"Mr. Taiyue, you are Mr. Xu's most valued disciple. If he doesn't come to you, who else can he go to?"
What Feng Bao said was half correct, but it wasn't entirely correct. When Xu Jie sent people to the capital for activities, they would of course come to see Zhang Juzheng, but with Xu Jie's thoroughness and prudence in handling matters, it was of course impossible for him to come to Zhang Juzheng alone.
When I was in the cabinet during the day, because Zhang Juzheng was the chief writer on duty today, he read almost all the memorials transferred from the General Affairs Department today. Except for the normal memorials that accounted for only a quarter of today's total memorials, the rest Within three-quarters of it, there are two types of memorials, each accounting for half of it.
Part of it was to ask the emperor to clearly decree that the noble sons of the military officials should get out of the palace and not "flatter the prince" or "shake the country's foundation" - of course, everyone did not directly use the word "get out", but it definitely meant "get out" "This level may even contain more anger than "get out".
This was mixed with memorials written by several military ministers involved in the matter. In the memorials, they all expressed that their sons or grandsons were naughty and unworthy to play with His Highness. They themselves were deeply worried about this. , I am extremely worried that my son or grandson will lead His Highness the Crown Prince, even if it is only a little bit, it will be a huge harm and loss to the Ming Dynasty, and it is absolutely irreparable, so I "cry blood and plead" to His Majesty to let their children go. When they return home, they will strictly discipline them and even beat them to death.
Among them, Zhu Xizhong, the Duke of Chengguo, was particularly urgent. Although the Duke was already ill, he supported his illness and wrote three memorials in succession, asking Your Majesty to let his eldest grandson Zhu Yingzhen go home. The first memorial said that the child was incompetent and should be carefully taught so as not to affect the prince; the second memorial said that the child's grandfather was about to celebrate his birthday, and it was hoped that he would at least come back to his parents' home with his mother; the third memorial What’s more, he said that Zhu Xizhong felt that he was about to die of illness, and strongly demanded that his eldest grandson come back to see him for the last time!
At that time, Zhang Juzheng read these three memorials in succession, and couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart: Our Duke Chengguo seemed to be really frightened by the angry scoldings of the civil servants of the entire dynasty. He was afraid that he would be scolded for no reason in the future and become an eternal great man. Treacherous minister, when someone is sitting at home, the pot comes from the sky. In order to "save" his grandson from the palace and go home, he even cursed himself to be seriously ill - this was a rhythm that was so scary that he even risked his life!
In addition to the "Prince Accompanying" issue, the other half of the memorials are all related to the "Songjiang Abandonment Case". Part of this was to directly complain to Mr. Xu, but the larger part was to scold Hai Rui for being "confused" and "reckless and reckless."
Let's not talk about the complaints. Zhang Juzheng knew in his heart that his old friend could not be wronged much, but he still read the memorial carefully blaming Hai Rui.
It's not that Zhang Juzheng has already sat down with his old benefactor, but that he is indeed very concerned about the land clearing issue under Ying Tian's rule. He very much hopes to extract useful information from this matter as a guide for his future when he is in power. An important reference for field clearing work.
Judging from the examples cited in these memorials, Zhang Juzheng believed that although there was nothing wrong with Hai Rui's work attitude, his working methods were indeed too simple and crude.
It must be explained here that the governor of Yingtian that Hai Rui currently serves is not just the governor of Yingtian. It has a full name, which is called: Prime Minister of Grain Reserves, Admiral of Military Affairs and Governor of Yingtian and other prefectures.
What's the first thing here? It's not the governor Yingtian, but the prime minister's grain reserve.
To do a good job in this "prime minister's grain storage", we must clean up the land. But the property was unknown and I was shocked when it became clear. Wherever Hai Rui went, there were poor people coming to complain. They sued the rich for taking away their fields, and sued the government to force them to pay taxes. Moreover, more and more people began to point the finger at Hai Rui's savior: 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. Because of his relationship, his three sons also entered the officialdom. Father and son purchased large tracts of land in their hometown. The Xu family has become the family with the most land in Songjiang.
The matter of Songjiang was placed in front of Hai Rui and Hai Qingtian, and everyone's eyes were also focused on Hai Rui and Hai Qingtian - aren't you Qingtian? What's your ability to check us? If you have the ability, check Xu Level!
Hai Rui was indeed honest and upright, but being upright and upright did not mean being stupid and slow. He could feel the mentality of these people, and he also knew the trouble and embarrassment he was facing now.
However, Hai Rui is Hai Rui, and Qingtian is Qingtian! He decided: to shoot the man first, shoot the horse, and to capture the thief first, capture the king.
Not only that, but it must be fast!
If all cases had to be cleared one by one, it would be time-consuming and require a large number of staff. Moreover, most of these cases are old accounts, and many of the land transfer documents no longer exist. How should they be cleared? No one can come up with a solution that can properly solve the problem within the scope of the law.
what to do?
Of course Hai Rui has Hai Rui's style, or in other words: the word Hai Rui itself represents a style, a unique style.
He adopted what he believed to be the simplest and most immediate method, which was also the method most often used by Chinese officials in the past dynasties: using administrative means to resolve economic disputes. Because in their view, all economic issues are ultimately political issues and are related to social stability.
Therefore, Hai Rui directly issued an order requiring all wealthy households to surrender half of their land to the government, and the government would then distribute it to the poor who complained based on different circumstances. Not only that, he also regarded the family of his benefactor Xu Jie as his "head sheep". In his opinion, as long as this "leader" takes the lead in withdrawing from the land, other wealthy households will not dare to resist or default on their land. This principle is certainly true. No matter how tough you are, can you be tougher than the former chief minister who has been an official for more than 40 years?
As an old-school bureaucrat, Xu Jie should be said to be very "understanding". After he got the news, he immediately told Hai Rui and his friends that all his family's fields were clearly registered with the government, and the total amount was only Twenty thousand acres.
But Xu Jie, as a veteran who had worked diligently for the Ming Dynasty for more than 40 years, although he had retired and became an official, in order to respond to Hai Rui Hai Qingtian's great call, he patiently persuaded his family regardless of his family situation and decided to take the lead in returning 10,000 acres of land. !
Xu Jie believed that by doing this, he not only gave Hai Rui enough face, but also made it worthy of the other "rich people" within the jurisdiction of Governor Yingtian - Haizhong Cheng Qingzheng's reputation was well known all over the world, and he was a man who wanted to save face, so we Face must be given.
But here comes the problem, what Hai Rui wants is not face, what he wants is: to clear his father's land.
Your old Prime Minister Xu’s family owns hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land, but you actually have the nerve to say that you only have 20,000 acres of land. Do you think that someone in my world is blind, or are you bullying someone in my world that he 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 registered acres were used to pay for food and work as errands. Many of the fields owned by wealthy families were not recorded in the books. This was already an open secret, and the reason why Hai Rui wanted to clear the land was to reveal this secret.
Not only did the rich keep it from the government, but the local governments also kept it from the central government. In many places, the government has two accounts. One is for one's own family wealth. This account needs to be true, otherwise the official will be confused; the other is for superiors and the court. Those are false figures. As long as they can be deceived, The smaller this number is, the better.
He, Hai Rui, had also served as magistrate of Chun'an County in Zhejiang Province and Xingguo County in Jiangxi Province twice. He was familiar with the mysteries. How could these tricks be hidden from him?
However, as Xu Jie's letters were sent out one after another and the special envoys set off one by one, Hai Rui was reprimanded and impeached more and more. Among them, the most obvious and indeed the most criticized point is: What legal basis do you have for indiscriminately "retreating half of the land"?
