It was not known whether Xu Zhiqian was just too stubborn by nature or she really wanted to drive Zhang Fei out of the Xu Mansion. Anyway, on the second day, she brought Zhang Fei to a temple at the junction of Kaifeng County and Xiangfu County.
Here, Zhang Fei finally saw the farmer, a young man of the same age as him, but looking a little haggard.
It turned out that this small farmer almost faced the same fate as most self-employed farmers, which was suicide. Fortunately, Xu Zhiqian came to his aid and helped him find a livelihood and temporary shelter in the fire room of the temple.
When the farmer saw Xu Zhiqian, he burst into tears before he could say a word.
Alas... It's no wonder. His life had just begun, and in one night, he lost his wife and ancestral land. Anyone would collapse.
And this is the fundamental problem of the feudal era.
The people have no ability to resist any natural or man-made disasters. If they are not careful, they will lose everything and have to sell their children.
"Don't cry yet. I have invited a master here today to see if he can help you."
Xu Zhiqian stretched out her hand and led Zhang Fei next to her.
Expert? Zhang Fei couldn't help but look at Xu Zhiqian with a strange look, thinking, this woman is really realistic, asking me for help, I am an expert, otherwise, I am just a pervert. But the two don't seem to conflict.
When the young farmer heard this, he was surprised and happy. He turned his head and looked at Zhang Fei.
Zhang Fei bowed and said, "I am Zhang Fei, you can just call me Zhang San."
In ancient times, people were generally not called by their real names, so outsiders were accustomed to calling him Zhang San.
The young farmer bowed quickly and sobbed, "Third... Third Brother, you... just call me Li Si."
"So Brother Li Si. What?"
Zhang Fei looked at the farmer and said, "You... your name is Li Si?"
Li Si raised his head, nodded, and looked at Zhang Fei nervously.
Xu Zhiqian asked curiously: "Is there a problem?"
"Oh. No! No!"
Zhang Fei shook his head and thought, Zhang San and Li Si, haha, I finally met my book brother, could this be God's will? He said to Li Si, "Brother Li Si, please sit down, please sit down."
After sitting down, Zhang Fei said, "I need you to explain the whole process clearly."
Although he came to the Song Dynasty, his thinking has not changed. The process is more important than the result. Loopholes rarely appear in the results but in the process.
As he spoke, he suddenly asked Xu Zhiqian, "Are you fast at writing?"
Xu Zhiqian understood immediately, but asked curiously, "Do I need to remember this?"
Zhang Fei said: "I'm afraid I will forget."
Xu Zhiqian glanced at Zhang Fei and thought, as an earpiece, don’t you even have this little memory
But she didn't say much. After all, it was not a big deal. She immediately took out the four treasures of the study and prepared to record it.
After Xu Zhiqian was ready, Zhang Fei said to Li Si, "You can speak now."
Li Si immediately told Zhang Fei the whole story.
The process was the same as what Xu Zhiqian said. He fell seriously ill, and his wife went everywhere to seek medical treatment for him. She spent all the remaining money in the family and could only borrow ten strings of money from a local rich man named Chen Yuteng to pay for his medical treatment... ...
After he finished speaking, Zhang Fei picked up the transcript that Xu Zhiqian had just written and started reading it again.
Xu Zhiqian felt that this guy was young, but had quite a demeanor.
What he wrote was exactly what Li Si had just said, but Zhang Fei insisted on reading what she wrote. What else could this be but pretense
Zhang Fei didn't notice it. He was concentrating on reading the transcript and suddenly asked, "The repayment date was June 15th last year, but you signed the second debt repayment agreement on June 3rd of that year. It's not the repayment date yet. Did they force you to pay it back?"
Li Si said: "This is because Chen Yuteng saw that I didn't have much harvest that year and was afraid that I would run away, so he sent people to watch me from July and urged me to pay back the money quickly. He also sent people to persuade me to use my wife to pay off the debt. Later, my wife and I couldn't stand it anymore, and I couldn't pay the debt at all, so I signed this second contract a few days in advance."
Zhang Fei looked at Xu Zhiqian and asked, "Is this legal?"
How come this guy doesn't know anything? Xu Zhiqian glanced at Zhang Fei speechlessly and said, "Lending money to others is not a bad thing. No one wants to lose everything. Therefore, as long as no one is hurt, the government will not care about this kind of thing."
In fact, even if you injure someone, as long as it is not very serious, the government generally will not care. The government may even help beat you up again to prevent you from paying back the money.
Zhang Fei asked again: "Since you have been wronged so much, why don't you go and sue the authorities?"
Li Si stammered, "I... I'm afraid... Mr. Chen is not someone you can easily mess with. If I'm not careful, I'll be punished."
Xu Zhiqian explained: "If there is no problem with the contract, if he goes to the government to file a complaint, he might be convicted of false accusation by the government."
Zhang Fei saw that Li Si looked nervous, and couldn't help but ask Xu Zhiqian: "You seem to have never told me who this Chen Yuteng is? Is he just a wealthy man?"
Xu Zhiqian's eyes were somewhat evasive.
Zhang Fei half-jokingly said, "Are you planning to deal with me?"
"of course not."
Xu Zhiqian decisively refuted, and then said: "Chen Yuteng's uncle is Wang Wenshan, the judge of Sinong Temple."
The current powers of the Sinong Temple were not very large, but after Wang Anshi’s reforms, this department became a very critical power department, shouldering the important task of the Qingmiao Law.
But no matter what, he is the head of the financial department of the central court and may be promoted in the future. This is quite a big deal!
I knew it wasn't that simple. Zhang Fei said unhappily, "How long are you going to keep it a secret from me?"
Xu Zhiqian said with a guilty conscience: "You are not even afraid of Sima Dashi, so why should you be afraid of this small Sinong Temple?"
Zhang Fei said: "This is not a matter of fear. If you hide something from me, not only will I not be able to help you, but it will hurt myself."
Xu Zhiqian asked: "Do you have any solution?"
Zhang Fei snorted, "Don't change the subject. If I find out that you are hiding something from me, then you can find someone else."
Xu Zhiqian said with a little displeasure: "It seems like you begged me?"
Zhang Fei said sternly, "I only want cooperation, an equal relationship, not to be your tool and listen to your orders. Do you think it is necessary to continue this cooperation full of lies?"
Xu Zhiqian knew that she was in the wrong, so she explained, "I didn't mean to hide it from you, but I wanted to see if you had any solution. If you really had one, I would tell you about it, and I would never hide it from you. After all, this would also implicate my father."
"I don't like excuses." Zhang Fei shook his head and said, "Don't do it again. Otherwise, you will bear the consequences."
Xu Zhiqian nodded slightly and thought, if you can't find a way, I'll kick you out.
Zhang Fei asked Xu Zhiqian to copy all the contracts and documents, and then left with the documents.
After leaving the temple, Xu Zhiqian asked, "Do you have any solution?"
“Not yet.”
Zhang Fei shook his head.
Xu Zhiqian immediately looked disappointed.
Zhang Fei suddenly asked: "Have you ever mentioned this to your father?"
"No!"
"Why?"
Zhang Fei asked, "Is it because the other party has the background of Sinong Temple and is afraid of causing trouble for your father?"
Xu Zhiqian turned around and said, "You underestimate my father. If he was afraid of this trouble, then why would he support the case of Ayun and bring it to Bianjing? I didn't tell my father, mainly because my father was not in Bianjing at the time, and secondly, I knew it was useless to tell him, because such things have happened countless times, and countless people have gone to sue the officials, but no one has ever succeeded."
"Yeah?"
Zhang Fei smiled and said, "It seems that Miss Xu still has confidence in me."
Xu Zhiqian sneered: "I just can't stand your bragging."
"I see." Zhang Fei nodded with a smile, and then said, "Do you mind if I go ask your father for advice?"
Xu Zhiqian snorted and said, "If you don't believe me, you can go and ask for advice."
Zhang Fei did not mean to tease Xu Zhiqian. When he returned to Xu's house, he told Xu Zun about the matter and asked him about it. After all, Xu Zun had rich experience, which Xu Zhiqian did not have.
After Xu Zun carefully read the information they provided, he couldn't help but shake his head and sighed, saying, "There is nothing wrong with this contract. Although Li Si is illiterate, it was read out by someone else, which is in line with the rules. He can only blame himself for not being careful and not asking clearly at the time."
Zhang Fei said: "But this is obviously a fraud. Given Li Si's situation at the time, it is impossible for him to choose to use only his wife to repay the principal, because he also has no money to pay the interest. It is better to use the land to repay the debt directly. It is clear as day."
Xu Zun shook his head and sighed, "You know there's a saying that goes 'officials have political laws, and the people follow private contracts'. In disputes like this, contracts are very important evidence. Generally speaking, the government will only make judgments based on contracts. If it doesn't do so, the government will have endless lawsuits to fight."
Zhang Fei said: "I know this, but the interest involved is also against the rules."
Xu Zun sighed, "In fact, the court had many restrictions on usury. For example, if you borrowed millet or wheat, you had to repay it with millet or wheat. This was to prevent those big households from exploiting farmers by exchanging goods.
Unexpectedly, this backfired, because usually farmers only had millet and wheat, no coins, and they could only borrow coins. If the millet and wheat could not be exchanged for money in time, they would be unable to repay the debt, and eventually they could only use the land to repay, which further intensified the merger. Besides, how much do you think Li Si's wife is worth? It is impossible to calculate, so during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong, the court relaxed such restrictions. "
Zhang Fei frowned and said, "In that case, there is no way to fight this case."
Xu Zun shook his head and said, "I don't have a solution, but if you have a solution and can find evidence, I will definitely support you."
He really has no power to deal with this kind of private loan dispute.
If usury is allowed, farmers will be doomed, but if it is not allowed, they will die faster.
Therefore, if the government can insist that the people follow private contracts and not collude with landlords to defraud people, it would be very fair and just, and we cannot ask for too much.
If we don't stick to this point, first of all, who would dare to borrow
There will definitely be many more deadbeats.
There are also quite a few deadbeats nowadays.
The government does not have so many manpower, so whether to allow the landlords to collect the debts in their own way will only breed more problems.
Of course, insisting on private contracts is undoubtedly beneficial to the ruling class. One of the reasons is that most people are illiterate.
This kind of contract, which is a game of words, is just a way for landlords to deprive self-cultivating farmers.
Cases like Li Si's are just a drop in the ocean. Xu Zun has seen many of them, but he can only make a judgment according to the law.
This is why he went to the countryside to teach the people legal knowledge, in order to prevent such things from happening, but the father and daughter had limited abilities and could only help one at a time.
Xu Zhiqian asked Zhang Fei again: "What are you going to do?"
Zhang Fei glanced at Xu Zhiqian and said seriously, "I plan to borrow a copy of Song Dynasty Criminal Code to study first."
"... ..?"