Yingtian, the prefect's Yamen.
Judge Zhao Hai crossed the threshold, hurriedly walked into the lobby, and shouted: "Fu Yin, something bad has happened."
Upon hearing the commotion, Governor Zhang Yulin put down his writing brush, closed the documents on his desk, and asked calmly: "Zhao Tongzhi, what's the matter?"
Zhao Hai looked at Zhang Yulin and frowned slightly.
He has a square face that exudes determination, and the beard at the corner of his mouth is so sparse that there are only seven or eight strands left. However, in his early forties, it is rare for his beard to fall out so much.
Zhang Yulin is an upright man, sincere in his treatment of others, and has a gentle temperament. He is not in a hurry in anything. Looking at him like this, it is estimated that if his wife fell into the river together, he would be able to figure out who to save first before jumping in.
Zhao Hai didn't bother to wipe the sweat from his forehead and said quickly: "The official Ban Xiu was taken away by Wang Zhongli, the Minister of Punishment!"
"Secretary of the Ministry of Justice?"
Zhang Yulin frowned.
Although the Ministry of Punishment is the highest government agency in charge of punishment, the problem is that there are always procedures to follow when handling cases and arresting people. It is a bit excessive to directly arrest Tianfu Yamen officials without saying a word or explaining anything.
"Let's go to the Criminal Department to ask for an explanation!"
Zhang Yulin stood up with a gloomy expression.
Zhao Hai approached, stretched out his hand to stop him, and said in a low voice: "I heard that the school inspector had targeted Ban Xiu two days ago, and the Criminal Department took him away without saying a word. Maybe there is a big case behind it."
"Inspection?"
Zhang Yulin shivered.
The Ministry of Criminal Justice intervened, possibly just to investigate the case.
Now that even the inspection school is involved, it is no longer as simple as an investigation. After all, the inspection school is a dog, and the person who raises the dog is the emperor.
The dogs have been let out, and it will be difficult to end without biting and bleeding.
"Go and find out, what mistake did Ban Xiu make?"
Zhang Yulin stopped.
Zhao Hai took out a document from his sleeve and handed it over with both hands: "Does the governor still remember the magistrate of Jurong?"
Zhang Yulin took the document and nodded: "Of course I remember that Yingtian Mansion didn't give him cattle for farming, and he even wrote a document to ask for it. Such an ignorant person actually became the county magistrate for hunting tigers. Haha, according to my opinion, he didn't know Where did you get a tiger from and say that the tiger's harm has been eliminated? It's just a matter of reputation and trickery."
Zhao Hai said solemnly: "Maybe this person really got rid of the tiger."
Seeing that Zhao Hai was serious, Zhang Yulin quickly opened the document, and what came to his face was a murderous aura. The document contained a series of beheadings and dispatches, which made Zhang Yulin take a deep breath.
"This is the judgment document. Where is the file? Why didn't the file arrive? Why did a small county want to kill so many people in one breath?"
Zhang Yulin found that he didn't know Jurong at all.
Zhao Hai said with some depression: "I didn't see the case file sent by Jurong. I asked the people below and they said that Ban Xiu took the file away. Maybe the Ministry of Punishment's arrest of him has something to do with this."
Zhang Yulin ordered people to go to the class office to look for files and documents. Soon after, officials sent two documents, both written by Gu Zhengchen, the magistrate of Jurong County.
The first document, Gu Zhengchen asked for the transfer of Jurong case files from previous years.
The second document is a simplified version of the Jurong case file, with the sentence "Please inform the Ministry of Punishment for details" at the end of the article.
After Zhang Yulin read it, he walked to the desk and sat down. He pondered for a long time and frowned: "Logically speaking, this matter should be investigated by Yingtian Prefecture, but now it is taken over by the Ministry of Punishment. Is it Gu Zhengchen's arrogance or the emperor's instruction? "
Zhao Hai didn't know the situation and didn't dare to talk nonsense.
Zhang Yulin lowered his head to examine the murderous document and handed it to Zhao Hai: "Forward it to the Ministry of Punishment."
"this……"
Zhao Hai was a little at a loss.
Yingtianfu has the right to investigate the case and reject the retrial. As long as it finds errors, omissions or doubts in Gu Zhengchen's documents, it can send it back and let the Jurong County Government retry the case.
If Ying Tianfu didn't even read the detailed files and directly reported it to the Ministry of Punishment for approval, if something went wrong, Ying Tianfu would inevitably be reprimanded and might even be implicated and lose his official position.
After all, the Magistrate of Jurong is above the Magistrate of Yingtian, not the Ministry of Justice, Zhongshu Province and the Emperor. These are still above the Yingtian Mansion.
Zhang Yulin looked at the uneasy Zhao Hai and said helplessly: "The emperor is watching, and if there is a problem, it is also the problem of the Ministry of Justice. What's more, Gu Zhengchen's documents have clearly stated the case, there are physical evidence, witness, and the person has confessed." There will be no major mistakes. The trouble now is Ban Xiu. He is the official of Yingtian Mansion. He is involved in the Jurong case. I'm afraid it will be difficult to get rid of it. "
Zhao Hai nodded heavily.
Indeed, the Jurong case is shocking.
In the eyes of Zhang Yulin and others, the private coinage was a big deal, but it was nothing more than that. After all, it would not affect Yingtian Prefecture. But the Yin and Yang file case cannot be handled by just one county government. There must be a prefect government office to issue the documents, and they must collude with each other to make it perfect.
This is the reason why Ban Xiu was taken away, and this is the reason why the Criminal Department did not say a word.
After the Ministry of Punishment received the Jurong judgment document, Wang Zhongli, the minister, immediately found Wu Yun, Sun Keyi and others, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment. Wu Yun thought twice and took the document to Zhongshu Province to discuss with Hu Weiyong. Hu Weiyong only asked: "The facts are clear no?"
Wu Yun solemnly replied: "Judging from the documents, files, physical evidence sent by Jurong, as well as the explanations given by Guo Dian and others, the case is clear and the judgment is carried out in accordance with the law. There is nothing wrong with it. It's just..."
"Just what?"
Hu Weiyong frowned.
Wu Yun said with some confusion: "It's just that according to past practice, among the family members of county magistrates, chief registrars, etc., men should be sent to the army, and women should be reduced to prostitutes. But in these judgments, women, children, old and weak are all raped." To put it bluntly, there is no conviction, and he is still a good citizen."
Hu Weiyong examined the verdict document and smiled lightly: "Call him soft-hearted. He sentenced dozens of people to death in one breath. Call him weak-tempered. He actually thought of ways to protect the old, weak, women and children of these people. Haha, interesting, it's true. He is a powerful person, so let’s report it directly to His Majesty.”
Seeing that Hu Weiyong had no objection, Wu Yun went straight to Huagai Hall.
When Zhu Yuanzhang saw Gu Zhengchen's judgment document, he took out his pen and made a judgment without saying anything.
The Emperor of Ming Dynasty also served as the Prince of Hell in the human world, responsible for taking away people's lives, while the Prince of Hell underground took away people's souls.
Although Lao Zhu was somewhat dissatisfied with Gu Zhengchen's behavior of protecting the elderly, weak women and children, considering the intercession of Empress Ma, Zhu Biao and Mu Ying, he did not pursue the matter further.
After the verdict, Zhu Yuanzhang threw the documents aside and said to Wu Yun: "After Guo Dian and others have questioned him thoroughly, they will send them to Lingchi. As for the prisoners in Jurong, Gu Zhengchen will arrange for them to be executed in Jurong. There is no need to transport them." Jinling.”
Wu Yun quickly agreed, bowed and exited the hall, and met Wu Lin, the Minister of Civil Affairs. He couldn't help but frowned: "Wu Shangshu, there is something going on."
Wu Lin glanced at Wu Yun. This person was the Secretary of the Ministry of Justice promoted by Hu Weiyong. He could be said to be a close confidant of Hu Weiyong. For this person, Wu Lin was quite disdainful and snorted: "If Mr. Wu wants to ask about the affairs of the Ministry of Officials, why not first?" Let’s talk about it after being transferred to the staff department.”
