I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 428: Hai Rui's Anger

When Shu Youliang returned to the rented courtyard, he saw Hai Rui and could not help asking, "Master, can you get Young Brother Yang out?"

Seeing Hai Rui's face darken and he remained silent, he was startled, "What! Brother Yang is gone? I told you, the most dangerous thing in the world is for a poor person to go to jail. You go in standing and come out lying down.

Alas, my father and the elders of the clan were thrown into jail for owing rent, and they were reported dead within a few days. The family was destroyed, and if you want to destroy someone's family, just send him to jail. It's more dangerous than throwing him into the gate of hell."

Shu Youliang talked a lot, then looked up and said, "Master, the person is gone. Should we return the money that Wang Duxian gave us? I think we should not return it. It's not us who killed the person.

We desperately went to the east by sea. In order to save people, you almost vomited gall on the boat. My four military school brothers and I wore out several pairs of shoes. Even if there is no credit, there is still hard work, and even if there is no hard work, there is still fatigue! "

"Stop talking nonsense!" Hai Rui shouted in dissatisfaction.

Shu Youliang spread his hands and said, "Master, I know you are dissatisfied with everything. You see it with your eyes and feel angry in your heart. You wish you could clear away all the evil and sneaky things.

Master, this is how the world works. Take your time and don't rush. The Crown Prince is wise, diligent and caring for the people. He has good officials like you and Wang the Governor. If we make progress day by day, there will be peace in the world one day."

Hai Rui looked at Shu Youliang and said with relief, "Youliang, now that you have a family and children, you are different. You are calm and think things through."

Shu Youliang chuckled: "Master, I have been with you for so many years, and I am just a stubborn stone. It's time for me to open my mind."

"Yes, you have been with me for thirty years, and I am almost seventy years old." Hai Rui was silent for a while, then turned to Hu Guangsheng and said, "Military Colonel Hu, you and Shu Youliang should go find Qi Xing'an to discuss rescuing Yang Yunpeng.

Tian Sheng, Zhang Dao, and I will go outside the city to talk to the people who are coming to the mountain to pay homage. Zhao Kuan, you stay at home and wait for orders."

Hu Guangsheng thought about it and felt that Hai Rui's temperament was indeed not suitable for getting involved in the intrigues and petty intrigues.

He exchanged glances with the other three Yiwei Division military officers, Tian Sheng, Zhang Dao, and Zhao Kuan, and nodded in response, "Okay, Master Hai, we will split up."

Hai Rui was still dressed as a merchant's accountant, while Tian Sheng and Zhang Dao were dressed as attendants. The three of them hired a mule cart, loaded with four barrels of herbal tea prepared by a small restaurant, and left Si Shui County and arrived at Balipu in the north of the city, which was the main road leading north to Mount Tai.

They found a shed and hired an old man to do manual labor nearby. They put out four buckets of herbal tea and asked him to serve passing pilgrims.

"Mr. Li is doing charity, so he made some cool summer tea. Pilgrims can drink as much as they want, free of charge."

The pilgrims who were sitting on the ground gathered around him immediately. Some of them brought broken bowls, water bags, and bamboo tubes, and asked the old man to scoop some water for them. Some of them didn't even have bowls, but begged the old man and took turns drinking from the clay bowls.

After drinking the herbal tea, the pilgrims sat in the shade and rested for a while.

They were young and old, more men than women, raggedly dressed, unkempt, and all poor people.

Hai Rui walked among them, lifted up his coarse cloth and sat on the ground. The pilgrims all knew that he was a good man who did good deeds, and seeing his coarse cloth and old clothes, they thought he was even more of a good man.

Although he himself was not well off, he still squeezed out money to make herbal tea for everyone.

Everyone nodded and greeted him with a smile. Hai Rui looked around and chose an old man in his sixties who was about the same age as him and looked very energetic.

"Old man, how old are you this year?"

"I don't deserve it. I'm forty-six this year."

Hai Rui felt a little embarrassed. He looked at the man who was older than him. In fact, he was not that old, but he looked so old due to the oppression of suffering. So he continued to ask.

"My last name is Li. May I ask what your last name is?"

"Master Li, my surname is Wu, and I am the ninth child in my clan. Everyone calls me Wu Jiu."

"Wu Jiu, where are you from?"

"I am from Wujiazhuang, Qufu."

"Oh, how many people are there in your family?"

"Alas! There is almost no one at home."

Hai Rui was stunned, "What's wrong?"

"The old and the young at home are almost starving to death."

Hai Rui asked, "Is there no young man in your family?"

"I have two sons. The elder one has to work day and night to farm for the Kong family, and he also has to do other things.

Sometimes he had to repair the Kong family's mansion, sometimes he had to build a memorial archway for the Kong family, sometimes he had to repair the city wall, and sometimes he had to dredge the river. All the work for the government and the Kong family was assigned to him. He had no rest, and he had to grit his teeth and endure even when he was sick. In the end, he was exhausted to death.

I have only been married for two years. Last December, the Confucius Mansion was short of a few large carps for the annual sacrifice. It was against etiquette, so the master above gave an order and the stewards below acted like wolves and tigers, forcing the tenants to cut ice and go into the water in the middle of winter to catch carp for the Confucius Mansion. My second son was also forced to go into the water, and he froze himself. Now he is lying in bed, half dead.

Hai Rui clenched his right fist, then slowly relaxed it, and asked, "Don't tell me the Confucius Mansion doesn't care?"

"Why should we care? It is the tenants who are grateful for the kindness of their master and take the initiative to go fishing. It has nothing to do with the Confucius Mansion." These are the original words of the county master and the land security master.

My family has been tenants of the Confucius Mansion for generations. If we offend the Confucius Mansion, they will take away our land today and we will starve to death tomorrow."

"What are you doing, little brother?"

Wu Jiu said with tears in her eyes: "Life was too hard at home, so the eldest daughter had to remarry. One less person to feed means more people to survive. She left behind two children, both only seven or eight years old. They followed us old couple to the fields every day, but they couldn't do much work.

The second child's family has to take care of the second child who is lying in bed, and they also have a two-year-old baby to feed. Life is unbearable. I will go to Mount Tai to burn incense and make a wish while there is still one or two months before the autumn harvest, asking the Emperor of Dongyue and Bixia Yuanjun to show mercy and give my family a chance to survive. "

As Wu Jiu started to stagger and struggle, Hai Rui asked in surprise, "Wu Jiu, what are you doing? Why don't you take a break and follow us?"

"No, I have to hurry up. Jiunuguan requires a toll, so I'll go around it by taking the mountain road, which will save me some money."

A villager nearby said, "Wu Jiu, that mountain road is not safe. The hunter said there are wolves. It's better to go through Jiunu Pass and pay the Kong family some tolls."

Wu Jiu wanted to force out a bitter smile, but there was too much sorrow on his face to force it out: "I can't afford it. I have to go even if there are wolves. If I encounter wolves, I still have a chance to escape.

But if we continue to live like this, our family will have no way to survive."

Hai Rui stood outside the pergola, watching Wu Jiu's receding back, clenching his fists with veins bulging on his temples. He waited until Wu Jiu's back disappeared at the foot of the mountain before returning to the pergola and speaking to Tian Sheng and Zhang Dao with a look of grief and indignation on his face.

"Back then, Confucius lamented on the side of Mount Tai that a harsh government was more ferocious than a tiger, and then sought a way to govern the people with benevolence and achieve harmony. He never imagined that his descendants would bully the people thousands of years later, and be more ferocious than tigers and wolves!

How sad, annoying, and hateful! "

Tian Sheng said, "Master, I heard that the current Duke Yansheng has been living in the capital for many years, studying at the Imperial College, and has not returned home yet. The Confucius Mansion is managed by other branches."

Hai Rui glanced at him and said with a sigh, "I know what you mean. I'm not going to mention it for the sake of your honor. The current Duke Yansheng lives far away in the capital. All these dirty things in the Confucius Mansion in Qufu were done by the stewards of other rooms. He has no idea about it, right?"

Tian Sheng and Zhang Dao looked at each other with embarrassment.

Duke Yansheng, a role model admired by scholars all over the world, would be really unbearable if he were to be involved in a scandal that harmed the whole village and was as ferocious as a wolf or a tiger.

"The contemporary Duke Yansheng is already in his twenties, no longer a young man. He enjoys the fine clothes and delicious food of the Confucius Mansion, but he keeps saying that he knows nothing about where these fine clothes and delicious food come from.

Such a confused person, such a person without any responsibility, is worthy of being called Yanshenggong?"

Tian Sheng and Zhang Dao heard that Hai Qingtian was really furious and had a burning fire in his heart!
The two of them sighed.

Previously, when I had visited the prefectures and counties east of Henan in disguise, I had heard about the situation in Shandong to the east. It was said that the wealthy and powerful families were invading land and oppressing the people, especially in the Confucius Mansion in Qufu.

Some people say that nearly half of the land in Shandong is under the name of the Confucius Mansion, and nearly half of the people are tenants of the Confucius Mansion.

I thought it was just hearsay, but when I entered Yanzhou and saw with my own eyes, I found that the Confucius family was even more domineering and oppressing the people than the rumors had said.

This is the descendant of Confucius? !

No wonder the morals of the world are deteriorating. The Confucian scholars are not upright at their root!

After drinking the herbal tea and resting, the people stood up in twos and threes.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go early and pass the Nine Women Pass as soon as possible."

"I heard that the Kong family is going to increase the customs fee."

"It's rising again, why?"

"It's because they saw so many people passing through the customs and wanted to make a fortune."

"What a bad conscience!"

The gossip came with the wind and floated into Hai Rui's ears, like slapping him in the face again and again.

He closed his eyes, took a long sigh, turned around and said, "Let's go!"

(End of this chapter)