Chapter 586 Earth-shattering
As everyone expected, the trial in the next few days started with the case of banned books.

Before hearing the case of banned books, Hai Rui made a statement first.

“This case involves the crime of blasphemy, which is an unforgivable crime. It should be prosecuted by the Central Procuratorate of the Ministry of Justice. I have sent a letter to the Ministry of Justice and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and they have officially replied to designate the Jiangsu Procuratorate to file a prosecution, and the Jiangsu Shen Court will conduct the first trial.

After the preliminary review is completed, the Central Procuratorate of the Ministry of Justice will review and reexamine with the Metropolitan Procuratorate. “

After Hai Rui finished speaking, he handed over the trial hall to Cui Caihu, the right deputy envoy of the Jiangsu Provincial Surveillance Commissioner and the assistant magistrate of Jiangsu, who was also the chief magistrate of Jiangsu.

He served as the chief judge in the preliminary trials of the three major banned book cases.

The prosecutor is Yan Zhangming, the deputy chief prosecutor of Jiangsu Province. He is the head of the Jiangsu Provincial Procuratorate and also the chief prosecutor of Jiangsu Province.

Cui Caihu and his three fellow judges sat down at the main seat at the top, while Yan Zhangming and his assistant sat down at the prosecutor’s seat.

As per custom, Cui Caihu slammed the gavel and announced the arrest of the criminal.

Monk Deshen, whose secular name was Xu Fan, was the main criminal and was brought out in advance, along with five other accomplices.

Everyone’s eyes turned to Xu Jie at the same time.

The eldest son of the Xu family is involved in this case and is the main culprit. Prime Minister Xu, you are not panicking at all, and you are sitting upright. You are not a family member of the criminal at all, but rather the chief judge of the case.

I admire you. Really.

Hai Rui suddenly stood up, pulled out a note from his sleeve, and read aloud: “I have received a note from the Advisory Bureau, which is a memorial from Xu Gong, a retired Prime Minister and a senior official of the first rank.

He said: Xu Fan, the wicked son of the Xu family, became a monk, cut off worldly ties, and took the name Deshen. He traveled to temples such as Shuiyue and Tianjie. Out of personal grudges, he committed the sin of great disrespect, instigated bad writers to write banned articles, bribed illegal merchants, and published them.

All kinds of evil, perverse actions, violations of national laws and human ethics”

Everyone present could understand what Hai Ruinian said. It was simply Xu Jie submitting a petition to the court, saying that his eldest son Xu Fan had become a monk, severed his worldly ties, and was no longer a member of the Xu family.

This guy has a vicious mind. He disregards the law and does not care about family affection. He wrote and published banned books and committed a serious crime of disrespect. However, it has nothing to do with the Xu family. This guy is completely crazy. He wants to take revenge and wants to die together with the Xu family.

Xu Jie appeared to be apologizing in the memorial, but in reality he was distancing himself from Xu Fan and the Xu family.

It makes sense that people who become monks have cut off worldly ties and have nothing to do with the Xu family legally.

If someone listens attentively, his heart will be as clear as a mirror.

The cunning Prime Minister Xu had resorted to this desperate measure in order to fight back against Gao Gong’s revenge and completely defeat Gao Gong, so as to completely destroy this enemy of the Xu family who was pressing forward step by step! This was to put Gao Gong in an irretrievable situation and eliminate future troubles.

Gao Gong was, after all, one of the cabinet ministers and the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. Ordinary means could not bring him down. Only such vicious means would be effective.

The three banned books were framed very cleverly, and the case was firmly pinned on Gao Gong and his gang, so it was useless to complain. After two or three years, the case would become a file, sealed in history, and no one would ever know the truth.

However, what they never expected was that Gao Gong was suddenly angered to death by several postmen. Cai Guoxi saw that the situation was hopeless, so he hanged himself, taking Xu Fu with him.

Before they died, both of them kept complaining that the three banned book cases had nothing to do with them.

The dead are the greatest, and Gao Gong was the teacher of the previous emperor and a cabinet minister. Cai Guoxi was also one of the councilors, a high-ranking official in a province, and the court had to give an explanation.

However, Prime Minister Xu was cunning and sly, and he succeeded indirectly through his eldest son who had become a monk. Now there is more room for maneuver.

However, a charge of disrespect is so serious that you cannot shirk it by simply submitting a petition to shirk responsibility. It also depends on whether the Emperor will give face to you, Prime Minister Xu. If he does, then your Xu Mansion will be safe.

If you don’t give it, submitting a thousand petitions will be of no avail.

Everyone held their breath and listened to what Hai Rui had to say next.

However, everyone could guess that Xu Jie was still sitting well in the C position in the front porch, which meant that the court did not blame him and the Xu Mansion was saved.

But everyone still wanted to hear Hai Rui’s words in person.

Xu Fan turned around and looked at Xu Jie in disbelief. He seemed unable to believe that his father had put all the blame on him.

The crime of disrespect may lead to death by slow slicing.

Now, in order to protect the Xu family, you are putting all the blame on me. Are you afraid that my flesh will not be chopped into small pieces when I am tortured? If I leave home, I am no longer a member of the Xu family, right?

Xu Jie narrowed his eyes and stared at Xu Fan, his eldest son, De Shen Heseng, a famous flower monk in the Three Wus. The coldness in his cloudy eyes froze Xu Fan’s anger.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Hai Rui continued to read: “The Council of State Affairs has received the imperial edict and sent it to Hai Rui, the governor of Jiangsu Province, with the following instructions.

Xu Fan is disloyal and unfilial, his crimes are extremely serious and he should be severely punished. Xu Gong and the Xu family have been implicated and should be treated clearly to avoid disappointing the old ministers.

Everyone couldn’t help but let out a loud noise.

Prime Minister Xu still had some respectability, so the emperor let him and the Xu family go.

But those who were interested knew that the power of the Xu family, the number one family in the southeast that Xu Jie had spent decades building, was beginning to collapse.

After Hai Rui read out the letter from the Advisory Bureau, the trial continued.

Yan Zhangming read the indictment and stated the case.

Xu Fan was very cautious in his work. The scholar who helped him write the three banned books and the manager of the Xu Mansion who helped him make contacts were all killed.

However, one of the scholars was more eye-catching and left a letter in a secret place at home, which contained some clues. The Jinyiwei found the letter and at the same time, by chance, found a key person.

The monk Miaoguan, whose gender is hard to tell and whose appearance is more beautiful than flowers.

During that time, he was very much favored by Xu Fan, who couldn’t leave him for a moment, so Xu Fan did not avoid him in many things and even asked him to help with some things.

The scholar was recommended by Monk Miao Guang.

When Xu Fan learned of the deaths of Gao Gong and Cai Guoxi, he keenly realized that the situation was not good, so he fled to Tianjieyuan first and ordered his confidants to clear the area and execute those who knew the inside story one by one.

Logically, Miao Guang should be a dead monk so that he could keep all his secrets. But Xu Fan was reluctant to do so and secretly hid Miao Guang in a nunnery in Huzhou, passing him off as a real monk.

Unexpectedly, Miao Guang was also an impatient person. He made several nuns in the nunnery jealous of each other and started a fight. Then the Huzhou Police Bureau sent people to detect that something was wrong.

The police departments in various places can be said to be built by the Jinyiwei Zhenfu Division, and there are countless hidden spies buried in them. It just so happened that the Nanjing Bureau of the Jinyiwei Zhenfu Division sent a secret cooperation notice to the police departments of nearby prefectures and counties.

After the Huzhou Police Bureau realized something was wrong, they immediately notified the Pacification Office to arrest the person.

After capturing Monk Miao Guang and comparing the secret letter with that left by the scholar, they immediately found a clue in the case. They followed the clues and found Xu Fan, and secretly arrested his confidants.

It just so happened that Hai Rui raided Tianjieyuan and arrested Xu Fan. The Pacification Office took this as an excuse to present evidence, which quickly led to Xu Fan speaking up and solving the case.

When the “tainted witness” Miao Guang monk went to the court to testify, thousands of eyes were staring at him. There was silence inside and outside the court, and the sound of swallowing saliva could be heard from time to time. After the crack in the banned book case was opened, the investigation was not very complicated. The witnesses and evidence were laid out one by one, and everyone was shocked. At first, everyone just scolded Xu Fan, saying that he was so brave and crazy. In order to die with the Xu family, he actually did such a cruel thing.

But some people are giving advice in private.

Xu Fan had nothing better to do, so he took a huge risk to compile a banned book. He was just following orders.

On whose orders?

Of course it was the order of the head of the Xu family, his father.

Why!

Why did Prime Minister Xu risk so much to do this?
To kill Gao Gong.

As a result, Gao Gong died suddenly due to being too angry. Cai Guoxi was too stubborn and hanged himself.
Someone dug up these inside stories and spread them among the students and the people who were watching. While everyone was excited and agitated, they couldn’t help but sigh that the Xu family was really brave and Prime Minister Xu was really cruel.

Not only did he kill a cabinet minister Gao and a councilor Cai, but now he is even using his own son as a scapegoat.

Officials have really evil hearts, and the higher the official they are, the eviler their hearts are.

There were not many people involved in the banned book case, so the trial was quick. After two hours, the public prosecution procedure was completed and it was time for the criminal to confess. Everyone began to pay attention again.

Will the main culprit Xu Fan drag the Xu family into the water in order to seek a reduction in punishment?

Before he could speak, the trusted steward standing beside Xu Jie suddenly said, “Monk Deshen, just rest assured that you will be executed. Your family will be taken care of.”

Xu Fan’s face turned pale, and Cui Caihu’s face also changed. He slammed the gavel and kicked out the manager of the Xu Mansion who had spoken casually.

Xu Fan, with a big bald head, slowly turned his head, his face ashen, and looked at his father with complicated eyes.

But his biological father had become the most unfamiliar person in the world. There was no mercy in his eyes, only indifference, just like the cold wind in the capital in the twelfth month of winter, chilling to the bone.

Xu Fan turned his head away, tears streaming down his face, “I plead guilty, and I beg for severe punishment!”

There was an uproar, but the process continued.

Several other prisoners confessed, crying and saying that they were forced by Xu Fan’s power and had no choice but to put all the blame on Xu Fan.

After a half-hour break, Cui Caihu and his fellow judges returned to the court to read out the verdict.

Xu Fan was sentenced to immediate execution, while Miao Guang monk was sentenced to exile to the northwest for meritorious service. The rest were sentenced to hanging, exile to 5,000 to 3,000 miles away, and all were severely sentenced.

All the prisoners collapsed and were dragged out by the bailiffs on forks.

There was also crying in the family seats, and the bailiffs forked out a group of people, and it took a lot of effort to restore calm.

Next, we will continue to try the case, which is a case derived from the Tianjie Court.

The case of Tianjie Court had already been tried by the Tongpan Office of Yingtian Prefecture.

The head monks of the east and west classes of Zhongyuan and other Tianjie Temples, as well as 137 monks who had committed crimes, were sentenced to immediate execution, hanging, or beheading with a pending death sentence. Then all 1,112 monks in the temple were exiled to the northwest and Sanbao Prefecture.

As an old Buddhist temple in Nanzhili, Tianjieyuan became the intermediary between various forces, and its relationship with the Jiangnan aristocratic families and literati was particularly close.

So they followed the clues and uncovered a series of major cases from Tianjieyuan, involving dozens of officials and dozens of Jiangnan families.

But no one knew that these major cases were actually just a small part of a series of cases investigated by the Jinyiwei Zhenfu Division based on “Biographies of Officials” and “Anecdotes of Thousands of Families”.

During the trial in the afternoon and the following three days, the names of Xu Kun and Xu Ying were mentioned repeatedly. They were the main culprits in more than a dozen cases of bullying men and women, occupying land, and seizing people’s property.

As Yan Zhangming explained the details of each case in the prosecution documents, the thousands of scholars and citizens watching fell silent.

In the past, in the eyes of the world, these wealthy families passed down loyalty and honesty, passed down poetry and books, were benevolent and righteous, and loved to give charity. Now, their glamour has been torn off one by one, and all people see are those who have lost their consciences and are wolves in nature.

The noble families sitting around Xu Jie were feeling uneasy.

As case after case was exposed, their faces were trampled on and stomped on again and again.

They knew that the reputation they had painstakingly built up for decades or even hundreds of years would collapse in an instant.

The corners of Xu Jie’s mouth twitched slightly.

The emperor hasn’t changed at all. He let himself and the Xu family go, but he wanted to kill them all. He wanted to start with himself and the Xu family, eliminate the southeastern aristocratic families and powerful people one by one, and build up a new force.

it is good!
I want to see what other tricks Hai Rui, who has become your number one loyal dog, has!
On the fifth night of the trial, Hai Rui and his party returned to their residence at the post station. After dinner, they washed up and went back to their rooms to rest.

Huangfu Tan brought Hai Rui a bowl of calming soup.

After hesitating for a while, Huangfu Tan finally spoke, “Teacher, I think Mr. Xu has made contributions to the country.”

Hai Rui picked up the calming soup, drank it in one gulp, and wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

“Xu Shaohu’s greatest achievement is that he turned the Xu Mansion into the most aristocratic family in the Three Wus within a few decades.”

Huangfu Tan calmed down and said, “Mr. Xu has many students and former officials all over the world. If you humiliate him like this, I am worried that there will be endless troubles in the future.”

“So the emperor sent me, the most upright minister in the Ming Dynasty, here. Haoju, do you think it’s a bit too much to humiliate an old man by leaving him in front of the crowd?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what the students think.”

Hai Rui said meaningfully: “Killing people is easy, destroying their hearts is the key. Hao Ju, if you want to completely destroy a century-old tree, you can’t just knock it down, you have to dig up its roots.”

Huangfu Tan was stunned. “Killing someone is not enough, but you have to destroy their heart? Pushing a tree is not enough, but you have to dig up its roots.”

Hai Rui smiled, leaned back in his seat, and closed his eyes tiredly.

“The truth will be revealed tomorrow. It will be earth-shattering!”

The next morning, more than 1,500 scholars and common people poured into the government office. In addition, tens of thousands of people from inside and outside Suzhou city and nearby counties rushed there after hearing the news. They gathered outside the government office like they had done two days before, listening to the public trial process as narrated by the storyteller.

There were fewer officials sitting in the seats and fewer gentry, celebrities and great scholars in the corridor, but Xu Jie still sat upright in his seat.

Prosecutor Yan Zhangming and his assistants entered the prosecution seat. Chief judge Cui Caihu and his assistants entered the upper main seat.
Seeing that everyone was present, Hai Rui stood up.

“The first case to be heard today is a big one!”

(End of this chapter)