Ma Shiying arranged for her eldest son to deliver a letter to her daughter to prevent her from committing suicide in shame if she didn't know the situation. After the arrangement, Ma Shiying looked at the second son who was kneeling on the ground, although what Ma Cheng did today made Ma Shiying very passive, but Ma Cheng was his own blood after all, and what Ma Cheng did today was also for Ma Shiying.

Ma Shiying sighed and said, "Cheng'er, get up!" ”

Ma Cheng, who was kneeling on the ground, heard his father say this, and knew that he finally didn't have to be beaten today, so he stood up with a sigh of relief, and then asked Si Aiai: "Dad, today. Did your son get you into trouble today? ”

"Cheng'er, my father knows that you have a good heart, but discuss it with your father before doing anything in the future, do you know?" Ma Shiying knows that this son is also thinking about this family, but if you don't have any experience in officialdom, you want to play politics, and it is easy to implicate the whole family.

Ma Cheng nodded when he heard Ma Shiying say this, to be honest, when he first crossed over, Ma Cheng was still confident, feeling that he had six hundred years of knowledge, and he didn't hold the handle when he played with these ancient people. But only now did Ma Cheng know that the ancients were not fools.

Take the toad Tianzi Zhu Yousong recorded in history as an example, they all said that he was stupid, but after learning that Ma Hongning was Ma Shiying's concubine, he immediately sealed a side concubine, although Zhu Yousong knew that this matter could not have any substantial impact on Ma Shiying, but after all, it was a shortcoming of Ma Shiying, if you went to Nanjing Ma Shiying, you would have nothing to do, if you were not obedient? The law of the court is there, and the relatives of the harem are not allowed to hold official positions, and you can be laid off and go home in minutes.

Ma Cheng thought of Zhu Yousong's mysterious smile at himself at that time, Ma Cheng didn't know what it meant at that time, but now it is clear that no one is a fool, only he is a real fool.

Ma Shiying saw Ma Cheng standing in front of him dejectedly, knowing that today's incident hit his son very hard, Ma Shiying persuaded and explained: "Cheng'er, you have just entered the officialdom, it is normal to suffer some setbacks, remember to talk less and watch more in the future, when you see more, you will naturally understand the doorway of officialdom, and ask the old man more about things in the future, or your two uncles, don't make up your own mind, you know?" ”

Ma Cheng nodded when he heard Ma Shiying say this, thinking that it seemed that he was too young, and he was not as good as these old fritters when he played politics. Ma Cheng thought about it, he should find someone to help him, so as to avoid such a kind of helpful thing in the future.

But this candidate is too difficult to find, needless to say, his own son Ma Shiying, but Ma Shiying is so busy with work, it is impossible to follow him every day. Uncle Yue Qijie can also do it, but Yue Qijie is about the same as Ma Shiying, he is old and has a high status, so it is impossible to follow him to help him make suggestions. Another uncle, Yang Wencong, has a good relationship with his eldest brother, and it is impossible for him to help him.

Ma Cheng thought about it for a long time and still didn't have a suitable candidate, thinking of this Ma Cheng sighed, talent! It seems that talent is the most scarce thing in me right now.

Ma Shiying saw that Ma Cheng was still standing here in a daze, thinking that this son was still sad about Ma Hongning's incident: "Cheng'er, since this incident has happened, don't think about it anymore, tomorrow my father will go to Nanjing with Your Majesty, and you don't have to follow Your Majesty." Just as the family was about to move, you led your 100 people to stay behind to escort your mother and family to Nanjing. ”

Ma Shiying was afraid that Ma Cheng, a stunned young man, was following and making some trouble, and the next step was to go to Nanjing to ascend the throne, Ma Shiying did not allow the slightest mistake, so he naturally didn't want Ma Cheng, the troublemaker, to follow, so he left Ma Cheng at home.

Ma Cheng had nothing to say when he saw Ma Shiying doing this, and withdrew after saluting. Now that the sky is getting dark, Ma Cheng has something in his heart and has no intention of eating, so he came to the door of the house after leaving the door of the lobby of the house, waiting for the eldest brother Ma Luan to come back.

The doorkeeper saw that the second young master had come out, so he hurriedly stepped forward and saluted and asked, "Second master, do you want to go out so late?" ”

Ma Cheng scolded: "Your mother, the second master won't go out, you have to wait here for the eldest brother to come back!" ”

The doorman didn't dare to make a sound when he was scolded, so he quickly took a chair from the porter and put it in front of the door, and asked Ma Cheng to sit down, and Ma Cheng sat in front of the door of the Ma Mansion and waited for the eldest brother Ma Luan to come back.

Ma Cheng waited at the door for two hours, and when it was dark, he saw a small sedan chair turning from Fuyou Street.

Ma Luan got down from the sedan chair and saw Ma Cheng standing at the door, knowing that this brother was waiting for him to come back.

Ma Cheng was worried about how things were going, so he hurriedly stepped forward and asked, "Big brother, what did my sister say?" Ma Cheng is worried that if his sister Ma Hongning really can't stand the suicide, then his arrangement will be wasted.

Ma Luan snorted and said, "Hmph, the eldest sister has received news from her father, what else can I do besides crying?" ”

Hearing his sister crying, Ma Cheng was relieved, as long as he could cry, it meant that there was still hope.

Ma Luan saw Ma Cheng breathed a sigh of relief and thought that he was worried about his own sister, Ma Luan is the eldest brother after all, of course he doesn't want to see his younger brothers and sisters suffer, now seeing Ma Cheng worrying about his sister, he sighed and explained: "Second brother, the eldest sister is fine, but you must pay attention in the future, don't make this kind of mistake, you have little experience in officialdom, you must discuss with your father if you have anything in the future, if your father is not at home, you can also discuss with the eldest brother, don't do it yourself!" ”

Ma Cheng was not in a good mood when he was just trained by Ma Shiying, and now he was lectured by his eldest brother Ma Luan for a while, and he immediately felt unhappy.

Ma Cheng squinted at his eldest brother Ma Luan, and said in a strange manner: "Yes, the younger brother has never read, and he is not as good as the eldest brother in everything, how powerful you are, eldest brother, you are a person at a young age, and the younger brother will rely on the eldest brother to live in the future!" ”

Ma Luan listened to Ma Cheng's yin and yang strange tone, he was so angry that he was originally concerned about him but he was kind enough to treat him as a donkey's liver and lungs, Ma Luan's sleeves waved and said: "Okay, I don't care about your broken things in the future!" ”

After Ma Luan finished speaking, he ignored Ma Cheng and entered the house, Ma Cheng was so angry when he saw Ma Luan like this, but he didn't know how to come forward and licked his cheek: "Second master, you can't sit yet!" ”

Ma Cheng was angry and had nowhere to go, and when he saw Menzi's smiling face coming up, he angrily slapped the doorman and scolded: "Sit, sit, sit on your mother's egg!" Ma Cheng finished scolding, and returned to his small courtyard to find Gu Xiying to put out the fire.

Only that doorman stood at the door with his face covered and at a loss, and when he saw Ma Cheng entering, the doorman secretly cursed in his heart: What are you a second ancestor? Haven't you been scolded by your uncle? Now he is angry with Lao Tzu.

The next day's events were similar to what Ma Shiying expected, Zhu Yousong still needed Ma Shiying to follow him to make a strong noise, plus Lu Jiude said a lot of good things in front of Zhu Yousong, so Zhu Yousong took back the edict that canonized Ma Hongning, and this matter was over.

In Fengyang in the past few days, the warlords of the whole Jiangbei have gathered in Fengyang, Liu Liangzuo of Xuzhou, Gao Jie of Yangzhou, and Huang Degong of Luzhou all came with tens of thousands of troops, and even Liu Zeqing, who was far away in Shandong, also personally led 10,000 soldiers to Fengyang, and for a time Fengyang gathered more than 100,000 troops.

Ma Shiying saw that the morale had been achieved, and Zhu Yousong, the secretary of the country, could lead the troops south, if those scholars in Nanjing still did not agree to Zhu Yousong's ascension to the throne, then we could come to a military admonition.

In this way, the tens of thousands of troops concentrated in Fengyang officially went south on April 24, the 17th year of Chongzhen, from the imperial ancestral mausoleum outside Fengyang City.

Ma Shiying really overestimated the backbone of those Donglin Party bigwigs in Nanjing, and after receiving Ma Shiying's letter on the 23rd, they had already decided to change the direction of the wind and support King Fu, and at this time all the bigwigs of the DPRK and China had rushed to Pukou to prepare to welcome Zhu Yousong, the new son of heaven. Even Shi Kefa, who went out, had no choice but to accept it after receiving the news that the princes of Nanjing were ready to support King Fu, and rushed back from Hangzhou to meet the new emperor.

On April 27, the 17th year of Chongzhen, the princes of Nanjing received the news that the new Son of Heaven was less than 30 miles away from Pukou, and these ministers, under the leadership of Shi Kefa, Han Zanzhou, and Xu Hongji, crossed the Yangtze River to Pukou to meet Zhu Yousong.

Ten miles outside Pukou City, the hundreds of thousands of troops escorting Zhu Yousong began to camp, Shi Kefa saw that Ma Shiying's military appearance was extremely prosperous, and then thought that he was being swept away by Ma Shiying, and his face turned pale with anger.

At this time, Ma Shiying had already walked out of the barracks to greet Shi Kefa and the others, and seeing that Shi Kefa's face was not good, Ma Shiying smiled and said, "Brother Xian, don't come to harm?" ”

Shi Kefa sneered: "Brother Yaocao, your methods are not very benevolent!" ”

Ma Shiying knew that Shi Kefa was satirizing himself for not following the rules, but he was now a success, and you Shi Kefa was just a poor worm who failed in the struggle, so Ma Shiying didn't take Shi Kefa's sarcasm to heart.

Ma Shiying looked at the ministers behind him, the bigwigs of the Donglin Party came, Ma Shiying stepped forward to salute one by one, and then took these ministers into the army to pay homage to the new son of heaven Zhu Yousong.

More than 10 of these ministers from Nanjing, under the leadership of Shi Kefa, the secretary of the Ministry of War, entered the camp to pay homage to Zhu Yousong.

After Ma Shiying and all the other ministers finished saluting, they stood aside and said, "Your Majesty, now that the gods have fallen, the first emperor is in trouble!" The country needs a resolute and resolute monarch, so please ask Your Majesty to take the throne of the emperor! ”

Zhu Yousong has already worshiped the ancestral tomb in Fengyang, and in fact he is already a prisoner, but in order to highlight his status by Zhu Yousong's side, and in order to show that he is Zhu Yousong's first minister, he directly proposed to ascend the throne in front of these ministers in Nanjing.

Of course, Ma Shiying said this, except for some petty selfishness, most of them are for the public, and now the north is not the same, Li Zicheng's power has spread to Shandong and Henan (at this time, the small court in Nanjing did not know that Li Zicheng had been defeated by the Manchus in a stone), and now the most important thing is to quickly establish a new emperor, and then organize the whole country's forces to recover Beijing.