There is no concept of self-defense in the laws of the Tang Dynasty.

Generally speaking, the person will be convicted of a charge of causing death by fighting.

However, at that time, Cheng Goudan already held an official position, although it was only the lowest level ninth-rank craftsman official, but the meaning was completely different.

So beating those two people to death was not a serious crime at all.

The Tang Dynasty today has not moved towards equality for all. Instead, the hierarchy has become more detailed, with people jumping to different levels according to their abilities and contributions. Cheng Goudan made his fortune as a carpenter with his flexible skills, and was considered an emerging aristocrat in the Tang Dynasty.

Cheng Goudan's words left the students stunned.

The student who spoke first looked around and saw the villager he had just questioned, and strode towards him.

"Is what he said true?"

"Well, he's the only one who knows what happened that night." The man being questioned was panicked, and finally pointed at Cheng Goudan and said, "He's lying. He's disliked Tiezhu and Tiegou for a long time, and he must have taken the opportunity to kill them."

"Shut up!" the student yelled, looking at the unruly man in front of him, unable to utter a word.

Whether it was taking advantage of the opportunity to kill or it was an accident.

The two men first sneaked into the house of a carpenter.

This alone makes killing someone not a serious crime.

This student already knew that his assessment was over. He was a student of Xianci Academy and a top student, but he was being misled by some unruly people.

However, there are other charges.

Some of the students who had just stood with him asked:

"Then what's the matter with you forcibly robbing the woman?"

"Master, please understand. Cui Niang and I are in love, but her father is addicted to gambling and wants to sell Cui Niang. I gave her five taels of silver to bring her back. But after he lost the silver, he became greedy and repeatedly came to me to ask for the silver. Naturally, I refused."

"They said you kidnapped a child."

"That's Cui Niang's brother. If I don't snatch him away, I'm afraid he will be sold."

There is no need to ask anymore.

Several major crimes have their reasons, but other charges, such as occupying land by force, do not punishable by death, even if they are true.

not to mention.

By now, the situation is clear.

No one expected that there would be a time when a group of villagers would come together to slander one person.

"Stubborn people! Really stubborn people!" a student shouted angrily, obviously a little angry and embarrassed.

"My lord, it's unfair, my lord." The villagers knelt down one by one in fear, and some even cried loudly, "Everything I said is true. Cheng Goudan also forcibly seized my family's land to build roads. He relied on the tyranny of those hired servants to bully my lord at every turn. I still have scars from being beaten with sticks!"

"You, you stole the chicken from Aunt Eight's house, don't you deserve to be beaten?" Cheng Goudan was also very angry.

"Nonsense, which eye did you see it with?"

"Yes, I was beaten too."

"Even if it's true, what qualifications do you have to teach me a lesson!"

“.”

A group of people started quarreling in front of many students, spitting and all kinds of unexpected dirty words. Some students had never seen such a scene before. Li Lizhi even hid beside Wu Zhao, her little face turned pale and tears almost came out of her big eyes.

Wu Zhao's expression didn't change at first, but when she saw Li Lizhi's expression, she sighed.

"Shut up, everyone!" She frowned and spoke in a cold, yet surprisingly authoritative voice.

All the noise stopped immediately.

Whether it was the villagers or Cheng Goudan, they all knelt on the ground, trembling.

Princess Ming who is protected by the Immortal King.

Princess Ming's reputation among the people is better than that of the crown prince. After all, she is protected by the Immortal King. Nowadays in the Tang Dynasty, every household has a tablet dedicated to the Immortal King.

"You are the one who is at fault for what happened here." Wu Zhao looked at Cheng Goudan and said directly, "After you became rich, you had no intention of harming anyone and even wanted to give back to your hometown, but you aroused public anger. To resolve this matter, we should order you to leave this village and send an official here to educate the people with both kindness and severity. Within five years, the public resentment can be put to rest."

The method Wu Zhao proposed was simple and crude.

Let this person leave Lujia Village so that the villagers have no object of jealousy and resentment, and then send officials to educate him.

This method is feasible.

However, after listening to this, the teacher frowned.

"Princess Ming believes that the fault lies with Carpenter Cheng?"

"Indeed."

"But what did Cheng Jiang do wrong?" The Master was even more puzzled. "Since Cheng Jiang passed the examination and became an official three years ago, he has devoted himself to the village. First, he built roads for the village, then he wanted to educate the village and mediate conflicts. Everything he did was for good."

"That's right." The other students also spoke up, "It's clearly the unruly people here who are ungrateful and instead slander and defame."

"If it were a place with simple folk customs, Cheng Jiang could be a good official in the village."

"In any case, it shouldn't be Cheng Jiang's fault."

"Princess Ming is not as smart as us, but I really don't understand this matter."

“.”

These words made the villagers turn pale and tremble all over, but they dared not say anything.

Wait until everyone has finished speaking.

Wu Zhao then said slowly:

"In terms of law and morality, he did nothing wrong, but he caused the incident, and the result is that the people are resentful and evil spirits are everywhere. How can we say that he did nothing wrong?"

In one sentence, many people frowned.

The reasoning seems to make some sense.

But many people still can't accept it.

"Princess Ming, what you said only looks at the beginning and the end, but not the process." The teacher said with some caution.

"Even if you look at the process, it's his fault." Wu Zhao said very calmly.

"Princess Ming may not know that what Cheng Jiang did was to use both kindness and force. It was a way to govern the people. It's just that the villagers here are jealous, so this happened." The master continued.

After Cheng Goudan discovered that he was hated, he did think of a way to deal with it.

He began to mediate conflicts within the village, but someone was directing them from behind.

However, this method might be useful if it were used by an official from outside.

But what he did was counterproductive.

It was only because this carpenter's family was despised by the villagers before they became rich. After all, among the four classes of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, workers ranked behind farmers.

And now, this "just a lowly carpenter" has suddenly been ranked ahead of everyone else, has become an official, and has become rich.

Naturally, people will envy you.

"His mistake is that since it is impossible to do anything and even counterproductive, why should he still care about it?" Wu Zhao said seriously, "He should just walk away."

(End of this chapter)