After giving these instructions, Hai Rui, Lu Kun and Tang Chuanxun continued on their way, staying overnight at Xiaoxing and heading to Danyang, Zhenjiang.
During this period, except at night, Hai Rui would have been carefully reading and understanding the contents of Zhu Yijun's handwriting. During the day, he basically walked around and inquired about the public sentiment.
Not long after, they joined the main force of Jinwu Guards led by Hu Shouren in Danyang, Zhenjiang.
Hai Rui, Lu Kun, and Tang Chuanxun also changed into official uniforms.
Not long after Hai Rui changed into his official uniform, he asked Hu Shouren: "Has the perpetrator who bombarded the official ship of the National Taxation Department been caught?"
"No, they have already prepared a secret passage in the Buddhist temple there."
Hu Shouren replied.
Hai Rui was not surprised and just said: "I know."
Then, Hai Rui learned that the governor of Yingtian, Sun Guangyou, the admiral of Caojiang, Lu Huo, the patrol commander Tian Le, the military commander Li Yi, Yingtian Prefecture Yin Li Wei, Yingtian Prefecture Prime Minister Cao Daye, Zhenjiang Prefecture Zhong Gengyang and others were coming to greet him.
Hai Rui met these officials without much exchange of greetings, and asked Yingtian Prefecture and Zhenjiang Prefecture to report the tax payment status to him.
On the day of his arrival in Nanjing, Hai Rui saw no other officials except Pan Jixun, who had been promoted to Minister of War in Nanjing. Instead, he ordered Hu Shouren to send troops to the countryside to collect taxes from large households that had not yet paid their taxes.
Like Yangzhou Prefecture, most of the officials and gentry in Zhenjiang and Yingtian Prefectures still paid taxes as scheduled, but there were still many high-ranking officials and gentry who did not pay taxes.
Therefore, there are not many officers and soldiers who need to send force to collect taxes. They are still just some targets that need to be broken through.
Hai Rui has now received imperial approval, which is an imperial edict granting approval for issues related to the establishment of a credit reporting system.
Therefore, Hai Rui directly sent people to arrest the high-ranking officials with more than 500 taels of tax money, and waited for the Ministry of Works to make unified arrangements for military service.
However, just when Hai Rui had just ordered Hu Shouren to send troops to capture the home of Tian Yijun, a former Hanlin minister who owed tens of thousands of yuan in taxes, Luo Shanggong, the general manager of Qian, had just led his troops to the home of Zhou Maoyan, a bachelor of the Nanjing Hanlin Academy in Yingtian, and saw Tian. Yijun hanged himself under the eaves of his house.
Luo Sigong was quite shocked when he saw this, and immediately felt something was wrong.
At this moment, a member of the National Taxation Department suddenly appeared and shouted: "The tax gap of the National Taxation Department forced Mr. Jingmin to hang himself!"
Suddenly, many students appeared here.
A student named Ran Yuan even rushed towards Luo Sigong and others: "You forced Mr. Jing Min to death, we will fight you!"
Seeing him rushing over, Luo Sigong had no choice but to kick the man away and shouted loudly: "What are you doing! He just hanged here when we came here, what does it have to do with us?!"
"The National Taxation Department forced Mr. Jing Min to death and beat the scholars. Let's ignore these warriors and go find Hai Gangfeng and ask him if he is still the same Hai Qingtian who made decisions for the people back then!"
At this time, the first member suddenly smiled coldly, and then spoke loudly.
"Walk!"
Immediately, other students followed suit.
Luo Shanggong responded: "..."
"They forced my father to death and broke my arm. I will go with you!"
At this time, Zhou Maoyan's son Zhou Zhiyi came out. After being stunned for a moment, he said a few words loudly, and then gave Luo Shanggong and others a cold look.
"Since Brother Zhengzong wants to come together, let's go together and seek an explanation for Mr. Jingmin!"
The first-year members echoed.
Luo Sigong couldn't help but darken his face for a moment, and immediately caught Zhou Zhiyi back: "You can't leave, your Zhou family owes taxes. If the confiscated proceeds cannot be used to mortgage the debt, all the men in charge must serve!"
Seeing this, these students hurriedly shouted for Luo Sigong to let Zhou Zhiyi go.
Luo Sigong asked his firearms team to directly raise the firearms.
When these students saw this, they left in a hurry.
Among them, Ran Yuan, who was being helped away, held his stomach and shouted: "Brother Zhengzong, we will inform Haibu Tang about your father's affairs!"
…
On this day, the sky was clear and clear, and the blue sky and white clouds were spread over the roof of the Governor's Yamen.
As soon as Governor Hai Rui got up after finishing his work, he turned his neck and was about to go to the patio of the courtyard to see the blue sky, when he saw Lu Kun walking in quickly: "Ministry, something big has happened. Many students have come outside. He said he wanted to protest against former bachelor Zhou Jingmin!"
Hai Rui's face turned cold after hearing this, and said to Hu Shouren, "Go out and have a look!"
Hu Shouren raised his hand and said yes.
Then, Hai Rui walked out and saw that the outside of his governor's office was already crowded with students, no less than two to three thousand people.
"What are you going to do!"
"The imperial edict has long been made clear. Students are not allowed to discuss politics. They should concentrate on their studies to nourish their minds and avoid being misled by cunning people!"
"You should leave as soon as possible, otherwise we will expel you from your honors first. Don't think that we don't have this power. The emperor has allowed us to act easily and you have been appointed to the constitutional position in the court. We still have the power to expel you from your honors!"
Hai Rui asked loudly and scolded the students.
"Budang, although these people are wearing kerchiefs, they don't look like students. Many of them are obviously practitioners!"
Hu Shouren spoke from the sidelines at this time.
Hai Rui replied in a low voice: "I know, you moved Luo Shangzhi's troops who stayed in the Yamen to the front, blocked both sides of the street, and were ready to suppress them with force at any time!"
Hu Shouren raised his hand and said yes, then retreated.
At this time, these students carried out the body of Hanlin Zhou Maoyan, and the students held up their hands and said: "We just ask the ministry to make the decision for us Wu people! The people from the National Taxation Department forcibly collected taxes, abused Confucian officials, and beat scholars. This further made Mr. Jing Min unbearable to be humiliated and hanged himself! Will the ministry continue to press for taxes and money, causing more scholar-bureaucrats to hang themselves, thus ruining etiquette?!"
"How were the people at the National Taxation Department mistreating me?"
"Bring me your evidence!"
After Hai Rui asked, he gave instructions loudly.
At this time, student member Ran Yuan stood up and said: "Brother Zhengzong, the son of Mr. Jing Min, can testify that he was forcibly taken away by people from the National Taxation Department, and his arm was broken by people from the National Taxation Department!"
After hearing this, Hai Rui asked Tang Chuanxun, "Is this possible?"
Tang Chuanxun replied: "There is such a thing. This person's name is Zhou Zhiyi, but the Jinwu Guards took him back because they failed to pay taxes overdue and did not produce enough money and food."
Hai Rui nodded: "Bring him here! We will question him here personally!"
Ran Yuan and other troublemakers all smiled knowingly when they saw this.
Not long after, Zhou Zhiyi was taken into custody.
As soon as Hai Rui saw Zhou Zhiyi, he asked, "Did your father be forced to death by people from the National Taxation Department?"
"Yes!"
Zhou Zhiyi replied.
"Did someone from the National Tax Department break your arm?"
Hai Rui asked again.
Zhou Zhiyi nodded: "Yes!"
"Then why did they force your father to death, and why did they beat you?! Answer truthfully."
Hai Rui asked sharply.
Zhou Zhiyi said: "Without knowing the reason, they broke in and beat us. They also forced my father to kneel down. My father couldn't bear the humiliation and hanged himself."
As he spoke, Zhou Zhiyi started to cry.
Ran Yuan and other students laughed more and more proudly, and then raised their arms and shouted: "Just give justice to my Confucian ministers! Don't impose strict taxes and money!"
】
"Give justice to my Confucian ministers! Don't impose strict taxes and money!"
All the students present shouted loudly.
At this time, Hu Shouren came with a firearms team and nodded to Hai Rui to indicate that he was ready.
Hai Rui also nodded and said, "There's no need to rush now!"
Hai Rui continued to look at Zhou Zhiyi: "Are you sure that everything you said is true and you did not deceive me? I will give you another chance to tell the truth. If you tell the real truth, I will regard you as meritorious, and Please ask the imperial court to exempt you from the service of compensating taxes and silver, and only allow other heads of the Zhou family to serve."
Zhou Zhiyi was stunned after hearing this, and immediately fell to the ground: "My pardon, the student did lie. My father was not forced to death by the National Taxation Department. He suffered from back gangrene when the National Taxation Department came and he died. And then he decided to hang himself in order to let the court know that the gentry could no longer bear the humiliation of imposing such taxes!"
Ran Yuan and other troublemakers were stunned when they saw this.
Zhou Zhiyi's decisive betrayal in order to avoid being forced into labor really surprised them.
Hai Rui glanced at the troublemakers, and then continued to ask Zhou Zhiyi: "Is there any evidence?"
"some!"
"My father had a suicide note that he wrote before he hanged himself. What he wrote in his suicide note was just to accuse the court of canceling exemptions and exemptions and not treating officials and gentry politely. It was just to express his protest. He hanged himself to show his intention to disobey, rather than to accuse the National Taxation Department of forcing him to do so. Taxes are too strict.”
"This suicide note is on my body now."
