Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 123 Hesitating and Difficult to Decide (Part [-])
"Mr. Taiyue, you are Mr. Xu's most valued disciple. If he doesn't come to you, who else can he come to?"

Feng Bao's words were half right, but not entirely right.Xu Jie sent people to the capital for activities, of course they would come to find Zhang Juzheng, but with Xu Jie's thoroughness and prudence in handling things, it was of course impossible to only find Zhang Juzheng alone.

When he was in the cabinet during the day, because Zhang Ju was the chief writer on duty today, he read almost all the memorials transferred from the Secretary of General Administration today, except for the normal memorials that only accounted for a quarter of today's general memorials, the rest In three-quarters, there are two types of memorials, each accounting for half.

Half of it is to ask the emperor to explicitly order the children of Wuchen Xungui to get out of the palace, and not to "flatter the prince" or "shake the foundation of the country"-of course, everyone didn't directly use the word "get out", but it definitely means "get out" "This level may even be more sufficient than the anger contained in "Roll".

Among them are the memorials made by several military officials who were involved in this matter. They all said in the memorials: their sons or grandsons are so stubborn that they are really not worthy of playing with His Royal Highness. They themselves are deeply worried about this. , I am extremely worried that my son or grandson will bring down His Highness the Crown Prince, even if it is only a little bit, it will be a huge harm and loss to Daming. When they return home, they will discipline him strictly from now on, even beating Yun Yun to death.

Among them, Zhu Xizhong, the Duke of Cheng, was extremely urgent. Although this Duke was already ill, he was still struggling to support his illness. He wrote three memorials and submitted them, asking His Majesty to let his eldest grandson, Zhu Yingzhen, go home.The first memorial said that the child is useless, and he should be carefully taught so as not to affect the prince; the second said that the child's grandfather was about to pass his birthday, and he hoped that he would at least come back to his natal home with his mother; the third What's more, he said that Zhu Xizhong felt that he was about to die of illness, and strongly urged this eldest grandson to come back to see him for the last time!
At that time, Zhang Juzheng read these three memorials in a row, and couldn't help but smile wryly in his heart: Our Lord Chengguo seemed to be frightened by the unanimous scolding by the civil officials of the Manchu Dynasty, and he was afraid that he would be scolded into an eternity for no reason in the future. Traitors, people sit at home, and the pot comes from the sky.In order to "save" his grandson from the palace and go home, he even cursed himself for being seriously ill-this is a rhythm that is so frightening that he can die!

Apart from the "playing with the prince", the other half of the memorials are all related to the "Songjiang Retirement Case".Part of this was directly complaining to Mr. Xu, and the bigger part was to denounce Hai Rui for being "confused" and "reckless".

Let's not talk about those who complained, Zhang Juzheng knew in his heart that his old benefactor would not be wronged, but he still read carefully the memorial to Hai Rui.

It's not that Zhang Juzheng has already put his ass on the side of his old Enxiang, but he himself is really concerned about the issue of land clearing under Yingtian's rule. An important reference for the work of clearing the fields.

Judging from the examples cited in these memorials, Zhang Juzheng believed that although Hai Rui's work attitude was fine, his work methods were indeed too simple and rude.

Here I must first explain that Hai Rui's current governor of Yingtian is not just a simple governor of Yingtian, it has a full name called: Prime Minister Grain Storage Admiral Military Affairs and Governor Yingtian and other government offices.

What is the first thing here?It's not Yingtian, the governor, but the grain reserve of the prime minister.

To do a good job of this "Premier Grain Reserve", it is necessary to clean up the land.But this property is unclear and unknown, Yiqing was taken aback.Wherever Hai Rui went, there were poor people who came to sue the rich for taking away their land and suing the government to force them to pay taxes.Moreover, more and more people began to point their fingers at Hai Rui's savior in the past: 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. His three sons also entered the officialdom because of his relationship. The father and son bought a large tract of land in their hometown. The Xu family has become the family with the most land in Songjiang.

The matter of Songjiang was just in front of Hai Rui Hai Qingtian, and everyone's eyes were also focused on Hai Rui Hai Qingtian——Aren't you Qingtian, what are you capable of checking us, if you have the ability, check Xu Tier!

Hai Rui is indeed upright and upright, but being upright and upright does not mean being stupid and dull. He can feel the mentality of these people, and he also knows the trouble and embarrassment he is facing now.

However, Hai Rui is Hai Rui, and the blue sky is the blue sky!He decided: to shoot a man first, to shoot a horse, and to capture a thief first, to capture the king.

Not only that, but it must be fast!
If it is necessary to clear all the cases one by one, it is time-consuming and requires a large number of staff.Moreover, these cases are almost all old accounts. Many land transfer documents no longer exist. How should they be cleaned up?No one can come up with a solution that can properly solve the problem within the scope of the law.

How to do?
Hai Rui certainly has Hai Rui's style, or in other words: the word Hai Rui itself represents a style, a unique style.

He adopted what he thought was the most simple and immediate method, and it was also the method most frequently used by Chinese officials in the past dynasties: to use administrative means to resolve economic disputes.Because in their view, all economic issues are ultimately political issues, issues related to social stability.

Therefore, Hai Rui directly ordered all rich households to return half of their land to the government regardless of the three sevens and twenty ones, and then the government distributed it to the poor who complained according to different situations.Not only that, but he also regarded the family of his benefactor Xu Jie as the "top sheep".In his view, as long as this "leader" takes the lead in retiring the land, other wealthy households will not dare to resist or default on their arrears.This principle is certainly good. No matter how tough you are, can you beat the former chief assistant who has been an official for more than forty years?

As an old-fashioned bureaucrat, Xu Jie should be said to be very "knowledgeable". After he got the news, he immediately told Hai Rui, and also told his friends, that all the land and acres in his family were registered with the government. [-] mu.

However, Xu Jie, as a veteran minister who has worked hard for more than [-] years for the Ming Dynasty, has already retired, but in response to the great call of Hai Rui Hai Qingtian, regardless of his family situation, he patiently persuaded his family and decided to take the lead in retiring [-] mu of land. !

Xu Jie thought that by doing so, he not only gave Hai Rui enough face, but also was worthy of the other "rich people" under the jurisdiction of Governor Yingtian. Face must be given.

But here comes the problem, what Hai Rui wants is not face, what he wants is: Qingzhang Tianmu.

Your Mr. Xu’s family has hundreds of thousands of mu of fertile land, but you have the nerve to say that there is only [-] mu of land. Do you think that someone in me is blind, or are you bullying someone in me who doesn’t know how to count?

So Hai Rui was very dissatisfied with Xu Jie's performance.He knew that everyone knew that the so-called acres of registered land were used for food errands.It was already an open secret that many of the lands of rich families were not listed in the books, and the reason why Hai Rui wanted to clear up the land was originally this secret that he wanted to reveal.

Not only the rich households hide from the government, but the local government also hides from the central government.Governments in many places have two accounts, one is their own family property, this account needs to be true, otherwise it is a confused official; the other is for superiors and the court, it is a false number, as long as you can fool it, The smaller the value, the better.

He, Hai Rui, was also the magistrate of Chun'an County in Zhejiang Province and Xingguo County in Jiangxi Province, so he was familiar with the mysteries of it. How could he be fooled by these routines?

However, as Xu Jie's letters were mailed out one by one, and the special envoys set off one by one, Hai Rui received more and more reprimands and impeachments. Among them, the most obvious and the most criticized point is: What is the legal basis for your indiscriminate "retirement of half of the land"?
(End of this chapter)