Sima Guang was stunned for a moment, "Oh, you didn't seem to be in the capital at that time. This was actually Zhang San's usual trick. First, he was charged with the ten heinous crimes, either filial piety or treason, which made the presiding judge feel jealous. Here Except for you, everyone sitting here is a victim."
Fu Bi and Zhao Pin suddenly looked embarrassed.
Junshi!
Don't say anything outside!
But Feng Jing cannot tolerate the facts before his eyes!
The judicial officials on both sides are like mutes, unable to speak out.
But they are very impatient inside!
This not only requires fines, but also criminal penalties, plus the tax department, how dare you dare to do anything here!
However, they are not easy to refute.
If food is a big thing, it can lead to rebellion.
Who dares to refute this point? If the gentry or landlords rebel next time, it will be difficult to say.
This kind of thing has never happened before, and what Zhang Fei said is all true.
Wang Anshi glanced at Xue Xiang, who was looking at Zhang Fei with admiration, and coughed.
Xue Xiang was startled and looked at Wang Anshi doubtfully.
Wang Anshi said: "Don't try to imitate him. It seems simple, but only he dares to say that. If other people say that, and they refute a little bit, they may get themselves trapped in it. This is very dangerous. of."
"Your Majesty knows." Xue Xiang nodded and asked, "So, does Prosecutor Zhang often do this?"
Wang Anshi nodded.
Xue Xiang was very depressed, it was so irritating that people were so different from each other!
At this time, Feng Jing suddenly said: "Prosecutor Zhang, what you said makes sense, but most people who hoard food do not have any rebellious intentions. As far as I know personally, some people just prefer to hoard food. If there is no food in the warehouse, he will feel flustered. Do you agree with this?"
Zhang Fei nodded and said: "I agree."
Feng Jing added: "But your testimony always links the two together. I am very worried that in the future, someone will use this to create a large number of jails, define wealthy households who hoard food as treason, or take the opportunity to blackmail them." Blackmail. Do you think something like this will happen?”
Many officials nodded frequently.
This is really scary. If I hoard food, I might rebel.
Zhang Fei thought for a while and said: "The first thing I want to explain is that the final punishment of this bill is the warehouse tax. And the criminal liability just mentioned is based on the other party concealing the food and not reporting it.
These are two different things and cannot be confused.
If someone deliberately conceals food and fails to report it, will he be framed and framed as a crime of rebellion? I think it is also possible, and this is the reason why the Public Prosecution Law was born, because under the system of the Public Prosecution Law, anyone who wants to sue If others commit rebellion, they need to provide a lot of evidence. Unlike before, a poem or an article may be defined as a crime of rebellion.
Regarding Feng Zhongcheng's problem, my suggestion is to abide by the law as much as possible and don't take any chances. If you have no intention of rebellion and just want to evade taxes, but you have done a lot of things that you should not do in order to evade taxes, at the same time
If many coincidental things happen, it may be defined as a crime of rebellion.
And this kind of thing is very likely to happen. But whether it counts as being wronged, I don’t think it does, because no one knows what you really think. We can only judge based on the evidence.
Of course, the premise is that the imperial court, procuratorate, and police station all review the matter in accordance with the law."
Feng Jingdao: "So Prosecutor Zhang believes that this situation is inevitable."
Zhang Fei said: "I think it can be avoided, just don't deliberately evade taxes."
Feng Jing immediately said: "The reason why Prosecutor Zhang keeps mentioning rebellion is because he hopes to intimidate the people into paying taxes."
Zhang Fei shook his head and said, "I didn't mean that."
Feng Jingdao: "But I feel that your confession is threatening."
This question is extremely offensive.
Fu Bi and Sima Guang glanced at Feng Jing at the same time.
It was obvious that the old man was a little dissatisfied.
Zhang Fei said: "I don't think this is a threat. I just tell everyone the worst outcome. This is the responsibility of a judicial official. When our procuratorate encounters any prisoner, we will first tell everyone the worst and best outcome."
he.
Judging from previous cases, most people who deliberately conspire to rebel will secretly hoard food and recruit troops.
If you hoard food openly, you will face a penalty tax. But if you hoard food deliberately and conceal it from the court, the procuratorate or the police station will definitely investigate this risk.
Of course, I raise the possibility of rebellion not to threaten everyone with the crime of rebellion, but to abide by the first sentence of "Song Xingtong", which is the law of the ancestors, to prevent things and to make mistakes.
system.
Because the bill was proposed by our Procuratorate, and rebellion involves the core interests of the monarch, the country, and the people. Since there are cases proving the possibility, we must take precautions and make suggestions for it.
But if the Legislative Council thinks that it is completely unnecessary and believes that those who secretly hoard food are all trying to evade taxes and cannot have any rebellious intentions, then our procuratorate will strictly abide by it."
Feng Jing's heart trembled and he quickly said: "I didn't say that."
Zhang Fei nodded and said: "I know, but I am only explaining Feng Zhongcheng's question. I believe this is also the main reason why the Legislative Council convened the hearing."
As expected of Erbi, his ability to bite back is very powerful. Feng Jing added: "But what I want to know is, who will supervise your Public Security Bureau and Taxation Department during the whole process?"
Zhang Fei said: "First of all, the public prosecutor's office and the judiciary are not under each other. The police station is under the Ministry of War, and above it is the political affairs hall. Our procuratorate is not under the imperial court, but everyone is accustomed to calling these three offices together.
According to the system, there are checks and balances. In addition, the Yushitai, the Legislative Council, and the Department of National Security can all conduct supervision.
Even for the people themselves, the people should regard going to the imperial court as a way to defend their own interests and should not be afraid, because the public prosecutor's office is based on the rule of law.
In fact, more and more people understand this, so after those businessmen lost the lawsuit, they came to our procuratorate to complain and accuse the system of unfairness."
Feng Jing looked a little frustrated, looked at Fu Bi and Sima Guang again, and said in a low voice: "I have no problem for the time being."
The underlying meaning is that I have tried my best.
Sima Guang then asked: "I also agree with what Feng Zhongcheng said just now, that is, some people are frugal by nature and prefer to save food. They would rather eat less on weekdays. Is it inappropriate to levy punitive taxes for this kind of behavior? ?”
Zhang Fei replied: "Of course frugality is a virtue, but as Scholar Sima said, it is not frugality, but waste. Storing food so that no one can eat it, how is that different from burning it?
I think the frugality advocated by Confucianism is to avoid waste, because there are still many people in need of food. Don't let the food rot in the warehouse and sell it to those in need. This is frugality and virtue.
Just like Academician Sima, Academician Sima has always advocated frugality, but the amount of food in Academician Sima’s home is not even as much as that of the proprietor of a genuine bookstore.”
Standing outside was Hou Donglai, who almost fainted. Brother, why are you mentioning me?
Sima Guang immediately glared at him angrily and signaled him to stop flattering and be more serious.
Han Zhongyan suddenly whispered: "Junshi and the others seem to be stubbornly resisting."
Han Qi smiled and said: "They are doing this for others to see. How can they convince the public if they don't ask some unreasonable questions? After all, those people are all unreasonable and troublesome. If Junshi doesn't ask this question, he will definitely do the same. Someone asked the Legislative Council about this matter, it’s hard to be the Legislative Council President!”
Han Zhongyan nodded and said: "That's it."
Fu Bi suddenly asked: "At this time, there is a drought in Gyeonggi Province. Is the reason why the procuratorate submitted this bill at this time to help the court resist the drought?"
As soon as this question came up, many officials looked at Fu Bi in surprise.
This really requires trying your best!
Zhao Xu couldn't help but frown.
This issue is actually very sensitive.
According to common sense, as a court official, I am making suggestions for the drought, is there anything wrong with this?
Even if it is, so what?
But this is not the case, because many people currently blame the emperor for the drought. If this is your plan, then you are using other people's money to wipe the emperor's butt.
This is unfair.
You are responsible for the trouble you caused.
Zhang Fei said: "It can only be said that the drought has accelerated our submission of this bill, but even if there was no drought, we would have submitted this bill. As I just said, the reason why we submitted this bill is because Many people are dissatisfied with this and think it is unfair, and there is indeed unfairness in it.
But it may not be so early. There are special circumstances such as Xiangguo Temple mentioned just now, but in this bill, there is no precise provision. If there is no drought, our procuratorate may do a good job in this area of investigation. Submit another more complete bill.
It is precisely because of the sudden drought and the fact that Xiangguo Temple is under special circumstances and can be discussed later, that we decided to submit this bill first."
If I had known this...!
Many powerful people are a little annoyed because they let people complain about injustice.
The result was that it provided Zhang Fei with an excellent excuse.
Fu Bi nodded slightly and suddenly looked at the judicial officials on both sides, as if asking, do you have any more questions?
In fact, these judicial officials were not all conservatives. In order to make the hearing more convincing, Fu Bi specially invited several judicial officials with powerful backgrounds to participate, but the eyes of those judicial officials were even more confused than them.
In fact, before the meeting started, they were thinking about starting from the implementation aspect instead of refuting Zhang Fei theoretically.
Because they also know that they are in the wrong.
The current land annexation is too serious, which indeed poses great hidden dangers to the country.
In addition, Zhang Fei exempted them from commercial taxes on grain, supported land annexation without restraint, and imposed indirect coercion rather than direct coercion. He did not restrain grain prices, did not inhibit transactions, and did not help you choose transaction partners. You guys
You can sell them all at a high price, as long as you can sell them.
If you can't sell it, you have to take responsibility yourself.
They originally planned to refute it in terms of implementation. Your idea is a good one, but the problem is that if you cannot implement it, you will encounter many problems.
This is the same approach as refuting Wang Anshi’s New Deal.
But now and then, the country has several more powerful enforcement departments, namely the Department of Public Security, Procuratorate, Law and Taxation.
Make the impossible possible.
The key point is that the questions asked by Fu Bi, Sima Guang, and Zhao Pin were more comprehensive and courageous than them.
So they don't know what to ask.
In fact, Fu Bi and Sima Guang all knew that their mission on this trip was to make things difficult for Zhang Fei, so that they could be convinced.
Seeing that everyone had nothing to say, Fu Bi put aside the evidence in front of him, opened another document, and said: "This bill also includes a liquor tax bill."
As soon as these words came out, many people felt as if they were mourning for their heirs.
Fu Bi turned this page, which proves that the Legislative Council no longer has many objections to the warehouse tax.
The likelihood of this passing is very high.
But the businessmen are all cheering up. Regarding the liquor tax bill, they all hope to pass it. Even the monopoly Baifanlou alone has 3,000 foot shops to help him sell liquor.
These are all given by the court.
But it only looks good on the surface. There is no free lunch in this world. You can imagine how much money Bailunlou has to pay every year to be able to win so much wine.
Nowadays, it is quite painful for Baifenlou to pay another 20% liquor tax.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Yes."
Zhang Fei nodded and said: "This is also a tax that was highly controversial in last year's tax lawsuit. Its essence is the same as the food tax. Many businessmen believe that they have already paid a lot of money to the government, and here is a liquor tax.
It’s really unfair to them. I have prepared the court record on the liquor tax dispute.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Zhiqian immediately presented the evidence.
He must emphasize this evidence and show that he has sufficient reasons, rather than saying that he is trying to solve an urgent need, or that he is wiping the emperor's butt.
Feng Jingdao: "Generally, wine drinkers spend money to buy distiller's yeast from the government instead of giving money directly to the government. There should not be any dispute here."
Fu Bi and Sima Guang felt a little embarrassed when they heard this.
They are very clear about the twists and turns here.
But you still have to ask, and this is the hearing.
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "Feng Zhongcheng also said that they are ordinary wine merchants, that is, there are still wine merchants, and they do not buy distiller's yeast from the government."
Feng Jing did not deny it, "But most of them are like this."
"Even if they are the majority, the prices they pay for purchasing distiller's yeast are different."
Zhang Fei lowered his head and looked at the copy and said: "As for the sale of distilled yeast, the imperial court is very diverse, and there are currently various systems.
For example, the maipou system allows wine merchants to compete for the liquor by offering bids. Some prices are high and some are low. This requires the tax department to investigate each household, because if it is calculated based on a certain unified profit, for
Many drinkers are unfair.
Because the price of the distilled koji they get is high, the selling price is naturally high, but the profit is not much.
Another example is the official quota system, which means that you can only buy wine from the government. The court has already collected part of the profits, so how should the wine tax be calculated?
There are also licensed wine merchants, who directly pay taxes to the government and obtain the right to brew and sell wine. Do these wine merchants need to pay wine tax?
Such a diverse system not only places a huge burden on the Department of Taxation, but also leads to many unfair phenomena."
Feng Jingdao: "The Taxation Department is very capable. This is nothing to the Taxation Department. Isn't it just a matter of raising the fine?"
"Feng Zhongcheng is right. Therefore, it is not the tax department that is complaining, but the wine drinkers."
Zhang Fei responded with a smile and said: "To be honest, no matter what kind of system it is, it is for the sake of national finance. However, when we opened the accounts on the wine tax, we found that many times, the government still had to lose money. This is simply
It’s just unbelievable. Putting aside fairness and justice, even this most basic goal has not been achieved, so why not carry out reforms?”
Critical hit!
This violent sentence left Feng Jing speechless.
Monopoly should be a huge profit, but whether it is the local government or the central government, there are indeed times when it cannot make ends meet.
Simply outrageous.
But the reason is very simple.
If government monopoly does not breed corruption, then it is nonsense.
The official debate on salt is also confusing, but it is said that compared with salt, if you don't drink wine, you won't die.
Xu Zhiqian quietly placed a piece of paper on top of the copy.
Zhang Fei glanced at it and said, "Damn it, I almost forgot this story."
He raised his head again and said with a smile: "One more thing, some people once said that it was because of me that Lushi Alley became prosperous, but in fact it was not the case. Regarding the rise of the litigation industry in Beijing, or the prosperity of Lushi Alley, that is
Because of this wine system, many disputes occurred between the government and wine merchants at that time.
The most important dispute among them is that because the government agency often cannot make ends meet, it can only suddenly increase the price of distiller's yeast and transfer the losses to the distillers."
Fu Bi said: "So, you hope to completely abolish the government system and replace it with a tax system."
Zhang Fei nodded and said: "In this way, it can be relatively fair. At least the tax rate faced by the wine drinkers will be the same."
Fu Bi asked again: "Many people should know about this principle. Why do you think this has not been done before?"
Zhang Fei said: "That's because there was no tax department and public prosecutor's law before. If we used the old system to check the wine tax, it would be difficult to accurately check how much wine the wine merchant had brewed. It might be overcharged or undercharged, which would be detrimental to the finances.
Stablize."
Fu Bi asked: "Can the tax department find out now?"
"able."
Zhang Fei nodded, took another copy from Xu Zhiqian's hand, and took a quick look at it, "Hezhong Mansion also adopted a similar bill, but the income tax on alcohol has almost doubled compared to before, and some of them also deliberately evaded the tax.
But most of them are also found out.
At present, the tax department’s investigation criteria for investigating the disclosure of wine taxes are mainly the number of stoves, followed by coal, firewood, and grain. During the investigation process, the wine merchants’ daily business will also be referenced to estimate a rough number.”
After saying that, he handed over the evidence in his hand.
Sima Guang suddenly said: "What evidence do you have to prove that the increase in liquor tax is due to the abolition of the government system? As far as I know, the overall finances of Hezhong Prefecture are good."
Zhang Fei said: "What Academic Sima said makes sense. Of course, this has a lot to do with the economic improvement of the entire Hezhong Prefecture. But if the people don't have money, the wine tax will naturally not increase.
But compared to the old system, firstly, the court does not need to pay the cost of brewing koji and maintaining a lot of people there; secondly, it is not easy to breed corruption. I am not trying to settle old accounts, but according to our procuratorate’s investigation, we know
, it is already a consensus between the DPRK and China that the official system can easily breed corruption. Thirdly, it will increase the number of wine drinkers, thus increasing tax revenue.
And all these advantages I mentioned are revealed in that evidence."
After he finished speaking, Fu Bi moved the evidence he had just glanced at slightly towards Sima Guang.
Sima Guang looked at it curiously. In fact, he knew what Zhang Fei said, and he was firmly opposed to the official inquiry system, but he wanted to know how this was reflected in the evidence.
After seeing the results, he couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
But seeing the evidence listed above, the comparison of various data before and after the restructuring of Hezhong Prefecture is really very detailed. This comparison is really clear at a glance.
Let them not know how to refute.
Zhao Pin said: "The imperial court controls distiller's koji to restrict brewing. Its purpose is also to prevent brewers from wasting food on brewing for profit. Zhang Prosecutor also mentioned this just now. Can this be avoided through liquor tax?"
Zhang Fei nodded and said, "Yes."
Zhao Pindao: "You are right, and I understand it, but I want to know how you can determine how much to increase the wine tax to avoid using too much grain for brewing, and how much to reduce the wine tax to avoid hurting farmers due to low grain prices.
?”
Zhang Fei replied: "After I found out about these controversies, I secretly asked the police station for help and went to large and small main stores, footwear shops, and military camps to conduct censuses.
To put it simply, the drinkers are asked how much they drink every month when the price of wine is.
In the past few months, a total of 1,000 people have been interviewed, including 800 ordinary drinkers, 150 people in ordinary restaurants, and 50 people in large restaurants such as Baifanlou.
I think this is enough to show that our procuratorate submitted this bill not because of the drought outside, but because of the existence of injustice.
Based on the consumption of these drinkers, we can roughly calculate a wine tax adjustment range to avoid being too high or too low."
As soon as these words came out, everyone in the audience was shocked.
Can this still be done?
Only Cao Dongdong held his head high, as if none of you had ever seen the world.
Zhao Xu was also a little confused and asked Liu Zhao: "Can this be calculated?"
Liu Zhao was unable to turn around for a while.
But Lan Yuanzhen said: "Your Majesty, this sounds quite reasonable. Let's not talk about the rich. As far as ordinary people are concerned, he only has so much money every month. If the price of wine is expensive, he has to save some.
drink."
Zhao Xu nodded and asked again: "But can we know by checking a thousand people?"
Lan Yuanzhen thought for a while and said, "I don't know about this either."
Zhao Pin came back to his senses and immediately asked: "You just surveyed a thousand people and... you were able to figure it out?"
"Yes."
Zhang Fei nodded, "We have formulated a random inspection standard, mainly based on the age of the customers, the specifications of the main store and the foot shop, and then make statistics."
Zhao Pin asked: "What evidence do you have to prove this?"
"some."
Zhang Fei said: "When I was still in Hezhong Prefecture, Hezhong Prefecture had already carried out wine tax reform. After that, the wine production of Hezhong Prefecture's wine merchants increased day by day, and the food consumed also increased.
However, after the Xihe War broke out, due to the need for food on the front line, Hezhong Prefecture used this method to adjust the liquor tax by surveying customers' spending power. Facts have proved that the effect is very good. The liquor tax that year immediately dropped by nearly 30%.
, this is despite the population growth in Hezhong Prefecture.
Here I have a comparison of Hezhong Prefecture's accounts for the two years before and after the wine tax adjustment, their census at that time, and their prediction of the grain storage situation after the wine tax adjustment.
At the same time, there is also the situation we investigated in the capital, and we even discovered from it that the consumption power of ordinary people in Hezhong Prefecture is already comparable to that of the people in the capital."
This last sentence directly caused the people outside the hospital to break through.
What the hell?
The consumption power of ordinary citizens in Hezhong Prefecture, which cannot even be compared with the other four capitals, is actually stronger than ours?
What to eat in Kaifeng Mansion?
Zhao Pin immediately asked someone to present all the evidence.
Xue Xiang was very interested in this kind of proof and hurriedly asked Wang Anshi: "Wang Xianggong, is this what the arithmetic school teaches?"
Wang Anshi was stunned for a moment and asked: "Do you think this should be taught in arithmetic schools?"
Xue Xiang nodded, "Of course, because this is financial management, I reformed the tea horse method in the northwest, and after investigation, I found that raising horses by yourself costs a lot, and the horses are uneven, so it is better to buy horses directly.
For example, the New Deal's equalization law, the exemption law, and the young crop law were all formulated after some investigation. It's just that we didn't seem to be as detailed as he was, and we didn't have a standard."
Wang Anshi blinked and thought to himself, yes! This is how financial management should be done. Why didn't I think of letting this kid go to my arithmetic institute to become a doctor?