Northern Song Dynasty Justice

Chapter 604
Officer, it must be scary.

But the problem is, the chief judge is also an official!

And now the chief judge is in charge!

Those fluttering households wanted to discuss countermeasures with the government in advance, but the government ignored them at all, but if they took all these charges, then they might be finished!

But if this problem is solved through Er Bi's defense, then they can rely on the royal court and the judiciary to avoid retaliation from the government.

The lesser of two evils, they were forced to take Li Min's suggestion.

After all, the Hezhong Mansion is not the only one in the government, so doing so is still a chance.

Afterwards, the plaintiffs appeared in court one after another. Without exception, they all accused the hooligans hired by the households, over-collected taxes, abused violence, and caused them great losses. The situation was almost the same.

Li Min, on the other hand, took the trouble to transfer all the responsibilities to the government, and really didn't give him any kindness.

After repeating this, the people outside the courtyard were already gasping for breath.

But their emotions have been transferred by Li Min to the government, which is the root of all evil.

This is really the upper beam is not straight, the lower beam is crooked.

The government itself is so virtuous, and in the process of collecting taxes, it also tries its best to exploit the people. Anyway, various methods are emerging one after another. Do you think those who rob households can still abide by the law and collect taxes?

Totally impossible.

There is something good in the top, but there must be a lot in the bottom. They will only take more extreme measures.

The non-head officials are also lying down now. After the last time they and the country gentry exchanged underwear, they have gradually become accustomed to it. You can say what you like, and we should do it or do it.

It's that simple.

In the first round, everyone still had to lose face, but in the second round, it was relatively more relaxed.

The key point is that the target of the opponent's complaint is the government, not a certain official.

But if you look at the lawsuits of both parties, this lawsuit has nothing to do with the government, but after this question, the government is everywhere. Anyway, the defendant almost shifted all the responsibility to the government.

You say that my client collects more taxes. The problem is that the government also collects in the same way. I don’t calculate according to the government’s various conversions and transfers. Did I create my own tax law?
If you don't ask officials to ask about this, I'm afraid the lawsuit won't go through.

However, Er Bi, both the prosecution and the defense, did not take the initiative to ask the officials to come out for questioning.

Although this Fan Zhen has been in Erbi not long ago, he has been an official for decades, but he is very experienced. Since he has sued the households, he must be staring at those households. After all, the government has not treated his clients. If he caused direct harm, if he sent officials to come up for questioning, it would not only cause extra complications, but also make the whole lawsuit very complicated, and it would also make his lawsuit messy, and the audience would wonder, who are you suing?

At the same time, it will also make people suspect his intention, whether Xiang Zhuang's sword dance is aimed at Pei Gong.

But he never raised any doubts about Li Min's transfer of responsibility to the government. No matter how Li Min transfers it, because Li Min only transfers it and does not refute it. The responsibility is always there. The two sides seem to be tit for tat. But it's actually fun.

As far as Li Min is concerned, they have enough evidence to shift the responsibility to the government. Who can't see the pile of shit on the government's butt? It is actually very beneficial to him not to pass on officials to ask questions, at least The government has no chance to refute.

Since the plaintiff didn't pass it on, he couldn't even pass it on.

Zhang Fei is very clear about the intentions of both parties, but for him, if he does not send an official to ask about the situation, his verdict cannot be passed, so he took the initiative to send an official to the court.

The official's name was Li Siwen, and he was a supervisor. This kind of supervisor belonged to the lowest-level financial affairs officials, and most of them were dispatch officials.

According to the system of the Song Dynasty, this kind of sending officials are powerful officials, but because they are at the bottom, they do all the dirty work, they are relatively lowly, and they are better than officials. Officials born in the imperial examinations are unwilling to be such officials. As a result, many supervisory officials are hired from outside, or they are promoted.
But they are also the officials who are in charge of the most affairs. They are in charge of all taxes, treasury, miscellaneous operations, and monopoly in this state and county.

They also constituted the largest financial and tax bureaucrats in the Northern Song Dynasty.

And this Li Siwen is the supervisor who specializes in shopping.

"The president of the court summoned Li Jianwu to appear in court today, mainly to understand clearly the government's tax system."

Zhang Fei asked very seriously: "Can Li Jianwu tell you why the government will use some commercial taxes in some markets, and even some villages' two taxes?"

Li Siwen replied: "This is because those places are very remote, and the government has no manpower for the time being. If the local supervision is established to collect taxes, this is the only way to collect taxes. Save money, save effort, kill two birds with one stone.”

Zhang Fei asked again: "Then how does the government adopt the method of rushing to sell these taxes?"

Li Siwen replied: "Our supervisory affairs adopt the method of sealing and submitting the petition, that is, the householder writes his price in the petition, and then seals it and submits it. The one with the highest price wins."

Zhang Fei nodded slightly, and continued to ask: "Will the government give a reserve price before bidding?"

Li Siwen nodded and said, "Generally yes."

Zhang Fei asked: "Then I don't know how the government calculates the reserve price, for example, the purchase tax."

Li Siwen suddenly looked at Zhang Fei cautiously, thought for a while, and then replied: "The government evaluates based on the local tax revenue in previous years, as well as the local household registration number and field mu tax, and finally gives a base price."

Zhang Fei nodded slightly, and said: "Assuming that the future tax revenue of a certain market is [-] Guan, how much reserve price will the general government give?"

As soon as this question came up, the Four Little King Kong, Xu Zhiqian, and Su Zhe all focused their attention on Li Siwen.

Li Siwen thought about it for a while, "It's not certain, it's probably between eighty and one hundred."

When some officials heard the words, they immediately showed depression.

Zhang Fei said: "That is to say, for Puhu, the profit is between 0 and [-]?"

"You can't say that."

Li Siwen shook his head and said: "Because the commercial tax that was bought by the government is generally difficult for the government to collect, so the tax collected in previous years is not a full amount of tax.

In addition, the purchased households can be paid in installments, and if they continue to purchase the commercial tax of a certain market, the government will often give them preferential treatment in the second year and reduce the price appropriately. They are all profitable Figure's. "

After hearing this, the four little King Kong couldn't help making eye contact, as if they were saying, this person is a master!

In fact, these prison officials are far more difficult to deal with than Wei Yingfang and the others, because they have experienced many battles and deal with all kinds of troublesome things every day, and they can deal with various situations calmly.

Wei Yingfang and the others are just looking ruthless, but it is relatively easy to find the opening from their mouths.

Zhang Fei’s question is actually a trap. If the tax is [-] guan, and you buy it at a price of [-] guan, then if the businessman wants to make money, he must generate extra profits, and the common people must bear it.

But he answered very well, this hundred guan is not necessarily a full tax, because these rush purchase taxes are very difficult to collect, if it is easy to collect, the government will not use it to rush to buy.

Since the government does not receive the full amount of tax, then you have to receive the full amount of tax, and you will earn money if you hit the household.

But this is uncertain.

Zhang Fei asked again: "Just now Li Jianwu said that if the purchase is made for two consecutive years, the government will give a discount. Regarding this continuous purchase, is it mandatory?"

"Generally it's not mandatory."

Li Siwen said: "But if the buyer does not want to continue to buy, he must submit an application in October every year, so that the government is ready to take this tax and continue to buy. If it is overdue, the government will also give accommodation. As long as someone is willing It can still be transferred if it is taken over, but if no one is willing to take over, the government will ask the original buyer to continue buying for another year."

After hearing this, Li Min couldn't help asking his assistant, "Is this the case?"

The assistant immediately said: "There is such a regulation, but if you want to apply, you have to go through a lot of reviews. The government may send someone to negotiate with you, or they may ignore you. If you drag on, you will expire. Two words, how can we talk to them."

Officials in the Northern Song Dynasty all knew the law. Because of the compulsory courses, they would not blatantly break the law. They would know how to evade the law and design some rules to exploit the common people and the rich.

The rule is to apply in October, but the problem is that your application can only be counted if it reaches the supervisor. In fact, it is to give the government a chance to force the tenants to continue to buy, if there is no fool to take over the offer.

Zhang Fei also expressed doubts about this, and asked, "What is the reason for this application deadline?"

Li Siwen said: "Most of the discussions on the purchase tax are held in November of each year, so the purchasers must submit the application in October at the latest, so that we can put this tax on the purchase in November. Once November is over, everyone will prepare for the Chinese New Year in December, and it can only be postponed until next year, but by then, it will be difficult to find a buyer immediately."

"So that's what happened." Zhang Fei nodded, and continued to ask: "I don't know if the government has regulations, how much tax can they collect at most?"

"No."

Li Siwen said: "The purchase tax is mainly concentrated in the commercial tax in the market, but the commercial tax is uncertain, and we can't stipulate it. Although there are a few agricultural taxes, the agricultural tax is also uncertain. For example, in natural disasters Under the circumstances, the imperial court will give appropriate reductions or exemptions, or the imperial court will suddenly pardon some people's taxes, but there is no way to specify a specific amount.

But everyone must abide by the law. We have already stated in the contract how many households or which market is taxed. Naturally, this tax must comply with the tax law. This should not need to be written in the contract. "

Zhang Fei asked again: "Then if the tax is lowered, will the government provide subsidies or support?"

Li Siwen shook his head and said, "No. Even folks would not do this."

Zhang Fei nodded, and continued to ask: "Then what will the government do if there is any violent tax payment during the tax collection process?"

Li Siwen immediately said: "It's not our business, we just go shopping."

This answer is really watertight.

In the end, he kicked the ball directly to the county government.

Zhang Fei had no choice but to pass the county lieutenant Liu Daxing to testify in court. The county lieutenant is in charge of public security matters, which is equivalent to the current royal police.

Liu Daxing said: "It is true that some people come to complain. If the evidence is convincing, we will punish them. However, it is often the people who resist paying taxes first, and then the two sides conflict. How to sign the contract, so many things, we are not easy to manage. In fact, their tax supervisors have the power to handle such matters. Generally, tax disputes that occur in the market are also handled by them. Our county government is mainly responsible for managing thieves Stealing."

Li Siwen, who had just come down, stood up and said, "We have the right to handle such matters, but the premise is that the market is still under our control, and the market we bought is not under our control. Where am I?" There is no one, how to manage it should be handled by the county government, after all, those markets are all under the jurisdiction of the county government."

Liu Daxing immediately retorted: "We don't know the contract between you. If it is said that you have to be arrested if you break the law, most of the people resist paying taxes first. Then we have to arrest them all."

The two sides began to kick each other.

It has to be said that playing football in the Song Dynasty was quite simple, because the power was too dispersed and there was a lot of overlap. Once something happened, it was difficult to find who was responsible.

In fact, the power of the prison official is not small. He has the right to execute moss punishment and punish those people who do not pay taxes.

But it is really hard to say whether the market that has already been bought is under the jurisdiction of the supervisory officials. After all, there is no one in their supervisory affairs there. , and won't look for them.

But it doesn’t belong to the county government. In fact, it’s hard to say. It originally belonged to the supervisory affairs, but the supervisory affairs sold this part of the power to businessmen. As far as the county government is concerned, no matter who you sell to, it belongs to your supervisory affairs. Then you should be responsible, not the county government. The key county government doesn't know how the contract between you was signed.

Their taijiquan performance was exchanged for the loudest boos from the audience, as well as tens of thousands of contemptuous looks.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, you still play like this, do you really think we are stupid?
Aren't you all in the same group?
But they didn't play it for the common people, but for the imperial court. Didn't your imperial court talk about evidence?

Row!
Then we'll play football with each other, we don't know who's in charge of it, you understand?

Because they are not defendants, Zhang Fei only asked some professional questions.

After the booing, the two parties entered the stage of the closing statement.

Fan Zhen stood up first, and said: "The state has state laws, and the family has family rules. In our dynasty, whether it is commercial tax or agricultural tax, there are very detailed regulations. The current evidence has fully proved that the defendant did not follow the tax law. To collect taxes, they collected double or even several times the tax from my client.

As for the tax calculation law mentioned by Fang Yi, first of all, they have no basis, and second, those people did not explain clearly to my client why they have to pay so much tax, but the people of course have the right to ask clearly. People also have the right to refuse payment before they understand it.

However, the other party resorted to violence, robbing, or forcing, or even belittling my client’s wife, which caused huge losses to my client. Here, I implore the imperial court to rule my case in favor and punish the defendant to compensate me. All losses of the parties, and their criminal responsibility. "

After these two lawsuits, Zhang Fei probably also figured out Fan Zhen's style, which is not aggressive and doesn't ask too many questions, but he can always grasp the most critical questions.

I don't care how they play football, and it has nothing to do with me. I only care about the interests of my client.

After Fan Zhen sat down, Li Min stood up and said, "The other party is right. The country has state laws, and the family has family rules, but my clients have strictly abided by the contract with the government and the government's entrusted to me. powers of the parties.

The other party said that my client charged more taxes, which is groundless, because in the contract, there is no regulation on how much tax my client can collect at most. At the same time, there are many regulations in the contract, all of which emphasize one point. It is self-responsible for profits and losses, which encourages the customers to charge more and get more.

As for this point, Li Jianguan’s answer just now can give sufficient proof. When the taxes collected by several of my clients are far lower than the purchase fee, the government will not give my clients any subsidies. My client is not allowed to refuse to continue to buy when the contract expires.

In other words, charging more and charging less can only be done according to one's ability.As for the violent means accused by the other party, it was taken out of context. Facts have proved that it was the other party who refused to pay taxes first, and my client's subordinates would resort to violent means.

You must know that the power of my client comes from the supervisory affairs, and the supervisory affairs can impose a penalty of mosses, up to [-] mosses, when faced with tax refusal.

Then my client should also have this power, but our client did not do so. They just used force to take away the corresponding taxes. The purpose of this is to tax, not to hurt people.

This is even a means of self-protection. The evidence I provided just now can prove that many tax collectors hired by Huhuhu were injured by those villagers, but the government will not give any support.

If someone accuses the purchase contract that there is something wrong, it is difficult for me to object, but I cannot accuse several of my clients of guilt, because it is unreasonable, and several of my clients fully abide by the contract with the government.Therefore, I implore the President to acquit several of my clients. "

"Thank you for the statements of both the prosecution and the defense."

Zhang Fei nodded, turned his head to look at the assistant jury, and said, "Eight assistant judges, do you have any results?"

The eight people nodded at the same time without hesitation.

Zhang Fei smiled, and said again: "If you need to think carefully, the chief judge can also give you some time to think."

The eight assistant judges shook their heads in unison, expressing that it was absolutely unnecessary.

"OK then!"

Zhang Fei nodded with a smile, and then asked, "If you think the plaintiff should win the case, please raise your hand."

The eight assistants raised their hands at the same time, wishing they could all stand up.

It's still worth thinking about, the plaintiff must win!

How abhorrent the other party's behavior is.

"Thank you for the assistance of the assistant judges."

Zhang Fei smiled and nodded, picked up the teacup and took a sip, then suddenly asked the four little Vajras in front, "You guys...!"

As soon as the words came out, the four of them wanted to bury their heads in the copywriting.

"Wow, you guys are so promising."

Zhang Fei was so angry that he kicked immediately, but the four of them remained unmoved and kept their heads silent.

This is a bit too difficult, because after asking and asking, the responsibility seems to be entirely on the government, but the government in question is not a party to the case, and they have no idea how to judge.

"It's really worthless!"

Zhang Fei shook his head, glanced at him, and then said loudly: "In terms of reason, the chief judge also agrees with the judgment of the eight assistant judges, but in terms of legal principles, the chief judge is unable to judge whether the defendant is guilty for the time being."

As soon as these words came out, everyone was stunned.

Isn't that enough to convict the accused?
President, what's your situation?
Zhang Fei explained: "Because in the law of our dynasty, there is no prohibition on tax collectors using violent means when faced with the other party's refusal to pay taxes, and according to the testimony of previous witnesses, the prerequisite for the defendant to resort to violence is all The other party refused to pay taxes first.

Then the point of debate is, is the tax that the defendant asked the people to pay legal?If it is illegal, the defendant can be found guilty, but if it is legal, then they are innocent.

However, in the purchase contract signed between the government and the household, the legal tax amount is not specified in detail.The reason given by Supervisor Li is that the tax rate changes from time to time, and everyone should abide by the tax collection according to the law. This is a common sense, so there is no need to write it into the contract.

But what Supervisor Li didn't consider is that tax collection according to law only restrains the tax collectors, not the people. The people only need to abide by the law and pay taxes.

Puhu belongs to the people, not officials, so they don’t need to abide by the law to collect taxes. He only needs to abide by the contract with the government. This is like if the government hires people to collect taxes, those people only need to obey orders, not to obey To collect taxes according to the law, they will collect as much as the above requires. At the same time, the responsibility is borne by the government. However, the government did not specify the specific tax amount, tax collection principles and regulations in the relevant purchase contract, which obviously should not be Yes, this point will be in favor of the defendant.

As for the defendant's proof of tax collection, they believe that their tax calculation method is based on the government's tax calculation method. In fact, this has nothing to do with the plaintiff, and it should be a dispute between the defendant and the government.

Therefore, the president of the judge’s suggestion for this case is that if the plaintiff feels wronged, he should sue the government and recover the corresponding compensation, not the defendant, because the tax law relationship only exists between the people and the government. As a commoner, there is also an unshirkable responsibility. As for who should bear this responsibility, it is a dispute between the defendant and the government.

Therefore, judging from the current confession alone, the chief judge cannot convict the defendant.

But one thing is certain, that is, there are many problems in this contract, among which responsibilities and obligations are not clearly defined. In order to avoid more disputes, the chief judge decided to prohibit the government from If there is any tax purchase from anyone in any region, if there is a tax purchase for several years, starting from next year, all will be suspended. "

When they heard the last paragraph, the expressions of the officials present changed drastically. Some even stood up and glared at Zhang Fei.

If the imperial court directly convicts the government based on the evidence, they are still prepared in their hearts. They all know the bad things inside, but if you directly prohibit the purchase of taxes, this is a kind of power encroachment for them.

Because the purchase tax is an administrative system.

However, Zhang Fei did not notice their behavior, but asked Fan Zhen and Li Min: "I wonder if the defendant and the plaintiff have objections to this judgment?"

Both Li Min and Fan Zhen expressed no objection.

Zhang Fei asked Su Zhe again: "Does the procuratorate have any objections to this?"

Su Zhe smiled and said, "The procuratorate has no objections."

Zhang Fei immediately hit the gavel, "Leave the court."

(End of this chapter)