Although the whole thing was planned by Zhao Xu and Zhang Fei, they were actually not sure about the final verdict.
Because this is a classic proposition in legal circles: evil laws are illegal and evil laws are also legal.
It has been fought for hundreds of years throughout the world.
The school of natural law insists that "evil laws are illegal", while the school of analytical law insists that "evil laws are also legal".
When Zhang Fei was in college, he also participated in a debate competition on this topic.
Even ordinary people actually often argue. Although they may not know what bad laws are illegal and bad laws are legal, they will express different opinions on a certain case. Their opinions are often divided into two categories: bad laws are illegal and bad laws are Also law.
The same is true now. This case was originally one-sided, with almost everyone supporting a harsh sentence for Zhao Wenzheng.
But now the views have become divided again. One group supports convicting Zhao Wenzheng of selling illegal salt, but the other group supports that Zhao Wenzheng is selling medicine, not selling illegal salt.
Whether it's a street tea shop or a big restaurant, they are all debating this issue.
Often at such moments, it depends on the judge’s thoughts.
Zeng Gong also actively sent people to investigate the whole incident.
Kaifeng Mansion.
"Reporting to Magistrate Zeng, after our visits and investigations over the past few days, we have probably learned the whole story."
"What's going on?"
Zeng Gong asked Huang Gui hurriedly.
Huang Guidao: "The cause of the whole thing has to do with the Jiezhou Salt Law. Did Zeng Zhifu know that Fan Xiang was in charge of the northwest salt administration during the Qingli period?"
Zeng Gong nodded and said: "I don't know. In the past, military supplies were exchanged for salt banknotes, grain, cloth, etc., but the physical valuation was difficult to be fair, so Fan Xiang changed his position to a merchant to buy salt banknotes from the border state army with the money, and then went to The salt ponds were exchanged for salt, and the state army purchased military supplies with the money paid by the salt merchants.”
Huang Guidao: "The overall salt output is very stable, roughly around 350,000 seats per year. When Fan Xiang presided over the local salt administration, the salt banknotes never exceeded this number. However, since Fan Xiang's death, due to the Border troubles, now the annual salt bill has reached 430,000 seats.
This led to a gradual decrease in the price of salt banknotes. Some salt merchants who resold salt banknotes began to exchange salt for salt in Jiezhou Salt Pond. However, since Jiezhou Salt Pond was not productive, the local salt officials came up with a solution. They knew that salt households were stealing salt. He had the habit of hiding private salt, so he sent people to clear out those salt households. This directly led to conflicts between local salt households and salt officials, which actually reduced the amount of salt in Jiezhou that year. "
Zeng Gong sighed: "In order to gain profits from salt, the government has always purchased salt from salt households at very low prices. Therefore, salt households make a living by hiding private salt."
"Yes."
Huang Gui nodded and added: "But this indirectly led to the fact that the Xuzhou salt merchants did not get enough salt that year. The price of salt in Xuzhou once rose to seventy-five cents per catty. The salt merchants could only sell the good products. The salt is sold to the rich at a high price, but in the countryside, they sell bad salt mixed with dirt, and the price is no less than fifty cents per catty. The farmers in the countryside are unwilling to buy it, and they can't afford it.
This in turn caused the salt merchants to increase their tolls, so the salt merchants stopped going. This indeed resulted in no one selling salt in many places in Xuzhou for half a year at that time, and many people fell ill and died.
After that, all kinds of private salt entered Xuzhou, and Wang Hongjin was just one of them. However, since the official salt was restored last year, those legal salt merchants wanted to drive away the private salt. However, the private salt only cost 20 cents, and the official salt was at least 20 cents. It was impossible to drive them away at a price of forty-five cents, so some people suspected that this was the evidence provided by the local salt merchant to the tax department. "
Zeng Gong nodded and asked, "Has the procuratorate found any evidence that Wang Hongjin sold illegal salt to other places?"
Huang Gui shook his head and said: "No. Moreover, Wang Hongjin also insisted that his salt came from a private salt seller in Qingzhou named Li Yuan. However, this person has not been found yet. He has been a private salt seller for a year or two. The sales mainly occurred from the year before last to last year, which happened to be the period of salt shortage in Xuzhou. Although the procuratorate believed that Wang Hongjin was selling illegal salt for more than one or two years, and the previous salt profit accounts were only destroyed by him. But the prosecutor's office only had suspicions and did not find any evidence."
Li Kai hummed: "There are only a few people in the Procuratorate, and all their evidence comes from the Taxation Department. The really powerful one is actually the Taxation Department."
Zeng Gong nodded and looked at Zeng Gong again.
Huang Guidao: "The Procuratorate also negotiated with the Taxation Department, but the Taxation Department said that they had done everything they could and did not have any more evidence."
Zeng Gong nodded and said, "I understand."
Huang Gui added: "One more thing. Xie Huacun, who testified in court before, and several other people who provided evidence, have entrusted Bianjing Law Firm to file a lawsuit with the imperial court, hoping to get his family's land back. "
Zeng Gong asked: "Is there any judgment from the imperial court?"
"not yet."
Huang Gui shook his head and said: "However, President Lu sent someone to see me and said that the other party's evidence is now solid. After the trial, the imperial court will most likely return the land to Xie Huacun and others."
"This Erbi really has some tricks up its sleeve!"
Zeng Gong sighed and asked Huang Gui: "Master Huang, please go to the procuratorate again and ask them if they have found any new evidence?"
Huang Guidao: "In fact, I have already asked, but as Li Tongpan said, the procuratorate's verification methods are very lacking, and they said it is difficult to find more evidence."
Due to the current limited technology, verification is actually very difficult. It took the Taxation Department a full year to obtain these evidences.
They really didn't have much evidence from the past, and it was difficult to find it.
If the Taxation Department does not provide new evidence, the Procuratorate can only stare blankly. This also makes the Procuratorate wake up and think that it is better to form its own investigation department and cannot rely entirely on the Taxation Department. After all, it is not a subordinate relationship.
Three days later.
Zeng Gong called Zhang Fei and Su Che to Kaifeng Mansion.
"After my trial, I decided to convict Wang Hongjin of falsely reporting property and tax evasion. However, since there is no direct evidence to prove that Zhao Wenzheng knew about it and the property was not in his name, he will not be prosecuted for related charges. Regarding the occupation of official land, because the evidence provided by the procuratorate is controversial, and because the imperial court is hearing a related case, I decided to transfer the case to the imperial court for trial together. As for the crime of selling illegal salt? "
Zeng Gong suddenly glanced at Zhang Fei, "After investigating the whole matter, I determined that Wang Hongjin was not selling illegal salt, but selling drugs, and he will not be held responsible for anything."
Zhang Fei immediately cupped his hands and said, "Zeng Zhifu is really clear about everything."
Su Che was greatly disappointed and said very dissatisfied: "If Magistrate Zeng sentences him like this, it will have a very bad impact. Those who sell illegal salt will also be able to get away with this crime."
Zeng Gong said: "If you can't buy a grain of salt within half a year, then salt is a life-saving medicine for you. As for the bad effects, I think there is no worse effect than not being able to buy salt." , it is the court that should reflect, not those who sell illegal salt."
Su Che remained silent, his dissatisfaction clearly visible on the page.
Zeng Gong then said to Zhang Fei: "I will sentence Wang Hongjin to a hundred canes, seven years in prison, a ban to Qiongzhou, and a fine of confiscating all property involved in his tax evasion."
In fact, it is all, because Wang Hongjin has never paid taxes.
Zhang Fei immediately said: "Prefect Zeng, according to the laws of our dynasty, at most one-third of the property involved in tax evasion can be fined and confiscated. Qin Biao and others have also sentenced this before."
Su Che immediately glared at Zhang Fei.
Are you still not satisfied?
Zhang Fei also noticed his look, but ignored it. What do you know? This is called professionalism.
Zeng Gong said: "Don't we need to calculate interest? For more than ten years, Wang Hongjin has not paid a penny in taxes. Even if all his family property is confiscated, it is not enough to repay it. If there is evidence that Zhao Wenzheng is involved, it may be more than that. a little."
Zhang Fei argued: "But there is no sufficient evidence to prove that Wang Hongjin has not paid a penny in taxes for more than ten years."
Zeng Gong smiled and said: "So I can only count it for three years."
Zhang Fei wondered: "Is three years enough?"
"enough!"
Zeng Gong said: "You must know that the more than 70 hectares of land does not belong to him, but the food of these more than 70 hectares of land belongs to him, so the tax must be calculated, but when the penalty is imposed, these lands are all If it doesn’t count, you can’t use other people’s land as your own fine.”
Zhang Fei muttered in a low voice: "Zeng Zhifu's algorithm is really unique."
Zeng Gong glanced at him sideways, "What did you say?"
"No, it's nothing."
Zhang Fei said: "I still maintain my original opinion. Magistrate Zeng is really clear-eyed. I admire him. I admire him."
Zeng Gong looked at Su Che again.
Su Che struggled for a while, but finally nodded. Although he was not satisfied with the verdict, he believed that the procuratorate also had an unshirkable responsibility and they had to pay a price for it.
After the agreement, Zeng Gong let them leave.
"Prefect, I'm afraid this verdict will make everyone dissatisfied." Huang Gui whispered.
Zeng Gong nodded and said, "That's right."
After leaving the door, Su Che suddenly looked at Zhang Fei, "Aren't you afraid of ruining your reputation?"
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "You are not afraid of being an official, so what am I afraid of? If this case turns out to be like this, if we trace the root cause and the responsibility lies with the government, I can only be regarded as the icing on the cake at most. Therefore, it will not be my turn to be infamous for thousands of years." "
Su Che looked him up and down, "Aren't you also an official now?"
Zhang Fei blinked and coughed: "Then I just didn't manage to get out of the mud without being stained. Furthermore, if we at Erbi also want to pursue justice as our mission, then why do we need your procuratorate?"
Su Zhe's teeth itched with hatred and he hummed, "You won't be so lucky next time."
Zhang Fei chuckled and said, "I still make money even if I lose, I just make less."
".!"
Zeng Gong did not ask for instructions from his superiors, but gave the verdict directly.
As soon as this verdict comes out.
As Huang Gui said, no one is satisfied.
Officials in the DPRK believed that Zeng Gong was shielding Zhao Wenzheng. From beginning to end, this verdict seemed to have nothing to do with Zhao Wenzheng. Especially for the crime of selling illegal salt, Zhang Fei was really beaten to death. This was referring to a deer as a horse. It can still happen today.
If this wasn't a cover-up, it would really be unreasonable.
Immediately, many officials came forward to impeach Zeng Gong.
But Zhao Wenzheng over there was not satisfied either and was so angry that he was bedridden.
"It's over. It's over. All my fields are gone. That damn Zeng Zigu has left me nothing. For more than ten years, this bamboo basket has been in vain! No, I still have to give Zhang San 20,000 guan, ah wu Woohoo.!”
Zhao Wenzheng lay on the bed, covering his forehead and sobbing.
Wang Qing's face was also full of grief. His son was basically dead, but he still comforted him: "Master, just think of it as a way to eliminate the disaster. This man is finally saved."
Zhao Wenzheng sat up in shock and said: "Yes, I am fine after all. This field can still be returned in the future."
Wang Qing nodded and said, "The master is right."
"But...but, this is hundreds of thousands! Wuwuwu..."
Like a child, Zhao Wenzheng threw himself on the bed again, patted the wooden board, and cried loudly: "If I had known this, I should have paid the tax exemption at that time. It was only two or three hundred dollars at most, ah wu wu wu...!" "
(End of chapter)
