Xia Jingen hurriedly said, "Absolutely not! Criminal litigation is the vital core of a county. If the county magistrate does not hold it in hand, not only will it damage the magistrate's authority, but how could an ordinary court clerk possibly bear such responsibility?"
Ao Huang could not help saying, "Fang Yun made it very clear. He is merely handing unimportant civil cases to the court clerk. Murder and arson, naturally, remain under the county magistrate's jurisdiction."
Xia Jingen said, "Radiant Prince, that is not quite right. The key issue is that prison cases... criminal prison cases and civil lawsuits have no clear dividing line. Take academy bullying, for example. It now appears to be a criminal prison case, yet apart from Ning'an County, it has been treated everywhere as a civil lawsuit."
Without realizing it, Xia Jingen had used Fang Yun's customary terms to name the cases.
Fang Yun smiled. "So that is what concerns you. Tomorrow morning, I will set out in detail the differences between criminal prison cases and civil lawsuits, while also specifying which levels of civil lawsuits require the county magistrate's personal handling."
"If so, implementation will be much simpler. However... this differs from the Court Hearing Record. The Court Hearing Record facilitates the Legalist School's work, while separating criminal and civil cases and having court clerks hear cases in the magistrate's stead may not yet rise to the level of reforming the law, but it already counts as Legalist innovation. I advise you to think thrice. If this innovation produces serious problems, a lowered Palace Examination rating will be the least of it; it may affect your official career in the future, or even... your Sacred Way."
Fang Yun said, "I have considered this matter for a long time. Even before the Palace Examination,