After Wang Chengen withdrew from the study, Zhu Youzhen looked at the clock on the side and asked casually: "Is Yangwuhou's case tried today?" ”

Lu Qi immediately responded, "Yes, Your Majesty." At this time, the trial must have already begun. ”

Zhu Youzhen walked back to the table and sat down again, and said: "Send someone to keep an eye on it, and report the trial process to me every two quarters of an hour." ”

The Criminal Department, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Dali Temple are known as the three law divisions, which are in charge of the judicial power of the Ming Dynasty, and in order to facilitate the joint handling of cases, the three yamen are also close to each other.

Unlike other main yamen of the imperial court set up outside the Chengtian Gate of the Imperial City, the Yamen of the Three Law Divisions was far west of the Imperial City, and even crossed the Xuanwumen Li Street and was driven out of the range of West Chang'an Street.

Of course, this has the intention of preventing the three law divisions from getting along too deeply with other ministries of the imperial court, and privately colluding to destroy the national law and oppose the imperial power. At the same time, it is also taboo for the emperor, and the three law divisions that the chief official tortured and killed are too close to the imperial city, which collides with the qi of the Son of Heaven and harms the national fortune.

Across the Xuanwu Gate Street, the east is a spacious loess avenue, there is a four-pillar three-room cupola wooden archway at the intersection, this is still built during the Yongle period, the plaque of the archway is written "Zhanyun" two words, it is rumored that Yao Guangxiao is the book.

This building, known as the Xidan archway, is the same as the Dongdan archway on Chongwenmenli Street in the east, just one east and one west to cover the east and west Chang'an Avenue.

Whether it is the Dongdan archway or the Xidan archway, there are sergeants and brocade guards stationed below, and the east and west Chang'an Avenues are not open to civilians.

Although the length of East and West Chang'an Avenue is less than 8 miles, the people of Beijing are accustomed to calling it 10 miles long street. Chang'an Avenue is about 14 or 5 meters wide, and although there are many winding alleys on both sides, the alleys are inhabited by officials and nobles.

Across a Xuanwumenli Street from West Chang'an Street, it is the Criminal Department Street where the Three Law Divisions are located, and this street is about one-third of the width of Chang'an Street, which is about 4 or 5 meters.

Because the yamen of the Three Law Divisions is here, there are many officials of the Three Law Divisions living in the alleys on both sides of the street, and there are few ordinary people passing by on weekdays.

The west entrance of the criminal department street is the Eagle Peak Temple, because it is not far from the Three Dharma Division, some prisoners' families often come here to pray for the Buddha after visiting the prison, and the incense is not bad.

However, even so, except for the officials of the Three Law Divisions on the street of the Criminal Department, other people are generally not willing to stay on this street for long.

But today it was obviously an accident, the Jingying sergeant and the Marquis of Yangwu had a lawsuit, and the emperor also allowed anyone to be present to observe, and the officials of the criminal department were not allowed to stop it.

Therefore, the courtyard in front of the lobby of the Criminal Department was crowded with non-commissioned representatives of the Beijing camp and the people of the capital who liked to watch the excitement.

In order to prevent these people from crowding into the lobby and having a stampede, Xue Zhen, the secretary of the Criminal Department, agreed with his subordinates and moved the public case to the steps at the entrance of the lobby, so that the crowd that was originally watching the trial finally calmed down.

The officials of the Three Law Divisions sat high on the steps, and at the bottom of the steps there were 7 sergeants kneeling on the left, and on the right kneeling a gorgeously dressed middle-aged man, and on the right side of the steps of the lobby, Yang Wuhou sat on a Taishi chair with an indifferent face.

Xue Zhen, the secretary of the Criminal Department, sat in the center, Pan Shiliang, the secretary of Dali Temple, was in his right hand, and the right deputy of the Imperial Procuratorate, Yang Weiyuan, and Yao Shiheng, the imperial historian, sat on his left hand.

Xue Zhen was deeply troubled by the case in front of him, and it was the first time for him to conduct a three-law division trial in front of so many idlers, and the facts of this case were actually very simple.

Xiaoqi Wu Hualiang's younger brother has a marriage contract with Dong Shuangxi, the daughter of Xiaoqi Dong Weixian, who originally had a son and a daughter, but his son fell ill from the cold last winter, and he did not get better after nearly two months of treatment.

Although Dong Weixian is also a small officer in the army, most of the food and salary in Beijing have long been intercepted by the officers and nobles, and he can't bear to deduct his full salary first according to the usual practice, and then distribute the food and salary of his soldiers.

Therefore, Dong Weixian's family is living an average life, and there is no savings in the family. Now that the young son has been ill for a long time, the continuous medical expenses will soon make the family ruined. Dong Weixian had no choice but to borrow 20 taels of silver from Xu Heng, the head of the Yang Wuhou family, through his boss Wang Zongqi.

As a result, at the end of spring this year, the young son finally did not carry it and unfortunately passed away. Dong Weixian's wife was angry, but she also passed away with her young son a few days later.

After Dong Weixian forced himself to find someone to bury his wife and son, he finally couldn't help but fall down with grief.

Dong Weixian just got sick here, and Xu Heng sent someone to collect the debt. The Dong family is a native of Daxing in the capital, and there is a small courtyard outside the Chongwen Gate.

Chongwenmen is the tax customs for foreign merchants to enter Beijing, some merchants will not transport goods into the capital at once, they will rent a yard as a warehouse in the outer city near Chongwenmen, and then transfer goods into the city according to the sales situation, or simply trade in the outer city to avoid taxes.

Although the Dong family's house is not big, the location is very good, so many businessmen often store their goods in his house, and they also have more than 20 taels of silver a year.

If Dong Weixian hadn't often helped his sergeants, he wouldn't have had to borrow the loan shark from General Xu Heng.

However, there is no if in the world after all, and Dong Weixian was too eager to borrow money, and he didn't pay attention to the interest on the borrowed money.

As a result, in less than half a year of borrowing, the debt was turned into 100 taels. Dong Weixian naturally couldn't take out this lot of silver, so he wanted to use real estate to pay off his debts.

Housing prices in the Ming Dynasty have always been low, and the market valuation of his house is about 120 taels.

Originally, a personal entourage sent by Xu Heng to collect debts estimated that Dong Weixian's net worth had no oil and water to fish, and was ready to agree to write off the debt with the house.

The disagreement made him meet Dong Shuangxi, who came back from grabbing medicine outside, looking at this pretty girl, this relative couldn't help but verbally tease a few words.

As a result, Wu Hualiang's younger brother Wu Huakui happened to hear it, and the two beat them up without saying a word.

The things behind this are very old-fashioned, and the relatives who want to take revenge have slandered in Xu Heng's ears, so they rely on the general Xu Heng, who has the support of Yangwu Hou, so they simply want the house and the people.

Dong Weixian was kicked out of the house, and Dong Shuangxi was sold by Xu Heng to the Cuihong Mansion, which was opened by Zhao Hongsheng, another slave under the Yangwu Hou.

After Dong Weixian was abandoned on the street, he was taken home by Wu Huakui to recuperate, but what happened to the Dong family suddenly aroused the anger of the two brothers of the Wu family and several sergeants under Dong Weixian, and they plotted together to rescue Dong Shuangxi.

However, the Cuihong Mansion is located in Huanghuafang in the inner city of the capital, which is a high-end entertainment place for dignitaries and dignitaries, and is heavily guarded on weekdays. A few poor sergeants couldn't even enter the door of the Cuihong Building, so how could they be rescued.

Until the Beijing Mutiny, they thought that the opportunity had come, Dong Weixian and the Wu family brothers, who had just recovered from illness, took 4 subordinates who had deep friendships and rushed into the Cuihong Mansion and snatched their daughter Dong Shuangxi out. It's just that they were unlucky, and when they came out, they ran into the troops who were quelling the rebellion.

Robbery of women and children in the capital shall be punished by death according to the law. But according to the story behind this incident, it can also be sent lightly, such as to the border.

How to judge, this is exactly what makes Xue Zhen a headache. The people and sergeants who watched and listened to the case in the hall were deeply sympathetic to Dong Weixian and the Wu family brothers, but they only dared to whisper and did not dare to speak out.

After all, standing opposite these sergeants was a powerful marquis. And according to the folk concept of repaying debts, although Xu Heng did something excessive, it was not unreasonable, who asked you to borrow money from others and not be able to pay it back.

And although Dong Weixian deserves sympathy, this Cuihong Mansion has nothing to do with him, he brought people in to snatch his daughter out like this, and he did violate the royal law.

Of course, out of the instinct of sympathy for the weak, these people still hope that these officials can lightly send Dong Weixian and a few others, and it would be better if they could reunite father and daughter. In fact, most of them know in their hearts that this is impossible.

Xue Zhen has always done things according to His Majesty's intentions, but this time Chongzhen didn't want to leave anything behind, just told him to act impartially. In Chongzhen, a noble who put usury in the military camp and forced him to become a prostitute, he no longer needed to hint at anything to judge right and wrong.

However, Chongzhen forgot that his values came from the materialist education after the founding of New China. In a certain year of the Ming Dynasty, even the basic Confucian morality, these scholars and doctors could no longer keep it.

In the eyes of most officials, the people of the Ming Dynasty referred to officials, gentry, nobles, and landed landlords, while ordinary soldiers and ordinary people were not included in the concept of the people they recognized.

Since the Marquis of Yang Wu did not directly lend money and plunder the people's daughters as prostitutes, in Xue Zhen's eyes, it has nothing to do with this matter, and Xu Heng has disappeared after the Beijing Mutiny, theoretically this is a headless case.

Removed the usury part of this case, starting from the robbery of people in the Cuihong Mansion, this is completely the fault of Dong Weixian and the others. After all, Cuihong Mansion was the one who bought it from Xu Heng, not the one who snatched it from Dong Weixian's house.

Xue Zhen couldn't help but ask Pan Shiliang, the secretary of Dali Temple on the right, "Pan Zhengqing, what do you think of this case?"

Although in the cabinet restructuring plan, the Dali Temple and the Criminal Department were finally at the same level, and they had the final review power of the case, but after all, it has not been implemented yet, and Xue Zhen's qualifications are much older than Pan Shiliang, so he does not dare to slack off.

However, although Pan Shiliang still maintained his previous respect for Xue Zhen's etiquette, the words he said became very assertive.

“… This official thinks that this Dong Weixian and his people participated in the mutiny first, and plundered the population later, which is really an unforgivable crime. The principal offender should be hanged, and the accomplice can be sent to the nine sides for service. ”

Xue Zhen didn't have any expression on his face when he heard this, and then he turned to Yang Weiyuan, the right deputy capital imperial history on the left, and asked, "Then Yang deputy capital imperial history, what do you think?" ”