Physician of the Song Dynasty: Zhang Kai and Li Qingzhao have a private life-long contract

"Consort Su!"

In the Kaifeng Mansion Yamen, all the officials were dumbfounded.

"Su Dun actually became the consort!"

They originally thought that there were so many new competitors, and there were more talents who were better than Su Dun in terms of background and knowledge. In addition, Su Dun had selfish motives at the beginning, so he would definitely be hated by the princess.

However, no one expected that Su Dun and Princess Xu would eventually get married. Although it was just an engagement, everyone knew that they would get married once Princess Xu turned sixteen, and by then Su Dun would be a genuine consort.

Of course, even if the two are not married now, the identity of Su Dun's prospective consort still has a layer of golden status. Up and down the court, as long as Su Dun does not rebel, no one can threaten Su Dun anymore.

At the moment, Su Dun, who had no worries about his future, immediately immersed himself in the documents and used them to find out a number of cases of corruption, bending the law or being beaten into submission in the second instance cases.

The less severe case would be to send him back to his hometown for retrial, while the more serious case would be to directly pull down the official who was in charge and be lucky enough to become a member of the imperial edict. For a while, everyone in Kaifeng was in danger.

If Su Dun's move had been made before, there would have been an uproar, arousing opposition from hundreds of officials, constant impeachment memorials, suppression from superiors, and exclusion from colleagues.

However, now that Su Dun has the status of quasi-consort, the impeachment of hundreds of officials has nothing to do with Su Dun. There are even a group of upright officials who actively cooperate to redress the unjust case.

For a time, the official atmosphere in Kaifeng Mansion was completely cleared. Officials were working diligently in judging, for fear that Su Dun would find some excuse.

"Su Qingtian!"

Under the implementation of the second instance system and the supervision of Su Dun, all the sentences and punishments were very fair, and the people praised him!

Back then, Bao Zheng had the title of Bao Qingtian because of his fair judgment. Now, although Su Dun's status is not as good as Bao Zheng's, he is still in charge of Kaifeng cases. Driven by the second instance system, Su Dun has done a better job than Bao Zheng back then. .

"Report to the officials! Kaifeng Prefecture's reform of the Legalists has achieved remarkable results. Please also ask the officials to promote it to the world!"

In the political hall, Su Dun solemnly reported.

Before that, Su Dun's reform of Legalism was based on Kaifeng Prefecture as a pilot project. Now that the pilot project in Kaifeng Prefecture has achieved excellent results, Su Dun can't wait to promote it to the whole world to avoid more unjust, false and wrong cases.

Seeing his soon-to-be brother-in-law Su Dun, Zhao Xu felt quite satisfied. Recently, Princess Zhu was full of praise for Su Dun. Her sister Princess Xu Guo was also a young girl in Huaichun and had a deep affection for Su Dun.

"What do you think, dear friends?" Zhao Xu looked around at the ministers and asked.

The faces of the officials changed. It can be said that becoming a forensic doctor has greatly weakened the power of the county magistrate and prefect. This naturally made the officials reluctant. However, Su Dun's reform in Kaifeng Mansion was too successful by relying on the golden body of the consort. , giving them no reason to object at all.

"I agree!" Lu Dafang sighed.

Other important ministers had no choice but to agree, and everyone understood that from now on, the era of the magistrates of the Song Dynasty who kept their word would be gone forever.

"Then let Su Aiqing give the final result! Promote the appeal system and the second instance system to the world!" Zhao Xu nodded with satisfaction.

As an official of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Xu valued balance most. By dividing and weakening the judicial power of county magistrates, the imperial power would be greatly concentrated. Not to mention that the appeal system and the second instance system could greatly reduce unjust cases, which was extremely beneficial to the rule of the Song Dynasty. , Zhao Xu naturally would not refuse.

"The official is wise!" Su Dun said solemnly.

All the officials in the court suddenly gave Su Dun a complex look. For today, Su Dun did not hesitate to pay for the prince's consort, but now it was a blessing in disguise. Now, Su Dun used this reform to gain both fame and fortune from the Legalists, but he defrauded the officials all over the world! "

However, just when all the officials thought that they would gain fame and wealth by stepping on the officials of the world, and thus have a prosperous official career, and enjoy life with Princess Xu, Su Dun came out again and said:

"Let me inform the officials that the appeal and second-instance system are only the first step in reforming the legal system. If the Song Dynasty wanted to eliminate unjust cases, it would need to take another step in reforming the legal system!"

"Ah! I want to reform the legalists!"

All the officials were shocked and looked at Su Dun in disbelief.

They didn't expect that Su Dun would give up without seeing the good news, and would continue to reform the Legalists.

"Su Aiqing, please speak!" Zhao Xu said solemnly.

Su Dun took a deep breath and said: "In all the unjust, false and wrong cases, in addition to officials engaging in malpractice for personal gain, taking bribes and perverting the law, and confusing right and wrong, there is another important factor, and that is torture to extract confessions?"

"Extorting a confession through torture?" All the officials couldn't help but tremble.

In the trials of the past dynasties, waiting for the death penalty has been a trick that has been tried and tested by officials of the past dynasties. As the saying goes, under three trees, what can you ask for!

As long as they undergo severe punishment, the trial officials will easily get the confession they want.

Su Dun looked around and said: "Of all the unjust cases that Wei Chen has vindicated, almost 90% of them were confessions obtained through torture. It can be seen that torture to extract confessions and unjust, false and wrongful convictions are the same thing. Wei Chen believes that only by abolishing torture can we have a solution." It is possible to avoid unjust cases as much as possible.”

Many officials looked embarrassed. Torture and extorting confessions were a common method they used during trials, but now they have used them to concoct evidence of unjust, false and wrongful convictions.

"That's not to say that 10% of unjust cases are not testimony obtained through torture." Yang Wei said unconvinced.

Fan Zheng sneered at the side and said: "How can a person who has been wronged confess his crime obediently? Of course he will be severely tortured. This is not a testimonial extorted by torture. That is because the person who was wronged has already died suddenly while being tortured."

Yang Wei felt as if he had been struck by lightning and was speechless. He did not expect that the victims of 10% of unjust cases would end up even more miserable.

Cai Jing sneered and said: "Cai admits that there will be unjust cases under the three trees. However, those criminals are all cunning people. If they are not severely punished, they will not admit it at all. Under this condition, it will be impossible to judge the case."

Other officials nodded one after another. No criminal would take the initiative to admit his crime. If he was not punished severely, there would probably be countless unsolved cases! The harm will be great.

Su Dun sneered and said: "Su once heard: Punishing a doctor is not good enough. Confucius said, don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you. Since even the scholar-officials are not willing to be tortured, we are taking the initiative to torture and extract confessions, even if we risk injustice." The risk of false and wrong convictions. Wouldn’t this be contrary to the teachings of the saints?”

All the officials were immediately speechless!

They did not expect that Su Dun would refute him with the words "The Punishment Is Not Good for a Doctor" and Confucius' remarks.

Lu Dafang said disapprovingly: "We are scholar-bureaucrats with noble moral character, how can we be confused with criminals?"

Many officials immediately laughed and sneered at Su Dun's remarks.

Su Dun angrily rebuked: "The people who wronged you know more about how wronged you are than you do. Those officials who create unjust cases in high courts are even more evil. Extorting confessions through torture will only allow unjust, false and wrong cases to be repeatedly banned."

"If the punishment is not severe, more criminals will escape punishment, which will be more harmful." Zhang Dun retorted.

Suddenly, the court was divided into two factions. Some people agreed to abolish torture to extract confessions and reduce the occurrence of unjust, false and wrongful convictions. More officials agreed to torture to extract confessions, which would allow more criminals to be punished and reduce the harm to society. , even if it results in some unjust, false and wrongful convictions.

Zhao Xu couldn't help but frown. As an emperor, he neither wanted to see unjust, false or wrongful cases happen, nor was he willing to let the criminals go and endanger the rule of the Song Dynasty. For a moment, he was caught in a dilemma.