There is no doubt that Isaac Newton saw the execution scene at the entrance of the official alley in Qiantang County,

It is the scene of the final general liquidation of the gangsters who defied the law and resisted the change of the law in the fourth year of the well-off, and the Ming Dynasty officially began to close the net.

Zhu Shuren passed the two white gloves of Yao Qisheng and Zhang Shipeng, Yao Qisheng sang white face, Zhang Shipeng sang red face, released water to raise fish to lure snakes out of the hole, and finally caught all the nets, and achieved very good results.

And Zhu Shuren asked himself, after all, he is a civilized person who came back in the 21st century, so there is no problem of "punishing without teaching" when he releases water to raise fish, because his scale is very good-

Even according to the laws of the 21st century, financial institutions still have a two-year "statute of limitations" after they find out that they have been deceived and infringed.

If you release water to raise fish for more than two years, it can be said that you will be punished for fishing law enforcement.

And the Ming Dynasty began to give loans to benefit farmers and annex land in the second year of the well-off to the autumn harvest of the net in the fourth year of the well-off, if it is counted from "knowing or probably knowing the fact of being infringed", it is definitely less than two years.

This is no problem according to the statute of limitations of the procedural law in the 21st century, and it is even more absolutely benevolent in the 17th century, which is more benevolent than Confucius's punishment of Shao Zhengmao.

With the closing of the net by the imperial court, those who are the most vicious elements will be dealt with strictly and severely after being caught with sufficient evidence. Other ordinary people who cannot repay the loan by fraud shall be exiled.

After all this is implemented, it is also necessary for the propaganda department of the imperial court to step up its efforts to publicize and make the momentum bigger, thus playing an immediate demonstration role, punishing the former and the latter, treating the sick and saving people, so that the latecomers can take it as a warning and know the court's ability to collect evidence and enforce it.

……

Newton and the captain are also quite rich people, and they don't want to crowd the streets directly to watch the excitement,

Captain Morton took out a silver coin, invited Newton to the teahouse on the corner, ordered some refreshments, and condescendingly looked at it and inquired—

The official alley of Qiantang County in the Ming Dynasty is basically equivalent to the oldest Xinhua bookstore on Jiefang Road in Hangzhou at the beginning of the 21st century.

Dr. Tea placed the pre-rain dragon well of the Longquan kiln in front of Captain Morton and Newton, and served a four-color snack.

Newton carefully picked up the tea set, which looked to sell for several pounds in England, and when he saw the yellow-green soup inside, he was a little frightened, and always thought that it looked like voodoo soup.

Captain Morton, who was obviously much more knowledgeable than he was, took a sip proudly, and then showed it in a tone that was literate for the countrymen: "Don't worry, the tea is originally green, and it is fermented across the ocean before it turns tan." ”

Newton took a sip: "The tea in London is much richer than this." ”

Captain Morton couldn't help but smile: "In Daming, tea is precious for lightness, and you have to be rich and bitter, the kind of leaves that can be cut with a scythe for a few pennies a pound." ”

Newton was shocked: "What? How many pennies a pound is the cheapest tea in Daming? Are you embarrassed to sell eight shillings in London? ”

Captain Morton spread his hands: "I don't need money for two years of sailing time, supplies, and risks?" It is already very conscientious to increase the price thirty times, and it is completely for God's sake. ”

The two talked a few words about tea and tea sets, and quickly brought the topic back to the execution. Newton sat on the second floor, and his vision was more comprehensive, and he finally saw the whole picture of the torture instrument in front of him, and he couldn't help but be amazed.

"Didn't those Ming people say that the first evil was sentenced to be cut in half? How could such a huge torture instrument be needed for execution? Does this look like a pulley guillotine that relies on its own gravity? Have you seen this before? Newton quickly analyzed the principle of the torture instrument, and deserved to be a future master of mechanics.

Captain Morton shrugged: "I haven't seen it seven years ago, just ask the tea seller - speaking of which, if you really plan to travel and study in Daming, you should study Chinese hard, and always count on me to translate." ”

"I've studied hard! I've been recognizing thousands of Chinese characters in the past nine months on board! I can also translate the meaning! I just haven't mastered spoken pronunciation yet! At stake in the dignity of the top student, Newton immediately pointed out the unreasonableness of the other party's malicious speculation.

In ancient times, Koreans and Fusang people learned Chinese in this way, first learning to read and write on paper, and then interpreting. Because there is a dictionary for words, but there is no gramophone for spoken language, there is no way to store standard pronunciations.

This situation is especially serious during the Song Dynasty Shenzong and Zhezong, where piles of Fusang monks and merchants came to Middle Earth, even if they knew Hanyin, they pretended not to, and then respectfully kowtowed to study and talked to Su Dongpo.

Su Dongpo was moved by the sincerity of the other party's learning, and he didn't suspect fraud, so he wrote a small note to reply. Who knew that those despicable Fusang people turned their heads and sent back to Fusang rubbing engraving. Even if it's just a sentence of "have you eaten", it must be framed as the treasure of the temple.

Today, Newton's hardships in learning Chinese are similar to those of those despicable Fuso.

Captain Morton didn't have the leisure to knock Newton's Chinese learning level again, and after he inquired with Dr. Tea in Chinese, he came to Newton to learn and sell again:

"I heard that this kind of torture instrument was just invented in the past two years, and it is said that the regent personally instructed the Academy of Sciences to make a benevolent and labor-saving execution tool for the Ministry of Punishment to use, in order to replace the traditional Ling Chi, waist beheading and beheading.

This guillotine uses a pulley to roll up the heavy blade and cut it directly by gravity, so there is no need to rely on the experience of the executioner-

It is said that it is because the Ming Dynasty is now good at political reasoning, far from the past, the number of prisoners executed every year has been greatly reduced, and the executioner's craft can no longer be maintained in various places. ”

It turned out that the torture instrument seen by this line of British was the guillotine that would be born one hundred and twenty years later. And the guillotine made by Zhu Shuren is in place in one step, and there are no detours-

The guillotine invented by Louis XVI at the beginning of history has a flat blade that is easy to get stuck in, and the reliability of a complete decapitation at once is not high. In the end, in the process of the French song, he often cut it at one time, and then he thought of improving it into a bevel blade.

In this way, when the heavy blade body is smashed down, the pressure can be increased, and it can be pulled from one side to the other one by one, cutting off the cervical vertebrae, and even used to cut it in the waist.

On the side of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Shuren ruled the country over the years, and the death penalty has decreased year by year, of course, it is also a great virtue policy, which is worthy of special mention - after all, according to the actual records of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin originally advertised himself as "the rule of Zhenguan", and an important indicator is that "during the Zhenguan period, the death penalty was the least in the year, and only more than 30 people were cut in the country."

The people of the Criminal Department and Dali Temple have also read history books, and they have not used this indicator to praise virtue over the years. As soon as the guillotine came out this time, it was even more regarded as ironclad evidence that "because there were too few death sentences, the executioner's craftsmanship was unfamiliar and not accepted", and it was hyped.

At the same time, in order to make full use of the products of this virtue and politics, even Ling Chi, which was handed down from the Song and Liao periods, was abolished, and it can be called a virtue and politics through the ages.

Of course, considering that there are still too many heinous crimes of rebellion and rebellion, in order to be able to converge, we can't span too much at once. The ordinary waist chop is a bit insufficient, so a multi-stage waist chop is temporarily added.

Previously, Ling Chi had at least eight slashes, and at most more than three thousand slashes. After changing to a guillotine slash, the heaviest and heaviest level is only eight slashes, and then there are five slashes, three slashes, and the most common one.

Newton and Captain Morton watched curiously for a moment, and the execution soon began.

One of the most serious prisoners today is the inventor of this round of Hangzhou Prefecture's pilot method of helping farmers to cheat loans, and he also organized and taught his own methods, and developed thousands of transferred peasant households who met the conditions for applying for loans to cash out, and made a large part of the price difference from the commission, which directly involved at least hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

What's more, even if this kind of scum is put in the future, it is also a "fraud financial institution", and the sentence is several levels heavier than that of ordinary fraud. What's more, now in the Ming Dynasty, he dared to defraud the direct lending of the Ming court, so he was finally sentenced to three cuts.

The executioner first stuffed the two calves under the guillotine, then put down the guillotine in a hurry, cut off his knees down, and then moved it below the waist and crotch, and stabbed it again, and finally put his neck up while he had not lost blood and died, and the final result was three knives and four sections.

Newton was shocked and secretly thought: If it is the heaviest felony on the Ming side, I am afraid that he will have to cut from the foot upwards, eight knives and nine sections. I don't know what kind of crime it must be to be punished by this death.

While these foreigners were amazed, it was the first time that the ordinary people of Hangzhou had seen this kind of torture instrument in action, and when it was invented just a few months earlier, the guillotine had only been used in Nanjing.

The people were naturally also full of interest, and after reading the three knives and four paragraphs, and then watching several other relatively minor organizers, they were all beheaded with a knife and a knife.

There were only seven or eight of them who were guilty to death, and after the slashing was completed, the government dragged hundreds of people who were flailed to the public, and found a few high-voiced public servants to preach their crimes and sentences.

"These are all malicious deception of the imperial court to help farmers borrow! After collection, he refused to pay it! If the loan is not repaid by fraud, and the principal exceeds 100 taels, he will be exiled to Australia on the same day!

If the principal is less than 100 taels and more than 80 taels, he will be exiled to Borneo! Sixty to eighty taels, exiled to Kyushu Island! Forty to sixty, exile Ezo! Below forty taels, exiled to Heilongjiang!

The imperial court is now waiting for the frontier land to be reclaimed in the fields! Those who dare to defraud the court and want to try the law of the country can just look at their fate! Today, there will be a sea boat pick-up at Sanbao Wharf to send sinners to Australia and Borneo on the same day!

The court can also afford to spend this money, so it should be fifty taels to buy a life, exchange sinners to go to the border land to fend for themselves, and before death, they can turn the land of life into a mature land! How many survives will be up to everyone! ”

Zhu Shuren is still very merciful, and when he finally sentenced Zhang Shipeng and Yao Qisheng, he did not calculate the severity of the crime according to the profits, but only calculated the principal. If the principal is 100 taels and you don't plan to repay it at all, and when the ten-year mortgage expires, it will be at least more than 300 taels of principal and interest.

After the announcement of the government, there were seven or eight hundred serious sentences who were escorted to the south of the city, out of the city gate, and went straight to the wharf by the Qiantang River. There were several four-masted galleons, each carrying about two hundred prisoners, to Australia and Borneo.

The people watching on the side had very few heard of where Australia and Borneo were, and most of them did not like to study geography.

At this moment, I just experienced the visual stimulation of slicing and cutting, and immediately gave literacy geography, which has a very good learning effect.

In the midst of the whispers, it soon became clear that "Australia is a smoky land in the far south, four times the distance from Jiangnan to Vietnam, and Borneo is at least three times the south of Vietnam."

If you go to Australia, you will die at least eight out of ten in three years, and you will have to die at least half of them in three years when you go to Borneo. If you can survive the first three years and adapt to the local miasma, poisonous boils, snakes, insects, rats and ants, then you will have a better chance of surviving in the future."

After hearing that there was such a horror, most of the people who originally had the idea of taking advantage of small advantages were immediately shocked. The benefits and costs, as well as the risk of being caught, are simply disproportionate.

The key is that the imperial court seems to be very efficient in auditing accounts now, and it is estimated that those people have long been targeted for evidence.

……

Daming's handling of financial fraud was enough for Newton and others to eat for an afternoon.

After drinking tea and running out of dessert, Captain Morton couldn't help but let Newton comment a few words: "How do you think the Ming Dynasty's governance of economic crime compares with our Britain?" ”

Newton shrugged: "To be honest, it looks finer than the British." At least they have the same strict terms as Roman law, and the sentencing and evidence collection are stricter than in England. I am more confident that I can learn something useful to save Britain when I come to Daming. ”

The case law used by the English was relatively primitive in the 17th century, and it was not as sophisticated as that of the Netherlands and France, and it was only after the industrial song that it gradually caught up. So Newton doesn't count as kneeling when he says that.

As for torture or something, he also thinks it's normal, it's nothing more than a few more cuts in the waist, but at least it doesn't deliberately prolong the pain time of the criminals - Westerners nail people to shelves, or puncture them on sharp stakes, until the blood runs dry and they die, but it is possible to continue the pain for a day or two before dying. Today, these halves, even the slowest, are dead in a quarter of an hour.

Captain Morton had never heard Newton say the specific purpose of his study abroad, but at this moment, Newton took him astray, so he followed down and asked:

"Then what do you want to learn when you come to Daming this time? Got a plan? As far as I know, if you want to engage in academics, you still have to go to Nanjing, and it is not worth staying here in Hangzhou for a long time.

There is only one academy of sciences and a bunch of research institutes on the Ming side, unlike many universities in Europe. Their 'Guozijian' is also completely only for teaching ethics, so you should be considered a seminary. ”

Newton obviously had already made up his mind, and he didn't even think about this question: "The initial determination when I first set off was of course just to observe the 'chemical' achievements of the Ming Dynasty.

If only I could learn how to save the plague from London. If this matter can be settled, I will arrange for someone to return to China first and translate the results. Myself, I want to keep it to observe Daming's cognition of optics and mechanics.

A few years ago, I read a posthumous work of Mr. Descartes in his later years, and listened to his book introduce that the regent and one of his wives on the side of the Ming Dynasty were actually people with extraordinary knowledge of mechanics, and also mentioned several conjectures about motion,

It's a pity that the latest achievements are all in Chinese, and the posthumous relays of Mr. Descartes are not detailed enough, so it seems that I must learn Chinese well in order to confirm what I want in my heart. ”

Captain Morton didn't understand this, he could only hold up his glass and wish Newton good luck: "Then good luck to you, I plan to stay in Hangzhou and Suzhou to buy goods, this time I don't plan to go to Nanjing, you can figure it out by yourself this way." ”

——

It's almost better, and after thinking about it, let's leave the leave slip for the maintenance of the No. 4 server. It's even more so today, no leave

(End of chapter)