Chapter 757: Good Times Come After Bad Times
These landlords in Jiangnan are still crying and wailing over that little bit of interest, not knowing that they are actually very lucky, at least much happier than the wealthy and powerful people in Beijing.
Due to time constraints and the deployment of public security, procuratorial and judicial departments, it is impossible to implement warehouse tax in Huainan this year.
There is nothing that can be done about it.
However, the Royal Court still announced the news that the warehouse tax will be fully implemented next year.
However, the new tax law will be implemented this year. The elites of the Tax Commissioner have already been in place, and they are all eager to get started. If the new tax law is not implemented, the Tax Commissioner will curse, saying that they have been hungry for a long time.
However, the landlords in the Huainan area were completely unaware of the seriousness of the matter and were still cursing, saying what a shitty law this was and what a warehouse tax it was. We were going to report this to the government and it was simply nonsense.
The tax commissioners were very happy; they just liked these unruly rich people and only wished they could remain that way forever.
The bonus depends on them.
In comparison, Jingdong East Road was relatively calm. They had learned the news from the official bulletin earlier, and later the government officially announced that the warehouse tax would be implemented next year.
...
...
Then the food in the grain shop increased day by day.
Qizhou Imperial Court.
"Zizhan, have you heard that the price of grain has dropped to twenty-seven coins?"
Wang Anguo asked Su Shi.
Su Shi smiled and said, "Why bother to hear that the grain from the grain shop will soon be put on the street."
Wang Anguo laughed and said, "This is really unexpected. The matter is still unclear, but those landlords just released the grain without anyone even coming to complain."
Su Shi chuckled and said, "The last case of Wu Tian has already scared them to death. They dare not have any fluke mentality. Moreover, now there are only royal police outside. In the past three months, our procuratorate has only encountered one criminal case, and the rest are all civil lawsuits."
Jingdong East Road completely lost its ability to resist because the last suppression of bandits was too harsh, which directly scared the local landlords and gentry. The key is that the number of royal police is still increasing, because the commander of the Palace Front Division came here in person and converted all the imperial guards here into royal police. Jingdong East Road has become a large police district, more than the northwest.
Qizhou also changed from being the prefecture with the worst public security to one with the best public security.
So when the news of the warehouse tax came out, although it would not be implemented until next year, the landlords did not hesitate and released grain directly. If it was released next year, the price of grain would definitely be lower.
Wang Anguo added: "It's really strange. These people couldn't even do anything to the bandits in the military camp, but when they joined the Royal Police, they were like different people. They were not afraid of even more powerful bandits and beat them so hard that they fled in panic."
Su Shi smiled and said, "Does the judge know who is supporting the Qingzhou Career College now?"
Wang Anguo asked: "Who?"
"These are the Royal Police."
Su Shi said: "The military camp has always been very corrupt. These soldiers have never received full salaries, and they often go to the commander's house to do odd jobs, just like servants.
But it is different when you go to the police station. As long as you work hard, you will not lack any money and bonuses. Therefore, their children are the most suitable to study in career colleges. At the same time, they have the word "royal" on their heads and are deeply loved by the people. They have status, honor, and money. How can they not work hard?
I know that earlier this year someone tried to bribe a Royal Police officer with two hundred kan, but they all failed because they were afraid of losing their police uniforms.
Wang Anguo nodded.
Su Shi added: "But it is just the beginning, and it is not clear yet. Our army had good combat effectiveness at the beginning of the country, but then it gradually became corrupt. We still have to monitor their royal police at all times."
As he was speaking, a clerk came to report that Qizhou Transport Commissioner Zhang Dun and Qizhou Prefect Zeng Bu had arrived.
Wang Anguo immediately asked someone to invite them in.
After entering the house, the two men immediately apologized to Wang Anguo and Su Shi, saying that they were late.
It turned out that Su Shi came to the imperial court today because Zhang Dun and Zeng Bu said they had something to discuss with them.
After sitting down, Wang Anguo asked, "What do you two want to discuss with us?"
Zhang Dun said: "I wonder if you two know that there are many cases of bartering in Qizhou."
After hearing this, Su Shi immediately asked, "Are you two planning to issue salt notes?"
Zhang Dun was stunned at once. Zeng Bu laughed and said, "Zizhan is really smart."
Su Shi did not appreciate it at all and shook his head directly, saying, "I don't agree."
This Su Zizhan is really annoying! Zeng Bu's expression changed slightly, and he asked in a cold tone: "Why?"
Su Shi said: "Because if the government can solve financial problems with a piece of paper, it will inevitably issue money excessively, and then the people will suffer."
Zhang Dun immediately said, "But this is all caused by your public security, procuratorate and courts. Wherever they go, local business will prosper, leading to a shortage of currency. Not long after the public security, procuratorate and courts went to Hezhong Prefecture, they issued a large number of salt notes and salt bonds. Now the capital area is issuing tax coins again. It can be seen that this is the inevitable way."
Su Shi said: "Hezhong Prefecture has always had salt notes. The tax notes issued in the capital are for disaster relief. This has nothing to do with the public security, procuratorial and judicial organs."
Zeng Bu's eyes turned and he chuckled, "I heard that the reason why the people of Hezhong Prefecture trust the salt notes is because Su Ziyu is very capable and always supervises the issuance of salt notes and salt bonds."
Before he could finish, Su Shi said, "Prefect Zeng, don't try to use my brother to provoke me. Ziyou once wrote to me and told me that he didn't agree with the salt money, but because Zhang San's methods were better than his, he had no choice but to accept it. But I have no reason to accept it."
The implication is that both of you are not as good as Zhang San.
Zeng Bu could hear the sarcasm in his speech. The corner of his mouth twitched and he thought to himself, it was God's will that this guy got beaten. It was a pity that he was hit in the eyes and not the mouth.
Zhang Dun said calmly, "We are not here to quarrel with you two. We are here to solve the problem. The business of Jingdong East Road is developing rapidly, but it is stagnant due to the lack of coins. As long as there are enough coins, it will definitely go a step further. For this reason, we have recruited merchants to develop salt in Binzhou in advance. Now the salt production there has increased a lot, and there is enough capacity to issue salt notes."
"What is lacking is currency, not salt notes," said Su Shi.
Zeng Budao: "May I ask Attorney General Su if he has any good ideas?"
Don't just talk, think of a solution.
Su Shi said: "Since the capital can adjust the grain problem through warehouse tax, why can't we solve the currency problem through a copper storage tax?
The value of money is already increasing. If we impose a tax on copperware and give merchants the power to mint coins, the value of money will inevitably increase.”
He once preached: "If merchants are allowed to mint coins, the quality of the coins will be uneven, and the consequences will be more serious."
Su Shi said: "We can formulate a coinage law to ensure this, and the public security, procuratorial and judicial organs are also capable of doing this."
Zeng Bu and Zhang Dun were unable to argue with Su Shi, so they looked at Wang Anguo angrily.
Wang Anguo said: "I also agree with what Chief Prosecutor Su said. Issuing salt notes is too risky and should be avoided as much as possible."
Zhang Dun said: "But copper is limited. If business continues to prosper, we will have to issue salt notes."
Su Shi said, "We'll talk about it later."
Seeing that he was unmoved, Zhang Dun said, "Issuing currency is the power of our government."
Su Shi said: "But without the support of the public security, procuratorate and courts, the people will not believe it."
"Goodbye."
Since this was not their first quarrel, the process was very smooth. However, everyone was used to it, so they had to sit down and continue discussing after a quarrel.
In fact, Zhang Dun also knew that Su Shi’s method was feasible. The price of coins was indeed rising at present. As long as private coinage was allowed, the currency problem would be alleviated.
But they wanted to keep the currency in government hands.
Unfortunately, they met Su Shi, a super liberal. Su Shi's idea was that the government should collect taxes seriously and give merchants more freedom. He had no objection to warehouse tax and liquor tax, and was very supportive of them.
However, Zhang Dun said something very right. Wherever the public security, procuratorial and judicial organs go, there will inevitably be a shortage of currency in the local area. The reason is that the public security, procuratorial and judicial organs will promote commercial prosperity and increase the frequency of transactions. If the currency remains unchanged, there will be a shortage of currency.
Therefore, Zhang Dun and Zeng Bu were also very anxious. As long as currency was issued, business would definitely get better. However, without the support of the public security, procuratorial and judicial organs, it could not be issued because the people would not believe it.
Zeng Bu even thought that if a natural disaster covered Jingdong East Road, they would be able to issue paper money naturally.
Things don’t always go as planned!
Qingzhou was no exception. The Transport Commissioner Wang Juqing was also competing with Qian Yi and Fan Chunren, and both Qian Yi and Fan Chunren refused to issue salt notes.
It can also be seen that innovative and conservative political ideas are still in constant conflict at the local level.
On the contrary, party struggles in the capital city have died down somewhat, because the imperial power is being extended, and everyone is competing over interests, and the struggle over political ideas has been put aside.
What’s even more terrible is that an anti-corruption storm that swept across the entire capital area suddenly arose, and no one reacted during this period.
In just half a month, procuratorates and police stations across the country arrested more than 60 officials.
The whole government and the public were shocked.
Because such large-scale corruption cases rarely occurred in the Song Dynasty, but when some of the details came out, everyone was confused again.
It turns out that this is not a major corruption case.
Some low-level officials used disaster relief as an excuse to eat up empty grain, or colluded with merchants to buy the goods needed for disaster relief at high prices.
They are all dozens or hundreds of strings of coins.
Everyone slowly began to react, mainly because this was the first time the imperial court had implemented work-for-relief on such a large scale and issued millions of strings of tax coins at the same time.
The imperial court had undergone some reforms before, and the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works were in a mess in terms of implementation. In the early stages, there was no change in the underlying executive offices, and there was no vertical integration. There was a lack of supervision from above, which created a breeding ground for corruption.
The high officials in the court did not dare to move. At that time, they did not have the heart to do so, as they were all focused on political struggles. However, the lower-level officials saw the money passing through their hands and thought, who would find out if they could make a little money? Everyone did this in the past, and now the world is so chaotic that everyone is watching the warehouse tax.
This is indeed the case. No officials paid attention to these matters before.
Including Wang Anshi, they were all kept in the dark and had no time to care about these trivial matters.
But they were really unlucky, as they met a group of young calves. He Zhizhong and Wang Hui had just entered college and had been baptized in morality and law. They were full of passion and would catch anyone they found, no matter how much or how little they made.
The more I grab, the more excited I become.
Finally I felt the joy of the procuratorate.
At the same time, the Royal Police also want to make meritorious service, and they have been deeply exploited by these low-level officials in the past. They want revenge when there is a grudge, and they also cooperate very well with the procuratorate.
For those low-level officials, when they were first arrested, they were not very panicked. They thought it was not a big deal. In the past, it could be considered an official benefit. The most they would do was to be sent to another place, and the worst they would do was to be dismissed from their post.
But who knew that the procuratorate would prosecute all of them with the death penalty.
A large number of them fainted immediately.
I just arranged for a few relatives to eat and drink here for free, and you want to sentence me to death?
The officials in the court were also dumbfounded.
You, the Procuratorate, are crazy about wanting to achieve merit!
This is a death sentence?
This, this, this.!
They didn't know how to describe it.
But the procuratorate also has laws to follow, precedents and regulations, and the royal court must accept it. Whether the death penalty will be imposed or not can only be known after the trial.
After many days, the imperial court was once again surrounded by people, and the people looked at the two people in the dock with their eyes filled with anger.
There was only one person standing in the courtyard, and that person was of course Prosecutor Zhang.
"I have to point out that regarding sentencing for corruption, our dynasty has inconsistent precedents. Some punishments are very light, or even no punishment, but some corrupt officials have been sentenced to death. And according to the precedents of the past thirty years, our dynasty has never sentenced corrupt officials to death. At the same time, we have abolished punishments such as tattooing and caning. The most they can do is to be exiled to a remote state. And judging from the amount of money involved by the two defendants, it is indeed not a lot."
Zhang Fei lowered his head and glanced at the copy. "According to the evidence from our procuratorate, the amount involved for the two defendants combined is only 120 strings of cash, which is much less than the amount involved in some previous cases."
At this point, he changed the subject and said, "However, we cannot ignore the current environment. At this moment, the whole country, the emperor and the people are united, trying their best to resist natural disasters, and the money they embezzled was originally used to help the people.
Some people may say that it is just adding 20 or 30 more quotas, but this could also mean 20 or 30 lives. Because the court has limited money for relief, they gave these life-saving quotas to their relatives, which is tantamount to murder for money.
Therefore, on behalf of the Procuratorate, I hereby implore the Chief Justice to sentence the first defendant Liu Guang and the second defendant Chen Mu to death by hanging."
"good!"
"Well said!"
"death penalty!"
"Sentence them to death!"
The people outside, who were so frustrated, immediately started shouting hysterically.
To embezzle relief money is to commit murder for money.
This must be punishable by death.
It was as if they had never met before.
But in fact, such petty corruption at the grassroots level is not uncommon. I guess Chen Mu and Liu Guang don't think this is corruption. The key is that it is such a big project, involving so many people and so much money. I only got a few dozen strings of cash, but you have caught them all. How can I have fun in the future?
However, faced with Zhang Fei's firm words and the people's shared hatred of the enemy, Chen Mu and Liu Guang were completely panicked and kept bowing to Zhao Yan and begging for mercy.
Zhao Yan glanced at Zhang Fei, then at Chen Mu and Liu Guang. He held the gavel in one hand and tried to raise it several times. After hesitating for a while, he coughed lightly and said, "As Prosecutor Zhang said, there are many precedents, pardons, and regulations for the punishment of corruption in our dynasty. This court president needs to carefully review the relevant laws before making a final decision. Today's trial will end here."
As he spoke, he picked up the gavel and knocked it gently.
As soon as the voice fell, a huge shadow suddenly appeared. Everyone looked up immediately, but saw a huge dark cloud floating overhead, covering the sky and the sun.
No way!
Zhao Yan didn't move. He looked up and stared blankly at the dark clouds. Time seemed to have stopped at this moment.
Sudden!
A huge drop of water fell down.
There was a crisp click.
Everyone couldn't help but hold their breath and listen to this long-lost sound.
One drop!
Another drop!
Da da da da!
Soon, heavy rain came down.
A huge cheer immediately rang out outside the courtyard. People hugged each other and cried, or sang and danced in the heavy rain. Their tears and rain quickly intertwined.
After seven months, the people of the capital finally waited for this heavy rain.
Compared with the common people, the judicial personnel in the court were in a state of panic.
Evidence!
Copywriting!
Zhang Fei didn't care about that and pulled Xu Zhiqian to hide under the eaves.
Xu Zhiqian whispered, "Zhang San, you won't make things worse, will you?"
Zhang Fei was stunned and asked, "What do you mean?"
Xu Zhiqian asked, "Snow in June?"
We just fought corruption here and it started raining heavily right away. It must be God’s will that they die!
Zhang Fei was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "No way. This is not a matter of two officials, but a whole group of people. Even if the chief judge wanted to, he wouldn't dare to do it!"
However, there is a place that is even more lively than this place.
It's the imperial palace.
All the eunuchs and palace maids ran to the open space, cheering.
The concubines also cried for joy.
The two Empress Dowagers breathed a sigh of relief and hurried to the program to thank the Buddha.
In fact, the palace has been very depressing over the past six months, even though the disaster relief situation outside was very good.
The main reason is the emperor.
Because this involves the emperor's reform and the interaction between heaven and man.
Zhao Xu has been under great pressure. Whether he was discussing matters with Zhang Fei or Wang Anshi and others, he was not as cheerful and talkative as before and was always worried.
Zhao Xu also rushed to the altar as soon as possible to worship heaven and earth.
He was really scared to death.
I don't know if it's really the end of bad times, but just after I finished offering sacrifices to heaven and earth and changed my clothes, I heard good news from the western front. Wang Shao's army defeated Zuo Silu and successfully resolved the crisis in Hezhou.
When Zhao Xu heard the news, he immediately burst into tears.
What the hell!
It’s not easy!
Of course, this rain only made everyone feel relieved. Before this rain, no one knew how long the drought would last. The unknown is the most terrifying thing, but disaster relief still has to continue. Although this rain can reduce some losses, it is still not enough.
In addition, there is the issue of corruption.
The procuratorate directly charges all acts of corruption with the death penalty.
This also caused great discussion in the court.
However, what Zhang Fei did not expect was that most of the conservative officials supported the death penalty, while the reformists were strongly opposed.
Initially, Zhang Fei believed that the vast majority of officials should be opposed, which would force the Legislative Council to pass legislation on this issue.
Unexpectedly, there were still quite a number of people who supported it, including Wen Yanbo and Sima Guang.
This actually involves the idea of the monarch and the scholar-officials governing the world together.
According to this idea, the country not only belongs to the emperor, but also to us, the literati.
Some scholars, such as Wen Yanbo, believed that these corrupt officials were greedy for the country's money and the welfare of us scholars, so they must be severely punished. Some moralists believed that as we are all officials and scholars, we are bringing shame to us scholars.
Of course, there were more people who opposed the death penalty, mainly because too many officials were involved, so Zhao Yan did not dare to make a judgment easily.
Legislative Council.
"Prosecutor Zhang, you really don't know how to respect the elderly and love the young. Normally, when you face cases like this, you always know the severity of the crime. What's the matter with you this time? You want to sentence everyone to death. Aren't you making things difficult for the chief judge?"
Fu Bi asked Zhang Fei with a mixture of anger and amusement.
Zhao Yan, who was standing by, was also helpless. This time, the procuratorate really caught him off guard.
Moreover, this is completely different from Zhang Fei’s previous style!
Zhang Fei said: "In reply to Mr. Fu, I have a reason for doing this, because our procuratorate can only have one standard, but I have read all the previous cases, including the laws in the Song Dynasty Criminal Code and the imperial edicts.
There is no unified standard other than the death penalty, and for this reason, we have adopted the death penalty as the standard.”
Zhao Yan was puzzled: "That's not what you said in court."
Zhang Fei smiled and said, "Grand Judge, our procuratorate aims to convict. The words we said in court were for the purpose of successfully prosecuting. Of course, I would say something more sensational, because that is my duty, no matter what I think. Just like the Grand Judge's distress at this moment, maybe the Grand Judge does not want to sentence the person to death, but given his duties, he cannot do whatever he wants."
"You have such a big mouth!"
Zhao Yan could not help but shake his head helplessly.
A smile flashed across Fu Bi's eyes, and he said to Zhang Fei, "So your procuratorate did not want to sentence those officials to death, but was forced to do so."
Zhang Fei nodded and said, "We have no choice."
Fu Bi hesitated for a moment and said, "Let's put aside those precedents for now. What do you think we should do?"
Zhang Fei said: "I think it is most important to unify the punishment. As for how to unify, I don't know, and I'm not very good at it, but our procuratorate will only prosecute according to one standard. Otherwise, it will all be up to us, the public security, the procuratorate and the courts. This will not convince the public, and it also violates the laws of our ancestors, which is to prevent things from happening and to control things from happening."
Fu Bi nodded and looked at Zhao Yan again.
Zhao Yan thought about it carefully, nodded and said, "I have to admit that what this brat said is quite right."
Zhang Fei smiled awkwardly and said, "Thank you for the compliment, Grand Judge."
Zhao Yan glared at him fiercely.
Fu Bi glanced at Zhang Fei meaningfully, thought for a while, nodded and said, "Okay! Our Legislative Council will carefully consider this issue."
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