In the evening, an urgent report from the capital was delivered to Tuisi Garden.

Only then did the distinguished guests realize that Hai Rui was coming.

Everyone's face changed immediately with fear, and they all stood up to say goodbye to Xu Fan.

Not only the distinguished guests from the ten prefectures of Yingtian, but also guests from other provinces such as Zhejiang and Jiangxi were too scared to stay in Songjiang. It was as if they could only breathe if they left the territory of the Sea King...

Xu Fan regretted his decision to the point of madness. If he had known that Hai Rui would be the successor to Lin Run, he would have personally stood guard to protect Lin Zhongcheng's safety.

Lin Run only wanted his family's property, but if Hai Rui came, he wouldn't even be able to save his life...

Xu Fan stood under the eaves, looking at the guests scattered in all directions with a desolate look. After a while, he said to Hu Zhi who appeared beside him:

"It is true that 'human feelings are as cold as the water of Wujiang River, and worldly affairs are as difficult as the road to Shu'..."

He said with some comfort: "In the end, Mr. Lushan is still reliable."

"This..." Hu Zhi said with a little embarrassment: "Just now, a fellow villager told me that my mother is seriously ill, and I have to go back to take care of her."

"Uh..." Xu Fan felt a burning pain on his face and couldn't help but expose it: "Didn't Lord Lushan mourn his mother twenty years ago?"

"Stepmother, stepmother." Hu Zhi said embarrassedly, "It's the same if you write a letter. I'm leaving first, and the city gates will be closed if I'm late."

After saying that, he walked away.

He was also a retired provincial governor, and there was no reason for him to sink into the river with the Xu family.

~~

Just as Niu Chenshi said, there is no wall that is impenetrable. Three days later, the news that Hai Rui would succeed as the governor of Yingtian had spread to Jiangnan.

There were many different opinions before, and people were guessing who would be the governor of Yingtian, but after all the guessing, no one guessed it would be Hai Rui.

Because this weapon of mass destruction is so terrifying.

In everyone's opinion, shouldn't those well-connected Jiangnan gentry have first prevented the court from using Hai Rui?

This is the Governor of Yingtian, who is known as the best governor in the world!

And his full title is - Right Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, Director of Grain Storage, Commander-in-Chief of Military Affairs, and Governor-General of Yingtian and other places.

In other words, in addition to serving as the governor of the ten richest and most prosperous prefectures and one state of Yingtian, Taiping, Chizhou, Huizhou, Ningguo, Anqing, Guangde, Songjiang, Suzhou, Changzhou, and Zhenjiang in the Ming Dynasty, the governor of Yingtian also served as the "governor-general of grain storage" and "supervisor of military affairs."

The main responsibility of the 'Governor-General of Grain Storage' was to ensure that grain from the ten prefectures and one state in the south of the Yangtze River, as well as the Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou areas in Zhejiang, was continuously sent from the canal to Beijing and other places.

The "supervisor of military affairs" refers to the garrison troops in the area under the jurisdiction of the Yingtian governor, who are also under his command to protect the most important financial and taxation areas of the Ming Dynasty and the safety of its transportation lifeline.

And before the above positions, he also held the title of "Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate"... Because Hai Rui's seniority was relatively short, after all, he was only a fifth-rank official last winter. Therefore, he was not qualified to hold the third-rank title of "Right Deputy Censor-in-Chief".

But that's not important, because this title can also supervise all civil and military officials in the jurisdiction. So although he is only a fourth-rank official, his power and status even exceed many second-rank officials. For example, the ministers in Nanjing...

The post of Yingtian Governor is so important that the imperial court has always been very cautious in selecting candidates, and only officials with both moral integrity and ability and solid qualifications are among the candidates.

Since Chenghua, no official who was a juren has been able to sit in this position.

What on earth do those powerful families do for a living? Why would the imperial court give the most important official position in southern China to someone like the Sea King?

Who is Hai Yanwang? He is the number one nemesis of corrupt officials and local tyrants. When he gets angry, he will not even let the emperor go. He is the number one fierce man in history!

When the news spread, the whole of Jiangnan was in an uproar.

No one has the courage to use his neck to block the blade of this divine sword.

I can't afford to offend him, so I can only find a way to avoid him.

Thus, a series of absurd dramas rarely seen in history were staged in the ten prefectures and one state in the south of the Yangtze River.

The heads and assistants of prefectures, states, and counties all consciously worked overtime day and night, carefully sorting out the various affairs of the government office, trying the backlog of cases quickly, handling delayed official business quickly, filling the holes in the accounts, and selling the old grain in the warehouse and replacing it with new rice.

If the money is not enough, take it from the small treasury, and if that doesn't work, pay out of your own pocket.

In a word, they just need to wipe their butts clean so that the King of the Sea won't see the poop on their butts.

But there are also many guys who are too greedy and can't make up for the holes. There are also those corrupt officials who have done so many bad things and think they can't escape, so they just leave their posts without saying goodbye and go far away to avoid disaster.

They would rather become illegal residents than take a gamble on whether they will be lucky enough to escape the clutches of the Sea King.

After all, the governor would not be re-elected, and he could go home again in three years at most. If Hai Rui targeted him, he might not even be able to save his life...

~~

Seeing that even the officials were like this, the gangsters, kidnappers and thugs who usually bullied the people in the market, ran rampant in the countryside and made money through illegal means were all scared and fled before Hai Rui took office.

In addition, all the wealthy and powerful families were also terrified.

In the past, they loved to show off their wealth and arrogance, fearing that others would not know that they were rich. But now, they are trying their best to keep a low profile. They all followed the example of Grand Tutor Hua and painted their red doors black overnight.

The business of the painters in Jiangnan suddenly became prosperous. Even the painters in Longjiang coffin shops were invited to help out.

Who dared to ride in a sedan chair when going out? Not to mention the gentry, even officials in Nanjing City who were less than the third rank all rode donkeys instead.

The silk and satin clothes were all replaced with coarse cloth, and some people even patched up their good robes. Who dared to go to restaurants or brothels anymore? They all stayed at home and didn't go out.

If anyone says that their family is rich, they will become enemies on the spot!

"Your family is rich, your family is rich! Whoever is rich is the grandson!"

Even the eunuchs who usually had no respect for the law and acted tyrannically had restrained themselves.

How majestic and glorious was the eunuch Ma Gonggong, the garrison eunuch of Nanjing? He had to ride in a sedan chair with eight bearers and hundreds of guards whenever he went out.

Upon hearing that Hai Rui had become the governor of Yingtian, although he had no control over the eunuch in charge, Eunuch Ma immediately cut down on his ceremonial guards, reduced his guards by half, and changed his sedan chair to a green velvet one... because according to regulations, he could only ride in a four-person sedan chair given his rank.

It's better to be safe than sorry. Who knows what will happen if the King of Hell gets upset and reports us?

As for Li You, the eunuch in charge of weaving who caused the civil unrest in Suzhou, he was in such a state of panic that he fled from Nanzhili and hid in his villa in Hangzhou, claiming to be ill and refusing to see visitors.

ps. Chapter 3. I will make up for the chapter I owe tomorrow.