Plop...
One person suddenly knelt down and kowtowed desperately.
"Sir, please spare my life!"
"Sir, the common people know that they are wrong. Please spare your life, sir!"
"Master Prefect, these are all students who lost their temper after drinking and talked nonsense. They are absolutely uncountable!"
"Sir, we know we were wrong. We will never dare to do it again. Please spare us this time!"
…
Everyone stopped making excuses at this moment. The prefect told the specific time and number of people. There was definitely sufficient evidence. Making excuses would only increase the crime.
"Sir, the son's failure to teach his father is the fault of the common people. Please give the common people a chance. The common people are willing to donate five thousand dan of grain and one hundred thousand taels of silver to build roads and bridges.
As long as the adults give orders, the common people will obey them. All I ask is that the adults will give the common people a chance to educate their sons! "
Among the crowd, Zhao Xingchen's father, Zhao Shigui, rushed out, knelt down in front of the high platform, and kowtowed to Zhou Tingru.
Now he finally understood what Zhou Tingru was going to do.
You can call these people's remarks a complaint, a chat, or a rumor.
But once it is decided to spread rumors, things will become big.
"You, the Zhao family, are rich and powerful and can provide money to settle matters for your son, but as for others, a poor man can only be punished.
Everyone is equal before the laws of the Ming Dynasty. This is what His Majesty said after he ascended the throne. Even the princes and princes of the clan who were not bound by the laws of the Ming Dynasty were punished. Is your son superior to others?
If we had known this, why did we do it in the first place? "
Zhou Tingru looked at the people who were kowtowing like garlic, and a coldness flashed in his eyes: "According to the law of the Ming Dynasty, anyone who falsely accuses three or four people will be punished with a hundred sticks and three years of imprisonment... Anyone who falsely accuses more than ten people will be executed in Lingchi and his head will be punished." Township, family members moved out!
Although you are not making false accusations, you have exerted a great influence on this government and the imperial court. In particular, you have slandered His Majesty’s sanctity. Exiling you is a frivolous matter.
But since you are the first to commit the crime for a reason, I will be extra merciful and change the stick to a cane. If you dare to speak too much, you will be punished by an additional level! "
"Come here, drag him up, flog him for a hundred times, and execute him!"
The guards from the magistrate's office dragged everyone up to the high platform, pressed them on long stools, pulled off their trousers, picked up the tendons that were tied as thick as a baby's arm, and pulled them off.
Bang... bang...
Oh……
The sound of thorns touching flesh was mixed with the screams of everyone.
Once, twice... At the beginning, everyone was still screaming, but in the end, they didn't even have the strength to scream, and the only sound was the beating of thorns.
Every time a thorn stick goes down, a piece of blood will be picked up by the barbs on the thorn stick. When the thorn stick rises, the blood will drip down, which is extremely dazzling under the sunlight.
The blood droplets spilled from the thorn sticks dripped onto the wooden board of the high platform, and together with the blood dripping from the victims, they dripped from the gaps in the wooden board. The bloody smell made everyone fearful.
In the attic in the distance, Li Ruolian looked at the execution scene and sighed: "Your Majesty, if Zhou Tingru hadn't been appointed by you, I would have wanted to get him to be a pacifier in the Jinyi Guards. He is a talented person!"
"How to say?"
"Your Majesty, there are two doubts about this. First, it took a full quarter of an hour to draw one hundred vitex sticks. Under normal circumstances, three hundred times can be drawn out in half an hour. The time is obviously wrong;
Secondly, look at those who were tortured. Although their butts and backs are bloody and bruised,
But the children of the wealthy merchants were more seriously injured, and their bones could be vaguely seen.
If I expected it to be true, the execution time and the person to be executed were specially arranged by Prefect Zhou, focusing on the children of wealthy businessmen.
Moreover, the thorn sticks used to beat the children of wealthy businessmen must have been soaked in special medicinal materials and are extremely tough!
He made this arrangement to allow the tortured person to fully feel the pain and save more blood, and to shock everyone with the bloody scene.
Although there were no deaths at the scene, the probability of death was extremely high due to poor handling and excessive blood loss in this kind of weather.
The bloody scene and the death of one person every few days are far more shocking than being killed on the spot. "
hiss……
hiss……
After Li Ruolian explained this, Cao Bianjiao, the Fang family and others all took a breath of air.
If Li Ruolian's guess was true, it would be too cruel, but they still liked it.
"He is a talented person. Jin Yiwei lacks this kind of talent. What a pity!"
"Commander Li, you have to think about it from another perspective. Perhaps only this kind of person can control Jiangnan. Your recommendation can be regarded as meritorious!"
"Hey, it seems to be true, haha!"
Listening to the conversation of several people, Chongzhen smiled and shook his head.
Loyal ministers and traitorous ministers have existed since ancient times. Loyal ministers are not necessarily talents, but traitorous ministers must be talents. It depends on how the emperor uses people.
Like Zhou Tingru, as long as he can control it, he is a good sword.
"Don't think that I am ruthless. When I became an ancestor, ignorant villains searched for details, suppressed the officials, or framed good people with personal vendettas;
Some people falsely claim to be suing to avoid being punished, or they are chasing young talents in the hope of being promoted, so they formulated the criminal law for spreading rumors and making false accusations.
Today they only slander their own officials and the imperial court. If they say that someone is an enemy spy, a rebel, etc.,
After the government caught him, he was basically presumed guilty and tortured severely, or he would be dead if he didn't. The court would rather kill someone by mistake than release him by mistake.
The person they falsely accused died, but the person who falsely accused them was fine. Who should they turn to for the person who died unjustly?
I also warn you that if anyone spreads rumors again during my term of office, don’t blame me for being ruthless! "
"Take them all back. Next time, the crime will be increased!"
The family members cried sadly and carried away the person who had already passed out.
After this incident, a shadow was cast on the hearts of everyone present, and there was a trace of fear in Zhou Tingru's eyes.
The eyes of the wealthy businessmen and gentry were full of gloom and resentment.
"That's enough of the rumor-mongering, let's move on to the next one."
As soon as these words came out, everyone's hearts tightened again. They had already seen blood from sealing up shops and beatings, so what should be put behind them?
Zhou Tingru picked up another title book on the public case table: "A few days ago, the former prefect Zhong Zigui confessed that he colluded with many gentry and wealthy businessmen and used his power to omit reporting and evade taxes for the gentry and wealthy businessmen.
The book I have in hand is the account book recorded by Zhong Zigui himself. I have checked it with Jinyiwei in the past few days. I don’t say that it is all true, but it is not far from it! "
The wealthy merchants and gentry were shocked, and their eyes were full of surprise and suspicion when they looked at the account book in Zhou Tingru's hand.
In order to protect themselves, or to restrain the gentry and wealthy businessmen, it is not impossible to record that this kind of thing has never happened. Although it is a bit stupid, it is a way to save lives.
For a while, the gentry and wealthy businessmen couldn't figure out whether the account book in Zhou Tingru's hand was true or false.
