The next day, the complaint was released, and the paper flew over like snow.

Hai Rui also kept his promise and only asked Punishment Tian Tong and others to register the paper for good use, but did not immediately go to court to ask about the case.

However, he was not idle either. He used these days to lead Niu Qianshi and other officials from Songjiang Prefecture and Huating County to go to the countryside to preach the benefits of a whip method and equalizing the fields and grain. It is necessary to let the people understand that whether they were giving or sending in the past, they would not count them now.

And the government will give them a chance to correct the situation. This time, they must declare their own real land figures truthfully. After the government registers and registers, they will be taxed according to this in the future.

This is not just to deal with the Xu family, but the only way to implement the Yingtian New Policy.

There are more than 3.6 million mu of arable land in eight townships in Huating County, and the number of land acres can reach the three counties in Suzhou. It is also the county with the most land in the entire Jiangnan region. There are more landlords, and there are more troubles, so Hai Rui made up his mind to use Huating as the first stop to promote reform.

As long as Huating can successfully complete the reform, Songjiang Prefecture and Suzhou Prefecture will be solved easily. Su Song’s problem will be solved, and the remaining eight prefectures and one prefecture will naturally be even more difficult.

Hai Rui's efforts were not in vain. With the officials' efforts to preach, the people in various villages in Huating were stirred up and reported to the government, accusing themselves of how they were occupied by large households and how they became tenants.

In response, Hai Rui ordered officials to write paper on the spot, accept the public's report, and announced that they would be held uniformly after returning to the yamen.

~~

Three days later, Hai Rui returned to the city and asked Tian Baiguang to count it. He had received eight or nine thousand confessions.

At this time, Xu Jie's reply was also delivered.

Hai Rui opened the letter in front of Niu Qianshi and others, and saw that the plan given by Mr. Xu was: First, all the slaves were left to their own houses and would never retain them. Second, all the land that was named in the Xu family was taken by the original owner, and the Xu family cooperated with the transfer and would never obstruct them. Third, he was willing to devote all the land he bought in the past five years to the government as a learning field and benefit his hometown.

After reading it, Hai Rui calmly handed the letter to Niu Qianshi and others for circulating it.

Niu Qianshi and others were very happy to see it, and felt that the Xu family was still very sincere. Especially Zhong Zhenji, he was obviously relieved.

While talking excitedly, Hai Rui was still unhappy and the officials quickly stopped.

"Zhongcheng, what's wrong with the plan?" Niu Qianshi asked in a low voice.

"The first two are just the third ones..." Hai Rui started rummaging on the table, and after a while, he found a booklet, opened one of the pages, and recited:

"As of October last year, the Xu family had a total of 1.37 million mu of land under its name. Excluding those who offered, sent a secret message, and those who were affiliated with relatives, the four brothers of Xu Ge, had a total of 460,000 mu of land under their name, of which the names of Xu Ge, had a total of 240,000 mu of land."

As he said that, he glanced at Zhong Zhenji and said, "Magistrate Zhong, is this court right?"

"Bad, almost..." Zhong Zhenji nodded and secretly wiped his sweat. He had touched the bottom and the land under the Xu family's name was probably the same number.

Hai Gong did not retrieve the land book files from Songjiang Prefecture. How did he get this number?

However, Niu Qianshi remembered that since last year, Hai Rui has been calculating the tax accounts of various governments every day, but he didn't expect that he could see the mystery from here.

He was about to flatter him and praised the master of Hai Gong for his cleverness. He knew the truth. But he saw Hai Rui suddenly changed his face, slapped the booklet on the desk, and shouted:

"Even if the first two items are excluded, the Xu family still has 460,000 mu of land! It's a total of 460,000 mu. How can these 40,000 mu be worth it?"

Hai Rui became more and more angry as he spoke. He slapped the table and said, "If the gentry from all over the country follow the example and only cleared one or two out of ten, not only would he retreat the fields and become a decent move. Even the method of whip will become an evil method!"

Hai Rui is an experienced and capable official, not a nerd who knows nothing. He knows that any reform will inevitably be distorted when it is implemented in specific terms.

No matter how reforms are made, it is impossible to avoid the most difficult taxes from officials. Even if those wealthy families do not collude with the government and evade taxes, those who are officials in their families can be exempted from the benefits. Moreover, their relatives can still benefit from it, and the final amount of tax exemption is far beyond the prescribed rules. However, this has been acquiesced by the government for many years, and Hai Rui cannot change it for a while.

The result of high concentration of land is that even the one-whip method cannot transfer most of the labor force to large land owners. Instead, it will increase the burden on most taxpayers.

The reason is very simple. If you can't collect taxes from big landlords, you will naturally have to collect them from small landlords and farmers.

That's why Hai Rui puts suppression of annexation at a higher level than the One Whip Method. Because he had seen through it, all land-related reforms are just annexation.

~~

After thinking about it, Hai Rui picked up a pen and wrote a reply to Xu Jie, then handed it to Niu Qianshi and others, asking them if they had anything to add?

Niu Qianshi was stunned and couldn't even speak.

"If you don't say anything, you're not interested?" Hai Rui folded the letter paper, put it in an envelope, sealed the mouth with paste, and prepared to take it back for the Xu family who was delivering the letter.

"Slow!" Niu Qianshi finally came to his senses and stopped him and said, "Zhongcheng thought twice!"

"Yes, Master Xu, Mr. Xu will definitely not agree." Zhong Zhenji also wiped his sweat and said, "That's a total of 460,000 acres of land, and even 10 million taels of silver can't be bought. How could the Xu family give up!"

"As soon as this letter was released, both sides completely broke up and there was no room for change!" Member Wang and others also advised him to calm down and not be blinded by anger.

"Has this court asked them to give up all of them?" Hai Rui looked at the scared subordinates with a strange look and said, "I clearly agreed to his family and left six thousand acres, and it was duty-free land. Isn't it enough to support him and his family?"

"Uh..." The officials thought to themselves, six thousand acres are just a drop in the bucket. And the humiliation is too strong, right?

"In addition, the Xu family has 20,000 yuan in Zhiniang, six mansions, four gardens, and more than 200 stores in the north and south Beijing, Songjiang, Suzhou and other places. The value of these shops and business residences is more than 10 million taels! I am afraid that the origin cannot be subject to detailed investigation? This time, I did not intend to pursue the investigation. Isn't it enough to treat the Xu family?"

"When Mr. Xu became an official, his family was only well-off. In just over twenty years, he actually saved up more than 20 million taels of family business. Can he put all the responsibilities on his children, grandchildren and family?" Hai Rui said with another fire:

"Yan Ge Lao and Yan Shifan are known as corruption in the world, but only one-quarter of the Xu family's business. If you don't help the Xu family to relieve the swelling, how to evaluate Xu Ge Lao in future history books?!"

After hearing what Mr. Hai said, the officials thought it was quite reasonable. But how could Mr. Xu agree?

There is a saying that Hai Rui didn't say clearly, and asked Mr. Xu to take 460,000 acres of land to exchange for the whole family's safety. He did not blame him for his past. He felt that he was doing his best and even felt a little sorry for Lin Run.

If Lin Run hadn't asked Zhao Hao to bring that sentence, he wouldn't have made up this decision and let the Xu family go.

If someone is not tactful, then don’t blame Hai for being ruthless.
Chapter completed!