The carriage passed through the south gate of the palace city, this gate is called the noon gate, the Nanjing folk is commonly known as the noon gate, so the door is in the middle to the sun, the position is the meridian, so it is called the noon gate. On a royal street in front of the noon gate www.biquge.info pen "Fun", there were not many pedestrians, and Zhang Zhaohua could see clearly.

The noon gate of the Nanjing capital is similar to the noon gate of the Forbidden City in later generations, with double wings on both sides of the three-hole door ticket, the goose wing tower is built on the top, and the white marble Sumeru seat at the bottom is imprinted in Zhang Zhaohua's eyes, bringing her a familiar feeling.

However, what caught her eye was not the noon gate, but the huge leather drum of the noon gate-

Dengwen Drum!

What is the purpose of this thing, Zhang Zhaohua suddenly understood between the light and the fire, it is the emperor set up to let the unjust people beat the drum to appeal, that is, some major cases and wronged people, beyond the scope of ordinary litigation jurisdiction and litigation level, can beat this drum and directly appeal to the supreme ruler. The emperor will personally accept it, and if the officials obstruct it, they will be severely sentenced.

This system is not unique to the Ming Dynasty, but follows the past, as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty there was a prototype of the Dengwen drum system. The so-called "prison litigant shakes the skull", which is a kind of small drum used by ancient ministers to redress grievances and admonish. Zhou Li even mentioned that there was a famous road drum system in the Western Zhou Dynasty, which allowed those who had been wronged to come to the drum to complain, and the grievances went straight to the top.

The Tang Dynasty was the period of establishment and formation of the Dengwengu system, and during the Song Dynasty, the procedures for Dengwengu litigation had been perfected. The overall judicial system of the Song Dynasty was very strict, not only set up a complete Dengwen Drum Yuan and Dengwen Procuratorate, but also sent important officials to manage the Dengwen Drum.

The Yuan Dynasty even retained the Dengwen Drum, until the Guo Dynasty, the founding emperor attached great importance to the appeal of the people, and in order to love the people, he allowed the emperor to play directly. That is, in the first years, whenever someone beat a drum, the emperor personally received him. Even if the owner loses a chicken and the west loses a cow, the emperor hears about the lawsuit and makes a decision himself.

Zhang Zhaohua saw this thing before he saw hope.

She jumped out of the carriage and headed straight for the drum.

However, to her surprise, she saw that there was no one around the drum, but when she approached, four or five suddenly appeared and stopped her.

"What's the matter with you," said the man at the head, who was obviously a guard, looking her up and down, "What are you doing with the drums?"

"I have a grievance to appeal!" Zhang Zhaohua said excitedly: "I want to go straight to heaven!"

"It is impossible to appeal to the heavens," this person said: "If you have any case, acceptance, review, and submission are the responsibility of the procuratorate and the imperial historian, and the trial is the responsibility of the six departments and the members of Jinyiwei in turn." ”

"Impossible," Zhang Zhaohua's spirit was a little wrong: "When you hear the drum beating, you can see the face of heaven and tell you directly before the royal drive! You can't stop me, otherwise you will be sentenced heavily!"

"Twelve years ago, it was indeed the emperor who personally inquired. The guard explained in a good voice: "It's just that there are so many people who are stupid and stubborn, and they take the opportunity to deceive, but it is difficult to disturb Your Majesty - so after twelve years, the system was changed and accepted by the officials." ”

"If you don't believe me," said the man, spreading his hands, "go and knock yourself." ”

Zhang Zhaohua was stunned, not knowing whether to take another step forward or retreat. If it is another official who is on trial, wouldn't it be another repetition of the situation of Ying Tianfuya. She murmured, "I have grievances to sue, isn't there a way to meet Tianyan?"

She heard the people muttering beside her, but there was a human: "If you really have a hundred thousand urgent things—"

Before he could finish his sentence, another guard glared at him fiercely and said, "Don't talk nonsense!"

Zhang Zhaohua grabbed the man and pleaded: "If you have something to say, please show the folk girl a clear way!"

"I'm talking about a path of no turning back. The man hesitated for a while, and had no choice but to say: "At this time three years ago, there was a warden from Longyang County, named Qing Wensheng, who sounded this drum, and the music he presented alarmed the emperor in the palace. ”

In the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu, Longyang Dibin Dongting, floods for many years, many obstacles and fields were abandoned according to the old practice of the Yuan Dynasty, and the total amount floated to 37,000 stones. The people were like oxen carrying heavy loads, and some fled to other lands, and the old, weak, sick, and disabled starved to death. Qing Wensheng, who was born from Gongsheng as the canonical history of Longyang County, faced such a difficult situation of the people, was heartbroken, and was determined to ask for the people's lives, and was willing to take the charge of overstepping his post and overstepping his ranks...... The people are embarrassed, and the heavens are only smart!" However, these three plays are as sparse as sinking into the sea.

So Qing Wensheng went to Nanjing in person, and prepared to play the emperor in person. After arriving in Beijing, Qing Wensheng asked to see the driver, but was blocked out of the palace because of his humble official position. So he took the opportunity of the early dynasty to kneel in front of the Daguan Bridge Horse, and asked to play on behalf of him, but he was also refused. sighed: "Give up halfway, what face to see my father!" He decided to sacrifice his life to live the people, beat the Dengwen drum to advance, and neglected his hair bun, and hanged himself under the Dengwen drum.

Qing Wensheng died under the drums of Dengwen, and only then did he alarm the old Emperor Zhu who sat on the dragon chair, and took pity on him to kill himself for the people, so he exempted Longyang County from arrears, and exempted the floating amount of 24,000 stones, and the annual payment ended at 13,000 stones. After Qing Wensheng died, a servant returned with a corpse. The people of the county were grateful and set up an ancestral hall for him in the east of the city. The children and the young women are widowed, and they are poor and cannot return, so they are raised with 100 acres of public land.

"It turned out to be a dead admonition-" Zhang Zhaohua looked at the three or four meter-tall Dengwen drum in a trance, it turned out that this was the embodiment of the most stringent rank, and it turned out that it was just a matter of saying that a case could be accepted by beating the drum.

Thousands of years of feudal society, set administrative and judicial power in one, there is no administrative litigation at all, and the common people are imprisoned by the feudal consciousness of the "three outlines and five constants", and there is no democracy and civil rights at all, only know that "the lower cannot be sued".

There are many obstacles to the next complaint. Although Qing Wensheng's behavior is to ask for the people's life, it can be seen as a rebellion against the imperial court's taxation, and this kind of behavior of questioning the government cannot be tolerated by the ruler.

Although the emperor was born as a commoner and loved the people at the bottom, when he became the emperor, he wanted to rule the world with the scholar class, not with the people. Therefore, there is a price to be paid for such behavior - if Qingwensheng does not die, all the local officials will learn from it, and take the opportunity to reduce the local officials' food, it will shake the foundation of the rule.

Zhang Zhaohua didn't know if he could get the emperor's attention if he died under the drums of Dengwen.

Her mind was clear for a while, and confused for a while. When she was sober, she knew that she was far away from the drum, and when she was confused, she tore off the ribbon from her skirt, and the guards also looked bad, and came over to push her again: "I'm joking with you, how can you survive seriously! Go home quickly, this is not a place to stay for a long time!"

As he spoke, he asked the old servant of the carriage to pull her into the carriage, and the old man was also startled, and drove the carriage as fast as he could, and from time to time he turned back and lifted the curtain to see her, and when he was sent to the door, he was relieved.

Zhang Zhaohua didn't expect to see Wang, Zhang Chang and Zheng, everyone couldn't even say a word when they met, they could only hold each other and cry bitterly; Zhang Zhaohua caught them and asked what happened at home, and in Wang's intermittent narration, she learned that on the fourth day of her trip to Nanjing, a group of scoundrels came to the house, and as soon as they entered the door, they smashed up, and said that Zhang Chang had committed something and wanted to take him to prison-

At the critical time, the villagers worked together to drive the group out of the village. But the grain chief said that the village could not stay any longer, and asked them to pack up their things overnight and go to Beijing to seek justice; they walked to Shangqiu on foot before catching a carriage and making a bumpy journey to Beijing.

"I haven't done a single evil thing in my life," Wang cried with a little treasure that didn't understand anything: "Why should you suffer such a disaster!"

Looking at the trembling family in front of her, she thought of all the disasters in the world that she had experienced in the past half a month, and the hardships and hardships she had experienced one by one.