Northern Song Dynasty Justice

Chapter 232 Hurt each other
Regarding Lu Gong's decision, the officials who watched the trial did not express much dissatisfaction or anger.

Everyone knows that as soon as the trial starts, Zhang Fei will definitely find a way to bring the issue of the tenant farmers into the trial.

Li Guozhong and the others were also very clear about it, and they were fully prepared, but as soon as Zhang Fei came up, taking this matter as an example, this was something they did not expect.

After Li Lei sat down, Fei Ming behind him poked his head over and whispered, "Strange! Why did he come up and talk about the tenant farmers?"

Li Lei nodded, also looking puzzled: "Uncle Fei is right. According to our previous prediction, he should first prove the tax evasion of the land other than the white deed, and after convicting that part of the crime, he should use this as an excuse to propose the white deed." For tax evasion, this is more reasonable."

Li Guozhong frowned and thought for a while, "Could it be that he did the opposite when he learned about the leak in Gouyuan?"

Fei Ming nodded and said: "It makes sense, it must be so. This way, it is very beneficial to us."

Li Guozhong nodded with a smile.

Fan Chunren frowned and said, "Could this be his countermeasure?"

Qian Wei shook his head: "But this is not the best policy. It is already well known that those tenant farmers have not paid taxes. The government has also checked, and they are indeed unable to afford it. It will be bad for Zhang San and the others."

Fan Chunren nodded slightly, but his face showed confusion.

Tenant farmers cannot pay taxes. From a judicial point of view, this is of course illegal, but the law is nothing more than human feelings. If the tenant farmers are really unable to afford it, you can't kill them all.

The key land does not belong to him, and it is impossible to sell the land to pay taxes. In the end, he can only sell his sons and daughters.

Therefore, Fan Chunren and Li Guozhong had the same prediction, thinking that Zhang Fei would not bring up this matter first, but first use the tax evasion fields other than Bai Qi as a breakthrough.

Then the only reason why Zhang Fei didn't do this is that Zhang Fei may know that there are problems with the evidence, and decides temporarily to fight the lawsuit with tenant farmers as the main ones.

As the defendant, Du Shaojing couldn't help looking at Li Guozhong and others.

Li Guozhong nodded.

Du Shaojing nodded: "You are right."

Zhang Fei asked again: "Does that member know that the white deed is not a legal contract and will not be recognized by the court, and tax evasion by relying on the white deed is even more illegal."

Du Shaojing nodded and said, "I know."

Zhang Fei said: "That member outsider committed the crime knowingly."

Du Shaojing showed embarrassment on his face: "Many lands are sold by sellers who want to sign white deeds, and some are instigated by local people, not from me. Besides, everyone does this."

Of course, they are also prepared for this. If you say Bai Qi, I can't blame everyone.

Zhang Fei asked: "As far as I know, the buyer usually bears the deed tax. Why does the seller require to sign a white deed?"

Li Guozhong was overjoyed when he heard it.

Du Shaojing glanced at Zhang Fei and asked back, "Have you ever sold land?"

Zhang Fei shook his head: "My parents didn't give me this opportunity."

Du Shaojing smiled disdainfully: "Although the law stipulates that the deed tax is borne by the buyer, under normal circumstances, the seller also has to pay, and the government also has to pay. After all, the seller can only get [-]% to [-]% at most. So the seller is not very willing.”

After hearing this, Zhang Fei was taken aback for a moment, and couldn't help looking at Xu Zhiqian, who shook his head slightly, and then turned his head to look at Qiu Zhengwen.

The latter nodded, and whispered: "There is such a situation."

Over there, seeing Zhang Fei's expression changed, Fei Ming immediately leaned forward and whispered, "Brother Li, it seems that kid doesn't know much about the market here!"

Li Guozhong said cautiously: "Don't jump to conclusions, let's have a look."

Fan Chunren, Zhang Fei's old opponent, was relatively calm at this time. He knew that Zhang Fei was good at asking questions that seemed to be beneficial to the opponent, and then broke through with one blow.

"I'm done asking."

Zhang Fei sat down directly.

Lu Gong was stunned for a moment, is this the end?
It's not like your style!
Zhang Fei who sat down first looked at Xu Zhiqian with a puzzled expression.

Xu Zhiqian said: "There really is no copywriting for this."

Zhang Fei turned around again, looked at Wang Anshi, spread his hands, as if to say, why didn't you provide me with this information?
Wang Anshi also looked innocent, and glared at Zhang Fei angrily, you don't know about this kind of thing?

Zhang Fei snorted angrily, and turned around again.

Sima Guang saw it all, and he said, "Stop pretending, I know you did it on purpose."

Wang Anshi ignored him, turned around and asked Lu Huiqing, "Didn't you tell him this?"

Lu Huiqing said: "The master just asked me to collect the details of those tenant farmers, and didn't ask me to tell him these things. Besides, everyone knows about this kind of thing!"

Wang Anshi said: "Everyone knows what. If you don't sell the land, who would go out and ask about this kind of thing? It's not like you don't know that if you don't write it on paper, that brat won't understand."

Lu Huiqing was trained speechless.

Sima Guang didn't seem fake at all, he thought to himself, how could they make such a simple mistake?No, that brat Zhang San shouldn't make this kind of mistake, he pays the most attention to details, and Wang Jiefu must have missed it.

He also knew that the information about these people must have been provided by Wang Anshi, but Zhang Fei could not find out much.

On the other hand, Li Lei didn't think too much about it. Zhang Fei sat down so quickly. No matter what, he was giving him a big gift. It was a fantastic start. He immediately got up and asked Du Shaojing, "Mr. Now that the deed tax has been paid, why not pay the summer tax as well? If I were you, I would either pay all of it or not at all, after all it is illegal to not pay the tax.”

Du Shaojing replied: "Because I leased the [-] hectares of land to the tenant farmers, and the lease contract has stated that the tax shall be borne by the tenants."

Li Lei asked again: "According to the law of our dynasty, if the contract stipulates that the tax shall be borne by the tenant, then the head household must first go to the tenant to urge the tenant to pay. If the urging fails within half a month, it will report to the government. The government is urging the payment on its behalf. Has Mr. Du ever gone to urge the payment?"

Du Shaojing nodded: "Go and tell them."

Li Lei asked again: "Did those tenants agree to pay taxes?"

Du Shaojing shook his head, "They said that the family has no surplus food to bear the summer tax."

Li Lei said: "Can this period be separated by half a month?"

Du Shaojing nodded.

Li Lei continued to ask: "Then Mr. Du, did you go and tell the government right away?"

Du Shaojing said: "No. It was only after the imperial court sent someone to ask, that I was able to tell."

Li Lei said, "Why?"

Du Shaojing sighed: "Because they really have a difficult life, and I don't have the heart to force them."

Xu Zhiqian pursed her lips, and said in a low voice: "He can say such heartless words. If he really sympathizes with those tenants, why doesn't he pay taxes on their behalf?"

Zhang Fei said: "Okay, I will ask him later."

Xu Zhiqian pursed her lips and smiled: "Okay!"

Qiu Zhengwen on the side looked dumbfounded, so you guys are so casual in filing lawsuits?
Just right, Li Lei finished asking.Zhang Fei immediately stood up, "Mr. Du, just now you said that you didn't inform the court in time because you didn't want to persecute those tenants and felt that their life was very difficult. Then can I understand that Yuanwai is out of kindness and sympathizes with those tenants?" ?”

Du Shaojing thought about it carefully, nodded and said: "It can be said that."

Zhang Fei asked again: "Is it possible to say that, in fact, outsiders also hope that the imperial court can exempt them from the summer tax."

Du Shaojing wondered if there would be a trap, so he couldn't help but look at Li Guozhong and the others.

Li Guozhong nodded slightly.

Du Shaojing then replied: "If the imperial court is willing to exempt them from taxes, of course I support it."

Zhang Fei asked: "Then do you know that if this happens, the imperial court will lose a sum of tax revenue?"

Du Shaojing said: "The taxation of these few tenants should not affect the imperial court."

Zhang Fei nodded and said, "Have you ever thought about paying this tax for these tenant farmers?"

Du Shaojing said: "Of course I have thought about it, but I am afraid that if I do this, my tenants will default on taxes, so let me help them pay."

Zhang Fei said: "Have you ever thought about it, if the imperial court exempts those tenants from taxes, everyone will deliberately not pay taxes in the future?"

Du Shaojing immediately said: "The imperial court is different. The imperial court often exempts some common people from taxes."

Zhang Fei asked: "So Yuanwai has never helped those tenants who live in difficulties to bear the tax?"

"Me." Du Shaojing hesitated.

"I'm done asking."

Zhang Fei sat down, then whispered to Xu Zhiqian: "You know the answer."

Xu Zhiqian snorted softly, "Even if you don't ask, I know."

"Wow, you really don't have a conscience."

Zhang Fei cast a contemptuous glance at Xu Zhiqian, then turned to Qiu Zhengwen who was already stunned and said, "Don't be dazed, pour a cup of tea."

"Oh well."

Qiu Zhengwen quickly poured Zhang Fei a cup of tea, and asked cautiously, "Third brother, what is the mystery of your question?"

Zhang Fei took a sip of tea and said, "This lawsuit will take many days, so I'll just ask a few random questions and clear my throat first. Recently, I've been getting angry, coughing up phlegm, and coughing."

".?"

Qiu Zhengwen was speechless for a while.

Are you going to sing?
Seeing that Li Lei stood up again, he wrote to Duke Lu, "I would like to report to the magistrate, I have the lease agreement between Du Yuanwai and the 110 tenants, which is enough to prove that the taxes on the [-] hectares of land are paid by the government. sharecroppers."

Lu Gong said: "Present."

I saw that the more than 100 rent contracts were quickly distributed to more than a dozen judges and officials with swords and pens. The contracts these days are basically a piece of paper.

In less than a stick of incense, all the trials were over.

After that, Huang Gui wrote a report to Lu Gong, and according to the lease contract, all the responsibilities were borne by the tenant farmers.

Zhang Fei got up immediately and expressed to Lu Gongzhu that he hoped that three tenant farmers, Li Dacai, Tian Chun and Chen Fang, would be sent to the court.

Lu Gong immediately announced these three people to the court.

After a while, three old men in short brown clothes came to the hall. Seeing so many officials sitting in front of them, their legs were shaking with fright, and they didn't know how to salute.

Li Kai yelled, and they just woke up from a dream, saluting without any rules.

Mr. Lu didn't blame them, so he asked them to sit under the big tree. The three of them came under the big tree, but none of them dared to sit, and they stood upright.

Lu Gong didn't force it, and gave Zhang Fei a wink, indicating that he could ask questions.

Zhang Fei first asked: "Are all three tenants of Du Shaojing?"

The three nodded dully.

Zhang Fei asked again: "I don't know how long the three of you have been tenants under Du Shaojing's household."

Li Dacai replied, "Five years."

Tian Chun replied, "Three years."

Chen Fang replied, "Six years."

Zhang Fei asked: "During this period, have you paid any taxes?"

The three looked at each other, then shook their heads.

Zhang Fei asked: "Is there none?"

Li Dacai whispered: "No."

Zhang Fei said: "Then when you signed the lease agreement, did you know that you would bear the taxes?"

All three nodded again.

Zhang Fei said, "Then why don't you pay taxes?"

Li Dacai replied: "Because those fields are white deeds, there is no need to pay taxes."

Zhang Fei asked: "That is to say, before you signed the contract, you knew that those fields were not tax-exempt?"

The three nodded at the same time.

Zhang Fei asked again: "Then why is it stated in the contract that the taxes should be borne by you?"

Li Dacai said: "Du Yuanwai said that if the government finds out, then you have to pay taxes, so you have to write this point in the contract."

"Really?" Zhang Fei asked, "Du Yuanwai explained this to you in advance?"

The three nodded at the same time.

Zhang Fei asked again: "You all agreed too?"

The three nodded at the same time.

Zhang Fei said: "I have seen your lease, although it is less than the rent of most red deeds, but if you count taxes, you have actually paid more, especially your lease of Li Dacai, according to the market Come to think of it, you paid almost [-]% of the tax to Yuanwai Du, you know that."

Li Dacai nodded and said, "I know, I did it voluntarily."

Zhang Fei asked curiously, "Why?"

Li Dacai said: "Because there were many people competing for the [-] mu of land at that time, I paid a high rent, so I only rented it to me outside the staff."

Zhang Fei asked: "Actually, the land you leased from the Red Deed is less than this even if you add taxes, and now you have not only paid [-]% of taxes, but you may also face the risk of paying taxes. You mentioned it."

Li Dacai replied: "My family used to rent the land with the red deed, but the result was that I sold my daughter. I swear that I will never rent the land with the red deed again."

After speaking, his tone became agitated, and his eyes were a little red.

Zhang Fei was taken aback for a moment: "Why?"

Li Dacai said: "Do you think those people will collect as much tax as the court stipulates? I have paid three times the tax before, so I have no money to pay the rent, and I dare not borrow money, so I can only pay the rent." Sell ​​her daughter to pay rent."

Speaking of this, he suddenly burst into tears, usually wiping away his tears, sobbing: "Do you think I'm stupid, don't know how to count? I just know how to count, so I dare not rent that red deed land, because you don't even know How much tax will the government ask for this time, even if the rent of the Baiqi land is high, we are willing to rent it, at least the members will not ask for more money from us."

Zhang Fei frowned, first glanced at Li Guozhong and the others, and then looked around at the officials, as if asking, is it shameless to answer like this?

Those officials all looked indifferent.

Aren't you going to fight?
come!

Hurt each other!
Let's see who can afford it.

(End of this chapter)