When Qin Tai and Qiu Xiaoqiu walked out of the town guard envoy's residence, Qin Tai couldn't help but sigh. Militaristic affairs are really a big whirlpool, and it is definitely not something he can easily deal with. At the beginning, Hu Zongxian used him to deal with and contain the eunuchs in Jiangnan, giving him the opportunity to become the "King of Jiangnan". Qin Tai had some opinions about Hu Zongxian, the governor of Jiangnan, and felt that Hu Zongxian was too keen on power and reputation. For the sake of the individual, for the benefit of the few, the interests of too many people are sacrificed. For this reason, Qin Tai deliberately ignored Hu Zongxian's invitation and lost the opportunity to become Hu Zongxian's right-hand man. Although Qin Tai and Xu Jie were not on the right path, he always thought that Xu Jie was the representative of Qingliu and the leader of most Qing officials. Unexpectedly, after this Xu Jie tripped Yan Song, he became another powerful minister. He not only threatened the imperial power at all times, controlled the situation of the court, but also did cronyism. Qin Tai looked down on his friends Zhang Juzheng and Tan Lun a little because of this, and felt that they were almost no different from Hu Zongxian, they were a group of people who did not hesitate to sacrifice others for the sake of power. At the beginning, Qin Tai risked his life to force the palace, although the main purpose was to make Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi sober up, not to indulge in Taoism, and not to abandon the government. But there is also the meaning of Qin Tai's disgust and unwillingness to be with corrupt officials. According to the ancestral motto of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor, the emperor cannot kill the speech official, so no matter how much Qin Tai offends Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi, Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi cannot kill Qin Tai. Once the palace incident occurred, Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi could only dismiss Qin Tai from all his positions at most and drive Qin Tai back to eat his "old rice". Although Qin Tai was reluctant to leave the case, Qin Tai did not like the falsehood and darkness of officialdom even more.

This time out of the mountain, Qin Tai saw the darkness and incompetence of the imperial court more clearly. Local officials are almost unofficial and not greedy, but the difference between taking more and taking less is just a difference. The central apparatus is also corrupt and incompetent, and shady ones are rife with shady scenes. The subordinates are full of private pockets, the officials are mediocre and incompetent, and the treasury is almost at the bottom. The most worrying thing is that the top and bottom join forces to conceal the truth and create a false impression among everyone. Xu Jie, the head of the cabinet, is not only a powerful minister, but also a big corrupt official, a big boss behind the scenes of the corruption group. He not only shielded and even instigated his subordinates to pervert the law for bribes, but also secretly colluded with the vassal king behind his back in an attempt to depose the new monarch. This kind of person is sanctimonious on the surface, but in fact, he only has himself in his heart, not only does he have no moral concept, but he also has no basic sense of life, let alone the people of the world and the court in his heart. For the sake of their own interests, these people do not hesitate to sacrifice what the king and even the common people of the world have. If the two countries are at war, there is a good chance that they will become the internal response of the enemy country or a traitor. Qin Tai was also very disappointed in Gao Gong and Tan Lun, Zhang Ju was Xu Jie's disciple and subordinate, and he couldn't help but listen to Xu Jie. Gao Gong and Tan Lun should know Xu Jie's personality, and they should stand up and break through this layer of disguise. Unexpectedly, in order to compete with Xu Jie for the position of the first assistant of the cabinet, Gao Gong did not hesitate to bury his conscience and became the same person as Xu Jie. Gao Gong is still the outspoken Gao Gong who dared to tear his face with Yan Shifan for a trivial matter? Integrity, selflessness, integrity, loyalty, and outspokenness are gone, and there is only one Gao Gong who wants to be the head of the cabinet and does not hesitate to pretend to be deaf and dumb for the interests of his own group.

In order to cover up the mistakes of the past and not affect their status, these people did not hesitate to sacrifice the happiness of a large number of ordinary people in the south of the Yangtze River. The sinister Xu Jie and the bold vassal kings took advantage of this opportunity to try to cause chaos in the south of the Yangtze River and force the current emperor Emperor Longqing to step down. Don't these people know that once something happens, Jiangnan will be in chaos and the country will face a major choice? Don't these people think about their livelihoods for the sake of the world? Don't these people know that every time the emperor is handed over, there are countless blood and tears hidden behind it? For the sake of personal interests, the common people have suffered from displacement for a long time, the country has been in war again, and China has been shaken up and down, this kind of person is not worthy of being an emperor, let alone a person.

Things are so delicate, Qin Tai, an inconspicuous idle official, inadvertently intervened in this case, and inadvertently discovered the inside story of this matter. For the death of his friend, for the sake of the people of Jiangnan, and for the stability of the country, Qin Tai had to come forward. I don't know if it's Qin Tai's luck or the blessing of the ancestors of the Ming Dynasty, this matter seems to be dangerous, but there is vitality everywhere. The people in Jiangnan need to be stable, everyone likes to live a peaceful life, the foundation of Quanzhou is well laid, the strong support of the Jin merchants, the loyalty of the Xu family, the generosity of the Chang family to repay grievances with kindness, plus the concerted efforts of the eunuchs, this case is no longer a big problem. Especially these eunuchs, they are usually greedy, selfish, and will be repaid, but when it comes to fundamental issues, their minds are particularly clear. They have only one master, that is, the current emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and they will stop all the people or things that endanger the Ming Dynasty and try to endanger the royal family. After listening to Qin Tai's words, the town guard envoy was half convinced, and he couldn't make up his mind for a while. But when Qin Tai took out the gold medal of Emperor Longqing, the attitude of the town guard immediately changed, not only promised full support, but also he would send his cronies to invite Lu Fang and others overnight. As long as the current and former eunuchs are in Jiangnan, which of these local officials will dare to mess around? Qin Tai and the town guard discussed that none of the local officials and garrisons were allowed to move, and the eunuchs only needed to watch everyone. Tan Lun and Qin Tai were in charge of food distribution and disaster relief, and Chang Yuehua's Yunzhou soldiers were in charge of public security issues.

When Qin Tai rushed back to Fujian, the Jin merchants had already transported the first and second batches of grain to Quanzhou. Qin Tai contacted Tan Lun and asked him to transfer to Quanzhou, secretly exchange "Rumi" for good rice supplied by Jin merchants, and then go to the disaster relief destination. As for the money and goods used for disaster relief, Qin Tai and Chang Yuehua transported them to various local yamen, and left the soldiers to supervise the officials to distribute them according to the population account book. In the name of Tan Lun, Qin Tai issued a death order, no matter who or any official dared to detain or intercept, the whole family would be beheaded according to the crime of treason.

When the matter was basically resolved satisfactorily, Qin Tai received two orders. One was sent to Tan Lun by the imperial cabinet, and the other was a private letter written by Emperor Longqing to Qin Tai. The cabinet's order is very simple, on the one hand, to praise Tan Lun for his effective work, and on the other hand, to tell Tan Lun that he abused his power and bullied local officials. For this reason, the cabinet reprimanded Tan Lun in writing, and the merits were offset and no punishment was given. However, due to the normal personnel transfer, Tan Lun no longer stayed in the Yamen of the Sixth Department of the capital and was transferred to Shanxi as a local official. Tan Lun's new position is the deputy envoy of Shanxi Buzheng and the prefect of Datong, and his grade remains unchanged from the third grade. A person who could have entered the cabinet, even if he did not enter the cabinet, was an important official of the six ministries, and was transferred to a local government as a prefect, which was equivalent to the imperial court giving up Tan Lun. Tan Lun can be said to have a bleak future, and there is almost no good future. The private message to Qin Tai was simpler, and Emperor Longqing politely praised Qin Tai, saying that Qin Tai was a pillar of the country, but did not mention Qin Tai's position. Except for rewarding Qin Tai with some possessions, there was almost nothing. By the way, ask Qin Tai to return the gold medal and the temporarily borrowed official uniform and other items. Qin Tai has turned back into an idle official waiting for news at home.

After Qin Tai finished his business, he held the ashes of "Ma Sandao" and prepared to leave Jiangnan with Qiu Xiaoqiu. Only the Metropolitan Governor of the Xu family and Chang Yuehua and a few others saw them off, and not a single eunuch came. Not only was the governor of the Xu family not praised for this, but he also secretly received a serious warning from Emperor Longqing. Emperor Longqing reprimanded the Xu family in his letter, warning that if the Xu family intervened again, the Xu family would lose everything. Chang Yuehua brought troops to Jiangnan privately, and interfered in the local affairs of Jiangnan, threatening and intimidating the vassal king, so Chang Yuehua received a certain punishment. The Chang family can't come out, and they can't let too many people know, so Chang Yuehua has this kind of plan and psychological preparation from the beginning. Because of his ability to do things, the envoy of Nanjing Town was recalled to the capital by Emperor Longqing and entered the ceremonial supervisor. The snobbish eunuchs, after learning that Qin Tai had lost his status as the emperor's envoy, immediately ignored Qin Tai. The only thing that gave Qin Tai a hint of comfort was that "Ma Sandao" received a pension from the imperial court. The imperial court posthumously awarded Ma Bowei, that is, "Ma Sandao" as a righteous man, although it cannot be explicitly rewarded, but it can be regarded as a comfort. With this title, even if "Ma Sandao" did not die in vain, it left a little capital for his descendants. Qin Tai is a member of the government and knows the mystery, and in the future, after the son of "Ma Sandao" is fifteen years old, with this certificate, he can enter the country to study. In the future, after graduating from school, the child will not have to take the entrance examination to become a local official. Although he will not be a big official, and he will not have much chance of promotion, the treatment of a county magistrate and a seven-grade official is indispensable. In this way, the son of "Ma Sandao" is promising, and the Ma family is also a member of high society. You don't have to worry about your livelihood in the future, and you don't have to worry about finding a good wife for your children in the future.

When the Metropolitan Governor sent Qin Tai away, he secretly told Qin Tai an inside message. A friend in the capital secretly told the Governor that the cabinet and the celebrant had changed because of this incident. Xu Jie, the first assistant of the cabinet, was named and criticized by Emperor Longqing and fined for three years; Chen Hong, the eunuch who was in charge of the seal, was dismissed from his post and stayed in the palace to continue to work as an errand; The position of the eunuch in charge of the seal was taken over by Meng Chong, the eunuch of Bingbi; Meng Chong's work was taken over by Feng Bao, the new upstart of the Inner Palace; Feng Bao's errand was taken over by the envoy of Nanjing Town, who had just arrived in Beijing; The cabinet deputy and senior arches were improperly employed, and supervision was ineffective, and they automatically resigned from all positions; Tan Lun kicked out of the capital and lost the opportunity to compete with Zhang Juzheng; Zhang Juzheng officially entered the cabinet, although the ranking is behind Li Chunfang and others, but everyone knows that Zhang Juzheng will be the new leader of the cabinet.

The Metropolitan Governor also told Qin Tai that the plaques awarded by the imperial court to Jin Shang and Boss Qi were already being prepared. Although Qin Tai made a great contribution to the imperial court, he also gave the imperial court a lot of problems. First, it exposes the big problem of the emptiness of the treasury. Second, a large number of local officials in Jiangnan need to be rectified in a timely manner. Third, the turmoil caused by "such rice" has led to the need for yamen at all levels to inventory from top to bottom, which will expose more problems. Fourth, Jin merchants and other businessmen have long wanted to meddle in state affairs, and the imperial court must find a way to block this opening. Without offending the other party, avoid the division of power again. Fifth, the imperial court was going to pay a large sum of money to the Jin merchants. Although the Jin merchants' bid was not high, almost the cost price, and the Jin merchants also promised that part of it was donated voluntarily by them, but there was still a large amount of arrears. More than 30 million taels of silver, excluding the 8 million taels of silver voluntarily donated by the Jin Shang Headquarters and Boss Qi and others, and the 15 million taels of silver that the Jiangnan local government promised to repay with five years of taxes, there is still a shortfall of nearly 10 million taels of silver. Even if the imperial court exempted the Jin merchants from taxes for three years, the imperial court still owed nearly three million taels of silver. It is impossible for Emperor Longqing to pay this money by himself, and the treasury has already bottomed out, so he has to make a blank slip and wait for the money to be there in the future. The Jin merchants became the creditors of the imperial court, so how did the officials, who had always looked down on hurting people, meet the Jin merchants?

Qin Tai was not surprised by the other information at all, but was just stunned by the matter of Xu Jie and Gao Gong. Xu Jie was not only not beheaded by Emperor Longqing, but also continued to serve as the first assistant of the cabinet, could it be that Xu Jie had another magic weapon? The land and gold and silver in Xu Jie's family, even if his whole family eats and drinks for a hundred years, they can't be used up, and three years of money is equivalent to a drop in the bucket, and there is almost no difference between punishment and non-punishment. However, Gao Gong was very strange, at first he was a life-and-death duel with Xu Jie, but later fell into Xu Jie's tricks, so he had to be at the mercy of Xu Jie, and now he has become the biggest victim of this case. Gao Gong not only did not sit in the position of the first assistant of the cabinet, but was forced to step down, and even the capital could not stay. By the way, his proud disciple Tan Lun also harmed him, causing Tan Lun to leave the power level and become a small prefect in the local area. The three vassal kings will be fine, at most it is just a painless warning from Emperor Longqing. Emperor Longqing couldn't do anything to them, after all, they were all a family. Besides, Emperor Longqing was worried that this matter would attract the attention of more vassal kings, so he would only digest it secretly and dare not say it in public. In this way, the three vassal kings could not be convicted, and the vassal kings would not be substantially punished. Even if there is a penalty, it is only a fine or a reduction in the fiefdom, which is nothing to them. It seems that the most unlucky thing in this case is Gao Gong, and by the way, Tan Lun and Qin Tai are also thankless.