Yang Fan and Zhang Shize had already arrived at the lake and looked at these lunatic prisoners flopping in the water.
Zhang Shize couldn't help but said: "Don't you want to select some of them and give them to Yan Yingyuan to manage? Let them escort the master back to the snow area. Why bring them here."
Ordinarily, when the master returns to the snowy area, Yang Fan will send a ship to see him off.
Because taking the waterway is the safest and most comfortable route.
Yang Fan's steamship is a shallow-water heavy gunboat with a very low draft. It can go all the way upstream from Linhe City, directly along the Yellow River to Qinghai, and then turn into the Huangshui River, a tributary in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, to reach Xining.
When you arrive in Xining, you can switch to a yak team and go directly to the snow-covered holy city.
There is an ancient road here called the Tang-Tibo Ancient Road.
Wouldn't it be more convenient for these people to start from Linhe? Now that they have come here, they have to go back again.
Zhang Shize didn't know what Yang Fan was doing.
Yang Fan smiled and said: "I just deliberately tormented them."
Zhang Shize was speechless. He was deeply aware of Yang Fan's evil deeds.
However, Yang Fan usually doesn't do such boring things.
Is it a joke to let more than 3,000 people die of thirst? What's the point of tormenting them like this?
Yang Fan said: "These people are all tyrannical people from the five northern provinces. These people are all desperadoes. Among them, there are 20,000 people on death row. They are not afraid of death. They cannot be suppressed by beheading."
Zhang Shize said: "Did you use the method of boiling an eagle to boil them? Let them go, tired, thirsty and desperate, and then let them survive the disaster."
Yang Fan said: "These people have never experienced the desert in their lives. People will only cherish life when they feel that they are about to die in the desert and survive in desperate situations. As long as they are greedy for life, they will obey our management."
Zhang Shize also had to admit that what Yang Fan said made sense.
Juyan City is fifty kilometers north of Heishui City. The two cities are at each other's side.
If you defend this place, you will control the water source and oasis.
If Mongolia, the desert, cannot control this place, it will not be able to survive in the desert of more than 2,000 kilometers.
Water is life in the desert. Therefore, guarding this gateway. Together with Jiayuguan in the south, the traffic between the Western Region and the inland is blocked.
These two cities were built along the Heihe River. Three hundred kilometers southward along the Heihe River are Jiuquan City and Jiayuguan.
These two cities are surrounded by deserts, deserts and deserts. This is the only large oasis.
Yang Fan plans to build castles and reclaim wasteland along the Heihe River. He will arrange these people to guard the border here. As long as there is always water in the Heihe River, both sides of the 700-mile river bank from Jiuquan to Juyanhai can be turned into agriculture.
Oasis belt.
The next day, in the lobby of the Heishui City Yamen, Yang Fan, Zhang Shize and others began to interrogate these prisoners and understand the situation one by one.
Yang Fan only looked after death row prisoners and left other relatively minor criminals alone, leaving it to the lower-level officials to deal with them.
When the results came in, Yang Fan was very surprised.
Less than a quarter of these people are real criminals. These people are criminals. They rob homes, block roads and cut paths, commit all kinds of crimes, and kill people.
Most of the others were unjust, false, and wrongly convicted. Most of them were arrested because they could not pay taxes or evaded labor. The reasons for being in jail were varied and bizarre.
Even Zhang Shize was shocked. The judicial system of the Ming Dynasty was so dark. The officials below dared to act so boldly. The common people were so miserable.
They have no way to appeal, and no one actually hears the case. All cases are decided based on status and power.
At this time, there was an unlucky man kneeling in the hall who refused to sell his land to the Juren Master and was falsely accused of colluding with the bandits, and his family was ruined. What was even more surprising was that there was another charge of writing a counter-proposal, but this man was illiterate.
, can’t read at all.
There are many others who were accused of being a gangster, but he was a thin and sick man. He could not fight with others, and he was useless in killing people. It is said that many officials who were chasing him were killed when he was on the run.
It was obvious that the case could not be solved, so the case was closed haphazardly and an unlucky person was found to make up for it.
The worst thing is that the family received money to take the blame for the children of rich families and officials.
Zhang Shize told Yang Fan that in Ming Dynasty, this was a serious business.
When children from rich families and officials commit crimes, they will naturally not plead guilty and seek justice. Their usual method is to find a family that cannot survive and ask them to find someone to take the blame.
They give a certain amount of remuneration. This kind of business is called white goose slaughter.
The person who took the blame had not committed any crime and was innocent, but he willingly confessed his crime because of the large sum of money offered by his family.
They look like white ducks waiting to be killed, so this kind of crime is called "white duck killing".
The most bizarre thing is that a person who was sentenced to death ten years ago is still alive and has been sent here. How this works makes Yang Fan confused.
After Yang Fan asked, he found out that the old officials in the Ministry of Punishment were so naughty.
He was the only child in the family. When he was happy, he accidentally strangled the brothel's top boss to death and was sentenced to death.
The brothel's background is also very good. He killed someone else's money tree, so of course he can't be spared. He doesn't even want to kill the free goose. People are watching.
The old officials of the Criminal Department actually came up with a crooked idea. They actually asked family members to bribe people in the Yunnan Division privately to implicate some unsolved cases on this person, saying that this person still had cases in Yunnan.
In this way, executions cannot be carried out and new crimes must be verified.
Based on the efficiency of the imperial court at this time, the Ministry of Justice in the capital is now delaying for half a year, and then it takes a year for the official documents to travel from the capital to Yunnan. After they are received in Yunnan, they have to be verified, which takes another half a year. If the official documents are found to be unsubstantiated, it takes another year to return to the capital.
.
However, another prisoner came forward to report to the Ministry of Punishments. The case was tried again in Beijing. Then another document was sent to Yunnan.
Yunnan insisted that the case had been thoroughly investigated and it was not accepted and the official document was rejected. It took another year or two. The Ministry of Punishment discovered new evidence and sent it to Yunnan again.
Endless torment. This prisoner has been in jail for ten years and is still living well.
It was such a difficult matter, and they actually delayed it.
His father was a porcelain merchant and was very rich. In the past ten years, he kept sending maids to the prison. He actually gave birth to three sons. This time, he was lucky enough to serve in the army.
Seeing Mr. Cheng standing there with a graceful and arrogant attitude, Yang Fan was convinced.
"We don't raise useless people in the army. If you have any skills, tell them immediately. If they are useless, they will be dragged out and chopped. This will avoid wasting rice." Yang Fan knocked on the table depressedly and said.
Mr. Cheng thought for a while and said with some anxiety: "I have followed my father all over the world and am familiar with the languages of various countries. I can interpret for the army."
Yang Fan's eyes lit up when he heard this, and asked: "Do you understand the Tubo language?"
"You can communicate with most languages in the Little Renxue Area, Mongolia and the Western Regions."
Yang Fan nodded and said: "Okay, you don't need to behead. I will report to the snow camp tomorrow and be an interpreter first."
Mr. Cheng excitedly raised his hands and said, "I will definitely handle my uncle's errands properly."