prosperous age

Wei Guangde lived a leisurely life in Bengshan Castle, but life became difficult in Xujie, Huating.

After Cai Guoxi received Gao Gong's letter, he became interested in it and secretly collected criminal evidence of the Xu family with even stronger enthusiasm than Hai Rui.

Naturally, Cai Guoxi's little moves couldn't be hidden from the local Xu Jie family, but since the other party didn't make any obvious moves, it was hard for them to get angry.

After all, the Xu family has no one in the officialdom now.

Xu Jie was worried that after he left the officialdom, he would leave his children to continue hanging out in the officialdom, and eventually offend the wrong people.

Naturally, I know the nature of my own children best, and they are all used to being arrogant.

When they were in the capital, the two sons caused a lot of troubles in the capital, and that was when Yan Shifan had the power to overpower his son, and they dared to behave like this.

Of course, Xu Jie's indulgence of his son at that time actually meant that he deliberately left an excuse for the Yan family.

You know, at that time, the Yan family was very much on guard against him, so Xu Jie acquiesced in allowing his son to wander around in the capital, in order to show the Yan family that he had evidence of his incompetence in raising his son, so that the other party could rest assured.

Little did they know that because of this, the two children's personalities were ruined.

His good friend Wang Ji once said to him privately, "You spoil your children so much that I can only watch disaster befall you." "

But Xu Jie had no choice at this time. His two sons, Xu Fan and Xu Kun, were older and had developed personalities. Even if they had to correct them, it would be difficult to correct them. Therefore, after he resigned, he asked them to resign their posts and follow him back to his hometown. , and also hoped to be able to watch it in front of his eyes, so as not to cause a big disaster.

In the capital, the case of Sun Kehong was reported, which involved the cases of Sun Wu, Gu Shao, Xu Yuanheng and others. After Sun Kehong, Sun Wu and others were thrown into the Shuntian Mansion Prison in the capital, they were tortured to obtain confessions. With this evidence, , Cai Guoxi finally stopped hiding and began to openly collect charges against the Xu family from various counties in Songjiang Prefecture.

But initially, the effort to collect the incriminating evidence did not go smoothly.

When Hai Rui was the governor of Yingtian, the people still had some illusions, especially since Hai Rui's name of "Hai Qingtian" had already spread throughout the world.

However, after a large number of pleadings were sent to Yingtian Mansion, Hai Rui was transferred from his post before the case was tried. This made the people lose trust in the government.

They didn't know that this lawsuit involved high-ranking court affairs. They just thought that Xu Jie had served as chief minister and still had deep connections in the officialdom, so they didn't really believe that Cai Guoxi could do better than Hai Rui.

There was no other way. In order to obtain more evidence of the Xu family's crimes, Cai Guoxi even offered a high reward to collect evidence of the Xu family's crimes, which caused an uproar in Songjiang Mansion.

As for why Cai Guoxi did not obtain the charges originally collected by Hai Rui, we have to talk about Zhu Daqi.

After taking over the position of governor of Yingtian from Hai Rui, Zhu Daqi was unwilling to get involved in the fight between Gao Gong and Xu Jie, so he directly sealed the files and no one was allowed to consult or copy them.

As for whether his doing so would cause Gao Gong to be dissatisfied, Zhu Daqi didn't care. At worst, he could return to his hometown to retire, since he had earned enough money anyway.

If Wei Guangde was still in court, as a fellow villager, there would still be a chance to move to the capital. But now that Wei Guangde has returned to his hometown of Dingyou, Zhu Daqi has given up hope.

Cai Guoxi's persistent efforts to collect evidence from the Xu family finally aroused the reaction of the people of Songjiang Prefecture. Some people began to submit petitions to him, and the Xu family also retaliated against these people.

For a time, the situation in Songjiang Mansion began to become chaotic.

In this case, Yuan Fuzheng, the former comrade of Xu Jie's old friend, and Mo Shilong, a student member, reported to Cai Guoxi some illegal behaviors of Xu Jie and his three sons. Cai Guoxi, as if he had found a treasure, immediately issued an order to arrest Xu Jie. Xu Fan and Xu Kun, the sons of Jie.

When Hai Rui was involved in this case, although he also issued arrest warrants, no one was arrested.

Cai Guoxi had long sent people to secretly track the whereabouts of the Xu family's children, so after collecting what he thought was enough evidence, Cai Guoxi became more decisive in arresting people.

He really wants to arrest people.

He knew very well that the Xu family had been working hard in Songjiang Mansion for a long time and had deep-rooted influence, so Xu Fan and Xu Kun could not be arrested immediately. As long as they were hidden, it would be difficult to find them again.

Unlike Hai Rui, Hai Rui ordered the arrest to put pressure on Xu Jie and did not really intend to arrest him at first.

Therefore, after Cai Guoxi gave the order, Xu Fan and Xu Kun were captured by the officials that day and put into Songjiang Mansion Prison.

With Xu Fan and Xu Kun imprisoned, it was like a gap opened in the Thousand Miles Embankment.

In recent years, many common people and wealthy households have been plotted against by the Xu family. In addition to the common people taking the initiative to donate money in order to avoid taxes, the Xu family's children also used Xu Jie's position as chief and assistant official to roam the countryside and occupy people's fields.

One of the most commonly used methods is to set up gambling bureaus, lure wealthy businessmen to participate in gambling, and then take the opportunity to issue usury loans. This method not only obtains huge profits, but also obtains a lot of fertile land by forcing debts.

At first, the people were worried that Cai Guoxi's investigation of the Xu family was just a formality to gain benefits from the Xu family. However, after seeing Xu Jie's two sons being arrested, dissatisfaction with the Xu family finally broke out.

Countless pieces of paper flew like snowflakes to Su Song's army and fell into the hands of Cai Guoxi. Countless oppressed people gathered outside the Xu Mansion and made noise day and night.

The people who had been extorted by the Xu family and had no way to complain began to release their anger at this moment. They wanted to seek justice from the Xu family and reclaim their occupied fields and extorted money.

"Sir, the latest Di newspaper has been copied back."

Wei Guangde was warming himself by the fire in his study while reading.

The weather was so cold that Wei Guangde didn't know what to do. Apart from visiting the grave every day, he almost stayed at home and didn't go out.

"let me see."

Wei Guangde took a look at the newspaper after taking it from Zhang Ji.

He had already received a letter from the capital and knew that the shipping from Huai'an to Tianjin was about to begin, so his interest in Di Bao increased greatly during this period, just to see when the imperial court would officially issue the letter.

Although now is definitely not a good time to go to sea, such orders are usually issued first to allow local authorities to prepare in advance.

These documents do not need to be kept confidential. They will be published in Di Bao and delivered to all parts of the Ming Dynasty.

"what."

At this moment, Wei Guangde was attracted by an official document.

At this time, the Ministry of Punishment responded to the approval of some local cases, just as later generations of serious criminals had to report to the Supreme Court for approval step by step. The Ministry of Punishment of the Ming Dynasty also had this responsibility.

Wei Guangde did not see the news in the Di newspaper that the Ministry of Revenue ordered grain transportation by sea, but he saw the Ministry of Punishment's approval of the Xu family in Songjiang Prefecture for occupying official and private land and committing tax evasion crimes.

"The Xu family has been ruined."

Wei Guangde couldn't help but sigh.

Songjiang Prefecture issued a very heavy verdict on the Xu family's land occupation case. Xu Jie's eldest son, Xu Kun, and his second sons, Xu Pan and Xu Min, were found guilty. More than ten sons and nephews in the family were all sentenced to exile to guard the border. Servants and pro-party members were implicated and their fields were confiscated.

Xu Jie's name was not mentioned in the verdict. Wei Guangde guessed that it might be because of his relationship with the chief minister. Even if he wanted to be convicted, he would need to get the emperor's consent, which was a bit troublesome, or it might be split into two cases for trial.

However, from this incident, Wei Guangde also saw Gao Gong's ruthlessness.

To be honest, it has been so long that Wei Guangde actually thought it was over. After all, when he was in the capital, there were rumors that Gao Gong would fabricate charges to retaliate against Xu Jie when he returned to the court.

Now it seems that Xu Jie's method only made Gao Gong a little shy in the short term, but it did not dispel his desire to retaliate against Xu Jie.

After planning for a long time, he finally took action and retaliated hard.

"Is there any letter from the capital?"

Xu Jie's experience has little to do with Wei Guangde, but he is also concerned about the current situation in the capital.

Wei Guangde didn't believe that Zhang Juzheng and Xu Jie's other disciples would turn a blind eye. They would definitely try their best to rescue Xu Jie.

As Wei Guangde guessed, after the opening of the government in the sixth year of Longqing, the atmosphere in the cabinet became very bad. Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng often quarreled behind closed doors in the duty room, but most of the time they still discussed government affairs and handled state affairs.

But everyone in the cabinet knew that the two people were actually arguing about the punishment in the Xu Jie case.

Cai Guoxi had already delivered all the crimes against the Xu family to the capital. Zhang Juzheng was overwhelmed by Gao Gong's sudden attack.

After seeing the solid evidence against Xu Jie, all Zhang Juzheng could do was try his best to get a slightly more lenient verdict for the Xu family.

It was impossible to suppress the matter, as Zhang Juzheng still had a high arch on top, but he thought he could still find a way to remove the Xu steps.

After Zhang Juzheng repeatedly appealed to Emperor Longqing for mercy, Emperor Longqing handed over the power to deal with the Xu family to the cabinet.

As a veteran minister who had served both Emperor Jiajing and himself, Emperor Longqing still couldn't bear to punish Xu Jie severely.

These days, Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong are arguing about this, that is, no matter what the crime is, as long as it is not rebellion and rebellion, cabinet ministers should not be punished. After all, the cabinet bachelor represents the face of scholars all over the world.

Punishment is not good for the doctor, nor is it good for the common man.

To be honest, Gao Gong wanted to completely crush Xu Jie to death at first.

However, following Zhang Juzheng's reasons, Gao Gong also fell into deep thought.

After experiencing many things, he has long passed the impulsive age, and has begun to leave a way out for himself when doing things, at least for his own family.

Previously, he wanted to completely destroy the Xu family for the sake of his family.

But under Zhang Juzheng's persuasion, he also realized that some unspoken rules in officialdom were still useful.

For example, for the protection of cabinet ministers, as long as it is not a serious crime of rebellion, you can be exempted. This is not only a right that Xu Jie can have, but also him.

If you purge the officialdom yourself, you don't know how many people you will offend.

Naturally, nothing will happen when he is in power, but what if he loses power?

Today, Zhang Juzheng came to him with a memorial from Liu Tai, the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. In fact, he wanted to plead for Xu Jie.

"Master Chief Assistant, in this memorial from Liu Yushi, he said that the punishment in Xu Jie's case was too severe, and the court should give him a lighter sentence."

"Uncle, I didn't punish him for the crime of lax discipline. In fact, the imperial court was extremely merciful."

As soon as Zhang Juzheng finished speaking, Gao Gong said impatiently.

Most of the evidence collected by Cai Guoxi pointed to the descendants of the Xu family, but there was no evidence that Xu Jie was involved.

Think about it, as the chief minister of the cabinet, it is naturally impossible to get involved in the nonsense of the family members.

However, Xu Jie didn't know it at the time, but he must have known it afterwards. However, he did not choose to correct his mistakes, but planned to stand up for the children of the family and cover up their mistakes.

It was precisely because there was no evidence pointing to Xu Jie that Cai Guoxi did not arrest him, but it did not make Xu Jie feel better.

With his acquiescence and the deliberate indifference of the officials in charge of public security, a large number of Songjiang people rushed into the Xu family manor to snatch their property, claiming to get back the things that had been plundered by the Xu family. Some people who had been wronged even surrounded Xu Jie and started to wreak havoc. abuse.

Faced with such a situation, Xu Jie had no choice but to bow his head and endure it.

When a large number of people besieged the manor, Xu Jie sent someone to notify the Huating County government, hoping that they could send people to suppress these unruly people, but they were ruthlessly rejected by the Huating County magistrate.

He had received Cai Guoxi's instructions. At this time, most of the officials in Songjiang Prefecture's counties had actually defected to Cai Guoxi.

The backer behind him was Gao Gong, the chief minister of the dynasty. Xu Jie has become a thing of the past. Even his fellow countryman Yuan Fuzheng and others have betrayed him and reported to Cai Guoxi to expose the Xu family's crimes.

With such public dissatisfaction, Xu Jie did not dare to order his servants to take drastic measures. Otherwise, it would be a catastrophe and the Xu family would suffer a disaster.

It was easy to gather dozens of servants, and under their protection, Xu Jiecai escaped from the family manor and retreated to a friend's house in Zhejiang for temporary refuge. He did not dare to stay here in Songjiang Mansion. Cai Guoxi's attitude was already clear, that is, he wanted to be with him. enemy.

Now his only reliance is that he was once a cabinet minister. Without the emperor's will, Cai Guoxi would not dare to do anything excessive to him.

As for why Xu Jie didn't deal with Cai Guoxi the same way he dealt with Hai Rui at the beginning, it was because at this time Xu Jie knew very well that Gao Gong had become the chief assistant, and many of the relationships he could rely on had actually expired.

As for Zhang Juzheng, Xu Jie also understood clearly. He just hoped that Zhang Juzheng would not be stupid.

Now that the defeat was certain, Xu Jie was also a bachelor. During his escape, he took the time to write a letter and sent his friend Lu Guang, a retainer in the palace, to the capital with the letter to surrender to Gao Gong.

This is the only thing he can do now.

The previous means of checking and balancing Gaogong have all failed, and there is no other way except pleading.

Just yesterday, Lu Guang entered Gao Gong's mansion under the arrangement of Zhang Juzheng. Although Gao Gong did not agree to anything after begging in every possible way, Zhang Juzheng still hinted to his censor today and began to plead with the Xu family.

"Mr. Gao, it is understandable that Mr. Xu Ge was so busy with state affairs that he neglected to discipline his own children. Please be kind to me. The punishment of being exiled for three thousand miles is too severe."

Zhang Juzheng said.

Xu Jie's biggest crime had to be covered up, so the only crimes that could be punished were land embezzlement and tax evasion. According to Ming law, exile was not actually a serious crime.

"Xu Ge Lao always flaunted himself to the outside world as being fair and honest, but he knew about his own affairs but did not correct them, but continued to indulge them. It is always correct to say that his personal ethics were lacking.

If he cannot properly discipline his own children, it is also good for the court laws to discipline them on his behalf.

What's more, according to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, Xu Jiazi's punishment was not serious. "

Gao Gong frowned and said.

"Mr. Xu Ge has been loyal to the country for many years. He has worked hard even if he has no merit. Doesn't Gao Gong have any compassion? Mr. Xu Ge is already almost 70 years old. I'm afraid he will be assigned to his children."

There was a mournful sound in Zhang Juzheng's voice.