The most reckless man in the Ming Dynasty

Qianqing Palace.

Yang Tinghe, Fei Hong and others are fiercely impeaching the Marquis of Zhongshan.

According to the court system, this case is very involved and is undoubtedly the largest case in the Zhengde Dynasty. It should be jointly tried by the three judicial departments.

Beginning in the 17th year of Hongwu, Emperor Taizu Gao ordered that the three departments of Dali Temple, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate form the Three Laws Division to jointly try major cases; in the event of particularly serious cases, the Three Laws Division will work with ministers and general envoys of various ministries to conduct " "Jiu Qing Yuan Yuan"; cases assigned by the emperor personally will be tried by the Sanfa Division and Jin Yiwei.

The Ministry of Punishment is one of the six bureaus, in charge of legal punishment and prisons; Dali Temple is equivalent to the highest court in later generations. It was Tingwei in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and Dali Temple in the Northern Qi Dynasty. For this reason, it was in charge of the trial of criminal cases in the past dynasties; the Metropolitan Procuratorate was the highest court in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Supervisory, impeachment and advisory bodies.

This is just like in later generations, a certain security agency with the power of investigation and trial cannot initiate public prosecutions on its own, a certain procuratorate that initiates public prosecutions cannot convict prisoners on its own, and a court with the power to convict cannot investigate and collect evidence on its own.

In the separation of trial power and judgment power, a certain security agency with trial power has no power to pronounce judgment, and the court with the power to pronounce judgment has no jurisdiction over the trial.

Why should trial and judgment powers be separated?

Because criminal suspects must have the opportunity to defend themselves, if a department can both trial and sentence, it will not care what the suspect says, and it will be easier to miss evidence that is beneficial to the suspect. If the trial and judgment powers are different, Concentration often results in subterfuge and disregard of human life, and can easily lead to unjust, false and wrongful convictions.

Among the three major judicial departments of the Ming Dynasty, the Ministry of Punishment was in charge of trials, the Dali Temple was in charge of review, and the functions of the Metropolitan Procuratorate remained unchanged and continued to be in charge of supervision.

One department conducts preliminary examination, another department reviews, and another department supervises. This is the ancient judicial process for handling major and important cases to ensure judicial fairness, a simple principle of justice.

According to this system, this case, whether it is Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao's rebellion or Li Dongyang's conspiracy, is an out-and-out serious case.

In order to ensure judicial fairness, the court should form a three-judge panel.

As a result, the prisoner Li Dongyang was kidnapped by Tang Hao, the Marquis of Zhongshan, directly leading his army as soon as he arrived at the gate of the capital city, and was even taken to the Caishikou execution ground!

What does Tang Hao want to do?

Is lynching abused to avenge private revenge?

Wang Jianzhi, the Secretary of the Ministry of Punishment, Geng Ying, the minister of Dali Temple, and Fei Hong, the censor of Zuodu, immediately found Yang Tinghe, the chief minister of the cabinet, and then went to the palace to meet the saint.

Zhu Houzhao was originally in a good mood. After all, he could take this opportunity to clean up the entire court, and then clarify the official administration and officially start to implement the New Deal.

As a result, at this juncture, that damn savage started to cause trouble again.

Are you so full that you have nothing to do?

Then Li Dongyang is bound to die this time, why do you insist on causing trouble?

However, Zhu Houzhao could generally understand that the savage was really angry this time, so he wanted to execute Li Dongyang with his own hands.

After all, Li Dongyang almost plotted to kill Tang Hao this time, which also caused the Ming Dynasty to lose Lei Xiong, a talented general. It's strange that the savage guy is not angry!

In addition, Li Dongyang showed up many times to oppose himself and others, and this time he even wanted to turn the capital court upside down.

Not to mention the savage Tang Hao, even the emperor was extremely angry and wanted to kill this old dog quickly.

When he thought of this, Zhu Houzhao knew something in his heart.

"Marquis Tang was almost killed by Li Dongyang's plot, so he felt a little angry and did something that ignored the law. That's understandable. It's human nature!"

"Why do you have to go on the line here and talk about a bunch of useless stuff?"

Fei Hong looked solemn and said sternly: "Then please make an order immediately to prevent the Marquis of Zhongshan from abusing lynching, so as not to cause bad effects."

Tang Hao is just a martial artist. No matter how powerful he is, he cannot act arbitrarily, let alone represent the laws and regulations of the Ming Dynasty!

Therefore, Tang Hao is not qualified to execute Li Dongyang!

Even if Li Dongyang's crime is extremely heinous, he should be punished after a joint trial by the three judicial departments. Only in this way can the people's hearts and laws be rectified!

There is nothing wrong with Fei Hong's request, and Zhu Houzhao, the Ming emperor, naturally cannot refuse.

So he immediately ordered: "Zhang Yong, immediately draw up a decree and order Tanghou to hand over the prisoner Li Dongyang to the Ministry of Punishment!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhu Houzhao gave Zhang Yong a look.

After all, the latter had been following him for so long. Considering the current situation, he reacted immediately.

At this moment, Fei Hong spoke again.

"Your Majesty, according to the court system, this case should be submitted to the three departments for review. As the censor of Zuodu, I should go with Zhang Dajuan to receive the prisoner."

Fei Hong didn't know what the two of them were thinking, which was just to delay time and let the Marquis of Zhongshan kill Li Dongyang!

Everyone is dead and the imperial edict has just arrived, so what’s the point?

Zhu Houzhao glanced at Fei Hong coldly, and then put on a smile.

"Speaking of which, Fei Aiqing was once my husband."

"The content of this "Emperor's Illustrated Book" is obscure and difficult to understand. I would like to ask Fei Aiqing to give me some guidance!"

Upon hearing this, Fei Hong frowned.

Is Your Majesty intending to keep him here on purpose?

Do we have to kill Li Dongyang?

You must know that Li Dongyang is not an ordinary figure. He is a veteran of three dynasties, a half-master of Hongzhi, a leader of the Jin gentry, and a great figure in the literary world...

If His Majesty the Emperor really killed Li Dongyang without hesitation, it would be detrimental to his reputation as a Zhengde Emperor!

"Your Majesty, minister..."

Before Fei Hong finished speaking, Yang Tinghe spoke first.

"Your Majesty, the imperial edict must go through the cabinet. Why don't I and Zhang Dayong go to issue the edict together!"

Everyone nodded when they heard this. This is the best solution.

Zhu Houzhao looked at the imperial teacher and nodded after a moment of silence.

He chose to give Yang Tinghe a chance. If Yang Tinghe interfered again today, Zhu Houzhao would not mind inserting people into the cabinet to divide the power of the Zhengde imperial teacher!

So Zhang Yong and Yang Tinghe went to draft the edict, while Fei Hong and Wang Jianzhi were forced to stay and accompany the emperor to study the "Illustrated Explanation of the Imperial Edict".

Yang Tinghe returned to the cabinet and ordered the secretary to draft the edict. Then he came to the Silijian, but Zhang Yong seemed unaware and was doing his own thing.

Seeing this, Yang Tinghe did not urge him. He found a seat and sat down, then closed his eyes and meditated.

For him, it is better to eliminate the unstable factor of Li Dongyang as soon as possible!

What Yang Tinghe needs is a clean and efficient civil servant system that can help him realize his political ambitions, not a group of corrupt officials who only know how to fight for power and profit, nor an ambitious person like Li Dongyang!

Therefore, it is better to let nature take its course and fulfill the emperor's wishes.

The two of them tacitly bought time for Zhongshan Hou Tang Hao.

At the same time, the execution ground at Caishikou.

Tang Hao personally escorted Li Dongyang to the execution ground.

"Tang Hou, I have a request!"

Li Dongyang suddenly stopped and said sincerely: "Zhaofan is the only one left in my Li family's direct lineage. Please Tang Hou... spare his life so that he can live the rest of his life in peace."

Li Zhaofan was adopted by Li Dongyang as his son, so he was already Li Dongyang's son in terms of etiquette and law.

And what Li Dongyang did this time was, at the very least, colluding with the Japanese to assassinate important officials in the court. In a more serious case, it was disrupting the capital and trying to overthrow the Ming Dynasty!

In any case, Li Dongyang was guilty of a capital crime. The only difference was whether he would die alone, or his entire clan, including Li Zhaofan, the last relative, would be executed!

"Why?" Tang Hao asked calmly.

Li Dongyang turned his head to look at him and said with a smile: "I will admit all the charges in exchange for Zhao Fan's life, how about it?"

"The reason why you kidnapped me from the Jinyiwei and brought me to this market is not to kill me and destroy my reputation for life?"

"If I don't admit it, the people and scholars will naturally not be convinced, and your goal will be difficult to achieve!"

Tang Hao sneered and said: "You are a eunuch party, what reputation do you have?"

"But I can promise you to leave a trace of blood in your Li family."

Li Dongyang nodded silently after hearing this, and then let Tang Hao take him to the execution ground.

When the people and scholars saw Li Dongyang, they instantly exploded!

"That...that's...Mr. Li?!"

"Yes, it's Grand Secretary Li Dongyang!"

"What's going on? Why did Marquis Zhongshan arrest and behead Mr. Li?"

"Mr. Li is a wise minister of the Ming Dynasty!"

As a group of scholars recognized Li Dongyang's identity, the ministers around him became more and more confused.

Tang Hao took the file from Leng Hantie and read it out loud.

"Li Dongyang, the former chief of Ning Wangfu, was from Chaling, Huguang. He passed the imperial examination in the eighth year of Tianshun... He was promoted to the chief minister of the cabinet in the third year of Zhengde, and then took the initiative to resign. In the sixth year of Zhengde, he was appointed as the chief of Ning Wangfu."

After briefly describing Li Dongyang's life experience, Tang Hao began to state Li Dongyang's crimes.

"He is deeply in the emperor's favor but does not think about serving the country with loyalty. He has formed many cliques and wings, colluded with each other to embezzle national benefits, and formed a clique with Liu Daxia, the former Minister of War, to cause chaos in the court... Li Dongyang, do you recognize him?!"

All the common people and scholars looked at Li Dongyang. They did not dare to believe and did not want to believe that the famous scholar Li Dongyang, who was famous all over the world, would be such a... treacherous minister!

Looking at the confused or angry common people and scholars in the audience, Li Dongyang felt extremely bitter.

Tang Hao's accusation against him was true and false.

At least in Li Dongyang's view, he did not form a clique for personal gain.

"I am... guilty!"

As soon as these words came out, the whole audience was in an uproar.

All the common people and scholars were instantly angry and looked at this famous scholar in disbelief.

Then Tang Hao spoke again, shouting: "During the time when Li Dongyang was the chief of Ning Wangfu, he colluded with Ning Wang's son and raised assassins... causing unrest in the capital and the government and the people... Li Dongyang, do you admit it?!"

As soon as the voice fell, the whole audience exclaimed again.

It turned out that the turmoil in the capital not long ago was actually a good show planned by Li Dongyang!

Li Dongyang seemed to have been drained of all his energy and nodded numbly.

"I... am guilty!"

He admitted it in person and in public!

What else is there to say?

The indignant people and scholars immediately cursed at Li Dongyang, and even shouted "Kill him"!

In other words, he, a famous scholar in the world, had a good reputation all his life, but today he lost it all, and he would be infamous for thousands of years even after his death!

Just at this time, a shout came from a distance: "Spare his life!"

Tang Hao smiled when he saw this, and immediately drew his sword and chopped it down.

Blood gushed out and Li Dongyang's head fell to the ground.