Chapter 22 Three Incurable Nation

In fact, many people do not deny Hai Rui's political achievements. After Hai Rui was dismissed as governor of Yingtian, his successor was Zhu Daqi.Both Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng wrote letters to Zhu Daqi, and both talked about how to view Hai Rui's policy.Although Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng were political enemies, they also advocated the dismissal of Hai Rui, but they both spoke very highly of Hai Rui, and they were quite consistent.First, they all believed that Hai Jui should not be completely denied. Gao Gong even said clearly at the beginning: "Hai Jun's actions are said to be perfect, and it is not true; it is not true to say that they are not good." Second, they all believe that Hai Rui's purpose is to "remove evil" and his motive is to "serve the people", but his approach is inappropriate.Zhang Juzheng even said in a tone of defense for Hai Rui, "Although his actions are excessive, his heart is for the people." In short, his motivation and starting point are good.Third, they all believed that Hai Rui's policies only needed to be adjusted and could not be reversed.Zhang Juzheng said it more politely, saying: "After the frost and snow, a little warmth will make people feel spring. There is no need to change the way to favor others." It is absolutely impossible to add mediation; it is especially impossible to eliminate all the painful and accumulated evils and make decisions for the people." The word "especially" in "especially not" shows that Gao Gong's affirmation of Hai Rui is more than negation. Even rather than denying Hai Rui's inadequacies, it is also impossible to deny Hai Rui's general direction of eradicating evils and making decisions for the people.

It seems that Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng are not bad guys, let alone mediocre.Their minds are clear, and their measures are not small.They didn't deny Hai Rui's personality and his correct direction just because they hated Hai Rui, nor did they just add insult to injury and chase after him just because Hai Rui had been dismissed from office, trying to make him useless.The two court elders really have the taste of "the prime minister can pull a boat in his belly".In contrast, Hai Rui's scolding was a bit petty. The difference between Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng and Hai Rui lies mainly in the methods.Gao Gong thinks he is "excessive", Zhang Juzheng thinks he is "excessive", Hai Rui himself thinks it is not enough.He once said worryingly and resentfully to people: Now there is only one medicine to treat the country: licorice.There are only two words for those who live in the world now: Xiangyuan! Xiangyuan is also called Xiangyuan. Mencius’ definition is: "It is similar to the vulgar, conforms to the dirty world, lives like loyalty, behaves like honesty, everyone is happy with it, self-righteous, and Do not follow the Tao of Yao and Shun.” It can be seen that Xiangyuan is hypocrisy, perfunctory, flattery, slick, unprincipled, honest and self-disciplined on the surface, but actually complicit.The medicine prescribed by such a person is of course only sweet licorice, which cannot cure the disease, nor can it cure the dead.Hai Rui thought that strong medicine should be used.The memorial he gave to Emperor Jiajing was the strong medicine he gave, and the introduction of the medicine was his own life.He hoped that this medicine would wake up the emperor and cheer up the empire.It's a pity that the emperor was terminally ill both physically and mentally, and finally died.No wonder Hai Rui burst into tears when he heard the news.He was crying not only for the dead emperor, but also for his own invalid prescription.

Now, Hai Rui finally had an opportunity to heal the country, so he naturally refused to let it go.Therefore, as soon as he took the post of governor of Yingtian, he acted boldly and resolutely, and was not even afraid of overcorrecting.Originally, as soon as Xu Jie's field retreated, he should accept it as soon as it was good.Because this matter had already had an impact, the big landlord Shen Kai and others saw that Hai Rui was not accommodating to Xu Jie, so they had no choice but to take the initiative to withdraw the invaded land.At this time, as Mr. Huang Renyu said: If Hai Rui "takes the method of punishing one police officer and publicizing the Xu family or several other representative cases widely, so that those who take advantage of the rich to bully the poor will know what to do and be afraid." Then, "he may succeed in an atmosphere of relaxation."However, Hai Rui didn't seem to understand the principle of "one sheet, one sheet, the way of civil and military affairs". His enthusiasm for work not only did not decrease slightly, but was doubled due to the victory in the first battle.He is not satisfied with sitting in the governor's office to accept complaints (as mentioned earlier, such complaints have reached as many as seven or eight thousand a month), but also visits the prefectures and counties in person to hear the lawsuits, interrogate them one by one, try them one by one, and issue them once. Clean up, and the string of struggle will become tighter and tighter.

Such enthusiasm for work is also unique to Hai Rui.He was originally a workaholic, but when he got out of the car, he found that there were countless things to do.Hai Rui knew very well that for a person like him who was neither a Jinshi nor a background boss, being able to serve as an official in the frontier is a special case among special cases. Only by working hard can he repay the country and live up to the emperor's favor.What's more, he was already in his fifties at this time, and he didn't have much time to do things, which is also called "the time will never wait".Therefore, he has a sense of urgency, which is very similar to Han Yu's taste of "wanting to eliminate evils for the holy dynasty, and willing to cherish the dying years".In addition, he also knew in his heart: there is no permanent banquet in the world, and there is no official who will not step down. This is especially true for Hai Rui. He can only do as much as he can on any given day. According to the progress of Jiang's water control project, he set up the administrative office on the construction site, beheaded three officials who were not able to supervise the work, and rolled up their bodies with mats and buried them in front of the administrative office hall.As a result, the project progressed rapidly and abnormally.An inspector censor who wanted to stop and frame Hai Rui didn't have time to do it, but the project was completed, and the inspector had no choice but to say in vain, "He has accomplished the work of all ages".Of course, Hai Rui also had someone dig out the corpses in front of the hall, but they were three fat pigs, and the three officials were transferred by Hai Rui and hid elsewhere.

A water conservancy project may be stepped up in this way, but political projects are not so simple.Now it seems that Hai Rui's handling at that time may have been a little simpler.He has accepted so many cases, in fact, it is impossible not to be simple.However, the issues he involved are very complicated: measuring land, clearing farmland, rehabilitating unjust prisons, rectifying law and order, building water conservancy, dismissing recruits, reforming official administration, evaluating officials, and implementing the "one whip method" (a new taxation method). System), etc., which one is not intertwined, affecting the whole body?However, Hai Rui's power is very weak. There are neither clear legal provisions nor effective specialized agencies. With only a wave of political enthusiasm and a moral intuition for good and evil, he hopes to cut the mess quickly and turn the century-old It goes without saying that it will not succeed if the accumulated disadvantages are completely eliminated.

The impeachment of Hai Rui was carried out almost at the same time as Hai Rui's reform in Yingtian, and the attack was also heavy and fierce.During the incident, Dai Fengxiang even said alarmistly that under Hai Rui's rule, tenants did not dare to pay rent to landlords, and borrowers did not dare to repay debts to lenders. There is a popular saying among the people that "growing a fertile field is not as good as being thin."If it wasn't for Hai Rui's impeccable integrity, he would definitely be described as a cruel official like Zhou Xing and Lai Junchen.The cabinet is also deeply worried about Hai Rui's actions.They thought of a doctor who once gave a patient a hard time eating crotons, and he also plausibly said that "crotons should not be used lightly" in medical books, and of course they must be reused.The cabinet felt that Hai Rui was such a doctor, and he should be quickly recalled from his post as governor, lest our already crooked empire be overwhelmed by his overzealous treatment.

Hai Rui set an example and tried to use morality to eliminate long-standing evils, resulting in complaints; Zhang Juzheng was determined to innovate and tried to use laws to cheer up the spirit, but resistance arose;They all failed, which is the so-called "poor no-subsidy spirit".Obviously, their empire is hopeless.