Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 57: Haimen is loyal and brave, Hai Rui is filial!
Under the plain blue trouser legs, there is a pair of women's big feet!

The old woman's big feet without socks stepped firmly on the stone slabs. She held a hemp rope tightly and used her hands alternately to lift a bucket of water from the deep well with great effort.

A full bucket of water was brought to the wellhead, and a man's hand reached out to help grab the handle of the bucket.

"Let go!" The old woman's voice was not loud, but full of majesty.

The man's hand slowly loosened, and the old woman held the rope tightly with one hand and used the other hand to grab the bucket handle. She then lifted the bucket of water completely out of the well and poured it into an empty bucket beside her.

A middle-aged man in his forties stood there with a gentle face, holding a shoulder pole with iron chain hooks on both ends. Seeing that the two buckets of water were full, he was ready to carry the shoulder pole forward to hook the wooden handles on the buckets.

"Go away!" The old woman still didn't appreciate it and her voice remained majestic.

The middle-aged man froze in his tracks and had to move aside. The old woman actually picked up two huge buckets of water and walked away.

The middle-aged man didn't dare to say anything. He followed the old woman step by step with a carrying pole in his empty hands.

There was a loud sound of water splashing on the floor, and drops of water splashed out from the door.

The middle-aged woman and her daughter in the house were so frightened that they hurried out and stopped timidly.

The imperial edict, the emperor's sword, and official documents from the Ministry of Personnel were all urgently delivered to Nanping, Fujian at the same time and handed directly to Hai Rui.

Of course, there was also a decree given to the Mother of the Sea.

From then on, the sea jellyfish's face became tense all the time. She seldom spoke a few words a day and even washed the floor more often than before.

The sky had gone completely dark, and the waxing crescent moon floated faintly above the southern wall of the courtyard. All kinds of insects began to chirp in the ivy climbing on the wall and in the weeds growing at the foot of the wall.

The room was silent at first, and then the stern voice of the sea mother came: "Knowing that Anan and I are going on a long journey, you didn't even cook for us or prepare dry food. Do you want to starve us to death?"

Hai's wife was stunned. After a long while, she whispered, "Mother-in-law, didn't you say..."

Hai Mu interrupted and looked at Hai's wife: "What? Go tell your husband that your mother-in-law is not dead yet!"

Hai Rui was right in front of him. His mother scolded him in an indirect way. Hai Rui immediately knelt down and said, "Mother, the emperor's will goes against human ethics and separates the mother-son relationship. It is really difficult to obey."

When Hai Rui was promoted from the teacher of Nanping to the magistrate of Chun'an, he did not feel the slightest bit of joy, but rather reluctance.

It’s not that they are afraid of getting caught up in the corruption in Zhejiang and the quagmire in Chun’an.

If he went to Chun'an alone and had a wife and daughter to take care of his mother, he would obey the order.

If he allowed his mother to go to Chun'an with him, he could take care of her while doing disaster relief and handling cases, and he could also obey the emperor's orders.

However, the imperial decree ordered him and his wife to go to Chun'an, while his mother and daughter had to go far away to the capital.

My daughter is only a few years old and can’t even take care of herself, how can she take care of grandma?
On one side were the people of Chun'an, and on the other side was his elderly mother. Hai Rui, a very filial son, was unable to make up his mind, and the time for him to take office was kept being delayed.

But Hai Rui knew, and his mother also knew, that this matter could not be delayed. Disobeying the order would be the greatest crime in the world.

Hai Mu's eyes were full of anger, and she scolded: "If I leave you and your wife, will I be unable to take care of myself? Will I be unable to take care of An Nan? I was the one who raised you, so what? Have I done you any wrong?"

Hai's wife immediately knelt down, and even A Nan knelt down as well. Hai Rui hurriedly explained, "Mother, that's not what I meant..."

"Then what do you mean?"

Hai Mu opened her eyes wide and looked at Hai Rui, furious: "Since I can take care of myself and An Nan, what do you and your wife have to worry about?

Since you were young, I have taught you the virtues of kindness, forgiveness, courtesy and frugality, so that when you become an official one day, you will have the heart of the people.

I ask you, I can take good care of myself and An Nan, but can the people in the place where the imperial edict asks you to go take good care of themselves? " "I don't think so." Hai Rui answered.

In Zhejiang, there are seven mountains, two rivers and one acre of land. There are more mountains than rivers and less land. At most, two people may only have one acre of land.

If there had been no disaster, they could barely make ends meet. But now that there has been a disaster, the merchants from Zhejiang will surely be like flies smelling rotten meat, trying desperately to take flesh from the people of Chun'an.

Even with the disaster relief food, it was difficult for the people of Chun'an County to keep their land because officials in Zhejiang also wanted those lands.

How can the people possibly defeat the officials?
The Taohua flood and the breach of the Xin'an River in nine counties, Hai Rui could guess who was behind it without even thinking.

Hai Mu stared at him and asked, "Then are you going to watch the people of Chun'an County die?"

Hai Rui stood there in silence.

"I lost my enemies when I was twenty, and you lost your father when you were four. I kept my chastity and raised you. When you became an official, I told you again and again that although you lost your father, you ate the emperor's food and received a salary from the court, so you should treat the emperor as your father and the court as your home. Now, someone is smashing and looting your house, and you just watch? How could I raise a son like you?"

Mother Hai's blood surged when she spoke these words, and her voice was like a loud bell, shaking the entire Hai family!
Even the Jinyiwei outside the door heard it.

But Hai Rui's face suddenly turned as white as paper, his teeth were clenched, and he knelt there as if he was about to fall down.

"Answer me!" the sea mother pressed.

"Mother, my son is leaving." Hai Rui's fingernails dug into his flesh and blood, and he felt so guilty that he could not speak.

Mother Hai's anger dissipated, and she looked at her son distressedly, "So many high-ranking officials don't fight for it, but you, a county magistrate, are asked to fight for it. I see that in this great Ming Dynasty, there are many officials in the two capitals and thirteen provinces, and many people in power, but the emperor has few people he trusts! It's difficult for the emperor! It's difficult for the people! But there must be someone to speak for them, it's difficult for you."

Just some plain and simple words.

It was like a sharp knife that split the mess of the court in half from the middle, and many clues immediately emerged where the blade passed!
But if you think about it more carefully, although this cut revealed many clues at once, the mess was just cut into two messes.

As he had more clues, the situation became even more tangled. Hai Rui kowtowed heavily and went to pack his things in silence.

The mother sea looked at her son's busy back and couldn't help but lower her head to look at her feet.

If there is one thing that is most like her son, it is his feet. Both mother and son’s feet are afraid of heat in winter. They have “hot feet”, which means they have excessive heart fire and bad temper.

Tracing back to the source, it was the Ming Cult believed by the ancestors of the Hai family, which was originally a ball of fire that burned itself and warmed others.

There is still some time before dawn, and the stars in the sky are particularly dazzling at this time.

Outside the Hai family's gate, there were four soldiers on horseback guarding the front of the carriage, and four soldiers on horseback guarding the back, with two horsemen on both sides. The arrangement was very grand.

According to the court system, even if the prefect of Hangzhou used this when taking office, it would be an act of usurpation.

But this was the emperor's arrangement, and Hai Rui was unwilling to ride it, so he gave it to Hai Mu and A Nan to use when entering the capital.

The wife handed over a cloth bundle and an umbrella with her left hand, and a bamboo basket filled with lotus leaf rice cakes overnight with her right hand, "Good luck, mother-in-law."

Haimu nodded, took Anan's hand and got on the carriage.

The ruts turned slowly.

Hai Rui and his wife knelt down in the direction of the carriage.

When Hai Rui and his wife weren't looking, the curtain of the carriage opened a corner, and tears flashed in Hai's mother and An Nan's eyes...

(End of this chapter)