Hot flashes

From his study, the constables found a large number of letters between him and Shen Yu, Cui Yin, and others.

The first group to be removed also included several officials from the Censorate. These people were known for their outspokenness and direct remonstrances, having impeached many people and written numerous impassioned memorials. They enjoyed high prestige and were respected among the upright officials.

Upon investigation, it was discovered that some of them had been paid to write the impeachment memorials, some were impeaching one person while secretly exonerating another, and some were righteously criticizing aristocratic families in court, only to turn around and drink and call each other brothers with the family's stewards in restaurants.

The most ironic thing was that one of the censors, surnamed Lin, had submitted a memorial impeaching Zhou Heng less than a month before the case of the aristocratic family's rebellion came to light. The fierce wording and harsh language caused quite a stir in the court.

The memorial accused Zhou Heng of "forming cliques for personal gain and deceiving the emperor," said that he established schools in Jiangling to "cultivate his private power," and said that he promoted new policies to "dispute with His Majesty."

After the folded document was handed over, Xiao Jue kept it untouched, neither giving instructions nor refuting it. It was simply left untouched, like a stone sinking into deep water without even a splash.

It wasn't until the Imperial Guards stormed into his residence in the south of the city and searched his study, finding the Cui family's silver notes and Shen Yu's handwritten letter, that his colleagues in the court, who had once applauded his "integrity," suddenly realized that the lengthy impeachment, thousands of words long and sharp as knives, was worth one tael of silver per word.

He bites people for the Cui family, and the Cui family takes care of him in his old age. He's calculated this deal better than anyone else.

Before the Lantern Festival, more than a dozen officials of the fourth rank or above in the capital had already been dismissed.

The trials of accomplices are much slower and more complicated than those of principal offenders.

There were only four main culprits: Cui Yin, Lu Yuan, Zheng Yun, and Shen Duan. The evidence was conclusive, and their crimes were unforgivable. One stroke of the knife, and it was all over.

Accomplices are not all the same. There can be dozens or even hundreds of accomplices. Each of them has different degrees of crime, attitude, background, and involvement. When convicting them, we cannot make a one-size-fits-all approach. We must try and sentence them one by one.

The joint trial by the Ministry of Justice, the Censorate, and the Court of Judicial Review lasted from the fifteenth day of the first lunar month until the beginning of the second lunar month. The trials were held day and night. The presiding judges lost their voices, and the clerks' wrists swelled up. The prisoners who were brought to court were initially panicked but later became numb and indifferent.

The results of the joint trial by the three judicial departments were reported up the chain of command, and Xiao Jue reviewed and approved them one by one.

His treatment of accomplices was much more flexible than that of the principal offenders. He did not simply execute or exile them all, but rather made individual judgments based on the severity of each person's crime, their attitude in admitting guilt, and the circumstances of their reports and accusations.

Those who committed minor crimes, showed a good attitude in admitting their guilt, or made meritorious contributions in reporting and exposing wrongdoings were demoted and sent to local posts, from being officials in the capital to local officials, from lucrative positions to poor ones, from large places to small places, and from having power and influence to having no power or influence.

Although these people survived, their official careers were basically over. The best outcome for them in their lives was to remain in the position of county magistrate in some remote county until they grew old and died, without even getting a decent tombstone.

Those who committed serious crimes, showed poor attitudes in admitting their guilt, refused to confess, or even attempted to collude and recant their testimonies were exiled to remote and desolate places, as far as Lingnan, Guizhou, and Yunnan—places without even a name, plagued by miasma. Those places were mountainous and remote, teeming with snakes and insects, and filled with miasma. Nine out of ten who went there never returned; the one who survived didn't come back because of good health, but because he died too quickly, before he even had a chance to think of his homeland.

Those who commit extremely serious crimes, have irrefutable evidence, and exhibit extremely bad attitudes, refuse to plead guilty, or even shout and insult the presiding judge in court, shall be executed immediately.

Such people are few and far between, but each one is enough to keep the imperial court quiet for several days.

In just over three months, hundreds of officials, from the capital to the provinces, from high-ranking officials to grassroots officials, and from civil servants to military officers, were investigated, dismissed, demoted, exiled, or beheaded.