Chapter 814 903 Exile

Wei Guangde lived a leisurely life in Bengshanbao, but Xu Jie in Huating had a hard life.

Ever since Cai Guoxi received Gao Gong's letter, he has been concerned about it. He showed a stronger enthusiasm than Hai Rui to secretly collect evidence of Xu's crimes.

Cai Guoxi's little tricks naturally could not be hidden from the local snake Xu Jie family, but since the other party did not make obvious moves, they could not get angry.

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

Xu Jie was worried that after he left the officialdom, his children would continue to hang around in the officialdom and finally offend people they should not offend.

The family naturally knows their own children's temperament best, and they are all spoiled.

When they were in the capital, the two sons caused a lot of trouble in the capital. That was when Yan Shifan suppressed his sons, and they still dared to act so recklessly.

Of course, Xu Jie indulged his sons at that time, which actually meant deliberately leaving a handle for the Yan family.

You know, at that time, the Yan family was keeping a close eye on him, so Xu Jie allowed his son to do whatever he wanted in the capital, and he also did it to show the Yan family that he had evidence of his poor parenting, so that they could rest assured.

Little did he know that this also ruined the personalities of the two children.

His good friend Wang Ji once privately told him that you are so doting on your children, I can only watch the disaster befall you. "

But Xu Jie had no other options at this time. His two sons, Xu Fan and Xu Kun, had grown up and their personalities had been formed. It was difficult to correct them, so he asked them to resign and return home with him after he resigned. He also hoped that they would be able to watch in front of him and avoid a big disaster.

The case of Sun Kehong was reported in the capital, and the cases of Sun Wu, Gu Shao, Xu Yuanheng and others were involved. Sun Kehong, Sun Wu and others were thrown into the prison of Shuntian Prefecture in the capital, and confessions were obtained under severe torture. With these evidences, Cai Guoxi finally stopped hiding and began to publicly collect evidence of the Xu family's crimes from all counties in Songjiang Prefecture.

However, the action of collecting evidence was not smooth at first.

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

But after a large number of petitions were sent to Yingtian Prefecture, Hai Rui had not yet started the trial. Being transferred, the people have lost trust in the government.

They didn't know that the lawsuit involved a game between high-level officials in the court. They just thought that Xu Jie retired as the Prime Minister and still had deep connections in the officialdom, so they didn't trust Cai Guoxi to do better than Hai Rui.

There was no other way. In order to get 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 a sensation in Songjiang Prefecture for a while.

As for why Cai Guoxi didn't get the evidence that Hai Rui had collected, it has to be said about Zhu Daqi.

Since taking over the post of Yingtian Governor from Hai Rui, Zhu Daqi didn't want to be involved in the fight between Gao Gong and Xu Jie, so he directly sealed up the files and no one was allowed to read or copy them.

As for whether his actions would cause dissatisfaction with Gao Gong, Zhu Daqi didn't care. He couldn't go back to his hometown to retire, anyway, he had earned enough money.

If Wei Guangde was still in the court, as a fellow villager, he would have a chance to move to the capital, but now Wei Guangde returned to his hometown to mourn, so Zhu Daqi had no hope.

Cai Guoxi's persistent action of collecting evidence against 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 Prefecture began to become chaotic.

Under such circumstances, the son of Xu Jie's old friend, the former co-governor Yuan Fuzheng, the student Mo Shilong and others reported to Cai Guoxi some illegal acts of Xu Jie and his three sons. Cai Guoxi was overjoyed and immediately issued an order to arrest Xu Jie's sons Xu Fan and Xu Kun.

When Hai Rui asked about this case, although he also issued a warrant for arrest, he never caught anyone.

And Cai Guoxi had sent people long ago Cai Guoxi secretly followed the whereabouts of the Xu family members, so after collecting what he thought was enough evidence, he was more decisive in arresting them.

He really wanted to arrest them.

He knew very well that the Xu family had been working in Songjiang Prefecture for a long time and their power was deeply rooted, so Xu Fan and Xu Kun could not be arrested at the first time. Once they hid, it would be difficult to find them again.

Unlike Hai Rui, Hai Rui ordered the arrest to put pressure on Xu Jie, and he did not really want to arrest them at the beginning.

So after Cai Guoxi gave the order, Xu Fan and Xu Kun were arrested by the officials on the same day and thrown into the Songjiang Prefecture prison.

With Xu Fan and Xu Kun in prison, it was like a gap in the thousand-mile embankment.

In recent years, many people and wealthy families have been calculated by the Xu family. In addition to the people who took the initiative to surrender in order to avoid taxes, the Xu family members also used Xu Jie's position as the prime minister to run rampant in the countryside and occupy people's land.

The most common method is to set up gambling games, seduce wealthy businessmen to participate in gambling, and then take the opportunity to lend money at high interest rates. In this way, not only huge profits are obtained, but also a lot of good land is obtained by forcing debts.

Initially, the people were worried that Cai Guoxi's investigation of the Xu family was just a formality, in order to get benefits from the Xu family, but after seeing Xu Jie's two sons being arrested, their dissatisfaction with the Xu family finally broke out completely.

Countless petitions flew to the Susong Military Preparation Road like snowflakes and fell into the hands of Cai Guoxi, and countless oppressed people gathered outside the Xu Mansion, making noise day and night.

The people who had been blackmailed 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 claim back the occupied land and extorted money.

"Master, the latest court report has been copied back."

Wei Guangde was reading a book while sitting by the fire in the study.

The weather was too cold, and Wei Guangde didn't know what to do. Apart from visiting the graves every day, he almost stayed at home.

"Let me see."

Wei Guangde took the official report from Zhang Ji and started to read it.

He had received a letter from the capital and knew that the sea transportation from Huai'an to Tianjin was about to start, so he became more interested in the official report during this period, just to see when the court would officially issue an order.

Although it was definitely not a good time to go to sea, such orders would generally be issued first so that local governments could prepare in advance.

And these documents did not need to be kept secret, they would be published in the official report and delivered to all parts of the Ming Dynasty.

"Huh."

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

At this time, the Ministry of Justice's response to some local cases was the same as the need for serious criminals in later generations to be reported to the Supreme Court for approval step by step. The Ministry of Justice of the Ming Dynasty also had this responsibility.

Wei Guangde did not see the news that the Ministry of Revenue ordered the grain to be shipped by sea in the official newspaper, but he saw the approval of the Ministry of Justice about the Xu family in Songjiang Prefecture occupying official and civilian land and evading taxes.

"The Xu family was wiped out."

Wei Guangde couldn't help but sigh.

Songjiang Prefecture's verdict on the Xu family's occupation of land was very heavy. Xu Jie's eldest son Xu Kun, second son Xu Pan and Xu Min were guilty, and more than ten nephews and nephews in the family were sentenced to exile to the border. Xu Jie's youngest son Xu Ziying was implicated, and his servants and relatives were implicated and their land was confiscated.

Xu Jie's name was not mentioned in the verdict. Wei Guangde guessed that it might be because of the relationship between the prime minister and that even if he wanted to convict, he had to report to the emperor for approval, 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 cruelty.

To be honest, it had been so long since the incident, and 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 cautious in the short term, but it did not give up his intention to retaliate against Xu Jie.

After planning for a long time, he finally took action, and retaliated with heavy hands.

"Is there any news 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 does not believe that Zhang Juzheng and Xu Jie's other students and old friends will turn a blind eye. They will definitely find ways 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 was very bad. Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng often quarreled behind closed doors in the duty room, but most of the time they were still discussing government affairs and handling state affairs.

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

Cai Guoxi had already sent all the evidence of the Xu family to the capital, and Zhang Juzheng was a little overwhelmed by Gao Gong's sudden attack.

Seeing that Xu Jie had solid evidence, all Zhang Juzheng could do was to try his best to get a slightly lenient sentence for the Xu family.

It was impossible to suppress the matter, and Zhang Juzheng still had Gao Gong above him, but Zhang Juzheng thought he still had a way to get Xu Jie out.

After Zhang Juzheng pleaded with Emperor Longqing many times, Emperor Longqing handed over the right to deal with the Xu family to the cabinet.

As an old minister who had served Emperor Jiajing and himself and had made contributions, Emperor Longqing still couldn't bear to punish Xu Jie severely.

These days, Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong argued about this, that is, no matter what the crime was, as long as it was not rebellion, the cabinet ministers should not be punished, after all, the cabinet ministers represented the face of all the scholars in the world.

Punishment does not apply to doctors, and courtesy does not apply to common people.

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

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

After many things, he had long passed the age of impulsiveness, and he began to leave a way out for himself when doing things, at least to consider his family.

Before, it was for the sake of his family that he wanted to completely abolish the Xu family.

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

For example, the rule of protecting cabinet ministers, as long as it is not a serious crime of treason, can be exempted. This is not only a right that Xu Jie can have, but also his.

If he cleans up the officialdom himself, he doesn't know how many people he will offend.

When he is in power, there will be no trouble, but what if he loses power?

And today, Zhang Juzheng came to him with the memorial of Liu Tai, the censor of the Censorate, in fact, he wanted to plead for Xu Jie.

"My Lord, the memorial of Liu Yushi says that the punishment in Xu Jie's case is too severe, and the court should give him a lighter sentence."

"Uncle, not punishing him for not disciplining him properly is actually a special favor from the court."

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

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

Come to think of it, as the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, it is naturally impossible for him to be involved in the mess of the children of the family.

However, Xu Jie did not 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 he did not make Xu Jie feel good either.

With his tacit consent, the officials in charge of public security deliberately ignored it, and a large number of Songjiang people rushed into the Xu family manor to rob property, saying that they were taking back the things that the Xu family had plundered. Some people who had been wronged even surrounded Xu Jie and cursed him.

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

When a large number of people surrounded the manor, Xu Jie sent someone to notify the Huating County Office, hoping that they could send people to suppress these unruly people, but was ruthlessly rejected by the Huating County Magistrate.

He had received instructions from Cai Guoxi. At this time, most of the chief officials of the counties in Songjiang Prefecture had actually voted for Cai Guoxi.

Who told him that the backer behind him was Gao Gong, the prime minister of the current dynasty? Xu Jie had become a thing of the past. Even his fellow villagers Yuan Fuzheng and others had been betrayed by him and reported to Cai Guoxi to expose the evidence of Xu's crimes.

With such public resentment, Xu Jie did not dare to order his servants to take radical actions. If things went wrong, it would be a disaster, a disaster that would cause the Xu family to suffer a devastating disaster.

After gathering dozens of servants, Xu Jie finally escaped from the family manor under their protection and retreated to his friend in Zhejiang. He dared not stay in Songjiang Prefecture. Cai Guoxi's attitude was very clear, that is, he wanted to be his enemy.

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

As for why Xu Jie did not deal with Cai Guoxi as he did with Hai Rui at the beginning, it was because Xu Jie knew very well at this time that Gao Gong had become the prime minister, and many of the relationships he could rely on had actually become invalid.

As for Zhang Juzheng, Xu Jie also saw it clearly, and he just hoped that Zhang Juzheng would not make a fool of himself.

Since the defeat was already decided, Xu Jie was also a bachelor. He took time to write a letter during his escape and sent his good friend and retainer Lu Guang to the capital with the letter to surrender to Gao Gong.

This was the only thing he could do now.

All the previous means of checking and balancing Gao Gong had failed, and there was no other way except begging.

Just yesterday, Lu Guang entered Gao Gong's mansion under Zhang Juzheng's arrangement. Although Gao Gong did not agree to anything after all the pleas, Zhang Juzheng still hinted to his censors today to start to plead for the Xu family.

"Gao Gong, it is understandable that Xu Ge Lao was busy with state affairs and neglected to discipline his own children. Please be merciful. The punishment of exile for three thousand miles is too heavy."

Zhang Juzheng said.

Xu Jie's crime, the biggest crime, must be covered up, so the only crime that can be used for sentencing is the occupation of land and tax evasion. According to the Ming Dynasty law, exile is not considered heavy.

"Lord Xu always boasted to the outside world that he was fair and honest, but he knew his own problems but did not correct them, and continued to indulge them. It is always right to say that he has a bad personal morality.

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

Besides, according to the Ming Dynasty law, the punishment for Xu's son is not actually severe."

Gao Gong frowned and said.

"Lord Xu has been loyal to the country for many years. Even if he has no merits, he has worked hard. Doesn't Mr. Gao have a little compassion? Lord Xu is almost seventy years old. I am afraid that his children will be exiled..."

Zhang Juzheng's voice was already filled with sorrow.