I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 247 Songjiang, I, Hai Rui, am here!

March of the second year of Longqing.

The late bamboo shoots are still blooming, the green shade is green, it is the perfect time to listen to the orioles in March in the south of the Yangtze River.

A boat sails on the river from Suzhou to Songjiang.

Hai Rui, dressed in a straight blue shirt and a net scarf, stood on the side of the boat. He looked at the river scenery for a while, drank a lot of river air, and felt his mouth was a little dry, so he walked into the cabin to drink a cup of hot tea.

The three Jinyiwei military academies who were resting inside saw him come in and quickly stood up.

"Master Hai."

This trip was an incognito visit. Hai Rui was the owner of the Ruifuxiang Trading Company in Guangzhou. He came to Jiangnan to purchase silk. Everyone was a clerk, attendant and guard.

Hai Rui sat down amiably, waved his hand, motioning the three military officers to sit down, picked up a cup of hot tea, took a few sips, and asked with a smile, "I just heard you guys were chatting animatedly, what are you talking about?"

The three military academy students were named Liu Da, Wang Er, and Chen San.

The leader was Liu Da, a captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, who answered.

"Master Hai, Chen San was rotated here two days ago. When he was in Beijing, he happened to catch up with the reorganization of our Jinyiwei. The three of us were just talking about the reorganization of our Jinyiwei."

Hai Rui became interested when he heard it.

His memorial on public security angered Emperor Jiajing. Later, Zhu Yijun rescued him, and Emperor Jiajing issued an edict to the Jinyiwei military school to escort him back to Lingnan.

In fact, Zhu Yijun secretly gave some instructions, and Hai Rui, under the protection of several Jinyiwei military schools, traveled from north to south, focusing on investigating Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi and Fujian.

After getting along with them for a long time, Hai Rui changed his view of the Jinyiwei and felt that it was not as scary and bad as the legend said. The military academy inside was also a group of ordinary people who received salaries and food.

"How will His Royal Highness reorganize your Jinyiwei?"

Liu Da turned to Chen San and said, "Chen San, tell Master Hai about this."

"Yes. At the end of February, Xiyuan issued an edict to transfer our Jinyiwei Commander Zhu Gong to the Left Jinwuwei Commander, and confer him the title of Haifeng Bo. The former Jinyiwei Deputy Commander Song Gong was transferred to the position of Rear Army Commander-in-Chief, and promoted to Jinyiwei Commander-in-Chief, to preside over the reorganization of Jinyiwei.

The specific reorganization was that all the officials who had previously served as small flag officers, centurions, thousand-household officers, and commanders in the Jinyiwei but had no real jobs were transferred to the Left and Right Jinwuwei.

The Jinyiwei was divided into the Zhenfu Division, Yiwei Division, Fengchen Division and General Affairs Office.

The General Affairs Department is responsible for correspondence, both uplink and downlink.

The Fengchensi was in charge of the guard of the imperial city, as well as morning court ceremonies, touring and staying, etc.; the Yiweisi was in charge of the guard of the cabinet, six ministries, the Censorate, various temples and other government offices, as well as the escort of officials dispatched by imperial envoys.

Master Hai, we all belong to the Wing Guard Division now."

"Oh," Hai Rui nodded, "What about the Pacification Office?"

In the past, the Jinyiwei Beizhenfu Division was the most feared organization.

"The duties of arresting criminals and apprehending important criminals will continue, but now each provincial government has a pacification bureau and appoints a commander to manage the affairs. The general situation is that in the future, social security, police patrols and catching thieves in various places will be under the jurisdiction of the prefecture, state and county police patrol bureaus.

The Jinyiwei Zhenfu Bureau is responsible for handling major cases and cross-regional cases. "

Hai Rui frowned slightly: "What major case?"

"In reply to Master Hai, the new regulations are very detailed, and I can't remember so much. I just listened to the clerks give a few examples when I was studying, such as treason and rebellion cases, wandering murder cases, the widely circulated evil book case, fraud cases, human trafficking cases, and forgery of documents. There are about a dozen cases, most of which are related to crimes across prefectures and provincial governments.

We also cooperate with the Ministry of Justice to supervise major criminal cases, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate to supervise major corruption cases."

Hai Rui thought about it. The Imperial Guard was a huge organization with more than 100,000 staff. In the past, the six central ministries and local governments would often ask the Imperial Guard for help. How could it be so easily abolished?
"I remember that the Jinyiwei had more than a dozen thousand-household units, with tens of thousands of military schools under their jurisdiction. Are they all being abolished?"

"In reply to Master Hai, apart from the personnel needed by the various provincial government pacification bureaus and the branch bureaus stationed in Suzhou, Shanghai, Ningbo, Quanzhou, Huai'an, Weihai and other important cities, all the military schools of the Qianhu Offices have been reorganized into guard troops."

"Guards?"

"Yes, Master Hai, it seems to mean to patrol and pacify the area."

"Well, go on."

"Yes, Master Hai. According to statistics, there are 24,700 people, divided into four divisions and 16 regiments of the Guard Army. There are also some military schools, which are assigned to the Governor of the Grand Canal, the Navy Bureau, the Inter-trade Bureau, the Maritime Bureau and other government offices.

A group of people, numbering more than a thousand, were assigned to the Ministry of Revenue and became the Tax Inspection Bureau.

"Tax Inspection Bureau, what does it do?"

"They said it was given to Gaobudang to assist in taxation and to investigate tax evasion."

Hai Rui stopped talking, and a fire rose in his heart.

He has been traveling back and forth in Nanzhili since last year.

First, go up along the Huai River, from Huai'an Prefecture to Fengyang Prefecture.

Then he turned south, went to Luzhou Prefecture, Chizhou Prefecture, Huizhou Prefecture, and returned to Nanjing Yingtian Prefecture. Then he went east to Zhenjiang Prefecture, Changzhou Prefecture, and Suzhou Prefecture, making a private visit along the way to investigate the people's conditions on the spot.

Hai Rui wrote down everything he saw and heard along the way in his notes.

He has made up his mind to explore all the prefectures and counties of the Ming Dynasty on foot during his lifetime, record what he sees and hears in the localities with an "impartial and selfless" eye, and then present this record to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

Along the way, the powerful committed evil and the annexation of land was an old problem. In particular, the officials and gentry took advantage of the exemption regulations set by the ancestors and accepted large numbers of people and land donations.

The land and population recorded in the Yellow Book of Fish Scales of the imperial court were decreasing day by day. In fact, they were secretly occupied by these officials, gentry and powerful people. Finally, they passed all the land taxes and rents that should have been paid on to the local self-cultivating farmers and small and medium-sized landlords who still owned some land.

The self-cultivating farmers were forced into bankruptcy by harsh policies, and either surrendered their land to local officials and gentry, or sold it to them and became tenants, where their lives became better.

The rest of the self-cultivating farmers and small and medium-sized landlords had a hard time. Within two years, a group of self-cultivating farmers became tenants, and small and medium-sized landlords became self-cultivating farmers.

Only the officials, gentry and powerful people had more and more land and population, and they became relatives to each other, and they formed a dense network through various connections such as in-laws, teachers and students, fellow students, fellow subjects, and classmates, and became local aristocratic families.

Then they set up academies, invited famous scholars, selected talents, and cultivated batches of outstanding people to participate in the child examination, provincial examination, and metropolitan examination, and enter the official career to become officials, thus ensuring the continuation of the family lineage.

Hai Rui was watching these scenes in the local area with a burning anger in his heart. Now he heard that Gao Da Huzi, the leader of the Ministry of Revenue, had set up a Tax Inspection Bureau for the purpose of taxation.

how?

The poor people cannot pay their taxes and fulfill their obligations. You, with your tall and big bearded man, are planning to order this inspection bureau, which was reorganized from the Jinyiwei, to tear down houses, take away cattle and sheep, sell everything they have, and squeeze their bones and marrow?

Just wait, if you, tall and bearded man, dare to do this, I, Lao Hai, will carry a coffin and block your door.

Hai Rui was very smart. He had already realized his own position from the attitudes of Emperor Jiajing and Zhu Yijun, his grandfather and grandson, towards him.

I am the magic mirror and I am the sword that slays demons and monsters!

At a certain moment, Hai Rui suddenly realized this, and in an instant the world seemed so vast.

This time, Hai Rui chose Songjiang Prefecture as the end point of his trip to Southern Zhili, and he indeed had ulterior motives, as Shanghai and the famous Yang Jinshui were located there.

In the eyes of the scholars and children of aristocratic families in Jiangnan, Yang Jinshui was simply a first-rate villain, the leader of the eunuch party, and could be compared with Wang Zhi, who brought disaster to the government and the country during the Chenghua period.

There is also the Xu family in Huating County.

It is said that Xu Jie's eldest son Xu Fan left Beijing and returned to his hometown in the last years of the Jiajing reign, where he aggressively acquired land and exploited the local people.

Hai Rui had long wanted to meet these two.

"How far is it to Shanghai County?"

Hai Rui stood at the bow, facing the wind with his hands behind his back, and asked the boatman.

"In reply to the master, our ship will first go along the canal to Liujiagang, out of the Yangtze River, and then sail along the river for a distance, enter the Wusong River from Wusongkou, and turn to Shanghai. It will take another day. After arriving in Shanghai, we will go up the Huangpu River to Huating. It will take another half a day."

"it is good!"

Hai Rui responded loudly, eager to try.

Songjiang, I, Hai Rui, am here!

(End of this chapter)