NOVEL NEXT Chapter 51
Only one day left until New Year's Day -
Di Renjie came to Huichunfang, looking for Song Zhen who was eating, drinking and having fun in Huichunfang.
Seeing that the other party had time to come and play, Song Zhen asked curiously: "Is the case closed?"
Di Renjie nodded: "I didn't expect it to be so smooth."
"What do you mean?"
"On the second day after the arrest of the Zhao family, the original owner of the house in the south of the city came back to report to the police, saying that he saw the Zhao family slaughtering Gao Li's family with his own eyes. The Zhao family threw out the bodies of their family and threatened them to give away the house for free."
Good guy, are you so greedy? You actually want others to give you a house for free? Your Zhao family is short of that little money? You really think you can do evil in a small place like Fengqiu County, right?
Di Renjie continued, "One of them did not leave Fengqiu County, but hid his identity and lurked nearby, because he believed that justice would eventually come!"
"It was this belated justice that made him wait for twenty years."
Song Zhen was in awe after hearing this.
Everyone longs for justice, but the reality is that justice is nothing more than the will and interests of the strong.
The weak long to balance the gap with rules, and the strong use rules to check the weak.
What the law should do is to try to balance the gap between the two, so that everyone is on the same public scale and everyone must accept the judgment of justice.
The prince broke the law and was guilty of the same crime as the common people.
Fortunately, justice came late this time.
There are both witnesses and material evidence. The clerk sent by Di Renjie to Junyi County to investigate also came back and replied that Gao Li had never been to Junyi County.
There is also the corpse frame written by Song Zhen, which can prove that the six bones match the gender and size of Gao Li's family.
Zhao Wudong appealed, thinking that Di Renjie's trial was misleading the public, with subjective will to add fuel to the fire, and forced to frame out of thin air.
However, Lu Zhishi and Xue Sicheng did not buy it. If you object, then you should show evidence. Don't just talk and you can be exempted from guilt.
Zhao Wudong had no evidence. As the incident happened suddenly, he had no time to make false evidence.
So, he remained silent.
Silence is silence, but he was still unwilling to sign the charges.
If you don't plead guilty, the government can't convict you? What kind of logic is that.
Xue Zhengqing sneered, put the case file into the bag, and immediately set off back to Chang'an.
......
After listening to Di Renjie's narration, Song Zhen was very concerned about the safety of the Zhao family. He asked, "If everything is true, how should the Zhao family be sentenced?"
"Behead!"
"How many people should be beheaded?"
"Tang Law Commentary" stipulates: Those who commit unrighteousness, regardless of whether they are the leader or the follower, will be beheaded, and their wives and children will be exiled 2,000 miles away."
Because the time is too long, it is impossible to find out who the real murderer is.
However, the law will not let any evildoer go.
The Zhao family killed six innocent people in order to seize the homestead, which meets the conviction of murder.
Moreover, it has been confirmed that the six dead are all from the same family, old and young.
The Zhao family's bad behavior of exterminating an entire family meets the "unrighteousness" among the ten evils!
"Tang Law Commentary" says: Tolerating cruel thieves and violating the righteous way is called "unrighteousness".
There are three special cases of unrighteousness: 1. If one of the dead should be sentenced to death, and you killed them, it will not be included in the Ten Evils.
2. If the original crime should not be sentenced to death, it will not be included in the Ten Evils.
3. The cruel act of dismembering a person, even if the person killed should be sentenced to death, is still included in the Ten Evils.
The Zhao family is also awesome, and they just happened to commit the two most serious crimes.
Since it has been confirmed that the Zhao family killed them, but it is unknown who is the mastermind, but murder requires death, then let all the men of Zhao Wudong's lineage be buried with the Gao family.
Since the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, there have been few people who have committed "unrighteousness", and I believe that the saints will agree with this judgment.
The Zhao family in Bianzhou is a large family, and the Zhao family in Fengqiu County is just one of them.
I believe that the just trial of the Zhao family can make people from other large families in Bianzhou stop their hands and feet.
As for the rest of the Zhao family, Xue Sicheng revised the conviction.
He overturned the original verdict on Zhao Wenzhuo and You Suzhi, and defined their behavior of harming Zhao Wenyu as "discord" among the ten evils.
He added an additional crime, the adultery between Zhao Liulang Zhao Wenzhuo and his third sister-in-law You Suzhi, which was defined as "civil strife" among the ten evils.
The Tang Law Commentary stipulates that if a person commits adultery with a relative of the same generation, both parties will be exiled 2,000 miles; the strong will be hanged; those who commit incest without distinguishing between the old and the young will be hanged.
You beat your relative's elder sister and committed incest. You are really something.
In the end, Zhao Wenzhuo and You Suzhi were sentenced to hanging.
Hanging and beheading are both death sentences, and in the end, they both end in death.
As for Zhao Sanlang Zhao Wenzhong, he was also convicted of "unrighteousness" among the ten evils.
It is unrighteous for the people to murder local officials.
The Tang Law Commentary stipulates that those who are unjust shall be hanged if they have hurt others, beheaded if they have killed others, and exiled 2,000 miles if they are preparing to murder others.
In the end, Zhao Wenzhong was sentenced to beheading.
From this point of view, the original verdict seemed to be lenient.
No one would have thought that a murder case would be the beginning of the demise of the Zhao family in Fengqiu County.
Song Zhen sighed, this is not my intentional framing of you, it is really you who are not doing your job.
The beginning of all this has to start from Zhao Liulang's inability to suppress his impulse.
If there had not been that night, this day might have come later, or perhaps, it would not have come.
If the Zhao family had not taken a wrong step, it would not have led to today's ending.
If Zhao Wenyu had chosen to inform his father Zhao Wudong as soon as possible, instead of going to the meeting alone on impulse.
If Zhao Wenzhuo's men had not arrested Song Zhen but Wang Laoliu at Huichunfang.
If Zhao Wenzhong had remained calm and had not killed Zhao Youguang.
If Zhao Wudong had not occupied the houses twenty years ago.
If, if...
"By the way, Xue Sicheng is gone."
Song Zhen's expression froze: "What? Why didn't you say hello before leaving?"
Di Renjie covered his mouth and laughed: "Why, don't you know?"
After laughing for a while, Di Renjie took the initiative to ask: "How is the rehearsal of the program going?"
"It's ready a long time ago, just wait until tomorrow."
"Okay, then I'll listen attentively tomorrow."
Song Zhen laughed: "Not only that, you have to watch with your eyes."
Then, for some reason, his smile disappeared.
He saw that on the opposite bridge, a couple was holding hands and walking in the wind and rain.
They held the same umbrella, and their shoulders were wet by the rain, but they were still smiling.
Di Renjie followed his gaze and thought about something.
"Homesick?"
"Yes, being a stranger in a foreign land, I miss my family even more during festivals."
When Di Renjie heard this poem, his smile froze. He chewed it carefully and felt more and more extraordinary.
In his heart, he was more and more sure that Song Zhen was the legitimate son of a big family who was living abroad.
Otherwise, how could he know so much?
"Can you write poetry?"
Song Zhen shook his head regretfully and said, "Actually, I can't."
"Then the poem just now..."
"Someone else wrote it."
"Oh." Di Renjie did not comment. In his heart, he had actually determined that it was written by Song Zhen.
How could he be a mediocre person who could write such a quatrain?
If it was really written by someone else, it would have been famous all over the world long ago.
Presumably, Song Zhen had not thought of the next stanza yet, so he answered like this.
Song Zhen didn't know when, but he took a erhu in his hand. He sat in the balcony pavilion and closed his eyes.
From his hands, there was a faint sadness that permeated this space.
......