Live streaming life: The ancients begged not to stop

After watching the video on the sky curtain, several emperors sat there thoughtfully.

In fact, we can’t blame the emperors. After all, those who sit in this position are all lonely people.

No one can be completely trusted.

……

After watching the video, Qi Cheng went to make some food.

After finishing, I didn’t want to continue watching videos, so I picked up an old book from the bookshelf and read it.

Open any page and you will find it talks about wrongful convictions in ancient times.

The nobles outside the sky were stunned. Why did the host only find so many things? Could he make something interesting?

For example, let’s play the previous version of My Fair Princess.

Qi Cheng looked at the question and pondered it. There must have been a lot of unjust, false and wrongful convictions in ancient times.

The most famous case is probably Yue Fei's.

But after he looked carefully, he found that the article was not about this matter.

Instead, it was a case that occurred during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty.

One summer morning in the eighth year of the Jiajing reign, before daybreak, a man named Zhang Zhu was carrying a fruit basket to Houhai to stock up. Suddenly, he tripped over something on the ground. Upon closer inspection, he found a person lying on the ground. Upon touching him, he felt the person's body, which was already ice-cold.

When he saw his hands were covered in blood, he panicked and dropped the basket and the fruit knife inside. He hurried home and climbed onto the bed, trembling all over.

Not long after, officers from the Eastern Depot, following the fruit basket and bloodstains, found Zhang Zhu's home and arrested him red-handed, bringing him back for questioning. Li Qing, a Hundred-Commander in Charge of the case, determined that Li Zhu was the murderer and ordered a severe punishment. However, Zhang Zhu refused to admit the murder. Li Qing had no choice but to arbitrarily close the case and report it to the imperial court.

[However, when the case was reviewed by the Ministry of Justice, flaws were discovered.]

[So, the yamen runners were assigned to continue investigating the matter.]

[The real culprit was soon found: Zhang Fu, the deceased old lady's son.]

Wei Yingzhao, a doctor in the Ministry of Justice, was about to submit a letter to the emperor when he learned another piece of news.

[This Zhang Fu turned out to be a spy for Li Qing of the Eastern Depot. Li Qing also reported to the emperor in advance that Wei Yingzhao had accepted bribes.]

The Jiajing Emperor was furious and issued an edict severely criticizing the officials in the Ministry of Justice who were handling the case. Wei Yingzhao was imprisoned and the case was handed over to the three judicial departments for a joint trial.

The trial was presided over by Xiong Jia, the Right Censor-in-Chief of the Metropolitan Censorate. A second-rank official, he saw things more clearly than Wei Yingzhao, a fifth-rank doctor. The case was clear, but the situation was entirely due to a political power struggle.

Xiong Jia was a good official. He ultimately decided to respect the facts and replied to the Jiajing Emperor that Wei Yingzhao's verdict was correct. Of course, he also left room for maneuver in his memorial, suggesting that the case, including the criminals, witnesses, and coroners, be "reheard together."

Xiong Jia was a trusted minister of the Jiajing Emperor. He had once sided with the Emperor during the "Great Etiquette Controversy." He now understood that the East Factory was wrong and that he had been deceived, but the Emperor was still unhappy.

Getting someone to admit their mistakes is difficult, and getting the emperor to admit them is even more difficult! If court officials accuse the East Factory of mistakes, then it will be impossible for the emperor to rely on the East Factory to supervise the court officials, which will affect his own rule.

Emperor Jiajing was deeply troubled. Should he change the verdict? He brought the case files before him and perused them carefully. As he read, he discovered a detail that spurred him to resolve to fabricate a massive injustice, regardless of the facts.

Tang Dynasty

Li Shimin was a little surprised. He originally thought that several officials had accepted bribes and intended to frame a wrongful case.

Unexpectedly, even the emperor was doomed.

But according to the sky curtain, this Zhang Zhu is a fruit vendor.

What connection could there be between him and the emperor?

Could it be the bloodline of the previous emperor?

"Cheng Qian, why do you think this is happening? There's a huge difference between these two people."

"Father, Tianmu has mentioned this emperor before. He likes to practice Taoism, and it is not the traditional father-to-son succession. I think it is for the sake of the stability of the throne."

Li Shimin nodded, agreeing with Li Chengqian's guess.

.......

【The emperor before Emperor Jiajing was his cousin Zhu Houzhao.】

Because of the inheritance method, he was very wary and disgusted with the relationships left by his cousin.

[For example, Zhu Houzhao's two incompetent uncles were punished by him.]

The people outside the sky curtain thought about it and decided that these two uncles must be the ones who stole the dragon robe.

Let's get back to the case. The wrongly accused Zhang Zhu was once a servant of the Xia family.

【And Zhu Houzhao's queen was from the Xia family.】

First, Jiajing dismissed Xiong Jia from his post for "favoritism and partiality," regardless of the truth.

[Secondly, the Ministry of Justice was ordered to re-examine the case and "torture and question" Zhang Zhu, which meant that the results of the East Factory's trial should be followed.]

The case dragged on until the autumn, when Xu Zan, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, personally pronounced the verdict: Zhang Zhu was executed immediately; Zhang Fu was immediately released; Wei Yingzhao, the Doctor of the Ministry of Justice, was exiled to Yunnan; and Xiong Jia, the Right Censor-in-Chief, was dismissed and returned home. Upon learning of the verdict, public opinion was in uproar.

Afterwards, Zhang Zhu's mother, overcome with grief, committed suicide by jumping into the moat.

[This case is purely to make an example of someone, to scare the monkeys, so that those in-laws and others will behave themselves.]

[If you dare to move, he will still kill you! ]

.......

After reading this case, Qi Cheng felt that it was a bit like a folk story.

So I did some special research, and I didn't expect there was any record of this case in the History of Ming Dynasty.

The Ming History, Criminal Law, records: "Zhang Fu, a citizen of the capital, killed his mother and complained that Zhang Zhu had done the murder. However, the emperor, believing that Zhu was a servant of Empress Wuzong, deliberately had him killed."

Ming Dynasty

After reading it, Zhu Yuanzhang remained silent. He felt that if he were in that position, he would probably choose this too.

But he would not spare the other people, Zhang Fu and Li Qing. He could find any reason to kill them dozens of times.

During the Jiajing period, Xu Zan felt as if the sky had fallen and that his official career might be over.

He remembered the Ma assassination case in the Qing Dynasty that Tianmu had mentioned before. The Minister of Justice at that time simply resigned from his post.

Should I also retreat to the mountains?

But when he thought about Emperor Jiajing in the palace, he became unsure again.

If you submit a letter at this time, you may run into trouble.

You must know that at this time, the emperor was not wrong, the only ones who were wrong were the ministers, so if things go wrong, they will have to use their own heads to quell the unrest among the people.

Thinking of his own fate, Xu Zan felt that his back was already wet.

For the sake of my children and wife at home, I might as well commit suicide.

Alas, no matter what, my reputation will be ruined.

.......

Qi Cheng finished checking the information on his phone and stood in front of the window to look at the night view outside.

Cars come and go, and life is full of flavor.