Although the battle between the first division of the Yangzhou army and the Qing soldiers passed, it still scared the Southern Ming court in Nanjing enough, and sent several groups of people to Yangzhou to ask what was going on, and Ma Shiying even asked people to say that if the Yangzhou army dared to take the initiative to provoke the Qing army again, the court would stop distributing military salaries and grain to the Yangzhou army.

Although Yangzhou is now completely self-sufficient, a few million taels of silver per year is not a small amount, with this large amount of silver, Yangzhou can do too much, Luo Jian and Shi Kefa do not want to lose this source.

For these reasons, Shi Kefa also wrote a special letter to the imperial court, saying that he did not restrain his subordinates and promised that such a thing would never happen next time.

This time, Yangzhou's low profile made Ma Shiying more satisfied, and he never mentioned the matter of silver and grain and grass again.

Gao Qiqian has been in Yangzhou for a few months, and since he came back from the mission to Xuzhou, he has been staying in Yangzhou and hardly going out, but he has to go out recently.

Because the people sent by Ma Shiying specially found him and asked him to go back to Nanjing and tell the court about the situation in Yangzhou.

Gao Qiqian was very happy to be able to return to Nanjing, and packed up early the next morning and prepared to leave for Nanjing.

Gao Qiqian was sitting in a sedan chair out of Yangzhou City, when he went out of the city from the east gate, Gao Qiqian lifted the sedan curtain and looked out, looking at the Dadu Governor's Mansion in front of the left, Gao Qiqian was hated and afraid, and was about to put down the sedan curtain, but Gao Qiqian saw a few boys accompanied by several guards, and was walking out of the Dadu Governor's Mansion towards the outside of the city, one of which attracted Gao Qiqian's attention.

Zhu Cihuan, Liu Jun, and Gao Yuanjue went to the laboratory outside the city, and the laboratory has been under rapid construction recently, but Liu Lan spent a lot of money this time and spent 5,000 taels of silver to build this laboratory for Zhu Cihuan.

The laboratory is a separate three-story building, and there is a small courtyard fenced outside, and even the kitchen is equipped, the environment is very good, and it is more than a mile away from the east gate.

Zhu Cihuan and a few boys talked while walking all the way, and did not notice that there was a sedan chair following him all the time.

The more Gao Qiqian looked at it, the more frightened he became, he used to be a person who often walked in the palace, and he was very familiar with several princes of Emperor Chongzhen.

After watching it for a while, Gao Qiqian had already determined in his heart that this boy was Yongwang Zhu Cihuan, but why Yongwang came to Yangzhou and everyone didn't know, Gao Qiqian was a little puzzled.

However, Gao Qiqian was very happy in his heart, this time Ma Shiying asked him to go back and tell him about the situation, but he hadn't done anything in Yangzhou in the past few months, and he was worried that he couldn't explain it when he went back.

Out of Yangzhou City, Gao Qiqian was no longer as slow as before, rushed all the way back to Nanjing, and immediately ran to Ma Shiying's mansion to meet him.

Ma Shiying's recent days have always been unhappy, since the last time the supply of Yangzhou Army was reduced, and later forced to recover, the emperor seems to be a little distrustful of himself, and several officials nominated by himself The emperor actually called back, which made Ma Shiying very unable to step down.

This time, the Yangzhou army and the Qing army clashed guns, the emperor was frightened, and he found him in the palace to inquire, although he did not scold him explicitly, but the meaning of the words no longer had the previous intimacy.

After lunch today, Ma Shiying did not take a nap, but thought quietly in the back garden alone.

He is analyzing the current situation in the court, the Donglin party does not need to say it, although there are still a few people in the court, but the positions are low, and they can't speak, of course, there is no need to worry about them anymore, but what makes Ma Shiying feel extremely unhappy is that Ruan Dacheng actually covets the position of the first assistant.

Ruan Dacheng felt that he had Yangzhou as a backer, and he was much tougher than before when he spoke in the court, but after he went to Yangzhou to send military salaries last time, this period of time seemed to have stopped a lot, and Li Zhan also analyzed Ma Shiying, saying that it is estimated that Yangzhou does not want to support Ruan Dacheng, which is a big blow to Ruan Dacheng's ambitions.

But the emperor is becoming more and more distrustful of himself, which is what Ma Shiying is most worried about.

Although the emperor was promoted to the throne by himself and the four towns of Jiangbei, but now the four towns of Jiangbei basically do not exist, and his biggest reliance is gone, and the only remaining Liu Zeqing is now much worse than before, and Liu Zeqing is still very bad with himself.

How to regain the emperor's heart, this is the question that Ma Shiying has to think about today.

Ma Shiying was thinking about it, and the people in the house came to report, and the eunuch of the Yangzhou prison army asked to see him.

Ma Shiying is generally the most annoying when he thinks about things, and waves his hand to let his subordinates go down, he didn't have the mind to see Gao Qiqian today, but the subordinates said a word, saying that Gao Qiqian has a very important news report.

When Ma Shiying heard this, he changed his mind and asked his subordinates to lead Gao Qiqian in.

Gao Qi sneaked to the back garden of Mafu and saw Ma Shiying lying on the recliner, closing his eyes and thinking about the problem.

If you want to put it aside before, Gao Qiqian didn't dare to disturb, and he must wait for Ma Shiying to open his eyes and greet him before he dared to speak, but today Gao Qiqian can't take care of it so much.

"I've seen the Cabinet Department, please ask the Cabinet to step back and report to the Cabinet if there is a major matter." Gao Qiqian looked at the maids and servants who were standing and serving around him, and stepped forward to say to Ma Shiying.

Ma Shiying opened his eyes, glanced at Gao Qidive, and waved his hand again, letting the subordinates retreat.

"Grandpa Gao is back? What is the situation in Yangzhou? Ma Shiying asked slowly, in fact, he was also anxious to know what was the important matter of Gao Qiqian.

"Cabinet Department, let's not talk about the situation in Yangzhou first, but our family found a person in Yangzhou." Gao Qiqian saw Ma Shiying pretending, and he was also a little angry in his heart, and he also intended to sell a pass.

"Who appeared in Yangzhou to make Gao Gonggong so panicked?" Ma Shiying still asked unhurriedly.

Gao Qiqian listened, and said in his heart, our family is not panicking, I'm afraid you will panic when you hear it.

"Cabinet, I found that Zhu Cihuan, the fifth son of the first emperor, is in Yangzhou." Gao Qiqian still told the news.

"What did you say?" When Ma Shiying heard this, he suddenly stood up on the recliner, but because he stood too fiercely, he almost fell to the ground, and he couldn't help him.

"Cabinet Department, King Yong appeared in Yangzhou." Gao Qiqian said again.

"But really, you saw it with your own eyes?" Ma Shiying couldn't care about his demeanor anymore and asked anxiously.

"It must be true, our family saw it with our own eyes, and we lived in the Governor's Mansion." Gao Qiqian said affirmatively.

"I said that the princess went to Yangzhou and never returned to Nanjing, it turned out that King Yong had found it." Ma Shiying muttered.

"Grandpa Gao, sit down, let me think about it." Ma Shiying beckoned Gao Qiqian to sit down, and sat back on the recliner himself, thinking slowly.

There was a lot of controversy when Zhu Youxiang first ascended the throne, and finally because the blood relationship with Emperor Chongzhen was too close to the throne, this is because the replacement of the throne of the feudal dynasty has its own set of rules, the general situation is that the eldest son inherits the throne, if there is a change, it will be replaced by rank, if the emperor has no children, it will be selected according to the blood relationship recently.

This set of rules solved the problem of competing for the throne between princes, so this rule was regarded as a sacred text by officials of various dynasties.

At the beginning, Shi Kefa and the Donglin Party fell into passivity because they wanted to "establish a virtuous person but not a descendant", and now that the prince of Emperor Chongzhen has appeared, no one is more qualified to inherit the unification than him.

Ma Shiying thought carefully for a while, and Gao Qiqian didn't bother him.

After a while, Ma Shiying carefully asked Gao Qiqian about the details of Yongwang in Yangzhou, but Gao Qiqian couldn't say, he just stumbled upon Yongwang on the road when he returned to Nanjing the day before yesterday, and he didn't know anything else.

Ma Shiying got a lot of information from Gao Qiqian's words, such as King Yong must have been in Yangzhou for a while, otherwise he would not have gone out of the city with a few boys, and Yangzhou currently has no intention of making the news of finding King Yong public.

"Are you sure he's the Eternal King?" Ma Shiying asked again, he wanted to confirm it thoroughly.

"Can't the cabinet still believe us? I think that our family often walked in the palace back then, and it was common for several princes to admit their mistakes? Gao Qiqian said with some dissatisfaction.

Ma Shiying didn't pay much attention to Gao Qiqian's dissatisfaction, and thought about it for a while, and then said to Gao Qiqian: "Why don't you go to the palace with me to see the emperor and explain this matter to the emperor?" ”

When Gao Qiqian heard this, he immediately put his mind at ease, if he wanted to get the emperor's trust again, he could make good use of this news, and immediately agreed, and the two quickly went out to the palace.

Zhu Youxiang was still listening to the play in the Cixi Hall with Ruan Dacheng as usual, and was a little unhappy when he heard that Ma Shiying and Gao Qiqian were asking to meet, but they still let the two in.

Ma Shiying, who entered the hall, glanced at Ruan Dacheng, stepped forward to salute Zhu Youxiang, and then said: "The minister has news to report to the emperor alone, can you ask the emperor to move?" ”

When Zhu Youxiang heard this, he said in his heart, what news do you have to say separately now? Could it be that the Yangzhou army is fighting with the Qing soldiers again?

"Is there something you can't say here, sir? Running around affects my watching of the show. Zhu Youxiang said.

"Your Majesty, this matter can only be reported to the emperor alone." Ma Shiying still bowed and said.

Zhu Youxiang had no choice but to stand up with difficulty, recently he was getting fatter and fatter, so that if he wanted to stand up, he had to be supported, such a big man, the delicate palace maid could not be supported, and the two strong eunuchs helped him up.

After arriving at the palace, Zhu Youxiang asked, "What does Mr. have to report alone?" ”

"Your Majesty, the fifth son of the first emperor, King Yong, has been found." Ma Shiying glanced at Zhu Youxiang, and then said slowly.

"What do you say? Where are you now? The big fat man Zhu Youxiang stood up with a flexibility that was impossible to usually have, pointed at Ma Shiying and asked.

"Please don't be impatient, King Yong is now in Yangzhou and lives in the Weiguo Mansion, and this matter is seen by Gonggong Gao." Ma Shiying pretended to be calm and said, and Gao Qiqian also made a statement next to him to confirm Ma Shiying's words.

Zhu Youxiang sat back in his seat, lowered his head and thought for a while, and said: "Sir, since the first emperor still has blood, I should give way, how about Mr. please go to Yangzhou and invite King Yong to Nanjing?" ”

Zhu Youxiang said while peeking at Ma Shiying, this time he didn't even say "I".

"Please don't say this again, according to the minister's analysis, King Yong has been in Yangzhou for a period of time, although Yangzhou has found King Yong, but at this time there is no intention of King Yong to be publicly launched, how to stop, please ask the emperor to think twice, please ask the emperor not to mention the abdication." Ma Shiying saw that Zhu Youxiang was a little at a loss, and hurriedly stepped forward to comfort him.

Zhu Youxiang showed a stupid look again at this time, and looked at Ma Shiying and stopped talking.

"The minister thinks that this news still needs to be kept secret, Yangzhou has no intention of making it public, so we are pretending to be confused, I don't know what the emperor wants?" Ma Shiying continued.

Although Ma Shiying tried his best to block the news, the news still spread, and by the afternoon of the next day, the news of finding the Yongwang still spread throughout the city of Nanjing, and the shock caused by this news was no less than a turning over of the earth.

Later, according to Ma Shiying's investigation, the news turned out to be spread by Zhu Youxiang, which made Ma Shiying feel a little incredible.