for a regulation to become deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, it will inevitably require strict implementation by law enforcers and the accumulation of time.

Therefore, disputes sometimes occur on this stretch of road. People who violate laws and regulations often negotiate with the government. Naturally, there will be no phenomenon of powerful people bullying the weak. After being informed of their interests, those who violate the rules are often willing to accept it. punishment.

But there are always exceptions to everything. After all, there are people in this world who are arrogant and do not know what the standard is when they have a little bit of power. This evening, a carriage drove out of the west gate of the East City and did not turn north in accordance with the regulations. It drove directly south and rushed into the sidewalk. Because the carriage was traveling too fast, several pedestrians were caught off guard and fell to the ground. Other pedestrians ran to the left and right to avoid it.

"Stop the car quickly and don't continue southbound!"

Seeing this scene, Marquis Wu in Wuhou's shop on the street hurriedly beat the gong as a warning and shouted loudly to stop it. However, the carriage still turned a deaf ear and continued southward for some distance until the crowd was so crowded that it became difficult to move. Turn west and break through the guardrail laterally, preparing to leave along the traffic flow from the other side.

"What a courageous thief slave, you are really arrogant! Hurry, throw down the car barrier and block the way of this thief's car!"

Since the establishment of the regulations, the princes have seen many powerful people violating the prohibition, but there are only a few people who still run so unscrupulously after being blocked like this. When they called for their companions, they pulled up the car barrier together and headed towards this car. The car was intercepted from the front, and it took a lot of effort to intercept the car.

However, before these Wuhous could step forward to question him, the driver of the car said with a ferocious expression: "The dog slave is so brave. Who knows who the noble man is in this car? He actually stepped forward to harass and intercept him. Is he trying to die?" !”

Although those Wuhou were just the sons of good families in the community, they had been enforcing the law for many days and punished powerful families, so they were confident. He sneered and said: "You are a fool of life and death, you evil slave can't make a decision! On the contrary, the master of your car is doing this. If a slave violates the prohibition and does evil, he will inevitably be punished!”

"Fight me and repel these thieves!"

Suddenly, a woman's irritable and sharp roar came to mind in the car. When the coachman heard this, he immediately shouted at the few followers who were following him on both sides of the car. They all rushed towards Wu Hou who was blocking the car and beat him head and face.

At the same time, a woman's head was poked out of the car. The woman's face was pretty, and she showed a bit of coquettishness under her makeup. But this time, her face and eyes were full of anger. She gritted her teeth and continued to shout at the slaves to beat those who were blocking the way. Hou, as vicious as a dominatrix.

The street gangsters were naturally full of dissatisfaction after being beaten like this. Although they did not dare to directly go up and beat the naughty woman in the car, they would not hold back against the violent domestic slaves and launched a counterattack. After all, it was these Wuhou people who The overwhelming force quickly knocked these evil slaves to the ground.

When the woman in the car saw this, instead of being frightened, she jumped out of the car even more hysterically. She started beating the Wuhous herself, pulled out her own hairpin, and pricked the arms of several Wuhous until blood dripped from them.

"Master Dou is here, Master Dou is here! This thief woman must be severely punished!"

Since this area is close to the Wannian County government office, such a vicious incident occurred on the street. The news quickly spread to the county office, so Wannian County Lieutenant Dou Lan led a team of government officials to rush over quickly. Those who did not dare to fight back were After seeing the woman and the Wuhous who could only move left and right, they all looked happy and shouted.

"Why don't you stop this cunning woman! Otherwise, don't blame the government for showing no mercy..."

Dou Lan came from a well-known family and served as a county captain in Jingxian County at a young age. Naturally, he was also a young man who was ambitious and arrogant. Naturally, he would not be frightened by this woman's behavior. He walked forward and shouted angrily.

However, when he came to the scene and saw the face of the woman who was still madly grabbing and stabbing the Wuhou, his expression suddenly froze, and then he became embarrassed. He hurriedly stepped forward and whispered: "Why is Madam Wang here? My hall Brother, do you know about this?”

When the woman who was still acting out heard this familiar voice, she stopped and turned her head to look at Dou Lan. Immediately, the cruelty and madness on her face turned into sadness and grievance. She curled up her lips and burst into tears: "Wu Lang came just in time. These Chang'an thugs tried to deceive my foreign girl into being soft. They stopped me in the street, teased and bullied me..."

When the surrounding Wuhou heard this, they all immediately showed anger, especially the few Wuhou who were injured by the woman's violence. They each raised their bloody arms and said: "Young Master Dou is a bright mirror! This lady Indulging the domestic slaves to walk the wrong way down the street, running amok, and carrying out their humble duties. When they came to intercept them, they were beaten instead..."

"Shut up! You wait for dozens of street thugs to come forward and stop you. Who will not be frightened! Evacuate the nearby passers-by quickly to prevent the situation from expanding further!"

Dou Lan looked at the crying woman with her face covered, frowned, waved his hand to interrupt the Wu Hou who were still waiting to explain the whole story, and then asked them to evacuate the people who were standing by and watching. He led the yamen runners to lead the woman, her servants, and the stopped carriage to an open place on the side of the road.

"Wu Lang, please be sure to uphold justice for me and punish those evildoers! I'm going to the East Market today, and I'm going to buy for my master..."

The woman came to the street, still with a sad look on her face, but Dou Lan waved his hand impatiently and said, "I'll deal with this matter myself. Madam Wang, go home quickly and don't go out easily, otherwise you will anger my cousin, and you will have to bear the consequences yourself!"

The woman's face flashed a trace of fear after hearing this, and she didn't dare to stay here to make a scene. Under Dou Lan's gaze, she got on the carriage obediently, and then the coachman and several servants escorted the carriage and left here in a hurry.

After evacuating the pedestrians and restoring traffic, the military marquises came here again, but the woman was gone. They frowned and said, "Excuse me, Mr. Dou, where is that lowly lady? Even if I am beaten, she condoned the violation of the order by her servants. How can we let her go easily?"

"Shut up, I will make a decision on this matter! I will go back to the court later to make a clear judgment. All the injured military marquises today will be compensated!"

Dou Lan was also in a state of confusion at this moment. He first patiently comforted the military marquises, and then turned around and left here quickly.

The woman's surname was Wang. She was originally a prostitute in Guangzhou. Later, she was taken in by Gao Zhan, the false lord of the bandit Qi, for his entertainment. Dou Lan's cousin Dou Rongding followed Xu Guogong Han Xiong to conquer Qingzhou. When he was suppressing the remaining bandits, he captured this woman. He was attracted by her beauty and art and took her in. He brought her back to Chang'an together. However, due to the jealousy of the wife in Dou Rongding's household and the power of his wife's family, Dou Rongding did not dare to bring the woman home, and could only keep her in Chang'an as a concubine.

The reason why Dou Lan knew the woman was because Dou Rongding introduced her to him in order to let him take care of her within his duties and help cover up in front of his family.

Originally, the woman had been kept in the outer house and rarely went out, which was worry-free, but she was unexpectedly getting bolder and dared to go out privately, and even caused such an incident. Fortunately, Dou Lan met her and helped to cover it up.

However, Dou Lan was also worried at this time, worried that the woman would do something else, so he hurried to his cousin's house to inform him of the matter.

The military marquises saw that the woman was arrogant and committed a crime, and then disappeared without a trace. They were naturally angry. Several of them shouted angrily: "Who is greedy for his little compensation! The Supreme Emperor issued the order to make it convenient for the people in the capital. How can we allow these powerful people to play and trample on him! Dou Shaofu protected the evil, but I will not tolerate it! Who dares to go to Jingzhao Prefecture with me to complain?"

"Let's go together! If Jingzhao Prefecture refuses to accept it, we will go to the prefecture!"

The other military marquises also shouted indignantly, and none of them were willing to let the domineering woman escape the law.

When Dou Lan came to Dou Rongding's house, he was still happily preparing gifts. Because his father-in-law, Anguo Gong Yang Zhong, would return to the court soon to report his merits, and at that time, there would be a lot of courtesy and rewards. As Yang Zhong's son-in-law, Dou Rongding must also show his performance.

But after she heard what Dou Lan said, the smile on her face disappeared immediately. Without time to say anything more, she made up an excuse and left the house with Dou Lan, heading straight for her secret outer house.

When she arrived at the secret outer house in the alley, the concubine Wang came forward with a face full of grievance. Before Dou Rongding could start to reprimand her, she had already said timidly: "I know I was wrong. No matter how the master punishes me, I just ask not to drive me away. My whole body belongs to the master. If the master does not pity me anymore, what is the joy of my life? I'd rather die!"

After hearing the woman's infatuated and timid confession, Dou Rongding's anger dissipated more than half. After all, he was still greedy for the woman's beauty and art, and couldn't bear to drive her away. He frowned and reprimanded her a few more times, and then he left again. Looking at Dou Lan, he said, "It's just walking against the flow and disturbing the streets. I don't think it's a serious crime.

My family doesn't need to escape any punishment for this, but this woman has a special background after all, and it's inconvenient to show it to the public. I won't make things difficult for Wu Lang. You must punish her to the maximum extent after you return to the palace. You must confiscate a lot of money, or be flogged, and send your servants to go. It's just one thing. Don't let the matter go on!"

Dou Lan nodded after hearing this. To be honest, he was also very unhappy if he was really charged with favoritism and dereliction of duty for this matter. But if he just hides the presence of this woman from the Wang family in the incident, and doubles the punishment for the rest, including more compensation and comfort for the injured Wu Hou, this is naturally not a burden for his family.

After discussing with each other, Dou Lan hurried back to the county government to clean up the mess. Dou Rongding also planned to go home, but Wang pulled him aside with tears in her eyes and told him that she had been frightened today and missed her master so much after a long separation. She begged Dou Rongding to stay overnight. Seeing her shy and charming appearance, Dou Rongding was moved and chose to stay.

After a night of ecstasy, Dou Rongding was still sleeping in the gentle tent. Suddenly, there was a commotion outside the courtyard, followed by a hurried knock on the door, accompanied by a panicked voice: "Are you in the room? The mistress is in the front hall!"

"Mistress? What mistress..."

When Dou Rongding heard this, he jumped up from the tent, hurriedly grabbed the clothes in front of the bed and put them on his body. When he opened the door, he saw his old slave standing outside the door with his head bowed. His face suddenly became a little panicked: "How did the mistress know? Who in the house leaked the secret?"

"No, it's not a leak from the government. It's Jingzhao Mansion. Jingzhao Mansion sent people into the government today to order those who violated the rules and regulations yesterday to surrender within a time limit. The person in charge, Liu Dayin, will personally come to the government to arrest them!"

Hearing the old slave's words, Dou Rongding looked even more panicked, and said bitterly: "Why is this Wu Lang so careless and thorough in doing things!"

He didn't bother to talk to the woman on the couch anymore. He straightened his robes and walked to the front hall. When he immediately stepped into the hall, before he saw his wife, a hand struck her face with strong wind. Dou Rongding subconsciously leaned back to dodge. The palm of his hand swept away and then turned into a grasping hand. He immediately grabbed Dou Rongding's beard under his chin and pulled him into the hall.

"Madam, calm down, madam..."

Dou Rongding screamed in pain and bowed his head into the hall, not daring to raise his head to look at his wife's angry expression. However, as his wife loosened her fingers, the beards under her chin began to fall down like flying snow, which immediately made him feel heartbroken. The corners of his mouth twitched. This beautiful beard was a plus for him. He didn't want to ruin his day at the hands of a fierce woman.

Dou Rongding's wife was Yang Zhong's eldest daughter. The general's daughter had a strong temperament, and her husband was provoking concubines outside the house. Therefore, Yang was furious at this time. She glared at Dou Rongding and said angrily: "That cheap maid from Dongyi Where?"

"Madam, madam, please calm down. I didn't mean to hide it. It's just that this girl is from a humble background and lacks education. I wanted to teach her etiquette before introducing her to the door..."

Dou Rongding knew that he was wrong. Although he was ashamed and annoyed, he still lowered his head and whispered.

Yang didn't listen to his explanation, and still said with self-hate: "What kind of etiquette did the husband teach her? Taught her to run rampant in the market and ruin our family tradition? If Jingzhao Mansion hadn't come to the house to interrogate, I wouldn't have known that there was something going on at home. How ugly! This prostitute has caused so much trouble to my family even before she enters the prostitute. How can my family be safe if she is allowed to enter?"

"If you don't come in, if you don't come in, I will order them to be kicked out..."

In order to appease his wife, Dou Rongding did not dare to argue anymore. Although he was still a little reluctant, he quickly expressed his position and said that he was going to deal with the matter first and then discuss it from above.

However, since Yang had already searched so far, he refused to give up. He still snorted coldly: "This prostitute is the source of trouble. I didn't know it before, but now that I know it, how can I let her live in the world again? It's up to the husband to take care of it himself." , or should I lure my son into the house and kill him?”

"This, this...if things don't come to this, lynching and killing is always inappropriate!"

After Dou Rongding heard this, his expression suddenly changed, he shook his head and waved his hands. However, Yang didn't say a word, just looked at him coldly.

The couple were in a stalemate in the hall for a long time. Dou Rongding's expression also changed. After a while, he said in a harsh voice: "It's my fault this time. I'll ask for your forgiveness when I get back."

After saying this, he turned around and walked back to the inner courtyard. The Wang family from the outer chamber was currently standing in the corridor tremblingly. When he saw Dou Rongding striding forward, a smile appeared on his face again, and he hurriedly came forward to laugh. Said: "Lord, has that shrew been driven away..."

"You bitch, shut up!"

After Dou Rongding heard this, he stamped his feet and roared. He immediately grabbed the wooden stick in the slave's hand, swung it up with all his strength and knocked the woman to the ground. Then, regardless of her whining and begging for mercy, the stick fell down on her head and face. , until the woman died, Dou Rongding breathed heavily and threw the bloody stick on the ground.