There is no doubt that Kaifeng Prefecture is the first prefecture in the Song Dynasty, and its jurisdiction has always been around fifteen counties.
Among them, Kaifeng and Xiangfu are the red counties.
It refers to Gyeonggi County.
Kaifeng County governed the southeastern area of Bianjing, while Xiangfu County governed the northwest.
It's ridiculous. Zhang Fei has been in Bian Jing for so long and has been to Kaifeng Prefecture countless times, but he has never been to Kaifeng County. After all, Zhang Fei's thinking process is different from that of most people. Most people would rather go to Kaifeng County than go to Kaifeng Prefecture, but Zhang Fei is the opposite. After being to Kaifeng Prefecture, he feels bored going to Kaifeng County.
This led Zhang Fei to even think that Kaifeng County was jealous and blamed him for not going to him to file a complaint, so they arrested his people.
Halfway through the journey, he caught up with Fan Li who had gone ahead, then got on a carriage and rushed to Kaifeng County together.
When Zhang Fei arrived at the county government office and announced his name, the runner at the door said that the magistrate was hearing the case and asked him to wait outside.
"Sanlang, the situation is not good!"
Fan Li waited for a long time and whispered to Zhang Fei.
...
...
Zhang Fei nodded and said, "I know. I will be careful later."
No one believed that these yamen runners had never heard of the name Zhang San, but they acted calm and strong, treating Zhang Fei as an ordinary citizen. It was obvious that they had instructions from their superiors.
They waited outside for half an hour before being allowed in.
As soon as I entered, I heard a groan.
After going around the corridor and arriving at the corridor entrance on the left side of the front yard, we saw Qiu Zhengwen, Huang Mang and other people who were punished by the police lying on the ground. Their pants were soaked with sweat and stuck to their buttocks. There were faint marks from beatings. Some of them were even slightly red, obviously having just been tortured with moss.
That is to say, several thick thorns are twisted into a thorn stick. This kind of punishment is mostly used to punish unruly people. It only causes physical pain and cannot cause any internal injuries.
This scene frightened Fan Li so much that his face turned pale and cold sweat broke out on his back.
"Be calm!"
Zhang Fei looked at Fan Li expressionlessly.
This scene did not scare him. After all, he had been in Dengzhou prison for several months and this was commonplace.
But his eyes were filled with anger.
He had a premonition that this was revenge.
"Here comes Saburo! Here comes Saburo!"
"Ouch! Saburo, save me!"
"Sanlang, we are wronged!"
.....
When the snacks and earphones saw Zhang Fei coming, they looked like they had seen a savior and begged for help with tears in their eyes.
There was a loud bang.
Zhang Fei tilted his head and saw a long table in front of the court door. Behind the table sat a middle-aged man in his forties with a slightly dark complexion, prominent cheekbones, a goatee, and sunken eyes that made him look even colder and fiercer.
On the way here, Fan Li told Zhang Fei that the magistrate of Kaifeng was named Wang Hong. He was a ruthless man who loved to use torture and was feared by everyone.
In ancient times, torturing suspects to solve cases was allowed by law. After all, there were not so many means to solve cases in ancient times. Once certain evidence was obtained, criminal law could be used to force suspects to confess.
As for the frequency, it all depends on the personality of the presiding judge.
People like Lu Gongzhuo and Xu Zun don't like it very much, but Wang Hong likes to use it very much.
"Send Zhang San to the classroom."
"Pass it to Zhang San."
.....
Hearing a loud shout, the yamen runner behind Zhang Fei pushed him hard, almost knocking him down.
Zhang Fei turned around and glared.
The yamen runner shouted, "What are you looking at? Go away."
After exiting the corridor, we arrived at the center of the courtyard.
"I, Zhang San, meet the magistrate."
Zhang Fei bowed.
Fan Li also followed suit and bowed.
Wang Hong ignored Fan Li, slammed the gavel, and shouted at Zhang Fei: "Are you the spy Zhang San?"
"yes."
Zhang Fei nodded.
Wang Hong asked, "You ordered your shop's spies to interfere with my collection of taxes?"
Zhang Fei said: "To be honest with you, Magistrate, I still don't know what happened."
Wang Hong frowned, "I want to ask you, but did you instruct them to come to the southern suburbs to promote tax-based trading to the local people?"
"No!"
Zhang Fei shook his head innocently: "I don't know anything about this."
"ah?"
The group of spies behind him were all stunned.
Just sold us out like that.
Wang Hong was also stunned, "You don't know?"
Zhang Fei shook his head and said, "I don't know."
Wang Hong asked, "They are all your shop's spies, how could you not know?"
Zhang Fei said: "I just asked them to come here to hand out my business cards. Uh... Magistrate, you should have confiscated some small pieces of paper from them!"
Wang Hong nodded.
Zhang Fei said: "This is a means of business promotion, it should not be illegal."
Wang Hong said: "But they all said it was you who ordered it."
"I'm very busy every day and don't have the time to do this." Zhang Fei turned to Fan Li and asked, "Sir, it wasn't you who ordered this, was it?"
Are you going to let me take the blame? Fan Li's heart skipped a beat, but then he thought, in the current situation, he could only protect the boss first, otherwise, who would save them? But just as he was about to confess, he suddenly saw Zhang Fei winking at him again, and he reacted and shook his head, "I...I don't know either."
At the moment they don’t know anything, the best way is to stay out of it and then argue with the authorities. If they become criminals, they will be in a very passive position.
Nowadays, it is difficult to hire a great lawyer to fight a lawsuit for you.
Zhang Fei opened his mouth and said to Wang Hong, "Your Highness, in fact, our store has always had tax calculation business, and we have also cooperated with the Municipal Taxation Bureau. But it mainly serves merchants, and the purpose is to prevent them from accidentally evading taxes. But I never thought of asking them to come here to promote tax calculation business. Those farmers have no money. Helping them calculate taxes will not make much money, and we may even lose money. The main business of our store is to help people with lawsuits. This is the purpose of asking them to come here to hand out business cards. Maybe they promote this business by the way, but I don't know anything about it."
Wang Hong was annoyed and angry when he saw him talking nonsense in a serious manner. "Since you didn't instruct them, why do they all say that you did it?"
Zhang Fei said: "I did ask them to promote this business, but it was mainly aimed at merchants in the city. However, I did not say that they were not allowed to promote this business to farmers."
"Yeah?"
Wang Hong suddenly shouted loudly: "Huang Mang."
"The villain is here."
Huang Mang lay on the ground, shivering.
Wang Hong asked, "You just said that this was all Zhang San's fault. Are you deceiving me?"
Huang Mang was not stupid. At this time, only Zhang Fei could save them. He immediately said, "How dare I deceive the county magistrate? It was indeed Zhang Sanlang who ordered us to do so. He had asked us to promote the tax-based business before, but... But he asked us to go to the southern suburbs this time just to hand out business cards. We were just promoting the tax-based business to the farmers casually."
"Yes, yes, we just said it casually."
......
Qiu Zhengwen and the others also reacted and said that Zhang Fei did not explicitly instruct them to go to the southern suburbs to promote tax-based transactions.
Wang Hong slammed the gavel, "You unruly people, how dare you openly make false statements to deceive this official, come here! Give me ten more severe strokes of the cane."
"etc!"
Zhang Fei said: "They did not make false confessions. This was indeed instructed by me."
Wang Hong frowned and said, "That means you are making false confessions."
Zhang Fei said: "I didn't provide any information, so it's just a false confession. It's just a misunderstanding. As I said just now, although I didn't instruct them to promote the tax calculation in the southern suburbs, I did ask them to promote it before, and I didn't stop them from promoting it to farmers. They said that I was the one who instructed them, which is actually not wrong, but I really didn't know anything about it."
Wang Hong was stunned for a moment, then sneered, "You are really eloquent, but your tricks don't apply to me."
Zhang Fei immediately said: "Sharp-tongued people are not applicable anywhere, including Kaifeng Prefecture, but I have never relied on sharp-tongued people to fight lawsuits, but on evidence and the law."
Wang Hong's expression changed slightly, thinking, I really have to be careful when speaking in front of this kid! He smiled disdainfully: "Whether you ordered them or not, you should know better than anyone else."
"I don't deny this either." Zhang Fei asked again: "But even if they promote tax calculation to farmers, what law have they violated?"
Wang Hong said: "They have committed crimes such as spreading rumors, obstructing public affairs, disturbing public order, and defrauding public and private property."
Huang Mang and others turned pale after hearing this. With all these crimes added together, they would at least be exiled!
Zhang Fei was completely confused. "Our shop has been doing this taxable business for many days, and I have never heard that this business is illegal."
Wang Hong said: "This transaction is indeed not illegal, but the use of it at this time and place, as well as the words they spread, seriously hinder the government from performing its duties, which is enough to constitute these crimes."
Zhang Fei cupped his hands and said, "I am a fool and don't understand the reason. I hope the magistrate can explain it clearly."
Wang Hong asked, "Tax statistics have always been set by the government. Why do you want to do this tax calculation business?"
Zhang Fei evaded the point and said, "That's because there are often people who don't know the tax law and pay less tax, and end up being prisoners. That's why I launched this tax calculation business."
Wang Hong said, "But I heard that you once promised a farmer that if he asked you to calculate the tax, you would guarantee that he would not pay a penny more."
Zhang Fei hesitated, "Is this wrong?"
Wang Hong immediately slammed the gavel, "What you said is nothing more than implying that the farmers are refusing to pay taxes because the court has imposed too much tax on them. Do you know how much trouble this has brought to the government?"
Zhang Fei said excitedly: "This is just Magistrate Wang's one-sided statement. I don't think it's illegal."
Wang Hong shouted, "You troublemaker, are you implying that I am slandering you?"
Zhang Fei said: "I have absolutely no such intention, but I will never accept Magistrate Wang's decision. I will appeal to Kaifeng Prefecture."
Wang Hong glanced at the imperial plaque that Li Si was holding and said with a smile, "I heard that the emperor bestowed you with an imperial plaque. If you want to appeal, I can't stop you! Regardless, I have already reported it to the court and severely punished you, a bunch of unruly people."
Zhang Fei frowned and thought, strange, with such a reason, why did he make such a judgment? What's the trick here?
......
"Have you checked it out? How can Kaifeng County arrest people at will?"
Xu Zun asked Xu Zhiqian as he hurriedly walked out of the imperial city.
Xu Zhiqian said: "My daughter is also involved in this matter. It's really just to promote tax calculation. There is nothing else."
"Your store is full of mixed people. Something must have happened."
Xu Zun still didn't believe it.
As soon as I arrived at the gate of the imperial city, I saw Sima Guang standing in front of the gate with a calm look.
"Mr. Sima."
Xu Zun immediately walked over quickly and asked in a low voice: "Master Sima, what is going on?"
Sima Guang said: "Your son-in-law should not choose this time and place to promote taxation."
Xu Zun said: "Why?"
Sima Guang said: "Xu Si should know that taxation is a major national issue. Nothing is more important than this. Zhang San is going there to promote taxation, which will inevitably bring some trouble to the government."
Xu Zun immediately said, "That was also in response to injustice, not intentional riots. How can Kaifeng County arrest people at will?"
Sima Guang asked, "Do you think the court would delay collecting taxes from all over the country because of a few injustices?"
Xu Zun said: "How can this delay anything?"
"If they say that they are an obstruction, will the government review the case and then collect the taxes?" Sima Guang asked.
Xu Zun frowned, "That is to say, it's not just Magistrate Wang who is involved in this. They want to use the tax collection issue to blackmail the government."
Sima Guang nodded and sighed: "This is not easy to do!"
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