Poor Family Chapter 549

  Chapter 549 The new official decides the case (Part 1)

  The next day at dawn, Li Yanqing came to the county government. This is one of the advantages of being an official in the local area. He doesn't have to go out so early every day, and he can calmly eat breakfast at home before going out.

  On the square, the new chief arrester and deputy chief arresters Zhang Bao and Zhang Ying were teaching more than a dozen arresters to practice boxing, and they fought vigorously. There were several arresters kneeling next to them. They probably were punished for not arriving on time.

  Li Yanqing didn't bother them, and walked directly to the county government office. The county government office had just opened, and two government officials were sweeping the steps with bamboo brooms.

Yamen servants and catchers have different functions. Yamen servants are mainly responsible for rent collection, or doing various miscellaneous tasks, while catchers are responsible for maintaining law and order, mediating disputes, and arresting thieves. It's not the job of the catcher anymore, but the responsibility of the township soldiers. The catcher is only responsible for catching the lone Jiangyang bandit.

   Seeing the arrival of the county magistrate, the two yamen servants hurriedly saluted together, "See the county magistrate!"

   "Have Xian Cheng Yang and County Captain Zhou come?"

   "Yang County Prime Minister just arrived, Zhou County Captain may still be early."

  Li Yanqing was startled, "Why?"

   Zhou Xianwei usually does not show up until noon, and he is more. ． ． ． "

  The yamen servants dared not continue, Li Yanqing smiled and said, "It's better wine, isn't it!"

   "That's right, the former magistrate Wang didn't care about him, and he got used to it after a few years."

Li Yanqing nodded secretly, guessing that the former county magistrate was the same as himself. He used his confidants as the head of the capital and the police, and took Zhou Xianwei out of the way. So he drank to pass the time, waiting to retire.

  Although he deserves some sympathy, Li Yanqing doesn't want to change the status quo. Some magistrates don't care about military power, but he does.

  Walking into the county government office, he saw the magistrate Yang Ju directing the servants to carry boxes. Li Yanqing stepped forward and asked with a smile, "What are you doing?"

  Yang Ju hurriedly bowed to Li Yanqing, and said with a smile, "I just remembered last night that there are quite a few things belonging to County Magistrate Wang in the county magistrate's office, so I came here early in the morning to let the yamen servants move them elsewhere."

  Li Yanqing saw that there were more than 20 large boxes, so he couldn't help asking curiously: "What's in the box?"

   "It should be some stones. This is Wang County Magistrate's hobby. He put it with us for the time being, and will send someone to take it away later."

  Yang Ju asked with a smile again: "How does the county lord feel about Jiayu County?"

   "It's a quiet small town with simple folk customs and cheap prices. In addition, the wine here is good!"

  Yang Ju immediately smiled and said, "It must be the wine bought by Wen's Hotel. Their store is the only one in this county that can make wine. The wine they make is really good, and they are very famous in Ezhou."

After a pause, Yang Ju smiled wryly again: "However, many families in the countryside make wine privately. If you don't check the folk customs here, you will die. There is no way, as long as you don't overdo it, the government can only turn a blind eye. one eye."

  Li Yanqing is not surprised either. The mountains are high and the emperor is far away. It is difficult for the imperial court to compete with the people for profit. This is not the case in Tangyin County, so there is a saying that "the imperial court governs the prefectures and counties, and the squires govern the villages." Below the township is the world of squires.

  At this time, Li Yanqing thought of something again, and asked: "Yesterday, I heard Zhou Xianwei talk about the Jiang thief, how much does Yang Xiancheng know?"

  Yang Ju pondered for a while and said: "The river thief has always been a plague on the Yangtze River, and it has never stopped for hundreds of years. Does the county lord know the reason?"

   "The county magistrate, please tell me!"

"There are three reasons. One is that the territory is vast, and most of the harm caused by river bandits travels across states and governments. Either everyone contributes money and efforts to suppress bandits, or everyone doesn't care; secondly, suppressing bandits is a costly and laborious task. Money, food and people's resources are huge, but they are often in vain, and the court does not want to do a loss-making business; but a more important reason is that the harm of the river thieves is only limited to the water surface, and has no impact on the court and society, and even has no impact on the government. The local government has no sense of crisis to exterminate them, these water thieves are like weeds, they grow back after being burned, and they have been invincible for hundreds of years, so everyone doesn't care too much."

   "But I heard from County Captain Zhou that it seems that the river thieves have been encircled and suppressed, and two captors have been lost successively for this."

Yang Ju shook her head, "The last time the bandits were killed was ten years ago. It is true that the two captives died at the hands of the Black Hearted Dragon King, but it has nothing to do with the suppression of the bandits. Originally, the suppression of the bandits does not require the arrest of the bandits. It is the local soldiers." It should be said that it was an accident that time, they met the Black Heart Dragon King in Dongting Lake, and both the principal and deputy headhunters died under the Black Heart Dragon King's sword."

   "What are the arresters from Jiayu County going to Dongting Lake for?" Li Yanqing asked puzzled.

   "It's a long story, I'll tell the county magistrate in detail later."

  Li Yanqing saw that he was vague and seemed to be hiding something from himself, so he stopped asking further questions and said with a faint smile: "Speaking of it this way, wouldn't it be very dangerous for me to take the post by boat this time?"

   "There is no danger. They have rules and will not touch official ships. If you have an official flag on your ship, they will generally not provoke them. Otherwise, if they offend the court, their life will be difficult."

   "Will the merchant ship pretend to be an official ship to avoid disaster?"

  "Generally not, the gain outweighs the loss if you do that. First, you can't hide it from the evil eyes of the Jiang thief. Second, you will be imprisoned if you pretend to be an official ship. Few boatmen are willing to take this risk."

The two walked while talking, and soon walked into the lobby, at this moment, there was a rumbling sound of drums outside, Li Yanqing was startled, Yang Ju smiled and said: "It seems that some people are afraid that the county magistrate will be idle." Nothing to do, so I came to find something for the county lord."

   "Is this... has anyone filed a complaint?"

   "Exactly!"

  At this time, the two yamen servants who were sweeping the floor just now ran in, "That He Laoliu came to sue again, and brought a litigator!"

  Yang Ju frowned, "Didn't they agree to negotiate a settlement by themselves? Why did it happen again?"

   "Who is He Lao Liu?" Li Yanqing asked puzzled.

"It was the proprietor of a family money shop in this county. He lent a sum of money last year. As a result, the owner died at the beginning of the year, leaving only orphans and widows. At that time, the owner seemed to have bought a shop with the borrowed money. He Lao Liu I just wanted to take this shop back, but the widow of the victim refused, so I have been fighting this lawsuit. Originally, the two parties agreed to negotiate a settlement by themselves, but I don't know how to file a lawsuit today, probably because the county governor took office.”

Li Yanqing nodded. Someone sued him on the first day he officially took office, and he was somewhat interested. Li Yanqing immediately sat in the lobby and sent someone to find Mo Jun. Mo Jun is an experienced old staff member who can Give yourself a little idea.

  He immediately sat under the plaque of "Mirror Hanging High", slapped the gavel heavily, "Open the hall!"

   Several police officers shouted loudly, "Open the hall—"

The people of the Song Dynasty were very good at litigation, and they beat the drums to sue at every turn, and trivial disputes had to be resolved in court. For this reason, there were many people who helped in litigation, called litigators, that is, today's lawyers. Specialized litigator school, specializing in training professional litigators who are proficient in law.

It is precisely because people in the Song Dynasty are prone to lawsuits that most of the county magistrate's energy is spent on dealing with various civil lawsuits. , the case must be brought to court before the county magistrate will hear the case, which invisibly reduces the burden on the county magistrate to a large extent.

  And some major cases can also be appealed to the higher-level punishment division, which is equivalent to the procuratorate, which specializes in reviewing various important major cases in the state capital to prevent unjust imprisonment.

  Of course, trivial civil dispute cases are not taken into consideration by the Criminal Division. They generally only monitor major criminal cases.

  Different from the Ming and Qing dynasties, county magistrates in the Song Dynasty were very close to the people when adjudicating cases. Generally, they didn't need to kneel down.

And it doesn't mean that a trial will be initiated immediately. There are two signs at the entrance of the county government office, one is called "Ci Li Pai" and the other is called "Qu Pai". Submit a petition under the CI Litigation Board, and after the mediation fails, the county government will choose a date to hold a court session; if it is an urgent matter that requires a complaint, you can submit a petition under the "Qu Pai".

As for Wendeng drums, drums are only allowed to be played during non-working hours and when there are urgent matters. The county magistrate who lives in the back house will come to open the court hearing after hearing the drums. Before it could be taken out, the plaintiff beat the drum and filed a complaint.

Li Yanqing was sitting in the middle of the lobby. Some police officers came out to lead the plaintiff to the west corridor and waited quietly. The one who came up was the litigator. He was responsible for handing over the pleadings and explaining the case. He would call the plaintiff to the court for questioning when necessary. On the way to take office, Mo Jun Li Yanqing has already told these basic trial rules. Of course, he also memorized various legal clauses in the examination.

  At this time, Mo Jun hurried over and stood beside Li Yanqing. The litigator stepped forward quickly, bowed and saluted, "Student Zhang Ming will meet the county magistrate!"

   "Is there any urgent case, why do you have to beat Wen Denggu?" Li Yanqing's tone was quite dissatisfied, obviously there was no urgent case, but he wanted to beat the drum to urge.

Zhang Ming quickly explained: "Students don't dare to tease the county magistrate, but the county magistrate doesn't know about it. The villagers like to seek early benefits, and they pay attention to opening the door to see dividends. Today is the county magistrate's first trial, and everyone is eager to pay homage to the county magistrate. style."

  Li Yanqing looked down, there were already more than a dozen idlers standing in the outer corridor who came to hear the trial, they were not idlers, almost all litigators, and they all wanted to understand the trial style of the new county lord through this case.

  Li Yanqing did not buy into his account, and said coldly: "Let's deal with small matters and urgent matters, regardless of the seriousness, and you will be recorded as an 'disrespectful act', and the plaintiff will be fined five hundred."

There are also restrictions on litigators. There are only three chances to demerit a year. If you demerit three times in a row, you will not be able to take the case. This case is obviously not urgent, so it should be placed under the Litigation Board. Suing means that the litigator is unprofessional, so he will be fined. Not only the litigator will be fined, but the plaintiff will also be fined 500 cash as a warning.

   Litigation lawyer Zhang Ming did not expect the new county magistrate to be so strict, and he was not easy to be fooled at all. He was so frightened that he lowered his head and dared not make a sound.

  Li Yanqing then said: "Hand over the lawsuit!"

Zhang Ming bowed to file the lawsuit, and a policeman passed the lawsuit to Li Yanqing, who flipped through it and said: "I have already understood the general situation of this case, but I heard that you have agreed to negotiate with the defendant." Solve it, why do you have to sue again?"

"Qi County Lord, there are two reasons. One is that both parties failed to negotiate and refused to make concessions. The other is that we have found new evidence that the other party bought the land with borrowed money, so we decided to appeal in court. .”

  Li Yanqing nodded, "Go down and wait first! Wait for me to find the defendant, and then proceed with the trial of this case."

  The litigator also went to the West Corridor to wait. Li Yanqing immediately ordered the two police officers: "Go and find the defendant, and tell her that if she refuses to come, I'm afraid the judgment will be against her."

  (end of this chapter)

Chapter end