The busiest institution in the Qian Dynasty was not the Ministry of Justice or the other five ministries, but the Dali Temple.
Dali Temple is responsible for checking cases across the country, and the workload can be described as a mountain. When the case is serious enough to require the death penalty or exile, it must be reported to the Ministry of Punishment for review and someone will be required to cooperate.
It can be said that if you work at the Yamen Gate of Dali Temple, your life will be shortened if you work for a long time. And the most unpopular job in Dali Temple, the job that no one wants to do, is the role of the jailer who does not see the sun all day long. .
The cell in Dali Temple is deep underground. Not to mention it is dark and damp. You can squat in there for a whole day, and you have to eat, drink, and defecate inside.
Sometimes the jailer would laugh at himself, saying that the prisoners were just staying here and would be gone at the end of their days, while they were the only ones who were sentenced to life and had to stay in there for the rest of their lives.
Prison guards work shifts for four hours. During these four hours, they not only have to patrol continuously to prevent prisoners from committing suicide out of fear of crime, but are also responsible for delivering food, interrogation and other matters.
This job is a hard job, but it is strange to say that I only see these jailers complaining, but I never see any jailer throwing the rake and quitting. Why do the complainers still do it? The reason is very simple. As the saying goes, there is no grass at night. Fat, people are not rich without windfall, this life of oil and water is very objective.
No, the jailer Gou Si changed his clothes early in the morning, and as soon as he stepped out of the house, he was pestered by a woman.
I saw that the woman was wearing a brocade dress, but it was a little faded, and the hem of the dress was patched.
"Fourth brother, please do me a favor and bring this steamed seabass to my master. My master will enjoy it!"
As the woman spoke, she put money into Gou Si's hand. Gou Si weighed it and frowned slightly. It turned out to be less than last time, it seemed like less than one tael!
Seeing this, the woman hurriedly begged: "Fourth brother, please do it. All the valuables in the family have been emptied! When I have more money, I will make up for it for fourth brother."
After listening to the woman's words, Gou Si opened the food box and took a look. He saw that he was just eating food with nothing else, so he accepted the money with a cold face.
"I won't do it next time. You know, if adults see me, I will be slapped!"
The woman thanked her profusely and watched the dog go away. When she saw that there was no one around her, she spat: "Wait until my master turns over and see how I can deal with you, you evil-hearted man!"
Dog Si hurried along slowly and hurriedly, which can be regarded as feeling the entrance to the prison during the changing of the guard.
I saw six or seven jailers standing at the entrance of the prison. One of them, with a round face and big ears, looked at Gou Si and said with a smile: "Hey! Gou Si, you can do it. Whose fat sheep did you kill again?" We need to get some food and wine later, so we can have a good meal!"
"Brother Dunzi, don't you know who I am, Gou Si? It's about the time difference between my brothers."
The jailers laughed when they heard this. It seemed that such things had become a habit.
When it was time to hand over the shift, the dungeon door slowly opened, and the jailers were about to walk in when they heard someone shouting behind them...
"Wait a minute, the warden wants to inspect the dungeon."
The jailer ran all the way and stopped the jailer before closing the door.
Dunzi nodded and bowed with a smile and asked: "Boss, who is this prison warden? Why didn't I get any news before?"
The jailer said angrily: "It's none of your business, you're still working when someone comes! Why, are you afraid that it will block your way of making money?"
Dunzi happily returned to the jailer. As for the jailer's words, he treated it as a fart and dispersed it as soon as the wind blew.
This new prison warden is very young. He does not wear official robes, but wears blue clothes and carries a sword case. Looking from side to side, he does not look like a sixth-grade Shangguan, but rather like a gangster.
All the jailers felt very unreasonable, because if an official came to serve as an official, they might break the rules, and their financial resources would be cut off.
The jailers lowered their heads and took a sneak peek from time to time.
The new warden noticed the reactions of the jailers, but he didn't say anything because he was just going through the motions today to show his face.
After the dungeon door was closed, the jailers picked up their burdens one after another and walked down the stone steps with the light of the oil lamps on both sides of the corridor.
The load was very heavy, and there were rations for them and the prisoners. Of course, the jailers' food was much better, but it was much better than the prisoners' food of clear soup and water.
The stone steps were more than ten feet long. When they reached the end of the corridor, a heavy iron door blocked the way.
Dunzi stepped forward, slapped the iron door hard, and shouted at the same time: "It's changing of the guard, are you okay?"
There was a hole in the heavy iron door, just enough to reveal half of the face, but the hole was now closed and had to be opened by someone inside.
Half of a face, plus a pair of sneaky eyes, appeared behind the hole, looking at everyone through the light in the passage.
I saw the man shrinking back and shouting "It's OK! It's OK!".
When Dunzi saw that it was Xiao Liuzi, he pulled out the latch on the outside of the iron door. At the same time, Xiao Liuzi also pulled out the latch on the inside of the door. Only then did the heavy iron door make a harsh metal friction sound and slowly rose up.
Although the process of opening the door is very cumbersome, the jailers never find it troublesome. Regardless of whether it is inside or outside, if something goes wrong, if you open the door rashly, you will lose your head.
The process of handover by the jailer is actually more cumbersome. All prisoners in custody must go through it once. Otherwise, if there is no one to breathe after the handover, the matter will not be clear.
Even though the prisoners inside are all prisoners, if someone really dies, not only must they be reported to the prison warden, but they must also be reported to the Minister of Dali Temple, and finally to the Ministry of Punishment.
Later, the Ministry of Punishment will send people to verify and see how this person died. It can be said that following a set of procedures, the living person will have to be tortured half to death.
The jailer went around and made sure that everyone was alive and no one was seriously ill, and then he went through the handover procedures.
When the iron gate is lowered again, no matter who it is, it will be impossible to enter or exit within four hours. Of course, if there is a divine decree, that will be a different matter.
The prison warden fetched the list of prisoners from the file shelf aside and said with a smile: "Master Li, would you like to take a look at it?"
This Master Li is none other than Li Taiping, the sixth-ranked Prime Minister of Dali Temple.
Li Taiping waved his hand and said with a smile: "No hurry, I'll take a look first!"
The jailer smiled hurriedly and nodded, taking the lead in leading the way.
In fact, this dungeon does not require a guide at all, it is just a crossroad that divides the cells into four sections, with a total of 208 cells.
It's not right to call it a cell, because it's not a room at all. It's more like a circle surrounded by wooden fences.
Walking in the one-foot-wide corridor paved with large bluestones, Li Taiping could clearly see the prisoners in each cell...
Gou Si quickly carried the food box to the innermost cell on the right side of the dungeon, opened the food port and stuffed a plate of steamed seabass in the food box into it.
"Hurry up and eat. The prison warden is here today, so don't bring trouble to me, or else I'll make you look good!"
I saw a skinny, unkempt old man in the cell. He quickly grabbed the food box and turned around, stuffing it into his mouth while speaking inarticulately.
"Don't worry, fourth brother, I'll be quick!"
Seeing the old man devouring his food, Gou Si turned around and looked at the cross aisle...
The old man glanced back and saw that Gou Si did not pay attention to him and was busy rummaging through the belly of the fish.
The old man smiled slightly, and a piece of oily yellow paper appeared in front of him. There were only eight words written on it: "Lucan will rescue you, we will be out soon!".
Li Taiping turned the corner and saw Dog Si not far away and the food box on the ground. He couldn't help but frown and said: "This is..."
The jailer cursed in his heart, "You little bastard, you are causing trouble for me. You have to do this shameful thing today."
"Sir, you also know that the prisoners' food is too light, not even a little oily, and their iron-clad bodies will not be able to endure it for a long time! Therefore, if their families prepare food, we will also
Just do me a favor and let them have a good meal so that they don’t get sick and have to torment us!”
In fact, even Li Taiping, a new official, could figure out the secrets here, but he did not intend to pursue it. After all, if one is willing to fight, the other is willing to suffer, so there is no need for him to get involved and make people different inside and outside.
However, Li Taiping was very curious as to who was being imprisoned there, so he couldn't help but take a few steps to take a look.
When Li Taiping came to Gou Si, the old man in the prison had already licked the plate clean, and he probably had eaten the greasy yellow note as well.
Li Taiping felt that he had seen the old man in front of him somewhere before, but he couldn't remember it for a moment. But the old man looked frightened, which made him a little curious, because he felt that he was not that ugly...
The old man knew that he had lost his composure, so he lowered his head and did not dare to look again. But this had aroused Li Taiping's interest, and he squatted down, looked at the old man and said with a smile.
"We must have met somewhere, and you also recognized me. How about we have a chat. If we have a good chat, how about I pretend I didn't see this?"
As Li Taiping spoke, he glanced at the food box and then glanced at Gou Si, who was standing aside blankly.
The old man's mind was spinning rapidly. He had seen the person in front of him, and he clearly remembered where he had seen him. Because this person was also present that day, and that incident harmed him. He was imprisoned in the dungeon as soon as he returned to Daxing City.
.
But he didn't dare to say it now because he couldn't figure out the identity of the person in front of him, let alone whether the man in green shirt was here for him.
He was afraid of death, and he had been locked up here for almost a whole year. This old man had survived the early torture and torture, and had endured the torture that lasted like years.
Today he has received news from the outside. He is finally about to see the light of day again. Maybe he can put on his official robe again and live a good life again.
But the appearance of the person in front of him completely panicked him, because if he gave a bad answer, he might die of illness in the cell within a few days.
"How about it? Have you thought about it? Do you want to have a chat?"
The young man asked him again. He knew that he would definitely not be able to pretend to be mute, because he had tried the torture tools here and he couldn't stand it. But what to say, he hadn't decided yet...
"Forget it if we don't talk, I don't think there's anything to talk about!"
The young man said and stood up to leave. The old man stood up suddenly, hugged the wooden fence and shouted with red eyes.