The White Lotus Sect originated in the Tang and Song dynasties and was just an ordinary religious organization at first, but with the continuous spread and promotion, the White Lotus Sect became more and more influential among the people, and gradually evolved into an anti-government non-governmental organization.

Throughout the Tang and Song dynasties, behind all kinds of powerful peasant uprisings, there is the shadow of the White Lotus Sect. It can be said that Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang started by relying on the White Lotus Sect, and because of this, Zhu Yuanzhang knew well the harm of the White Lotus Sect to the rulers, so he immediately declared the White Lotus Sect a cult and cracked down on it.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang's bloody repression did not completely eradicate the White Lotus Sect, but caused a strong backlash from the White Lotus Sect, who turned from light to darkness, and their missionary methods became more secretive, secretly accumulating strength, waiting for an opportunity to overthrow the rule of the Ming Dynasty.

However, with the passage of time, as well as the long-term high-pressure crackdown of the imperial court, the White Lotus Sect has in fact been fragmented, evolving into a variety of sects, each with its own doctrine and worship of the gods, they are loosely organized, the heads of the sects in various places do not belong to each other, and even some sects have forgotten their original intentions, and the mission is only for wealth and pleasure.

The giant thief Xu Weixue is the head of the branch of the White Lotus Sect in the Zhizhejiang area, but this guy lives a very happy life in the rich Jiangnan region, on the surface he is a wealthy businessman, and secretly he is a sea thief who dominates one side, known as the Shark King.

However, Xu Weixue has been rampant in the Ningbo Prefecture of Zhejiang Province for many years, and has made some "achievements", and has developed a group of officials and gentry to join the church through coercion and inducement, including Shi Haoran, the then governor of Ningbo Prefecture, and Shi Haoran's status in the sect is not low, he is an elder protector.

Later, Xu Weixue was ensnared by Qiao Yu, the governor of Zhejiang, and imprisoned in the Ningbo Mansion, although Shi Haoran was afraid, he had a handle in Xu Weixue's hands, so he could only bite the bullet and risk using a stand-in to steal Xu Weixue out of prison before the execution.

Since then, Xu Weixue, who is immortal, went to Yangzhou Daming Temple, incognito as a monk, this guy is worthy of being a big man, strong martial arts, and the means are good, how are those serious monks who eat fasting and chant Buddha are opponents, so Xu Weixue is very popular in Daming Temple, and he gradually climbed to the position of host.

At that time, the respected monks in Daming Temple were either squeezed out by Xu Weixue, or secretly poisoned and killed, so Daming Temple became Xu Weixue's private temple.

A few years ago, Shi Haoran was transferred to Yangzhou Lianghuai Salt Transport Envoy, and these two "old friends" got together again, Xu Weixue's position was more stable, and he began to contact his old subordinate Chen Sipan to return to his old business.

Chen Sipan occupied Dongsha Island and was responsible for trading with the Japanese people, while Xu Weixue was behind the scenes, and cooperated with Shi Haoran to provide shelter to the gentry involved in smuggling, but whenever anyone reported smuggling to the government, they were immediately covered up, and the whistleblower was also retaliated against, or even directly killed, and over time, no one dared to report it anymore.

At this time, in the face of Xu Jin and Xia Yan's interrogation, Shi Haoran confessed everything one after another, and also confessed a list of gentry who had already joined the church, in addition, there was also a list of gentry involved in the smuggling trade.

At this time, Lu Bing's kid was so excited that he was like being beaten with chicken blood, and the brocade clothes and horses swarmed out, and according to the list confessed by Shi Haoran, he arrested people everywhere in Jiangnan, even if they were thousands of miles away. For a time, the entire south and north of the Yangtze River were full of chickens and dogs, and everyone was in danger.

In the afternoon of the same day, the script drafted by Xia Yan was sent to the capital in an expedited manner for 800 miles, and the Nanjing Criminal Department was also notified, and as early as the night before, Lu Bing's secret music had been sent to the capital urgently through Jinyiwei's intelligence system.

On April 17 of the second year of Jiajing, Xu Jin and Xia Yan's expedited recital arrived in the capital, which instantly caused an uproar and quickly diverted the attention of the ministers from the dispute over the "Great Rites Discussion".

Zhang Xuan and Ji Cao naturally would not give up this excellent opportunity to weaken the Yang Party, and on the same day, the two took the lead in writing a letter to impeach Qiao Yu, the secretary of the ministry, and asked the emperor to order a thorough investigation of the case. At the same time, the officials and relatives who stood on Zhang Zhang's side also wrote letters one after another, requesting the removal of Qiao Yu, the secretary of the ministry, and demanding that he be sent to prison for review.

Qiao Yu, the secretary of the ministry, hurriedly wrote a letter to defend himself, and the Yang Party also wrote a letter as a guarantee to defend Qiao Yu, and finally Yang Tinghe, the first assistant of the cabinet, stood up and proposed to escort Shi Haoran and others back to Beijing with the two Huaiyan envoys, and handed them over to the three legal divisions for trial, and the second assistant Fei Hong also agreed.

After a fierce struggle between the two factions, the little emperor Zhu Houxi issued an edict and agreed to the triage of the three law divisions proposed by Yang Tinghe, the first assistant, but Qiao Yu, as the governor of Zhejiang at that time, even if he did not participate in dereliction of duty, was guilty of negligence, and he must be suspended from his post before the suspicion is cleared.

In this regard, Yang Tinghe could only pinch his nose and admit it. The Ministry of Officials is the institution in charge of the assessment and promotion of hundreds of officials, and it is the head of the six departments, and now Qiao Yu, the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, has been suspended, and it is not an exaggeration to say that Yang Gelao's power has been cut by two percent.

On April 20, the second year of Jiajing, Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi officially passed the decree of his inner minister, and sent 800 li to Yangzhou urgently, ordering Xu Jin and Xia Yan to work with the Nanjing Criminal Department and the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate to arrest and preliminarily interrogate Shi Haoran, the salt transport envoy, and his henchmen, and then escort them back to Beijing for the trial of the three law divisions.

On the night when the emperor's decree was sent out of the capital, Zhang Xuan, Gui Cao, and Huo Tao were invited by Guo Xun, Marquis of Wuding, to have a banquet at the Hou Mansion to celebrate the victory of the first battle against Yang Ting and the first party, and Zhu Fu, the Duke of Chengguo, was also present.

It is worth mentioning here that Guo Xun, the Marquis of Wuding, was reduced and demoted the year before last, but recently this product has opened up and turned to support the little emperor, and shouted for Zhang Xuan Guicao in the dispute over the Great Rites. As soon as the little emperor Zhu Houxi was happy, he found a reason to restore Guo Xun to the title of Marquis of Wuding.

Guo Xun, the Marquis of Wuding, who tasted the sweetness, naturally stood on the side of the little emperor more unswervingly, and spared no effort to cheer for Zhang Xuan and Gui Cao.

Of course, no matter how fierce the fight between the two factions in the capital is, it doesn't matter to Xu Jin, Xu Qincha is busy at this time, because there are too many officials and gentry involved by Shi Haoran, and the government prison is already overcrowded.

As soon as these people were arrested, problems arose one after another, the number of unemployed people skyrocketed, law and order deteriorated, prices began to soar, and the situation was turbulent.

It is said that after the "tribute dispute" occurred in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province last year, Xia Yan was the first to propose a strict ban on the sea, so now he is not soft at all in cracking down on sea smuggling, but all the officials and gentry who participate in sea smuggling, he strongly advocates arresting and severely punishing them.

Well, now that the problem is here, and the situation is getting more and more severe, and even unemployed people have gathered to make trouble, Xia Yan panicked at this time, and ran to Xu Jin in a hurry to discuss countermeasures.