Little Detective of the Tang Dynasty: What to do if you are beheaded at the beginning?

There were still more than 8,000 guan of tax money flowing out, and Governor Huang wrote a letter to Li Zhi shamelessly to plead for mercy.

He told the truth and explained tactfully that it was not his own problem, but that there was a traitor inside, who joined forces with some martial arts sect to commit this shocking robbery.

Li Zhi was silent after reading it. He also wanted to forgive Old Huang, but the money was too much, and he couldn't let the court suffer the consequences, right?

This is wrong.

Comrade Huang, you have a lot of problems with your thinking.

Since the incident happened in your jurisdiction, as a superior, you have an obligation to do so.

You can't get rid of your responsibility by saying "It has nothing to do with me".

The amount of tax money reported should be fully filled into the treasury.

Li Zhi thought about it and wrote: "First make up for the tax gap, then you can plan for the future."

The meaning of the letter is very clear. I don't care what method you use, anyway, you must make up this money to fill the treasury, otherwise, you will not be a governor.

There might even be a fatal disaster.

After receiving the letter, Huang Shishi came to the prison with a curse and beat Hu Changshi to vent his anger.

So annoying!

This was the 38th time that Lao Hu was physically attacked.

Even if he was jailbroken and escaped, he probably couldn't go back to Chongguang Tower and could directly join Wugenmen.

In the end, Huang Shishi coerced and bribed the wealthy merchants in Hongzhou to collect 8,625 strings of cash to complete the task.

Di Renjie found more than 30 internal ghosts in the Hongzhou government office. Most of them were ordinary clerks without real power.

But sometimes, it is convenient for such people to do things because they are on the front line.

How many leaders are like them?

Li Zhi instructed in the letter: "Anyone who steals taxes will be executed immediately without reporting."

The Tang law severely punished theft.

Article 282 of Tang Law Commentary stipulates: "For all thefts, thefts shall be punished with 50 lashes; 60 lashes for one foot, one more level for one piece; one year of imprisonment for five pieces, one more level for five pieces, and exile for fifty pieces."

The sentencing is based on the amount of silk cloth, so how much is one foot of cloth and one piece of cloth?

"New Book of Tang·Food and Goods Records" records: "A piece of silk is 3,200 coins, and later one piece is 1,600 coins."

From this, we can know that in the early Tang Dynasty, silk cloth was still very valuable, one piece was 3,200 coins, so one foot was 32 coins.

The price may be a little difficult to understand, you can convert it, one string of coins is about 6,000 yuan in later generations.

The amount involved in Hu Changshi's case is extremely huge, far exceeding the range of 50 pieces of silk cloth stipulated in Tang Law.

His identity is very special. As a government official, he colluded with the outside party to steal.

So, Li Zhi would never let him off easily! Hu Changshi was sentenced to the death penalty of "being torn apart by five horses".

What is being torn apart by five horses? It means tying ropes to five horses, and then tying them to his head, hands and feet.

Then let the horses run out, and rely on the strong pulling force to separate his limbs and head alive.

Of course, it is impossible to tear a person apart with only five horses, and usually multiple horses are prepared.

Being torn apart by five horses is definitely a higher level of punishment than beheading.

Its way of death is also more painful than beheading.

Not only must you endure the tearing pain of pulling, but also the despair of having no desire to live.

Usually this punishment process is very long, compared to the snap of beheading.

No one can imagine whether a person's mental state is stable after being torn apart by five horses.

So there was also the practice of "dismembering after death" in ancient times, and the representative figure was Shang Yang.

This time Hu Changshi was sentenced to "being torn apart alive", and Li Zhi's anger can be imagined.

In the Tang Dynasty, there was another person who was torn to pieces alive, and that was Li Cunxiao, a famous general in the late Tang Dynasty.

Li Zhi's actions did not mean that he was a cruel tyrant, but a move to enforce strict laws and intimidate the court.

He now urgently needs means to intimidate the court officials to consolidate the imperial power. Isn't this the opportunity?

As for the other participants, beheading is not excessive.

Three days later, Huang Shishi pushed Hu Changshi and other prisoners to the East Market and beheaded them, killing chickens and monkeys.

Many ordinary people did not know why so many people were beheaded suddenly.

Because the government office did not announce it, after all, it was a family scandal and was embarrassed to announce it to the public.

However, it did not affect the enthusiasm of the onlookers at all.

After all, beheading programs are still rare in the Tang Dynasty. I heard that there are new programs?

"Zhenguan Zhengyao" records: "From then on to the fourth year, 29 people in the country were sentenced to death, and almost to the point of punishment."

However, today, 39 people are to be executed at once.

Does that mean Li Zhi was more brutal than Li Shimin?

Definitely not. There are probably two reasons why there were so few death row prisoners in the fourth year of Zhenguan.The first is that history books are written in a haphazard way to whitewash the world's peace.

The second is that the provincial governors in various places adhere to the life motto of "less trouble is worse than more trouble" and conceal major cases.

As mentioned earlier, generally speaking, for cases above exile, the local government office must first submit them to the Dali Temple for preliminary examination. If any problems are found, the Dali Temple needs to send people to the local area for re-examination.

If something is found out, let alone whether the official hat can be kept, in serious cases, exile may be possible.

After the Dali Temple re-examination, it must be submitted to the Ministry of Justice for a third trial, and finally to the hands of the saint.

Just like passing five levels and killing six generals, you don't know what difficulties and setbacks you will encounter on the way.

Such a risky behavior, do you think which provincial governor is willing to do it?

Last time, in order to eliminate this phenomenon of concealment, Li Zhi specially praised Lu Yang and hoped that the provincial governors of various states would learn from him.

However, it was useless.

Now that almost half a year has passed, there are still very few cases.

There are no major cases, but there are more and more insignificant small cases.

What about Zhang San stealing a chicken today, Li Si stealing a duck tomorrow, and other trivial matters.

This is to show that he really did something.

Di Renjie didn't want to watch the execution, but he was forced by Song Zhen to watch the show.

"It's a rare opportunity, watch more."

"......" It's okay for you to let Di Renjie watch beheading, but chariot splitting is too cruel, I'm afraid there will be psychological trauma.

August 13, Hongzhou, cloudless, sunny.

In front of the Caishikou Gate of Dongshi in the city, the heaviest punishment in the history of the local area is about to be held.

And the number of beheadings is staggering.

However, Hu Changshi, who was dragged to the execution ground, was not afraid at all, but smiled.

His performance made Song Zhen narrow his eyes slightly.

Governor Huang ordered his men to behead a few people first and serve some appetizers to everyone.

You can't just dismember them right away, what if you scare the children?

There shouldn't be any children coming to watch the beheading, right?

When Hu Changshi's hands, feet and neck were tied with ropes, he still had a calm expression.

He even whistled provocatively at Song Zhen and others.

......