A Treacherous Imperial Court Official Condemned by History (2/2)

Toward the end of the year, Qin Hui and his followers still could not convict Yue Fei of any wrongdoing even though they had exhausted all schemes and torture methods. Judicial administrators of the imperial court, Li Ruopu and He Chanyou, and deputy judicial administrator Xue Renfu all believed that Yue Fei was innocent, but they were all banished by Qin Hui. Whoever spoke up for Yue Fei would be persecuted; Liu Yunsheng, a common person, appealed for Yue Fei, and for that he was executed.
 
Han Shizhong, a general, felt Yue Fei was unfairly treated and challenged Qin Hui in person. Qin couldn't come up with a convincing answer and instead he said, "Although the letter that Yue Fei and Yue Yun wrote to Zhang Xian could not be verified, it probably existed."
 
General Han retorted, "How could the words 'it probably existed' convince people!"
 
On the last day of the year when snow flakes were dancing around, Qin Hui and his wife were drinking in their room. Qin's heart was heavy because he wanted Yue Fei dead and yet he didn't have any evidence to convict him. Wang, Qin's wife, who had been urging Qin to kill Yue Fei every day, encouraged her husband, "It's easier to bind a tiger than to let it go." On his wife's prompt, Qin thought he could wait no longer. He sent a note to the prison officer, telling him to quietly have Yue Fei killed in his cell. On January 27, 1142 AD, Yue Fei was secretly killed in Fengboting in Hangzhou City. Along with Yue Fei, his son Yue Yun and general Zhang Xian were also murdered. The whole nation was in tears! Thus the treacherous imperial court official Qin Hui and his wife committed in conspiracy one of the most outrageous crimes of all ages that caused wrath from both man and heaven.
 
One day Qin Hui and his family were touring the West Lake. He suddenly saw a giant talking to him sternly, "You persecuted faithful and upright people; the crimes you committed are so heinous that you should be torn to pieces!" Not long after he returned home, he started to suffer gangrene on his back.
 
Qin continued to rain false accusations onto good and faithful people such as Han Shizhong, Zhang Xin, Zhang Zhongxian, Hu Wending, and so on. He started drafting indictments with the intention to have them all thrown into jail. That's what that did him in! As he was writing, he suddenly felt dizzy and saw that a deity knocked him over with a hammer. The deity said, "You've committed enough crimes and are near death. And yet you still have the audacity to bring harm to good people!" "Please, spare my life!" Qin yelled in a cold sweat.
 
When the indictment document drafted on his instructions by the Judicial Office of the imperial court was brought to Qin Hui for his approval, his hands trembled so hard that he could not write a single word. The moment he closed his eyes he would see the deity closing in on him with the hammer held high. A few days later he died of gangrene. Moments before his death, people near him all heard him crying out for help and the sound of iron chains. His son, Qin Xi, died too.
 
He Li, one of Qin's aides, went southeast for an errand and in a moment of trance entered the netherworld. There he saw Qin Xi in chains and asked, "Where is my boss?" In tears, Qin Xi replied that he was in Fengdu. He Li moved on following Qin Xi's directions, and indeed saw Qin Hui and Mo Qixie in Fengdu. Both Qin and Mo were in cuffs and chains and were in excruciating pain from torture. Qin said to He, "Tell my wife that retribution has begun for what we did to Yue Fei."
 
Since her husband's death, Wang had never been at ease. One day word came that five hundred thousand Jin troops led by Jin Wuzhu stormed into the central plains. Wang thought, Yue Fei's dead now, the Song Dynasty is about to fall, so I'll surrender to Jin Wuzhu and I may be granted some title and wealth. But then she was informed by He Li that retribution had started for her conspiracy with her husband against Yue Fei. She faintly saw Qin Hui in chains and it scared her to no end. She also saw ghostly guards approaching her, hammers and chains in hands, and then she was hit and fell to the ground. People outside her room heard her calling for help, and when they rushed into the room they found her dead.
 
Yue Fei's reputation was cleared under Emperor Xiaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty. Yue Fei, a real man who was faithful to his belief, loyal to his country, and loving to the people, became an immortal hero. People of later generations built a tomb and a temple at the West Lake, Hangzhou City, to forever commemorate him. In the center of the temple stands a statue of Yue Fei in armor, and above his head hangs a plate that reads “Return my rivers and mountains.” In front of his tomb, raw iron statues of Qin Hui, his wife, Mo Qixie, and Zhang Jun, are on their knees, surrounded by iron fences, their chests and shoulders bare and their hands bound behind their backs, bearing the spurns and scolds from people for generations to come. The inscription on the tombstone reads “The green mountain is fortunate to bury the bones of a loyal man; the white iron is innocent enough to mold treacherous officials.”
 
Over the past hundreds of years, people's hatred for the treacherous imperial court officials has only deepened. The kneeling statues have more than once been broken by angry crowds, and then been rebuilt only for people to vent their indignation. Qin Hui, the giant fool of a treacherous official, has been nailed on the column of shame in history, and he will be spurned forever and condemned by history.
 
A poem reads:
 
Scheming and wielding unrestrained power with arrogance,
Yet it is fleeting as if melting ice.
The gods strike at the brink of death,
Heaven's Way will never forget

一代权奸　千古罪人 (2/2)

直到年底，秦桧一伙绞尽脑汁，用尽酷刑，也无法将岳飞定案。大理寺丞李若朴、何产犹，大理卿薛仁辅都认为岳飞无罪，但他们都被秦桧贬到外地去了。凡是为岳飞伸冤的都受到陷害，平民刘允生上书为岳飞伸冤，竟被处死。
 
韩世忠对岳飞案也抱不平，当面责问秦桧。秦桧无法回答，竟说：「岳飞和岳云写给张宪的信这件事，虽弄不清，但莫须有（或许是有的）。」
 
韩世忠气愤的回答：「莫须有三个字怎能使天下人心服！」
 
岁末那天，雪花纷飞。秦桧夫妻在东窗下取暖喝酒。秦桧一心要置岳飞于死地，但没有证据，怕引起公愤，因此心事重重。王氏日夜唆使秦桧杀岳飞，此时便怂恿说：「缚虎容易放虎难。」秦桧听了王氏的话，认为不能再耽误时间，就写了一张小纸条交给狱官，命人将岳飞秘密杀害于风波亭。岳云、张宪也同时被害。全国人都饮泪而泣。奸臣秦桧夫妻，酿下了这起人神共怒的千古奇冤。
 
秦桧有一天全家游西湖，忽然看见一巨人严厉的说：「你残害忠良，罪该碎尸万段！」回家后，秦桧就背上发疽。
 
但他还继续制造大冤狱，阴谋陷害韩世忠、张信、张忠献、胡文定等。写本欲起大狱，害尽忠良。这一本非同小可！正写时忽觉形神昏聩，见一神用锤将其打倒，说道：「汝罪恶贯满盈，死期已近，尚敢谋害忠良！」秦桧大喊「饶命！」大理寺将在他授意下写的公文呈上来，秦桧想落笔批示，手颤抖的竟然不能写字。一闭眼就看到神人举锤而来，几天后，就背疽溃烂而死。当时周围人都听到他喊「饶命」和铁索声。他的嗣子秦熹也死了。
 
秦桧有个衙役叫何立，到东南方去出差，恍惚间到了阴间。看见秦熹戴着铁枷，就问：「太师在哪里？」秦熹哭着说在丰都。何立按他所说的地方前往，果然看见秦桧与万俟卨都戴着铁枷，受尽毒打，他们对何立说：「可以告诉夫人，东窗之下害岳飞的事，报应已经发作了。」
 
王氏自从丈夫死后，坐卧不安。忽报金兀术领兵五十万，杀进中原。王氏暗想，岳飞已死，宋室江山难保，我去投金兀术，还能有封赠。忽听何立告知东窗事发，恍惚看到秦桧披枷戴锁，吓的魂飞魄散，又看到鬼卒持铁锤、铁索朝自己走来，背上被锤击中，跌了一跤，众人在外只听到喊「饶命」，进来看时，王氏已死。
 
岳飞的冤狱，在宋孝宗时，得到平反昭雪。岳飞坚贞不屈，精忠报国，爱民如子，成为千古传颂的英雄。人们在杭州的西湖边修造了岳坟、岳庙，永远纪念他。岳飞一身戎装的塑像端坐在大殿中央，上方悬挂的匾额上写着「还我河山」。在其墓前，人们又用生铁浇铸了秦桧、王氏、万俟卨、张俊的跪像，圈在铁栅内，袒胸露臂反剪双手，跪在岳飞墓前，让其承受世人的唾骂和痛击。墓阙上悬联：「青山有幸埋忠骨，白铁无辜铸佞臣」。
 
数百年来，随着岁月的流逝，人们对奸臣的痛恨积累弥深。跪像一再被愤怒的世人击毁，又一再被重铸出来供人们排遣义愤。这巨奸大蠹永远被钉在了历史的耻辱柱上：永远遭人唾骂，真是遗臭万年。
 
有诗曰：
 
窃弄威权意气豪，谁知一旦似冰消。
请看临死神人击，天道昭昭定不饶！