At this time, in the Forbidden City, intelligence from Jiangnan was coming in like flakes. Since Zhu Yijun came to power, he has regarded Jiangnan as the top priority in transforming the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the intelligence department is divided into three parts.
One is to guard the eunuch's mansion everywhere, with Li Xiushan taking overall responsibility. The focus of his own responsibilities is in Nanjing, focusing on monitoring the civil and military trends of the Nanjing faction and the political situation in the south; the second is the Jinyiwei. Different from having one bureau in each province, the Jinyiwei also has an intermediary agency Jiangnan General Bureau in Nanjing, which governs the entire Huguang, Nanzhili, and The intelligence departments of Yingtian, Susong and other places collected all the details in Nanjing and analyzed and reported them in categories. The third part is the secret story - Feng Bao was in charge of the six Rishenglong families in the south of the Yangtze River and secretly spied on, Interfere with Shilin, control public opinion and monitor the eunuchs and imperial guards in various places.
The leaders of the three major intelligence agencies all know each other and know that this is the emperor's method of containment, but they dare not join forces to deceive them - the chain of suspicion involved is too long and there are too many people. And no one knows whether the emperor has any backup plans.
Therefore, after Zhu Yijun decided to use the Xu family to defeat the Jiangnan Bureau, all three parties reported detailed information on the movements in the south. Hai Rui asked Wang Yixiu to seize the evidence that the rich people secretly led the civil uprising. He simply underestimated the ability of thousands of Jinyi guards in Jiangnan.
Just as Hai Rui said, the Xu family's move to retire their land and servants was intentional.
Xu Jiezhi is a person in charge of government, and he is best at taking advantage of the situation. During Yan Song's reign, as the second-in-command in the cabinet, he was able to take advantage of Yan Song's group's own contradictions and smooth over Emperor Jiajing's temperament to maintain a lot of vitality and righteousness in the court. This was because he was "forbearing".
The focus of "kindness and tolerance" is not the word "forbearance", but refers to Xu Jie's ability to use "withdrawal of tolerance" to gain sympathy and support when he is disadvantaged, and to turn his own disadvantages into advantages. The key point of the two words is "good", which means good at utilizing.
This time Zhu Yijun was sharpening his sword, and Xu Jie had already felt the emperor's full malice towards the Xu family. For ordinary veterans, when faced with such overwhelming pressure from the emperor, most of them would just lie down and let the hammer go, and from then on they would just become a disgusting creature who was full of complaints and said weird things.
However, although Xu Jie retired to enjoy leisure time in the woods, Tuisiyuan is still the leader among scholars in the south of the Yangtze River. Xu Jie used his family's huge financial resources to gather literati Qingke, and edited "Shijingtang Collection" and other books with him, and organized large-scale literary conferences to raise his reputation in the scholarly community.
Occasionally, he would give lectures in person when he was interested. Every time news spread that he was going to give lectures, southern scholars followed him. These situations have been repeatedly mentioned in the intelligence reported by Feng Bao, Li Xiushan, Jin Yiwei and other channels, and it is impossible for Zhu Yijun not to pay attention to them.
Xu Jie is a descendant of Nie Bao, a disciple of Wang Xue and Duke Yangming. Although he was not as clean as his teacher Nie Bao, Xu Jie believed that his achievements were not inferior to his teacher's. He also felt that the mantle of Wang Xue was the most authentic, so he gave lectures without blushing.
Zhu Yijun was not averse to the form of lectures, but Xu Jie's influence in the opposition would inevitably become a hindrance to the New Deal. Therefore, Xu Yuanchun was deposed for no reason. In fact, the first meaning was that Zhu Yijun was warning Xu Jie to shut up at home - but it failed to have an effect, so Cai Guoxi came back.
What makes Xu Jie so influential in the south is that his protégé Zhang Juzheng is now in power. Although the relationship between the two was not as harmonious as they showed on the outside, the history books vaguely recorded that Zhang Juzheng also made some small moves after Xu Jie stepped down. When Gao Gong and Xu Jie were at home, Zhang Juzheng recommended Gao Gong to Emperor Longqing, not Xu Jie.
Does Xu Jie know that Zhang Ju is messing with him? of course I know. But despite this, he still handed over all his political power to Zhang Juzheng without any dissatisfaction. Because he knows that he will still use this "good student".
Sure enough, in the third year of Longqing's reign, Hai Rui and Cai Guoxi returned from Songjiang in disgrace, and they were able to achieve great results. Afterwards, Zhang Juzheng said in a letter to Xu Jie: "I am a servant for one day, and I will protect the good for one day." He also wrote to the Songjiang magistrate, asking them to "comfort" Xu Jie.
From these things, it can be seen that in the triangular relationship between Xu Jie, Gao Gong, and Zhang Juzheng, everything is from the perspective of politicians, rather than the "teacher-student" relationship or "Qiandi" friendship that the world sees.
In the second year of Longqing, both Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong believed that the governance of the "Licorice State Elder" could not save the Ming Dynasty from declining. Therefore, they worked together to drive Xu Jie back to his hometown.
Now that Xu Jie has returned home, Zhang Juzheng cannot tolerate Gao Gong continuing to deal with Xu Jie. Therefore, as one of the lackeys left by Xu Jie to Zhang Juzheng, Dai Fengxiang was able to directly defeat Hai Rui and Cai Guoxi. Zhang Juzheng indeed played a great role in the middle. And Zhang Juzheng also used the matter of protecting Xujie to draw a bottom line with Gao Gong - you can't touch my people!
Closer to home, because of Zhang Juzheng's relationship, after the Wanli Year, those who took office in the southern part of the empire were not sure if they crossed the river and did not go to Tuisi Garden to see the old prime minister. Therefore, Tuisi Garden is full of guests every day, singing poems and songs. It is really a good place for the literary world and a great place for scholars.
What these people brought were the latest news from the imperial court. In the past two years, Xu Jie had watched Zhu Yijun and Zhang Juzheng govern with cold eyes, and he had already given them so many bad marks in his heart. He didn't say it with his mouth, but the words "Meng Lang" and "What a great success" went back and forth in his heart countless times.
...
What puzzled Xu Jie was, where did the emperor's ill will towards him come from? What he did was nothing out of the ordinary. The three sons were unworthy, and Xu Fan, the most capable, had long been convicted by Hai Rui. Although he was not really exiled, he had no chance of officialdom in this life. Although the eldest grandson studied well, by the time Xu Yuanchun grew up, the Xu family's influence in the political arena had long since faded away.
Under such circumstances, why did the emperor treat him in an almost humiliating manner, the man who had brought order to the chaos and helped Emperor Bao Longqing successfully ascend the throne? This makes absolutely no sense! Moreover, the emperor's move seemed sharp, but actually it was ridiculous. Among the scholars in the south, the emperor was almost completely disillusioned. What good would it do to the emperor to wear the label of "recruiting people not based on their talents, but humiliating the meritorious officials due to their ignorance"?
Not to mention that Xu Jie didn't understand, Zhang Juzheng didn't understand either. Zhang Juzheng and Zhu Yijun also had troubles over the teacher's family affairs. After all, many of the policies contained in Zhu Yijun's big article on rebuilding China cannot be stated in words now. At this time, in his opinion, Xu Jie was not even a pebble blocking the road!
But the chief assistant was having troubles, and he would not report his thoughts to him. In his daily work, he also lacked the sense of intimacy and the sense of satisfaction of working together. Zhu Yijun discovered that Zhang Juzheng had a problem with his thinking, so he had to comfort Zhang Juzheng and give a seemingly reasonable explanation.
At the end of the second year of Wanli, Zhang Juzheng took advantage of an opportunity to report on his work alone. Zhu Yijun asked him: "The old man wants to measure the world and implement a whip method. When do you plan to do it?"
Zhang Juzheng replied: "I wanted to do it in the fifth or sixth year of Wanli. At that time, the emperor must have been married and in charge of the government, and the development of the Northeast had been successful. It was just the right time - by then the emperor would organize the south of the Yangtze River. Not too late."
Zhu Yijun listened and said with a warm smile: "Then next year or the year after, Pan Ji will be used to control rivers, Huaihe Rivers, and rivers, and water conservancy will be launched nationwide. Where will the biggest resistance be?"
Zhang Juzheng was silent after hearing this. The imperial court spent a large sum of money every year to regulate the river. In addition to normal expenses, corruption among officials and officials involved in river management is also a headache. In addition, a large amount of resources must be used to redeem the homes of wealthy gentry, otherwise many projects will inevitably fail to be completed. On the one hand, the cooperation of these families is needed to organize labor; on the other hand, they must be prevented from causing mischief.
Why do they want to do evil? Because in all river basins across the country, the homes of these wealthy gentry have the most polders. The government refuses to acknowledge the polder owned by ordinary people. Who dares to plant land without property rights? But the wealthy gentry were not afraid. When the court built water conservancy projects, they often left some unnecessary gates or even deliberately built some slag dams so that the floods could pass. They used polders in flood control projects to divert water easily.
Zhu Yijun said: "I am not against polders, but against polders in flood discharge and flood control projects! You have also read Pan Jixun's report. The 'Hengtang Zongming' in the south of Taihu Lake can not only divert mountain torrents, but also be used in the dry season. The canals divert water for irrigation, which is a matter of convenience."
"However, Pan Jixun also reported that random polders are also very harmful. Taking the Xihe River, a tributary of the Wanjiang River, as an example, there were originally three estuaries of the river. I don't remember the specific names, but now the two estuaries have been poldered. When the flood peak comes, if The dams of those two polders collapsed - a land of hundreds of thousands of people was established as a Zeguo!"
Zhang Juzheng felt sweat on his forehead after hearing this. Zhu Yijun continued: "Now we are targeting the Xu family because of its great influence! From Lianghe to Jiangnan, whose family has the largest land? Who has the greatest influence? As long as this monkey is killed, other fighting cocks will still dare to crow. Really? Turn them all into quails for me and listen to Pan Jixun’s mercy!”
Zhu Yijun relaxed his tone when he saw a wry smile on Zhang Juzheng's face. He said earnestly: "Old sir, the imperial court sold the world's salt fields last year and got 16 million taels of silver - one-third of which is my silver. I am not a foolish king. If this silver is used to build a garden, it will be used for ten years." It’s all lost! Now, using this huge sum of money to build water conservancy projects across the country is to have a coordinating effect - otherwise, patching it up every year will end up in trouble?"
"I didn't use Pan Jixun last year. When I asked him to conduct a comprehensive investigation, I repeatedly warned him to have a 'big heart' and consider the management of the Huaihe River, the river, and the river without considering the cost. I guess he didn't expect that the imperial court could spend a thousand and two dollars. How about a million dollars to control the river?" After hearing this, Zhang Juzheng said to himself, "I didn't expect it either."
When Zhu Yijun said this, he became a little excited: "The nationwide overhaul of water conservancy is a century-old plan. I don't mind killing anyone who obstructs it. Ugly people in the south of the Yangtze River, just take a stand first!"
Bookstore
