After a morning of surprise interrogation, Liu Yuming, the county magistrate, and Yu Shijie, the chief bookkeeper, basically confessed their crimes. They personally admitted that during their seven or eight years in office in Jingyang County, they actually relied on corruption and oppression, and each of them drew tens of thousands of taels of silver. In contrast, Jingyang County's annual payment to the household department is only a few thousand taels of silver.

As for those things that are corrupt and pervert the law, there are even more innumerable. These few people are in charge of a county prison, and they take all the big and small things against the original defendants in the lawsuit, and whoever gives more money will favor whoever else is biased, and they have to accept bribes or extort money dozens of times a year, and it is impossible to find out at all for a while.

And the classic history Chen Lei and Bantou Longsi have committed more crimes. But the two men are still unconscious and unable to stand trial. And the scribes and servants under their command together numbered about 200 people, and almost none of them were clean.

Seeing that the case was complicated, Sun Chuanting instructed the officials to take a prisoner into prison and leave it for detailed trial in the future.

The people of Jingyang County had been listening to the interrogation outside the lobby, and at this time they were all indignant and raised their arms and shouted: "Kill these corrupt officials!" Kill these doglegs! ”

Some people who were even more anxious wanted to rush to the court to beat Liu Yuming and others. Sun Chuanting hurriedly ordered the officials to line up a wall of people to keep these people out, and at the same time shouted loudly: "The court has its own laws, and you must not abuse lynching, otherwise it will also be a crime!" ”

Only then did the people stop stupidly, but they still refused to disperse, and gathered outside the gate of the county government to look around.

Seeing this, Zhu Youzhen said to Sun Chuanting: "The crimes of Liu Yuming and others are enough for them to die a hundred times. Now that they have confessed, why not kill them on the spot to anger the civilians? ”

Sun Chuanting smiled bitterly and whispered, "Your Highness, it's not that simple!" I'm afraid that a few of them won't die! ”

"Won't it?" Zhu Youzhen said in surprise, "I embezzled so much silver, and I wanted to kill people and kill people, and I confessed again, can't I die?" ”

"Your Highness doesn't know." Sun Chuanting said slowly, "Judging from the crimes alone, these people are indeed not enough to die for their crimes. However, according to the "Da Ming Law", the prefect can only try cases and adjudicate ordinary cases, and has no right to punish the perpetrators who have committed capital crimes, and must report to the prefect, who will review them again.

"After the review, it will be reported to the governor, who will then report it to the criminal department. All those involving officials and major cases must also be tried by the three legal divisions of the Criminal Department, Dali Temple, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate. After the trial, a sentencing recommendation is drawn up, and then it is forwarded to the Holy Lord through the Cabinet, and the Holy Lord will read it and decide in his own hand. After the decision, it will be sent back to the county layer by layer. Unless it is a heinous crime such as rebellion, it will not be able to be executed until after the autumn. ”

"Okay, okay, I got it!" Zhu Youzhen listened loudly, "Then we have to wait?" If the prefect drags on for a few days, the governor drags on for a few more days, and when he arrives at the Criminal Department, he will press it for another ten days and a half months, and when he returns to us, these fattening will be fattened! ”

"Procrastination, this is also an old problem of officialdom. Even if the case is conclusive, it is common for it to drag on for a year and a half, and there are even prisoners who have dragged on for several years or more than ten years, and the prisoners have died of old age in prison! Sun Chuanting said worriedly, "But the delay is still secondary, and the minister is worried that the case will be repeated!" ”

"This is all an iron case, how can it be repeated?" Zhu Youzhen was puzzled.

Sun Chuanting shook his head and said, "As long as the trial is reported, the families of the prisoners will have time to operate. In particular, officials who have committed crimes have been officials for many years, and there are always some inextricable connections in the officialdom. At any link of the report at all levels, they have the opportunity to break through the joints, complain about the grievances of the criminals, and even completely overturn the case. Don't look at the fact that they are signing and drawing the charge now, but when it comes to the retrial, they will definitely say that they are tortured; It is not uncommon to take a bite back and finally knock the judge down. ”

"What then?" Zhu Youzhen's eyebrows were twisted into pimples, "Don't we have a better way?" ”

Sun Chuanting also said helplessly: "As an official of the imperial court, the minister can only act according to the law. However, those corrupt officials have more connections and financial resources than the common people, and can use laws and procedures to protect themselves. This is what is often discussed in the rivers and lakes, 'the law is only for the people'. ”

After leaving the hall, Zhu Youzhen still sat in the hall with a sad face and thought about his thoughts. He thought that he could bring these corrupt officials to justice, but he didn't expect that there would be so much trouble in the future. Knowing this, it was better to let Qin Wangwei take action and do these pieces of material unconsciously! However, it is illegal to do so, and it seems a bit unreasonable to use illegal means to uphold justice.

But he thought about it again, what is the law for? The law is to uphold fairness and justice! If it doesn't play a role in maintaining fairness and justice, what kind of so-called procedures are there to us? Besides, this "Da Ming Law" is not a good law at all, and there are more unreasonable places in it.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen already had a plan in his heart, so he nodded and called Pang Jian, the head of the Zhuang class, and whispered a few words to him.

Pang Jian was an honest man, and when he heard this, he suddenly made a mistake: "Master You, this... Can this be done? ”

"This is the master's order, you just do it!" Zhu Youzhen's face was not red, and his heart was not beating.

"Okay! In fact, the villain has wanted to do this for a long time! Pang Jian left happily in a hurry.

said that Liu Yuming was arrested, and the Liu Mansion was in chaos early in the morning. Some of the family members and servants were afraid of being implicated, so they had already rolled up and left, and it was really a bit of a feeling that they were flying separately when a big disaster was coming.

The eldest grandmother Wang was still calm, and sent a more loyal family member to the county government to inquire about the news. After learning the news that Liu Yuming had confessed and was now imprisoned, Wang first cried bitterly, and then called the fifth aunt to scold him, and complained vigorously that his younger brother Long Si had harmed the master. The fifth aunt was so frightened that she couldn't speak, and she was left crying.

"You slut shut up, get out as far as you want!" After the Wang family drove the fifth aunt away, he thought about it nervously, and immediately called a few confidants and family members, and hurriedly ordered: "The master is in trouble, we have to find a way to rescue him immediately." Wang San, you are the old man I brought from my mother's house, and you are the most reliable in handling things. You immediately go to Xi'an to find your uncle, he is the general judge of Xi'an Prefecture, and he is in charge of the affairs of a prison. Send 5,000 taels of silver from the account room together, so that the eldest uncle must press the case down first! ”

"Liu Qi, you are from your hometown Tangyin, Henan with the master, now immediately check the valuables in the house, load the car and send it back to Tangyin, and then bring a few young masters and young ladies! It must be fast, if it is slow, it will be too late! ”

"Zhao Si, you take care of the account room, gather all the money in the house, and those who are put outside to eat interest will be taken back immediately, and they will be stored in the master's outer house!"

After these people took the order and left, the Wang family whispered to the remaining people: "Old Ma, you will also send the old man's aunts and wives out of the city." That fifth aunt, find a way to kill her! The bad thing is bad for this sassy hoof! No one else can do this, only you can do it, you can take the silver ticket of the 1,000 taels of Baofeng first, and there will be benefits afterwards! ”

Lao Ma smiled happily, and as soon as he took the silver ticket, Wang San and the others returned in a panic. Wang was startled, and said, "How did you minions do it, when something happened to the master, did you all get numb?" Didn't I already tell me what to do? ”

"Grandma, sir... Dead! A few people stammered.

"What!" Wang was struck by lightning and said in disbelief, "Didn't you still see the master in the county office at noon?" He didn't suffer the punishment, so how could he die? Don't hear me wrong! ”

"It's not wrong, everyone is carrying it back!"

"Whew!" Wang let out a miserable howl, stumbled to the front yard, and saw more than a dozen officials standing in the courtyard, the first of whom was young, dressed as a scribe, and was looking at him gloatingly.

And on the ground was a stretcher parked with a broken straw mat. Wang rushed over and lifted the straw mat to take a look, and saw that it was indeed her husband Liu Yuming, but at this time it was already a cold corpse.

Wang howled and cried bitterly for a while, suddenly raised his head, looked at the young man resentfully, and gritted his teeth and said, "You are that Master You!" Even if the lord is guilty, he has to report it to the court, why are you so ruthless and kill the lord! ”

"Madam, don't talk nonsense." Zhu Youzhen, who pretended to be the master, said seriously, "Liu Xiancheng was not killed by anyone, he died in an accident!" ”

"What accident?" Seeing that Liu Yuming's corpse had no obvious scars, Wang also asked in surprise.

"Liu Xiancheng just told the jailer that he wanted to wash his face, and the jailer gave him a basin of clean water." Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but laugh, "As a result, in a blink of an eye, he drowned in the basin!" In other words, Liu Xiancheng washed his face and died, which is also the first person in ancient and modern times! ”

"You, you, you..." Wang knew that it was the jailer who killed Liu Yuming, but he was so angry that he rolled his eyes because he had no evidence!

"This is not unusual, Yu Zhu's death is even more strange!" Zhu Youzhen couldn't hold it back, and finally laughed and said, "A very big person has no heart to retreat, and he has to play hide and seek when he is out of the wind, but he hit the corner blindfolded and was angry on the spot." When you get home, remind the children that peek-a-boo is dangerous and can sometimes be fatal! ”

In the laughter of everyone, the Wang family finally became angry, pointed at Zhu Youzhen's nose and scolded: "You evil slaves who know the county, dare to kill the court officials!" Let me tell you, my brother is the general judge of Xi'an Prefecture, and the case will have to be presented to him sooner or later! When the time comes, you will wait for the lawsuit and pay for the master's life! ”

"That's not in a hurry, I'll talk about it when I get to him." Zhu Youzhen put away his smile and said with a sinking face, "Now we have to carry out official business." Come on, the Liu Mansion will be sealed, all the property will be confiscated, and the family members will be seized for the time being, and none of them can be let go! ”