The six yamen of Shangshutai are located on Zhuque Street and Xuanwu Street near the Imperial City.
The Ministry of War is located in the middle of Zhuque Street. After all, it is a major military event, so the Ministry of War is naturally located in the most feng shui place on Zhuque Street.
The Punishment Department is also on Zhuque Street, which is not too far from the Ministry of War. After all, the entire Suzaku Street is not too long. However, compared to the Feng Shui of the Ministry of War, the Feng Shui of the Punishment Department is much worse.
The architectural styles of each yamen are different. Most of them have phoenix-like eaves pointing to the sky, and many of them have red walls and blue tiles, giving them an antique look.
The Criminal Department is different from other yamen.
The entire official office of the Ministry of Justice is square and featureless. The official office built with black stones has no antique or even solemn atmosphere like other government offices. It exudes more of a gloomy atmosphere. This atmosphere seems to be
It emanates from every brick and tile on the high wall of the Ministry of Criminal Affairs.
If you look down from a bird's eye view, it looks like a huge sarcophagus placed on the side of Zhuque Street.
However, in the eyes of many people, there is not much difference between the punishment department and the coffin.
The Kyoto Prefecture is responsible for the security of Kyoto, while the Ministry of Punishment is in charge of the names of punishments in the world. The life and death record of every executed prisoner in the Tang Empire is in the Ministry of Punishment.
In the Eighteen States of the Tang Dynasty, whenever there was a death penalty case, after the prisoner was put on death row, the file would be sent to the Ministry of Punishment. After review by the Ministry of Punishment, it was determined that there were no omissions in the case. As long as the file was returned with a red coat, the criminal would be
I'm just waiting for Qiu Hou to have her beheaded.
The Ministry of Punishment has the power to decide the life and death of ordinary people. However, after the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the Ministry of Punishment actually did not have much real power. Moreover, as long as you have an official status of seventh rank or above, the Ministry of Punishment has no power to finalize cases, only the power to execute executions. After an official commits a crime,
His life and death can only be decided by the Emperor.
However, today's Ministry of Punishment is no longer comparable to the former Ministry of Punishment.
At dawn, a carriage appeared from the street of Zhuque Street. Behind the carriage was a cart. There was a big drum on the cart, which was fixed to the cart with a rope, which was very strong.
Not only did the horse pull the cart, but there was also a person riding on the horse, so it walked very slowly.
When walking past the gate of the Ministry of War, the guard who had just been on duty recognized that the young man on horseback was the young man who came to the Ministry of War to look for Han Yunong two days ago.
The horse-drawn carriage pulled a big drum. Such strange behavior was unheard of on Zhuque Street. The guards at the government offices on both sides of Zhuque Street opened their eyes wide, thinking that they were being deceived.
The person riding on the horse is of course Qin Xiao.
The carriage walked on Zhuque Street and arrived directly outside the official office of the Ministry of Punishment, which was full of sinister temperament. Qin Xiao raised his head and looked at the words "Xing Deployment" on the door of the official office. He already remembered Gu Baiyi's evaluation of the owner of this official office last night.
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"That's a lunatic." Gu Baiyi said: "For him, the greatest happiness is to see others suffer inhuman torture in front of him. He is obsessed with blood, just like a wild beast, and he never takes pleasure in it."
Qin Xiao remembered very clearly that when he mentioned the official from the Criminal Department, Gu Baiyi, who showed no emotion or anger, showed an extremely obvious look of disgust on his brows.
Gu Baiyi was very clear about the life of Lu Junzhong, the Minister of Punishment, and told Qin Xiao in detail. Qin Xiao was also quite familiar with the highest official in charge of the imperial punishment.
Lu Junzhong, originally named Lu Zhi, joined the Ministry of Justice when he was in his early twenties. He stayed in the Ministry of Justice for more than ten years and only held the position of commander of the Ministry of Justice. It can be said that promotion in the Ministry of Justice was extremely slow.
According to most accounts, Lu Junzhong has an ugly appearance, pointed ears, a thin figure, and a very uncomfortable gloomy look all over his body.
Depressive atmosphere.
When serving as an official in the Tang Dynasty, appearance was sometimes very important. For people like Lu Junzhong, not only could they not be as handsome as ordinary people, but they also had a rather weird temperament, so they were extremely disliked by their colleagues in the Ministry of Justice.
Welcome, and several Xingbu hall officials were quite disgusted with the ugly appearance of Lu Junzhong. One of the Xingbu hall officials named Zhang Shun even ordered not to let Lu Junzhong appear in front of him.
Even the court officials had a feeling of disgust, and naturally everyone in the Ministry of Justice looked down upon Lu Junzhong. Lu Junzhong also became an alternative to the Ministry of Justice and was deeply ostracized.
If this continues, Lu Junzhong will at most become the head of the Criminal Department, return to his hometown as an official when he is old, and spend his life like this.
But the Queen's ascension to the throne gave Lu Junzhong a golden opportunity to rise to prominence.
Before the Holy Queen ascended the throne, Emperor Dezong issued an edict appointing the Holy Queen Xiahou as the crown prince, which shocked both the government and the public.
Academician Zhao Yankuo and more than 20 important officials of the imperial court wrote a letter of remonstrance and begged Emperor Dezong to withdraw his life, but it did not change the situation. After Emperor Dezong died, the Queen Xiahou ascended the throne in July of that year and proclaimed himself emperor, proclaimed himself a saint, and gave him a year title.
For Tianchang.
The first thing Xiahou did after he ascended the throne was to clean up a group of Zhao Yankuo's courtiers who had written against his succession.
However, Zhao Yankuo was not only incorruptible, but also had high prestige. He also had more than 20 other officials, many of whom were honest and loyal ministers. To eliminate such a group of people, naturally, it would not be possible to just kill them. Conclusive evidence must be produced.
The saint handed over the thorough investigation of Zhao Yankuo and his group to the Ministry of Punishment, and secretly ordered the Ministry of Punishment to find evidence of the crimes of these officials as soon as possible, but the Ministry of Punishment has made no progress.
After all, before the Holy Queen came to the throne, the real power of the Ministry of Punishment was not very important, and the Ministry of Punishment did not have the power to interrogate and finalize officials of the seventh rank or above. When high-ranking officials in the court committed crimes, they could only be interrogated by the Dali Temple. After the verdict was finalized, it was submitted to the emperor, and the emperor Zhu approved it.
, Dali Temple then throws the prisoners to the Punishment Department, who executes the punishment.
When the new emperor ascended the throne, he did not hand over the task of trying Zhao Yankuo and others to the Dali Temple, but handed it over to the Ministry of Punishment, simply because among the officials who submitted the letter at that time, there was also a senior official from the Dali Temple.
After the founding of the country, the Ministry of Punishment had never tried such a group of loyal ministers in the court, and they were immediately panicked.
The most important thing is that most of the officials such as Zhao Yankuo have clear names and high prestige. The Ministry of Punishment is worried that if these people are really convicted, they will be spurned by the government and the opposition.
Therefore, many officials in the Ministry of Punishment do not want to get involved in this hot potato.
At this time, Lu Junzhong took the initiative to ask for help. The official of the Criminal Department was worried that there was no one around, so he left the task of searching for evidence to Lu Junzhong.
With power in his hands, Lu Junzhong immediately arrested two of the officials who submitted the petition. They were not arrested for treason at first. Some of the disgraceful things these two officials had done in their early years were caught by Lu Junzhong. After they were imprisoned,
, it only took one day to admit that he had formed a clique and conspired to rebel, and also confessed to others.
Lu Junzhong quickly arrested and imprisoned the officials who confessed. As more and more officials were arrested, more and more confessions were given. In less than half a month, Zhao Yankuo was also arrested and imprisoned for treason.
Lu Junzhong had the confessions of many officials, and he just managed to get the incriminating document with Zhao Yankuo's bloody fingerprints.
Within half a month, nearly a hundred officials were implicated. Twenty-four officials including Zhao Yankuo were sentenced to death, and other officials were either imprisoned or exiled. With the help of Lu Junzhong, Xiahou quickly cleaned up the case in less than a month.
Many officials opposed his ascension to the throne.
As a result, Lu Junzhong was directly promoted to Minister of Justice.
In the following years, Lu Junzhong recruited many ruthless characters into the Ministry of Justice to become his assistants, causing even greater turmoil.
Within three years of the new emperor's accession to the throne, Lu Junzhong was involved in three major cases, involving hundreds of officials. With the tacit approval of the saint, countless officials were convicted by the Ministry of Punishment and then beheaded and exiled. The vacant official positions were quickly occupied by loyalists.
Replaced by saintly officials.
Not only that, Lu Junzhong finally extended his bloody hand to the Li royal family. Many members of the royal family died or were exiled, and they ended up miserable.
But for every convicted person, Lu Junzhong holds in his hand the indictment they confessed to.
So later people gradually learned that Mr. Lu secretly made various cruel instruments of torture, known as the Sixteen Departments of the Punishment Department. In other words, within the Punishment Department, there were sixteen execution rooms, and in each room,
There is an extremely cruel punishment.
However, often before entering the Sixteenth Gate, the prisoner has already confessed and been convicted. Only those with strong bones can enjoy the treatment of the Sixteenth Gate. However, no matter how hard the bones are, after entering the Sixteenth Gate, if they cannot withstand the three punishments, they will often be unable to bear it.
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When you enter the Penal Department Prison, no matter how high or low you are, no matter how serious your crime is, you will only have one status when you arrive, and that is a prisoner.
To treat prisoners, they first pour vinegar into their noses, let them soak in feces and urine, without water or food, and then place torture instruments in front of the prisoners. When they see the torture instruments, the prisoners are frightened to death, and many even frame themselves.
I don't want to go through torture and decide the case early.
At the most terrifying time, some people would kill themselves immediately as soon as they heard that people from the Punishment Department were visiting their homes, and would rather die than enter the Punishment Department.
After Lu Junzhong was promoted to the Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, he was very impressive. Thinking of Zhang Shun, who had served as the official of the Ministry of Justice, he wanted to show off his power in front of this old boss. He posted a message and wanted to visit him. However, when he came to visit, the old official
Zhang Shun committed suicide by taking poison.
For this criminal department official, if hundreds of people were not killed in one case, he would not be able to bear the pain of his hard work. Therefore, as long as Lu Junzhong personally intervened in the case, it would inevitably end in a river of blood.
Countless officials died at the hands of Lu Junzhong. When he was at his most majestic, dignitaries, princes and nobles were like cats and dogs in front of Lu Junzhong.
Because of this, Lu Junzhong had countless enemies in the court, and all forces wanted to cut Lu Junzhong into pieces. Therefore, the news about anonymously impeaching Lu Junzhong was like a snowflake.
However, Lu Junzhong is so arrogant, not only because he has the means, but more importantly because he has the support of the saint behind him. The snow-like impeachment scandals have not been able to shake him at all, and he was named Junzhong by the saint.
For Lu Junzhong, he knew very well that his backer was the saint. He didn't care about anyone's opinions, but he was as loyal to the saint as a dog.
Dali Temple has also been suppressed by the Ministry of Punishment for a long time. The Dali Temple, which has been riding on the head of the Ministry of Punishment since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, has repeatedly reduced its staff. Now it has actually become a Qingshui Yamen. As long as Lu Junzhong is interested in the case,
Dali Temple surrendered, not daring to contaminate it at all.
Lu Junzhong made his fortune by building prisons. Every time he built a prison, he would get huge gains. However, as the saint firmly took the throne, there was no longer any opposition to the emperor in the court, and the saint did not want the court to
The church has always been in turmoil, so under the sage's hints over the years, Lu Junzhong restrained himself a lot, suppressed his bloodthirsty and twisted nature, and did not cause too much trouble.
But just like a dog that can't change its habit of eating shit, the Xingbu's sinister eyes looked around, and no one knew what day this ugly, sinister and sinister official would cause trouble again.
And Lu Junzhong, who made people laugh at him, also got an appropriate nickname.