Northern Song Dynasty Justice

Chapter 546 Taking Interest in the Law ([-])

I remember that when he first went to court, Tang Zhongwen was really full of confidence, but his momentum was slightly weaker than Yuan Jiang's.

This is not surprising.

Although officials from the Ministry of Finance such as Tang Zhongwen are not as prestigious as those prime ministers and generals, almost all power is controlled in their hands.

If you want money, you have to ask him.

And Tang Zhongwen is not stupid, he has also analyzed the accounts that the procuratorate is going to, basically every word has a strong flavor of deficit.

The finances including the legation are also in the stage of walking on thin ice.

Having said that, the reality is the same, the main reason is that the central government's finances are not good, and it is more hoped that the Hezhong government will spend the Northwest military expenditure.

Tang Zhongwen's closing statement is, please ask your procuratorate to help us ask the central government for a little more money.

But the dream is full, but the reality is very skinny.

At this moment, Tang Zhongwen was sitting on the chair with a face ashen, with an expression of asking something and not knowing anything.

Ego numb!

Su Zhe was not Zhang Fei. Seeing that Tang Zhongwen was in this state, he didn't ask any more questions, "I'm done asking."

Chen Qi said in a low voice: "I'm afraid our future will be much more difficult than that of the imperial court."

Su Zhe didn't even need to look, he had already noticed the eyes full of resentment coming from all directions, which really kicked everyone's jobs, he said helplessly: "We have tried hard."

It has to be said that this battle really brought out the prestige of the procuratorate, and it also made those officials suddenly understand that relatively speaking, the procuratorate is even more of a poisonous snake.

The imperial court is not offensive, and they can only say that the imperial court is partial in the final judgment, but no one picks faults during the process.

Really can't fault it.

But the procuratorate is different. The procuratorate is extremely aggressive. It will look for your weaknesses to attack, but the imperial court probably won't.

But from Xu Zhiqian's point of view, Su Zhe felt that Su Zhe was still too tolerant, she curled her lips and said in a low voice: "It seems that Mr. Su Xiao still has room for it."

She was very dissatisfied with this, and asked about this matter, why not ask about the military expenditure clearly, people fought for the country, their arms were broken, and you can't get it out for a mere thirty or forty punctures. More than 1000 strings.

This is really chilling.

It is better to figure out this problem directly, which can not only save money for the country, but also give soldiers the treatment they deserve.

Her position has always been clear, even if she is always on the weak side, she cannot change it, which is why her career as a lawyer is very short.

Zhang Fei looked back at him, and said with a smile, "If you keep asking, it will be a Ling case."

Then, he looked at Qiu Zhengwen again, "Is there a problem with the Legal Aid Department?"

Qiu Zhengwen shook his head and said, "No."

".!"

The soldiers who watched the trial were all out of breath. What do you call the Legal Aid Department, why not call it "No Department", and they would say "No", wouldn't they say something else.

Tang Zhongwen suddenly felt discouraged, and collapsed on the chair. When he stood up, he almost fell down. Fortunately, the court police at the side supported him.

Zhang Fei looked at Su Zhe again, "Are there any witnesses from the procuratorate?"

Su Zhe shook his head and said, "We have no witnesses."

The officials on the side breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

This deliberate arrears of military pay is a certainty, and it would be superfluous to ask again.

Zhang Fei looked at Qiu Zhengwen again and said, "Does the Legal Aid Department have anything to say?"

Only then did Qiu Zhengwen stand up and said: "Our main target is that the Transshipment Department deliberately withheld Chen Guang's military expenses. According to the contract between Chen Guang and the military camp.

The military camp has to spend 250 liters of rice, 150 catties of pickles, [-] Wen, and a set of clothes for each season every month.According to the price of rice from the first year of Xining to the second year of Xining, a liter of rice was about ten yuan, and thirty liters of rice was three hundred yuan. The price of pickles at that time was about ten yuan per catty. Fifteen catties is [-] Wen.

The total value of the four sets of clothes is about 350 renminbi according to the evaluation we invited a professional dentist to apportion to each month, which is about [-] renminbi, plus some fragmentary subsidies, which should be paid by the government every month Chen Guang's wife paid [-] yuan.

But as Chen Guang said before, the court only gave Chen Guang's wife a piece of cloth, ten catties of pickles, and a set of clothes every month. "

Speaking of this, he lowered his head and looked at the copy carefully. It was all data, and he didn't dare to procrastinate, so he said: "According to the imperial court system, the government can use cloth, money and food to convert it to the soldiers' families.

Although in this provision, the court did not specify the specific conversion standard, we found a specific conversion standard in the court's regulations on tax collection and official salary distribution. According to this conversion system, it is based on the Good or bad to make a specific conversion. "

The officials suddenly opened their eyes and looked at Qiu Zhengwen.

Since it is not clearly stated, then the government has the final say, how can it be calculated according to the other conversion rules, do you understand the rules?

Zhang Fei asked them directly to express their doubts, and said, "Can this be confused?"

Qiu Zhengwen said: "The military expenses received by the generals and soldiers are all from the military treasury, and they are all under the military salary system. There is no clear distinction in the court, so the same standard should be used for calculation."

Xu Zhiqian handed over a copy in due course.

After Zhang Fei looked at it, he nodded: "Yes, in the military salary system, there is indeed a clear conversion regulation. There are high-grade cloth, low-grade cloth, high-grade rice, and low-grade rice. Since it is under the same system, Without further explanation, this conversion should be at the same standard. You can continue."

Those officials are in distress. They really dare not argue that the standards are different, because this involves a tax conversion issue. If they argue about this conversion issue, they may be shooting themselves in the foot!
The conversion of soldiers is expenditure, and this expenditure is recognized by the court, even if you send it in full, it will not affect your political performance.

The conversion of tax collection is fiscal revenue.

Fiscal expenditure does not necessarily affect political performance, but fiscal revenue will definitely affect political performance. If revenue decreases, political performance can be described as a mess.

They can only recognize it.

"Yes."

Qiu Zhengwen nodded, and picked up another wooden tray, "This is the cloth that Chen Guang's wife gets every month. Just now Manager Tang also admitted that the military treasury issued a batch of such cloth as military pay.

And we searched for four toothmen and five cloth shops for inquiries and investigations, and the results they determined were almost the same. Among these cloths, the cheapest one was only worth seventy coins, while the most expensive one was only worth 85 yuan. It is worth 230 Wen, and we calculated it as a compromise. On average, a piece of cloth is worth [-] Wen, plus the monthly ten catties of pickles. One hundred Wen, as well as the clothes and the subsidies for the holidays, then the actual monthly income of Chen Guang's wife is about [-] Wen, which is only about one-fifth of the agreed amount.

In this regard, we have relevant conversion evidence here, which also includes the account books of the rice sold by the rice shop, the bargaining price of the cloth by the Yaren and the cloth shop, and so on. "

Li Min immediately got up and handed a thick stack of papers to Cai Jing.

On the one hand, the soldiers who watched the trial were gnashing their teeth. They had also been exploited by discounting, but they couldn't figure out how much they had lost. Now that they heard one-fifth of it, this is really indignant, and it is a bit too cruel.

On the other hand, he looked at the Legal Aid Department differently. It turned out that the Legal Aid Department was not "without a department", and the investigation was so detailed.

This kind of dispute case before was just a matter of one sentence, and the accounts of rice sales at the rice shop back then were used as evidence.

Many officials could not help but be eye-opening.

Is this the process emphasized by the imperial court?
You really can't follow your words!

Cai Jing was very sensible, and distributed the copy to Cai Bian and the others instead of handing it over to Zhang Fei.

How can I let the teacher do such rough work, the teacher just sits on it and drinks tea.

Zhang Fei was really drinking tea, put down the teacup, and said to Qiu Zhengwen, "Go on."

Qiu Zhengwen continued: "It is obvious that the remuneration paid by the government to Chen Guang's wife is far lower than what the government agreed with Chen Guang. Moreover, Prosecutor Su just mentioned that the military treasury allocated funds to the Minister's Office, which is not an exception.

And according to our investigation, last year the military treasury allocated at least [-] guan to the Minister's Office, and [-] stones of grain, which were distributed in the twelve months of the year. It can be seen that there have never been only Those cloths are a considerable part of the unplanned money and food.

This is enough to show that the military treasury is deliberately shoddy, because according to the regulations of the imperial court, this kind of cloth belongs to low-grade cloth, but the government converts it at the usual price, which is the price of high-grade cloth. , it can be seen that the government uses a conversion method to deduct military pay.

Moreover, this case is very special, because Chen Guang went out with the army, and his family only had his wife and children, without any protection, so he could barely make ends meet by relying on this salary.

And this guarantee is also the key point in this contract. The original intention of the imperial court to establish this rule is also for the soldiers to be able to kill the enemy and make meritorious service on the front line with peace of mind.If the government cannot ensure the livelihood of Chen Guang's wife and children, Chen Guang will never agree to go out with the army.

However, as we all know, 230 Wen could not sustain the livelihood of Chen Guang's wife and children, and Chen Guang was not around at the time, so Chen Guang's wife and children had no other choice but to sell the land and borrow money to survive.

During this period, Chen Guang's wife borrowed a total of 82 strings of money from the villagers, and now the principal with interest has reached [-] strings of money. "

There was an uproar in the audience.

It will be two years at most, which is already almost two hundred percent interest.

But Zhang Fei was very calm and did not raise any objections to this interest.

Qiu Zhengwen continued: "But all of this was caused by the court's deduction of military pay. Therefore, the court should bear all these debts, as well as repay the six acres of land sold by Chen Guang's wife and the interest paid. money, and at the same time, a pension of thirty guan and part of the bounty. I'm done."

Zhang Fei looked at Su Zhe again.

Su Zhe stood up and said, "I don't have much to say, because based on the current evidence and Manager Tang's confession, it is enough to prove that the Transshipment Department deliberately defaulted on the military expenses.

Because after Chen Guang’s application for pensions was submitted to the military treasury, the military treasury still had three to five payments to the Minister’s Office, and the official documents from the Ministerial Court to borrow funds from the military treasury were all after the pension list. .

According to the transshipment envoy Yuan Xueshi, the funds received by each government office are allocated according to the funds of previous years. The finances of the ministers' houses and the military treasury are relatively independent, and the finances of the military treasury are used to pay military expenses. Then Chen Guang's pension should also be counted.

However, the reason why the military treasury defaulted on Chen Guang's pension was to wait for the appropriation from the imperial court, and at the same time allocated the money and food in the warehouse to the Minister's Office. Obviously, this was a deliberate default on the pension. "

He just explained calmly, but the hearts of all the officials present squeezed directly into their throats.

You are implying that the military treasury transfers the military expenses to the Minister's Office for public funds to eat and drink, and then asks the court for more military expenditures in the name of pensions.

All the officials in Hezhong Mansion began to feel anxious.

You have wronged people. The military budget is really tight. The embassy is just adding to the tension.

If military spending is cut, this is really picking sesame seeds and losing watermelons!
Zhang Fei suddenly looked sideways at Yuan Jiang who was sitting in the VIP seat, "Does Bachelor Yuan have anything to say?"

Yuan Jiang opened her mouth excitedly, but then fell silent.

He can't always say that eating and drinking with our public funds is just icing on the cake on the tight military budget.

That's really self-defeating.

Try to act like you didn't understand.

Wow!This acting is really consummate.Zhang Fei praised secretly.

At this time, Cai Jing passed the reviewed and sorted evidence to Zhang Fei, saying: "There is no problem with these evidences."

Zhang Fei nodded, and didn't bother to look at it. He knocked the gavel directly and said: "After the trial by the chief judge, the transfer department was found guilty of arrears and deduction of Chen Guang's military salary. During the garrison period, in order to survive, all the debts borrowed, and compensation for the six acres of land sold during this period, as well as the relevant interest paid during this period, and at the same time, within this month, three months of his pension must be paid. Give Chen Guang the ten guan, as for the reward, this is the consideration of the military camp, and this court will ignore it for the time being."

(End of this chapter)