The most arrogant in history

Huang Jian was startled, and ordered the guards to raise their rifles, shouting, "Everyone, be on alert, protect the emperor's ship!"

The old man who was crying out for justice on the shore was also quickly controlled and his mouth was covered.

Ye Kun frowned and said through the loud speaker: "Don't scare the person who is crying out for justice. Be civilized and bring him here."

Ma Zhao whispered, "Your Majesty, there are people responsible for this matter. Why do you have to intervene personally? I will arrange for my men to investigate this matter thoroughly."

"I know someone is responsible, but I can't just ignore the injustice they are saying to me. I'm asking about this to see if your Ministry of Justice has failed to do its job."

"The minister obeys the order."

Ma Zhao nodded and ordered the person crying out for justice to be brought up.

Not long after, an old man with white hair was tied up and taken onto Ye Kun's boat.

"Who told you to tie up the old man? Untie him quickly!" Ye Kun glared.

Huang Jian stepped forward and untied the old man.

"Your Majesty, I am innocent."

The old man knelt down, tears streaming down his face: "I met the emperor today, and my whole family is saved."

"Old man, we have abolished the kneeling ceremony long ago. The emperor and the people are equal and on an equal footing."

Ye Kun personally stepped forward, helped the old man up, and ordered a stool to be brought for the old man to sit down: "If you have any grievances, please speak slowly, and I will definitely make a decision for you."

The old man nodded and said to Ye Kun:

"Your Majesty, I am Cao Wang, a commoner from the southern part of Changshan. I have a son named Cao Qing. Cao Qing was originally a soldier. After his military service, he returned to his hometown to become the village chief because of his military merits. He also married a wife and a concubine...

Unexpectedly, this spring, Cao Qing's wife died of a sudden illness. The Cao family was so powerful that they colluded with the county magistrate and sentenced my son to poison his wife, in order to seize my property as compensation. My son refused to obey and was tortured into confessing. He has now been thrown into the death row of Changshan County and will be sentenced soon.

Ye Kun nodded and asked for some more details.

The old man spoke eloquently and clearly.

Ye Kun did not dare to make a decision and said to Ma Zhao:

"Immediately send someone to Changshan County to investigate this case. We must collect evidence and get to the bottom of it. We must not wrongly accuse the good guys, nor let the bad guys go."

Ma Zhao nodded and ordered three or five of his men to go ashore immediately and take Old Man Cao to Changshan County to investigate the case overnight.

After Old Man Cao left, Sang Buyi said:

"Your Majesty, you are the ruler of a country. You have so many important things to do. You cannot be distracted by such trivial matters. Civil lawsuits will naturally be reviewed and reviewed by the Ministry of Justice, and the final decision will be made."

Others said the same thing, thinking that Ye Kun shouldn't care about such trivial matters.

Because there are too many things like this, the emperor has to do nothing and cannot handle them all.

"What you said makes sense." Ye Kun sighed:

"But everyone should also know that the people's dissatisfaction with the court has always been in two aspects. First, the heavy taxes and levies have led to the people's miserable lives; second, the judicial system is lax and unfair, and there is corruption and abuse of power, leaving the people with no place to appeal.

Therefore, the judicial system is related to the safety of the country and society, so we must not be careless. "

Ma Zhao nodded and explained, "Your Majesty, don't worry. All death sentences will eventually be approved by me personally. For any suspicious cases, I will review them and even interrogate the parties involved to inquire whether they have been wronged."

The power to approve the death penalty used to be in Ye Kun’s hands.

Because Ye Kun is too busy, the power to approve the death penalty has now been completely handed over to the Ministry of Justice.

However, Ye Kun retained one rule - if more than three people were sentenced to death in the same case, he had to personally confirm it.

Ye Kun thought for a moment and asked, "How many death row prisoners were executed last year?"

"Three hundred and twenty-seven people, three hundred and ten men and seventeen women, all of whom have killed their fathers and mothers or committed extremely heinous crimes." Ma Zhao was indeed a good abacus, and remembered it clearly:

"There were 2,652 people sentenced to life imprisonment, all of whom were sent to hard labor camps to be chained and forced to do labor reform."

In fact, due to insufficient population, Ye Kun ordered that the death penalty be imposed with caution.

Those who can be killed or not will not be killed. Instead, they will be sent to hard labor camps to work until they die of exhaustion.

Therefore, the number of people executed each year is very small.

Every year, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people were sent to hard labor camps.

Ye Kun expressed satisfaction and asked, "What if a prisoner is wrongly accused? Is there a way to redress the injustice?"

Ma Zhao smiled and said, "For imprisonment of less than one year, the county will decide, but there will be local jurors who will participate in the judgment; for imprisonment of more than one year but less than three years, it needs to be re-examined and sentenced by the county; for imprisonment of more than three years but less than ten years, it needs to be decided by the state government; for imprisonment of more than ten years, the Ministry of Justice will directly decide.

The judicial and prison personnel of each state, county, and prefecture were all appointed by the Ministry of Justice and were subject to the dual supervision of the local government and the Ministry of Justice. If the common people wanted to appeal for grievances, they could directly skip one level and go to the higher government, and the government had to accept the case.

In fact, among the nine ministries, the Ministry of Justice does the best job.

The legal provisions are detailed and clear.

In particular, the establishment of local jurors is a major step forward.

This was also proposed by Ye Kun. In each county, 20 to 30 local jurors are elected by the public to participate in the trial of cases. Every time a county opens a court session, at least five jurors are required to be present to supervise the enforcement of the law.

Ye Kun nodded repeatedly: "This rule is good, but the implementation must be in place. If there is a law but it is not enforced, the law is meaningless.

Everyone should remember that the foundation of the stability of the country is the people, not the officials. If the officials are unqualified, they can be replaced at any time. Once the people lose their hearts, the country is finished. "

Ma Zhao sighed and said, "Your Majesty, I have done my best in the judicial and prison affairs. I have trained more than 70,000 professional judicial and prison personnel, and each of them knows the national laws by heart.

Every year, I review the performance of these people and give them rewards and punishments. But people’s hearts are not the same as they used to be. There are always bad apples in our team, and we can’t kill them all.”

Ye Kun thought for a moment and said, "We also need to improve the litigation system and train a group of civilian litigators. Civilian litigators can collect money to fight lawsuits and can also supervise our law enforcement."

Folk lawyers are the lawyers of later generations.

There is no such profession these days.

With the existence of private lawyers, a supervisory effect can be formed on grassroots criminal officials.

Ma Zhao laughed and said, "But this will affect the authority of our Ministry of Justice, interfere with our handling of cases, and make us have more and more things to do."

"If you are an official, don't be afraid of trouble. If you are afraid of trouble, go home and farm. Planting in spring and harvesting in autumn is the easiest."

Ye Kun looked at the crowd and said, "We must train talents in civil litigation. Those grassroots officials who have been dismissed and are familiar with the law can all take up this profession. Our universities should set up a major called 'Law' to study and formulate national laws, and also train talents as lawyers.

For example, those argumentative people in "Bamboo Forest Talks" can also become lawyers and supervise our law enforcement."

Sang Buyi smiled and said, "Your Majesty is also thinking about the people. He is worried that the people have grievances but nowhere to appeal. I think this suggestion is feasible and can be promoted."