Li Guozhong and his colleagues predicted in advance that Zhang Fei would definitely argue with them about the legal basis for violating the regulations, that is, how to divide the responsibility for the accident caused by intrusion into the street.
This is the key to this case and what everyone is most concerned about, but fortunately the court does not have any specific regulations on this point.
In the absence of regulations, case law becomes critical.
Therefore, they asked Gu Ji to find someone to transfer many cases from the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice for analysis.
Prepare a long speech to discuss with Zhang Fei.
It’s exciting just thinking about it.
Because no matter who wins, it will be of great reference value and may go down in history books.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Fei went straight to find the witnesses and didn't argue with them at all.
Wang Anshi stroked his beard and asked, "Could it be that I guessed wrong?"
Sima Guang on the side said nothing.
...
...
He knew that Wang Anshi was not wrong.
But judging from Zhang Fei's current actions, he seems to be willing to take responsibility for the traffic accident. Otherwise, there is no need to call witnesses.
If that were the case, Gu Ji and the others would have it easy.
Because what they are afraid of is this street-invading behavior.
A young man dressed as a bartender came up to the court. Nowadays, the Silusi also has a witness stand, but its quality is not as good as that of Kaifeng Prefecture. It is just a round stool. Many witnesses do not like to sit on it. They think that sitting on it will make them look like prisoners.
Zhang Fei stood up and asked, "Liu Tong, what do you do?"
Liu Tong replied: "I am the bartender of the Ramadan Building."
"Is it the Ramadhan Tower opposite the Chunfeng Shili in Xiuxiang?"
"Yes."
"Do you remember what you were doing around 2:30 in the morning on the 18th of this month?"
"Remember."
Liu Tong nodded: "I had just finished my work in the store and was sitting at the door to rest."
Zhang Fei asked: "What happened on the street at that time?"
Liu said: "At that time, a carriage broke into the shed outside Chunfeng Shili across the street."
"Can you tell me more specifically what happened?"
"At that time... well, I first saw a carriage from the south heading towards the south gate of Xiangguo Temple. When it turned the corner, there was also a carriage coming from the west. Actually, it seemed to me that it would not hit us at that time. It was the horses in the carriage from the west that were frightened and hit the shed of Chunfeng Shili.
Liu Tong recalled and spoke vividly.
They were not afraid at all, but rather seemed very excited. This was also because Zhang Fei brought entertainment to the audience, which made the people excited about going to court to testify.
After hearing this, Li Guozhong immediately whispered a few words into Li Lei's ear.
Li Lei nodded: "I understand."
Zhang Fei continued, "I wonder if the carriage coming from the south is fast."
"Not very fast." Liu Tong shook his head and said, "There are quite a few people at that intersection. Who dares to drive fast? Don't you want to die?"
"Did it ring?"
"Yes! It keeps ringing."
"Is there any bell ringing for the carriage coming from the west?"
"I didn't hear that because there were a lot of people there and it was quite noisy. At the same time, there were also the sound of horse bells, so I didn't pay attention."
"Then can you see the carriage coming from the west? Is it fast or slow?"
"When I saw it, the carriage had already lost control, but it shouldn't have been moving very fast, otherwise it would have crashed directly. Anyway, I think if the horse hadn't been frightened at the time, it would definitely not have crashed."
"Yeah?"
Zhang Fei picked up a document on the table and looked at it carefully. "According to the results of the police station's experiment, from where you were standing at that time, you could actually clearly see the carriage coming from the west. Did you not notice it at that time?"
"yes!"
Liu Tong scratched his head and wondered, "I should be able to see it, but why didn't I see it?"
Zhang Fei smiled and said, "Don't worry, think about it slowly."
Liu Tong thought about it carefully, then suddenly raised his hand and shook his fingers, "I... I remember now, it's because there are many embroideries hanging under the shed of Chunfeng Shili, which blocked it, so I can't see it."
Zhang Fei asked again: "Do you think the carriage coming from the south can see the carriage coming from the west?"
"I object."
Li Lei stood up immediately.
Zhang Fei turned to Lu Jia and asked, "The General Police Department has done an experiment on this. If there are a lot of embroidery hanging on the north side of the shed, neither side can see the situation on the other side at all."
After saying that, he sat down.
Li Lei took the opportunity to ask, "Liu Tong, how long have you worked in Ramadan Building?"
Liu Tong replied: "About three or four years."
Li Lei asked: "As far as you know, do accidents like this happen often?"
Liu Tongdao: "This is the most serious case I've ever seen, but usually...!"
Before he could finish, Li Lei continued to ask, "You just said that according to your judgment, it was definitely not hit, and it was because the horses in the carriage to the west got frightened and lost control, so they hit it?"
Liu Tong nodded.
Li Lei asked, "What makes you say that the horse was frightened and out of control?"
Liu Tongdao: "Because I heard the horse neigh at that time."
Li Lei asked again: "Can you guarantee that it was the horse that lost control and not due to improper driving?"
Liu Tong quickly shook his head and said, "I can't guarantee that."
"I'm done asking questions."
"You just said that this accident was the most serious one you have ever seen. Does that mean you may have seen it more than once?" Zhang Fei stood up and asked.
Liu Tong nodded and said, "Accidents do happen frequently at that street corner, but most of them are just bumps and bruises. This is the first time I've seen such a situation."
Zhang Fei asked again: "Then you must still remember the scene clearly, right?"
Liu Tong nodded.
Zhang Fei said: "I have three paintings here. Can you identify which one depicts what happened at that time?"
The officials watching nearby, and even Li Guozhong and others, were all stunned.
Can... we still play like this?
The painting presented as evidence has never appeared before.
Li Lei asked Lu Jia directly: "Lu Silu, is this allowed?"
Lu Jiawen had never encountered this before, so he thought about it and said, "Painting is the same as writing, there is nothing wrong with this."
Li Lei sat down helplessly.
Fei Ming wondered, "Why does this kid have so many tricks?"
Li Guozhong said: "This is the most terrifying thing about him. No one knows how many tricks he has hidden."
Su Shi, who was standing by and watching, muttered to himself, "Is this what he calls skill?"
Fan Chunren heard it clearly and said, "But what can this prove?"
Su Shi was also confused: "Yes! What can this painting prove?"
After getting Lu Jiawen's permission, Qiu Zhengwen stood up, walked over with the three paintings and showed them to Liu Tong one by one.
After reading it, Liu Tong said firmly: "The second one."
Qiu Zhengwen asked: "Are you referring to the one marked with the symbol 2?"
Liu Tongzhi nodded and said, "Yes, yes, I recognize this symbol."
Nowadays, Arabic numerals, along with license plates, have quickly become well-known to everyone, and even illiterate people can recognize these symbols.
Qiu Zhengwen immediately presented all three paintings to Lu Jiawen.
After reading it, Lu Jiawen looked at Zhang Fei in confusion, what does this mean?
Zhang Fei smiled and said, "I'll explain it later. I've finished asking questions."
Then he sat down.
Li Lei stood up and said, "I beg Lu Silu to summon the suspect, Patrolman Xie Hui, to the court."
"Pass it on to Xie Hui."
After a while, Xie Hui came up to the court. After paying his respects to everyone, he sat in the suspect's seat. Since the Kaifeng Prefecture had two seats on the left and right, the Silusi followed suit to make a better distinction.
Li Lei stood up and said, "Xie Hui, can you tell me the specific circumstances of the incident?"
Xie Hui said: "I remember that day I was ordered to deliver a batch of green paint from Xiangguo Temple to the police station. When I passed the street corner entering Xiuxiang Lane, a carriage suddenly came out from the south, causing my horse to be frightened. I tried very hard to adjust, but the carriage still overturned."
Li Lei asked: "Were you very fast at that time?"
"Not fast. Just normal."
"Do you hear the sound of horse bells coming from the south?"
"No. If there was, I would have stopped the car."
"How could you not hear it at such a close distance?"
"The street was very noisy at the time, and I really didn't hear it."
"I heard that your police station is very busy with license plates and you have to work until very late every day?"
"Yes."
"How long has it been since you last rested?"
"About half a month."
"You haven't had a day off?"
"No."
"Could it be that you were too tired to hear it?"
"No, I knew the day before that I had to go to Xiangguo Temple to transport goods early this morning, so I went to bed early."
“Who can prove it?”
"I have been sleeping in the training grounds these past few days. Can many people prove this?"
"But I have also asked many patrol officers, and they are just like you. Although they fall asleep immediately after a busy day, they still feel tired."
"I'm sure I feel tired from working every day, but it's not so tiring that I can't even hear the bell."
"But you denied it just now?"
"I...."
"I'm done asking questions."
Without giving Xie Hui a chance to answer, he sat down.
Zhang Fei stood up and asked, "Xie Hui, how many years have you been driving?"
Xie Hui said: "Eight years."
"I wonder how good are your driving skills?"
Xie Hui replied: "It's OK."
"More lines?"
"Well...."
Xie Hui seemed a little shy.
Zhang Fei then asked, "Is there anyone in the police station who drives better than you?"
"Probably not. Almost."
"Is there any proof?"
"Last time, our police station conducted a special assessment on driving and riding skills, and I ranked first in driving."
"You've been driving for eight years. Have you ever encountered a situation where a horse got scared?"
“Yes.”
"Did anything happen?"
"No."
Xie Hui said confidently: "It is common for horses to be frightened, but I can usually adjust myself."
“Why didn’t you adjust this time?”
"That's because there was a small ditch next to the shed. The right wheel got stuck in the ditch and crashed into the shed. If it weren't for the small ditch, I could have avoided it."
"I'm done asking questions."
Zhang Fei sat down.
Lu Jiawen looked at Li Lei again.
Li Lei shook his head, indicating that he did not ask.
Zhang Fei added: "I beg Lu Silu to call the witness Shuangxi."
Then a young servant in a blue hat came up to the hall.
Zhang Fei asked as usual: "Shuangxi, do you still remember what you were doing around 2:54 am on the 18th of this month?"
Shuangxi replied: "My master ordered me to go to the Ramadan Building to prepare vegetarian food."
Zhang Fei asked, "Are you on your way to the Ramadan Building?"
"Yes."
"So what did you see then?"
"At that time, I saw a patrolman driving a horse-drawn carriage towards Xiuxiang. Then a horse-drawn carriage suddenly came out from the south, and the patrolman drove the carriage into a shed nearby."
"Is the patrolman's carriage very fast?"
"Not fast."
"So you could hear the horse bells coming from the other side?"
"No."
Shuangxi shook his head.
Zhang Fei asked: "At such a close distance, you shouldn't be able to hear it!"
Shuangxi thought for a moment and said, "I remember now. There was a pancake seller shouting nearby, and the patrolman's carriage was also ringing its bell, so I didn't hear the bell from the other side."
"Thank you!"
Zhang Fei smiled and nodded: "I've finished asking."
Lu Jiawen looked at Li Lei again.
Li Lei shook his head, indicating that he had nothing to ask.
But Fei Ming behind him muttered, "Strange! The questions he asked have nothing to do with the street invasion. Could it be that he was just bluffing to let everyone know? Can't we blame the patrol officers for this?"
Li Guozhong nodded and said, "That's possible. He often did this before, looking for an excuse to go to court."
Zhang Fei summoned another eyewitness named Kang Wen.
After asking the usual questions, Zhang Fei asked again: "Now that you are talking about it, did you witness the entire incident?"
"Yes."
"Then do you remember how the carriage got under the shed?"
"I should remember."
"I have three paintings here, please identify them."
After hearing this, Lu Jiawen picked up the painting on the table and was about to hand it over, but Qiu Zhengwen stood up first and took out three more paintings.
Everyone was confused.
What is this for?
Do I need to prepare so many paintings for the same thing?
Li Guozhong began to sweat. "You have to pay attention. There must be something mysterious about this painting."
Although Li Lei nodded, he was unsure because he had never encountered this trick before.
“The third one.”
Kang Wen quickly gave his judgment.
Qiu Zhengwen asked again: "Are there any paintings marked with the symbol 3?"
"Yes."
Qiu Zhengwen then handed the three paintings to Lu Jiawen.
Lu Jiawen hurriedly took a look and became even more confused.
Li Lei said that there was nothing to ask, because what Kang Wen said was exactly the same as what Liu Tong said, there was no difference.
Zhang Fei summoned another eyewitness, and then took out three paintings for the other party to identify. After the other party had finished identifying, he handed them to Lu Jiawen.
But since Qiu Zhengwen only showed the paintings to the witness and Lu Jiawen, the others could not see them and were extremely curious.
Are they looking at the same painting? If so, why are there so many of them?
What is this trick?
Zhang Fei did not pretend to be profound this time and quickly revealed the answer. He asked Lu Jia, "Excuse me, Lu Silu, have you seen all the paintings they have confirmed?"
“I’ve seen them all.”
Lu Jiawen was also very tactful and directly showed the three paintings to everyone.
After watching it, everyone became even more curious.
These three paintings actually depict the scene of the car rollover from different angles.
What's the point?
Zhang Fei asked with a smile: "I believe Lu Silu is also very curious about why I prepared nine paintings to ask the same question."
Lu Jiawen nodded and said, "I am indeed very curious, what is the meaning of this?"
Zhang Fei said: "Because I just want to prove one thing, that is, the carriage did not crash directly into the shed, but overturned because the right wheel got stuck in the ditch."
Lu Jiawen asked again: "What does this mean?"
Zhang Fei said: "This is enough to prove one thing, that is, if there was no ditch, this accident could have been avoided."
Li Guozhong was startled and immediately asked, "What's the secret of that ditch?"
Fei Ming spread his hands: "I don't know either."
Li Guozhong asked anxiously: "Didn't you check?"
Fei Ming said: "I just went to investigate the Spring Breeze Ten Miles Street invasion. Why would I investigate that small ditch?"
"It's over!"
Li Guozhong said: "There must be something wrong with this ditch."
Lu Jiawen looked at the painting again and said, "Even if that's the case, what does it prove?"
"I have two more paintings here."
Zhang Fei turned around and saw Qiu Zhengwen with three pens, took out two scrolls and came to the middle of the hall and unfolded them.
Xu Zhiqian covered her face with her hands.
Last time it was an article, this time it was a painting, and the people around her are all literary masters, and they can paint better than her with their eyes closed. This is really embarrassing.
But at this moment, no one paid attention to these, their attention was all on the content of the painting.
Zhang Fei came to the painting and said, "The painting on the left is the scene of this street corner five years ago, which I painted based on the memories of more than a dozen witnesses I found from Xiangguo Temple and Xiuxiang. The painting on the right is the current one.
You can clearly see that five years ago, the ditch at the intersection was twice as wide as it is today, and deeper, and there were guardrails on the side. The reason for this was that people were afraid that someone would accidentally fall into the ditch.
But the street intersection at that time was very wide and could be seen at a glance, and there were guardrails, so there had never been an incident of a person or a carriage falling into the ditch.
As for the current street corner, I believe you can tell without looking at the painting that it is very narrow and congested. All this is caused by Chunfeng Shili's encroachment on the street. If Chunfeng Shili wants to expand its store, it must fill up the previous ditch, but this ditch is also the drainage ditch of the entire Xiuxiang, so it is indispensable.
So Chunfeng Shili changed the route of the ditch without authorization, but in order to save costs, the width and height of the ditch were far less than before, and no guardrails were set up to give warnings. In addition, before the shed was built, if you came from the west, you could see the ditch, but because the shed covered part of the ditch, if you were not careful, you could not see it at all at the corner of the street.
The traffic laws of our dynasty are almost all inherited from the Tang Law Commentary, but during the Xianping period, a provision specifically for traffic roads was added.
As he spoke, he had already walked to his desk and just picked up a document. Unexpectedly, Lu Jiawen said first: "This is what I remember. It is about digging ditches, wells, and even mud pits in the city. Household owners must set up guardrails to avoid casualties. Otherwise, if an accident occurs, the household owner will bear all the responsibility."
Zhang Fei put down the document in his hand and nodded, "That's right, but there's another sentence behind it. If there's any injury or even death caused by this, the householder will still have to pay the compensation. This is to ensure that ditches and wells are not opened in places where accidents are likely to occur."
"Yes, that's what you mean." Lu Jiawen nodded.
Zhang Fei said: "In this case, Chunfeng Shili encroached on the street and not only changed the route of the ditch without authorization, but also removed the original guardrails without installing new ones. Later, they built a shed to cover part of it. Although they built it very narrow and shallow, the accident happened because of this. According to this law, Chunfeng Shili must bear full responsibility."
While Zhang Fei was giving his lengthy speech, Xu Zhiqian kept staring at Li Guozhong, Li Lei and others sitting opposite him, because when she was helping Zhang Fei prepare, she had not expected that Zhang Fei would make a big fuss about this ditch.
The other side has already stopped fighting and looks as pale as death.
You're playing it a little too carefully.
They were mainly investigating street intrusions, and their attention was focused on the house and the shed. They didn't expect that Zhang Fei would put all the blame on that inconspicuous ditch based on the way the carriage entered the shed.
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