If Hai Rui had any weakness, it was that he had no heirs.
This era is different from later generations.
In this era, what is important is that there are three types of unfilial piety, the greatest of which is not having children.
If Hai Rui, who has no heirs, wants to continue his legacy, he will have to rely on his family to adopt one for him.
And this means that he needs to compromise something with the clan.
Hai Rui may be willing to betray the entire landlord class and stand on the side of the common people because of the sage principles he believes in.
But the entire Hai family would not.
After all, clans are derivatives of the landlord class, and the meaning of their existence is to maintain the interests of the landlord class.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun was curious about whether Hai Rui had improved his relationship with his tribe and obtained an adopted stepchild after returning to his hometown of Dingyou.
In any case, even though public opinion against Zhang Juzheng was rampant, it still failed to prevent the implementation of the policy of paying grain and errands to both officials and gentry.
When the time comes to May of the ninth year of Wanli.
All the officers and soldiers of the pro-military Liuwei Jinwu Left Guards were formally assigned to the National Taxation Department to be responsible for tax collection, and they have officially set off to the south.
Because the first place for tax supervision after the implementation of the unified payment of grain and errands between the officials and gentry was selected in Nanzhili, where the most officials and gentry were.
After all, as long as Southern Zhili successfully implements the integration of officials and gentry into paying grain and serving as errands, there will be no problem in other places.
And Hai Ruiyin had long been mentioned by Zhu Yijun that he wanted to retaliate, so Zhang Juzheng had already written to him to come to Beijing to wait for news of his resumption.
Now, he was already in the capital, and soon received the emperor's order for him to be the governor of the world's taxation.
"Please tell your Majesty that I have no step-heirs!"
However, after Hai Rui received the decree, Zhang Juzheng specifically asked him questions on behalf of the emperor about his adopted heir, and Hai Rui's expression darkened for a moment before he answered truthfully.
“Is it because Gong’s clan members don’t think about Gong, or is it Gong who refuses?”
Zhang Juzheng therefore asked.
"The subordinate refused."
"The subordinates only used the remaining one thousand taels of silver reward that they received when they were governors of the Southeast, and used all of it to purchase public land as family property to support those in the family who could not rely on themselves and those who had no land due to the increasing number of children in the family. Cultivable people.”
Hai Rui replied.
Zhang Juzheng nodded after hearing this and said: "Both servants and gentlemen are obsessed with one thing and have failed their parents. It is true that I am not alone in the mountains and rivers!"
With that said, Zhang Juzheng stood up and bowed to Hai Rui.
Hai Rui hurriedly returned the greeting: "My subordinates have learned about Yuan Fu's affairs, and I ask Yuan Fu not to be too sad. And I admire Yuan Fu's choice very much! I never flatter anyone, including the emperor. But Yuan Fu is a wise man, and his subordinates also admire him very much, and no matter how much Yuan Fu is misunderstood in the future, his subordinates will never remain silent and dare not speak up for Yuan Fu!"
Zhang Juzheng smiled and said: "The servant is very relieved to have the public say this! Only the public will not complain to the servant because he does not really intend to use the public. He is really like an ancient minister!"
"Yuan Fu praises you! Hai Rui is not the only one who knows Yuan Fu in the world. His Majesty knows it. He knows it as well as those who understand things in the world. People who understand the Spring and Autumn Period also know it!"
Hai Rui said with a smile.
…
"What a great Haigangfeng, but he has never chosen a step-heir. This is because he knows that I want to use him!"
After Zhu Yijun received Zhang Juzheng's secret revelation and learned that Hai Rui had no stepchildren, he started talking and sighed.
"I will give my husband an approval on the secret disclosure, saying that since Hai Rui is not the heir of the step family, and if he still has no heirs after his death in the future, I will choose the best orphan in the world as his heir to pass on the incense to Hai Rui, and even Thanks to his kindness, the stepson will feel his kindness and dare not deny him as his ancestor."
"Therefore, I asked you to draw up a decree to establish the Chung Martyrs' Shrine and the Royal Sanatorium, and add a ceremonial supervisor and eunuch to take charge of the Chung Martyrs' Shrine and the Royal Sanatorium."
"Every year, money is allocated from the internal and external treasury to offer sacrifices to the loyal martyrs who died for the country and made great contributions to the survival of our Han family in the past dynasties, and to adopt orphans from all over the world. How long will the Ming Dynasty last, so will the sacrifices to these loyal martyrs be carried out! "
"In the future, if there are loyal and martyr people who have no children because their country was killed in battle, or they are old and have no children, and want to pass on the incense but do not want to rely on the clan, they can ask the emperor's grace to choose an orphan from the Royal Almshouse as their son. Grace."
Because Hai Rui had no heirs, Zhu Yijun had already thought of a way to motivate him if Hai Rui had no heirs from the clan, so he took the opportunity to issue such an order at this time.
For Zhu Yijun, he wanted to increase the number of orphans adopted to increase the size of his own private group as the emperor.
After all, when Zhang Juzheng is gone in the future, he will have to face most of the reactionaries in the entire bureaucracy alone. If he wants to carry out deeper reforms, he cannot just rely on the civil servants who reformed with Zhang Juzheng, the so-called Zhang Party.
What's more, these reformists in Zhang's party will gradually grow old sooner or later due to the passage of time. Therefore, he has to build up his own imperial party team in advance while there are still many reformist civil servants.
Then, Zhu Yijun gave another instruction: "Remember to give Hai Rui some of my instructions on collecting tax burdens for his reference."
Zhang Jing, who was on duty, raised his hands and said yes.
After Zhu Yijun issued such an order, he asked Zhang Jing again: "How was the investigation in Jiangling? What reports did the local officials in Huguang and the Jinyi Guards report?"
"Local officials in Huguang have just sent the original report. They report that the night before the incident, the Zhang family slave who was guarding the mausoleum in Taihui Mountain was kidnapped because he encountered hundreds of ruthless people who had sneaked into the mountain. They got up, but the fierce people were all covered with their faces and couldn't recognize their faces. After checking based on the footprints, it was found that some of them had escaped from all directions, including east, west, north and south. It was difficult to identify the real culprit for the time being, so we had to send officials to investigate secretly. "
"The Jin Yiwei in Jiangling reported that after this incident, the Jingzhou government quickly spread the word that Zhang Taigong's tomb was dug up by thunder and the coffin was dissected. This was because Mr. Zhang, the assistant of the Yuan Dynasty, abused his power and disrupted the government, which caused the wrath of heaven. To.”
After Zhu Yijun heard this, he laughed: "The local officials in Huguang are smart people. They know that the court will not believe it, and they dare not report the matter of the wrath of heaven that led to the excavation of Mr.'s ancestral grave. If Jin Yiwei hadn't reported the truth, I wouldn't have known it." I know that someone has already spread such rumors in Jingzhou Mansion."
As Zhu Yijun spoke, he asked Zhang Jing in a deep voice: "Besides these, Jin Yiwei didn't find anything else?"
"Back to your lord, it was reported that the Jinyi Guards who were placed among the Zhang family's mausoleum guards revealed that not all those ruthless people were undetectable. The Zhang family had actually been on guard against someone coming to rob the tomb, and specifically told them how to set up the road into the mountain. It is extremely hidden, so unless there is a thief, they will not easily go into the mountain to find the Zhang family's ancestral tomb, and even a woodcutter who enters by mistake will trigger a mechanism that hurts his foot."
"However, with so many fierce people pouring in, there are no traces of injury or blood. This shows that there is a thief inside. The Jin Yiwei has begun to secretly find out if any of the Zhang family members or slaves are suddenly spending money. They have focused on a few good gamblers or good people. Visiting a brothel, but it still takes time to find out who the gangster is. As long as the gangster is found out, you will know the whereabouts of these tough people, and then you will know the mastermind behind the scenes."
Zhang Jing replied.
"Continue the investigation and ask Beizhen Fusi to select key personnel from all over the country to form a special imperial envoy to go to Jiangling to investigate this case! Once the real culprit behind the scenes is found, he will be rewarded according to the big reward I said before. And to avenge your husband, Also save face for the royal family!”
Zhu Yijun ordered at this time.
Zhang Jing raised his hands and said yes.
"If you continue to find out, you should stop being the admiral of the East Factory and find someone more capable."
Zhu Yijun suddenly said something again.
Zhang Jing couldn't help but trembled, and hurriedly knelt down and said: "If I don't find out, I will kill myself to thank you, Your Majesty!"
Zhu Yijun waved his hand.
Zhang Jing retreated.
Hai Rui, who was about to leave Beijing on an official ship, read with tears the content of the edict that had just been published in the "Di Bao" about the Martyrs' Shrine and the plan to adopt orphans to continue the incense of the loyal martyrs who had no descendants. He took a look at the scenery on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and said to himself. Said: "The king's kindness is so great, how dare your ministers not be dedicated to it!"
With that said, Hai Rui picked up Zhu Yijun's handwriting and prepared to read it carefully. However, when he caught a glimpse of the hardworking trackers on the shore, he thought of what the emperor had expressed in the imperial edict: how much tax he increased in taxation, the imperial court would increase in relief. The words of a poor man could not help but hurriedly gave instructions to the officials accompanying him:
"Let Hu Tishuai go directly to Yangzhou to wait for us! We will start tax supervision directly from Yangzhou, there is no need to stop along the way!"
