Northern Song Dynasty Justice

With the help of the government, the military, and the wishes of the soldiers themselves, the storm of accusations was directly pushed to a climax.

The soldiers who went to the procuratorate, from brothers and friends at the beginning, now went from battalion to battalion, and they still held a wealth of evidence provided by the military battalion and the government.

Undoubtedly, the procuratorate has become the busiest department in the entire Song Dynasty, and there is no time to catch a breath.

For this reason, the imperial court and the police station have dispatched personnel to help.

And this is actually a key and common method for local governments to fight against important courts.

If you want to trace the source of this method, it is the purpose of the emperor to rule the country.

Feudal society has never pursued development and development, but the pursuit of stability and stability. This is also the biggest difference between feudal society and modern society.

Based on this, coupled with the backwardness of management technology, the most effective way is that the emperor cooperates with local forces, I will give you power, and you will give me stability.

It is based on this that the imperial power does not come down to the county.

As for whether it is better for the people to cross over, the emperor doesn't care at all.

Whenever I hear the emperor talk about people's livelihood, it is always about starving to death, not about big fish and big meat.As long as the people are still alive, there will be no disturbances, and the emperor's regime will not be affected.

For the prosperity of ancient times, the most reasonable evaluation is that the country is rich and the people are safe. The people are stable, not rich. This is the most basic. If the treasury is full, that is the prosperity.

It can even be understood that as long as the country does not dig out the last bite of food from the people, it is a pretty good regime.

That being the case, the most effective measure for the local government to deal with the central government is to create turmoil.

As long as there is turmoil, the emperor will be anxious, and the two sides must discuss it, and then the two sides will make a compromise.

This is also the root cause of why reforms in ancient times were very difficult. Reforms were often made in pursuit of wealth and strength, of course, for the prosperity and strength of the central government.

But maintaining stability is the emperor's bottom line, but this is not the prime minister's bottom line.

This discrepancy is often the root cause of reform failure.

Once you reform, our place will be in chaos, and once there is chaos, the emperor will be anxious and often retreat, because imperial power always comes first.

The reason why Zhang Juzheng was able to succeed in the Ming Dynasty was because he had the emperor under control.

However, in most reform events, in the face of local turmoil, the emperor and the prime minister often have two attitudes. The prime minister often wants to be tough to the end, but as the turmoil further increases, the emperor will choose to retreat.

It is because their vital interests are inconsistent.

As long as the purpose of feudal society's rule remains unchanged, then this trick must be tried and tested.

At the feet of the emperor, they dare to play like this, let alone local.

You just want to light a small fire to borrow light, and he will directly cook a big fire for you.

On the second floor of a tavern diagonally opposite the Procuratorate.

"Ugh."

Wang Shao couldn't help sighing when he saw the dark area in front of the procuratorate, "We've come to this point after all!"

From the moment Chen Guang went to the procuratorate to file a complaint, he had already encountered this scene.

The root cause of the lack of military pay is not really corruption and bribery, but the fiscal deficit, and the officials must have taken advantage of this.

Because even if everything is done fairly, our officials are not greedy at all, and we don’t even use public funds to eat and drink, you still can’t afford military pay!

At the end of the investigation, it must be found on the head of the imperial court.

Wang Shao looked at Cai Yanqing, who was sitting across from him, who was thinking deeply, and asked, "Brother Zhongyuan, if you really want to act according to the law, can the Hezhong government's finances handle it?"

Cai Yanqing shook his head and said, "It is absolutely impossible to bear, unless."

Wang Shao asked, "Unless what?"

Cai Yanqing said: "Unless the Salt Division issues a salt debt to compensate for this part of the military expenditure."

Wang Shao frowned and said, "It's unlikely! Yuan Xueshi and the imperial court have such a trouble, it is impossible to be willing to bear such a large debt for the public security law, and the salt debt must be paid after all."

"Then there is only one way."

"disarmament?"

"exactly."

Cai Yanqing nodded and said: "As we all know, the fundamental reason for the lack of military pay is that the country cannot afford so many soldiers."

"Actually, I thought of that too."

Wang Shao nodded and said: "However, the issue of disarmament has always been debated between the DPRK and China, and the relationship is very complicated, and even directly affects the officials. It is not as simple as adding a few legal principles.

I don't believe that the Public Security Bureau can use decrees to force the court to disarm, it is absolutely impossible. "

Disarmament is definitely a top priority for the country. How can it be said that the imperial court forced the court to disarm, this is simply a fantasy.

Cai Yanqing said: "I also agree with this point, so I thought about whether to use salt debt to bear this part of the debt."

Wang Shao asked, "Haven't you ever thought that the public prosecutor's law will fail?"

"Of course there is."

Cai Yanqing sighed: "In the beginning, Su Ziyou came to me to discuss it, so it can be seen that he is also aware of this problem, so he hopes to solve it privately, but unfortunately the transshipment department did not agree.

In my opinion, the procuratorate is also forced to a dead end, and he can only do this, otherwise, the people will only recognize the imperial court in the future and not the procuratorate. "

"This Su Ziyou is still too young after all!"

Wang Shao sighed, and said: "The situation is very complicated now, we all have to watch it closely, it's a trouble, but we must not make trouble, otherwise, none of us can escape the responsibility."

Cai Yanqing nodded, but he always had a glimmer of hope in his heart, because he was sure that Yuan Jiang was related to Zhang Fei, and if he was not sure, Yuan Jiang would never be able to reject the appeal of the procuratorate.

Accustomed to Gao Wenyin's caring service, Zhang Fei usually doesn't eat out, but tries to eat at home, no matter how late.

But this morning, Zhang Fei came to the big dog shop in front of the door to have breakfast.

"Big dog, the food in your shop is getting better and better."

"That's because we recently hired a fireman."

"is it?"

"This fireman, Judge Zhang, knows him too."

The big dog shouted into the shed, "Xiao Wu! Xiao Wu!"

"Hey!"

I saw Chen Xiaowu rushing out from the shed, and when he saw Zhang Fei, he said excitedly: "Mr. Zhang is here."

Zhang Fei asked in surprise, "Chen Xiaowu?"

This Chen Xiaowu was the fireman who testified for Zhong Er in court last time.

"Chairman Zhang still remembers the villain!"

"Why are you here?"

Zhang Fei asked curiously.

Chen Xiaowu hehe said: "I don't really want to work in the army for a long time. It just so happens that my service expires this year. After I went to court that day, I saw that this place recruited firemen again, so I came to try it. Brother Gou really wanted me. .”

The big dog smiled and said: "Then you are good at craftsmanship! Just now Chief Judge Zhang praised you for your good work."

"Really?"

Chen Xiaowu said in surprise.

Zhang Fei nodded and said: "It is indeed very good, this cake is very authentic."

"As long as Judge Zhang likes it, as long as he likes it."

After chatting for a few words, Chen Xiaowu went back to work in the shed.

Zhang Fei pointed to the stool next to him and said, "Sit down."

"Hey!"

After the big dog sat down, Zhang Fei looked left and right, and said in a low voice, "How is the development of the tax department?"

Big Dog hurriedly said: "It's relatively smooth, because there are a lot of crooked people in Hezhong Mansion, and it's easy to get in touch with such people, and they are very well-informed."

Zhang Fei asked: "Among these crooked ways, which one is the most prosperous and the easiest to develop power?"

"Selling private salt." The big dog whispered.

Zhang Fei said: "I remember that before I came, there was a salt seller."

Big Dog nodded and said, "Yes, it means this industry is the best developed."

Zhang Fei said: "But this is far from enough. Things are developing faster than I imagined. Maybe the tax department will come to Hezhong Mansion early next year."

"Early next year?"

Big Dog frowned and said, "I'm afraid this is not enough!"

Zhang Fei said: "Think of a way."

The big dog glanced at Zhang Fei, "Unless..."

Zhang Fei encouraged: "Say."

The big dog said: "Currently our illegal salt sales are mainly concentrated in the inland, but the most profitable is the illegal salt sales of Western Xia. If we can infiltrate and escape the supervision of the government, it will develop soon. But the imperial court strictly forbids the sale of Xixia salt."

"No but, that's it."

Zhang Fei said: "It just so happens that we are trying to infiltrate Western Xia recently and find a few smart people to smuggle Western Xia salt. I guarantee that they will become the largest salt smugglers within two years."

The big dog nodded and said, "Yes."

Zhang Fei said: "I will satisfy your request. When the tax department comes next year, don't lose face to Brother Bao."

The big dog glanced at Zhang Fei, hehe said: "How do I feel, Chief Judge Zhang set up a trick, let me jump in!"

Selling Xixia's private salt is to send money and food to Xixia. This is what the court hates the most. How can it be so easy to decide, it must have been decided.

"There's meat and wine in it, so why not jump in."

Zhang Fei chuckled, and threw down a small hanging copper coin, "I'm off to work, you should be busy."

Although Zhang Fei seems cynical, it cannot be denied that his kung fu of clocking in is indeed top-notch. Only the finale is the finale, but he is rarely late.

Today, he came to the meeting room at the last second again.

The four little King Kongs were already having a heated chat inside, and when they saw Zhang Fei coming in, they immediately stood up and saluted.

"All sit down."

Zhang Fei asked with a smile: "What are you talking about?"

Cai Bian said: "We're talking about the procuratorate's affairs. Now the government office, the transit department, and the military camp are all encouraging those soldiers to file a complaint. The number of people is increasing day by day. If this continues, there may be trouble."

Zhang Fei said: "This is a matter of the procuratorate. As long as the procuratorate does not prosecute, it has little to do with us."

Shangguan Jun said worriedly: "But our public security, procuratorate and law are integrated. If there is a problem with the procuratorate, it will definitely affect our imperial court."

Zhang Fei said with a smile: "Procurator Su is an adult, he should know how to be responsible for what he does. Besides, even if we want to help, all I can do is to lend someone to the procuratorate. We can't teach the procuratorate to do things, Let alone interfere with the work of the procuratorate, otherwise, the public prosecutor's law will really be over."

The four nodded slightly, but obviously disagreed.

Although it is a mutual check and balance, but when you are away from home, you still hug each other to keep warm!

But Zhang Fei didn't care, "Cai Jing will be responsible for how to assist the procuratorate. What we have to do now is to sort out the lawsuit that just ended, discuss the deficiencies in the law, and then make up for it and make amendments. You guys What do you think?"

Shangguan Jun took the lead and said: "We should give a clearer conversion standard."

Cai Bian said: "There is also the problem of usury. The imperial court has issued laws and regulations to strictly prohibit usury, but the repeated prohibitions have not stopped. This has also accelerated land annexation, which is very unfavorable to the country and the people. For example, the debt of Chen Hu's family, the interest is not only compound interest, but also It’s as much as twice as much, it’s a shocking end, and it should be punished according to the law, but in the end Wu Tianfu still took double the interest.”

Ye Zuqia said: "We have also discussed this dispute. Fortunately, Wu Tianfu chose to settle with the transshipment department. If there is a lawsuit, there is no regulation that can deal with him."

Zhang Fei said with a smile: "If I help Wu Tianfu in the lawsuit, the possibility of losing is very small, and this is a widespread phenomenon. In the future, our imperial court will involve many relationships in this area, which may cause the people to treat us. The imperial court is dissatisfied, so we must take countermeasures to avoid this from happening.

At present, the commonly used tricks of landlords are to borrow cloth for rice, borrow rice to pay back money, and use the size and catty to calculate the interest. Such calculations are difficult for our imperial court to evaluate.

However, it is forbidden to do this, and it is the common people who suffer, because the common people do not have much money in their hands, so they can only borrow and return things.

Therefore, I decided to evaluate the interest based on the market value of the thing borrowed at that time. If you borrowed a shi of rice, and the price of rice at that time was [-] Wen, then the interest would have to be calculated according to the [-] Wen. "

Cai Bian nodded and said, "It should be so."

Ye Zuqia said: "But if we do this, I'm afraid it will cause dissatisfaction. Suppose we agree to borrow one stone of rice and return one bolt of cloth, and the interest will be calculated according to the cloth. When the money is repaid, if the price of cloth continues to rise during this period, Wealthy households have clearly suffered a lot.”

Cai Bian said: "If the price of cloth falls, the wealthy households will take advantage. After all, the wealthy households will still be able to make money."

Ye Zuqia said: "We can't just consider the farmers and landlords, we also have to consider the loans among merchants. Many merchants borrow money, betting that the price of cloth will rise."

Zhang Fei nodded and said: "What you said is very reasonable, then think of a way to see how to evaluate this usury, which is more suitable."

Cai Jing said, "Teacher, the students think it's not the right time."

Zhang Fei looked at Cai Jing and said, "How do you say that?"

Cai Jingdao: "No matter how we stipulate this usury, as long as it tends to be fair, it will inevitably attract dissatisfaction from those big landlords. Now the procuratorate has already attracted dissatisfaction from the military. If we offend those big landlords again, I'm afraid they will Huddling together to keep warm is very bad for us."

Zhang Fei thought for a moment, then nodded with a smile and said, "What Cai Jing said makes sense, then you should discuss it in secret for the time being, and don't make it public, so as not to cause complications. OK, today's meeting will end here."

Wait until Zhang Fei goes out.

Cai Jing and the others looked at each other.

"There is something wrong with the teacher today." Shangguan Jun said first.

Cai Bian nodded and said, "I also have this feeling, but I can't say exactly what it is."

"Satire!"

Ye Zuqia said: "Today, the teacher didn't say a word to mock us."

"That's right! That's right." Cai Bian nodded and said, "In the past when we raised questions, the teacher would more or less satirize us."

Cai Jingdao: "And the teacher will ask us what we think, and if we can't come up with a solution, we will be ridiculed."

"Why did the teacher do this?"

"Isn't it throwing bricks to attract jade?"

"The teacher throws bricks and jade to us, this is impossible, the teacher has never done this before."

"Is it intended to train us?"

"It's possible, we have to think carefully about it."