During the meal time, the governor's boat arrived at the hospital pier.

There was no flag on the boat, so the people on the dock were not alarmed. Niu Chenshi and Tian Tongpan were indeed left on the boat.

Hai Rui only brought Hai An and two personal soldiers off the boat, and under the guidance of Xiwa, they entered the Jiangnan Hospital.

~~

The hospital has returned to normal order, and there is no sign that it was just a false alarm.

Naturally, there was no number scalper who asked Hai Rui if he wanted to insert a number.

Hai Rui and Zhao Hao met at the gate of Lin Run's courtyard. Hai Rui's personal guard captain was Miao Qianhu from the governor's office, and he told the guards the identity of Hai Zhongcheng.

The guards quickly knelt down to greet them and made way for them.

The two men went into the outer room of the ward. Hai Rui smelled the odor of strong liquor in the ward. He frowned and was about to speak.

"This is not alcohol for drinking, it's disinfectant alcohol." Zhao Hao and Hai Rui had a very good understanding of each other. Before Hai Rui could ask, Zhao Hao explained. He then taught Hai Rui to change into sterile clothes and put on a mask, and then he gently pushed the door and entered Lin Run's ward.

Lin Run was still unconscious, his eyes were sunken and his face was haggard, and he looked lifeless.

Only the faint breathing sound coming from the breathing mask proved that he was still alive.

"As of today, Lin Zhongcheng has been lying in bed for a full month." Zhao Hao had just asked Li Shizhen about Lin Run's recent condition, so he told Hai Rui on behalf of the doctor, "The burns on his body have basically healed, and his pulse is now stable. He should not be in danger of death. But the nicotine has already entered his brain, and no one can say when he will wake up."

Hai Rui's eyes revealed a complex array of emotions, including sympathy for his fellow man, anger that had no way to vent, and a hint of indescribable guilt.

He stood in front of Lin Run's bed for a long time without saying a word.

Zhao Hao quietly accompanied him. He had no idea that under Hai Zhongcheng's calm expression, a struggle was going on in his heart...

After a long while, Hai Rui took a step back, bowed deeply to the sick Lin Run, and whispered two words.

"Feel sorry."

When he stood up, the confusion in his eyes had disappeared, and he became the indomitable Hai Gangfeng again.

Hai Rui glanced at Lin Run again, then whispered to Zhao Hao, "Come for a walk with me."

"Yeah." Zhao Hao nodded.

~~

Hai Rui left the hospital directly and strode towards the river bank two miles away.

Although he is not tall, he takes big steps and his pace is fast, as if he walks with the wind.

Master Zhao followed behind all the way, and by the time he climbed up the river bank, he was almost out of breath.

"What a physique! Not even as good as an old man like me." Hai Rui glanced at him.

"Mr. Hai is not an ordinary old man. You are the Speedy One, no one can compare to you."

Zhao Hao took the water bag offered by Gao Wu and took a sip to moisten his smoking throat.

It’s a good thing that I have trained for a year, otherwise I would have fallen behind.

"Do you know why? Because I have been walking for half my life. When I went from Qiongshan to the capital to take the imperial examination, I only took a ferry when crossing the sea or the river." Hai Rui said with a smug look on his face, "A lazy kid like you who gets in the car as soon as he leaves the house and gets on the bed as soon as he enters the house, you can't beat him just by practicing pulling out broken tendons."

Zhao Hao was shocked when he heard this. It turned out that Hai Gong was the first person in Ming Dynasty to go hiking.

"That was the 31st year of the Jiajing reign, the second time I went to Beijing to take the imperial examination." Hai Rui walked eastward along the long embankment, leaving his guards far behind.

"When I arrived in Beijing before the imperial examination, I caused quite a stir, but unfortunately I failed." Hai Rui laughed at himself and said, "But that hiking trip across the Ming Dynasty allowed me to see the side of the Ming Dynasty that is often ignored and downplayed. Behind the figures of disaster victims and starvation deaths mentioned by the government are actually families that suffered and lives that were lost in despair."

"It turns out that the lavish and beautiful life of the literati is built on the suffering of the poor people, which is ten times or even a hundred times greater. If they could curb their desires a little, the lives of the common people would be much better. But the reality is so cruel that it makes people despair. The powerful families only know how to be greedy, and the common people are already skin and bones, but they still only know how to exploit them."

"Don't they know the principle of exhausting all resources? No, they all know it, but almost no one is willing to restrain themselves and take the initiative to give up some of their benefits."

Hai Rui said sternly, "Then I'll have to force them to give in!"

~~

The weather was sunny and windy on the river bank, but Hai Zhongcheng's face was stern.

He shifted his gaze to the bustling construction site across the street, and after a long while he let out a long breath and said:

"I'm afraid it will take a while before we can get justice for Lin Zhongcheng."

"Oh?" Zhao Hao was slightly surprised, then asked calmly, "What does the Minister have in mind?"

"After all your efforts to build momentum, the Xu family's reputation in Jiangnan has already been ruined." Hai Rui said in a deep voice, "The one-sided result of the court has also been seen as a clear trend by officials in the two capitals. No one dares to speak for the Xu family in Lin Zhongcheng's case."

As he spoke, he smiled contemptuously and said, "In my opinion, the Xu family is nothing but dead bones in a grave."

"Then why not take his life while he is sick?" Zhao Hao asked softly.

"The sick tiger can no longer do any harm, so it is a relief to kill it. But what happens after that? Yanggu County no longer needs a tiger-hunting hero." Hai Rui laughed self-deprecatingly and said, "I know very well that the officials of the court only regard me as a sharp knife. After killing someone, they should wipe the blood off and sheath it. As the saying goes, when the birds are gone, the good bow is put away. This has been the case since ancient times."

Zhao Hao was stunned. He didn't expect that Hai Gangfeng, who was straightforward, was so clear about all these twists and turns.

"So if I want to fight for the people, I must do it before the tiger is killed. After the tiger is killed, my days in Jiangnan will be over." Hai Rui said with a frank expression and clear eyes, without a trace of selfish thoughts:

"This may be the most powerful time in my life. Moreover, Lin Zhongcheng has laid a solid foundation for me. It is time for me to do something!"

"How does Zhongcheng plan to implement his new policy for Jiangnan?" Zhao Hao asked with interest.

"I want to do three things: equalize grain between officials and civilians, implement the Single Whip Law, and clean up illegal land occupation!" Hai Rui's thin body burst out with the most powerful voice in the Ming Dynasty:

"Three things with the same purpose: fairness, fairness, and fairness!"

Zhao Hao understood the three things Hai Rui wanted to do.

Equal distribution of grain between officials and civilians is what Lin Run wanted to promote, namely "equal distribution of grain in Jiangnan, integration of officials and civilians", which would abolish the distinction between official and private fields and tax all land equally.

The "One Whip Law" was a tax and corvée reform plan proposed by Gui E, a university scholar during the Jiajing period, and has been tried in Jiangxi and other places. In short, it is to combine the land tax, corvée and other miscellaneous levies of various counties into one, and convert them into one per mu, and pay them in cash.

The cleanup of illegal land occupation is easier to understand. It means to make the big households give up the official and civilian lands that they illegally occupied through donations, fraudulent mailing, scattered land, moving hills, changing sections, and changing registers.

ps. Second update, please give me your monthly vote!