Zhu Hongsan was speechless by Ma Jiyuan's anger, he asked: "Ma Jiyuan, you are the first assistant, I ask you that the Northern Expedition is about to begin, and the financial gap is so big, what do you say you should do?" ”

"Your Majesty, now that the whole territory of Huguang is unified, the minister thinks that the taxes in Huguang and Jiangxi are very low, and the minister suggests that Liao pay in these two provinces!"

As soon as Ma Jiyuan's words came out of the hall, it immediately became a mess, and the Liaoyu campaign began in the forty-sixth year of Wanli, mainly for the military needs of Liaodong. Except for a few areas such as Guizhou, an average of nine cents of silver per mu of land is levied, totaling 5,200,062 taels. At the time of the Apocalypse, the levy was also levied on the Guan, the salt and other miscellaneous silver taels. In the fourth year of Chongzhen's reign, he raised the field tax from 9 cents to 1 cent and 2 cents, distributed more than 6,670,000 taels of silver, and collected more than 5,220,000 taels of silver in addition to customs duties, salt taxes and miscellaneous items, totaling 7,488,298 taels of silver.

The levy of wages during the Liao and Chongzhen years was the last straw that crushed the camel of the Ming Dynasty, and the northern provinces were already in turmoil, and the collection of these two taxes was immediately full of civil unrest, so Zhu Hongsan had already issued an edict when he was in charge of the country in Guangdong, abolishing these two unreasonable charges.

However, Jiangxi and Huguang have just been subjugated for a few years, and a large area of land has not been cultivated, and taxes will begin to be levied now, and it is estimated that there will be robbers among the people.

And what makes the ministers in the hall angry is that Ma Jiyuan is obviously from Huguang, but now he wants to attack his own class and first levy taxes in Huguang, which is really a righteous annihilation!

Although Zhang Jiayu was only a prefect, there was a special order for him to come to the court meeting today, and he saw that the ministers of Huguang and Jiangxi in the middle of the court were excited, and he knew that the time had come. Zhang Jiayu squeezed his eyes at Tang Yuanji, the imperial history of Huke, who was standing beside him. Tang Yuanji was born in Chongzhen in the sixteenth year of the second class jinshi, it was the same year of Zhang Jiayu, and he was introduced by Zhang Jiayu to enter the ranks of the imperial history of Kedao, and today he will fight the first shot.

Tang Yuanji stood up and bowed down and said, "Your Majesty, the minister has a book!" ”

Zhu Hongsan nodded: "Say!" ”

"The minister impeached the first assistant Ma Jiyuan for colluding with the twelve families of Xu Bengao in Jiangsu Province, intending to welcome Gui in the south and rebel against Zhu Youlang in Beijing!"

As soon as Tang Yuanji's words came out, there was silence in the hall, everyone knew that Tang Yuanji was a Cantonese, and the relationship between Cantonese people and Ma Jiyuan was not bad because of their opposition to Ma Mingyuan, but now Tang Yuanji jumped out and opened fire, why? You must know that everyone is not stupid, Chen Zizhuang of the Guangdong faction has been relegated back to Guangdong, and now there is no one from the Guangdong faction in the DPRK who is qualified to enter the cabinet, what do they want to do when they jump out to oppose Ma Jiyuan?

As soon as Tang Yuanji finished speaking, Chen Shijie, Wu Yijin, Li Zhen, Gao Mingming, and Yang Banghan, who belonged to Zhang Jiayu's small group, all stood up and said in unison: "The ministers seconded the proposal!" ”

Zhu Hongsan saw that the Cantonese faction collectively fired at Ma Jiyuan, and knew that these ministers were definitely premeditated. Ma Jiyuan knows him too well, Mr. Daoxue, he doesn't accept gifts or corruption, his family only has more than 1,000 acres of land that he gave him, except for a sugar factory in Leizhou, he has no industry, and his younger brother Ma Mingyuan, who is a bribe-taking person, is not a person at all.

Ma Jiyuan is a good courtier, Zhu Hongsan admitted, but now Zhu Hongsan doesn't need a good person, what he needs is someone who can get money. Zhu Hongsan thought about it and decided to abandon Ma Jiyuan, he was really not suitable for this first assistant.

Zhu Hongsan nodded and said, "Read!" ”

Although Zhu Hongsan's words were only one word, Ma Jiyuan's heart immediately cooled. There are two ways for the imperial court to deal with this kind of face-to-face impeachment, one is that the emperor accepts it, and then stays in the middle and does not send it, the scientific name is "drowned", which means that the emperor is not ready to clean up a minister. There is another one that is serious, that is, Mingfa, which is like this, read it out and discuss it to see what to do.

Of course, Ma Jiyuan couldn't be stupid enough to conspire with Xu Bengao and others to welcome Zhu Youlang, but the timing of Tang Yuanji's choice was too coincidental. It happened that Ma Jiyuan said that he would collect taxes in Jiangxi and Wuchang, and the officials of these two provinces were dissatisfied with Ma Jiyuan.

Tang Yuanji got the emperor's order, and read out his impeachment of Ma Jiyuan in the court. He summarized Ma Jiyuan's sins in five points:

The first is rebellion, you Ma Ji was born in Huguang and has followed His Majesty for the longest time, why do you still want to welcome Gui and Zhu Youlang? This is rebellion!

The second is to sell his reputation and reputation, he was originally born in Huguang, but now he has finished reciting the scriptures and beating monks, but he has levied taxes on Huguang, Ma Jiyuan is a righteous man and a gentleman on the surface, but behind his back is a traitor like Qin Hui.

The third is that he complained about the emperor, when His Majesty the Emperor Xinyang saved your Ma Jiyuan's family, but you Ma Jiyuan was not grateful in his heart, but he often said bad things about His Majesty behind people, which is disrespectful!

The fourth is incompetence, in the past, when Ma Mingyuan was the first assistant, the imperial court was operating normally, you look at what you Ma Jiyuan did when he came to power, which made the people's livelihood in Guangdong wither, and now Guangdong's commercial activities have been reduced by half, this is all your Ma Jiyuan's sin!

The fifth is to form a party, now look at the court, your Ma Jiyuan party accounts for the majority, what do you want to do? Do you want to learn from the king of Han?

This impeachment excerpt came from Zhang Jiayu, Zhang Jiayu knew Zhu Hongsan too well, and Zhu Hongsan, the emperor, was suspicious. Back then, Ma Jiyuan's entire family died at the hands of the emperor, saying that it was impossible for him to have no idea in his heart. So Zhang Jiayu started at this point, as long as the emperor had a little doubt, that was when Ma Jiyuan died.

Zhang Jiayu discussed with Ma Mingyuan very well yesterday and promised not to be ruthless to Ma Jiyuan, but after Zhang Jiayu left Ma Mingyuan's mansion, he went to see the second person of the Huguang faction, Tong Yangjia.

Tong Yangjia happily promised Zhang Jiayu that as long as the defeat was successful, he would give Guangdong a quota of three elders, and promote Zhang Jiayu as the local governor, and also promised to persuade the Huguang faction to give up a quarter of the factory in Guangdong to the Guangdong faction.

Unlike Ma Mingyuan's stinginess, Tong Yangjia was generously tight, and Zhang Jiayu agreed to Tong Yangjia without thinking about it, which dealt a fatal blow to Ma Jiyuan at today's court meeting.

But Zhang Jiayu still underestimated Ma Jiyuan, what kind of character is Ma Jiyuan? That's also an old fritter that has been rolling in officialdom for many years. After the initial panic, Ma Jiyuan quickly grasped the key to the matter, that is, the driving force behind this matter must be his good brother Ma Mingyuan.

Thinking of this, Ma Jiyuan's heart was desolate, he was seven or eight years older than Ma Mingyuan, and in his early years, he left his hometown in Huguang to go to Nanzhili to join his uncle who was an official, so he didn't have a good relationship with this younger brother. But no matter how bad the relationship is, he is also the younger brother of a compatriot! Now this younger brother is killing his brother for the position of a first assistant. It really made Ma Jiyuan's heart cold.

"Brother! Since you are ruthless, don't complain about the injustice of the big brother! Ma Jiyuan nodded to Wang Yingdou, the secretary of the General Administration Department behind him.

Wang Yingdou was the same year as Ma Jiyuan, and he was still a native of Xianning, Huguang, so he was naturally Ma Jiyuan's sworn friend. Yesterday, he received a joint petition from Xia Yunyi, the political envoy of Hubei, and Xu Fuyuan, the prefect of Wuchang, impeaching Ma Mingyuan and some new upstarts in Huguang for forcibly occupying land in the Wuchang area, causing a lot of lives.

Wang Yingdou is also a Huguang faction, and after receiving this recital, he showed it to Ma Jiyuan as soon as possible, and Ma Jiyuan scolded his good brother Ma Mingyuan angrily. However, at that time, there was still a deep brotherly relationship, and after Ma Jiyuan got angry, he decided to press this fold, and wait for time to talk about his younger brother, so that he would not go too far.

But now Ma Jiyuan doesn't care about that in order to protect himself, the most important thing now is to suppress Ma Mingyuan's arrogance, so he ordered Wang Yingdou to throw out that piece of music.

As soon as Tang Yuanji's impeachment excerpt was read, Wang Yingdou didn't wait for the emperor to speak, he stood up and said: "Your Majesty, the minister has something!" The General Administration Department has just received a joint Mingfa excerpt from Xia Yunyi, the political envoy of Hubei, and Xu Fuyuan, the prefect of Wuchang! Your Majesty, please watch! ”

Zhu Hongsan knew what was going on as soon as he heard that it was Xia Yunyi's excerpt, Zhu Hongsan thought about it and said, "Read! ”

Wang Yingdou read out Xia Yunyi's excerpt in the court, and there was a big uproar in the hall as soon as this excerpt came out, everyone didn't expect that in just a few years, the Ma family occupied so much land in Wuchang, and there were also deaths!

As soon as Wang Yingdou finished reading the excerpt, more than 20 ministers stood up in the court, all of whom were Ma Jiyuan's sworn friends and cadres of the Donglin Party and the Zhedong faction. The identities of these people are much stronger than the Guangdong faction just now, there are five in Shangshu, three in Shilang, and six in Jiuqing. These people said in unison: "Your Majesty, Ma Mingyuan and others have violated the law of the country by forcibly occupying land in Wuchang, please punish Your Majesty!" ”

At this time, the Ma brothers had already torn their faces, and their respective subordinates didn't care about so much, and the elder Wang Yunchang, with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Taxation, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs, also stood up to impeach Ma Jiyuan, and the court was in chaos for a while.

Tong Yangjia was overjoyed when he saw the chaos like this, and he hoped that the Ma family brothers would be unlucky, so that it would be his turn to take the position.

But Tong Yangjia is a little naïve to think about it, now half of the officials in the court are the best friends of the second horse, and you Tong Yangjia can't be the first assistant even if you become the first assistant, so the first assistant can only choose among the second horse.

Emperor Zhu Hongsan also ran out of ideas, now the second horse is in flames, suppressing Ma Jiyuan will clean up the Donglin Party, and suppressing Ma Mingyuan will offend the Huguang faction. The Huguang faction is its own basic plate and must not be offended, but the Donglin Party and the Zhedong faction are too powerful in the south and Zhejiang, and if they want to go on the Northern Expedition, they will have to stabilize the rear, and it is not the right time to clean up the Donglin Party and the Zhedong faction at this time.

After thinking about it, Zhu Hong decided to choose Ma Mingyuan, after all, the Northern Expedition is important now, and the Northern Expedition cannot be carried out without money, and only when Ma Mingyuan comes to power can he get money for himself.

Thinking of this, Zhu Hongsan waved his hand, and the Han generals standing in rows around the hall saw that the emperor had something to say, and shouted one after another: "Mighty!" The sound of the courtiers' quarrels was silenced.