In the prison cell, one after another, people who committed serious crimes committed suicide by hitting their heads against the wall.
Those habitual criminals who had committed less serious crimes have come to their senses and have expressed their desire to start a new life, compensate the families they had harmed, and are determined to study.
Only four people kept repeating that they were wronged.
Fang Yun recited the words of heaven aloud, but listened to everything with his ears.
After reading "The Analects of Confucius", Fang Yun did not read the other classics of Confucius, but first read "The Book of Law", the first complete book of the Legalists of the human race, and then recited "The Code of Li Mu" by the semi-sage Shang Yang.
Then five more people committed suicide, and one of the four people who cried out for injustice suddenly cursed Fang Yun, admitting that he had committed a crime but refusing to plead guilty. Then, he never heard Fang Yun's voice again.
Fang Yun has a heart, and God’s words are spiritual.
The Analects of Confucius states that “there is no distinction in teaching”, and the Book of Changes also states that “things are divided into groups”.
Fang Yun did not eat lunch, but drank some water and began to recite "Shangshu" again.
Outside the window of Fang Yun's cell, a large number of jailers gathered unknowingly. Even Huo Siyu, the highest officer of the Tiger Prison, was sitting outside with a chair and wearing a thick cotton jacket.
At the beginning, some jailers were sitting on stools, but in the end, no one sat down. Even Chief Prisoner Huo quietly ordered people to move the chairs away and listen to the sutra while standing.
As for the two Jinshi from the Criminal Hall, they were standing outside at the beginning of Fang Yun's speech, listening to the scriptures with their hands hanging down. They knew best what it meant for a Jinshi to speak the words of heaven.
It was now the coldest time of the year and the Tiger Prison was extremely cold as it had no protection from the holy temple. However, gradually, the temperature of the entire Tiger Prison began to rise.
There are only morning and noon meals in prison, no dinner, in line with the ancient people's habit of not eating after noon.
Fang Yun kept reciting the scriptures of the saints, and he never stopped except to drink water. He kept reciting until midnight, and then reviewed his lessons in the world of strange books, writing poems, scriptures and articles. Finally, he only slept for one hour.
The great scholar’s seal cannot seal the world of the wonderful book.
When you give someone a rose, the fragrance lingers on your hand. Fang Yun found that after reciting scriptures and preaching, his understanding of the holy scriptures had deepened a little.
Next, Fang Yun recited the scriptures of the saints and the sermons of heaven every day, and then studied in the world of strange books until the early morning.
Fang Yun was reciting scriptures in prison, unaware that the capital city had undergone tremendous changes because of him.
A total of 30,000 students at Jingguo Academy went on strike.
Every morning, students led by Shangshe Jinshi Qiao Juze gathered outside the Huju Prison, blocking half of the street.
Most of the people here are Juren and Jinshi, and some also include scholars who have been in the profession for many years. New scholars and students cannot last long in Hujuyu Street.
Every noon, restaurants and hotels all over the capital would send some waiters to deliver meals with lunch boxes. Not only did the thousands of students here not go hungry, but because there were too many lunch boxes, they often had to distribute the meals to the poor families around them.
These people did not shout or curse, but instead gathered together as people who knew each other to talk about books and papers.
The crowd will not resort to any violent or extreme means; their goal will be achieved as long as they can get the matter published in the Wen Bao on December 1st.
Scholars, led by Zhang Chengyu, a Jinshi from Shangshe, wrote a large number of "Petitions for Fang Yun" every day. In addition to redressing Fang Yun's grievances, they also cursed the Zong family, the Lei family, the Sima family, the Zuo Xiang, the Meng family, etc.
Some people were responsible for copying the "Petition" letter, while others were responsible for distributing it to various places in the capital.
Xuanting Bookstore has monopolized the booksellers in the Ten Kingdoms. Not only the booksellers in the capital began to send the "Petition". All the places in the Ten Kingdoms where there were booksellers from Xuanting Bookstore were quietly sending the "Petition".
When the news spread, the Ten Kingdoms were in an uproar, and countless scholars began to write articles criticizing the Ministry of Justice, the Left Prime Minister, the Lei family, the Sima family, the Zong family and the Meng family of Jing State.
The next day, all kinds of news were circulating.
A team of one thousand scholars from Qiguo Academy will rush to Jingguo to seek justice for Fang Yun.
Hundreds of thousands of scholars in Kongcheng went on strike for a day, and shouted "Down with the treacherous officials. Release Fang Yun" under the Holy Temple on Daofeng Mountain. Some even wrote blood letters to appeal to the Holy Temple.
The distant nephew of the left prime minister was beaten up by a group of masked men.
Dozens of people from Qing Kingdom rebelled and announced that they would join Jing Kingdom. They issued a manifesto to curse the Zongsheng family, and finally rushed to the capital together, waiting to see Fang Yun for the last time before heading north to fight a bloody battle with the barbarians.
Letters from officials across the Jing State were pouring in like snow. Hundreds of officials impeached the Left Prime Minister and the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Yuan Su. The censors of the Supervisory Yuan kept writing memorials, with one censor setting a record of writing 27 impeachment memorials in one day.
Ao Huang spoke in the capacity of a special envoy of the East China Sea Dragon Palace, urging the East China Sea Dragon Palace to cut off all contacts with the Zong family, the Meng family, the Sima family, the Zuo Xiang and extremely related families. Ao Huang also made a personal statement, declaring that from now on, all the scum of the Lei family would be beaten up when they were seen.
The candidates of Jing State gathered in the capital one after another, and hundreds of them had jointly submitted a petition, demanding that the Jinshi examination be cancelled if Fang Yun was not released.
The scholars in Jiangzhou were running around everywhere.
Outside the Jing Kingdom Palace, petitions from the people have covered half of Xuanwu Avenue, and people from all over the country have come here one after another just to leave their names on it.
One after another, events supporting Fang Yun were staged in the ten countries...
However, none of the important figures from the Saint Families came forward.
Under pressure, the Criminal Court announced that it would dismiss the Meng family's accusation that Fang Yun had killed his emperor, and would only accept the accusation that Fang Yun had robbed the Meng family's property, and would have the Criminal Court's Jinshi convey this to Fang Yun.
As time went by, Fang Yun continued to recite scriptures and study in prison, while the actions outside the prison to rescue Fang Yun became more and more intense. There were even scholars standing outside the Zuo Xiang's gate and singing famous poems from the Book of Songs, such as "Shuo Shu", "Ban", "Dang", etc. to satirize Zuo Xiang.
The left prime minister was a grand secretary, and scholars could only dare to ridicule him. However, Yuan Su, the left vice minister of the Ministry of Justice, was in big trouble. A large number of scholars threw rotten meat and vegetables into his house. Every time he went out, he would be surrounded by people, laughing at him and ridiculing him. Some people even competed to write doggerel to ridicule Yuan Su.
Although Yuan Su was a Hanlin, he did not dare to hurt anyone. If he was not careful at this moment, the Empress Dowager, the Minister of Literature and others would find evidence against him and put him in prison directly, and the Right Vice Minister would be in charge of the Ministry of Justice.
Yu Shangshu of the Ministry of Justice was trapped in Yanzhou by King Kang and was unable to leave.
After Fang Yun chanted scriptures for many days, the Tiger Prison was gradually blessed by the power of the holy temple and was no longer cold.
The temperature in the Tiger Prison rose, corpses rotted, insects and rodents were rampant, sewage was flowing, and the stench was overwhelming.
At first the jailer didn't care, but later, under the strong request of the Jinshi of the Criminal Hall, he had to hire outsiders to enter the underground prison and clean it up a little, but it still stank.
Logically, there would be a plague in the dungeon, but no one got sick, especially the three wrongly accused people, who became stronger than before.
Two Jinshi from the Criminal Palace delivered two identical letters to the Holy Court.
"It is suspected that Zhengqisheng."
It was the early morning of November 30th, just one day before the Jinshi examination, and the weather was clear.
All the prisoners and jailers came to the dungeon early as usual, and the four jailers continued to deliver prison meals, but starting two days ago, the multi-grain cakes in the prison meals were no longer moldy, and were steamed with slightly inferior old grains.
After dinner, everyone waited quietly for Fang Yun to recite the scriptures.
Fang Yun rested for a while, stretched his body, yawned, and stood up lazily, but then his eyes were focused, his waist was straight, and he bowed in the direction of the holy temple.
"I am Fang Yun. I was framed for delaying the rescue of an unjust person. I wanted to wait for the Holy Academy to clear my name, but I am a candidate for this year's Jinshi examination. I have already registered for the examination. I want to imitate the Spring and Autumn Annals in judging cases and write poems to atone for my crimes. If I win the first place in the examination, I can atone for my crimes. If I fail, my crime will be doubled!"
The Spring and Autumn Judgment System was created by the semi-sage Dong Zhongshu, who judged cases based on the ideas of Confucius. Although this angered the Legalists, since not all cases were judged in this way, the Legalists did not completely ban it and it was gradually implemented in some countries.
Later, the practice of "using poetry and prose to atone for sins" was formed. As long as the crime was not serious, all candidates who took the exam that year could use poetry and prose to atone for their sins. First, they would obtain the qualification to take the imperial examination. Then, if they got first place in the local imperial examination, they could atone for their sins.
There are many crimes that are prohibited from being atonement for in poetry and lyrics. Fang Yun's crimes were only "not helping someone in danger" and "robbing the Meng family's property", which were not included in the crimes that could not be atonement for.
In the past ten years, at least thousands of scholars in the Ten Kingdoms have used poetry to atone for their crimes, but only a dozen have succeeded. In Jing Kingdom, only one person succeeded, and that person was the famous Jinshi Wei Yuhuang. He personally delivered the invitation to the Double Ninth Festival literary gathering to Fang.
Poetry and writing to atone for one's crime requires the approval of three parties: Dongsheng, who is in charge of the affairs of the Holy Court, the Xingdian Pavilion, and the country's royal family.
The recognition process of the royal families of Dongsheng and Jingguo was extremely simple, but it was different for the Xingdian Pavilion.
Except for the "Honorary Elders" who are concurrently appointed by the saints, the real elders in the Xingdian Pavilion are all great scholars of the Legalist school.
The Legalist families such as Li Kui's family, Shang Yang's family, Li Si's family, and Han Fei's family controlled seven of the nine cabinet ministers, while the other two were Legalist Confucian scholars who were not from such families.
The Criminal Court is the most rigorous institution in the Holy Court, and is also the highest investigative, law enforcement, and trial institution of the human race.
The Xingdian Pavilion is the highest institution in the Xingdian. Once a major or controversial matter occurs, the elders will vote on it, and using poetry to atone for one of the crimes is one of the options.
A Jinshi from the Criminal Hall outside the dungeon clapped his hands and laughed, and stretched out his hand to another Jinshi from the Criminal Hall, saying, "I already knew that Fang Yun would use the Spring and Autumn Annals to decide cases and poems to atone for his crimes. Brother Qiu, your Jiaolong Blood Inkstone is mine."
Another Jinshi from the Criminal Palace muttered, "As far as I know, the Criminal Palace has been closed to the public. They are discussing the change of the laws of the Holy Court. You should know that each discussion of the laws of the Holy Court will last for half a month. Unless there is a disaster for the human race."
"It would be great if you can use poetry to atone for your crime. If not, I believe Fang Zhenguo will definitely have more than one plan. Let's wait and see what happens."
"Too."
At the same time, all officials of the third rank or above in Jing State received a letter from the Holy Temple, stating that Fang Yun wanted to petition for poetry to atone for his crime.
The Left Prime Minister’s Mansion.
After reading the letter from the Holy Temple, Liu Shan smiled indifferently and looked out the window thoughtfully.
"You are just a fledgling phoenix after all. You are one step behind. The patriarch has already set up the Criminal Palace to block your retreat! Not only that, even if you don't have the 'Exemption Order', the Queen Mother will grant it to you. People say that once you use the Exemption Order, we can use the next plan to block your retreat once again!"
"I am entangled in a bad reputation, and the luck bestowed upon me by the Jing Kingdom has dropped by 30%. But for the sake of our family's great cause, I am willing to die!"
On the Daofeng Mountain, in the Holy Courtyard.
The Eastern Saint struck the holy bell, and the sound spread throughout the world and reached only the ears of the saints.
"Discuss Fang Yun." A deep voice spread throughout the Holy Academy.
In the history of the human race, this topic is unprecedented for Jinshi. (To be continued...)