I want to be a grandson

Chapter 265

Tie Xuan knew Wang Zhong's strict mouth, if he was not afraid of Zhu Yunxie's anger, he would not even tell himself the state of His Highness!

So if you want to ask something out of his mouth, it's just wishful thinking!
Therefore, Tie Xuan didn't ask any more questions, and rushed to the Ministry of Punishment immediately.

As soon as he entered the lobby of the Ministry of Justice, Tie Xuan realized the seriousness of the atmosphere.

Zhou Zhiqing, Minister of Dali Temple, Yang Jing, Secretary of the Ministry of Punishment, Yu Xin, Fu Youwen, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and Qi Tai all arrived.

They were all sitting on chairs, sticking to etiquette and not daring to make any noise.

But Zhu Yunxi, who was sitting at the head seat in the lobby of the Ministry of Punishment, had a gloomy expression at this moment.

Tie Xuan stepped forward to salute with apprehension in his heart and said, "My subordinates will see His Royal Highness! Your Highness, Wan An."

Zhu Yunxi moved his fingers, signaling him to sit on the chair next to him.

He closed his eyes again and ordered, "Qu Tao, come and talk."

Everyone knew that His Royal Highness the Emperor Taisun must be burning with anger at this time, so they were cautious.

Qu Tao then opened his mouth and told everyone what had just happened on the banks of the Qinhuai River, so that everyone could understand the reason for His Highness's anger.

Only then did Zhu Yunxi open his eyes, and said angrily, "Everyone, in order to give birth to a son, this man brutally drowned three baby girls in succession, and this time he even burned the twin sister to death in front of everyone!"

"If Qu Tao hadn't saved people in time, the fifth baby would have died in his hands! Ladies and gentlemen, what do you think about drowning infants?"

As Minister of the Ministry of Punishments, this is more or less related to the criminal law, so Yang Jing thought about it, and said: "Your Highness, according to the law of the Ming Dynasty, there is no rule that people cannot kill their own children, so according to the law, they cannot be convicted. ..."

Dali Temple Secretary Zhou Zhiqing looked up at Zhu Yunxi, and said in agreement: "Your Highness, what Yang Butang said is that it is really difficult to deal with according to the law of the Ming Dynasty."

The word Dali in "Dali Temple" was the highest official in charge of justice in ancient times, and was first established in the Xia Dynasty.

"Book of Rites Ming Tang Wei" records: "Xia Hou's official hundred", among these officials is the judicial officer "Dali".

"Book of Rites Yueling" records "Dali's two stars, in the palace gate, are in charge of prison affairs.

As the Minister of Dali Temple, Zhou Zhiqing is in charge of criminal and prison trial cases, which is equivalent to the current Supreme Court.

Dali Temple, the Ministry of Punishment and the Metropolitan Procuratorate are collectively called the Sanfa Division.

The Ministry of Punishment accepts criminal cases from all over the world, the Metropolitan Procuratorate pickets them, and Dali Temple refutes them.

Dali Temple is specially responsible for reviewing criminal cases. If there is a discrepancy in the crime, it will be refuted according to the law;

Moreover, all cases handled by the Ministry of Punishment and the Dudufu of the Five Armies and the prison proceedings jointly organized by the Metropolitan Procuratorate must send the case files and prisoners to Dali Temple for review.

Therefore, in the early Ming Dynasty, the status of Dali Temple was still very high.

Zhu Yunxi said displeasedly: "I know the records of the Daming Law, what I'm asking now is what do you think, not whether you can be convicted!"

Yang Jing, Minister of the Ministry of Justice, was worried, knowing that His Highness the Emperor Taisun must be upset about the drowning incident, so he could only explain: "His Highness, there is a custom of drowning children in Taizhou, Chuzhou, and Wenzhou.
In addition, the three prefectures of Ningbo, Shaoxing, and Jinhua also have this custom. In addition, this phenomenon is also common in Jiangxi, Fujian, and Nanzhili, and it also occurs occasionally in other places..."

Yang Jing continued: "Your Highness, in the eyes of the common people, drowning a baby, especially a baby girl, is nothing more than a cruel act. It is a bad atmosphere, and even worse, it should be banned. It is a "good custom" and should be promoted..."

"In the view of those who advocate it, the reason for the drowning of girls in poor families is that the family is really poor and it is difficult to raise children, so it leads to "poor people often drown girls"..."

"The second is to consider that the dowry will be high in the future, and the family cannot afford it, so they drown their own daughters. After all, a heavy dowry can show the status and identity of the family, and it can also make the woman a high status in the husband's family. A lot of burdens..."

"Even after getting married, every New Year's celebration, weddings and weddings, I have to tell my mother's family, and when my daughter returns home, my mother's family will have more gifts, so there are many cases of drowning daughters."

So to put it all together, the common reason why people rebel against women is because the family is poor, and the money spent on childbirth and marriage is really expensive!
Another reason is that there were no good contraceptive measures in ancient times, which would inevitably lead to a large increase in the number of pregnancies.

And even if the people want a boy, they have to wait until they are born to know whether it is a boy or a girl.

But at that time, it was too late to regret, and I had to choose to drown.

Yang Jing continued: "Of course, what your Highness encountered today is that you want to ask for a son, and you are afraid that the baby girl in front of you will affect your son. I feel that such things are caused by the ignorance of the people and need to be educated in many ways. Only then."

Yu Xin, the household servant, also said: "Your Highness, as far as I know, there are special baby towers in some places, mostly distributed in the wilderness, made of gray stone bricks, with a drum-shaped top, and the four sides of the tower are left There is a small hole, which looks quite similar to a pigeon cage from a distance.”

"These baby towers are specially used to place the bones of infants and young children and abandoned babies, because some people think that babies are not yet fully developed, so there is no need to prepare coffins, so they hide babies here, and some directly throw babies who are still alive into the towers. Among them, most of them are female babies..."

After Yu Xin finished speaking, the entire lobby fell silent.

Killing a baby is indeed too cruel!
"Ugh……"

After a while, Qi Tai sighed and said: "The reason why infant drowning happened among the people is that some people are disgusted and drowned because they dislike having too many children; ..."

"Some are anxious and overwhelmed, fearing that once they breastfeed a girl baby, it will affect their birth of a boy baby; others are stingy and drowning, because the family is poor or does not have sufficient financial resources to raise children and prepare dowry..."

Tie Xuan was rather indignant inside, saluted and said: "Your Highness, this subordinate thinks the behavior of drowning babies is really vicious! This bad custom must be changed!"

Zhu Yunxi glanced at Tie Xuan and said, "Is it just vulgar?"

Everyone couldn't help being taken aback, and looked at His Highness the Emperor Taisun together.

Zhu Yunxi said with sharp eyes: "Human life is the most precious! Isn't the life of a baby not life?! This is not a habit, not a custom, nor is it a bad custom! This is a crime! This is a reckless disregard for human life!"

As soon as these words came out, everyone realized how angry His Highness was!
You must know that according to Ming Dynasty's legislation, killing people requires life!

If the crime is really based on disregarding human life, how many people in the world will be executed!
Zhu Yunxi stared at the crowd and said: "Tonight, the member who personally burned his daughter to death has been arrested by my order. I want him to die! Just tell me how to just let him die!"

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, their brows furrowed tightly.

Does His Royal Highness the Emperor Taisun just want to kill a member?

If this is the case, as long as he gives an order, not to mention one outsider, even a hundred of them will not survive tonight!

But what he wanted to kill were all the parents who drowned their children!
That's no small thing!

Thousands of families are at stake!
Moreover, His Highness also justifiably kills people, not out of momentary anger, nor out of his own anger, but to let this person kill in a reasonable way!
Your Highness is probably going to amend the laws of Ming Dynasty!

So Zhou Zhiqing, Minister of Dali Temple, said worriedly: "Your Highness, this is what is said about "beating grandparents or parents" in the "Law of the Ming Dynasty"
"Whoever beats and kills his grandparents or parents unreasonably by his descendants who violate the decree will be given one hundred sticks; for those who kill them accordingly, sixty sticks and one year in prison",
That is to say, if a child does not obey the teachings of his parents, and the parents beat and kill the child for no reason, they only need to receive a hundred sticks. If they intentionally kill the child and cause the death of their children, they need to receive sixty sticks, and the sentence will be one year... ..."

Zhou Zhiqing looked at Zhu Yunxi, and said, "Your Highness, you can let the officials of the world deal with the parents of the drowned babies according to the laws of Ming Dynasty."

Zhou Zhiqing's words are tantamount to saying that things must be done in accordance with the laws of the Ming Dynasty, and people should not be allowed to kill people at will.

"Sixty rods, one year in prison? Don't Zhou Qing think this punishment is too cheap?!"

Zhu Yunxi asked again: "Then let me ask you, how can a baby violate the wishes of its parents? How can it violate the decree?"

"Can they understand the teachings of their parents?! So it is nonsense to say that they disobeyed their parents! It is too light to use this law to deal with the drowning of babies!"

Yang Jing could only persuasion helplessly: "Your Highness, even though the fact of the baby girl is vicious, the custom of drowning infants has been around for a long time, and I am afraid it will be difficult to change it for a while. This matter should not be urgent..."

"However, the member who burned the baby girl to death is really hateful, and the method is really cruel! I begged His Highness to hand over this matter to the Ministry of Punishment, and deal with it as killing a human life. He must be beheaded for public display. I wonder what His Highness thinks?"

Everyone also looked at Zhu Yunxi eagerly. Yang Jing had already agreed to be cut off from the staff. I wonder if His Highness can calm down?
Zhu Yunxi shook his head, and said disappointedly: "My lords, what the lonely king did was not to vent his anger, not to be a murderer, but to thousands of drowned female babies in the world!..."

As he spoke, he stood up slowly, and several ministers also stood up immediately, not daring to sit upright.

Zhu Yunxie ordered: "The Dali Temple and the Ministry of Criminal Justice will add a clause to the Daming Law. Anyone who drowns and kills the infant will be sentenced to five years in prison! The second drowning will be beheaded immediately for public display! Confiscate the property and take back half of the land! The land can be returned to the public! The government leases them to farm."

Zhu Yunxi understood that it would be too harsh to kill someone as soon as he came up!
After all, the people's ideas are there, and the family's money and land are limited, so there is no rush, otherwise some refugees will be forced out.

But such punishment is also very severe!
If half of the land is handed over to the government, it will be a lot of money!

Because the land originally belonged to the common people and could be sold for money, but now it can only be cultivated and taxes have to be paid, so the loss is not a small amount!

It's like your house is taken away, although you can still rent it, can that be the same!

If all the land is taken away and they are not cultivated, it will be difficult for the people to feed their families, and they will starve to death!

But even so, the home for drowned infants suffered a huge loss!
Originally drowning infants was to save food, but now it is not possible to save food, and even the fields are lost.

When they do evil things, they will weigh whether it is worth it!

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(End of this chapter)