Nu Yalang of Tang Dynasty

A few days later, Zhou Jun stood in the prison cell of Jingzhao Mansion Prison, listening to the constant cries of injustice in his ears, but thinking about the record in the history books of his previous life about the case of Tianbao's four-year deployment of soldiers.

The cause of the case was that Li Linfu had someone expose the illegal activities of Quancao (the military attaché in charge) of the Ministry of War, in order to attack Li Shizhi.

More than sixty subordinate officials from the Ministry of War were interrogated for several days, but no results were obtained.

Therefore, the Jingzhao Prefecture sent Cao Jiwen (nephew of Ji Xu, a ruthless official of the Wu Zetian Dynasty) to assist in the trial, and the Yushitai sent Luo Xixi, the chief registrar, to assist him.

Both of them were cruel officials. They carried heavy prisoners and tortured them, either with sticks or pressure, and their screams were unbearable to hear.

When all the officials in the Ministry of War saw the miserable situation of being tortured, they were all horrified and incomprehensible, and they all falsely accused themselves. No one dared to disobey him again, and the case was immediately closed and imprisoned.

Jiwen and Luo Xishi were accused of various crimes and tortured to extract confessions. Therefore, they were nicknamed "Luo Jiwang" and they were regarded as Li Linfu's minions.

However, when the officials of the Ministry of War confessed their guilt and presented it to the sage, Xuanzong looked at it, but he only issued an edict to blame the minister of the Ministry of War, and did not punish anyone in the Ministry of War.

In this case, later historians discovered several doubts when studying historical materials.

First of all, when the history books described this case, they used the word "false accusation", but many historians have raised questions. Li Linfu framed his political opponents, had many plans and then acted, and went to court to plead guilty without evidence. This is not consistent with him.

character.

Secondly, after receiving the report of exposing the Ministry of War, Li Longji immediately issued an order, not only arresting more than 60 subordinates of the Ministry of War, but also tasked Jingzhao Mansion and Yushitai to jointly handle the case. If it was just a false accusation, it would definitely not cause such a big concern to the emperor.

Reaction. Therefore, historians speculate that perhaps the crime reported by Li Linfu was indeed true, and Xuanzong took it so seriously.

Finally, Jiwen and Luo Xishi fabricated accusations, tortured and extorted confessions, and found confessions from officials in the Ministry of War. After Xuanzong read them, he first reprimanded the minister of the Ministry of War, and then released all the more than 60 people imprisoned without any punishment.

Regarding this point, later generations speculated that perhaps Jiluo and his two men did not find any definite evidence that the Ministry of War had committed the crime. Xuanzong saw the confession and heard the inside story, knowing that it was just a subjugation, so he didn't take it to heart.

After thinking about this, Zhou Jun raised his head and looked at the people in the room.

There was a man with a mustache, a long pointed mouth, less flesh on his cheeks, and a flattering face. He was none other than Jiwen, the Fa Cao of Jingzhao Prefecture.

A man of few words, with a cold expression and an unsmiling look, was Luo Xishi, the chief clerk of the Yushitai.

The other man's ears are higher than his eyebrows, his nose is straight and his mouth is square, he talks and laughs lively, but he is the official minister of the Yuan Zai Yuan Dynasty in Dali Temple.

In addition to Zhou Jun... Jingzhao Mansion, Yushitai, Ministry of Punishment, and Dali Temple, although the visitors are all low-level officials, the luxurious configurations of the three departments in one government are still complete.

Among these four people, Zhou Jun has the lowest rank.

Originally, the Ministry of Punishment recommended another principal, but thanks to Li Linfu's strong recommendation and Li Longji's good impression of Zhou Yilang, Zhou Jun had the opportunity to participate in the trial.

At this time, the military deployment case had been under trial for some time, but there was still no progress.

Zhou Jun, Ji Wen, Luo Xishi and Yuan Zai were all just summoned to Jingzhao Prison to start the trial of the case of soldiers and officials.

The four of them read the records of the previous trial and had different opinions on what to do next.

Ji Wen believed that the officials in the Ministry of War were united in keeping silent, and if they were not severely punished, they might not be found guilty.

However, Yuan Zai believed that Tang law stipulated that prisoners suspected of committing crimes should not be tortured to extract confessions or use torture. If the presiding officer violated this rule, he could be sentenced to exile at most.

As for Luo Xishi, he looked on coldly and said nothing.

Seeing that Yuan Zai had been arguing with Ji Wen for a long time and still could not convince the other party, he asked Zhou Jun: "What does Zhou Lingshi think?"

Ji Wen glanced at Zhou Jun's ocher-yellow official robe with a look of disdain on his face, but in the end he didn't say anything.

Zhou Jun looked at Kan Lu on the case table again, and replied to Yuan Zai: "Jun just took over the case. I am not in a hurry to pronounce on the punishment. Let me take a look at it later."

Seeing this, Yuan Zai came close to Zhou Jun and whispered: "If Na Jiwen is allowed to torture indiscriminately, once word gets out about this, I'm afraid we will both be labeled as cruel officials, which will be detrimental to our career."

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After listening to this, Zhou Jun realized that Yuan Zai had always disagreed with Ji Wen's use of torture, not because of Tang law, but for the sake of his official career.

Zhou Jun nodded to Yuan Zai, cupped his hands to Ji Wen and said, "There is no conclusion yet on whether the officials in the Ministry of War are guilty or not. If they are punished now, they may be criticized."

Ji Wen snorted coldly.

Zhou Jun sat down at the desk again and began to look through the small mountain of case records and Kan records.

Yuan Zai sighed, sat down and started reading together.

Not long after, Ji Wen suddenly clapped his hands and said with a smile: "Yes."

Zhou Jun and Yuan Zai looked towards Ji Wen, only to hear the latter say: "Tang law does not allow torture to be used to extract confessions from prisoners suspected of crimes, but it does not prohibit the punishment of serious offenders, right?"

Yuan Zai didn't know why and looked at Ji Wen.

Ji Wen smiled sadly and said: "We took a serious criminal from the prison and tortured him severely in front of the officials of the Ministry of War. In fear, wouldn't they all be killed?"

Yuan Zai smiled bitterly, but before he spoke, he only listened to Zhou Jun say: "This kind of practice, even if it is to seek guilt, there is no evidence. A discerning person will know the trick at a glance. It will not serve any purpose, but will be criticized."

Hearing this, Ji Wen said angrily: "This won't work, and that won't work either. Why don't you tell me how to do it?!"

Zhou Jun buried his head in the book case again and said: "Don't be impatient for a moment, and let me read the case first."

Jiwen let out a long sigh, stamped his feet, and left the house.

Luo Xishi, who was speechless from beginning to end, took a deep look at Zhou Jun and walked out.

Only Yuan Zai and Zhou Jun were left in the huge room.

Listening to the cries of injustice in his ears, Yuan Zai grimaced, raised his head, and whispered to Zhou Jun: "Hengcai, I don't know if I am destined to be too old this year. I don't know why I got such an unlucky job."

Zhou Jun raised his head, glanced at Yuan Zai, and said to himself, I'm sorry, Yuan Gongfu, although I don't know how the butterfly effect works, but you participated in the trial of the military deployment case, I'm afraid it has something to do with me.

After thinking about it, Zhou Jun said to Yuan Zai: "Gongfu, this case was actually initiated by the right prime minister. I'm afraid the inside story is not as simple as others think."

Yuan Zai said: "But both Jingzhao Mansion and Yushitai have tried it for such a long time, and the cases are so numerous that there is nothing fishy about them."

Zhou Jun looked at the case and said softly: "What if there are many people involved in this case and more than one person committed the crime?"

Yuan Zai was shocked when he heard this: "This is too much. How can Heng know the pros and cons?"

Zhou Jun didn't answer, he just picked up the list of military attachés selected in recent years and started reading page by page.

After about an hour, when Yuan Zai was drowsy, Zhou Jun pushed the directory in front of him.

Yuan Zai steeled himself and listened to Zhou Jun say: "Look at the background of the Jinshi who pass the martial arts examination every year, and then count the categories."

Yuan Zai made statistics according to his words and found that during the Kaiyuan period, the number of children from wealthy families who passed the Jinshi examination was about three times the number of children from poor families.

Zhou Jun picked up the list of selected military attachés from the Tianbao period and asked Yuan Zai to count it again.

Yuan Zai calculated it again and was surprised to find that the number of children from poor families who passed the examination during the Tianbao period was actually less than that during the Kaiyuan period.

From the early years of Tianbao to the fourth year of Tianbao, the number of Jinshi who passed the martial arts examination among the children of the wealthy family was actually about five times that of the children of the poor family.

Yuan Zai frowned and asked in confusion: "How is this possible? Since Taizong, the people of the Tang Dynasty have been educated, and the difference between wealthy and poor families should have become smaller and smaller."

Zhou Jun nodded. According to the historical statistics of past dynasties, the facts should indeed be as Yuan Zai said.

The proportion of children from poor families among those who entered officialdom has been increasing in every dynasty since the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

In the Sui Dynasty, the proportion of children from poor families entering officialdom was 17.2%, in the Tang Dynasty it was 24.5%, and in the Song Dynasty, this figure was as high as 46.1%.

However, in the selection of military attachés from the Kaiyuan year to the Tianbao year, the proportion of poor families who passed the examination did not rise but fell. This phenomenon itself is very abnormal.

As shrewd as Yuan Zai, he had roughly guessed the hidden story behind it, and couldn't help but turn pale.

He looked at Zhou Jun and opened his mouth to persuade him, but he didn't know where to start.

Zhou Jun stood up, let out a long breath, and said in a deep voice to the guards outside the prison cell: "Excuse me, everyone, please get all the results of the seven martial arts examinations in the past two years."

When Yuan Zai heard this, he closed his eyes, shook his head and sighed: "We are in big trouble."