Judge of the Song Dynasty

In the southern outskirts.

By a small stream, a young man wearing a short hemp shirt squatted under a large tree, staring absently at a small piece of paper in his hand.

“Brother Luo! Brother Luo!”

Hearing the calls, the man turned his head to see a dumbfounded teenager about sixteen or seventeen running towards him.

“Brother Luo, has your family paid the taxes?”

The teenager arrived under the big tree and asked the older man.

During this period, the only topic of discussion in the village was people complaining to each other about their hardships.

The man called Brother Luo stared at him blankly, first nodding his head, then shaking it.

The confused teenager asked again, “So did you pay or not?”

Brother Luo answered, “Yes, I paid.” The teenager quickly asked, “How much extra did you have to pay?”

He didn’t ask how much was paid, but how much extra was paid, showing how overtaxation had become the norm in the country.

Due to the people’s lack of currency, the summer tax conversion rates were very exploitative.

Brother Luo shook his head and said, “I didn’t pay extra.”

His tone carried a hint of secret joy and disbelief.

“How is that possible? Didn’t you say yesterday your family had no copper coins? How could the tax officials not make you pay more through the conversion rates?”

“It’s true.”

Brother Luo kept nodding: “Really, I didn’t pay extra. I only paid four dou[1] of rice this time.”

“What? Four dou?”

The teenager exclaimed, “How is that possible? Even if the officials didn’t use the conversion rates to demand more money from you, we still have to bear the tax on the common fields. Adding it all up, your family should be paying at least 400 coins. Four dou of rice currently sells for at most 200 coins, so how did they actually charge you less?”

The regular taxes in the Song Dynasty weren’t very high – the summer tax averaged around 5 coins per mu[2] of land. However, with various conversions, taxes on common fields, and attrition fees, it was normal for the final amount to be three or four times higher.

Brother Luo said righteously, “But my family only has so much land. Originally three dou of rice would have been enough – I actually paid one dou extra.”

The teenager asked, “But hasn’t it always been this way? Could it be that the tax collector had a sudden change of heart?”

“Not exactly.”

Brother Luo shook his head and handed a small piece of paper to the youth.

The youth took it and asked, “What’s this?”

“A business card.”

“What’s a business card?”

“I’m not sure either.”

Brother Luo shook his head and explained, “Earlier, when the tax collector wanted to take all my family’s grain, a man called Zhang San the pen-in-cap showed up. The tax collector seemed terrified when he saw him and ran off after barely saying two words. Then Zhang San told me that if the officials try to collect too much money from us, we should find him, and he’d guarantee we wouldn’t pay a single extra coin.

After Zhang San left, the tax collector came back to collect again, demanding even more. I couldn’t give him all my grain, so I mentioned that I’d contacted Zhang San the pen-in-cap. After that, the tax collector only took four dou of rice.”

It turned out that after Zhang Fei left, the tax collector had immediately returned, determined to regain his lost face. He became even more aggressive, which forced Brother Luo into a corner, leading him to invoke Zhang San’s name.

As a result, the tax collector backed down, deciding it wasn’t worth risking imprisonment over collecting a bit more money. He only calculated the tax for the fields – it was just one household after all. He had no idea that Zhang Fei intended to make a business out of this.

“Who is this pen-in-cap Zhang San? Is he really that powerful?” the youth asked, thoroughly shocked.

Brother Luo nodded firmly.

The youth said, “Then I want to find him for help too. Brother Luo, do you know where to find him?”

Brother Luo pointed at the small paper in his hand and said, “His address is written on this business card, but unfortunately I can’t read.”

“I can’t read either! What should we do?”

“Why don’t we go ask Old Lu? The elderly gentleman knows how to read.”

“Let’s go, let’s go!”

Zhang Fei’s visit wasn’t really for promotion – it was more for investigation, or rather reconnaissance. He wanted to see how the Song Dynasty collected taxes, or to put it bluntly, how they exploited people.

He didn’t distribute many business cards, just over ten of them.

Upon returning to the city, they didn’t go straight home. Instead, they went to the Bianjing Law Firm. When they arrived, it was just closing time. The pen-in-caps had already packed up and were preparing to leave, but Zhang Fei’s arrival meant overtime work.

In the back hall, each person received one hundred business cards.

They were paired up in teams of two – one older and one younger – with each team responsible for one area, going door-to-door to distribute these cards.

“Brother San, will this method of yours work?” asked Huang Meng, an older notary. Read full story at novel•fire.net

As educated men, the notaries were used to desk jobs. Going to rural areas to distribute business cards seemed beneath their station. Besides, those farmers couldn’t even read a single character – what was the point of giving them these cards?

Zhang Fei asked, “Didn’t you make good money last month, Old Huang?”

Huang Meng quickly smiled apologetically, “It’s all thanks to Brother San.”

Zhang Fei asked again, “What were you saying just now?”

“Nothing! Nothing!” Huang Meng shook his head repeatedly.

Zhang Fei nodded and swept his gaze across the room. “I don’t mind if you raise doubts, but they need to be well-founded. I’ve been out running around all day while you sat here drinking tea, and now you question whether my method will work? Go try it for a month, then come talk to me about whether it works or not.”

The entire back hall fell silent.

If even the censors feared him, how could they not?

Zhang Fei asked again, “Is anything unclear about my arrangements?”

Everyone looked at each other, hesitating to speak.

Zhang Fei said, “If everything’s clear, then you’ll be responsible if problems arise.”

Qiu Zhengwen raised his hand tremblingly and said, “Brother San, cases of tax overcharging are everywhere. Even if we get these cases, we… we won’t be able to handle them all!”

Almost everyone nodded in agreement.

This business seemed impossible!

These lawsuits could take from the beginning to the end of the year and still not be resolved! “The key issue is that there’s no money in it!” someone muttered quietly.

Zhang Fei said, “From my observations today, when it comes to tax overcharging by the government, there are only a few common methods, which you probably understand better than I do. We can categorize these cases and select one representative case from each category to litigate. If we win, we can use it as a precedent, making the remaining cases much easier to handle without too much effort.

After you get the relevant data, I’ll divide you into small groups, with each group handling one type of case. If you still can’t win then, you’d better give me a good explanation.”

Fan Li, who was standing nearby, said, “Brother San, we’ll be suing the government who’s collecting the money. Will they let us win?”

Zhang Fei replied, “I’ll take responsibility for that.”

No one questioned this statement – everyone knew Brother San could truly deliver on this promise.

Fan Li opened his mouth, glanced at the other pen-in-caps, then closed it again.

Zhang Fei continued, “As for profitability, let’s calculate using the average price that we charge, which is one hundred coins per household per year. It may not sound like much, almost like giving it away, but think about it – ten households make one string of cash, one thousand strings for ten thousand households, and ten thousand strings for a hundred thousand households.”

A pen-in-cap named Wen Feng asked, “A hundred thousand households? Can we find that many?”

Zhang Fei responded, “If we can prove we can help them avoid those extra taxes, forget hundred thousand – we might even get two hundred thousand households.”

Huang Meng then asked, “How many people would we need for tax calculations?”

They were asking about profitability because they thought the costs would be too high, given their substantial fees.

Zhang Fei sighed, “You really don’t have a head for business. This is a one-time investment with lasting returns. These are farmers whose property situations don’t change frequently.

If we can intimidate the government enough, would they dare to overcharge again? And would those farmers dare not cooperate with us? This way, even though we have a hundred thousand households, we might only need to handle a few lawsuits per year. We’ll be making money while lying down.”

Everyone’s eyes lit up.

A hundred thousand households sounded intimidating, but if they succeeded, the government wouldn’t dare overcharge taxes. If everyone stayed in their lanes, there would be no lawsuits to handle, and they’d be making money while doing nothing.

Even Xu Zhiqian couldn’t find any words to criticize this merchant’s scheming behavior.

One hundred coins was just the average price point, mainly targeting the middle and upper households. One hundred coins per year wasn’t much for them.

The key was whether there would be lawsuits. They had to pay this fee every year because they needed tax calculations annually, and if they weren’t buying or selling land, the tax situation wouldn’t change.

For first-class households, Zhang Fei had divided them into several tiers. The highest level first-class households would pay about ten strings of cash per year, with a minimum of one string.

First-class households included large and small landlords whose land holdings changed more frequently. This price was just for agricultural tax – commercial tax calculations would cost extra.

Of course, these were just initial prices, and they probably wouldn’t get many large landlords seeking tax calculations yet.

Since money wasn’t an issue, everyone was on board.

They would work hard, harder still.

They rushed to find clients since they worked on commission, each of them energized as if they’d been injected with chicken blood.

As the meeting room was clearing out, Zhang Fei suddenly said to Qiu Zhengwen, “Zhengwen, go to the Kaifeng Prefectural Office tomorrow and file a lawsuit for me.”

Qiu Zhengwen quickly asked, “What kind of case?”

Zhang Fei handed him a complaint document and said, “A ruffian harassed Miss Xu and beat me up.”

Xu Zhiqian felt embarrassed hearing this and glared at Zhang Fei, saying he should just talk about himself instead of dragging her into it.

The pen-in-caps who were about to leave all stopped and turned to look at Zhang Fei.

Seeing everyone’s concern, Zhang Fei hurriedly said, “Don’t worry, I’m fine. He just pushed me once.”

No one cared about him.

They just wanted to know which fool was blind enough to dare provoke Zhang San.

Hadn’t they heard the story about Zhang San and the Agricultural Affairs Bureau? Qiu Zhengwen looked at the complaint document, nodded and said, “I understand. I’ll go first thing tomorrow morning.”

After they left, Fan Li said, “Brother San, shouldn’t we be more cautious about this matter?”

Zhang Fei replied, “I know what you’re worried about, Mogul, but you need to understand something – the law is our way of making money. People who do not follow the law hinder our ability to make money. Cutting off someone’s livelihood is like killing their parents, so we have an irreconcilable feud with such behavior.”

Fan Li immediately said, “But what we’re doing is cutting off those officials’ income. Will they let us off?”

Zhang Fei smiled and said, “Well, there’s only so much money to go around. If we want to earn more, they’ll have to earn less. So who do you think should be making the money – us or them?”

Fan Li responded awkwardly, “That logic makes sense, but the question is, can we really pull this off?”

Zhang Fei smiled and said, “Isn’t this just how business works?”

Is this really just business? This was literally life-threatening! If it had been anyone else, Fan Li would have berated them for being suicidal. But since it was Zhang San, he instead asked, “But with everyone sent out, how will we manage the shop?”

Zhang Fei smiled and said, “Don’t worry about that. Soon we’ll have a group of talented people helping at our shop, and they won’t even cost us.”

[1] The dou is a unit of measurement of volume. One dou in the Song dynasty is around 3.4 liters, so 4 dou is 13.6 liters.

[2] The mu is a measurement of area. One mu in the Song dynasty was around 600 square meters, or 0.15 acres.