Chapter 8 The whole story of the shooting case

On the night of the fourth day of May in the 43rd year of Wanli (1615), a man holding a jujube stick quietly broke into the Ciqing Palace where the crown prince lived, and wounded Li Jian, the servant guarding the palace gate, with a stick. Under the eaves of the front hall.There, he was captured by the servant Han Benyong and others, and immediately handed him over to Zhu Xiong, the guard commander stationed at Donghuamen, and they temporarily detained the prisoner.One of the three cases in the late Ming Dynasty, which has been disturbing for many years, happened in this way. The next day was the Dragon Boat Festival, and the crown prince rushed to tell Wanli what happened that night first.When Wanli got to play, he ordered the criminal to be interrogated by the nearby judicial department first.Liu Tingyuan, the censor of the imperial city who tried the case, after the interrogation, heard that the trial situation was roughly like this: the prisoner's name was Zhang Chai, and he was from Jizhou.He said he was a fasting beggar, his language was incoherent, and he looked like a madman.But looking at his appearance, he seems very cunning.It is best to leave it to the judicial department.Liu Tingyuan's statement of the situation was very lively, saying that Zhang Cha looked like a lunatic, and that he looked very cunning.These were the usual techniques used by the officialdom to deal with official affairs at that time. All aspects were occupied, and all aspects were kept silent, so that the matter could be handed over smoothly and let others handle it by themselves.

After the case was transferred to the Ministry of Punishment, it was tried by Lang Zhong Hu Shixiang, Yuanwai Lang Zhao Huizhen and Lao Yongjia.At that time, the legend that the crown prince would be abolished sooner or later had been circulated for many years and became a well-known fact. Besides, Zheng Guifei's family was becoming more and more prominent, and there were their followers everywhere, even Fang Congzhe, the chief assistant, obeyed. at their behest.Hu, Zhao, and Lao are all people who are accustomed to officialdom, so they already knew what to do.Liu Tingyuan, the first trial judge, said that Zhang Chai was a lunatic, which was the best, so they cross-examined him and said that Zhang Chai was originally a firewood seller. Go to Beijing to sue.On the road, there were two unnamed people traveling with him. They lied to Zhang Cha that they could take a wooden stick instead if there was no evidence to file a complaint.Zhang Cha believed it was true, so he sneaked into the palace from Donghua Gate with a wooden pole in his hand, and went straight to the gate of Ciqing Palace.According to the law, if you sneak into the palace gate with a murder weapon, you should be executed.They drafted the case, and they only had to submit it to the officials of the Ministry of punishment to play it on their behalf.I don't want to think that at this time, how they made the judgment has long been known to the outside world, and there was an uproar immediately, and there were public commentaries, saying that Zhang Chai entered the palace to commit murder, and someone must instigate behind the scenes, and the Ministry of Punishment only talked about Zhang Chai alone. And wanting to give it a quick execution is obviously intended to kill and silence, and to protect the real culprit behind the scenes.It is justified to ask for another detailed review to find out the culprit.From the outside, there is a lot of discussion outside, and they all think that it must be Zheng Guifei and others who secretly instigated it.This made Concubine Zheng and the others extremely panicked, and even Wanli felt very troubled.The only thing that can make them feel at ease is that they colluded with the Ministry of Punishment and strictly supervised Zhang Chai. No one from outside is allowed to visit Zhang Chai.

Isolating Zhang Chai from the outside world can of course reduce side issues, but they don't know that there are people who pay attention to this case and are willing to investigate the actual situation, and there are people everywhere, including the Criminal Department.At this time, Wang Zhicai, the head of the criminal department, came out on his own initiative, wanting to clarify the case.This Wang Zhicai was a county magistrate before entering the Ministry of Criminal Justice, so he was quite experienced in handling cases.Although he had not been appointed as an interrogator in the case of the stiletto attack and could not be interrogated in public, since he was an official in the Ministry of Criminal Justice, he could naturally think of some way.After thinking about it a few times, he felt that it would be a good way to manage the prison.After making up his mind in this way, he asked for the job of taking care of the prison meals.He personally led the prison staff and delivered meals to the prisoners one by one, leaving Zhang Cha at the end alone, which made him feel hungry already.When it was his turn at last, Wang Zhicai asked people to put the meal aside, and asked Zhang Cha to confess the truth before he was allowed to eat.At that time, Zhang Chai had already been tortured with a stick several times, and his physical strength was very exhausted, and he was too hungry to handle it after dinner.Immediately he said incoherently, "I'm here to sue, what do you want to ask me?" Then he said, "Kill me, it's useless!" Wang Zhicai ordered someone to deliver the rice to Zhang Cha, But the two jailers held him tightly, and they watched him and said, "See, the food is there. If you tell the truth, I will give you food. If you don't tell the truth, you will starve to death!" Zhang Chashi Already starving, very impatient, I had to start telling the truth.Wang Zhicai is a good questioner. Under his questioning, all the truth about Zhang Chai could no longer be concealed. After a seduced interrogation, the general situation has been fully revealed. Although there are still some hidden things, it is actually very close. enough.

During Wang Zhicai's interrogation, he also ordered someone to record Zhang Cha's confession. His confession was roughly as follows: Zhang Cha was from Jizhou, and his nickname was Zhang Wu'er.When he came to Beijing, Uncle Ma and Li's grandfather from their hometown told him to come with an unknown husband (folks usually refer to the inner eunuch as husband).They told him to obey his husband's orders, and said that they could give him a few acres of land after he got things done. After he arrived in Beijing, he moved into a big house with an unknown street name, and a husband gave him food. eat, and said to him, "Go for a while, and if you meet someone, kill him. If you kill someone, we will save you." Saying this, he gave him a jujube stick and took him into the After killing the door, he took it to the gate of the palace.There he knocks over a janitor, but then a lot of husbands come and he gets caught.

Wang Zhicai knew that there were still many inaccuracies in Zhang Cha's confession, but it had already opened a gap. From this point on to the interrogation, everything would become clearer.Therefore, he wrote Zhang Chai's confession into an exposing post, and sent it to Zhang Wenda, the minister of the Ministry of punishment for printing, to play on his behalf.At the end of the post, Wang Zhicai also said that in his opinion, Zhang Chai is neither crazy nor stupid, and he is very courageous.He hoped that he could be tied up in front of the Wenhua Palace for a court trial.Or it can be handed over to the Jiuqing Kedao and the Sanju Division for a joint trial. In that case, a lot of details will be found out, making it impossible for the instigator behind the scenes to escape.

After Zhang Wenda put Wang Zhicai's post on his behalf, Wanli felt he didn't know what to do, so he had no choice but to leave it behind.But the contents of the post had already been circulated, and it would not be of any use to stay in the middle and refuse to approve it. Memorials to inquire about this matter came one after another. Zhang Ting, the head of the household department, Yao Yongji and others in the case.In Lu Dashou's essays, there are many places where the word "traitorous relatives" is written, and the finger pointing directly at Zheng Chengxian and others.Wanli hated these things, but he had no choice but to leave them alone.Concubine Zheng and her family were even more terrified. They kept sending people out to move around, but they couldn't ease the menacing momentum.At this time, another censor named Guo Tingxun came, and he also went to Shushu to discuss the matter urgently, and said, "Disasters happen to elbows and armpits, and we cannot ignore them."After Wanli also kept his memorial, the court order was transferred to Jizhou, where the local officials were asked to investigate and report everything about Zhang Cha when he was at home.Qi Yanling, the magistrate of Jizhou, soon sent a palindrome to the imperial censor, and this palindrome was written in favor of Concubine Zheng.The palindrome said that Zhang Cha was indeed a lunatic. The reason why he became insane was that Concubine Zheng was going to build a temple in Jizhou, so she sent her servants to set up a kiln to burn bricks there, and the residents could make a lot of money selling firewood to the kiln .Zhang Cha sold all the fields at home, and rushed to start a firewood business.The residents near the brick kiln hated him for robbing the business, and secretly burned all his firewood.Zhang Chai complained about the burning of firewood to the servant in charge, but was reprimanded instead, so he went crazy, holding a wooden pole in his hand, saying that he wanted to go to Beijing to sue the imperial court.This palindrome is very consistent with Liu Tingyuan's initial trial confession, and it is more detailed than that confession.Therefore, some people suspected that the Zheng family kept sending people out to carry out activities, and Qi Yanling, the magistrate of Jizhou, might have been bribed by them to write like this.In fact, it is also obvious that once Jizhou's reply arrived, not only Zheng Chengxian and others became more active, but even Liu Tingyuan and others who tried the case for the first time felt that they had an excuse and became active again.

On May 21, the Ministry of Punishment gathered the officers of the 13th Division, Hu Shixiang, Lu Menglong, Zhao Huizhen, Lao Yongjia, Wang Zhicai and others to interrogate Zhang Chai.This time, Zhang Cha's confession caused even more shock.He confessed the names of people and places that he had never mentioned before: Uncle Ma's name was Ma Sandao, Li's father's name was Li Shoucai, and the husband who didn't know his name was Pang Bao, a servant who went to repair the iron tile factory. The big house is the residence of Liu Cheng, a servant who has a big house outside Chaoyang Gate.He also clearly confessed that it was Pang Bao and Liu Cheng who asked him to seal the palace gate.He said that they told him, "If you beat the young master, you will have nothing to worry about!" The so-called young master, of course, refers to the crown prince, and the servants have always called him that.Zhang Cha also confessed his accomplices, there were five of them, and his brother-in-law Kong Dao was one of them.

This trial can really be described as "the truth comes to light", and everything is worthy of the name.The Ministry of Punishment immediately sent a letter to Jizhou, asking local officials to assist in the arrest of Ma Sandao, Li Shoucai, Kong Dao and others, and release them to await interrogation.On the other hand, they requested that the judiciary go to Da Nei to confront Pang Bao and Liu Chengcheng.This time, even Fang Congzhe, the chief assistant, couldn't hold his breath anymore. Like He Shijin and others in the incident, he went up and asked to be strict with the chief envoy, and not let it go easily.Wanli also felt that he could no longer suppress the people inside and outside the court, so he also issued an edict, allowing strict investigation.

The situation is so tense, the one who can't stand the most is naturally Zheng Guifei, and Pang Bao and Liu Cheng are the deacons and eunuchs at her side. Once she proposes to interrogate, who knows what they will say?She cried to Wanli several times, hoping that the emperor would make the decision for her.Wanli felt the menace coming from outside, and even he couldn't suppress it, so he sighed unconsciously, "I'm afraid it will be hard to solve the trouble now. It might be easier to let the crown prince come forward. But, you have to come forward in person. Go beg him." Concubine Zheng had no choice but to beg the prince.As soon as she met, she bowed down to the prince, and the prince hurriedly returned the obeisance.After the noble concubine worshiped, she began to cry to the prince, trying her best to save her and to discern her wrongdoing.The prince is also very scared at this time, and he really wants to have a conclusion as soon as possible.After listening to the noble concubine's complaint, Wang An, the servant who accompanied him to study, was busy on his behalf, and issued an order to ask the officials not to entangle too much. Since the culprit Zhang Chai has been captured, he will be punished. embarrassing.Although this decree is well said, it is not very effective.Concubine Zheng's family aroused public outrage, but the ministers still insisted on tracking down the culprit.At this point in the situation, Wanli felt that he had no choice but to come forward to appease the ministers himself.

At that time, Wanli was already tired of government affairs, and he had not seen his ministers for 25 years.For this matter, he had to make a special exception, and summoned his chief assistant Fang Congzhe, cabinet minister Wu Daonan, and other civil and military officials into the Palace of Compassion and Ning to meet him.Before the summoning, the crown prince and three grandsons were also summoned.He ordered the prince to stand on the right side of his throne, and the three emperor's grandsons stood in a row under the steps on the left.When Fang Congzhe and the officials arrived, Wanli first blamed the officials for alienating their father and son.They also want them to just convict Zhang Cha, Pang Bao, and Liu Cheng for the crime of beheading and forget about it, and don't get involved too much.After speaking, he took the prince's hand and said to the ministers: "This child is very filial, and I love him very much." After a pause, he measured the prince's body with his hands and said: "He has grown from a baby to an adult, and I love him very much." If you have other intentions, why not change it earlier? Besides, King Fu has gone to live in his fief, thousands of miles away from here, and he has not been summoned, so can he fly back?" After speaking, he also called several emperors and grandchildren. Come closer, ask the ministers to take a good look at them, and say: "My grandsons have grown up too, what else can I say?" Finally, he looked at the crown prince and asked him to tell everyone what he wanted to say. The minister said, don't hesitate at all.

The crown prince also spoke, encouraged by his father, which he had already planned.He first talked about Zhang Cha, thinking that he was just a lunatic, and it was fine to execute him quickly.Then he blamed the ministers for not making a fuss and alienating their father and son.He finally said: "I think you have seen how dear my father and son are, and there are many discussions in the outer court. In this way, you have become ministers without a king, and I am also an unfilial son. Don't continue to be like this. "His words were highly praised by Wanli. He even asked all the ministers: "Have you heard what the crown prince said? Have you heard everything?" and go. Under the joint performance of Wanli and his son, the ministers naturally had no choice but to obey orders, so after they left the Palace of Compassion and Ning, they immediately ordered the Judiciary to execute Zhang Chai as soon as possible and close the case.So Zhang Cha was kidnapped to the execution ground the next day, where he was executed by beheading. The day after Zhang Chai was executed, Pang Bao and Liu Cheng were also taken to Wenhua Gate for trial.At that time, they knew that Zhang Cha had been executed and there was no one to testify against him, so they tried their best to argue and pushed everything away.Both of these two were deacons and internal eunuchs that Concubine Zheng trusted, and everything they did was at the behest of Concubine Zheng.Even though their abilities were too poor and they handled things so badly that even Concubine Zheng was implicated, Concubine Zheng still wanted to save them all, since Zhang Chai was dead, they could push it away, so forget about it.Unfortunately, among the ministers of the foreign court, some people were unwilling to give up, and continued to discuss the matter of the masonry attack, trying to track down the culprit behind the scenes.In the end, Wanli got angry with those commentaries, and was afraid of long nights and dreams, and some unexpected side effects, so he thought it was better to get rid of these two people to get rid of them.So he finally sent an order to the supervisor of ceremonies to have Pang Bao and Liu Cheng secretly executed in the inner court.In this way, these two Pang Bao and Liu Cheng, who were bent on currying favor with Concubine Zheng for personal gain, only lived more than ten days longer than Zhang Chai, and finally lost their lives. Zhang Cha, Pang Bao, and Liu Chengcheng had been killed, and the Ministry of Criminal Justice sentenced Ma Sandao, Li Shoucai, Kong Dao, and others to exile. Although the culprit behind the attack was not found, on the surface it should be The case is closed and there will be nothing more.At this time, there are probably very few people who can think of repeating it in the future.