national surname chiming

Chapter 488 The Great Ming in Newton's Eyes
Undoubtedly, the execution scene Isaac Newton saw at the entrance of Qiantang County Official Lane,

It was the autumn of the fourth year of Xiaokang, when the Ming court officially began to shut down the net, and conducted the final general liquidation of the gangsters who had resisted the reform, but actually obtained fraudulent loans from the court's Huinong Credit.

Through the two white gloves of Yao Qisheng and Zhang Shipeng, Zhu Shuren, Yao Qisheng sang bad faces, Zhang Shipeng sang red faces, released water to raise fish and lured snakes out of the hole, and finally caught them all, and achieved very good results.

And Zhu Shuren asked himself, after all, he is a civilized person who came back from the 21st century, so there is no problem of "killing without teaching" in his fish farming, because his scales are very well grasped——

Even according to the laws of the 21st century, after a financial institution discovers that it has been fraudulently borrowed and infringed, it still has two years of "statute of limitations".

If the water is released to raise fish for more than two years, it can be said that it is fishing law enforcement, and you will be punished if you don't teach.

However, in the second year of the Xiaokang period in the Ming Dynasty, when the loans were granted to benefit the farmers to acquire land, and in the fourth year of the Xiaokang period, the Autumn Harvest Net was definitely less than two years from the time of "knowing or possibly knowing the facts of the infringement".

According to the statute of limitations of the 21st century, there is no problem with the statute of limitations. If it is moved to the 17th century, it will be an absolute benevolent government, which is more benevolent than Confucius's punishment.

As the court closed the net, those culprits were immediately dealt with severely after they were caught with enough evidence.Other ordinary thieves who failed to repay the fraudulent loans were sentenced to exile.

After all this is implemented, the propaganda department of the imperial court needs to step up its efforts to publicize and make a big noise, thus playing an immediate demonstration role.

……

Newton and the captain were still considered rich, so they didn't want to just squeeze into the streets to watch the excitement,

Captain Morton took out a silver coin and invited Newton to the tea house on the corner of the street, where he ordered some refreshments, watched and inquired from a condescending height——

The Guanxiangkou of Qiantang County in the Ming Dynasty is basically equivalent to Nagada, the oldest Xinhua Bookstore on Jiefang Road in Hangzhou in the early 21st century.

The tea doctor put the Yuqian Longjing from the Longquan kiln in front of Captain Morton and Newton, and served four-color desserts.

Newton carefully picked up the tea set that looked like it could sell for several pounds in the UK. When he saw the yellow-green soup inside, he was a little apprehensive. He always felt that this thing was like voodoo soup.

Captain Morton was obviously much more knowledgeable than him. He took a sip triumphantly, and then showed off in a tone of literacy for country people: "Don't worry, the tea is originally green, and it turned brown after being fermented across the ocean."

Newton just took a sip: "The tea in London is much richer than this."

Captain Morton couldn't help laughing: "In Daming, light tea is the most important thing. If you want to be rich and bitter, you can do it with the leaves of a tree that is a few pennies a pound and cut with a sickle."

Newton was shocked: "What? The cheapest tea in Daming is only a few pennies a pound? Then you have the nerve to sell it for eight shillings in London?"

Captain Morton spread his hands: "I don't need money for two years of voyage time, supplies, and risks? It's very conscientious to only increase the price by thirty times. It's all for God's sake."

The two exchanged a few words about tea and tea sets, and soon brought the topic back to the execution.When Newton sat on the second floor, his field of vision became more comprehensive. He finally saw the whole picture of the torture device in front of him, and he couldn't help but be amazed.

"Didn't those Ming people say that the culprit was sentenced to be cut in half? How could such a huge instrument of torture be needed for execution? It looks like a guillotine relying on its own gravity? Have you seen it before?" Newton quickly analyzed Knowing the principle of the instrument of torture, he deserves to be a master of mechanics in the future.

Captain Morton shrugged: "I haven't seen it seven years ago, just ask the tea seller—speaking of it, if you really plan to come to Daming to travel and study abroad, you should study Chinese well and always expect me to translate How to do it."

"I have studied hard! During the nine months on board, I have recognized thousands of Chinese characters! I can also translate their meanings! I just haven't mastered the spoken pronunciation yet!" It was a matter of the dignity of the top student, and Newton immediately pointed out the maliciousness of the other party. unreasonable speculation.

The ancient Koreans and Fusang people learned Chinese like this. They first learned to recognize characters and write on paper, and then they learned to interpret.Because there are dictionaries for writing, but there is no gramophone for spoken language, and there is no way to store standard pronunciation.

This situation was especially serious during the time of Song Shenzong and Zhezong. A bunch of Fusang monks and businessmen came to Zhongtu, even if they knew Chinese, they pretended not to know it.

Su Dongpo was touched by the other party's sincerity in learning, and he did not suspect fraud, so he wrote a small note to reply.Unexpectedly, those despicable Fusang people turned around and sent back to Fusang for rubbing and engraving.Even if it is just a sentence of "Have you eaten?", it must be framed as a treasure of the temple.

Today, Newton's difficulty in learning Chinese is about the same as those despicable Fusang people.

Captain Morton didn’t have the time to test Newton’s Chinese learning level. After inquiring about Dr. Tea in Chinese, he came to Newton to learn and sell:

"I heard that this kind of torture tool was just invented in the past two years. It is said that the regent personally ordered the Academy of Sciences to develop a kinder and less labor-intensive execution tool for the Ministry of Punishment to replace the traditional beheading, beheading and beheading.

This kind of guillotine uses pulleys to hoist the heavy blade and cut it off directly by gravity, so there is no need to rely on the experience of the executioner——

It is said that it is because Ming Dynasty is now better at politics than in the past, and the number of prisoners executed every year is greatly reduced, and it is impossible to maintain the skills of executioners everywhere. guillotine. "

It turned out that the instrument of torture that this group of British guys saw was the guillotine that would have been born 120 years later.Moreover, the artificial guillotine made by Zhu Shuren was done in one step, without detours——

In history, the guillotine invented by Louis XVI at the beginning has a flat blade, which is easy to get stuck, and the reliability of a one-time complete beheading is not high.In the end, in the process of the French big song, it was often cut continuously at one time, only to think of improving it into a slanted blade.

In this way, when the heavy knife body is smashed down, the pressure can be increased, and it can be pulled from one side to the other side one by one, cutting off the cervical spine, and can even be used to cut in half.

On the side of Ming Dynasty, Zhu Shuren ruled the country for these years, and the death penalty has been reduced year by year. The important indicator is "the year of Zhenguan, the year with the least number of executions, and only a few dozen people were beheaded in the whole country."

People from the Ministry of Punishment and Dali Temple have also read history books, and they have praised this indicator for many years.As soon as the guillotine came out this time, it was even more publicized as an ironclad proof that "because of too few executions, the skills of executioners are not good enough".

At the same time, in order to make full use of the product of this benevolent government, even Ling Chi, which was passed down from the Song and Liao Dynasties, was abolished, which can be called an eternal benevolent government.

Of course, considering that there are still too many heinous crimes of conspiracy and treason, in order to be able to connect, the span cannot be too large at once.Ordinary half cuts are not enough, so we temporarily added multiple cuts.

Previously, Ling Chi had cut at least eight swords, and the maximum could be more than 3000 swords.After changing to the guillotine half cut, the heaviest and heaviest level is only eight cuts, and then there are five cuts, three cuts and the most common one cut.

Newton and Captain Morton watched curiously for a while, and soon the execution began.

The heaviest prisoner today is the inventor of this round of Hangzhou government's pilot scheme to help farmers defraud loans. Commissions make a big difference in the price difference, and the direct silver involved is at least several 10 taels.

More importantly, even if this kind of scum is left to future generations, it still belongs to "defrauding financial institutions", and the sentencing is several grades heavier than ordinary fraud.What's more, he is in Daming now, and he dared to defraud the Ming court of direct lending, so he was finally sentenced to three cuts.

The executioner first stuffed the guy's two calves under the guillotine, then slammed down the guillotine, severed his knees, then moved it to the waist and hips, and cut him again. Finally, before he died of blood loss, he cut his neck Go up, and the final result is down, three knives and four paragraphs.

Newton was terrified when he saw it, and thought to himself: If it was the heaviest criminal in Ming Dynasty, he would probably have to cut it from the foot up to the top.I don't know what a serious crime it is to be subjected to this capital punishment.

While these foreigners were amazed, it was the first time for ordinary people in Hangzhou to see this kind of torture device. When it was first invented a few months ago, the guillotine was only used in Nanjing.

The common people are naturally also full of interest. After watching the three swords and four paragraphs, and then watched several other relatively minor organizers, they were all cut in half and then headed off.

There were only seven or eight people who committed crimes to the point of death. After the killing, the government dragged hundreds of people who were under the shackles to the public, and found a few public officials with loud voices to preach their crimes and punishments.

"These are maliciously defrauding the imperial court to help the farmers with loans! Those who refused to pay after collection! Those who cheated the loan and did not repay the principal, they will be exiled to Australia to reclaim wasteland immediately!

If the unpaid principal is less than one hundred taels and more than 80 taels, they will be exiled to Borneo!Those between 80 and 40 taels will be exiled to Kyushu Island!Forty to sixty, exile Ezo! Below [-] taels, exile in Heilongjiang!
The imperial court now has a lot of frontier land waiting to be farmed and reclaimed!Those who dare to deceive the imperial court and want to try the national law can just watch their end!Today, there will be a sea boat pick-up at the Sanbao Wharf, and the sinners who are going to Australia and Borneo will be sent to the road on the same day!
The imperial court can also afford this money, so it is considered as 50 taels to buy life, in exchange for sinners to go to the frontier to fend for themselves, and at least turn the place of birth into a mature place before death!As many as can survive, it will be their destiny! "

Zhu Shuren was still very kind. When he finally sent Zhang Shipeng and Yao Qisheng to sentencing, he did not calculate the severity of the evidence according to the rolling interest, but only calculated the principal.If there is 100 taels of principal and no plan to repay it at all, when the ten-year mortgage expires, the total principal and interest will be at least 300 taels.

After the official announcement, there were seven or eight hundred people who were severely punished, and they were escorted to the south of the city. They left the city gate and went straight to the wharf by the Qiantang River.There were several clippers waiting, each carrying about two hundred prisoners to Australia and Borneo.

The onlookers on the sidelines had rarely heard of where Australia and Borneo were, and most of the common people didn't like to study geography.

At this moment, I have just experienced the visual stimulation of slicing and cutting in half, and I will immediately teach literacy geography. This learning effect is very good.

Everyone whispered, and quickly figured out that "Australia is a land of extreme south smog, four times southerly than the distance from Jiangnan to Vietnam, and Borneo is at least three times southerly than Vietnam.

Those who go to Australia are not acclimatized, and at least eight out of ten will die within three years, and at least half of them will die in three years if they go to Borneo.If you can survive the first three years and your body adapts to the local miasma, poisonous plague, snakes, insects, rats and ants, then your chances of surviving in the future will be greater."

After hearing that there was such a horror, most of the common people who originally had the idea of ​​taking advantage of small things were immediately shocked.The benefits and costs, as well as the risk of being caught, are really out of proportion.

The key is that the imperial court seems to be very efficient in auditing accounts now, and it is estimated that those people have been targeted for evidence collection.

……

Daming's melons in dealing with financial fraud were enough for Newton and others to eat for an afternoon.

After drinking tea and dessert, Captain Morton couldn't help asking Newton to comment: "How do you think Daming's governance of economic crimes compares with ours in Britain?"

Newton shrugged: "To be honest, it looks more refined than the UK. At least they have the same strict clauses as the Roman law, and the sentencing and evidence collection are stricter than the UK. I come to Daming this time, can I learn something useful? I have more confidence in going back to save Britain.”

The case law that the British have always used, and its sophistication in the 17th century was relatively primitive, not as good as that of the Netherlands and France, and it gradually caught up after the death of the industry.So Newton is not kneeling and licking when he said this.

As for torture, he also thinks it is normal, it is nothing more than chopping a few more knives at the waist, but at least it does not deliberately prolong the suffering of criminals-Westerners nail people to death on racks, or puncture them on pickets until Bleeding dry to death, but it is possible to continue the pain for a day or two before dying.Today's cuts in half, even the slowest ones, will be dead in a quarter of an hour.

Captain Morton hadn't heard Newton mention his specific purpose of studying abroad, but now he was led to the wrong floor by Newton, so he continued to ask:
"Then what do you want to learn when you come to Daming this time? Do you have a plan? As far as I know, if you want to engage in academics, you still have to go to Nanjing. It's not worth staying in Hangzhou for a long time.

There is only one Academy of Sciences and a bunch of research institutes here in Ming Dynasty, unlike our European side where there are many universities.Their "Guozijian" only teaches ethics, so you can treat it as a seminary. "

Newton obviously had a plan in mind long ago, and he didn't even think about this question: "The initial determination when I set off was, of course, just to observe Daming's 'chemical' achievements. In Europe for the past few years, I often heard rumors from Dutch businessmen that Daming had returned. New drugs to poison vermin have been created, among other astonishing feats.

If only I could learn how to save London from the Great Plague.If this matter can be settled, I will arrange for someone to go back to China first and translate the results.For myself, I want to keep watching Daming's understanding of optics and mechanics.

A few years ago, I read a posthumous work written by Mr. Descartes in his later years, and listened to the introduction in his book. The regent of Ming Dynasty and one of his wives were also people with extraordinary knowledge of mechanics. They also mentioned a few things about movement conjecture,
It's a pity that the latest achievements are all in Chinese, and Mr. Descartes' posthumous works are not detailed enough. It seems that we must learn Chinese well to confirm what I want in my heart. "

Captain Morton didn't understand these things, so he could only hold up his wine glass and wish Newton good luck: "Then I wish you good luck, I plan to stay in Hangzhou and Suzhou to buy goods, and I don't plan to go to Nanjing this time when I come to Daming. Find a way."

-

It's almost getting better. After thinking about it, I should save the leave request for the maintenance day of the No. 4 server.It's changed today, don't ask for leave

(End of this chapter)