The officials of the Ministry of Punishment opened the door, and Li Jin, the Minister of Punishment, led the officials of the Ministry of Punishment to stand in front of the lobby of the Ministry of Punishment and welcomed the people from Zhongshushe who were sent by the King of Yue.
Compared to the panic in the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Works, the officials in the Ministry of Punishment were much calmer.
The accounts of the Ministry of Accounts and the Ministry of Works are numerous, and they are all about financial accounting, so naturally there will be mistakes. And although financial accounting is a complicated job, as long as you know arithmetic, you can always find the problem.
I heard that the commerce in Longyou is developed, and there are naturally more people who know how to manage money. It is natural that the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Works will suffer. But our Ministry of Punishment is different!
The art of criminal naming is not a simple knowledge. Just the Tang Code and the Tang Code are not accessible to ordinary people. Moreover, there are a large number of precedents in the Ministry of Punishment. Although the Tang Dynasty did not regard precedents as legal rules, in the Tang Dynasty,
When discussing the case, these previous cases will also be cited.
The law itself is the closest to the national ideology, and the legal analysis part is a field that only great Confucians can enter.
Since the Spring and Autumn Period, the law has always been one of the most important fundamental laws of the country. Although the law of criminal names is only a branch of the law, it is not something that ordinary people can study, let alone those who have learned the law from generations like the Ministry of Punishment.
He is an old official.
Therefore, the Department of Punishment is the least panicked among the six departments. Other departments can find problems! Our Department of Punishment will never have any problems! No matter how many talents you have under King Yue, can you still have people who are proficient in the art of punishment?
Even if it is used, can the criminal officials in these states and counties still debate the law with our Ministry of Punishment?
Therefore, the mentality of the Ministry of Punishment was probably confident. In response to the King of Yue's audit, the officials of the Ministry of Punishment moved all the judgments of the past few years out of the warehouse and stacked them in the patios on both sides of the lobby of the Ministry of Punishment.
The player Zhou Hao walked into the Criminal Department and saw the files piled up like hills on both sides. He sneered, this was to give himself authority.
However, Zhou Hao didn't care. He first read out the King of Yue's order to the Ministry of Punishment, and then went to the side hall behind the court accompanied by Li Jin, the Minister of Punishment.
As soon as he sat down, the Minister of Punishment, a second-rank official, couldn't help but express his bitterness. "Finally, I've waited for you all to come!"
Zhou Hao looked at Li Jin in surprise. The other people in the Zhongshushe who entered the Sixth Division were all disgusted by them. How come you, the minister, seem to be looking forward to the rebel army?
Zhou Hao had done his homework, and Li Jin, the Minister of the Ministry of Justice, was also a member of the Li Tang clan. He was a Jinshi in the Tianbao year, and he had endured many qualifications to reach his current position.
Li Jin is only in his forties now, but he looks like he is in his fifties or sixties. Li Jin said with a bitter face:
"Everyone, please don't be ridiculous, this old man from the Punishment Department can't stay here for another day!" Then Li Jin began to pour out his bitterness, talking about his own experience of being oppressed by the Punishment Department.
"Your Majesty, that's not right. After His Majesty returned to Luan Chang'an, he appointed me as the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment. The Emperor is so kind that I dare not slack off for a day. After taking office, I have been working hard and sleeping all day long. I have been busy with official duties all day long."
"Damn those swordsmen and pen officials. From the first day I took office, they have been asking for instructions all day long with old cases in the local area. These cases are all old cases that no previous minister has been able to solve. Each of them is extremely complicated and difficult to solve.
pole!"
"I've been sitting in the lobby of the Ministry of Justice for a year, and I feel like I'm on pins and needles every day! I work day and night but nothing seems to be accomplished!" Zhou Hao saw that this second-grade official was about to burst into tears, and he knew this
You are an honest man, but he was tortured a lot by his subordinates!
In the Tang Dynasty, Dali Temple, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Yushitai were collectively called the Three Law Departments. The function of the Punishment Department was similar to that of the Supreme Court. If the Dali Temple could not resolve the case, it would be sent to the Punishment Department for review.
Cases with long-standing arrears or repeated appeals from various places will also be brought to the Ministry of Punishment for trial.
There is also an important case assigned by the emperor. For example, if Prince Chu is sent to Chang'an this time, it will be tried by the three judicial departments.
Li Jin originally wanted to make a difference in the Ministry of Punishment, but he was tortured by the old officials in the Ministry of Punishment all day long with the most difficult cases and had no time to manage other affairs of the Ministry of Punishment.
But when he came to the Criminal Department, he hadn't solved a single case yet!
This made Li Jin have no prestige in the Ministry of Justice and could not accomplish anything. After Li Jin finished speaking,
Zhou Hao quickly comforted him and said:
"Don't worry, Li Shangshu, we will report your situation to His Highness." Li Jin then wiped away his tears, and then he took out his resignation letter and said: "I am incompetent, and I will submit my resignation to Your Highness. I also ask Zhou Sheren to forward it to you."
Your Highness."
Zhou Hao said quickly:
"Li Shangshu is only over forty years old, how can he be called old!"
But seeing Li Jin's completely white beard and hair, Zhou Hao swallowed up other comforting words and said quickly: "The minister is an important minister. If you want to resign, the minister should submit a letter to the court. How can we forward it to you?" After saying this,
Zhou Hao immediately led the other players out of the side hall.
The Ministry of Punishment should have a minister, a minister, followed by a doctor, a foreign minister, and the chief. These are all high-ranking officials who have been promoted in the Ministry of Personnel.
But it seemed to Zhou Hao that all these officials were dejected, just like Li Jin, the minister, who had been severely tortured.
And those who are not wearing official robes, the Lingshi and Shulingshis of the Ministry of Justice, all have red faces and fat bodies. The Lingshi and Shulingshi are the officials with swords and pens. Many of them have been working in the Fa Department for generations.
.
These people do not study the imperial examinations and study criminal names since they were young. On the contrary, they are more difficult to deal with than the officials of the Ministry of Punishment.
No matter whether it was the Wu Zhou Dynasty that changed the Tang Dynasty to the Zhou Dynasty, or An Lushan invaded Chang'an, these sword and pen officials were still the same people.
The leader of the sword and pen official is named Zhang Shutong, and his position is the history of the Ministry of Punishment. He has been in the Ministry of Punishment for thirty years. His family has intermarried with other sword and pen officials families. He is vaguely the leader of the entire knife and pen official in the Ministry of Punishment, and can be regarded as the chief permanent secretary of the Ministry of Punishment.
He has served several officials of the Ministry of Justice.
Zhou Hao and Yi Ganzhong Shushe were not afraid at all. Zhou Hao placed a table in the main hall of the Ministry of Justice and ordered the swordsmen and penmen to bring up the case files.
Zhang Shutong first delivered the thick stack of files to Zhou Hao's desk.
Many swordsmen and pen officers lowered their heads and smiled. This is an old tradition of the Ministry of Justice. These cases are all long-standing and difficult to handle.
Zhou Hao quickly read the file. When Zhang Shutong saw Zhou Hao reading so quickly, he thought he was pretending. Zhang Shutong couldn't help but sneer. The facts of this case are not complicated. What is complicated is how to judge this type of case.
This is a case in which a woman cheated on her husband and the godfather poisoned her husband to death in order to run away with him.
The facts of the case are clear, and the evidence of the poisoned female godfather is conclusive. However, since the *** did not know about this case, it is difficult to decide how the *** will be judged.
Given the size of the Tang Dynasty, many cases of this kind had occurred before. In the early Tang Dynasty, if the emperor had no knowledge of such cases, the woman would be executed according to the Tang law.
***The long flow of three thousand.
But in the Wu Zhou Dynasty, the court promoted chastity, and it became the same crime for women to have sex with their husbands.
When Emperor Li Longji came to the throne, the social atmosphere became more relaxed, and the judgments of the early Tang Dynasty returned to those of the early Tang Dynasty.
In this case, the county government ruled that the female godfather was guilty of the same crime as the husband. The family appealed to the state, and the state changed the sentence to the execution of the female godfather. The wife has a long life of three thousand.
Now the deceased's family disagreed again and appealed to Chang'an again, and the case has been pending. The case was filed before the Anshi Rebellion, and the female godfather is still in prison.
After Zhou Hao finished reading the case, he picked up his brush and prepared to write down the verdict. At this time, Zhang Shutong hurriedly stepped forward and said:
"O Zhou Sheren! The merits of this case are complicated and cannot be decided easily!" Zhou Hao did not stop writing. After writing the verdict, he asked:
"The facts of this case are clear, what's so difficult to solve?" Zhang Shutong said immediately:
"If this is based on the judgment made in the third year of Kaiyuan, this case should..."
Before Zhang Shutong finished speaking, he saw Zhou Hao throwing the brush in his hand on his head, and ink flowed from his head. Zhang Shutong looked at Zhou Hao in horror.
Zhou Hao pointed at Zhang Shutong and said:
"When we decide cases in the Tang Dynasty, don't we judge them according to the "Tang Laws and Comments"?" Zhang Shutong said immediately:
"The old cases of the Ministry of Punishment can also be relied upon." Zhou Hao immediately sneered and said:
"We in the Tang Dynasty have always decided cases in accordance with the law. Which emperor said that cases should be decided in accordance with precedents?"
"You, the swordsmen and penmen, run the Ministry of Punishment and confuse the officials of the Ministry of Punishment with the precedents of old cases. Simple cases are often involved for several years, and even the parties involved die in prison without a verdict."
"The laws of the Tang Dynasty are already recorded and the laws can be followed, so why should we look for any precedents?"
As a believer in the civil law system, what Zhou Hao hates most is the principle of precedent in the maritime law system.
Although this European and American judicial system looks fair, in fact the judicial process is complex and is entirely in the hands of elite judges and lawyers.
In actual implementation, due to the large number of legal precedents, wealthy people who can afford elite lawyers are more likely to invoke obscure legal precedents and obtain acquittals.
Nowadays, the Ministry of Punishment always uses judgment precedents to interfere with the normal determination of cases. In Zhou Hao's view, these sharp-shooting officials are confusing the public and complicating simple issues for their own benefit.
After Zhou Hao finished writing the verdict of this dossier, he then said to the other players:
"All cases are dealt with in accordance with the "Tang Lv Shu Yi". If there are any doubts in the case file that are not clear, they will be marked and sent back to the judicial department for re-examination.
"If there are any suspicions in the case, or if there seems to be any grievance, please report it to me." "Everyone, let's get to work!"
The King of Yue ordered more than ten people from Shushe, Zhou Hao, to join the Ministry of Punishment. In three days, one hundred and thirty cases were settled, fifty-eight cases were concluded, and thirty cases were sent back to Dali Temple and various states and counties for re-examination.
Forty-two cases of altered testimonies, incomplete files, and confusing evidence were also discovered. After being handed over to Dali Temple for investigation, it was found that Zhang Shutong and other criminals, together with the criminals' families, had tampered with the files and bent the law for personal gain. There were 52 cases. All the criminals were detained in Dali Temple. The Ministry of Punishment was
One empty.
The six tribes were horrified. The former Longyou Governor's Mansion left behind the envoy Shang Bo, who entered the Ministry of Rites with a group of people from Zhongshushe.