It should be said that this is not too high a requirement, if it is said that being an official in the time of Taizu of this dynasty is still a high-risk profession, then in the Chongzhen period more than two hundred years later, officials are already a low-risk and high-return profession. Taking Lu Boqi's position as the governor of Dunzhou as an example, although the income cannot be compared with that of his colleagues in the wealthy prefectures and counties of Nanzhili and Liangzhejiang, there is no problem in making 15,000 taels of white flowers in three years, and if you don't have to worry about your official reputation and don't consider continuing to be promoted, it is not impossible to get 25,000 to 30,000 taels. This was already a very staggering fortune, and Lu Boqi was not a very greedy person, and in his opinion, it would be a very pleasant thing to have 30,000 taels of silver in his bag when he returned to his hometown—it was enough to compensate for the loss caused to his family by the waste on the road to the imperial examination.

But Lu Boqi's comfortable life that made him satisfied was broken by a group of uninvited guests, an officer who claimed to be sent by the Trilateral Governor's Office to raise the affairs of the military tun came to Juzhou with a team of people, and then began to compare the tattered field books in the thousands of households, and compared them with the military tun fields outside, which undoubtedly aroused Lu Boqi's vigilance. It didn't take any foresight to predict that this would inevitably arouse the disgust and resistance of the local gentry who had encroached on the fields, and how could Lu Boqi, as a local herdsman, stay out of the matter?

Just five days after this group of people came to Yanzhou, the first conflict occurred, the two sides of the conflict were the group of outsiders and the local clan Liu Juren more than a dozen house slaves, the result of the conflict was that the angry Liu Juren came to Yamen with five house slaves who were beaten to the head and bloodied, Lu Boqi spent a lot of effort to perfunctory the matter, but he had a hunch that this was only the beginning and far from the end.

Sure enough, two days later, an invitation was placed on Lu Boqi's desk, and the signature was Ma Ziyi, which is a name that must not be slackened in Yanzhou, the reason is very simple, this person's father's surname is Ma Ziqiang, the font is dry, and it is Jiajing

Thirty-two years of Jinshi, all the way to the Ministry of Rites, plus the prince Taibao and Wenyuan Pavilion scholar, and Shen Shixing is the same minister, the Ming Dynasty nearly three hundred years Guanzhong people into the cabinet as auxiliary ministers, only two, Ma Ziqiang is one of them. Although Ma Ziyi has only been a person all his life, he has been a senator in the court, and his father's protégé is still quite influential in the court, and he is very popular in the forest of sergeants, and he is not comparable to a governor in Lu Boqi. The invitation simply said that Lu Zhizhou would like to take the time to meet and appreciate the current text, and Lu Boqi naturally would not believe this

At the moment, this old Mr. Ma invited himself over just to talk about Shiwen, but if he wanted to finish this term of governorship safely, he had to go this time.

At noon the next day, Lu Boqi instructed his subordinates to prepare four-color gifts, and took the official sedan chair all the way to Ma Ziyi's mansion.

Lu Boqi entered the main gate, and after passing through the two courtyards, he saw a white-haired old man dressed as a squire standing under the dripping eaves in front of the hall and waiting for him, and hurriedly grabbed a few steps and bowed and said: "The student came to your place as an official, and he had already asked Mr. Ma for asking for benefits, and he disturbed the old man's quietness, please forgive me for the disrespect!" ”

"What did the old parents say!" Ma Ziyi hurriedly went down the steps to help Lu Boqi up: "Lu Zhizhou came to my Yanzhou, Ma should have come to visit him a long time ago, but since the old man has been in Zhishi, his teeth have been weakened, and his body has become more and more unsatisfactory, and he doesn't want to see the living again, if it weren't for today's things, I'm afraid I would still stay at home." While speaking, Ma Ziyi pulled Lu Boqi up to the hall, only to see six or seven tables on the hall, full of seats, and they looked like they were all the great gentlemen of this Dunzhou.

Ma Ziyi pulled Lu Boqi to sit down beside him, raised his glass and said with a smile: "Today, you are invited by the old man to come, which shows the hospitality, and the old man will do this glass of wine first as a respect!" After that, Ma Ziyi drank the wine in the cup, and everyone hurriedly got up to thank him. When everyone finished drinking, the servants and maids in the hall sent the wine and food like flowing water, and the opera troupe in the next class of the hall also played and sang.

After three rounds of drinking, Ma Ziyi put down her chopsticks, suddenly hid her face and sighed: "Rank, as the saying goes, 'If the moon is full, it will be lost, and when the water is full, it will overflow.'" 'Prosperity and decline are the most important principles in the world, and we will gather for a feast today, and I don't know if we can have the next chance. ”

Seeing Ma Ziyi sigh like this, the scene suddenly became cold, and a playful one got up and said with a smile: "The students think that although the prosperity and decline are impermanent, Ma Gong and his son are benevolent, and Ze is locked up, and there will be blessings in the dark, so why should the old gentleman worry?" As soon as he finished speaking, the people next to him hurriedly echoed, and for a while, the voice of praise in the hall was heard.

Ma Ziyi waved his hand: "Although the old decay is incompetent, how can it be sad for me alone." Ma is now past his prime, with three sons and five daughters under his knees, although they are all dull talents, but they also know the truth of being a man, even if tomorrow is the day of the limit, what does it matter? The old man is sad that the chaos in my city is coming, and there will be no peace since then! “

Ma Ziyi's words immediately caused a ripple, and many gentlemen in the hall were more or less famous, and they were agitated by Ma Ziyi's words, and they suddenly became chaotic. A few people who knew the inside story pretended to be angry, and most of the people who didn't know looked at Ma Ziyi blankly.

"Why does the old gentleman say that?" One of the people in the crowd got up and said, it was the one who had just spoken, Lu Boqi saw it in his eyes, and knew that this person should be a fan of the pre-arranged arrangement, so he took a sip of wine and buried his head as if he hadn't heard anything. Ma Ziyi snorted coldly and made a gesture, the housekeeper outside hurriedly asked the theater troupe to retreat, the hall suddenly quieted down, Ma Ziyi pointed to a fat man in black at the next table, and said, "Liu Juren, tell me about that incident a few days ago!" “

"Yes!" The fat man in black couldn't hold it back at the wine table for a long time, so he stood up and said in a rough voice: "A few days ago, a group of Qiu Ba, who claimed to be the governor of the three sides of the palace, ran to my field to measure the acres of land. I asked a few servants to go over and ask, and I also injured several of my people, this Dunzhou is still not the country of the Ming Dynasty, and I don't talk about the king's law! “

Liu Juren's accusation was like a few drops of cold water falling into a hot oil pot, which immediately caused an uproar in the hall, and the gentlemen either couldn't believe it, or were indignant, and the faces and necks of these people who were usually known as Sven quickly turned red, like a group of enraged roosters, and everyone's eyes suddenly focused on Lu Boqi's body, which made this old bureaucrat who had always taken more than less as his motto to feel a headache.

"Lord Lu!" Ma Ziyi coughed lowly: "You are a state parent, you have to say something about this matter!" “

"Ahem, ahem!" Lu Boqi stood up helplessly, he raised his head and immediately seemed to be burned by countless scorching sights, and lowered it again: "Rank, this official did receive an official letter from Yang Zhijun a few days ago, which mentioned the matter of cleaning up the military cantonment. However, the official document only mentions the matter of the military tun, and does not involve the listed fields, so please be relieved. If those people have excesses, they will be dealt with impartially! ”

"Old parents!" A gentleman in a green robe stood up: "Having said that, the matter of this military tun is not based on the mouths of those military men, it has been more than 200 years since the founding of this dynasty, whether it is a military tun or a private field, it has long been mixed together, how to distinguish it clearly, I am afraid that the military tun has not been cleaned up clearly, but it has caused a local uproar and ruined the peace of one party!" ”

"Yes!"

"Why did Yang Zhijun do such a thing, it must be that there are traitors and villains around him!"

"What's wrong with a traitorous villain, in my opinion, that Yang He himself is a big traitor!"

As he said, more than 200 years after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the actual owners of local Shangtian property were more and more different from those recorded in the Yellow Book and the Fish Scale Book, and the local gentry, Haoqiang, and officials used various means to transfer the taxes and labor they should have borne to the powerless yeoman farmers and small landlords, and to make profits. For those who profit from this accumulation, anyone who dares to touch this pattern is their mortal enemy. Maybe not all the gentry present have encroached on the military camp, but once the military camp is cleared, it will inevitably bring such a worry - will someone carry out an inventory of their fields, which is the prelude to cleaning up all the accumulated evils since ancient times? Under this fear, the local gentry clique will instinctively unite and launch an all-out counterattack.

"Rank!" Ma Ziyi stood up, pressed down with his hands, the sound in the hall quieted down, he turned to Lu Boqi and said: "Lord Lu, we have all read the books of sages, and we also know that the soldiers and horses have not moved the grain and grass first, and there are thousands of places where the chaos in the northwest costs money, and the affairs of the imperial court are also our affairs. Speaking of this, Ma Ziyi slapped her palm lightly, and the housekeeper behind her carried a tray out, with a silver ticket in it. Ma Ziyi pointed to the silver ticket and said, "The old man is big, two hundred taels, and the rank will also be some!" ”

Hearing that they were going to pay money, the faces of the other gentlemen in the hall became ugly, and many people began to prevaricate, some people said that the harvest had not been good in recent years, and they could not collect the rent; There are also people who say that they don't have any silver on them, and they will talk about it next time, seeing that this thing is about to be done, Ma Ziyi coughed and said: "Rank, everything in this world can't escape a rational word, Yang Zhijun wants to clean up the military camp, although there is some damage to the place, but it is also a thief; How can we sit idly by and ignore the great grace of the Ming Dynasty's 300-year-old monks? If we don't pay for it, then it's on his side; If we pay the money and Yang Zhijun still insists on going our own way, then Li is on our side! If you don't have any silver, write it down first, and send the money to Lord Lu's mansion tomorrow! “

Seeing Ma Ziyi say this, the gentlemen knew that if they didn't have some blood today, they wouldn't be able to pass this hurdle, so they had to write a number on the pledge book, more than fifty, one hundred, less fifteen or twenty, and finally counted about 1,000 taels. Ma Ziyi handed the pledge book to Lu Boqi, arched his hand and said, "I'm tired of my old parents!" “

Lu Boqi took the pledge book, and couldn't help but be secretly happy in his heart, he thought that this matter would make a big fuss, but he didn't expect this Ma Ziyi to be so good at talking, and he happily took out almost a thousand taels of silver, presumably this threshold passed so easily, and couldn't help laughing: "Mr. Ma is so open-minded, and the students admire him!" “

"We will wait for the world to receive the grace of the country, and this is also the right thing to do! Yanzhou is the old man's hometown, how can he sit back and watch those Qiu Ba harm the township and make a mess here? Ma Ziyi flicked her sleeves lightly, with a righteous look on her face.

Juzhou Zhizhou Signature Room.

"Rank!" Lu Boqi flicked his tail finger lightly and flicked a bit of dust off his sleeve: "This official invited you here today not for anything else, but to discuss the matter of cleaning up the military cantonment!" ”

Liu Cheng and Du Guoying glanced at each other, and according to the results of Yang He's discussion with Zhao Wende, they adopted the method of cleaning up the military tun from north to south and from west to east one by one, because the land in the Guanzhong Plain was the most fertile, the gentry had the largest origin, and the most military tuns were occupied, so they put it at the end, and waited until some achievements were made in cleaning up the military tun. And Juzhou is the first batch of states and counties to clean up, which is relatively wealthy and difficult to bite, so Liu Cheng, the person who proposed the plan, came in person.

"Lord Lu, we came here on the orders of Lord Jun, didn't Guyuan already have documents over?" Du Guoying asked.

"Guyuan's paperwork is naturally here!" The reserved veil on Lu Boqi's face was lifted by a corner, revealing the disgust undertone inside: it was really difficult to talk to these Qiu Ba. He scolded twice in his stomach, and said in a deep voice: "But after all, this official is the shepherd of Dunzhou, and you are waiting here to do nonsense and cause many incidents, don't you want this official to deal with them one by one?" I asked the two of you to come today to make it clear about the clean-up of the military cantonment! ”

"That's just right!" Du Guoying took out a stack of pieces of paper from his bosom and spread it on the table: "My lord, these are the results of our investigation during this time, there are 757 dumps of fields in the occupied military tun cleared out of Luochuan County in Benzhou alone, and there are 757 dumps of grassland, and there are 97 gentry involved——"