However, the government's counterattack, especially preventing Li Min from filing a lawsuit, also made Duan Chaobei and other salt merchants and banknote merchants feel uneasy.
Because as far as common sense is concerned, both parties are already at odds, so will the government still abide by the imperial court's decision?
It can be seen from this that what they trust is not the law but power.
So they immediately found Li Min.
In fact, Li Min was also beating a drum in his heart, but he still pretended to be calm and comforted everyone.
"Please rest assured that I have asked Judge Zhang before, and Judge Zhang said that since the government did not raise any questions about my official documents before, I am now part of this organization and cannot be transferred without absolutely legitimate reasons.
I peeled off this eucalyptus easily.”
Duan Chaobei and others were confused by these remarks.
So Li Min explained: "In short, I can litigate this lawsuit to the end."
Duan Chaobei said: "But when the government investigates Brother Li, it is obvious that they are unwilling to obey the imperial court's decision. Then... what should the government do if they don't accept it?"
Li Min was a little hesitant. After all, he was not sure that the government would definitely obey. Judging from the current situation, it did not look like he wanted to accept punishment. He only said: "Although the other party is a government, they must abide by the law.
I don’t think they would disobey the law easily.”
At this moment, a man walked in and whispered something into Li Min's ear.
Li Min was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately said to Duan Chaobei and the others: "I just sent a letter from the Imperial Court. Under the urging of the Imperial Court, Academician Yuan and the others will come to the Imperial Court tomorrow to discuss the details of compensation."
Duan Chaobei and others couldn't help but be overjoyed.
Li Min asked again: "Shall you go with me tomorrow, or shall I follow the government's compensation plan first and then discuss it with you?"
Duan Chaobei waited and looked at each other again.
Soon, they expressed that Li Min would represent them.
If they want to sit on it, how can they dare to negotiate conditions? Although their actions are supported by many officials, it does not mean that they really dare to confront those officials.
Especially in this current situation.
...
Huayin County is where Tongguan is located, and it is just southwest of Hezhong Prefecture. The distance between the two places is only more than a hundred miles. If you ride a fast horse, you can reach it within a day.
In fact, as early as two months ago, that kind of E had secretly arrived in Huayin County.
Because this is an important military area and the military is very powerful. At the same time, it does not belong to Hezhong Prefecture, but to Jingzhao Prefecture (Chang'an). Zhong'e is hiding inside, so he can secretly inquire about the situation in Hezhong Prefecture and can arrive at any time.
"Father, Uncle Qin sent a secret letter."
A tall, dignified young man entered the room and handed a secret letter to the burly middle-aged man sitting on the chair with a leopard head and eagle eyes.
This middle-aged man is Zhonge, and the young man is his eldest son Zhongpu.
After Zhong E received the secret letter, he immediately opened it and read it. Gradually, the sadness on his face became more and more intense.
Zhong Pu couldn't help but worry: "Father, what did the letter say?"
Zhong E sighed and said: "Now that the government office and Yansi have completely broken up with the imperial court, it seems we have to hurry over."
Zhong Pu said in astonishment: "Since those civil servants and the imperial court have started fighting, it is a good thing for father!"
Zhong E sighed: "Your Uncle Qin said that there are many people in the army who are dissatisfied with the imperial court. They are just forbearing for my sake, but the situation is no longer easy to control."
With that said, he handed the letter in his hand to Zhong Pu.
After Zhong Pu looked at it, his face was full of confusion, "If the imperial court doesn't please both the left and right, then which side will he prefer?"
"Even my father can't tell! But judging from the whole thing, I guess he will still be biased towards the other party. Otherwise, there is no need to re-examine this case."
Zhong E shook his head and sighed, "I would rather face a hundred thousand enemy troops on the battlefield than face a single civil servant in the hall."
Because those who requested a retrial of this case were all officials who supported Lu Shen, this would definitely be detrimental to him in terms of the unspoken rules in the officialdom.
Military generals are very afraid of this, because this is the specialty of civil servants, how to outplay the opponent.
Zhong E was very pessimistic about this. Only the Public Prosecution Law made him somewhat confused. Therefore, he came to Huayin County early just to see what the Public Prosecution Law meant.
But after looking at it for a long time, I still didn't understand which way the public prosecutor and the procuratorate were leaning.
Even neutral to the point of offending both sides.
Qin Zhongshou also quickly wrote a letter asking him to go to Hezhong Mansion. Currently, the military is suppressing the situation and there is no direct conflict with the imperial court. Instead, the civil servants have begun to fight with the imperial court.
What he expected was that he was just a supporting character, the protagonist was Zhang Fei, and the purpose was not a civil-military battle at all, but reform.
Zhong Pu asked: "What is dad going to do?"
"This has to go."
Zhong E asked again: "Where is Magistrate Lu now?"
Zhong Pu said: "Prefect Lu fell ill on the way out of Shu, which delayed him for some time. After all, he should have arrived at Jingzhao Mansion."
It turned out that Lu Shen was not afraid of the public prosecutor. He was upright and upright as an official. He was upright and not afraid of a slanting shadow. He was risking his life to rush on the road, but the result was just the opposite, and he fell ill from exhaustion.
Zhong E said: "Go and prepare. We will set off tomorrow. We must arrive at Hezhong Mansion before Lu Zhifu, lest anyone think we are guilty."
"yes."
...
This morning, Cai Yanqing, Wei Yingfang, Yuan Jiang, and He Chunlin came to the imperial court and proposed a compensation plan from the government.
Compared to the past, today's atmosphere, even the superficial pleasantries, contained a hint of chill.
"I hope we didn't keep Zhang Ting waiting for a long time."
Yuan Jiangpi said with a smile.
Zhang Fei said: "Actually, our imperial court does not want to rush you. We know the difficulties of the salt policy, so we just hope that you can give an accurate date."
Li Min, who was caught in the middle, saw that they looked unkind and uneasy, and did not dare to speak. He sat quietly aside as if on pins and needles.
Yuan Jiang said: "In these days, I have carefully reviewed the previous issuance and price of salt banknotes. It was probably more than three years ago that the government gradually exchanged salt banknotes for less than two hundred kilograms of salt.
Our Salt Bureau is willing to take responsibility for the salt banknotes issued during this period and provide compensation."
Zhang Fei frowned and said: "But the salt note does not stipulate that the other party must exchange it for salt within a limited time."
Yuan Jiang said: "But it is precisely because of the speculative behavior of banknote merchants that the salt ponds have accumulated a lot of salt, so that salt banknotes must be issued again to sell the unsalable salt. Merchants also have certain responsibilities and cannot fully
Blame the government."
Zhang Fei nodded and turned his head to look at Li Min.
I'm sitting in the middle, you can't always speak for me!
Li Min plucked up the courage and said: "What the scholar Yuan said is wrong. This is an omission when the government formulated the rules. We cannot blame the merchants. It is not illegal for merchants to speculate on salt banknotes. Why should we bear responsibility?"
[A novel app that has been running stably for many years, comparable to the old book-chasing tool, a source-changing app used by old bookworms, huanyuanapp.org]
He Chunlin angrily said: "You businessmen are hoarding money and seeking huge profits, but you have the nerve to shirk your responsibilities."
Li Min said: "The common people did not shirk their responsibilities. They just discussed the matter. Even if the businessmen behaved immorally, the imperial court followed the law, not morality."
Yuan Jiang suddenly looked at Zhang Fei and said: "I remember when President Zhang was teaching in the Imperial College, he once said that morality can be used as a reason for committing a crime. This salt is related to the lives of the people, but the banknote dealers ignore the people and only seek profits.
The government issued excessive salt banknotes to sell the salt from the salt ponds to meet the needs of the people. It would be unjustifiable if they did not have to bear any responsibility."
Zhang Fei pondered for a while, nodded and said: "They do have to bear some responsibility, but the government has never issued a decree to prohibit this behavior or make up for these loopholes. Moreover, they did spend real money to buy the salt."
The government cannot use this as an excuse to refuse to recognize the legality of the salt banknotes. Maybe the businessman holding the salt banknotes has moral defects, but the salt banknotes cannot be judged illegal because of some actions of the holder. Maybe today the salt banknotes are held illegal.
The people who have salt banknotes are not those banknote dealers who hoard them, and our imperial court cannot judge this."
Yuan Jiang and Cai Yanqing looked at each other and said: "Just now I said that the amount of salt exchangeable for salt banknotes has gradually decreased since three years ago. So, all the salt banknotes issued before will be counted in this year.
, the government also calculated the compensation in three years starting from the first year of Xining."
"Three years?"
Li Min said in astonishment.
Cai Yanqing ignored him and said to Zhang Fei: "President Zhang, the current finances of Hezhong Mansion are very tight, and we don't know how many salt banknotes are out there. According to our calculations, it will take three years at the earliest to pay them all back."
Qing Dynasty, otherwise it will affect government operations and northwest military spending."
Zhang Fei thought for a while and then asked: "I don't know how to spread it over three years."
Yuan Jiang said: "We will convert all the previous salt banknotes with a face value of two hundred catties into government debt. As I said just now, starting from the first year of Xining, the salt banknotes issued this year and those issued before will be counted.
For those who reach the first year, we will compensate the interest of the first two years this year, and next year we will pay the interest and principal of the third year, and so on for subsequent payments.”
Li Min immediately said: "Isn't next year the fourth year?"
Yuan Jiang said: "How can the interest be calculated in the first year? Because the first year is sales. Most salt merchants, who exchange salt banknotes from the border, should go to the salt pond to exchange salt in the second year. According to this calculation
, the interest should be calculated at the end of the second year of Xining. The third year will not be until the end of next year."
Zhang Fei nodded and said, "That's reasonable."
Li Min asked again: "How is the interest calculated?"
Yuan Jiang said: "Based on the principal of buying salt banknotes, one salt banknote is worth 4,800 yuan, and the annual interest is 6 out of 100, which is 288 yuan."
Li Min questioned: "I would like to ask, this salt banknote is salt, why not use salt to calculate interest?"
If it is calculated based on two hundred catties of salt, the annual interest is twelve catties of salt. Calculated at the price of forty cents, it is four hundred and eighty cents, which is about two hundred cents less.
He Chunlin said: "If it is calculated in terms of money, the government can directly compensate you, but if it is calculated in terms of salt, you have to go to the designated salt pond to get it yourself. You must know that the salt in the salt pond is unstable. If the designated salt pond is a little off,
, if you don’t go and get it, then I can only blame you, but not our government.”
The more remote Yanchi might not even be able to pay the tolls alone. Li Min thought to himself, these officials are really powerful, and their calculations are smarter than those of businessmen.
He can't say that the interest is determined based on the selling price. How can the 4,800 wen given to you by the government be calculated based on the seller's interest?
Zhang Fei looked at Li Min.
Li Min said: "I have to discuss this with my employer."
Zhang Fei nodded, "Then you go ahead."
"yes."
After Li Min left, Zhang Fei suddenly said to Cai Yanqing: "Prefect Cai, when will you allocate to us the cost of rebuilding my official office?"
As soon as these words came out, the four of them looked at Zhang Fei in surprise.
Zhang Fei said: "Isn't this an excessive request? Or do you think I can live in a house of the same size as the official family?"
Cai Yanqing hesitated a little, and Wei Yingfang immediately said: "I'm really sorry, we didn't think it through carefully at that time, and the court didn't explain this. The reconstruction of the imperial court was also decided by President Zhang himself, and he didn't rule our government office in advance, so
Our government office did not plan for this expenditure."
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "Are your government's financial expenditures so well planned? How much money does this cost?"
Wei Yingfang chuckled: "Our Hezhong Prefecture's finances also have to bear the northwest military expenses. If we don't plan more carefully, how can we do it? In addition, Bachelor Yuan has already discussed with us that because we have to compensate those salt merchants, it will be handed over to our government this year.
The government's salt profit may be less, and we will be in a difficult situation."
Zhang Fei said: "So the salary of the president of the court is not included in the government's planned expenditure?"
Wei Yingfang said: "Of course it is, but we didn't expect that the police station and the procuratorate would recruit so many people and give them such high salaries. Therefore, our government has to carefully consider whether we should allocate this money to
The prosecutor's office, the police station, or your royal court."
At this moment, Cai Jing entered the room and said, "Inform the president of the court that General Zhong has arrived."
Good fellow, you are finally here. Zhang Fei rolled his eyes and ordered: "Let General Zhong live here for a while. The imperial court is currently in financial difficulty and is temporarily unable to hold a court hearing on this case."