During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, there was a notorious emperor named Shi Jingjiao, who was the founding emperor of the Later Jin Dynasty, and the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun were stolen by minority regimes for hundreds of years in his hands.
At the beginning, in order to protect himself and resist the attack of the Later Tang soldiers, he had to ask the Khitan for help. With the assistance of the Khitans, Shi Jingjiao not only resisted the attack of the Later Tang Army, but also destroyed the other party, and called himself the emperor in Bianliang, changing the name of the country to "Jin", and the history was called the Later Jin.
There is no free lunch in the world, and in order to gain the support of the Khitans, Shi Jingjiao also paid a great price.
First, he did not hesitate to call himself a son-in-law, obeyed the Khitan and lost his diplomatic and political autonomy.
The second is to cede the strategic place of Youyun Sixteen Prefectures to the Khitan, and can no longer get it back.
As a result, the Central Plains regime lost its natural barrier and was under the threat of nomads at any time for hundreds of years.
Because of this, Shi Jingjiao is known as a sinner through the ages, like Qin Hui in the Southern Song Dynasty, who was firmly nailed to the pillar of historical shame and became a typical example of "traitor".
However, people are complex, good people also have character flaws, and bad people also have their shining points. No matter how bad a person is, he is not useless, and the same is true of Shi Jingjiao, he also has another side that no one knows.
Shi Jingjiao, a native of Taiyuan (now southwest of Taiyuan, Shanxi), is a descendant of Shi Jie, the great doctor of the country in the Spring and Autumn Period, and Shi Fen, the prime minister of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty declined, the situation in Guanzhong and the capital was chaotic, and his descendants wandered to the western remote areas and settled in Ganzhou (now Zhangye, Gansu).
Tang Jingfu First Year (892) Shi Jingying Sheng 于太原汾阳里,他在家里排行老二。
Shi Jingjiao's father has no ability, his income is not high, and he can't maintain the family's food and clothing, so he doesn't welcome the arrival of this son. Therefore, Shi Jingjiao's status at home is not high, and he belongs to the kind that his uncle does not love and his grandmother does not love. If there is anything delicious, my father always let his brother eat it, or give him a lot and give him a small portion.
Such an environment has had a great impact on Shi Jingjiao's character, making him taciturn since he was a child.
Sometimes, bad things can turn into good things. Shi Jingjiao was not favored at home, so he rarely went out to play, and at home he was bored reading military books, dancing with guns and sticks. Over time, Shi Jingjiao was not only proficient in the art of war, but also practiced a good martial arts. He regarded his grandson and Wu Qi as idols, dreaming of one day becoming a general, commanding thousands of troops and making achievements.
When he was eighteen years old, Li Siyuan, then the assassin of Daizhou, recruited foreign soldiers, and Shi Jingjiao went to sign up and successfully joined the army.
In the battle, Shi Jingjiao fought bravely, always charged ahead, and made a lot of achievements.
Li Siyuan was very important to Shi Jingjiao, married his baby daughter to him, and let him command the elite cavalry. Since then, Shi Jingjiao's fate has begun to change and he has embarked on the Cotai Strip. From a general, he grew step by step and became the founding emperor of the Later Jin Dynasty.
His life is full of legends, and he used to be a hero, but later because of his cooperation with the Khitan, his life was stained.
So, what are the advantages of Shi Jingjiao?
Shi Jingjiao did not lose himself after ascending the throne, he was still diligent and thrifty, not like other emperors, who were drunk and dreamed of death, and had a lustful voice.
The most commendable thing is that Shi Jingjiao has strong judgment, clear thinking, and strong ability to judge cases, and can judge cases fairly when he is a magistrate, and there are no unjust, false and wrongful cases, so that both the original defendant and the defendant can be convinced and will not raise objections.
In the fourth year of Changxing in the Later Tang Dynasty (933), Shi Jingjiao served as the military and political governor of Changshan (Zhengding, Hebei). Not long after taking office, Shi Jingjiao encountered a case.
The case is not big, it is caused by the separation. After the two brothers separated, the younger brother didn't want to farm, so he sold a piece of land he had been allocated to the elder brother. After the price was agreed, my brother said that I don't have that much money on me, and I will get the money for you when I go home. But when the elder brother came over with the money, the younger brother changed his mind and said that I have already sold this land, and you are too late.
It turned out that after the elder brother left, another buyer came and bid higher. When the younger brother saw the money, he decided to sell the land to this man. After the elder brother came, he angrily scolded his younger brother for promising two in-laws to his daughter-in-law, which was too untrustworthy.
The second buyer was scared and worried that there would be trouble in the future, so he wanted to talk about it slowly. This time, the younger brother was not happy, and scolded the elder brother for messing around, saying that the second buyer was indecisive. Soon, the brothers quarreled and came to the county government to comment.
After hearing what happened, the county magistrate felt that the two brothers had made mistakes, and each of them hit fifty boards. None of the brothers were convinced, and came to Shi Jingjiao's mansion.
Who knew that after Shi Jingjiao learned what had happened, he got up and went down, and said to the two brothers with guilt: "I'm sorry, it's the official's fault." “
The two brothers looked confused: "My lord, what does it have to do with your old man when we have a dispute between our brothers? ”
"I'm not kidding. Shi Jingjiao said seriously, "Your quality here is low, and you are not benevolent, because I, the new governor, have neglected my duties and failed to educate you well, so I am very ashamed!"
When the two brothers heard this, they were ashamed.
The elder brother immediately said: "It was my mistake, my younger brother wants to sell the land for a good price, it is human nature, my brother's should be happy, not blocked." ”
The younger brother said: "No, no, no, it's me who is confused, blood is thicker than water, I shouldn't just recognize money and not people, I don't want to sell the land to my brother, I sell it to people with high prices." ”
Eventually, the elder brother stopped objecting and the land was sold to the one with the highest bid.
Through this incident, Shi Jingjiao understands a truth, whether the trial of the case is timely and fair, is related to local stability and social harmony, and cannot be sloppy. After that, no matter how busy he was, he tried the case in person as much as possible, leaving no backlog of cases. When adjudicating, try to be fair and just, embody justice, and be able to punish evil and promote good.
On this day, a woman came to complain and said, "My lord, make decisions for the small people." ”
"What's wrong with you?"
"A soldier allowed his horse to come into my field and eat my rice, and I asked him for compensation. The woman said, snorting and crying, "My lord, I heard that you are a Qing official, and you must be the master of the small people." ”
When Shi Jingjiao heard this, he secretly complained bitterly, and said that this was trouble.
On the one hand, there are ordinary people, and they are the parents of the people, so they should be the masters for them, otherwise it is better to go home and sell sweet potatoes. On one side are soldiers, who are in a wave with themselves, and the peace of one side depends on them, and their rights and interests cannot be ignored.
Besides, they have guns in their hands, and they are all martial artists, and they are not easy to mess with.
The common people suffer losses, and they refuse to accept them, which affects the relations between the military and the people, but it is also inappropriate to wronged the soldiers and affect the stability of the army. After Shi Jingjiao listened, his brows tightened, and after thinking twice, he had an idea.
He first called the soldiers involved in the case and asked: "Bold fanatics, why do you let your horses eat the grain of the common people, don't you have parents, they don't farm the land, don't you know the importance of food?"
"My lord, I am wronged, my horse did not steal its food. ”
"How can you make sure it hasn't eaten?" Shi Jingjiao asked.
"My horse has always been well tethered, and I put a "cage" on its mouth to prevent it from grazing. The soldier said with a heartfelt voice.
Seeing that what the soldier said was well-founded, Shi Jingjiao couldn't help but nod and said, "If that's the case, then your horse really can't eat her family's grain." ”
The folk woman was not happy when she heard this, and said to Shi Jingjiao: "I have heard that the adult is a Qing official, but it turns out that it is nothing more than that, and he is still a soldier who protects you." ”
"I haven't decided yet, just hypothetical. Shi Jingjiao pondered for a while and said, "Now that you all have your own opinions, it seems that I only have one way left." ”
"What way?" asked the soldier and the woman at the same time.
"Kill the horse and cut open the belly. Shi Jingjiao said, "After clarifying the facts, I will severely punish the perpetrators, and cut off their heads for whose problems are." ”
As soon as this statement came out, everyone praised it, but the soldiers firmly disagreed. Raising a war horse is not an easy task, it requires a lot of food, it also needs to be specially tamed horses, and there is also a deep relationship with war horses, and the price of this method of handling cases is too high.
But Shi Jingjiao ignored the persuasion and insisted on doing so.
This time, the original defendant panicked, and the woman said: "My lord, it's not worth killing a war horse for those grains, I can't withdraw the lawsuit, and there is not much food anyway." ”
The soldier also said, "Don't kill the horse, my lord, I will pay her food." ”
Shi Jingjiao did not listen to persuasion, and ordered his subordinates to kill the war horse and cut open the stomach. As a result, there was no rice in her belly, and the woman was frightened and fainted.
In the end, Shi Jingjiao was ruthless, and the woman was maliciously falsely accused, and was severely punished, and her head fell to the ground.
In Shi Jingjiao's opinion, it is nothing to compensate the peasant woman, a horse can eat dozens of catties of rice at most, and it is not worth much. However, if the compensation is confused, it will make the soldiers dissatisfied and affect their morale. In that case, who will go to war for the country?
Also, if the folk woman succeeds in touching porcelain, the consequences are also serious, because more people will follow suit.
In that case, the social atmosphere will deteriorate, and people will lose the least trust between people, and the harm will be immeasurable.
From this point of view, Shi Jingjiao did not do it right, but just because he touched porcelain, he killed the person concerned, and this kind of severe criminal law is inevitably a little suspicious of human life.
Resources:
"Poem of Refusal"
The Book of the Old Five Dynasties, the Book of Jin, and the Book of Gaozu