Brother Donggong
Chapter 165
In other words, the Dazheng Forbidden Palace is big, really big.
I walked around the base of the wall from the main gate, and after walking for an hour, I arrived at Yuxi Palace, where I lived before leaving the palace.The door here is bright, but it is locked tightly.Those big golden nails set on the big vermilion wooden door are like small mirrors one by one, reflecting me like a lost dog who has no way to enter.
I went around to the Royal Garden and Taiye Pool.In the middle of summer, the water here is covered with endless red lotuses. After a night of heavy rain, the sweltering heat gushes down, making the world look like a cage for steamed buns.Along the gravel road in the imperial garden, there are palace ladies and eunuchs walking with their heads down and arms folded. I have a wound on my face, so I have to avoid them.
My mother has not yet returned to the Spring Palace, she is in front of my father.
My father's bedroom, Concubine Du Gui's (Yue Lan's mother) bedroom, Concubine Pei's (Yuezheng his mother's) bedroom, and the main hall where Yu Lan was imprisoned are all surrounded by guards. The news is that even if a crow occasionally flies in the sky, it will be shot down by random arrows.
There is a large open space in front of the Weiyin Hall where my father handles political affairs. It is made of white jade. It is very quiet here. The numerous imperial guards in the distance make this place a bloody threat, but it makes people feel at ease.
This is the Weiyin Temple.
In this vast and blank jade space, more than 30 important ministers of the imperial party are kneeling.These people are all the most honorable and prominent princes and ministers in Yongjing City or the Dazheng court.One by one, they are not era hairpin tassels, but they are inspected by the family, or they are four generations and three princes who want to be kings, or they are the royal clan themselves.
These people knelt here to frighten Prince Wen Zhan.
The father had just had a stroke and hadn't made a big move yet, and Wen Zhan was only the crown prince, not the heir emperor.These ancestors are shining brightly, and the ministers who shine in the annals of history kneel here unsteadily, enjoying the iced rose and sour plum soup enshrined by Wen Zhan's people, in order to shock Wen Zhan.
Eh.
I sighed again.
The prince is really not a human being.
You can't be bad, and you can't be too good.
If you don't do well, you will be abolished by my father; if you are too good, your father will be abolished directly.
These loyal ministers, seeing that my father will never abolish the prince, what they are afraid of now is that the prince will not be able to restrain his ambition, kill my father secretly, and ascend the throne early.
Taishi Ji Yuqi, a centenarian and veteran of the four dynasties, has a face like a walnut, a smile like a chrysanthemum, pale hair withered like weeds, and his teeth have long since fallen out. Take a shovel.
He knelt in front of Wen Zhan with tears in his eyes, "Your Highness, even if you are an unborn hero, you still need to know that people's words are formidable, and history is like a knife. If your highness makes a big mistake in a moment of selfish thoughts, you will be spurned by all people during your lifetime. I have no face to see Dazheng's ancestors in the future. The old minister has fulfilled His Highness's filial piety, which is to fulfill my Dazheng's thousand-year-old foundation."
He doesn't understand.
They don't understand.
Wen Zhan will not kill my father.
He loves him.
He loves him no matter life or death, power, throne, or society.
Walking around for a while, I didn't find a place to stand in the huge palace.
I looked up, and there was a courtyard in front of me.
Adjacent to Taiye Pool, with white walls and black tiles, and green bamboo forests.
This place is just behind the Yuzheng Palace. It was originally the place where the prince Qingxiu meditated, and later it was also the place where he meditated.There are precious Xifan water lilies, peonies that can bloom all year round, grapes from Gaochang, cranberries, soft aquatic plants and golden carp floating in the pool.
There was a thrush hanging on the big tree, and a rabbit that looked like a pig crawled under the tree and was sleeping.
It's not that I wanted to come to Wen Zhan, but that I found that I had nowhere to go except here.
I didn't expect that Wen Zhan was also here, and he was presenting wine at the Fufeng Pavilion.
All the tables and chairs in the Fufeng Pavilion were removed, and a wide green bamboo bed was placed there. Wen Zhan was wearing a robe made of thin silk with wide sleeves, and was kneeling upright on the bamboo bed in an ancient sitting posture. There is an ebony mud-sealed wine barrel, and two jade bowls. The jade bowls are chilled with ice and served on dragon and phoenix copper plates.
This set of guys, this posture, this attire, is still the old practice when the ancestors of the royal family were princes and kings in the fiefdom of the old Zheng State before Emperor Taizu established his foundation.Because it is something left by the ancestors, it is too grand and too old, so gradually, it is forgotten by everyone.I don't know why Wen Zhan is in the mood to move them out today.
Hearing the sound of footsteps, Wen Zhan turned slightly, but did not look at me.
He pushed a jasper bowl in his hand to the side of the bamboo, "You are here, this is medicine for you."
He knew I was coming because he knew that I had nowhere else to go except here.
I carried him on my back and sat on the bamboo floor.
His posture is too old and correct for me to learn.When I was very young, I used to use this posture to visit my ancestors, but I only knelt for an hour, and my legs hurt for a whole month. From then on, I knew that any ancient, noble and exquisite things , This life seems to have nothing to do with me.
The wine tasted by the prince is ancient wine, which is hundreds of years old.
This is Lanling Mausoleum, an ancient wine in Chudi, which was once popular among princes and became famous all over the world.
A wooden barrel one foot high and half a foot wide, surrounded by gold-clad copper hoops, and covered with the big seal of the winery, and an old bronze plaque next to it, engraved with a few lines of small characters: Cai Cangshan Spring, Jichu Di Lanling Baiguo is brewed according to the law.Behind it are three names: Qi; Yue Ling; Yu Buwei.These three people should be the person who picks medicine and fruit, the person who makes wine, and the giant businessman who finally buried them in the cellar for collection.
Wen Zhan tore off the seal of the old wine, and poured the wine into two jade bowls.
This wine is like fresh thick wild honey, amber in color, and can be intoxicating when smelled.
I looked back at him, there was only a faint red mark on his cheek.
"How did you know I had to use this?"
He said, "Hit me lightly, but treat yourself hard... You are deliberately trying not to make me feel better."
I stopped talking, and silently applied the medicine on my face, and the burning pain felt better.
I also followed his example, picked up the wine bowl, and took a sip of the wine. The spicy and strong taste was suffocating, just like Wen Zhan.
"Wen Zhan, I hate you."
"I know."
Actually I love you too.
Just something I just figured out, even though I may never admit it.Because this kind of love is too cursed, too irreversible, like salt sprinkled on a wound, a knife pierced in the heart, enough to make people go to hell.
But I have nowhere to go.
We just sat back to back quietly like this, drinking wine quietly, the sound of the piano from Yuzheng Palace in the distance, and the sound of the lotus leaves by the Taiye Pool shaking against the wind.
After a long time, the setting sun hung down on the bamboo forest.
Lanling ancient wine has dried up.
Wen Zhan suddenly said, "Tomorrow, you will go to the tribunal for the tribunal. Wearing court clothes, maybe you can save Cui Bicheng's life."
I drank the wine in the bowl, put down the jade bowl, and nodded, "Okay, I'll go."
I am as calm as if I will go hunting and watering the flowers tomorrow.
However, I know that I can't believe a word of his words.
Really.
This is truer than the fact that the sun rises every day in the east.
-
The joint trial of these three jurisprudence is the system of Dazheng ancestors.
The law of Dazheng adheres to the principle of "emphasizing what is important and ignoring what is lightest". For general rituals and customs, extrajudicial sympathy can be tolerated, and the lighter can be lighter, but the severe crimes such as corruption and treason will be given heavier punishments.
Moreover, the death penalty is the most important thing, usually beheading, strangulation, the punishment of Dazheng and the criminals of Dazheng, the courtiers are used to dying happily, unless it is a very special heinous felony, the sentencing There will be biases, such as abandoning the city at the waist, only bullying the emperor, causing public resentment to boil, and not torturing and killing those who are not enough to anger the people in troubled times, can they get the honor of being "famous in history" like "being Lingchi".
In the thousand years since the founding of Dazheng, less than ten ministers were executed by Ling Chi, including Zhao Runan, the commander-in-chief of Tiqi more than 20 years ago. Their names were engraved on the huge black stone outside Yongjing City, in another form of "immortality" '.
The death penalty is generally tried by the three courts as a respect.
The three law divisions are the Ministry of Punishment, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Dali Temple.
Most of the Metropolitan Procuratorate are disciples of the Du family. The former Zuodu Yushi Chu Qiangsheng of the Metropolitan Procuratorate is at home to watch over Ding You.
Chen Mo, former minister of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, retired from his old age and returned to his hometown. Although he is over 60, his teeth are almost gone, but when he heard about the trial of this case, he ran faster than a rabbit. He was evacuated, left Yongjing overnight, and rushed to his hometown. The Ministry of Households owed him two months' official salary, so he didn't want it anymore, so his seat was taken by the servant Li Xian. .
Pei Sangzi, Minister of Dali Temple, is from the Pei family. He is the queen's distant cousin. Originally, he was supposed to handle the case, but he got a bone spur from eating fish last night, and his throat was pierced. Attending the case as a non-voting delegate.
There were more than 80 officials present in this shocking and huge case. Except for the small officials of Dali Temple who were in charge of recording confessions on a row of long tables sitting in the lobby, the rest of the civil and military officials were all dressed in court uniforms and sat upright on wooden benches. Chair, hidden behind the towering mahogany pillars in the main hall of Dali Temple.
The trial of the case started at dawn. The criminals Tiqi brought back from the south of the Yangtze River were all in green clothes and hair, like sheep being sold at random in the cattle and horse market.These are the local officials brought back. Those eunuchs stationed abroad have already been escorted into the palace, and let the chief of ceremonies go to the court for trial.
From dawn to lighting, I have not seen Cui Bicheng.
Fang Chengguan kept asking questions about everything, such as what is your name, where are you from, who is in your family, what year did you become a Jinshi, if you were not a Jinshi, then you were a Juren of that year. Neither, so who did you go to buy the official, and how much money was spent.Then it is what officials you have served, what officials you have been in for a few years in the south of the Yangtze River, and how much money you have embezzled during your tenure.
By noon, his throat was already smoking, and his voice was hoarse like a broken gong. Because he was in a hurry to hear the case, he didn't eat lunch, but drank two silver bottles of honeysuckle water.In the afternoon, when he asked again, it was simpler, such as what is your name, where are you from, what year did you become a Jinshi, how many years have you been in Jiangnan, and what kind of official did you get paid.As for how many mu of land the family has and how many cows there are in the land, the Mr. Fang didn't ask.
In fact, it is useless to ask.
Apart from being able to clearly answer their names, places of origin, and official positions when they were dismissed, they did not say anything else. According to the laws of Dazheng, these criminals cannot be severely punished without conviction.So even if everyone in the hall knows they are lying, they still cannot be punished.
I kept asking until midnight, and all the criminals were screened.
The old man Fang's eyes were vacant, his throat was on fire, and he held the case with both hands. He took a few breaths secretly, but turned to me who was drinking Pu'er tea sitting next to the desk, and said, "My lord, you are ordered to hear the trial. After this day, the next official will ask you Is there any difference?"
I put down the teacup, quickly waved my hand and said, "Lord Fang, you are an important minister of the court, and you are the ruler of the world. You have the final say on the affairs here. I don't know anything. I just sit here according to my will."
Fang Chengguan coughed twice, expressing that he was delicate and weak, and could not try the case late at night. He said, "My lords, this case is very involved, and we must not rush it. Today's trial lasted twelve hours, and my lords also They are all exhausted, and they should go back to the residence to recuperate, but the emperor ordered him to understand the case and cannot leave the Dali Temple, so I can only wrong you and rest in the Dali Temple overnight, and continue tomorrow. Do you have any objections, my lords?"
Everyone quickly waved their hands, saying that the emperor's order was in the sky, that they were loyal ministers, and that they would rather not drink water, eat, or go to the toilet to have a clear trial of the case.
Fang Chengguan had asked people to move out all the houses in Dali Temple, added a lot of wooden beds, prepared hot water and meals, and asked the ministers accompanying the trial to go down to rest and eat, and go to bed earlier. Tomorrow it will be dark, and we will continue.
I didn't go back either, Liu Congrong took care of me and rested in a decent study.
The next day, as soon as the rooster crowed, everyone sat upright again and opened their mouths to hear the case.
In this way, asking questions at dawn, washing their feet, eating, and sleeping in the middle of the night, so many people huddled together for three whole days. Cheng Guan didn't let anyone go.
The last one left was Huang Xiaoguan, the former governor of Zhejiang.
Fang Chengguan stood up suddenly, he went to write the paper, and asked someone to move a wooden chair for Huang Xiaoguan.
"sit."
Huang Xiaoguan is only 40 years old, with fair skin, slender eyes, but benevolent and filial eyes. He looks like a scholar with a lot of family background. He usually does not fumble around in the world, but only studies in his own manor, with three or two beautiful wives and concubines in his arms. , Drinking three or two pots of sake thin tea.
Seeing Fang Chengguan treating him like this, he didn't say a word, but just gave Fang Chengguan a shallow salute and sat on the wooden chair.Everyone looked at Fang Chengguan, and the main hall of Dali Temple in Nuoda was silent.
Fang Chengguan said, "You are a revolutionary. I can't call you by official rank. Although you are young, you are a young man who was admitted to the imperial examination. You are a Jinshi in the same discipline as me. It is a bit pretentious to call you, so I just call you Your name."
Huang Xiaoguan looked at him and nodded.
Fang Chengguan also moved a wooden chair and sat opposite him, "Huang Xiaoguan, a native of Tongcheng, Anhui, his father started a business in his early years, selling tea in Fujian and Zhejiang. When I went to Wuyi Mountain to harvest tea, I was murdered by water bandits with a huge sum of money, and died young. The Huang clan coveted your property and drove your orphans and widows out of the house. Is there such a thing?"
Huang Xiaoguan remained calm, glanced at Old Man Fang again, and nodded.
"Huangmen Wenshi, that is, your mother, has been a widow all along. She earns some loose silver by doing laundry and cooking for a wealthy family. She raises you up and pays for your education. Is there such a thing?"
This time, Huang Xiaoguan just lowered his eyelids and stopped talking.
Fang Chengguan stretched out his hand, and someone behind him handed him a case file. He stopped looking at Huang Xiaoguan in front of him, opened the case file, read it page by page, then closed it, and said, "The local magistrate in Tongcheng has already confiscated you." Your family property and family members are all detained, and you will arrive in Yongjing in three days, and your mother is also on the prison van."
Huang Xiaoguan's face is as pale as rice paper, I can't see his exact expression here, but I can only see his fingers clenched tightly, just laying on his knees.
"And your wife, and a pair of children."
Fang Chengguan continued, "Huang Xiaoguan, it's not easy for Kejia to be born in a proper way. It's not easy for ten years of poverty. It's not easy for your mother to change from a young wife of a big family to a servant girl. Now, your evidence is conclusive, your No one can save your life, but your crime is not as good as your family. Do you have the heart to overthrow your family for the sake of others, leaving your children and grandchildren dead? Do you know that once you are convicted as the mastermind, your mother and son will be sentenced to death? Put to death, the wife and daughter will be sold into prostitutes by the officials, and they will have a low career forever?"
Huang Xiaoguan was trembling all over, and there was fine sweat on his forehead.
Fang Chengguan stopped talking.
He handed the case file to others, stood up by himself, had his wooden chair removed, sat back in the main hall, turned around and looked at me, and I also looked at him. In charge of the Beijing Manufacturing Bureau, Cui Bicheng."
I looked up suddenly.
Two cavalry soldiers in flying fish uniforms and Xiuchun swords on their waists supported a man and came in from the outside.They walked quickly and quickly, but the man they supported had disheveled hair, scars all over his body, and was almost naked.Apparently this person has already been severely punished.His legs showed a very wrong posture, dragging lazily like weeds, especially his left leg, which turned awkwardly, as if it had been broken.
I stood up suddenly, and hundreds of people in the main hall of Dali Temple were all looking at me.
Their eyes are more cunning than a fox, dirtier than a hyena, sharper than a vulture, more greedy than a jackal, and more gleeful than the most acrimonious woman in the world who is as sour and spicy as a pickle.
I woke up immediately, put my hands on the sleeves of my robe, and sat back.
Those two riders threw the person in their hands into the lobby, took out a bottle of smelling salts from their arms, handed it under the man's nose, and let him smell it. Seeing the man wake up slowly, the two riders Then he stood aside.
Fang Chengguan patted the gavel, "Come boldly, report your name!"
The man sat up slowly, didn't speak, and didn't raise his head. He just brushed back the hair that blocked his eyes slightly with his hands, and then wrote and drew on the blue brick floor with his fingers.
Fang Chengguan patted the gavel a second time, and yelled again, but that person ignored him at all.
At this time, a Tiqi knelt down and said, "Master Fang, Cui Bicheng was dismissed from his job and sent to prison. Because he was extremely cunning and wanted to shirk his guilt, the cabinet issued an imperial edict and imposed a severe punishment. As a result He can't survive the punishment, he's crazy."
Fang Chengguan was stunned for a moment, turned sideways slightly, looked forward for a while, and finally only asked, "What is he writing?"
Cui Bicheng's ten fingers were all wounded and bloody, he seemed unconscious, just writing over and over again on the blue brick floor——
Those who are in the field of Lilu and in the field of planning and planning must steal the words of Yao and Shun and recite the ways of Confucius and Mencius!
I walked around the base of the wall from the main gate, and after walking for an hour, I arrived at Yuxi Palace, where I lived before leaving the palace.The door here is bright, but it is locked tightly.Those big golden nails set on the big vermilion wooden door are like small mirrors one by one, reflecting me like a lost dog who has no way to enter.
I went around to the Royal Garden and Taiye Pool.In the middle of summer, the water here is covered with endless red lotuses. After a night of heavy rain, the sweltering heat gushes down, making the world look like a cage for steamed buns.Along the gravel road in the imperial garden, there are palace ladies and eunuchs walking with their heads down and arms folded. I have a wound on my face, so I have to avoid them.
My mother has not yet returned to the Spring Palace, she is in front of my father.
My father's bedroom, Concubine Du Gui's (Yue Lan's mother) bedroom, Concubine Pei's (Yuezheng his mother's) bedroom, and the main hall where Yu Lan was imprisoned are all surrounded by guards. The news is that even if a crow occasionally flies in the sky, it will be shot down by random arrows.
There is a large open space in front of the Weiyin Hall where my father handles political affairs. It is made of white jade. It is very quiet here. The numerous imperial guards in the distance make this place a bloody threat, but it makes people feel at ease.
This is the Weiyin Temple.
In this vast and blank jade space, more than 30 important ministers of the imperial party are kneeling.These people are all the most honorable and prominent princes and ministers in Yongjing City or the Dazheng court.One by one, they are not era hairpin tassels, but they are inspected by the family, or they are four generations and three princes who want to be kings, or they are the royal clan themselves.
These people knelt here to frighten Prince Wen Zhan.
The father had just had a stroke and hadn't made a big move yet, and Wen Zhan was only the crown prince, not the heir emperor.These ancestors are shining brightly, and the ministers who shine in the annals of history kneel here unsteadily, enjoying the iced rose and sour plum soup enshrined by Wen Zhan's people, in order to shock Wen Zhan.
Eh.
I sighed again.
The prince is really not a human being.
You can't be bad, and you can't be too good.
If you don't do well, you will be abolished by my father; if you are too good, your father will be abolished directly.
These loyal ministers, seeing that my father will never abolish the prince, what they are afraid of now is that the prince will not be able to restrain his ambition, kill my father secretly, and ascend the throne early.
Taishi Ji Yuqi, a centenarian and veteran of the four dynasties, has a face like a walnut, a smile like a chrysanthemum, pale hair withered like weeds, and his teeth have long since fallen out. Take a shovel.
He knelt in front of Wen Zhan with tears in his eyes, "Your Highness, even if you are an unborn hero, you still need to know that people's words are formidable, and history is like a knife. If your highness makes a big mistake in a moment of selfish thoughts, you will be spurned by all people during your lifetime. I have no face to see Dazheng's ancestors in the future. The old minister has fulfilled His Highness's filial piety, which is to fulfill my Dazheng's thousand-year-old foundation."
He doesn't understand.
They don't understand.
Wen Zhan will not kill my father.
He loves him.
He loves him no matter life or death, power, throne, or society.
Walking around for a while, I didn't find a place to stand in the huge palace.
I looked up, and there was a courtyard in front of me.
Adjacent to Taiye Pool, with white walls and black tiles, and green bamboo forests.
This place is just behind the Yuzheng Palace. It was originally the place where the prince Qingxiu meditated, and later it was also the place where he meditated.There are precious Xifan water lilies, peonies that can bloom all year round, grapes from Gaochang, cranberries, soft aquatic plants and golden carp floating in the pool.
There was a thrush hanging on the big tree, and a rabbit that looked like a pig crawled under the tree and was sleeping.
It's not that I wanted to come to Wen Zhan, but that I found that I had nowhere to go except here.
I didn't expect that Wen Zhan was also here, and he was presenting wine at the Fufeng Pavilion.
All the tables and chairs in the Fufeng Pavilion were removed, and a wide green bamboo bed was placed there. Wen Zhan was wearing a robe made of thin silk with wide sleeves, and was kneeling upright on the bamboo bed in an ancient sitting posture. There is an ebony mud-sealed wine barrel, and two jade bowls. The jade bowls are chilled with ice and served on dragon and phoenix copper plates.
This set of guys, this posture, this attire, is still the old practice when the ancestors of the royal family were princes and kings in the fiefdom of the old Zheng State before Emperor Taizu established his foundation.Because it is something left by the ancestors, it is too grand and too old, so gradually, it is forgotten by everyone.I don't know why Wen Zhan is in the mood to move them out today.
Hearing the sound of footsteps, Wen Zhan turned slightly, but did not look at me.
He pushed a jasper bowl in his hand to the side of the bamboo, "You are here, this is medicine for you."
He knew I was coming because he knew that I had nowhere else to go except here.
I carried him on my back and sat on the bamboo floor.
His posture is too old and correct for me to learn.When I was very young, I used to use this posture to visit my ancestors, but I only knelt for an hour, and my legs hurt for a whole month. From then on, I knew that any ancient, noble and exquisite things , This life seems to have nothing to do with me.
The wine tasted by the prince is ancient wine, which is hundreds of years old.
This is Lanling Mausoleum, an ancient wine in Chudi, which was once popular among princes and became famous all over the world.
A wooden barrel one foot high and half a foot wide, surrounded by gold-clad copper hoops, and covered with the big seal of the winery, and an old bronze plaque next to it, engraved with a few lines of small characters: Cai Cangshan Spring, Jichu Di Lanling Baiguo is brewed according to the law.Behind it are three names: Qi; Yue Ling; Yu Buwei.These three people should be the person who picks medicine and fruit, the person who makes wine, and the giant businessman who finally buried them in the cellar for collection.
Wen Zhan tore off the seal of the old wine, and poured the wine into two jade bowls.
This wine is like fresh thick wild honey, amber in color, and can be intoxicating when smelled.
I looked back at him, there was only a faint red mark on his cheek.
"How did you know I had to use this?"
He said, "Hit me lightly, but treat yourself hard... You are deliberately trying not to make me feel better."
I stopped talking, and silently applied the medicine on my face, and the burning pain felt better.
I also followed his example, picked up the wine bowl, and took a sip of the wine. The spicy and strong taste was suffocating, just like Wen Zhan.
"Wen Zhan, I hate you."
"I know."
Actually I love you too.
Just something I just figured out, even though I may never admit it.Because this kind of love is too cursed, too irreversible, like salt sprinkled on a wound, a knife pierced in the heart, enough to make people go to hell.
But I have nowhere to go.
We just sat back to back quietly like this, drinking wine quietly, the sound of the piano from Yuzheng Palace in the distance, and the sound of the lotus leaves by the Taiye Pool shaking against the wind.
After a long time, the setting sun hung down on the bamboo forest.
Lanling ancient wine has dried up.
Wen Zhan suddenly said, "Tomorrow, you will go to the tribunal for the tribunal. Wearing court clothes, maybe you can save Cui Bicheng's life."
I drank the wine in the bowl, put down the jade bowl, and nodded, "Okay, I'll go."
I am as calm as if I will go hunting and watering the flowers tomorrow.
However, I know that I can't believe a word of his words.
Really.
This is truer than the fact that the sun rises every day in the east.
-
The joint trial of these three jurisprudence is the system of Dazheng ancestors.
The law of Dazheng adheres to the principle of "emphasizing what is important and ignoring what is lightest". For general rituals and customs, extrajudicial sympathy can be tolerated, and the lighter can be lighter, but the severe crimes such as corruption and treason will be given heavier punishments.
Moreover, the death penalty is the most important thing, usually beheading, strangulation, the punishment of Dazheng and the criminals of Dazheng, the courtiers are used to dying happily, unless it is a very special heinous felony, the sentencing There will be biases, such as abandoning the city at the waist, only bullying the emperor, causing public resentment to boil, and not torturing and killing those who are not enough to anger the people in troubled times, can they get the honor of being "famous in history" like "being Lingchi".
In the thousand years since the founding of Dazheng, less than ten ministers were executed by Ling Chi, including Zhao Runan, the commander-in-chief of Tiqi more than 20 years ago. Their names were engraved on the huge black stone outside Yongjing City, in another form of "immortality" '.
The death penalty is generally tried by the three courts as a respect.
The three law divisions are the Ministry of Punishment, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Dali Temple.
Most of the Metropolitan Procuratorate are disciples of the Du family. The former Zuodu Yushi Chu Qiangsheng of the Metropolitan Procuratorate is at home to watch over Ding You.
Chen Mo, former minister of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, retired from his old age and returned to his hometown. Although he is over 60, his teeth are almost gone, but when he heard about the trial of this case, he ran faster than a rabbit. He was evacuated, left Yongjing overnight, and rushed to his hometown. The Ministry of Households owed him two months' official salary, so he didn't want it anymore, so his seat was taken by the servant Li Xian. .
Pei Sangzi, Minister of Dali Temple, is from the Pei family. He is the queen's distant cousin. Originally, he was supposed to handle the case, but he got a bone spur from eating fish last night, and his throat was pierced. Attending the case as a non-voting delegate.
There were more than 80 officials present in this shocking and huge case. Except for the small officials of Dali Temple who were in charge of recording confessions on a row of long tables sitting in the lobby, the rest of the civil and military officials were all dressed in court uniforms and sat upright on wooden benches. Chair, hidden behind the towering mahogany pillars in the main hall of Dali Temple.
The trial of the case started at dawn. The criminals Tiqi brought back from the south of the Yangtze River were all in green clothes and hair, like sheep being sold at random in the cattle and horse market.These are the local officials brought back. Those eunuchs stationed abroad have already been escorted into the palace, and let the chief of ceremonies go to the court for trial.
From dawn to lighting, I have not seen Cui Bicheng.
Fang Chengguan kept asking questions about everything, such as what is your name, where are you from, who is in your family, what year did you become a Jinshi, if you were not a Jinshi, then you were a Juren of that year. Neither, so who did you go to buy the official, and how much money was spent.Then it is what officials you have served, what officials you have been in for a few years in the south of the Yangtze River, and how much money you have embezzled during your tenure.
By noon, his throat was already smoking, and his voice was hoarse like a broken gong. Because he was in a hurry to hear the case, he didn't eat lunch, but drank two silver bottles of honeysuckle water.In the afternoon, when he asked again, it was simpler, such as what is your name, where are you from, what year did you become a Jinshi, how many years have you been in Jiangnan, and what kind of official did you get paid.As for how many mu of land the family has and how many cows there are in the land, the Mr. Fang didn't ask.
In fact, it is useless to ask.
Apart from being able to clearly answer their names, places of origin, and official positions when they were dismissed, they did not say anything else. According to the laws of Dazheng, these criminals cannot be severely punished without conviction.So even if everyone in the hall knows they are lying, they still cannot be punished.
I kept asking until midnight, and all the criminals were screened.
The old man Fang's eyes were vacant, his throat was on fire, and he held the case with both hands. He took a few breaths secretly, but turned to me who was drinking Pu'er tea sitting next to the desk, and said, "My lord, you are ordered to hear the trial. After this day, the next official will ask you Is there any difference?"
I put down the teacup, quickly waved my hand and said, "Lord Fang, you are an important minister of the court, and you are the ruler of the world. You have the final say on the affairs here. I don't know anything. I just sit here according to my will."
Fang Chengguan coughed twice, expressing that he was delicate and weak, and could not try the case late at night. He said, "My lords, this case is very involved, and we must not rush it. Today's trial lasted twelve hours, and my lords also They are all exhausted, and they should go back to the residence to recuperate, but the emperor ordered him to understand the case and cannot leave the Dali Temple, so I can only wrong you and rest in the Dali Temple overnight, and continue tomorrow. Do you have any objections, my lords?"
Everyone quickly waved their hands, saying that the emperor's order was in the sky, that they were loyal ministers, and that they would rather not drink water, eat, or go to the toilet to have a clear trial of the case.
Fang Chengguan had asked people to move out all the houses in Dali Temple, added a lot of wooden beds, prepared hot water and meals, and asked the ministers accompanying the trial to go down to rest and eat, and go to bed earlier. Tomorrow it will be dark, and we will continue.
I didn't go back either, Liu Congrong took care of me and rested in a decent study.
The next day, as soon as the rooster crowed, everyone sat upright again and opened their mouths to hear the case.
In this way, asking questions at dawn, washing their feet, eating, and sleeping in the middle of the night, so many people huddled together for three whole days. Cheng Guan didn't let anyone go.
The last one left was Huang Xiaoguan, the former governor of Zhejiang.
Fang Chengguan stood up suddenly, he went to write the paper, and asked someone to move a wooden chair for Huang Xiaoguan.
"sit."
Huang Xiaoguan is only 40 years old, with fair skin, slender eyes, but benevolent and filial eyes. He looks like a scholar with a lot of family background. He usually does not fumble around in the world, but only studies in his own manor, with three or two beautiful wives and concubines in his arms. , Drinking three or two pots of sake thin tea.
Seeing Fang Chengguan treating him like this, he didn't say a word, but just gave Fang Chengguan a shallow salute and sat on the wooden chair.Everyone looked at Fang Chengguan, and the main hall of Dali Temple in Nuoda was silent.
Fang Chengguan said, "You are a revolutionary. I can't call you by official rank. Although you are young, you are a young man who was admitted to the imperial examination. You are a Jinshi in the same discipline as me. It is a bit pretentious to call you, so I just call you Your name."
Huang Xiaoguan looked at him and nodded.
Fang Chengguan also moved a wooden chair and sat opposite him, "Huang Xiaoguan, a native of Tongcheng, Anhui, his father started a business in his early years, selling tea in Fujian and Zhejiang. When I went to Wuyi Mountain to harvest tea, I was murdered by water bandits with a huge sum of money, and died young. The Huang clan coveted your property and drove your orphans and widows out of the house. Is there such a thing?"
Huang Xiaoguan remained calm, glanced at Old Man Fang again, and nodded.
"Huangmen Wenshi, that is, your mother, has been a widow all along. She earns some loose silver by doing laundry and cooking for a wealthy family. She raises you up and pays for your education. Is there such a thing?"
This time, Huang Xiaoguan just lowered his eyelids and stopped talking.
Fang Chengguan stretched out his hand, and someone behind him handed him a case file. He stopped looking at Huang Xiaoguan in front of him, opened the case file, read it page by page, then closed it, and said, "The local magistrate in Tongcheng has already confiscated you." Your family property and family members are all detained, and you will arrive in Yongjing in three days, and your mother is also on the prison van."
Huang Xiaoguan's face is as pale as rice paper, I can't see his exact expression here, but I can only see his fingers clenched tightly, just laying on his knees.
"And your wife, and a pair of children."
Fang Chengguan continued, "Huang Xiaoguan, it's not easy for Kejia to be born in a proper way. It's not easy for ten years of poverty. It's not easy for your mother to change from a young wife of a big family to a servant girl. Now, your evidence is conclusive, your No one can save your life, but your crime is not as good as your family. Do you have the heart to overthrow your family for the sake of others, leaving your children and grandchildren dead? Do you know that once you are convicted as the mastermind, your mother and son will be sentenced to death? Put to death, the wife and daughter will be sold into prostitutes by the officials, and they will have a low career forever?"
Huang Xiaoguan was trembling all over, and there was fine sweat on his forehead.
Fang Chengguan stopped talking.
He handed the case file to others, stood up by himself, had his wooden chair removed, sat back in the main hall, turned around and looked at me, and I also looked at him. In charge of the Beijing Manufacturing Bureau, Cui Bicheng."
I looked up suddenly.
Two cavalry soldiers in flying fish uniforms and Xiuchun swords on their waists supported a man and came in from the outside.They walked quickly and quickly, but the man they supported had disheveled hair, scars all over his body, and was almost naked.Apparently this person has already been severely punished.His legs showed a very wrong posture, dragging lazily like weeds, especially his left leg, which turned awkwardly, as if it had been broken.
I stood up suddenly, and hundreds of people in the main hall of Dali Temple were all looking at me.
Their eyes are more cunning than a fox, dirtier than a hyena, sharper than a vulture, more greedy than a jackal, and more gleeful than the most acrimonious woman in the world who is as sour and spicy as a pickle.
I woke up immediately, put my hands on the sleeves of my robe, and sat back.
Those two riders threw the person in their hands into the lobby, took out a bottle of smelling salts from their arms, handed it under the man's nose, and let him smell it. Seeing the man wake up slowly, the two riders Then he stood aside.
Fang Chengguan patted the gavel, "Come boldly, report your name!"
The man sat up slowly, didn't speak, and didn't raise his head. He just brushed back the hair that blocked his eyes slightly with his hands, and then wrote and drew on the blue brick floor with his fingers.
Fang Chengguan patted the gavel a second time, and yelled again, but that person ignored him at all.
At this time, a Tiqi knelt down and said, "Master Fang, Cui Bicheng was dismissed from his job and sent to prison. Because he was extremely cunning and wanted to shirk his guilt, the cabinet issued an imperial edict and imposed a severe punishment. As a result He can't survive the punishment, he's crazy."
Fang Chengguan was stunned for a moment, turned sideways slightly, looked forward for a while, and finally only asked, "What is he writing?"
Cui Bicheng's ten fingers were all wounded and bloody, he seemed unconscious, just writing over and over again on the blue brick floor——
Those who are in the field of Lilu and in the field of planning and planning must steal the words of Yao and Shun and recite the ways of Confucius and Mencius!
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