The shadow of the sun is covered with frost, and the sound of wind is soft.
Near dusk in the afternoon, a low platform was hastily built at the intersection of Yu Street and Renhe Yaqian Street.
There was a crowded crowd around the platform, including more than a thousand people wearing square scarves and t-shirts, as well as ordinary people who were supposed to go home and celebrate the New Year.
Perhaps, for many people, eating melon is more interesting than celebrating the festival.
At first, most of the people were in high spirits and beaming with joy, thinking they were about to perform some big show.
Because the Dongwei soldiers busy in the field are the messengers who wish to celebrate the New Year in every household today.
It wasn't until fifty or sixty men and women with their hands tied behind their backs were escorted onto the platform that the people realized that something was wrong with the atmosphere.
"Huh? It's such a big holiday, what kind of song are you singing?"
"This posture looks like a execution platform in a execution ground..."
"Hey...there are quite a few officials in official uniforms inside, and the others seem to be mostly people from the yamen, which is really strange."
"What kind of huge crime have you committed, and you have to deal with it on this New Year's Day? At least let's celebrate the New Year."
"We don't know what it is, but it seems to be King Yan's intention..."
"Ah...what does His Highness Prince Yan mean? It's okay, it must be these people!"
There were a total of fifty-eight people kneeling on the platform. Most of them had bruises and swollen faces. They had been severely punished, so even though they were shaking like chaff, they didn't dare to say anything.
Zhao Heyun walked to the stage and read out the charges loudly.
The people gradually became quiet, but as they listened, they became filled with indignation. Before Zhao Heyun read out the verdict, they started shouting.
"Kill! Kill these bastards who are worse than pigs and dogs!"
"It's so unconscionable that such a wicked person is still allowed to celebrate the New Year without killing him!?"
"This bunch of corrupt officials should be cut to pieces!"
"We don't even spare the helpless old people and children. Are these still human beings?!"
"Such a despicable and shameless act is truly the outrage of both humans and gods. Even if you die a hundred times, you will never be able to offset your sin!"
"Amitabha, how can someone do such evil deeds? I'm afraid the Buddha's eyes will burst into smoke when he sees them. Send them to Abi Hell as soon as possible."
Zhao Heyun saw that the public sentiment was boiling, so he had to wait for a long time before letting the soldiers of the East Guard blow the bronze whistle to restore order.
Then he continued to read, "The amount of money involved in this case was not particularly huge, but it cut off the last hope of a lonely person, killed hundreds of people, lost the court's sympathy, damaged the government's credibility, and shook the country's confidence. The basic foundation and the circumstances are so bad that they destroy the basic conscience of human beings. Therefore, in order to rectify people's hearts and warn the world, His Highness King Yan is determined to impose a harsh sentence."
"The verdict is that the four criminals, Lai Jiang, Guo Mei, Wang Laishi, and Lien Caiying, will be sentenced to death, skinned and stripped of their skin..."
"Judgment, the criminals Li Hongbo, He Fan, Guo Sanqi... fifty-four people, their heads will be shown to the public, and they will be executed immediately!"
Although the people were shouting loudly just now, when they heard that so many people were really going to be executed at one time, they still felt numb, especially the skinning and weeding thing that I had never heard of, but it was so easy to understand when I heard it. He understood the torture and even got goosebumps all over his body.
The criminal law of the Song Dynasty was mainly inherited from the Tang Dynasty, but the sentencing was much more severe. For example, for the crime of theft, those who accumulated stolen money exceeding five guan were sentenced to death, and those who did not exceed five guan were also sentenced to twenty canes and three years of service.
In terms of death penalty methods, in addition to the conventional hanging, beheading, and death with a stick, Lingchi was also officially included in the legal punishment list during the Xiaozong period.
However, in actual judicial operations, special emphasis is placed on caution and tolerance. Generally, as long as the crime does not endanger the rule, leniency is often given, perhaps to highlight benevolent governance.
Among them, there is a special examination system, which seems to be full of humane touch. As long as any death row inmate screams that he is wronged before being executed, he will be sent back for retrial, thus delaying the death penalty.
At this time, the government needs to send another official to review, or send another judicial agency to re-examine to show fairness. It usually takes less than half a year to go through the process again.
Of course, in order to prevent someone from taking advantage of this system,
In order to delay time and evade sanctions, each person's opportunity to revise is limited. In the Northern Song Dynasty, it was three times, and now it is five times.
There are exceptions. For example, during the Xiaozong period of Song Dynasty, which was relatively politically clear, it is said that a man was sentenced to death, but he refused to accept it and shouted that he was wronged every time he was executed.
Perhaps in order to convince the prisoner, he actually let him redress his injustice more than ten times. In the end, even the trial officials couldn't stand it anymore. There was obviously no proof that the prisoner was innocent, but this man just insisted on calling for injustice.
In the end, I had no choice but to ask Xiaozong for instructions. Xiaozong didn't know what he was thinking, but he actually exempted him from the death penalty and allowed the prisoner to save his life.
Therefore, most of the time, there were not many executions every year in the Song Dynasty, and in some years there were none at all.
In Zhao Mengqi's view, this kind of thing is actually a kind of judicial injustice, and it is even a bit hypocritical, so he doesn't think there is anything wrong with sentencing him not according to the law.
In addition, they were particularly tolerant of crimes committed by officials. Song Xingtong even stipulated, "If you commit a crime while in office, you will be dismissed from the official position, or you will be dismissed from the official position after the incident. If you commit an official crime, it will not be ignored. The remaining crimes will follow the law." That is to say, after leaving office, the law will follow. , some crimes will no longer be subject to criminal liability.
It can be seen from this that the Song Dynasty was really kind to civil servants. Well, in fact, it was not just the Song Dynasty...
But now Zhao Mengqi couldn't stand this, and couldn't help but want to hit him. Even if he couldn't hit him at the moment, it would be good to open a little hole.
What's more, if this trend of official corruption is not curbed, everything else will be in vain. Even without the Mongols, this country will still collapse.
Others may not understand Zhao Mengqi's thoughts.
As for the more than a thousand people present, they all resented the crimes committed by the officials of the Salesian Bureau and the nursing home. However, many people thought that King Yan’s punishment was too cruel and was not the work of the Ming Lord, so they looked at the platform. It's very complicated, and some people even feel inexplicably sad about the death of a rabbit or a fox.
On the outer edge of the crowd, there were a few people who came relatively late. One of them said, "This skinning punishment seems not inferior to Lingchi. I heard that he would be hung in the Gongyuan afterwards. Isn't this an insult to us scholars?"
A tall man standing next to him raised his sword eyebrows, and worry appeared in his clear eyes, "Whether it's Ling Chi or peeling off the skin, it's too cruel, sentimental and harmonious, and it undermines benevolent governance. It is really not suitable to follow in the prosperous age. "
"Now is not a prosperous time, and it is time to use heavy laws to govern." The other one, who looked older, shook his head, and seemed to disagree with the views of his two friends.
The tall and handsome man was stunned for a moment, then turned his head and looked back, "Brother Junzhi, do you think King Yan did the right thing? Tianxiang is young and has little knowledge, so he failed to see the deeper meaning. Please give me some advice."
It turns out that this burly scholar's surname was Wen, his given name was Yunsun, and his given name was Tianxiang. However, he was named Tianxiang when he took the exam, and he was only twenty-one years old after the Chinese New Year.
The first person to speak was his brother Wen Bi, who was one year younger than him, and the older one was Xie Fangde, also known as Junzhi. The three of them were all from Jiangxi and came to An'an to take the exam together after passing the exam.
Xie Fang couldn't help but smile bitterly when he saw that the two Wen brothers were looking at him with piercing eyes, as if they would not give up until they gave a good reason.
"Hey, I can't say that I'm giving you advice. It's just that my ancestors were all members of the officialdom, so Brother Yu knows a little more about the inside story."
He pondered his thoughts and continued, "Speaking of which, after the Southern Crossing, the most strict administration and the most upright style of officials was during the Xiaozong Dynasty. During the period between Qiandao and Chunxi, there were those who were in the dynasty, and they gave gifts to their families. Shame, those who are allowed to serve outside will be ashamed of being in the capital."
"But after that, the atmosphere of the officialdom gradually collapsed, and there were fewer and fewer honest people. To this day, it may be a bit too much to say that the greedy, crippled, and foolish people always live in the six or seven, but half of them are definitely there."
"High-ranking officials have a generous salary, which is slightly better, but the miscellaneous and subordinate officials have gone even harder, squeezing and exploiting the people because they think they can do something..."
Generally speaking, in the early Song Dynasty, special emphasis was placed on decentralization and checks and balances in the system. It was difficult for officials to hold absolute power. In addition, the Taijiao system was developed for supervision, so the corruption problem was not serious.
Later, when the official system was changed, power became more and more centralized, and Tai Jian was reduced to a vassal of those in power, losing effective supervision of power. Naturally, the officialdom became more and more
It's getting worse.
Xie Fangde finally said, "So, His Royal Highness, King Yan, is now dealing with this corruption case seriously, maybe because he wants to give a warning to people in the officialdom."
After hearing these words, the youngest Wen Bi seemed to have changed his mind, "In the past, my father often denounced corruption in the officialdom, but he didn't know the inside story and didn't understand it specifically. Brother Jun Zhi's words made people suddenly realize that the officialdom has been corrupted. In this case, it would be worthwhile to exchange dozens of heads for officials to govern Qingming..."
"Erlang, don't make a conclusion too early." Wen Tianxiang scolded his younger brother softly, "No matter what, if the head falls, it can't be taken back. No matter what you do, you must be cautious. King Yan...perhaps the person in charge has his own concerns. It’s different from us. It’s better to read more about its original intention.” qδ
"Brother taught me that I am superficial." Wen Bi was sincere and accepted the teachings humbly.
Looking at the two brothers, Xie Fangde admired Father Wen's way of raising his children.
"The world's opinions on King Yan are mixed, both good and bad. It's like seeing flowers in a fog, and it's hard to see the truth clearly. Therefore, his current behavior is indeed difficult to fathom. Let's take a look before talking about it."
At this time, the person on the stage had been certified and the execution was about to begin.
A row of 11 prisoners were led to the front of the platform and knelt down. Each person's mouth was stuffed with gray rice balls, which was not only to provide them with decapitated food, but also to prevent them from shouting randomly.
At this point, it is obvious that Zhao Mengqi does not follow traditions and rules.
The eyes of the prisoners were full of fear and regret, and most of them felt that they had been wronged. It was so unfair that they had to lose their heads just for taking "a little" money.
It's a pity that Zhao Mengqi didn't intend to be fair with them.
The Dongwei soldier who was executing the execution took out the slender Thousand Ox Sword from his waist and sprayed the wine in his mouth on the blade.
Judging from the movements, they were slightly stiff and seemed nervous. After all, they had never really killed anyone before.
Zhao Heyun had never even seen anyone kill someone, but today he was giving orders.
"Prepare for execution! Raise the knife..."
With a swish sound, the eleven sharp blades pointed obliquely at the sky. The mirror-like blades reflected the blood-red sunset light.
"cut!"
The sword flashed, and the head was rushed out of the air by the blood fountain. It fell into the snow under the stage and rolled randomly.
"Last hit..."
Upon hearing the order, the soldier kicked down the headless corpse that was still in a kneeling position and was spraying blood with arrows.
"prick!"
The soldier held the handle of the knife with both hands and stabbed the bloody knife into the back of the corpse.
"next round!"
