"Mr. Taiyue, you are Mr. Xu's most valued disciple. If he doesn't come to you, who else can he go to?"
Feng Bao's words were half correct, but not entirely correct. When Xu Jie sent people to the capital for activities, they would of course come to Zhang Juzheng, but with Xu Jie's thoroughness and prudence in handling matters, it was of course impossible for him to go to Zhang Juzheng alone.
When I was in the cabinet during the day, because Zhang Juzheng was the chief writer on duty today, he read almost all the memorials transferred from the General Affairs Department today. Except for the normal memorials that accounted for only a quarter of today's total memorials, the rest
Within three-quarters of the total, there are two types of memorials, each accounting for half of it.
Part of the request was to ask the emperor to issue a clear decree for the noble military officials to get out of the palace, and not to "flatter the prince" or "shake the country's foundation" - of course, everyone did not directly use the word "get out", but it definitely meant "get out"
"This level may even contain more anger than "get out".
This was mixed with memorials written by several military ministers involved in the matter. In the memorials, they all expressed that their sons or grandsons were naughty and unworthy to play with His Highness. They themselves were deeply worried about this.
, I am extremely worried that my son or grandson will lead His Highness the Crown Prince, even if it is just a little bit, it will be a huge harm and loss to the Ming Dynasty, and it is absolutely irreparable, so I "cry blood and plead" to His Majesty to let their children go.
When they return home, they will strictly discipline them and even beat them to death.
Among them, Zhu Xizhong, the Duke of Chengguo, was particularly urgent. Although the Duke was already ill, he supported his illness and wrote three memorials in a row, asking Your Majesty to let his eldest grandson Zhu Yingzhen go home. The first memorial
It says that the child is useless and must be taught carefully to avoid affecting the prince; the second one says that the child's grandfather is about to celebrate his birthday, and he hopes to let him at least come back to his parents' home with his mother first; the third one is even more extreme, saying
He, Zhu Xizhong, felt that he was about to die of illness and strongly demanded that his eldest grandson come back to see him for the last time!
At that time, Zhang Juzheng read these three memorials in succession, and couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart: Our Duke Chengguo seemed to be really frightened by the angry scoldings of the civil servants of the entire dynasty, for fear that he would be scolded for no reason in the future and become an eternal great man.
Traitor, you sit at home and the pot comes from the sky. In order to "rescue" your grandson from the palace and go home, you even curse yourself to be seriously ill - this is a rhythm that scares you to the point of risking your life!
Except for the "Prince Accompanying" incident, the other half of the memorial is all related to the "Songjiang Land Abandonment Case". Part of it is a direct apology to Mr. Xu, and the larger part is a scolding of Hai Rui.
"Confused" and "Reckless".
Let's not talk about the complaints. Zhang Juzheng knew in his heart that his old friend couldn't be wronged, but he still read the memorial carefully denounced Hai Rui.
It's not that Zhang Juzheng has already moved his butt to the side of his old benefactor, but that he is indeed very concerned about the land clearing issue under Ying Tian's rule. He very much hopes to extract useful information from this matter as a guide for his future when he is in power.
An important reference for land clearing work.
Judging from the examples cited in these memorials, Zhang Juzheng believed that although there was nothing wrong with Hai Rui's work attitude, his working methods were indeed too simple and crude.
It must be explained here that the governor of Yingtian that Hai Rui is currently serving is not just the governor of Yingtian. It has a full name, which is called: Prime Minister of Grain Reserves, Superintendent of Military Affairs and Governor of Yingtian and other prefectures.
What's the first priority here? It's not Governor Yingtian, but the Prime Minister's Grain Reserve.
In order to make this "prime minister's grain reserve" good, the land must be cleared. But the land was unclear and he was shocked when it was cleared. Wherever Hai Rui went, there were poor people who came to complain. They sued the rich for stealing.
They took over their fields and sued the government to force them to pay taxes. Moreover, more and more people began to point the finger at Hai Rui's savior: Xu Jie, the former chief minister of the cabinet who had just taken office.
Xu Jie has been an official for more than 40 years, and his disciples are all over the world. Because of his relationship, his three sons also entered the officialdom. Father and son purchased a large area of land in their hometown. The Xu family has become the family with the most land in Songjiang area.
The matter of Songjiang was placed in front of Hai Rui and Hai Qingtian, and everyone's eyes were focused on Hai Rui and Hai Qingtian - Aren't you Qingtian? You don't have the ability to check us. If you have the ability, check Xu
Level!
Hai Rui was indeed honest and upright, but being upright and upright did not mean being stupid and slow. He could feel the mentality of these people and knew the trouble and embarrassment he was facing now.
However, Hai Rui is Hai Rui, and Qingtian is Qingtian! He decided: to shoot the man first, shoot the horse, and to capture the thief first, capture the king.
Not only that, but it must be fast!
If we have to clear all the cases one by one, it will be time-consuming and require a large number of staff. Moreover, these cases are almost all old accounts, and many land transfer documents no longer exist. How to clear them? Who can take them?
There is no way to properly solve the problem within the scope of the law.
what to do?
Of course Hai Rui has Hai Rui's style, or in other words: the word Hai Rui itself represents a style, a unique style.
He adopted what he believed to be the simplest and most immediate method, which was also the method most frequently used by Chinese officials in the past dynasties: using administrative means to resolve economic disputes. Because in their view, all economic problems are ultimately political problems.
It is an issue related to social stability.
Therefore, Hai Rui directly issued an order, requiring all wealthy households to surrender half of their land to the government, and the government would then distribute it to the poor who complained based on different circumstances. Not only that, he also regarded the family of his benefactor Xu Jie as "head sheep"
". In his view, as long as this "leader" takes the lead in retiring from his land, other wealthy households will not dare to resist or default on their arrears. This is certainly true. No matter how tough you are, you will be tougher than the former official who has been an official for more than 40 years.
First assistant?
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! As an old-school bureaucrat, Xu Jie should be said to be very "understanding". After he got the news, he immediately told Hai Rui and his friends that his family
All the acres of land are clearly registered with the government, and the total is only 20,000 acres.
But Xu Jie, as a veteran who had worked diligently for the Ming Dynasty for more than 40 years, although he had retired and became an official, in order to respond to the great call of Hai Rui and Hai Qingtian, he ignored his family situation, patiently persuaded his family, and decided to take the lead in retiring 10,000 acres of land.
!
Xu Jie believed that by doing this, he not only gave Hai Rui enough face, but also made it worthy of other "rich people" within the jurisdiction of Governor Yingtian - Haizhong Cheng Qingzheng's reputation was well known all over the world, and he was a man who wanted to save face, so we
Face must be given.
But here comes the problem, what Hai Rui wants is not face, what he wants is: to clear his father's land.
Your old Prime Minister Xu’s family owns hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land, but you actually have the nerve to say that you only have 20,000 acres of land. Do you think that someone in my world is blind, or are you bullying someone in my world that he doesn’t know how to count?
Therefore, Hai Rui was very dissatisfied with Xu Jie's performance. He knew that the so-called registered acres were used by everyone to pay for food and errands. Many of the fields owned by wealthy families were not registered. This was already an open secret.
And the reason why Hai Rui wants to clear his father's land is because of this secret.
Not only do wealthy households hide from the government, but local governments also hide from the central government. In many places, the government keeps two accounts. One is for one’s own family wealth. This account needs to be true, otherwise the official will be confused; the other is for superiors and the court.
Yes, that is a false number. As long as it can be fooled, the smaller the number, the better.
He, Hai Rui, had also served as magistrate of Chun'an County in Zhejiang Province and Xingguo County in Jiangxi Province twice. He was familiar with the mysteries. How could these tricks be hidden from him?
However, as Xu Jie's letters were sent out one by one and the special envoys set off one by one, Hai Rui was reprimanded and impeached more and more. Among them, the most obvious and indeed the most criticized point is:
What legal basis do you have for indiscriminately "retreating half of the land"?
