Li Ke's eyes lit up, although he was not proficient in criminal law, but under the influence of Li Zhi, the emperor's younger brother who attached great importance to the formulation of laws, he also studied criminal law from time to time. Therefore, there is still a certain understanding of criminal law.

He knew that there was such a provision in the Tang Law: "That is, the master and slave kill each other, and the master asks for forgiveness, listen to the reduction of death." That is to say, if the master's servant kills another slave of his master, if the master asks the yamen to exempt the slave from the death penalty, the death can be reduced by one degree.

The Tang Law stipulates: "Only two deaths and three first-rate punishments are each reduced by one", which means that the reduction of the death penalty and exile is the reduction of the type of punishment, not the reduction of the internal level of the type of punishment. That is to say, the death penalty originally had two classes: "beheading" and "hanging", and if the slave should be sentenced to "beheading" and reduced by one degree, then it would not be reduced to hanging, but directly reduced to 3,000 li in exile. This is the commutation of the sentence.

Therefore, as long as there is evidence to prove that Yan Erlang's master had such a request at that time, then the yamen should reduce the punishment and change the sentence to exile, so as to realize Yan Erlang's mother's request to be exempted from the death penalty, and she followed her youngest son to live together in the penal camp. According to the provisions of the Tang Law, if an elder is willing to follow a person sentenced to exile to live in a penal colony, he or she may be allowed to go through the formalities of transferring his or her household registration. Therefore, the old lady's request was satisfied.

Now the key is the evidence, Li Ke said slowly: "Yan Erlang's master asked not to sentence the murderous Yan Erlang to death, is the evidence sufficient?" ”

"The evidence is here, please take a look at it."

Xiao Jiading handed all the testimonies to Li Ke. Li Ke looked at it, nodded and said, "Very good." What do the families of the deceased have to say? ”

"They have made it clear that they will obey the sentence of the yamen, and even if they do not impose the death penalty, they will not cry out for injustice. A letter of guarantee was also written. It's all inside. ”

Li Ke showed a smile on his face, he knew that to do this, it would take some effort and even a price, and said, "You did a good job!" You draft the verdict tonight, and this king will go to court tomorrow to conclude the trial. ”

The next morning.

Li Ke, the king of Shu, was promoted to the court to try the case, and the scribes he brought with him had already changed the verdict on the spot with confidence in the case of the re-examination of the prisoners. All have been reported to him. He had to spend the morning in court to question the case and make a reversal of the verdict on the spot.

The case of Yan Erlang killing the slave of the same master undertaken by Xiao Jiading is also among them. Yan Erlang's mother had already received news from the princess about the prisoner, so she had rushed back. I was also waiting outside the lobby on this day. When she heard that the king of Shu was shocked and sentenced her son Yan Erlang to 3,000 miles in exile, Yan Erlang's old mother cried with joy and knelt under the platform in the lobby. Kowtow and thank Lord Qingtian. Yan Erlang couldn't imagine that he could escape death. also cried a lot, and when he was escorted out, he hugged his mother and cried.

At noon, Lu Chao's wife came with the child, and Xiao Jiading packed his five copper coins into a small box and gave it to her. She had already known the verdict, and now she had another sum of money. Earlier, he made a promise not to cry out for injustice, so naturally he didn't say anything more.

Case closed. According to the suggestion in Xiao Jiading's judgment, Li Ke, the king of Shu, ordered the county order of Jiulong County to arrest and sentence Yan Dalang, the eldest son who refused to support his old mother, and divided half of his family property as the cost of supporting the old man to his mother.

This is the order of the prince of Shu, where did the county order of Jiulong County dare to delay a little, and quickly arrested Yan Dalang, according to the provisions of Tang Law: "Parents are here, other nationality, different wealth, three years in prison", for the crime of unfilial piety, sentenced to three years in prison, and distributed half of the family property to the old mother as alimony.

Yan Dalang regretted it, and cried in the lobby that he agreed to support his old mother and not sentence him to prison and divide his family property, but the county order ignored it.

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After the recording of prisoners in the two counties of Yizhou was completed, the group entered the neighboring Wan'an County of Jinzhou to carry out the recording of prisoners.

Liu County's order of the county government had been notified in advance, and he took the officials of the yamen out of the city to greet him, and then sent someone to accompany him to record prisoners in accordance with the regulations. The procedures are all pretty much the same.

In this county, Xiao Jiading has another case assigned by the princess to handle. From the perspective of modern people, this case is simply a big surprise. The case is an adultery case, and the two parties to the crime turned out to be husband and wife!

The incident happened very dramatically, before the woman got married, it turned out to be a nun from the Baihean Temple in Wan'an County, and her legal name was Tonghui. Later, he married a man in the same village and had children. As a result, once he was drunk, and the man inadvertently told how he hooked up with his wife, who was a nun at the time. He has liked this female Ni Tonghui very much since he was a child, and after Tonghui became a monk, he was very sad, but he did not give up, and often found opportunities to meet her in the temple and express his heart. At first, Tonghui ignored him, but after a long time, Tonghui was moved by his true feelings, and finally had an affair with him. The most vulgar married him.

Tonghui's husband said this, but he didn't expect it to reach the ears of a villager who had a grudge against him, and the villager went to the yamen to denounce it. As a result, the yamen arrested Tonghui and his husband for interrogation, and both confessed. Because they were unmarried fornicators, and when they fornicated, this Tonghui was still a monk, and according to the provisions of the Tang Law, if a monk commits adultery, he must be added to the second degree according to the crime of adultery committed by ordinary people. Even if a monk commits adultery during the ordination period, and the case is not reported until after the ordination, it must still be dealt with according to the status of the monk. And it can't be atonerated by accusatory. As a result, the county government sentenced Tonghui's husband to one and a half years in prison, and sentenced Tonghui to two and a half years in prison with a heavy punishment!

This case spread in the circle of monks, and the result reached the ears of the abbot of Shaocheng Temple in Yizhou. At the last poetry meeting, the abbot was also troubled, so he told Princess Yang about this matter as a joke. When the princess heard this, she was very angry, and said that the monks did not look like monks, and that this was too cheap for them to deal with, and that they should be punished severely, at least to sentence the nun to exile and exile her to a place of smoke and miasma thousands of miles away. But this case was judged in accordance with the criminal law, and there was no error in the judgment itself, so Princess Yang explained the matter of severely punishing the female Ni Tonghui to Xiao Jiading. Let Xiao Jiading find a way to realize his ideas.

Xiao Jiading has always been distressed about this matter. In the eyes of ancient people, unmarried adultery was a crime, but in the eyes of Xiao Jiading, a modern person, it was just an attitude to life, and it couldn't even talk about moral issues. Even if the woman is a monk, the monk has the right to choose happiness, since she did not keep the green lantern ancient Buddha and fornicated with her sweetheart, it means that her fate is not over, and let her marry a layman. And that's actually what it does. Of course, she should be punished for tarnishing the innocence of the temple, in Xiao Jiading's view, this is at most limited to moral condemnation, and it is not at the level of punishment, now that they have been sentenced to two and a half years in prison, it is already very heavy, and it will be too much to increase to exile and make her suffer for the rest of her life.

But the princess's opinion could not be ignored, but he was unwilling to act according to the princess's opinion. Thinking about it, there is only one way, that is, to investigate in-depth and see if there are any other crimes worthy of exile in this former nun Tonghui, and if so, then punish according to the new crimes discovered, and the princess's request can be fulfilled.

How could a nun commit a crime that could be punished with such a severe penalty as exile? Xiao Jiading is not optimistic about this, he is doing his best, and there is no way to do it. After all, there was nothing wrong with the original verdict.

Xiao Jiading came to the prison and interrogated the female Ni Tonghui.

Tonghui didn't know that the handsome guy in front of him was here to find fault and exile her. He looked at him with a flattering smile.

Xiao Jiading asked them about adultery, and Tonghui answered truthfully. It's the same as it says in the verdict in the case file. Nothing is different. Xiao Jiading asked again: "Have you done any other bad things?" If there is, say it, confessing leniently, resisting strictly, is the ...... of our government, cough cough, it is our Tang Dynasty Wangfa's consistent policy...... Ahem, it's always been a rule! If you confess honestly, we will punish you lightly, if you refuse to confess and want to get away with it, when we find out, we will be severely punished! Did you hear me clearly? ”

"Listen ......, hear clearly......" Tonghui was frightened by Xiao Jiading's words that he didn't understand and trembled.

"Now that you hear it clearly, it's good, then you can confess, what other crimes do you have?"

"Nope!" Tonghui looked at Xiao Jiading stupidly, "I have no other crimes, that's all." I've got you covered. ”

Xiao Jiading naturally didn't expect to explain to her as soon as he asked, so he asked, "When did you become a monk?" Where to become a monk? ”

Xiao Jiading talked to her about this, just to see if there was anything to be found.

Tonghui naturally didn't know what he meant, and replied honestly: "Monk in Baihe'an in this county." When I was sixteen. ”

"Who are you in the temple? Do you know if they have done anything that violates the royal law? Xiao Jiading wanted to ask them about the crimes of others in the temple to see if there was anything related to her.

Tonghui counted them on his fingers, and told them all the people in the temple one by one. Then he said: "The sisters in our temple are very disciplined and never do anything bad, but after hearing that I am still vulgar, a nun named Tongyun came to our temple, and she is not a good thing, and soon after she came, she killed her own aunt!" Fortunately, I'm already vulgar, or I'll be affected by her! ”

"Oh? Kill her aunt? For what? ”

"I don't know, but I heard that it wasn't a big deal, so she hacked her aunt to death with a knife. She was on death row. You can go and ask her yourself. ”

Xiao Jiading is not interested in taking care of these idle things, he can't be busy with his own affairs. Since this person arrived at the temple after returning to the world, it has nothing to do with her, and it is useless to ask. Xiao Jiading changed the topic and asked her about the temple. But it can be seen that this Tonghui is an honest village woman, she has no scheming, she will answer whatever Xiao Jiading asks, and not even one of the things she answers is illegal. (To be continued......)