After the Yongle Dynasty, Zhu Di was not in the right position, and he paid more attention to Jinyi Wei, and the scale of Jinyi's spies was further expanded, from the mansion of famous ministers and generals to the homes of ordinary bureaucrats, and in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, even the rich and wealthy did not let go.

The more notorious East Factory, the West Factory, and the short-lived Inner Factory, the acquisition of their intelligence is based on the establishment of these huge numbers of Jinyi secret agents, so to speak, without these large number of small people spying on intelligence, there would be no famous Jinyi Wei and East and West Factory.

"Good boy!" Hearing this, Zhiwen sighed, "How many people do you have to do this, and how much does it cost!" By the way, Second Brother Ma, after talking about it for a long time, what are you doing in Jinyiwei? How big is the general flag? ”

"Don't laugh at me, Zhiwen, I'm almost out of food, what kind of official can I be, I'm just a name." Ma Er explained that his identity in the Jinyi Guard is even more special, half-light and half-dark, neither the Jinyi Guard on the bright side, nor the secret agent hidden in the crowd, but the hub connecting the two.

To put it bluntly, it is to summarize the news of the secret agents, Ma Er alone needs to be responsible for contacting more than 100 secret agents, these people have everything, and then report to the local Jinyi Wei Thousand Households, and at the same time distribute silver money to these people, in order to walk conveniently, Ma Er was awarded a virtual title of the general flag, although there is a bit of power, but compared with the real general flag, it is much smaller.

"But you're right, Zhiwen, it is precisely because of the large number of spies and the cost of silver is too great, so since the late Emperor of the Apocalypse, he has begun to be abolished one after another, and after ascending the throne today, not only are the people I am responsible for contacting gone, but I am no longer a member of Jinyiwei." Ma Er sighed quietly.

After Zhang Juzheng's changes, the Wanli Dynasty was not only full of treasury, but also the emperor's private treasury was full, and the premise of Wanli's three major expeditions to win was to have money in hand.

In the Apocalypse Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty continued to slide after a short period of Zhongxing, but the Emperor of the Apocalypse found another way and sent the mine supervisors to collect commercial taxes and mining taxes.

After Chongzhen came to power and eradicated the nine-thousand-year-old Wei Zhongxian, he was not even too interested in the eunuch forces, and he did not have the brains of his imperial brother, and was bewitched by the ministers and removed all the mine supervisors.

Without money, it is naturally difficult for Jinyiwei and the East and West Factory to maintain such a huge scale, and they will be cut again and again, and the first to bear the brunt is naturally these unknown large number of secret agents, followed by the intermediary roles of Ma Er, Chongzhen Dynasty has become the weakest and most nonexistent era of secret agencies since the Ming Dynasty, and the scholars cheered as "Zhongzheng Ying Dynasty".

However, the evil consequences soon began to appear, internally, not to mention the investigation and punishment of corrupt officials and corrupt officials, one after another famine, riots, mutinies, basically no news in advance, no precautions, only by the court to wipe the buttocks, Chongzhen became a firefighter.

The foreign war is even more serious, and Houjin, a backward armed bandit group, can frequently use it to capture one after another strong cities in Liaodong without much effort, but the Jinyi Guard, which was feared in the past, has completely disappeared.

Of course, these evil consequences cannot be completely counted on Chongzhen's head, in fact, at the end of the Apocalypse, after the reduction of mine supervisors, the funds were insufficient, and Jinyiwei began to fall behind in the confrontation between Liaodong and Houjin.

"So... You have no income, so you have to flee from the natural disasters in northern Shaanxi? Zhiwen asked, in the next generation, Ma Er and they were laid off.

Ma Er nodded and did not speak.

"So, Huang Si, Eleven and the others used to be Jinyi spies?" Zhiwen's mind turned, and he came back to his senses, and without waiting for Ma Er to speak, he continued, "No wonder you all have a set of information to inquire about." ”

Ma Er responded, "Zhiwen, this Jinyiwei is not a good reputation, so I haven't dared to make it clear to everyone, please forgive me." ”

"Hey, Second Brother Ma, you're out again, no one has passed, and besides, this Jinyi Wei is not a heinous bad guy in my eyes." Zhiwen waved his hand, not caring, "By the way, the old brother you said is your former subordinate, right?" ”

At the beginning, there were far less than 100 people who followed Ma Er Gang Zhiwen to inquire about the news, and now these people are recruited from refugees one after another.

"That's right," Ma Er replied, "Strictly speaking, I'm not their boss, since our people were dismissed, some of the brothers have a poor life, and they left northern Shaanxi very early, and a few of the domestic servants in the big families also escaped with the master's family. ”

"You mean to say that these people offered to help us find out?" Zhiwen asked.

Ma Er scratched his head, a little embarrassed, "Some of the brothers didn't have any serious deeds in the first place, and those who left their hometowns could only help people to live, and a few of them became beggars, and there were better ones in the master's family, at least they didn't have to worry about eating, but compared with the previous days, it was also a world away, and when they saw that I was doing well, they wanted me to pull them along." ”

"Reduced to a beggar? I'm afraid it's just that it's a member of the beggar gang. Zhiwen quipped.

Ma Er cleared his throat and said curtly, "It used to be a fake beggar, but now it's a real beggar." ”

Zhiwen smiled slightly, no longer teasing Ma Er, and said, "This is a good thing, Second Brother Ma, these experienced spies, we want to get them out ourselves, I don't know how much work it takes, they take the initiative to work, I can't ask for it." ”

"Really? Zhiwen. Ma Er raised his head suddenly, with surprise in his tone, seeing that Zhiwen nodded affirmatively, stood up and wanted to salute, but he remembered something, and said, "This... Zhiwen, these people are different from me and Huang Forty-one, we are in the mountains, it is enough to send some food and cloth, and other things are not very needed, but they are outside, this reward... You have to pay the money. ”

Ma Er knew that there was no shortage of food in Zhuolu Mountain, but he had no bottom in terms of money.

"You don't have to worry about this, Second Brother Ma, you just have to rest assured and boldly go to your old brothers," just kidding, not mentioning the silver that Zhou Chengyun invested, even the silver in the warehouse of the Zhiwen system was also in the sea, and it was not needed in the mountains, so he didn't take it out.

"In the future, you will still look for Li Zhi and Song Caijie for your expenses on the surface, and you will come to me directly for how much money these spies need, if I am not there, I will prepare it for you in advance." Zhiwen did this for Ma Er's good, if he spent money too ruthlessly, he would be too conspicuous in Zhuolu Mountain.

Ma Er nodded, with a grateful look.

"By the way, Second Brother Ma, you can't just gather the old department, anyone with this kind of background, I think you can snare them in." Zhiwen smiled and handed over the waist card, "Make good use of this waist card and make a big difference." ”

Zhiwen believes that there must be a lot of Jinyi spies who have been dismissed, Ma Er can take this waist card and bring them under his command in the name of the imperial court, anyway, they are all one-line contacts, don't worry about revealing the stuffing, after a long time, who will have trouble with money.

"So where do we start first?" Ma Er heard the song and knew the meaning of elegance, knowing that Zhiwen must have a goal before saying this.

"Jingshi to Zhangjiakou can be developed first, but in the early stage, Zhangjiakou is the mainstay." When turning back to the Central Plains from outside the Saiwai and passing through Zhangjiakou, Zhiwen didn't dare to stop for a while, but the horse team was huge, and it had already attracted the prying eyes of many people along the way, and the Fan family was also among them, so Zhiwen naturally wanted to know the attitude and plans of these people towards the Zhuolu Trading Company.