Kuai Chuan's face-slapping gold finger

Chapter 61

On the day of the trial, people from Xingyang County were crowded outside the main hall of the yamen, and the yamen servants did not drive them away.

At this time, Yang Zhao was wearing a blue official gown and a black gauze hat, and was sitting under the plaque of "Mirror Hanging High", but he saw his clear eyes, his official prestige, and his voice was calm and serious: "Ascension hall!"

"Mighty—" the yamen servants tapped the water and fire sticks, and the sound of "duk duk duk" made the two kneeling in the hall panic.

Yang Zhao sternly said: "Who is in the hall, report the name."

"Cao, Caomin Zhang San, from Pu'an Village." Zhang Dahu stammered, but his wife was a little calmer than him: "Liu Xiaonan, a village woman, from Pu'an Village."

"What's the report?"

A book office read out the petition aloud, and Yang Zhao ordered the two to make a statement one by one. Hearing the grievances of the Zhang family, there was a lot of noise from the people watching.

Yang Zhao Xingmu patted it, and asked: "Since there is a grievance, when the questioning was recorded, you were told to write the truth, and to report the grievance, why did you draw it?"

"The woman was deeply shocked at the time, and with all the witnesses and confessions, everyone's words were convincing. The woman really thought that my son had done such evil things. She was angry and sad, and she had no intention of seeking the truth. That's why..." Liu Xiaonan Tears fell straight down, as if she was immersed in deep pain and self-blame: "But later, the woman realized that my son is such a person? The woman watched him grow up, usually The most well-behaved, even an ant is reluctant to step on it, let alone a person? The woman cheered up and secretly investigated the events of the day with his father. We found many clues, thinking that my son was innocent. Innocent, but even his own parents don't believe him, and being abandoned by his closest relatives, he is probably already ashamed and doesn't want to live anymore, so he swallowed all the grievances in his stomach, woo..."

Zhang San choked with sobs and said, "Fugui! It's my parents who are sorry for you!"

The main hall echoed with the howls and cries of the two of them one after another.

The people who were watching were all deeply moved, and those who were soft-hearted were already weeping silently.

"Silence!" Yang Zhaomeng patted the wood, and the hundreds of people fell silent immediately in fright. He continued to ask: "As mentioned in the certificate, the Wang family had tampered with Wang Cuihua's body, which led to the inspection of Wang Cuihua. Mistake, do you have evidence?"

"Caomin has evidence. The Wang family's daughter-in-law, Mrs. Qin, admitted that the bruises and scratches on Wang Cuihua's body were made by Wang Dalang himself, just to frame my son!" Zhang San said loudly, thinking of his benefactor. Now, with today's autopsy methods, Wu Zuo can't tell whether the scars came from before or after death, and the confession is naturally not enough to overturn their lies.

"Oh?" Yang Zhao said, "It is said that the Qin family will go to court."

After the books were called, another woman in filial piety was brought to the hall. She had an ordinary appearance, a thick frame, dark and dry skin, and she looked like she often went to the ground.

After kowtowing, Qin kept her head down, but the magistrate always kept silent. She was flustered, so she quietly raised her head to glance at her, and saw the magistrate's eyes staring at her deeply, which made her tremble all over.

When the county master asked her what happened that day, Qin stammered and admitted Zhang San's statement, saying that the sister-in-law's body was already cold when she was brought home, and there was no injury on her body at that time.

Yang Zhao asked, "Then why didn't you say it?"

Qin said tremblingly: "They...they said that if a wife sues her husband, she will be beaten to death..."

"Aren't you afraid now?"

"Sanggong... passed away three months ago..." Qin covered her face and choked up.

The people who were watching made buzzing discussions, and occasionally heard words such as "retribution" and "viciousness". Yang Zhao ordered the hall to be silent, and interrogated several witnesses one after another. They called for help, but they dared not show up because they were afraid of the great power of the Zhang family. Some people even saw Zhang Fugui throwing his body and arrested him.

But today, they all overturned the previous confession, Yang Zhao laughed in his heart, let it be that one or two witnesses made mistakes, but everyone was wrong?Do you really think they are fools?And look at the county magistrates, master bookkeepers, scribes, etc. in the hall, all of them have ugly faces.

This is Nie Xiangwen's bad idea for the Zhang family?Using a group of ignorant people as gunmen?They don't think that false accusation and perjury are trivial matters, do they?
After all the witnesses were interrogated, Yang Zhao asked, "Mr. Liu, did you ever learn to read?"

Liu Xiaonan was taken aback for a moment, not knowing how to get here, and subconsciously shook her head.

"Just now I saw that you answered fluently and your words were fluent. I was thinking, who is teaching you behind your back?" Yang Zhao said in a casual tone, but it was like a thunderclap on the ground, which made Liu Xiaonan speechless for a long time.

"My lord! What do you mean by such irrelevant things? There are witnesses and confessions. Could it be that... Your lord is afraid of causing trouble and is unwilling to let the case review?" Zhang San's expression changed, and he howled out: "Folks, please help me, my son is still in death row, and I don't know how much he has suffered..."

"Of course I want to interrogate. For today's matter, we only need to verify whether Wang Cuihua was drowned or smothered to death as Wu Zuo said, and then we will know who is lying." Yang Zhao said calmly, It seems that everything is under control.

But Zhang San breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that there is no physical evidence for this matter, Wang Cuihua's body has been buried in the ground for several months, and they bought all the witnesses, how can the county master argue?
"Tomorrow, I will open the coffin for an autopsy."

"W-what?!" Zhang San and Liu Xiaonan were dumbfounded on the spot, and the people on the platform were speechless for a while.

"Don't you know? Even if there is only a skeleton of the deceased, you can still wash the skull, use a clean hot soup bottle to pour the soup carefully, enter it from the forehead point, and see if there are fine sand particles flowing out from the nostril orifices. In this way, it can be determined whether the death was caused by drowning or not. Because Gai fell into the water before he was alive, he took air from his nose and inhaled sand, but he did not die after death." Yang Zhao continued, regardless of the surprised and suspicious expressions of the people, "In this way, we can know whether the case is serious or not. It needs to be re-examined, the witnesses in the court today must have lied once, and as for the false accusation in the court... the false accusation will stop at a hundred sticks and travel three thousand miles."

"Really...really?" Liu Xiaonan asked slightly tremblingly, her lips trembling.

How is this possible?It's different from what you said!

Qin and the several witnesses kneeling in the hall all showed panic. The three watch cards were useless. As soon as they heard the word "stick one hundred", they rolled their eyes and fell to the ground fainted. .

Seeing this, Yang Zhao patted Xingmu, and said with a cold snort, "What? Didn't the person who instigated you behind the scenes tell you the laws of the Hong Kingdom?"

"..." Liu Xiaonan couldn't support her knees anymore, and collapsed on the ground.

Now, who else doesn't understand?The officials in the hall made eye contact with each other, looking proud. They had been holding their breath for a long time. This case was handled together by everyone. How could these unruly people be allowed to look down on them?But the people outside the hall started whispering, and then their voices became louder and insulting.

The daughter-in-law of the Wang family, Mrs. Qin, came to her senses after being scolded. She cried and knelt and climbed a few steps forward: "My lord! The folk woman's heart was deceived by lard. It was Mrs. Liu who promised to use money to confuse the common woman, so the common woman did this. Wait for the foolishness, please forgive the woman this time!"

The rest of the perjury witnesses also reacted, and hurriedly begged for mercy, the sound of kowtowing made one's teeth sore.

Yang Zhao gave Qin Shi a disgusted look, as if he saw something dirty: "I heard that Wang Dalang treats you very well. You have been married to the Wang family for eight years and have never conceived, but he has never been disrespectful to you. Sister-in-law, Wang Cuihua is the sister-in-law you watched and grew up with."

Yang Zhao's words seemed to wake up something, Qin's expression was a little blurred, and his eyes gradually softened.

"Now that Wang Cuihua died in vain, and Wang Dalang passed away due to illness, you were the one who worried the most before his death, but what about you? The bones of the two of them are not yet cold, but you help their enemies insult their reputation before and after death! Yours Where did your conscience go? Are you not afraid of the sun, are they watching you in the sky?!"

Qin was shocked and looked up nervously. She only saw the vermilion beams of the main hall and the plaque of "Mirror Hanging High" not far away. She was confused and said indiscriminately: "Conscience? Who has no conscience?" ? If he had a conscience, how could he leave me alone and leave me alone? How could he not have left anything for me? How would I live as a widow?”

"Wang Dalang knew that there was a gap between you and your natal family. In order to let your natal family treat you kindly after his death, he gave them all his life savings, and changed the deed of the house into your name as your dowry. I also invited Lizheng and the elders of the clan to notarize it, thinking about it, after you pass the hot filial piety, your natal family will come to pick you up..."

How is it possible... Mrs. Qin shook her head, tears dripped down on the green brick floor, and the two faces of Wang Dalang and Wang Cuihua appeared intertwined in her mind. Since the death of her father-in-law and mother-in-law, the three of them have always depended on each other for life, and she once regarded Wang Cuihua as her own Girl, what blinded her to make her do such a thing?Thinking about it now, it was as if she had been bewitched, and she didn't even recognize her.

Mrs. Qin wiped away her tears and kowtowed respectfully: "President's wife, plead guilty."

Yang Zhao ignored her, took out a stack of papers from the long case, and read: "In the seventh year of Hongli, Zhang San occupied his elder brother's farmhouse, disregarding the wishes of his widow and wife, and forcibly forced the hired money to marry him far away. Send the frontier guards into the army."

"In the ninth year of Hongli, Mrs. Liu happened to meet Luo widower from the same village who saved Widow Lian's life, and falsely accused the two of having an affair, intending to intimidate her for money. Widow Lian had no choice but to follow in order to protect her reputation. A total of 20 taels of profit, according to the law, one hundred sticks, no stabbing."

"In the 14th year of Hongli, Zhang Sanhao gambled and lost all his money, so he and Liu's brother dug up the ancestral grave at night, opened the coffin and stole property, and should be executed according to the law."

"In the 16th year of Hongli, the cattle from the Li family in the same village trampled on the Zhang family's field. After the Li family paid compensation, Zhang San was still not relieved. He secretly poisoned the old cow to death. According to the law, he should stick a hundred sticks to avoid stabbing."

"..."

All in all, there are 27 crimes in total. He slapped a stack of certificates on the long case, and scolded: "Your Zhang family has been running rampant in the countryside for more than ten years, and every certificate on it has the seal of the sufferer. People visited and investigated, and everything turned out to be true, and these alone can make the two of you die a few times!"

"I, I..." Liu Xiaonan suddenly stuck her neck in pain, her tongue stretched out, her face was pale, her whole body twitched, she was so frightened that she had epilepsy, and water stains spread from her lower body...

In the end, all those suspected of making false accusations were punished accordingly, ranging from a cane to a beheading. Yang Zhao has already handed over the cases of more than imprisonment to the state government, presumably the magistrate of Wu County, who has been promoted to general judgment, will entertain them well .

After this incident, the prestige of the magistrate quickly spread throughout Xingyang County, especially in Pu'an Village. The villagers rejoiced that someone finally took care of Zhang Dahu's family. I brought a lot of things from home, or a basket of eggs, or some fruits and vegetables, and a lot of bamboo utensils.

The villagers stubbornly placed the gift of thanks at the gate of the county government office, kowtowed a few more times, and went back silently.

As for the person who instigated Zhang San, they hid themselves well. Although Zhang San and Liu Xiaonan confessed to Nie Xiangwen long ago, their words were groundless and without any evidence. Yang Zhao was busy with the river embankment, so he let it go Nie Xiangwen stepped forward.

When he was moving bricks on the embankment with his husband every day, an official ship from central Beijing stopped at the ferry in Xingyang County, and a woman in her forties got off the boat. Her demeanor is calm, and she can tell at a glance that she has Tibetan writing and ink on her chest, and poems and books on her belly. Looking at the prosperous Xingyang County, the woman sighed quietly: "Xiangyu, tell me... is he really here?"

The maidservant in a green skirt beside the woman said respectfully: "Madam, don't worry, this time, we will definitely be able to find the young master."

(End of this chapter)