Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 304 Trial and Conviction
Zhu Houzhao looked at Magistrate Mei and said, "Since we are in court, and this farmer and I are the plaintiffs, please judge the case impartially. Didn't you just say you would cane me? Do you still want to cane me now?"

Magistrate Mei smiled awkwardly: "Of course not. I didn't know your identity just now, so I offended you. Please forgive me! Please forgive me!"

"reason?"

Zhu Houzhao asked coldly.

What reason?
Magistrate Mei looked bewildered.

"Give me a reason not to cane me. You just said I was contemptuous of the court and caned me, but why don't you cane me now? Answer me!"

Zhu Houzhao continued to ask.

Mei Zhixian didn't expect the nobleman to ask this question. He was speechless for a moment, and after a moment he murmured: "The reason, the reason is, the reason is because you are a nobleman."

Zhu Houzhao snorted and stopped forcing the sweaty County Magistrate Mei. He just continued, "In that case, please continue to try the case. The truth must be revealed! We can't delay it. I can't stay in your place for a long time."

"Trial of the case, trial of the case."

Magistrate Mei nodded, straightened his black hat, sat back down, and slammed the gavel: "You unruly man, plead guilty!"

The farmer who was kowtowing and confessing his guilt dared not say anything more now, and immediately kowtowed like crazy: "I confess my guilt, I confess my guilt!"

"How dare you slander me, you have no conscience. Take this man away and beat him to death!"

After Magistrate Mei finished speaking, several yamen runners came up and the entire trial process was simple and quick.

The farmer did not resist but just begged for mercy.

But Zhu Houzhao was very dissatisfied. He was dissatisfied with the fact that the Ming Dynasty was still so backward in administrative justice. He thought that this was not a trial or conviction. The case was not investigated clearly. Just because he was a nobleman, he directly questioned the farmer. The farmer seemed to know that he had offended someone he could not afford to offend, so he just pleaded guilty and spared his life without questioning the legality of the magistrate's law enforcement. Even when the magistrate enforced the law and convicted, his decision was arbitrary. He did not say what law the farmer had violated, and even demanded that he be beaten to death.

Zhu Houzhao admitted that the farmer was also very hateful, but his crime was not punishable by death. Even if it was a capital crime, there had to be a procedure. Only he, the emperor, could deprive the people of the Ming Dynasty of their right to life. No one else had the power to do so.

"Wait!"

Zhu Houzhao hurriedly said something at this time.

"My Lord, do you have any other instructions?" County Magistrate Mei asked Zhu Houzhao cautiously.

The farmer who was crying and begging for mercy also looked at Zhu Houzhao with hopeful looks on his faces.

"Don't worry, I'm not begging for mercy for you. You took advantage of my conscience. I will not forgive you because of my kindness," Zhu Houzhao said to the farmer first.

The farmer started to cry first: "Sir, please be magnanimous. Please don't argue with me. I really have no choice but to do this!"

"You can ask me to donate to you and help you reduce your losses, but you can't take advantage of my kindness, or even frame me because of my kindness. In order to keep more conscience in the world, and to help more poor people because there is still conscience in the world, I can't let you go easily. I will make sure that all those who betray their conscience will be severely punished, including you!"

Zhu Houzhao raised his head and looked at Magistrate Mei. "I am the litigant, so I naturally dare not give any orders. I just feel that your trial is not in line with the court rules. The court's order for the people-friendly officials to preside over the judiciary is not this procedure. What I mean is that you must try the case and convict according to the rules!"

Mei County Magistrate began to think that this nobleman in front of him was very strange, so strange that he was particularly concerned about some rules: "Excuse me, nobleman, what are the rules?"

Zhu Houzhao was speechless. He couldn't help thinking that the various judicial systems he issued from the central court had not been implemented at the local level, or that this county magistrate was not qualified enough and did not even have the basic ability to handle public affairs, and did not even know these things.

"Follow the court's rules! First, investigate and file the case, then verify the evidence, let the litigants defend themselves, and finally, you, the county magistrate, will pronounce the verdict and read out the basis for the conviction!"

After Zhu Houzhao said this, Mei Zhixian was a little embarrassed, because in his opinion, this was very complicated. If he had to deal with it like this, he would not have the time he wanted to go to the flower boat to find the courtesan today. But now that Zhu Houzhao, the noble, wanted to do this, he had no choice but to tell his master: "Follow the rules!"

So, the lawyer began to look for the imperial decrees and started to implement them.

It is not difficult to file a case, but according to the rules, the people have to pay litigation fees, which is the same as in the past when the people came to the government office to file a complaint and had to pay money to the clerks.

However, according to the formal system, clerks are not qualified to collect money. Litigation fees are public service fees collected exclusively by the county government's criminal department, and there are regulations on the cost of litigation fees. Basically, they are not high, less than one-tenth of the monthly income of ordinary people. They are only slightly higher in cases involving large economic amounts, such as property division and inheritance.

then.

Magistrate Mei had no choice but to follow the rules and said, "Since this farmer first sued you for forcing him to buy his goods, and beat him and trampled on his goods, then we will try this farmer's case first. You farmer, please tell us your name and the estimated value of your goods."

The farmer was also confused, and he first gave his name: "Commoner Chen Jing".

Then, the criminal lawyer at the side explained to the farmer what goods valuation was.

Chen Jing, the farmer, actually couldn't understand what the nobleman and the master wanted to do, so he had to follow their request and said, "It's only worth ten silver dollars."

"Then this is the litigation fee, what do you think?" the lawyer asked Chen Jing again.

Chen Jing shook his head: "Do I have to pay to file a complaint? But I don't have any money. I don't have any money on me! Can I not file a complaint?"

"Okay, then we'll withdraw the lawsuit." The lawyer at the side wrote a letter of withdrawal and asked Chen Jing to stamp it. Then, after taking the letter of withdrawal from the lawyer's hand, Magistrate Mei nodded and said, "Since Chen Jing has withdrawn the lawsuit, we will next hear the case of the noble Zhang Xia suing Chen Jing for false accusations. Your Excellency, are you willing to pay the litigation fees?"

Zhu Houzhao glanced at Guo Rong and said, "Give it to him!" So Guo Rong handed the litigation fees to his lawyer. Everyone present felt very surprised. They didn't expect that a nobleman like Zhu Houzhao would be willing to pay the litigation fees and maintain his dignity in such a proper way.

Even the defendant Chen Jing felt surprised and at a loss. He vaguely understood that he could not leave yet because the case of him framing the nobleman was being tried by the county magistrate. But it was also this procedure that made him wonder how the Ming Dynasty law punished his crime of framing. Was it more severe than beheading? Otherwise, why would this nobleman do this?

Magistrate Mei began to examine the case, asking for evidence, etc. However, since the farmer had already admitted it, he did not go to great lengths and directly convicted him. Magistrate Mei had forgotten the laws of the Ming Dynasty and the Criminal Procedure Code, and asked his lawyer to look through them. After reading for a long time, he said:

"According to the Criminal Law revised in the 15th year of the Zhengde reign, anyone who slanders others in exchange for money or property shall be punished with 60 strokes of the cane and exiled 5,000 miles away! He shall also be subjected to 20 years of labor reform!"

"In that case, drag this man away and give him sixty strokes of the cane!" ordered Magistrate Mei.

Chen Jing was shocked. He thought that even if he didn't die after being beaten with sixty sticks, he would be exiled five thousand miles away, which was equivalent to dying in a foreign land. Naturally, he kowtowed and begged for mercy: "Master, please spare my life! Your Excellency, please spare my life! I know I was wrong. I shouldn't have made a false accusation and shouldn't have been ungrateful. I just saw that you were kind-hearted and helped me and drove away the thugs for me. Then I saw that Mr. Zhai was coming, so I thought of saying that you beat me and trampled on my goods, so that you can compensate for my goods! I am guilty, but I..."

"Stop talking. Since you have decided to do this, you must bear the consequences. Magistrate Mei, will the laws of the Ming Dynasty forgive the criminal just because he is pitiful?"

Zhu Houzhao asked.

"Of course not!"

Magistrate Mei smiled, slammed the gavel, and shouted again: "Take him away and beat him!"

Chen Jing was dragged down. He had never expected this outcome. He was indeed very regretful now, but it was too late to regret. Bang! When the stick hit him, he could only scream out instinctively. He fainted after a few screams.

Zhu Houzhao also left the county government office.

Zhu Houzhao was deeply touched by this incident, but what he did not expect was that just after he dealt with it, the group of thugs came again, and brought more people with them, and they directly swung their knives at Zhu Houzhao.

Seeing this, Zhu Houzhao only ordered one sentence: "Kill them all! Capture a civilian as a witness, and bring the yamen runner who followed us here as well. Then let the county government know that we were acting in self-defense!"

"Brothers, if they dare to run wild in Nanxun Town, I will kill them!"

The young man surnamed Xing shouted loudly, and several other young men came over with their swords.

Snapped!
Jinyiwei Liu Shi fired a shot first, knocking a young man into the river, leaving only a red stain on his body.

Then, a series of gunshots rang out, and most of these young men were killed on the spot!
The remaining few young men were completely shocked. They had never expected that the merchants' followers were carrying muskets.

Zhu Houzhao also took out his imperial pistol and walked towards the young man named Xing.

The man surnamed Xing instinctively wanted to run, but was shot by Zhu Houzhao. The young man surnamed Xing was hit in the foot and fell to the ground.

Zhu Houzhao came over, and the young man surnamed Xing also begged for mercy: "Please spare my life! We are hired by Zhai's cloth shop. Please spare my life for Mr. Zhai's sake!"

Zhu Houzhao smiled coldly and pointed his pistol at the young man surnamed Xing: "I said that just because of the words you said to disrespect the emperor, you must die!"

Snapped!
Zhu Houzhao pulled the trigger, and a bloody hole immediately appeared on the head of the young man named Xing. He then fell directly to the ground with his eyes wide open. It was not until he died that he realized that he had offended the emperor.

No one else noticed this. The civilian who was held hostage by the Jinyiwei was so scared that he peed his pants. He just nodded and said, "Please spare my life, please spare my life. I saw it clearly. They came to kill you. You were acting in self-defense!"

Not long after, the county government indeed sent people over. With witnesses and the county government's own people testifying, the county government could only determine that Zhu Houzhao and others were acting in self-defense, and did not pursue any matter. Of course, County Magistrate Mei did not dare to pursue any matter against Zhu Houzhao and others now.

Next, Zhu Houzhao visited other towns and cities. He found that with the development of the commodity economy, the distribution of towns and cities in the whole Jiangnan area was indeed becoming more and more dense. Many towns even developed because of the residence of overseas merchants. Some towns were formed on the basis of a market town because of commodity trading by farmers from several villages.

Many towns and cities are not yet managed by government agencies because many of them do not have county governments. Even some large towns such as Zhujing Town and Anting Town are no longer prosperous enough to be considered a county city, but these towns have no government and have led to the emergence of bullies and forced buyers and sellers. There is no one to manage them, so many hooligans take the opportunity to cause chaos. Some towns and cities even did not establish a tax system because they developed too quickly.

Zhu Houzhao felt that as an emperor, he had to strengthen the government functions in this regard. He could not allow bullies and hooligans to destroy the people's freedom of trade, nor could he allow the trade profits of these towns to be overly concentrated in the hands of local gentry.

Zhu Houzhao discovered through both open and covert means that these so-called tyrants and gangs were backed by families with local power backgrounds, otherwise they would not be able to manipulate the local market. Undoubtedly, most of the profits also flowed into the hands of these families. If this continued, these families would become chaebols that would be difficult for the imperial court to shake.

If these chaebols were allowed to seize local administrative power and even influence the political landscape in the court, it would be difficult for the Ming Dynasty's national policies to be balanced and reasonable and would only favor these chaebols.

Zhu Houzhao came directly to Nanjing and summoned the ministers of Nanjing. Officials from the provincial government and the provincial judicial department of Zhejiang were also summoned to Nanjing by Zhu Houzhao's imperial edict.

Of course, it was only at this time that officials in Nanjing and Zhejiang learned that the Emperor had come to Jiangnan again.

Jiangnan is an inaccurately defined concept. According to the division of Jiangnan Province during the Yuan Dynasty, today's Nanzhili is the Jiangnan region, but in fact, the customs of Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou in Zhejiang are similar to those of Nanzhili, and their economic development is not inferior to that of Nanzhili and Susong area.

Therefore, when Zhu Houzhao wanted to rectify the commodity economy and society in the south of the Yangtze River this time, he naturally had to summon officials from Zhejiang as well.

But before the officials from Zhejiang arrived in Nanjing, Zhu Houzhao changed his mind. During the past few days around Nanjing, the wealth and population density of the scholars and common people, as well as the emergence of some trade union-like organizations and local forces with underworld characteristics, made him realize that perhaps the administrative divisions of the Ming Dynasty had to be changed.

At least the areas in the Taihu Lake Basin south of the Yangtze River, such as Yingtian, Suzhou, Songjiang, Hangzhou, Huzhou, and Jiaxing, where the capital economy is already highly developed, should be separately designated as a special management area to strengthen the government's management functions, curb the adverse factors brought about by the commodity economy, promote the development of the commodity economy, and even allow it to spawn new production models and productivity.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao decided to promote Wang Shouren and Yan Song to the position of Dongke Grand Secretary, and transfer them both to Jiangnan to take charge, to assist him in rectifying the affairs of Jiangnan before the mining reform plan was finalized.

Zhu Houzhao also asked Wang Shouren to bring two divisions of elite guards to be prepared for any eventuality!

(End of this chapter)