met free Chapter 960 Even if this major case turns into a melon vine, I'm willing to pay the price!
Chapter 960 Even if this major case turns into a melon vine, I'm willing to pay the price!
The so-called "Eight Deliberations" originated from the Eight Exemptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty and were first incorporated into the law in the Cao Wei Dynasty's "New Laws". They refer to deliberating on relatives, old friends, the virtuous, the capable, the meritorious, the noble, the diligent, and the guests.
"Discussing relatives" refers to discussing the imperial family and its relatives.
"Yi Gu" refers to the emperor's old friends and associates.
"Yi Xian" refers to people of high moral character and cultivation.
"Yi Neng" refers to a person of exceptional talent.
"Discussing merits" refers to people who have made outstanding contributions.
"Yi Gui" refers to officials of the third rank or above and those with noble titles.
Yiqin refers to a diligent and hardworking person.
"State guests" refers to the descendants of the previous dynasty's ruler who are honored as state guests.
The old soldier who committed the massacre of his entire family would not meet any of the five criteria of being a relative, a virtuous person, a capable person, a noble person, or a guest.
Because he joined the army at a young age and eventually ended up under Chang Yuchun's command, he didn't qualify for the title of "hereditary official".
Yi Qin committed the massacre of his entire family before he even started cultivating the land he was allocated, which doesn't qualify him as a criminal.
As for the remaining merits, Yang Shaofeng thought he could still get a chance, but in the eyes of the Ming court and officials, if this old soldier really had great merits, he would probably have been promoted to officer long ago, so how could he have remained an ordinary soldier?
Therefore, the merit-based system also does not apply.
More importantly, because the old soldier committed a massacre, he had more than twenty lives on his hands, which was enough to qualify him as "unscrupulous," one of the ten unpardonable crimes.
Unfortunately, the family that was wiped out was not just an ordinary local gentryman, but also a relative by marriage of the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites.
The gentry, out of a sense of shared fate, wished for the old soldier's death, just as the officials in the bureaucracy did not want him to live.
Even if Lao Deng is determined to protect the old soldiers, I'm afraid these officials will keep jumping out to oppose him.
This is the reason why Zhu Biao, Li Shanchang, Hu Weiyong, and Xia Yu felt a headache.
However, Yang Shaofeng just smiled and said, "This matter is indeed troublesome, but it is also simple."
"Sixty strokes of the cane, and the whole family exiled to Liaodong."
"Anyway, there are no more victims."
Li Shanchang glanced at Yang Shaofeng and said in a deep voice, "We don't really need to care about the gentry, and they certainly don't have any aggrieved parties anymore. The key question is, what about the officials in the imperial court?"
"Everyone says Qin Hui had three close associates. Which official in the court doesn't have a few relatives and friends?"
Who can guarantee that their bottom is completely clean?
Yang Shaofeng also glanced at Li Shanchang and retorted, "Since neither of us is clean, why not muddy the waters?"
Li Shanchang's eyes lit up, and he no longer cared about the sarcastic tone in Yang Shaofeng's words.
Yang the Madman is right.
Since everyone's messy behind the scenes, let's just muddy the waters.
The veteran who committed the crime must be punished with sixty strokes of the cane.
But those officials' relatives and friends shouldn't expect to have an easy time either.
After all, the Imperial Guards had noses sharper than dogs; they could find evidence of their oppression of the people just by smelling it.
Besides, who stipulated that the laws of the Ming Dynasty could not adjudicate old cases from the Yuan Dynasty?
Li Shanchang stroked his beard and smiled, saying, "The Prince Consort is right, we should stir up this mess."
After laughing, Li Shanchang changed his expression in a flash: "I just didn't expect that Liu Kui, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, is quite capable, managing to hide so well right under my nose!"
"Who would have thought that the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, who closely followed the cabinet and presided over the compilation of a considerable number of school textbooks, would have such deep collusion with those gentry, and even be involved in a case of mass murder?"
"Well done! Absolutely well done!"
Li Shanchang chuckled, his face gradually turning ferocious: "I spend my days hunting geese, but I never expected to be pecked in the eye by one."
"It's also my fault for cultivating my character these past few years, which allowed them to take advantage of the situation."
"They're all great!"
Seeing Li Shanchang's furious expression, Yang Shaofeng couldn't help but feel sorry for Liu Kui, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites.
Li Shanchang.
The founding prime minister of the Ming Dynasty.
In the TV series, Li Shanchang doesn't seem threatening. At his bravest, he only points at Lao Deng and curses the tyrant. Moreover, he meets a tragic end, being inexplicably implicated in the Hu Weiyong case. In the end, more than seventy members of his family are implicated, with only Li Qi, as the son-in-law of the emperor, escaping punishment.
In reality, Li Shanchang was a ruthless, smiling tiger who would devour people without spitting out the bones. Who among Hu Weiyong, Yang Xian, or Wang Guangyang would dare to cause trouble in front of him?
This time, I was fooled by Liu Kui for so long, not only ruining my reputation but also almost offending Heizhima Tangyuan.
If Li Shanchang could easily let Liu Kui go, he could probably even move the Leshan Giant Buddha to a different location.
Yang Shaofeng was internally ranting, but as he ranted, he realized something was wrong.
What did Old Li just say?
Liu Kui, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, presided over the compilation of a considerable number of school textbooks.
Damn it!
Yang Shaofeng said in a deep voice, "Prime Minister Li, we still need to send someone to thoroughly investigate the textbooks that this Vice Minister Liu was in charge of compiling."
"No, it's not just this Vice Minister Liu who's in charge; we need to thoroughly investigate whoever's in charge."
"These people may not be successful in doing honest work, but they are first-rate at doing bad things behind the scenes."
"If they take the opportunity to add their own ideas to the textbooks or arbitrarily change the teaching order, I'm afraid it will cause a lot of trouble in the future."
As soon as Yang Shaofeng finished speaking, Zhu Biao, Li Shanchang, and Hu Weiyong's expressions changed drastically.
Especially Zhu Biao.
As the de facto head of the Ming Dynasty newspaper, Zhu Biao knew all too well the terrible consequences of mixing personal opinions into teaching materials.
Putting everything else aside, the complicated story of her own father and Miss Liu was fabricated by herself and her brother-in-law at their behest.
The fact that his own father was forced to sleep in the Qianqing Palace for several nights already shows just how terrifying these fabricated rumors can be.
Some ordinary people even believe that their fathers and Miss Liu must have had a secret past.
Other stories, such as the Pearl Jade White Jade Soup, the toad at the Ningyang County Confucian Temple, and the Woniu Mountain that is almost ubiquitous throughout the Ming Dynasty, fully illustrate how terrifying it is that a rumor repeated a thousand times can become the truth.
If officials and gentry like Liu Kui were to interfere in the compilation of textbooks, subtly praising the gentry who oppressed the people, and secretly extolling Hu Yuan...
Will children who grow up reading these kinds of textbooks think that all gentry are good people?
Could they have thought that the Hu Yuan dynasty loved its people like its own children?
Could they interpret their father's words, "Yuan lost because of leniency," as meaning that "because the Yuan Dynasty governed by non-interference and loved all its people, it was unwilling to commit further bloodshed when someone rebelled, and thus voluntarily retreated beyond the Great Wall"?
Zhu Biao felt increasingly frightened as he thought about it, and even broke out in a cold sweat on his forehead.
"check!"
Zhu Biao turned his gaze to Xia Yu and instructed, "Have someone send a message to the capital, instructing Wang Qiong of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices to secretly purchase four sets of teaching materials. One set should be given to my father, one set should be sent to Dengzhou Prefecture by express courier, and the other two sets should be given to Zhou Jingxin, the Assistant Prefect of Dengzhou Prefecture, and Chen Mo, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Railways, respectively."
"Send someone to Zhou Jingxin and Chen Mo again, and tell them to carefully check the textbooks that Wang Qiong bought to see if there is anything fishy about them."
Zhu Biao, his voice filled with murderous intent, ordered, "If there really is something fishy going on, then arrest people according to the book, and dig deeper into the background of these officials. Even if this major case turns into a tangled mess, we'll do it!"