Zhu Houcong wanted to make the local bureaucrats know to be fearful, so he killed those bureaucrats who were impeached by Hai Rui.

As the emperor who was high above everyone else, if he wanted the good policies he wanted to implement to be effectively implemented and to truly achieve the strategic goal of greatly increasing the number of Han people in the world, he needed to trust these governors.

and so……

Whenever the governor impeached someone, he would kill him. This way, the local bureaucrats would know to be fearful and would not dare to act recklessly again.

But Yan Song also had his own considerations, so he spoke at this time and said to Zhu Houcong:
“Your Majesty, bureaucrats like Tian Youlu are certainly disloyal, but if they are executed directly because of impeachment by the governor, it may force them to take risks for fear that the governor will find any problems, and the governor may be assassinated in the local area!”

“And since they are temporary officials, they are naturally not afraid of being punished by the imperial court.”

“Your Majesty, what the Prime Minister said is true. If this is the case, the governor will not dare to impeach again, and will be more willing to turn a blind eye to the truth below.”

“When implementing major policies, we must be strict, but we must not be too strict either. We must leave some room so that these disloyal officials can have awe and know that compromise is a better option than taking risks.”

“And if you want to take his life, it would be better to wait until something really happens to him.”

Xu Jie then followed up.

Zhu Houcong thought about it seriously.

He also knew that the bureaucracy itself was only willing to seize benefits from the people but not to benefit the people.

and so……

It is rare for a bureaucrat to have a bottom line when exploiting the people’s interests, or to not exploit the people’s interests or benefit the people and just live a life of ease.

Most bureaucrats are eager to squeeze every household dry.

As the saying goes, perfection leads to destruction.

Zhu Houcong thought about it and said, “Well, the officials who were impeached will be exiled instead.”

“Yes!”

……

……

When Tian Youlu learned that he was going to be exiled to Luzon, he collapsed to the ground.

He looked at the Censor in bewilderment.

The prosecutor’s men only urged him to hurry up and go with them.

“What bad luck I have to have met such an inspector.”

“I didn’t intend to use this incident to extort money from the people. I just wanted to live a peaceful life. I had to do this because you, the Coast Guard, wanted to investigate.”

“Besides, even if I extorted money, it wasn’t as much as I did elsewhere. I just took some symbolic money to satisfy the officials below.”

Tian Youlu had no choice but to follow the Censor’s men, but he complained in his heart.

Hai Rui’s strict inspections did make local officials in Zhejiang very dissatisfied.

“Everyone becomes an official just to make money. At the very least, they just want to have enough food and drink every month without having to work so hard. How can they really do that for the benefit of the people?”

“But Hai Rui is just as stubborn as the current imperial court. In order to give money to the people, he forces those who want to get rich to not get rich, and those who want to live comfortably to not live comfortably.”

“He doesn’t let us live a comfortable life, so we should make him uncomfortable too.”

this day.

The Zhejiang Provincial Government Office, the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner He Maocai and other Zhejiang officials who were in collusion with each other and had leverage over each other gathered here to complain to each other.

After hearing what these people said, He Maocai even looked directly at the Left Provincial Government Envoy Zheng Michang and said, “Old Zheng, please say something. Do you want to find someone to make him disappear?”

“shut up!”

Zheng Michang immediately frowned and shouted at He Maocai.

then.

Zheng Michang added: “They are inspectors, not ordinary people. Your Majesty did not kill the impeached officials this time, which clearly shows that you have no intention of tearing your face off. If you really want to tear your face off, maybe all the officials in Zhejiang will have to die!”

“I’m just asking.”

He Maocai said this, then turned around and looked at his colleagues in Zhejiang, and spread his hands and said:

“But we can’t really let Hai Rui torture us like this and make our lives miserable. Otherwise, we won’t be able to live like this!”

“Let me tell you about my people from the Censorate. They have to go to the counties and prefectures every day to take back the exiled people!”

“Those people deserve to be arrested!”

“But this makes it impossible for me, the magistrate, to do anything for myself.”

He Maocai then looked at Zheng Michang and said, “Your governor is not much better, right? Didn’t Hai Rui say that he wanted to check the governor’s accounts and suspected that your governor had withheld the subsidy money allocated to the people?”

“There is such a thing.”

“So, I have quickly distributed all the silver dollars, and also added two more dollars, in order to explain to your majesty that the Zhejiang Provincial Government has been delaying the payment of this money not because it wants to swallow the money, but because it is calculating whether the province can use a little more from the surplus to promote your majesty’s benevolence.”

Zheng Michang said.

He Maocai couldn’t help but ask, “In that case, the increased expenditures of the Zhejiang government offices this year will be wasted?”

Zheng Michang nodded: “Yes, let’s make the various government offices suffer first. Now that the King of Hell has come, and His Majesty’s sword is hanging over us at any time, everyone should bear with it for a while.”

“What a sin!”

“Give the people the silver dollars, and let the officials suffer injustice.”

“I really don’t know who is the official and who is the common people!”

He Maocai complained with a depressed look on his face.

Zheng Michang glared at him and said, “Stop talking! The people are the most important, the emperor is the least important, and the country is the least important. This is what the sage said. Your Majesty also ruled the world according to the words of the sage, and Hai Rui also served as an official according to the words of the sage. You also became an official by writing articles about the sage. You can’t let the world deny the sage and label the sage a thief!”

“Besides, if you do this, you will only earn 18,000 less per year. If you spread it out evenly, each household that receives the emperor’s grace will only get 6 or 7 silver dollars per year. Why bother with it so much?”

“Are you really going to quit your job just for this?”

“Sometimes, it’s good to let the fish grow a little fatter and catch more of them!”

After Zheng Michang said this, he began to speak for the emperor:
“Your Majesty, you are doing this for the long term. If you don’t take advantage of the prosperity of the country to support more people and make more people prosperous, what will our descendants eat in the future?”

He Maocai was convinced by this and only argued:
“I don’t blame your majesty, I just can’t stand Hai Rui’s arrogance! If every official is so stubborn and unwilling to be humble, how can we be officials?”

“It’s like, no matter how fat and plentiful the fish in a river are, if fishermen aren’t allowed to catch them, they won’t be edible!”

After He Maocai said this, he asked the others: “Don’t you agree?”

“Yes! We can bear the injustice this time, and it doesn’t matter if we make less money. We are not the kind of people who want to wait for thousands or tens of thousands of dollars to come down before we can buy rice to cook. But we just can’t tolerate Hai Rui being an official like this, making everyone worried and unable to live a comfortable life. It would be better for me to die now!”

“That’s right, Hai Rui, please don’t push me too far. If he does, I’ll really fight him to the death! It doesn’t matter if I die or not, as long as I can take Hai Rui’s life, it’s worth it!”

The officials below also followed suit.

Zheng Michang coughed hurriedly at this time: “There is no need to be so angry. We have encountered many hateful officials. How can it really be a life-and-death struggle? When I was studying at the Practical School, I read a good saying in the “Holy Instructions” that you should trust your colleagues. Even if some colleagues have gone the wrong way, you should try your best to save them. Hai Rui is also a person who reads the books of sages like us. There is no need to really torture him to death from the beginning. You know, what Your Majesty hates most is internal strife to the point of life and death!”

“So what do you think we should do?”

He Maocai then asked about Zheng Michang.

Zheng Michang said: “Kill someone close to him and scare him!”

“I have investigated everything. In addition to his widowed mother and wife, he only has one daughter. They have all left the Ministry of Revenue and are now living with Hai Rui in the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate’s residence.”

“His wife usually never goes out, but his widowed mother would occasionally take her daughter out to the market to buy things or go to the temple to burn incense for Hai Rui to have a child!”

“Or let him lose his widowed mother, hide his daughter, and force him to mourn. If he still insists on making things difficult for the officials in the future, we can prevent father and daughter from seeing each other, and let his daughter go to Jiaozhi to sell herself?”

He Maocai came over at this time and whispered to Zheng Michang.

Zheng Michang nodded: “Remember to do it carefully!” “I am serving a 20-year sentence after all!”

“Don’t worry!”

He Maocai chuckled sinisterly.

……

……

Qinhuai River.

Because Hai Rui had no children, and Hai’s mother heard that there was a temple on the other side of the Qinhuai River outside the city that was very effective in praying for children, so Hai’s mother brought her granddaughter to the temple on that day.

“Nannan, kowtow to the Buddha and ask him to give you a younger brother.”

“This way, you won’t have to worry about being bullied by your tribe members when you grow up.”

The sea mother, kneeling in front of the Bodhisattva, said to her granddaughter with a smile.

Every time she prayed for a child, she would bring her granddaughter with her, hoping that the Bodhisattva would have mercy on her and allow the Hai family to have a descendant because her granddaughter would need a younger brother in the future and would not have to worry about being wiped out.

As a widow for many years, she knew very well how difficult it would be for a woman without weak brothers or young children to live in this “cannibalistic” society.

Therefore, whether it was to allow her own Hai family to have incense, or to prevent her son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter and her family from being wiped out in the future due to childlessness, she really wanted the Bodhisattva to give her a grandson.

The mermaid also obediently kowtowed to the Bodhisattva several times, making loud kowtow sounds.

Hai Mu was also very happy to see this, and when she left the temple, she fulfilled her granddaughter’s request and bought her a string of candied haws.

The female diver happily licked the water while following her grandmother to the dock.

“Grandma, eat!”

When they got on the boat, the mermaid suddenly took the initiative to hand it to the mother sea.

Haimu smiled and refused: “Nannan is filial, but grandma can’t eat it. Grandma has bad teeth and it hurts to eat sweet things.”

After saying this, the mother sea touched the head of the female seaman.

At this moment, the boat they were on suddenly shook and water gurgled out of the boat.

“Grandma, the boat is taking on water!”

The Ama also shouted at this time.

“Grandma! My daughter is scared!”

At this time, the boat was quickly covered with water, and the female divers also jumped into the water. Before sinking into the water, she shouted.

At this time, the jellyfish had already been forcibly dragged into the water by the people who were hiding in the water.

……

……

Yongjia.

Hai Rui, who had just returned from paying homage to Zhang Cong, was preparing to board a ship back to Hangzhou to check the accounts of the Governor.

Zhang Siwei, the Imperial Censor who was with him, rushed over to him at this time, stopped Hai Rui, and whispered, “Your Majesty, there’s news from the Southern Capital that your mother and daughter have fallen into the water.”

After hearing this, Hai Rui suddenly felt a loud bang beside his ear, and he felt as if the world around him was spinning.

Immediately afterwards, Hai Rui violently spat out a mouthful of blood.

“Xian Zun!”

Zhang Siwei hurriedly supported Hai Rui.

Hai Rui seemed to have all his strength drained away, his face as pale as paint: “I am unfilial!”

Zhang Siwei pursed his lips, forced back the corners of his slightly raised mouth, and said comfortingly:

“Don’t be too sad, Xianzun. Nandu just said they fell into the water. The details haven’t been reported yet. Maybe they are fine.”

Hai Rui gave a sad smile: “How could I fall into the water for no reason? I actually expected that they would do this to force me to mourn for the rest of my life.”

……

……

“Your Majesty, urgent news came from the south that the mother and daughter of the sea fell into the water. It seems that someone wants Hai Rui to be in mourning. They cannot tolerate an upright official like Hai Rui and make it difficult for them to live in peace.”

Two months later, as soon as Yan Song learned that Hai Rui’s family had been murdered, he immediately went to the imperial study with Xu Jie to report the matter to Zhu Houcong.

Zhu Houcong said, “That’s true, but fortunately I have already sent the Royal Guards to secretly protect people like Hai Rui. So I have already received a secret report from the Royal Guards. Hai Mu and Hai Nu are both fine. They are now recuperating with a doctor named Li Shizhen.”

After Zhu Houcong said this, Yan Song and Xu Jie both widened their eyes.

Then, Yan Song smiled and said, “This is a lucky thing for Haimen. If it weren’t for your majesty’s protection, the traitor would have succeeded.”

“I have been thinking about this these days, and I feel that although I cannot do without bureaucrats and scholars to govern the country, they are generally unable to practice the way of sages and treat the people as human beings!”

“So, if I want them to supervise each other, I have to make great efforts to make them supervise each other.”

“The secret reporting system alone is not enough.”

“I have decided to continue to punish counties like Chun’an that are found to be failing to implement national policies by banning the imperial examinations!”

“The reason is that the gentry in Chun’an, especially those prominent officials who retired to the countryside, were required to stay at home and not sign official documents, but basically none of them actively supervised whether the officials were implementing national policies well.”

“When the land survey was being carried out, there were many hypocrites, who kept filing petitions to accuse the officials who were doing the surveying seriously of misconduct. But how come when the population census was conducted and money was distributed to single-parent families and families with multiple children, there was no hypocrisy at all, and no one organized a public protest?”

“When I and the people need them to supervise the government and speak for the world, why don’t they speak up?”

“Are they only concerned about family affairs and not the affairs of the country or the world?”

“Who made them suddenly silent?”

“It can be said that I have failed the country’s grace and my responsibility as a scholar-official!”

Zhu Houcong said at this point: “So, I must punish them! Force them to supervise the government! This will also prevent only a few officials like Hai Rui from supervising the bureaucracy to do these things that benefit the people and the country. Even if the evil people can persecute the relatives of loyal officials to threaten them, they can’t persecute all the gentry, right?”

talking.

Zhu Houcong asked the cabinet to issue an order to ban the imperial examinations for one term in places like Chun’an that failed to implement national policies.

After Hai Rui’s mother and daughter fell into the water, the Jinyiwei who were lurking beside them jumped into the water and rescued them.

However, the person sent by He Maocai to monitor the matter did not see what happened next and returned to Hangzhou first.

He Maocai only knew that two people had fallen into the water, so he happily came to Zheng Michang and shouted:
“Old Zheng, Old Zheng!”

“what’s up?”

Zheng Michang glanced at him and asked.

“Hai Rui’s mother and daughter fell into the water.”

“Shall we just wait for news about his mourning period?”

He Maocai said with a smile.

Zheng Michang nodded, then looked at him and said, “I don’t think we can be too happy about this. I’m always worried that there are Jinyiwei or something secretly protecting Hai Rui’s family.”

“No way.”

“He is just an imperial inspector. Is it necessary for Your Majesty to pay so much attention to him?”

“Besides, you still don’t trust me in my work? I have been in prison for 20 years! Even if the Royal Guards come to investigate, they won’t be able to find out what I did!” (End of this chapter)