Chapter 1310: Guilty and Punishment
This conversation between the emperor and his ministers at Yu Jin's mansion soon spread through various channels in Beijing. Putting aside the considerations of various status, His Majesty the Emperor's remarks were also recognized by many people of the time.
Some people say that the grace of a gentleman will be cut off after five generations, but most of the time, people still hope that the family achievements they have gained through their lifelong struggle can be smoothly passed on to ensure the prosperity of their descendants and never run out of time.
Although this is destined to be just a beautiful fantasy, there will always be various accidents in reality, so that a family's status will be depressed or even exterminated, but there are still many people willing to work hard for it.
This time, the court's criminal department enforced the law strictly, and many powerful families were not exempted. These people may not dare to question on the surface, but they must have complained in their hearts. They are diligent in the king's affairs and have made contributions to the country, but their family members and children still cannot avoid being punished for breaking the law, which is no different from the common people. The court treats meritorious people so harshly, which is really disappointing!
But now His Majesty the Emperor's speech is not a stereotyped way of telling them how important it is to abide by the law and order for the long-term stability of the country, but to connect everyone's family affairs. These dandy boys who violated the law are not only criminals of the country, but also evil offspring of the family, and are the culprits that affect the development and growth of a family!
If it is just a simple violation of the national law, everyone may not take it too seriously. As long as it is not a serious crime of plotting rebellion and subverting the country, other situations can be laughed off. Such a big dynasty, can't it accommodate a few dandy boys who act ridiculously? Other children can be tolerated, why can't my family?
But if someone's family has a prodigal son, the feeling is different. Because every bit of bad consequences and damage caused by the children's ridiculous behavior must be borne by their respective families, which directly affects the further development and growth of their respective families, and may even directly turn from prosperity to decline, which makes people unable to look at it with an open mind.
In particular, His Majesty the Emperor cited a vivid, highly contrasting and reference example from the Northern Qi Dynasty, which made all the nobles realize that their indulgence of their own children in breaking the law and taboos would certainly affect their own family power, and the children of other families who violated the law and thus affected the development of the country's power would also damage their common interests!
Therefore, if you want to pass on this achievement, you must not only strictly discipline your own children, but also require your colleagues to have strict family education. If the first point is occasionally impossible, then the second point is something that everyone can do. Being strict with others and lenient with oneself is originally due to human laziness.
Li Tai did not expect that this banquet would bring any significant changes to the world's customs. The improvement of the world's customs can only be achieved through long-term supervision and guidance, but his remarks can bring considerable improvements to the law enforcement environment.
Before, everyone had some resistance to the strict law enforcement of the criminal department, believing that this move restricted their freedom, damaged their privileges and interests, and even put themselves in a slightly opposing position with the court.
However, Li Tai's words pointed out that the interests of the court and them have always been consistent. Their official titles and salaries all came from the court's grace. Only when the country is long-term and stable can they live a long and prosperous life.
As for those illegal acts, they not only destroy the stability of the country, but also damage their common interests. The court sanctions them through criminal orders, and they should also criticize them morally, instead of confusing their own well-being with the fate of those prisoners with empathy.
Those prisoners are scum who endanger their family business and are borers that eat away at the country. If they are allowed to exist without strict sanctions, then the positive benefits brought to the country by the loyal and diligent service of the civil and military officials in the court will be squandered by these scums' indulgence again and again, and eventually the fortune of the entire country will go downhill!
As long as these noble ministers can realize this, the environment for the enforcement of the criminal law will naturally become clear, and the country will not complain and the situation will not be unstable.
In the final analysis, the national law is not aimed at suppressing these noble ministers, but the bottom line of their respective family education and the last guarantee of their respective official privileges. If you wantonly challenge the national law, you are betraying and damaging everyone's common interests!
Of course, not everyone can accept this set of remarks, but even if there are one or two miscellaneous voices, it is not enough to set off collective resistance and criticism against the strict enforcement of the criminal law, especially it is difficult to blame the court for being mean and unkind. No matter how stubborn they are, it only makes them seem lonely and difficult to approach.
After the Supreme went out to the Yu Jin Mansion to host a banquet for the ministers, the criminal courts in the capital also accelerated the pace of law enforcement and trial, and several cases that were highly concerned by the current and had been pending were also successively judged.
The most popular case recently is the case of Yang Zhong's son-in-law and daughter.
In this case, Dou Rongding's concubine openly violated the street cleaning style and beat and injured the law enforcement Wu Hou. Although the nature of the case was very serious, it was not to the extent of directly beating and killing the person. Especially even if the prostitute was sentenced to death, she should not be lynched.
After the trial of the case, first of all, the cumulative fine of 100,000 yuan for various violations was imposed, and all the people involved were sentenced to one to three years in prison. As the main offender, the prostitute Wang from Guangzhou was sentenced to the maximum of three years in prison. Because she could no longer be punished, she was fined 30,000 yuan, and the total fine reached 130,000 yuan.
As early as the Western Wei Dynasty, Guanzhong had begun to implement new money, and what was promoted at that time was the Tongzhi five-baht coin. Nowadays, the Tang Dynasty court has newly minted Kaiyuan Tongbao coins. As long as the previous old coins are of sufficient weight, they can also be used in parallel with the new coins.
Because Kaiyuan Tongbao is a newly minted coin of the imperial dynasty, and its currency value is very high now. One hundred and fifty yuan can be used as a piece of silk. According to the current price, if you drive against the street and hurt someone, you will be fined nearly 900 pieces of silk. , half of Gao Aocao's elbow was removed, and the punishment was quite severe.
Of course, it doesn't matter whether it's harsh or not. If the prostitute Queen had walked fast, she would have been waiting in line to re-enter the reincarnation. But she doesn't know whether she will be able to go back and forth again in the next life, or whether her Dou Lang will directly kill her. Kill with a stick.
In this incident, Wannian County Lieutenant Dou Lan, who was obviously guilty of covering up violations, was not spared. He was directly punished by deprivation of office and imprisonment. He was no longer allowed to hold official positions and was exiled to Longyou.
If it were according to the standards of "Kaihuang Code", Dou Lan would not be punished so severely. But he was unlucky enough to have violated the street-cleaning rituals, engaged in malpractice for personal gain at the height of the purge era, and failed to comply with laws such as negotiation and punishment reduction. In an instant, he was reduced from a promising young man to a Exile prisoners.
Dou Rongding violated the law by shielding his slaves and concubines, and was also severely punished. Not only was his official position reduced, but he was also fined a heavy sum of 300,000 yuan. But this is not the most important thing to him. His biggest crime is to kill his concubine with a lynching stick. In addition, this woman was not included in the prisoner list of the Qingzhou War, but was kept privately, so the previously demoted official and title were all If you masturbate to the end, you will also be sentenced to exile.
Although Yang Zhong's daughter, Yang, did not directly participate in the crime, she was equally guilty for forcing her husband to kill slaves. Therefore, she was deprived of her rank as a married woman and sentenced to one year of official service. However, because her father Yang Zhong offered food to pay for his crime, Yang Zhong eliminated her. There are thousands of households in the city, but the Yang family is introspecting at home and needs to report to the government in the first lunar month.
The food fiefs in the Western Wei Dynasty were just a number. No matter how large the number was, there was no actual fief. The Tang Dynasty court stipulated that county princes could enjoy one hundred households in a real town, and kings and princes were limited to five hundred households. The basic standard was ten to one. That is, if a thousand households were granted a fief, they would be entitled to a hundred households in a real town.
Naturally, Yang Zhong enjoyed the top-notch food town of 5,000 households. After the reduction of 1,000 households, he directly lost the real estate of a county official. In order to protect his daughter from being subjected to hard labor, Yang Zhong also spent a lot of money, but he did not Will there be any discord in his family after knowing this?
Yu Wenzhi, Yu Lan and other dandies who had been in custody also faced the sentence again. Since they kidnapped Gao Min before the Jingjie Ceremony was issued, and each of them had an official title when they committed the crime, it can also be applied. In order to reduce the amount of redemption, each of them only received a flogging and a fine.
After being whipped and fined, these people simply gathered with their families for a while, and then immediately embarked on their journey into exile. Our journeys are far and near, and we don't know when we will be able to return to Chang'an in the future. For a while, we couldn't help but shed tears and regret.
Compared with these rising stars, Gao Yanzong, the son of Gao Cheng who first committed the murder, did not have such good luck. No matter how prominent his status was before, he is now just a white man in Chang'an. No matter how notorious the Cui Jishu he killed, he still needs to kill to pay for his death. Therefore, Gao Yanzong was sentenced to death without any suspense.
However, Gao Yanzong's life probably shouldn't be terminated. Just before he was about to be executed in the autumn, Ningzhou Youzou discovered rich copper deposits in Dianchi Lake. It happened that the imperial court needed a large amount of copper materials to mint coins for the new Kaiyuan Tongbao. In order to maintain the circulation of currency, a new Yunnan Bronze Official Supervisor was established, and Li Xian, the younger brother of Li Qianzhe of Shannan, was appointed as the governor of Ningzhou and concurrently took charge of the Bronze Official.
The newly established Tongguan in Southern Yunnan required a large number of personnel to go there, so the imperial court also issued an order for all prisoners in the country who were not included in the ten evil crimes, but who were willing to go to the Tongguan in Southern Yunnan to serve and be punished, all their crimes would be reduced by one degree, including the death penalty. within, and can redeem themselves through hard work.
Going to southern Yunnan to mine is undoubtedly a very difficult job, but compared with the long prison term or even the death penalty, it is undoubtedly an excellent way out. So after the decree was announced, prisoners from the country also gathered in response, including Gao Yanzong.
"Brother, there is no need to send more. I am leaving now! The money you paid in the official position will be retrieved for you personally when I return! I will change my past mistakes and never let down my brother's expectations again!"
Among the prisoners who were about to go to Tongguan in southern Yunnan, Gao Yanzong clasped his fists to his brothers and said that when they go to southern Yunnan, their family members need to provide guarantees to the government. Serious criminals like Gao Yanzong need to pay 100,000 yuan. The money is regarded as an official's salary and will be returned year by year according to the number of years of service.
After surviving the catastrophe, Gao Yanzong was also much more mature. He looked at the brothers who came to see him off and said with a serious face, patting his chest. When Gao Xiaowan and others heard what Gao Yanzong said, tears filled their eyes for a while, and they nodded and encouraged.