There are more Jinyiwei in the Ministry of Justice, and the officials are many times more than those at the gate. If you are familiar with the officialdom, you will find that in addition to the officials of the Ministry of Justice and Jinyiwei, there are also officials from the Dali Temple, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Personnel.
These officials are not just spectators who come to watch the fun. They are either here to preside over today's petitions or to listen to the petitions.
Like the previous dynasties, the Ming Dynasty had the Ministry of Justice in charge of law and justice, similar to the modern Ministry of Public Security. It was known as the "Three Law Departments" together with the Dali Temple and the Censorate.
The Dali Temple is similar to the modern Supreme People's Court, and is also in charge of the trial of criminal cases. In ancient times, the person in charge of criminal justice was called "Tu", also called "Li". The "Li" in Dali Temple means "crime", so the Dali Temple is the "Great Criminal Temple"; the Censorate was the highest supervisory, impeachment and remonstrance agency in the Ming Dynasty, which also handled criminal cases and had judicial trial power, similar to the modern Supreme People's Procuratorate.
In the Ming Dynasty, these three agencies all held the power of the criminal justice system, but they also had division of labor. Criminal justice cases were mainly tried by the Ministry of Justice, while the Dali Temple was more inclined to the cautious criminal justice system and was responsible for refuting and redressing unjust and wrong cases. If the Dali Temple disagreed with the trial result of the Ministry of Justice, it could submit a petition for a holy judgment; the Metropolitan Procuratorate was mainly responsible for supervising the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple, and enjoyed the privilege of "submitting petitions for judgment on major matters and making decisions on minor matters immediately." The three agencies checked and supervised each other.
Generally, criminal cases are tried by the Ministry of Justice. If the case is more influential and serious, it will be tried jointly with the Dali Temple, the Censorate, the Tongzhengshi, and the departments of Li, Hu, Li, Bing, Gong, etc. It may be nine departments or several departments, depending on the severity of the case. If the case is particularly serious, the top leaders of these nine departments will jointly try it, which is often called the Nine Ministers Trial.
Of course, the Ming Dynasty’s factory and guard system was quite unique. Often, officials from the Embroidered Uniform Guard or the East and West Factories would participate in the trial and even play a leading role.
Originally, the plan was for Zhu Ping'an's impeachment of Zhao Daying to be jointly tried by the Ministry of Justice and the Embroidered Uniform Guard. However, plans cannot keep up with changes. The situation has changed a lot in recent days, and there have been more memorials impeaching Yan Song and his cronies, causing Zhu Ping'an's impeachment case to attract much attention.
In addition, there are some suggestions from certain people.
Therefore, today Zhu Ping'an's impeachment of Zhao Daying was jointly tried by middle-level officials from five departments, including the Jinyiwei, the Ministry of Justice, the Dali Temple, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Ministry of War. As for the Jinyiwei commander, the Minister of the Ministry of Justice, the Dali Temple, and other leaders, they would not condescend to jointly try a sixth-rank official's impeachment case. Whether it was Zhu Ping'an's rank or the influence of the case, he was not qualified.
Middle and senior officials from five departments jointly held the trial, and they took the impeachment of Zhu Ping'an very seriously.
However, although it was a joint trial by mid-level officials from five departments, since the case indirectly involved Yan Song, some individual bigwigs such as the Minister of Justice, the Left Vice Minister of War, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court would also attend the trial as observers.
Oh my god, there are so many people.
Although Zhu Ping'an had expected that there would be a lot of officials today when he arrived at the door, he was still shocked when he walked into the Ministry of Justice because there were as many officials inside as there were in court.
"Who are you?"
After Zhu Ping'an entered the Ministry of Justice, a trial captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard came over to ask him questions. The main reason was that Zhu Ping'an's clothes were too conspicuous. Everyone else was dressed in official attire, but Zhu Ping'an was wearing casual clothes with a cloth bag slung across his body, which made him stand out from the crowd.
"I, Zhu Ping'an, the reader of the Hanlin Academy, have been ordered to come here to petition." Zhu Ping'an bowed slightly, then took out the official document from the Ministry of Justice.
"It's Master Zhu. Master, please come this way."
The Jinyiwei trial captain took the document handed over by Zhu Ping'an, read it carefully, returned the greeting to Zhu Ping'an, returned the document to Zhu Ping'an, and then led the way to lead Zhu Ping'an to the court.
This Jinyiwei trial centurion was named Liang Bi, and was a hereditary Jinyiwei. Trial centurion was a position in Jinyiwei, one level lower than centurion, and was a sixth-rank official position.
"If you go further, you will reach the place where you can make a petition. I have to be on duty so I will not see you off. There is only one thing I hope you will remember: Zhao Qiu, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of War, is Zhao Daying's uncle. Please be careful of him, Master Zhu."
Liang Bi led Zhu Ping'an through the courtyard of the Ministry of Justice and entered the second gate from the corner gate. When passing the corner gate, the Jinyiwei whispered a reminder to Zhu Ping'an, then clasped his hands and left.
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Zhu Pingan was startled, watching Liang Bi's back as he left, and was very curious about why this Jinyiwei told him such a secret. However, seeing Liang Bi's cautious and quick departure, Zhu Pingan did not ask him. If he wanted to let him know, he would naturally tell him. If he didn't tell him, then there must be something else. He kindly reminded him, so he couldn't help but embarrass him.
Actually, the reason why Liang Bi reminded Zhu Pingan of what Zhu Pingan didn't know was not very complicated. Shen Lian, a Jinyiwei who was exiled to the frontier for impeaching Yan Song, was an old friend of Liang Bi. Liang Bi was only a sixth-rank trial centurion. When Shen Lian was persecuted by Yan Song's party, Liang Bi was powerless. Yan Song's party was powerful, so Liang Bi could only quietly help Shen Lian take care of his wife and children.
When Shen Lian was persecuted by the Yan Party and faced the danger of being beheaded, Zhu Ping'an said to Emperor Jiajing, "I heard that this person had bought a coffin and placed it at home before submitting the petition." This extinguished the anger in Emperor Jiajing's heart and made Jiajing mistakenly believe that Shen Lian wanted to seek fame by dying, so he changed the death penalty to exile. Shen Lian was able to survive because of this.
Liang Bi reminded Zhu Ping'an that on the one hand he was grateful to Zhu Ping'an for Shen Lian's matter, and on the other hand he admired Zhu Ping'an's courage to impeach Yan's party.
Liang Bi has a wife and children at home, and he knows that he does not have the courage of Shen Lian, so he can only use this covert method.
After Zhu Ping'an entered the second gate, he saw the court of the Ministry of Justice being set up. Outside the court, the servants were standing in two rows with killing sticks, and the Jinyiwei were scattered around the courtyard. Under the command of the head of the Ministry of Justice, the clerks and servants were setting up the court in the courtyard, moving tables and chairs, setting up the canopy, and arranging the main judge's seat and the audience seats.
Because this petition was jointly examined by five departments, there were nearly ten officials sitting in the court alone. Together with the Minister of Justice He Ao, the Left Vice Minister of War Zhao Qiu, the Left Vice Minister of Personnel, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Co-director of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and other officials who were listening, there were as many as twenty to thirty people.
Although the lobby of the Ministry of Justice is much larger than that of ordinary government offices, it still cannot accommodate so many people. This is especially true since there are more officials attending the trial than the presiding judges, and they are all officials of the third rank or above. The Ministry of Justice cannot let these bigwigs squeeze in the corner.
Therefore, the Petition Court was temporarily set up in the courtyard, which was spacious enough to accommodate so many people.