Chapter 108: Acting According to the Law

Pan Jiexin didn’t expect that someone was having thoughts about his lunch box. His mind wasn’t on eating. He briefly exchanged views with the non-commissioned officers at the dining table about the morning’s drill training and also chatted with everyone about physical training.

Since Wanshou Palace was not large enough to accommodate a thousand people living and studying at the same time, the class that started today was for trainees with some literacy skills, about three hundred people. According to Pan Jiexin’s plan, the first phase at Wanshou Palace would adopt a rolling enrollment system, with a new class starting every ten days. He planned to take the trainees to the streets after ten days, where they would be led by veteran Naturalized Citizen police officers to carry out actual tasks. After ten days of internship, they would return for supplementary teaching, and then the second batch of trainees would be “rolled” out to the streets for their internship. This would maximize the use of the venue and manpower.

But this made the time even tighter. Which subjects had to be taught and which could be simplified became a question he was constantly considering.

Time was tight. Lunch was limited to half an hour, followed by a half-hour walk with the non-commissioned officers of each squad—this was mandatory.

Li Ziyu followed his squad in circles around the training ground, feeling like a fool. But since he was eating their grain, he had to obey their rules.

After the walk, the afternoon classes began immediately. The first class was a lecture on police theory by Pan Jiexin.

“I believe that among the trainees present, most of you probably don’t know the meaning of ‘police.’ So today’s first lesson is to tell you what a police officer is,” Pan Jiexin said eloquently. “A police officer is different from the constables and bailiffs you are familiar with. Fundamentally, you are police officers because your daily work is a police action.” He paused and looked at the bewildered expressions of the trainees. For a group of natives who only spoke 17th-century Guangzhou dialect, it was too difficult to understand his words.

He continued, “The Senate, in accordance with the will of the Senate and the people, uses armed, administrative, and criminal means to maintain the security and social order of the Great Song. This is called police action. And you, as the implementers of this action, are called police. Please turn to page 2 of your books. I will now explain some of the terms in detail.”

Fortunately, the trainees in these classes were all literate. With Pan Jiexin’s painstaking explanation, these future police officers of the Senate finally got a preliminary understanding of the meaning of the word “police.” In fact, at the beginning of the establishment of the police force, several Senate members were not keen on the study of so-called police theory, but Ran Yao still supported Pan Jiexin’s proposal. The reason was simple: if a team didn’t even know its own identity, you couldn’t expect them to have much fighting power.

Pan Jiexin was lecturing when he suddenly saw a trainee raise his hand. He nodded, signaling the trainee to stand up and ask a question.

The one who stood up was none other than Li Ziyu. He asked unnaturally, “Reporting to the Chief, student Li Ziyu. I just want to ask a question. My grandfather once told me about the Minister of Education and the Minister of Justice during the time of Yu and Shun in the ‘Book of Documents.’ I was just thinking, if they were here today, would they also be the police officers the Chief is talking about?”

Pan Jiexin nodded and said in an appreciative tone, “You have read quite a few books! They are only similar to the police I am talking about, but in many more aspects, they are not police. Li Ziyu’s question is very good, because I will now make a distinction between the constables, the Minister of Education, and the Minister of Justice—these so-called ancient police—and the Senate police I am about to talk about.”

Pan Jiexin still remembered that when he was a freshman, his professor of basic theory of public security, who had graduated from the People’s Public Security University of China, had also raised this question. He knew that the police in the slave and feudal societies had no name but performed the duties of police. The exercise of police power was extremely lax in the law at that time, and extra-legal exercise of power was very common. On the other hand, lynching, which is criticized by countless people today, was widespread and even served as a supplement to the functions of the ancient police.

Take the local yamen of the Great Ming, for example. The constables were not only responsible for public security and investigation, but they also acted as guards for detaining prisoners. The so-called “sitting in the lockup” in common parlance did not actually refer to sitting in prison. The lockup was not a state-established prison but a detention facility privately set up by the head of the constables. Because the lockup was not part of the state system, it became an extra-legal world where the yamen runners could do as they pleased.

“We know that in the government of the Ming state, there are constables and bailiffs, and a group of so-called ‘white-robed’ yamen runners who are attached to them. They don’t have the title of ‘police,’ but they do work similar to the police, and their scope of management is quite broad, from tax collection to street sanitation. However, their so-called law enforcement is very arbitrary, and some is even illegal. Its purpose is not to ensure social security, but simply to accumulate wealth. This is an example of the characteristics of traditional police that I mentioned earlier.” Pan Jiexin paused and took a sip of his already somewhat cold tea. “And our Senate’s police have a dedicated police administrative agency called the Police Headquarters, and the minister is your Chief Ran—this is a central agency. And each locality has smaller agencies, just like our Guangzhou Municipal Police Department and the various police stations, which are all under the leadership of their superior departments. In addition, all the daily actions of our police are to be handled in accordance with the law. Therefore, as police officers, we must first be familiar with the law.”

He then opened a chart and pointed with his teaching stick. “These laws are the basis of our law enforcement.” He pointed to the book covers on the chart. “‘Police Law,’ ‘Public Security Law,’ and also ‘Criminal Law,’ ‘Criminal Procedure Law,’ and ‘Civil Law.’ If you are transferred to a specialized police branch in the future, there will also be ‘Health Law,’ ‘Tax Law,’ ‘Traffic Law,’ and so on.” Seeing the bewildered faces of the trainees below, Pan Jiexin felt there was no need to go into further detail. “These laws may seem very unfamiliar to everyone. In the future, you will have the opportunity to study the specific content in detail. But for now, you can simply understand them as our Senate’s ‘Great Ming Code.’”

Only then did the trainees below show a look of “sudden realization.” Pan Jiexin continued, “However, the articles of these laws are many, and the relationships are relatively complex. Therefore, to make it easier for everyone to grasp them quickly and accurately in their work, you should focus on these contents.”

He flipped to the next page of the chart. “‘Regulations on the Procedures for Handling Public Security Cases,’ ‘Regulations on the Procedures for Handling Criminal Cases,’ ‘Disciplinary Regulations,’ and ‘Guidelines for Grassroots Police Officers in Handling Cases.’ These four books will be distributed to you after the course begins.”

Pan Jiexin first briefly explained the content, significance, and use of these “four books,” and then said, “…Especially the ‘Guidelines’ book. It is full of practical examples and is a rare textbook. You must read it carefully, memorize it completely, and then you will find it easy to use in your actual work.”

The afternoon’s classes quickly ended. The hungry trainees lined up to eat, followed by another half-hour of “queuing for a walk,” and then “evening tutoring.” Naturalized Citizen police officers served as tutors, providing cultural remedial classes for the trainees. Since this batch of people were all literate, the content was vernacular reading and writing, and general knowledge popularization. At the same time, individual guidance was provided for the parts of today’s lessons that the trainees did not understand.

Li Ziyu sat in the classroom looking at the newly issued textbook and felt a little desperate. He was actually a person who was very afraid of studying. He had come to be a police officer partly for a living and partly to legitimately not have to go to the community school to study.

He never expected that being an “Australian constable” would also require studying! And it was a book full of unfamiliar words!

Studying was one thing, but even writing and composing essays had to be changed. This was much more difficult than the community school.

Although studying at the community school was boring, it was not stressful. Especially for a student like Li Ziyu who had already memorized the Four Books and Five Classics and could muddle through writing essays, if there wasn’t great pressure from the imperial examinations, going to school was just a way to pass the time. The teachers at the community school also knew that Li Ziyu had a hereditary position, so they basically let him be.

This kind of study was now incredible. There was a “syllabus,” a “schedule,” and countless “knowledge points.” It was a great effort for him to even understand the meaning. The case handling procedures and case explanations were relatively easy to understand, and Li Ziyu couldn’t help but become engrossed in them.

As he read, Li Ziyu was secretly shocked: the Australian police had their hands in everything!

In his understanding, the police were nothing more than catching thieves and maintaining order on the streets. But in the eyes of the Australians, “maintaining order” was all-encompassing. And the concept was also different from that of the Ming government.

The simplest example was street brawls. In theory, this was the main job of “maintaining order.” But Li Ziyu knew that the government had always followed a policy of “no complaint, no investigation” for such matters. As long as no one was killed or injured in the fight and no one filed a complaint, the yamen generally ignored it. If the parties involved wanted to investigate and seek justice, they had to privately ask the head of the constables or a powerful yamen runner to intervene and “mediate over tea” at a teahouse.

But here with the Australians, even if there were no deaths or injuries, they had to be stopped on the spot, taken back for questioning, and a “case” made out of it. Then, corresponding punishments would be given according to the responsibility. He thought to himself, isn’t this just looking for trouble? He knew that in officialdom, the approach to such matters was always to “make big problems small and small problems disappear.”

Next, he saw that even defecating, urinating, dumping dirty water, and throwing garbage in the street had to be prohibited. He couldn’t help but sigh secretly. As he read on, he saw that it also included catching street vendors, demolishing illegal structures, and so on. It was all-encompassing; it seemed the police were in charge of everything. Being an Australian police officer is really hard, Li Ziyu thought.

Whether he understood it or not, he had already boarded the Australians’ pirate ship and had to follow their rules. Fortunately, he had received many years of traditional education, and his memorization skills were excellent. He simply used his rote memorization skills and memorized it all first.