I

  Chapter 536 533【Another big fish】

  Cao Benshu and Liang Tingxin, two honest officials, guarded the blacksmith shop for several days, but they did not see anyone coming to set fire to the house.

  The officials of the Quzhou Prefecture Grand Court came to notify Fan's court session.

  Murder cases involved must be tried in public, that is, people can sit in on them.

  The first trial of this case was conducted in Xi'an County Court.

  The court was adjourned several times before and after, and the initial witness testimony all pointed to Feng Risheng deliberately pushing people down the stairs.

  But in the last court session, the testimony of the witnesses was completely changed. The deceased was not killed by Feng Risheng intentionally, but was killed by Feng Risheng's entourage by mistake. Feng Risheng only punched him twice at that time, and it was not a deliberate beating. He was drunk and quarreled, and it was settled by paying some money to the family of the deceased. That entourage committed manslaughter and was sentenced to exile in Taiwan.

  Because of active compensation, the family of the deceased did not appeal.

  In ancient China, there were not only appeals, but also a death penalty review system.

   Only serious crimes such as treason can be sentenced to "beheaded and executed", but it is not direct killing. First hand it over to the Ministry of Punishment for trial, then to the Metropolitan Procuratorate for review, then to Dali Temple for trial, and finally to the emperor for approval.

   There is also a kind of "cutting the prison waiting", commonly known as execution after autumn.

  Prior to execution, the prisoner may appeal. Even if there is no appeal, it must be submitted to the Ministry of Criminal Justice for review, and finally to the emperor for signature.

  In terms of system, every death row prisoner in ancient China was beheaded after the emperor signed it. In actual operation, of course, this is impossible. Basically, the Ministry of Punishment and the cabinet just go through it once, otherwise, when encountering a negligent emperor like Wanli, the death row prisoners all over the world will laugh to death.

  After Zhao Han reformed the judicial office, he still retained the death penalty review system, but there was no need to disturb the emperor and the cabinet. The Ministry of Punishment and Dali Temple could handle it by themselves.

   Only when the lawsuit went all the way to Dali Temple, the emperor and the cabinet would come forward.

  On this day, Dai Wenmeng and Mei Zhuyou dressed up in disguise and went to the trial in civilian clothes. It was Dai Wenmeng's idea to urge Fan's grievance to overturn the case. He wanted to see how the local officials would deal with it.

Chen An walked up to them and sat down, and said in a low voice: "We can't catch the officials, the witnesses have already been bribed. The Fan family refused to withdraw the complaint, so the Zheng family went to contact the witnesses and wrote down their testimony for them to collude. Even if it can be proved that the Zheng family bought witnesses, there are no loopholes in the lawsuit. The local judge's judgment, whether it was last year or today, must be completely legal."

  Plum and Zhuyou sighed: "Officials are not stupid, they like money, and they like their own heads even more. The Zheng family is domineering, and they can be arrested if they are checked. But the local officials, I'm afraid they can only catch some little ones."

  Chen An said: "If Zheng's family is arrested, the officials must be confessed."

   "So what if you confess?" Dai Wenmeng sneered, "Officials don't admit it, saying they were slandered, how can they show evidence of their crimes? Your Majesty said, we honest officials should avoid arresting officials indiscriminately without evidence."

  If there is no evidence, the clean government officials can arrest people randomly, then it is no different from the Jinyiwei, and it is the Jinyiwei when the power is the greatest.

  Mei Zhuyou said: "The only ones who can be arrested now are the officials in charge of project bidding, the officials who helped the Zheng family bully the city, and the wardens and guards in the prison. Other officials can be completely dismissed."

  Dai Wenmeng reminded: "Don't forget the mayors, village chiefs and peasant associations outside the city!"

   "Yes, these people deserve to die too," Mei Zhuyou gritted his teeth and said, "Especially the presidents of the peasant associations. His Majesty formed the peasant associations to help the peasants stand out, but now they have become accomplices in exploiting the peasants."

   "嗙!"

  Justice Bao Shouyue slapped the gavel: "Take the plaintiff!"

  Fan was taken to the plaintiff's seat, and the murder suspect Feng Risheng was brought there immediately.

  Feng Risheng was full of smiles, and he was fat and white. He seemed to have eaten well in the past few days in custody.

  The clerk states the case, and the first witness is brought in.

   That is a shopkeeper of a restaurant.

   "The day Shu Shouyi was killed, were you there?"

   "Present."

   "What day and time is it?"

   "After the Lantern Festival last year, the eighteenth day of the first lunar month in the lunar calendar was around noon."

   "You state what you have seen and heard."

"At that time, Caomin was at the counter. He heard from the staff that there was a fight upstairs, so Caomin planned to go upstairs to persuade the fight. But it was Shu Shouyi who drank too much and bumped into Mr. Feng...Feng Risheng who came back from his hand. I don't know who cursed first, the two of them They quarreled and then wrestled together... Feng Risheng was drunk and was knocked down. Feng Yun, Feng Risheng's entourage, was filled with righteous indignation, and also wrestled with Shu Shouyi. Both of them were drunk, and during the scuffle, Shu Shouyi was pushed downstairs Fall to death."

   "Did you witness Feng Yun push Shu Shouyi downstairs?"

   "The grass people saw it with their own eyes."

   "Didn't Feng Risheng push it?"

   "Feng Risheng was already beaten and lay on the ground."

   Several witnesses came to court one after another, and the content described was almost exactly the same.

   Immediately afterwards, the autopsy report submitted by Wu was confirmed to have fallen to his death, with multiple falls all over his body, and the back of his head was also broken.

  Everything is clear, and last year's first-instance judgment will be maintained!

   Moreover, the case has been tried twice, and the family of the deceased still has one chance to appeal, which is to go to the provincial court in Hangzhou.

  If the provincial court also sentenced in this way, then they can only go to the Dali Temple in Nanjing to appeal for injustice.

   Alarmed Dali Temple, definitely alarmed the emperor!

  Feng Risheng was acquitted in court, suddenly turned to look at Fan, pinched his neck and smiled at Fan.

  Fan shivered in fright, thinking that there was an imperial envoy behind him, and immediately burst into tears with confidence: "I am wronged! Bullies collude with corrupt officials and want to drive the common people to death!"

  The people who came to hear the trial, seeing Fan's miserable appearance, all whispered to each other.

   "Silence!"

  Bao Shouyue slapped the gavel: "Immediately leave the court, if you dare to act violently again, it will be regarded as disturbing the court!"

Seeing this situation, Mei Zhuyou was very unhappy: "Judges at the prefecture and county levels can only decide on one case of wrongful conviction, and at most they will be demoted or dismissed. Something went wrong. What's the point of making them lose their jobs? If we don't throw them into prison, our trip will be in vain!"

   "Let's meet tomorrow for a meeting, maybe there will be new clues." Dai Wenmeng said.

  The next day, ten officials of integrity met, and the remaining two officials of integrity protected the blacksmith and his wife.

  Feng Yue took out his small notebook with a smile, opened the record and said, "A big fish is about to be caught again. The prefect Liu Anyong, guess whose relative it is?"

   "Who is it?" Everyone became alert.

  Feng Yue said: "Liu Anyong, a native of Luling County. This guy has a lot of background, he is the younger brother of Liu Anfeng, Minister of the Household Department!"

  Everyone gasped, they were the relatives of the Conglong heroes again.

  Liu Anfeng successively served as the magistrate of Ganzhou, the Zuobu political envoy of Jiangsu, the Zuo Shilang of the household department, and the secretary of the household department. Due to his outstanding ability and outstanding political achievements, he was promoted rapidly all the way.

  When Chen Maosheng was in Ganzhou, he personally took care of the political work of farmers, and Liu Anfeng made great efforts to assist him.

  Liu Anfeng was not only appreciated by Zhao Han, but also a close family friend with Chen Maosheng.

Feng Yue said again: "This Liu Anyong is not only Liu Anfeng's brother. He also has a wife in Luling County, and he secretly raised a concubine in Quzhou Mansion. This concubine is exactly Zheng Hongyi's concubine niece! "

   "How did you find out about such a private matter?" Mei Zhuyou asked.

Feng Yue said with a smile: "I heard from Huang Zhifu that she asked Liu Anyong to investigate the embankment, but Liu Anyong concealed the fact that the river embankment cut corners. These days, I have been following Liu Anyong and found that he would go to a place every two days. Residential houses. I pretended to rent a house there, and asked the neighbors. I got the news from the maid in Liu Anyong's room!"

  Dai Wenmeng clenched his fist and said, "This man can be arrested!"

  For officials taking concubines, it is like gentry taking concubines. As long as there is no trouble, the Ministry of Officials is too lazy to investigate and punish.

   And Liu Anyong is even more careful, he does not take concubines, and only raises concubines.

   This guy obviously didn't dare, because officials took concubines at the place where they took office, not to mention the Datong court, even the Ming Dynasty strictly prohibited it.

  The Ming Dynasty clearly stipulated that after taking office, officials were not allowed to marry wives and concubines in the local area, and were not allowed to buy land and build houses in the local area. This is the fear of collusion between magistrates and gentry!

  The same is true in the new dynasty of Datong. When officials take concubines, the court turns a blind eye. If one dares to take a concubine or keep an outsider in the place where one takes office, once found out, one will be dismissed at least, and severely punished.

Mei Zhuyou said: "It's no wonder that Quzhou's officialdom is rotten. It turns out that Liu Anyong, the magistrate of the government, is the key figure. Liu Anyong is the younger brother of Liu Anfeng, the Minister of the Household Department, and he took Zheng Hongyi's concubine niece as his wife. One of Zheng Hongyi's sons is Another son of Hubu Langzhong married Li Gelao’s niece and granddaughter. Hubu Shangshu Liu Anfeng is also close friends with Rites Shangshu Chen Maosheng. We all know that Chen Shangshu is His Majesty’s right-hand man!”

  Dai Wenmeng asked: "Is Liu Anyong's house big?"

  Feng Yue shook his head and said: "It's not very big, it's just an ordinary house. According to my guess, with Liu Anyong's caution, it is very likely that the house has not been transferred."

   "Continue to investigate this Liu Anyong!" Dai Wenmeng ordered.

  As the magistrate, Huang Fei suddenly wanted to check the housing conditions in the city, so she personally went to obtain the files of the housing in the city. In order not to overwhelm others, they only said that they would carry out a housing project, like the emperor in Nanjing, to build low-rent housing for civilians who did not have a house to live in.

   Soon found the information about the house, the owner's name was Liu Qi. The file shows that he is a local, but the household registration information cannot be found at all.

   Then another thing was found out, Liu Anyong and the concubine had already given birth to a son.

  Everyone continued to mark, and only after half a month did they get new clues.

  A confidant of Zheng's family went to the house quietly, with something stuffed in his chest.

   Feng Yue deliberately drank to pretend to be drunk, staggered and bumped into it, feeling that the buddy was hiding silver dollars in his arms.

   Check that guy again, from a trading company.

  This business company has a mining license for iron mines, which was Zhao Han's reward for those who contributed to the meritorious service. However, as the anti-corruption officer went into the mountain to check, he found that the trading company had crossed the border to mine, and even forcibly occupied the land of the people in the mountain.

   "Land policy is involved, this matter has become a big mess!" Dai Wenmeng exclaimed.

  Plum Zhuyou said: "Are these people crazy?"

Dai Wenmeng said: "There is not much food to grow in the mountains, but mining iron ore makes money. After the Zheng family occupied the land of the mountain people, they asked the mountain people to help dig the mines. The mountain people can get wages and grain compensation from the Zheng family. As for the death in the mining accident, I can only admit that I am unlucky. This way, no common people will come to Fucheng to complain."

   "What happened to the guy who gave Liu Anyong money?" Mei Zhuyou asked doubtfully.

Dai Wenmeng said: "I guess it's the dividends from the mine. Liu Anyong is too cautious, he can't even trust the Zheng family. The monthly dividends don't dare to be stored in the Zheng family's ticket number, nor dare to store them in Datong Bank. Let the Zheng family directly Send the money to the outer house. It is estimated that every year or so, he will send his confidants to quietly transport the money back to his hometown in Jiangxi."

  Mei Zhuyou said: "It involves land policy, and it involves so many elders in the court and China. I suggest that you should inform His Majesty about the matter."

  Dai Wenmeng said: "I will write a letter, and you will take it back to Nanjing yourself."

  (end of this chapter)