During China's feudal society, local officials often colluded with local gentry landlords, and due to loopholes in the regulatory mechanism, they could easily manipulate the trial results of some cases and harm the vital interests of the people.
After the establishment of the Republic of China, although its judicial system has improved to a certain extent, the phenomenon of collusion between officials and gentry is still very serious, those rich and powerful families can easily exonerate themselves as long as they take out a little money, and the people dare not speak out, in the society at that time, there was a certain economic basis for doing whatever they wanted, or killing people and breaking the law, or black and white upside down.
Therefore, at that time, the people were very admired by the ordinary people who dared to oppose the officials and families, and the people thought that they were all heroes and would bravely fight against the evil forces for their rights and pursuits. From ancient times to the present, there are many people who are not afraid of criminal and evil forces, the most famous of which is Yang Sanjie, who filed a complaint with the Tianjin High Procuratorate, and this case was later adapted into many literary and artistic works.
Stills from "Yang Sanjie's Complaint"
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="4" >, Yang Erjie, who died violently</h1>
Yang Sanjie was born in an ordinary family in Dianzi Village, Luan County, Hebei Province, and lived in great poverty. His father, Yang Yuqing, was an ordinary farmer who made a living by working for the landlord's family, and he and his wife raised four children in total, the son Yang Guoen, and the three daughters were Da'e, Er'e and San'e, who were called the eldest sister, the second sister and the third sister according to local customs.
In order to raise the children, the couple almost spent all their savings, so the family conditions were not very good.
At that time, the local popularity was for the newborn child Xu Doll, and Yang Sanjie's father also said that her two sisters had made a good family early, and their relatives were also like their families, all of whom were ordinary people with ordinary family backgrounds.
A young girl in the Republic of China period
Second Sister Yang's future father-in-law is called Gao Guizhang, who was originally an ordinary hawker who walked the streets and alleys, and the Yang family can also be regarded as a door-to-door pair.
But in the years after the founding of the Republic of China, he somehow suddenly made a mark and became a famous local rich man, and the Yang family felt that Yang Erjie was very blessed, and Yang Erjie's heart was also very happy, simply thinking that he was a girl with a good life, and he would be able to live a good life in the future.
The wedding of Gao Zhanying and Yang Erjie was held in the local area with great sound and colorful cards. Gao Guizhang made this wedding known to everyone for the sake of his rich face, which aroused the envy of everyone in the village. But the wedding was brilliant, and The life of Second Sister Yang after marrying was not very brilliant, and it could even be said that it was like a nightmare.
Yang Erjie's fiancé is Gao Zhanying, the sixth son of Gao Guizhang, who was sent to school by his father Gao Guizhang for a period of time after the Gao family's career, Luan County. After graduating, he returned to his hometown and began teaching.
After this series of events, he, a rich second generation who suddenly appeared, had a strong sense of superiority, and felt that he was superior to others, so he looked down on Yang Erjie, who was born in poverty.
After Yang Erjie married into the Gao family, he often said evil words to Yang Erjie, fists and feet, and often sprinkled his anger on the second sister's body, and Yang Erjie was a weak character, her husband's abuse of him, Yang Erjie's grievances endured, did not dare to resist or resist, and there was almost no feeling between the husband and wife.
Second Sister Yang never expected that her marriage would fall from heaven to hell at once. Although she was very disappointed in her marriage, as a woman who was deeply influenced by traditional feudal ideas, she would not tell her family about these situations, and when she returned to her mother's house, she only reported good news and did not report worries, and her husband Gao Zhanying did not mention anything about his various abuses.
Therefore, the Yang family also knows very little about the living conditions of Yang Erjie, and thinks that their daughter is living well. But only Yang Sanjie saw the helplessness and sadness in the second sister's words.
After the second sister left, Yang Sanjie reminded her parents to go to the Gao family to have a look, but under the protection of feudal social ideas, the two old people thought that this was disrespectful and inappropriate, so they rejected Yang Sanjie.
Weddings during the Republic of China
It turned out that long before Gao Zhanying and Yang Erjie married, Gao Zhanying had an affair with a woman, and the two plotted to kill the second sister and set up another wife.
One night, the second sister suddenly saw Gao Zhanying sharpening her knife, and the second sister was frightened and ran to Gao Guizhang for help, but the father-in-law did not believe what she said, saying that he would not dare to do such a thing, and let her go back to sleep quickly. Frightened, Second Sister Yang returned to the room in tears.
The accident happened.
In the early morning of the fourteenth day of the third month of the lunar calendar in 1918, the Yang family suddenly came to a strange guest, this person claimed to be the housekeeper of the Gao family, he said that Yang Erjie suddenly suffered from "blood collapse" last night, although the Gao family invited a doctor but was unable to return to heaven, Yang Erjie soon died.
After hearing this news, Yang Sanjie and her old mother who was also at home hugged and cried, because her father and brother were working outside at this time, Yang Sanjie had to accompany her mother to attend her sister's funeral as a representative of the Yang family.
After going to the Gao family, Yang Sanjie saw her sister's body, and she saw her sister's thin face and couldn't help but feel sad and pounced directly on her sister's body.
In the midst of great grief, she suddenly found that there seemed to be blood in the corners of her sister's mouth, and the blood collapse did not make the population vomit blood, which immediately aroused her suspicions.
Stills of Yang Sanjie
After that, she began to observe her sister's body herself, and found that Yang Erjie's right hand was holding a bandaged cloth strip, and there was still thick lime under her body, and there was still undried blood in the lime, and just when she wanted to observe further, the gao family suddenly stopped in front of her, did not let her observe her sister's body, and drove her away from her sister's side, which made her more and more suspicious.
Although Yang Sanjie's age is small, she is bold and careful, and she is particularly intelligent. Coupled with the fact that the sister had returned to her mother's house before, from her words of reporting good news and not worrying, the third sister found the clue. Therefore, she believes that her sister's death is not as simple as the Gao family said.
After that, she met her eldest cousin at the funeral site, and she had met with Yang Erjie on the morning of the day of Yang Erjie's death, and according to her description, Yang Erjie was in good condition at that time, and it was not like she was sick at all, which made Yang Sanjie more and more convinced that her sister's death was another mystery.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="21" > the complaint of the second and third sisters of Yang</h1>
So Yang Sanjie asked the villagers in the local area, and some of them said that on the night of the incident, they had heard a terrible crying sound coming from the courtyard of the Gao family, and they also felt that Yang Second Sister had not died of illness. However, because the Gao family was a local rich man, they did not dare to provoke, so they did not dare to say more.
After Returning Home, Yang Sanjie told her brother about this situation and said that she felt that the second sister was killed by the Gao family. The eldest brother of the Yang family felt that the third sister's inference was very reasonable, and immediately dragged her to the county court in Luan County and found Niu Cheng, who was responsible for trying the criminal case.
The Gao family prevented Third Sister Yang from approaching the corpse
After seeing Niu Cheng, Yang Sanjie said the situation she had, she not only raised the scars on her sister's body, but also emphasized the situation that the Gao family blocked herself from approaching her sister's body, asked Niu Cheng to confront the Gao family, and hoped that the government could open the coffin for an autopsy.
Niu Cheng felt that the information provided by Yang Sanjie was indeed very suspicious, so he ordered someone to find the Gao family to confront Yang Sanjie, and after Gao Zhanying arrived, he still resolutely denied Yang Sanjie's accusations, claiming that Yang Sanjie had died of a blood crash, and because there was no conclusive evidence, Niu Cheng had to announce a temporary adjournment.
During the adjournment of the court for a few days, the Gao family sent someone to send Niu Cheng a lot of benefits, which made a fundamental change in the direction of the case.
After the reopening of the trial, Yang Sanjie demanded that the coffin be opened for autopsy in order to expose the lies of the Gao family, while Niu Cheng said that the Gao family had invited decisive witnesses.
County Yamen during the Republic of China period
This witness was Gao Zuoqing, who was working as a village doctor in their village, and he said that he had shown Yang Erjie the disease that night, and she was indeed suffering from blood collapse, but there were no other symptoms. Yang Sanjie said that Gao Zuoqing and Gao Zhanying were of the same ethnic group, and his testimony was uncountable, and the best way was to ask a forensic doctor to re-examine her sister's body.
However, Yang Sanjie did not know how Niu Cheng, who had received the benefit fee of the Gao family, would agree to this request, he just said over and over again that the truth of the matter was already obvious at this point, and asked Yang Sanjie to give up the lawsuit and hastily end the interrogation.
Yang Sanjie was discouraged by this ruling, so she wanted to commit suicide and follow her sister to die, she took the scissors and stabbed it at the neck, but fortunately it was seized by everyone, and under persuasion, Yang Sanjie and her brother left the place.
After Yang Sanjie and her brother returned home, the Gao family immediately sent people to send a lot of gifts, and offered to give them twenty acres of land and a cow as long as they did not continue to file a complaint. Yang Sanjie, who wanted to get justice for her sister, immediately refused the gift from the Gao family and continued to embark on the road of filing a complaint with her brother.
At this time, Gao Zhanying was sleeping at home, and after killing Yang Second Sister, he was already terrified, and he thought that Yang Sanjie would stop after losing the case, but when he learned that the third sister was going to continue to appeal, he had been frightened and scattered, and it was difficult to sit still.
Third Sister Yang had already understood that the county magistrate of Luan County was untrustworthy, and in a small place like Luan County, where money could reach the sky with one hand, it was impossible to get justice for her sister.
So he went with his brother to the High Prosecutor's Office in Tianjin and delivered the paper to Yang Yide, the director of the department.
After seeing the complaint paper, Yang Yide thought that there must be a hidden plot in the case, but the director of the department, Yang Yide, said to the third sister that if the coffin needs to be opened for autopsy, both sides must be concluded, and if the situation is not like what you said, you must accept punishment. Yang Sanjie righteously said that if my sister was killed after the coffin was opened, Gao Zhanying was hanged, and vice versa, hanged me. Yang Yide was touched by the spirit of Yang Sanjie and decided to retry the case.
After that, they immediately sent someone to Luan County to collect evidence, and this time they not only learned of the Gao family's hidden affairs, but also found a key witness, which provided great help for the retrial of the case.
Yang Yide
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="52" >3</h1>
After the group arrived in Luan County, they soon heard some rumors, and the local people said that Gao Zhanying and his fifth sister-in-law seemed to have an adulterous affair at that time, and Yang Erjie once broke the good deeds of the two and often quarreled with Gao Zhanying about it. And Second Sister Yang is honest and unruly, and Gao Zhanying dislikes her even more.
A local villager said that he heard a quarrel from the Gao family that night, so he climbed up the wall to see a lively scene, who knew that he saw Gao Zhanying walking into the house with a sharp knife, which frightened him and did not dare to continue watching.
Although the villager did not personally see Gao Zhanying commit the murder, this is enough to prove that Gao Zhanying had a strong motive for killing, in order to investigate the truth of the case, Yang Yide ordered someone to remove the body of Yang Erjie and examine it more closely.
Yang Sanjie fought with the military police
At this time, several months have passed since the death of Second Sister Yang, and during this time, the surrounding people have admired Yang Sanjie, who insisted on filing a complaint, and many people rushed to the scene on the day of the opening of the coffin, planning to see it with their own eyes.
Three days before the autopsy, Yang Sanjie was worried that the people of the Gao family would come to do something to her sister's body, so she kept watching in front of her sister's grave. As the third sister expected, one night Gao Zhanying sent people to take out the knife of the key evidence in the body of Second Sister Yang, he sent several family members to go, because it was night, the moon was dark and the wind was high, the family Ding was trembling, and saw a figure in front of the second sister's grave, and thought it was the soul of the second sister, and he fled in a panic, but it was not the soul of the second sister, but the third sister.
This move of the Gao family made the third sister believe that it was the Gao family that killed the sister.
By the day of the autopsy, Yang Erjie's body had decayed, but the forensic doctor still found several obvious wounds on her abdomen, which were caused by sharp cuts, but these injuries did not seem to be fatal. After that, they brushed away the lime under Sister Yang's body and carefully examined her lower body.
They used tweezers to reach into Yang Erjie's birth canal, and soon the forceps touched a metal foreign body, and after the forensic force pulled it out, they found that it was a metal dagger, and this knife was Yang Erjie's fatal injury. When Yang Sanjie saw this, no matter how strong her heart was, she couldn't control the tears, and she was sad for the treatment her sister had suffered.
The reason why Gao Zhanying chose to use a knife here is because the wound is not easy to find, and the bleeding of the lower body is very similar to the symptoms of blood collapse, he originally thought that he had done it seamlessly, who expected that Skynet was restored without leakage, and the murderer was finally arrested and imprisoned.
After Gao Zhanying's arrest, officials of the Luan County judicial organs, including Niu Cheng, were investigated by Yang Yide, and those who accepted bribes from the Gao family were punished to varying degrees. However, he never sentenced the main criminal, Gao Zhanying, for the simple reason that he also wanted to get some benefits from the Gao family like Niu Cheng.
However, Yang Sanjie, who had suffered losses before, had more eyes this time, and after Gao Zhanying's arrest, she did not return home immediately, but stayed in Tianjin with her brother to work locally. As long as someone from the Gao family came to Tianjin, they would run to the newspaper office to inform the reporters of this matter, and such public pressure made Yang Yide dare not accept bribes from the Gao family again, so he had to sentence Gao Zhanying to death by hanging.
At this point, the case was finally settled, Yang Sanjie and her brother finally returned home, and the deeds of their complaints became a beautiful talk among the local people.
Yang Sanjie (middle) and critic actor
From the case of Yang Sanjie's complaint, it is not difficult for us to see that in the early days of the Republic of China, there were still quite a few problems in the management of the local judicial organs of the Republic of China, in addition to the lack of supervision, the collusion between officials and gentry was still very serious, whether it was a big city or a small village, money and power could do whatever they wanted, which was a great drawback in the rule of the Republic of China.
If it were not for Yang Sanjie's insistence on filing a complaint, then the truth of this case would have been hidden forever, Yang Erjie's death was only as insignificant as a feather, the people living at the bottom of society were just playthings in the hands of the rich, and no one would really care about their lives and deaths.
Even Yang Yide, who was known as the Grand Master of Qingtian because of his thorough investigation of this case, was actually no different from Niu Cheng in his bones, and he later wanted to collect a little benefit from the Gao family, which shows that the corruption of China's judicial system during the Republic of China period was systematic and not based on personal qualities, which was also the key reason why the Republic of China government was unpopular.
concentrate:
This article about the relevant content of Yang Sanjie's complaint is referred to from "The Old Case of the Republic of China, the Causes and Consequences of the Real Yang Sanjie's Complaint"