In the second hall of the governor's office.

Niu Chenshi and the others could not help but smile bitterly after hearing Hai Rui's brilliant remarks. "What the Zhongcheng said is reasonable, but hypocrites have their own reasons. When unruly people sue, they only want to gain advantages and are unwilling to suffer losses. If they cannot gain any advantages, they will definitely continue to sue. If they cannot win the case locally, they will sue the government or even Nanjing, which will cause great trouble."

"You are just a careless person! Although 'smoothing things over' can stop a lawsuit temporarily, it actually corrupts the morals of the people and encourages unruly people to file unjust cases!" Hai Rui shook his head decisively.

"Those unruly people see that those who are clearly in the wrong but dare to make trouble can actually gain half the benefits for nothing. And those who are in the right will offend half of them as long as the other party makes a fuss, so they will be happy to find that they can gain benefits by filing a complaint. They have figured out the mentality of the government to "play it safe", so they naturally flock to it, which is why there are such bad results that thousands of people file a complaint together!"

Everyone suddenly realized what was happening. It turned out that Lord Hai knew very well that many of those who came to file complaints were unruly people who wanted to take advantage of the situation to fish in troubled waters!

"So only by making fair judgments in accordance with the law and making it unprofitable for the unruly people can we curb the phenomenon of filing lawsuits and change the cunning and litigious habits of the people in Jiangnan!" Then Hai Rui continued, "In this way, it won't take too long before the number of speculative lawsuits will be greatly reduced."

"Zhongcheng is wise." Everyone praised in unison. No matter what the effect is, at least it sounds reasonable.

Of course it works, because this is the famous "Hai Rui Theorem 1" in the legal community of later generations!

~~

Hai Rui continued to preach to his subordinates:

"But as Commissioner Wang said, even if both parties are present and the case is heard five times and heard three times, there are still cases where the facts are ambiguous and difficult to decide. What should we do?"

The so-called 'both parties must be present' means that both the plaintiff and the defendant must be present during the trial.

"Five hearings and three interrogations" is a means of trial other than torture.

The 'five hearings' are, 'observe his words, if they are not straight, then you will be annoyed', 'observe his face, if they are not straight, then you will be embarrassed', 'observe his breath, if they are not straight, then he will gasp', 'observe his listening, if they are not straight, then you will be confused', 'observe his eyes, if they are not straight, then you will be at a loss'. These are the five kinds of hearing: hearing with words, hearing with colors, hearing with breath, hearing with ears, and hearing with eyes.

As for the three interrogations, it means that one cannot only listen to one side, but also listen to the testimony and evidence of both the plaintiff and the defendant as well as witnesses.

In addition, torture can be used in criminal cases. However, civil cases are usually not prosecuted, so if five hearings and three interrogations are fruitless, then basically there is nothing left to do...

Everyone nodded quickly. In fact, under normal circumstances, most cases are easy to judge, and the right and wrong are clear at a glance. Time is actually wasted on trying to smooth things over. As long as the judgment is fair, it will be no trouble at all.

The real waste of time is those cases where each party has its own reasons, and the cases are old and difficult to obtain evidence. These cases can be judged in any way, but no matter how they are judged, everyone will not be satisfied. In order to get the plaintiff and the defendant to reach a compromise, the chief judge has to spend several times more time and energy, and often does not get any good results.

"I wonder what Zhongcheng thinks about this?" Niu Chenshi and others asked hurriedly.

"For this kind of ambiguous lawsuit, we need to treat it differently according to the type of case." Hai Rui said in a loud voice:

"In any case of an ambiguous decision, it is better to wrong your brother than your elder brother; it is better to wrong your nephew than your uncle; it is better to wrong the rich than the poor; it is better to wrong the stubborn than the foolish."

After a pause, he continued word by word: "In a dispute over property, rather than humiliating the common people, it is better to humiliate the local officials to save the country; in a dispute over words and appearance, rather than humiliating the local officials, it is better to humiliate the common people to preserve the country!"

This is the so-called "Hai Rui Theorem 2".

According to experience, the party with a higher social status usually has more economic assets, while the party with a lower social status is usually the poorer party.

Therefore, Hai Gong proposed that in ambiguous economic disputes, the party with a lower social status should be taken care of; but in ambiguous disputes over moral order, the party with a higher social status should be taken care of.

Hai Rui explained in a deep voice: "Awarding ten taels of silver to the poor will cause less harm to the rich than the opposite judgment. If the poor get ten taels of silver, one more family in Jiangnan can have enough food and clothing for a year. If the rich get ten taels of silver, it is not even enough for a meal. So in times of ambiguity, awarding the property to the poor is more beneficial to the Ming Dynasty."

"The imperial court relies on the gentry to maintain the support of the rural people, so damaging their reputation will have a greater negative impact on the imperial court than on the common people. Therefore, when there is ambiguity, we should try our best to maintain the dignity of the gentry."

After Hai Rui finished speaking, he looked at the crowd and said, "To put it bluntly, give the poor money and the rich money. But remember, this is done on the premise of impartiality and ambiguity. This is what I have said. What do you think?"

"Zhongcheng's opinion is brilliant. We are convinced." Niu Chenshi and others were delighted and couldn't help but give thumbs up. They thought that Hai Gong not only had strong practical skills, but also had a high level of theoretical knowledge.

"Then let's do it." Hai Rui slammed the table and said, "Court dismissed!"

~~

After all the officials left, Niu Chenshi stepped forward and said softly, "The Zhongcheng's remarks are profound, like a revelation, but after thinking about it, I still feel that it is easy to cause controversy."

Ever since Hai Gong asked him for his name, Niu Chenshi has regarded himself as his confidant.

"What do you mean?" Hai Rui used the short time before the court session to wash his face with cold water to keep himself awake.

He took off his official robe and wore only a snow-white shirt. He soaked a cotton towel in icy well water and applied it to his face.

It gives people chills just by looking at it.

Niu Chenshi shuddered and said, "Zhongcheng said that he wanted to give the common people the inside and the gentry the outside. But we have calculated that eight out of ten cases are disputes over property, and the remaining one or two percent are not many cases where the common people and the gentry are arguing over words and appearances."

"Yes." Hai Rui took off the cotton towel from his face and said with a refreshed look, "This court tried a case yesterday."

"Uh..." Niu thought to himself that this was cheating, and hurriedly said softly, "That's pitifully rare. On the contrary, in cases of property disputes, there are a lot of ambiguous cases that cannot prove the original property rights because of the long time or lack of evidence, so the situation where ordinary people benefit will definitely appear frequently."

He lowered his voice and said, "So it is hard for the gentry to think that the Zhongcheng is fair. I'm afraid they will still say that the Zhongcheng is deliberately wronging the gentry."

"Let them talk if they want." Hai Rui said nonchalantly, "Compared to the grievances that the common people have endured over the years, that's nothing."

Niu Chenshi couldn't help but smile bitterly. Duke Hai was indeed determined to help the weak and suppress the strong.

~~

With Hai Rui's guidance and supervision, the nine interrogators began to work hard on the case.

After working overtime, I managed to complete the daily tasks assigned by Mr. Hai.

ps. The "Hai Rui Theorem" in "XX Fifteen Years" is taken out of context, with only part of Theorem 2, namely the six differential protections. It's OK if Theorem 1 is missing, maybe the author is not well-trained. But Theorem 2 also lacks an important premise, namely "only when both parties have the conditions of five hearings and three trials, and the case is still ambiguous, will the six differential protections be used to judge the case." I don't know what the intention is.