You said you have a witness.
Where is the witness?
Take him in.
I’m Liu Jiang.
I want to testify that
Li Bin and Mr. Mo
kidnapped my daughter
and threatened
me to
kill that monk
in Xinghua Temple
and grab national treasure.
Unruly man!
Somebody here!
Hold on, prime minister.
You shouldn’t try the case.
As a censor,
I have the right to present the witness to His Majesty.
Take him away.
Answer my question.
Maybe he confessed to
false charges under your torture.
You said that Li Bin killed a person
and seized his property.
Where’s the booty?
Did you really get the Buddha’s relic?
Don’t concern about that.
Now that I have a witness,
I have a physical evidence for sure.
I’ll present them to His Majesty.
Without the booty,
it means that you are framing him up.
That’s enough, Lord Li.
Aren’t you afraid
I’ll reveal your relationship with Li Bin?
You indulged your relative to
commit the criminal of murder and robbery.
You even framed me up to His Majesty.
Aren’t you afraid
I’ll impeach you to His Majesty?
Listen to me.
Nevertheless,
you can’t sentence Li Bin to death.
What’s the current status?
Now, a serious draught hits all over the country.
His Majesty told me to pray for rain at the altar.
You’re knowledgeable and should know that
if you put him to death now,
you’ll violate God’s will.
God’s will?
Is death penalty to a heinous corrupted official
the violation to God’s will?
I’ll see whether I can sentence him.
How dare you?
His Majesty won’t pardon you.
Didn’t you say that there wasn’t any negligence?
Master,
how is it possible?
I assigned the best bowmen.
I don’t know why he is still alive.
Don’t worry, teacher.
Liu Bowen dare not.
He dares not for sure.
In the abstinence period to pray for rain,
if he performs the death penalty,
that means he affronts God’s will
and His Majesty.
He dares not.
He absolutely dares not.
Master,
in one month, the abstinence period will terminate
and His Majesty will return to the imperial palace.
At that time,
we have chance to redress it.
Prepare the ink.
I’ll write a memorial to His Majesty.
Fake.
The witness is fake.
I don’t know
Liu Jiang at all.
Liu Bowen,
you extort confessions by torture.
I want to visit His Majesty.
You are a smart man.
Why don’t you understand?
Even though you have a witness
like Mr. Mo in the prime minister’s mansion,
can he live till His Majesty comes back?
Before His Majesty comes back,
you’ll be beheaded.
Liu Bowen, don’t leave.
Liu Bowen,
my death penalty
isn’t up to you.
It seems that you’ll never change your mind
to oppose me?
Does it matter?
Li Bin,
do you believe
someone can rescue you?
Liu Bowen,
you aren’t a first-rank official, are you?
Do you think that
you are dominant?
Don’t worry.
I’ll give you the answer.
Good.
I’m waiting for your answer!
I’m waiting for your answer!
Lord Liu,
Will you really behead Li Bin?
Yes.
I’ve heard about that.
Li Bin deserves the death penalty indeed.
But in the abstinence period
to pray for rain,
it’s strictly forbidden to kill or slaughter.
Aren’t you afraid you may irritate His Majesty
and affront the rule
of heaven.
I must do it.
Lord Liu, Lord Liu,
think it twice.
They’ve submitted an urgent memorial to His Majesty.
Lord, lord.
You are back finally.
What’s this?
Look! Look!
You found it.
I guess
you found it outside his private residence.
Gosh,
You’re desperately foresighted.
Li Bin’s wife was in haste
and revealed its whereabout.
We tailed after her to a money house
and found it in a secret cabinet.
The evidence is irrefutable.
Lord, lord.
Prime Minister Li.
I broke into your room.
You won’t drive me away, will you?
Of course not, prime minister.
Please, please, please.
Do you remember this bowl, Lord Liu?
It’s a stoneware bowl used in Marshal’s Mansion
and then collected by me.
I remember it for sure.
I know that.
Lord Liu,
you must remember the old article
and old friend
with special affection.
Come on. Come on.
Here is a bottle of aged liquor. I heated it at home.
It’s still warm now.
Stop rambling on it.
Come on. Bottom up.
Prime minister,
you…
Well,
are you afraid that I’ll poison you?
How about exchanging your liquor with me?
I don’t mean that, prime minister.
Bottom up. Bottom up.
Come on.
How about it?
I’ll pour for you.
Uncle Liu,
will Prime Minister Li do something desperate
and poison our lord?
I don’t think so.
Lord Liu is a wise man.
Come on.
Prime minister,
I remember it for sure.
I pour for you.
At that time…
Oops, prime minister…
At that time, His Majesty wasn’t the emperor
and we were assistants in the Senior General’s Mansion.
I was engaged in
the consultation of confidential affairs.
You managed army provision supply and daily government affairs.
Prime minister,
you were sheerly stingy.
Very stingy.
Well,
I must be stingy at that time.
Our country was not in peace.
Yes.
His Majesty fought at the front.
We must be frugal to back him up.
Yes.
As for provisions, we must give propriety to
all warriors at the front.
I was inferior to you.
You were military counsellor
and His Majesty’s favorite.
You could capture territory
with a feather fan
and achieved a great success.
But I was
just a member of support crew
and responsible for
trivial matters such as
daily necessities.
Prime minister,
don’t belittle yourself.
You managed daily public affairs
very well.
Even empress spoke highly of you.
Without your strong support,
could His Majesty fight against enemies at ease?
You made undeniable contributions.
For example,
His Majesty’s enthronization
was presided over by you, Your Majesty.
Yes.
That was a great merit.
Come on.
Well…
Come on.
It has been
so many years.
So many years.
But Lord Liu,
I’m terribly grieved now.
Lord Liu.
I see. I see.
I understand your feeling.
But…
Lord Liu,
I come to
beg you in person.
Isn’t that enough?
Take a seat, prime minister.
Sit down please.
I know
Li Bin is wicked.
He is a disappointing
playboy.
I don’t teach him well.
He did so many
bad deeds.
Well…
Of course,
you know it better than me.
He and
my butler
colluded with each
and committed unforgivable crimes.
I’ve been kept in the dark.
Lord Liu,
I didn’t know that indeed.
However,
do you know that?
He is my wife’s only nephew.
He lost his parents when he was a kid.
He is a poor guy.
Lord Liu,
can’t you
be lenient and
exempt him
from death penalty?
Lord Liu,
I’ll
kneel down to beg you.
Prime minister, please get up.
Prime minister, prime minister.
Take a seat.
Prime minister,
You mentioned that he is a poor guy.
But did you think about
the young man
killed by Li Bin several years ago?
Is that young man poor?
Li Bin murdered two monks in total.
Is he a poor guy?
In the cases of the robbery of gold bars
and the theft of Buddha’s relic,
how many people died?
Mr. Mo who was poisoned in prison.
Prime minister,
how many lives do you plan to sacrifice
to exchange for your nephew’s life?
Take care, prime minister.
It’s the first time for me to feel that
prime minister is quite poor.
Lord,
can we…?
Lord, everything is prepared.
Please go to the altar.
Whoa!
Hold on, Lord Liu.
Lord Liu,
here is Prime Minister Li’s urgent letter.
I’m praying for rain in the Hall of Abstinence.
Please come to me immediately.
Liu Yi.
I’m here.
Give him the heaven worship token issued by crown prince.
Forward it to Prime Minister Li.
Yes.
Start to worship the heaven.
He oppressed me with crown prince’s token.
Just let him
worship the heaven.
We stay here to pray for rain.
I don’t believe that
he’ll perform a death penalty to irritate the heaven.
Prime minister,
execution ground is just located under the altar.
It seems…
What?
Will he really kill?
Wait for a moment.
Give him a letter.
Tomorrow,
His Majesty will come back to the capital.
Yes.
Probably,
something unexpected happens.
Who will perform a death penalty?
I think it’s Lord Liu.
His Majesty isn’t in the imperial palace.
Does it have anything to do with Prime Minister Li?
Who will be headed?
Why hasn’t he come yet?
Damn it!
Hurry up.
I need to buy vegetables later.
You can’t reach me.
Don’t run.
Stop jabbering.
Get away. Get away.
Will he come or not?
Absolutely!
Lord Liu.
Where are they?
Who?
Where is the executioner.
Lord,
No others will come.
Hasn’t the Ministry of Punishments assigned someone?
All officials are fasting with Prime Minister Li
in the Hall of Abstinence.
Is the Hall of Abstinence big enough
to accommodate so many officials?
As far as I know,
many shacks and tents are erected around it.
Bullshit!
Lord,
No reviewing judge or executioner is here.
So…
I’ll undertake it all.
Yes.
Get down, everyone.
Get down. Hurry up.
Get down. Hurry up.
Get down.
Liu Bowen,
don’t intimidate me here.
I don’t buy it.
Do you think you can behead me?
How bold
the criminal is!
I’ll see how you kill me today.
Hold on.
Whoa!
Lord Liu,
here is a letter from Prime Minister Li.
A serious draught hits across the country.
To pray for rain,
all other officials are fasting in the Hall of Abstinence.
Death sentence is
absolutely ill-timed now.
Liu Bowen,
you can’t kill me.
What’s the time now?
Lord,
It’s 11:00.
Beat the drum.
Yes.
Lord Liu isn’t afraid of the prestige of heaven
and behead the evildoer for us.
How encouraging it is!
No,
death sentence is
offence to
God’s will.
Hey men,
stop arguing.
We are just lookers-on.
Well,
execution ground is like a fair.
Sing a song.
How dare you
kill me?
It’s fast day today.
If you kill me,
you are against God.
Even if God won’t kill you,
His Majesty
and Prime Minister will.
Hey,
this guy is quite bold.
Yes, what he said makes sense.
The abstinence period isn’t over.
Death sentence will just make
a scar as big as a bowl.
Sing a song.
Liu Bowen,
I’m enjoying your facial expressions.
You desperately want to kill me,
but you can’t.
What’s the time now?
Lord, it’s 11:30.
Beat the drum again.
Yes.
You haven’t sung yet.
Sing a song. Don’t go.
You haven’t sung yet.
We’ve waited here for a long time.
Why are you leaving?
It’s time to behead him.
Release.
Fill yourself up with this meal,
and then annoying ghosts won’t
badger with you in the nether world.
Come on. Drink it.
Well,
you dare kill me, right?
Of course.
The drum has been beaten twice.
If outlaws don’t come to rescue,
no criminal can survive here.
Hold the execution.
Gee!
Here is a letter from Prime Minister’s letter.
Hold the execution.
What’s going on?
It seems that the execution can’t be performed.
Not necessarily.
Lord, letter.
Lord.
Look!
He won’t be beheaded.
It’s absolutely not permissive to behead him now.
I’m stopping you with all other officials.
Don’t take your own course, Lord Liu.
Do you have any reply, lord?
No.
Liquor.
Meat.
Bah! Hair isn’t removed.
How can I eat it?
It’s the third round of drum beating.
Will he really…?
Liu Bowen, you want to intimidate me.
I’m not afraid.
Prime Minister Li said
you were unable to kill me.
Behead him.
It’s the due time.
Lord Liu, Lord Liu.
Allow me to say something,
Lord Liu.
It’s 11:45. Execute!
I’m afraid.
I’m afraid, Lord Liu.
I denounce.
Lord Liu,
I admit my mistake.
It’s not me!
Hu Weiyong told me…
told me…
Look! Look!
The criminal is freaked out.
Kneel down.
Will he really be killed?
The criminal Li Bin.
The identity is verified.
It’s time to behead him.
Good! Good execution!
It’s quite encouraging!
Good execution!
Prime minister,
Liu Bowen dare perform the death sentence,
we have come up with a countermeasure.
This is a memorial to impeach him.
Please review it, prime minister.
He is dead.
The countermeasure is useless.
No,
master,
I want to make a comment.
Maybe, it’s harsh to your ears.
Childe Li is profligate
and he has no good ending anyway.
Moreover,
Liu Bowen caught him tripping.
Well, His Majesty may
be hand on you.
Now that Liu Bowen performed
the death sentence indiscriminately,
how about…?
Anyway,
everyone is mortal,
but he should die a worthy death.
What did you say?
Teacher,
good advice is harsh to ears.
We can’t bring Li Bin back to life.
So, we should give up a pawn to save a castle.
we can
take this change to
wipe out Liu Bowen,
so as to
avenge Childe Li.
How many people have signed the impeachment petition?
Forty officials.
I’m persuading the other officials.
Oops.
You scared me.
What’s wrong?
Liu Bowen
is more and more wayward.
Well,
why did you say that?
A serious draught hits across the country.
Li Shanchang shares my worries
and prays for rain in the Hall of Abstinence.
No killing is allowed during the abstinence period.
But Liu Bowen
performed a death sentence.
I issued an imperial edict to stop him.
Before my imperial edict arrived,
he had beheaded the criminal.
Who did he behead?
An assistant of the Central Secretariat
called Li Bin.
I never heard of this name.
He’s Li Shanchang’s secret nephew.
Ah?
Li Shanchang submitted an urgent memorial
to ask me to settle it after I return to the palace.
What crime did Li Shanchang’s
nephew commit?
He colluded with bandits and sold off robbed gold bars.
He murdered a monk
and stole the Buddha’s relic in Xinghua Temple.
He deserves a
death sentence.
Yes, but it’ll ill-timed to behead it now.
Why not waiting for me to return?
Moreover, he shouldn’t be beheaded besides the altar.
The execution ground
has been outside the altar.
So, Liu Bowen must wait.
Did you issue an imperial edict not to behead corrupt officials?
I didn’t.
So, what are you angered at?
Well, he is so smart
and knows that Li Shanchang is trapped him.
But why does he step into
the trap?
They are waiting for my decision.
Think it over, Your Majesty.
Will we stay here
or leave?
Tomorrow morning,
I’ll go back to the imperial palace.
Thank you so much, Mr. Liu.
With your help, Li Bin pleaded guilty.
But I feel so sorry
to keep you in prison.
As the censorate minister,
I should handle with corrupt officials
what hector common people.
But
it exceeds my ability.
However, it shouldn’t
have happened to you to
be imprisoned and separate with your daughter.
Don’t feel guilty, Lord Liu.
That monk was killed by me.
Each murderer should be beheaded.
Moreover, on that day,
if you didn’t
come to visit me
and gave me the armor,
that evening,
I would be killed by the bowmen assigned by Lord Hu
in Xinghua Temple.
I shouldn’t have promised
that corrupt official
to kill the monk.
I repeated my mistakes.
My poor daughter
lost her mother, and will me.
Daughter, I’m sorry.
Father.
Warrior,
I’ll do my best.
Don’t worry about me, Lord Liu.
You beheaded that corrupt official.
So Prime Minister
will rag on you.
Take care, lord.
I’ll
perish together with that corrupt official
and accuse him
to Yama.
Liu Yi.
I’m here.
I know that
you are kind and trustworthy.
Take care of
my daughter.
Uncle, you mean…
Take her out of the city.
Out of the city?
After you take her out of the city,
she will tell you her destination.
Please rest assured.
Father.
Your Majesty,
Liu Bowen has born a grudge against me.
To vent his resentment,
he made up fake crimes
to hound my butler to death
and killed my subordinate indiscriminately.
In his term as the liaison officer,
he was hard on officials
but indulgent with common people.
As a result, unruly people denounced the government.
Your Majesty,
I have a comment.
Go ahead.
What the prime minister said
isn’t true.
Liu Bowen established a harsh legal system
He irritated God and people, and caused a serious draught.
That’s God’s punishment.
Prime minister,
you exaggerated it.
Draught only has something to do with
the sun, moon and stars.
But strict law system benefits for long-term security and stability.
It’s of fundamental importance.
Liu Bowen indiscriminately killed the innocent
and hounded a person to death.
He can’t be pardoned.
Li Shanchang
outwardly obeyed orders but secretly ignored them.
Please decide, Your Majesty.
Enough!
I entrusted you two with important posts.
One is wayward
and the other is smarmy.
Can’t you work together to
share my worries?
Your Majesty,
I don’t call you in.
Who allows you to come in?
An urgent report from the Ministry of War.
I dare not to delay.
Please pardon me, Your Majesty.
Go ahead.
The army of Hu Tan against
the bandits in Mawei of Fujian,
was completely annihilated.
What did you say?
Completely annihilated.
How about General Hu?
He was defeated and killed.
Good-for-nothing!
Moreover…
What?
In Haining of Zhejiang,
famine refugees attacked the government.
Unruly people in these two places
are too wicked.
Pass on my order.
Behead all criminals from
Mawei and Haining
in prison.
Yes.
You are wise, Your Majesty.
Many people in these two places
collude with bandits,
and should be killed
as a warning to all others.
Hold on.
Prime Minister Li was impeaching me
that I performed a death sentence and
brought about God’s punishment just now.
Why do you incite His Majesty to
kill so many people now?
As the old saying goes,
emperor represents the world.
His Majesty’s words are those of God,
and indicates the wishes of all people in the world.
Your Majesty,
Li Shanchang treats human life as no more than grass.
He is smarmy.
Please behead him right now, Your Majesty.
Liu Bowen is desperately rampant
and arrogant.
Please behead him right now, Your Majesty.
I’m quite clear about who
should be beheaded.
You two get out of here!
Why don’t you leave?
I’m not for the sake of myself,
but for all people in the world.
All people?
Don’t kill all criminals in Mawei and Haining indiscriminately.
Rampant!
Your Majesty, don’t lose the respect and support of
all people because of that.
I’m forced to kill them.
The draught hits due to severe murderous bearing.
You performed a death sentence, but you’re against it now.
Your Majesty.
Drag him out.
You’re here.
Be quick to act.
I won’t look at your face.
Didn’t the prime minister told you to hurry up?
I guess it isn’t your fast time
to perform such a task.
Knife.
I like it.
Corrupt official Li Bin,
I’m coming to you.
It has been three days.
Liu Bowen said it must rain after he beheaded Li Bin.
Please make a decision, Your Majesty.
Liu Bowen,
where is the rain?
Your Majesty, in my opinion,
the heaven has the virtue of cherishing life.
Your great graciousness
complies with its will.
It will definitely rain
within three days.
If it won’t rain, it means that you deceive His Majesty.
If it won’t rain, I’ll admit this guilt.
Even the wise are not always free from error.
I’m afraid Liu Bowen
will fail this time.
I don’t care about who is right or wrong.
I want the rain.
Rain!
Your Majesty, I think if Liu Bowen
didn’t kill against God’s will during the abstinence period…
Your Majesty, I think
we must worship the heaven to pray for rain.
We can impress the heaven and earth
by share happiness and woe with all beings.
Therefore,
before I sentenced Li Bin, I worshiped the heaven
to mitigate its anger
and balance opposing principles in nature.
Don’t mention Li Bin.
Where is the rain?
I’ve observed the weather day and night recently.
It will definitely rain in a couple of days.
How many days?
Back off!
Liu Bowen,
get out and
Kneel outside the hall.
You keep kneeling until it rains,
no matter it’s a moment or a whole day.
If it doesn’t rain forever,
You must kneel all the time.
It will rain
in the opportune time
Get out!
If it still doesn’t rain,
I have to open the national granary to famine refugees.
You are wise, Your Majesty.
I’ll discuss it with the Ministry of Revenue
and make a scheme.
Hurry to do it right now
and come back to me with your scheme.
Yes, I will.
Your Majesty,
it’s raining.
Ah?
I’ll take a look.
Courtier Liu,
get up.
Lord Liu.
Music