Chapter 203: Justice
There is a saying that "it is difficult for a clean official to decide family affairs", for Xiao Mu, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, this "witch Gu incident" is a pure family matter, Xiaohong, the palace maid who was caught accusing of "using witch Gu", and the two eunuchs who arrested people can all be counted as Xiao Mu's "family members" of the emperor, but Xiao Mu's family, that is, the scale of the entire imperial city is really huge, probably tens of thousands of people. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
Therefore, because Xiao Muzhang's family is too huge, and Xiao Mu is not a clean official in the first place, Xiao Mu really can't be interested in dealing with this kind of "housework".
What's more, Xiao Mu's original purpose this time was to see what the ancient "Witch Gu" was like, but now that the Witch Gu has not been seen, Xiao Mu is not too interested in other things.
Especially now in this situation, it will definitely be more troublesome for Xiao Mu to deal with - although the facts seem to be obvious, the words of the palace maid Xiaohong are almost certainly true, and the search with the Huanyi Bureau found that the two eunuchs surnamed Li and surnamed Zhao who found this so-called "witch Gu" are nine times out of ten false.
But even with such a well-known fact, it is quite difficult to prove, Xiao Mu simply thought about it and found this.
Because just by observing with the naked eye, it can be proved that this witch Gu is a rag doll or something, so the palace maid Xiaohong is innocent, this is easy to determine, and it can also be heard from the tone of the two eunuchs that the two of them no longer dare to call this puppet a witch Gu, but replace it with "this thing", which shows that even the people who discovered this thing themselves no longer insist that the palace maid Xiaohong is guilty - they also know how to observe words and colors, After seeing that the emperor and the queen mother were all unimpressed with this puppet, of course they didn't dare to insist that this was a witch Gu, after all, now they themselves are a little bit of their own insecurity, and at this time, if they disobey the emperor's will, of course, they will die faster.
It is easy to judge whether the palace maid Xiaohong is guilty or not, and the main thing that is difficult to determine now is whether the two eunuchs surnamed Li and surnamed Zhao have ever asked for bribes from this palace maid Xiaohong. In Xiao Mu's opinion, there was no way to judge, after all, the two eunuchs not only did not take the initiative to confess that they asked for bribes, but also tried their best to defend this matter, denying the accusation that the palace maid Xiaohong had asked for bribes for them.
Although Xiao Mu also felt that the justification of the two of them had no value in believing at all, since the two of them insisted that they had not asked for bribes, and wanted to convict the two of them, they needed to come up with strong evidence, otherwise, they would appear to be unfair enough, and there was a suspicion of "believing her words when they saw that palace maid was beautiful".
But after Xiao Mu thought about it, he found that it was difficult to find evidence to prove that the two eunuchs had asked for bribes from the red girl Xiaohong, after all, the palace maid Xiaohong had no money, and in the end she did not give them bribes, so she was arrested, in this case, there was no undocumented - because the fact of bribery was not formed. On the other hand, Xiao Mu could also think with his feet that of course the two eunuchs could not have done it with great fanfare when they asked for bribes, and they must have hinted to the palace maid Xiaohong quietly, so it was also very difficult to find the relevant witnesses present.
In the absence of sufficient evidence, Xiao Mu's side has no way to directly punish the two eunuchs who directly participated in the search - in Xiao Mu's view, it is the most important thing to deal with this matter fairly and maintain the reputation of Emperor Chongzhen, or in other words, in any case, maintaining the good reputation of Emperor Chongzhen will always be the first priority for Xiao Mu.
Of course, in fact, this kind of trivial matter between a palace maid and two eunuchs in the palace, no matter how Xiao Mu, the emperor, deals with it, no one will make irresponsible comments, and it will not affect Emperor Chongzhen's reputation in later generations at all. After all, if such a small thing as a sesame seed has to be recorded, then the historians of the Ming Dynasty have long been exhausted, the Ming Dynasty has been founded for more than 200 years, and has gone through more than a dozen emperors, all recorded in this way, their actual records are not piled up into a mountain, and they can't be loaded with trucks, and they have to use train wagons?
In fact, Xiao Mu has so many worries mainly because he has been influenced by the modern higher education of later generations, after all, Xiao Mu lived in the legal society of later generations. So in Xiao Mu's view, the most important thing in the verdict is, of course, the evidence, if there is no evidence, no matter how suspicious the two eunuchs are, no matter how much they don't believe their words, they can't be convicted casually, even if he is the emperor, no one dares to say anything about it, but Xiao Mu still can't pass the barrier in his heart.
But although this is the case, it does not mean that Xiao Mu has no other way, because the two eunuchs asked for bribes are too obvious, any person with normal intelligence can see that Xiao Mu can't let the two of them go for nothing, because if they really asked for bribes, then they must have done similar things before, as long as they investigate carefully, they will definitely be able to find out, in terms of the ability of Daming Dongchang in this regard, just two ordinary eunuchs, It's not hard to get to the bottom of them.
Therefore, Xiao Mu did not intend to make a judgment immediately on whether these two eunuchs asked for bribes, but decided to continue to investigate, so that not only could he find sufficient evidence, but also very likely to dig out the deeds they had done before. Dealing with it like this, no one will definitely think that he is acting unfairly, and it will not have any bad impact on Emperor Chongzhen's reputation - it is still the same sentence, even if Xiao Mu does not do this, it will not have any effect.
And there is another point, as for Xiao Mu's worries that others will think that "I believe her words because I saw that palace maid is good-looking", such a thing is really not unreasonable. Although the original inhabitants of the Ming Dynasty would not have such a "great rebellion" idea, after all, there is still such an outlier sitting beside him, and this person is of course Lin Yi. Xiao Mu was 100% sure that if he had cured the two eunuchs without sufficient evidence, he would definitely be ridiculed by Lin Ye, saying that he was confused by the pitiful appearance of the palace maid - whether it was a joke or a real thing, Lin Ye would definitely say it.