Xu Guangqi's words made Han Yu and others hesitate.

It’s not that they think there is anything wrong with what Xu Guangqi said, but they think what Xu Guangqi said is true.

If this Chen Qing is really like Hai Rui, perhaps His Majesty will really use him.

One thing was clear: while Han Yu and the others hadn't spent a long time with His Majesty, it hadn't been short either. They already had a good idea of ​​His Majesty's temper.

For example, His Majesty does not like to compromise, and will not be threatened. For example, His Majesty often does things without considering traditional things, but instead approaches them from some very strange perspectives.

In a word, no matter what Your Majesty does, it will not be surprising.

You said His Majesty is moody, but he is not like that. In short, he gives people a very weird feeling.

You say that His Majesty is not wise. Many of the things he does are praised by everyone, but many times he leaves people speechless, and some even think that he is a foolish emperor.

His Majesty gave people a very contradictory feeling. Of course, this was just the feeling of the four cabinet ministers present.

If we ask the outside world to evaluate, some people may think that Your Majesty may be a wise ruler, but there are probably not many such people;

Most people have a low opinion of His Majesty, and many people, like Chen Qing, even criticize His Majesty in secret.

This is also why Han Yu and others are worried that things will get out of hand.

"This has nothing to do with us." Han Yu sat up straight and said slowly, "No matter what this Chen Qing is like, it has little to do with us. If this Chen Qing himself has problems, such as corruption or dereliction of duty, it would actually be a good thing for us."

Sun Chengzong immediately understood Han Yu's meaning. All they wanted to protect was their right to speak, and not let His Majesty kill people for speaking.

If Chen Qing had made other mistakes, then there would be nothing wrong with Your Majesty killing him, as long as he was not killed for saying something wrong.

After all, what these people need is just a fig leaf, not a real desire to protect him.

The other two looked at each other. They certainly knew what Han Yu meant by this sentence, and they also understood what this sentence represented, but they couldn't say it clearly, otherwise it would seem that they had no bottom line.

At the same time, Han Yu's words also reminded us of one thing, that is, no one can be like Hai Rui.

The reason why Hai Rui was able to achieve that level back then was because he was an excellent person, at least there was nothing wrong with him.

So none of Sun Chengzong and the other two said anything.

Seeing that the three of them were silent, Han Yu said directly, "Let's go find the people below and tell them to stop talking nonsense and stop making trouble with Chen Qing and the others."

"Let's wait and see how things turn out and see if there's anything wrong with Chen Qing. Aren't the Jinyiwei investigating him? Let's wait and see what the results are."

Several people nodded, reaching a consensus on this matter. With that, Han Yu and the others left the duty room and returned to their respective areas, quickly getting busy as if nothing had happened.

In the Western Garden.

Zhu Youxiao was reading Hai Rui's information.

After looking through some of it, Zhu Youxiao actually found something interesting.

Before I traveled through time, I had heard many legends about Hai Rui, most of which were about his honesty as an official.

Of course, there are also some who say that Hai Rui was biased towards the poor and extorted the rich. When he was judging cases, he would make the rich pay the poor, which is why he was supported by the poor.

There are also stories about him starving his daughter to death because of his reputation, etc. It can be said that the legends about Hai Rui are so fantastic.

However, Zhu Youxiao did not believe either of these two statements.

Zhu Youxiao believed that Hai Rui valued reputation while studying, but he did not believe that Hai Rui starved his daughter to death because of this, because there was no official historical record and it was all rumors.

According to the Ming Dynasty novel "Jianzhibian" by Yao Shuxiang:

Hai Rui's family was poor. One day, he saw his five-year-old daughter eating a cake and asked who had given it to her.

When he learned that it was a servant who had given it to him, Hai Rui was furious and said, "How can a good woman accept something from a man so casually? Only if you starve to death can you be considered my daughter!"

Hai Rui's daughter was so frightened that she cried incessantly and refused to drink or eat. No matter how her family members tried to comfort or persuade her, it was of no use. After seven days, she finally starved to death.

The Qing Dynasty scholar Zhou Lianggong mentioned Hai Rui's starvation of his daughter in his work "Shuying" (Book Shadows). However, this incident is not recorded in official histories such as "Ming History", "Ming Shilu" (Ming Shilu), and "Guoqie".

If this really happened, Zhu Youxiao would not believe it because it was not recorded in historical facts, especially the History of Ming Dynasty.

As for the records of the above-mentioned cases, Zhu Youxiao actually did not believe them, but he had not found any concrete evidence.

But when looking through the materials today, Zhu Youxiao actually found some interesting things.

"In any case of doubtful litigation, rather than wronging one's brother, it is better to wrong one's younger brother; rather than wronging one's uncle, it is better to wrong one's nephew; rather than wronging the poor, it is better to wrong the rich; rather than wronging the foolish and the honest, it is better to wrong the stubborn and the obstinate.

"When it comes to fighting for property, rather than humiliating the common people, it is better to humiliate the local officials to remedy the situation.

"When it comes to arguments over words and appearances, rather than humiliating local officials, it is better to humiliate the common people in order to preserve one's dignity."

This viewpoint and strategy was proposed by Hai Rui, and this was indeed a very important reason why Hai Rui was criticized in later generations.

Hai Rui's words would certainly not be accepted in later generations and would certainly be criticized. However, when these words were spoken in this era, they were praised by all people.

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