The scholar from the Criminal Palace said it lightly, but the staff around Fang Yun took a deep breath. This is the difference between the Criminal Palace and the Ministry of Justice.
The Ministry of Justice's confiscation of property must be approved by the three judicial officials, the cabinet and the monarch, but as long as the Criminal Palace has evidence and sends a letter to the elders of the Criminal Palace, and as long as the three elders agree and the matter is filed with the Dongsheng Pavilion, they can proceed directly.
Although this incident was aimed at Fang Yun's family, it was already considered an attempt to murder Xu Sheng, so the Criminal Court acted very decisively and arrested Qi Yi from the mail room and the three families of the two guards guarding the east gate of the County Academy of Literature.
The lightest punishment for confiscation of property and execution was to execute the entire family, which only included the criminal's wives, concubines, sons and unmarried daughters. This was the maximum punishment for murdering a grand scholar.
The maximum penalty for murdering a great scholar is the execution of the entire clan.
Fang Yun is a virtual saint, and the crime of murdering a virtual saint is, at the very least, the extermination of the entire clan!
This clan was extremely wide. For example, all male members of the Qi family, starting from his grandfather, including his grandfather, brothers, cousins, and all male members of their descendants with the surname Qi, were executed! Married women with the surname Qi would not be implicated, but unmarried women with the surname Qi would be killed like the male members.
Although the number of people killed may seem small, it often involves nearly a hundred people.
Fang Yun frowned slightly. He himself disliked collective punishment, but the Shengyuan Continent was different from the ancient China. In order to deter the rebels and to protect the elites of the human race, the death penalty alone was not enough to deter those people. They had to punish collectively to prevent anyone from taking chances.
This is because the death of a great scholar of the human race is no less of a loss than the death of a million human beings. This is a huge loss that cannot be restored even if the nine clans are killed.
In the eyes of the Legalists, it was extremely merciful to execute the entire family of the criminal who murdered the great Confucian scholar.
Fang Yun is a virtual saint, between a great Confucian scholar and a semi-saint, and has made great contributions to the human race. His strength is far inferior to that of a great Confucian scholar, but in terms of importance, he is still above an ordinary great Confucian scholar. Therefore, no matter what the elder of the Criminal Hall thinks of Fang Yun, he will definitely order the execution of his entire clan.
Yang Yuhuan and Su Xiaoxiao showed their reluctance but said nothing. After all, this was the iron law of the human race. If the human race could not intimidate those people as much as possible, more scholars would be assassinated.
The human race values competition and elimination, but the prerequisite is that they must be done openly. Secret manipulation is allowed, but it must be limited. Otherwise, the human race will inevitably collapse.
If it weren't for this iron rule, Fang Yun would have been killed a thousand times by the Lei family, the main clan.
It is precisely this iron rule that makes human scholars either die at the hands of monsters or die in literary battles, and rarely are they murdered.
The scholar from the Criminal Hall then said, "Fortunately, their target of murder this time was not you, otherwise the consequences would be disastrous."
Fang Yun nodded, understanding what this scholar from the Criminal Hall was explaining. Since there was not enough evidence to prove the murder of Xu Sheng's family, killing the entire clan of the three people was already the limit, and there would be no further involvement.
But if they want to force Fang Yun to death this time, the Criminal Hall will not care about evidence or not, and the great Confucian elders will definitely go out personally to eradicate the Zuo Xiang family and their followers, causing great turmoil in Jing State, so it is said that "the consequences are unimaginable."
Fang Yun could see that both Liu Shan and Ji Zhibai had an extremely accurate grasp of the "degree". They were merely "attacking" him instead of "murdering" him to avoid angering the Criminal Hall and the Holy Academy.
"But... I think this kind of thing should never happen again. If my family is murdered again, I will do my best to cut off the mastermind behind it!" Fang Yun said.
The scholar from the Criminal Hall hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "The Criminal Hall will protect justice!"
After hearing the scholar's reply, Fang Yun nodded again.
"However, how will you deal with Qi Yi's mistress and illegitimate son?" asked the Jinshi from the Criminal Hall.
"Enforce the law impartially." Fang Yun said.
"I understand. I'll take my leave first." The scholar from the Criminal Hall bowed and turned to leave.
Fang Yun's staff stared at the back of the Jinshi from the Criminal Palace in a daze. The status of the Jinshi from the Criminal Palace was extremely high. Let alone a mere county magistrate, even in front of the six ministers, it was impossible for him to call himself "your humble official". At least he would use this humble title when meeting a grand scholar.
In less than half an hour, Fang Yun suddenly received a letter from the Criminal Hall.
Qi Yi's former mistress committed suicide, leaving behind only two sons, one three years old and the other seven years old.
"That's all..."
Fang Yun said that he wanted to ask the three people to come back, but in fact he wanted to find a breakthrough in the female spy. However, the other party had a keen sense of smell and rich experience, so she directly let the female spy commit suicide, cutting off the last clue.
"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Ao Huang noticed that Fang Yun looked strange and asked hurriedly.
"Qi Yi's former mistress committed suicide."
"Oh, then there's nothing we can do about them. What do these two kids know? It's impossible to get any evidence from them. What a pity that two of them still slipped through the net!"
"The law of nature is cyclical and retribution is inevitable. If these two are missing, there will naturally be two more to fill in. Since someone is like this, don't blame me for staying out of it." After Fang Yun finished speaking, he walked into the study.
Ao Huang and his staff looked at each other, not knowing what Fang Yun was referring to.
Fang Yingwu asked, "What do you think of the punishment of killing three people and their entire clan?"
"The judgment is indeed fair, but at least Shen Zhubu or Tao Xiancheng should be removed from office. It would be best if Ji Zhibai could be shaken. Unfortunately, Qi Yi is probably a death warrior jointly trained by the left prime minister, the Zong family, and the Qing Kingdom. Once he is deployed, it will be impossible for anyone to find any evidence against him!"
"Once the news of the execution of the three clans spreads, it will surely cause a shock to the world, enough to deter those who would dare to harm Fang Xusheng and his family. That's enough."
"But... did you notice that Fang Xusheng seemed to know something, as if something big was going to happen?"
"It's hard to say, will he use some evil trick?"
"No. He said he was 'staying out of it', which clearly doesn't mean he's using a poisonous scheme. And the only people worthy of using a poisonous scheme on are at least Ji Zhibai or Zuo Xiang, but Fang Xusheng is out of reach now. As for dealing with the people in Ning'an County, he can solve the problem with fair means as long as he finds an opportunity."
"Let's wait and see. Perhaps once we improve the weaving mechanism, the truth will become clear."
On February 15, Qi Yi and three other members of the same clan were taken to the execution ground in Ning'an County. Under the auspices of the Criminal Hall, Fang Yun personally supervised the execution, killing nearly two hundred people. The blood was boiling, and the few onlookers were so irritated by the smell of blood that their stomachs churned and they vomited continuously.
On February 20th, "Wen Bao" was published, and the front page clearly stated Fang Yun's words in front of the holy temple: "A man will risk his life for the beauty he loves."
The news that a petty official in Ning'an County had murdered Xusheng's family and had his entire clan executed was revealed and spread throughout the world.
Also published in Wen Bao was Ji Zhibai's famous article "Lament for Fang Yun", which became a laughing stock in the eyes of the world, and Fang Yun's words "God-like opponent, pig-like teammates" became the most popular phrase in Shengyuan Continent, and was as widely circulated as Ji Zhibai's stigma.
The Wen Bao objectively recorded that after that day, Bai Wen's gallbladder was shaken and he had to take sick leave and rest for a month.
In any case, Ji Zhibai's name spread throughout the world again, and some people even used the poem that Fang Yun gave to Li Wenying to mock Ji Zhibai: "Don't worry about having no friends on the road ahead, for everyone in the world knows you!"
After reading the "Wen Bao" that day, Fang Yun got up and went to Gongfang Street.
The improvement of textile machinery is much more difficult than imagined.