The bear child of the Red Chamber, Jia Cong

Seven days before the public trial of Yao Xuhe in Dali Temple, the soldiers and horses of the five cities posted notices all over the city: If there are people who are willing to hear the trial, there are twelve registration offices in the capital, and the officials of the Political Affairs Hall will draw lots.Those who are drawn will have a number plate issued by a yamen servant. On the day of the public trial, they can enter Dali Temple to attend the hearing according to the number plate.Don't worry if you don't get it.The twelve hearing registration offices are all set up in the open area, and someone will send a message from Dali Temple every two quarters of an hour.If people are curious, they can bring their own seats to the registration office to listen to the news.People in the capital had never heard of such a case trial, and the hearing registration office was crowded with people.

The storyteller in the tea house and restaurant helped everyone guess after finishing the book: the imperial court made the case so big, lest one of the common people would not know about it, or something big would happen later.When the judges asked what was the big deal, the storyteller shook his head and said mysteriously: "In my opinion, only something bigger than Prime Minister Lin's change of land tax can make this trouble worthwhile."

One of the judges nodded repeatedly and echoed loudly: "In my opinion, I'm afraid the foundation is about to be shaken."

Another judge also said loudly: "It's just a young couple making up and breaking up, so there's no way to shake the foundation. It's just such a big deal."

The storyteller's voice became louder: "Young couple, on one end is the daughter of a junior official named Qipin Zhima, and on the other end is the grandson of the servant of the Ministry of Officials. Who do you think will win?"

All the judges looked at each other for a long time, at first the one hesitated and said: "The theory says... the Xu family should win."

Another one said: "I read what was said in the newspaper, it is clear that their family is deceiving others too much. The Yao family is right."

Just now that one hummed: "The gate of the yamen is open, don't come in if you have a reason and no money."

The storyteller nodded and said: "That's right. Only when both parties are common people, or both parties are officials of similar rank, can a reasonable lawsuit be concluded. How can the disparity in status be reasonable? Otherwise, why did the Xu family do so? Outrageous? That’s called having, relying on, not having, and fearing~~” All the judges were thoughtful.

At the back of the crowd, there was a young man in green shirt sitting and drinking tea. He leisurely ate the peanuts on his plate, called the waiter to pay the bill, and left.The other one was also dressed as a rich man, and he sat at the table next to him, ordered the servant to pay the bill, and followed behind him.

Not long after the young man in green shirt turned the corner, the old man also hurriedly turned the corner.At a glance, he didn't see the person he wanted to follow, and before he had time to look around, a figure quietly flashed behind him and pinched his neck.The uncle froze, forced a smile and said: "I am not going to hide this from His Highness the Third Highness."

The young man in green shirt stood aside with his hands behind his back, and said slowly: "I don't want to know who you are and why you follow me. Just remember that if you don't pay attention to your head, you will have to move."

The man cupped his hands: "I, Qi Jianhui, have met the Third Highness in the early years. Does the Third Highness remember me?"

The young man in the blue shirt is the idle Situ Cen.He sent an urgent letter back to Chengdu early, asking his brother to send killers to assassinate the leader of the Pang family army and the Pang family's children.I got a reply a few days ago.This time the killer succeeded easily, and the King of Shu had already gone to collect Pang's army himself.Situ Cen took the letter and sent it in a daze for a long time.So he stayed in the capital to watch the excitement, to see what Jia Cong and his gang could do in the end.I'm going out for a stroll today, I don't want to be followed.Then he thought for a while: "Qi Jianhui...is from Xiangyang Marquis Mansion."

Qi Jianhui nodded: "That's right. Thank you Your Highness for remembering me."

Situ Cen looked at him for a moment and said, "Could it be that you want me to help you?"

Qi Jianhui sighed, "Does Your Highness know what Jia Cong is going to do?"

"I know." Situ Cen said, "He wants to reform." Qi Jianhui was startled.Situ Cen continued, "Uncle Qi, if you listen to my advice, either leave the capital and go to another country, or don't make trouble with him. There is nothing impossible for that guy to do."

Qi Jianhui was in a hurry: "My lord! He wants to reform!"

"I know." Situ Cen said, "I just want to see how he will do it step by step, and how the officials and people of the Yan Kingdom will respond. After returning to the Kingdom of Shu, I can persuade my father to follow his reform."

Qi Jianhui was dumbfounded.After a while, I still couldn't believe it: "What did your Highness say?"

Situ Cen smiled and said, "Forget it if you didn't hear clearly." Nai waved his hand, turned around and left.Qi Jianhui still wanted to follow, but the hand on the back of the neck exerted a little force, so as to strangle him to death.

That night, Qi Jianhui fell ill and was bedridden, so the Xiangyang Hou Mansion no longer got involved in that mess.Two days later, the elder of Liguo Mansion also fell ill.Closed the door at home and told his son Liu Fang: "Qi Jianhui is the most obedient. Since he has become a turtle, he obviously smelled something."

On the day of the public trial, many bamboo chairs were neatly arranged in the lobby of Dali Temple, and the number plates were written with paint on the bamboo chairs.The people who got the lottery sat down according to the ticket number, full of interest.At six quarters of the hour, officials and gentlemen file in and sit in front of the hall. There are seven or eight cameras around the front and back, and the lights are everywhere.All the adults had a sign in front of the case, and the three pieces in the middle said: Tian Gengzi, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment, Luo Man, Minister of Dali Temple, and Lao Yanjia, Zuodu Yushi of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.Those on the left are Regent Jia Cong, Prime Minister Lin Daiyu, Grand Master Zhan Kun, cabinet scholar Zhan Qiao Feng Ziying, etc., and Jingying Jiedu envoy Jarvis is also among them; on the right are Shangshu Jia Tanchun, Shangshu Shen He, Shangshu Cheng Chi waited, and Wu Tianyou, the new head of the Imperial Academy who had just graduated from the Hanlin Academy, sat impressively.The people sitting below were talking about it.

Among the young people in Yishui, the old man Wu Tianyou really stood out.There was an old Confucian on the defendant's side who endured it for a long time, but finally couldn't bear it any longer. He pointed at Wu Tianyou and said, "You are so gentle..." Before he could finish speaking, an armed policeman pointed a gun at the back of the old Confucian's heart, The old man suddenly became dumb.The armed policeman took off the handcuffs from his waist. The old Confucianist didn't know what it was, but he kept staring at it.There was only a "click" sound, and his hands were handcuffed.The old Confucian shouted, "What's wrong with the old man!"

The boss Lao Yanjia said loudly: "Roar in the court, disturb the order, blast out."

The armed policeman replied: "Yes." No matter how old Ru yelled, he pushed him outside.When they arrived at the door, the armed police took out the key to unlock the handcuffs, and said to the colleague at the door, "Keep this person away. If he gets closer, he will be arrested." The colleague agreed.The old Confucian was free, so frightened that he didn't dare to say anything, and he didn't care about being ashamed, so he ran away.The people in the hall had a lot of discussions.

Suddenly there was a sound of the gavel, which was taken by Mr. Roman in the middle.Sitting below was the fourth son of King Yan, looking at Roman with complicated emotions.Dali Temple Minister has been vacant for a long time, and Luo Man has only been in office for less than a month, so it is obvious that he came to this position for this case.At first, several people in the third son's house also said that Roman was loyal and good, and that he was in Cao Ying and his heart was in Han.If Zhongliang can sit on it?

Then Luo Man coughed and said loudly: "The court is open." Nai looked down and said, "Today, my judge is here to publicly try Ms. Yao Jiazhen and ask her husband Xu Cihe to leave the case." The whole room was full of awe. "First of all, the officer needs to confirm the identities of both parties. Both the plaintiff and the defendant are requested to show their identity documents." The identity card was just launched last year.There are still other places in Yan country, but the capital has already been done.

Someone below bit his ear: "Hey, I know why the Prince Regent is making such a big fuss."

The person next to him hurriedly asked in a low voice, "Why?"

The man raised his chin: "See? In the past, regardless of whether the county magistrate, Wucheng Bingmasi, or Dali Temple asked questions, there was no such thing as checking the ID card. The regent wants to redefine a set of questioning rules. It was different before. This is to let everyone know.”

The man thought for a moment, then nodded unconsciously: "Brother Tai makes sense."

The officials above have taken the ID cards of Yao Jiazhen and Xu Ci respectively and presented them.Yao Jiazhen had a smile on his face, Xu Ci's face was like gold paper.After seeing it, Roman nodded and said, "It's confirmed." He ordered to send it back. "Ask the court clerk to read the court order."

A woman stood up beside her. The sign in front of her read "Wang Zijuan, Trial Clerk of Dali Temple".Nai said loudly: "Now read out the court discipline. First, all those present in the court must obey the command of Dali Temple Minister. Second..."

The man below bit his ear again: "This was never there before." The man next door was holding his breath to listen to what the clerk said, but he couldn't hear clearly when he was disturbed, so he couldn't help but give him a sideways glance.The man shrank his neck.

After the clerk finished reading the discipline and sat down, Roman said: "The plaintiff, please read the indictment."

A man on the plaintiff's side stood up and said in a loud voice, "Hello, Mr. Luo, hello, my lord, and fellow countrymen. I am the plaintiff's litigator, and I will read the indictment for the plaintiff."

The talkative man said again: "Why didn't he give his name?"

The person next door couldn't bear it anymore, and glared at him: "Shut up! Clerk Wang said just now that you shouldn't make any noise." The man shrunk his neck again and closed his mouth tightly.

After a while he knew why.Roman said: "Thank you. Plaintiff, you can sit down now. Please respond to the plaintiff's indictment."

The man said to himself: "So it's not called the lawyer's name at all, it's just the plaintiff's lawyer, the defendant... Oops!" He let the person next door step on him.People around looked over one after another, this person grinned for a long time, not daring to speak.

The plaintiff stood up, and said with red eyes: "My lord, there is a deep misunderstanding here. Mr. Xu did not do these things. It was a boring fight for the women in the back house, which is commonplace."

Roman said: "Let the litigators of both parties start a court debate."

The plaintiff said: "Mr. Xu and Mrs. Third have been married for more than three years. As the saying goes, a husband and wife can enjoy a hundred days of kindness..."

The plaintiff's lawyer on the opposite side said loudly: "I object. What the defendant's lawyer said has nothing to do with this case."

Roman said: "The objection is valid. Please tell the plaintiff the facts of the case."

The accused litigator had no choice but to say: "The villain just said that, it was all a misunderstanding." Then he argued according to the plaintiff's lawsuit.

Sure enough, as Jia Cong and others guessed a few days ago, Xu Ci pushed everything to Grandma Xu, Miss Xu and Mrs. Xu.All three testified in court.Wearing plain clothes, no makeup, no jewelry.All three faces were sallow.Miss Xu San was already too thin to look like a human being, her eyes were red and swollen, and she had been crying for an unknown amount of time.All three of them admitted that they did something wrong and had nothing to do with Mr. Xu.Miss Xu San lowered her head when she confessed her mistake, choked up and sobbed hastily and pitifully.Someone below said loudly: "What a man, you pushed it cleanly to the girl in the backyard. Your girl is skinny and skinny, and you are ashamed to let her take the blame." Nai gave a heavy "bah".Miss Xu San suddenly burst into tears, mournful and heartbroken.Everyone immediately talked about it.

Roman sat still, and after half a day he slapped the gavel and said, "Silence!" At this moment, everyone had roughly finished what they wanted to say, and they all shut up.Roman said, "May I ask the plaintiff's lawyer to agree?"

The plaintiff's lawyer sneered and said, "Naturally I disagree. In fact, my client, Ms. Yao Jiazhen, had already expected that the defendant would probably push the matter to his sister-in-law, sister-in-law and mother-in-law. But there is still the most important thing. , I’m afraid there is no way to evade it. I was just told by the lawyer that the defendant had never met any nobles, nor did he intend to demote his wife into a concubine, and it was all because of the defendant’s mother who frightened my client because of trivial matters in the backyard. Is that right?”

The plaintiff laughed and said, "That's right. There was a misunderstanding."

The plaintiff litigator said: "Everyone in Xu's family knows that Mr. Xu won the favor of a nobleman and rewarded him with a thousand gold ancient fan. The bone of the fan belongs to Concubine Xiang, the surface of the fan is an authentic work of Tang Bohu, and there is also a fan pendant made of mutton fat and white jade. I There are witnesses from your mansion. Your mansion has indeed said this. May I ask Mr. Xu, where did this fan come from?"

Xu Ci stood up and said, "That's just a rumor spread by servants who don't know where, why is there such a fan?"

"Oh? In this way, there is no such a fan, and it is all rumored by the servants of your house?"

"It was rumored by them."

The plaintiff litigator sneered and said: "It's really interesting. I'm a mere servant. I've heard of 'Tang Bohu' or 'Suet White Jade'. How many of them know what 'Xiangfei Fan Bone' means? They want to help Xu The third master made up a nobleman's gift, how could he make up the words "Xiangfei's fan bone"? The woodcutters in the mountains thought that the emperor used a golden pole to carry firewood."

Xu Cidao: "My Xu family is the residence of the Imperial Academy, and everyone in the residence knows elegance, so it's not surprising."

The plaintiff litigator smiled and said: "I could ask your servants to name another rare fan bone, I'm afraid they won't be able to." Xu Ci's complexion changed.The plaintiff's litigator looked at him for a moment and said, "It's just too much trouble." Then he turned to Roman and said, "My lord, please allow me to present the evidence."

"approve."

The plaintiff litigator walked up to Xu Ci, took out the fan from his pocket and opened it: "Dare to ask Mr. Xu, what is this?"

Xu Ci was shocked.Fortunately, he covered his mouth in time, and said after a while: "The late students don't recognize this thing."

The plaintiff litigator approached him and pointed out: "How come there is Xu Sanye's private seal on this fan?"

Xu Ci gritted his teeth: "This private seal is a counterfeit."

"Should we invite Mr. Xu's book boy and friends to recognize this fan and private seal?"

"The fan is fake! It's a fake!"

"This is clearly the one that the nobleman gave to Mr. Xu! Mr. Xu showed off to many friends!"

"Nonsense! Then throw me into the moat!"

"I managed to fish it out!"

"Take it out and you can't restore the broken fan!" Xu Ci shouted, "I've already torn it into five or six pieces!"

"Who would believe you!" the plaintiff litigator spoke quickly, "You are willing to tear an ancient fan worth thousands of gold into five or six pieces!"

Xu Ci screamed: "I said it was a fake, a fake! It's not real."