Northern Song Dynasty Justice

Chapter 42 The Lion Fights the Rabbit
"Xu Zhiqian, come out for me."

Zhang Fei went directly to the door of Xu Zhiqian's boudoir, with his hips on his hips, and shouted loudly.

"Xu Zhi!"

With a creak, the door opened, and Xu Zhiqian came out of the room, glanced at Zhang Fei lightly, and asked, "What's the matter with you?"

"What's the matter with me?"

Zhang Fei laughed immediately, and raised his big hand: "We are so familiar, don't play charades, I don't have the skills, so I will ask you, what did you Rang Qingmei say to those rich gentry?"

He still had a little hope for this, hoping that Xu Zhiqian would not kill them all.

Xu Zhiqian said frankly: "I just told them that you only help the poor to file lawsuits, and let them not think about it."

It's over!It's over!It's all over!
"Why do you decide for me?" Zhang Fei was completely mad.

Cutting off people's wealth is like killing their parents.

Xu Zhiqian snorted softly: "It's because you don't keep your integrity, and you say it nicely, but in your heart, you plan to use these poor people to attract rich people to come to you to sue you. I did this for your own good, lest you go astray."

"For my own good?" Zhang Fei felt very kind when he heard it, scratched his forehead in anger, and choked up, saying, "It's so hot, this girl didn't find a girlfriend, but she found a mother, what the hell? Absolutely."

Xu Zhiqian heard it clearly, and spat: "I don't have a son as old as you."

"You're beautiful."

Zhang Fei directly exploded on the spot, and said angrily: "I said big sister, I also have to earn money to support my family and help the poor to file lawsuits. Do you think it's really that easy, or do you believe me too much and think that I can be invincible? Come back!" You can get a few hundred guan, and you won't be retaliated against, besides, is it unrighteous to make money from the rich? What kind of bullshit is this."

Xu Zhiqian reasoned and said: "If you are a poor man, if you want to make money from the rich, you can only work as a pawn for the tiger, help the tyrant, and exploit the people together with them."

Zhang Fei was so angry that he gasped and said, "I haven't done anything yet, you are here to label me and exploit the people, you think I am stupid, help them exploit the people, how much money do the people have, how much money do you have?" It’s not enough for their own teeth. If you are stupid, don’t think that others are as stupid as you.”

Xu Zhiqian also became excited, "Is it me or you? If you do more righteous actions and don't lose your tongue, your future will be limitless. Don't ruin your future just to covet such petty gains."

"What's the limitless future? What's the self-destructive future?" Seeing that she not only refused to admit her mistake, but was talking nonsense here, Zhang Fei danced anxiously: "What the hell are you talking about? Life is good, the future depends on your own struggle, but now it is all ruined by you, this is an opportunity I have worked hard to win, you T, you really don't have backache when you stand and talk."

"You are really hopeless." Xu Zhiqian stomped her feet fiercely, and said with a flick of her sleeves, "It doesn't matter if you believe it or not, anyway, I'm doing it for your own good."

"It's over! It's over!"

Zhang Fei covered his face with his hands, "I really found a mother back. God!"

"What are you arguing about?"

Suddenly, someone behind him spoke.

The two looked back and saw Xu Zun walking over.

Zhang Fei gave Xu Zhiqian a hard look, and said, "Acknowledge your relatives."

"Daddy, don't listen to his nonsense." Xu Zhiqian glared back at Zhang Fei, then noticed Xu Zun's strange expression, and asked, "Daddy, why are you back?"

Xu Zun glanced at Zhang Fei and said, "Something went wrong."

Zhang Feidun felt an ominous premonition.

Generally, this buddy of "misfortune" never walks alone.

"What? Kaifeng Mansion received more than 30 pleadings in one morning?"

Xu Zhiqian looked at Xu Zun in shock.

Xu Zun nodded and said, "And it's all about contract disputes."

Zhang Fei's heart trembled, and he frowned tightly: "They want to draw the bottom line!"

Xu Zun nodded and said: "I think so too. Since ancient times, all dynasties have banned litigation, but my dynasty has not, but the debate on this has never stopped."

"Ah! Not good!"

Xu Zhiqian also reacted: "Originally, the government followed the 'officials follow the political law, and the people follow the private contract' for this kind of contract lawsuit. Such a dispute would not even disturb the Kaifeng government, but the Li Siyi case opened the door. Set a precedent. The Kaifeng government must treat everyone equally, but it is impossible for the Kaifeng government to deal with these disputes every day. If this continues..."

Zhang Fei said: "The imperial court can only prohibit litigation. Simply put, I am now facing the risk of losing my job."

Are you good at speaking?
Row!
We take it!
We will seal your mouth and cut it off from the source.

Xu Zun nodded and said: "It's possible, but it doesn't necessarily mean that litigation will be prohibited, and it may be that more restrictions will be given. Their next step should be to sue the officials, but the specific result is still unknown. You can't jump to judgment, you have to see the reaction of other ministers in the DPRK and China, but the current situation is very bad."

Xu Zhiqian, who wanted to understand, couldn't help but feel angry: "It's unreasonable, they are clearly guilty of thieves, avenging their personal revenge, and afraid that Zhang San will expose their scandals one day, it is really deceiving."

As she spoke, she excitedly said to Zhang Fei: "Zhang San, we must not give in to this. We must fight them to the end. I don't believe they can cover the sky with one hand."

Everyone in Zhang Fei was stupid.

Could it be that everything that just happened was an illusion?

He vaguely remembered that a second ago, they were still arguing.

Xu Zun patted Zhang Fei's shoulder lightly.

Zhang Fei turned his head and looked at Xu Zun.

Xu Zun looked at him with firm eyes, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, the old man will definitely support you in this matter, even if you lose this official uniform, you will not hesitate."

In order to avoid suspicion, he seldom intervened in the previous lawsuits, but this matter is different. The other party is obviously playing tricks and bullying the younger, and he can't bear this kind of thing.

Hearing this, Zhang Fei was both moved and ashamed. Although he didn't feel that he had done anything wrong, he felt that he had failed Xu Zun and caused him trouble, so he tried hard to squeeze out a smile: "Don't worry, benefactor, I am I won’t give in just because they tried to bring me down, that would be too contemptuous of me, I still have a lot of tricks I haven’t used. So, I implore benefactor not to get involved in this matter because of me.”

Xu Zun frowned and said, "But if I don't support you in court, you can't reverse this matter at all."

Zhang Fei said: "As long as I can still speak with this mouth, then it's not a loss."

Seeing that he was restless, Xu Zun didn't seem to have an idea. He was silent for a moment, then nodded slightly: "Okay, I will keep your mouth. As for the rest, I will leave it to you to deal with."

Zhang Fei nodded and said, "Thank you benefactor."

As he said that, he looked at Xu Zhiqian again with a very complicated expression. After struggling for a while, he sighed in his heart, that's all, that's all, for the sake of benefactor, I'll take a step back. "I'm very sorry about the matter just now."

Xu Zhiqian looked at Zhang Fei in surprise: "Are you still in the mood to say this now?"

"I'm fine."

Zhang Fei really can't laugh or cry, after a long time, I still have a small belly.

Xu Zun asked, "What are you talking about?"

Zhang Fei was slightly taken aback, and said truthfully: "My benefactor doesn't know, but I have always wanted to use Li Si's case to increase my reputation, and then do business with those wealthy gentry."

Xu Zhiqian looked at Zhang Fei in surprise, thinking, why did he speak so frankly, could there be another reason for it?
"I see!" Xu Zun nodded slightly, then glanced at Xu Zhiqian, and probably guessed what they were arguing about, after all, he knew his daughter very well.

Zhang Fei said again: "But me!"

"You don't need to explain, I believe you." Xu Zun waved his hand and interrupted Zhang Fei.

Zhang Fei's expression froze, and he was a little surprised, "Gonggong really believes me?"

Xu Zun laughed and said: "This man is not bad-hearted, the old man can still see clearly, although you kid is a little tricky, but your heart is not bad."

Having said that, he glanced at his daughter for a while, and said: "If Qian'er does something that makes you unhappy, don't take it to heart, I believe she is doing it for your own good."

Is it for my own good?This should be the mantra of the ancients.Zhang Fei nodded with a wry smile, but he really doesn't have the mood to care about those things now.

Because he is facing an existential crisis.

And right now he was unprepared.

Kaifeng Mansion can be said to be the highest judicial department in the Song Dynasty. This general lawsuit cannot be brought to Kaifeng Mansion. However, more than 30 pleadings have been received this morning. This has set a record and may be difficult to break in the future.

Lu Gongzhu was stunned when he first learned about this matter.

When did this Kaifeng mansion become a public latrine, and all shit was thrown to Kaifeng mansion.

But soon he realized that it seemed that someone was obstructing it, and the background might not be small.

Otherwise, they would not dare to break ground on this Kaifeng mansion.

Lu Gongzhu is not a person who is afraid of things. After realizing it, he was furious, and even played on the head of Kaifeng mansion. How dare you. The dog's head and tiger's head at home have been useless for a long time, so hurry up and polish them. One point, let's see which guy with no eyes will jump over by himself.

But what happened next left him dumbfounded.

On the same day, more than [-] officials from the four major departments of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, Dali Temple, Judgment Court, and Yushitai jointly petitioned for an order from the imperial court to curb the trend of litigation.

Immediately afterwards, dozens of officials heard about it.

Among them are many scholar-bureaucrats who are at home.

Song Shenzong was shocked by the large number of people and the speed.

This is not a big deal!

But this is no accident.

The reason is simple, if this trend is encouraged, it will harm the interests of their scholar-bureaucrat class.

If Chen Yuteng had no background, could he become the biggest landlord in Xiangfu County?
So, who in the court is not Chen Yuteng?

Who can guarantee that what happened today will not happen to them.

Different political views are just internal struggles.

Winners and losers have nothing to say.

But externally, they are quite united, the meat must rot in the pot.

Therefore, as soon as someone took the lead, these people stood on the same front by coincidence, and began to add fuel to the flames behind.

Just as Xu Zun expected, they also directly pointed the finger at Zhang Fei, and the Xu family put up a big battle, provoking the common people to fight, so that the common people flocked to him.

If it is not stopped, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Although Xu Zun, Wang Anshi, Sima Guang, Lu Gongzhu and others also stood up and spoke for justice, saying that Zhang Fei also won the lawsuit within the rules and did not violate the rules.

But their arguments pale in the face of the collective indictment of the entire system.

The key point is that those people didn't say to punish Zhang Fei, they just used Zhang Fei's incident to ask the court to restrain the wind of litigation, otherwise, Kaifeng Mansion would have to go to court every day.

Song Shenzong reacted very quickly, and quickly ordered Chen Shengzhi, the privy envoy, to lead Wang Shiyuan and Qi Hui to discuss the matter.

The privy envoy is the legitimate prime minister of the Song Dynasty.

It seemed unreasonable for him to deal with such a trivial matter.

But Chen Shengzhi knew very well in his heart that Shenzong wanted to calm things down.

Because this case is more or less related to Wang Anshi, and there are already some people with bad intentions in the court, who intentionally or unintentionally tie the dispute with Wang Anshi.

This is a very dangerous signal.

Shenzong would never allow such an accident to happen.

Besides, suppressing litigation is not a bad thing for the emperor.

In half a day, they discussed a specific plan.

After all, it's really not a big deal.

It is also very simple to handle.

They decided that in the future, if people from Erbi want to defend others in court, they must be recommended by the bookstore.

This is one of them.

Second, in the future, the people of Erbi in Bianjing must also pass the examination held by the Ministry of Punishment before they can obtain or keep the official documents in their hands.

The purpose of these two conditions is very simple and clear. It is obviously impossible to completely prohibit the people from suing. It is against the law of the ancestors, but the absolute authority of the government must be maintained, and everything must be controlled by the government.

But in this way, Zhang Fei was basically cold.

First of all, he was not recommended by the tea eater.

Second, the officials probably wouldn't give him a pass either.

After all, they are not of one mind.

(End of this chapter)