Datang Almighty Dad

Chapter 504 Xu Bin and Zhang Xiaojing
In the hall of Jing'an Division, Xu Bin was released from prison.Li Bi, Xu Bin, and scholar Cen Shen sat in separate seats.

Cen Shen read the documents, "During the six years from the first month of the 25th year of the lunar calendar to the June of the second year of Tianbao, Xu Bin had 92 credit records at the Fuyuan Restaurant in Xishi. Each time he only drank the worst turbidity liquor."

Xu Bin laughed at himself: "Xu Bin has no skills, he can't even pay for drinking."

Cen Shen continued to read: "Records from the Ministry of Officials and the Ministry of Household Affairs, Xu Bin's household department is in charge of the eighth rank, with an annual salary of 20 taels of money and silver, 65 shi of rice, 250 mu of land, and eight taels of miscellaneous uses for servants. There is a son and a daughter, and there are no hired servants. There are only four people in the family, and they rent a small house in the south of the city."

The Ministry of Officials was puzzled and asked: "These salaries are more than enough, why is your wife Wang still helping others in the kitchen?"

Xu Bin smiled and said, "She likes to cook and can't stay idle!"

Li Bi retorted: "Yue helps cook five households, collect money!"

Xu Bin was silent.

Let’s roughly talk about Xu Bin’s income as an eighth-rank official. Compared with the soft sister coins of later generations, one tael of silver can roughly be exchanged for 4000 yuan. That is to say, Xu Bin’s salary is 20 taels, which is equal to 11 soft sister coins a year.In addition, there is 2 taels of money to hire servants, but he didn't hire them, so he added the [-] soft sister coins, and the total salary is equivalent to about [-] future generations soft sister coins, which is roughly tens of thousands of monthly income.

But here is Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, so a monthly income of more than [-] is not considered rich. Compared with later generations of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, we know that it is barely enough to survive.

Of course, the Tang Dynasty was in charge of rice, rice was 65 shi, and one stone in the Tang Dynasty was equivalent to 53 kilograms, so the rice grain distributed to Xu Bin by the imperial court was about 3500 kilograms.Enough for Xu Bin's family of four to eat.

In addition, 250 mu of land is allocated, which means that your official position corresponds to 250 mu of land, and you can hire people to cultivate it, and the income is also your income.This income is not cheap. The grain output in the Tang Dynasty was not high. Based on the average yield of 50 kilograms per mu, the total output of 250 mu of land was 12500 kilograms. After deducting the employment fee of the tenants and paying 5000% of the tax to the government, at least there was still leftovers. [-] kg of grain.

Converted into the price of rice in the Tianbao period of ten coins per bucket, 10 buckets per stone, so it is roughly 2 coins per kilogram. Xu Bin's 5000 kilograms of grain is equivalent to 10 yuan, which is about [-] taels of silver.

In this way, Xu Bin's income is considerable. If the food distributed by the court is also converted into money, then Xu Bin earns 18 soft sister coins a year. In the capital Chang'an, he rents a small house in a remote place, and his life should not be considered poor. .

In this case, it is impossible to explain why Xu Bin's life is so hard that his wife has to help the cook to earn money.

Without continuing to press the question, Li Bi signaled Cen Shen to continue reading, "Xu Bin's records of five pawnshops in and out of Chang'an, 250 mu of land, pawned in five times without permission, and transferred out the ancestral house of his hometown in Yanzhou. Yanzhou..."

Li Bi asked: "Pawning a job is a crime, why do you need so much money?"

Xu Bin smiled calmly, "Xu Bin spends money for nothing, and spends too much money."

Li Bi looked down at Xu Bin's torn shoe. Obviously, this argument was untenable.

Xu Bin explained: "What Xu Bin spent money on were books, a lot of them, and rare ancient scrolls are not cheap."

Li Bi stared into Xu Bin's eyes and said, "The wine you drank suddenly turned into expensive wine."

"That friend paid for it. Xu Bin must have a friend or two, right?"

"The bartender who paid the money knew Zhang Xiaojing. Since then, Zhang Xiaojing and Director Xu have met and talked several times a month, until Zhang Xiaojing was murdered and imprisoned in September, and there has been no record since then. Is it right, Director Xu? A wine shop?"

Xu Bin's complexion changed and became gloomy. After a moment of silence, he said, "Zhang Xiaojing was imprisoned. Xu Bin was so sad and indignant that he quit drinking. Zhang Xiaojing was not selected by a big case, but by me."

When the showdown finally came, Li Bi threw away the document in his hand and asked curiously, "Why?"

Xu Bin said word by word: "Because he is Xu's best friend."

"You don't look like friends."

"Why doesn't it look like that? He is Xu's long-lost friend."

Li Bi asked: "Then what kind of person is he?"

Xu Bin seemed to be lost in memory, and said slowly: "Ninety percent of what people say in person is meaningless, far less interesting than the files in my file room. So Xu doesn't like to hear it and doesn't want to hear it. But only what Zhang Xiaojing said, Xu loves to listen and finds it wonderful."

"Wonderful?"

"Yes! Vivid, lively, and humane. He will talk to you about the favorites of the peddlers, the price of vegetables in the east and west of the city, and even tell you about the hidden human feelings in this high-walled inner courtyard, but the most important Yes, he likes it."

Li Bi, who was brought in unconsciously, asked, "What do you like?"

"I like the people in Chang'an City. He likes people sincerely. This is different from you, Sicheng! Zhang Xiaojing is a bad guy, and he sees all the villains, but he doesn't judge the evil first, but investigates. Every interrogation, He must first carefully read his household registration and tax records, and visit his past behavior. Based on this analysis, he can find out what is missing in the prisoner's heart. Zhang Xiaojing said: "The root cause of people's evil is not getting what they want."

"Therefore, those who were interrogated by him were often caught in the dark, crying bitterly, calling him no different from Yama. Although he didn't follow the rules of the world, he was already convicted of his own crime!"

Li Bi retorted: "How is this different from me?"

"The method is the same, but what Zhang Xiaojing sees is others, and what Si Cheng sees is himself." Xu Bin said firmly: "At this moment, what Si Cheng really wants to know is whether he has misjudged the person or done the wrong thing. , I want to know if I have made a mistake.”

Li Bi said loudly in a panic: "I want to know whether Zhang Xiaojing is really working for Jing'an Division."

Xu Bin stared at Li Bi's eyes quietly and said: "Si Cheng, there is a kind of person in this world who only does what he thinks he should do, and no one else can influence him. This is Zhang Xiaojing!"

After finishing speaking, Xu Bin knelt down, cupped his fists and saluted sincerely: "Zhang Xiaojing didn't know that I had tampered with it. I chose him out, but I just hoped that he would get out of death row and have a chance to live."

"It's that simple?"

"It's that simple!"

"Nothing to hide?"

"no!"

Li Bi sighed, "How do you want me to believe you?"

Xu Bin was silent, saying that there was no way.

Li Bilang said: "I might as well tell you a secret. Wen Wuji's death may have something to do with the right minister. I just found out that Zhang Xiaojing was waiting for reinforcements in Fengsui Fort for a long time. It was because the new minister of the Ministry of War that year, General Gai Jiayun is not allowed to send troops. In the 23rd year of the old calendar, the new minister of the Ministry of War is Lin Jiulang."

Xu Bin lowered his head and asked, "Si Cheng means that Zhang Xiaojing is threatening private revenge? Deliberately leading the Wolf Guards to attack the Right Prime Minister's Mansion?"

Li Bi expressed his doubts and said: "However, that Shizhi belongs to the army of the Western Regions. It is impossible for anyone not to doubt it."

The scholar Cen Shen reminded: "Si Cheng, Zhang Duwei tried his best to intercept the three fire and thunder carts of the wolf guards today. These were originally intended to attack the residence of the right minister. It is enough to wash Zhang Duwei's innocence."

Li Bi nodded, and the three of them sat down again. Xu Bin untied a small clay jug from his waist, handed it to Li Bi and said, "Take a sip to relieve fatigue. This is Fuyuan Wine Shop. I And Zhang Xiaojing's favorite yellow rice wine."

After taking the jug, Li Bi took two sips of fine wine without any doubt, and returned it to Xu Bin. Xu Bin let the scholar Cen Shen, but Cen Shen refused with a smile.It seemed that the scholar was very wary of Xu Bin.

(End of this chapter)