The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"boom"

The tea cup was thrown to the ground hard, falling apart with a crisp collision, and the tea splashed all over the floor.

Xu Jie's cloudy eyes were filled with anger. He was completely angered by Hai Rui's repeated letters.

Especially the note at the end of the letter, which was an ultimatum to arrest his son.

What does he mean by showing it to himself?

Threat, this is a naked threat, using the power in hand to threaten Xu Jie and force him to submit.

Will Xu Jie be willing to be threatened by Hai Rui?

of course not.

Because of Hai Rui's prestige among the people, Xu Jie didn't want to make the matter a big deal at first, hoping that Hai Rui would remember the old feelings of protecting him and suppress the matter.

For the governor, this is just a piece of cake.

I just didn't expect that my letters would be ignored time and again by Hai Rui. I really felt that there was nothing I could do to him after he retired.

As for people complaining about things like this, to put it bluntly, that's it, there are a lot of injustices in the world.

As long as the government does not accept it, the people can only knock out their teeth and swallow it in their stomachs.

What's more, this matter is not due to any fault of the family. At first, those unscrupulous people voluntarily sacrificed their land to avoid taxes and duties. Now, seeing the changes in the court's taxation, they want to take the land back. How can there be such a good thing in the world?

They can come when they want and leave when they want. They really think that the Xu family is easy to talk to and leaves after taking advantage of them.

"Xu Zhong."

"master."

The housekeeper in front of Xu Jie hurriedly took a step forward, getting closer to Xu Jie.

"Immediately send someone to deliver a message to the young master, telling them to be careful not to be encountered by the governor's Yamen officials, and not to come back to Huating for the time being."

Xu Jie ordered.

Seeing that Hai Rui was going crazy and even Guan Wen was ready to arrest him, Xu Jie was angry but he didn't want to risk his life by throwing eggs at a rock.

After all, even if you get someone out of the yamen, your face has been lost and you can never get it back.

So the best response now is to stay outside and not return to Huating County, then Guan Wen will be a piece of paper.

Xu Jie also thought about it. It seemed impossible to discuss this matter with Hai Rui alone in the past.

The words in the letter became increasingly tough, and it was obvious that the governor of the sea was determined to break up with Xu Jie.

If he hadn't known about Hai Rui's personality, Xu Jie would have suspected that Gao Gong arranged it behind his back and deliberately made things difficult for him when he was sent to Yingtian Mansion to replace Lin Run.

Although I rejected his request in my letter to Hai Rui, my words were quite gentle. On the other hand, Hai Rui's words were more severe each time.

As for not agreeing to his request, it is of course the result of being an official for many years and seeing through everything.

If you open your mouth, the other party will only make more and more demands and become more and more unscrupulous.

It's not that Xu Jie has never thought about withdrawing from part of the farmland, but that requires everyone to negotiate with each other, and he won't just agree to the conditions under Hai Rui's pressure.

"Go to the study and grind it for me. I need to write a letter and find someone to help put pressure on you."

Then Xu Jie gave another order.

Xu Jie has already thought about it. He must not give in this time, otherwise the consequences will be unpredictable.

My nephews and nephews often do shitty things in the countryside. If they are caught once, they will be in constant trouble in the future.

It would be better to write to a few friends in Nanjing and ask them to put official pressure on Hai Rui.

In addition, the magistrate of Yingtian Shifu also had to say hello, lest Hai Rui go crazy and issue some official arrest warrant, which would make the Xu family even more embarrassed.

This is no longer a matter of his Xu family, but the face of the entire official family, and the face of all officials who care for the elderly at home.

As a dignified old man, he can be manipulated by current officials after he becomes an official, but what about them?

According to the rules of officialdom, he was Hai Rui's senior, not to mention the kindness he had shown to him when he was the late emperor.

With the issuance of Xu Jie's letter, the conflict between the Xu family and Governor Yingtian became public.

In fact, as soon as Hai Rui collected so many accusations about the Xu family, some keen officials in Jiangnan had already noticed that something was wrong with the situation.

But after finding out that Hai Rui and Hua Ting were still exchanging letters, they didn't take it seriously.

As for the reason, it is actually very simple. When there are conflicts between officials these days, they usually communicate through letters.

If one letter doesn't work, then two or three letters until both parties are satisfied, then the matter will be considered cleared.

If the two parties cannot reach an agreement, then find a third party to make peace. You can always find a solution acceptable to everyone.

After all, it would not look good on both sides if it really got into trouble, and everyone knew about the things that happened in the Xu family, and they also had it in their own families, so naturally they didn't want the trouble to get out of hand.

Now, some officials in Nanjing received Xu Jie's letter requesting to come forward. Naturally, they knew that the previous correspondence between the two parties had not settled the matter, and it seemed to be very unpleasant.

As a result, the officials who received the letters wrote to Hai Rui one after another, telling him to stop. After all, the scope involved was too wide and the impact was too great.

But because of this, the conflict between Hai Rui and Xu Jie gradually spread in Nanjing city. Like sharks smelling fishy smell, the censors in Nanjing city all turned their attention here and began to pay attention to the development of this matter.

The upper-level officials want to calm down the matter, but the lower-level censors hope that the matter will get bigger and bigger. Then they will have reasons to criticize, whether they target Hai Rui or Xu Jie, who has already served as an official. This is a good reason to write a memorial.

When the storm in the south of the Yangtze River was raging, naturally no one paid attention to the arrest of a few petty officials in Nanjing City. Everyone looked at Suzhou and Huating, thinking about what this "Hai Qingtian" was going to do with Mr. Xu Ge.

Jiang Bao is the wine offered by the Nanjing Imperial College, and its grade is not low. Naturally, it cannot be taken directly from others.

After Lin Yan received Wei Guangde's letter, he first arrested Zheng Rujin, the tutor of the Imperial College, in the name of someone reporting corruption. With Xu Bangrui and Lin Yan coming forward, Zheng Rujin, who was in the prison of the Ministry of Punishment, could not stand it after a few whips. The bamboo tube He poured out all the things he knew back then like he was pouring beans.

With Zheng Rujin's confession, the natural next step was to capture Jiang Bao. Taking advantage of the dispute between Hai and Xu, Nanjing's dignitaries all turned their attention there. When they wanted to see a joke, Jiang Bao was detained in the backyard of the Ministry of Rites.

After all, he is a fourth-grade official, and he cannot be thrown into prison casually without the decree of the court.

But because of Lin Fiao's acquiescence, people were controlled.

After that, they naturally took Zheng Rujin's confession and interrogated him.

After some confrontation and inducement, Jiang Bao's confession came out.

The confessions polished by Lin Fiao and Xu Bangrui were immediately sent to the capital in the name of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites. Only at this time did officials in Nanjing discover the matter belatedly.

In addition to these two people, those who participated in this matter at the beginning were naturally Wei Guogong Xu Pengju, Chengyi Bo Liu Shiyan, and Xu Bangning.

However, Xu Bangning had long forgotten about this matter. You must know that when it was arranged for him to enter the Imperial College, Xu Bangning was unwilling to do so, so he did not go at all in the end.

I only know a rough outline of the details, but I am not familiar with them.

After the news reached the ears of Wei Guogong Xu Pengju and Chengyi Bo Liu Shiyan, their expressions changed drastically.

Liu Shiyan didn't understand why the matter was still being uncovered after several years. When he found out the details of the interrogation, it seemed that it was aimed at the Duke of Wei's house.

At this time, it was the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Punishment that was in charge, not the Jin Yiwei in Nanjing City. Although it made him feel a little relieved, he still had uncontrollable fear in his heart, worrying that the person in the northern palace was behind this matter.

The Duke of Wei, Xu Pengju, who was lying on the sickbed, had similar thoughts in his mind. Especially when counting the time, it seemed that this incident happened probably two days after the goods arrived in the capital.

There is no precise way to tell about traffic these days. We can only give a rough estimate of when we can reach Beijing from Nanjing, especially on the Grand Canal. Because the voyage is too long and there are many large rivers in it, water shortages or floods often occur. Flooding disaster affects shipping.

Well, the Yellow River channel that was just repaired in the first year of Longqing had another problem. This time it was moved to another location, but it still affected shipping.

Now the officials of the two capitals and the Governor of Water Transport are already worried about this matter and are planning a water control project.

Xu Pengju only found out about this when he saw Liu Shiyan's secret letter on his sickbed. He was so frightened and angry that he almost fainted.

I dragged my sick body to write a letter to Liu Shiyan, asking him to help deal with the situation, hoping to suppress the matter as much as possible.

Until now, because he had not seen a copy of the confession, he still did not know that the incident was directed at his younger son Xu Bangning, otherwise he would have guessed that his eldest son Xu Bangrui was behind the incident.

Just when the memorial and the oral confession were submitted to the capital in Nanjing, Gao Gong finally came back. It was only a year and a half after he left.

Unlike the desolate scene when I left, when I came back this time I was greeted by a crowd of officials who were more than ten miles away from the capital.

Not only his old friends and disciples, but also the officials who followed Shangshu to impeach him more than a year ago, are all here to spy on information and see how Gao Gong, who is now back, will face them.

If Gao Gong's face is not good-looking, it is better to consider leaving the capital as soon as possible to avoid being remembered by him.

Standing at the front of the crowd were naturally Chen Yiqin, Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng, while Li Chunfang and Yin Shizhen stayed in the cabinet to handle government affairs.

It is impossible for one person to come back. The entire cabinet must run out of the capital to welcome him.

Behind him were Gao Yi, the Minister of Rites, Wang Ting, the censor of Zuodu of the Ducha Yuan, and others.

After that came the other officials from the Six Ministries and Five Temples, who were as powerful as a general returning to the court after a victory.

After a long distance, the high-arched carriage stopped. Chen Yiqin, Wei Guangde and others quickly stepped forward. When they came closer, they all clasped their fists and saluted.

"Brother Suqing, you are finally back."

Wei Guangde said with a slightly "hoarse" voice.

"Su Qing, just hope you come back safely."

Chen Yiqin said slightly excitedly.

"Yifu, Shandai, Shuda, it's great to see you. I've missed you so much these years."

The four of them are all from Yuzhuan, and they naturally have deep feelings in the eyes of outsiders.

Especially when those people think about it for a moment, they will think that when the Manchu Dynasty fell against Gao Gong, Chen Yiqin, Wei Guangde and others did not have the vassal chief minister Xu Jie, and they privately advised those who impeached Gao Gong to stop.

As for Zhang Juzheng, after the fight between his teacher Xu Jie and Gao Gong, he remained silent from beginning to end. In fact, he had to avoid suspicion.

He is a teacher on one side and a good friend on the other. How do you ask him to take sides?

In short, everyone performed well in the scene when the four people met outside the city, making most of the officials behind them think that the relationship between the four people was as good as before.

"I heard the news about Shandai's entry into the cabinet in Xinzheng, but I was so happy that I drank three large glasses of wine in a row."

Gao Gong said happily to Wei Guangde.

"We have prepared wine to catch the wind today, and we are just catching up on old times. They all say that one day is like three autumns after not seeing each other for so many years."

Wei Guangde also smiled.

After the ceremony was over, the officials behind him also came forward to meet Gao Gong one by one, and the three of them all retreated to him knowingly.

These officials who came to greet him, whether they were familiar or unfamiliar, whether they participated in his impeachment years ago or not, Gao Gong greeted them with a smile, as if the incident had not happened.

Seeing this scene, Wei Guangde secretly complained in his heart.

After Gao Gong was impeached and stepped down, he seems to be much more diplomatic when he comes back, and is no longer the same Gao Gong as before.

According to his original temper, except for his close friends, he should be sarcastic towards those who had been hostile to him.

It's hard to deal with it, now it's high arched.

Wei Guangde thought in his heart, and inadvertently glanced at Zhang Juzheng, and saw that he was also twitching at this time, obviously feeling similar to him.

As for why Wei Guangde and the others came out of the city to greet Gao Gong, of course it was not out of their original intention. It would be nice to have a banquet in the capital to entertain Gao Gong.

Wei Guangde came out to show off this time mainly because of Emperor Longqing.

Well, when I went to see the emperor that day, Emperor Longqing happily told him that the emperor's master Gao Gong had set off from Xinzheng and would arrive in Beijing soon.

The emperor wanted to use this as an excuse to go out of the city to greet him, but Wei Guangde certainly couldn't let him do this.

There is no such rule when the emperor goes out of the city to greet his ministers.

Well, since Wei Guangde stopped him from welcoming him, Emperor Longqing asked, "Aren't you going to greet him?"

Throwing the question to Wei Guangde, in this case Wei Guangde naturally said that he had a good relationship with Gao Gong and missed him dearly for more than a year, so he volunteered to go out of the city to welcome Gao Gong when he returned to court.

Speaking of Wei Guangde's attitude towards Gao Gong, it is definitely not something he would like to see.

What a joke, after Gao Gong returned to the capital, they would have almost nothing to do, and everything he did in the future could only be Gao Gong's foil.

At least in the eyes of the emperor, Master Gao, a great talent, is the humerus that governs the country and ensures peace.

For a selfish person who almost sent himself to Fujian to clean up the mess, it's strange that Wei Guangde had a good impression of Gao Gong.

Yes, unlike Emperor Longqing's image of being wise and tall, Wei Guangde felt that Gao Gong was a man who pretended to be a public servant for his own benefit, but was also ruthless.

Thinking about how King Jing died in Anlu Prefecture, Wei Guangde always felt that this matter was not that simple.

At the beginning, I did mention to him that although King Jing was a vassal, he was always a hidden danger to His Royal Highness King Yu. However, a few months later, news came that he was dead.

But what made Wei Guangde most unhappy was Gao Gong's desire to expose him to the outside world. He wanted to block his way into the cabinet. This was a deadly feud.

Wei Guangde even guessed that since then, Gao Gong had actually been trying to block the promotion path of Yuzhuan's old people and wanted to keep them out of the cabinet.

After the complicated ceremony, the officials got into the sedan chair, got into the carriage, and followed Gao Gong back to the city.