Judge of the Song Dynasty

Five hundred thousand strings?

This word “string” was truly terrifying!

Even Han Qi, a super-wealthy man, couldn’t help but gasp in shock.

This was absolutely an astronomical compensation claim.

It could no longer be measured by rice prices.

Speaking of the finest mansions in Bianjing, this amount could buy fifty of them.

What kind of concept was that?

The Prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture, without corruption and without lowering his usual standard of living, would probably need to save for most of his lifetime to afford just one such mansion.

For the great landowner Du Shaojing, could he afford to pay it? He could still afford it – his land holdings alone were worth that much money – but it wouldn’t be like taking just a piece of flesh from him.

It would absolutely be like severing an arm and a leg. Recovery would be nearly impossible.

How could he not faint?

But for the common people gathered outside, this was truly thrilling.

Truly worthy of the imperial court – even their compensation demands were so domineering.

They loved it, they loved it!

In comparison, those usurious loans seemed completely insignificant!

As for the officials in the courtyard, they were dumbstruck. Was he trying to nationalize all the wealth under heaven in one fell swoop?

Even Wang Anshi wasn’t this ruthless!

Indeed, Wang Anshi excitedly stood up, gently patting Sima Guang with his left hand. “Sima Guang, why don’t you quickly go kill him?”

Sima Guang was completely bewildered. “What are you talking about?”

“Preserving wealth amongst the people!”

Wang Anshi turned around, his expression excited as he said, “That boy actually represents the imperial court in demanding five hundred thousand strings in compensation from a single landowner. This is simply an insult to your policy of preserving wealth amongst the people. How can you remain unmoved? I’m even feeling anxious on your behalf.”

Sima Guang’s mouth twitched as he listened, this fellow was truly finding every possible way to mock him. Gritting his teeth, he said, “If I were to kill anyone, I’d kill you first. Do you dare say this wasn’t your idea?”

“I swear to heaven, this matter has nothing to do with me.” Wang Anshi immediately raised his right hand, then added, “If it were me, I would at most dare to demand five thousand strings in compensation.”

He bashfully spread his five fingers.

At this moment, he truly felt as gentle as a lamb, even wondering whether his new policies were perhaps too lenient toward landowners – maybe they needed some revision.

Here was a pen-in-cap who opened his mouth and demanded five hundred thousand strings.

His own new policies seemed rather petty in comparison.

Or perhaps he had seriously underestimated the wealth of the great landowners of the Song Dynasty.

“I object!”

Li Lei, who had finally come to his senses after a long while, suddenly stood up. “Your Honor, he’s purely making things up without any basis. Even if Mogul Du were to pay back ten years’ worth of taxes, plus penalties, plus amounts to offset criminal punishment, and then applying our dynasty’s principle of ‘full compensation,’ it still wouldn’t amount to five hundred thousand strings.”

The so-called ‘full compensation’ principle was a form of punitive damages, generally meaning double compensation, but even that wouldn’t amount to so much money!

His land holdings, calculated to the fullest, might generate perhaps a thousand strings in taxes per year. For ten years, multiply by ten, that’s ten thousand strings. Double it, and that’s twenty thousand strings.

Compared to five hundred thousand, the difference was enormous, not to mention it couldn’t possibly be calculated as ten years.

Lu Gongzhu also looked at Zhang Fei with confusion. “Zhang San, do you have any basis for this compensation claim?”

“Of course I do!”

Zhang Fei said, “In this public court, how would I, Zhang San, dare to speak carelessly?”

Lu Gongzhu said “Oh,” then asked, “What basis do you have?”

Zhang Fei said, “Earlier we mentioned why Li Sancai became a tenant farmer. The reason was that he bore part of the tax burden for Du Shaojing, and it was precisely this burden that caused him to sell his daughter and become a tenant farmer. In other words, the court has already collected this portion of tax money, and Li Sancai is the victim. Therefore, compensation should be calculated based on Li Sancai’s losses, not the court’s losses.”

Everyone was stunned.

It could be calculated this way?

But thinking about it, it made sense. As far as Li Sancai was concerned, the court hadn’t lost anything – the money was still collected. It was Li Sancai who had overpaid. To demand he compensate the court again would be unreasonable. If compensation were due, it should certainly be paid to Li Sancai.

Every grievance has its source, every debt its debtor.

Li Lei immediately retorted, “This is the court’s mistake and should not be forced upon Mogul Du.”

Zhang Fei said, “Therefore the court has an even greater obligation to help the victims and pursue compensation for them.”

Lu Gongzhu nodded slightly.

This was very much to his taste. For the court to demand five hundred thousand strings from someone was indeed excessive and difficult to convince the public, but if it was to help victims like Li Sancai pursue compensation, that was quite proper.

Sima Guang whispered to Wang Anshi, “Wang Anshi, why don’t you go kill him.”

Wang Anshi was startled. “Why would I kill him?”

Sima Guang said, “Look, he’s enriching the people rather than collecting wealth for the state.”

“Uh!”

On the other side, Li Lei was quite frustrated and couldn’t help complaining, “Prefect, if the imperial court stands with the opposing side, then this lawsuit becomes very unfair for us.”

As they chatted, you two have moved to the same side – what’s the point of fighting anymore!

Lu Gongzhu said, “Zhang San represented the imperial court to begin with, and I have absolutely no intention of showing favoritism. What he says is not without reason. According to our dynasty’s legal precedents, even one who kills by borrowing another’s blade is guilty of intentional murder.”

Li Lei immediately said, “Then the imperial court is an accomplice and should be charged with the same crime.”

Zhang Fei said, “Chen Feng explained very clearly earlier – it wasn’t the court that told him to over-collect taxes from Li Sancai. The court levied taxes according to law, and the runners collected taxes according to law. It was only because Mogul Du was arrogant and domineering, refusing to pay taxes, that those runners were forced to collect from others. Mogul Du has already admitted to this point just now, thereby causing Li Sancai’s tragedy. It wasn’t the court intentionally raising taxes that led to Li Sancai’s tragedy. The court bears responsibility, but the main responsibility still lies with Du Shaojing.”

Earlier, in seeking to save his life, Du Shaojing had admitted to tax evasion, but how could he have anticipated that Zhang Fei still had another card to play? This left Li Lei in a very disadvantageous position now, but he was already worked up and argued strenuously, “But the fact is that it wasn’t Mogul Du who collected taxes from Li Sancai, but the court that collected taxes from Li Sancai. The main responsibility should lie with the court.”

Zhang Fei smiled and said, “Unsealed contracts can prove that the main responsibility for tax burden transfer lies with the landlords.”

“Unsealed contracts?”

Li Lei was stunned.

Zhang Fei said, “The main method of tax burden transfer is through unsealed contracts, and on this point of white contracts, the court is innocent, because the government has no transaction records. The government can only collect taxes based on the land registry, which is without problem. Du Shaojing was absolutely clear about this, so he is the chief culprit of tax burden transfer. He should naturally bear responsibility, while the court at most bears the responsibility of failure of oversight.”

Li Lei argued, “Yesterday it was made very clear that signing unsealed contracts is not the responsibility of the buyer alone – the seller also bears responsibility.”

Zhang Fei said, “If you can produce evidence, you can reduce the compensation, but according to court law, contract taxes are borne by the buyer.”

Landlords liked unsealed contracts, and an important reason was that after buying land, they didn’t have to pay taxes.

From this point alone, the responsibility for transferring the tax burden on the tenants naturally belonged to the landlords – you did it intentionally, while the court was unaware.

“Brilliant!”

Su Shi laughed and said, “What a fine move of using someone’s own methods against them.”

You landlords like to play tax burden transfer? I’ll give you a move – responsibility transfer, shifting part of the court’s responsibility to you as well.

Only this way is it fair.

Li Lei was momentarily speechless. The responsibility for unsealed contracts couldn’t be escaped, so he said again, “Even if compensating Li Sancai, there isn’t that much money.”

Zhang Fei said, “Yesterday Li Sancai made it very clear that because of this matter, he sold his own daughter, causing him immense pain. You cannot say that just compensating him with the money from selling his daughter would be sufficient to offset this. I don’t have a daughter, so I’m not well-positioned to judge, but…”

At this point, he looked around at everyone present. “Most of you here have children. I’d like to ask you all – what price would you set for your own daughters?”

Dead silence answered Zhang Fei.

Who would be foolish enough to set a price for their own daughter?

Li Lei said, “Stop always talking about Li Sancai – he didn’t even hire you to litigate for him!”

Zhang Fei said, “I represent the imperial court. In this case, the court also bears responsibility and has the obligation to seek compensation on his behalf. If Li Sancai refuses, that’s naturally another matter.”

Li Lei was left speechless.

Now the situation was completely different – with so much money involved, Li Sancai couldn’t possibly refuse!

Zhang Fei continued, “If Li Sancai hires me to seek compensation, then I would still reserve the right to pursue Du Shaojing’s criminal liability for negligent harm.”

Li Lei asked in confusion, “What criminal liability for accidental injury?”

Zhang Fei said, “Li Sancai was forced to sell his daughter because of this. If his daughter suffers abuse or even dies as a result of being sold, Du Shaojing bears indirect responsibility. Since this wasn’t Du Shaojing’s intention, we can only pursue charges of negligent harm rather than intentional harm.

But if such things happen, we must definitely pursue compensation – he should bear at least partial responsibility.”

Li Lei retorted, “It was Li Sancai who chose to sell his daughter – Mogul Du didn’t force him to sell her!”

Zhang Fei replied, “If he didn’t sell her, his whole family would have starved to death, and Du Shaoyun might face the death penalty.”

Li Lei was completely dumbfounded.

This was the first time he’d encountered such a tactic.

In the middle of the lawsuit, criminal liability had suddenly entered the picture. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs novèlfire.net

If someone died, wouldn’t they pursue charges of negligent homicide?

This was completely over the top!

Without even thinking about it, there were definitely people who died – his family had over a hundred tenant households.

If bearing Du Shaojing’s tax burdens directly led to families being destroyed and people dying, and all of this was attributed to Du Shaojing, then five hundred thousand strings really wouldn’t be much.

The key question was: how do you put a price on human life?

This had gone completely beyond all bounds!

Zhang Fei paid him no mind and turned to Lu Gongzhu: “Although this wasn’t the imperial court’s intention, the court bears certain responsibility in this matter. The court has the duty and obligation to help those citizens who bore excessive tax burdens seek compensation. Moreover, the court will not take a single coin from this – all compensation will go entirely to the victims.”

As he spoke, he bent down and lifted a large basket full of documents from the table, placing it on the surface. “These are the grounds for my claim against Du Shaojing on behalf of the court. But since so many people are involved, I cannot guarantee there are no omissions. The basic compensation here is around twenty-five strings per person. However, given Du Shaojing’s egregious conduct, the principle of full compensation absolutely applies, bringing the total to five hundred thousand strings. Even if people come forward later to make claims, there will still be sufficient funds for full compensation.”

Compensation grounds that required a basket to hold them?

This would bankrupt him completely!

“Good! Well said!”

Someone shouted from outside the door.

Zhang Fei found the voice somewhat familiar. He turned his head and saw Cao Dongdong in the front row, applauding desperately.

Someone beside him asked in confusion, “Young Master! Why are you clapping? Your family are major landowners too!”

Cao Dongdong chuckled, “I won money on my bet!”

At these words, everyone’s expressions changed dramatically.

A whole group of them collapsed, followed by wails of anguish.

Where was the roof to jump off of?

Where was the Yellow River to jump into?

Please take me there too!

Cao Dongdong was frightened and spread his hands, “This has nothing to do with me!”

Seeing this, Shen Huaixiao suddenly had an inspiration. He glanced at the sky, then fell backward directly into Tang Ji’s arms.

“Brother Shen!”

Tang Ji immediately cried out in alarm.

His shout instantly drew the attention of many officials.

“What’s wrong?”

Many officials immediately gathered around.

Su Shi came over with a look of surprise, “How much money did Director Shen bet?”

Du Xiu glared at him, “Su Zizhan, stop talking nonsense. Brother Shen might have had a heat stroke – it’s too hot today. Everyone make way, quickly go fetch a doctor.”

Shen Huaixiao’s fainting completely killed the atmosphere.

Cen Yuanli turned to Lu Gongzhu and said, “Prefect Lu, it’s almost past noon.”

Lu Gongzhu hesitated for a long while, then struck his gavel and said, “I need time to review the compensation claim that Zhang San has submitted. We’ll stop here for today and continue tomorrow.”

At these words, Li Guozhong and the others all slumped in their chairs, gasping heavily, with beads of sweat sprouting like bamboo shoots after rain.

Deadly!

This trial was truly deadly!

They had long since lost their composure and direction, completely just holding on desperately. Just now Zhang Fei had pressed them so hard they could barely catch their breath.

Suddenly, a shadow fell over them.

Li Guozhong and the others looked up to see Zhang Fei approaching with a smile.

“I yield! I yield!”

Zhang Fei cupped his hands in salute.

Fei Ming said indignantly, “If the evidence hadn’t been flawed, you wouldn’t necessarily have won.”

Zhang Fei smiled, “You know in your hearts why the evidence was flawed.”

Fei Ming was immediately at a loss for words.

Li Guozhong maintained his dignity, standing up and returning the salute with cupped hands, “You truly live up to your reputation, Zhang San. We are thoroughly convinced of our defeat.”

Zhang Fei said, “The lawsuit isn’t over yet – nothing’s certain. But you all performed very well and didn’t disappoint me.”

Li Guozhong cupped his hands, “We’re grateful for Zhang San’s encouragement. We will redouble our efforts.”

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Zhang Fei returned the salute with cupped hands, and as he swept his sleeve, a paper ball flew toward Li Guozhong.

Li Guozhong caught the paper ball against his chest with both hands.