Chapter 897 Autopsy

Su Yuanzhen, the imperial censor in the palace, impeached Cai Zhizheng for his evil intentions, pretentiousness and perversion of the law, and for deceiving the emperor.

The purpose of the entire case review process is not to correct problems in the law, but to combat dissidents!

Now that everything has been settled, the person who requested the request has been punished, but I would like to ask:

First, was there any flaw in Cai Que's interrogation?

Several doubtful points in the case have not been clarified: Gao Zai, an official of Sinong Temple, was waiting. Why was this person let off lightly without further interrogation?

Judging from various testimonies, Dali Temple did not accept bribes, but only verbally requested each other. This is certainly guilty, but is the crime too severe?

Secondly, was the judgment in this case wrong? There is another analysis method. According to this analysis, each crime in this case is divided into articles and ruled separately. Whether the judgment in this case can be considered wrong from the beginning

Isn't that a big mistake?

Thirdly, if there was no fault in the judgment of this case, then wouldn’t the “subjects” of this large number of petitions naturally not exist?

Well, Cai did involve so many people and caused such a big case. The matter involved two prime ministers and their sons, and more than ten people pursued officials to seize their positions. Does this mean that the implication was too broad, the ropes were too stringent, and the impact was too great?

?

Have some officials, such as Han Zhongyan, who made the correct judgment, been wronged as a result?

Is this a case of the Yushitai reversing priorities, not distinguishing the serious from the serious, and overly attacking?

So I would like to ask, should the relevant personnel of Yushitai be punished?!

The parties who were punished in this case were, without exception, all members of the old party, while Zhou Qing and Cai Que, who were responsible for this major case, were both new members of the reform faction.

I would like to ask, is this trial really fair? Is there really no partisanship involved in it? Can both the government and the public be sincerely convinced of this verdict?!

Please forgive me, it is certainly a mistake, but if you use the latter mistake to correct the previous mistake, isn't the latter mistake not a mistake?

The memorial was uploaded and was directly retained by Zhao Xu. Only a small circle of people knew about it, so the matter was considered suppressed.

Are you kidding me? The official positions in the Song Dynasty were a carrot and a pit, and one person had multiple posts and stacked buildings to build a house, but that was just for the sake of salary and preface to the capital.

Therefore, Su Yuanzhen, the imperial censor in the palace, had a false title and could only be used as a symbol of his status as a court official, but did not really have any right to advise.

Su Yuanzhen wants to take advantage of this loophole, but of course he can't.

Although the memorial was retained, Zhao Xu still deliberately wrote the three characters "Su Yuanzhen" on the screen of the inner hall. Two days later, he added the two characters "Gu Geng" at the end.

However, Cai Que still repeatedly led the ministers to confront Wu Anzhi and demanded that Wu Anzhi be severely punished. Zhao Xu vetoed the request: "I have no choice but to respond because of my close acquaintance. This is normal, so it is not a serious crime!"

Cai Que continued to insist, but Zhao Xu finally got angry and said, "My lords want to attack Wu Chong together, so what's the point?"

He directly sealed and returned Cai Que's memorial, and issued an edict: If similar cases are encountered in the future, the analysis method should be used to separate complex crimes into single crimes, and then measure the perpetrators of each crime and the proportion of each crime.

The master takes priority, and in the end, several crimes are punished together.

This is a knock on Yushitai.

Life is like a play, it's all about acting. In order to show that he was open-minded and accepting advice, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty was extremely tolerant of Yan Guan.

But when you dance, can you dance a little more artistically instead of going too far?

In the end, I have to cover up for you?!

"The one who speaks is already."

However, just after one major case was settled, another bigger case broke out.

In Kaifeng in June, the sun was shining brightly, the heat was overwhelming, and everyone was sweating profusely.

Su Song was handling government affairs in the lobby when he heard the manager join the army and hurriedly came to report: "The maid of Chen Shiru, the doctor of Guozi, reported the serious case of disobedience to Chen's wife Li."

Su Song raised his head: "Is it cursing or beating?"

Si Li joined the army and reported in horror: "It's... poisoned."

Su Song was shocked: "Human ethics are so evil? Show me the pleadings and trial records quickly."

The manager joined the army and sent the files: "Da Yin, they are all here."

Su Song opened the file and glanced at it: "Immediately issue the fire lot and get the person!"

The case was not as serious as usual, and a prime minister was involved.

Chen Shiru is the only son of former prime minister Chen Zhizhong and his concubine Zhang!

After Chen Zhizhong's death, the family was restless and even alarmed Zhao Xu, who specially ordered Zhang to enter the temple and become a nun.

When Chen Shiru grew up, he took Mr. Zhang home from the monastery and raised her at home. According to common sense, Chen Shiru should try his best to serve his biological mother.

However, Chen Shiru and his wife Li had been separated since childhood. They had no affection and were not filial. Welcoming Zhang home was just a window dressing.

A few years ago, Chen Shiru was sent to the county magistrate of Taihu County in Shuzhou. Because he was unwilling to serve as an official in other places, he concentrated on planning to return to the capital.

The daughter-in-law and the mother-in-law are natural enemies. Chen Shiru's wife, Li, stayed in the capital and often quarreled with her mother-in-law. Therefore, she held a grudge and told the maids many times: "Once the doctor mourns, I will definitely reward you generously."

Not long after, Zhang died inexplicably, and Chen Shiru successfully returned to Kaifeng, the capital, due to his mother's death.

A slave of the Chen family fled to the government office and exposed Chen Shiru and his wife Li for murdering his biological mother.

The Kaifeng Mansion immediately locked up all the Chen family members and separated them for interrogation.

Confessions were quickly collected, and Chen's wife, Li, admitted that although she resented her mother and cursed her from time to time, she did not explicitly use poison, nor did she personally inflict any harm.

The slaves confessed that they poisoned Chen's mother in order to receive a reward from their mistress, but they did not inform their mistress beforehand. They did it in private and did not cause death at the time.

Chen Shiru, on the other hand, insisted that this story was false, that his mother died of a heart attack, and that this was a malicious and false accusation made by a slave who refused to obey his master.

The case was serious, so Su Song went to the palace to see Zhao Xu and asked for the coffin to be opened and an autopsy conducted.

Su Song was a well-known filial son in the world. When he was demoted to Zhejiang by Zhao Xu because he refused to be appointed by Li Ding, he encountered a strong wind while crossing the river and saw that the ship was about to capsize.

Everyone on the boat jumped into the water to escape, but Su Song couldn't bear to leave his mother in the cabin, so he threw all his luggage into the river to reduce the load on the boat. He hugged his mother and cried bitterly, deciding to live and die with her.

Then, a supernatural event happened. Strong winds blew the ship to the other shore and ran aground. The mother and son were safe.

Everyone said that it was Su Song's filial piety that moved the river god and praised him greatly.

Therefore, Zhao Xu was at ease with Su Song and believed that he hated this kind of human evil and summoned him immediately.

When he saw Su Song, Zhao Xu looked very angry. There was a major case in the country where his son murdered his mother, and it happened in a scholar-bureaucrat's family, which made Zhao Xu feel shameless.

To put it bluntly, this means that you are not morally qualified, which is as serious as a solar eclipse.

When he saw Su Song, Zhao Xu's first words were: "Such a great evil must be severely punished!"

Su Song held up his hands and said: "Your Majesty, it is too early to finalize the case now. Until many doubts are cleared up, not to mention Chen Shiru, even the Li family will only be suspected of committing a crime."

"Now we must first determine the cause of Chen's mother's death. Whether she died suddenly of illness as Chen Shiru said."

"The most direct evidence must be on Mother Chen. Therefore, I would like to ask you to open the coffin."

Zhao Xu was extremely upset: "Because Chen's mother could not stay in the Chen family any longer, I arranged a way out after Mr. Chen's death, so she escaped the bullying of her legitimate wife."

"We are from a well-dressed family, how could something like this happen? Once the coffin is opened, will the dignity of the honorary minister be lost?!"

Although she is not Yuan's wife, Chen's mother still has a low-level decree to make people happy. Now that her coffin is about to be opened, Zhao Xu can't help but be angry.

Su Song cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty, the dignity of the imperial edict is more important than the dignity of the national law. I believe that the maintenance of the national law is more important."

Zhao Xu waved his hands dejectedly: "Then go check it out and open the coffin... Just open the coffin, but afterwards, you must not let a disobedient person go!"

On a hillside in the north of the city, there is the Chen family ancestral tomb cemetery. Looking at the green pine and cypress cemetery, the tomb of Chen Zhizhong, the prime minister of the Song Dynasty, is among them. He couldn't help but sigh: "What an aristocratic family... it just disappeared like this."

.”

Chen Zhizhong actually didn't have much ability. He came to power mainly because he clung to Concubine Zhang from the Renzong Dynasty, and he was famous for a while.

However, in the dispute over the harem of the Renzong Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cao became the winner in the end, and then the Chen family declined.

However, Chen Zhizhong also had one good thing, that is, he never deceived the emperor. Based on this, he left enough honor for himself after his death.

A skinny camel is bigger than a horse. If it hadn't happened like this, the Chen family would not have been defeated so quickly with the accumulation of Chen Zhizhong's era.

Su Song frowned: "Stop talking about this and open the coffin."

After opening the tomb, Manager Jiangjun frowned: "Chen Shiru deserves to die, this is his mother!"

There was only a thin coffin in the tomb, and it was a straw burial, which means there was no tomb.

Even ordinary families in Bianjing City would not use such meager coffins and funeral rituals.

The houses of officials in the Song Dynasty advocated thin burials, which only meant that they were buried with visible objects, such as coffins, brick chambers, corridor altars, etc. At least the things that should be there are still there.

Su Song waved his hand, and Wu Zuo and two other men came forward to open the coffin.

The corpse was already highly decomposed. Wearing a mask wrapped with herbs and spices, Wu Zuo first observed the entire corpse, and then used a silver needle to explore the throat and stomach of the corpse.

Soon, the manager joined the army and quickly presented the corpse filled in by the widow: "Dayin, it seems that the slave confessed the truth. Mother Chen did take arsenic and passed it from her throat into her abdomen, but the amount of poison was obviously not enough.
Chapter completed!