Chapter 1167: Inquiry
Manbao, holding the medicine box, stared at Tao Yi with wide eyes and asked in disbelief, "What? I can't see him?"
Tao Yi's eyes fell on the baskets and medicine boxes they brought, and he said, "This is the order we received early this morning, and we are following it. Although you can't see it, you can still help pass in the food and medicine you brought."
Manbao turned his head and looked at Bai Shan. They both looked down at the food in the basket and the medicine bag she was holding, and frowned.
Tao Yi probably knew what they were worried about and said, "Don't worry, once the medicine and food pass through my hands, no one else will touch them. I will deliver them directly to the cell."
The two could only reluctantly give him the basket and medicine bag. "Master Tao, please ask Xiang Chao and Xiang Mingxue for us to see if they have any special needs. We will send them to them tomorrow."
Tao Yi agreed and went in with his things. After a while, he came out and shook his head at the two of them, saying, "They don't have any requests."
Bai Shan rolled his eyes, coughed lightly, and said, "Master Tao, we brought some things for Ba Pu this time. Can we go in and see him?"
Manbao nodded immediately, "Yes, yes, I've only heard of him but never seen him in person. This time I have to meet him in person."
Tao Yi looked at them deeply and nodded, "I'd like to meet you."
Bai Shan turned to Man Bao and said, "Wait for me, I'll go back to the car to get my things."
Manbao nodded.
Bai Shan ran out and found Daji who was waiting outside and said, "Go buy some buns quickly. I want big meat buns. Okay, buy ten or eight. It doesn't matter if they taste good or not, as long as they are big and have lots of meat."
Although Daji didn't know what the young master was going to do, he turned around and drove away in his carriage.
There are no stalls in front of the Tianlao Gate, and no one would bother to do such bad luck, but there are buns vendors just around the corner from the street.
Daji quickly went to buy buns and then had the carriage rush back, handing two paper bags of buns to Baishan.
The buns had just been taken out of the steamer and were still hot. Bai Shan felt a little hot when he held them.
He rushed into the prison holding the paper bag. Tao Yi, who was almost bored of waiting, saw him coming in with two bags of steaming hot buns. He knew with his toes that he had bought them on the spot.
He turned a blind eye and led them inside.
The prison was divided into three corridors. Usually, the officials on duty moved around in the lobby, which was also very dark. Next door was the torture room. Bai Shan and his friends used to live in the first corridor, but now he led them directly into the second corridor.
Unlike the passage where only four of them were imprisoned, many of the cells here were packed with people, and the cells were very small, with basically only one person in each cell.
Manbao looked all the way over and couldn't help but whisper to Tao Yi who was walking in front of him, "Master Tao, why are the cells here so small?"
Tao Yi said expressionlessly, "These are all serious criminals escorted to the capital. They have already been approved for execution in autumn."
He glanced at Manbao and said, "The area where you live is usually reserved for criminals. Of course, they will be sent to the Sky Prison, and most likely to be executed in the end."
Manbao and Baishan both felt a chill on their necks. They swallowed and asked, "What about Shaoban?"
"Most will be exiled, and very few will escape unscathed, so you're lucky."
Manbao couldn't help but mutter, "We are not prisoners."
Tao Yi looked straight ahead, "If the evidence you provide cannot be confirmed to be true, then it will be a false accusation of a royal relative, a crime punishable by the death of the entire clan. By then, there will only be more people in the Sky Prison, not fewer. Okay, here we are, this is Ba Pu."
The dark figure leaning on the kang raised his head and looked outside when he heard his name. Meeting the gazes of Bai Shan and Man Bao, he was a little confused, "Looking for me?"
Bai Shan coughed lightly and said, "Master Ba, I am..."
"Oh, I know, from next door." Although Ba Pu had never seen them before, he recognized their voices and couldn't help laughing. "You went out yesterday, right? Why are you here again today?"
Bai Shan handed the bun in his hand forward and said, "We came to see you and bring you some food."
Ba Pu stepped forward immediately. Unlike Bai Shan and the others, he had chains on his hands and feet even in prison. He walked over with a clanking sound. When he reached the prison door, he sat down, took the paper bag from Bai Shan, picked up a white and plump bun and took a bite. The aroma of meat immediately wafted out. People in the nearby cells became agitated and leaned against the door to see him. They couldn't help swallowing.
Bai Shan showed some reluctance on his face, and he looked at the paper bag in his hand hesitantly.
Tao Yi looked at them and said coldly, "Sympathize with them? That's not necessary. Who among those who were taken to this prison doesn't have a murder case on their shoulders?"
All cases sentenced to death by beheading in various places must be submitted to the Ministry of Justice for review. Because human life is at stake, except for extremely urgent cases, such as disaster relief and appeasing the people, where the county magistrate must override the Ministry of Justice's judgment, all death penalty cases must be reviewed by the Ministry of Justice.
In order to save time and improve efficiency, the Ministry of Justice would generally conduct a unified review after the middle of the year, and send out the reviewed official documents before the autumn harvest, and then execute the prisoners in various places. Therefore, criminals were usually executed after autumn.
Only in cases with particularly serious consequences or controversial cases, the local authorities need to escort the criminals and the case files to Beijing for re-examination by the Ministry of Justice. If there is a false or unjust case, it will be overturned. If it is confirmed, the execution will be carried out in Beijing to deter evil people in the world and serve as a warning to others.
Therefore, the prisoners who were finally imprisoned in the Ministry of Justice’s Heavenly Prison and awaiting execution were either those who had committed evil deeds near the capital, or those who had committed serious crimes with particularly bad influence.
For example, Ba Pu was responsible for four murders, all of which were people he killed after being discovered while stealing. One of them was a yamen runner who was chasing him. The impact was extremely bad, so he was transferred to the capital by the Ministry of Justice.
Ba Pu didn't care at all. While chewing his bun, he said, "The young master and the young lady are kind-hearted. Sir, please don't scare them. Although we have both killed people, they are now imprisoned. We can't harm them again. Besides, they brought me food. I am grateful to them. How could I harm them?"
Tao Yi sneered, "Didn't Old Lady Ban from Qijia Village in Maozhou, Jiannan Road, take you in and feed you two meals? Just because her son returned from the county town and appeared to have seen your wanted poster, you ruthlessly murdered them. A meal doesn't seem that important to you."
Ba Pu stopped talking.
Tao Yi turned to Bai Shan and Man Bao and said, "You guys continue chatting. I'll wait for you outside."
See you at 4 p.m.
(End of this chapter)
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