I don’t know if Xu Zhiqian was sexually promiscuous, or if she was really eager to drive Zhang Fei out of the Xu Mansion. Anyway, the next day, she took Zhang Fei to a temple at the junction of Kaifeng County and Xiangfu County. .
Here, Zhang Fei finally saw the farmer, a young man of about the same age as him, but he looked a little haggard.
It turned out that this little farmer almost went to the final destination of most homesteaders, which is suicide. Fortunately, Xu Zhiqian came to his aid and helped him find a livelihood and a temporary shelter in the fire house inside the temple.
When the young farmer saw Xu Zhiqian, he burst into tears before he could say a few words.
Sigh... It's no wonder that his life has just begun. He lost his wife and Zu Tian overnight. Anyone else would collapse.
And this is the fundamental problem of the feudal era.
The people have no ability to withstand any natural or man-made disasters. If they are not careful, they will lose all their property and sell their children and daughters.
"Don't cry yet. I'm inviting an expert today to see if I can help you."
Xu Zhiqian stretched out her hand to guide Zhang Fei beside her.
An expert? Zhang Fei couldn't help but look at Xu Zhiqian with a strange expression, and thought to himself, this woman is really realistic. If you ask me for help, you will become an expert, otherwise, you will be a disciple. But there doesn’t seem to be any conflict between the two.
When the young farmer heard this, he couldn't help being surprised and happy. He turned his head and looked at Zhang Fei.
Zhang Fei cupped his hands and said, "I'm Zhang Fei, just call me Zhang San."
In ancient times, people were generally not called by their names, but outsiders were still used to calling him Zhang San.
The young farmer hurriedly bowed and sobbed: "San... Third brother, you... just call me Li Si."
"It turns out Brother Li Si. What?"
Zhang Fei looked at the young farmer and said, "You...your name is Li Si?"
Li Si raised his head, nodded, and looked at Zhang Fei uneasily.
Xu Zhiqian asked curiously: "Is there any problem?"
"Oh. No! No!"
Zhang Fei shook his head and thought, Zhang San and Li Si, haha, I have finally met my brother in the book. Could this be God's will again? Then he said to Li Si: "Brother Li Si, please sit down, please sit down."
After sitting down, Zhang Fei said: "I need you to explain the whole process clearly."
Although he came to the Song Dynasty, his thinking has not changed. The process is more important than the result. Loopholes rarely appear in the result, but in the process.
As he spoke, he suddenly asked Xu Zhiqian: "Are you fast at writing?"
Xu Zhiqian understood it as soon as she heard it, but she was curious: "Do I still need to remember this?"
Zhang Fei said: "I'm afraid I will forget."
Xu Zhiqian glanced at Zhang Fei and thought, as an Erbi person, doesn't he even have this little memory?
But she didn't say much. After all, it wasn't a big deal. She immediately got the Four Treasures of the Study and prepared to record it.
After Xu Zhiqian was ready, Zhang Fei said to Li Si: "You can say it."
Li Si immediately informed Zhang Fei of the whole incident.
The process was the same as what Xu Zhiqian said. He fell seriously ill, and his wife went around seeking medical treatment for him. They spent all the remaining money at home and could only borrow ten thousand dollars from a local rich man named Chen Yuteng for medical treatment to survive. .....
After he finished speaking, Zhang Fei directly picked up the transcript written by Xu Zhiqian and read it again.
Xu Zhiqian felt that this guy was not old, but he was quite impressive.
What he wrote was just what Li Sifang said, but Zhang Fei wanted to take advantage of what she wrote. This was not pretending.
Zhang Fei didn't notice. He concentrated on the record and suddenly asked: "The repayment date was June 15th last year, but you signed the second debt settlement contract on June 3rd that year. At this time, you can It’s not the repayment date yet, have they forced you to repay the money?”
Li Sidao: "This is because Chen Yuteng saw that I had no harvest that year and was afraid that I would run away, so he sent people to watch me since July, urging me to pay back the money quickly, and also sent people to persuade me to use my wife's family to pay off the debt. Later, my wife and I couldn't bear it anymore, and I couldn't come up with the money to repay the debt, so we signed the second contract a few days in advance."
Zhang Fei looked at Xu Zhiqian and said, "Is this legal?"
How come this person doesn’t know anything? Xu Zhiqian glanced at Zhang Fei speechlessly and said: "Lending money to others is not a bad thing. No one wants to lose everything, so as long as it doesn't hurt anyone, the government will not pay attention to this kind of thing."
In fact, even if you hurt someone, as long as it is not serious, the government will generally not care about it, and they may even help you beat you again to prevent you from paying back the money.
Zhang Fei asked again: "Since you have been so wronged, why don't you sue the officials?"
Li Si stammered: "I...I'm afraid...that Mr. Chen is not someone to be trifled with. If I don't do it right, I'll have to be punished."
Xu Zhiqian explained: "If there is no problem with the contract, if he goes to sue the government, he may be convicted of false accusation by the government."
Zhang Fei saw Li Si's nervous expression and couldn't help asking Xu Zhiqian: "You seem to have never told me, who is Chen Yuteng? Is he just a rich man?"
Xu Zhiqian's eyes were a little dodgey.
Zhang Fei said half-jokingly: "Are you planning to deal with me?"
"of course not."
Xu Zhiqian retorted decisively, and then said: "Chen Yuteng's uncle is Wang Wenshan, the judge of Sinong Temple."
The current power of Sinong Temple is not very large. After Wang Anshi's political reform, this department became a very key power department, shouldering the important responsibility of the Green Seeding Law.
But no matter what, he is also the chief of the central court's financial department, and he may be promoted in the future. This is not a small background!
I know it's not that simple. Zhang Fei said angrily: "How long do you plan to hide this from me?"
Xu Zhiqian said with a guilty conscience: "You are not even afraid of Sima Grand Scholar, so why are you afraid of this small Sinong Temple?"
Zhang Fei said: "This is not a matter of fear. If you hide something from me, not only will I not be able to help you, but it will harm myself."
Xu Zhiqian asked: "Do you have any idea?"
Zhang Fei snorted: "Don't change the subject. If I find out again that you are hiding something from me, then you should hire someone else."
Xu Zhiqian was slightly unhappy and said, "It seems like you begged me?"
Zhang Fei said sternly: "What I'm asking for is cooperation, a relationship of equality, rather than being a tool for you and doing your bidding. Do you think it is necessary to continue this cooperation that is full of lies?"
Xu Zhiqian knew she was in the wrong and explained: "I didn't mean to hide it from you, but I just wanted to see if you could do anything about it first. If you really do, I would tell you about it, and I would never do it." Keep it secret from you, after all, it will also implicate my father."
"I don't like excuses." Zhang Fei shook his head and said, "Don't do it again, otherwise, you will bear the consequences."
Xu Zhiqian nodded slightly, thinking, if you can't find a way, see if I can drive you out.
Zhang Fei asked Xu Zhiqian to copy all the contracts and documents, and then left with these documents.
After leaving the temple, Xu Zhiqian asked: "Is there anything you can do?"
"Not yet."
Zhang Fei shook his head.
Xu Zhiqian suddenly looked disappointed.
Zhang Fei suddenly asked: "Have you ever mentioned this to your father?"
"No!"
"Why?"
Zhang Fei asked: "Is it because the other party has a background in Sinong Temple and is afraid of causing trouble to your father?"
Xu Zhiqian turned around and said: "You underestimate my father. If my father is afraid of this trouble, then how can he support bringing Ayun's case to Bianjing? I didn't tell my father, mainly because I Dad was not in Bianjing at the time, and secondly, I knew it would be useless to tell him, because this kind of thing has happened countless times, and countless people have gone to sue the government, but no one has ever succeeded."
"Yeah?"
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "It seems that Miss Xu still has great confidence in me."
Xu Zhiqian sneered and said, "I just can't stand your shameless talk."
"I see." Zhang Fei nodded with a smile and said, "Do you mind if I ask your father for advice?"
Xu Zhiqian hummed and said, "If you don't believe me, you can go and ask for advice."
Zhang Fei did not deliberately tease Xu Zhiqian. When he returned to the Xu Mansion, he informed Xu Zun of the matter and asked him. After all, Xu Zun had rich experience, which Xu Zhiqian did not have.
After Xu Zun carefully read the information they provided, he couldn't help but shook his head and sighed, saying: "There is nothing wrong with this contract. Although Li Si is illiterate, someone else read it out, and it complied with the rules. He can only blame himself for not being careful. At that time Didn’t ask clearly.”
Zhang Fei said: "But this is obviously a fraud. Li Si's situation at that time made it impossible for him to choose to use his wife to pay off the principal, because he didn't have the money to pay off the interest. It would be better to use the land to pay off the debt directly, and it would be clear."
Xu Zun shook his head and sighed: "Did you know that there is a saying that 'the government has political laws, and the people follow private contracts'. In this kind of dispute, the contract is a very important evidence. Generally speaking, the government will only make judgments based on the contract. If If we don’t do this, the government will have endless lawsuits.”
Zhang Fei said: "I know this, but the interest involved is also against the rules."
Xu Zun sighed: "In fact, the imperial court had many restrictions on usury. For example, if you borrow corn and wheat, you must return it in corn and wheat. This is to prevent those big households from exploiting farmers by exchanging goods.
Unexpectedly, it is self-defeating, because usually farmers only have corn and wheat in their hands and no money, and what they can borrow is money. Once the corn and wheat cannot be converted into money in time, they will be unable to repay the debt, and in the end they will have to pay off the land, which will further Furthermore, it is impossible to calculate how much do you think Li Si's wife is worth, so in the Zhenzong Dynasty, the court relaxed such restrictions. "
Zhang Fei frowned and said, "In that case, there is no need to fight this case."
Xu Zun shook his head and said: "I have no way, but if you have a way and can find evidence, then I will definitely support you."
He is really powerless in this kind of private loan dispute case.
If loan sharking is allowed, farmers will die, but if loan sharking is not allowed, they will die even faster.
Therefore, if the government can insist that the people follow private contracts and not collude with the landlords, it is already very fair and just, and we cannot expect too much.
If you don't adhere to this rule, first of all, who dares to borrow it?
There will definitely be a lot of bad guys again.
There are a lot of old people out there nowadays.
Since the government does not have so many manpower, it will only cause more problems if the landlord is allowed to pursue the debt in his own way.
Of course, insisting that the people obey private contracts is definitely beneficial to the ruling class. This is beyond doubt. One of the reasons is that most people are illiterate.
This kind of word-playing contract is just a way for the landlords to expropriate the peasants.
Cases like Li Si's are really just a drop in the ocean. Xu Zun has seen many, but he can only judge according to the law.
That's why he went to the countryside to teach people about the law himself, with the purpose of preventing this kind of thing from happening. However, their father and daughter's abilities were limited and they could only help one person at a time.
Xu Zhiqian asked Zhang Fei again: "What are you going to do?"
Zhang Fei glanced at Xu Zhiqian and said seriously: "I plan to borrow a copy of "Song Xingtong" to study it first."
"...?"
