01.

During the period of Wu Zetian, Prime Minister Di Renjie, who was good at solving cases, was framed by Lai Junchen and almost died. After reading Lai Junchen's "Luo Zhi Jing", his spine went cold and his palms went cold. I broke out in cold sweat and did not dare to cry out for injustice. Later, Empress Wu Zetian finished reading this book and sighed: I may not be able to live up to my scheming. Perhaps, at this time, Wu Zetian's desire to get rid of Junchen came into being.

There are so many cruel officials in history. Like Lai Junchen, he has raised the level of bullying, toying with people and how to climb up to the level of theory, and he is naked and has no taboos. Not yet. The coolness and evil of Laijunchen are also rare in the ages.

How did a villain like Lai Junchen rise to power? What's the ending?

02.

Lai Junchen was born into a family of gamblers. His mother was originally married to a man surnamed Cai, and she was an avid gambler. Once, he lost a lot of money to a gambler named Lai. He also lost his land and house. It was not enough. He also owed a debt and had no money to pay it back. The gambler Lai asked him to use his pregnant wife to pay off the debt. Gambler Cai's wife had an affair with the gambler, so it was difficult to tell whose child the child belonged to. This kid is coming to Junchen. Lai Junchen was born in a family of gamblers. Can he learn well from the education he received in such an environment? When he grew up, Lai Junchen spent his whole day idle and committing many evil deeds, including murder and arson. If such people don’t go to jail, who will?

During that period, Wu Zetian took two measures to deal with the opposition:

First, establish a censorship system. It is a super large suggestion box made of copper. This suggestion box is divided into four grids, corresponding to the four directions of east, west, south and north. Among them, the grid facing north is black and is specially designed to receive people's informants. Once your opinions are put in, don't think about taking them out.

Second, encourage whistleblowing in person.

When Lai Junchen was in prison, Wu Zetian had issued an edict asking everyone to report. Regardless of whether they had the right to report, the prisoners in the prison also knew about it. Lai Junchen felt that this was an excellent opportunity to change his destiny. If you don’t confess, you won’t confess. If you confess, you won’t confess in vain. So Lai Junchen filed an application in prison, saying that I also had secrets to report. The officials in the prison were worried at that time and thought, the court said that everyone can inform, but does "everyone" include prisoners? He was not sure, so he went to ask the provincial governor for instructions. It just so happened that the governor of this state was a member of the Li Tang clan. He resented the informing behavior of villains like Lai Junchen the most in his life, so he had Lai Junchen beaten with a wooden board and then taken back to the cell. In this way, Lai Junchen's first whistleblower ended in failure. Later, the governor who beat up Lai Junchen was killed, and Lai Junchen reported again. At this time, the prison officials did not dare to stop him and politely sent him to Wu Zetian.

When Lai Junchen saw Wu Zetian, he immediately complained: He wanted to report the conspiracy of Li Tang's clan to the emperor, but he was beaten up by the clan governor and the report was suppressed. Now, the wise emperor has eliminated all the Li Tang clan members who have evil intentions, and my grievances can be vindicated and redressed. Wu Zetian heard this and thought it was really good. Even though he was a death row prisoner, he was quite eloquent. While complaining, he also did not forget to say flattering words. He was a talent. Taking a closer look, this condemned man is still a handsome man, so handsome. Wu Zetian had always liked handsome men, so she not only pardoned Lai Junchen, but also made him a censor.

As an official, Lai Junchen worked very hard for Wu Zetian. Wu Zetian sometimes didn't even need to give orders to get rid of any opposition. Lai Junchen would just figure it out on his own. The various and cruel methods used by Lai Junchen to handle the case are shocking. The instruments of torture alone were terrifying.

He wrote this in "Luo Zhi Jing": "If the matter is not big, it will not be surprising. If the case is not as good as others, the merits will be obvious. If you seek comfort from above, you will invite favors from below, the injustice is inherent. It is inevitable." Regardless of the number of prisoners and whether they are unjust or not, the principle of cruel officials in handling cases is to attack those who are detrimental to the emperor according to the emperor's needs.

How can a case involving many people be solved? Lai Junchen designed roughly six steps. For example:

The first step is to clarify the goal. See who is detrimental to the emperor, target him, and take immediate action to attack him.

In the second step, the informers send out informant letters from various places, and then they attack in groups. He bribed hundreds of ruffians from various places. If he wanted to frame someone, he would instruct these ruffians to report him at almost the same time.

The third step is to arrest the criminal. According to the emperor's decree, the person who was falsely accused was imprisoned.

The fourth step is to extract confessions through torture. Lai Junchen is a top expert in using torture to interrogate prisoners and obtain the confessions they want. He has a "famous saying": "People can accept death, but they cannot endure pain." Hearing this, people can tremble. What kind of pain is unbearable? For example, lifting the prisoner's yoke to the top of the prisoner's head and then stacking bricks on top of the yoke is called "immortal offering fruit." There is also a method called "donkey colt pulling out the wooden stake", which requires the prisoner to use the strength of his neck and waist to pull out the wooden stake. It’s horrifying to hear it, let alone watch it. In addition, Lai Junchen also invented many unnamed punishments, which were equally terrible. He is not satisfied yet, not satisfied. He believes that the highest level of torture is "subduing the enemy without fighting", that is, as soon as the criminal goes to court and is put in shackles, he does not need to try all the punishments, but is automatically punished before he is sentenced. As a result, he developed many more cruel punishments, which would scare the prisoners out of their wits and would rather accuse themselves.

The fifth step is to follow the clues. Forcing criminals to "bite" more people leads to conviction.

The sixth step is to forge a confession. Compile the prisoners' confessions to make them consistent without any flaws.

Lai Junchen’s torture methods were more cruel than those of his “predecessor” Zhou Xing.

Who is Zhou Xing?

03.

Wu Zetian's favor for the cruel official Zhou Xing was once more than that of other cruel officials, and she even gave him the surname Wu. This was a huge "honor" at the time. Zhou Xing was also so happy that he forgot about himself and considered himself the eldest brother among the cruel officials. As the saying goes, "a flower never blooms in a hundred days." It is not surprising that a cool official like Zhou Xing, who does all kinds of "dirty work", is abandoned. Soon, he fell out of favor in front of Wu Zetian. Wu Zetian handed over the matter of Zhou Xing to Lai Junchen.

One day in the second year of Tianshou (691), Lai Junchen, a rising star among the cruel officials, invited Zhou Xing to dinner. During the meal, Lai Junchen sighed and said, "You are an old-timer. How can you make a prisoner who refuses to confess confess?" Zhou Xing laughed and said, "It's very easy. You are all around." A pile of charcoal was burned fiercely, and a large vat was placed on it. The prisoner who refused to confess was asked to sit on it. After a while, the vat became hot, and he would do whatever he was asked to do." When Junchen came, he put his palms in his hands and praised it, and told people to do what Zhou Xing said. The charcoal fire was lit and the vat was set up. Lai Junchen also stood up, bowed to Zhou Xing and said: "I am investigating Brother Zhou's rebellion case according to the emperor's decree. Please ask Brother Zhou to enter this vat!" Zhou Xing was frightened on the spot and knelt down to beg for mercy. Said: "I will recruit whatever you want me to recruit." Lai Junchen handled this case easily.

The "senior" cruel official Zhou Xing was eliminated, which should have aroused Junchen's warning. But, he didn't. He believed that he had two major advantages and the emperor would not abandon him.

The first major advantage is that he is loyal to Emperor Wu Zetian. He talked about loyalty to the emperor in the "Luo Zhi Jing" and wrote: "Even if you are a close relative, you will never tolerate it, and you will not give in even if you do evil." As long as it is beneficial to the emperor, he can do anything, and he can even ignore ethics. His rise from a death row prisoner to a high position was all due to the emperor's promotion. For this, he felt loyal enough.

The second biggest advantage is his high professional quality. Among the many torturers, his professional "quality" in torture and extorting confessions is the highest, which is also his capital of pride. He felt that the emperor would not be able to do without him for a while in this regard.

In the first year of Yanzai (694), Lai Junchen was demoted for corruption, but he was quickly re-appointed. This made him more confident and elated, thinking that Wu Zetian couldn't live without him and had to protect him.

Since then, Lai Junchen has become more unscrupulous and dares to do any bad thing.

What bad thing did you do?

04.

Lai Junchen’s wife Wang was forced to marry her. His wife was born in the famous Wang family of Taiyuan and was a first-class noble at that time. In any case, she would not marry such a cruel official as Lai Junchen, because the Tang Dynasty paid great attention to hierarchy. It turns out that Miss Wang is the wife of a man named Duan Jian. Because she was famous for her beauty, she was noticed by Lai Junchen. Don't be afraid of thieves stealing, just be afraid of thieves missing you. Lai Junchen went directly to Duan's house and said that the emperor had rewarded him with the Wang family. Duan Jianming knew that Lai Junchen was falsely conveying the imperial edict, but he was afraid that Lai Junchen would falsely accuse him of treason. Is life valuable or love expensive? Duan Jian finally gave his wife away.

In addition, Lai Junchen framed the minister unscrupulously. Investigating rebellion cases is Lai Junchen's profession. So, he spent the whole day thinking about how to create a suspect. He would falsely accuse anyone of treason against anyone who was unfavorable to the emperor or offended him. He often does this and succeeds every time, and his courage becomes stronger and stronger. Later, he simply wrote the names of officials in the DPRK and China on stones, and then he and his party members used pebbles to hit the stones with names from a distance, and framed whoever they hit for treason. Now, everyone in the court was on tenterhooks. Who is not afraid? Stones don't have eyes, so whoever they hit will be in bad luck. Who can bear the crime of rebellion?

Not to mention, later Junchen was bold enough to target Wu Zetian's few relatives. He told Wu Zetian that Wu Zetian's children and nephews were all unreliable and suspected of treason. Is a dog who wants to bite his master's relatives still far from being slaughtered?

05.

The person who brought down Lai Junchen and plunged him into catastrophe was his capable subordinate Wei Suizhong, who was also a cruel official. The falling out between bad guys is like turning the pages of a book, very fast. What happened is this:

One day, Wei Suizhong came to come to Junchen for a drink, and happened to meet a member of the Wang family who came to Junchen to entertain his wife. Lai Junchen felt that Wei Suizhong's status could not be lowered on the stage, and the banquet was full of respectable people, so he did not want Wei Suizhong to come in. Wei Suizui was very loyal and he had already seen the reason and felt that his self-esteem was greatly hurt. He was so angry that he couldn't care less. He rushed in, pointed at Mr. Wang's nose and cursed, "Be careful, I will torture your whole family to death." Lai Junchen also became angry and ordered people to tie up Wei Suizhong and beat him severely. Wei Suizhong regained consciousness after being severely beaten and quickly begged for mercy. Lai Junchen actually spared him.

After this incident, Wei Suizhong became more and more afraid. Others don't know what Lai Junchen's methods are, but he has a good reputation. If he can't guarantee it, one day Junchen will turn over the old accounts, what's the matter? As the saying goes, strike first and gain strength, strike later and suffer disaster. Wei Suizhong decided to take action first. How to start? At this time, Lai Junchen still had to favor Wu Zetian, and directly telling Wu Zetian that Lai Junchen was plotting rebellion would be self-defeating. Therefore, he decided to "curve" to save himself. He went to see Wu Zetian's nephew, King Wu Chengsi of Wei, and said, "Do you know who Junchen hit with stones last time? It was you, King Wei! He was going to accuse you of treason!" One sentence was like a bolt from the blue, and he was frightened. Wu Chengsi's face changed color. He heard that Junchen had snitched on him in front of Wu Zetian and said bad things about him. Now that Junchen's confidant Wei Suizhong said it, he couldn't believe it. Without further ado, Wu Chengsi took action immediately.

He contacted the children of the Wu family and Princess Taiping, and later recruited the emperor's heir Li Dan, and even the generals of the Imperial Army. Although these people usually have many conflicts, they are unprecedentedly united in bringing down Lai Junchen. They cannot bear the "hat" of treason.

They submitted a memorial saying that Lai Junchen had been corrupt, accepted bribes, bullied men and dominated women. The most serious crime was that Lai Junchen also wanted to be emperor himself. It was said that Lai Junchen often compared himself to Shi Le, the later Zhao emperor who was transformed from a slave to an emperor. ! Wu Zetian suppressed it and did not deal with it. She knew that Lai Junchen had offended too many people, and Wu Zetian had asked him to do many things. It was said that Junchen himself wanted to be the emperor, but Wu Zetian didn't believe it at all.

In this way, those who sued Lai Junchen were even more afraid. If Lai Junchen was not allowed to die this time, then these people would not only be unable to eat but walk away. They knew about Lai Junchen's cruel and vicious methods.

As a result, the prime ministers and Wu Zetian's officials were also mobilized to lobby Wu Zetian. However, Wu Zetian just didn't deal with it. However, at this time, the situation inside and outside the court was fierce.

In the end, Junchen’s wealth and life ended due to the cruel official. This cruel official was called Ji Xu. He was handsome, deep in the city, and brave. He worked with Lai Junchen and was trusted by Wu Zetian. One day in June of the first year of Shengong (697), Wu Zetian was riding a horse in the Forbidden Garden to relax, and Ji Xu held the horse for her. After a while, Wu Zetian asked, seemingly pointing out: "Is there anything going on outside recently?" Ji Xu said, "Everyone is talking a lot about the fact that the emperor has not sentenced Lai Junchen to death." Wu Zetian said, "Lai Junchen has done great service to the country. I can't help but think about it." Ji Xu continued: "Lai Junchen entangled with lawless people, framed Zhongliang, and accepted mountains of bribes, and the innocent souls who died of his persecution filled the road. Such people are traitors to the country and a public nuisance to your majesty. How can you have compassion for such a person?" After hearing this, Wu Zetian was silent for a moment and sighed: "This is the only way!"

Ji Xu's words are on point. He didn't say that Junchen was plotting rebellion. He just reminded Wu Zetian that Lai Junchen did many evil things, and everyone in the world hated him, no matter good or bad, and protecting him would be like setting him on fire. Didn't Lai Junchen say in "Luo Zhi Jing" that "good things should be attributed to the top, and sins should be attributed to the bottom"? Then use his brain to quell public anger and put his theories into practice.

On the third day of the sixth lunar month in the first year of Shen Gong, Wu Zetian decreed that the generals and ministers in the future would be beheaded. That day, all the people of Luoyang City mobilized. When Junchen was beheaded, the people rushed forward... The scene shocked Wu Zetian. She was glad that he was executed, otherwise, if this anger was drawn to herself, she would be in big trouble.

06.

Lai Junchen’s death was not only due to his many evil deeds, which made people in the world hate him to the bone, but also due to changes in the situation. Wu Zetian used cruel officials to eliminate the opposition. Will she use cruel officials to govern the country? Since there is no need for it, and the cruel staff with too much blood on their hands is like a hot potato, is there any need to keep it?

It is not accidental that all the noble ministers end up in the urn.