Tuisi Garden, the study outside Mianfeng Pavilion.

The family member who delivered the letter to Xu Jie presented Hai Rui's reply.

Lord Xu took the letter, picked up the jade-handled silver letter opener on the table, and wanted to open the letter.

But after several attempts, I failed and almost cut my hand.

"Usually this is Xu Fan's job." He smiled self-deprecatingly and handed the envelope and letter opener to the family.

The man dressed as a servant had gray hair and beard, was short, and had a stern face. He did not look like an ordinary servant.

In fact, he was a retainer of the Xu family. His surname was Lu and his name was Guang. He was also a famous hero in the martial arts world back then.

It's a pity that the Ming Dynasty was not suitable for people of the underworld to survive, otherwise his colleague Shao Daxia would not have actively transformed into a broker.

Hero Lu was not as lucky as Hero Shao. When he was young, he traveled around the world and killed someone. He was wanted by the government, so he had to flee to Hetao, which was occupied by the Tatars at that time, and lived there for many years.

During those years, he traveled between the Han and Mongolian peoples and had a good understanding of the terrain, culture and customs of the region. Later, by chance, he became a retainer of Zeng Xin, the governor of Sanbian.

Lü Guang summarized his experience over the years and proposed a plan to Zeng Xin to recover Hetao. Governor Zeng thought it was a good idea and reported the plan to the court and asked him to go to Beijing to lobby.

The cabinet chief at that time was none other than Xia Yan, Xu Jie's teacher. After Xia Yan talked with Lü Guang, he felt that it was a good idea and made it a top priority. With Xia Yan's recommendation, Emperor Jiajing also felt that it was a good idea, so he ordered the court to discuss the "re-establishment of the system".

Under Xia Yan's promotion, the restoration plan was quickly passed by the court, and the court was ready to put it into practice.

That was also the most glorious moment in Master Lu’s life.

Unfortunately, when the time came, Jiajing, the coward, changed his mind again and began to find various reasons to delay. Everyone knows what happened next. Yan Song, the second assistant, grasped the change in Jiajing's mentality and mobilized his followers to attack Xia Yan and Zeng Xin. In the end, the emperor beheaded Xia Yan and Zeng Xin on the grounds of "close ministers colluding with border generals". The whole world felt wronged. Naturally, the matter of reincarnation was left unresolved and no one dared to mention it again.

Although Lü Guang was not implicated, he felt deeply guilty and secretly rescued Zeng Xin's family members who were exiled, and spared no effort to lobby for the redress of his former master. Finally, nearly 20 years later, in the first year of the Longqing reign, Xu Ge Lao took the opportunity to restore order and redressed the injustice of his mentor, and also cleared Zeng Xin's name.

In gratitude for Xu Jie's kindness, Lu Guang became Xu Jie's disciple, treated himself as his servant, and guarded him day and night.

Last year, the Xu family showed signs of decline. All the retainers surrounding Lord Xu left, except for Lu Guang, who still kept watch for Lord Xu every night.

From then on, Xu Jie valued Lu Guang more and more, relied on him as his confidant, and discussed all important matters with him.

~~

Lu Guang cut the envelope open, handed it to Lord Xu with both hands, and helped him pick up the paper on the table.

Xu Jie put on his reading glasses, held the letter farther away and squinted to see the content. It was not long, just a few words:

"When Rui arrived in Songjiang, I learned a lot from your teachings. I feel that your love for me is the same as before. I am very grateful. Recently, I read the land relinquishment book and I know that Shengde is beyond my expectation. However, the amount relinquished is not much, so it can be done with some more clarification. In the past, people changed their father's policies, and the gold of seven houses was gone in a moment. You can change your son as a father, and you don't need to give up all the land. You can leave 6,000 acres of land and leave the rest of the property untouched, which is enough to support your family..."

This letter was like Hai Rui's personality, sharp and direct. After removing the polite words at the beginning, it pointed out bluntly that the Xu family had returned the land, but the amount was far from enough.

So how much should be withdrawn? This time he gave a precise number - 6,000 acres to be retained and the rest to be withdrawn.

It was also specifically pointed out that your family's industrial and commercial properties, mansions and gardens can be retained, so that the Xu family will still be the richest family in Songjiang. What more could you ask for?

In fact, to be honest, if Hai Rui had not been armed with the old man's theory by Zhao Hao, he would have decided to "establish a united front", "develop progressive forces, win over middle forces, and isolate stubborn forces"... Specifically, he would have separated the big landlords from the industrial and commercial landlords, the big businessmen from the small landlords, won over the latter three, and fought against the big landlords together...

Otherwise, with his bad temper, he would force the Xu family to give up all their industrial and commercial assets.

Perhaps he felt that the Xu family was being treated too well. They were able to get away with it after doing so many bad things! Hai Rui's tone also became harsh, and he used the sarcastic words, "In the past, if someone changed his father's policies, the gold of seven houses would be scattered in an instant. You can change your son by changing your father." This pointed out that Lord Xu was "changing his son by changing his father", and asked him to weigh whether his material possessions or his son were more important.

After reading it, Lord Xu burst out laughing, handed Hai Rui's letter to Lu Guang and said, "Another ungrateful person, and the kind who eats people without leaving any bones behind."

Lu Guang quickly glanced at the letter and looked up at Lord Xu. Although Xu was smiling, his smile was full of murderous intent. His left eyebrow was twitching, and it was obvious that he was angered by Hai Rui.

To be honest, Lü Guang felt that what Hai Rui said made sense. In ancient times, if one corrected his father's mistakes, seven houses of gold would be gone in a moment. Xu Ge Lao's son did all kinds of bad things, and he also directly caused a governor to be seriously injured and unconscious until now. If he wants to redeem his sins, I'm afraid seven houses of gold will not be enough, right? Ten houses, fourteen houses?

He had personally witnessed the Prime Minister and the Governor being beheaded and thrown into the market, and their families being destroyed. Naturally, he felt that material things could not compare to "safe people and a peaceful home."

But for some people, no matter how much anti-corruption education they receive, they cannot change their greedy nature of preferring to sacrifice their lives rather than their money.

~~

I saw that Lord Xu's smile became even colder, and he gritted his teeth and said in hatred: "This is too much! How abominable! If I had known this would happen, I should not have saved this heartless guy. It would be much better to let him die in the imperial prison!"

"Master, calm down," Lu Guang hurriedly urged Xu Jie to remain calm, "If we don't agree to Hai Rui, I'm afraid he will attack us."

"Yes, he is the governor of Yingtian, holding the banner of the king, and also has the name of Qingtian. He holds the handles of countless powerful families. No one in Jiangnan can match him."

Xu Jie smiled coldly and said, "But Jiangnan is no match for the Ming Dynasty. Above him are the imperial courts in Nanjing and Beijing. There are plenty of people there who can cause trouble for him and make him get out!"

As he spoke, Lord Xu twisted his orchid fingers and smiled contemptuously, "One million taels is more than enough to save my Xu family. Four hundred and sixty thousand mu of fertile land can be sold for ten million taels of silver. Who would be willing to do such a blood-loss business?!"

"Master, the risk of confronting Hai Rui is still quite high..." Lu Guang advised again.

"I know, I know." Xu Jie suddenly became depressed and sighed, "But I can't retreat anymore. When we searched the house of Yan Ge, we only found more than 10,000 taels of gold, more than 2 million taels of silver, 57 houses and residential land, more than 20,000 acres of farmland and ponds, and thousands of gold and silver utensils, jades, jewelry, furniture, and precious calligraphy and paintings, and books. Even so, they were all engraved into Tianshui Bingshanlu by the court and published as a warning to others."

"I didn't expect that my family is even more outrageous than Lord Yan's..."

ps. This is the third update, please give me monthly votes, and I will write another chapter the day before yesterday.