The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

In the 21st year of Qin Wangzheng, in late April, just after the beginning of summer, the weather in Anlu County was getting hotter day by day. Crickets chirped in the lush grass, earthworms crawled out of the soil, and in the vegetable gardens of every household, king melons grew and bitter herbs bloomed, a scene of prosperous summer.

In the Guansi District of the county town, the air was also filled with restlessness.

In the county prison, the jailers stood guard outside the prison with nervous expressions. Every half an hour, they would send someone in to patrol because it was full of prisoners who had not yet been sentenced.

The weather was hot, the prison cells were small, and there was an unpleasant smell. These 180 criminals, or ordinary-looking people, were now sitting on the straw with sad faces, regretting what they had done.

The jailers were discussing. It was not easy to keep an eye on them with just the dozen of them. How did that little pavilion chief catch all the people in the village with five people?

In the hall across the wall, the county magistrate was also worriedly watching the clerks arguing with the law documents, and secretly cursed in his heart: "It's all the fault of Huyang Pavilion Chief. I just asked him to find a woman who was abducted and sold, but he caught all the people in the village. How can I end this!"

At this time, more than a month had passed since the Blind Mountain Village incident that shocked the whole county.

This case involved many people, so from the county magistrate to the clerk, the judges of Anlu County spent more than half a month and many all-nighters to clarify the place of origin of the abducted woman and the crimes and faults of the people in Blind Mountain Village.

But the most difficult thing is still to come. Under the leadership of the village officials, the people in Blind Mountain repeatedly bought women of unknown origin and sold them, and protected each other. They maliciously surrounded Heifu Pavilion Chief when he was investigating, and even had the intention of killing officials and fleeing. These crimes cannot be washed away.

But in this way, the problem arises, how to sentence? Light sentence or heavy sentence?

"Since the crime is clear, just follow the law."

The attitude of the prison official Xi is clear, follow the rules!

But the county magistrate is still a little hesitant.

"Lord Xi, this is different from ordinary cases. It concerns the lives of 180 people. You must be careful."

Xi said seriously: "County Magistrate, in the Qin law, there has never been a precedent of lenient punishment for a large number of criminals! When Shang Yang was in power and reformed, there were nobles who did not abide by the law and fought privately. Hundreds of people were punished, and the heads were rolling, and the Wei River was red. In the ninth year of the king, Lao Ai plotted treason. He was torn to pieces by chariots, and his thousands of servants were all fined and their property was confiscated and moved to remote areas of Shu County..."

"Thousands of people were punished, let alone more than a hundred people?"

"Anlu is just a small county, how can it be compared with Shang Yang and the king."

The county magistrate said in a negotiating tone: "Prison official, except for a few main criminals, can the rest be counted as surrendered and their guilt be reduced?"

"County magistrate, the people in Blind Mountain didn't even think about turning themselves in and confessing their crimes. They just surrendered under the threat of Heifu Pavilion Chief after the prison guard who instigated them to kill officials and flee was shot dead."

Xi still refused to give in. Since the evidence and confession showed that the people did not turn themselves in, they could not be let off the hook!

In his opinion, the collision between law enforcement and law breaking is only about winning and losing, no mercy!

The county magistrate could not convince this stubborn subordinate, and stamped his feet in anger. He knew very well that if he followed the law strictly, he didn't know how many people would die and how many would be punished.

By then, this case would shock Nanjun and even alarm the court, becoming the most typical major case in the country this year. Not only would he not be praised, but he would also be impeached for his lax governance and poor law popularization, which led to such a big hole. Even if he was not punished, it would leave an embarrassing mark on his resume.

Because of this, the verdict was delayed again and again. The county magistrate asked the county magistrate for instructions, but there was no reply from the county magistrate, which was really frustrating.

Fortunately, when April was almost over, the order from Nanjun finally came.

The county magistrate did not expect that the county's reply was exactly the same as Xi's opinion, just four words:

Must punish without mercy!

It turned out that Nanjun had not been idle these days. According to the confession of the woman who was abducted in Anlu County, the county magistrate sent several capable officials from Jiangling City to follow the clues and finally caught a group of people who specialized in abducting young men and women in Jingling County, including the "old woman" who had abducted Yuanyuan.

After a surprise interrogation, the county magistrate was shocked to find that the gang was a family crime, and its tentacles were all over Nanjun. It was related to hundreds of missing persons in various counties in Nanjun in the past few years. Most of the missing people were young boys and girls. Girls were sold to remote areas, and boys were even sold to Wei and Chu as slaves!

It actually involved population outflow! How could this be tolerated? So the county magistrate sentenced all the traffickers to death and decided to send a document to Anlu County, requesting that the case be handled as a death sentence! Make it a typical case to warn the people of the whole county!

Since the county magistrate also said so, the county magistrate, who was a little soft-hearted, had no choice but to sigh to the sky and let the prison official Xi and others quickly convict the prisoners.

…

"The head of Blind Mountain Village, as a village official, knew the law but broke it, sheltered the villagers, secretly communicated with the traffickers, took the lead in buying women, and raped the woman Yuan many times. What's the matter?"

In the hall, Ling Lile was responsible for recording. Because there were too many people involved in the case, they had to determine the crime of each person first, and then send it to the county magistrate to read.

Yu Yuan Xi was responsible for determining the punishment of criminals. Although he knew the Qin Law by heart, in order to be accurate and not make mistakes, he still had to find the "Law of Theft" and "Miscellaneous Laws" in the pile of laws and regulations, and sentenced them according to the corresponding laws.

"Li Zhengfeng of Blind Mountain Village is guilty of a heinous crime. According to Article 9 of the "Law of Theft", those who kidnap and sell people shall be crucified; those who kidnap and sell people and sell them together shall be guilty of the same crime. His crime shall be punished by death, and if he is charged with rape and other crimes, he shall be sentenced to quartering! His family members knew that the village head had committed a crime but did not report it, and also assisted in detaining the sold woman Yuan, so they should also be punished together and their property should be confiscated. Men will have their toes cut off and be sentenced to city-day; women will have their faces tattooed and become slaves and concubines!"

Le hurriedly wrote it down, and then asked the next name: "What about Tian Dian?"

"Tian Dian did not participate in the trafficking of people, so his crime is slightly lighter, but he cannot be exempted from the crime of dereliction of duty and sheltering. His title will be stripped, his property will be confiscated, his toes will be cut off and he will be sentenced to city-day, and his family members will be sentenced to city-day!"

As for the village warden who called on the villagers to kill the officials and flee, although he was dead, since he dared to shout this slogan, he should be prepared to be crushed to ashes. His rotten bones should be dug out and he should be torn apart by a chariot, and his family members should all be forced to work as soldiers.

In Xi's subsequent judgment, the families who paid to buy the kidnapped women were also sentenced to death by chariot. The three brothers who cruelly abused the abducted woman Yun and locked her in the pigpen, one of them died of a crossbow wound, and the remaining two were charged with rape, raping, and wounding others. The three crimes were combined and they were all torn apart by a chariot.

In total, three people in Blind Mountain were torn apart by a chariot and ten people were tormented.

According to Xi's judgment, Le used a red pen to cross out 13 names in the list on the bamboo slips. He couldn't help shaking a little. After all, a slight cross meant a life.

He thought to himself, "The law is merciless. This sentence is really appropriate for the prison officials. I must be careful and never break the law in my life, so as not to fall into the hands of the prison officials..."

However, Xi did have some leniency.

In addition to the four women who asked to leave on their own initiative, those families who also bought women many years ago were spared from death because the women who were abducted refused to admit that they were abducted and sold.

It turned out that in the Qin State, cases also had a statute of limitations. The government would no longer accept cases that were more than ten years old. Moreover, if a criminal case wanted to enter the litigation process, the premise was that someone reported it. If the parties did not report it, it would not be accepted, which was equivalent to "no complaint, no trial" in later generations.

Therefore, those women who had been abducted and sold for many years and had children did not reveal their identities and did not take the initiative to report their current families, and it would not constitute a litigation process.

Xi knew that if he investigated it thoroughly, even using torture, he would definitely be able to dig up all the old things and sentence those people to death.

But after hesitating, he still did not extend the rope of the law.

He was a capable official, but not a cruel one.

He handled the case faithfully according to the law, but he also had his own bottom line.

Moreover, this did not mean that those people were innocent. This case involved the joint crime of the entire blind mountain. According to the Qin law's system of joint responsibility, as long as they were adult men and women, every one of them would be held accountable.

What's more serious is that they were also suspected of attacking officials and even shouted slogans of fleeing to Chu... This is the most fatal point. Thinking about it afterwards, if they could follow Hei Fu's suggestion and surrender with him, they would not end up like this.

The last day of April happened to be the day of the verdict. Because there were too many offenders, only one principal offender could be sent from each family to listen to the trial. In this way, the entire county prison hall was crowded with people.

Looking at so many criminals, even the Anlu County Magistrate couldn't help but feel numb, and his voice was a little hoarse when he read the word "ju".

In the end, except for the 13 main criminals who were sentenced to death, almost all the others were reduced to prisoners!

Dozens of people were severely punished by corporal punishment and made into city pounders, while hundreds of people were also made into ghost firewood and white candy. They would not be free for three to five years. Only three families who lived far away from the village were hunters and escaped after being proven not to be involved in the incident.

Parents were sent to labor reform, and children who did not reach adulthood were taken in by the hidden officials. When they came of age, they were placed in various places as soldiers or servants.

When the nest is overturned, no egg is left intact. With such a sentence, the whole nest of Blind Mountain Village was wiped out, and everyone became prisoners. The establishment of this village could be directly cancelled.

This also means that this year, except for the county engineer who can applaud and laugh because of the increase of more than a hundred prisoners and slaves, the rest of the county magistrate, household officer, and township official will have to frown. As the most important content of the official assessment, the number of households may not increase but decrease this year!

The population growth of Anlu County was not fast to begin with, and it was just barely able to maintain life, so how could it withstand such a heavy blow.

Therefore, for Hei Fu who handled this case and Xi who made a judgment according to the law, although the county officials had to support and praise him on the surface, they had already cursed him behind his back...

"The head of the pavilion who ruined the family, the prison official who wiped out the family!"

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