Judge of the Song Dynasty Chapter 496: Salt eats people

Compared to the murder of his mother, Zhang Fei also acted more relaxed today, directly asking the prosecution to report.

But because the case was too simple, there was really nothing to say, and Su Zhe had no desire to show it, so he immediately asked Ma Xiaoyi to testify in court.

I saw that Ma Xiaoyi was wearing a brand new police uniform today, and he came to court excitedly.

Qin Yijie, who was on the sidelines, really thought that Ma Xiaoyi hadn't lied to them. He really wanted to go to court. This kind of excitement and joy couldn't be faked.

Zhang Fei glanced at this kid, and sighed in his heart, those auxiliary policemen have not subdued yet, but this guy is still able to get a new one, so he is not afraid of being beaten.

Su Zhe asked: "Sheriff Ma, please state what happened on the morning of the 12th of this month."

"Yes."

Ma Xiaoyi nodded vigorously, and then said: "That morning, I was having breakfast at Yongji Square in the North City with auxiliary police Xu Kunpeng and auxiliary police Huo Hong. In the middle of eating, a person suddenly came to complain, saying that someone was selling illegal salt. "

As soon as this remark came out, there was a burst of discussion outside the court.

I heard a lot of swear words faintly.

Obviously he was displeased with the person who reported the letter, and the common people also liked the high-quality and cheap private salt.

It was very quiet in the court, just glanced at others.

Who arranged this?

It's a conspiracy.

"Silence!"

Zhang Fei knocked on the gavel, and when the court calmed down, he said to Ma Xiaoyi again: "Sheriff Ma can continue."

"Hey!"

Ma Xiaoyi nodded, and continued: "So we followed that man to an alley in the next street, and saw a man selling salt."

Zhang Fei asked: "How did Sergeant Ma determine that the man was selling salt?"

Ma Xiaoyi said: "Because someone was counting money to the salt seller at the time, and was about to leave with the salt, so we went up to ask. But the salt seller asked us if we came to buy salt."

"Haha...!"

There were sporadic laughter immediately outside the courtyard.

When they laughed, Ma Xiaoyi became even more excited, and laughed along with him.

"Ahem!"

Zhang Fei gave a warning look.

Ma Xiaoyi immediately shut up.

Zhang Fei asked again: "Next."

Ma Xiaoyi said: "I just asked the salt dealer, 'How much is a catty', and he said, 'Twenty Wen', and I asked him again, 'Why is your salt sold so cheap', he said Said his salt was private salt. I arrested him."

There was even more laughter outside the courtyard.

This is hopeless!

The officials watching shook their heads.

This can no longer be said to be stolen by others, it is simply self-inflicted. In this case, you Zhang San will make it so grand. If you are not pushy, then you want to expand this case.

Zhang Fei asked: "Is the salt dealer you caught here?"

Ma Xiaoyi was taken aback for a moment, then looked around, pointed to the opposite side and said, "That's him."

Everyone turned their heads to look, but saw a man standing on the prisoner's bench, his face was full of wrinkles, his back was bent like a little old man, no one knew that Huang Tong was only four years older than Su Zhe Five years old, only thirty-four or five.

Just now, everyone's attention was focused on Ma Xiaoyi, and they didn't notice that the suspect had been brought to court.

"Yeah."

Zhang Fei nodded, turned his head to look at the middle-aged man again, and said, "Huang Tong."

"Xiaomin is here."

Huang Tong shivered and nodded, not daring to look directly at Zhang Fei.

Zhang Fei asked: "Is what the Sergeant Ma said just now true?"

Huang Tong glanced at Ma Xiaoyi fearfully, then secretly glanced at Zhang Fei, and nodded.

Zhang Fei asked again: "Do you know that selling illegal salt is an illegal act, and according to the evidence provided by the police station, the illegal salt you sold has reached twelve catties, which is enough to sentence you to death?"

Huang Tong lowered her head and remained silent.

But at this moment, I suddenly heard a cry: "Our family can't help it. If we don't sell some salt, our family will starve to death. I beg the official to spare his life! I beg you , please!"

Huang Tong suddenly turned his head away, but saw a woman squeezed forward, knelt down on the ground, crying loudly.

"Ma'am!"

Huang Tong choked up a sob, and immediately shed tears.

Zhang Fei hit the gavel a few times, but the woman still knelt down and even kowtowed to Zhang Fei.

Zhang Fei quickly signaled the court police to take the woman away.

"Don't hurt my wife."

Huang Tong suddenly raised his head and shouted towards Zhang Fei.

Zhang Fei said: "Don't worry, I won't hurt your wife. It's just that she is emotionally unstable now. Staying here will affect the court trial. The police will take her to a nearby hut to rest and let her calm down first." /

When Huang Tong saw that the court police were helping his wife down more gently, he was relieved. He also saw that the court chief had a gentle tone, which was different from other officials, and the fear on his face was also a little less . Thinking that if he were to be executed, the whole family might not be able to survive. This would be a death anyway, so he risked it all, and his expression suddenly became agitated, "Xiaomin doesn't want to sell private salt, but...but Xiaomin I was forced to do nothing, if I didn’t sell some salt, Xiaomin’s family would not be able to survive.”

He is also wronged, which salt household does not sell some private salt, otherwise, he would not dare to be so bold and tell others directly that I am selling private salt.

"Really?"

Zhang Fei asked: "But as far as the judge knows, as long as your salt households pay 120,000 jin of salt every year, you can get 45 guan of salt capital. It shouldn’t be a problem to support a family.”

There is no need to knock the mallet this time, and there is complete silence inside and outside the courtyard.

Huang Tong still had only a sliver of reason, which made him stunned for a while, but he quickly said: "There must be forty-five guan, I only got eight guan money this year, and then I will prepare some salt. tools, but there are not many left.”

"Baguan money?"

Zhang Fei lowered his head and glanced at Wen Yu, "According to the court's law, the salt capital will be distributed to you in two installments. The first time you will be given 18 pennies, and after you have paid all the salt, you will be given 27 coins. I will give you the money."

Huang Tong said: "But we pay the salt every year, damp and wear and tear, all of which are ours, so we have to deduct money, and it is calculated at the salt price of 40 Wen. If we can’t get it, we will still owe money to the government, and we only got eight guans this year because we owed 20 guans last year, ten guans were deducted last year, another ten guans were deducted this year, and ten guans will be deducted at the end of the year.”

After these words, the people outside the court were immediately enraged.

"It's really unreasonable. The government collects salt for less than one penny per catty, but deducting the money is worth forty pennies per catty. Isn't this a money grab?"

"No wonder people would rather fall into the grass and become bandits than be this salt household."

"If you don't let people buy some private salt, isn't this going to kill people?"

......

Actually, these common people don't know about this situation, they just don't dare to say it usually, but now there are so many people, as long as someone starts it, they will immediately make a noise.

As for the officials sitting in the courtyard, all their faces were ashen.

Fucked!

This kid is clearly trying to punish us!

"Silence! Silence!"

Zhang Fei knocked the gavel a few times, but seeing that it was useless, he immediately shouted: "Whoever dares to make noise again, the chief judge will punish him for contempt of the imperial court."

With such threats, the front of the door gradually became quiet.

Zhang Fei glanced at the confession on the table, and said: "According to your confession, the salt you sell is all productive income, I wonder if it is?"

Huang Tong nodded.

Zhang Fei asked again: "And you said just now that the reason why you can't get the full amount of salt capital is because the salt is damp or wasted during the payment process, so why don't you make up for it with the productive salt?" Come on? The price you sell for private salt is only 20 Wen, but if you make up for it, you will get 40 Wen of the original salt.”

Huang Tong said: "It can't be repaired. The salt that is added will be damp and will be worn out. Calculated in this way, it may be equivalent to no repair."

Zhang Fei nodded, and said: "Then you can also sell it to the government. This way, it is not illegal and can make a profit."

Huang Tong said: "If I take out these salts, the government will ask me to make up for the loss. In the end, I may not even get a penny, and I still owe money to the government."

Zhang Fei frowned and said, "Are you telling the truth?"

Huang Tong said: "Everything Xiaomin said is true."

Zhang Fei nodded, then looked back at Xu Zhiqian, "Who is in charge of collecting salt?"

Xu Zhiqian said in a low voice: "The chief is Li Yongji."

Zhang Fei said to Cai Jing again: "Commissioner Li Yongji."

Cai Jing stood up immediately and said in a loud voice: "The commissioner Li Yongji is in court."

Before the words fell, there was a stomping sound.

It wasn't Li Yongji who it was, but he had an annoyed look on his face, as if he had won a big prize.

In this case, whoever goes to court first will be unlucky.

Because no one knows Zhang Fei's path.

When he came to the court, Li Yongji cupped his hands and saluted, "Arbitrator Li Yongji has met Chief Judge Zhang."

He is just a small official, Zhang Fei is N level higher than him.

Zhang Fei smiled and said, "Please sit down, Li Yasi."

"Thank you!"

Li Yongji sat down tremblingly, feeling like he was sitting on pins and needles.

Zhang Fei asked: "Did Li Yasi hear what the brass said just now?"

Li Yongji nodded.

Zhang Fei asked again: "I don't know if it is true?"

Li Yongji said awkwardly: "I...I don't really know, I don't remember so many Yanhus."

When the statement was made before, these questions were not asked.

It looks more and more like a trap.

Zhang Fei did not force him, but only asked: "The government collects salt at a price of less than one penny, but calculates the loss at a price of forty pennies. Is this true?"

Li Yongji hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

As long as you ask about this kind of thing, you don't have to hide it, after all, it's not a secret.

Zhang Fei asked again: "Why?"

Li Yongji is also an old fritter, and immediately said: "Because this salt was not given to us, we have to hand it over to the imperial court in full, and the imperial court has to sell it to the salt merchants. This money cannot be less, and we have no storehouse. method."

Just throw it to the imperial court, if they don't make it up, we have to make it up, so are we stupid?

Zhang Fei nodded, and asked again: "Does the imperial court have a stipulated conversion price for loss?"

Li Yongji shook his head and said: "I don't know about this, what the higher-ups ordered, then we will calculate it."

Zhang Fei asked: "I don't know how you calculate the loss?"

Li Yongji said: "Because of the shortage of manpower, it is difficult to count the specific loss, so we can only calculate the average loss, that is, one bag is one catty loss."

A bag is three hundred catties, and a big bag is two hundred catties.

Zhang Fei asked: "Is this the imperial court's rule?"

Li Yongji shook his head and said, "I don't know, anyway, it was decided by the above."

For questions outside of his job, he will always push them to the top. If you can't answer this kind of question, you won't answer it.

Zhang Fei nodded, and asked again: "Li Yasi should be aware of the process of paying salt."

Li Yongji nodded, this is his job, so he can't say he doesn't know.

Zhang Fei smiled and said, "That's good! Could you trouble Li Yasi to demonstrate the process of paying salt to salt households for me?"

Li Yongji was stunned for a moment, and said, "Why do you want to do this?"

Zhang Fei explained: "I just want to know for sure whether Huang Tong's words are true or not. But Li Yasi doesn't need to do it himself, my people will demonstrate, and Li Yasi only needs to point out their mistakes."

Li Yongji wiped the sweat from his forehead and nodded.

Zhang Fei nodded towards the court police at the side.

A long table was placed, and on the table were some tools specially used by the government to hold salt.

Zhang Fei asked: "Li Yasi, are the tools the same as yours?"

Li Yongji glanced at it, then nodded.

"That's good!"

Zhang Fei nodded, "If there is something wrong later, please point it out immediately. After all, this is a matter of human life, so there should be no rashness."

Li Yongji nodded and said, "I see."

After receiving Zhang Fei's instructions, an old man came forward carrying a bag of salt and poured the salt into a special container.

After it was full, the person behind the table scraped it with a wooden chip so that the salt was flush with the mouth of the container, and the scraped salt fell onto a piece of cloth.

Then pour the salt in the container into a special wooden frame.

After the demonstration, Zhang Fei asked: "Li Yasi, is there something wrong with their demonstration?"

Li Yongji shook his head, "No problem."

Not only is there no problem, it is simply too detailed, especially the scratching, which must have been practiced.

Zhang Fei asked: "Is the salt on this cloth a waste?"

Li Yongji was already sweating profusely, nodded and said: "Yes... yes."

Zhang Fei took a look, nodded and said, "There are so many."

Shangguan Jun whispered: "Maybe it's not enough."

He couldn't help it, how could the people watching the trial couldn't bear it, and cursed, this was more than a loss, it was too much loss.

This is really no loss, but also to create loss.

120,000 catties, you have to lose 400 catties, and then discount it for 40 yuan, which is 16 guanqian, which is one-third of the cost of salt.

Zhang Fei asked again: "Is the wet salt included in the loss, or is it counted separately?"

Li Yongji said: "Everyone's situation is different, and the wet salt has to be counted separately."

Zhang Fei asked again: "I don't know how to judge the humidity?"

Li Yongji was very upset when he was asked, and said: "See with your eyes and touch with your hands. There is no other way."

Zhang Fei continued to ask: "Is there someone to supervise?"

Li Yongji nodded and said: "Yes."

He Chunlin immediately swayed, will I be next?

Zhang Fei nodded and said, "Thank you Li Yasi for testifying in court."