Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 235 0230 [Peachy Injustice Case]

The public opinion box has been nailed up for five days, and the relevant official documents have also been sent out.

Inside and outside the city, notices have been posted on all major traffic arteries.

"Every army will go out, first let the heart and the township guide go forward, battalion by battalion, each with jumping gear, surprise soldiers, and horse troops go out first, go to the camp one mile away, and then line up in front. The front team and the garrison team each stand in ambush..."

Zhu Ming was explaining "The General Essentials of Martial Arts", and he had already reached the chapter on the military march.

While explaining, while reviewing.

Although Zhang Tong has read the Art of War, he has never read "The General Manual of Martial Arts".Firstly, this book has only been published for a few decades; secondly, because it is too large and has few readers, booksellers don’t like to print this kind of book.It is difficult to buy in the market, and basically only high-level generals collect it in their homes.

The whole book is written in vernacular, which is easy to understand at a glance, and there is no need for Zhu Ming to explain it.

The content of this article, in addition to the marching order, is mainly to distinguish the formation and flag of each army.And in different situations, what kind of flag should be raised, and how to use the flag to convey messages.

I can only memorize it by rote!

Zhang Bo quickly copied it with a pen, and drew another copy according to the flags of various colors, and also emphasized the number and proportion of each arm.

Li Bao was a little dizzy when he heard it. He hated reading, and even more hated memorizing by rote.It is more suitable for him to learn while fighting, and to recognize flags has to be memorized in practice. It is too difficult for him to learn directly from books.

"Sir," Li Bao couldn't help interrupting, "I'm free, isn't it against the law to make some small flags by myself?"

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "The smaller the better."

Bai Sheng also heard it like a big head: "I made a small flag with Li Sange, and then used stones to replace the army, and laid it out according to what was written in the book. I'm afraid it will be easier to remember, and I really can't remember it just by reading the book."

"This method is very good." Ju Ming thought it was easy to remember, and he ignored the feelings of everyone.

After practicing martial arts for a while, it was already mid-afternoon.

Bai Sheng went out with the key and went to the state office to open the public opinion box, which was empty.

He went back and said to Liu Shiren, "Not a single letter."

Liu Shiren ran to find Zhu Ming: "My lord, if the people of the state may have doubts, they should send their own letter to set an example."

Zhu Ming said, "We are already preparing."

……

Guo Wenzhong, who secretly took refuge in Zhu Ming, is the deputy section chief of the Judicial Bureau and has worked in Jinzhou for more than ten years, so he naturally knows the typical unjust cases.

After getting off work that day, Guo Wenzhong quietly went to the suburbs.

Until it was dark, he came to a residential house and knocked lightly on the door: "Zeng Dalang, Zeng Dalang..."

"Who?" came a voice from inside the room.

"Guo Wenzhong."

"I don't know, it's already late, come back tomorrow."

"Don't you want to avenge your mother and wife?"

There was a moment of silence in the room, and the door opened suddenly: "Come in and talk."

Zeng Dalang's name is Zeng Xiaoduan, and he has a younger brother and a younger sister in his family.He asked his younger siblings to stay in the bedroom, and brought Guo Wenzhong a bowl of water: "What are you doing?"

Guo Wenzhong said: "I am Guo Wenzhong, the deputy criminal investigation officer."

Zeng Xiaoduan originally had expectations, but instantly turned into disappointment: "You are a civil servant, you can't solve the case for me."

Guo Wenzhong said: "You know that a prefect has come, he is a good official who loves the people. As soon as he arrived at the place, he asked the farmers on both sides of the Moon River to stop panning for gold and go home for spring farming. Forget about Hua Shigang, who only collected land tribute according to the quota. And set up a public opinion box outside the state government?"

"I've heard it, maybe it's just for fame." Zeng Xiaoduan said.

"If it's just fishing for fame, is there a general sentence for offending?" Guo Wenzhong asked.

Zeng Xiaoduan was silent.

Guo Wenzhong reprimanded: "If you are a son, you have a chance, and you should also think about avenging your mother, otherwise it would be unfilial! What's more, your wife died for no reason."

Zeng Xiaoduan explained: "I also ran, but I was beaten up a lot. There are younger siblings in the family who want to raise me. I can't have any more accidents. I have to wait until they get married."

"The case has been in the past six years, and it will be difficult to reverse the case if it drags on!" Guo Wenzhong woke up, "And good officials are hard to come by. If you miss this one, who will make the decision for you? If the prefect wants to do things, he has to break the situation, and he has to overturn the unjust case." Wei, your case will definitely be settled."

Zeng Xiaoduan thought for a while, went back to the room, brought a pen and paper, and asked, "Which yamen should the complaint be delivered to?"

Guo Wenzhong said: "To vote in the public opinion box, it is best to vote when there are many people."

Zeng Xiaoduan quickly studied the ink and wrote the complaint, his hands were shaking all the time while using the pen, probably due to the uncontrollable anger in his heart.

The gate of the city was closed, Guo Wenzhong was resting in an inn outside the city, and went to the city to go home at dawn.Pretend nothing happened, and go out to work on the criminal case on time.

In the middle of the morning, Zeng Xiaoduan brought his younger brothers and sisters to the state office. The younger brother is already 15 years old, and the younger sister is also 12 years old.Because of the murder, it is difficult to get married.

After posting the letters, Zeng Xiaoduan, brother and sister, knelt in front of the public opinion box and waited.

"Someone is complaining, someone is complaining!" Tuo, who had been arranged a long time ago, immediately yelled at the top of his voice.

After shouting for a while, more and more passers-by gathered.

The citizens of the state obviously knew about this case. Some thought it was an unjust case and expressed sympathy for the three brothers and sisters.Some people think it is an iron case and despise them extremely.

"Who wrote the letter and complained?" Bai Sheng, Zhang Tong, Li Bao and others all ran out to check the situation.

Zeng Xiaoduan said: "Zeng Xiaoduan, a scholar in Xicheng County, Jinzhou, defended his mother and wife, and asked the prefect to retry the murder case six years ago!"

Bai Sheng took out the key to open the public opinion box, and handed the petition to Liu Shiren.

After reading it, Liu Shiren said, "Follow me in."

Soon, the three brothers and sisters were brought before Zhu Ming.

The general case is as follows:

Zeng Xiaoduan is a scholar, and has married a wife. He has been married for four years and has no children.One day, his wife hanged herself, and Zeng Xiaoduan went to report to the officials.

At the beginning of the trial in the county government, the county magistrate ruled it a suicide.He believed that his wife had not had children for a long time, the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was not harmonious, and the mother-in-law forced the son to divorce his wife, so his wife chose to commit suicide.

Zeng Xiaoduan refused to accept and appealed to the state court, and found a torn piece of cloth at home, which he thought was left by the murderer's torn clothes.Wu Zuo analyzed the scars on the neck of the deceased, and confirmed that he was strangled to death, and then the body was moved to create the illusion of hanging.But the murderer can't be found.

Zeng Xiaoduan then searched for the murderer by himself, and began to suspect his cousin through the torn fabric.After secretly observing, it was found that there were indeed several unhealed scratches on my cousin's neck.

After the cousin was arrested, he pleaded not guilty, claiming that the fabric was not his, and that the scratch marks on his neck were from a fight with his wife.

After half a month of repeated interrogation, Zeng Xiaoduan's family servant suddenly ran over and surrendered himself.Said that he had committed adultery with the mistress (Zeng Xiaoduan's mother), and was bumped into by Zeng Xiaoduan's wife by accident.He was so frightened that he ran away in a panic. He heard that Zeng's wife had died that day, and suspected that the mistress killed his daughter-in-law to silence her.

After being beaten into a trick, Zeng Xiaoduan's mother admitted that she had committed adultery with her servant and killed her daughter-in-law.

After the case was judged, Zeng Xiaoduan appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the original verdict.He went to Xiangyang again, stopped the car driver of the prisoner and called for grievances, and the criminal commander ordered the Jinzhou Supervisory Court to retry.The original judgment is still upheld.

Zeng Xiaoduan repeatedly complained and was beaten several times.

A year later, the cousin's family suddenly took out forged land deeds and house deeds, and colluded with the county government officials to take away Zeng Xiaoduan's land, houses and shops.

Zeng Xiaoduan lost his mother and wife, and because his mother killed someone, he could no longer take the imperial examination.

After reading the indictment, Zhu Ming called Wu Mao and ordered, "Hand over to the Siliyuan for a retrial." Then he said to Zeng Xiaoduan, "The three of you, temporarily live in the backyard of the state office, lest you be murdered by Xiaoxiao."

"Thank you prefect!"

Zeng Xiaoduan ignited hope, knelt down and kowtowed heavily.

On the side of the Supervisory Court, Huang Gui got the complaint and began to look through the dusty files.

This case has already been concluded, the state court tried it once, the judicial court tried it twice, and with the approval of the Criminal Division, the case was properly settled.

Since Zhizhou asked for a retrial, Huang Gui had no choice but to retrial.

After spending two full days, Huang Gui read all the files and asked the official, "Where is this adulterer who surrendered himself?"

"I don't know." The official shook his head.

Huang Gui ordered to find the whereabouts of the adulterer, and soon got the news: the adulterer was only convicted of adultery, and he should be sentenced to one and a half years in prison according to the law.Because of the circumstances of surrender and his meritorious service in helping to solve the murder case, he was finally imprisoned in Siliyuan Prison for a year.After the sentence was over, he disappeared.

The key person in the case is missing, and this thing can't go on trial.

……

The judge, Li Daochong, was drinking in the back room of the judge's hall at the moment. When he heard the news from his confidant, he couldn't help laughing and said, "He wants to reverse the case and make a name for himself. He specifically picked a bizarre case that caused a lot of trouble."

In this case, the daughter-in-law was killed, the mother-in-law committed adultery, and the adulterer was still a servant.

All kinds of gossip factors are all in place, and the spread is extremely fast, and it has long become the topic of conversation among ordinary people.As long as the case can be overturned, the influence of public opinion will be greater than punishing the powerful!

"What's the order of the judge?" the official asked.

Li Daochong said: "The adulterers can't be found, so let them go about their business. Since he has set up a public opinion box, you send people to secretly submit a few complaints every night. They are all anonymous, making false accusations indiscriminately. Look at him." Will it take time to check?"

"What if he ignores the anonymous letter?" the official asked again.

Li Daochong said: "Then arrange manpower, write letters with real names, half of which are true and false, and let him toss slowly."

"Yes!" The official withdrew.

Li Daochong has already written a letter to sue, and plans to jointly impeach Zhu Ming for illegally seizing the gold and account books of Changping Division together with the transfer envoy and the criminal envoy.

On the day when Zeng Xiaoduan submitted the letter, at dusk.

Li Bao and Yang Pu took Zeng Xiaoduan and quietly left the city in disguise.

Although Zeng Xiaoduan didn't know where the adulterer fled, but the adulterer was a servant of his family and knew where his hometown was.

In ancient times, when moving, one rarely moved to a strange place unless there was no other way to go.Generally, they will seek refuge with relatives or friends, and they will always look for opportunities to return to their hometown to visit their ancestors' graves when they are able.

Even if the adulterer didn't live in his hometown, he probably went back to his hometown to visit his grave.

As long as you leave clues, you can follow the clues to find someone.Li Bao was in charge of arresting people, Yang Pu was in charge of investigation, Zeng Xiaoduan was in charge of identification, and the three of them formed a group to arrest them.

Li Bao felt quite sympathetic to Zeng Xiaoduan's experience, and comforted him: "Brother Zeng, don't worry, your lord will surely wash away your grievances."

Zeng Xiaoduan clenched his fists, then clasped his hands together and said, "Thank you, the prefect, for upholding justice, and thank you both for accompanying me around."

Yang Pu was extremely excited in his heart, he was actually able to take charge of such an important case as a gangster.That kind of psychological sense of accomplishment is happier than rewarding him with a hundred pens.

(End of this chapter)