The four strategists under Zhu Hongsan are all bad, with sores on the top of their heads and pus on the soles of their feet, and the only one who is good is Ma Jiyuan, but it doesn't mean that he won't use means, he just disdains it. The rest of Ma Mingyuan, Feng Ziyong, and Tong Yangjia are all all the way, and their essence is bad, coupled with the experience of more than 20 years of officialdom, they all slip and do not leave their hands, and their thoughts are deep.

On the other hand, those big families in Nanzhili, as Zhu Hongsan said, are all uninformed rural rich people. If Xu Jie, who was still alive back then, would naturally be able to see Tong Yangjia's little tricks clearly, but Xu Jieyi died, his descendants never became big officials again, and he may be clever, but there is no such means of playing with opponents in the palm of his hand.

When these little white sheep in the political arena of Nanzhili encounter a big bad wolf like Tong Yangjia, they will naturally be eaten with dry claws and claws, and there is nothing left.

However, it is not that no one in the court has seen through Tong Yangjia's tricks, and his political ally Qian Qianyi can see clearly. But Lao Qian didn't say anything, first, Lao Qian knew too much what kind of virtue the emperor was, in order for himself to live to a good death, it would be better to stay away from those big landlords in Nanzhili, and secondly, Lao Qian also hoped that Tong Yangjia would kill Ma Mingyuan, after all, Qian Qianyi was in the middle of the cabinet, if Ma Mingyuan was killed, his ranking could still be raised, why not?

The second person to see Tong Yangjia's routine clearly is Ma Mingyuan, Ma Mingyuan, as a party concerned, naturally knows what is going on with the soaring food prices in the capital now, and he also understands the collusion between Tong Yangjia and those big landlords. However, Ma Mingyuan didn't take Tong Yangjia's small means to heart, because of Ma Mingyuan's intelligence asymmetry, he didn't know that Tong Yangjia had reached an agreement with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and was ready to take advantage of the fact that the imperial court was defenseless.

What Ma Mingyuan saw was that the imperial court had reached a contract with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and Zhu Youlang in Guangxi was beaten and did not dare to move, and without external pressure, the emperor could naturally guarantee his support, so Ma Mingyuan's idea was to wait until the food crisis in the capital was fermenting, and then conduct a general liquidation of the big landlords and Tong Yangjia who hindered the new policy, and completely remove Tong Yangjia from the cabinet team.

Ma Mingyuan, the candidate to take over Tong Yangjia, has thought about it, that is, Feng Ziyong, who was assigned to the local government as the governor of Liangguang. Although Feng Ziyong always contradicts Ma Mingyuan, after all, he is his second cousin, and he has a grace for him, I hope Feng Ziyong can understand his hardships. Of course, the other of the four strategists, his eldest brother Ma Jiyuan will never be allowed to enter the cabinet, as long as he is in the cabinet for a day, he will never let his eldest brother enter the cabinet.

Just when all the forces were thinking of ghosts, the second batch of 3.8 million stone grain sent by the Japanese State was transported back. However, Zhu Hongsan did not let the merchant ships unload the goods on the wharf with great fanfare, but took advantage of the night to secretly unload at the Nanjing Guanyun Wharf. Zhu Hongsan's idea was to use the grain in his hand as much as possible to exchange for the silver of the big landlord, anyway, there is no shortage of food now. The 3.8 million stone grain is enough to feed 200,000 poor people inside and outside Nanjing for a year, and if you add some potatoes and corn as substitutes, it is not impossible to eat for two or three years.

Those big landlords obviously did not have much silver in their hands, and after seeing that the imperial court had almost unlimited supply of rice, they gave up buying rice on the market, and naturally the price of rice fell back to a reasonable price of one silver dollar and one stone.

But those big landlords didn't think about it, after the failure to raise prices, these guys had a second trick, that is, petitioning! However, in the Ming Dynasty, it was not called a petition, but a petition.

As early as the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the drafting of a ban on "no living personnel are allowed to interfere in politics". I wanted to use this to scare away Confucian students and make them dare not ask about politics. However, during the Wanli and Chongzhen periods, the politics were corrupt, the society was dark, the class contradictions became increasingly acute, and the people's resistance and struggle continued. The literati broke through the ban of "no living personnel are allowed to interfere in politics", gathered together, satirized current affairs, and ridiculed characters, and the scale became larger and stronger. The students often criticize the county guard, scold Yousi, and compile songs to create public opinion. If you are not ruining the official, you will be arranged in the street; revenge, the ballad was awarded to Zimu. ”

The reader sang a hundred harmony, creating a strong momentum. They used their own standards of right and wrong to measure the gains and losses of court officials. They were opposed to the imperial court to the point that "what the cabinet is, the external opinion must be wrong; What the cabinet does not do, foreign opinions must be regarded as true", this kind of public opinion has played a powerful role in intervening in politics.

This tradition of interfering in politics reached its climax at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and the symbolic* event was the letter that scolded Ruan Dacheng for "Staying in the Capital to Prevent Chaos and Public Disclosure". The public revelation is also a big-character * newspaper, we don't care what it says, but it is this illegal big-character * newspaper that actually achieves the purpose of interfering in politics, and Ruan Dacheng is also forced to hide in the mountains and live in seclusion.

On November 12 of the second year of Shenwu, the food crisis in Nanjing, which had been raging for many days, had been lifted, and the people in the city had begun to prepare for the New Year. And the readers are also preparing for next year's spring.

Next year is the third year of Shenwu, and it is also the year of the big competition set by the imperial court, so after the end of the autumn of the second year of Shenwu, many people from all over the country did not go home, but stayed in Nanjing to prepare for the exam.

On the morning of the 12th, these movers found that there was a poster posted on the gate of the Guozijian in Nanjing, which scolded Ma Mingyuan, the current first assistant, for wanting to go to the imperial court to ban the privileges of scholars, and expose "the distribution of the land into the mu, and the integration of the officials and gentry to pay the grain" in front of the scholars across the country.

As soon as this big-character * newspaper came out, the readers in Nanjing City were immediately in an uproar, and all the people who did not believe it were in the hands of Ma Mingyuan, a prodigy who dug their own graves. However, it is easy to say that Guozijian is not far from Ma Mansion in Nancheng, and hundreds of scholars rushed to Ma Mingyuan's mansion together and asked Ma Mingyuan to give an explanation.

Of course, when he arrived at Ma Mingyuan's mansion, the door was not opened, and Ma Mingyuan did not come out to give these hot-blooded young people an explanation. In the eyes of these young people, this is worth it, we are the reserve force of the country, you Ma Mingyuan is a fart, and you will not see anyone when you become the first assistant? Under the impetus of well-intentioned people, hundreds of people actually set fire to Ma Mingyuan's mansion.

Ma Mingyuan was already in the house, how could he have thought that these people dared to burn down their own homes, but fortunately, Ma Mingyuan was still young and neat. He didn't die in the fire, but the huge horse house was burned to the ground.

The news spread to the palace to make Zhu Hong happy, these Nanzhili stinky old nine finally couldn't help but make a move, I'm not afraid that you will do it, but I am afraid that you will not do it. Now Zhu Hongsan has the means to buckle the basin on those stinky old nine heads.

Zhu Hongsan immediately dispatched 500 Jinyi guards and 2,000 officers and soldiers of the inspection department to surround several streets around Mafu Street, trying not to make a fuss.

Jin Yiwei captured a total of 272 people, of which 37 were the leader, and Zhu Hongsan was stunned when he saw it after the list was reported, because the first one led was a native of Henan Guide, Hou Fangyu.

After Hou Fangyu was occupied by the Manchus in Nanjing, he was separated from Li Xiangjun, and he had no choice but to return to his hometown in Henan to take refuge, and at the same time inquire about Li Xiangjun's news everywhere.

Originally, when Hou Fangyu thought that the Ming Dynasty was over, Zhu Hongsan, the king of Chu who had been despised by him, suddenly rose up and was able to defeat the hundreds of thousands of Manchu troops in Jiangnan and reoccupy Nanjing.

Henan is some distance from Nanjing, and the news from Nanjing here is strange, and there are all kinds of things. It is said that the heavenly soldiers and generals borrowed by the king of Chu will spit red light from their mouths one by one, and sacrifice the magic weapon to take the enemy's head thousands of miles away, anyway, there is any news.

As a scholar, Hou Fangyu believes in the gentleman's silence and strange power, and he doesn't believe in these. However, he was very interested in the shameless King of Chu, and wanted to go to Nanjing to see what was going on, and at the same time to find Li Xiangjun. At this time, the Nanjing Ministry of Rites came with news that Shenwu held the autumn festival in Nanjing in the second year, and the spring festival will be reopened in March of the third year of Shenwu next year for the national selection.

Hou Fangyu, who got the news, said goodbye to his old father, wife and children and came to Nanjing alone.

Hou Fangyu fled for many years, but the books were not thrown away, and it was easy to pass the examination in Nanjing, so he stayed and waited for the spring festival in March next year.

Unexpectedly, at this time, Ma Mingyuan suddenly wanted to implement the new policy, Hou Fangyu's family is a famous big landowner in Henan, although there are not 100,000 mu of land, there are 10,000 or 20,000 mu, if this new deal is implemented, it will cost Hou Fangyu's old life. At the same time, Hou Fangyu thought that Ma Mingyuan, who had a deep relationship with his father, was like this, and Hou Fangyu followed the team to Ma's house as soon as possible.

Zhu Hongsan was also very funny when he saw Hou Fangyu's name, remembering that he wanted to marry Ma Xiaofang in Wuchang back then, and was finally stirred up by himself.

Zhu Hongsan said to Ma Mingyuan, who was sitting: "Mr. Ma, the thirty-seven people led by him have all been caught, guess who there is?" ”

Ma Mingyuan was stunned when he heard Zhu Hongsan ask, is there anyone he is familiar with?

"Mr. Ma, the first one is your Ma family's family friend, Hou Fangyu, that Hou Chaozong!"

Ma Mingyuan was also a little embarrassed when he heard that there was Hou Fangyu, the friendship between the Ma family and the two generations of the Hou family, Hou Sui and Ma Mingyuan's uncle Ma Guoan were good friends, or they couldn't form a family with the Hou family. At the same time, Ma Mingyuan also had contacts with Hou Fangyu when he traveled to Nanjing, and he also appreciated his knowledge and literary brilliance, but he didn't expect to become an opponent now.

Ma Mingyuan thought for a while and said, "Your Majesty, the minister wants to meet this Hou Fangyu, please ask Your Majesty for permission!" ”

"Oh? Why did Mr. Ma go to see him? ”

"Your Majesty, next year's examination is the first ceremony of the new dynasty, and it is really not good to send so many people to prison. And the Hou family has a lot of old habits in the officialdom, and the minister wants to fight for Hou Fangyu, after all, he has little intersection with big landlords like Nanzhili. ”