Mou Rongtian and Shi Yi arrived at the Jinyiwei branch of Hejian Prefecture and were warmly received by the local Jinyiwei commander Yu Baihu.
In the hall, Mou Rongtian said: "I have been ordered by the commander to investigate the unjust, false and wrong cases that Zheng Lujia handled when he was the magistrate of Suning and Hejian. I am a newbie here and I don't understand the situation here. I hope that I can...
Please cooperate with me."
Suning is one of the ten counties under the jurisdiction of Hejian Prefecture.
Yu Baihu smiled and said: "I will definitely cooperate with Lord Mou fully."
Mou Rongtian nodded slightly, said "hmm", and then said: "As far as you know, what unjust, false and wrong cases have been handled by Zheng Lujia?"
Yu Baihu said: "There are too many. This Uncle Zheng Guo has always been beaten and beaten. There are more than a dozen unjust cases that I know of."
Mou Rongtian asked Yu Baihu to bring a pen and paper, and said: "Lao Yu, tell me one by one, and I will record it."
Yu Baihu said: "Let's talk about Yu Lin's case first."
Mou Rongtian picked up his pen and prepared to record.
Yu Baihu continued: "Speaking of this Yu Lin, he and I are somewhat related. We are from the same family and are both from Suning. He doesn't have much ability. He has several acres of thin farmland at home and makes a living by farming.
He loved to drink, and after drinking he would go crazy and beat his wife, neither lightly nor severely.
"His daughter-in-law's surname was Zhang. The Zhang family and he didn't live a good life for a few days before they were beaten. Fifteen years ago, in the twenty-seventh year of Wanli, that spring was probably March or April. Specifically, it was
I can’t remember exactly whether it was March or April, but it was either March or April.”
Mou Rongtian felt that Yu Baihu had some ink stains, and said: "Don't worry about the specific date, just focus on the key points."
Yu Baihu said: "Okay, then I'll pick out the important points. During that time, Yu Lin's daughter-in-law Zhang disappeared, and she didn't know where she went. The Zhang family suspected that Yu Lin had taken Zhang
He was killed and sued to the government. Yu Lin went to court and refused to plead guilty. Zheng Guojiu served him with a severe punishment and beat Yu Lin to death. Finally, Yu Lin admitted the crime.
"Uncle Zheng Guo asked Yu Lin where he buried Mrs. Zhang. Yu Lin couldn't tell. He couldn't find Zhang's body and couldn't close the case. Uncle Zheng Guo gave Yu Lin a severe punishment, but Yu Lin never told him.
Where is Zhang buried?
"Later Yu Lin was sentenced to beheaded by Qiu Hou, but Zheng Guojiu never found Zhang's body, and I don't know how he closed the case.
"At that time, everyone thought that Mrs. Zhang had been killed by Yu Lin, so Yu Lin always beat Ms. Zhang. Everyone speculated that he accidentally beat Mr. Zhang to death. No one expected that ten years later, Ms. Zhang would appear.
She is not dead.
"Yu Lin's second brother Yu Sen heard that Zhang was back. He went to the Zhang family and asked where Zhang had been all these years. Zhang said she couldn't stand Yu Lin's beatings and fled to other places. Yu Sen said, '
Wouldn't your family know if you fled to another place? Why should my brother be wronged?'
"Ms. Zhang said, 'I'm afraid that Yu Lin will find me, so I haven't contacted my family in the past ten years.' Yu Sen was so angry that he went to the Yamen and sued Uncle Zheng Guojiu for infringing upon human life. At that time, Uncle Zheng Guoji was already the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, Suning.
How could the county magistrate dare to take this case? Yu Sen was beaten out with a stick.
"Yu Sen was not convinced. He came to me and wanted me to stand up for him. I am just a small householder. How can I stand up to Uncle Zheng Guo? I advise Yu Sen to endure it. If the trouble continues, Zheng Guo will be annoyed.
Uncle Guo, maybe his life is at stake. After hearing what I said, Yu Sen didn’t dare to complain anymore, so he just endured it.”
Mou Rongtian thought to himself: "This Zheng Lujia is so ignorant of human life." He said: "I have recorded this case. You will take me to Yu Sen later and I will help him make the decision."
Yu Baihu said: "That's good. I'll thank you, Lord Mou, on behalf of Yu Sen."
Mou Rongtian said: "Don't be polite, let's talk about the next case."
Yu Baihu said: "Then let's talk about Zhao Dahai's case."
Mou Rongtian finished recording Yu Lin's case and said, "Tell me, what's going on with Zhao Dahai's case?"
Yu Baihu said: "Zhao Dahai is also from Suning and lives in Zhaojia Village. He has a younger brother named Zhao Erhai. Their parents died early. Zhao Dahai was over 20 years old when he died. He was already married and his daughter-in-law was also named Zhao.
Zhao Erhai was less than ten years old at the time.
"Their family has six or seven acres of land. Zhao Dahai and his wife are both hard-working people. Relying on these acres of land, they lived a good and prosperous life. The couple raised Zhao Erhai. Zhao Dahai wanted his younger brother to have a future.
He sent him to a private school to study, but Zhao Erhai was not the material to study at all. Over the past few years, he could not read a lot of Chinese characters, which made Zhao Dahai very angry.
"Zhao Dahai asked his younger brother to work in farming again. Zhao Erhai was lazy and was not a good farmer. More than ten years ago, when Zhao Erhai was about 20 years old, he fell in love with a bitch in a brothel and insisted on redeeming her. He wanted to
She got married as a daughter-in-law.
"It costs a lot of money to redeem someone from a brothel. How could Zhao Erhai have so much money? So he went back to his brother to ask for it. When Zhao Dahai heard that he was going to redeem a bitch, he immediately became angry and asked him to marry the bitch.
The child is broken.
"Zhao Erhai couldn't bear to break up with that bitch. Zhao Dahai didn't give her any money, so he clamored to split up the family. He wanted to get a few acres of land and sold the land for money.
"Zhao Dahai refused to separate the family, fearing that his younger brother would lose all the land. Zhao Erhai said: 'The land was left by my parents, and I have a share. Why don't you divide it?" Zhao Dahai shouted: 'Just because I am the one who owns the land.
Your brother, I pulled you big. 'The brothers said more and more rigid, and they moved their hands.
Gone.
"About half a year later, the old well in Zhaojia Village dried up. The villagers worked together to dig a new well, and while digging the well, they dug out a white skeleton.
"The chief security officer reported to the county government, and Zheng Guojiu sent a police officer to investigate. It was found that Zhao Erhai was missing and his whereabouts were unknown, so he suspected that the bones were Zhao Erhai. He also learned that the Zhao brothers had fought over the separation of the family.
He felt that Zhao Dahai was a serious suspect and arrested him.
"Zhao Dahai went to court and refused to plead guilty. Zheng Guojiu still used the old method of serving severe punishments. Zhao Dahai could not resist the punishment, so he was beaten into a trick and sentenced to death.
"It was more than a year after Zhao Dahai was beheaded. Zhao Erhai came back. He was not dead. He had been missing for more than a year and eloped with the bitch from the brothel. When he met people from Zhaojia Village in other places,
I just came back after hearing that my brother had been beheaded.
"Zhao Erhai went to the county government to avenge his brother. Like Yu Sen, he was also beaten with a stick, but he endured it and did not dare to complain again."
Mou Rongtian said: "I have also recorded this case, but I have a question to ask you."
Yu Baihu said: "Sir, please tell me."
Mou Rongtian asked: "Were you present when the Zhao brothers had a fight?"
Yu Baihu smiled and said, "How could I be there?"
Mou Rongtian said: "Since you were not present, how did you know about the conversation between them? Could it be that you made it up casually?"
Yu Baihu was startled and hurriedly explained: "My lord, please don't misunderstand. This matter is of great importance. I don't dare to talk nonsense. I only listen to what the people in their village say."
Mou Rongtian said: "Oh, it turns out it was hearsay. So how did the person who told you know about it?"
Yu Baihu said: "He heard what Zhao Dahai's wife said, so he can't be wrong."
Mou Rongtian said: "We can't be careless about the case. Let's go back to Mrs. Zhao to confirm whether your statement is true. You can go on."
Yu Baihu was talking eloquently, Mou Rongtian was jotting down quickly, and Yu Baihu was talking about a few more cases. It was already sunset, and Yu Baihu said: "I still have a few more cases."
We haven’t mentioned the case yet, but it’s already time to eat. Sir Mou, let’s eat first. I’ll ask someone to prepare the food and drinks.”
Mou Rong added: "We'll skip the food and wine. Bring us some steamed buns and let's eat and talk."
Yu Baihu thought to himself: "Why is this Mr. Mou like this? This is the first time I have met such a superior person." He originally wanted to hold a banquet to entertain Mou Rongtian, so he took the opportunity to have a relationship with Mou Rongtian, and they were close, but he didn't expect that Mou Rongtian only wanted to
A few steamed buns to satisfy his hunger, and the work at hand was still busy. He didn't dare to disobey, so he had to obey.
After a while, the servant brought several plates of steaming steamed buns just out of the pan. Yu Baihu continued to talk about the case while eating, and Mou Rongtian took notes while eating.
Yu Baihu told several more unjust cases, and Mou Rongtian wrote them down one by one. Yu Baihu said: "This is all I know. I will ask my subordinates to see if they know anything I haven't said."
case."
Mou Rongtian said: "Then go ahead. If anyone knows about other cases, bring them over to see me."
Yu Baihu called the flag officials to a meeting. He first told the injustice cases that he had reported to Mou Rongtian, and then asked the flag officials if they knew about other injustice cases. Several flag officials also mentioned several injustice cases that Yu Baihu didn't know about.
Yu Baihu took them to see Mou Rongtian, who talked to them one by one and recorded all the unjust cases they knew about.
Working until midnight, Mou Rongtian recorded all the unjust cases known to the flag officers and asked Yu Baihu: "Have the captains asked about it? Do they know about other unjust cases?"
Yu Baihu said: "I haven't asked yet. The captains are all off work. I can't ask today. I'll ask the flag officers to ask again tomorrow. Mr. Mou, it's getting late. You are tired from the journey and it is very hard. Please record it again."
You must be tired after working on so many cases, so you should go to bed early. I will arrange guest rooms for you two adults."
Mou Rongtian said: "I want to sort out these materials. You can take Shi Baihu to the guest room first."
Yu Baihu thought to himself: "This Master Mou is really desperate in handling the case." He sent Shi Yi to the guest room to rest, and came back to sit in the hall with Mou Rongtian.
Mou Rongtian said: "Yu Baihu, there is nothing for you here. You can go and rest."
Mou Rongtian didn't rest, so how could Yu Baihu rest? He smiled and said, "I'm not tired yet, so I'll ask the cook to make some late-night snacks for you."
Mou Rongtian said: "I'm not hungry, so I won't have midnight snack. You don't need to bother me."
Yu Baihu said with a smile: "No trouble." After saying that, he walked out. After a while, he brought back a tray with a bowl of bird's nest and several exquisite snacks on it.
Yu Baihu put the bird's nest and snacks on the table and said: "There is nothing to entertain, adults can just eat some."
Mou Rongtian glanced at the bowl of bird's nest and saw that it was a high-quality blood bird's nest. He frowned and said, "You all eat blood bird's nest. This thing is not cheap. Where did you get the money? Could it be eating Naka?"
If you want to strangle people's necks, you're going to strangle them, right?"
Yu Baihu was startled and thought to himself: "Why is this Master Mou like this? He was kind enough to entertain him with bird's nests, but he failed to do so."
He hurriedly explained: "Mr. Mou, please don't misunderstand me. How dare I eat Nakha and strangle the common people's necks? I am usually reluctant to eat bird's nests. Isn't this the time when my lord is here? I am afraid that I will be slow to treat you."
My lord, I made you unhappy, so I paid for it myself and had someone buy it to honor my lord."
Mou Rongtian said: "I can't bear such a good thing as bird's nest. I never eat it. It's all because I didn't say hello to you in advance and you wasted your money. I will stay with you for a while. One day
I only eat steamed buns and pickles for three meals, and don’t eat anything else. I don’t drink any tea or wine, only plain water. Have you written it down?”
Yu Baihu thought to himself: "Are you too incorruptible? I don't know whether you are really incorruptible or just pretending to be incorruptible. Since you said so, I will do it." He smiled and said: "I have already written it down."