Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 44: Huating's Old Story ([-])
Xu Huating, the respected former chief assistant, actually begged Gao Gong to let him go?
Xu Huating admits cowardice?This news really surprised everyone present - except Gao Yushi.

There is a long story about Hai Rui's confrontation with Xu Jie. It stands to reason that Xu Jie has been in the country for many years and his family is rich. I don't like it very much, but after all, it is still an honor to serve as an official. Retiring and returning to the country, wandering in the forest, and entertaining grandchildren, it is very pleasant.

However, no one expected that in June of the third year of Longqing, the arrival of Hai Rui, the new governor of Yingtian, shattered this happy feeling in an instant.Haigangfeng's power is at the level of a nuclear bomb in the official circles of the Ming Dynasty. Everyone knows this, but in fact, among the rectification of various affairs in the area under his jurisdiction, the biggest and most severe one is the land ownership. Clean up, and this is the action that hurts Xu Jie's interests the most.

What happened to Hai Rui?Oh, Hai Rui said: Mr. Huating, at least half of your family's land should be withdrawn.

How many fields does the Xu family have?I am afraid that only the Xu family knows this.

But in fact, most of Xu Jie's disciples and old officials knew Xu Jie's huge family property well, and they knew where it came from. It's just that there are too many people doing this kind of thing, and sometimes it even becomes An unspoken rule.So these upright gentlemen said one after another: The Xu family's family business came from their own painstaking efforts, and it is the most legitimate legal property, not the product of bribery or extortion.But just saying this was not enough, he was too passive, so he said that Hai Rui was sloppy in handling the case, blindly ordering Xu Jie to "retire more than half of the property" before finding out how much property he had, which was a major mistake.What's more, they actually claimed with certainty that, according to research, Xu Jie's actual land property was only 18 mu, not the legendary 24, 50 or [-] million mu.

Well, if this is the case, according to the actual situation of Ming Dynasty, a senior official who has managed only 1 mu of land for many years, of course he can’t be considered greedy, not only not greedy, but even clean—what, you say Gao Gong has less than [-] mu of land?That is of course because Gao Gong is not normal. Besides, the six brothers of the Gao family (actually five, one died young) have more than [-] mu of land in Xinzheng and its surrounding areas.As for the fact that the Gao family has been officials since Gao Gong's grandfather, Gao Kui, especially his father Gao Shangxian, who was Zhengde Gengwu Division Xie Yuan, Zhengde Ding Chou Division Jinshi, was a minister of Guanglu Temple, and was an official for more than [-] years. Just ignore it.

In fact, when Xu Jie was in phase, nearly half of Songjiang's tax revenue went into private pockets, and eventually became a wealthy party. What was the means?It turned out that after local taxes were collected, they first had to go through the Xu Mansion (presumably because the Xu family had a large industry and occupied the main body of local taxes). The taxes submitted by local officials to the capital were actually raised directly from the Xu Mansion.But Xu Jie played tricks here, counting seven baht of silver as one tael of silver, and eating the difference himself, "Sinong can't tell." ——Is it impossible to distinguish, or is it afraid to distinguish because of the power of the powerful and powerful?This is impossible to know.Anyway, this statement comes from Yu Shenxing's official memoir "Gushan Penchen", and Yu Shenxing is said to be Zhang Juzheng's disciple, that is, Xu Jie's disciple and grandchild.

In short, the children of the Xu family used various fraudulent methods such as offering, sending, moving, flying, spreading, xuxuan, sending Zhuang, etc. to wantonly embezzle state-owned assets, exploit the people in the village, and seize the farms that others depend on for a living , is an indisputable fact.And Xu Jie, as the head of the family, whether he was kept in the dark all the time, or whether he knew it and acquiesced or even secretly supported it, only Xu Jie himself knew.

The only thing that is certain is that Hai Ruishi's understanding of Xu Jie obviously tends to start from a negative perspective, and he is dissatisfied with Xu Jie's greed.Here is another thing: when Hai Rui first took office, he raised donations from local rich people because of the famine in Wuzhong. Under the influence of Hai Qingtian's reputation, the local rich people still had to show face. For example, a wealthy official and businessman in Liyang directly donated He gave out 3 taels of silver, and Hai Rui went to Huating County to raise funds. Xu Jie reluctantly handed over a few thousand taels of silver to deal with him in desperation—this is probably because Hai Rui himself was Xu Jie's former partner. Recommended for sake.

At that time, there were thousands of named family members in Xu's house, and they were ostentatious. Hai Rui suggested that Xu Jie should cut off those false household registrations, so that they could not continue to use their power to commit crimes. Unexpectedly, Xu Jie expressed embarrassment and did not agree.These two incidents probably left a very bad impression on Hai Rui, and even affected their attitude towards Xu's affairs later on.In addition, Xu Jie's brother Xu Zhi's misdeeds of harming the people were exposed by the villagers. With Hai Rui's temper, it is impossible for him not to be angry.

Hai Rui is a well-known man with a public heart and a straightforward nature. When dealing with Xu's land-related lawsuits, he did not care about his old kindness, and only relied on the law (refer to the anti-contribution clause in "Ming Law"), and even dismissed the chief assistant at the time. The intercession of Li Chunfang and others has been passed down through the ages as an absurd story, but because it touched too deeply the interests of the wealthy family, it was discussed by the times, and was often maliciously attacked by the public opinion in the court.

However, when Xu Jie and Hai Rui were in a stalemate over the issue of returning the land, another bad news came to Xu Jie: On December 22 of that year, the emperor issued an imperial order to call Gao Gong back to the pavilion.Gao Gong obeyed the order and immediately set off for Beijing to take up his post.

Gao Wushi, who accompanied Gao Gong all the way back to Beijing, of course knew that Mr. Gao Ge was going back to Beijing this time with a ferocious momentum. Not only was he reinstated as an official, but he was also in charge of the Cardinal of the Ministry of Officials, which shows that the emperor still trusted him.

Gao Gong was a capable financial minister of the Ming Dynasty, and Emperor Longqing can even be described as "named a monarch and a minister, and loves like a father and son".Gao Gong has always hated the hidden loss of state-owned assets, so Gao Gong and Hai Rui have the same basic position on the issue of rectifying the aristocratic families in the south of the Yangtze River.However, Gao Gong also knew that since he had a deep grudge with Xu Jie before, if he fully supported Hai Rui, it would inevitably cause public opinion to criticize him for coercing private affairs and avenging private revenge. This is what Gao Yushi urged him to avoid before.Therefore, Gao Gong dealt with this matter with a lot of compromises, and did not support Hai Rui.

At this time, the impeachment of Hai Rui by public opinion became more and more fierce, and the most ugly slander was Dai Fengxiang's dismissal during the official affairs in February.It is said that Hai Rui is greedy for personal fame and fortune, disrupts the law and order, and completely ignorant of the way of being an official.Let the unruly people sue the squires arbitrarily and deprive others of their legal property unreasonably, resulting in the rumor among the people that "it is better to grow a fat field than to sue for thinness".He also said that Hai Rui's other policies also had drawbacks, such as the crimes of "colluding with Japanese pirates", "capturing cities", "robbing treasuries and cutting off gates", resulting in "luggage blocking and fireworks cutting off", and so on.

Well, this book can be described as a model classic for groundless rumors, rumors and slanders-anyway, I am a speech officer, and I hear what I hear.

However, what kind of person is Xu Jie? He has worked in the cabinet for nearly 20 years, and he knows the trust in Gao Gong today. How can he put his real hope on false accusations by the officials—— Who in the world doesn't know what kind of person Hai Gangfeng is?
His only purpose for doing this is to create such a trend, let the emperor or simply let the Gao Gong faction take a look, even if I, Xu, are not in the center, there are still countless people who are willing to stand by my side, if you If we want to keep making trouble, then let's make it slowly. If we continue fighting like this endlessly, my reputation will be damaged, but you will definitely feel bad too!
But it's one thing to drive and drive in Mingli. In fact, why doesn't Xu Jie know the real situation at the moment?Behind Gao Gong is the unswerving support of the emperor. His position in the cabinet has nothing to do with the name of chief assistant, second assistant or group assistant. The outdated Shoufu went to war, and there was no doubt about the final winner.It's amazing, it's just being said behind his back that he's narrow-minded, taking personal revenge and so on - how can he lose a piece of meat from someone higher than him?

Indispensable!

In the end, it was his Xu family who was really unlucky!

With Xu Jie's cunning and forbearance, there is actually only one choice left at this time: bow to Gao Gong.

Thus, there was this autograph letter received by Gao Gong.

All the disciples peeped at each other, feeling a little uncertain about their master's face for a moment.In the end, it was Han Ji who couldn't bear it first, bowed his hands to Gao Gong, and said: "Master, Xu Huating treated you like that back then. Now that his own scandal has been exposed, he can't blame others! Besides, Hai Gangfeng is a It’s notorious that they only accept death, and no one can persuade them, so why should we ask for trouble to get involved? It’s better to let Hai Gangfeng investigate.”

Gao Yushi quietly took a look at Han Ji, seeing the eager look on his face, he couldn't help sighing slightly.

He knew that among Gao Gong's disciples, Han Ji was ranked higher in the gold list at the beginning, but now his official position fell behind Song Zhihan, who was not as good as himself, so he was naturally anxious. Now that Xu Jie wants to give in, he has a big reason But he could catch him, of course he wished to beat him to death with a stick - beating Xu Jie would definitely not be beating him alone, how many former disciples and officials behind Xu Jie?Aren't some of these people implicated?After the destruction, how many positions will be vacated inside and outside the court?Besides, once the master decides to start the fight, as one of the Taoist officials, he will definitely be able to make great efforts. After the work is done, he will be rewarded for his merits. Could it be that he, Han, can't move up a bit?
(End of this chapter)