“Nonsense.”
Zhao Jun shook his head and said, "The purpose of the law is to regulate. If it's not followed, what's the point of having the law? And since I'm here this time and I just happened to encounter them, I should punish them severely. I won't let them go!"
Cai Qi, standing aside, said, "Your Majesty has always been known for his benevolence. If the punishment is too cruel, how can you be worthy of the title of 'Benevolent Emperor'? It's better to be lenient if possible, right?"
"We cannot take it lightly. In troubled times, we must use severe punishments."
Zhao Jun objected, "Killing just these few people, who would be impressed? If Zhu Yuanzhang next door saw this, he'd think we in the Song Dynasty couldn't afford to kill. All of you, put a checkmark next to the death penalty, one for each of you. Today's mission is to chop off as many heads as possible! As an official, I'll take care of the rest. Unless the crime doesn't warrant the death penalty, even if it's close to the death penalty or just a severe one, sentence them to death. Kill more people to serve as a warning to others!"
Everyone probably looked at each other, with nothing to say, so they could only stand up, each took a document, and started to judge on their own.
Zhao Jun took the list of officials.
The Dali Temple and the other side obviously still based their decisions on the foundation of the Song Dynasty and the rule of the literati. A person like Liao Yu should have been killed ten times, but he was sentenced to exile.
As for the people from the Ma and Han families, their crimes were basically very minor, and some were even insignificant.
The most outrageous one is Han Yuan.
Even Fan Zhongyan failed to bring this guy down back then. Now that he is in Zhao Jun's hands, the crimes he has been found to have are even more severe than those found by Fan Zhongyan back then.
Catching beggars, cutting off people's fingers, beating people to death on trumped-up charges in order to steal their ancestral belongings were considered light punishments. There was even a case where two young girls sent from Wuyou Cave were played to death.
Then the Dali Temple sentenced him to dismissal from his post.
Isn't this funny?
Zhao Jun did not hesitate and sentenced them all to death.
Apart from the crime of bribery, anyone who commits any other crime that results in death or causes the separation of people from their wives and children or the destruction of their families shall be sentenced to death.
As a result, seventy or eighty of the more than three hundred officials who were originally spared from death were sentenced to beheading, more than ten were beheaded, and more than two hundred were not just dismissed from office and exiled, but were imprisoned, forced to perform labor service, and the lightest punishment was exile to Lingnan.
Zhao Jun had spent the entire morning marking the Constitutional Court. Although every stroke of his pen represented a life, Zhao Jun showed no mercy.
Because compared to the countless people they harmed, their lives cannot be repaid at all.
Beheading can at most comfort the wounded hearts of the victims.
(End of this chapter)
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