Chapter 428 Tengu swallows the sun (Part 1)
The matter of the autumn decision review took more than half a month, and it was not until the sixth day of July that we finally sorted out the clues.
Sun Shaozong, who had long been fed up with this, naturally ordered people to carry the list, case files, portraits and other items to the Ministry of Justice's Intelligence Department to present them early in the morning.
Unexpectedly, Lin Delu and his men went away and brought the things back intact, saying that the Ministry of Justice stated that Shuntian Prefecture was now under the jurisdiction of Zhili Province, and according to the rules, the list of autumn executions should be submitted to the Zhili Provincial Surveillance Commissioner's Office.
Damn bureaucracy!
When they were assigning tasks to lower levels, why did they never think of informing the Zhili Provincial Surveillance Commissioner first?
However, since the Ministry of Justice has already set the tone, no amount of complaining will help.
In desperation, Sun Shaozong had to report to Han Anbang and planned to go to Jinmen Prefecture in person in two days to settle the matter as soon as possible. According to the rules, after the prefecture and county officials submitted the list of people to be executed in autumn to the higher-level government, the chief officials had to be ready to answer questions at any time, so Sun Shaozong had to stay in Jinmen Prefecture for at least two or three days.
There's nothing else to worry about, but Xiangling's due date is in the middle of the month. If I happen to miss it...
"My Lord! It's born, it's born, it's about to be born!"
Just as I was thinking about this, I saw the prison warden Zhou Da rushing in shouting and yelling .
Gonna give birth?!
Sun Shaozong jumped up from behind the case and was about to run straight to the stable to get his horse and go home. However, just as he took a step, he suddenly felt something was wrong - if Xiangling was about to give birth, how could it be Zhou Da's turn to come and inform her?
So he paused, stared at Zhou Da's pockmarked face, frowned and asked , "Who's going to give birth?"
"A whore in the house of confinement!"
Zhou Da said as a matter of course: "I just heard from the jailer, so I came here to report to you."
I've been so busy over the past half month that I completely forgot about the nun in the house of detention.
but……
"The nun in the house arrest is about to give birth. Why are you in such a hurry to report to me?" Sun Shaozong said speechlessly, "We should find a midwife, and then invite monks and nuns. If it's a girl, send it to the nunnery. If it's a boy, send it to the temple. Can't you handle this little thing?"
“No, no, no!”
Seeing that he had hit a snag, Zhou Da's shoulders slumped down a few degrees, and he said awkwardly: "I heard that you have always been very concerned about these lewd nuns, so..."
focus on?
If Miaoyu hadn't gotten involved and implicated Baoyu and Wei Ruolan, Sun Shaozong wouldn't have bothered to pay attention to this matter.
Then he waved his hands like he was shooing away flies and said, "If the monk Liaochi from Fayuan Temple arrives, please come and let me know. If they are just ordinary monks and nuns, you can deal with them as you see fit."
Zhou Da retreated timidly and did not show up again until the afternoon. It seemed that the foolish monk had come to nothing last time, so this time he simply sent only his disciples.
I thought this day would pass without any trouble.
Who would have thought that at around 3:00 p.m., there was a sudden commotion outside, with countless people screaming like crazy and the sound of many gongs clanging.
What does this mean?
The Criminal Law Department suddenly turned into a drama troupe?
Sun Shaozong stood up and was about to go out to see what was going on, but Sun Chengye rushed to open the door first, and heard him say in a panic: "Something bad has happened, uncle. The heavenly dog swallowed up half of the sun!"
Heavenly dog swallowing the sun?
eclipse?!
Sun Shaozong ran outside in a hurry and saw Lin Delu leading a group of officials, holding washbasins and bronze mirrors and banging them in the yard, as if trying to drive away the legendary heavenly dog.
Sun Shaozong was too lazy to pay attention to these feudal superstitions. He looked up at the sky and saw that the originally scorching sun had been "eaten" away by one third.
Tsk~
This is really troublesome!
Sun Shaozong was immediately depressed. If this solar eclipse happened in later generations, it would at most be a national carnival. But in ancient times when people paid attention to the interaction between heaven and man, it would trigger a series of shocks in the court and the country. It was possible that several prime ministers in the cabinet would resign because of this.
That's nothing.
For someone of Sun Shaozong’s level, it’s not his turn to take the blame even if he wants to.
But according to tradition, lunar and solar eclipses represent boiling resentment in the world, and according to tradition, the prisons must be re-investigated to redress the grievances of the people.
This also means that the fruits of the Criminal Law Division's work for more than half a month have been wasted. In the following period of time, the list of people to be sentenced in autumn will have to be reviewed again - and after the results of the review are reported, the higher-ups may even send it back for a third retrial in order to show their seriousness!
It will probably take more than a month to get here and there!
Thinking about the old and young people who guarded his door every day, Sun Shaozong felt like something was blocking his heart and was depressed.
Doesn’t a solar eclipse occur only once every few hundred years? How come I happened to be caught in it?
Feeling depressed, Sun Shaozong saw Lin Delu still holding a copper basin and banging it randomly. He walked over with a dark face, kicked him and made him stagger, and scolded him: "Why are you banging for no reason! Send someone to notify Daxing and Wanping counties immediately, and send more patrol officers to the streets to be on guard, lest some bad guys take advantage of the chaos to cause trouble!"
Seeing that his face was gloomy, Lin Delu dared not say anything and hurriedly covered his buttocks.
Upon seeing this, the other officials naturally became disheartened and fled in all directions.
Then Sun Shaozong ordered people to call Qiu Yunfei and Zhao Wuwei, and asked them to gather the bailiffs of the government office to patrol the streets.
By the time the arrangements were almost complete, nearly half of the sun had been swallowed by the Heavenly Dog. At this rate of progress, the entire solar eclipse would last about an hour.
It was obviously inappropriate to go back to the room to continue reviewing official documents at this moment, so Sun Shaozong simply put on a full set of official clothes and led Wei Ruolan and Lin Delu to the lobby, ready to deal with any emergency at any time.
However, Sun Shaozong had a gloomy face, and Wei Ruolan's face looked even worse - as the brother-in-law of Prince Beijing, he had been criticized a hundred times more than Sun Shaozu in recent times. If Shui Rong had not worked hard to protect him, he would have been dismissed from his post long ago.
However, although the official position was saved, the marriage that had been basically finalized encountered twists and turns - the two marquises of the Shi family were afraid that discussing the marriage with the Wei family at this time would incur the wrath of King Zhongshun, so they unilaterally gave up.
The two superiors both had sullen faces, and Lin Delu, who was standing beside them, didn't even dare to breathe.
The three of them sat there for about half an hour. As the sky outside grew darker and darker, a man suddenly came crawling in, shouting at the top of his lungs, "My lord, disaster has occurred, disaster has occurred!"
He thought someone was causing trouble on the street, but when he looked closely, he saw that the person was the warden Zhou Da. Sun Shaozong was speechless and said, "What's wrong? Is there something wrong in your house of confinement again?"
"Your Excellency is indeed wise!"
Zhou Da changed color and gasped: "That whore...that whore really gave birth to a monster!"
