The property of the Xu family in Huating was acquired by his two sons, Xu Fan and Xu Kun, during Xu Jie's tenure as the Vice Minister and Premier of the Cabinet.
They wantonly acquired land in their hometown, reaching 240,000 mu. Some people said it was 400,000 mu. In short, the Xu family was the largest landlord in the entire Shanghai area. The best and most fertile land belonged to them, so their family was extremely luxurious.
Later, when Gao Gong came to power, this big stick, who was second only to Hai Rui, refused to let go of Xu Jie. He sent Hai Rui to Huating as the Yingtian Inspector-General to hunt down the tiger and fiercely beat up the Xu family. Everyone in the Great Ming Dynasty in the Jiajing Dynasty knew who Hai Rui was. It was the biggest stick in the Great Ming Dynasty.
What would happen when he took office?
He sent messages and interrogated them every two or three days, exhausting the Xu family. Xu Jie couldn't resist, and Hai Rui seized the loophole and handed over the evidence to Gao Gong.
Gao Gong was even more ruthless. He directly banished Xu Fan to the army. Xu Jie never thought that he had misjudged Gao Gong. He also didn't expect that Hai Rui, whom he had protected in front of the Jiajing Emperor, was an ingrate who dared to bite back.
Later, Xu Jie had no choice but to start exerting his power in the imperial court. He remotely controlled Zhang Juzheng to abolish Hai Rui, overthrow Gao Gong, and made Zhang Juzheng the Premier. Only then did he save Xu Jie and protect the 240,000 mu of land and wealth of the Xu family.
Therefore, the history books all said that Xu Jie couldn't keep his chastity in his old age.
This matter was too big, and too many people knew about it. At that time, many people ridiculed and were dissatisfied. Xu Jie angered the public, and later, Zhang Juzheng angered the public. Therefore, even the historians of the Confucian School, who always followed the taboo of the Venerable, couldn't avoid anything for the "loyal Venerable" Xu Jie.
It was all written down.
Even after Yan Shifan's death and the fall of the Yan party, Xu Jie had promised to marry Yan Shifan's son to Yan Shifan's eldest granddaughter as a concubine, but she was poisoned to death by Yan Shifan's hint. When Yan Shifan found out about this, he smiled and nodded. This scandal was also recorded in the unofficial history book 'Wan Li's Wild Harvests'.
What was even more ironic was that Xu Fan's eldest daughter didn't get married until she died. When she was young, she was betrothed to Yan Shifan's son as a concubine. Yan Shifan died before she reached adulthood. Because she had already been determined, she became a stain on the Xu family and was poisoned to death by her grandfather and father.
Of course, the authenticity of the unofficial history was still questionable, but such a rigid routine reminded people of many women who were sacrificed under the peace marriage policy of the ancient dynasties.
It could be seen that Xu Jie, the "Enduring Hero" who "overthrew Yan Song and saved the crisis of the Daming Dynasty," was a cold-blooded political creature.
He was like this even for his own bloodline, so it could be imagined that in the densely populated Southern Zhili region, the Xu family's two hundred and forty thousand mu of land had been embezzled from many people, how they had operated, and how many people had shed blood and tears in order to make their family prominent and prosperous.
A conservative estimate was that there were three or four thousand families who had lost their land and broken up. Countless families had been broken up, just for his family!
They had never cared about the life and death of the common people. In their hearts, there were only their own enjoyment and privileges. No matter how many books they read, how much knowledge they had mastered, it was only for their own selfish desires.
The Xu family was just a regular example of the great gentry class of that era.
No matter how great Xu Jie's contributions were, no matter how great his reputation was, it could not cover up the numerous crimes and exploitation of the common people by his family. The scholars sang praises of Xu Jie's achievements in overthrowing Yan Song, but who would care about the blood and tears of the common people and the piles of bones under the Xu family's violence?
It was time for these sanctimonious hypocrites to pay the price for the sins they had committed.
Every time he thought of this, Xie He could not help but feel the anger and soaring killing intent in his heart. With the instructions of Xiao Ruxun and the support of the army, Xie He decided to do something big and completely destroy the Xu Jie family, so that he could begin his own legend.
Since he had decided to completely hand over his body to Xiao Ruxun, Xie He was not afraid of anything. Anyway, he had killed a lot of people, killed so many local tycoons, and had no way out. He had long been a member of the war chariot who could not get off. In the great era, the small people did not have much choice.
Xie He did not intend to choose anything. He just wanted to walk this road to the end, and he wanted to see what was at the end of the road.
So he took the first five outstanding subordinates who were nicknamed the "Five Tiger Generals of the Land" by the members of the task force, and followed Zheng Ying's army to Songjiang Prefecture. With the roar of the cannons and the shooting of the muskets, the resistance of the local army was weak and powerless, and they collapsed at the first touch.
Huzhou Prefecture and Jiaxing Prefecture were taken down on the 16th and 17th of November, respectively, in less than ten days. There were very few resistance from the local army, but there were many people from the local rich families who organized to fight against the Zhennan Army in order to protect their property.
Kill them all.
Zheng Ying directed the cannoneers to fire, looked at the families who were smashed to pieces by the bombardment, and then commanded the cavalry to move forward and trample them into the soil, never to exist again.
He wanted to live up to the name that Xiao Ruxun had changed for him. Eagle, a cruel predator that soared in the nine heavens, powerful, cold-blooded, and without the slightest sympathy or softness for its prey.
Huzhou Prefecture and Jiaxing Prefecture were not stronger than Hangzhou Prefecture. It was like the difference between tender tofu and old tofu, and they would also be smashed with a slap.
The resistance on the surface was over, but the undercurrent was still turbulent. The rich families who were extremely dissatisfied with the iron and blood methods of the Zhennan Army were preparing for the second round of action. However, before they were ready, the Zhennan Army came to their door.
To be precise, it was not the neatly arranged armored soldiers who came to their door, but the ragged peasants with red eyes and full of hatred.
The peasants who had been deprived of the land, wealth, and the value of survival by them.
The cruel revenge began.
Zheng Ying also led 20,000 troops into Songjiang Prefecture, and officially launched an attack on the backyard of the southeast gentry without any contact.
On November 19th, they occupied Zhujing, and on the same day, they took down the Jinshan Guards, ending the largest official resistance in Songjiang Prefecture. Then the two armies began to march to Huating, which was the nest of the Xu family.
At this time, it had been 15 years since Xu Jie died, six years since his eldest son Xu Fan died, and two years since Xu Fan's eldest son Xu Yuanchun died. At this time, the head of the Xu family's eldest son Xu Youqing was Xu Fan's eldest grandson. Xu Youqing was an official of the Imperial Bodyguard. Because of his extraordinary handsome appearance, he was also once favored by Zhu Yijun. There was also a scandal between them, which was recorded in the Wild Harvest of Wanli.
After Xu Yuanchun died, Xu Youqing returned home to handle the housework as the head of the eldest branch. However, in less than two years, there was a great change in the imperial court. Zhu Yijun abdicated, the new emperor ascended the throne, and the Imperial Bodyguard collectively turned to Shen Yicheng. Xu Youqing was very surprised.
But he himself did not want to have too much entanglement with the imperial court, so he stayed in his hometown in Huating and lived his own life. From time to time, he summoned the second and third branches to discuss family affairs. He lived a good life, although it was hard to forget the past of being "favored" by Zhu Yijun when he was young.
But soon, he could not continue to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight. Because the Zhennan Army Navy attacked Zhenjiang Prefecture and Nanjing, captured the capital of Daming, and also cut off the grain route of the Jinghang Canal. Then the Zhennan Army set off from Burma on a northern expedition. In just a few months, they swept through most of the south of the Yangtze River. The merchants who came back from the south reported the news that the war in Daming was about to start.
Later, there were Imperial Bodyguard spies who found Xu Youqing and asked him for information. Xu Youqing told these Imperial Bodyguard spies what he knew out of their friendship in the past. Later, no one knew what happened.
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