Chapter 38 Reasonable and Lawful

  Xiao Jiading's eyes rolled, and he immediately knew what was going on. It must be Du Erniu's grandfather, Du Dahiyan, who had spilled the beans about his plan to buy a house. This country official had come under the pretext of borrowing something to give gifts.

  A mansion worth 120,000 yuan is equivalent to 600,000 RMB! Now it's only 50,000 yuan, less than one-tenth of the price, isn't that a great deal? Not buying it would be stupid!

  Wait! Xiang Jia Ding thought to himself, why would he sell him a mansion at such a cheap price? Wasn't it because he had Tang Lin backing him up? Although everyone outside was saying that he was Tang Lin's trusted aide, but what kind of person was Tang Lin really? He actually knew nothing about him, not even who he was. Facing such a patron, this "thousand-mile horse" had to be careful before making its move. If he was a corrupt official, then buying the cheap mansion wouldn't be a big problem. But if he was an honest official who hated evil and corruption, then as soon as he found out, he would probably kick him out immediately, and even step on him. That way, his bright future would be completely ruined.

  One wrong move and the whole situation is lost, such a blunder cannot be made. Being greedy for small gains may lead to big losses. As long as you cling well to this big tree of Tang Lin, how can you worry about not having a "path to wealth"?

  He thought to himself, and glanced sideways at this Lu Xiangzheng. This small county magistrate actually had such a large mansion, and was almost giving it away to him for sale. It could be seen that this county magistrate must have been very rich. Relying solely on his official salary, it would have been impossible to build such a mansion, even if he were to die trying. He was probably taking advantage of the people's wealth! Someone like this who gives you money is likely to want to take advantage of you afterwards, and disaster will not be far behind.

  Xiao Jiadeng immediately put on a stern face, and with a serious tone, he said: "Let me tell you, I am an honest person, not greedy or corrupt. Don't try this nonsense in front of me!" After that, he turned around and walked away with his hands behind his back.

  Lu Xiang Zheng was taken aback, his face slightly red, and after a quick glance, he hurriedly caught up, forcing a smile: "If Xiao Zhi Yi thinks it's too expensive, we can give him a discount."

  Xiao Jiading stopped in his tracks, his face stern and solemn, adopting the manner of a high-ranking government official giving a report in a modern movie. He said with a serious tone: "This kind of nonsense is not to be tolerated! Comrade!" After speaking, he let out a heavy hum and walked away with large strides.

  Lu Xiangzheng and Lu Shu Li were stunned, they naturally couldn't understand the meaning of the word "comrade" behind Xiao Jia Ding, and they looked at each other in dismay.

  Xiao Jiading walked in, feeling a bit sore. Damn it, watching 500,000 to 600,000 yuan fly away like that is really frustrating when being an honest official.

  He thought again and realized that the reason he was not satisfied was because he was too poor. If he had a lot of money now, would his mother still care about this small amount of money? In the end, it's all because of poverty!

  It seems that making money must be put on the agenda. Get rich as soon as possible. But how to make money? Can't just come up with something like "poetry makes friends" again, can't make a lot of money that way and it's easy to give people an arrogant impression.

  Will planting peppers make money? Of course, he is very sure about this, but first, there is no place to plant now, and secondly, it will take time for others to like eating peppers and using peppers. This process may not be short. —— Receiving new things always requires courage and time, so it's unlikely to rely on this get-rich-quick scheme in a short period of time.

  After thinking all the way, he still couldn't think of a good solution. Xiao Jiading returned to the county magistrate's signing room, and the county magistrate had not yet arrived. There was only Shu Tongwen in the house. Xiao Jiading said: "You go to the main bookkeeper, find out all the case files handled by Wu Haicheng, and bring me the judgment words inside."

  The case files handled by the Yamen's Criminal Department, after being reported and approved layer by layer, were handed over for execution. The archival management of these case files was the responsibility of the Yamen's chief clerk.

  Wen Yan agreed and was about to leave when Xiao Jiading called him back, saying in a low voice, "Don't mention this matter to anyone."

  "Yes!"

  After Wen Yan left, Xiao Jia Ding began to look at new cases. He didn't want to look at the previous judgments again, because he was afraid of finding mistakes in them, which would be a dilemma. It's better not to look and avoid trouble. Anyway, he had already looked through some of them and had a general idea in his mind.

  He picked up the first case, read it carefully, and couldn't help but frown again. The case was simple: someone rode a horse past the defendant's field, didn't know how, the horse got startled, rushed into the field, and trampled the seedlings all over the place. The defendant was a shrew who immediately blocked his way, demanding that he pay a large sum of money. He said it wasn't worth that much, but she stood in his way, crying and making a scene, rolling around on the ground. He had urgent business and ended up giving her the money. After returning home, he felt wronged and went to the government office to file a complaint. As a result of the investigation by the constable, it was found that the trampled seedlings were not worth nearly as much money. The amount of money she demanded was equivalent to five bolts of silk. Therefore, the constable arrested the defendant, a shrew, on charges of extortion.

  The clerk of the prison drafted a judgment that sentenced him to fifty lashes for the crime of bribery. The stolen goods were returned to their original owner. The case was reported step by step until it reached Xiao Jiading's place.

  The crime of "sitting on the goods" in the Tang Code is very peculiar, and there is no corresponding crime name in modern criminal law. It is similar to unjust enrichment in civil law, that is, without legal or contractual reasons, obtaining property that should not be obtained. Like this case, the woman's crops were trampled by someone riding a horse, which belongs to the category of infringement and she should receive compensation. However, she demanded more money than her actual loss, and the excess amount constitutes "sitting on the goods" and should be subject to criminal punishment.

  The Tang Code used criminal punishment measures to deal with many civil acts, and the crime of sitting on goods was one of them. The maximum sentence can be three years of imprisonment!

  The nature of the case is not a problem, the problem lies in that, according to the Tang Code, as long as it is not by violent intimidation or other means to force the other party to pay more compensation than the loss, but rather a private agreement between the two parties for this excess compensation, both the giver and receiver will be punished. The giver will receive a reduced punishment of five degrees compared to the receiver, in this case, he would be flogged ten times. At the same time, the extra money given belongs to ill-gotten gains and should be confiscated by the government.

  Specific to this case, there are two places where the handling was wrong. One is that only the person who extorted money was punished, but not the person who gave the money. The other mistake is in the handling of the stolen money, the verdict said it should be returned to the original owner, but according to the Tang law, it should have been confiscated and entered into the official treasury.

  Xiao Jiading did not directly change it, he wanted to exchange opinions with the book officials below as much as possible, let them know how to deal with such cases in the future. At the same time, he also had to let the runner go and catch the person who gave the money and beat his buttocks.

  So he stood up, just about to go to the prison, suddenly stopped again, and pondered this case. Isn't this case just an unjust enrichment? If it were in modern times, the amount of compensation could be negotiated between the two parties, and paying a little more or less wouldn't matter. Of course, paying too much would also be unfair. Moreover, how can this kind of unjust enrichment be confiscated? It should be returned to the original owner! Now, he himself wants to change this originally reasonable verdict into an unreasonable but Tang Dynasty law-compliant verdict, is there a need for that?

  He sat down again and continued to ponder what to do with this case.

  The disposal of the stolen goods was relatively easy to handle, as he remembered that the regulations for confiscating stolen goods were stipulated in the "Tanglu Shuyi", which was only promulgated two years later. Therefore, whether this situation should be punished or not has no clear provision. This judgment cannot be said to be illegal. But what about the previous one? The "Yonghui Law" clearly stipulates: "Those who give money will be reduced by five degrees." That is to say, it is necessary to reduce the punishment for the person who gave the money by five degrees. What can be done? Should this poor guy really be caught and spanked?

  He slowly read the judgment again, still puzzled. He then flipped to the section on "sitting on goods leading to crime" in the Yonghui Code and read it carefully. The article stipulated: "All those who sit on goods leading to crime, one chi of bamboo for twenty, one match added for each additional grade; ten matches, one year of penal servitude..." Upon reading this, his eyes lit up, and he had a plan in mind.

  He stood up, took the judgment and came to the prison, called over the clerk who was in charge of the case, handed him the judgment and asked: "It says on your judgment that the defendant is fined five pieces of silk, right?"

  Yes.

  "What place's volume price is used for estimating the internal organs?"

  "In our Sichuan dialect."

  "Hmm, how much is the price of silk in Yizhou?"

  "Six hundred and seventy coins for one horse."

  "What about Beijing?"

  "Six hundred coins for one horse."

  "How about Jiangnan?"

  "Five hundred coins for one match."

  "How did you know so much?"

  The bookkeeper smiled and said: "I have a relative who happens to be in the silk business, I often hear him talk about it, so I know."

  "Which place has the cheapest and most expensive silk in the country?"

  "The cheapest is Jiangnan, the most expensive are Henan and our Jian'nan."

  "Didn't the imperial court say which local silk price to calculate by? Or is there a unified regulation coming out?"

  "No."

  "If there isn't one, then you estimate according to the price of the most expensive place, is that suitable?"

  "This...," The clerk scratched his head somewhat embarrassed, "It's always been done this way before."

  "Hmm! I'll ask you again, this booty that exceeds the loss amount, is it just worth five horses?"

  "Not quite."

  "How much is left?"

  "Not even close."

  "That's to say, it's less than five horses?"

  "Yes!"

  Xiao Jia Ding's face immediately turned stern, saying: "It is what it is, how can you add more on your own?"

  The clerk was very embarrassed and hastily said: "Yes! I'll change it right away. I'll re-report it."

  Xiao Jia Ding's mouth curled up into a smile: "With fewer people involved, shouldn't the punishment be reduced as well?"

  "Yes, he should be sentenced to forty lashes."