Chapter 229

"He, Hai Rui, a mere County Magistrate of Chun'an, managed to throw the entire Southeast into chaos in just ten days. Do you truly believe a single Memorial to the throne can take Hai Rui's life?"

"Writing such a thing is merely to make the man surnamed Hai feel some trepidation."

Having said this.

Outside the Xie family ancestral hall, silence instantly fell like death.

Among these great families of the Southeast, there was never a lack of 'spokesmen' in the court.

Cases of father and son both becoming Jinshi, or one family producing five Hanlin academicians, were even more common.

Not to mention that people like Xie Qian and Liu Daxia had initially obtained official posts through their fathers' influence.

Their understanding of Jiajing was absolutely far superior to Hai Rui's.

To put it plainly.

This Memorial, even if it were truly used, could only be for Prince Yu, not for Hai Rui.

With words having reached this point.

These great families of the Southeast did not care much.

Two million taels of silver, shared among the families, was merely the profit from one shipment for them.

After bowing to take their leave, they hurried back to their own homes.

After all, the Xie family had laid out this sum of silver to them.

They still had to return to their own homes to continue dividing the burden down through the various branches of their families.

This is the aspect of the ancients that people of later generations find most incomprehensible.

Later generations' understanding of family was nothing more than a household of three, at most including a few cousins.

But the clans of the Ming and Qing dynasties were completely different from the families of later generations.

Often splitting into six or seven branches, with the whole clan numbering over a thousand people, was considered merely a small family.

Even if the court issued an edict to exterminate three generations, it might not be able to uproot a single clan entirely.

With such a division of the burden.

By the time it reached the level of a 'household of three,' it amounted to nothing more than one family contributing a hundred or so taels of silver, just like paying a protection fee.

It is just that these great families of the Southeast did not know.

Every move they made had already been quietly recorded by the Embroidered Uniform Guard hiding in the shadows.

They would never have imagined.

That they, 'common people' holding no official post in the court, could one day be monitored by the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Ten days later.

Just as those two merchants arrived with the silver at the location previously agreed upon with Hai Rui.

One of them shouted loudly towards the distant bamboo forest.

"Is my lord Hai present?"

"My lord Hai?"

Clearly, these two merchants did not take Hai Rui seriously at all.

As long as Hai Rui took this sum of silver.

Hai Rui would be completely in their control.

Which would mean he was one of their 'own people.'

However, even after this merchant shouted several times, there was absolutely no reply from the deep, dark bamboo forest.

Just as the two were puzzled.

A piercing whistle suddenly pierced the night sky from the originally empty mountain forest!

In an instant, countless torches were lit.

A large unit of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and soldiers from the Viceroy's office suddenly appeared in the surrounding bamboo forest.

Those two merchants realized the situation was amiss.

They immediately prepared to flee.

But they found their retreat had already been cut off by the Qi family army.

In the night, Qi Qi Jiguang stared coldly at the two merchants before him and snorted.

"Flee? Even if you flee to the Eastern Barbarians, I can still chase you down and bring you back."

In fact.

The moment they saw Qi Qi Jiguang.

These two merchants completely gave up resistance.

Just kidding.

If even those Eastern Barbarian ronin couldn't escape, how could they, being more reckless, be more reckless than ronin?

The two merchants looked at Hai Rui in the bamboo forest with near-despair and growled.

"Man surnamed Hai, do you truly not fear death?"

Upon hearing this, Hai Rui did not hesitate for a moment; he merely let out a cold snort, stuck his neck out, and declared proudly.

"If you two go to Chun'an and ask around, you will know that I, Hai, do not care at all for your two stinking piles of money!"

"Come!"

"Seize these two men, but do not let them die!"

The soldiers in the distance shouted in unison.

"Yes!"

A vast number of soldiers rushed forward.

They immediately pinned the entire cavalry squad to the ground.

Seeing the white, gleaming silver piled in the carriage, Hai Rui finally understood why the great families of the Southeast would rather die than open the seas!

A business yielding mountains of gold and silver.

Who could bear to shut it down!

The Tian Fu collected from the people of the two provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian in a single year of farming amounts to merely two million taels of silver!

Such a huge sum of money.

In the hands of these great families, it was treated as if it were mere pocket change.

Shock was written on everyone's faces.

Only on Hai Rui's face was there nothing but anguish.

Hai Rui chided himself for realizing the truth too late.

Because of his own stubbornness, the people of the Southeast had suffered an extra few months of hardship for nothing!

"Hu Butang."

Hu Zongxian, following behind Hai Rui, looked at him with confusion and asked,

"My lord Hai, is there anything else?"

Hai Rui clenched a silver ingot tightly in his hand, gritting his teeth as he said,

"Arrest them! Arrest them now! The sooner we close this case, the sooner the people of the Southeast can live well; we cannot delay even a single hour!"

Hu Zongxian's brows furrowed tightly; with a sudden tightening of his brow, he immediately looked toward Qi Qi Jiguang and the others beside him.

"Yuanjing."

"Your subordinate is here."

"You and Prefect, the troops under your command, shall suspend drills effective immediately. All troops under the Viceroy's office shall fully cooperate with my lord Hai in handling this case; we must sweep up every single scoundrel involved!"

Qi Qi Jiguang clasped his hands in salute and said,

"Yes!"

Although Hu Zongxian nominally held the title of Viceroy of the Southeast, the troops he could directly command were in reality only the two divisions of Qi Qi Jiguang and Yu Yu Dayou.

However, this was merely for handling a case.

In Hu Zongxian's understanding,

it should be enough.

Yet, it was clear that whether it was Jiajing, Hu Zongxian, or Hai Rui, they had all significantly underestimated the impact of this case.

That very night, in Fucheng alone, one hundred and twenty households were caught.