Hai Rui saw the "implication" of Wang Xijue's words, which was nothing more than a warning to himself. Jiangnan's wealthy gentry all prospered and suffered losses, and most of these families had clan members in the officialdom. If you messed with one of them, you would mess with a whole group of people. You should think carefully about it. as a result of.
Of course what he said is true, but... so what?
"Throughout my three lives, I will never change my temperament, and even after death, I will always remain in the country." In my entire life, I, Hai Rui, have always had virtues that I dare not violate, and I have never dared to offend anyone!
After putting away Wang Xijue's letter, Hai Rui straightened his back, which was slightly stooped due to old age, and looked as proud as when he wrote "Public Security Notes" twenty-one years ago.
Although life and death are heavy, they are like a feather to me; although chastity is light, they are like Mount Tai.
You, above, cover up the emperor's sage, below you, you rob the people of their food, you bully the heaven and ignore the earth, and you are contrary to reason and conscience. Whenever there are one or two good officials in the court who want to observe and correct them, you will attack them in groups.
The world belongs to the people of the world, how can it be that you are the only one who specializes in it?
When the emperor was angry, millions of people were buried dead; when Hai Rui was angry, the whole land was covered with clouds. Wang Xijue's letter successfully aroused Hai Rui's anger, and the Nancha incident was in danger of spreading to the whole world.
However, what Hai Rui didn't consider was that who in the world knew what his temper was like?
At least Gao Pragmatic and Wang Xijue must know it well.
Because of this, although Gao Pragmatic's letter does not mention virtue, it always talks about virtue; for this reason, although Wang Xijue's letter does not mention potential, it always talks about potential.
In fact, although the two letters from Gao Pragmatic and Wang Xijue seemed to be completely different, they actually ended up with the same goal, both of which were to get Hai Rui to "make havoc in heaven".
But the high pragmatic purpose is here, and it is understandable to do so. Wang Xijue's interests were at stake, so why should he be so angered?
In fact, what Wang Xijue did this time was "the opposite of what he did at the beginning of the fourth year of Longqing's reign".
That time in the fourth year of Longqing's reign, Hai Rui's main target was Xu Jie. He, Wang Xijue, was just a junior official who had just emerged. Naturally, he was happy to let Xu Jie take down the sharp blade of Haigang Peak, while he himself stayed behind and watched the show.
If the sky falls, a tall man will hold it up. I, Wang, have thin arms and legs, so I won’t join in the fun.
But this time it is different. The two main pillars of the Xin School with Nambang officials as the core are Shen Shixing and him. However, although Shen Shixing was the first assistant, his family fortune was only average—at least for Wang Xijue, it was definitely only average.
If commercial taxes are really to be levied in Jiangnan, Wang Xijue will be the first person who cannot be tolerated. And behind him, there are countless "official merchants" and "business officials" families.
During the Beijing inspection this time, although Wang Xijue had no evidence, he concluded that it must have been the result of Gao Pragmatic's secret instigation.
This time, the emperor appointed Gao Jingshi as the Minister of Household Affairs. It seemed that it was because Gao Jingshi could not be rewarded for his merits, so he had to give it to a high-ranking official. In fact, how could it be that simple?
Wang Xijue had already figured it out on the way back to Beijing. No matter how many tricks the emperor played this time, in the final analysis it was just because the court was short of money, and Gao Pragmatic was the person in his eyes who was the best at managing money.
In this case, if Gao Pragmatic does something in the near future, it will have to do with commercial tax, and the emperor will definitely try his best to cooperate.
As a result, the capital police started.
Wang Xijue knew very well that since the reason for this Beijing inspection was business tax, and Hai Rui was a stubborn guy with a high pragmatic attitude, insidiousness, and full of vicious schemes, he must have the ability to persuade Hai Rui to treat this aspect as a He presided over the core idea of this southern inspection.
Who is Hai Rui? Can he be stopped? Of course it can't be stopped. Xu Jie couldn't stop him in the past, and Wang Xijue can't stop him today.
Since you can't stop it, why not change your mind?
Now I, Wang Xijue, am the biggest leader, and my status and net worth among Jiangnan officials are just like those of Xu Jie in the past.
There were three main reasons why Xu Jie was disgraced at the beginning: first, he had already become an official; second, Gao Gong was the sole successor of the Holy Family; third, he failed to "widely mobilize the masses."
Nowadays, Shen Shi is the first assistant, and I, Wang Xijue, am also one of the assistant ministers. In the court, especially in the cabinet, I can be on equal footing with the real school. In this regard, Xu Jie was not as good as I am today.
Today, when it comes to holy relatives, Gao pragmatism may still be regarded as the best person in the world, but Gao pragmatism and Gao Gong are actually not the same. Gao pragmatic is the emperor's companion and classmate, and their relationship is roughly equivalent to friendship. And Gao Gong was Mu Zong's imperial master. What Mu Zong felt in Gao Gong was not only the majesty of a teacher, but also the father's love that he had been missing all his life - which was equivalent to family love.
Friendship and family love are all feelings, and there is no distinction between superiority and inferiority. But friendship can be chosen, but family love has no choice.
You can choose who you want to be friends with, but you obviously can't choose who your father is. The most powerful thing about Gao Gong in the Longqing Dynasty was that Emperor Longqing showed signs of treating him as a father in his heart.
Therefore, although the two highs are both incarnated by the Holy Family, their natures are relatively different. What is the actual gap between this "difference"? When Yu Gao Gong was in the pavilion, he was the first "sir", and the emperor could legitimately consider his opinion first - "the king of heaven and earth, his dear teacher". Even if others were not convinced, they could not find many reasons to object.
Although Gao Pingshi has also been a Japanese lecturer, he obviously will not be regarded as the emperor's master. The current "emperor's master" is a few pavilion elders. This means that whenever something happens in the world, even if the emperor only wants to hear a pragmatic answer in his heart, he must follow the convention and consult the cabinet ministers for their opinions first, and must give them enough respect.
So on this second point, Wang Xijue can also say, "Xu Jie was not as good as I am today."
As for the third reason, Xu Jie was very passive in dealing with Hai Rui's land acquisition. In addition to the above two reasons, there was another troublesome incident that had a great impact on Xu Jie. That is because his own brother Xu Zhi impeached him for some bad things, which was one of the reasons why he resigned and returned to his hometown. (Note: This is historical fact, but there is no perfect explanation for why Xu Zhi did what he did.)
At the time, this incident had only a moderate impact on Xu Jie's political status, but it had a great impact on Xu Jie's reputation, so much so that after returning to his hometown, he hoped to calm down a bit and stop being "embarrassed" - after all, reputation is important. This was a consistent feature of civil servants in the Ming Dynasty, except for the late Ming Dynasty.
In this way, when Xu Jie was "pressed down and beaten" by Hai Rui, he did not resist too obviously. He just pretended to be pitiful while contacting his disciples and former officials for help.
Although Xu Jie did have many disciples and former officials, at that time, just having disciples and former officials was actually not enough - when he himself was engaged in the "Man Dynasty Reversal of Gong", Gao Gong could not carry it out just by relying on his disciples and former officials. Live?
Wang Xijue himself is the most direct example. When Hai Rui was reorganizing Xu Jie, didn't Wang Xijue "disappear"? But if it were the other way around, what if Xu Jie had united all the officials from Yingtian, including Wang Xijue, to fight against each other, and what would have happened if there were scoldings and wars every day? Even if Hai Rui himself wasn't afraid, wouldn't the emperor be afraid of causing big trouble?
Therefore, Wang Xijue learned the lessons of Xu Jie this time and decided to adopt the "united front" approach.
But the united front is not so easy to organize. At this moment, the other Jiangnan officials, especially the smart people inside, may not follow the same example as Mr. Wang did in the past, waiting for the "superior" gods to fight. Anyway, he is short and has It can't play a decisive role, as long as it doesn't stand out.
When the gods are finished fighting, it will be good if they win because their own interests are preserved; if they lose, there is nothing they can do. They can only comfort themselves by saying, "I am not the one who suffered the most."
But we can still wait for the opportunity. Anyway, the policies of the Ming Dynasty have always changed a lot. Maybe after a change of gods, there will be another way? As long as the green hills remain, there will be no need to worry about running out of firewood.
However, although Wang Xijue himself had behaved this way back then, times had changed and now that he had become "Xu Jie", he could not let them continue to do this.
The idea is good, but how to achieve this goal depends on it. Of course it is necessary to call on everyone to unite, but calling alone is definitely not enough. We are all civil servants. Who hasn't done some tricks? Naturally, they do more things based on the tenet of "you go to the charge, and I will hold down the formation".
Therefore, Wang Xijue needs external assistance - for example, Hai Rui does not launch a focused attack, but directly launches an all-out attack with indiscriminate strikes. At this time, no matter who Hai Rui touched, the person involved would certainly feel uncomfortable, but the others also didn't know if they would be the next unlucky guy, and they started to feel the same hatred.
So Wang Xijue wrote this letter, telling Hai Rui "implicitly and euphemistically": Jiangnan is an iron plate, and you Hai can't kick it!
What would Hai do if he understood this?
It’s easy, do it together!
Hasn't Hai Rui's style always been like this? Not hitting the wall and not looking back is not enough to describe him. He has hit the wall...then forget about it. Turn back? I, Haigangfeng, never look back!
Hai Rui wanted to do it together, so he fell into Wang Xijue's trap, because the officials under investigation also had tricks they could use against the officials in charge. There were two "customs" in Ming Dynasty officialdom here.
What custom? One is to reveal the post.
During the expiration of the Beijing inspection, officials with ulterior motives often submit anonymous disclosure posts and make wanton slander. Therefore, Tang Zhaojing once said: "Private revelations should be forbidden to the many yangs and used yinly." This expresses the helplessness of the officials in charge of exposing false accusations.
Although "the imperial court uses its ears and eyes to speak to officials, and they are allowed to hear about it", many officials took advantage of the Beijing inspection and took advantage of the rumors to attack and slander their colleagues in an attempt to avoid being deposed.
Because during the inspection in Beijing, "Every yamen must have people. If the yamen already has people, it will not move again, saying: It is difficult for other yamen. If there is no one in that yamen, it must be filled with people, saying: How can this yamen be empty?" also". Therefore, once the goal of slandering colleagues is achieved, some unscrupulous officials can get away with it.
"Every yamen must have someone" means that someone in every yamen will definitely be deposed. If someone has been deposed before, the remaining people will be safe - at least much safer.
Although the Ming court did not offend anyone who had heard about it, once the false accusation was known, it would not be a good thing even if the accusation was false. Therefore, anonymous postings became rampant for a while. This was also one of the main issues repeatedly discussed by many officials before the Beijing Inquisition.
However, this was not the method Wang Xijue planned to use against Hai Rui. The method he planned to use was the second method.
The second article is that officials who are afraid of the investigation can still impeach the person in charge of the investigation at this time in order to avoid investigation.
Because the capital inspection is a major event related to the political future of officials, "once they are deposed, they will leave their posts." And for a long time until the late Wanli period, once they left office because of the capital inspection, they "will never be used again." Therefore, Some officials who are not in office impeach those in charge in advance to avoid being deposed.
The origin of false accusations against the chief inspector among the Beijing police can be traced back to the early Jiajing period. Zhang Gui, the assistant minister of the cabinet at that time, actively supported Sejong in the great ceremony and "resisted the imperial court for four or five years", so he was at odds with many courtiers in the court. Therefore, in the sixth year of Jiajing's reign, on the occasion of the Beijing Inspection Period, Shangshu made a statement, falsely accusing the officials in charge of "acting in secret and harming good people", and begging for the emperor's protection.
However, it was a temporary exception to use an assistant minister to falsely accuse an official in charge. However, in the original history, until the late Wanli period, lower-ranking officials often framed officials in charge.
For example, in the 27th year of Wanli, Xu Wenzao, the censor of Guizhou Province, was criticized by scholars because he "attached himself to Lu Kun's gate wall, regardless of his reputation." He was worried that he would be deposed in the capital inspection, so he "taunted Zhang Yangmeng, the minister of the household department, and others, and hijacked the official department to "Ji Dian" - "Ji Dian", "Da Plan" and other words, in the Ming Dynasty, they all specifically referred to Jingcha.
Another example is that in the second year of Tianqi's reign, "Zhu Tongmeng, Guo Yunhou, and Guo Xingzhi were concerned that the next year's Beijing inspection would be unfavorable and secretly plot to expel" Zou Yuanbiao, the then censor of Zuodu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Although there was a spirit of party struggle, it was the same as the previous one. , all of whom were falsely accused by the officials.
Similar to this, there are also those who falsely accuse the Tang Shang Guan who gave him the exam. For example, in the thirty-ninth year of Wanli, Tang Binyin of the Nanjing Imperial Academy (Jinshi in the twenty-third year of Wanli) was worried that Wang Tu, who was in charge of the Hanlin Academy (Jinshi in the eleventh year of Wanli), would note his passing in the examination, so he ordered the censor to During the Jin Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, the son of Wang Tu, a senior official in the court, was impeached for corruption, and he wanted to accuse Wang Tu of committing murder by his son in order to escape detection.
At this time of crisis, since there was already a "custom" in place, Wang Xijue naturally did not hesitate to give it a try. As long as Hai Rui showed his intention to "catch them all" in Nanjing, Wang Xijue would be able to take action immediately.
For this reason, when Wang Xijue's letter to Hai Rui was sent to Nanjing, a large number of private letters had already been sent to various places in Jiangnan. Not only Wang Xijue, but Shen Shixing also wrote many letters. The two cabinet ministers worked tirelessly and not only wrote a large number of private letters by themselves, but also wrote countless letters ghostwritten by staff in the government, all with the same purpose.
This time, the southern inspection team received even more attention than the northern inspection team. Naturally, Gao Pragmatic would not just write a letter to Hai Rui. He also made many corresponding arrangements.
Although the leaders of the two factions are both in Yanjing, the forces all over the world are like tentacles, which have been "activated" first and are beginning to move.
Due to time constraints, especially the delivery of official documents, the Northern Chassis was always earlier than the Southern Chassis, so when Hai Rui gathered relevant personnel to start arranging work arrangements, the Northern Chassis had already entered the first round of the competition in full swing.
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