Chapter 223: Presiding over the Trial of Ma Zhou
Li Chengqian’s political career over the past decade has not been in vain.
Back then, Li Er asked Li Chengqian to try to write a strategy for governing the country. As a result, Li Chengqian quickly filled three pages of paper, and the content inside was very valuable.
Li Er was very satisfied after reading it, and even proudly showed off his son’s ability in front of the ministers.
Li Er often took out the strategy for governing the country written by Li Chengqian to show off to the ministers, saying: "The prince first put the importance of criminal justice, and he has a deep understanding of the key to governing the country!"
It is enough to prove how capable Li Chengqian is. Now that Li Er is in poor health, Li Er naturally hopes that Li Chengqian can focus on the court and military and political affairs.
In the trial of Zhang Liang’s rebellion, Li Er already has a suitable candidate in mind.
"Ma Zhou!" Li Er shouted to the ministers.
"I'm here!" Ma Zhou, the Minister of the Central Secretariat, stood up and bowed.
"I order you to preside over the trial of Zhang Liang's treason case. You must thoroughly investigate the case. Once you have a clue about the case, report it to the Crown Prince first! The Crown Prince will decide and then report it to me." Li Er ordered Ma Zhou to try Zhang Liang.
"I obey your order!" Ma Zhou bowed.
"Come here!" Li Er shouted, and the guards waiting outside the hall hurried in.
"Remove Zhang Liang from his position as Minister of Justice and put him in the Dali Temple Prison to await his fate." Li Er said.
The guards immediately stepped forward and took off Zhang Liang's black gauze hat, and then took Zhang Liang to the Dali Temple Prison.
"That's all for today. Let's all go! Adjourn the court!" Li Er said, turning around and leaving.
"Retreat~ Court~" Wang Yuan shouted at the top of his lungs, and hurriedly followed Li Er.
His Majesty Li Er left the Taiji Hall amid the farewells of the ministers. After Li Er left, everyone got up and left the Taiji Hall.
"Minister Ma will have to take care of this matter." Li Chengqian said, holding Ma Zhou's hand.
"Your Highness, please rest assured. I will do my best to handle this case. Goodbye!" Ma Zhou bowed and left.
After Ma Zhou left, he first went to the Dali Temple and asked the people of the Dali Temple to arrest Gongsun Chang and Cheng Gongying who were also involved in the conspiracy case.
Ma Zhou personally went to interrogate Zhang Liang, hoping that Zhang Liang would confess his crimes.
The jailer opened the cell, Ma Zhou walked in, and bowed to Zhang Liang, saying, "Duke of Yu, I am here to try your case of treason at the order of His Majesty. Considering that we are colleagues, I advise you to confess and avoid the suffering of prison!"
"Minister Ma, I, Zhang Liang, am innocent. There must be a bad person who has framed me. You must investigate and clear my name."
"I, Zhang Liang, am loyal to Your Majesty and have no second thoughts. There must be a treacherous villain who has framed me for treason. Minister Ma, you must report this to Your Majesty!" Zhang Liang kept saying that he was innocent.
Ma Zhou looked at Zhang Liang calmly. Whether Zhang Liang was innocent or not would be revealed after investigation. This time when he came to see Zhang Liang, Ma Zhou did not expect to get any answer from Zhang Liang.
No criminal who is guilty of treason would not cry out for injustice. Who would be so stupid as to directly admit his crime?
At this time, a jailer came to Ma Zhou and whispered something in his ear.
After hearing this, Ma Zhou said to Zhang Liang: "Duke Yu, you stay here well. If you are really wronged, you will be cleared of all charges."
Ma Zhou said, turned around and left the prison. He was going to interrogate the informer Chang Dexuan. The jailer locked the prison door again.
Ma Zhou came to the court and sat in the main seat in the court after arguing with Sun Fuga, the Minister of the Supreme Court.
Today, Ma Zhou was the presiding judge of Zhang Liang's treason case, so naturally, Ma Zhou should sit in the main seat.
Sun Fujia, the chief official of the Dali Temple, was the main official of the Dali Temple. Ma Zhou needed help from the other party, so Sun Fujia sat beside Ma Zhou to help him handle the case.
Also serving as a jury was Di Renjie, the junior official of the Dali Temple. His ability to solve cases was one of the best in the Dali Temple. With his help, the case could be quickly solved.
The most important point was that Di Renjie was the man of the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace, which was also the reason why Sun Fujia advocated that Di Renjie serve as a jury.
It seemed that Ma Zhou was the presiding judge of Zhang Liang's treason case, but in fact, the Crown Prince was the real presiding judge in secret, and Ma Zhou was just an errand boy.
"Bring up Chang Dexuan from Shaanxi." Ma Zhou and the other three sat down and asked someone to bring the informer.
"I have seen the three masters!" Chang Dexuan was brought to the court and knelt on the ground.
"Let me ask you, you accused the Minister of Justice Zhang Liang of treason, do you have any evidence?" Ma Zhou asked. "
The Minister Zhang has 500 adopted sons, each of them is strong and powerful, and I heard that each of them is a master with great skills."
"I have seen with my own eyes that there are no less than 100 people entering and leaving the Minister Zhang's house every day, and each of them has different physical characteristics, no less than 500 people." Chang Dexuan said, and he swore that he had seen it with his own eyes.
Fake son, one refers to the son of the husband's ex-wife or the son of the wife's ex-husband.
Another refers to adopted sons and adopted sons.
"These alone are not enough to prove that the Minister Zhang has the intention of treason, is there any other evidence?" Di Renjie asked.
Zhang Liang had so many adopted sons. At most, he was plotting something illegal, but it was not enough to accuse him of treason. Chang Dexuan's words alone were not enough to convict Zhang Liang of treason.
Moreover, whether it was true that Zhang Liang had 500 adopted sons as Chang Dexuan said, it still needed to be verified.
"I was in a tavern and heard someone say that the other person was drunk and told another person that Zhang Liang was plotting treason. That's why I came to report Zhang Liang." Chang Dexuan said. "
Oh! Who said that? What did they say? And why didn't you come to the Dali Temple to file a complaint, but went to the Yushi?" Ma Zhou felt that something was wrong and asked hurriedly.
"I don't remember exactly what was said! But I know that the man was called Cheng Gongying, and it was this man who said it after getting drunk."
"As for why I didn't come here to file a complaint, but told the Yushi, it was because I didn't know which yamen would handle this case, and I was a little scared, so I didn't dare to come to the yamen to file a complaint."
"And there happened to be a Yushi living next door to me, and I thought about it again and again, and then I decided to tell Yushi about this." Chang Dexuan's words were reasonable.
Even so, it cannot be confirmed that Zhang Liang was treasonous.
"You go down first! When we need you to testify in court, we will summon you to court." Ma Zhou said.
The yamen runner kept Chang Dexuan away.
"What do you two think about this?" Ma Zhou asked Sun Fuga and Di Renjie.
"This matter has not been concluded yet, so bringing the other two people involved in the rebellion to the court for trial may yield unexpected gains." Di Renjie said.
"That's right! Di Shaoqing is right, and that's what I mean." Sun Fujia agreed. No matter what the result is, it's the same for Sun Fujia.
Seeing that the top two leaders of the Dali Temple said so, Ma Zhou naturally had no objection. He also intended to bring Cheng Gongying and Gongsun Chang to trial.
Ma Zhou also hoped to dig out some useful information from Gongsun Chang and the others.