Kyoto is far warmer than northern Xinjiang, and spring blossoms bloom on the branches in the morning. Every night, the lights of thousands of families make up the spring bridge, which is very lively. Ten miles of red candles reflect the river of flowers, and all kinds of fragrance are beautiful. It is a good time to enjoy the spring and enjoy the spring.
But during the day, the capital is a little quiet. It seems that both the common people and the officials are a little sleepy and lazy, so there are not many pedestrians on the street.
At noon, a scholar with a gloomy face walked in through the east gate of Kyoto with the help of a woman. The expressions and actions of these two people did not look like mother and son, and they did not go to live in an inn, but went directly to an inconspicuous house in the west of Beijing. Only very few people knew that the real owner of this house was a member of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Doctor Yushi.
Spring sleepiness cannot be stopped, but it can be awakened. On a certain day in March, just like the day after the spring, several spring thunders struck for no reason, and a patter of spring rain fell, soaking every building and every alley in the capital.
After the Overwatch Council retrieved relevant corrupt officials and salt merchants from Jiangnan, the criminal case in the examination room was finally concluded. Except for a servant who was sentenced to three thousand miles, the other 17 officials involved in the case were all sentenced to death. This is His Majesty the Emperor. , and the evidence is so solid that no force dares to speak out, and no civil servant dares to raise the slightest opinion.
Guo Youzhi, Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites, was also sentenced to beheading. This is the most senior official who has been sentenced to death since the founding of the Qing Dynasty. When the news came out, the government and the public were shocked. It is said that even the Queen Mother went to His Majesty’s palace to intercede, but after His Majesty’s gentle words, he again After wiping away some tears of the emperor, it was changed to hanging in prison, and the whole body of Guo Shangshu was left. The Empress Dowager felt sad and said no more.
Sixteen other officials died with Guo Youzhi.
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The raindrops slowly fell from the sky and landed on the ground of Yanshikou, the busiest place in Kyoto on weekdays, but it still didn't drive away the people in Kyoto who were standing in the rain to watch their punishment.
Sixteen officials in white torture clothes knelt on the wooden platform that had already been set up. His clothes were already stained with blood, presumably he had suffered a lot of torture. These officials, who used to be bright in the past, now have dejected faces, messy hair, and look miserable. It's just that they don't know what method the Overwatch Council used. Finding his relatives among the crowd watching the execution, his lips were wide open, but he was still unable to speak.
The Third Division, who was ordered to serve prison sentences, and Mu Tie, the charge d'affaires of the Overwatch Council, sat under the canopy, looking at the scene in front of them. Mu Tie was expressionless, but the rest of the civil servants were a little uncomfortable. Those prisoners waiting to die under the execution platform were once their colleagues, and they had been happy together on the flower boat and drunk together on the wine table, but now they want to watch them die.
The rain falls on the eaves of the restaurant next to Yanshikou, and then flows down along the water channel beside the tiles, forming a small waterfall from the sky. There are so many buildings here, so there are more than a dozen small waterfalls, hitting the bluestone ground like a white dragon, making a pattering sound.
A high-ranking official stood up and announced the decree loudly, but was disturbed by the pattering of these small waterfalls, and seemed a little unclear. The crowd of onlookers only saw his mouth moving, but they didn't know what he was talking about. The last senior official looked serious and shouted sharply: "Cut!"
After hearing the word clearly, the onlookers immediately became excited, yelled and squeezed forward, wanting to get closer to the wooden platform to appreciate the rare bustle.
The executioner on the wooden platform spat, wiped off the rain on his face, put the sword behind his back, stepped forward, stretched out his left hand and gently pressed the back of the first prisoner's neck, confirmed the position of the joint, Then with a loud roar, the knife flashed!
When the knife fell, it made a muffled sound like a sharp knife cutting into pork.
With a sound of brushing, blood spurted out from the headless cavity, splashing far away. The prisoner's head slumped to the wooden platform, as if he was still afraid of the big sword of the Qing court, it rolled up rumblingly, and it rolled to the wooden platform without stopping due to the force of the rain. On the edge of the stage, it fell down.
Seeing a dazed, blood-stained head fall to their feet, the people in Kyoto, who were still excited before, took a big step back in fright.
Where the head rolled, a bloodstain was left behind, but it was washed away by the rain and quickly faded away without a trace.
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It wasn't until this moment that the people watching the execution gave out their applause, but there weren't many people who applauded, and they were not very orderly, and they seemed a little sparse. On the high platform, Mu Tie, who was sitting on the lowermost armchair and imprisoned, showed a look of hesitation on his face.
Immediately afterwards, the executioner made another stab, another head fell to the ground, another ray of blood went up to the sky, another cry of exclamation, and another life was gone forever. There were three executioners in total, but within a short time, sixteen prisoners were all beheaded, leaving only blood and corpses all over the floor.
As the beheading proceeded, the crowd of onlookers gradually grew bolder, and the voices of applause became louder and louder, and when the head of the ceremonial minister finally left his body tragically, the applause was even louder! Frightened the raindrops all over the sky and drifted away.
Several Yamen servants from the Kyoto Prefecture were busy looking for the head of the prisoner who had fallen earlier in the crowd, but they couldn't find it after searching for a long time.
After a while, a black dog ran out from the crowd, holding a head in its mouth, biting the ears on the head with its sharp teeth, looking around with a pair of dog eyes, but the light in the dog eyes made people feel It was cold.
"Wow!" The black dog got a scabbard on the buttocks of the Kyoto government servant, let go of the head in his mouth in pain, wailed several times, and jumped into the heavy rain.
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In the next few days, there were repeated actions. The Minister of the Ministry of Punishment was found guilty of embezzlement and perverting the law. Some gold and silver and some prohibited items were found in his third concubine's courtyard by the Supervisory Yuan. They were reported to the imperial court and transferred to the Dali Temple for discussion. Retirement and relegation to the Yizhou state judge, it was actually directly demoted from the first rank to the seventh rank.
Yizhou is far away in the south, full of miasma and heat, and I'm afraid that Han Zhiwei, the minister of the Ministry of punishment, will never return to the capital.
On the surface, Guo Zheng, the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, seemed to be unaffected, but the court still found an excuse and drove him directly to Jiangnan. Although Jiangnan is a place of beauty and beauty, the Overwatch Council has already been staffed everywhere in Jiangnan, and it only depends on when to make a move and what to do with him.
On the one hand, the civil service system in the DPRK was due to the relationship between the prime minister, and on the other hand, it also felt that the Overwatch Council had solid evidence and was not too ruthless, so it did not close it, and criticized the Overwatch Council because of this matter.
But all the officials knew that this was revenge. It was the Overwatch Council's blatant revenge for the incident in the lobby of the Ministry of Punishment because of the Commissioner Fan Xian who was far away in the northern region.
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Retaliation and anti-retaliation, control and anti-control, until a tacit balance is reached in the end, these are the constant themes in the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty for decades. Therefore, no one thought that when the Overwatch Council and the prime minister's revenge were tolerantly limited, the counterattack from Xinyang and the empress would still come so quickly.
The young scholar mentioned earlier was precisely He Zongwei who was unable to participate in Chunwei because of the death of his father. He is a student of Zeng Wenxiang, a bachelor, and has always been close to the Guo family. Unexpectedly, when he was in his hometown, he heard the explosive news that Master Shangshu was waiting to die in prison, his family property was confiscated, and his good friend Guo Baokun didn't know where he went. What made He Zongwei most angry was that the crown prince of the Eastern Palace actually No help in this matter!
The woman who entered Beijing together with He Zongwei was Wu Bo'an's wife. That Wu Bo'an was a counselor placed by the eldest princess in the prime minister's mansion. Last year, he persuaded the second son of the Lin family to join hands with the Northern Qi to assassinate Fan Xian on Niulan Street, but he died tragically on the grape trellis in the end.
As the prime minister, Lin Ruofu naturally hated Wu Boan who killed his only normal son. Although Wu Boan died early, the Wu family still had a lot of property in Shandong. The local officials are the prime minister's protégés, so they tortured the Wu family with good intentions. In just half a year, they did not know how much money they confiscated. They even imprisoned Wu Bo'an's own son for no reason and sentenced him to death. .
Although this woman was illiterate, she also knew that the prime minister was powerful, and the Wu family could not compete against her, but she was heartbroken for her son's tragic death, so she broke her heart and went to the capital alone to file a lawsuit against him.
While resting outside the city, this poor Mrs. Wu "coincidentally" happened to meet He Zongwei who was returning to Beijing.
He Zongwei is a smart person, after hearing this, he knew that there was a lot to be done about this matter, so he comforted the Wu family woman, saying that he would definitely find a way to seek justice for her.
After entering Beijing, relying on his teacher's relationship, He Zongwei temporarily settled the Wu family in the mansion of an old censor. During those days, some mysterious figures often came in and out of the mansion, asking Mrs. Wu some details about the tragedy in his hometown in soft words.
He Zongwei looked at all this indifferently, and only when Mrs. Wu asked him a question with some trepidation, he would smile all over his face and comfort her by saying that the justice officials of the court are working on it, and the prime minister will soon be down.
The garden of the old imperial censor's mansion was a bit dilapidated. Standing on the rockery, He Zongwei's face flashed a little smug, and he destroyed the secret letter from Xinyang in his arms. Thinking of the officialdom in Kyoto after the prime minister's downfall, he couldn't help but think of the prime minister's in-law Fan Shang Shu, thinking of the somewhat indifferent Miss Fan family, felt a little hot in his heart.