Zhuangda Tang Juvenile Lang

Chapter 538 Amnesty
"Please sit down!"

Ganlu Palace!
Li Shimin sat high in front of the hall, and when he saw Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, Wei Zheng, and Qin Feng were summoned, he invited them to sit down.

"My lords, it's been so long, and Hou Junji's punishment should have come to an end." Li Shimin tapped the table with his right index finger, his eyes kept moving on the faces of the three of them.

Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui looked at each other, but they were silent.

"Your Majesty, Hou Junji committed a capital crime for his own selfishness, and he should be severely punished. Otherwise, everyone will follow suit, and the law will become a dead letter. If there is no severe punishment, how can we rectify the laws of the country? How can we make the people of the world obey?"

Wei Zheng!

A staunch defender of the law stood up.Although he has a good relationship with Hou Junji, public affairs are public affairs, private affairs are private affairs, and it has always been Wei Zheng's style to distinguish between public and private

It was true that he appreciated Hou Junji's talent, but Hou Junji's character disappointed him.

Du Ruhui pondered for a moment, then said: "Your Majesty, no matter how great merits Hou Junji has made before, what Hou Junji violated is the law of the country, and the law will not be merciful. No matter what the reason is, no matter what the reasons are, Hou Junji cannot be changed. The facts of the crime. The laws of the country cannot be a tool for individuals to satisfy their selfish desires!"

"What do you think?" Qin Feng raised his chin, showing an inexplicable expression.

"This is not a good thing..." Qin Feng was silent for a moment, then sighed leisurely.

"How do you know?" Fang Xuanling asked.

"Whether it's a good thing or not depends on what standards are used to measure it." Qin Feng suddenly narrowed his eyes, and there was a look of depth on his face that didn't match his age.

"There are three stages of restraining human nature. First, it is the law, which is what we call rules. This is a criterion that overrides human nature and enforces and restricts human behavior."

"The second is morality, which originates from human nature itself, using human nature to restrain human nature, and relying on the eyes and tongue of the collective, society, and the world to restrain people's behavior."

"The third is belief, the highest standard of self-discipline, without the supervision of others, without the blessing of the law, and only relying on one's own pursuit of beliefs to restrain oneself."

Qin Feng spoke slowly, with a flat tone.

"When faith collapses, what do you use to wake up? When morality collapses, what do you use to measure? The law, only the law, and only the law can force people to follow the laws of society! This is the meaning of the existence of the law."

Wei Zheng smacked his beard and praised: "Incisive!" He continued: "The consequence of disregarding the laws of the country and failing to govern is the collapse of the legal system. I also ask the emperor not to use meritorious service for personal gain. Since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, such a bad thing has never happened. If, because of private affairs, everyone can sell out important military information for their own selfishness, then where is the law of the country and where is the discipline of the Tang Dynasty?" "

Wei Zheng's words can be said to be powerful and resounding, every word and every word, saliva flying all over the place.At the same time, in Qin Feng's view, it is also a bit aggressive.

"Master Wei is right! However, there are some accidents in everything." Qin Feng didn't have a good impression of Wei Zheng at first, but now he feels that he is not so annoying. This kind of firm defender of the law is almost extinct in the 21st century. No matter what his words are, he deserves respect.

However, in order to prevent Li Shimin from thinking that he is capricious and careful, Qin Feng can only bite the bullet and confront Wei Zheng at this moment, "Master Wei, let me ask you. What is the meaning of the existence of the law? What is the purpose of the existence of the law?"

"Of course why educate and restrain the people!" Wei Zheng answered without thinking.

"Okay. But when I was studying, I encountered a very difficult problem, which was also about the law. I couldn't solve it even if I tried to think about it. I would like to ask Mr. Wei to give me some advice."

Wei Zheng said, "Please tell me!"

Qin Feng cupped his hands to Wei Zheng, and said: "That junior is presumptuous. I don't need to go into details about the specific cases. The law, the problem encountered by the county magistrate is this: one person sees another person is about to die in front of him, He had two choices, one, to watch and let him die in front of him, and ignore him. Two, to rescue him, but this would violate the law. Whether this person should be saved or not, "

"Everything should follow the law! No one or any reason can be an excuse to commit a crime!" Wei Zheng said without hesitation.

"Master Wei's choice is not to save, because you have to abide by the law, but one day, when you encounter this kind of thing, you will stand aside like a cold-blooded animal, watching the poor man in his eyes coldly. Die slowly and watch a human life disappear before your eyes?"

"This..." Wei Zheng didn't know how to answer.

"You also said just now that human life is at stake, and the meaning of law is to restrain all people and benefit all people. But because of law-abiding, people's lives are ignored. How is this different from animals? Should this law be obeyed or not? Please Tell me, everyone! What should be done with the person who violated the law in order to save others?" Qin Feng glanced at the people who were thinking hard, and asked with a smile.

"What about you? What if it was you instead?" After a while, Li Chengqian threw the question to Qin Feng again.

"I don't know either!" Qin Feng smiled and said, "But the county magistrate's solution, I think we can learn from it."

"Tell me." Li Shimin asked with great interest.

"Firstly, the county magistrate investigates the incident; secondly, think over whether his actions have caused more harm to the world or more benefits, and determine that the person's violation of the law is indeed a matter of benefit outweighing harm. When it is proved that everything is more good than harm , the county magistrate carried out the third step, which was to solicit public opinion extensively, and selected thousands of people's answers from many public opinions. In the end, when more than 900 people supported the savior, the county magistrate applied for amnesty to the imperial court. Knowing the reason of the matter, the imperial court obeyed the public opinion without hesitation, and only dealt with the rescuers symbolically and materially, and then pardoned the rescuers, and vigorously publicized them from a moral point of view. In other words, if that In order to uphold the law, the imperial court punishes and perhaps kills the rescuers, so if the people of that country encounter similar things, who will save them? What will be the consequences?"

After asking two questions, Qin Feng asked himself and answered: "What are the consequences? The consequences are 'everyone sweeps the snow in front of their own doors, don't care about the frost on others'. If you don't save yourself, the consequence is to be on guard against each other..."

"Your Majesty, with regard to the punishment of General Hou Junji, I think that I should learn from this method. Although he leaked the military information, he did not cause any harm to the Tang Dynasty. Not only that, but also allowed the minister to easily annihilate the Wumeng tribe. , as well as Ashinasheer and the [-] elite soldiers who lost their minds. It was this battle that laid a solid foundation for the division and destruction of Eastern Turks. To some extent, Hou, who played a disgraceful role, Junji has made meritorious service in this matter, and in addition, he has made great contributions when he ruled the world. Therefore, the minister thinks that he can be granted an amnesty. Of course, in order to make an example to others, and to warn future generations, It should also be properly punished, otherwise, it will be difficult to convince the public."

Seeing that Wei Zheng had stopped talking, Li Shimin sighed and said, "Forget it, let's do as you said, and grant an amnesty to Hou Junji! Although Hou Junji has done very disgraceful things, he is a hero of my Tang Dynasty after all. In order to prevent the common people from mistakenly thinking that my confidantes are narrow-minded and jealous of virtuous people, I will not announce this matter. Give him and me Datang some face. First, let Hou Junji go to the Datang heroes Ta kowtowed to apologize, and secondly, because of his bad moral character, I gave him another task, and in the next five years, let him learn how to be a good man in Lu Guogong's mansion."

When everyone heard this, they were secretly speechless!
I thought that Li Shimin's heart to protect the calf was great, so he let Hou Junji go like this, but he didn't expect Li Shimin to be so heavy handed, and he suddenly understood in his heart: Li Shimin did not forgive Hou Junji's vicious methods, so he dealt with it fairly and did not Because Hou Junji was his confidant and important minister, they were extra merciful, and everyone thought: It's still a misunderstanding of His Majesty, and it's a way to distinguish rewards and punishments.

Qin Feng didn't know what to say, this calculation, the result was ten times better than what he expected, Hou Junji directly sent him to prison.Although this is not really going to prison, but you can't participate in state affairs, you can't leave Lu Guogong's mansion, it's no different from being in prison.On the surface, it seemed that Hou Junji had not been punished in the actual sense, but the five-year exile was more severe than any other punishment.Just think about it and you can understand that even for ordinary people, it would be unbearable for him to be confined to his home for five full years, not to mention Hou Junji is still a high official in the court.

Five years is enough to wipe away all the contacts and prestige he has accumulated over the years.It's almost like he's been busy all these years.

Li Shimin's attack was indeed heavy, and it was unexpected.Although Hou Junji committed a felony against Taotian, the big mistake was not made.Demotion should be regarded as the ultimate, but now he has to suffer from five years in prison, which is really surprising.Although Hou Junji saved his life, the price was that he lost everything.

Kill the chicken and the monkey!
Everyone was a top-level wise man. After being shocked for a while, they immediately understood Li Shimin's intentions.

What everyone thinks is exactly the same as Li Shimin's!
Because Li Shimin did have the idea of ​​killing chickens and monkeys recently, all this originated from the first year of Zhenguan.

In the first year of Zhenguan, something happened about Yuchi Jingde.

then.Li Shimin held a banquet to entertain the important officials in the court, and Yuchi Jingde was included in the invitation.The ancients valued face, and the height of the seat was very particular. The closer to Li Shimin, the higher the status.At that time, there was one who was just above Yuchi Jingde.Yuchi Jingde was furious and furious, shouted: "What merit do you have, dare to sit on me?"

Li Daozong, the king of Rencheng, sat under Yuchi Jingde's subordinate. Seeing him angry, he stepped forward to comfort him.Unexpectedly, Yuchi Jingde immediately punched him, almost blinding Li Daozong in one eye.

This matter has always left a knot in Li Shimin's heart. Not long ago, Hou Junji leaked military information, and then the eldest grandson Wuji incident broke out. Thinking of the past, he had a feeling that he felt that he had no respect for those heroes and veterans. , It's so kind and indulged them too much, so that they are all pampered and coquettish, defiant, and want to rectify them.

Li Shimin is well-known in history for being kind to heroes, but it does not mean that he has no bottom line. In order to avoid the recurrence of the past, he implemented the policy of killing chickens to warn monkeys. Unfortunately, Hou Jun integrated that chicken.

In fact, many founding emperors massacred heroes, not all because of the high meritorious service of the heroes. Zhu Yuanzhang said a very representative sentence: "Hou Junji has made contributions to the Tang Dynasty. If you break the law, you should be punished. Taizong wants to forgive it, but the law enforcement No, death is punishable by seeing it. It is not because Gaozu and Taizong have forgotten the merits of the meritorious officials, but because of their arrogance and arrogance, they pretended to be in the ears of the law."

The implication is that the hero committed suicide, and the founding king had to "kill Ma Su with tears"

(End of this chapter)