In the end, Lu Zhaoji did not expect that he would be arrested and punished by the imperial court because he fell into public opinion.

It's not just that Lu Zhaoji didn't expect it.

Even Xu Hao, the secretary of the Criminal Department, didn't expect it, but had to say: "Since Taizu, there has been no matter of the people punishing officials, and it has always been the government that governs the people, when will the people force the officials!" But if the mob increases sharply today, there are people who force the court to rule the law by law, and it is difficult for officials to defend each other, and I don't know if it is the blessing of the Ming Dynasty or the disaster of the Ming Dynasty! ”

Xu Hao didn't know how to look at this phenomenon of public opinion forcing His Majesty the Emperor and himself to punish some corrupt officials and cool officials, even those who had resigned.

But he knew that if he wanted to be a good secretary of the criminal department in the future, he would not only have to avoid making mistakes in front of His Majesty the Emperor, but also avoid being caught by the common people.

Xu Hao did not dare to be abrupt and sloppy, and immediately began interrogation and investigation and evidence collection after arresting Lu Zhaoji, and after confirming that Lu Zhaoji was indeed suspected of selling official positions, he immediately sent a letter to the Metropolitan Procuratorate and asked the Metropolitan Procuratorate to file a case against Lu Zhaoji and prosecute him.

This is a set of judicial procedures that Emperor Zhengde has re-clarified.

Only the Metropolitan Procuratorate has the power to file and prosecute cases.

However, the Criminal Department did not dare to protect Lu Zhaoji against the will of the people, and now the Metropolitan Procuratorate does not dare to shield Lu Zhaoji, and Lu Zhaoji's betrayal of the official title should have been found out by their Metropolitan Procuratorate and should not have been fired by the people many years later, so this seems that the Metropolitan Procuratorate is very derelict in its duties, and if Emperor Zhu Houzhao is willing to change the imperial history of the Metropolitan Procuratorate now, there can be a reason.

Therefore, the Metropolitan Procuratorate did not dare to delay any longer, and immediately went to Shu Zhu Houzhao and asked His Majesty the Emperor to allow the Criminal Department to convict Lu Zhaoji in trial.

All of this was done by Zhu Houzhao behind the scenes, and his purpose was to rectify Lu Zhaoji, a literati who was blackmailing himself and the queen behind his back, so naturally he would not refuse, and Zhu Zhu approved the trial and conviction of Lu Zhaoji by the Criminal Department.

Thereupon.

Less than a year after his resignation, Lu Zhaoji was taken to the public court by the Criminal Department for trial and conviction on suspicion of selling official positions and accepting huge bribes.

The Metropolitan Procuratorate and Dali Temple will also participate in the trial.

There is also the Dongchang Inspectorate, who supervises the trial scene on behalf of the emperor, but mainly to see if these civil officials will be loyal and seek truth from facts.

In addition, after Zhu Houzhao strictly ordered the public trial of the Criminal Department to have a jury, at the trial site, a number of voluntary people will form a jury to join.

However, only officials of the Criminal Department are qualified to interrogate, and Xu Hao, the secretary of the Criminal Department, is qualified to determine what crime.

However, it is obvious that those who were at the scene of the trial had the opportunity to interfere with the conviction scale of Xu Hao, the secretary of the Criminal Department.

Lu Zhaoji was escorted in, his family has money, so naturally he will not suffer any losses in the prison of the Criminal Department after the dots, and there will be no jailers in the prison of the Criminal Department to embarrass him, so he who has just been escorted in is not embarrassed, but he is also personable and calm.

However, not long after he walked in, the people in the people's jury seat became angry, and directly threw the rotten vegetable leaves over and slapped Lu Zhaoji in the face: "Corrupt official! Corrupt officials! ”

Tang Bohu also threw out a rotten egg in his hand, and slapped it on Lu Zhaoji's face, making Lu Zhaoji's face full of yellow and white, and also made Lu Zhaoji stink, so he only scolded: "You are insulting Sven, insulting Sven!" ”

Xu Hao, the secretary of the Criminal Department, really couldn't stand it, and hurriedly patted the shocking wood, but at the moment, the people from the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Dali Temple and Dongchang were here, and after all, they were high-ranking officials, and they also had some self-cultivation, so they were not too reckless and prestigious, so they only said:

"Silence! Ladies and gentlemen, this is the public court of the Criminal Department, it is a serious place, you can't come nonsense, he Lu Zhaoji has not been convicted, and he still has the right to be respected, this is what His Majesty has particularly emphasized when carrying out criminal reform, I hope you will not go against the holy will! ”

The people were still instinctively afraid of the shocking wood in the hands of the officials, so they all quieted down soon after Xu Hao spoke, and Tang Bohu also signaled that the people he organized did not need to disturb the order of the trial.

Although Emperor Zhu Houzhao of the Ming Dynasty intended to establish a more just judicial system, and established a jury of the people to ensure that the imperial power, official power, and civil rights supervised each other, the people of the Ming Dynasty obviously did not have the awareness of participating in the judiciary, so there were not many people who really applied to join the jury, after all, everyone was busy earning work and dividing the land, and few had the energy to participate in public utilities like the gentry.

Therefore, Tang Bohu and some indignant young scholars who really hated Lu Zhaoji's behavior of selling official positions and lords simply used their own money to organize a group of ordinary people to form a jury, preparing to exercise their right to supervise the judiciary.

Lu Zhaoji was very angry and helpless, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart, the Huangming Dynasty had really changed, and the mobs had increased dramatically, but the imperial court did not control these mobs, but even had to obey the will of these mobs to deal with gentry like themselves.

Zuodu Yushi Hanghuai looked at this scene and said nothing, thinking that the scholars had always used public opinion to advise the king, but now His Majesty used public opinion to punish the scholars, I don't know the words of the sage, whether it is to benefit the doctors or the common people, Confucianism has never stated the reason here, and it is no wonder that it is criticized by today's deviant scholars as unworthy of governing the country.

Lu Zhaoji glanced at Tang Bohu and other representatives of the people indignantly at this time, this was the first time that he was despised, humiliated, and even scolded by the common people he had always ignored as a prisoner, and it was also because of these ordinary people that he was actually escorted to the court where the three legal divisions were tried.

"The old man wants to take a bath and change into clean clothes!"

Xu Hao gave Lu Zhaoji a hint, reminding Lu Zhaoji that when His Majesty the Emperor Zhu Houzhao was reforming the criminal questioning procedure, he had said that the prisoner could not be treated as a prisoner until the crime was determined.

Therefore, Lu Zhaoji now has the confidence to make demands on the officials in the hall.

Tang Bohu and other people were very angry when they saw this.

But Xu Hao agreed to Lu Zhaoji's request, and will let Lu Zhaoji take a new bath and change into clean clothes, in the final analysis, Xu Hao and other civil officials still have sympathy for Lu Zhaoji, after all, everyone used to be civil officials.

After Lu Zhaoji returned to court, Xu Hao began to formally interrogate Lu Zhaoji.

The interrogation process is very simple, it is nothing more than to cite Lu Zhaoji's incriminating evidence one by one, and Lu Zhaoji also confessed, after all, all kinds of empirical evidence are there, and he Lu Zhaoji is not a person who dare not admit it.

But Lu Zhaoji didn't think that these civil officials of the Criminal Department would sentence themselves very severely, after all, how could there be civil officials in the world who were not greedy, and if they punished themselves severely, wouldn't it mean that these civil officials would also be severely punished in the future.

As Lu Zhaoji expected, when Xu Hao announced the verdict, he only sentenced Lu Zhaoji to exile in Guangxi on the grounds that Lu Zhaoji had resigned and was not an incumbent official and sold his official position.

Lu Zhaoji was very proud after hearing this, Guangxi is not too remote, and he can find a chance to return to Beijing in a year and a half.

But Tang Bohu and the other scholars were naturally dissatisfied, and Tang Bohu, who had already expected that the civil officials would protect Lu Zhaoji, shouted loudly: "You can't be sentenced like this!" The judgment of the Lord of the Criminal Department is unfair, according to the law, embezzlers, especially those who are greedy like Lu Zhaoji, should be stripped of their skins and grass! ”

"Yes, peel the grass! This is the question left by Taizu, and it cannot be changed! The people shouted.

Xu Hao didn't know what to do when he saw this, he was the secretary of the Criminal Department, so naturally he couldn't beat these people out like the local government, he personally came to interrogate Lu Zhaoji today, and said that his Criminal Department attached great importance to public opinion, but he didn't expect that these people were still dissatisfied, and they had to deal with Lu Zhaoji's sale of official titles in accordance with the law.

"When did the people begin to pay attention to the law of the Ming Dynasty! This, this, how can this be good? ”

Xu Hao thought to himself.

The other civil officials watched the people passionately ask Lu Zhaoji to peel the skin and grass, and they also fell into a moment of astonishment, not knowing how to respond.

Ma Yongcheng from Dongchang just smiled secretly, thinking that it had always been the civil officials who used public opinion to persecute His Majesty and deal with his own ministers, but now he didn't expect that the civil officials themselves would be threatened by public opinion.

Xu Hao didn't expect that the people were not satisfied with their sentence to Lu Zhaoji, thinking that he could arrest Lu Zhaoji for you mobs, what else did you mobs want.

Although Xu Hao was very disgusted by the people's behavior of asking him to re-pronounce the verdict, he did not dare to express his position directly, only said: "This official is only the first judgment, and it will be judged by Dali Temple at that time. ”

Xu Hao announced his withdrawal after speaking.

The people were obviously very dissatisfied, and after being driven out by the officials, they continued to shout, demanding that the court deal with Lu Zhaoji according to the law.

Lu Zhaoji has remained silent, he is really worried that the imperial court will obey the will of the people and skin himself, he really hopes that the imperial court can convict according to the verdict of Xu Hao, the secretary of the Criminal Department.

The civil officials of Dali Temple did not want to embarrass Lu Zhaoji, so they also passed the judgment of Xu Hao.

However, when the Zhengqing of Dali Temple was about to send the results of the trial into the palace, the surging people had blocked the main gate of Dali Temple again.

After Zhu Houzhao learned about it, he issued an edict: "The will of the people cannot be violated!" Dispose of it according to the law! ”

"The will of the people cannot be violated, and the will of the people cannot be violated, and this official will one day hate the public opinion of the world so much!"

Dali Temple Zhengqing Wan Jianchio couldn't help but reject the trial result of Xu Hao, the secretary of the Criminal Department, and complained.

"What else can I do, the people's feelings are difficult to disobey, Your Majesty has issued an edict, re-convicted, sentenced Lu Zhaoji to peel the skin and grass, have no family property, and exile his family to Liaodong!"

Xu Hao, the secretary of the Criminal Department, also replied, and immediately ordered the officials of the Criminal Department to redraw the verdict, and Dali Temple had to pass the trial, and then the emperor also approved it.

When Lu Zhaoji knew from Xu Hao, the secretary of the Criminal Department, that he was going to be skinned and grassed, he shouted directly: "Why, why is this!" Why should the old man be skinned and grassed! ”

"It's hard to disobey the will of the people!" Xu Hao only said this.

Lu Zhaoji sat down dejectedly and said with a wry smile: "Public opinion, when did public opinion become even more terrible than the king?" No, it's not that public opinion is terrible, it's Your Majesty who is terrible, it's Your Majesty who manipulates public opinion, it's Your Majesty who is dealing with me, why is Your Majesty dealing with me like this, what have I done......"

Lu Zhaoji suddenly realized when he thought about it, and hurriedly cried and shouted: "Your Majesty, the minister is wrong, the minister is wrong!" The minister is guilty, the minister should not slander you and the queen, woo! ”

But it's too late for Lu Zhaoji to regret now, and Zhu Houzhao can't hear it, but after he was escorted to the execution ground, Zhu Houzhao only gained the hearts of the people and a lot of wealth.