"Burning red wire stinging milk, tin dragon boiling water pouring back", this is part of the report of the "Declaration" on the sensational "Yang Naiwu and Xiao Cabbage" case in the late Qing Dynasty.
Stills of "Little Cabbage"
Behind the short 12 words, hidden is the barbaric cruelty of the Qing Dynasty trial officials, and the viciousness of beating prisoners into confessions with sensational torture.
More than 140 years ago, under the heavy pressure of officials and officials protecting each other, torturing them with poison, and spreading rumors and slander, why were Yang Naiwu and Xiao Cabbage able to break through the encirclement of evil forces and get out of prison with innocent bodies? The story behind it is lamentable.
1. The death of Pinlian
Yang Naiwu was born in 1840 in Yuhang, Zhejiang, the family to raise silkworms and mulberry as a business, life is very good, he ranked second in the family, brother Yang Naiwen died early, sister Yang Juzhen grew up with him, the two brothers have a deep affection.
Yang Naiwu's later unjust case can be revealed in large part because his sister has been insisting on filing a complaint and has never given up any hope of saving him.
Yang Naiwu stills
Yang Naiwu studied hard for more than ten years, and finally won the examination at the age of 33, at this time he was full of spirits, and never thought that there would be a prison disaster.
Xiao Cabbage, formerly known as Bi Xiugu, is a Yuhang Bijiatang person, lost her father at an early age, followed her mother to live in the stepfather Yu Jingtian's family, she looks very beautiful, usually likes to wear white clothes and green pants, so everyone gave her a nickname called "Little Cabbage".
After growing up, Under the arrangement of the family, Xiao Cabbage married Ge Pinlian, a tofu shop partner, and after marriage, Ge Pinlian rented the house of Yang Naiwu's family under the introduction of his father Shen Tiren (Ge Pinlian's stepfather).
The only real photo of Yang Naiwu and Xiao Cabbage (taken by foreign reporters)
Ge Pinlian went to the tofu shop to work during the day, Xiao Cabbage took care of the housework at home, Yang Naiwu's wife Yang Zhanshi liked Xiao Cabbage very much, invited her to the home many times, sometimes Ge Pin did not come back late, and the Yang family would ask her to go over to eat together.
In this way, Xiao Cabbage and Yang Naiwu had contacts, Yang Naiwu could see that Xiao Cabbage was a very smart woman, so he taught her to read and write when he had time, and all this Yang Zhan knew, in addition to reading and writing, the two people no longer had any intersection.
However, the streets and alleys have long been talking about it, and gradually rumors of "sheep eating cabbage" have gradually spread, saying that the two people have an improper relationship.
Yang Naiwu and Xiao Cabbage listened to these rumors and were afraid of causing trouble, so they reduced their contacts.
But with the unexpected death of Ge Pinlian, these rumors almost put the two to death.
Fingering
Ge Pinlian suffers from "flowing fire disease", medically known as "erysipelas", in today's timely anti-inflammatory, the use of antibiotic drugs can basically be cured, but in ancient times few doctors will treat erysipelas, plus Ge Pinlian indiscriminately treated himself, thus causing a tragedy.
On the ninth day of October 1873, Ge Pinlian had a fire attack, returned home trembling, and kept calling cold in his mouth, after which he gave a thousand yuan to the cabbage and asked her to buy Oriental ginseng and guiyuan, saying that it would be good to take medicine.
Xiao Cabbage fried the soup medicine and fed it to Ge Pinlian, but not long after, Ge Pinlian suddenly became ill and could not speak, and the panicked Little Cabbage quickly called Ge Pinlian's mother over and asked Lang Zhong to treat him.
Opera "Yang Naiwu and the Little Cabbage"
Lang Zhong said that Ge Pinlian had "sha", that is, a disease such as colic, and gave him a soup medicine of evergreen and radish seeds, but the result still did not get better, and Ge Pinlian died that night.
The main reason for Ge Pinlian's death, according to the Song Dynasty's "Collection of Washed Grievances", records that it is not appropriate to eat guiyuan for fire disease, and after eating it, the body will be weaker, and the severe ones will bleed to death.
The next day, Ge Pinlian's mother found that there was a faint flow of blood flowing from the corner of her son's mouth, which was actually a phenomenon of his death by eating Guiyuan.
However, Ge Mu believed that her son had been killed by someone, and thinking of the rumors of "sheep eating cabbage" in the streets and alleys, she asked Wang Lin to write a petition to Yamen to cry out for injustice, saying that Yang Naiwu and Xiao Cabbage had killed Ge Pinlian.
2. If you want to add to your sins, why do you have no excuses?
At that time, Yu Hangzhi County's name was Liu Xitong, and as soon as he heard that the case involved Yang Naiwu, he was secretly proud in his heart, because he and Yang Naiwu had a big festival.
Stills of Liu Xitong
Yang Naiwu was an upright man, and for Liu Xitong, a disgraceful official of the fish and meat people, he directly pointed out that he levied high taxes, plundered the people's wealth, and single-handedly covered the sky in Yuhang, which led to Liu Xitong's dismissal.
This time, Yang Naiwu was in his hands, and Liu Xitong decided to let him never turn over.
Liu Xitong had long heard the rumor that "sheep eat cabbage" and had already determined the direction of the trial in his heart: he wanted to try this case as a case of "adultery and murder of a husband."
Qing Dynasty prison
The normal procedure still had to go, and Liu Xitong took two autopsy servants to Ge Pinlian's house.
During the autopsy, he deliberately did not use soap horn water to wash the silver needles he had used before, so the silver needles immediately turned black after piercing the body, and the blackening of the silver needles indicated that the person died of a violent illness.
Although Ge Pinlian ate Guiyuan and caused death, guiyuan was bought by him, and there was also a clear difference between eating Guiyuan and dying of poisoning, but Liu Xitong saw that the silver needle was black, and he insisted that the arsenic under the cabbage murdered her husband and brought her to yamen for strict trial.
Liu Xitong asked Xiao Cabbage to admit the fact that she "killed her husband for adultery", Xiao Cabbage denied it on the spot, Liu Xitong tried for a long time without a result, and a poisonous plan surged into his heart.
That night, Liu Xitong sent someone to the prison to coax Xiao Cabbage to say: "Ge Pinlian's autopsy has confirmed that he died of poisoning, as long as you say that the poison was given to you by Yang Naiwu, you can not be held responsible, Yang Naiwu has the identity of a person to protect, and will not be punished." ”
Cabbage is tortured
Although Xiao Cabbage had not read the book, she also saw the cattiness in it, and resolutely refused to frame Yang Naiwu, and when people saw that the cajoling could not be done, they angrily threatened her: "You will be tortured." ”
Sure enough, as soon as he went to church the next day, Liu Xitong used a big punishment on Xiao Cabbage, first with a staff, beating her skin and flesh, and then using zǎn to refer to torture, so that Xiao Cabbage's fingers were almost broken.
After some severe torture, Xiao Cabbage really couldn't bear it, and "admitted" that it was Yang Naiwu who gave her poison and let her poison Ge Pinlian.
After Liu Xitong received the confession, he immediately summoned Yang Naiwu and asked him to confess his crimes, but he did not expect that Yang Naiwu was awe-struck, dismissed Liu Xitong's confession and confronted him tit-for-tat.
Yang Naiwu was a new scholar and a protégé of Tianzi, and according to the law, Liu Xitong could not torture him, and Yang Naiwu's relatives and friends also testified that on the day of Ge Pinlian's death, Yang Naiwu was guarding the spirit of his mother-in-law in other places, how could he participate in the killing of Ge Pinlian?
The cage where the prisoner is punished
However, Liu Xitong, the comatose official, was so vicious that he immediately gave the imperial court a request to remove Yang Naiwu's name, played the most slanderous words, and put the "adulterous feelings" between the two of them to the ground, and the imperial court quickly agreed to the request to remove Yang Naiwu.
Without the identity of a person, Yang Naiwu is a civilian who can be tortured at will like a small cabbage.
At that time, Chen Lu, the prefect of Hangzhou, demanded that the prisoners be taken to the Hangzhou government for trial, and Liu Xitong should hand over the case file to him.
Liu Xitong once again fabricated a complaint, saying that Ge Pinlian had bled seven tricks when he died, and that he had died of a violent illness, and he also denied the alibi evidence provided by the Relatives and Friends of the Yang family, saying that Yang Naiwu had given the poison to Xiao Cabbage in advance, and that it did not matter that he was not present.
Chen Lu was a rough man, and the method of trying the case was nothing more than severe torture, and after reading the file provided by Liu Xitong, he forced Yang Naiwu to admit that he had poisoned Ge Pinlian with arsenic for the cabbage.
Yang Naiwu refused to confess his guilt, was clamped to his feet with a stick, knelt on a red chain, passed out in pain many times, and finally his legs were almost crippled, and he could not bear the pain and was beaten into a confession.
Yang Naiwu wrote the complaint
Later, when other officials tried the case again, they asked Yang Naiwu: "Why did you plead guilty at that time?" ”
Yang Naiwu replied angrily: "Under the heavy punishment, where are the grievances?" ”
Chen Lu asked Yang Naiwu the source of arsenic cream, and Yang Naiwu could only casually make it up, saying that he bought arsenic cream at the Aidentang pharmacy in Yuhang, so Chen Lu ordered Liu Xitong to go to the pharmacy to collect evidence.
The owner of the pharmacy, Qian Tan, is an honest businessman, a poison like arsenic, he is afraid that someone will eat it and cause trouble, he never buys it, so he denies that Yang Naiwu has bought arsenic cream in his shop.
Liu Xitong once again played his "specialty" of planting bribes to frame and coerce and induce, and sent someone to tell Qian Tan: "As long as you write a certificate proving that Yang Naiwu has bought arsenic cream in your shop, I will ensure that you are safe and sound, if you do not write, then there will be endless trouble in the future." ”
Cabbage is tortured with a cane
Qian Tan was forced to be helpless, so he had to write a certificate of Yang Naiwu's purchase of arsenic cream with a clear conscience.
However, his later end was very tragic, not only could not open the pharmacy, but also was imprisoned and died in prison inexplicably.
When the case came to this point, under the repeated suppression of the fainting officials, not only were the parties beaten into confessions, but the pharmacy owner also issued a certificate of selling arsenic.
Therefore, Chen Lu sentenced Yang Naiwu to beheading on the grounds that "the evidence of adultery and murder of her husband was conclusive", and Xiao Cabbage Lingchi was executed.
However, the final verdict of the two men was not decided by Chen Lu, and according to the laws of the Qing Dynasty, in order to prevent grievances, the death penalty needed to be reported step by step.
After Chen Lu's trial, the results of the trial should be reported to the Zhejiang Inspection And Envoy Department, and after the trial, it should be handed over to the Zhejiang Inspector for trial, and finally the Zhejiang Inspector should report the results to the imperial court, and the imperial court should decide whether to execute the prisoners.
In such a dark era, the trial organs at all levels that sound "bright and upright" are actually just a formality.
They pretended to ask Liu Xitong and Chen Lu whether the trial process was fair and just, and the two naturally nodded their heads and said yes, and whether the two parties were wronged was not within their consideration at all.
"Spiegel High Hanging"
The final verdict was determined, and Chen Lu's verdict was upheld, but the two were still not immediately executed, and according to the ancient rules, a "autumn trial" was held in the autumn to prevent the case from being wronged.
The verdict of the trial came out, only two months after their arrest, at the end of 1873, and long after the fall of the following year, which also brought a turnaround in the case.
Third, the family went to Beijing to file a complaint, and zhejiang officials helped each other
Yang Naiwu's sister Yang Juzhen, who grew up watching Yang Naiwu grow up, knew her brother's personality, and immediately discussed with her family after hearing the verdict: she would rather ruin her family than go to cry out for injustice.
Yang Juzhen took Yang Naiwu's wife and son to various gates in Hangzhou to cry out injustice, but no one paid attention to her.
She inquired around again, and learned that the boss of Ai Ren Tang had not sold Yang Naiwu arsenic cream at all, and that someone had forced him to write a certificate, and felt that his brother was very wronged, and since Hangzhou could not win, he would go to the capital to file a complaint.
Yang Juzhen went to Beijing to file a complaint
Yang Juzhen bribed the jailer and went to see his brother in prison, Yang Naiwu's legs were close to crippled, he could only lie on the ground and talk to his sister, he asked his sister not to run for him anymore, he was already determined to die.
Unexpectedly, Yang Juzhen's tone was resolute, and she told Yang Naiwu that she had found some clues and was ready to file a complaint in Beijing, and if even he gave up hope, the whole family would not survive.
With the encouragement of his sister, Yang Naiwu wrote a complaint explaining the whole process of his being beaten into a confession.
After getting Yang Naiwu's complaint, Yang Juzhen came to Beijing and submitted the complaint to the Metropolitan Inspection Court, but Yang Juzhen obviously did not understand the formal routines, she had no acquaintances in Beijing, how could the Metropolitan Procuratorate easily try such a case as her, which was worthless in their eyes?
Dali Temple
On the grounds of skipping the level, the Metropolitan Inspection Bureau ordered Yang Juzhen to go home immediately, but they were not wine bags and rice bags, and still issued an order to be retried by Yang Changjun, the inspector of Zhejiang.
Under the ideological high-pressure rule of the Qing Dynasty, cases like Yang Naiwu and Xiao Cabbage belonged to the "weathering case", which was a major case against human morality, and once it was not handled well, it had a great impact on the whole of Zhejiang.
Yang Changjun was unwilling to take on such a difficult case, so he pushed the case to Chen Lu, the prefect of Hangzhou, for trial.
When Yang Naiwu and Xiao Cabbage saw that the trial officer was still Chen Lu, they did not retract their confession in despair, and the final result was still sentenced to death.
This infuriating verdict did not bring down Yang Juzhen, and she thought of asking for help from Yang Naiwu in the same year, and perhaps there was still a glimmer of hope.
Hu Xueyan
Yang Naiwu has always been eager to be fair and righteous, because of this personality, he has made many friends, and Wu Yitong, who took the exam in the same year as him, is one of them, so when Wu Yitong heard about Yang Naiwu, he immediately promised to help save people.
Wu Yitong befriended the famous big businessman Hu Xueyan, and Hu Xueyan was familiar with many officials in business, and this person's personality was also uneven, drawing his sword to help, and when Wu Yitong asked Hu Xueyan if he could use the network of relations to save Yang Naiwu from water and fire, Hu Xueyan did not hesitate to agree.
Hu Xueyan found Xia Tongshan, a Zhejiang official and editor of the Hanlin Academy at the time, and explained the ins and outs of the matter to him clearly.
Xia Tongshan felt that Yang Naiwu and he were fellow countrymen, and the people of Tangtang were greatly humiliated by this, and they simply did not take the Zhejiang people in their eyes, and decided to help the Yang family win the lawsuit.
Xia Tongshan
Xia Tongshan summoned the Du cha yuan Zuo Du Yushi Weng Tonggong (Weng Tonggong was from Jiangsu and had close ties with Officials in Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the Qing Dynasty) to jointly check the trial records, and found that there were many remarks that seemed to be beaten into confession, so they played the case to Empress Dowager Cixi and asked for a retrial.
At first, Empress Dowager Cixi did not take the case to heart at all, but only hit the case back and let Yang Changjun, the inspector of Zhejiang, try it.
After turning around, the hot potato returned to Yang Changjun's hand, and although he was extremely reluctant, he had to take over.
Because the case remained unresolved, more and more people stepped in, making the case complicated, so the "autumn trial" carried out according to the previous practice was not carried out, and the two people who were beaten and bruised were always on death row.
Yang Naiwu and Xiao Cabbage, who had been tortured, were once again put on the lobby, and the two saw that the chief inquisitor had changed, and felt that there was hope, and Yang Changjun did not torture them, so they chose to retract their confessions.
Xia Tongshan calligraphy
Just when they felt that there was a glimmer of light in the case, the Tongzhi Emperor suddenly died, and the emperor died in mourning with the whole country, and the case naturally could not be tried for the time being, and the two people were imprisoned again.
Yang Changjun is not a good person, he can't understand this case, so he simply wants to take advantage of the national funeral and no one pays attention to the case to delay the case indefinitely, and when everyone forgets the case of Yang Naiwu and Xiao Cabbage, he will not have to try again.
Before this wishful thinking had begun, Xia Tongshan stood up, knowing that Xia Tongshan, Weng Tonggong and Yang Naiwu were all from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and Yang Changjun was from Hunan.
Yang Changjun has been delaying the unjust case, so that everyone feels that hunan people are bullying Zhejiang people, and the students in Jiangsu and Zhejiang have heard that Yang Naiwu has been wronged, and they all angrily demand that the above give an explanation, otherwise they will never give up.
In April of the first year of Guangxu (1875), a large number of Zhejiang officials impeached Yang Changjun for failing to handle the case and demanding a retrial of the unjust case, and they were sent to Empress Dowager Cixi, who had no choice but to send Hu Ruilan, a scholar and politician from Zhejiang, to try the case.
Yang Changjun
Don't look at the change of the presiding judge, Hu Ruilan is not an iron-faced selfless clean official, on the contrary, he is Yang Changjun's subordinate, and all his promotion evaluations are Yang Changjun's final decision, so how can Hu Ruilan offend Yang Changjun for this case?
For the sake of his own future, Hu Ruilan even used more cruel punishments on the two, and Yang Naiwu was also disabled for life because of his torture.
After seeing Hu Ruilan's cruel methods, Yang Naiwu had no hope of surviving, and he wrote a couplet in despair in prison: "Lifting people into prisoners Sven sweeps the floor, and Xuetai (referring to Hu Ruilan) is the punishment platform for Wu to return to heaven." ”
Hu Ruilan finally reported the results of this bloody trial to the imperial court, feeling that he had finally closed the case and could have a worry-free career from now on.
However, he still underestimated the power of justice after all, and 15 days after his case closure report was submitted, the Hubu Department wrote a letter to Hu Ruilan to impeach Hu Ruilan, saying that he was a subordinate of Yang Changjun, and that he could not offend his superiors for the sake of two unrelated people, and that the case should be handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department for trial.
At this point, so many people cried out for Yang Naiwu and Xiao Cabbage, and Cixi, as the ruler of the empire, knew very well that these two people were wronged, and she should also rehabilitate these two innocent people.
But the scheming Cixi did not respond immediately, and at this moment she already had a plan in her mind, which could not only calm the anger of Jiangsu and Zhejiang officials, but also knock and deter the xiangjun, a major problem that had hampered her for many years.
Fourth, the injustice is revealed
The Xiang Army was the main force in the suppression of the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement" that had plagued the imperial court for more than ten years, when the Eight Banner Army of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was no longer of great use, only the Xiang Army could lead the troops to fight, and the strength of the Xiang Army continued to grow after the war, so that Empress Dowager Cixi was like a thorn in the back.
Xiang Army
Empress Dowager Cixi had sent Ma Xinyi to be the governor of Liangjiang in an attempt to suppress the Xiang army led by Zeng Guofan, but she did not expect that the governor of Liangjiang was actually assassinated in broad daylight in Nanjing, and all indications showed that the black hand behind the scenes was the Xiang army.
Ma Xinyi film and television image
Yang Changjun and Hu Ruilan, two officials from Hubei, Hunan, were the representatives of the Xiang Army in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, so to rehabilitate Yang Naiwu and Xiao Cabbage would offend the Xiang Army.
The Xiang Army cannot be offended, can jiangsu and Zhejiang officials easily offend?
Cixi naturally did not think so, she did not directly rehabilitate Yang Naiwu and Xiao Cabbage, but agreed to let the Punishment Department intervene, study the case file, and then make a conclusion.
Taiping heavenly kingdom
Seeing that the empress dowager was so hesitant, 18 Zhejiang officials led by Xia Tongshan jointly played the song, saying that Yang Naiwu was humiliated by such a disgrace, but in fact he was insulting all the readers in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and if the empress dowager did not hand over the case to the Punishment Department for interrogation, it would chill the hearts of the students, and from then on, no readers in Jiangsu and Zhejiang would be willing to serve the imperial court.
This was exactly what Cixi wanted, and through the joint performance of Xia Tongshan and others, she saw the power of a large group of scholars, which could be used to deter the Xiang army and play a role in knocking out the mountains and shaking the tiger.
Empress Dowager Cixi approved the request of Xia Tongshan and others, handed over the case to the Criminal Investigation Department, and sent the parties and all the officials involved in the case to Beijing to await trial.
The case entered the "three divisions of the trial" link under the responsibility of the Criminal Department, dali temple, and metropolitan procuratorate.
Yang Naiwu, who was crippled, could no longer walk on his legs, sat on the ground and described the whole process of himself and Xiao Cabbage being beaten into confession and tortured, and the spearhead was directed at Liu Xitong, a comatose official who was kneeling under the hall and trembling with fear.
Seeing the two people in tears, the presiding judge could not help but be moved, they believed that the two people had been severely tortured, and they could not bear the beating and had no choice but to confess their guilt, which was completely excusable.
After that, the Punishment Department ordered that Ge Pinlian's coffin be dug up and sent to Beijing by a special person to open the coffin in public at the Haihui Temple.
In early December 1876, Ge Pinlian's bones were removed, and according to the "Collection of Washed Grievances", the bones of those who died of violent illness were black, and the normal death was yellow and white.
Triage of the three divisions
Although Ge Pinlian died by eating guiyuan, guiyuan was not a poison, so after bone examination and bone steaming, the punishment department confirmed that the bones of the deceased were yellow and white, which was a normal death.
As soon as the news came out, the people around the Haihui Temple applauded thunderously, and then denounced Liu Xitong, who knew that his bad deeds had been exposed, and was speechless under the interrogation of the Punishment Department, and was dismissed from his post in Yuhang County, waiting to be sent down.
On February 16, 1877, the Criminal Investigation Department reported the final trial results to Empress Dowager Cixi, and subsequently the officials of a province in Zhejiang who were in charge of the case, along with Yang Changjun and Hu Ruilan, two members of the Xiang Army, as well as local officials, were also dismissed from their posts.
Ge Pinlian's mother was beaten with a cane and sentenced to four years in prison; Liu Xitong, who took the autopsy, was also beaten by the staff for accepting bribes and making perjury testimony, and was also beaten by the staff for a hundred and exiled for two thousand miles.
《Declaration》
Liu Xitong's fate was the most gratifying, not only was he dismissed from his post and sent to Heilongjiang to serve as a atonement, the imperial court also specifically instructed: In the past, there were criminals over 70 years old who could atone for their sins with silver, and although Liu Xitong was over 70 years old, he was extremely evil and was not allowed to spend money to atone for his sins.
Empress Dowager Cixi also used this seemingly inconspicuous "weathering case" to beat up the forces of the Xiang army fiercely, so that the Xiang army, which had always been arrogant and arrogant, had some restraint, and understood that the imperial court was not easy to provoke.
In the early spring of 1877, Yang Naiwu and Xiao Cabbage finally lost their grievances, and after three years of misjudgment and misjudgment, they were tortured and tortured in all kinds, but they still walked out of prison alive and regained their freedom.
In addition to Yang Juzhen's insistence on filing a complaint and the joint efforts of officials in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, this unjust case can not be separated from the power of public opinion, which is the newspaper that appeared in the late Qing Dynasty - "Declaration".
"Declaration" is a commercial newspaper founded by the British businessman Mei Cha in 1872, such an advanced publication with the power of public opinion, became the "news network" of the feudal dynasty, and for the first time let the people see real-time reports on the case.
Empress Dowager Cixi
Since hearing the news of the "Yang Bai case", the "Declaration" has been paying close attention to the progress of the case, conducting three years of follow-up reports, and publishing nearly 80 commentaries before and after, which has played a crucial role in supervising public opinion.
The "Declaration" published three major comments in total, namely, when the two were first sentenced to death, after Hu Ruilan's trial, and after the Trial of the Punishment Department, the aforementioned "burning red wire stinging milk, and pouring water on the back of the tin dragon", which was exposed by the "Declaration" and accused Qing Officials of hasty trial of cases and the vicious means of using barbaric punishment to force people to confess.
It is precisely because of such public reports that a large number of officials, including Empress Dowager Cixi, have to pay attention to and pay attention to this case.
Through the newspapers, the people saw that Liu Xitong, Chen Lu, Hu Ruilan and other officials used torture to force people to obey, and they also expressed their displeasure and demanded that the two be cleared.
While strengthening the supervision of public opinion, the "Declaration" also constantly questions the trial officials: Why do you beat the prisoners and fabricate evidence to make the innocent people confess guilt? Why is the trial scene not public, but only the final verdict? Is it because of the fear that the prisoner will say something?
The Guangxu Emperor
A series of articles with a sense of justice have promoted the process of trying the case, so that many officials dare not torture and extort confessions, and have also inspired officials with a sense of justice to do their best to clear the grievances of Yang Bai and the two people, and to promote the day when the case is revealed.
Perhaps in those days, the power of a newspaper was insignificant to everyone, and it was precisely because of people's neglect that the role played by the Declaration in the whole case was greatly underestimated.
But today we no longer think like this, the correct guidance of public opinion will inevitably promote the development of the case in a good direction, let the society hear the voice of more people, and make the trial full of fairness and justice.
Cabbage monks
epilogue
The persistence of family members, the support of Jiangsu and Zhejiang officials, and the public opinion supervision of the "Declaration" have brought a hopeless case back to life.
However, although the two broke through the darkness and regained their freedom, Yang Naiwu was greeted by his family when he was released from prison, but Xiao Cabbage really became a lonely person, and after he was released from prison, he became a monk.
Xiao Cabbage always felt that it was because she could not withstand torture and falsely accused Yang Naiwu, which caused him to be disabled for life, and for many years she felt guilty and depressed, and before she died, she left a note to prove Yang Naiwu's innocence:
"Second Master Yang was victimized by me and suffered a lifelong disability, this matter I will never forget, the second grandfather's kindness I can not repay in this life, can only be repaid in the next life, I and the second master are innocent, and selfless, if future generations do not believe, there is this note as proof."
An inscription that records the story of the life of a small cabbage
The old era of all evil, the innocent bitter people, the vigor and youthful beauty of the past, all faded with the dark era, leaving only the sad stories that made future generations sigh and sigh.