Originally, Zhuge Cheng wanted to wait for Chen Xiaomu to torture Wang Liangdi and Wu Guanglu without asking any questions. He then encouraged Su Xingran to go out from the crowd with him to stop Chen Xiaomu. Because Su Xingran had witnessed the whole trial process, Chen Xiaomu did not have any evidence. Under such circumstances, he threatened to torture the two of them, and even blatantly framed Wang Liangdi. I'm afraid he couldn't even open his mouth to explain these things clearly!
But what he never expected was that as soon as his newly married wife came to court, all his careful plans were shattered. This time he really couldn't stand it any longer, and quickly defended Su Xingran: "Your Majesty, Lao Chen, this young wife has a strong temperament and hates evil. Just because she heard that the case of her concubine's molestation was being held today, she rushed over to listen. Unexpectedly, she saw Chen Tong, who was sentenced to court without asking the merits. I want to punish my mother-in-law. She probably went to court because she was so angry. I respectfully ask your Majesty to show mercy and forgive me!"
After hearing this, Su Xingran suddenly felt tempted to hide. He frowned and said softly: "You and Prime Minister Wei will go over and pass on my instructions, prohibiting officials from using torture to extract confessions in court. Anyone who violates this will be removed from office on the spot!"
When Zhuge Cheng heard this, he was immediately overjoyed. He pulled up the sleeves of Wei Wen beside him and squeezed out of the crowd. He couldn't wait to shout loudly from a distance: "Chen Tongpan, I have been told by the emperor that no one is allowed to use anything in court." Criminal law requires confession!”
Chen Xiaomu looked up at the sound, immediately raised his hands and fisted his fists, and laughed, "Oh, it turns out that it's Prime Minister Wei and Lieutenant Zhuge who have arrived. I really didn't know this, so I missed the welcome from afar. I apologize for my sin."
Wei Wen strode forward and said with a smile: "Hey, Chen Tong said this is wrong. Didn't he say that those who don't know are not to blame? Haha!"
Then Chen Xiaomu looked at Zhuge Cheng and said with a smile: "Master Taiwei, it's a coincidence that you are here. There happened to be a young woman here who claimed to be Taiwei's wife. The subordinate was very confused and was about to send someone to report to the Taiwei Mansion. Lord Taiwei, send someone over to identify it! Look, isn’t this a coincidence?”
Zhuge Cheng pretended to raise his head and take a look, and then said sarcastically: "Yes, this girl is indeed my wife, and I will strictly control her when she returns home!" However, his face was serious, and he said seriously: "This time I and I Prime Minister Wei came here specifically to convey the emperor’s oral instructions!”
Chen Xiaomu nodded and said with a smile: "Didn't Master Zhuge just pass the news as soon as he entered the court, saying that the emperor does not allow subordinates to use criminal law to extract confessions from prisoners in the court!"
"Haha, it's good if Chen Tongpan hears it!" Zhuge Cheng laughed and walked to Chen Xiaomu's seat behind the public case, sat down, and said seriously: "In order for the emperor's decree to be truly implemented, I and Prime Minister Wei want to Supervise the trial in court!"
Although Wei Wen and Zhuge Cheng both had first-rank official positions, in fact, Zhuge Cheng's Taiwei was a military attache, and Wei Wen's prime minister was a civilian official. According to the written practice of the Zheng State, civilian officials had always controlled military attachés, so Wei Wen's Wen's first-grade prime minister is one level higher than Zhuge Cheng's first-grade Taiwei.
Now I saw that Zhuge Cheng didn't even say hello to him, but decided to stay on his behalf as a supervisor without permission. Without any humility, he just ran to the main seat in the court and sat down. He didn't even think about it. His prime minister took it seriously. At this time, no matter how good-tempered Wei Wen was, he couldn't help but get angry and said: "Master Zhuge, we are here to deliver oral instructions on the order of the emperor, but the emperor did not allow us to stay. Come down and supervise the trial! Have you misunderstood the holy will?"
Zhuge Cheng sat behind the public case and shook his head and said: "No, no, Prime Minister Wei, when I eat the emperor's salary, I will share your worries for you. You don't even think about why the emperor sent us, the first-rank officials of the dynasty, to come here." By passing on this oral edict, doesn't this show that the emperor attaches great importance to this oral edict? As the emperor's ministers, we must understand the emperor's good intentions and implement the emperor's oral edict in public!"
"Haha." Wei Wen sneered and said unceremoniously: "Master Zhuge, I think you are insisting on whether the emperor's oral decree is false. In fact, you are afraid that Chen Tong's sentence to torture your wife's concubine is true, so you have to sit in court without authorization. Supervision?"
After hearing this, Zhuge Cheng's face suddenly darkened and he said in a cold voice: "Prime Minister Wei, what do you mean by this? Is it wrong for me to follow the emperor's instructions? Besides, even if torture is used, it should be used on the rapist with solid evidence. Whoever tortured the victim? The sky is clear, is there no royal law?"
Wei Wen said angrily: "Where did Lord Zhuge start with these words? Just now when Chen Tongjian heard the case, he said that the case was essentially a case of Wang Liangdi framed Yu Chengwen. Now the cause of the case has changed. Lord Zhuge will inevitably speak like this again. Isn’t that too arbitrary?”
"If you say the cause of the case changes, then change it!" Zhuge Cheng stretched out his hand behind the case and said disdainfully: "Where is the evidence? Talking nonsense in court without evidence is definitely a frame-up. You don't know this Prime Minister Wei, right?"
"Yes, where is the evidence?" Wei Wen was stunned when asked, and couldn't help but turn his eyes to Chen Xiaomu. He believed that with Chen Xiaomu's shrewdness, he would never make any rash assertions in court without conclusive evidence!
"Cough, cough" Chen Xiaomu coughed twice, walked to the front of the case, raised his hands to Zhuge Cheng and smiled: "Master Zhuge, didn't Wang Liangdi just recruit him? She was the one who framed Yu Chengwen!"
As soon as Chen Xiaomu said this, everyone was in an uproar. Even Wei Wen looked at him with incredible eyes. Zhuge Cheng was angry behind the case for a while, staring at Chen Xiaomu with his eyes, but was speechless.
After Wang Liangdi was shocked, she knelt down in front of the public case and cried plaintively: "I beg you, Lord Taiwei, to make the decision for the women of the country. This faint official dares to frame the women of the country with his red lips and white teeth in full view of the public!"
Su Xingran thought she heard wrongly, frowned and asked Wei Yushang beside him: "Yushang, did you hear the woman's confession in the court?"
Wei Yushang hesitated for a moment, then whispered vaguely: "The woman seemed to have said it, but I didn't hear it clearly!"
Su Xingran glanced at her and said dissatisfied: "Your teacher is confused, and you still cover for him!"
Not far away from Su Xingran and others, the girl who came from Yang's Duck Restaurant pouted and said to the middle-aged lady beside her: "Mother, isn't this person a lunatic? He actually said that in front of so many people. You see, you framed the woman in court out of nothing, you see how pitiful that woman is, if you and your father force me to get married to this lunatic, my daughter would rather die than obey!"
The middle-aged lady frowned but said nothing.
In the crowd, a young man in a roadside tavern who was about to come to the government office to complain turned to the old man who came with him with a grimace and said: "Sister, you must have seen that when Mr. Jia was here, I There is still some hope for that case. Now that this stupid official has come here, I think it’s better to forget it. Then the adulterer and the adulterous couple will be brought down, and like this woman in the court, she will also be brought to justice. Got a lift in."
The old man quickly glanced around and whispered in a rough voice: "Call me."
At the same time, Zhao Yiqiu had tears in his eyes and choked up and muttered to Wang Baozhong: "How come brother Xiaodai has become so vicious now? I think this case is obviously that the woman was bullied by a traitor. It's okay for him to be confused. Why do he still have to do it?" Try to frame others again!"
Qing Wan'er, who had hurried over from Baoqing Dye Shop, was standing on tiptoes in the crowd. The more she looked at it, the colder her heart became. She secretly glanced at her grandfather who was standing beside the court and was being guarded by the police. She couldn't help secretly lamenting the misfortune of her life. , why did I happen to meet such a confused official today? It seems that grandpa may not be able to escape bad luck!
A young man dressed as a scholar next to Hou Qi, the security guard on Zhuque Street, put his mouth to Hou Qi's ear and said sadly: "Master Qi, the court has brought such a thing to sit in court. We, the common people of the new capital, are violating the heavenly law. He's going to suffer such a catastrophe! When I first heard that he was going to interrogate ducks, I thought this person was ridiculous, and you can see that it was just as I expected."
Hou Qi was a calm man, and he said calmly: "In my opinion, the court will never send a fool to serve as a judge. Only a fool can do this so blatantly cover the criminal in the court!"
The scholar curled his lips, probably because Hou Qi was his elder, and did not argue with him out loud.
The discussion among the people in the hall became louder and louder, and almost all of them accused Chen Xiaomu of framed the bullied woman in the hall without any basis. Originally, Zhuge Cheng was planning to reprimand Chen Xiaomu, and then asked Su Xingran to come forward to exempt Chen Xiaomu from the trial. Now that he was listening to more and more people below criticizing Chen Xiaomu, he immediately changed his mind. He wanted the discussions below to gradually turn into public outrage, and then forced Su Xingran to stand up in person to quell the public anger.
Zhuge Cheng immediately made up his mind, stretched out his hand to Chen Xiaomu again, and said slowly: "Pan Chen Tong, please show Wang Liangdi's confession to me."
Chen Xiaomu turned around and said to Wei Yu with a smile: "Wei Captou, bring me the knife you are carrying."
Wei Yuxin shook his head and said: "I don't have a knife with me, only a long sword."
Chen Xiaomu nodded: "A long sword will do, too."
Wei Yuxin took off the long sword hanging from his waist and handed it to Chen Xiaomu with the sword and scabbard.
Chen Xiaomu took the sword and turned back to the public case. Zhuge Cheng was so frightened that he stood up from the official chair and shouted nervously: "Chen Tongpan, what are you doing? Do you still want to do this?" Is it possible to commit murder in court?"
Chen Xiaomu smiled softly and teased: "Master Zhuge, you have never done anything wrong, so what are you afraid of?" After saying that, he turned the scabbard in his hand and stretched the end with the hilt towards Zhuge Cheng! "
Zhuge Cheng blinked and asked with a puzzled look on his face: "Chen Tongpan, I asked you to ask for Wang Liangdi's confession, but you handed me a sword. What do you mean?"
Chen Xiaomu laughed and replied: "Master Zhuge, please take out this sword. The evidence you want is in this scabbard!"
"You...!" Zhuge Cheng was so angry that his face turned purple in an instant. Anyone with a discerning eye could see that Chen Xiaomu was clearly treating him like a monkey! But after all, Zhuge Cheng had been in the officialdom for so many years, and the city was still quite deep. Although his heart was full of emotions at the moment, he was suppressed by him in the blink of an eye.
After calming down for a while, Zhuge Cheng tried his best to put a smile on his face, then stretched out his hand and pulled out the sword with a "swish" sound. Suddenly, a bright sword edge flashed in his hand like a stream of autumn water. Zhuge Cheng couldn't help but sigh in his heart. : "What a good sword!"
At this time, Chen Xiaomu raised the empty scabbard in his hand, smiled at Zhuge Cheng and said, "If Master Zhuge can put this sword back into the scabbard, I can successfully take out the evidence!"
When Zhuge Cheng heard this, he couldn't help but said angrily: "Chen Tongpan, are you teasing me? Just now you said that as long as I take this sword out of the scabbard, the evidence will be in this scabbard. Now Let me ask you where is the evidence?"
Chen Xiaomu said with a smile: "Master Zhuge, how about I make a bet with you? Now as long as you put this sword back into the scabbard smoothly, I will not only produce convincing evidence, but I will also accompany you for another 10,000 yuan." Two pieces of silver!"
"Okay! You said it yourself, don't blame me for being greedy for money!" Zhuge Cheng agreed without even thinking about it, because it was too easy.
Zhuge Cheng raised the sword in his hand and inserted it into the scabbard in Chen Xiaomu's hand. Seeing that the tip of the sword was about to enter the mouth of the scabbard, Chen Xiaomu suddenly moved the scabbard to the side. The tip of the sword was close to the scabbard and disappeared instantly. , Zhuge Cheng was unwilling to give in, and immediately took back the sword and inserted it into the sheath that was close at hand. Chen Xiaomu raised the scabbard again, this time with the sword tip down and the scabbard up, and the sword was empty again.
Zhuge Cheng stopped immediately, threw the sword in his hand on the public case with a "clack", scolded him with a downcast face: "Chen Tongxuan, I'm afraid you can't produce evidence and you feel sorry for the ten thousand taels of silver, so you deliberately You didn’t cooperate with me and put the sword back into its sheath, right?”
Chen Xiaomu chuckled and said, "What are you talking about, Master Zhuge? Isn't it true? Isn't the evidence out?"
"Evidence, where is the evidence?" Zhuge Cheng subconsciously searched the open space in front of the public case. He thought the evidence was a piece of tissue paper falling from the scabbard to the ground.
