The rise of the poor

Chapter 1091 Inspecting the Cell
The Jingnan Prison is located outside the Yimen Gate in the southwest of the Jingnan County Government Hall. In fact, the basic cells in ancient times were basically located in the southwest of the Yimen Gate of the county government. They all belong to the "south" direction of the county government, and it is for this reason that ancient prisons have the common name of "South Prison".

Zhu Pingan put away the sign-in booklet, and took Liu Mu and Liu Dadao to the Jingnan Prison together.

In order to better understand the situation of the cell and the prisoners, Zhu Pingan called Zhang Danian, the official of the punishment room, on the way.

In fact, it would be more appropriate to call Dian Shi Li Da, who is in charge of public security and criminal affairs, but Dian Shi Li Da asked someone to ask for leave today, and did not go to work.

The cell in Jingnan County is of masonry structure. The cell wall is nearly five meters high. There are two layers of courtyard walls. It is heavily guarded.

"Officer Zhang, how much does the prison occupy? How many cells are there?" Zhu Pingan asked Zhang Danian, the official of the punishment room.

"Hui Xianzun, our prison in Jingnan County covers an area of ​​about six acres. It is divided into two courtyards, the inner prison and the outer prison. The outer prison houses temporary and short-term prisoners, and the inner prison houses serious criminals. There are 68 rooms, including 35 men's prisons, 20 women's prisons, 3 water prisons, and the rest are jailers' rooms and punishment rooms." Zhang Danian, the official of the punishment room, replied.

Zhu Pingan nodded and stepped into the outer prison.

After hearing the news, the prison wardens and others rushed to kneel down and salute. Zhu Pingan waved his hand and asked them to stand up.

Entering the prison, the first building is the Prison Temple, which enshrines the prison god who manages the prison, that is, the patron saint of the prison.

There are two prison gods enshrined in the Jingnan Prison God Temple. One is Gaoyao at the end of primitive society. Because he was appointed by Shun as an official in charge of criminal law and created the prison, he later became the prison god; Xiao He, Xiangguo in the early Western Han Dynasty, was also revered as the God of Prison because Xiao He had worked as a jailer and later helped Liu Bang establish the legal system of the early Han Dynasty - "Nine Chapters Law".

Every 15th day of the lunar new year, the prison will hold worship activities in the Prison Temple to pray for the blessing of the Prison God.When prison officials and leaders take office, they will also come to worship the prison god.Zhu Pingan did as the Romans did when he went to the countryside, and he also burned a stick of incense when he went in.

After leaving the Prison Temple, Zhu Pingan first went to the outer prison.

As soon as he entered the foreign prison, Zhu Pingan felt as if he had entered a vegetable market. There were too many prisoners in the cell, and it was almost overcrowded. It seemed that Jingnan Prison had become the most suitable place to live in Jingnan County.None of the cells inside was empty, and each cell was filled with prisoners. On average, each cell contained no less than ten prisoners, and the smallest cell contained five prisoners.

what happened?

Isn't there a mountain of cases in Jingnan? !Why are there so many prisoners in this cell? !

Zhu Ping'an was stunned by the many prisoners inside.

"My lord, I am wronged, I am wronged."

"I didn't commit a crime, let me out."

"I beg the official, let me go out. I have an old man and a young man. I am the only labor force in the family. Without me, how can the family live? It is almost time for the rice harvest. How will their orphans and widows harvest the rice?" what."

"Officer Dog, let me out, it's drought and waterlogging, and there's no harvest in the field, we'll take it all away"

When the prisoners in the prison saw someone coming in, especially when they saw Zhu Pingan in official uniform, they were all furious, and they all grabbed the fence or shouted for grievances, or pleaded, or simply vented insults.

"Be honest! Do you want to be whipped again?!"

The jailer stepped forward with a whip, and flicked a few whips at the most noisy cells to frighten the prisoners and make them quiet.

"Why are so many people locked up in the cell? What crimes did they commit?" Zhu Pingan turned to ask the warden Zhang Danian and the accompanying jailers.

"Hui Xianzun. Most of these prisoners resisted paying taxes because they did not pay taxes. There are about a hundred of them."

Zhang Danian, the judge of the punishment room, replied.

In ancient fiscal revenue, money, food and taxes accounted for a large proportion, so the management and punishment of taxes were relatively strict. For those who refused to pay taxes or resisted payment of taxes, the county government could indeed arrest them as an example.

Zhu Pingan nodded when he heard the words, and then took two steps forward, approaching the cell with the largest number of people and the worst disturbance just now.

Several wardens wanted to show off in front of Zhu Pingan, and guarded Zhu Pingan carefully as if facing a big enemy.

Zhu Pingan waved his hand and stepped forward.

"Why were you imprisoned?" Zhu Ping'an asked gently.

"I didn't pay the tax." The inmates in the cell replied in different voices, their attitudes were either cautious or resentful.

"But we didn't refuse to pay on purpose. Last year, there was a drought, then a flood, and then pirates. All the rice was destroyed. We paid all the old grain at home, but it was still not enough. I really have no choice."

"That's right, natural disasters and man-made disasters are coming, there is no harvest in the fields, and there is not enough food, how do you pay taxes?"

"Our village did not encounter pirates and Japanese pirates, but because our village is located in the lower reaches of the river, the floods flooded our village, no matter whether it was dry fields or paddy fields, all the crops in the fields were soaked and rotten, and not a grain of grain was harvested. .”

"Huh, there are two official characters. The drought and floods are so severe that many people are gone. I don't see you officials coming to relieve the disaster. It's very active to collect taxes one by one. It doesn't matter whether the people live or die. Arrest people if they don’t pay taxes.”

"My lord, I don't accept it. It's not our family that didn't pay taxes in the village. Why should I be arrested alone? I'm the only labor force in my family. My mother is old and has inconvenient legs and feet. My mother-in-law is weak and weak. It seems that the rice harvest is about to be harvested, what will happen to the family if I am gone."

The prisoners replied in one go, and they all meant the same thing. Floods and droughts occurred frequently last year, and some villages were also plagued by pirates and Japanese pirates, which caused a serious reduction in crop production in the fields, and some villages even reduced to grainless. This made them unable to pay taxes, and they were arrested and imprisoned for this reason.

That's it, after listening to the explanations of the prisoners, Zhu Ping'an understood.In order to get a better understanding, Zhu Ping'an checked the situation in each prison one by one. The situation was similar to the first prison, with minor differences.

After learning about the outer prison, Zhu Pingan went to the inner prison again.The outer prison is overcrowded, and the inner prison is also overcrowded.

In addition to the overcrowding of the outer prisons, some prisoners who did not pay taxes were sent to the inner prisons, and more prisoners were caused by the backlog of cases.Because of the backlog of cases, the trial process has been delayed, so the suspects have been locked up in the prison. Every time a case is piled up, a suspect is locked in. Old prisoners are piled up without trial, and new prisoners are locked up again. , The more and more cases, the more and more prisoners in the inner prison, and finally lead to overcrowding.

If officials don't act, the common people will suffer.

Zhu Pingan was deeply moved and made up his mind.

(End of this chapter)