Power was a boat, bearing men to life or death

County Magistrate Li Yi frowned.

Candidate Gu, you brat, did you just steal my line?

"What evidence do you have?"

Li Yi spoke.

Gu Zhengchen looked at Li Yi. "Please send someone to drag the wooden boat from the pond into court, Your Honor."

Li Yi glanced at Gu Zhengchen in puzzlement, then turned his gaze toward the seemingly composed Wang Fugui and ordered the yamen runners to fetch the boat.

It was a small wooden boat, easy enough to bring over.

When the wooden boat was set down in court, Wang Fugui examined it. Seeing nothing amiss, he relaxed. "Candidate Gu, how does this count as evidence?"

Gu Zhengchen pointed at the wooden boat and said gravely, "I made inquiries. This boat belongs to the Wang Family, and outsiders fear the Wang Family too much to use it without permission. In the spring of the Second Year of Hongwu, the Wang Family purchased the pond from the Liu Yuanwai Family, then bought a batch of fish fry, ducks, and geese to raise in it. That is true, is it not?"

"Is there anything wrong with buying a pond and raising a few fish?"

Wang Fugui countered.

Gu Zhengchen shook his head, his gaze icy. "Raising fish could hardly mask the stench of a corpse rotting underwater. The ducks and geese were your real purpose!"

Wang Fugui scoffed. "Utter nonsense."

Li Yi tapped his gavel. "Candidate Gu, I am afraid that cannot serve as evidence."

Gu Zhengchen nodded slightly and pointed at the boat in court. "Your Honor, this boat is covered in bloodstains. Does that count as evidence?"

"Blood?"

Li Yi stood and took a look. The boat was rather dirty, but it was plain at a glance that there was no blood.

Deputy County Magistrate Jin Dache stepped forward to inspect it carefully, then shook his head at Li Yi.

"Where is the blood?"

Li Yi's expression darkened.

Gu Zhengchen looked at Wang Fugui, bent down, and picked up the boat's mooring rope. Through clenched teeth, he said, "This rope has not been replaced in years, has it? If it were any thinner, it would have snapped long ago. I wonder whether Master Wang noticed the dark brown patches all through it. This is a white palm-fiber rope, so where did that dark brown come from? When you washed the blood off the boat that night, you forgot to wash the rope as well, didn't you?"

"Coroner!"

Li Yi summoned him at once.

The coroner stepped forward, took the rope, and examined it closely before reporting to Li Yi, "It is indeed blood, but I cannot determine whether it is human blood or some other kind."

Wang Fugui hurriedly said, "Perhaps it splashed onto the rope when ducks or geese were slaughtered. Besides, the Wang Family did not watch the boat every moment of every day. If someone used it, what does that have to do with us? None of this proves I killed Gu Pei."

Li Yi declared sternly, "Though this evidence is insufficient to prove you killed Gu Pei, it matches the statements of Deng Quan and Huang Lin. It is enough to establish that this was the boat used to sink the corpse!"

Wang Fugui adamantly refused to admit it. "Nothing but a frame-up. Don't you officials just want to prey on wealthy households and line your pockets? If that is what you want, why not simply say how much money you are after? Why put on this performance?"

Deputy County Magistrate Jin Dache snapped, "Insolence!"

Wang Fugui remained unperturbed. "If Your Honor has no other evidence, the words of two men alone are hardly enough to convict me."

Li Yi glanced at Wang Fugui. The man clearly intended to resist to the bitter end and admit nothing.

Gu Zhengchen, do you see? In the future, you may face even thornier situations. When the dead cannot testify, how will you handle them?

This time, I will teach you.

When you become an official of the court, you must stand up for the people!

The gavel sounded once more.

Li Yi said gravely, "Take Wang Fugui away for now. Summon the Wang Family's steward, Wang Zhi, and the servants Wang Er and Wang Liu."

Panic surfaced on Wang Fugui's face. "Your Honor..."

"Take him away!"

Li Yi gave the order.

Before long, the Wang Family's steward Wang Zhi and the servants Wang Er and Wang Liu were brought into court under guard.

Li Yi said sternly, "Gu Pei was murdered, and his body sunk in the pond. Surely you know about this?"

Wang Zhi, Wang Er, and Wang Liu were filled with unease, all insisting they knew nothing.

Li Yi turned to Registrar Sun Ang. "Tell them the laws of Great Ming!"

Sun Ang handed his brush to the clerk beside him and moved aside the papers on his desk. Solemnly, he said, "The 'Homicide' section of the Code of Laws explicitly states: in cases of premeditated murder, the instigator shall be beheaded. Accomplices who assist in the act shall be strangled. Those who do not assist in the act shall receive one hundred strokes of the heavy rod and be exiled three thousand li. Think carefully before you speak. Did you help Wang Fugui kill the man that night? If you did, the law prescribes strangulation. If you did not, it is one hundred strokes and exile for three thousand li!"

Cold sweat poured from Wang Zhi, Wang Er, and Wang Liu. They turned their heads to look for Wang Fugui, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Li Yi slammed his gavel down with a crack and thundered, "Chief Constable Huang Lin and the commoner Deng Quan both witnessed the murder that day. They also saw who helped Wang Fugui sink the corpse and who fetched the stone! Will you still refuse to confess and wait for torture instead? Speak! Did you help Wang Fugui kill the man and dispose of his body?"

Terrified out of his wits, Wang Liu opened his mouth and confessed at once. "Yes! Master Wang did it all himself. I was only responsible for carrying the stone. It had nothing to do with me! Spare my life, Your Honor!"

With those words, the truth came to light.

Wang Liu did not want to die. One hundred strokes and exile for three thousand li were still better than being strangled.

Once one of them confessed, the other two no longer dared conceal anything. They all knew the chief constable. He had been there too, and even he had confessed. What are we still waiting for? Wang Fugui was the one who struck the blow, anyway. Let him die if he must.

Gu Zhengchen looked at County Magistrate Li Yi, inwardly startled.

So these were a county magistrate's methods?

An assault on the mind, backed by authority!

What made the three confess was that deliberately ambiguous wording, which led them to believe the matter was already nailed down and the evidence conclusive.

Once the three had given full confessions, they affixed their marks.

After reading their statements, Li Yi pressed further. "When Gu Pei was murdered that year, did he have any valuables on him?"

Wang Zhi replied, "Gu Pei had only three hundred copper coins on him. We did not take that money. Master took it. Afterward, he gave each of us twenty taels and told us to forget the incident..."

Li Yi nodded slightly, then summoned Wang Fugui again. "Registrar, show Master Wang the three men's statements so he can read them clearly."

Seeing that he had been betrayed, Wang Fugui slumped to the floor in a stupor.

Under the laws of Great Ming, even without physical evidence, a sufficient number of witnesses whose testimonies fit together without a gap and corroborated one another could still secure a conviction.

What was more, Wang Zhi and the others had revealed that the stone Wang Fugui used to kill the man was still at the bottom of the pond. He had struck so hard during the murder that the stone cut his palm, and the scar on his palm was clear proof.

This court hearing, swift as thunder and wind, clean-cut and decisive, showed Gu Zhengchen the commanding power of an official for the first time.

This was power!

I, too, want to sit there and wield the great seal.

One word spoken, and all obey!

Gu Zhengchen longed to enter Great Ming's officialdom, longed to hold power.

The Hongwu Dynasty was like a sea, filled with countless terrifying waves.

Power was a boat, bearing men to life or death.

It could sink to the seabed.

It could carry them to the far shore.

Gu Zhengchen wanted to see the great man who had laid the foundations for the Great Ming Dynasty's two hundred and seventy-six years, to witness his imperial statecraft as he arranged the pieces across the realm!

Li Yi closed the case, sentencing Wang Fugui to beheading and Wang Zhi and the others to one hundred strokes of the heavy rod and exile for three thousand li. He instructed the registrar to prepare all the documents and send them to the Capital.

A county magistrate in Great Ming had authority only over punishments involving the light rod and the heavy rod.

Sentences of penal servitude or exile had to be submitted to the prefectural authorities for judgment.

Death sentences had to be sent to the Capital for a ruling by the Judicial Offices. After review, they were presented to the emperor for final approval, then sent back to the local authorities for execution.

A county magistrate in the Ming dynasty could not simply pass judgment and immediately drag someone outside to have his head cut off.

The power to impose death belonged to the imperial court alone.

More precisely, the life and death of everyone under heaven lay beneath Old Zhu's brush!