.Chapter 853 I Don’t Agree (Part 1)

Fortunately, Hai Rui was quick-witted and quickly, so he rushed to Xu Jie to hold him before kneeling on the ground. He helped the old pavilion back to the chair and sat down. Hai Rui sighed: "If I had known today, why would you have been there..."

"Yes," Xu Jie smiled and said with a slut: "I am beyond regret. Lord Hai, I don't make it difficult for you..." He paused and said with a pause: "Why not do this? The "Da Ming Law" contains a clear text. As long as it is not a death sentence, the family members can pay the blame. I would rather hand over a batch of land and atone for the children. It's okay to save people and uphold the law in this way. Do you think?"

Hai Rui was silent. He knew that Xu Jie must have known his final purpose, so he said this. After pondering for a while, he slowly said: "There is indeed this rule in the law, but the crime committed by the two young masters has not yet been concluded. It is still unclear whether this rule applies."

"Gangfeng..." Xu Jie said sadly: "Is it because I begged in every way but I have no effect at all?"

"Oh..." Hai Rui locked his eyebrows tightly and let go after a long time, "Forget it, the Grand Master is so begging me. If I, Hai Rui, are not at all comfortable, I, will be a little unsatisfied," said and looked at Xu Jie and said, "I have three conditions. If the Grand Master agrees, the two princes will not be investigated."

"Please talk to Gangfeng." Xu Jie kept following the path of sadness.

"The first thing is that a famine occurred in Wuzhong this year. The government needed to purchase a batch of grain from Lin Province to provide disaster relief to survive the spring famine. However, because of the war in the north, the vassal treasury was taken away and the province did not deposit silver. He had to raise funds from wealthy businessmen everywhere. He also hoped that the Grand Tutor could be an example and take the lead in responding." Hai Rui said then.

"This is what it should be." Xu Jie nodded.

"For the second, the officials heard that there were as many as thousands of famous families in the Xu Mansion and were out there, which had a very bad impact on the reputation of the Taishi. It is recommended that you take the initiative to remove the slandered household registration so that they cannot continue to use their power to do evil..." Hai Rui proposed the second article.

"..." Xu Jie was silent for a moment, and said, "This matter is very important, but it cannot be agreed to at the moment."

"No rush, let me finish this..." Hai Rui nodded and expressed his understanding: "According to proof, the land occupied by the Taishi Mansion is really amazing in quantity and has a very bad impact."

"Let me say this," Xu Jie hurriedly said, "Although I've been away all year round, I don't ask about trivial matters after I come back, and I don't know much about the number of land and houses in the Han family. But I also know that most of the land under the Han family's name actually does not belong to the Han family, but is sent by relatives and friends over the years. This is an old case, and the villagers cannot refuse. In fact, the Han family itself has no benefits, but it is a shame. This time I can take this opportunity to remove this burden, which is considered a heart-wrenching illness."

"It's so good." Hai Rui nodded and said, "I'll give the Grand Master three days, and you can give you an understandable answer in three days. How about?"

"Thank you for your understanding." Xu Jie slowly stood up, as if he had become much older.

Hai Rui helped the trembling old master Xu to the yard and helped him into the sedan chair, but after he didn't see the curtain falling down, Xu Jie's faint old eyes gradually became as sharp as before.

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When the sedan chair returned to the mansion, the two sons rushed forward to support Xu Jie, but he pushed them away. They had to look at the father in shock and walked into the study with his hands behind his back. Seeing the posture of walking and shaking, he was not as old as he was in the governor's yamen.

"Emotion is acting..." Xu Kun whispered.

"You only know..." Xu Fan curled his lips. He followed his father all year round, so naturally he was not surprised by Xu Jie's acting skills.

The two followed into the study and saw Xu Jie standing in front of the lattice window with his hands facing away from the door.

He called his father carefully and waited for a long time before he heard Xu Jie say slowly: "How many fields do you have?" Hai Rui actually said that his family's 'many industry is shocking. It seems that the number of fields in his family is definitely not an ordinary large one.

"This..." The two sons looked at each other and hesitated.

"It's already this time," Xu Jie said coldly: "Do you still hide it from me?"

"Dad misunderstood," Xu Kun whispered: "The main reason is that each room has an account, and there is never a summary, and no one can explain it clearly for a while."

"Then check..." Although Xu Jie did not make a noise, his voice was so cold that it was even more uncomfortable.

The two sons went down quickly and took people to each room to collect the accounts... This was originally a forbidden property for each room, and no other room was allowed to be checked, but now it is an extraordinary period. Everyone knows that the third and fourth brothers were locked up in the ancestral hall, and even the old man went to the governor's yamen to plead with him. Obviously, the biggest crisis in the Xu family was right in front of him. Therefore, they obediently handed over the account book and then summarized it in Xu Jie's former study room.

Because it is the top secret of the Xu Mansion, all the accounts in the mansion cannot be used. Only Xu Fan and Xu Kun took the initiative to join Xu Jie's confidant Mr. Li and Mr. Lu, the four of them were plucking the abacus, from noon to night.

They calculated in the inner part, and Xu Jie was waiting outside. He wanted to read a book for a while, but when he heard the sound of beads, he couldn't read it up in dismay, so he could only close his eyes and pretend to sleep. In his mind, he remembered the incident of King Jing's retreating land five years ago... In the spring of the 44th year of Jiajing, King Jing Zhu Zaitin passed away and had no son behind him. His fiefdom in Chu was naturally abolished, but King Jing's mansion had tens of thousands of hectares of imperial farmland in his fiefdom. After his death, these farmlands were occupied by his relatives and officials. These farmlands were naturally owned by the local people, so the people were very angry, which almost led to a change. Later, Xu Jie requested to withdraw the farmlands and seize the farmlands of the Jingfu Royal Village to the local people, so that the "Chu Yue" still praised his kindness.

Five years ago, he ordered Prince Jing's mansion to withdraw the fields, and now it was Hai Rui's turn to withdraw the fields... Xu Jie laughed mockingly, but after laughing, he sighed in a desolate sigh. Gradually, he closed his eyes and wandered in a daze, as if he had returned to Beijing, and was the chief minister of the empire who called the wind and rain. He sent the ignorant Hai Rui away.

It was not until he was woken up by his two sons that Xu Jie said goodbye to the former Rongguang and returned to reality: "Have you found out clearly?"

"I have a rough number." Xu Fan nervously put on a list of chapters and said, "Don't be angry, Father."

"..." Xu Jie looked at him, took it silently, glanced at the last number, and his eyes widened. He looked at it again, and he was sure that his eyes turned black and leaned on the recliner for a long time and couldn't speak.

Xu Fan quickly stepped forward, stroked his back and pressed his chest again. Xu Jie gradually turned around and stared at Xu Kun with an incredible look on his face and said, "What do you want to do so much? You are not looking for death like this!"

"Don't calm down," Xu Kun quickly knelt on the ground and said in panic: "You have left your hometown for many years, but you may not know that these years are very different from before. Now the people of Songjiang no longer make a living by farming. Many couples go to the factory to work, so they send their land to the name of large households, with only a portion of the grain every year. Then the large households hire people from the north to farm, so the land naturally concentrates on a few households. Our Xu family abides by the rules and cannot do business. The name of benevolence and righteousness is spread far away, so naturally it has become one of them... If our family did not have farming for the people, Su Song would not have known how much land was deserted!"

"You are still heroes in love!" Although Xu Kun said it very clearly, who is Xu Jie and who can deceive him? Hearing this, he sneered and said, "Why are the common people going crazy and want to withdraw their fields and sue our family for robbing them!"

"This may be the case, but in general it is what the child said." Xu Kun whispered.

"Okay," Xu Jie laughed in anger and said, "I should have brought you to Beijing at the beginning. With this kind of nonsense, I am much more promising than your elder brother to be an official."

Xu Kun lowered his head and dared not speak.

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"Dongweng calms down. Now is not the time to hold people accountable. How does the gate handle the gate in front of him?" Seeing that the scene was stiff, Mr. Li quickly told Ximian.

"Well..." Xu Jie let out a deep breath of turbid air and asked, "What are your opinions, sir?"

"Actually, we all understand what Hai Rui is doing in Songjiang this time. So even if the 'retire of withdrawing the land can be exempted from crime', his appetite will never be small." Mr. Li whispered: "Our family has a great business, and even a few tens of thousands of acres of land under the name of a housekeeper, it will not be a problem to satisfy him." He paused: "But if we really retreated so much land, wouldn't it be confirmed by Hai Rui's accusations in turn, making people think that the Xu family really occupied the land of the people?"

"Yes, it's really a dilemma." Xu Jie nodded and said, "Hai Rui also asked me to donate, the same is true. If I donate less, it will definitely make him dissatisfied. But if I really donated tens of thousands of taels, how will the Qingliu in the morning look at me?"

"Yes, you can't compromise." Xu Fan also spoke on the other side: "Take a step back, and this family business has only been created by his sons for more than 20 years of operation. There may be 'occupy', but most of it is legitimate income. How can he give in just one word?"

"What should I do?" Xu Jie said coldly.

"From the child's perspective, Hai Rui can act recklessly, but we should still act according to the law." Xu Kun gave an idea: "The Ming Dynasty law stipulates that no matter how much land is sold for more than five years, we cannot prosecute it. Therefore, we do not need to move the land that has been in the name of more than five years. We only need to check the newly added land in the past five years, and find those poor and controversial ones to return. Even if Hai Rui is not satisfied, we are not afraid of him. We can't let us give away the legitimate industries, right?"

"Well, the second young master has a good idea." Mr. Li nodded and said, "I thank Hai Rui for nothing to say."

"Go and count the land that has been recorded in the past five years," Xu Jie closed his eyes exhaustedly and said, "Whether 'occupy' is 'occupy' or not 'occupy', all of them will be cleared... Hai Rui asked me to be a role model, I will give him this face."

"Father..." the two sons said heartbroken.

"Do you really want to force me to death?" Xu Jie suddenly opened his eyes, raised his tone octave, picked up the teacup at his hand, threw it hard on the ground and said, "I have been ruined by you for my lifetime!"

Xu Fan and Xu Kun were so scared that they quickly rolled into the inner room and continued to settle the accounts.

Mr. Li waved his back, cleaned the ground himself, and then brought Xu Jie a cup of new tea. He was about to retreat, but Xu Jie called out, "You said that if I kneel today, can I kneel down Hai Rui?"

"..." Mr. Li thought for a moment and said the truth: "It must have been possible. No one in the world can stand your worship except the emperor and the grandmother. But firstly, the current chief assistant is Gao Gong, and he will definitely not be moved; secondly, if Hai Rui's backstage is Shen Mo, he will definitely not be moved; thirdly, those censors have been beaten to death, for fear of being involved with us, and I am afraid that they will not dare to speak out for you."

"Oh..." Xu Jie sighed helplessly: "If I had known today, why would I have to be so embarrassed now if I had not been biased at that time?"

Li Xiang knew that he was talking about silence and comforted softly: "People have no eyes, who knows that the younger generation is so fierce?"

"Forget it, I won't mention this..." Xu Jie waved his hand and put away his regret and said, "You are right. As long as Gao Gong is here, it's useless for anyone to plead for me. So we have to go to the east. We can't just cause trouble for our Xu family to suffer. We want to make the entire Songjiang River. Oh no, the big families in Susong's ten prefectures suffer!" As he said, he smiled coldly, "These bastards are flattering on weekdays. Now that I, Xu Jie, have suffered, they have become mute. I want to see if Hai Rui's butcher knife will continue to remain silent when it falls on you!"

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Three days later, Xu Jie responded to Hai Rui's three requests: First, donate 5,000 taels of silver to provide relief; Second, the slaves were in the Xu Mansion for many years and had a deep relationship and could not force them to chase them away, so they could only leave voluntarily; Third, they were willing to withdraw all the land they had bought in the past five years, totaling 40,000 mu, and had ordered their sons to book and return the land, waiting for the land owner to come and redeem it.

Although Xu Fan and Xu Kun were full of unwillingness, their father's order was difficult to disobey, so they could only organize the land and submit it together with the land deed. Xu Jie made a letter to explain the whole story of the land withdrawing and sent it to the Governor's Office.

In the courtyard of Songjiang Prefecture, where he was the governor's yamen, Wang Xijue, who read Xu Jie's letter, showed an excited smile on his tired face and said, "Congratulations to Du Gong, congratulations to Du Gong, Master Xu is finally willing to retire from his land."

Hai Rui took Xu Jie's letter and took a closer look. His smile showed a little, and his mood was also very good... How could he not be happy about the melting ice? The biggest Xu family was willing to retreat from the land, and there would definitely be no gentry in Songjiang to survive. I am afraid that the big families in Susong's ten prefectures would retreat with them, at least the difficulty of attacking the tough problems would be much smaller.

But his eyebrows were stretched and suddenly tightened again. Why did he retreat less than one tenth of the year? Compared to the remaining 400,000 mu, how could these 400,000 mu be worth it? If the gentry from all over the country follow the example and clearance is only one tenth, what effect will this move to withdraw the land be?

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Chapter completed!