The female prisoner begged for mercy, not to be tortured, and to destroy the whole family
Li Tang was prosperous, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, and the political situation was stable. Economic activities such as the Silk Road have put China in the spotlight of the world. However, behind the prosperity lies deep contradictions and struggles.
Tang Gaozong, Tang Taizong, Wu Zetian and others ascended the throne one after another, and the political struggle at the upper level was fierce. During the reign of Wu Zetian, a cool official named Lai Junchen followed Wu Zetian's instructions and invented a series of cruel punishments that made the prisoners miserable, and even female prisoners were willing to sacrifice themselves as long as they were not tortured.
So, who is Lai Junchen, and why was he reused by Wu Zetian? Let's uncover the historical story of Wu Zetian and Lai Junchen. 1. Lai Junchen's tragic origin To understand why Wu Zetian reused Junchen, it is very important to understand Lai Junchen's life experience.
He was not born into a wealthy family, nor in an ancient hospital, nor in a temple, but in the home of a creditor.
Lai Junchen, a man from a creditor's family. His father was a gambler, and after incurring a large gambling debt, he sold his newly pregnant wife to pay off the debt. So, Lai Junchen grew up in the creditor's house since he was a child, and took the surname "Lai", which means "to come to the creditor's house".
However, due to the lack of good educational resources, the creditors did not pay attention to this "outsider", and Lai Junchen had nothing to do all day long, and most of his friends were local ruffians and hooligans.
His life was full of hardship and helplessness, and he had to make ends meet by snatching food and finding a place to sleep.
Lai Junchen is a relentless criminal who is tortured in prison, and the pain and despair in his life make him deeply hatred of society. Wu Zetian's whistleblower mailbox gave him the opportunity to use what he heard in prison and on the streets to write letters to report ** while using gossip to get tips to make ends meet.
And Li Xu, the person who once beat him a hundred boards in prison, never thought that this former enemy would now become his biggest threat.
Wu Zetian was the first female emperor in Chinese history, and her status and prestige caused dissatisfaction among the ministers and the people of the court. In order to consolidate his position, Wu Zetian adopted iron-blooded political methods, changed the name of the country to "Wu Zhou", and strengthened the imperial examination system of the Tang Dynasty.
Although she seems to be "justified" on the surface, she is also facing the ** from the five surnames and seven hopes of the education family outside the city. Faced with this situation, Wu Zetian adopted the cool official system to suppress these opposition forces, but she knew that this method was only a palliative rather than a cure, because there were many forces outside the city, and if they were blindly suppressed, it would only cause more resistance.
Therefore, Wu Zetian needs to find longer-term solutions to these challenges.
In the development of the feudal imperial system, the cool official system gradually lost its original intention of arresting the wicked and protecting the good people. Becoming abusive and indiscriminate, as long as a certain reason is met, whether it is a human or a ghost, it may suffer from prison.
The mediocre and incompetent monarch made it difficult for the good ministers of the court to survive. Therefore, she decides to start with the Cool Officials system to find out the crux of the problem, remove all the forces that stand in her way, and make sure that no one inside or outside the court can oppose her.
She wants to make all her people submit to her, so that she can realize her dream of world unification. To this end, she set up a report box in the streets and alleys to probe the unfavorable factors outside the city, collect intelligence, strengthen the rule of **, and she will not hesitate to execute anyone who has ** or opposition.
This report mailbox is still used by us today, and it provides an opportunity for Lai Junchen to get close to Wu Zetian. Although Lai Junchen's study time was not long, his later formation of the *** type of personality made him begin to study torture, and finally after being reused by Wu Zetian, he compiled books such as "Governing the Enemy Volume" and "Questioning Crime Volume", the content of which was unacceptable, and even the then prime minister Di Renjie was shocked, "There are people who can have such a vicious human nature."
Wu Zetian may know about Lai Junchen's personality problems, but she thinks that he can be used for herself, and maybe he will be loyal to herself. Because Lai Junchen has no background and no power, it is not a solution to wander around society all day long.
Wu Zetian's conjecture was confirmed, and after Lai Junchen got the position of cool official, he brought his cruel nature into full play. When there was no one available, Wu Zetian's report mailbox played an important role.
* Whistleblowing each other, and some people even reported that they wanted to frame the Li family. As a result, there has been a wave of whistleblowers among the people, and a large number of whistleblowers have emerged, providing all kinds of information.
During this period, whistleblowers were sentenced regardless of whether they were guilty or not, and some innocent people were tortured to the point of being forced to confess.
During the Wu Zetian period, some people were forcibly arrested and forced to report others, otherwise they would be sentenced to death. This kind of behavior is equivalent to Wu Zetian manipulating people's fate, even if there is no evidence.
After passing Wu Zetian's selection, these whistleblowers became her subordinates, specializing in dealing with those who disobeyed, including Lai Junchen. This group of cool officials conducted political ** against the scholar class, the Li family, and those who opposed Wu Zetian's forces, among which Lai Junchen pushed this ** to the peak, and his strength shocked even Wu Zetian.
Third, Lai Junchen's punishment methods are terrifying, he relied on his *** personality and cool work experience, constantly innovated punishment, and even compiled the "Luo Chi Jing". With Wu Zetian's full support, he became more and more unscrupulous, and his methods of treating prisoners became more and more cruel.
Among them, his punishment for female prisoners was even more unexpected, such as "the jade girl ascended the ladder", "the fairy saw the fruit", "vinegar jar nose" and so on. Among them, the "Jade Girl Ladder" was used when the Western Turkic Khan's maidservants **, that is, the prisoner stepped on a ladder full of wooden thorns to climb up, and there was a rope around his neck.
The cruelty of these punishments is unimaginable.
If a prisoner is not stabbed or hanged during the climb, he will be thrown down and stabbed to death. Such bloody and brutal methods are terrifying.
A servant girl was forced to "report" the Khan because she couldn't stand the pain, claiming that as long as she didn't torture me and destroy my family. This shows how terrible this criminal law is.
However, fortunately, the Khan's men proved the Khan's innocence with their deaths, and thus escaped. Another example is what happened when Wu Zetian ordered Zhou Xing to deal with it, and the other name was "Please enter the urn", which was given by Lai Junchen.
Zhou Xing is a cool official, and the funding is higher than that of Lai Junchen, so for a while, Lai Junchen didn't know how to make him confess, and the execution in front of him was very disrespectful to his seniors.
Even among the cool officials who enforce the law strictly, there are still cases of mutual denunciation. In order to maintain the overall situation, Wu Zetian chose to "turn a blind eye". Her appointment of Lai Junchen is not only an extreme trust in him, but also a confirmation that Zhou Xing is not reported by Lai Junchen.
In the face of his predecessors, he cleverly designed a seemingly relaxed and happy drinking game, but in fact, it was secretly murderous. He invited Zhou Xing to the restaurant to drink, and the two talked freely, and Lai Junchen even specially toasted Zhou Xing, making him drunk.
This is to stay sober so that Zhou Xing can be held accountable at all times. When Zhou Xing's face was red from drinking, Lai Junchen pretended to have something bothering him and asked Zhou Xing if a prisoner could not open his mouth, what could be done to make him loosen his mouth.
On the orders of His Majesty, please enter the urn. Zhou Xing realized at this time that he had fallen into a trap and knew the horror of this punishment, so he begged for mercy again and again and confessed his crime, which is the famous allusion to "please enter the urn" in history.
Lai Junchen's ambitions continued to swell, and even the then prime minister Di Renjie was not spared. He used Di Renjie to ask him to confess, and Di Renjie did as he requested.
However, Lai Junchen was not satisfied with this, he wanted to kill two birds with one stone, and at the same time asked Di Renjie to report Yang Zhirou, a member of the Ministry of Rites. Di Renjie resolutely objected, so he crashed into the stone pillar, his face was covered with blood, and he fainted on the spot.
Lai Junchen was worried that he would be implicated, so he immediately called the imperial doctor. However, he did not repent because of this, but continued to frame all kinds of small **, these ** could only be at his mercy due to their lack of background and strength.
What's worse is that he is also obsessed with beauty and asks ** to hand over his wife, otherwise he will be charged with a crime. These ** had no choice but to obey his orders.
Later, this behavior even spread to diplomatic envoys and Princess Taiping, causing widespread concern.
The ministers saw the arrogance of Lai Junchen, as if no one could match it except Wu Zetian. They repeatedly wrote to Wu Zetian to punish Lai Junchen. Wu Zetian said that he would consider ** him, but the ministers were not fuel-efficient lamps, and in the end, Wu Zetian chose to protect other forces and had to deal with Lai Junchen.
Lai Junchen was publicly executed, and his bones were divided among the crowd in the city, which shows that he not only hated the bureaucracy, but also disgusted the people. A generation of demons has finally received the punishment they deserve.
Lai Junchen's death also marked the end of the cool official system during the Wu Zetian period of the Tang Dynasty. However, no matter how the upper strata struggle and change, the common people at the bottom are always the most painful.
They have no money, no power, no matter what system comes down, they can only obey, otherwise their lives will be in danger. Therefore, the strength of a court or ** does not lie in how powerful the upper echelons are, but how much the lower echelons support and approve.
Without an economic foundation, where can there be social prosperity? Therefore, the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty was inseparable from the support of the people, and at the same time, it was also resolutely opposed to troublemakers like Lai Junchen. In troubled times, no individual or group can survive without the support of the people.
The above is just my personal opinion, what do you think about the cruel punishment of Lai Junchen? Is there any controversy about Wu Zetian's governance methods? Everyone is welcome to join us**!