national surname chiming

Chapter 10 Breaking into a house without permission, shot dead on the spot

"Dong Bai, come out! My father sees you as pitiful, so he owes you filial piety, and he promises to help our family carry foreign debts, and take over this embroidery village after your filial piety expires. Now my family has blocked you for a year. You have a lot of foreign debts, and you want to break the contract!"

Outside Dong's embroidery village, a group of land snakes appeared there early in the morning, blocking the door and making noise.

The leader is a brave and vicious young man in his twenties named Cai Shouxin, who is the son of Dong Liang, the former treasurer of the Dong family.After Dong Liang established his own family, he asked his sons to change their surnames back to their original names.

Around Cai Shouxin, surrounded by seven or eight servants and helpers, they are not professional thugs, but Cai's embroiderers and weavers, who were temporarily pulled by the young master to bluff others.

Cai Shouxin has always been greedy for Dong Bai's body, begging his father over and over again to bring the old master's daughter home, but Dong Bai's insistence on keeping his filial piety has not succeeded, how can he allow others to cut off his beard when the flesh is so close to his mouth?

Especially Dong Bai's good looks, at any rate in this Kunshan area, it can be regarded as a rare one.In the face of such beauty, even if there is a risk of betting their lives, many bloody men are still willing to fight hard.

After the Cai family clamored for a while, the gate of the embroidery village opened slowly.

A gentle-looking middle-aged man with a goatee and a beard walked out of it. He looked like an accountant, and there were no thugs on the left and right.

The accountant cleared his throat, his face was arrogant, and his tone was indifferent: "How dare you make noise here! This young lady of the Dong family owes my family money and hasn't paid it back for several years.

Yesterday my young master personally came to the door to ask for the debt. She has already agreed to pay off the debt with the embroidery village and her body, and signed the contract here.If you want to make trouble again, don't blame me for reporting to the police! "

When Cai Shouxin heard this, his anger flared up.For a while, he didn't think about the Shen family, because the Shen family was in Taicang, not in Kunshan County.

In fact, Dong’s embroidery village owed more than one foreign debt in the past few years, but several creditors, but it owed the most money to the Shen’s family—this is also human nature, before any business goes bankrupt, it must be dying of illness. If you have borrowed all the money you can, the debt relationship will be complicated.

If forces like the Shen family came to collect debts, how could they be so shabby?Not even a thug, just relying on an accountant to expect to collect bad debts for many years?It must have been a scam!

Cai Shouxin's brain became hot: "Nonsense! The Dong family embroidery village owes a lot of money, how can you let you cheat and deceive the girl to take advantage of others! Come on, take this house back to Mrs. Dong first! If you want to divide the house, it will be too late." All the creditors have to be convened for a public meeting!"

After Cai Shouxin finished speaking, he sternly ordered the helper Ding to rush in.

The accountant seemed to be flustered, but he took advantage of the neighbors on the left and right to watch, and carefully blocked the leak and shouted:

"Yesterday, when my young master signed the contract with Mrs. Dong, it was agreed that my young master will pay back the money owed to other creditors by the Dong family! If you dare to rush in, you will break into the house and try to commit murder! "

The accountant yelled fiercely, just like the lawyers of later generations, but he refused to suffer physically. When he saw gangsters with wooden sticks rushing towards him, he immediately dodged to the side, allowing these gangsters to enter.

At the same time, because of the delay in scolding each other, there are already many onlookers in the neighborhood watching the fun.

Seeing Cai Shouxin and the others rushing in, the neighbors shook their heads and sighed, wondering if this Cai Shouxin might succeed today.

"Hey, the world is going down, and the heavens do not bless the good! This kind of bullying master and slave will have a day of rebelling against the master's daughter. The sky has no eyes!"

"I can't bear to look down on such trivial things? This Daming country is in such a mess, this kind of thing, it's not surprising!"

However, before everyone could finish sighing, a sudden change occurred in the yard.

Because the door was half-closed, outsiders couldn't see clearly, only the sound of screaming and screaming could be heard inside, and after a while, seven or eight people with bloody heads fell out of the door in a state of embarrassment.

"Killer! Killer! Someone robbed a house and murdered him! Hurry up and report to the police!" The injured people shouted while rolling and crawling to escape.

The servant of the Shen family who chased him out from behind was relentless: "Stop! You break into the house and attack the door without permission, and you still hope you can't get away!"

"Thief! You want to bite back, how shameless!"

The members of the Shen family also held long sticks in their hands, and did not use sharp blades.However, these sticks are generally more powerful than the troublemakers. Not only are they longer, they are also made of iron, and they subdue all the slow runners on the opposite side in a short time.

The onlookers were stunned, and it took a long time to realize: This creditor who bought Dong Xiaoniangzi's embroidery village last night has something to do with it!This arrangement is loose on the outside and tight on the inside, which has already been guarded against.

After a while, someone in the crowd uttered an exclamation: "Then Cai Shouxin is probably dead! His head is smashed!"

……

In the afternoon of the next day, that is, about a day and a half after the incident.

Suzhou Fuzhi, Wu County.

In the main hall of the Yamen of the prefect of Suzhou, Zhang Xuezeng finished taking care of the official duties at hand, and planned to call it a day early as usual, leaving the rest of the mundane affairs to the masters, and went back to the house to paint and cultivate his sentiments.

Zhang Xuezeng was born in a wealthy family, and he is good at painting and calligraphy.The name of his painting was listed with Wu Weiye, Dong Qichang and others in history, and he was especially good at landscapes and trees.He is not too concerned about government affairs. Now that the Ming Dynasty is in turmoil, he just wants nothing to happen during his tenure.

However, as soon as he got up, Xu Youliang, the famous criminal master, suddenly rushed in with a file in his hand, which seemed to be a serious case.

"Your Majesty, there is a case here, which may involve several lives, and the next one is more urgent. Do you think it will be arraigned in the near future?"

Zhang Xuezeng's interest in painting was interrupted, and he was very unhappy. These beatings and killings are really unpleasant.

He frowned: "Although a homicide case can also be brought to the state government, if it is not too serious, the county can judge it first and bring it for review. Why did it go to the government office as soon as it comes up?"

Xu Youliang explained with a smile: "This case is across the county. The murderer is from Taicang, the victim is from Kunshan, and the place where the murder was committed is also in Kunshan. Kunshan County originally wanted to accept it, but the defendant from Taicang appealed according to the law. Still in Taicang, he counter-sued that the deceased broke into private houses and robbed slaves, fearing that Kunshan County would protect his shortcomings.

Just because the two sides disagreed with each other, and the person who complained was a big household in Taicang, the head of the shipping department of the Ministry of Accounts, Shen, the family did not dare to do anything special.Mr. Fu, it's not pleasant to say that Master Shen is at least a sixth-rank official in the capital. Kunshan County really can't handle matters related to their family. "

Zhang Xue once recalled it, and immediately knew that it was a big deal.Although Shen Tingyang is only the sixth rank, and his official rank is far lower than that of Suzhou magistrate, but the Shen family is also a rich man in Suzhou, with a lot of influence.

(Note: The magistrates of the Ming Dynasty had both the fourth and fifth ranks. It depends on the level of the prefecture. The standard is based on taxes and grains. Those with more than 20 shi are upper-class prefectures. The apportionment of grain in Suzhou is 59 shi. This item is three times that of the upper-class government, so Zhang Xuezeng is the fourth grade.)
After thinking about it, Zhang Xuezeng could only sigh: "Forget it, you can make arrangements and bring the relevant people to the case as soon as possible. When everyone is ready, arrange for a court hearing tomorrow or the day after. Alas, it will be the Suzhou government trial, and most of them won't be able to escape. I went to the Nanjing Ministry of Criminal Justice for a review, and the people below are really causing trouble."

"Students, let's arrange it now." The master immediately took the order and left.

Although the Ming Dynasty did not clearly stipulate the "two-instance final trial system", the level of the first trial will obviously affect the final review and verification level of the case.

……

Suzhou government operates in accordance with judicial procedures.

Two days later, Shen Shuren and Dong Liang, as well as the servants who fought that day and other servants present, were all brought to the magistrate's yamen.

Dong Liang is not the person involved, but the sufferer, that is, the "victim's family".

In the conflict at Dong's embroidery village, two people were accidentally killed. One was Dong Liang's son Cai Shouxin, and the other was Cai's most ruthless helper and leader of the thugs.

In addition, there were seven or eight people injured on both sides, three or four of them were to the point of severed limbs, and the rest were injured.All the wounded will naturally be taken outside the lobby to wait.

The two dead bodies did not need to be carried up to the court, because the trial was in a different place, and the time was delayed for several days, and the summer was hot, so the Wu of the Suzhou government did an autopsy on a business trip, and it was enough to examine and sign the relevant documents.There was no disagreement about the cause of death in this case, and none of that mattered.

After the yamen servants and the master took their positions, Zhang Xuezeng walked on the official steps and sat in the middle.

Shen Shuren has a reputation as a scholar, so he didn't kneel, and just bowed his hands before replying.

After Zhang Xuezeng asked him a few basic information, he confirmed the identities of other people in the same case. Seeing that there was a non-kneeling scholar beside Shen Shuren, Zhang Xuezeng asked:

"Shen Lin, what is the identity of the people around you? Why are you in court?"

The scholar bowed his hands politely: "Back to Zhangfutai, the student is Gu Jiang, a student from Kunshan County, who is friends with Shen Lin. A few days before and after the incident, the student also happened to travel with Shen Lin, and he knows the cause and effect. Because Shen Lin is not good at words, Students are asked to appeal on their behalf."

In the late Ming Dynasty, the profession of litigator had already appeared, but there was no strict "lawyer qualification", basically a scholar, eloquent and good at quoting from sources, could be a litigator.No one cares about temporary guest appearances.

Shen Shuren didn't invite Gu Yanwu at first, because it was a secret after all.But after the incident, his friends were also very concerned about him, and they came to ask this and that, wondering if he had committed any crimes.

For the sake of his friends' peace of mind, Shen Shuren pretended at his discretion at this time, "I also watched "The Law of the Ming Dynasty" temporarily after the incident, and found out that I am not to blame for this incident. It was the other party who committed the crime first", and then explained his thoughts on appealing.

Among Shen Shuren's friends, Gu Yanwu is the one who reads the most. He also has dabbled in the law, the classics of the past dynasties, and the execution of prisons in the Spring and Autumn Period.

Gu Yanwu saw that Shen Shuren's reason for appeal was winding and quiet, and his words were upright, and he immediately felt a sense of historical heroism of rectification.In a moment of itch, he proposed that he help a friend to appeal.

And Shen Shuren did a little research, and found that he was only good at jurisprudence, but not good at citing classics and using Confucian righteousness to justify and package jurisprudence.Combining my own legal thinking with Gu Yanwu's quotations, maybe the effect will be better, so I agreed to this matter.

After Zhang Xuezeng confirmed his identity, he didn't make things difficult for Gu Yanwu, because he had heard of Gu Yanwu's reputation as a scholar, and he also knew that he was not a professional litigator who took money to fight a lawsuit, but was really helping a friend.

Zhang Xuezeng slapped the gavel, and first questioned Shen Shuren: "Shen Lin, Dong Liang from Kunshan sued you for robbing his family's manor and population that had signed a contract first, and his son Cai Shouxin came to the door to make a theory, and was beaten to death by your conniving slave. Is there a matter?"

Shen Shuren argued neither humble nor overbearing: "Going back to Futai, there is absolutely no such matter. The Dong family embroidery village involved in the case obviously owes the student's family more than [-] taels of raw silk money, and it has been overdue for nearly two years.

The student recently came to ask for debts, and found that the old master and mistress of the Dong family had died, leaving only an orphan daughter.Out of compassion and respect for his filial piety, the students were willing to take the remaining houses and looms of the Dong family's embroidery village, as well as the future labor of Mrs. Dong's future labor as pledges, so that the Dong family's debts would be exempted.

Mrs. Dong was also willing to make such a deal, and signed a deed on the same day, not only transferring the ownership of the manor, but also paying the deed tax, and the neighbors in the village have witnessed it.

The next day, Cai Shouxin came to the door to provoke. If he had to say that they had a secret agreement with Miss Dong, the students naturally couldn't believe him.The students never instigated servants to beat anyone to death.In fact, early that morning, the student was still sleeping in the village, knowing nothing.

It's just that before going to bed the night before, out of caution, the student took care of the steward who came with him, saying that from today onwards, this Dong's embroidery manor will be our Shen family's property, and it must be guarded as strictly as our own manor. If others make trouble and trespass, they must be strictly expelled.

Later, because the deceased was too rampant, he led people to rush into the courtyard, trying to search and capture Miss Dong, so I, Shen Jiading, out of the heart of protecting the Lord, shot and killed the leader of the gangster during the battle. "

(End of this chapter)