"Lord Gu, the lower official met the Guangxi Provincial Inspector Yu Shi Ma'an in the Metropolitan Procuratorate today and was arrested by the Jinyi Guard, he ran to the lower official to avenge his grievances, since the lower official met it, it is not easy to care, I hope the lord can let the lower official deal with this case."

Li Yuntian knew that Gu Zuo still didn't know what happened in the Metropolitan Procuratorate this morning, so he told him about Ma An with a wry smile, and his expression was quite helpless.

"Master Hou, this Ma An is a black sheep in the Metropolitan Procuratorate, this official heard that he accepted a huge amount of bribes in private, and he exchanged those money for valuable calligraphy and paintings for fear of finding out, which is really hateful."

Hearing the word "Ma An", Gu Zuo couldn't help frowning, and said to Li Yuntian in a deep voice, as if he hated Ma An very much.

"So there is still such a thing? I didn't expect him to be this kind of person! Li Yuntian couldn't help but show a smile at the corner of his mouth when he heard this, it seemed that Ma An had really planted those calligraphy and paintings, so he pretended to be surprised and replied.

"Master Hou, he is stubbornly resisting, and he wants Master Hou to save his life." Gu Zuo sneered, and said in a cold voice, "The current corruption in the Metropolitan Procuratorate has accumulated and is difficult to return, and it must be solved by thunderous means. ”

"Damn, he dared to deceive Ben Hou, so that Ben Hou promised to help him investigate the case!"

Li Yuntian clearly felt the murderous aura in Gu Zuo's words, realized his hatred for corruption and perversion of the law, and from Gu Zuo's words, he keenly found that Gu Zuo didn't seem to know the specific situation of Ma An's case, and what he knew should be Niu Fei's report, so a subtle smile flashed at the corner of his mouth, and then said with pretended annoyance.

"Master Hou, since you have promised Ma An, it is better to take over the case and find out his culpability, and he deserves it." Gu Zuo saw the remorse on Li Yuntian's face, the expression on his face suddenly softened, and said with a smile.

Speaking of investigating cases, Gu Zuo naturally trusted Li Yuntian, Li Yuntian investigated a lot of big cases that shook Jiangxi when he was the magistrate of Hukou County, Jiujiang Prefecture, Jiangxi, and after arriving in the capital, he showed his skills even more, tried the Jingcang case and other major cases in the household department, and had already emerged in the officialdom of the capital and became famous.

"Thank you, sir." Li Yuntian was waiting for Gu Zuo's words, and thanked Gu Zuo with a smile.

Although he didn't agree with Gu Zuo's style of acting in the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Gu Zuo was also the left capital of the Imperial Court no matter what he said, and he was also an important member of the imperial cabinet camp, so he couldn't forcibly ask Gu Zuo for the right to hear Ma'an's case, and let Gu Zuo take the initiative to give him the case.

In this way, even if it is found out that there is a hidden secret in Ma An's case in the future, Gu Zuo will not be able to complain about Li Yuntian, in the final analysis, he let Li Yuntian find out about this case.

Of course, Li Yuntian will definitely communicate the progress of Ma An's case with Gu Zuo, and he believes that Gu Zuo's personality will never protect and cover up the violations of law and discipline that may be involved, so as to avoid conflicts with him, and maintain the stability of the Metropolitan Procuratorate to the greatest extent.

"Master Hou!" Just when Li Yuntian was talking and laughing with Gu Zuo, a hoarse voice suddenly came from the side.

Li Yuntian looked up and saw a middle-aged waiter leading two small waiters over, and the middle-aged waiter was looking at him with a smile on his face.

"Eunuch Ma!" Seeing this, Li Yuntian smiled and bowed his hand to the middle-aged servant, the other party was none other than Ma Qi, the former lieutenant of Jiaozhi Town, who was now the eunuch of the 24th Yamen Division of the Inner Court.

Back then, because Li Yuntian gave Ma Qi a "ventilated message", Ma Qi responded in advance, so he passed the customs from Wang Jin smoothly, and was not caught by Wang Jin.

In fact, Ma Qi knew very well that if Wang Jin wanted to investigate, the deeds he committed in Jiaozhi would definitely be found out, but because Li Yuntian, who was the general of Dingnan, did not mean to hold him accountable, Wang Jin naturally opened his mind.

In other words, Ma Qi knew that he could escape this catastrophe because of Li Yuntian, so he was very grateful to Li Yuntian in his heart.

Although Wang Jin didn't find out anything wrong with Ma Qi, Emperor Xuande knew from Wang Jin's secret music that the things inside were not so simple, but since Li Yuntian didn't mean to expand the situation, he didn't want to renew the branches, so as not to implicate the royal family, so Ma Qi was not suitable to stay in Jiaozhi anymore.

Considering that Ma Qi had been guarding Jiaozhi for nearly 20 years, and he had no merit and hard work, Emperor Xuande transferred him back to the capital and promoted him to the first level of his official position, so that he was promoted from a lieutenant to a eunuch with a superintendent.

Although the power is not as good as the ceremonial supervisor and the imperial horse supervisor, but it is also ranked in the middle of the twenty-four yamen, Ma Qi can serve as the eunuch of the division and the eunuch shows that Emperor Xuande has grace to him, and he is already satisfied with this result.

"Master Hou, this official is one step ahead." Seeing Ma Qi coming with a smile on his face, Gu Zuo's brows furrowed slightly, he knew that Ma Qi had dealt with Li Yuntian in Jiaozhi, so he arched his hand to Li Yuntian and walked away from Ma Qi with an expressionless face.

Li Yuntian couldn't help but shake his head secretly after witnessing the scene in front of him, the reason why Gu Zuo had a cold attitude towards Ma Qi was not that there was an entanglement of interests between him and Ma Qi, but that there was an irreconcilable contradiction between the civil official group in the court and the eunuchs in the inner court.

Since Emperor Xuande ascended the throne, the eunuchs of the inner court have gradually risen under the support of Emperor Xuande, and Emperor Xuande opened an inner study hall in the palace for small chamberlains to read, which violated the ancestral system that Emperor Hongwu's chamberlain was not allowed to read and learn characters.

Li Yuntian knew that the inner court would leave a strong mark in the history of the Ming Dynasty, but its rise was far faster than he imagined, and the strength of the inner court was still very weak when he left the capital in the second year of Xuande, and it could be said that it was not well known.

It's just that in just four years, the inner court headed by the 24th Yamen Central Celebrant has already formed a clamp on the cabinet and has the power to "approve red" on the recital, and the "vote" submitted by the cabinet to deal with the recital has been rejected by the celebrant and supervisor, which undoubtedly makes the relationship between the two sides tense.

The so-called draft of the vote refers to the cabinet members writing their opinions on a piece of paper and pasting them on the top of the concert for the emperor's reference.

The emperor used a red pen to give instructions on those tickets, called the approval of red, because there were too many pieces that needed to be dealt with every day, the emperor only personally approved some important pieces, and the rest of the pieces were written by the eunuch of the palm seal of the celebrant and the eunuch of the pen according to the emperor's will.

The usual process is that several eunuchs of the celebrant will approve the red on the ticket, but this does not mean that their approval will be issued immediately, and before that, the eunuch with the palm seal will be required to conduct the final review, and the seal of the celebrant will be stamped on it after the review, so that those red will be issued to the six ministries and handed over to the six ministries for execution.

If the eunuch thinks that it is not appropriate to approve the red, then he will send it back and let the corresponding eunuch re-handle it, and will not seal it until he is satisfied, which makes the eunuch with the palm seal of the celebrant have enough power to compete with the cabinet members.

In the four years that Li Yuntian left the capital, Emperor Xuande greatly strengthened the power of the eunuchs in order to resist the civil official group and the Xungui group in the court.

Li Yuntian knew that Emperor Xuande's move was also helpless, the civil official group and the Xungui group in the court gave him too much pressure, and the only people around him who could be used were those eunuchs, so he could only rely on eunuchs to check and balance the civil and military ministers in the court.

In this way, Emperor Xuande successfully transferred the contradiction between him and the Wenchen nobles to the inner court and the Wenchen nobles.

It's just that compared with the civil official group, the conflict between the Xungui group and the inner court is not big now, firstly, because the handling of military affairs requires a lot of professional knowledge, and the monarchs of all dynasties value military power, and the eunuchs who are the celebrants do not dare to make mistakes.

The second is because military affairs are much less involved than government affairs, and the civil official group is also the imperial court force that has the greatest pressure on Emperor Xuande, and often uses ancestral training or ancient rites to contradict Emperor Xuande, so the eunuchs who are in charge of ceremonies naturally want to take the civilian group as their first opponent.

"Eunuch Ma, it's been good lately." After Gu Zuo left, Li Yuntian said with a smile to Ma Qi who came to him.

"The blessing of the Hou Ye, the miscellaneous family is good." Ma Qi bowed to Li Yuntian with a smile, and then said seriously, "The miscellaneous family has always wanted to thank the Hou Ye for his kindness, but there has never been a chance. ”

"Eunuch Ma is too polite, everyone is doing things for the emperor, how can you say kindness." Li Yuntian waved his hand again and again when he heard this, without the slightest intention of taking credit.

"Master Hou, it is not appropriate for the miscellaneous family to stay here for a long time, so don't leave it at that." Ma Qi also laughed, and his good impression of Li Yuntian increased greatly, so he arched his hand to Li Yuntian and led the two little chamberlains to leave in a hurry.

Li Yuntian looked at Ma Qi's distant back, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, it seems that the chess he laid out back then has now worked, although Ma Qi is not the most powerful among the eunuchs in the inner court, but he has the most profound qualifications, and he has won the trust of the royal family, otherwise how could he have guarded Jiaozhi for more than 20 years, and even Huang Fu was rectified by him.

Therefore, there is Ma Qi in the inner court to take care of, once there is something in the inner court, he can also know in advance.

As for Song Dashan and Wang Zhen, who had a lot of friendship with Li Yuntian, Li Yuntian is not ready to use them now, after all, this era does not belong to the two of them, and the two of them are currently in a dormant period.

In order to make Song Dashan and Wang Zhenneng befriend the eunuchs in the palace to build a foundation, Li Yuntian had secretly sent a lot of silver to the two, and he needed the two to play a pivotal role in the inner court in the future.

With the rise of the Inner Court, it will inevitably form a three-legged trend with the Civil Official Group and the Xungui Group for a period of time in the future, and if there is no cooperation with the Inner Court, it will become difficult to act in the future.

Even Zhang Juzheng, the first assistant of the cabinet in the Wanli period, had to hand over the eunuch Feng Bao in order to implement his new policy, which made the new policy smoothly implemented, which shows the importance of the inner court in the court situation.