In ancient times, the most serious cases, such as the case of a traitor, a liability case with major consequences, and a conspiracy case, would be heard by three courts. Other cases were not eligible for a three-court trial.
The three-hall joint trial refers to the joint trial meeting composed of the chief officials of the three yamen, namely the Ministry of Justice in charge of interrogation, the Dali Temple in charge of review, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate in charge of supervision, that is, the Minister of the Ministry of Justice, the Minister of Dali Temple, and the Censor of the City.
.Of course, in the Ming Dynasty, there would be factory guards to listen.
Generally speaking, this kind of three-court trial can best guarantee the fairness of the trial. However, because the case is serious, the result of the three-court trial will ultimately be reported to the emperor for judgment.
The Nanjing Xungui Case not only involved many honorable persons, but also involved colluding with bandits and killing Jin Yiwei. It was a major case that could be characterized as treason. Naturally, it required a three-party trial.
On the third day after the Liaodong prisoners were dealt with, the three-court trial on the Nanjing Xungui case finally began.
On this day, almost all the focus of the capital was focused on these three trials.
Restaurants, teahouses and other gossip centers all send people to find out the news. Whichever house has the most timely news will have the most customers.
This Nanjing Xungui case has actually been interrogated once by Dongxi Factory in Nanjing, and the relevant criminals have been arrested. The three-party trial just went through the process again.
After hearing from Nanjing, the Governor of Fengyang, Ma Shiying, was reorganizing the place in Fengyang, inspecting the land, etc., he began to discuss countermeasures. First, he burned the land account books and killed the warehouse keeper, and then took further actions, murdering the Jinyi Guards School Captain, and sending people to the bandits.
They spread the word, asked their local disciples to cooperate with the bandits to break out, etc. The context of each incident was very clear.
In the final analysis, these Nanjing nobles have become the largest landowners in Nanjing after many generations of land annexation, donation, hiding, etc. If Ma Shiying is allowed to clean up the place, they will be the ones who suffer the most.
.For his own selfishness, he eventually did more and more serious things.
To be honest, for the officials and gentry, they can actually understand why Nanjing Xungui did this. However, for the officials and gentry, they were also shocked that Nanjing Xungui's methods were so drastic!
Why?
This is what some gentry have always wondered about!
They also quickly concluded that the reason why Nanjing nobles were able to do such drastic and arrogant things was simply because of their status.
Their ancestors were all heroes in the founding of the country, and most of them had death-free gold medals passed down from their ancestors; and their power was in the military, and their disciples had many old friends. Especially since the Nanjing nobles had all united, their power was even more boundless.
If Ma Shiying had not entered Nanjing with the newly formed elite army of the imperial court, he might not have known how Ma Shiying died! In this way, the actions of the Nanjing nobles almost killed Ma Shiying.
As the interrogation progressed, the truth was revealed to the public step by step. Although the noble Nanjing noble had no intention of treason, the fact that he was treason was unanimously recognized by everyone in the capital.
In the end, under the strong suggestion of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Ministry of Punishment and the Dali Temple followed suit and sentenced these Nanjing nobles to execute the Nine Tribes.
For civil servants, killing a large number of nobles and attacking their power is also a form of political correctness. Since the nobles of Nanjing are seeking death themselves, why wouldn't they do it!
After the verdict was made, it was presented to the emperor for the final decision.
The nobles of the capital soon heard about this result and were immediately shocked. They could not accept such a result, at least for Ding Guogong, it was absolutely unacceptable.
Because Duke Dingguo was also descended from Xu Da's lineage, if the Nine Tribes were to be punished, Duke Dingguo would also be executed.
Naturally, Xu Yunzhen, the Duke of Dingguo, could not just surrender and wait for the factory guards to come and ransack his house. However, for a moment, he didn't know what to do?
In his own mansion, he was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot.
At this moment, his steward hurried over and reported: "Someone from the palace is here, saying they want to see the master."
Xu Yunzhen's expression suddenly changed after hearing this, but fortunately, at this time, his supervisor had already added: "It's not a factory guard, he came here secretly."
Upon hearing this, Xu Yunzhen regained a glimmer of hope and hurried to the living room to meet the guests. He was looking forward to things turning around, otherwise, the factory guards would definitely come directly to the door, so why bother.
When he arrived at the living room, he was shocked when he saw the visitor. He hurriedly stepped back and bowed to the visitor, saying, "Please save me, Lord!"
Xu Yunzhen did not expect that the visitor would be the most popular person in front of the emperor today, Wang Chengen, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony and the governor of the West Factory.
Wang Chengen came to him secretly, it must be that there is still room for recovery, which surprised him so much that he quickly kept his attitude as low as possible.
Wang Chengen did not come here secretly on his own, but came here under orders.
At this time, he saw Xu Yunzhen's low profile. After all, he was the Duke of the country, and he felt impressed, so he said to Xu Yunzhen: "I guess you also know what the Nanjing nobles have sentenced?"
When Xu Yunzhen heard this, he was panicked. Just when he was about to defend himself, he heard Wang Chengen continue to say: "If you don't want others to know about the world's affairs, you can't do it unless you do it yourself! So there is no need to complain about injustice, Emperor Taizu
It’s crystal clear!”
Upon hearing this, Xu Yunzhen was dumbfounded.
That's right, Nanjing is really stupid! Emperor Taizu is in heaven, what can't be taken into account? It's just whether he is willing to care about it or not!
How dare you do such a big thing? What's going on in your head?
But soon, he came back to his senses. It seemed that when the people in Nanjing received the news of Taizu's apparition, they were already in trouble, or they thought that Taizu would not care about it after so many years, so there was probably something they couldn't control.
Reason, so you just walked into darkness?
At this time, Wang Chengen looked at the frightened Duke Dingguo, and added more words: "They committed such crimes, and according to the law, they are punished by killing the nine tribes. This is the result of the three-party trial. So.
First of all, this case has a wide range of implications, but it is unique. The Duke should also understand that once treason is involved, even a gold medal for immunity from death is useless!"
When Xu Yunzhen heard this, he came to his senses and immediately knelt down to ask Wang Chengen for help, regardless of the Duke's face.
Wang Chengen looked down at him, but did not help him up. He said calmly: "Those civil servants have always disliked the honorable nobles, and they are eager to take this opportunity to add insult to injury. We can't stand it, so we will give advice to the nobles.
There are both good and bad, and it cannot be generalized. However, this time the nobles have gone too far. If you really want to change the situation of the nobles so that they can give Long Live Lord some peace of mind, then Long Live Lord also agrees.
Be open-minded!"
The truth of the matter is that this is not the case. It was not Wang Chengen who went to persuade Emperor Chongzhen, but Wang Chengen who just followed Emperor Chongzhen's orders and did things.
As far as Duke Ding was concerned, Emperor Chongzhen actually had no good impressions. As a Duke, he turned out to be a surrender to Li Zicheng, a man who was greedy for life and fearful of death, just taking advantage of him!
When Xu Yunzhen heard Wang Chengen's words, he seemed to have grabbed a life-saving straw and quickly asked what was going on.
Therefore, Wang Chengen carefully explained to him what he wanted to do, and then left the house.
After Xu Yunzhen calmed down and thought about it, he realized that this was what the emperor himself meant, and he just wanted to use his words to change the noble system. In the future, if the nobles hate it, they will not talk about how to kill the emperor, but
Everyone hates him.
However, what can he do?
The emperor's butcher knife has been raised. If he doesn't agree, the knife will be raised and dropped. In other words, he has no choice!
Therefore, during the early morning court meeting the next day, which happened to be the great court meeting at the end of this month, Duke Dingguo Xu Yunzhen did not complain of illness and appeared among the ministers at the court meeting, which surprised many civil servants and military generals.
During this period, the nobles in the capital also kept their tail between their legs, trying not to show up if they could. However, Duke Dingguo, who was most implicated in the Nanjing noble case, actually showed up, and many people were ready to watch the show.
They were all guessing, what should the Dingguo Guild do?
"Have you seen that the pampered Lord Dingguo is really haggard!"
"It would be strange if you don't feel haggard. Once your Majesty approves the conclusion of the Three Laws Division, Duke Ding will also be implicated!"
"Tsk, tsk, a sect with two kingdoms, it is quite prominent, but now it is as unlucky as it is, you deserve it!"
"We should take good care of them. If these nobles are defeated, they will be much cleaner!"
"..."
Among the civil servants, those who are not related to nobles and nobles all have a mentality of watching a good show. Under the high-sounding reasons, they hide the joy of schadenfreude!
And many military generals hate these nobles, causing the noble status they yearn for to be covered with a layer of dust!
Duke Ding was all alone, and no one wanted to stand with him, unlike before when he was surrounded by people.
I don’t know how long it took, but Xu Yunzhen felt very uncomfortable and time passed very slowly.
Finally, Emperor Chongzhen went to court. After the ceremony, there were eunuchs on duty. It was the turn of the eunuch Wang Chengen, the eunuch in charge of etiquette, to sing loudly: "If you have a book to play, you will leave the court without a book!"
Generally speaking, in major court meetings, unless it is a particularly important matter, there will be a process, and then the emperor will hold a small meeting to deal with various matters.
In fact, even major matters are discussed privately in small meetings, and the main meeting is basically just a process.
Unless the Emperor Qiankun is arbitrary, some things must be brought up and discussed at the court meeting. For example, the previous riot case in Gongyuan, which caused the apparition of Emperor Taizu and the sages and saints, was at the court meeting.
In front of hundreds of civil and military officials.
At this time, as soon as Wang Chengen finished his words, Dingguo Duke Xu Yunzhen coughed immediately, stepped out of the queue, and loudly played: "I have my notebook to play!"