In fact, Hai Jui was a celebrity at that time, at least in the officialdom, no less famous than a few cabinet ministers.

The reason is actually very simple, that is, Hai Rui dares to speak out about the biggest drawbacks of the imperial court.

In fact, everyone knows this drawback, and almost no one does not know it, but for general reasons, no official dares to say it, and it is directly said to the emperor.

Hai Rui really did this, which was beyond everyone's expectations and disrupted the order of officialdom. It was like a pebble thrown into a pool of stagnant water, causing a wave.

In fact, the impact of this wave is not very large, but the related reaction caused by the wave is not to be underestimated.

At that time, the three major contradictions were in front of everyone, affecting the safety of the country and the imperial court. First, the relationship between the monarch and the minister.

Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi nominally delegated power to the cabinet and the celebrant supervisor, and he devoted himself to cultivating the Tao and becoming an immortal. In fact, Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi was an emperor who paid the most attention to power and status.

Probably because he was not from an orthodox background, he himself always felt that his position was not stable, so he was often worried that someone would snatch his throne.

When he was young, he was worried that his cousins and cousins of the same clan and ancestors would snatch the throne that he had become more and more fond of; After middle age, he was worried that someone would use his children to murder him, kill him and pretend that he was sick and died, and then let his children be puppet emperors; In his later years, after almost all the relatives of the emperor who threatened him were controlled by Zhu Houxi, the Jiajing Emperor, he was worried that his sons would kill their father and the emperor in order to be the emperor.

So he even carried his own son, not only did he not let his sons have too much contact with government affairs, but even the palace did not allow children to enter and leave at will.

Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi actually knew very well in his heart that there was no real immortal elixir or immortal method in the world.

But he, the emperor who doesn't even believe in his own son, wants to live a little longer for his throne, so he believes in Taoism, the purpose is to live a little longer, and he wants to be an immortal emperor for a long time.

Would a man who can even be ruthless with his own son be polite to his courtiers? Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi wanted to expand his power infinitely, so he could only attack his courtiers.

In order to weaken the power in the hands of the ministers, and in order to let his servants and eunuchs manage the rights that already belong to him for themselves, Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi would rather let everyone blatantly infight and embezzlement.

The ministers were not unaware of the sinister intentions of Emperor Zhu Houxi of Jiajing, but for the sake of their own interests and power, everyone was still willing to gradually worsen the contradictions, and even add fuel to the fire.

The second contradiction is the contradiction between the local and central governments. With the development of society, the gap between the rich and the poor in various places is getting wider and wider.

In the major grain-producing provinces of Hubei, Hubei, Henan, and Shandong, as well as the coastal provinces of Jiangsu, Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Fujian, and other places, the common people are quite passable, and some wealthy households have quite savings.

However, in the northwest and southwest, as well as in the undeveloped Lingnan region, the problem of food and clothing for the common people has not been solved.

Even in some places, the common people cannot afford to eat food, cannot wear clothes, and eat wild vegetables and tree bark every day to make a living, and the family only has one or two sets of clothes and a quilt.

It's chilling to live in almost a dire environment. With regional differences, everyone wants to work in a rich place, rather than a poor place to become an official.

Even if he takes office, he is not willing to divide his own interests, and guards his own territory like a miser one by one.

The central government, that is, the imperial court, also had nothing to do. With the rapid increase in population, coupled with many years of natural and man-made disasters, as well as the rebellion of the southeast Japanese robbers, the tax revenue of the imperial court could not be paid in full every year, and the income could not make ends meet, and the deficit was getting bigger and bigger.

The imperial court had no choice but to increase taxes while forcing the local government to pay off the past arrears quickly. Some poor land methods really can't pay taxes, and they can't collect what they owe back then, let alone what they owe in previous years.

Some wealthy places can actually afford to pay taxes, but they are worried that they will pay enough taxes at once, and the court will issue additional tax responsibilities after attracting the attention of the imperial court.

So even these rich places learned from the other places that owed the imperial court taxes. Later, everyone simply had the ability to do it if they owed more money than whoever owed them.

In fact, there is another secret, as long as the arrears of money are not in place, generally speaking, the imperial court will not let this official leave his original post.

Officials who have achieved the level of feudal officials can no longer progress, and if they pay off their debts, it means that they are leaving.

With the exception of some officials in poor provinces who want to take up posts in rich places, many local officials are reluctant to leave their territory.

Because he has completely controlled the situation, his own territory has become his own backyard, and he can do whatever he wants, without the consent of others.

Once he leaves, he will not only have to regain a piece of the world, but also may go to the capital to become a Beijing official.

Although the Beijing officials are relatively prestigious, there is absolutely no more oil and water than in the localities, and there is even a danger of getting involved in political struggles, resulting in the loss of their own heads.

So the local officials guarded their territory like misers, and did not let anyone touch their own dishes, while confronting the imperial court.

As a result, the imperial court was not optimistic about these magistrates, and because they did not pay enough taxes, they could not be cheapened, so they had to continue to stay in office.

In this way, the relationship between the local government and the central government is becoming more and more delicate, not only between the upper and lower levels, but also between the creditor and the debtor, and there is even a hostile situation.

Over time, a greater crisis arose, and the local court ignored the request of the local court to hand it over; The decrees issued by the imperial court were ignored by the local government, and even disobeyed by the yang.

It's okay when nothing happens, but once something happens, they blame and blame each other, and even attack and abuse each other, and in the end, nine times out of ten, the case will not be resolved.

Because of the long-term shortage of taxes paid to the imperial court, the imperial court simply ignored them.

This led to the capture of the coastal areas by the Japanese invaders, and the local officials asked the imperial court for help, but the imperial court was indifferent.

The third contradiction is corruption. In the entire Ming Dynasty, there is hardly a yamen that is not corrupt, and no official is absolutely innocent.

Even when Qin Tai had just served as an official of the Criminal Department, he had inexplicably received some silver from his superiors.

When Qin Tai learned the true origin of these gray incomes, Qin Tai did not accept them anymore. But this money is still distributed, but it is Qin Tai's boss who receives it on behalf of Qin Tai, and he honestly accepts the money that Qin Tai doesn't want and counts it as his own.

As Qin Tai came into contact with more and more secrets, Qin Tai gradually understood a fact, an unexpected fact.

Local officials embezzle money in order to gain money from their own pockets, and more importantly, to curry favor with their superiors and stabilize their own positions.

The six yamen embezzled for daily expenses and their own enjoyment. The Cabinet embezzled money to meet some unspeakable expenses and to save a little money in case of emergency.

The eunuchs embezzled because they had no offspring, and their only hobby was money. The only purpose of their life is money, and even if they control the most power, the purpose is to make more money.

But why should the emperor embezzle? The emperor and the emperor's family were supported by the imperial court, and the emperor not only ate and slept well, but also had great power, so what reason was there to be corrupt?

But in fact, not only have the emperors of all dynasties been corrupt, but the emperor has embezzled the most money.

Long before the establishment of the first empire, the state of Qin, the king's private property had been stripped from the treasury.

To put it bluntly, the inner treasury is the property of the emperor's own family, and only the emperor and the emperor's family have the right to use it.

The money in the treasury is public, and although the emperor has the right to use it, the procedures are more complicated, and it must be supervised and reviewed by hundreds of officials.

When the country is in a natural and man-made disaster, the money in the treasury is always insufficient, and at this time, the inner treasury of the emperor's family has become a fragrant bait in the eyes of hundreds of officials, hoping that the emperor will take out some money from the inner treasury.

But the emperor would never do this, and the emperors would come up with all kinds of ideas to hide from it. Of course, the king at this time would never covet the contents of the treasury.

But when the country is safe and the people are safe, and when the treasury is rich, the kings will covet the good things in the treasury and hope to transfer the money from the treasury to their own treasury.

Any king knows that brazenly taking money from the treasury to his own treasury is not only unsightly, but also reprimanded by the officials.

So the kings came up with a good idea to run the treasury with their own cronies. This not only allows real-time monitoring of the daily expenses of the treasury to save some unnecessary expenses, but also facilitates the kings themselves to secretly embezzle the treasury's property.

When Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi was in power, this emperor was even more powerful than the previous emperors, not only taking a fancy to the things in the treasury, but also not letting go of the good things in the local area.

He sent eunuchs to various yamen to squat and supervise civil and military officials, and at the same time, he also collected a large number of private assets.

Some ownerless fields and properties were taken over to the local yamen or the yamen of the Si Si, and then they sold the property.

The money was nominally handed over to the imperial court, but in fact, more than half of it went into the pocket of Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi.

Of course, this is minus the exploitation of the local officials and the eunuchs

"Benefits" after that. Let's take an example, in a field near the mainland in Fujian, the owner left to escape the war.

The Yamen confiscated the land to the Yamen on the grounds that it was unmanaged, and then auctioned it off publicly. However, because of the war and the bad year, and the Yamen was eager to sell the fields, the good land that was originally twelve taels of silver per mu was only sold for eight taels of silver per mu.

The silver of the fields sold was reported at five taels of silver per acre, and the rest of the silver was divided privately between the yamen and the eunuchs who supervised them.

And the cash of five taels of silver per mu was nominally handed over to the household department and entered the treasury as the income of the imperial court.

In fact, it only gives less than two taels of silver per acre to the household

"White strips", the rest of the money was collected by the celebrant supervisor and entered the inner treasury of Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi. Even if it was the money given to the household department, it was immediately taken away by the celebrant supervisor, which could be regarded as offsetting the expenses owed by the imperial court to the inner court.

Such blatant embezzlement has given all the officials a very bad start, and everyone simply embezzles en masse.

They only need to hand over part of the money they embezzled to the celebrant and give it to Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi as filial piety.

Because of everyone's filial piety and an extra income for Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi, the celebrant who supervised the hundred officials, ignored the corruption of the hundred officials, and even allowed them to embezzle.

The unscrupulous embezzlement of hundreds of officials will only harm the vitality of the country and the fundamental interests of the common people.

Once the bottom line of the common people is breached, or as soon as a foreign enemy invades, all problems will erupt in a concentrated manner.

At that time, the country will be in danger, the court will be in danger, and the emperor will be unlucky.