In the twenty-first year of the reign of King Qin, in late April, just after the beginning of summer, the weather in Anlu County was hot day by day. Mole grasshoppers chirp in the lush grass, earthworms emerge from the soil, and in the vegetable gardens of every household, king gourds grow, bitter herbs bloom, and a prosperous summer scene.

And in the Guansi District, which is located in the county seat, there is also irritability in the air.

In the county jail, the jailers and jailers stood guard outside the prison with nervous expressions, and every half hour they had to send people in to inspect it, because it was full of prisoners who had not yet been sentenced.

The weather was hot, the cell space was cramped, and it gave off an unpleasant smell. The one hundred and eighty criminals, or ordinary people who looked like ordinary people, were now sitting on the straw with sad faces, regretting what they had done.

The jailers were talking a lot, just relying on their own more than ten people, it was not easy to watch them, how did the little pavilion chief take five people to catch the entire inside?

In the lobby separated by a wall, the county magistrate was also worried as he watched the officials arguing with the law, and secretly scolded in his heart: "It's all to blame for the Huyang Pavilion Chief, just let him go to find a woman who was plundered and sold, but he arrested the entire inside, how can I end up now!" ”

At this time, more than a month has passed since the incident in the blind mountains that shocked the whole county.

This case involved a large number of people, so from the county magistrate to the commander, it took the judges of Anlu County more than half a month and many all-nighters to clarify the origin of the plundered and trafficked woman, and the crimes and faults of the people in the blind mountain.

But the most difficult thing is still to come, the people in the blind mountain, under the leadership of the officials, have repeatedly bought and sold women of unknown origin, and shielded each other, maliciously surrounded the head of the Heifu Pavilion during the investigation, and even had the intention of killing the official and dying, these crimes cannot be washed away.

But in this way, the question arises, how to judge? Light sentence or heavy sentence?

"Now that the crime is known, follow the law."

Prison Pengxi's attitude is clear, and he does things according to the rules!

But the county was still a little hesitant.

"Xijun, this matter is different from ordinary cases, it is related to the lives of one hundred and eighty people, so you must not be careless."

Xi Zhengse said: "County Cheng, Qin Luli, there has never been a precedent for leniency due to the large number of criminals!" At the beginning of the Shang monarch's reign and the change of the law, there were public clans who did not obey the law and fought privately, and hundreds of people were punished. In the ninth year of the king's reign, Chang Yu conspired against him, and he himself was split by the Che Yi clan, and thousands of people were also punished and confiscated from their family property, and moved to the remote place of Shu County......"

"Thousands of people are still punished, let alone more than 100 people?"

"Anlu District is a small county, how can it be compared with Shangjun and the king."

The county Cheng said in a somewhat consultative tone: "Prison Peng, except for a few main criminals, can the rest of the people be counted as voluntary surrender and reduce their criminal responsibility?" ”

"County Cheng, the people in the blind mountain didn't think about turning themselves in and confessing their guilt at all, but after the prison gate that instigated them to kill the official and flee was shot, they were arrested under the deterrence of the head of the Heifu Pavilion."

Xi still doesn't give an inch, since the evidence and confession show that everyone did not turn themselves in, then they can't open the net!

In his opinion, the collision of law enforcement and lawlessness, there is only winning and losing, there is no mercy!

The county couldn't convince this stubborn subordinate, so he stomped his feet in anger. He knew very well that if he followed the law one by one, he would not know how many people would die or how many would be punished.

When the time comes, this case will surely shock Nanjun and even Tingwei, and become the most typical major case in the country this year. Not only will he not be praised in this county, but he will also be impeached because of his lax governance and poor law popularization, which leads to such a big hole and is impeached, even if he is not punished, he will leave an embarrassing mark on his resume.

Because of this, the verdict was delayed again and again, and the county asked the county for instructions, but there was no reply to the message, which was really urgent.

Fortunately, towards the end of April, Nanjun's order was finally belated.

The county didn't expect that the county's reply was exactly the same as Xi's opinion, just four words:

Punishment will not be granted!

It turns out that Nanjun has not been idle these days. According to the confession of the plundered woman in Anlu County, the county sent several capable officials from Jiangling City to follow the vine and find melons, and finally wiped out a group of people who specialized in abducting and selling young men and women in Jingling County, and the "old woman" who had abducted the kite was also among them.

After the surprise interrogation, Jun Cheng was stunned to find out that this gang was a family crime, and its tentacles were all over Nanjun. This is related to hundreds of cases of missing people in various counties of South County in the past few years. Most of the missing people were teenagers and girls, women were sold to poor rural areas, and men were even sold into slavery in Wei and Chu!

It was even involved in the exodus of the population! Is this worth it? So while sentencing all those abductors to death, Juncheng also decided to send a document to Anlu County, demanding that the case be handled as a death case! Make a model to warn the people of the whole county!

Since the county also said so, the county man who was a little soft-hearted was helpless, and after he looked up to the sky and sighed, he asked the prison Pengxi and others to hurry up and convict the prisoners.

……

"In the blind mountains, as a li, he knows the law and violates the law, shields the Li people, secretly corresponds with marauders, takes the lead in buying women, and repeatedly forcibs and rapes women's kites, what's the matter?"

In the hall, Ling Yile was in charge of recording it, because there were too many people involved, they had to first convict everyone of their crimes, and then send them to the county to read.

Prison Peng Xi was responsible for determining the punishment of criminals, although he memorized the Qin law backwards, but in order not to make mistakes, he still had to find the "Theft Law" and "Miscellaneous Law" in the mountains of laws and decrees, and sentenced them according to the corresponding laws.

"The blind mountain is on the right peak, and the sin is extremely evil. According to Article 9 of the "Law of Piracy", plundering and selling people,; Knowing that people sell people slightly and are guilty of the same crime as Jia. His crime deserves death, plus the crimes of forcible and rape, he should be sentenced to split! His family members knew that Li was breaking the law and did not report it, and they also assisted in the detention of the sold female kite, and they should also sit together and confiscate their property. Men cut off their toes, for the city; The woman's face is a concubine! ”

Le hurriedly wrote it down, and then asked the next name: "What is Tian Dian?" ”

"Tian Dian did not participate in human trafficking, and the crime was slightly lighter, but the crime of dereliction of duty and cover-up was unavoidable. Cut off the title, confiscate the family property, cut off the toe for the city, and his family is the city Dan! ”

As for the prison gate who called on the people to kill the officials and die, although the person is dead, since he dares to shout this slogan, he must be prepared to be crushed and scattered, and his rotten bones will be dug up and made up for the punishment of a car split, and his family will all be reduced to the city.

In Xi's next sentence, those families who knew that it was the robbed woman and paid for it were also sentenced to prison. The three brothers who brutally abused the abducted woman and put her in the pigsty, one of them died of a crossbow wound, and the remaining two were charged with forcible rape, rape, and thief wounding.

All in all, three people in the blind mountain were executed and ten people were executed.

According to Xi's verdict, Le used a red pen to tick off the names of 13 people in the roster on the slip in one go, and he couldn't help but feel a little trembling, after all, a light hook is a human life.

He secretly thought: "The law is not merciful, this sentence is really appropriate to put on the prison Peng, I have to be careful, don't break the law in this life, so as not to fall into the hands of the prison Peng......"

However, there is really a place for the net to open up.

In addition to the four women who took the initiative to leave, those who also bought the women many years ago were spared death because the plundered woman did not admit that she was plundered and sold.

It turned out that in the Qin State, cases also had a statute of limitations, and the government would no longer accept cases that had exceeded ten years. In addition, if a criminal case wants to enter the litigation process, the premise is that someone denounces it, and if the party does not denounce it, it will not be accepted, which is equivalent to "not suing and ignoring" in later generations.

Therefore, those women who have been plundered and sold for many years and have given birth to children do not indicate their identities and do not take the initiative to find out their current family members, it does not constitute a lawsuit.

Xi knows that if he investigates to the end, or even uses a punishment, he will definitely be able to dig out all the old things and sentence those people to death.

But after hesitation, he still didn't extend the net of the Ritsu to the line.

He's a cadre, but he's not a cool official.

He loyally handles cases in accordance with the law, but he also has his own bottom line.

What's more, this does not mean that those people are innocent, this case involves the joint offense of the entire blind mountain, according to the Shiwu joint sitting system of Qin law, as long as it is an adult male or female, one is counted as one, and they are all held accountable.

What's more, they were also suspected of attacking officials, and even shouted slogans of entering the Chu State...... This was the most fatal point, and in hindsight, if they had done what Heve had suggested and surrendered to him, they wouldn't have ended up in this fate.

On the last day of April, just in time for the day of the verdict, because there were so many offenders that each family could only send one main offender to observe, and in this way, the entire county jail hall was also densely packed.

Looking at so many criminals, even Anlu County Cheng couldn't help but feel numb on his scalp, and his voice was a little hoarse when he read 鞫 (jū).

In the end, except for the 13 main criminals who were sentenced to death, almost all of the rest were reduced to prisoners!

Dozens of heavy people were tortured to make a city, and hundreds of light people were also made ghost salaries and white rice, and they didn't want to regain their freedom in three or five years. Only three families, hunters who lived far away inside and outside, were proven not to be involved in the incident, and they escaped.

The parents were sent to the labor camp, and the children who did not have reached the age of age were taken in by the hidden officials, and when they reached adulthood, they were placed in various places as soldiers or servants.

There are no eggs under the nest, so the sentence is given, the blind mountain is equivalent to a litter of total annihilation, everyone has been a prisoner, and the establishment in this can be directly canceled.

This also means that this year's officials in Anlu County, except for the county engineer who can applaud and laugh because there are more than 100 prisoners and concubines, the rest of the county orders, household Cao, and township sifu will have a sad face.

The growth of household registration in Anlu County is not fast, but it can barely make ends meet, how can it withstand such a heavy blow.

Therefore, for the black man who handled this case, and for the joy of the judgment according to the law, although the officials in the county had to support and praise them on the surface, they had already scolded them behind their backs......

"The pavilion chief of the broken family, the prison Peng who destroys the door!"