Chapter 569: Hai Rui is coming to visit Xu Mansion?

Jiangnan, a water station on the bank of Guazhou on the Yangtze River.

Huangfu Tan stood with his hands behind his back on the corridor on the second floor of the attic in the backyard of the post station, gazing at the Yangtze River in the distance.

A bright moon shone on the river, dragging a white silk thread. As the river water rippled, the white silk thread immediately transformed into a white dragon, sometimes on the surface of the water, sometimes under the water, and sometimes under the moonlight, sparkling waves, sometimes fish and dragons dancing.

Seeing this scene, Huangfu Tan couldn’t help but recite a poem: “There is a river between Jingkou and Guazhou, and Zhongshan is only a few mountains away. The spring breeze has greened the south bank of the river, when will the bright moon shine on me again?”

“What’s so good about Wang Anshi? He likes to learn from the past, his arguments are pedantic, his policies are changed frequently, he is ignorant and stubborn.” Shu Youliang came up with a plate of fruit, muttering, “Governor of Jiangsu, you don’t even dare to accept the plate of fruit, you have to pay for it yourself, sir, you are such a failure as an official!”

Hai Rui followed him up the stairs to the second floor, ignoring Shu Youliang’s words.

“Haoju was moved when he read Wang Jinggong’s poem?”

Huangfu Tan quickly replied: “Teacher, I just spoke out of my feelings at the moment and didn’t think much about it.”

Hai Rui sat down on a chair and pointed casually, “Hao Ju, sit down too. Let’s enjoy the moon and the scenery together.”

“Yes.”

“When will the bright moon shine upon me again?” Hai Rui stroked his beard and muttered to himself. Suddenly, he asked, “Youliang, do you remember that in the 28th year of Jiajing, we went to Beijing together to participate in the Spring Examination? It was the first time we crossed the Yangtze River, and we also stayed overnight in Guazhou.”

Shu Youliang picked up a piece of watermelon, leaned on the railing, and ate it while saying, “I remember, but the master and I were in a bad situation at that time. We couldn’t afford to stay in the inn, so a shopkeeper took pity on us and put us in the woodshed.

The firewood room was drafty on all sides, and there was a large tile missing from the roof, which was just right for the moon to be seen. ‘People today cannot see the moon of the past, but the moon of today once shone on the ancients. The ancients and people today are like flowing water, and they all look at the bright moon in the same way.'”

Seeing Huangfu Tan’s surprised expression, Hai Rui smiled and said, “Your uncle Youliang is also a juren, and he is also full of knowledge.”

Huangfu Tan was shocked, “Uncle Youliang is also a juren?”

How did he end up being a servant in the Hai family?
“Youliang was originally from Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province, and was a fellow villager of Wang Jinggong. He passed the imperial examination at the age of 20 and was full of vigor and ambition. However, he did not expect that someone in the same examination was reported for favoritism and fraud. He was implicated, his reputation was revoked, and then he suffered a sudden disaster, and his family was destroyed.

He had no choice but to go to Guangzhou to seek refuge with his relatives, but he encountered bandits on the way and was robbed. When he arrived in Guangzhou, he didn’t know where his relatives had moved to.

He was so disheartened that he wanted to drown himself in the river, but I saw him and jumped into the river to save him. Since then, we have been master and servant in name but brothers in reality, supporting each other all the way until now.”

Huangfu Tan couldn’t help but bow to Shu Youliang, “Uncle Youliang, Haoju has been negligent before, please forgive me, Uncle Youliang.”

Shu Youliang waved his hand casually and laughed: “I think it’s worth it for the master to accept you as his disciple. In the past, I followed the master to be an official. I didn’t get any benefits along the way, but I did drink a lot of northwest wind.

Now that you are filial to me, buying melons and eating out, I can enjoy the good life with you. Haoju, you must have made a lot of money as a monk in the past few years.”

Huangfu Tan smiled awkwardly, “Uncle Youliang, my nephew has no hope of passing the imperial examination. In order to support my family, I have no choice but to do this ridiculous thing. I am ashamed.”

“What shame! If I had your ability, I wouldn’t have to be a servant to the master. I would have lived a life of luxury.

Fang Zhiyuan came up and reported, “Master, the eunuch Wang Cheng, the chief eunuch of the East Factory, is here.”

Hai Rui remained silent and followed him downstairs.

Huangfu Tan asked curiously, “Uncle Youliang, does the teacher know anyone from the East Factory?”

“What’s so strange about that? My master has a lot of respect in front of the emperor. Not to mention Diao Yan from the East Factory, even Eunuch Feng, the eunuch in charge of the East Factory and the seal of the Imperial Household Department, has to politely call my master Lord Hai when he sees him.”

Shu Youliang’s eyes swept across Huangfu Tan’s face a few times, and continued, “Don’t be led astray by those pedantic scholars. In the hands of bad people, a sword is a weapon for committing evil; in the hands of good people, it is a sharp weapon for punishing evil.

The master went south to the south of the Yangtze River on the emperor’s orders.

The East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard are powerful tools for investigating cases. The officials and gentry of Jiangnan have joined forces to form a dense network here. Our master is upright and has means, but his reputation is too great. If he farts, the whole southeast will smell it in a few days.

Even with all the help from above, our master can only get to the surface and not the key points.”

Huangfu Tan’s eyes lit up: “Uncle Youliang, the teacher is in the open, attracting the attention of officials and gentry in the southeast, while the Jinyiwei and the East Factory are in the dark. At the beginning, the teacher and Uncle Youliang deliberately infiltrated the Buddhist Lahu Society where my nephew was, and sneaked into Nanjing.

And then he made a big fuss to investigate the Tianjieyuan and other Buddhist and Taoist circles, and impeached many royal Buddhist temples and Zhang Tianshi of Longhu Mountain. Is this a trick of deceiving the world?”

Shu Youliang chuckled and said, “It’s good that you know it well.

These treacherous officials are all bad people with bad intentions. If you don’t use these tactics to deal with them, you won’t find anything.”

Huangfu Tan hesitated and asked, “Uncle Youliang, the emperor and the teacher are going to such great lengths to investigate what?”

He glanced at Shu Youliang and quickly added, “I’m just curious and asking casually.”

Shu Youliang chuckled, “You can ask casually, and I will answer casually. When the master left the capital, the emperor showed him the results of the Ministry of Revenue’s land survey in recent years.

Southern Zhili only surveyed 2.33 million acres of farmland, nearly half less than that of neighboring Zhejiang.

Nanzhili, Anhui, Jiangsu and Yingtianfu which had not yet been separated, Huaidong and Huaixi, northern Jiangsu and Suzhou, Changzhou and Songjiang, which were all rich and fertile places, surprisingly had less land measured than Zhejiang, which had seven parts of mountains, one part of water and two parts of farmland.

Is this not giving the emperor face? Or is this not giving the emperor face? “

Huangfu Tan suddenly realized that this was the case.

In recent years, he has participated in the Lahu Society and traveled to various places. He knows that in Huaibei and Huaixi of Anhui, due to the annual disasters of the Huai River, the fields are not vast and are mostly concentrated in the Huainan area.

Jiangsu is really rich.

Although Huaidong of Huai’an Prefecture also suffered from floods in the Yellow River and the Huai River, Yangzhou Prefecture to the south and the four prefectures of Zhen, Su, Chang and Song in the south of the Yangtze River have been the land of fish and rice since ancient times and important tax collection areas in the world.

Huangfu Tan said: “Uncle Youliang, because this place is rich in natural resources and has many talented people, there are too many officials and gentry. They are united and support each other, so they are fearless.”

Shu Youliang curled his lips, “Are you confident? These guys are too far away from the capital, and they don’t know the emperor’s methods. The master said that our emperor has a strong character, and his will and methods are first-class.

Look, starting from the 43rd year of Jiajing’s reign, tracing back to the Gengxu Rebellion, as long as he caught anyone with evidence, he would kill people in large numbers.

Let me tell you, compared to our emperor, our master is more like a kind-hearted man who recites scriptures and eats vegetarian food.”

Huangfu Tan was shocked, “The court is going to set up a large-scale prison in the southeast?” “So what?” Shu Youliang said disdainfully, “We all know how these officials and gentry abuse their power and bully the people on a daily basis.

They seized a large amount of land by trickery and then used various methods to hide the land and evade taxes. They enjoyed all the splendor and wealth, but pushed the taxes onto the common people.

Shouldn’t such people be severely punished?”

Huangfu Tan was also one of the victims and could not feel sympathy for those officials and gentry. He just didn’t know until now how the court would severely punish those officials and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River who were so fearless?

“Uncle Youliang, a case of fraud in the Southern Imperial Examination cannot cause any serious damage to the officials and gentry in Jiangnan.”

Shu Youliang chuckled, “You underestimate our emperor. There are so many officials and gentry in Jiangnan. The basket of a fraud case in the Southern Imperial Examination is too small to hold so many people.”

“That”

Shu Youliang interrupted Huangfu Tan and said, “Don’t talk about that. Don’t ask about things you shouldn’t ask about.”

At this time, Hai Rui returned to the second floor with a serious expression.

“Master, hurry up and eat the watermelon. Tongtai and Erzhou have a lot of sandy land, and the watermelons grown there are particularly delicious, crisp and sweet. But I heard that several cotton spinning mills in Shanghai bought or rented a large amount of land in Tongtai and Erzhou to plant the cotton varieties of Shanghai Agricultural Science Institute.

In the future, such delicious sweet potatoes may become less and less available.”

Shu Youliang said a few words, but Hai Rui still sat upright in his chair without saying a word.

He pursed his thin lips and looked at the bright moon on the river in the distance with sharp eyes.

“Tomoyoshi.”

“master.”

“Tell Zhang Dao and the others that we will continue to Suzhou, but we will not stop there. We will go straight to Songjiang Huating.”

“Huating?” Shu Youliang was stunned for a moment, “Master, are you going to visit the former Prime Minister Xu Gong?”

Hai Rui put his hands behind his back, walked to the railing, and looked at the cold river surface: “Shao Hugong is a veteran of three dynasties and the former chief minister of the cabinet. His dignity is also the dignity of the court.”

Shu Youliang blinked his eyes, “Why is the master talking about this respectability?”

“When I was just a small county official, I stopped Hu Ruzhen’s son without caring about his dignity. When I was just a small official in the six ministries in Beijing, I wrote a memorial to Emperor Shizong to make a death-defying appeal without caring about his dignity.”

Hai Rui patted the wooden railing, and his voice sounded very melancholy.

“Dignity. I am now the governor of Jiangsu and the Right Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, so I have to be dignified.”

At the Xu Mansion in Huating, Songjiang, Xu Ying hurried into the study in the middle courtyard.

“Master, a written order came from the county government. It was sent by the Jiangsu Governor Hai Gong from the Governor’s Office to our Xu Mansion.”

Xu Jie, who was sitting in a daze on the recliner beside the bed, suddenly stood up.

“Mr. Hai’s writings?”

“Yes.”

“Give me.”

Xu Ying hurriedly handed the letter over. Xu Jie stretched out his hand to take it, unfolded it and saw that the content was very simple. It was from Hai Rui, the governor of Jiangsu Province, who was inspecting Suzhou and Songjiang prefectures and was visiting the former prime minister Xu Gong in Huating County.

Xu Ying said anxiously, “Master, after Hai Rui investigated and dealt with dozens of Buddhist temples in Nanjing, he went to Yangzhou to take up his post, but only three or four days later he set off again to inspect the south.

Now he is heading straight to our Xu Mansion, Master, could it be that he is here on the orders of the Emperor to question us?”

Xu Jie put down his writing, lay back on the recliner, a look of relief on his face.

“If Hai Rui hadn’t come, this matter would have been difficult to resolve. Hai Rui’s coming means this matter can still be discussed.”

“Is there anything to discuss?” Xu Ying’s eyes lit up, “Could it be that the Master’s self-torture trick has spread to Yangzhou and Beijing and has worked?

The story of those ungrateful guys causing chaos in Xu’s residence and humiliating the master was published in the “Ci Lin” newspaper by Wang Linzhou’s brilliant pen. It spread far and wide across the country and caused a huge response.

Public opinion and the people’s hearts are on the master’s side. It seems that the court and Lord Hai are also under pressure from public opinion.”

“Don’t take it lightly. I still don’t know what chess the emperor is playing in Jiangnan. Is it a river-crossing pawn, a river-patrol chariot, a horse lying in the trough, or a cold alley cannon?

I can’t see through it, so I’d better be careful. By the way, where’s the second one?”

“Master, my second brother is still wandering around Suzhou, Zhenjiang, and Yangzhou, asking around for news about my eldest brother.”

Xu Jie shook his head: “I have been smart all my life, but I didn’t expect to have two such stupid kids. The two brothers are the dragon and phoenix of our Xu family.

I have tried my best to calculate, guess the will of heaven, and try hard to find a way out. I finally managed to stabilize Hai Rui and capture Jinshen, but who knows, they have easily broken it. “

Xu Ying quickly said, “My eldest and second brothers are smart people, they probably won’t do that.”

“They are only clever, but not wise. By the way, did the fourth brother write to you?”

“Master, my fourth brother sent me a letter saying that he had arrived in the capital and was recommended by Zhang Taiyue to study at Chongyi Public School.”

Xu Jie didn’t say anything, and closed his eyes unconsciously, with a look of fatigue on his face.

“Tell someone to get ready to welcome Hai Rui.”

“Yes, sir.”

(End of this chapter)