Chapter 151 Return to Beijing
A month later, Zhou Zhilu and others had returned to the capital.
Zhou Zhilu's trial was held secretly as scheduled, but the process was quite bumpy.
After all, this matter is rather complicated. The action against the Bai family was issued in secret and could not be made public. In addition, the original order was actually given to the Anbu, and Zhou Zhilu intervened on his own.
But then again, Zhou Zhilu's failure to evacuate from the Guyuan Forest was already a disobedience to orders, but the impact was relatively small. In addition, he also helped the Anbu to carry out operations later, so it is not appropriate to pursue this matter.
But in the end, Zhou Zhilu's behavior was to blatantly violate the court's policy while knowing full well that he did things that were not in the court's interests, and he was suspected of collaborating with the enemy.
Therefore, those who wanted to punish Zhou Zhilu for a serious crime seized this point and launched an attack.
The most outstanding among them was a fifth-rank official in the Ministry of Justice named Pan Hexun.
The man was a disciple of the new aristocratic family, the Pan family, and the head of the Pan family was the current Minister of Rites, Pan Kun, who stood closely beside the Minister of Personnel, Wu Chaozong, and the Left Prime Minister.
At the same time, Pan Hexun is also a good friend of Jiang Yuan, the eldest son of the Jiang family. Therefore, this person can't wait to sentence Zhou Zhilu to death so that he can report the credit to the higher-ups and gain Jiang Yuan's favor.
He was heard saying sternly during the interrogation: "Criminal Zhou Zhilu, I want to ask you, have you received the order from the Fuye Division to evacuate your Special Demon Case Investigation Team?"
Zhou Zhilu nodded and said, "Yes."
"Then do you know what orders the Anbu received at that time and what measures were taken against the Bai family?"
"Know."
"Okay! One last question. When you went to the Bai family to discuss things, did you receive any orders from Fu Ye Si?"
"No."
"Bang!"
Pan Hexun slammed the table, stood up, pointed at Zhou Zhilu and shouted:
"Zhou Zhilu! You disobeyed Fu Yesi's orders and refused to retreat. This is your first crime. After capturing the Bai family's daughter, you secretly fled and hid. This is your second crime. And knowing the imperial court's plan, you openly negotiated with the Bai family and even wanted to return the hostage to them. This is actually collaborating with the enemy, which is an even greater crime!
"If I let you go this time, I'm afraid you'll become a rebel again and harm the interests of the Song Dynasty when we go to war with other countries or demon tribes in the future. My Lords, I believe this case deserves a severe sentence to serve as a warning to others and prevent them from following suit!"
The presiding judge this time was also an acquaintance of Zhou Zhilu, the mustachioed fourth-rank assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice, Gao Sen.
He looked at the crowd below with sharp eyes and said, "I emphasize again that the trial of this case is absolutely confidential. Anything you say or hear here must be completely forgotten after you leave. If you dare to speak nonsense...
"The imperial court won't let you go, and neither will the Bai family. Also...don't always talk about the Bai family, try to cover it up a little..."
"Ahem, it's my fault for not thinking it through." Pan Hexun replied.
"Zhou Zhilu, do you have anything to say?" Gao Sen looked at Zhou Zhilu and asked.
"Your Excellency, I have indeed done many things that are not in accordance with the rules, but none of them are for my own benefit!" Zhou Zhilu justified himself:
"I didn't retreat from the Guyuan Forest because I wanted to find a way to rescue the tens of thousands of people in Yunjiang City. I also wanted to help my brothers in the Anbu successfully implement their plan. After all, I'm quite familiar with the High Priest of the Gu Clan.
"When we captured Bai Xiaoqin, we hid her specifically to prevent the Gu Clan from seeing the Holy Gu Poison Body and harming our Anbu personnel."
"Then why didn't you contact Fu Ye Si afterwards, but chose to negotiate with the other party?" Gao Sen asked.
"Your Excellency, I am only anxious to make a contribution and save lives. If I inform the Night's Affairs Division, others will use Bai Xiaoqin to negotiate with the Bai family, and I will only have the merit of arresting her. Moreover, due to the seriousness of this incident, negotiations will be quite time-consuming, and the people of Yunjiang City cannot wait that long.
“So I went directly to the Bai family, persuaded them to surrender, and asked them to hand over the method of restoring the people of Yunjiang City. Otherwise, I would kill Bai Xiaoqin and make them fail.
"So please understand, Your Excellency. I am not opposing the imperial court. On the contrary, I am wholeheartedly serving the people! Before returning to the capital, I risked my life to save half the city's civilians!"
"Oh? Did you really think so at that time?" Gao Sen asked with a raised eyebrow.
"really!"
"You are lying! How could you have gone to the Bai family to persuade them to surrender?!" Pan Hexun shouted sternly.
Zhou Zhilu looked at the other party calmly and asked, "Why is it impossible? The Bai family's head, Taoist monks, and Buddhist disciples who were present at the time can all testify for me!"
"You..." Pan Hexun pointed at Zhou Zhilu and couldn't help but get angry. No matter whether they were from the Bai family or the Taoist sect, their testimony would of course be on Zhou Zhilu's side. How could he ask them to testify?
This was also the strategy Zhou Zhilu had considered carefully. If the actual situation was correct, his behavior would indeed be equivalent to violating military orders and could even be considered as treason.
So Zhou Zhilu changed his perspective and said that he actually made the wrong action because he was eager to save people and to make a contribution.
In the process of judging a case, the subjective will of the criminal is also a major factor affecting the judgment.
For example, in the previous life, if a criminal was careless and failed to foresee that his behavior might result in harm to society, and a bad result occurred in the end, he would be sentenced for negligence.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
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