PS. Present today's update, by the way, pull a vote for the "starting point" 515 fan festival, everyone has 8 votes, and the vote will also give the starting point coin, kneel and beg everyone to support and appreciate!

While Liu Cheng and Hao Shaoqi were talking, they had already arrived in front of the General Soldier's Mansion, and the captain who was guarding the door had already stepped forward and announced: "My lord, the father and son of the Ma family have arrived!" ”

"Good!" Liu Cheng got off the horse, three steps and two steps into the door, compared to when he left the court a few months ago, his wings were much fuller, Chahar and Tumut tribes, Ningxia's border army, Gushi Khan's alliance with Batur Khan, the support of the Gelug monks, these intricate relationships were like countless feathers, which made him look much stronger than he actually was. But feathers are just feathers, they can make you look strong and you can soar through the sky, but when a storm comes, it gets your body wet, and it reveals itself. In the Ming Dynasty, the gentry are the real foundation, and they can't do without their support until these spoils are completely digested.

"Congratulations General!" Ma Ziyi respectfully saluted Liu Cheng, and behind him, Ma Rencheng and more than 20 gentlemen stood in the flower hall, which seemed a little crowded.

"Mr. Ma is exempt, everyone is exempt!" Liu Cheng owed his body slightly, and he deserved to repay everyone's courtesy. Ma Ziyi sat down in the guest seat, Ma Rencheng stood behind him, and the other more than 20 gentlemen sat down in the two compartments. The servant finished offering tea. Ma Ziyi took the lead and said: "When I heard in Dunzhou that the general was sweating and recovering the land of Ningxia, I all raised my hand to increase my quota. It is said that the heaven-sent general is in the northwest of our country, and hundreds of millions of people rely on the general's divine might! As soon as the words fell, the other gentlemen behind him also echoed, Ma Ziyi took out a gift slip from his arms and offered it with both hands: "A little thin thing, General He's martial arts, please smile!" ”

Liu Cheng took the gift list from Hao Shaoqi's hand, and his eyes swept over it, there were cloth, grain, salt and some daily necessities. They are all useful, and there are seven or eight thousand taels of silver, which can be regarded as a generous gift, there are more than 20 names at the end of the gift list, it should be these gentlemen, most of the faces are very familiar, they should have been originally in the Pitang Bureau, a few relatively unfamiliar people also tried their best to squeeze out a smile to Liu Cheng, everyone's eyes showed eager light, obviously the purpose of these people coming is not simple.

"Mr. Ma. Since you are so sincere, this official will not shirk! Liu Cheng stood up and made a group bow to everyone in a reserved manner, and everyone hurriedly got up to return the salute, and the flower hall was suddenly chaotic, and it took a while before it was quiet again. Liu Cheng handed the gift list to the entourage behind him, and said with a smile: "Mr. Ma is my benefactor, Inspector Yang sent me to Dunzhou to clean up the military tun, if it weren't for Mr. Ma's deep understanding of righteousness." Arm your arms to help me train in Tuntian, how can I Liu Cheng be today? This time, I should have spent a few days with Mr. Ma. It's just that according to the laws of the imperial court, the official has to go to Beijing soon. See Tianyan, there are still a lot of official matters to deal with before leaving, and please forgive Mr. Ma and you! “

"Don't dare!" Ma Ziyi hurriedly stood up and said with a smile: "Lord Liu." Although we are shallow, we have also received the grace of the country, so don't we know that the new officials of the adults have taken office. Busy with business? All of them came with an old face, not thinking that there is any use for us here, and I can also do my best for the adults, for the court, and for the Son of Heaven! “

"Exactly, I wonder if there is a place for me to help!"

"Please also ask the general to wait for me a chance to contribute!"

Liu Cheng saw everyone like this, how could he not know what the idea of this group of people was. Although Ma Ziyi had a very unpleasant quarrel with Liu Cheng at the beginning, he took the opportunity to annex many fields in the process of cleaning up the military tun and building Pitang. This time, Liu Cheng defeated Lin Dan Khan, seeing that the future was limitless, everyone instigated Ma Ziyi to go to Ningxia and put together a gift, in the name of He Jie, to see if he could follow Liu Ingredient to get a piece of the pie.

"Oh, you want to help me? So I don't know what strengths each rank has, and what do you want to contribute to? “

Before Ma Ziyi could speak, an anxious gentleman got up and said with a smile: "Lord Liu, if you are skilled in bows and horses, swords, guns and halberds, we are naturally inferior to the tiger warriors under your command, but the army under the command of the Lord is so strong, and it consumes thousands of gold every day, so it must be very complicated to transfer things, and I am willing to share this responsibility for the Lord." “

"I wish to be the way to return to the Lord and the Tartars, and I hope the Lord will agree!"

"I wish to do it for my lord-"

Since someone opened his mouth, the others were afraid of being left behind, and the fat shortage was snatched away, and they didn't care about the face of the scholars on weekdays, so they got up and pleaded with Liu Cheng, if it weren't for Hao Shaoqi Seeing that the situation was not good, he hurriedly stepped forward to stop him, but he was afraid that Liu Cheng would have been eaten alive.

Seeing this scene in the flower hall, whether it is Liu Cheng or the Ma family's father and son's faces, Liu Cheng will naturally not agree, otherwise it won't take a few months, and the soldiers under him must make a mutiny, since the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the local gentry are no different from locusts.

"Rank, rank!" Liu Cheng raised his voice, and the flower hall calmed down, and he forced himself to squeeze out a smile: "You have such intentions, and this officer is grateful to the heart, but the army has its own law, if there is a mistake, you must engage in military law." The return of the tea horse is a matter restricted by the imperial court, and this official and you are also old acquaintances, and I don't want to hurt the harmony, so I have to be sorry for you! ”

Listening to Liu Cheng's implied threatening words, everyone calmed down, remembering Liu Cheng's style of acting in Dunzhou, the originally fanatical mind calmed down, and some people began to regret paying the money to follow the Ma family father and son to Ningxia.

"But you are all old friends of Liu, you came from afar, if you let you run away in vain, it will be mine!" Speaking of this, Liu Chengyu turned around: "I have a business here, which is of great benefit to the country and the people, I don't know if you are interested!" “

This time, everyone learned to be obedient, and they turned their eyes to Ma Ziyi, obviously only looking at him, Ma Ziyi coughed and said, "Lord Liu, can you please tell me more details?" ”

"Wave the flag, you go to the backyard and get the atlas of the Wujia River!"

"Yes. My lord! Hao Shaoqi answered, turned around and went out. Seeing that Liu Cheng was solemn, all the gentlemen also sat down to drink tea and wait, and after about half a cup of tea. Hao Shaoqi came back, holding a few scrolls in his hands. Liu Cheng took the scroll from Hao Shaoqi's hand and said in a deep voice: "Shake the flag, you go outside to guard, no one is allowed to come in!" “

Seeing Liu Cheng so solemn, the gentlemen couldn't help but get nervous. Liu Cheng walked to the side of the bookcase and unfolded the scroll. On the other hand, he said to the gentlemen: "What you said in the hall today must not be spread, otherwise the official will not offend!" “

Liu Cheng was in a high position at this time, and there was naturally an awe-inspiring majesty when he spoke, and all the gentry hurriedly agreed. Ma Rencheng helped his father to the bookcase, but when he looked at it, it was a map. Liu Cheng gestured on the map and said: "As the saying goes, 'The Yellow River is harmful, and only one is profitable', which means that although the Yellow River is flooding, it will harm one party." However, in the land of the Hetao, the river is gentle, conducive to irrigation, and it is a land of agriculture and pasture. The land of this Hetao can be subdivided into two parts: the West Loop and the East Loop, and the West Loop is from Qingtongxia to Shizui Mountain; The east set can be divided into the front set and the back set. The front cover is between Bayan Gaole and Xishanzui, and the back cover is Tumochuan. Among them, the western set is owned by my Ming Dynasty, but the front and back sets are rich in vegetation and no one cultivates them. It's where there's a lot to be done. “

"Lord Liu, are you planning to set up Tuntian in the front and back?" Ma Ziyi looked at the map, which was different from the map at that time, which was mainly based on freehand painting. The map in front of him, though still very rough, already had a rudimentary scale, which made him a little unaccustomed to it.

"Not bad!" Liu Cheng nodded: "This is the territory of my Han Dynasty, and in the Qin and Han dynasties, counties were set up here to resist the Xiongnu and shield the Beijing Division." Now that the Chahar people and the Tumuts have been captured by my Ming Dynasty, and they have signed an alliance with the Dzungar people and the Heshute people, and the Quartet is at peace, it is a golden opportunity! “

Ma Ziyi's face was a little ugly, he pondered for a while, and said in a low voice: "Lord Liu, this place is lonely outside the border, and it is hundreds of miles away from the nearest side wall, it is not a simple matter to Tuntian!" “

Liu Cheng smiled and didn't answer Ma Ziyi's question, he casually stretched out his hand and pointed at a gentleman in his early forties, and asked, "This brother, I don't know how many acres of land your family has?" How many drylands are there? How much water to water the ground? ”

The gentleman had a look of embarrassment on his face, the acres of land in the family of the famous gentleman at that time were all a confused account, in addition to his own, there were other peasant households who "posted" to his name in order to avoid taxes and labor, and those who had encroached on military camps, public land, and those who had cultivated land without permission but were not included in the field register, and how much land in the family was a top secret. He subconsciously cast an inquiring glance at Ma Ziyi, and when he saw the other party nodding slightly, he gritted his teeth and replied: "The student has more than 40 tilts of dry land, 15 tilts of watered land, and 20 tilts of grassland. ”

"Well, that's a lot of money!" Liu Cheng smiled, and couldn't hear whether it was praise or ridicule, the gentleman opened his mouth, and he didn't know how to take this stubble, fortunately, Liu Cheng didn't continue to ask, but turned his head to Ma Ziyi and asked, "What about your family, Mr. Ma?" ”

Ma Ziyi already roughly understood what Liu Cheng meant, although he was a little reluctant, he still replied in a low voice: "There are about a thousand poured water on the ground at home!" “

Hearing Ma Ziyi's answer, all the gentry let out a sigh of envy, the lack of water sources in the northwest, the difference between watered land and dry land is terrifying, in recent years in the Jinzhou gentry how much water has been a mystery in the Ma family, now Ma Ziyi himself admitted that he has more than 1,000 poured water in his home, this is not a big news.

"More than a thousand! Mr. Ma runs a good family business! Liu Cheng smiled and said to the gentleman: "I'm afraid you won't be able to catch up with the Ma family in your life!" “

"My lord is laughing!" The gentleman smiled bitterly and said: "How can the student catch up with Mr. Ma, don't say that in this life, I am afraid that the children and grandchildren will not be able to catch up!" ”

In the Ming Dynasty, although it was common for landlords to annex to expand their own land, this kind of annexation was not without an upper limit, and if there was no merit as protection, once the field exceeded a certain amount, it would be beaten back to its original shape by various reasons such as servitude and lawsuits. Therefore, generally speaking, there is a certain correspondence between the level of fame in the family and the amount of land, for example, the number of fields owned by Ma Ziyi has long exceeded the possible limit of ordinary gentry, and it is impossible for these gentry in the flower hall to cross this boundary under normal circumstances.

"Not necessarily!" Liu Cheng said with a smile: "If you shouldn't say something, Mr. Ma's furniture has nothing to do with the official!" ”

The gentleman naturally knew how Ma Ziyi came to water the land so much, how could he not hear the meaning of Liu Cheng's words, and his anger suddenly became rough, he looked at Ma Ziyi, and then at Liu Cheng, and asked: "My lord, didn't you say that if I stood on your side, I could have so much land like Mr. Ma?" “

"It's not necessarily like Mr. Ma!" Liu Cheng smiled: "It depends on your ability." “

"Ability? What are you capable of? “

"Have you ever heard of horse racing?"

"Staking the ground?" The gentleman shook his head suspiciously.

"It's to let you ride an inferior horse without a saddle, let you run in circles, as long as you don't fall off the horse, as much as you can circle is yours!"

"Really?" The gentleman's snort suddenly thickened, and the pie thrown out by Liu Cheng was so big that he almost couldn't believe it was true.

"Huh!" Liu Cheng suddenly laughed: "This official is a first-class military general of the imperial court, do you say it is true or false?" ”

When the gentleman heard this, he remembered that it was a big worm that was talking to him, and he couldn't help but be startled, his bones were crispy, and the whole person suddenly became half shorter, Liu Cheng grabbed his arm and helped him up: "As the saying goes, 'empty words have no evidence', tomorrow I will send a team of cavalry to escort you away, just see if it's true or not!" Speaking of this, Liu Cheng returned to his seat and picked up the teacup and brought it to his lips. Seeing this, Ma Ziyi had to take everyone up and say goodbye.

A black brick wall separates Fulin Garden from the General Military Mansion, which originally belonged to a wealthy local merchant and was dedicated to Hu Kejian as an apartment, and when Hu Kejian returned to Beijing, it was empty, and Liu Cheng paid a sum of money to buy it from his master and rebuild it to do some things that were inconvenient to do in the General Military Mansion. At this time, it was already evening, and the setting sun was shining on the glazed tiles of the roof, and the courtyard and verandah below were being covered with shadows, which looked a little gloomy. The two stone incense ash stoves placed on the front steps of the main hall were also shrouded in shadows, and the sound of heavy footsteps and nail leaves from patrolling soldiers was heard in the backyard, drifting in the dim twilight of the courtyard.

[It's about to be 515, I hope to continue to hit the 515 red envelope list, and the red envelope rain will be able to give back to readers and promotional works on May 15. A piece is also love, and it must be better! (To be continued.) )