Ruan Dacheng said a lot of things during the lunch meal, the affairs of the imperial court, the situation of all parties, his sources in the court and central government are much wider than Yangzhou, and Luo Jian has been busy with the war some time ago, and he has no time to understand these.

Luo Jian felt that although Ruan Dacheng was a very serious official, he could be compared with Ma Shiying in this regard, but at this stage, he still had to fight for the object, at least he had a helper in the court, so that he would not be stabbed in the back all day long.

At the banquet, Luo Jian was very enthusiastic about Ruan Dacheng, which made him a little flattered, and even Liu Lan understood the meaning revealed in and out of his words, that is, as long as Luo Jian helped him ascend to the position of the first assistant, he would reciprocate the Metropolitan Governor.

Ruan Dacheng's unintentional words at the banquet aroused Luo Jian's vigilance, Ruan Dacheng said that recently, many people from the palaces of many ministers of the DPRK and China have come to visit them, and these people don't know where they came from with his connections in Nanjing, and they have been to Li Zhan's mansion the most.

Luo Jian didn't expect the Qing court to start attacking himself from the court so soon, which was obviously to turn himself into a second Yuan Chonghuan.

The Manchu court's move is indeed ruthless enough, and he has no foundation in the court, if they force him to completely break with the court, Yangzhou will be in a very dangerous situation.

Thinking of these, Luo Jian felt that the work on this front in Yangzhou was not good enough, some time ago there was a lot of military pressure, and he only cared about military intelligence, but now the military pressure is small, these tasks must be started immediately, and there are many objects that can be fought for in the Qing court, like this time Princess Changping fled, it is because of their help,

During the banquet, Liu Lan opened her mouth to ask Ruan Dacheng for two people, but Ruan Dacheng was embarrassed.

The two people Liu Lan asked for were Huang Zongxi and Fang Yizhi, both of whom were arrested for signing the "Public Disclosure of Staying in the Capital to Prevent Chaos" written by the sons of the Fushe.

The purpose of this "Staying in the Capital to Prevent Chaos and Public Exposure" is actually the Ming Dynasty version of the "big-character poster", the purpose of which is to prevent Ruan Dacheng from entering the court as an official, and the "big-character poster" made Ruan Dacheng's participation in Wei Zhongxian's party public, so that Ruan Dacheng's reputation in Nanjing was discredited, and the previously lively "Stone Nest Garden" became crowded, and Ruan Dacheng hated it deeply.

After Ruan Dacheng became a squire in the military department, he began to settle accounts after the autumn, and he arrested a group of people, including Huang Zongxi and Fang Yizhi.

After Nanjing was occupied by the Qing soldiers in history, the two took advantage of the chaos to escape, and now the situation has changed, if Luo Jian does not rescue them, he may be persecuted to death by Ruan Dacheng, which is a situation that Luo Jian does not want to see.

Letting Liu Lan bring it up is also to prevent Ruan Dacheng from being too sensitive, and finally has such a line in the imperial court, Luo Jian doesn't want to lose it easily.

Although Ruan Dacheng was very reluctant, he still agreed to Liu Lan and said that he would release them soon, which made Luo Jian's heart feel at ease.

After lunch, Luo Jian and Liu Lan returned to Guogong Mansion, originally Yi Luo Jian's idea was to rush back to Yangzhou today, but considering that Liu Lan was too hard, they decided to rest for one night and set off back to Yangzhou early tomorrow morning.

In the afternoon, the two went to Shi Kefa's house and Chen Zilong's house to visit their families, and when they returned home, it was almost dark, Liu Lan wanted to go to see the ready-to-wear stores in the city, Luo Jian was afraid that she would go and think about Liniang, so she found an excuse to push it.

The next morning, before dawn, Luo Jian and his entourage set off back to Yangzhou.

Ma Shiying suffered a big loss this time, and she was depressed, so she asked Li Zhan, Liu Kongzhao and others to be invited to the mansion in the morning to discuss how to deal with it.

"Cabinet, this Luo Jian is too arrogant, I see that the court has not been put into the eyes, in the long run, the majesty of the court is no longer there, I am afraid that the world only knows Yangzhou and does not know the court." Li Zhan knew the reason why Ma Shiying summoned a few people to come, and he lit the fire vigorously at the beginning.

"Yes, now that he has the name of a scholar of the East Pavilion University, I am afraid that he will make irresponsible remarks about the court in the future, and the cabinet must come up with countermeasures as soon as possible." Liu Kongzhao said that he was humiliated by Liu Lan so much yesterday that he was so angry that he didn't sleep all night, so he thought about how to retaliate.

"Alas, now the imperial court can only deal with Yangzhou's military salaries and grain and grass, but yesterday the emperor has spoken, we can't do too much, everyone think about it, what else can be done?"

Ma Shiying sighed, he knows the current troubled times best, the one with hard fists is the uncle, who called the Yangzhou army to win the battle, and the other armies in the imperial court always lost the battle, which made him not hard at all.

"Cabinet Department, I'm afraid that this Yangzhou official still has to be appointed by the imperial court, right? If Yangzhou is allowed to appoint itself, won't it become a country within a country? If this matter spreads and is imitated everywhere, the imperial court may only be able to manage this Nanjing City. Li Zhan said again.

"If I say, what should be appointed by the imperial court will be appointed in the same way, I don't believe that the officials sent by the imperial court have gone, and he Luo Jian can still drive people back?" Zhu Guobi said beside him.

"That's not clear, you don't know how powerful that Luo Jian is, but I have personal experience." Tian Yang said and touched his neck, as if it was still in pain.

"Well, Baoguo Gong is reasonable, we still send this official, whether it is their Yangzhou business or not, in this regard, we have a big righteousness, but we don't have to be afraid of them." Ma Shiying thought about it for a while and felt that this could kill two birds with one stone, one would be the money he should receive, and the other would make Yangzhou lose its foothold in the righteousness.

"Cabinet, I think there is another way, Luo Jian still has a group of people in Yangzhou who listen to him, such as Shi Kefa, Ren Minyu and others, as well as He Gang, the prefect of Zunyi appointed by the imperial court, who is now serving as the logistics minister in the Yangzhou army, and the cabinet will see if these people can be transferred out of Yangzhou, and his arm can also be broken." Li Zhan is worthy of being the outstanding scum among the scholars, and the bad ideas are one after another.

"Well, Shi Kefa is not easy to adjust, he was originally a scholar of Dongge University, and let him go to Yangzhou to supervise the teacher, which has been criticized by the people of the time, if he is transferred to another place, I am afraid that the emperor will not agree, and others can consider it." Ma Shiying thought about it for a while and felt that this strategy was feasible.

"The cabinet can ask the officials to write as soon as possible, and let He Gang go to Zunyi to take office, then there will be no one to take care of the salaries, grain and grass of the Yangzhou army, and we can also take the opportunity to act." Tian Yang hurriedly said.

"There is only one thing you have to remember, that is, you can't move the soldiers and horses in Yangzhou, without these soldiers and horses, who will defend Yangzhou, and without Yangzhou, how can Nanjing be kept?"

When Ma Shiying said this, his expression was very serious, although he hated Luo Jian for not buying the accounts of the imperial court and cutting off his financial route, but as the head of the cabinet of the Hongguang Dynasty, he still had this overall view.

"Cabinet Department, please rest assured, we understand this, as long as Huang Degong is pulled over, with him guarding Yangzhou, the Qing soldiers will not dare to go south." Li Zhan said.

"In my opinion, the situation at this time is different from last year, with the Yangzhou army guarding, the Qing soldiers want to go south again, the cabinet, can you send an envoy to Beijing to go to the Manchu Qing to negotiate peace? After the defeat of the Qing army, it is not yet known whether it can be negotiated. Tian Yang took a sip of the water cup and said slowly.

"Yes, if you can negotiate peace with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, then with the wealth of my Jiangnan, the imperial court will work hard to govern and train more strong soldiers, and you can also defend half of the Ming Dynasty like the Southern Song Dynasty." When Li Zhan heard Tian Yang's words, he was overjoyed in his heart, this thought hit his heart, but he didn't dare to say it.

After listening to the words of the two, Ma Shiying pondered for a long time and did not answer immediately.

In fact, Ma Shiying knows best in his heart that although the Yangzhou army has won several major military victories, these victories are only partial, and the Manchu Qing still has a great advantage in the whole country.

According to the situation reported by Jiangxi and Hunan provinces, the Qing troops are stepping up their offensive in these two provinces, and these two provinces are not defended by the Yangzhou army.

If the Qing soldiers captured Jiangxi and then went south to Fujian, the Southern Ming Dynasty would only have two provinces left in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which could not be compared with the Southern Song Dynasty.

Ma Shiying regretted that the relationship with Luo Jian was directly stiff, and now he wants to transfer the Yangzhou army to Jiangxi for reinforcements, but he can't speak.

Thinking of this, Ma Shiying was no longer in the mood to discuss how to deal with Luo Jian, and after saying a few words, he dispersed.

Luo Jian didn't know that there was a group of people in the imperial court who were calculating him, so he delayed in Zhenjiang all night, and only returned to Yangzhou the next morning.

When they arrived at the east gate of Yangzhou, Shi Kefa and a group of generals were waiting, and when they saw that Luo Jian had arrived, Shi Kefa stepped forward, but a group of generals stood still and did not move, and the so-called supervisor Gao Qiqian also followed.

Luo Jian dismounted and strode over with a calm face.

"Xinghua, has the matter been done?" Shi Kefa asked as he walked over.

"It's done, but I'm not satisfied with this way of doing things!" Luo Jian said in a low voice, he was still worried about the generals' letters.

"Xinghua, don't blame them, I agree to this. You don't know much about Ma Yaocao, he started from this, if you don't use this method, it is impossible to make him change his mind. Shi Kefa walked up to Luo Jian and whispered.

"Brother Luo, you're in love! You think we're in America, huh? We have our national conditions, and different cultural backgrounds determine that this method is not suitable for us, and the most important thing is to do the things in front of us first. Liu Lan walked over and said with a smile.

Hearing Liu Lan say this, Luo Jian stood in place and froze, whether to use power to lead the country to a strong country first, or take the road of gradual democracy, these questions have been bothering him, although it is still too early to think about this, but Luo Jian is afraid that he will deviate from the road at the beginning, and it will be difficult to turn back in the future.

"Brother Luo, if you haven't figured it out yet, why don't you call Xiao Liu and Xiao Wang back, let's talk about it together, the two of them must have their own ideas, okay?"

Liu Lan said softly, she knew the reason why Luo Jian was entangled, these problems could not be discussed with Shi Kefa and the others, and she had not experienced those years in another time and space, so she could not understand Luo Jian's worries no matter what.

Shi Kefa didn't understand Liu Lan's words a little, and looked at the two of them blankly.

"Brother Xian, let's go, let's go back first." Luo Jian shouted Shi Kefa, and several people walked towards the city gate together.

When he walked next to Huang Degong and the others, Huang Degong took the lead in raising his hand and saluted, and said: "Welcome back to the Metropolitan Governor, we have violated the order of the Metropolitan Governor, and I have asked for a day of confinement, please approve the Metropolitan Governor!" ”

When Luo Jian heard this, he immediately cried and laughed, and scolded with a smile: "What are you pretending?" Let's all go back, there are so many things, don't you want to be lazy? ”