After Li Chunfang met with Hai Rui, the entire South Zhili was waiting for the emperor's reply.

The waiting process is always painful, for both parties.

During this half month, the Japanese pirates in Songjiang Prefecture were ready to attack, so Su Song prepared his troops and hurriedly called for help.

Zhu Xixiao, the left governor who happened to be on official business in Songjiang Prefecture, asked Nanjing garrison Zhang Jing for reinforcements. After a consensus, the water transport yamen was transferred. Huang Yingjia, the former co-coordinator of water transport, was assigned to guard Susong Shenshu camp. Chen Wangmo, the general of water transport, was asked to assist Su Song in preparing the road.

Stand ready.

At the same time, the various state capitals, counties and towns, and I don’t know where to start, gradually spread the tax amounts paid by the two capitals and thirteen provinces over the years.

When they learned that Southern Zhili accounted for 60% of the world's tax revenue, the people had different reactions.

There are superior people who are proud and satisfied, there are people who feel deeply unbalanced and unfair, and there are also good people who call for reduction of wealth.

This kind of thing is neither prohibited nor illegal, and it is not easy for the government to deal with it.

For a time, the saying that "the Ming Dynasty was supported by Southern Zhili" became very popular.

And the imperial envoys were not idle either.

Several major cases were copied in succession.

Not to mention the Salt Merchants and Chamber of Commerce, almost no one was arrested. Hai Rui ransacked their homes and arrested them all.

Several big salt merchants begged their deceased relatives for help, but to no avail.

Xu Jie was even more diligent and personally supervised the Xu Kun murder and conspiracy case, the canal boat capsizing case, the Shilin fake broadcast case, the Taizhou case of inciting stupid people, the Huai'an case of insulting the imperial envoy... and other eleven cases.

The chief minister, the prefect, and the censor were all involved, and the minister was arrested like a dumpling, waiting to be escorted to the capital.

While visits were not allowed, news of implication was released from time to time.

Every now and then, I'm surprised.

Both sides showed their teeth and claws, but maintained restraint.

In this atmosphere, it was not until the second day of March that the imperial envoy finally met with Li Chunfang again.

What exactly was discussed is unknown.

But in the next few days, Su Song's military preparedness suddenly showed its power, and in an unknown corner, it came face to face with the invading Japanese pirates.

The garrison, which had been stagnant before, took the lead and went to the battlefield in person, annihilating the Japanese pirates in one fell swoop and restoring peace to Songjiang Prefecture.

Unfortunately, due to the strong currents, many bodies were washed away and the work was greatly reduced.

In addition, the saying that "the Ming Dynasty was supported by Southern Zhili" suddenly ceased.

The enlightened squires and clans are running around shouting for the great unity of the world and that the north and the south are one family.

This kind of arrangement makes people feel admiration from the bottom of their hearts.

At the same time, Hai Rui finished raiding the last few salt merchants and transferred them to the magistrate. After Ming Zhengdian, the salt commissioner, finally stopped.

Together with Chen Dong, Shaoqing of Dali Temple, and Wang Xijue, Minister of Criminal Affairs of Nanzhili, he closed the salt policy case and sealed it.

He will return to the capital soon to resume his duties.

Coincidentally, the imperial case in Xu Jie's hands has also been completed, and he will return to Beijing with him to resume his duties.

Before leaving, Xu Jie felt that the people's life was not easy, and asked Ding An Bo Gao Gong to return all the 278,431 acres of fertile land donated by the people to the people.

As for the second son Xu Kun, who plotted to assassinate the official, Xu Jie still requested the Songjiang government office to return the body and bury it himself after his family was killed.

The people were grateful for his virtues and praised him for his great righteousness and abandonment of petty sentiments.

Under the auspices of Gao Gong, everyone tearfully erected a monument to commemorate Xu Shaohu's meritorious deeds.

On the ninth day of March, Rao Renkan, the censor of Henan Province, arrived in Nanzhili to check the documents of Nanjing Ji Dao.

On the same day, Cao Bangfu, the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing, became an official through begging.

On March 11, there was an imperial edict to set up the Salt Administration Yamen in Shandong to accept the Provincial Government Envoy Department, to lead the six salt administration departments, and to follow the imperial edict to the Lianghuai Transfer Department.

On the same day, Qin Minglei, the Minister of Rites in Nanjing, invited him to become an official.

On March 14th, there was an edict stating that Xuancheng Bowei Guobin was the mastermind of the capsize of the canal boat. In order to clarify the punishment law and set the direction of the court, he was ordered to be punished and sentenced to suicide, and the prince would not attack for the time being.

On that day, Zhu Xixiao, the governor of the left, led the Fusi of Beizhen to come forward and ordered Chengbo to obey the order.

The next day, there was a funeral at Xuancheng's residence.

On March 17, the emperor and the cabinet reviewed and confirmed that the deceased was found to be correct by officials of seventh rank and above. Those in custody were sent to the capital immediately.

He was promoted to Zhang Lu, the censor of the right Qiandu of the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate, and became the censor of the left Qiandu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. He was still in charge of Caojiang and patrolling the river.

At the same time, he was ordered to take charge of the affairs of the Nanjing Right Army Governor's Office. Admiral Cao Jiang was also in charge of the affairs of the Governor's Office of Patrolling Jiang. Xu Qiaosong, Marquis of Yongkang, came to Beijing to meet the emperor.

On March 18th, Xu Jie, Hai Rui, Chen Dong and other imperial envoys returned to Beijing.

On the same day, Li Chunfang, a former scholar, heard that Empress Dowager Rensheng was raising Princess Yanqing for enlightenment, and specially asked her granddaughter to be sent to the palace to serve as a companion.

On April 18, an edict was sent to Nanjing.

It is accurate that Cao Bangfu, the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing, and Qin Minglei, the Minister of Rites in Nanjing, retired from their official posts and were appointed as the Crown Prince's Taibao and the Crown Prince's Grand Master respectively.

Wan Hao was promoted to the Imperial Academy of Nanjing and offered wine as a minister of the Ministry of Rites in Nanjing. He was awarded five taels of silver.

Changed, Wang Xijue, the Minister of Criminal Affairs of Nanjing, was the Left Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Nanjing, and was given twenty taels of silver and a golden robe.

He ordered Xu Qiaosong, Marquis of Yongkang, who also served as governor of Feng, An, Hui, Ning, Chi, Tai and Guang, to be stationed in Anqing. Cao Jiang was still the admiral and went to Anqing to camp from that day on.

He ordered Zhu Xixiao, the left governor in charge of the Jinyi Guards, to escort Li Baiyang, the granddaughter of former bachelor Li Chunfang, into the capital.

In addition, Ding Anbo Gaogong was asked to work with various ministries and departments in Southern Zhili to prepare the "Shanghai Shipping Department", and the customs tax amount of the previous three years was used to exempt various governments in Southern Zhili from taxes, and the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs made its own arrangements.

…

On April 13th, we crossed the Luhe River in Tongzhou.

Tongzhou County is the starting point of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and at the foot of the Emperor. It is only forty miles west of the capital.

Gyeonggi is an important city, located in a prosperous place, with an endless stream of people coming and going.

When the imperial envoy's ship docked, people gathered around to watch.

After the Jin Yiwei cleared away the irrelevant people, the imperial envoy and his party disembarked.

Xu Jie pushed away the guard who was trying to help him, put his hands behind his back, and walked slowly off the boat like a carriage.

Quietly waiting for Jin Yiwei to find the carriage, he looked sideways at Hai Rui and asked, "What will your Majesty do to me?"

Hai Rui shook his head and said nothing.

Xu Jie sighed: "Haigangfeng, remember that I rescued you once. This does not violate the law, so why not tell me?"

He originally wanted to have a hand in splitting up Southern Zhili to show his usefulness.

It turned out that the emperor was more stable than he thought.

He actually rejected Li Chunfang's proposal, and instead used the safest method, slowly trying to figure it out.

While it was beyond Li Chunfang's expectation, it also cut off Xu Jie's usefulness.

I don't know if his good student helped him.

Nowadays, life and death are in the hands of others, and we don’t even have the slightest bargaining chip. How can we not feel anxious?

Hai Rui met Xu Jie's eyes, paused, and said seriously: "Why would your Majesty inform you of your plans? I really don't know about this."

Xu Jie knew that Hai Rui would not lie lightly, so he felt helpless.

Logically speaking, if the emperor wanted to kill him, he would not be allowed to return to the capital as an imperial envoy and should be sent to the capital.

Moreover, he is the former chief minister after all, and for the sake of the minister's dignity, he should not be killed easily.

After all, no official wanted to see Xia Yan's incident repeated.

But...for things like wealth and life, you can only rely on guesswork, which is torture enough.

Xu Jie tossed and turned during these nights, and in a short period of time, he had aged a lot.

He couldn't suppress his fear - the emperor was too cruel.

Xu Jie is now in southern Zhili and has lost his living space.

His colleagues in the township party hated him for his previous methods, and it can be said that everyone wanted to beat him.

He wanted to rely on his clan, but was forced to return his land and send away his "family".

Even his closest descendants began to look at him strangely when he decided to use his second son to take the blame for his eldest son.

It can be said that he has now been forced from a veteran minister seeking a career into a pure minister!

Facing this kind of emperor, he couldn't be sure whether the emperor summoned him to Beijing because he had other plans or if he wanted to continue to manipulate him.

He has been thinking about whether he still has a way out?

Just when Xu Jie and Hai Rui were looking at each other in silence, a burst of noise suddenly came from the distance.

The Jin Yiwei immediately gathered around several senior officials.

Gu Chengguang quickly brought people forward to check.
To be continued...