No one and everything in the world will be smooth sailing, just when Ma Chao and Sima Yi, the Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of Household discussed how to take advantage of the opportunity of the Western Regions countries to pay tribute this time to carry out a public opinion offensive to completely trample on the soles of their feet and not turn over, someone from Shangshutai stepped forward to tell Chen Qun that he had something to see.

The meeting came to an end for the time being, and after Ma Chao heard Chen Qun say this, he immediately got up and changed color and said, "Can this matter be taken seriously?" Repulsing Shangshutai's idle followers, Ma Chao looked straight at His Royal Highness's Chen Qun: "Changwen, this matter is not trivial, you don't know that person has just completed a great cause these days, if this matter is true, it will be a little difficult for me to do......"

His Royal Highness's Chen Qun was promoted to the head of the household department of the Imperial History Terrace and Hongnong Taishou when Ma Chao was edicted as the king of Yong, and he was not usually transferred to Chang'an. ”

Seeing that Chen Qun's face remained unchanged, Ma Chao felt a little clear in his heart. Historically, Chen Qun was upright and upright, and since he was a child, he accepted the sage precepts taught by his father, and he was extremely strict with himself. Therefore, after several considerations, Ma Chao promoted Chen Qun, who had a heavy name and was even old-fashioned, to the high position of Yushitai. As a result, Ma Chao sat down again, waved his hand and said, "Sit down and talk." ”

Chen Qun nodded and sat down: "Lord, recently, the minister has received reports one after another, these reports are all directed at one person, and what he said is not like the wind coming from an empty place, the minister didn't think about it at first, but the more he came later, the more surprised he became. Later, I felt frightened, and after thinking about it today, I didn't dare not report it to my lord. ”

Ma Chao smiled calmly: "It's okay to say that it is a long article, as long as you violate the law of the Ma family, don't say that it is a shadow person, but say that it is a relative of the Ma family, as long as the evidence is conclusive, it cannot be forgiven!" ”

Chen Qun sat up straight and said, "Since the lord said this, Weichen will be blunt. After that, Chen Qun took out a piece of paper from his arms and handed it to Ma Chao, when Ma Chao opened it to see, it was a piece of paper dripping with blood: the paper said that a wealthy businessman in Hongnong relied on his power to oppress his peers, and took advantage of it, occupying more than 20 copper mountains of Hongnong iron mine and more than 400 hectares of official land, and forcibly purchased more than 30 factories and smelting houses before and after, and even colluded with officials to get his hands on it, causing the sufferer to have no way to seek help, and he could not redress his grievances, and forced more than 20 lives to death, which was a heinous crime.

This kind of criminal lawsuit is said to be fundamentally impossible to trace back to Ma Chao's level, but the reason why Chen Qun, the imperial historian and Hongnong Taishou, also went to Chang'an was because the rich merchant had an indescribable relationship with the shadow of the Ma family's most mysterious army - the rich merchant was none other than the distant clan uncle who had just recently obtained the edict Mu Yang from Xuchang!

Mu Yang's exploit of stealing the edict of the clothes and belts, to put it mildly, was an obvious victory for the Ma family over the Cao family's Jing'an Cao; To put it mildly, it is the Ma family's fatal magic weapon to pinch Cao's throat. At the same time, this kind of thing cannot be canonized in a grand manner, but can only be instructed by Ma Chao himself to give the shadow considerable rewards and preferential treatment. But more often than not, it's the Shadow's family who don't know why they lost their loved ones. It can be said that the contribution made by the Shadow to the Ma family can really be called great, and Ma Chao always felt that even if he gave the Shadow a very high military treatment, it was difficult to make up for their sacrifices.

Moreover, there is another layer to the nature of this matter - this is the first commercial case of a bad nature since the Ma family started business!

In the agricultural civilization deeply rooted in the hearts of the people is the implementation of commerce in the Three Kingdoms era, Ma Chao had to show a tough attitude, resolutely crack down on those scholars and Haoqiang families who held opposing views, and carry out drastic commercial support reforms. As a result, the momentum of industrial and commercial development in the Ma family's territory is surprisingly violent. Although Ma Chao has only engaged in "investment promotion" once in recent years, the Ma family's business has gradually expanded to the entire rule with Chang'an as the axis, forming a large industrial and commercial base.

Among them, the Majia Commercial Bank in Fufeng, the Han Commercial Bank in Chang'an (Liu Yue and Fushou are joint shares, and the commercial bank managed by Zhang Yupan), the Li Family Commercial Bank in Jinyang, the newly built Guanjia Commercial Bank in Liangzhou, the Zhenjia Commercial Bank in Wei County, and all the border shops and clubs such as the Hanqiang Trading Office and the Han-Hungarian Trading Office have become a powerful emerging force that cannot be ignored in the Han Dynasty. The scope of transactions included is as small as firewood, rice, oil and salt, and as large as houses and farms, all of which are covered, and there is a faint trend of impacting the old and powerful companies that have always been based on farmland.

This point, Ma Chao was greatly touched after seeing the latest tax statement taken out by Meng Da at the beginning of this year. As a result of the great development of commerce, the Ma family was restored and developed more than three times faster than other princes who generally relied only on a subsistence agrarian economy. In just over a year, the Ma family has gone from the dilemma of still having to buy grain from Yizhou and Jingzhou to the point where the treasury still has a surplus. It is foreseeable that with another year's accumulation, the Ma family can use a large amount of money and through various commercial banks to purchase countless grain stocks to prepare for war and support the Ma family to fight another tough battle.

And for such achievements, Ma Chao secretly was complacent. Coming to this era for so long, his career can be called prosperous, and now he is a leader, but he has not been self-inflated - this is a common problem of almost all leaders, the so-called person can not be too successful, if too successful then he will be too confident, too confident then it will inevitably mess around, there are too many bosses in history who have ruined their reputation because of this, such as what kind of jumping forward movement in modern Chinese history is proof.

In Ma Chao's view, engaging in production, doing business and even developing the economy is a very, very professional activity, and it is obvious that he himself does lack the talent in this area, so in this case, Ma Chao has come up with the consistent practice of shaking off his hands and taking charge of the shopkeeper, controlling the government, the military and other power institutions not to reach out to business, and letting those industrial and commercial owners toss hard. The Ma family's political system and army only play the role of a thug, such as the stubbornness of the powerful families who refuse to open the market, and the Ma family army will crush the past for some justifiable reasons.

However, since we want to develop the economy, it is inevitable that people with intentions will take advantage of it to make a lot of money. Ma Chao remembered that when the Ma Jiajun was restructured, civilian items such as military uniforms, military shoes, bandages, and bags were uniformly distributed. A guy who was originally just a second-rate son in a remote village in Chang'an saw the opportunity and took the lead in organizing the villagers to engage in the textile industry, and made a lot of money in that short three months, and finally became a huge rich man with a net worth of 200 horseshoe gold. At that time, for some political factors and economic development, Ma Chao also asked the propaganda team of the Ministry of Rites to treat that person as a typical publicity. Zhong Miao also personally went to the countryside and sent a plaque of 'getting rich expert'.

The encouragement and publicity of such events led to the mushrooming of various handicraft workshops under the Ma family, and this prosperous scene simply amazed Ma Chao, and always reminded Ma Chao of the myth of Shenzhen's reform and opening up. However, fortunately, Ma Chao has always been very strict with the jurisdiction of government organs and the military, and there has never been an incident of collusion between officials and businessmen.

Because of this, Mu Yang's behavior as a distant clan uncle completely touched Ma Chao's bottom line. Chen Qun may have considered the status of the shadow in Ma Chao's heart and Ma Chao's two factors of vigorously promoting a rich country in industry and commerce, so he felt that this matter was very tricky and difficult to handle, and he personally came to Chang'an to ask for instructions.

After reading the complaint, Ma Chao also felt a little headache about the incident, couldn't help but rub his brows, and unconsciously said something he had already said: "Is this serious? ”

Chen Qun stood up solemnly, moved a large pile of books, papers, and silk albums behind him, and said: "These are all the plaintiff's originals, the handwriting is not done by one person, and the facts of his words are always clear, and some of them are not even known to me, so Weichen does not dare to conceal them, and I have come to report to the lord." After that, Chen Qun knelt down to the end again: "Since ancient times, martial arts have fought to the death, and literature has been admonished, please see what is going on!" ”

Looking at Chen Qun like this, Ma Chao was extremely surprised at first, and then his heart was heavy again. hurriedly walked down in front of Chen Qun, helped Chen Qun up, and said, "Changwen, these things will stay with me." This matter is very important, and it must be kept secret for the time being, you know, I know, and it must not be passed on to others, otherwise, once you anger the army, you will know the consequences. ”

Chen Qun was able to stab this to Ma Chao in advance without making a sound, so he naturally understood this and responded immediately.

And after Ma Chao saw Chen Qun retreat, he looked at the stack of case files, his face suddenly lost his previous solemnity, and even showed a little smile: "Uncle Distant Clan? Hmph, what a guts! - But, on the other hand, Mu Yang, Mu Yang, you are really miserable, you said that you don't want to send any more letters, so I will let you steal things; Now you say you don't want to steal anymore, but God just doesn't want to let you go......"