On the afternoon of 25 March, Li Zhi was sitting idly in Shi Kefa's official office, the yamen of the Nanjing Military Department, when he welcomed two special guests. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

At this time, the gentry of Nanzhili had not yet completed the inspection work. Zheng Kaicheng and Zhong Feng each led 10,000 troops to arrest the gentry and traitors in various prefectures, and Li Zhi sent Li Laosi out on the 24th in order to speed up the progress. He took Xue Sanku's 10,000 cavalry to sit in Nanjing City.

Han Jinxin's eyeliner reported that Shi Kefa had fled all the way to Nanchang Mansion in Jiangxi with the Jiangbei Army, without a trace of killing the carbines. Li Zhi with 10,000 men was enough to defend the prosperous city of Nanjing. Now Li Zhi is more concerned about the problem of the gentry betraying the party and fleeing -- now that the news of the capture of Nanjing by Li Zhi has spread all over Nanzhili, the gentry of Nanzhili who participated in the fundraising of the Jiangbei Army have understood that the general trend has gone and have fled one after another.

Now counted, only the four prefectures of Huai'an, Yangzhou, Fengyang and Changzhou have completely put the traitorous gentry in one pot. Of course, Zhong Feng overstepped his authority and went to Huzhou, Zhejiang, and took Huzhou by surprise, which became five prefectures.

Elsewhere, however, raids have been less successful. In Suzhou Mansion and Ningguo Mansion, where the Tiger Ben army killed, the gentry all fled. If this continues, Li Zhi's intention of obtaining a large amount of military spending by copying the gentry will not be realized.

As time passed, it is conceivable that the gentry of other provinces will accelerate their exodus even more in the future, and the amount of silver that Li Zhi can earn will only become less and less.

However, just when Li Zhi felt that there was no hope of raising military expenses, two guests came to give a big gift.

Ma Shiying, the governor of Lufeng, and Ruan Dacheng, the former Taichang Shaoqing, came to the door to ask for a meeting and wanted to present Luzhou to Li Zhi.

Li Zhi sat on the main seat and looked at the two literati.

Ma Shiying is a long-faced, looks in his fifties, and is of medium height. He did not wear an official robe at this time, only wore a silk silk and wore a scarf. Obviously, Ma Shiying came to Li Zhi this time and didn't want others to know. Sitting in Li Zhi's guest position, he seemed a little hesitant and didn't speak much.

Ruan Dacheng is older, probably close to sixty years old. He was thin and had a national face. In fact, Ruan Dacheng abandoned his official position as early as the Apocalypse, and now lives in Nanjing, and is the most famous opera writer in Jiangnan.

Although Li Zhi is not very proficient in history, he also knows that Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng were the powerful ministers of the Hongguang regime of the Southern Ming Dynasty. Ma Shiying was a powerful minister who supported the Hongguang Emperor, and finally resisted the Qing Dynasty to death. I don't remember what Ruan Dacheng was as an official Li Zhi, but it seems that he finally surrendered.

Li Zhi looked at the two of them for a while, and he was not in a hurry to speak, but just took a sip of tea.

Ma Shiying saw that Li Zhi's attitude was not very enthusiastic, and turned his head to look at Ruan Dacheng, as if he wanted to leave. But Ruan Dacheng didn't look at Ma Shiying's movements, stood up and said loudly: "Ruan and Ma Du came to see Grandpa Guo today, and they handed over the whereabouts of the Qian traitor party in Luzhou to Grandpa Guo!" ”

After saying this, Ruan Dacheng escaped from his arms with a piece of paper. He looked at the words on the paper, stepped forward and handed the paper to Hong Chengchou, who was sitting next to Li Zhi.

Hong Chengchou looked at the piece of paper and felt that there was no problem, so he handed it over to Li Zhi.

Li Zhi looked at the calligraphy on the paper and found that what was written on the paper was the hiding place of the gentry in the case of the Luzhou Jiangbei Army. Obviously, this is the information collected by Ma Shiying, the governor of Lufeng, relying on his authority. Although the gentry involved in the case hid in the countryside and villages, they could not escape Ma Shiying's eyes. With this information, Zheng Kaicheng's soldiers and horses could wipe out the gentry involved in Luzhou when they went south from Fengyang.

Li Zhi put the piece of paper on the coffee table on the side and looked at Ruan Dacheng and Ma Shiying playfully. This is the first time that Li Zhi met a civil official who was willing to help him when he was smashing the gentry.

Hong Chengchou looked at Li Zhi's face, thought about it, and asked Ruan Dacheng: "I heard that Mr. Yuanhai has lived in Nanjing for many years, and his living expenses all depend on the land rent donated by the small people. Now that the Duke of Jin is holding high the banner of Junping Tianfu, Mr. Yuanhai doesn't care about the land rent income? Willing to defect to Jinguogong? ”

Ruan Dacheng laughed and said, "Just the rent, why worry about it." The righteousness of the Duke of Jin is for the public, the Tiger Ben Army is brave and crowns the world, and the Ming Dynasty will eventually be controlled by the Duke of Jinguo. Although we scholars are stupid, we also know that the Duke of Jinguo is great for public interests, how can we not wake up and bring the crowd to vote? ”

Li Zhi suddenly asked Ruan Dacheng, "Yue Sheng or Guan Sheng, who is the sage?" ”

Ruan Dacheng was stunned, stroked his beard and said, "I thought that Yue Sheng was more virtuous." Yue Shengjing is loyal to serve and can rejuvenate the country. ”

Li Zhi looked at Ruan Dacheng and said, "Mr. Ruan seems to have learned about my education in Tianjin. ”

Ruan Dacheng arched his hand and said: "I occasionally got a copy of "Gongde" from Tianjin Middle School, and after reading it, I was shocked by the heavens, and I knew that the mountains and rivers in the chest of Grandpa Guoguo were magnificent. Ruan Dacheng just wants to be able to join the door of Grandpa Guo and be a pawn who runs away! ”

Ruan Dacheng's flattering words did not impress Li Zhi.

Li Zhi looked at Ruan Dacheng, and felt more and more that this person was really drilling for power. He read the books of the sages and ate the gentry's food, and when he lived to almost sixty, he actually sold the gentry. Even Li Zhi repeatedly emphasized public morality in Tianjin, and he couldn't help but despise people like Ruan Dacheng who had no selfish virtues.

What's more, historically, this Ruan Dacheng has no public morality.

Smiling, Li Zhi looked at Ma Shiying again.

"What do you ask for when Ma Duchen presents this traitorous party's anonymous book?"

Ma Shiying smiled awkwardly and said: "Ma Shiying admires the mainstay of Grandpa Guo, and I only hope that this atlas can help Grandpa Guo rectify the order of Nanzhili." ”

Li Zhi nodded and said, "I know the requirements of the two!" ”

When the two saw Li Zhi talking roundly, they knew that this was going to be a send-off. Although it was a big deal for the two of them to show favor to Li Zhi, it was just a small matter for Li Zhi, the Duke of Jinguo, to take Luzhou. When Li Zhi returns the two depends on when Li Zhi is convenient to operate.

The two did not dare to linger, so they got up and took their leave.

Li Zhi looked at the two people who left, thought for a while and asked, "Staff Officer Hong, that Ma Shiying looked reluctant, obviously brought by Ruan Dacheng. He is a dignified governor, how can he obey the command of Ruan Dacheng, who has no official position, in everything? ”

Hong Chengchou arched his hand and said: "Grandpa Guo doesn't know about this officialdom, and the reason why Ma Shiying is in a high position is all due to Ruan Dacheng's recommendation. At that time, Zhou Yanru relied on Zhang Pu to raise money to become the first assistant, of which Ruan Dacheng contributed a lot. However, Ruan Dacheng betrayed the Donglin Party, and Zhou Yanru, as the Donglin boss, could not promote him, so he asked Ruan Dacheng to recommend someone to be an official on his behalf. ”

"Ruan Dacheng recommended Ma Shiying, and since then Ma Shiying has been on the rise."

"This Ma Shiying is a person who has a favor and must be repaid, since he owes Ruan Dacheng a great favor, he has been led by Ruan Dacheng by the nose since then."

Li Zhi picked up the list presented by Ruan Dacheng, looked at it, shook his head and said, "Don't make a noise about this matter." If you have a chance in the future, you will promote this Ma Shiying. ”

"As for this Ruan Dacheng, don't mention it!"