The heavens start with letting the bullets fly

Chapter 1241 Jianghu affairs, official affairs

In May of the third year of Tianshun, after Yang Yuxuan, former Shangshu of the Ministry of War, was killed, his seven-year-old daughter and five-year-old son were dispatched to the frontier. Zhou Huaian who can save people.

In Cao Shaoqin's view, the Supervisor of Rituals is under the control of his uncle Cao Jixiang, the East Factory is in his hands, and the soldiers and horses of the capital are in the hands of Shi Heng. Coupled with their connections among civil servants, they are enough to control the capital. Zhou Huaian, there is no force in the world that opposes him.

So Cao Shaoqin led the Dongchang forces to dispatch this time, preparing to take Zhou Huaian down in one fell swoop with the momentum of a goshawk binding a rabbit.

It's a pity he doesn't know.

He left the capital on the front foot, and on the back foot, Shi Heng, the admiral of the Ming Dynasty's capital camp and the Duke of the Zhongguo, was criticized by the government and the opposition because of his nephew's "rebellion" and bullying the prince. No two.

Ming Yingzong immediately followed suit, stopped Shi Heng from visiting the court, demoted him from office to civilian, punished Shi Heng's cronies, and deposed them all.

It only took a few days to go from a man of great honor and wealth in the Ming Dynasty to a prisoner despised by thousands of people.

Chen Zhao also became famous because of this, and was promoted to the head of the fifth rank because of his meritorious service.Although some of the older colleagues in the Criminal Department were not very willing to deal with him, he still easily gained a foothold in the Criminal Department.

Especially Wu Fan, who was the head of the Criminal Department with him before, but now he is the head of the sixth rank who is directly subordinate to him. Seeing that Chen Zhao has a bright future and is already a middle-level official of the fifth rank before he is less than twenty, he immediately resolutely embraced him. The mind of the thigh, the posture of doing the work of a dog and a horse behind the saddle.

With the help of this "local snake", Chen Zhao quickly became familiar with all the affairs of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, as well as the procedures and methods of doing things.

But he is too young after all, knowing that if he shows off again, he will be opposed by everyone, so he started to keep a low profile. , let him start to deal with the affairs of the criminal department in Shuntianfu area as soon as possible, but he rejected it because he was familiar with it.

Anyway, because of the downfall of Shi Heng, he is already in the heart of the emperor. He speaks and does things, and his own connections are not weak even if he is facing the Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment. If you make a mistake, others will have nothing to do with it.

No matter what Chen Zhao said, they are all top-ranked Jinshi in this subject. The examiner is a cabinet scholar, and he is also a disciple of a big brother. Such a person, obviously setting up a trick is not enough. Once exposed, it is likely to attract people. The dissatisfaction of the big bosses in the court is not a joke. Under normal circumstances, there is absolutely no need for officials to oppose Chen Zhao. .

After understanding and familiarity, he had a clear understanding of the functions and management scope of the Ministry of Punishment.

The Ministry of Punishments is in charge of the country's criminal affairs, examining and enforcing laws and regulations, convicting cases, and managing prisoners.Because of the heavy litigation, the provinces were also divided into clean-up departments, each in charge of the criminal affairs of a province, while Chen Zhao was in charge of the affairs of the Ministry of Criminal Affairs in the Shuntianfu area.

It is different to have a younger brother to help. After these few months, he has a rough understanding of the affairs of the Criminal Department, and at the same time, he has a clear understanding of the procedures of the Criminal Department.

When looking through the previous case files, a very strange phenomenon suddenly appeared on him.

Picking up the case file judged by the predecessor, the brief description of the case is very simple, it describes that a certain person committed a crime in a certain area, because a certain thing violated the king's law, and was finally convicted of a certain crime and sentenced to jail or beheaded, or Punishment such as exile.

It was nothing at first, but I felt that the description of the case file was too simple, and did not clearly explain the criminal's motive for committing the crime, as well as the means and circumstances during the crime. It only said that so-and-so was killed or injured or died, and nothing else.

Just looking at the file, it is impossible to judge whether he is guilty or not. It is completely impossible to talk about overturning the case or sending him back for retrial.

Could it be that the Criminal Department of my Ming Dynasty is so simple?
You must know that the Ministry of Punishment is the final authority for all kinds of cases. Whether it is the death penalty, exile, or other serious punishments, it can only be executed after the approval of the Ministry of Punishment. Killing repeat offenders, but the approval documents of the Ministry of Criminal Affairs are generally sent to various places at this time, and can only be finally implemented under the supervision of personnel sent by the Ministry of Criminal Justice.

Chen Zhao let out a long sigh, but then he came to his senses. In this era, all official documents are mainly notes, and they are still written in big characters such as calligraphy. There are not many words written on one side of a piece of official paper. embarrassment.

If it is written in too much detail, it is estimated that the official documents reported to the Ministry of Punishment will have to be sent by horse-drawn carriage, and it is still a freight carriage with a unit of ten. Not to mention the troubles involved, the approval of the Ministry of Punishment is a big project, so I learned from the literati. Spring and Autumn brushwork.

Writing one piece greatly limits the details of the official file!
No wonder the literati invented classical Chinese. Otherwise, it would be impossible to write official documents!
This is especially true for those who write history books.It is said that when Ouyang Xiu was in the Hanlin Academy, walking on the street with two colleagues, he saw a galloping horse trampled to death a yellow dog lying on the side of the road, so he said: Please write down what happened here.A said: "There was a dog lying on the thoroughfare, and it slipped away from the horse's hoof and killed it." B said: "There was a horse lying on the street, and the lying dog was killed by it." Even [-] volumes can’t be finished.A and B asked Ouyang Xiu: So how should you write it in your opinion?Ouyang Xiu said: "Yi Ma kills dogs in Tao", these six words are enough!
It’s just that the history books can be brief. If the Ministry of Criminal Justice did this, it would be too hasty. In any case, it is a major matter related to human life. If a wrong judgment is made, the head will fall, or the army will be exiled, and a family or even a family will be completely torn apart. The impact is too great You have to be more cautious.

Of course, although he thought so in his heart, he didn't mean to change, at least he didn't have such ability to change now, so he could only wait for the right time in the future before taking his time.

But when he found a file, suddenly some miraculous changes occurred in the file in his hand, it should be said that some miraculous changes occurred in his eyes, and the file in his hand emitted a dark red light!

How is this going?

Chen Zhao's heart was shocked, but his face remained calm. He carefully read the case file and carefully printed the contents in his mind.

On the eighth day of March in Ding Chou's year, Yang Lin, a hunter in the outskirts of Shuntian Prefecture, killed Baozheng's family in Shitou Village and was sentenced to death!
Nothing could be seen from the file, but the flickering dark red light reminded him that there must be something wrong with this case!

call!
Chen Zhaochang breathed a sigh of relief, reluctantly suppressed his thoughts, put the case file in its place, and when he pulled his hand away, he drew an inconspicuous mark on the wooden shelf next to it with his fingernails, and then picked up another case file and observed it carefully.

After that, he picked up a dozen or so case files in a row, but nothing strange happened, which made him shake in his heart. Could it be that he had hallucinations?

This is of course impossible!

He is a quasi-holy supernatural power, and he can tell the truth from the fake if it is a hallucination.

Since it is not a hallucination, there must be some special reason!

This world is originally a world of fairy tales, and the Confucian Temple and Gongyuan are all in charge of Wenquxing, so it is not surprising that there are some special places.Thinking of this, Chen Zhao let go of the doubts in his heart. There is nothing wrong with him, there must be something wrong with this world.But no matter who he is, he can't stop his determination to do practical things.

Huh, wait...

His mind was fluctuating, and the file he had just opened in his hand suddenly flashed a dark red light again. He hurriedly collected his mind and read it carefully. A heavy punishment of exile for three thousand miles.

This era is no different from modern times. There are still some undeveloped areas in the frontier areas. The natural environment and living conditions are very harsh. Basically, normal people have to lose half of their lives in the past. Prisoners trekked hard all the way to the land. There is no possibility of leaving alive.

Among other things, trekking thousands of miles alone is a very difficult process, and some places don't even have standard official roads.Moreover, in some places, the environment is special and it is easy to contract unknown diseases. Exile and exile seem to be an opportunity for the court to open up, but in fact it is similar to the death penalty.

It's not bad to be exiled to the barren land in the interior, but it would be bad luck to be exiled to the frontier.The Oala and Tatar tribes in the frontier often hunt grass valleys. If they fail to do so, they will lose their lives. Even if they are unlucky, they may be caught by them, and they may be used as two-legged sheep for food.

Those who can really escape from the land of exile are all supported by powerful people behind them, and they have spent a lot of gold and silver to escape by chance. Even so, they have to take off a layer of skin.For ordinary people, exile from the army is almost like the death penalty.

Zhou Huaian asked Qiu Moyan to rescue Yang Yuxuan's orphan because he knew that if the two children were allowed to go to the frontier to serve as hard labor, it would only take a few days, and they would surely die.

Of course, Yang Yuxuan's orphans were under the jurisdiction of Dongchang, and the Ministry of Criminal Justice had no right to intervene. Moreover, Chen Zhao also knew that Zhou Huaian would definitely rescue them, so he did not deal with this matter.

Speaking of which, among the civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty, apart from Yu Qian, which official has no black spots on his body?

Rescuing him or killing him will not affect the operation of the entire Ming Dynasty.

The Ministry of Punishment is the place where these prisoners are in charge. Wu Fan, the chief officer, mentioned inadvertently before that some of the government officials who supervise the exiles have very dark hearts and are unwilling to travel long distances to get into trouble. They will probably kill all the prisoners on the way and then report to the Ministry of Punishment. It would be fine if he died of illness halfway.

I don't know how many dead souls were born in this way during the exile.

Withdrawing his thoughts, he memorized all the names of the place where the case was located and the names of the people involved, and went to find someone to confirm it after returning home. Such a case is relatively simple, and the reason is that it is easy to find out if it is tricky. .

In the next afternoon, he looked through hundreds of case files that Shuntian Mansion had registered with the Ministry of Criminal Justice in the past ten years, and found more than a dozen case files that radiated dark red light.

He easily memorized all the people and things involved in these files, and then, under the gracious notification of the principal, Wu Fan, he tidied up and left the office with his colleagues.

Chen Zhao's face remained calm, no one knew what he discovered in just half a day, but according to the past habit, after leaving the yamen of the Criminal Ministry in twos and threes, he went back to each house to find his mother, or called Friends call friends to a nearby restaurant to eat and listen to music, looking leisurely and relaxed.

"My lord, would you like to have a light meal at Qingfenglou?"

The principal, Wu Fan, followed behind, and carefully invited: "Your Majesty also invited a few colleagues, do you see?"

Chen Zhao originally planned to directly refuse to go back to the mansion. At this moment, his mind was full of what he discovered this afternoon, and he really wanted to clarify the sudden change in the case file, but he changed his mind after thinking about it. Others wanted to find an opportunity to flatter him, so naturally he couldn't Behaving too 'out of the crowd', and asking some 'interesting' things at the wine table is not it.

"Okay, let Brother Wu lead the way!"

Qingfenglou is not far from the official office of the Ministry of Justice. It is a mid-level restaurant, which is not very conspicuous in the inner city of Kyoto.

Counting Chen Zhao, the family background including the principal Wu Fan is very average, and they can't afford a carriage at all, so the few people simply walked over while chatting.

After arriving at Qingfeng Restaurant, we asked for a private room on the second floor. After the food and wine were served, there was a lively exchange of glasses.

As the person with the highest official position present, Chen Zhao was naturally the one who was flattered and flattered, and he even showed his bold and generous side. The visitors were not afraid of drinking until their cups were drained, and the atmosphere on the wine table was extremely enthusiastic and applauded. Absolutely.

"Master Chen is so young, but he is so huge. He is worthy of being a descendant of a famous official. I admire him!"

But for a while, the wine was already hot, and after drinking a few catties of Qingfenglou's self-brewed bamboo leaf green wine, the green-robed officials who didn't often go to the restaurant couldn't stand the alcohol, and they all blushed in admiration.

Chen Zhao's father, Chen Ye, was a petty official who worked as a member of the household transfer department, Wailang. Speaking of which, everyone here has seen it through exchanges with officials of the household department, but I didn't expect my son to be so powerful and become a Jinshi in February. , In March, he became the head of the Criminal Department of the sixth rank, and his position was promoted in April, becoming the head of the Criminal Department of the fifth rank, surpassing everyone with ten or 20 years of service in one step.

"My lords don't know something. I have practiced inner family skills when I was young. Drinking alcohol is nothing more than a piece of cake. Let alone you guys, even with twice as many people, I can drink all of you to the ground!"

Chen Zhao laughed boldly, although he was only in his teens, he spoke maturely, with a hint of domineering in his tone, even the old officials present here couldn't help feeling submissive.

With his physical fitness at this time, even if he is not a quasi-sage, drinking alcohol is no different from drinking water. Alcohol will be decomposed and digested immediately after entering the blood, and will not cause the slightest harm to the body.

"By the way, I have a doubt in my heart, I don't know if I should ask it or not?"

After drinking and eating, when Xiaoer removed the leftovers and put on some tea to taste slowly, he suddenly said: "I have been familiarizing myself with the affairs of the Ministry of Criminal Affairs these days, and I found a very confusing place! "

"Oh, I don't know what doubts Mr. Chen has, just tell me!"

The director Wu Fan knew the elegant meaning after hearing the string song, and immediately stated: "As long as we know, we must know everything without saying nothing!"

"Yes, sir, if there is anything you don't understand, just say it straight!"

"We can't do anything else, and we are quite familiar with the affairs of the Criminal Ministry!"

"Haha, there's nothing wrong with asking, my lord just ask!"

"..."

Not to be outdone, the green-robed officials next to him all spoke in favor of one another.

"Is such that!"

Chen Zhao didn't intend to be polite to them at all, and said directly: "The official of the Ministry of Criminal Justice has gone through some of the case files, and found that the introductions are very simple!"

All the officials nodded, this is not something shady.Not only the Ministry of Punishment is like this, but the case files in the other yamen are not much different. Don't laugh at the elder brother.

"This officer is just suspicious. Will such a simple case introduction not lead to misjudgments?"

Chen Zhao's eyes were clear, and he didn't look drunk at all. He asked in a gentle and leisurely tone, "I have read through dozens of case files, but I just didn't find any motives for those criminals?"

"This one……"

The principal, Wu Fan, pondered for a moment, then said with a light smile, "How could there be no misjudgment?"

Seeing Chen Zhao's gaze shifted, he smiled lightly and said, "The Ministry of Punishment receives tens of thousands of official documents every year, but the manpower is only a few hundred, and it is divided into more than a dozen clean officials to perform their duties!"

Chen Zhao nodded. As far as he is concerned, he is in charge of the Clean Officials Department in the Gyeonggi area. Wu Fan is a sixth-rank chief under his command, and there are nearly ten ministers to help. The two chief officials are responsible for the review of major cases in the entire Shuntian Prefecture. , if it weren't for the extremely energetic people, how could they be busy?
However, all these were good deeds done by Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang. In order to show compassion for the people, he gave the government very little budget and establishment, forcing officials at all levels to hire peripheral personnel when encountering problems.

After all, peripheral personnel do not have government establishments. They can only be regarded as officials at most. They basically have no rising value, so they passively slow down their work, cheat, or take advantage of the opportunity to make money.

As a result, those affairs officers are so busy that they spend their energy on paperwork every day, so how can they have the energy to do other things?

"There is nothing to do if there is a misjudgment. After all, these cases have passed the trial of the Shuntian Mansion!" Wu Fan, the chief officer, smiled lightly, and said in a relaxed and calm tone: "Anyway, as long as there are no obvious mistakes and omissions, we You can't help but sell Shuntian Mansion a bit of face!"

Chen Zhao nodded silently. This is also the norm in the officialdom. It doesn't necessarily mean that officials should protect each other, but sometimes they won't easily offend colleagues for some "miscellaneous matters".It may be a big deal in the eyes of the parties involved, but it is not a big deal in the eyes of officials from the Ministry of Criminal Justice.

Shuntian Mansion, as a local yamen in Kyoto, has a very special status. The governors of Shuntian Mansion are all the emperor's confidantes, and they are also high-ranking officials of the third grade. They are officials at the level of ministers of the Ministry of Punishment. Generally, they will not offend easily if they have nothing to do.

Otherwise, why has only one Bao Qingtian appeared in the officialdom of various dynasties for thousands of years?

That Hai Rui was not born yet.

Although not every official puts interests first, it is very unlikely that officials from the Ministry of Punishment will offend the entire Shuntian Mansion for irrelevant parties.

"Could it be that when the Ministry of Punishments re-examined, they didn't find anything?"

Chen Zhao continued to ask: "For example, did it cause quite discordant public opinion in the local area?"

"Hehe, of course there is a discovery!"

The chief Wu Fan nodded with a chuckle, and said helplessly, "But the officials we sent to review are very soft-spoken, and they may not listen to it. There is nothing we can do about it!"

Chen Zhao nodded. This is indeed a trouble. The so-called high-ranking officials are not in court, and they are responsible for reviewing such errands.

"Besides, our Ministry of Punishment doesn't have the specific right to judge. As long as we don't go too far, we can only turn a blind eye and close our eyes!"

A secretary at the table smiled wryly: "My lord, you don't know that the yamen of the Ministry of Punishment looks pretty good, but in fact, the power in our hands is not very great!"

Chen Zhao nodded again. He had also noticed this situation these days, but he didn't care too much. If the Ministry of Punishment was not for this kind of administrative office with little power, he still didn't want to come in and ask for trouble.

"As for if something goes wrong down there, there's still the Yushitai and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, so we won't have to worry about it at all!"

Speaking of this, Wu Fan, the chief executive, gloated over his misfortune, and said angrily: "Some guys are too unscrupulous, they should be rectified by the censors of Yushitai and Metropolitan Procuratorate, otherwise they really think they are the emperors of the land. .You can do whatever you want!"

"Master Wu, speak carefully!"

Chen Zhao frowned slightly, and reminded him lightly.

"Ah, it was my slip of the tongue, it was my slip of the tongue, sorry sorry!"

The principal Wu Fan woke up suddenly, his face changed slightly, and he secretly blamed himself for talking too much.

"It's okay, just pay attention in the future!"

Chen Zhao waved his hands, and comforted him, "Master Wu is only like this when he is angry in his heart, as long as he calms down, he will be fine!"

His demeanor was so natural that even if a big man who had lived in the high hall for a long time said it was normal, the officials present who were in his teens and twenties all accepted it frankly, and they didn't have the slightest psychological Feeling of discomfort.

"Hey, that's easier said than done!"

Speaking of this, Wu Fan, the person in charge, looked depressed.

"There is nothing difficult in the world, as long as there is a heart!"

Chen Zhao didn't take it seriously, he was naturally confident that he could turn around the embarrassing situation of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, at least in the Gyeonggi Qingli Department...

……

"Nvxia Qiu, you just invited these two dolls to partner with us?"

At the foot of Helan Mountain, two burly guys glanced at Xu Ting and Li Chishui with doubts on their faces.

These two are the bandits who run rampant in Helan Mountain, He Hu and Tie Zhu.

Ever since he got the letter from Zhou Huaian and learned that Yang Yuxuan, Minister of the Ministry of War, was killed, Qiu Moyan was shocked and regretted, and followed Zhou Huaian's instructions to contact the masters of the rivers and lakes, preparing to rescue Yang Yuxuan's son and daughter who were escorted by officials.

It's just that there are not many people who talk about loyalty and courage in the world. Some people are usually arrogant and look at the sky with their righteousness, but when they talk about Dongchang, everyone changes color, and their previous loyalty and arrogance suddenly disappear Gone.

Qiu Moyan searched for many people in the rivers and lakes, and wanted them to participate in his rescue operation, but after searching for a long time, no one was willing to get involved in this kind of thing.

As a last resort, she had no choice but to spend a lot of money to hire mafia masters in the arena and ask them to help. This moved some masters in the arena, and the gangsters led by the Helan Mountain bandits He Hu and Tie Zhu led the crowd to join Qiu Moyan. team.

Qiu Moyan wrote a letter to his junior sister, originally it was just a matter of convenience, although the junior sister successfully broke into the capital to take revenge, it must be because she was young and lacked strength.

Unexpectedly, junior sister Xu Ting not only came, but also brought a boy who was younger than her.

Look at that young man, only thirteen or fourteen years old, although his eyes have vicissitudes, he seems to have experienced a lot, but after all, he is too young, even if he came out of the womb to practice martial arts, how powerful can he be?

I'm afraid that before he can be rescued, this kid has fallen into Dongchang's hands and died a tragic death.

But the people had already arrived, and Qiu Moyan couldn't drive them away, so he had to take them to meet Tie Hu and the others.

Qiu Moyan was born in a family of officials. She later studied in the Xiandu sect and met Zhou Huai'an while traveling in the rivers and lakes. The two fell in love at first sight and had a good impression of each other. If nothing else happened, the two would probably end up leaving. Together, as a couple.

However, the situation changed later, and Yang Yuxuan, Minister of the Ministry of War, was arrested. As Yang Yuxuan's subordinate, Zhou Huaian was also implicated.In order to repay Yang Yuxuan's kindness, this person did everything possible to save Yang Yuxuan's son and daughter, so he secretly contacted Qiu Moyan to organize people to rescue the two children.

As a subordinate of Yang Yuxuan, Zhou Huaian has a very high prestige in the army. If he ascends to the top and shouts, it will definitely cause a chaos in the army, otherwise Cao Shaoqin will not think so highly of him.

Therefore, in order to protect himself and not arouse the alertness of Dongchang people, Zhou Huaian himself deliberately showed off elsewhere to attract the attention of Dongchang fans.

Qiu Moyan, on the other hand, took the people he recruited to inspect the terrain.

Seeing Xu Ting and Li Chishui who are less than 20 years old, Tie Hu couldn't help but sneered and said disdainfully.

(End of this chapter)