Han official!

Chapter 135 Litian
At dusk (18:00-18:45), Su Jian followed Guo Jie out of the neighborhood. He was confused because Guo Jie's attitude changed drastically when he learned that his son's name was Su Wu.

When Su Jian walked into the gate of the official temple in Chang'an for the first time, he did not spend much time looking at the connected lamps, the bamboo jars, and the wall hangings placed beside the Gongcao. Instead, he was very interested in the mountains of bamboo slips.

He stood in the middle of the booths and told the story of the counterfeit money in the warehouse.
"The person who wove a large amount of bad cloth was actually Zhao Tuo from the Wushili. His cousin Zhao Bu was the flag chief of Gao City, and his cousin Zhao Meng was the city official of the county temple. The three brothers colluded with each other and exchanged bad cloth for cloth money to make huge profits.

Zhao Tuo wove inferior cloth in Wushili and gave it to Zhao Tingzhang to store at the flag pavilion in Gaoshi. He then encouraged merchants and landlords to exchange their money for inferior cloth and pay it to the city official as rent. However, Zhao Tingzhang turned a blind eye and mixed the inferior cloth from Gaoshi with the money from the nine markets in Chang'an and several smaller markets, distributing it so that each market collected a small amount of inferior cloth.

In order to shut up Su Jian, the guard of the storehouse, Zhao Tuo took his wife and children to Wushili. For half a month, Su Jian could not sleep all day, his lips were dry, and his voice became hoarse after speaking a few words.

Guo Jie picked up the wine cup on the table and threw it over. He then asked Su Jian to kneel on the sitting table at the door. He calmed down a lot and then told the whole story of the counterfeit currency case.

Chong Huangrou knelt beside him and wrote down Su Jian's account of the counterfeiting on a piece of hemp paper. Her brows knitted slightly, "This is going to be difficult. We can't convict the three brothers Zhao Tuo, Zhao Bu, and Zhao Meng."

Guo Jie also had a frown on his face.

The three Zhao Tuo brothers took advantage of their positions as flag chiefs and city officials to mix a large amount of counterfeit currency with the cloth money collected in all the cities in Chang'an.

There are many cities in Chang'an, including nine cities and several small cities.

The amount of counterfeit currency collected by a high-end city is not that much.

It became that every city collected a small amount of bad cloth, which was inevitable and no one would track it down.

Weaving coarse linen cloth is not the same as privately minting three-zhu coins.

Privately minting copper coins can be directly convicted as counterfeiting under Han law.

That is, counterfeiting money.

Zhao Tuo could have said that he had woven coarse linen cloth to be used as commercial goods and transported it to the storage warehouse in Gao City to sell it for money.

He is not making counterfeit money.

Instead, it turned into normal weaving.

Coarse linen and inferior cloth were stored in the official treasury of the flag pavilion. As long as money was paid, it would be a normal rental warehouse.

Zhao Tingzhang was also innocent. He was deceived by the landlord and mistakenly accepted the bad cloth and handed it over to the city official as rent.

Zhao Shiyuan was thus deceived and was not guilty either.

The landlords in Gao City used bad cloth as cloth money to pay the city rent, but they were only fined and not sentenced. This encouraged the landlords to use cloth money to exchange for bad cloth.

"If the three Zhao Tuo brothers are innocent, then Su Jian is also not guilty."

Chong Huangrou didn't know why Guo Jie valued Su Jian so much, yet he still helped him protect this person: "Su Jian simply exchanged the bad cloth from the storage warehouse for the landlord. As for the landlord selling it, it was still used to pay the city rent. It has nothing to do with Su Jian."

Chong Huangrou hadn't said anything else.

If the three Zhao Tuo brothers are not guilty, then Su Jian is not guilty either.

The three Zhao Tuo brothers are guilty, and Su Jian is guilty.

"Snapped!"

Wei Guang slammed his hand on the table and said indignantly, "A large amount of bad cloth was mixed in with the money, and the three Zhao Tuo brothers made huge profits. In the end, no one was guilty. So who is guilty?"

Among the three Zhao Tuo brothers, one wove the bad cloth, one exchanged the bad cloth, and one sealed the bad cloth and stored it in the official temple's warehouse.

A closed loop was formed to make huge profits and exchange counterfeit currency for real currency.

But no one is guilty.

Really irritating.

"this."

Su Jian drank a few sips of millet wine to ease the dryness of his lips. He gritted his teeth and said, "The superior has promised me to rescue my wife and children. The superior is also well-known for his loyalty. I trust Mr. Guo. Why don't I go to the hearing hall of the chief official Zhang Tang and confess myself? As long as I admit my guilt, I can drag the three Zhao Tuo brothers into the trial together."

To confess means to surrender oneself.

"No."

Guo Jie shook his head and said, "It's useless to confess yourself. Even if Su Jian admits his guilt, he can't drag the three Zhao Tuo brothers into prison together. How will you sue Zhao Tuo then? He will definitely insist that he didn't weave the bad cloth, but only wove coarse cloth to sell. Zhao Bu and Zhao Meng were simply deceived by their landlords."

For a moment, everyone sitting in Gongcao was in a dilemma.

It is clearly known that the three Zhao Tuo brothers were making counterfeit coins.

But there is nothing we can do about them.

"Ah."

Wei Guang sneered and said, "Why bother with all this trouble? Just arrest Zhao Tuo and force him to confess. As long as Zhao Tuo writes a confession, it will be deemed that he deliberately wove bad cloth, not just linen for sale. Then, not only Zhao Tuo, but also the flag chief Zhao Bu and the city official Zhao Meng will be arrested and thrown into the Chang'an prison for trial."

Zhao Tuo wrote a letter of confession.

It is a self-confession.

Admit your guilt.

Wei Guang even thought of forging Zhao Tuo's handwriting, making friends, and entertaining low-level officials and common people. He happened to meet an actor and servant who was good at forging handwriting.

As long as they get Zhao Tuo's confession letter, no matter who wrote it, as long as the handwriting is Zhao Tuo's, they can convict him directly.

When Guo Jie heard Wei Guang's words about forcing him to write a confession, he knew that he had already thought of forging his handwriting, and he felt relieved.

It seems that Wei Guang has been seen heading to the southwest to fight.

It seems that Wei Guang would do anything to win.

We cannot be kind and righteous when dealing with barbarians.

The more brutal the means, the better.

"Don't talk nonsense."

Yi Zong glared at him and said, "Whether Zhao Tuo is sentenced or not is irrelevant. We cannot implicate my brother-in-law and violate Han law. Besides, Zhao Tuo's status is not ordinary. He is a Li Tian. If you dare to forcibly take Li Tian away, the County Thief Cao of the Right Internal Affairs will arrest my brother-in-law and interrogate him."

Working hard in the fields was an important subject in the imperial examination system in the Han Dynasty.

It began in the fourth year of Emperor Hui of Han (191 BC). Although working in the fields did not receive any salary, it was a rare opportunity for people to be exempted from labor service.

In the first year of Empress Lü's reign (187 BC), each county had to nominate one person, and this gradually became a custom.

The imperial court set up the subject of "Li Tian" mainly to encourage common people to work hard in farming and use "Li Tian" to guide the development of various counties.

Whenever there were major ceremonies to encourage farming, such as welcoming spring and plowing the fields, Li Tian would often participate in the ceremonies together with the county governor.

Even Zhao Yu didn't dare to arrest Li Tian without evidence.

Agriculture and sericulture are the foundation of the country. No one can fabricate charges and arrest Li Tian for encouraging agriculture.

When Guo Jie heard the words "Li Tian", he was startled. He knew the importance of agriculture better than anyone else. Later generations had policies on land red lines.

Any leading cadre would tremble in his heart when he heard that someone violated this policy.

"To arrest Zhao Tuo, we must have solid evidence."

Yi Zong said solemnly: "The cruel officials have offended many officials. If they want to avoid being arrested and imprisoned, they must not violate any Han laws and leave opportunities for others to take advantage of them."

"What can we do?"

Wei Guang's face was filled with worry. "We can't arrest him, so how can we just sit there and watch Zhao Tuo hide in the Wushi and counterfeit coins? Besides, the host Zhao family has offended their brother-in-law, and the Jing County is about to file a complaint. They can use Zhao Tuo as a target and confiscate all his property."

Everyone sitting beside Gongcao had a worried look on their faces.

There was no crime to arrest Zhao Tuo. "Maybe."

Su Jian hesitated and said, "The criminal officer thought of an excuse to arrest Zhao Tuo and bring him to the Chang'an official temple. My wife was taken to Wushili by Zhao Tuo under the pretext of being a child laborer. It was the beginning of February, and now it's the end of July. A full five months have passed, which is well beyond the deadline for the child laborer. Can they use the excuse of overdue time to arrest Zhao Tuo?"

At the beginning of February, after setting up the earth and cattle and tilling the fields, houses must be built.

These expenses were "mobilizing the heads of fourteen townships to collect taxes and do administrative work," and required six or seven hundred thousand yuan. In order to distinguish it from the official corvee labor of the court, this conscription was called small corvee labor.

Li Tian thus had a power that no official or temple in Chang'an had.

Conscript minor labor service.

Minor labor service usually only lasts a few days, and at most does not exceed the end of February.

If Su Jian's statement is true, the minor corvee levied in February did not end until the end of July or the beginning of August.

The minor corvee labor that Zhao Tuo levied was indeed overdue.

Those who miss the deadline should be beheaded.

Although the Han Dynasty did not have the cruel punishment of beheading for exceeding the deadline like the Qin Dynasty, they were still able to capture Zhao Tuo and bring him back to the temple, and interrogate him on the pretext of missing the deadline.

"Failure to meet deadlines is a good excuse."

Yi Zong, a man well-versed in Han Dynasty law, pointed out a situation that could not be ignored: "You can imagine missing a deadline. Zhao Tuo, who imposed minor corvée labor every year, would not have failed to consider this. If he had said that your wife stayed to weave cloth and received a monthly stipend, it would no longer be a missed deadline. Instead, it would mean that your wife was working among the five scholars to support the family."

This sentence once again put everyone in trouble.

The excuse for arresting someone that was finally found was useless, and Zhao Tuo could not be arrested and sent to Chang'an Prison.

Zhao Tuo was a hard-working farmer after all.

"It doesn't matter."

Guo Jiefang put down the wooden tablet in his hand, stood up and said, "Exploiting loopholes in Han laws? No one knows how to exploit loopholes better than me. My friends, please follow me to Wushili. As long as we can find the warehouse where Zhao Tuo stored the bad cloth and counterfeit coins, I can find a way to convict him directly. There's no need for such trouble."

Direct conviction?

The people sitting beside the Gongcao cried out in surprise and looked at Guo Jie in astonishment, unable to understand how they could convict Zhao Tuo.

At the same time, it aroused great curiosity among the people.

Even Chong Huangrou, who came from a wealthy family, was still very interested in Guo Jie's words.

Several Hexi horses left the Chang'an official temple, ran out of the Chang'an gate along the west side road, and headed towards Wushili where Zhao Tuo was.

"Direct conviction?"

Zhang Tang frowned. "You mean to say that Guo Jie, sitting here with me, revealed he had a way to convict someone? I've long since discovered that Zhao Tuo, the farmer, Zhao Bu, the flag chief, and Zhao Meng, the market official, were exchanging bad cloth for money. But I haven't arrested them yet. It's precisely because I couldn't convict Zhao Tuo that I'm sure Guo Jie would have a way to convict them."

Zhang Tang can be regarded as the number one legalist in the Han court.

He had memorized all kinds of criminal laws by heart.

They even began to formulate Han laws.

Ever since the evil began to appear in the small government office, Zhang Tang, who was in charge of the prisons in Chang'an, quickly traced the problem back to Zhao Tuo.

He knew that Zhao Tuo had broken the law, but he could not convict him.

It has always been a thorn in Zhang Tang's side.

Following the instructions of the chief official Zhao Yu, Yin Qi informed the two chief officials in the back hall of the hearing hall of all the circumstances surrounding Gongcao's sitting position.

This immediately surprised Zhang Tang.

"Did you hear that correctly?"

Zhao Yu was also a bit surprised. "Did Guo Jie say to directly convict Zhao Tuo, not to arrest him on trumped-up charges? I wanted to arrest Zhao Tuo and send him to Chang'an Prison months ago, but I had no excuse to arrest him, so I had to let him stay in Wushili and continue weaving his inferior cloth. Haha, if he wasn't working in the fields, I could have found any excuse to arrest him."

Zhao Tuo's official position as a farmer caused a lot of trouble for Zhao Yu, who was good at fabricating charges.

Li Tian was involved in agriculture and sericulture, and was also recommended by the Right Secretary of the Interior.

Zhao Yu could not fabricate charges against Zhao Tuo without authorization.

Otherwise, Zhao Tuo would have been arrested and imprisoned in Chang'an several months ago.

Zhao Tuo also became a thorn in Zhao Yu's side.

Therefore, after Guo Jie took office as Gongcao, he discovered from a pile of monthly records that Zhao Meng, a city official, and Zhao Bu, a flag chief, were involved in shameful activities.

This caused surprise to Zhao Yu and Zhang Tang.

I didn’t expect that Guo Jie would be such a reckless man.

They were able to sort out a pile of complicated data and gradually discovered that the three Zhao Tuo brothers were counterfeiting coins.

"Zhao Yu!"

At this time, a man came in from outside the door. He was wearing a sable-tail crown and a black robe with crimson edges. Sang Hongyang walked into the back hall angrily, holding a piece of linen in his hand and threw it directly on the ground.

Sang Hongyang's face was filled with anger. He directly questioned, "What on earth have you done, the Chang'an magistrate? This batch of cloth money delivered to Linyuan has once again been mixed with a lot of inferior cloth. Don't you know that according to Han law, inferior cloth cannot be circulated as cloth money?"

He worked so hard to build the forest garden that he only thought about making money all day long.

Sang Hongyang was exhausted by the word "money" and looked much more haggard.

Who would have thought that a few months ago, the city rent collected in Chang'an began to deteriorate.

The number is increasing.

Sang Hongyang had already blamed Zhao Yu many times and knew that the culprit was Zhao Tuo. After learning that Zhao Tuo was Li Tian recommended by the Right Secretary of the Interior, he had to swallow his resentment.

Unexpectedly, after several months, the problem of the evil cloth has not been solved.

"Minister Sang, don't be anxious."

Zhao Yu's moody face finally showed a hint of a smile. "In the past, there was nothing I could do to Zhao Tuo, the tyrant of the land. But today, I have some good news. Not long after Guo Jie took over as Gongcao, he discovered from the Yueyan Book that Zhao Tuo was guilty of exchanging bad cloth for money."

"So fast?"

Sang Hongyang was surprised. "I remember Guo Jie had just taken office when he discovered Zhao Tuo's crime of counterfeiting coins? Are you talking about the reckless Guo Jie who killed a tiger with his bare hands? Isn't he an old official with the same name?"

When Zhao Yu saw the emperor's attendant Sang Hongyang looking surprised, his smile grew even wider.

Guo Jie was the official he appointed despite all objections.

It turned out that they wanted to enrich Guo Jie's resume to facilitate future promotion.

Unexpectedly, Guo Jie brought such a big surprise to Zhao Yu.

Even Zhang Tang, who always had a serious and cruel face, couldn't help but smile.

Guo Jie was his direct descendant whom he promoted.

"good."

Zhao Yu laughed and said, "It was Guo Jie, who always brought you millet. He not only tracked down Zhao Tuo, but also found a way to convict him."

conviction?!
Sang Hongyang was completely shocked, but his face was full of anticipation.

"I want to see how he convicts Zhao Tuo."

(End of this chapter)