The prisoner was only recorded for a month, so the time was very tight. Of course, Li Ke's main purpose in going to record prisoners was to understand the situation, gather together possible unjust, false and wrongly decided cases, and hand them over to the scribes who accompanied him to record the prisoners. Then the results were reported to him, and he was promoted to the court to question the case and make a verdict.

In the Tang Dynasty, a system of recording prisoners had already been formed, and this kind of reversal of prisoners had legal effect, which was equivalent to the arraignment of the current trial supervision procedure, and had the effect of a final judgment.

In this way, the number of people who accompanied Li Ke to the trial was naturally indispensable. However, scribes and officials from the states and counties where they were admitted were not allowed to attend and were only summoned for questioning when needed. This time, Shaocheng County was not in the scope of key prisoners, and with Tang Lin's strong recommendation, Xiao Jiading justifiably entered Li Ke's prisoner clerk group. Tang Lin, as the Sima in charge of justice in Yizhou, was also the former secretary of the Criminal Department, so Li Ke also asked him to accompany him to record the prisoner.

The first stop of the prisoner recording was Jiulong County under Yizhou.

Before going down, Princess Yang called Xiao Jiading and had something to explain to him.

Princess Yang's amount of alcohol and arrogance made Xiao Jiading very admired and admired, last time he was going to get drunk and rest, but unfortunately later there was a suicide of Geng San's grandmother in fear of sin, and the result was unhappy, now he wants to summon himself, Xiao Jiading originally thought that he was going to accompany him to drink and continue the last wine fight. I didn't expect that after I went, there was no banquet.

Princess Yang summoned him from a gazebo in the back garden of the palace, and there was no one else except for Princess Yang's two personal maids. Moreover, the two maids were standing far away from the gazebo. Not in the near future. Xiao Jiading knew that Princess Yang must have something to explain to herself. After seeing the salute, he didn't say much, stood with his hands down, and waited for Princess Yang to speak.

On the stone table in front of Princess Yang, there was a stack of forms, she patted them lightly, and said: "These forms have been received by myself in the past year and sent to me through various channels, and a considerable number of them have come to the door of my palace many times to shout grievances. I looked pitiful and took it myself. But after it was handed over to the prince. The prince read it, left some of it, and examined it when he was imprisoned. And the rest, he said there was no way. - He can't help it. That's because he's a prince. Some things are not easy to do. I heard that you are very proficient in criminal law and flexible in handling things, so. I'll hand these over to you, and when you accompany the prince to record the prisoner, you can see if there is a way to deal with it. But don't force it. All right? ”

The princess spoke to Xiao Jiading in a consultative tone, which made Xiao Jiading a little flattered, and hurriedly bowed down and said: "I must carefully review it in the future, as long as it is not handled in accordance with the law, it must be corrected." ”

The princess smiled: "What is the law?" The Fa was only the thoughts of the people in the world at that time, so these thoughts must be right? Some criminal laws provide for the death penalty, and that is also the thinking of those who participated in the legislation, and as time passes, he himself may change this idea, or prove that their thinking at that time is unreasonable. Therefore, there is a matter of heavy sentences for misdemeanors and light sentences for serious crimes. Therefore, the law should be flexible and not rigidly followed. ”

As soon as he heard this, Xiao Jiading was immediately very surprised, he glanced at the princess, and he couldn't imagine that the princess had a deep understanding of the essence of the law in addition to drinking and poetry. She is right, to use Max's assertion about law, law is a tool for the ruling class to rule, as long as it is in the interests of the rulers, and the interests of the rulers will be elevated to law through legislation and enforced. At the same time, in order to protect the interests of the ruler more flexibly, the ruler also imposed extrajudicial punishments. Therefore, what was laid down in the law of the time was not necessarily the truth.

To give a few simple examples: the eight-council system stipulated in the "Tang Law and Discussion", the emperor and his relatives and other eight kinds of people can be punished lightly for crimes, even if they commit capital crimes, they can also be discussed in the court and reported to the emperor to avoid death. Another example is the official system, which is also based on the system of being an official as an apprentice and an official as a stream, an official can use his official position to deduct the sentence for committing a crime, and if he is more than nine or less than six grades, an official position can be sentenced to one year, and if he is above five or less grades, an official position can be sentenced to two years in prison; If it is a public crime, the sentence is more deductible. Where officials commit crimes that warrant a sentence of exile, they are to be converted into four years imprisonment and offset by their official position. If the lack of official position is not enough to offset it, it can also be atonement for the crime with money according to the number of years of imprisonment.

In other words, if an official commits a crime, the punishment can be reduced by official position or money. Such a law, if it is placed in modern society, let alone legislation, even if someone says so, they will be drowned by spitting stars.

There are similar examples in modern society, such as the custody system and the labor re-education system, which were considered by the vast majority of people to be the right thing at the beginning of the legislation, but now they have been abolished, which means that the legislator and legislative thinking have changed. Isn't there a thesis in the modern legal profession that "evil laws are illegal"? What is the Evil Law? The so-called evil law only becomes a bad law only after the times have developed and time has passed, and some laws no longer conform to the thinking of those who came after them, and the argument that the detention system and the re-education through labor system was a bad law from the beginning of its formulation is not in itself a historical materialist attitude. Looking back at these provisions of the "Tang Law and Discussion" now, modern people think it is ridiculous, a typical evil law, but at that time, no one questioned it, and it was taken for granted, and it continued to be used for more than a thousand years. INTERVIEWER How many laws can be used for more than 1,000 years?

Xiao Jiading looked at the princess with reverence and said, "Since the law should be flexibly mastered, what is the standard?" ”

"Ceremony!" The princess said slowly: "Etiquette is the royal way." If etiquette and law cannot be taken into account, etiquette should be given priority. ”

This is an orthodox legal thought, and it is also an idea recognized by ancient Chinese legal people for thousands of years. When the law is incompatible with etiquette, etiquette comes first. For example, in the Han Dynasty, there was a case where A had no son and chose an abandoned baby as his adopted son, and later when the adopted son grew up and killed someone, A hid him. The law of the Han Dynasty was to punish heavy sentences for hiding criminals, but Dong Zhongshu quoted the father and son in the "Spring and Autumn Period" to commit crimes, and if they could hide from each other, he did not sentence the father for his crime. This precedent has become one of the bases for the formulation of the system of mutual concealment of relatives in the "Tang Law and Discussion".

However, the princess's words are very principled, but the case she asked Xiao Jiading to deal with is very specific, and in specific cases, it is not so easy to grasp the relationship between law and etiquette. If you don't do it, it's an illegal case!

What's more, for Xiao Jiading, a current legal person who has crossed over 1,400 years later, the etiquette in his heart is not the general ethics of the ancient feudal etiquette and religious system, but the values of the current society. Many of these two are incompatible, or even diametrically opposed, such as unmarried cohabitation, in today's social thought, this kind of thing is not even a moral issue, but in ancient times, it was against ethics and belonged to a kind of adultery. to be punished. Another example is that many current civil disputes had to be dealt with by criminal means in ancient times, such as unjust enrichment, and in ancient times, it was necessary to fight the board.

Therefore, for Xiao Jiading, he still has to face a problem, that is, how to take into account the values of modern society that have become a mindset while taking care of feudal etiquette.

Thinking of this, Xiao Jiading felt that his head was big, and he knew that these cases in front of him, since even the prince felt that it was tricky, it would not be an easy thing, and it really took a lot of brains.

Seeing that he was silent, the princess guessed his thoughts and concerns, and said gently: "Although you can do it with confidence, I will carry it for you if there is anything." ”

With the princess's words, a stone in Xiao Jiading's heart was put down. Judging from the performance of Li Ke, the king of Shu at the poetry meeting, Li Ke is very fond of this princess, so the princess's words are a Shangfang sword, at least in the Yizhou territory.

Moreover, these are the tasks assigned by the princess, and she has already spoken to this point, what else does Xiao Jiading have to say? He could only bow down and receive the order, and it was impossible for him to refuse.

Xiao Jiading stepped forward and arched his hand: "I will do my best to do it in the future." Please rest assured, Princess. ”

Only then did the princess smile and nodded: "Hmm! I heard the prince say that Grandma Geng San committed suicide by jumping off the tower, do you think she is protecting the real mastermind behind her, right? ”

"Yes."

"Did you find the person in the back?"

"No, because Grandma Geng San is dead, the clue is broken, although they all suspect that Geng Changshi is behind the instructions, but there is no evidence. He is also a Shangguan, and I do not have the power or courage to arrest him for questioning. ”

The princess smiled and said, "I can give you some clues." ”

Xiao Jiading was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly said: "Thank you princess, princess, please speak!" ”

The princess stroked her hair that was blown by the breeze, and although there was no one around, she still lowered her voice and said, "I suspect that Princess Lu has an adulterous affair with a certain man, and the matchmaker is likely to be the Zhishui Shitai of Emei Mountain who was poisoned and killed in the prison!" But I just feel this way, and I haven't been able to get real evidence. ”

As soon as he heard this, Xiao Jiading's eyes suddenly lit up, and he immediately thought of some things. - Zhishui Shitai, who has been sentenced to death, was blackmailed by Geng San's grandmother with her son and forced her to take poison and commit suicide. At that time, I didn't know the reason for Lu Dao, but now combined with the news of the princess, I found a possible reason to kill Zhishui Shitai, that is, to cover up Princess Lu's adultery!

One of the evidences is that this happened after he told Geng Changshi that Zhishui Shitai had a close relationship with Princess Lu of Li Ke, the king of Shu. At that time, in order to see Geng Changshi talk about the serial rape and murder case, and Gu Justice wanted to steal the credit, so he found an excuse to say that there was an important secret matter to report to Geng Changshi in person, this was just an excuse, Gu Justice also knew the truth, but he deliberately made it bad to tell Geng Changshi. So in order to justify herself, she said that Zhishui Shitai showed off her close relationship with Princess Lu on Emei Mountain. (To be continued......)