Northern Dynasties

Chapter 1305 Severe punishment without mercy

In addition to Yuwen Zhi and Yu Lan, there were several other playboys who participated in the kidnapping of Gao Wei. Although their family backgrounds were not as prominent as these two, they were also not from ordinary families.

These people have all returned home, some have not yet realized the seriousness of the problem, and some, even if they have realized it, think it is not a big problem, after all, there are still Yuwen Zhi and Yu Lan in front. Even if the court wants to investigate, the punishment that falls on them will not be too heavy.

After all, their parents had all made great contributions, so what kind of crime was it to kidnap and teach a remnant of the fallen Qi in their own territory in Chang'an? As for what kind of political turmoil and consequences Yuwen Zhi's plan to seize his father's title would cause, they were unaware of it and thought it was just a family dispute.

  So when Yuwen Xian led the imperial guards to arrest these people, their first reaction was disbelief, and then they were furious. It's fine that you, the Yuwen family, are at odds with each other and fighting for the throne, but we were just helping out out of loyalty, and we were used to take revenge!

But in any case, it only took one morning for all the people involved in the incident to be detained in the Censorate, including the victim Gao Xi who had been sent to Jingzhao Prefecture. People from both sides were under control.

Liu Qing, who had just gone to Jingzhao Prefecture to perform his duties, returned to the imperial city again and interrogated a number of people involved in the case together with the Chief Censor Liu Fan. As the case was not complicated, and the people involved were not aware of the deep reasons why the court wanted to make a big fuss, they honestly told the story and their own thoughts, and soon a relevant file was formed.

The interrogation of this case is not the focus, but the interaction between people outside the case is the real highlight. Apart from Gao Xiaowan who immediately knocked on the palace to appeal for justice and Yuwen Yong who killed his own relatives for the sake of justice, among other relevant personnel, Yu Jin's son Yu Shi was also impeached by the censor for desertion and spying on the palace, and was sent to the censorate with the approval of Prime Minister Xiao Zhao.

The relatives of other people involved in the incident had originally rushed to the Yongguo Mansion, wanting to ask Tutor Yu how to remedy the situation. However, before they could say a few words, they saw the imperial guards coming and arresting another of Yu Jin's sons. They couldn't help but take a deep breath and realized the seriousness of the situation.

Yu Jin also realized that he was in big trouble, so he immediately ordered his staff to prepare a car and went to the imperial city in person to meet the Supreme.

However, as soon as his carriage arrived outside the imperial city, an eunuch from the Ministry of Internal Affairs was waiting there. He came to Yu Jin's carriage and said respectfully, "Your Majesty knows that the two of you in the residence of Grand Tutor Yu have been detained in Lanting. The Grand Tutor must be feeling uneasy and will come to the palace to ask for an audience. I have specially ordered this subordinate to wait here respectfully. Your Majesty has ordered this subordinate to tell the Grand Tutor that the case is not an unpardonable crime and the officials will certainly judge it impartially. The Grand Tutor can just go home and wait in peace. If you do not avoid suspicion at this time, no matter how heavy the sentence is, it may cause public opinion to hurt the Grand Tutor. Your Majesty has specially ordered twenty guards to guard the residence of the Grand Tutor so that he can live in peace and quiet."

After hearing this, Yu Jin's face darkened again, so he did not get out of the carriage, silently beckoning the servant to drive out of the imperial city and go to his own residence. As for the twenty bodyguards sent by the court, they were all armed and followed behind the carriage.

Even Yu Jin was turned away outside the imperial city. Even though other relatives tried their best to inquire, the useful information they could obtain and the effect they achieved were very limited.

By the evening, Liu Fan and Liu Qing submitted the files compiled after the interrogation to the palace for the emperor to review.

The outline of this series of events is very simple. Gao Xi went to visit the Duke of Qi's mansion, and was intercepted and abducted by Yuwen Zhi and others when he was leaving. Afterwards, Gao Xiaowan complained to the Jingzhao Prefecture. Knowing that Yu Jin's son was involved, he suspected that powerful people in the court wanted to retaliate against his family, so he knelt in front of the Suzaku Gate for a long time to cry out for injustice, which then triggered a series of subsequent events.

As for Yuwen Zhi and others' re-discussion of the succession order of Duke Qi because of the special relationship between Gao Xi and Lady Tai of Qi, since it had not yet been implemented, it was necessary to file a separate case and convict them of slandering the government.

Putting aside all factors, what Yuwen Zhi and others committed was a public security crime, while Gao Xiaowan's crimes were even greater, disrupting court ceremonies and falsely accusing ministers.

When everyone's sins were sorted out, the next step was to punish each person involved. For related crimes, the court also had laws and regulations to punish them. The laws and regulations that were compiled as early as the Tongzhi period of the Western Wei Dynasty had already been written down and officially promulgated as the "Kaihuang Code" in the first year of the Kaihuang period of the Tang Dynasty.

According to the regulations of the Kaihuang Code, the punishment for committing crimes in the streets of the capital city varied according to the severity of the crime. Serious crimes were directly punished by beheading or strangulation, while lighter crimes were also punished by flogging or caning.

Since Yuwen Zhi and his men did not kill anyone, they were not subject to the most severe punishment. However, since the people they kidnapped were officials, they were sentenced to imprisonment and exile. However, the Kaihuang Code also had preferential treatment for officials who committed crimes, including discussion, reduction, redemption, and payment.

There are eight types of discussion, which are relatives, friends, virtuous, capable, meritorious, noble, diligent, and guests. People of these eight types need to follow special judicial procedures, and they can be exempted from punishment as appropriate. Reduction means that the eight people and officials above the seventh rank will be exempted from punishment compared to ordinary people. Redemption means paying a fine to reduce the responsibility of the crime. When an official breaks the law, he can use his official rank to offset the prison sentence and exile.

If the sentence was pronounced according to the provisions of the law, most of these dandies would pay a fine and then endure some flogging, and the matter would be considered explained. However, this was obviously unacceptable to Li Tai, and such punishment would not have any warning effect at all.

This time, Yuwen Zhi and others kidnapped Gao Xi in the street, and Gao Yanzong attacked and killed Cui Jishu in the street before, all reflected that the public security situation in the capital was worrying. The deeper reason was that the world had been in chaos for many years, and these officials and dignitaries used the power they controlled willfully, and the court was unable to achieve effective control and prevention at the level of laws and regulations, which made them feel fearless.

In the eyes of many people, their official titles themselves have the privilege of doing whatever they want, and the purpose of meritorious titles is to be free from constraints. Perhaps they need to be loyal and serve their superiors, but they can still do whatever they want to their subordinates, without having to abide by any rules and regulations.

The world has been in chaos for many years, and both the court's laws and regulations and social moral norms have suffered great damage. It is not easy to re-establish norms.

In particular, there were many powerful people in Chang'an City. They served the country loyally, but as a result, they had to share the city's resources and abide by the city's rules and regulations with the common people. If they did not have a certain level of moral qualities, it would be difficult to abide by them.

Therefore, in history, until the Sui and Tang dynasties, the customs of the people in the capital area were still the worst among those in Guanzhong, because it was full of privileged classes and speculators, as well as all kinds of bullies and bandits, and it could be said that all five evils were present.

Li Tai naturally did not want such problems to continue to exist in Chang'an City under his rule. He strictly dealt with this matter in order to set an example. After listening to the case report of Liu Qing and others, he said: "This group of people slandered the government and sentenced them first. After the verdict, the group of people shall not be released and shall be transferred to Jingzhao Prefecture Prison for imprisonment."

The current laws and regulations were not enough to severely punish these people and serve as a warning to the public, so Li Tai planned to punish them for another crime with a more flexible sentence. At the same time, he urged officials to speed up the compilation of new laws and regulations. Although the new laws and regulations could not severely punish the previous crimes, the combination of multiple crimes could still serve as a warning to people.

Slandering the government can be a minor offense, or even a serious offense. The punishment is entirely up to the king and the authorities. Especially now that the court is rewarding meritorious officials with official titles, these playboys are so bold as to think that the court is unfair in granting titles. If they are not severely punished, it will naturally not be enough to set things right.

Therefore, when the judge makes a judgment based on this, the sentence will be much more severe.

All those involved in the incident who had been granted official titles were dismissed, sentenced to imprisonment, and banned from participating in the selection of officials, which put an end to their political future. Among them, Yuwen Zhi and Yu Lan were the main culprits and were sentenced to exile. As for the Grand Tutor Yu Jin, he was stripped of his title of Grand Tutor due to poor education, but was allowed to return to his residence with honors and honors for his past merits, and was no longer involved in government affairs.

As for the other people who were involved in the same case but had different crimes, the Minister of Rites Yu Shi was demoted from the court and sent to be the prefect of Changsha in Xiangzhou. The title of Shangcheng Fengyu Gao Xiaowan was stripped away, and the title of county earl that he had inherited from his father was returned to his brother Gao Xiaoyu. Gao Xiaowan was demoted to the deputy supervisor of Shayuan and left the capital for Shayuan to be in charge of the livestock affairs of Shayuan stables.

The announcement of the punishment naturally shocked the court and the public. No one in the capital would have thought that a mere idle play by a group of playboys would cause such a big disturbance. Not only was the Jingzhao Yin in charge dismissed, but even a senior official like the Grand Tutor Yu Jin was also severely punished. As for the severe punishment suffered by those involved, it was even more regrettable, and their families were also very upset.

Amid the public outcry, the court promulgated the "Street Cleaning Rules for Cities and Neighborhoods in the Capital" and distributed it to the Jingzhao Prefecture and the two county governments in the capital, ordering them to follow the rules to manage public security in the cities and neighborhoods in the capital after the autumn.