The official residence of the Minister of Punishments.

After explaining the current situation in Beijing to Hai Rui, Zhang Wei took out a pack of cigarettes from his purse. The pattern on the cigarette box was a huge sailboat cutting through the waves on the blue sea.

Hai Rui recognized it. It was a Coast Guard brand cigarette. It was not sold on the market, but was exclusively for Coast Guard officers and soldiers.

Zhang Wei first offered a cigarette to his boss, but Hai Rui waved his hand to refuse it. Apart from tea, he did not indulge in any other alcoholic beverages.

And I only drink broken tea. The so-called broken tea refers to the broken tea at the bottom of the tea can. Although it has lost its shape, it is more broken and the tea brewed from it tastes more fragrant.

The key is that it is cheap, and ten cents is enough to drink for a month. Only then did Hai Rui allow himself to keep this little hobby.

In fact, the monthly salary of a first-rank official was 72 dan of rice, but in recent years it has been changed to 150 taels of silver. A monthly salary of 150 taels is definitely a high income no matter where you put it.

However, since Hai Rui became governor during the Longqing period, he has been donating most of his income to the charity bureaus and orphanages in the poor counties of Qiongzhou Prefecture to provide relief to the young and the elderly.

In another time and space, Hai Rui died of illness while serving as the Right Censor-in-Chief of Nanjing. Because he had no son, after his death, his subordinate, Wang Yongji, the Assistant Censor-in-Chief of Nanjing, took care of his funeral affairs.

When Wang Yongji arrived at Hai Rui's residence, he saw that the curtains were made of cheap hemp cloth, and the furniture was all tattered bamboo furniture, some of which even poor scholars would not use. After searching Hai Rui's residence, he only found a few patched clothes and a few broken boxes filled with tattered clothes.

This is all the property left behind by a second-rank official who served his entire life...

~~

Zhang Wei used a lighter to light a cigarette and took a puff, then continued, "This group of young censors are incredible. Their attacks are carefully planned and they proceed step by step according to predetermined procedures. They often start with some small things, impeaching some middle and low-level officials. They discuss some sensitive topics to attract the attention of the government and the public, and attract more officials to join the battlefield. Over time, small things gradually develop into big things; small officials gradually implicate big officials; some small details eventually become big cases that affect the whole world."

"In terms of actions, they are also very methodical. The first step is for an unknown person to stir up trouble. Before the effect is achieved, they will never rashly move to the next step. Only when the time is right will a general take action!" He looked at Hai Rui meaningfully and said:

"The enemy's general has already appeared on the scene, which means that the carefully arranged killing game has been completed and they are about to reap the rewards. How can we let the old minister disrupt the situation at this time?"

If a figure of Hai Rui's enormous influence joined in, those junior censors would gain no benefit, whether they supported or opposed the liquidation of Zhang Juzheng.

It goes without saying that he opposed the liquidation. If he supported it, he would instantly become the focus of the anti-Zhang movement, and the censors would be paving the way for him. This was naturally unacceptable to the censors who were eager to accumulate political capital and become famous.

"Yes, I understand..." Hai Rui took a sip of strong tea and nodded. He had seen a lot of storms and naturally knew what those censors were thinking.

"What are your plans, old minister?" Zhang Wei asked tentatively.

"Let's take a look first." Hai Rui said slowly, "I've been away for so many years. There's no need to be so impatient to speak out as soon as I come back."

"That's right. In such turbulent times, it's better to be cautious..." Zhang Wei nodded with a smile, chatted with Hai Rui about ministry affairs for a while, and then said goodbye and left.

Hai Rui sent him to the gate of the official residence and looked at Zhang Wei's back with a playful expression.

This man was a good friend of Zhao Shouzheng, persecuted by Zhang Juzheng, and had a shady relationship with He Xinyin and his gang. There were even rumors that he also worshipped Zhao Hao as his teacher, and the nickname "Hongyang" was given to him by Zhao Hao.

In short, this person's background is very complicated, so it would be most appropriate to contact him to find out more about the situation, but don't trust him easily.

Moreover, Hai Rui did not believe that Zhao Shouzheng would capsize in the ditch after encountering such a small test. That would be too much of an underestimation of the Prime Minister of the Ming Dynasty... and his son.

As for those censors who were worried that he would steal their limelight, they were completely blind. Hai Rui's only goal in returning to Beijing this time was the emperor, and the emperor was still hiding behind the scenes, so why were they in such a hurry?

~~

Wenyuan Pavilion, the Prime Minister’s duty room.

Zhao Shouzheng was sitting behind the large rosewood desk that his predecessor had used. He looked through the glass window at the magnificent Wenhua Hall not far away, and felt a headache coming on.

He has been the Prime Minister for half a year. He has been exhausted and every day feels like a year. Previously, only his temples were gray, but now his entire hair is gray. Fortunately, his hair volume is still considerable, so there is no risk of baldness.

How could it not be a headache? In the past six months, the daily lectures on the classics had stopped, the morning court was no longer held, and the Wanli New Deal was gradually coming to nothing.

Although the performance evaluation system was still in place due to his insistence, the officials' tension, which had been tight for too long, inevitably loosened. The focus of the Ming court also shifted from the endless reform and assessment to the political struggle that was popular.

With the tacit approval and even secret promotion of Emperor Wanli, the liquidation of Zhang Juzheng, planned by some ambitious people who either hated Zhang Juzheng to the core, or had different political views from him, or wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to gain power, and led by a considerable number of censors, had intensified and seemed unstoppable.

Zhao Shouzheng didn't want to see this situation, but he knew in his heart that it was inevitable.

In his opinion, there are at least three reasons.

First, Zhang Juzheng ignored the fact that the dynasty was a country based on morality. In this vast and populous empire, the court had limited administrative capacity. Although various laws were promulgated, in actual operation, it was impossible to enforce the law and punish violations. Therefore, morality was necessary to maintain social stability.

To put it bluntly, it is to repeatedly promote Confucian morality, so that everyone can be a good person with low desires, and make society as easy to manage as a flock of sheep. People are like sheep that can be slaughtered by others, they will eat grass by themselves, and they can also contribute milk, fur, and meat. In this way, only a few sheepdogs are needed to manage thousands of sheep, and administrative costs are naturally greatly reduced.

Therefore, in the rule of the Celestial Empire, morality is the supreme principle, and specific administrative ability is an unimportant skill. Morality can not only guide everything, but can even replace the law. This is why censors always attack ministers from a moral perspective. No matter how capable an official is, as long as he has moral flaws, his career will be over, even if he has not violated any laws.

Zhang Juzheng actually attempted to rule the country by law, placing laws above morality, replacing morality to guide administration, and making the final decision. This shook the foundation of the Ming Dynasty and dug up the ancestral graves of the civil service group! How could it not cause a strong backlash from them?

Because morality is almost immutable, the classics of two or three thousand years are still not outdated. Therefore, as long as scholars are well-read in the classics, they can point out the country and criticize the administrative decisions of the court without any administrative experience!

Laws must keep pace with the times and cannot be generalized. Specific issues must be dealt with specifically and new laws must be constantly amended or formulated based on changes in actual conditions.

This requires specialization. For example, if military orders are not in the moral field but discussed at the technical level, only experienced military officials have the right to speak.

The same is true in finance, taxation, water conservancy, engineering, judicial and other aspects.

This deprives a large number of officials who can only make moral judgments of their right to speak, and in particular prevents censors from firing at will from all angles.

What? Let them investigate and become experts? That would be too painful! How can it be more satisfying to fire irresponsibly?

Therefore, as soon as Zhang Juzheng died, they could not wait to return to the era where morality was supreme and trample underfoot all the laws formulated by Grand Tutor Zhang!

~~

Furthermore, Zhang Juzheng treated the civil service group as an administrative tool, but ignored the fact that they were the ruling class who shared the Ming Dynasty with the emperor.

He not only controlled them too strictly and punished them too harshly, which made them lose their sense of security and run around like dogs, so they naturally resented him.

Zhang Juzheng also lacked respect for those "opinion leaders" who lacked administrative ability but were extremely influential.

In fact, his hiding of Hai Rui was an example, but Hai Rui just didn't criticize him.

But not everyone is like Hai Rui, who "does not rejoice over things or grieve over himself". For example, his classmate Wang Shizhen, who was the leader of the literary world for many years, actually had a strong desire for power. Leader Wang always hoped to become the minister of six ministries, to put a perfect end to his bumpy official career.

To this end, he did not hesitate to flatter Zhang Juzheng in various ways, such as writing birthday prefaces for his parents and giving him a large number of antiques, calligraphy and paintings. However, Zhang Juzheng not only did not appreciate it, but after receiving a letter from Wang Shizhen expressing his hope to serve the prime minister, he replied that "Wu Gan Yue Gou will break if used lightly; if you store it in a box, its essence will be preserved"...

Alliance leader Wang thought himself to be a genius, but Zhang Juzheng regarded him as a mere show-off. Naturally, he was furious. From then on, he became a black man in Taiyue and started to criticize him whenever he got the chance.

He tried several times to publish articles in the Jiangnan Daily to discredit Zhang Juzheng, but they were not approved. In a fit of rage, he started his own newspaper, Yingtian Daily, which was published three times a month at first and then once a month, specifically to dissent from Zhang Juzheng...

Considering Alliance Leader Wang’s influence among traditional literati, how could Zhang Juzheng’s reputation be good after he launched a full-scale attack on him?

Finally, Zhang Juzheng forgot that he was actually a member of the civil service group, but he took the emperor's position to carry out drastic reforms. As a result, he not only offended the civil service group, but also caused the emperor to lose power.

It would be fine if the emperor appreciated it, but if he met someone like Wanli who was ungrateful, he would naturally be in a difficult situation.

Naturally, no one dared to act rashly when Zhang Juzheng was alive, but it would be strange if there was no outcry after his death.

Zhao Shouzheng knew very well that the emperor and the civil service group had been suppressed under the shadow of Grand Tutor Zhang for too long and had long been on the verge of exploding.

Therefore, the anti-Zhang forces have a broad support base, which is why they appear so unstoppable.

If Zhao Hao hadn't cut off the source of the trouble and forced Lao Xier to at least withdraw from this ugly carnival on the surface, the situation that Mr. Zhao was facing now would have been many times more difficult...

p.s. Sorry everyone, only one update today.