Chapter 193: Dali Temple Trial (Part 2)
After pointing out the mistakes, Zhou Chongwen fell silent again, as if his job was to find out the loopholes of the two new masters in the court, not to try the case.
When Cui Zhuangyuan saw that Wang Bangyan was also stuck, he had no choice but to take the gavel back, took out a notepad from his sleeve and spread it on the table, with the interrogation process written down in detail. The trial continued, and the two new masters did not get stuck again.
Originally, Su Luo was also one of the witnesses, but her status at the time made it inconvenient for her to appear in court, so she orally gave a testimony, which was copied out by the recorder of the Dali Temple and submitted to the court.
Just like Liu Chengxuan said before, this case is really simple, there are witnesses and evidence, the defendant is not quibbling, just wait for sentencing. Liu Chengxuan also said that this case is actually quite complicated, the forces of all parties are intertwined, especially Liu Chengxuan, who represents Wan Yangui's backstage, and Su Luo, who represents Qin Huai's backstage, are both in the court, sentencing is really a very troublesome problem.
Generally speaking, the crime of intentional injury is always sentenced to one to eight years in prison, and if compensation cannot be paid, the sentence will be longer, but today a new problem has arisen. Because Wan Yangui suffered "internal injuries", Qin Huai's crime has been changed to trespassing and intentional injury, which is serious. Not only must he pay compensation, but the sentence will also be upgraded to between three and ten years. Whether it should be three years or ten years, they are discussing.
Normally, the judge would adjourn the court before the verdict was announced, but the people in the court had no experience and did not see Liu Sizheng's expression, so a discussion began in the hall. Of course, it was a discussion in a low voice, with their mouths covered.
Cui Zhuangyuan meant that he didn't see any serious injuries on Wan Yangui, but the forensic department said that he must have been seriously injured, but it didn't look like he was seriously injured. It can be seen that serious injuries are a very mysterious thing. Also, seeing that the defendant has a good attitude in admitting guilt, adhering to the principle of teaching with persuasion as the main focus, he should be sentenced to four years...
Before Cui Zhuangyuan finished speaking, Wang Bangyan sang a different tune, saying that four years was too close to the bottom line, and that this man had some background. If the sentence was too light, the people would feel that the government was unfair, so a heavy sentence must be given to show our integrity and to attract the emperor's attention... Well, he didn't say it directly, but that's the idea, you can understand it.
Zhou Chongwen also expressed his opinion at the right time. He was more straightforward. "Although Qin Huai is suspected of intentional injury, looking at his own confession and the testimony of Qin's housekeeper and Princess Lai Yi, Wan Yangui is indeed suspected of instigation. Moreover, whether Wan Yangui was seriously injured is still debatable. The injury examination was handled by Shuntian Prefecture and cannot be used as reference evidence for the Dali Temple. Whether to sentence him to serious injury needs to be re-determined."
Wan Yangui knelt in the hall, and after listening to Zhou Chongwen's words, he straightened his back and bowed his hands, "Your Excellency, I did say some extreme words at that time, but I was injured by Qin Huai at that time, and I said those harsh words to win the heart. Please check the order of priority. In addition, the injury examination was confirmed by the medical officer of Shuntian Prefecture on the morning of the second day after the incident. Now it has been several days, and my injuries have recovered. Wouldn't it be unfair to me to check again? Lord Zhou and Qin Huai are old friends, but you can't be too sentimental and give a light sentence and ignore the laws of the Ming Dynasty."
Wan Yangui's words were exactly what Wang Bangyan wanted, so he couldn't help but chime in, "Zhou Tanhua is indeed a man who values righteousness, but Lord Lin has just reminded us that in court, only justice is respected, and even parents and brothers must act according to the law."
Zhou Chongwen said, "I am only discussing doubts . What I mentioned are all doubts in my mind. What does it have to do with loyalty? Moreover, although Qin Huai and I are old acquaintances, we cannot be called 'good friends'. There are many people in the world who know each other. Are they all good friends? Could it be that Wang Bangyan knows the emperor, so he is the emperor's good friend?"
"You..." Wang Bangyan was speechless for a moment. The emperor's friend? He wanted to, but the emperor probably didn't want to. Not only did he not want to, but if he admitted that he was, the emperor would be very unhappy.
Seeing that the atmosphere between the two was getting tense, Cui Zhuangyuan finally realized that arguing in front of the people would lose his official authority. He finally remembered that he should withdraw from the court temporarily and go back to the back hall to fight. If anyone was killed, he would report it as a public injury.
"The defendant will be detained for the time being, and the court is adjourned!" Cui Zhuangyuan finally used the gavel correctly, the sound was loud, and it did not fly away.
A yamen runner came forward to take Qin Huai back to the prison. Su Luo hurried over. Qin Huai gave Su Luo a reassuring look. When he stood up, he said to Wan Yangui, "Don't make things difficult for my mother and sister. I will take care of whatever you want."
Wan Yangui curled the corners of his lips, but did not answer. He shook his hem and stood up. He came to Liu Chengxuan, narrowed his eyes slightly, and seemed to be angry. "You should take Qin Qing to the Wan Mansion and wait for me to go back to the wedding instead of showing up here."
"I sent someone to bring the bridal sedan, but I can't do anything if she refuses to get on it." Liu Chengxuan glanced at the mother and daughter of the Qin family outside the hall, and smiled as he spread out his folding fan. "Your goal was to prevent them from getting here, so that Qin Huai would feel uneasy. But now that they are here, Qin Huai still didn't resist, so you also didn't suffer any loss."
"You made me lose a bride," Wan Yangui snorted, "If you ask for my confession, Qin Qing has no reason not to get on the bridal sedan."
"I don't think you really want to marry Miss Qin." Liu Chengxuan patted Wan Yangui's shoulder with his fan, "Let go of that matter after today's verdict, and don't marry a woman you don't want to face just for revenge. Women are troublesome enough, let alone the daughter of an enemy."
Wan Yangui stretched out his hand to block his fan, "I am different from you, not a love saint. Even if Qin Huai is sentenced to ten years in prison today, it only compensates for the time my sister suffered in the Qin family. He still owes our Wan family a bride." After saying this, he stared at Liu Chengxuan with a confused look and shook his head slowly, "I thought you would enjoy this game more than me, why? Don't you enjoy it?"
"What's the point of doing this?" Liu Chengxuan's expression suddenly darkened, and he put away his folding fan. "You are crazy about revenge."
Wan Yangui laughed softly, "I've been crazy for a long time. I want to take back what was taken away by the Qin family bit by bit, starting with my sister and then my father."
After Wan Yangui finished speaking, he turned and walked towards the mother and daughter of the Qin family who were talking to Su Luo in the lobby. Liu Chengxuan let out a long breath, scratched his head with the handle of his fan, and returned to his usual expression, "I have a headache."
Su Luo was listening to Madam Qin crying about what happened this morning, only to learn that a wedding procession had arrived early this morning. Madam Qin and Qin Qing were so scared that they did not dare to go out, until Su Jiang went to pick them up to attend the trial together, and then they asked the housekeeper to take the servants to beat the wedding procession back. It was obvious that it must have been Wan Yangui who sent people to cause trouble.
Just when Su Luo was furious, Wan Yangui came to them. Su Luo protected Madam Qin and Qin Qing like a hen and said angrily, "What do you want to do now?"
Wan Yangui smiled sinisterly and ignored Su Luo, saying to Qin Qing: "Since you promised to marry me that day, why don't you want to get on my sedan chair today? If you had gotten on the sedan chair, I would have definitely excused Qin Huai in the hall just now, and it wouldn't have come to this."
