Lee's Bookstore.
"Captain Li, why didn't they ask the officials in the court for help this time? Is there a mystery here, so those officials are unwilling to help?"
Fei Ming, one of the seven great tea connoisseurs, said to Li Guozhong with a little trepidation.
The other tea and snack people also looked at Li Guozhong.
Before, no one looked down upon their seven bookstores because it was that group of officials who were fighting against Zhang Fei. This time, they were suddenly hired, which made them a little panicked.
Don't fail to catch the fox and get yourself into trouble.
Li Guozhong smiled and said, "Don't think too much. There is no mystery here. The reason they hired us this time is that Fan Sijian did not defend Wei Yushan last time, so they don't trust Fan Sijian very much."
"That's true."
Tang Zi nodded and said, "I also went to watch the lawsuit. Fan Sijian obviously has his own plans. He can't be compared with us in this respect. We will definitely do our best after we get the money."
Li Guozhong nodded: "That's it."
...
...
The rest of the tea diners also reacted.
Fan Chunren is a censor. There is something fishy about this lawsuit. If you ask Fan Chunren to handle the lawsuit, you have to tell him all the fishy things. What's the point of the lawsuit? Fan Chunren will just report them directly.
Fan Chunren does not have the professional ethics of an envoy; he is a professional official.
Of course, Fan Chunren had lost several times in a row and those people had no confidence in him, so they had to find someone to spies to do this kind of thing.
Fei Ming immediately changed his worry into joy. "This is a good opportunity for us. Nowadays, the ear pen is almost exclusively used by Zhang San. When it comes to the ear pen, they only recognize Zhang San. If we can win, we can suppress the Bian Jing Law Firm."
Li Guozhong nodded: "Yes, I think so too, so we must go all out this time."
Tang Zi added: "But the key to this case lies in the evidence. If the other party has solid evidence in hand, it will be difficult for us to do anything!"
Li Guozhong said: "Regarding the evidence, I will talk to you in detail later. This lawsuit will definitely be worth fighting."
Ma Xing Street is one of the bustling areas of Tokyo Bianliang. Especially at night, it is as lively as Bianhe Street.
Another heavy rain had just passed, and lanterns were hung in all the shops. People also came out of their homes and came here to visit the night market.
This is an exclusive benefit for the people of the Song Dynasty, which cannot be experienced in other dynasties.
"What happened up ahead? Why is there so much noise?"
"It seems to be the Hong family shop."
"The Hong family? Don't they own a gambling house? They gamble all the way to the door."
"Let's go! Let's go and take a look."
I saw an alley full of people. When I got closer, I saw a small shop inside. The door of the shop was crowded with people, including peddlers in short and brown clothes and young masters in fancy clothes.
Generally speaking, it is almost impossible for the two to live in the same room.
Since ancient times, only gambling can break all classes.
"What? Seven big tea eaters, one pays two, and Zhang San pays one pays one?"
I saw a handsome young man standing in front of the shop. He glanced at the wooden board above and spoke to the young man behind the table.
Seeing the young man's unfriendly expression, the young man hurriedly smiled and said, "Please forgive me, Mr. Han, because Zhang San has never lost, so his compensation is naturally less."
That young man is indeed Han Qi’s grandson, Han Pan.
"Yeah?"
Han Pan said: "I'm just worried that you won't be able to afford the compensation if you lose!"
The young man looked at Han Pan guiltily and said, "I wonder how much Mr. Han plans to bet?"
Han Pan held up five fingers and said, "Five hundred strings of cash."
As soon as these words were spoken, there was an uproar in the crowd.
As expected of Han Pan, his moves are different.
The young man glanced at Han Pan with a frown on his face. After thinking for a while, he gritted his teeth and said, "Kid, just open the door to do business. There is nothing I dare not take. At worst, I can just sell my ancestral shop."
Just at this moment, a more arrogant voice was heard, "Five hundred strings of cash, you still dare to scare people?"
Another person was heard saying, "Don't be afraid, Xiaoqi, my brother and I support you."
I saw two young men coming in.
It was Cao Dongdong and Ma Xiaoyi.
Cao Dongdong put his hand on the boy's shoulder and said, "Xiao Qi, Zhang San's one-to-one compensation is a bit too much, so just pay half. As for the seven big tea eaters, pay five-to-one."
"ah?"
The young man looked at Cao Dongdong in surprise, "Yanei, this won't do!"
Cao Dongdong said, "What are you afraid of? I am here and will not let you sell your shop. If you lose, I will take it. If you win, I will take 80% and you can take 20%. How about that?"
After hearing this, the young man nodded happily. This was a sure-win business, and if he still didn't agree, he might as well go and carry manure.
Han Pan looked at Cao Dongdong angrily, "Yanei, do you really want to pay five times as much as one?"
Cao Dongdong shook his head and said, "Taozi, change it!"
"Why!"
Taozi immediately took down the wooden board and wrote "One to two-one, one to five" on the other side.
Ma Xiaoyi challenged, "Master Han, do you dare to bet?"
Han Pan raised his lips and said, "Okay, since the young master is the banker, five hundred strings of cash is indeed a little short. I'll bet one thousand strings of cash on seven big tea and food eaters. Let's sign a written agreement first, and I'll have someone send the money over later."
Cao Dongdong waved his hand and said, "Forget about the receipt. You can't default on this small amount of money."
Five to one?
If we don't fight now, when will we?
The people behind immediately rushed forward.
"I bet one tael of silver on seven tea-drinking people."
"I bet five cents."
"Five cents, no money."
Cao Dongdong's face turned dark.
"ah?"
"Yes, yes."
The young man said to Cao Dongdong and Ma Xiaoyi, "Yanei, Xiaoyi, let me do this rough work. You two go in and have a cup of tea and sit for a while."
Thanks to these gambling houses, this lawsuit has attracted national attention.
In fact, there have been people who have used this matter to be the banker before. Those who opened the gambling were not stupid. Zhang Fei was so good at attracting hatred, so opening the gambling house would definitely attract people. However, since the opponents in the previous times were Fan Chunren and Qian Yi, they did not dare to be the banker openly and did it secretly.
But this time is different, this time they are all ear pens and tea eaters.
Then there is nothing to worry about.
With a sense of participation, the attention will naturally increase.
Zhang Fei was not aware of this. He had been staying at home these days, sorting out evidence with Xu Zhiqian, Gao Wenyin, Feng Nanxi and others.
It's really a bit too much.
“It’s really shocking!”
Xu Zhiqian put down another account book and said, "Based on the accounts we have checked so far, the tax evasion is already more than 10,000 strings of cash. If everyone paid taxes, the court would not be short of money, and would not have to force the people to pay more taxes."
Zhang Fei glanced at her and said, "You're overthinking this. There are ways to live with less money and ways to live with more money. The only thing that never changes is lack of money. Besides, those officials at the bottom are all hungry. The people still have to pay what they should pay. There won't be much improvement."
Xu Zhiqian said dejectedly: "Hearing what you said, what's the point of us filing this lawsuit?"
Zhang Fei smiled and said, "The point is to let this hungry wolf shift its focus to those fat and big pigs first, and stop staring at those skinny monkeys. What's the point of gnawing on bones? Wouldn't it be better to feast on them?"
Xu Zhiqian snorted softly, "What pigs? Those people are the real wolves. The imperial court can only be regarded as a fierce tiger, but a fierce tiger cannot stand up to a pack of wolves, so they all choose to eat sheep."
When she said this, she pursed her lips in grievance.
Zhang Fei smiled and nodded: "Your analogy is indeed more appropriate, that's what it is."
Xu Zhiqian said depressedly: "But it seems that there is no way to solve this problem. Even the law can't stop it."
Zhang Fei said: "That can't be said."
Xu Zhiqian asked: "What do you mean?"
Zhang Fei did not answer but asked: "What if the sheep are finished eating?"
Xu Zhiqian said: "Then they can only fight each other."
Zhang Fei said: "So the meaning of this law is to let them eat slowly and regularly, and let the sheep give birth and eat grass. Don't eat all at once, otherwise everyone will be finished."
Xu Zhiqian rolled her eyes: "What you said makes me not want to be a lawyer anymore."
Zhang Fei shrugged: "But that's life!"
"Forget it, let's not talk about this anymore. The more I talk about it, the angrier I get."
Xu Zhiqian shook her head and asked Zhang Fei, "How do you think Li Guozhong and his men will fight this lawsuit? I fought with Li Lei last time, and they are not pushovers either. They are not easy to deal with."
Zhang Fei thought for a moment and said, "I can't say for sure. It depends on how those people above operate. The only thing I can be sure of is that they will definitely keep an eye on the tenant farmers, try to shift all the responsibilities to them, and then use the tenant farmers to win the sympathy of the government, so as to evade taxes."
Xu Zhiqian nodded and said, "This is also the most difficult part of this lawsuit."
Zhang Fei nodded and said: "This is indeed difficult, but it is only on the surface. As long as we approach it from different angles, we can turn these unfavorable factors into our advantage.
We can even use this lawsuit to make the court pay more attention to the survival of tenant farmers and pass legislation to give them some support. Today's laws are completely biased towards landlords. If tenant farmers sue landlords, they will almost certainly win.
It is almost impossible to win unless the landlord kills the tenant farmer."
Xu Zhiqian's eyes lit up, "Can we do this?"
Zhang Fei said: "That depends on the other side's performance. The better they perform, the more likely it is."
Kaifeng Prefecture.
"How come you came back empty-handed? Where is the account book of the Third Division?"
When Lu Gong saw Li Kai coming in empty-handed, his heart skipped a beat.
Li Kai glanced at Lu Gongzhe nervously, lowered his head slightly and said, "There was a little accident at Gouyuan."
After hearing this, Lu Gong frowned and asked, "What's the surprise?"
Li Kaidao: "Hasn't it been raining heavily these days?"
Lu Gong was confused when he heard this. "Don't tell me that the flood in the imperial city bypassed all the tribes and just happened to wash away Gouyuan."
"You are joking, prefect." Li Kai said awkwardly, "If the flood is going to hit us, it will hit Kaifeng Prefecture first, as we are relatively close to the river."
Lu Gong asked, "What does that have to do with this matter?"
Li Kai sighed, "The roof of the Gouyuan has been in disrepair for a long time. It is said that there are many cats running on the roof recently, causing rainwater to seep into the room where the accounts are stored. Many accounts have been soaked. They are still being sorted out and will be delivered in a few days."
Lu Gong was amused when he heard this. "It's really strange that a cat can even trample on the roof! Maybe they saw it wrongly, and it's actually a pig running on it."
Li Kai sighed helplessly: "That's what Gou Yuan said, there's nothing I can do."
Lu Gong asked, "Didn't you go in and take a look?"
Li Kai said: "I checked, it's really serious, the whole house is full of water. It is said that after the Sansi learned that Wang Jiefu came to Kaifeng Prefecture to file a complaint, they requested the Sanya to send someone to strictly guard the accounts to avoid any omissions. No one has entered in the past few days, and no one has discovered it."
The three yamen and three departments are all here! Lu Gong closed his eyes and sighed, then asked, "Are the accounts related to this case still there?"
Li Kai said: "They should all be there. I just found one or two books. The words on some pages have become blurry, but they are still legible."
"The court will be open in a few days."
Lu Gong sighed and said, "Go to the court again and ask them to sort it out slowly. Don't worry. Send it back on the day of the opening ceremony. I am too lazy to look at it."
[Please do not transcode the reading (similar to Baidu) or the content will be lost]
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