If the Ming Dynasty had a newspaper or a news ranking at that time, this strange case would definitely become the first of the top ten news in the eight years of the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of Daming. This case will also certainly become the number one judicial case of the Ming Dynasty, and thus become the first choice for the examination of future generations of Daming judicial officials. Let's open the dusty history, look at the ins and outs of this strange case, and judge this case in the eyes of people today.
The case was caused by a bizarre burglary. The incident happened on a certain day in the month of La Yue during the eight years of the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of Daming, and Liu Jie, a man from a certain county in Panyu, Guangdong, was busy at home, because the Spring Festival was coming soon, and Liu Yu was busy with the family's affairs, after all, the Spring Festival was coming soon. In the festival that Chinese attaches the most importance to, Liu Jie, as the head of the family, is undoubtedly the busiest and is busy greeting the Spring Festival. But the problem is that Liu Jie's face does not have the joy of welcoming the Spring Festival. If you are a bystander, you will find that Liu Jie's face at that time was sad, and there was a piece of blue and purple on his body, and it looked like he was injured and beaten very badly, which was somewhat incompatible with the cheerful atmosphere before the festival. But the question is, how was Liu Ti injured, was he self-harmed? He was injured? I accidentally fell and injured myself. But if you look closely, he is more likely to be injured.
The flowers bloomed two flowers with one branch each, just when Liu Wei was busy at home, two uninvited guests appeared from far and near on the avenue not far away, these two were typical Biao-shaped big men, if the durian of the two people, Liu Wei was a small potato in front of the two of them, only to see these two people holding sharp knives and showing a fierce light. It was like a killing god possessed by a meteor striding straight to Liu Tie's home. There is a way that those who come are not good, and those who are good at war do not come. Liu Wei inadvertently saw the two people through the crack in the door. Liu Ji immediately closed the door and put the top bar on top. Hang up the latches. He quietly hid in the back room and did not dare to show his head. But to everyone's surprise, these two fierce men actually dared to open fire in broad daylight, and unscrupulously slammed the door of Liu Tie's house, shouting in a loud and intimidating voice: "Liu Jie, you shrunken-headed turtle, quickly open the door!" Get out of here for Lao Tzu! Lao Tzu knows that you are at home, and if you don't open the door again, Lao Tzu will make you look good, snap", listening to this tone is very reasonable, as if Liu Jie owes him two hundred taels of silver.
Liu Zhen in the room naturally did not comply, but also warned the other party: "Who are you Lao Tzu, my father has long passed away, you knocked on my door for no reason, and there is no Wang Fa, be careful that I report to the officials, and quickly roll with interest!" This shout was obviously to embolden himself, but it seemed to be a bit fierce and insufficient. From Liu Jie's words and sentences, you can feel a little strange, unlike Liu Jie's usual tone of speech.
The two big men outside the door laughed angrily, and then said: Your father is dead, let me two be your father, followed by a strong knock on the door, and the people in the room did not speak, the two saw here, wanted to look at each other and nodded, invariably used the sharp knife in their hands to pry open the door of Liu Jiao's house and forcibly broke into Liu Jie's house. However, unexpectedly, the two did not go looking for Liu Jie, as if he was not at home, the two entered the door and only cared about turning over the boxes and cabinets, under the bed, the corner of the wall, under the table, the seam of the floor, behind the door, behind the stove King, anyway, the place that could be searched was searching everywhere. It's like looking for silver. But the problem is that Liu Jie's family is not rich, not the landlord's old wealth, and there are no gold bars, silver, stocks, house deeds, and celebrity calligraphy and paintings in the family. There were no valuable soft floating treasures in the house.
Judging from the behavior of the two big men, it seems that these two people are not thieves, nor do they seem to have stolen property. Compared with other ordinary thieves, the behavior of the two is also very strange, picking and choosing, as if looking for something, the two finally just take away a green cloth shirt and a white cloth shirt, and then leave the scene (these two clothes are not suitable for these two people to wear). After the two big men left, when Liu Zhen came to his senses, he climbed up and directly rushed out to report the case to Yamen. The county order personally received the reporter.
After listening to the parties' reports, the local Wang Xianling thought about it a little: Liu Jie, although your family is not a local tycoon, but it is also a bit of a family foundation, those two thieves smashed the door with great fanfare, scavenged for half a day, and will not only draw two pieces of cloth shirts, right? Besides, why do they only take clothes? You're not offending anybody. Listening to Wang Xianling's words, Liu Yu did not let out a fart for half a day, and his words were vague, but he said vaguely: "I only know those two thieves, one is called "Lu Zheng" and the other is called "Li Hao", both of whom are native to the township, and as for why they only take clothes, he does not know." I'm not a thief."
As soon as Wang Xianling heard that Liu Jie knew the two thieves, it would be easy to deal with, and immediately let the head catcher arrest the second thief, and before long, the head catcher arrested Lu Zheng and Li Hao. What Wanwan did not expect was that Lu Zheng and Li Haozui were still quite hard, and the two people claimed that they had not done anything wrong, and we did not go to Liu Zhen's house to steal things. And in turn accused Liu Ofe of felonies. Wang Xianling suddenly knew that this matter was not simple, and immediately asked the two to tell it from the beginning. After the two finished speaking, Wang Xianling thought that something big had happened.
It turned out that according to Lu Zheng, more than half a month ago, the owner (boss) asked him to go out to handle an errand, during which Time Lu Zheng's wife Li Shi moved to the home of his wife and brother Li Hao. After he returned today, he found that his wife Li Shi was not there, and he did not see her return. Lu Zheng carefully looked around the house, the clothes box and makeup at home were a little strange, and the daughter-in-law Li Shi seemed to have moved these furniture before leaving, but due to the rush of time, he did not put these things in order when he went out. Lu Zheng began to worry about whether there had been any changes in his family during his work. Whether the daughter-in-law cheated or was killed. You don't need to report to the authorities. For the sake of prudence, Lu Zheng got up to check what was lost in the family's belongings.
It should be said that Lu Zheng's family is quite rich. As a mr. accountant in the owner's house, the silver is still relatively generous, but Lu Zheng's economic conditions are more generous than those of people like Liu Zhen. There are not many valuable items in the house, and lu Zheng can casually list what valuable things are specific. A slap can also be counted, Lu Zheng carefully counted, his daughter-in-law Li's green silk skirt, a blue silk shirt, a green gauze shirt, a green silk skirt, a pair of silver earrings weighing about 6 yuan were gone. Lu Zhengke is also not a person of great wealth and nobility. These things were lost, and Lu Zheng was anxious.
We can see from here. Lu Zheng's daughter-in-law Li Shi went out with the most valuable costumes in the family. Not long after, li hao, the current head of the Li family, Li Hao, the younger brother of the Li family, returned home. After Uncle Lang and uncle met, Lu Zheng told Li Hao about the family's affairs and inquired about Li Hao's whereabouts from Li Hao. Li Hao thought about it a little, and then he had to tell Lu Zheng about his previous observations: Just a few days ago, when Lu Zheng was on a business trip, Li Hao himself went out to do some things, and when he came back at night, he let his sister Li Shi take care of the house alone. Lee agreed. But what he never expected was that Li Hao actually went home early. Much earlier than expected. Li Hao suddenly went home early and saw a scene he did not want to see. Li Hao went home early and knocked on the door for half a day before Li Shi opened the door for his brother, so everything inevitably met.
Li Hao was shocked to find that there was an unexpected guest in the house, Liu Jie, and that both Liu Jie and Li Shi were disheveled and looked scared. Li Hao is a man, and immediately reacts, his sister Li Shi does not abide by the way of women, taking advantage of the fact that there is no one else in the family, and secretly meeting with Liu Zhen. He put a green hat on his brother-in-law Lu Zheng. Li Hao and his brother-in-law Lu Zheng had a very close relationship, and the relationship was very close, Li Hao was deeply influenced by Confucianism, and the concept of feudal morality was very strong, so he immediately grabbed Liu Jie on the spot and beat him violently, causing many skin and flesh injuries on Liu Hao's body and face.
Liu Ji could not beat Li Hao, and could only struggle to escape. Li Hao saw that Liu Jie had escaped and did not go after him, probably because he was afraid of the ugliness of the family, but at this time Li Hao remained silent, And Li Hao said to his sister: Don't attract bees and butterflies anymore, abide by the women's way, don't insult Li's door style, as long as his sister promises, he will keep Li Clan secret, this matter is black and white, even if this matter is over, he should not have happened. Li Shi, on the other hand, did not say a word. After Lu Zheng returned, he saw that his sister and brother-in-law were getting along as usual these days, and he also relaxed his heart. Listening to Lu Zheng say this today, I couldn't imagine that my sister had actually run away from home.
Where Did Li Go with his belongings, the first suspect that Lu Zheng and Li Hao thought of was Liu Zhen. His home is naturally the first suspicious place. Lu Zheng and Li Hao then rushed over with their knives. Performing the scene at the beginning of this article, the two intend to force Liu Tie to return Li Shi and his belongings, and then the two of them will bring "stolen goods" to Yamen to report the case, and personally and personally pursue Liu Jie's crimes of "adultery" and "abduction of property". But what no one expected was that neither the Li family nor the belongings were in Liu Tie's house. Lu Zheng and Li Hao temporarily changed their plans, and in line with the principle that thieves would not go empty, they took away Liu Jie's two cloth shirts as compensation, and just when the two were preparing to report the case directly to the Yamen, they unexpectedly filed a complaint first and acted one step faster than them. Wang Xianling was just about to open his mouth, and the arrest came in to report that Li Shi had come to surrender, and Li Shi estimated that he heard the wind and knew that he could not hide, so he took the initiative to come to Yamen to turn himself in, according to Li Shi's confession, saying that she took the initiative to seduce Liu Jie. On the day of the crime, she went to the Zhang family's house, which was Liu Jie's aunt.
Here we must first popularize the legal common sense of the "Great Ming Law": the "peace rape" (that is, adultery) mentioned in the Ming Law, and the "rape" refers to the man's further taking the woman away from the husband's home and "seducing" to other places on the basis of "rape", and the two corresponding punishments are different. The "adulterous" man is punished with eighty rods, the woman is also punished with eighty if she is single (unmarried), and the rod is punished with ninety if she is a married woman. The "adulterer" stipulates that the woman, whether she has a husband or not, will be punished with a staff of one hundred. Whether it is "peace rape" or "adultery", the punishment for women is higher than that of men, and the "Great Ming Law" also stipulates that women run away from home due to extramarital affairs, and the nature is worse than simple extramarital affairs. At the same time, in the event of "rapping" and "adultery", the woman's husband has the right to sell his wife or marry someone else. If the husband forgives his wife and is willing to keep his wife, the validity of the original marriage is recognized. "Abduction of property" is a comparison with the crime of "theft", and depending on the value of the property, it is punished with a number of canes, or superimposed fixed-term imprisonment, or even exiled, but it is exempt from giving the word "theft" on the arm.
The matter is already very clear at this point, that is, Li Shi and Liu Jie committed adultery. Lu Zheng may really like Li Shi, he is determined not to blame his wife in the past, to maintain the original marriage, Wang Xianling learned of the situation, ready to put Liu Jie "several crimes and punishment". However, things did not develop in the direction that Lu Zheng and Li Hao expected. Because Liu Wei cried out for wrong. Liu Tie did not deny that he had a private affair with Li Shi, but Li Shi's belongings were not "abducted" by him, and they were completely given to him by Li Shi voluntarily. It turned out that during Lu Zheng's business trip to other places, Liu Tie told Li that his family was difficult and his life was very difficult, and he also turned out a green silk skirt, a blue silk shirt, a green gauze shirt, and a green silk skirt, and entrusted Li shi to sell it and exchange it for some chai rice oil and salt money. Liu Hao said that when Li Hao bumped into li family members, he was beaten by Li Hao, but after that, he still quietly contacted Li shi and advised Li Shi: "You might as well bring something with me!" Li Immediately agreed, voluntarily taking the most valuable things in the family. Including the pair of silver earrings weighing about 6 yuan sneaked to the aunt Zhang's house to hide. Li Shi and Liu Wei met here.
To sum up, Liu Jie had nothing to say about the crime of "adultery," and "abducting and carrying property" was completely Lu Zheng's collusion with Li Hao to falsely accuse him; not only that, Lu Zheng and Li Hao also broke into his home to seize the cloth shirt without permission, committing the crime of "theft." Hearing this, Li Shi retorted: Lu Zheng listed that the lost clothes were tricked out by Liu Tie when she was lured by Liu Jie, and now they are stored in Zhang's home. Earrings are worn with you. It can also be seen from here that this dewy love affair between Liu And Li is really unreliable. Other people's couples are "flying separately when the big trouble is coming", and their lovers are "biting each other when the big trouble is imminent". Obviously, Li Shi knew that he could not escape the crime of "adultery", and the only way to detract from the hemostasis was to try his best to seek the forgiveness of Lu Zheng and Li Hao. After careful consideration, Wang Xianling made the following judgment: Lu Zheng and Li Hao were convicted of "stealing" and "false accusations", and sentenced to eighty cane punishment and two years' imprisonment, and Li Shi was given a light sentence of ninety cane. This verdict naturally made it difficult for Lu Zhengli Hao to accept it, and the two of them fought the lawsuit to Dali Temple.
Dali Temple immediately overturned the original verdict, reprimanded Wang Xian for ordering the indiscriminate judgment of the Hulu case, ordered the Guangdong Inspector Yamen to improve the investigation, and Liu Jie really let Li Shi take the family's things to him, committing the crime of abduction. Retrial. After retrial, the Inspector of Guangdong pronounced the following sentence: Lu Zheng and Li Hao were convicted of "theft", sentenced to 30 scepters, and sentenced to 1 year's imprisonment, and if they could produce 50 taels of silver, they could be compensated for their crimes. The crime of "false accusation" is not established and revoked. Liu Jie was responsible for the crime of "adultery" for eighty. The cane for "abduction of property" was punishable by forty years and three years' imprisonment. Li Shi was reprimanded for "adultery" with a staff of fifty. But his husband, Lu Zheng, has forgiven and is exempt from punishment. This verdict was endorsed by the Dali Temple.
I am clear water, history is the watchman, looking forward to your attention and comments.