Ming Dynasty 1566

Chapter 127

There are only three days until the Chinese New Year, and the [-]th Cleaning Department of the Household Department, who is in charge of the finances of the two capitals and thirteen provinces tomorrow, has been sent here today to distribute Lumi for the New Year to the Beijing officials.The small use of great talents is all because today small wealth is used for great use.The national treasury is so empty, and the arrears of salary have been delayed for half a year. At this time, each official can only distribute two buckets of rice, two liters of pepper, and ten slings of copper coins for the New Year.Once the door is opened, the disappointment and anger of the crowd can be imagined.The officials of the Thirteenth Cleaning Department have an important task at this time, which is how to persuade everyone to understand the difficulties of the imperial court and to live in peace and happiness.

An official who looked like a doctor shouted: "Everyone!"

The principals sitting in front of the three warehouse doors all looked at him, and Hai Rui sat in front of the leftmost warehouse door.

The doctor yelled this and then sighed: "Oh! The bottom of the warehouse has been cleared, and each person has two buckets of rice, two liters of pepper, and ten slings of copper coins. To be honest, no family can survive this year with these things, but it is only There are so many things. I really don’t know how they will be scolded when I send them..."

The principals in front of the three doors all looked at him, and Hai Rui also looked at him.

"But the ugly daughter-in-law has to see her parents-in-law." The doctor made the final decision and shouted, "Open a warehouse and distribute things!"

The small doors on the left of the three warehouse doors were all opened, and the warehouse workers immediately carried the heavy desks and placed them next to the small doors from the inside to prevent anyone from rushing in.

Immediately, the three small gates were crowded with people.

The barn gate on the left of Hai Rui was dedicated to issuing money and rice to officials of the four yamen, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Imperial Academy, the Imperial College, and the Tongzhengshisi.These four yamen are all Qingliu, and they are the ones who usually impeach officials and correct current malpractices. Compared with the six yamen, they are the poorest and most difficult to mess with.It was Zhao Zhenji's arrangement to send Hai Rui to them to distribute money and rice today, to let the upright officials deal with the upright officials, and also let Hai Rui know that it was not he who was the upright official in the Ming Dynasty.Of course, this meaning can only be understood and cannot be expressed in words.

Hai Rui looked at the official who was the first in line in front of his door and asked, "May I ask which yamen you work for, and your name?"

The official replied: "Imperial Supervisor Li Qingyuan! Please look for it."

Hai Rui: "I'm sorry, please wait a moment." Then he said to the scribes beside him, "Please find the roster of Mr. Li Qingyuan, the Secretary of the Imperial Academy."

"Yes." The clerk answered, and found the one with "Guozijian" on the cover among the books on the big case in front of him. When he turned to the third page, he saw the word "Li Qingyuan", and wrote The roster was handed over to Hai Rui.Hai Rui looked at it, turned the roster upside down, placed it in front of the man, and handed the man the brush: "Please sign it."

The man quickly took the pen, and wrote "Li Qingyuan" squarely in the space below the space where his name was written.

Hai Rui said loudly: "Please send Lumi to Master Li Siye!"

A warehouse worker behind him immediately picked up a pile of three bags and put them on the big case in front of the door.

Li Qingyuan opened his eyes wide and looked at the three bags, one big, one middle and one small, and asked Hai Rui: "Excuse me, what are they all? How many are there?"

Hai Rui replied, "Two buckets of rice, two liters of pepper, and ten hanging copper coins."

"It's all here?" Li Qingyuan immediately opened his eyes wide.

Hai Rui replied in a low voice, "It's all here."

Li Qingyuan immediately yelled: "My salary owes more than 20 taels, which is less than five taels of silver. I have a family of six and two servants, not to mention the New Year, and the debts are not enough!"

"Is it that we only have these things at the first level of the sixth grade!" The official next to Li Qingyuan shouted.

Hai Rui looked at them: "No. This year, the officials of the second rank will not distribute anything."

"Don't tell us about the officials of the various ministries!" Li Qingyuan roared, "Do the officials still need these things to celebrate the New Year? They not only have the yearly respect from the provinces, but also the emperor's reward, and they come up with this excuse to deal with us little ones." Officer! Do people in your household department also rely on this for the New Year?"

Hai Rui was silent.

"what happened?"

"How much in total?"

Countless people behind Li Qingyuan asked anxiously.

Li Qingyuan turned his head and shouted excitedly to the people behind him: "Everyone will have two buckets of rice, two liters of pepper, and ten slings of copper coins this year!"

There was an explosion behind him immediately, countless heads rushed over, and countless pairs of angry eyes all looked at Hai Rui from outside the door:

"Your household is too dark!"

"Don't you all have such things yourself?"

"Where did you get all the money from the Ming Dynasty?"

Hai Rui was still sitting there, looking at those countless pairs of angry eyes and those scolding mouths, without saying a word or getting angry.

"answer!"

"answer!"

"Drag him out if you don't answer!"

Hai Rui still sat quietly, looking deeply at those people.

Suddenly, an official stood on tiptoe behind several heads and threw a snowball at Hai Rui!

That ball of snow fell on Hai Rui's black yarn!
Hai Rui remained motionless.

Not only this barn door, but also the two barn doors in the middle and on the right are full of people, cursing like a tide!
At this moment, the six ministries, as well as the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Tongzheng Envoy, Dali Temple, Hanlin Academy, Guozijian, Zhan Shifu ministries, and the officials in charge of the court are all gathered in the Xiyuan cabinet to be on duty.Although the four cabinet members are also in charge of the four ministries, plus there are more than a dozen officials in other ministries.The value room is not too big, so they are all crowded at this moment, writing green words in front of the desk shoulder to shoulder.

The emperor's Longevity Palace, Yongshou Palace, Chaotian Temple, and Xuandu Temple will be completed the day after tomorrow, which is the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month.The most important event in the world, the cabinet ministers in charge of all officials and the officials of various ministries were called here to write a poem respecting heaven and eulogy to the emperor on behalf of the people of tomorrow.They are all talking about the same thing, and they have to be written differently. How to match the heart of heaven and feel comfortable with the holy meaning, this four-six parallel essay is really more difficult than the three essays in their scientific examinations!
The door of the duty room was covered by a thick cotton curtain, and two large braziers were burning in the middle of the room. Headed by Xu Jie, Li Chunfang, Gao Gong, Zhao Zhenji and other ministers’ desks were roasting around the fire. With a cinnabar pen, I carefully write every sentence on the blue paper made of green leaves.It was snowing and cold outside, and everyone inside was sweating on their faces.As for the troubles caused by the officials at the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the sky falling in the two capitals and thirteen provinces, they didn't care about it.

The two cabinet clerks who waited outside the cotton curtain were dressed like cotton monkeys at this moment, and were stomping their feet to avoid the cold with their sleeves on their hands, when they saw a person staggering towards this side in the snow.

The man approached, and it turned out to be the doctor who presided over the distribution of money and rice in Guangyingku.At this time, only the left wing of the hat was left on the head, the robe on his body was also torn, and there were several bloodstains on his face from finger scratches!
The two cabinet clerks still stomped their hands and feet: "What's going on? What happened?"

The doctor gasped: "Something has happened! Hundreds of people are making a fuss at the household department... Where is Mr. Zhao? I, I will report to Mr. Zhao immediately..."

The two clerks paused for a moment, then stomped up again: "I'm writing Qing Ci. No matter how important it is, I can't bother you at this time."

The doctor was anxious: "Master Zhao, if you don't go, those people will make trouble in Xiyuan!"

Only then did the two clerks become more concerned. They glanced at each other, and one of them lifted a corner of the cotton curtain: "I want to report to you yourself."

The doctor couldn't care less, he got in through the crack of the cotton curtain.

They all saw the embarrassed Langzhong kneeling in front of the door curtain, and pretended not to see him, and everyone was still writing Qingci.Only Xu Jie, Gao Gong and Zhao Zhenji looked at each other.

Zhao Zhenji glanced at the doctor who was looking at him, then ignored him, speeded up, finished writing the last word of his Qing Ci, stood up, walked to Xu Jie and handed it over with both hands, whispering: : "Master, it must be due to the lack of salary in the household department. The student should go and have a look first. This young poem from the student..."

Xu Jie took his Qing Ci: "I'll help you decide on Qing Ci, you go immediately. Don't make trouble at this time."

"Student understands." Zhao Zhenji bowed to him, and when he turned and walked out, he glanced at the Lang Zhong who was kneeling there, and the Lang Zhong got up and followed him out of the cabinet office.

Watching them go out, Xu Jie felt that the situation was serious, so he stood up and looked at Gao Gong, who was also looking at him at this time.Xu Jie gave him a wink, and walked slowly towards the door.Gao Gong put down his pen, got up and walked towards the door.

Those people all looked up, just looked at it, and immediately immersed themselves in writing their own green poems.

"Suqing, have you finished writing?" Xu Jie asked looking at the heavy snow.

Gao Gong: "Come on, I still have a few words."

"You go too." Xu Jie turned to look at him, "Zhao Mengjing's prestige is not enough, you can calm down the grievances by going."

Gao Gong looked at the heavy snow, "I don't know how to appease the grievances."

Xu Jie: "Tell everyone the truth, we will find a way to make up for everyone's owed wages after the New Year."

Gao Gong: "It's just setting up a pot to cook white rice. There's no reason to set up a pot to cook it. I can say that if you make a wish this time, it will be fulfilled. Please give me a real time limit."

Xu Jie: "Next year in February. Next year in February, I will find a way to distribute this year's salary to everyone."

Gao Gong: "I'll go after I finish writing those few sentences."

Xu Jie: "That's a lot of hard work for you."

Gao Gong: "It's a matter of duty. It's cold outside, Mr. Ge, let's go in."

Xu Jie took a deep look at him, the two turned around, the two clerks outside the door hurriedly opened the curtain, and the two walked in again.

Before Zhao Zhenji arrived, Guangyingku was already in chaos...

The three big warehouse doors were all pushed open, and the bags containing grain, pepper, and copper coins were thrown all over the floor. Officials who had been queuing outside in the heavy snow all rushed in. The officials of the Cleansing Department who distributed money and rice surrounded each other, denounced loudly, and dragged around!

Inside the barn door on the left, Hai Rui was surrounded by many people. Some knew it was Hai Rui and just stood quietly on the periphery. Many people didn't know Hai Rui, and they all crowded in front, showing faces of the same enemy. There was a deafening scolding sound at the mouth. As for who said what and what the scolding was, it was not clear at all.

Hai Rui stood still, neither looking at anyone nor answering a word.

At this time, there was a person standing tightly in front of Hai Rui, trying his best to block the pushing crowd with his body, that person was Wang Yongji.

The roar of the crowd in the two warehouse doors over there suddenly exploded, as if a fight had already begun!It turned out that the officials from the Cangmen in the middle and the Cangmen on the right couldn't help scolding each other, which aroused public anger, and someone made a move.Outnumbered, several officials from the household department broke free and ran out of the barn door. Many officials chased them and beat them angrily.

Like water splashing into a boiling oil pan, someone here also shouted: "If this guy doesn't answer, we will fight too!"

"Hit him!"

"See if he answers!"

So the two people who were close to Hai Rui started to fight, one grabbed his collar, and the other waved his hand and hit him on the head.

"Stop!" Wang Yong roared louder than them, and at the same time grabbed the arm that hit Hai Rui's head.

The roar worked, and the scolding and jumping people were stunned for a moment.

Wang Yongji said loudly: "Don't talk about the king's law! Don't you tell right from wrong? Do you know who this person is beating and scolding now?"

The official who was grabbed by him: "Wang Yushi, your family is good, you can live a good life, we have no way to survive. Whoever he is!"

Immediately, several people followed suit:

"Tobu is so black, everyone is the same!"

"If we don't let us live, no one will want to live!"

"Hit! Hit until Zhao Zhenji comes out!"

Then some people raised their fists again.

"Who dares!" Wang Yongji had never been so angry before. After roaring this, he pushed away the people in front of him and said loudly, "You guys can come here to ask for your salary if you can't pass the year. You don’t even have to ask for it, do you know! You can still receive three bags of money and rice for the New Year, but he didn’t even get three bags of money and rice, do you know! Six months’ salary was fined by Zhao Zhenji, and you still want to beat him? He, can't talk about his conscience!"

These words were so effective that those who didn't know Hai Rui immediately fell silent and looked at each other in blank dismay.

Immediately, someone who knew Hai Rui answered, "This is the owner of Hai Rui who was fined for writing the inscription in Liubiju. You shouldn't make trouble with him."

Another person also answered: "That's right! You have to find the right person for trouble."

The most embarrassing thing was Li Qingyuan, the Secretary of the Imperial College, who was also an upright official, but he was upright in his heart. At this moment, he bowed his hands to Hai Rui: "I don't know if it's Hai Bijia Hai's fault. I offended you. In fact, we didn't just because of family affairs. It won't be a year." At this point, he climbed to the desk next to the left warehouse door and shouted loudly: "Everyone! I have a few words to say!"

The two barn doors over there were still making noise, but when they heard his shout, they all stopped, and countless eyes looked at him.

Li Qingyuan stood on the book case: "Yan's father and son have controlled the government for 20 years, and they have been greedy for money! They ransacked some of their homes in May, which is equivalent to tens of millions of silver! There is still no military pay for fighting the Tatars in the north and the Japanese pirates in the south. So many victims of the disaster still have no money to appease, and now even the owed salaries of us officials still cannot be reissued! What are the cabinet members Xu Jie, Li Chunfang, Gao Gong, Zhao Zhenji doing? What are the officials of the six ministries and nine officials doing? Here it is about whether we can make troubles during the Chinese New Year, so it doesn’t matter if this official is wrong! If we want to fight, we must fight for the state affairs of my Ming Dynasty, and for the people of the world! Ask them, they don't care about the Ming Dynasty, they don't care about the common people in the world!"

Hai Rui immediately cast admiring glances at this person!

Immediately afterwards, many people shouted:
"Your Majesty Li is right! Why should a country be a family if the country is not a general? Go to the cabinet and reason with them!"

"It's useless to just look for them, everyone should go to write the memorial first, and then go to the memorial together after writing, and consult them!"

"Shangshu! Shangshu! Join them!"

There was an overwhelming response, and immediately most of the officials rushed towards the three barn doors.

The rest of the officials were relatively gentle and timid people, who hesitated for a while and then slowly walked out of the warehouse door.Even those officials from the household department who were scolded just now for distributing grain and rice also walked out of the warehouse door.

The warehouse workers in Guangying warehouse were at a loss without officials, and they didn't dare to leave, so they started to pack up the bags scattered all over the floor.

Hai Rui was still standing there, and Wang Yongji didn't leave, looking at each other with worrying eyes.

"I'm the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Everyone has gone to college, so I have to go too. Are you going to go to college?" Wang Yongji asked Hai Rui.

"I'm not going, and neither are you." Hai Rui immediately replied, "It's useless."

Wang Yongji couldn't believe it was Hai Rui who said this: "This is not what you, Hai Gangfeng, should say."

Hai Rui: "This is what I, Hai Rui, should say. There was hardly a foot of pure land within thousands of miles of the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty. The root cause was not in the cabinet. The disease is terminally ill, and it is useless to treat the symptoms unless the root cause is cured. As Mr. Li said, The country of medicine is like treating people. If you don’t treat people, you need to treat them! Where is the root cause of the Ming Dynasty’s disease? You know, I know, everyone knows. No one dares to touch it. Do it, do it, and I will start from the root of the disease."

"Be careful!" Wang Yongji was startled, looked around, and turned to Hai Rui in a low voice, "Brother Gangfeng, Mrs. Tai is still here, and Mrs. Sister-in-law is pregnant again. You can't even think about criticizing Longlin now." Can't think about it!"

Hai Rui sighed sadly: "This is exactly where my scruples lie, let's talk about it after this year has passed."

Wang Yongji breathed a sigh of relief: "This is seriousness. I'm not in a hurry to go to school now. I will accompany you to the street to buy some New Year's goods. At least let Mrs. Tai and Mrs. Sister-in-law celebrate the New Year."

Hai Rui: "Sorry. You have your home, and I have mine. Don't think about helping me anymore. I have a way to celebrate the New Year."

Wang Yongji: "What method, the method of drinking porridge? My wife is still pregnant, I have to make up for the baby in the womb, you and I are not others, let's go."

Hai Rui looked deeply at Wang Yongji: "Run Lian, one day my family will be a drag on you, so don't worry about it now."

Wang Yongji understood, feeling sad for a while.

"Those who can't plan for the whole world can't plan for a while, and those who can't plan for the overall situation can't plan for a corner." Hai Rui said to him again very solemnly, "Listen to me, don't make friends with them this time. After the new year, I will be slow with you again. Discuss slowly." After speaking, he cupped his hands and walked out of the warehouse door.

Wang Yongji was silent there for a long time, and when Hai Rui disappeared, he walked out of the barn door with heavy steps.

(End of this chapter)