Outside the gate, local officials in Yangzhou were waiting.

Standing at the front were Huang Jiarui, the governor of Nanzhi, and Ma Mingluo, the prefect of Yangzhou, and behind the two stood the second officials and staff of their respective government offices.

Ma Mingluo glanced back behind him, making sure that no one could hear the conversation between the two.

Poop asked in a low voice: "Lord Futai, is the matter of Cao Liang truthfully played Chen Shengshang?" ”

"Ma Mingluo, don't ask for hardship." Huang Jiarui warned in a low voice, "You and I finally got out of this matter, so why bother getting involved?" ”

"Besides, this matter involves the palace."

"Can you and I ask?"

After a pause, Huang Jiarui said again: "If you still want to stay in the position of Yangzhou prefect and don't want to be sent to Yunnan or Guizhou by those people, you'd better be honest." ”

Ma Mingluo sighed, looking lonely.

"Master Ma, don't be discouraged." Huang Jiarui said, "There is still hope for the Ming Dynasty, not long ago, didn't the Holy Lord personally lead the border army of the Ten Towns to win a big victory in Xia Town?" The Holy Monarch is in the court, and the Ming Dynasty is hopeful, promising! ”

"Even if there is a holy monarch in the court, it is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice." Ma Mingluo sighed.

"Rectifying the rule of officials cannot be effective overnight, it needs to be worked hard and for a long time." Huang Jiarui said, "The saint must have already made a holy judgment in his heart, you and I just need to do our job." ”

"But the problem is that I can't do my job well."

Ma Mingluo spread his hands and said: "Lord Futai, you also see it in your eyes, Yangzhou was prosperous in the early years of Chongzhen, but what is the situation in recent years?" It is not an exaggeration to say that all industries are in depression. ”

"It's here again, it's here again, why can't I make sense with you." Huang Jiarui felt that his head was big.

"I don't care, I'm out this time anyway." Ma Mingluo gritted his teeth and said, "Don't fight this black gauze hat on your head, but also squeeze out the abscess in Yangzhou!" If you don't send these plague gods away, Yangzhou will be completely finished! ”

While he was talking, a eunuch replied.

"Long live the lord said, after walking all night, I am tired, and I am gone."

Huang Jiarui breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this, and asked Ma Mingluo: "Master Ma, are you still waiting?" ”

"Wait!" Ma Mingluo gritted his teeth and said, "If the Holy Lord doesn't summon him, the lower officials will be waiting all the time." ”

Huang Jiarui frowned, but he didn't dare to leave halfway alone, so he had to accompany Ma Mingluo to continue waiting.

I waited until noon, and then I saw the people of Qingyutang sending a table of high-class tables to Xingyuan, and even two incense carts came, and two famous prostitutes got down from the cars.

is really a famous prostitute, one is Li Shi Niang, and the other is Zheng Tuo Niang.

are all famous prostitutes in Yangzhou, and they have to start with a hundred taels for entertainment.

Stay? Staying overnight depends on their mood, and if they are in a bad mood, they will have to pay a thousand taels.

When the two famous prostitutes saw Huang Jiarui and Ma Mingluo, they all saluted.

Huang Jiarui replied with a smile, the officialdom in Jiangnan is still very open, and neither the official gentry nor the scholars are ashamed of singing and singing with famous prostitutes, but are proud.

Ma Mingluo ignored it, and his face was already black to the bottom of the pot.

Seeing the two famous prostitutes walking around with oil-paper umbrellas, the eunuch and Yi Ding who guarded the door didn't ask a word, and they wanted to enter the inner saint but couldn't enter the door, Ma Mingluo's anger finally broke out.

"Ahh Ma Mingluo said angrily, "I take back what I just said, what a holy monarch is, it's a faint monarch at all!" Faint! ”

"Shut up!" Huang Jiarui's face turned pale with fright, and he roared in a low voice, "Ma Mingluo, it's okay for you to find death yourself, but please don't implicate your own officials and colleagues in Yangzhou officialdom!" ”

"The official wants to say, he wants to scold!" Ma Mingluo really let go and said loudly, "Faint gentleman! Chongzhen, you are a faint king! When is it time to be greedy for sexual pleasures! ”

"There's no hope, Da Ming has no hope!"

"The destruction of the country and the extinction of the species are in this day, and the extinction of the country and the extinction of the seeds is in this dynasty!"

Ma Mingluo said that in the end, he actually cried and cried in tears.

Huang Jiarui's soul was about to be frightened, and he wanted to cover Ma Ming's mouth regardless of his image.

As a result, he was bitten by Ma Mingluo, and Huang Jiarui immediately screamed in pain.

Ma Mingluo took off the black gauze hat on his head, took off his official robe, and put it carefully in front of the gate of Xingyuan, and then prepared to turn around and leave, this prefect can't be a prefect.

Sandwiched between the Donglin Party and the eunuchs, it is just a matter of being splinted, and the emperor is like this.

At this moment, Ma Mingluo was really like ashes, and he really felt that Daming was no longer saved.

"Stop!" A young military general dressed in mountain armor chased him out of the gate.

Hu Guozhu glanced back and forth on Huang Jiarui, Ma Mingluo and the officials with a murderous face.

"Who is insulting the Holy One? And who is talking nonsense? Hu Guozhu said, "Stand up yourself!" ”

"It's me." Ma Mingluo stepped forward and said proudly, "Chongzhen who I scolded just now, he is a faint king, a faint king!" I'm going to scold him like this when I get to him! ”

"Look for death!" Hu Guozhu drew his sword sonorously.

"The head is here, just take it."

Ma Mingluo lowered his head slightly and stretched his neck.

Hu Guozhu was furious, but he didn't dare to really kill anyone.

Immediately shouted: "Arrest him and hand him over to the Holy Lord!" ”

When even two Yiding rushed forward and tied up Ma Mingluo.

Ma Mingluo was soon brought to Chongzhen by two Yiding.

I saw Chongzhen taking the prince and King Ding to eat, and to Ma Mingluo's surprise, the meal on the table was not the first-class table noodles sent by Qingyutang before, just three bowls of simple noodles and a head of garlic.

The father and son dipped the garlic in tempeh, and ate a mouthful of garlic and a mouthful of somen noodles.

As for the two famous prostitutes who came in just now, they didn't even see their shadows, what was going on?

The picture in front of him is not the same style of painting as Ma Mingluo's imagination in his mind.

Shouldn't Chongzhen be drinking wine with Li Shiniang and Zheng Tuoniang at this time, eating noodles, and doing things that are not ashamed? How could you eat somen noodles with the prince and the king of Ding here without a single oil star?

"Ma Mingluo, I heard that you insulted me in public outside the line, but is there such a thing?"

As Chongzhen spoke, he raised the big sea bowl in front of him, and a bowl of noodle soup quickly bottomed out.

Putting down the big bowl, Chongzhen's eyes pierced into Ma Mingluo's eyes like a sharp sword, and said Sen Ran: "You dare to insult your father in public, do you know what crime to be guilty of?" ”

"Capital offense." Ma Mingluo fell to the ground.

"Capital offense?" Chongzhen snorted coldly and said, "If I really kill you, but I will fulfill the reputation of your direct minister, I will really become a faint king, and I can't wash it away by jumping into the Yangtze River." ”

"Sinners are stupid." Ma Mingluo grabbed the ground with his head.

"Come with me, you'll get all the answers you want."

Chongzhen got up and left after speaking, and Zhu Cihong stepped forward to help Ma Mingluo: "Governor Ma, please get up." ”

"The guilty minister thanked His Royal Highness the Crown Prince." Ma Mingluo got up, not pretentious, and followed Chongzhen directly.

A group of people came to the backyard after seven turns and eight turns in the garrison, and heard the sound of silk and bamboo across the courtyard wall.

After passing through the Hanging Flower Gate and then following the corridor with twists and turns to a water pavilion, Ma Mingluo finally saw the extravagant picture he expected.

I saw that the entire water pavilion was made into a ring, surrounding a stage in the middle.

The stage is fully open, I saw Li Shi Niang and Zheng Tuo Niang sitting on it, one holding a pipa in his arms, the other sitting in front of a guzheng, playing and singing, and the two classes were accompanied by musicians, which was extremely extravagant.

It's just that sitting in the surrounding water pavilions are businessmen from all walks of life in Yangzhou.

This is still a little different from what Ma Mingluo thought, the saint asked for more than a dozen tables from Qingyu Hall, and invited Li Shi Niang and Zheng Tuo Niang, it turned out to be to feast Yangzhou businessmen? Not for your own lustful pleasure?

Seeing Chongzhen bringing people over, the Yangzhou businessman who was sitting in danger hurriedly knelt on the ground.

Li Shi Niang, Zheng Tu Niang and Le Gong on the middle stage also knelt on the ground.

"Flat." Chongzhen walked to the main seat and sat down, and said, "Sit down." ”

The Yangzhou businessmen present sat down tremblingly, and the sound of silk and bamboo on the stage sounded again.

"Governor Ma, you also sit." Chongzhen said to Ma Mingluo again, "The mystery will soon be revealed." ”

Ma Mingluo had no choice but to endure the doubts in his stomach, and sat down at the bottom of Chongzhen with half of his buttocks.

"Don't just sit, drink, and eat." Chongzhen smiled and said, "This is the first-class table of Qingyu Hall, and a table costs five taels of silver, which is expensive." ”

A group of Yangzhou businessmen began to eat and drink cautiously.

But to be honest, no one can taste the taste of food, and the wine is like water in the mouth, in front of the emperor, I really don't have the heart to drink, and I don't know what to do later, it's sad.

After staying up like this for more than half an hour, the four shirt-shirted men rushed in.

"The accounts have been settled." Fu Shan looked at Chongzhen and said to the ground.

"Oh yes?" Chongzhen said happily, "Then let's talk about it in front of everyone." ”

"Yes." Fu Shan immediately opened the accounts and read in public, "The Yangzhou Garrison Eunuch Office has been re-established since Chongzhen ten years ago, and until July of Chongzhen's seventeenth year, the mine supervisors and tax envoys sent to collect a total of more than 14 million taels. ”

"Huh?" Ma Mingluo and a group of Yangzhou businessmen were immediately stunned in their seats.

Qu Shangzhong was directly paralyzed on the ground in fright, and Han Zanzhou hurriedly let people drag him away.

Chongzhen's face turned black to the bottom of the pot, and he extorted more than 1,400 taels in seven years?

In other words, an average of more than 200,000 taels of taxes are levied a year, just Yangzhou!

Although Yangzhou Mansion is a gathering place for salt merchants, the richest of the richest, but a year to collect more than 200 taels, this is too ruthless, this is really to kill chickens and eggs.

However, even more surprising is yet to come.

Fu Shan continued: "Of them, about nine million taels are the minions of the garrison who are greedy for ink, and more than five million taels are in the account books of the garrison, of which only about one million taels are sent to the key treasury of the inner court. ”

"This?" Ma Mingluo and a group of Yangzhou businessmen were completely dumbfounded.

In the past seven years, only 5 million taels of the 14 million taels of commercial taxes contributed by the Yangzhou local government have gone into the accounts of the Garrison Eunuch Office, and only 1 million taels have been sent to the treasury of the Inner Court Division?

"Phew!" Zhu Cijiong couldn't hold back his anger anymore and took the case heavily.

The businessmen were silent, and the thirteen-year-old prince was also a prince.