Anyone with a discerning eye could see that Zhang Fei definitely did not stay up all night last night. Looking at his energetic appearance, one could tell that he slept until he woke up naturally, and maybe he stayed up for a while.
really!
Zhang Fei did not stay up late, but was late on purpose.
The reason is that after Kaifeng Prefecture accepted the case, it seemed to treat him as an enemy. It did not even ask when the trial would be held. It just let Kaifeng Prefecture and the Procuratorate make the decision. This is actually very unfair to Zhao Wenzhen. Even if you are under pressure, the three parties must sit down together and discuss it.
This respect is mutual.
You don't respect me, so why should I respect you?
Zhang Fei, a petty-minded man, naturally had to find a way to express his grievances instead of keeping them all in his stomach.
Anyway, he knew the emperor would be here.
As for Xu Zhiqian's worry that this would anger Zeng Gong, Zhang Fei didn't care at all. Since you have already subjectively regarded me as an enemy, there is no point in me trying to please you. I might as well tease you a few times.
Zeng Gong was indeed very unhappy, but in order to avoid giving others a chance to criticize him, he could only discuss with Zhang Fei in a friendly manner whether to hold the trial again on another day.
...
...
But this was not a rare thing for the guests present.
Almost all the presiding judges who had competed with Zhang Fei in court had suffered this loss.
Of course, this is all because of their subconscious thinking that officials are superior, and they always want to use their power to suppress Zhang Fei. Secondly, they are all reasonable. If it were Wang Hong, he would just hit him with a stick. I am noble, you are cheap, who the hell will talk to you about reason.
After a little preparation, the trial officially began.
Su Che first summoned the defendant Wang Hongjin to the court and asked him whether he had falsely reported his property and whether he had evaded taxes.
Wang Hongjin confessed to this.
In the face of irrefutable evidence, there is no way to deny it.
There was no emotion in his tone, which showed that he knew he was a dying man.
Su Che asked again: "I wonder how you evaded taxes?"
Wang Hongjin said: "It's mainly concealed and not reported."
"Hidden over a hundred hectares?"
Su Che asked curiously, "It's not easy to hide such a large piece of land. And according to our investigation, the grain from these fields was all sent to the warehouse of the Zhao governor's house in the Zongzheng Temple, and your father happened to be the patriarch of the Zhao governor's house. Obviously, these lands also belonged to the Zhao governor. Is this the reason why you were able to evade taxes?"
"I object!"
Zhang Fei stood up and said, "The other party is just making groundless guesses, trying to induce the witness to say something unfavorable to my client."
Su Che immediately said, "I am not making groundless guesses. It is impossible for ordinary people to have never paid a penny of tax on these hundreds of hectares of land."
Zeng Gong nodded and said, "Keep asking."
Zhang Fei sat down helplessly.
Xu Zhiqian whispered, "This Mr. Su has improved a lot compared to last time!"
Zhang Fei nodded and said, "He is indeed more difficult to deal with than his brother."
Su Shi still has some of the romanticism of a poet. He is smart but not rigorous. This is why Su Shi failed last time. This is a big shortcoming in court.
I don't know if he has improved now.
Wang Hongjin was silent for a while, then nodded and said, "Yes, the reason why I was able to evade taxes successfully was indeed because of my status as a master."
There was a commotion at the door.
This is an open trial and ordinary people can come to watch. Especially since this is Zhang Fei's return to Kaifeng Prefecture, we must not miss it!
Win, win!
There was a burst of excitement in the audience, and they secretly glanced at the emperor sitting next to them.
Zhao Xu was indeed feeling a little embarrassed.
Su Zhe said: "I have no problem for the time being."
Zhang Fei stood up and said, "Wang Hongjin, you just said that you evaded taxes by relying on the identity of Governor Zhao. Did Governor Zhao explicitly instruct you to evade taxes?"
Wang Hongjin shook his head and said, "No."
Zhang Fei asked, "Then how did you use your status as Governor Zhao to evade taxes?"
Wang Hongjin said: "Because everyone knows that these lands belong to Governor Zhao, if I use some tricks to hide those lands, the tax collectors and the yamen officials will not investigate carefully."
Zhang Fei said: "That means tax evasion is your own behavior and has nothing to do with Governor Zhao."
Wang Hongjin nodded and said, "Yes."
"I'm done asking questions."
Zhang Fei sat down.
Qi Ji snorted softly, "I knew he would sacrifice the pawn to save the king, and let Wang Hong come in to take the blame."
"How can a mere Wang Hongjin resist such a huge tax?"
Su Che stood up and indicated that he wanted to summon the defendant Zhao Wenzhen.
Soon, Zhao Wenzhen sat in the dock. The pale old man never thought that he would end up like this. He looked at Zhao Xu who was sitting on the upper left with embarrassment.
However, Zhao Xu gave him a comforting look and said, "Don't panic, I will save you."
This gave Zhao Wenzhen great encouragement.
The minister sitting nearby caught this detail and his anger began to rise again.
Little did he know that this was exactly the effect Zhao Xu wanted, otherwise he would not have come today and would be sitting here in embarrassment.
"Governor Zhao!"
Su Che bowed his hands first, then asked, "Just now Wang Hongjin said that almost all the land and business under his name belonged to Governor Zhao. I wonder if this is true."
Zhao Wenzheng nodded and said, "Yes, I arranged for him to help me take care of those fields and businesses."
Su Che asked: "Why?"
Zhao Wenzheng said: "For convenience."
Su Che continued to ask: "What do you mean?"
Zhao Wenzheng said: "If everything is registered under my name, I will have to come to me for everything. I don't have the time to deal with those things. Many people I know do this."
Fu Bi, Sima Guang and others seemed to be able to hear their heartbeats quickening.
Su Che glanced at the VIP seats and thought, forget it, let's not make things complicated. He did not ask who the specific people were, and then asked: "But according to my investigation, Governor Zhao still has ten hectares of land in his name."
Zhao Wenzhen nodded.
Su Che said: "But these ten hectares of land have not paid a penny of tax."
Zhao Wenzheng immediately said: "Those ten hectares of land are tax-free land, no tax is required."
Su Che smiled and asked, "That is to say, Governor Zhao put all the tax-free lands in his own name, and all the taxable lands in Wang Hongjin's name."
A man at the door snorted, "Why ask? I know everything."
Many people also made sarcastic remarks.
Zhao Wenzhen's face turned blue and red, and his expression was very colorful.
Although Zhang Fei had explained it before, he had never experienced such a scene, and he felt very tormented. A member of the royal family was sitting here being interrogated, and every question was very serious.
"quiet!"
Zeng Gong slammed the gavel.
The doorway immediately fell silent.
Zhao Wenzheng then nodded and said, "Yes."
"Why?"
"Didn't I just say that it's for convenience? This way, the tax collector won't come to me, and can go directly to Wang Hongjin."
"I wonder if Governor Zhao knows that Wang Hongjin has not paid a penny in taxes."
"Now I know."
Zhao Wenzheng said: "But I didn't know about it beforehand."
"Not at all?"
"have no idea."
"Then did Governor Zhao know about Wang Hongjin's false declaration of property to the Taxation Department?"
"Know."
Zhao Wenzhen nodded.
If you admit your crime, you will just have to pay a fine.
Su Zhe said, "In other words, it was Governor Zhao who instructed Wang Hongjin to do this?"
"no."
Zhao Wenzheng resolutely denied it, "It was Wang Hongjin who bewitched me."
Su Che immediately asked, "I wonder how Wang Hongjin deceived Governor Zhao."
Zhao Wenzheng said: "Wang Hongjin told me that the exemption tax is not reasonable. At the same time, many large landowners in Xiangfu County will not report the truth. I don't know the specific situation. He handles such matters. I told him to handle it himself."
Su Che said: "Zhao Zhishi is a member of the royal family!"
"I object!"
Zhang Fei stood up and said righteously, "This case only concerns Governor Zhao, and has nothing to do with the royal family. Prosecutor Su's address may mislead others into thinking that Governor Zhao represents the entire royal family. I'm afraid he has ulterior motives."
"Sorry! I shouldn't have asked that."
Su Che took a deep breath. After all, the emperor was sitting here. He turned and asked, "Just now, Governor Zhao said that he had no knowledge of Wang Hongjin's tax evasion. Doesn't Governor Zhao ever check the accounts?"
Zhao Wenzheng said: "We check it every two or three years. Usually it is my accountant who does the accounting. I have never heard of any problems with the accounts."
"No problem?"
Su Che said: "According to the evidence we have found so far, Wang Hongjin evaded a total of 1,350 or 1,600 shi of tax last year alone. With such a large amount of tax, is there any problem with the accounts?"
The audience at the door gasped.
The scene in the VIP seats was even more exciting. People like Wang Anshi and Zhao Yan just shook their heads. How could the country's finances not be in trouble when more than a thousand shi of taxes were evaded a year?
But some people sneered in response, as if to say, you royal family members are much more cruel than us, so why should you, the emperor, blame us.
This is actually a big problem in feudal society. If the superior likes something, the subordinates will like it even more. The emperor is not a good guy either. It is reasonable for you to take the bigger share and we to take the smaller share.
There was a flash of anger in Zhao Xu's eyes, but it was only for a moment.
Zhao Wenzheng couldn't help but glance at Zhao Xu, then pretended to be calm, "Last year's accounts have not been settled yet by the accounting office, so I'm not very clear."
Zhang Fei saw this and thought to himself, this old man really has no self-control. It would be better if he could cooperate happily with Master Wang and the others.
Su Zhe smiled and said, "Fortunately, this is not difficult to check, because there are tax bills for paying taxes every year, but our procuratorate has investigated your family's accounts and there is no record of any tax bills."
Zhao Wenzheng said: "In fact, Wang Hongjin paid taxes and notes in the first two or three years, but not after that."
Su Che asked: "Why?"
Zhao Wenzheng said: "Because Wang Hongjin earns a lot of money for me every year, and the amount increases year by year, I am relieved about him and don't ask too much of him. Besides, the tax is not much."
Su Che suddenly said to Zeng Gong: "Report to the prefect Zeng, according to our investigation, because it has been ten years since then, the account books in Xiangfu County have been damaged by rats and insects, and there are many missing. We have not found relevant records, and the account books in the prefecture of Zhao happened to be damaged as well. For the time being, there is no evidence to prove that Wang Hongjin paid taxes or handed over tax bills to the prefect Zhao in the first two or three years."
Zeng Gong nodded.
"I have no problem for the time being."
Su Che sat down.
Wen Yanbo couldn't help but say, "Governor Zhao's answers are not confident and he is evasive. How can he win the case?"
Anyone with a sound mind can see that it was definitely Zhao Wenzhen who ordered this, and Wang Hongjin was just a scapegoat.
Fu Bi said: "Tax evasion is the easiest charge to defend. If he can't refute this, then the next charges will be even more difficult to refute."
At this time, everyone's eyes were focused on Zhang Fei.
Zhang Fei stood up and said, "Governor Zhao, as far as I know, Wang Hongjin is the son of your family's old man."
Zhao Wenzhen nodded.
Zhang Fei said: "They are not relatives, so if you ask him to help you, you must be rewarded, right?"
Zhao Wenzheng nodded and said, "Yes."
Zhang Fei asked, "I wonder how much?"
Zhao Wenzheng said: "Initially, his monthly salary was five strings of cash, and it included food and lodging, but later he made a lot of money for me, so I increased his monthly salary by twenty-five strings of cash, a total of thirty strings of cash per month, and I also give him some rewards every year."
Zhang Fei said: "That's a lot!"
Zhao Wenzheng nodded and said, "Yes, Wang Hongjin is paid more than his father."
Zhang Fei nodded and turned his head to look at Xu Zhiqian, "Ding two, Ding three."
Xu Zhiqian immediately took out two documents and handed them to Zhang Fei.
Zhang Fei picked it up and said, "Your Excellency the Governor, this contains the employment contract between Governor Zhao and Wang Hongjin, as well as the account expenditures for rewards given to Wang Hongjin in the past three years. It also includes the employment contracts between Governor Zhao and some of his servants. This is enough to prove that Governor Zhao did not lie."
"Present!"
But Zeng Gong's eyes flickered with doubt.
Huang Gui came over immediately.
Zhang Fei handed it over and said with a smile, "Two copies. I also prepared one for Prosecutor Su."
Huang Gui chuckled and said, "When you came to our Kaifeng Prefecture before, you probably only prepared one serving. This time, we were in such a tight time schedule, and you prepared two. It's really not easy!"
Zhang Fei's expression froze, and he whispered, "Are you interested in coming to my law firm, Mr. Huang? I'll pay you five times the salary."
Huang Gui glared at him immediately, picked up one copy and handed it to Zeng Gong, and asked someone to give the other copy to Su Che.
Qi Ji asked curiously, "What is there to say about this?"
Su Che flipped through the book briefly, pondered for a moment, and asked, "Do you think Wang Hongjin only gets this much money every month?"
Qi Ji frowned when he heard this and cursed inwardly: "This kid is so cunning!"
There were also whispers in the VIP seats.
They didn't seem to understand why Zhang Fei was working so hard on wages when they were talking about paying taxes.
Zeng Gong looked at it, and then asked Zhang Fei: "What does this mean?"
Zhang Fei said: "The answer lies with Wang Hongjin."
Zeng Gong nodded and said, "Send it to Wang Hongjin."
Wang Hongjin came up to the hall again.
Zhang Fei said: "Wang Hongjin, you were
Wang Hongjin shook his head.
Zhang Fei said: "As far as I know, your family has seven concubines."
Wang Hongjin nodded.
Zhang Fei asked again, "One of the concubines was bought by you at Furui Tower in Xiangfu County for 620 guan. For the other six, the most you spent was 200 guan, and the least was 20 guan. All together, you spent more than 1,100 guan."
Wang Hongjin nodded and said, "Yes."
Zhang Fei asked again: "At the beginning of last year, you spent another 8,000 guan to buy a small house in the west of the outer city of Bianjing."
Wang Hongjin nodded and said, "Yes."
Zhang Fei asked, "Do you have evidence to prove that you bought this yourself, and not for Governor Zhao?"
Of course, there is no need to ask about the concubine, but you must ask about this house clearly.
Wang Hongjin said: "In order to hide it from the master, I asked a concubine to buy it for me secretly. If I bought it for the master, I wouldn't need to hide it. Besides, my master has bought houses in recent years, but he has never asked me to do such a thing."
Zhang Fei nodded and said, "As far as I know, you still have a secret granary in Zhongmu County, and there are still 3,500 dan of grain stored there."
Wang Hongjin nodded and said, "Yes."
Su Che frowned and said, "It seems that we have to strengthen the investigative means of our procuratorate and cannot rely entirely on the tax department!"
Qi Ji also nodded.
It can be seen that they were completely unaware of this matter, and the Tax Commissioner did not provide any income from this secret granary.
But these are all facts. How could Wang Hongjin not be greedy when he manages so much property?
Zhang Fei asked again: "Do you have evidence to prove that this granary belongs to you, not Governor Zhao?"
Wang Hongjin said: "I think it is impossible to find any record about this granary in the master's account book."
Zhang Fei asked with a smile: "That's strange. Even if you add up all the rewards and bonuses you've received over the years, you still don't have that much money, not to mention your family's daily expenses every year. Where does all this come from?"
Wang Hongjin said: "I conceal some accounts every year, including the taxes to be paid every year. Later I found out that the master did not realize that the taxes we pay every year are much higher than before, and he did not often ask about it, so I used the master's identity to conceal the land, evade taxes, and then divert this part of the money to myself."
But no one in the VIP seats thought that this was a case of the top beam being crooked, or that they were gloating over other people's misfortune. Instead, they all cursed Zhang Fei for being too cunning, which gave him the opportunity.
Obviously they already understood Zhang Fei's intention.
Zhang Fei asked, "Aren't you afraid that Governor Zhao will suddenly conduct a tax inspection? As far as I know, Governor Zhao is used to checking the accounts in detail every two or three years."
Wang Hongjin said: "I have prepared fake tax bills. Even if the master wants to check, I can show them to the master."
"I see."
Zhang Fei nodded, then looked at Xu Zhiqian and said, "Ding Si."
Xu Zhiqian handed another document to Zhang Fei. After Zhang Fei took it, he said, "I have proof of Wang Hongjin's personal wealth and the fake tax bills he prepared in the past two years."
Qi Ji immediately snorted, "Xiangfu County happens to destroy tax notes every three years, and next year is the third year. What a coincidence that you kept the fake tax notes from the past two years. I really don't know if you are guarding against Governor Zhao or the government."
In fact, they all knew that these big landlords usually evaded taxes and kept fake tax bills for emergencies. This was illegal after all, and they were afraid of being investigated!
Although the people are aware that many officials evade taxes, this is not an open behavior, which is illegal, and these people still use various means to conceal taxes.
Zeng Gong looked at them one by one, and then whispered to Huang Gui for a while. Huang Gui just shook his head, then looked up and asked Wang Hongjin: "Is this a fake tax note?"
He was the prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture, but he could not tell whether the tax bill was genuine or fake.
Wang Hongjin said: "I bought it from a tax collector named Xiong Ping."
Zeng Gong whispered to Li Kai: "Can you send someone to check it out right away?"
Li Kai nodded.
Zeng Gong looked at Zhang Fei again and motioned for him to continue.
Zhang Fei looked around and said with a smile: "Even if Governor Zhao trusts Wang Hongjin very much, after all, Wang Hongjin is just the son of the old man. Governor Zhao is not so generous as to let Wang Hongjin have a huge fortune. The fact is obvious. Wang Hongjin deceived his superiors and deceived his subordinates. He used Governor Zhao's identity to evade taxes and concealed the fact that he had not paid taxes from Governor Zhao, and then took the money for himself."
Su Che glanced at Zhang Fei and said with a smile: "This is just your guess and speculation. Even if Wang Hongjin concealed his income from Governor Zhao, it does not mean that it includes the tax that needs to be paid every year."
Zhang Fei shrugged slightly and said, "But the procuratorate has no evidence to directly prove that it was Governor Zhao who instructed Wang Hongjin not to pay taxes."
Qi Ji said: "But the land and the business belong to Governor Zhao."
Zhang Fei smiled and said, "But it is registered under Wang Hongjin's name."
Qi Ji smiled coldly and said, let’s wait and see.
Su Che suddenly said, "But we have evidence to prove that it was Governor Zhao who ordered Wang Hong to go in and occupy the official land."
What happened before was just a warm-up. The charge of tax evasion was added temporarily. The main charges were occupying government land and selling private salt.
Zhang Fei smiled and said, "I have learned about the evidence. Unfortunately, none of it can be used as evidence in court. You may have to find another way to prove it."
(End of this chapter)
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